[Chris R]

We always seem to advise newbies to charge high prices from the very start.

I didnt start like this, and i know that many others that post on here didnt either.

The most important thing for a carpet cleaning business is to build up a customer database

Its easier to get new customers by starting off with reasonable prices.

Then up your prices, A BIT AT A TIME !

I dont mean that you should charge stupid prices ( £20 for any carpet and suite etc), but a decent " mid range" price.

Your business grows, you buy better equipment and your skill / knowledge improves, so you put your prices up.

Eventually you have a good, loyal, database of customers, and you are charging top money for your services.

Come on lads ! How many of you " high price" carpet cleaners started off, from scratch, charging these prices ?

We encourage newbies to jump in at the deep end, with massive expenditure, on top of the range equipment, and massive weekly bills to pay before they can turn a good profit !

just my thoughts

regards

Chris

[Phil Marlor]

A wise man learns from his own mistakes!
However,
A very wise man learns from other peoples mistakes!

I see what your saying Chris, but when I look back at the prices I used to charge I can't believe what a mug I was and many of those customers never came back!

Phil

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I know I started very low but found it hard to raise the prices luckily I did but while I was cleaning at £15 a room in 1993 and £40 a 3pc I had to get another job to make ends meet.

If a newbie wants my opinion I would say stay with your present job and do this at weekends and night, build your customer base up from better end prices and don't be scared to charge as you'll need to when you go full time.

I know that running full pelt at my old prices wouldn't pay for my families life style or their future, charging more will allow for quieter times also the customers that pay you more come back also they refer their friends, these people don't like bad, scruffy, not on time workmen as they think that paying more will get them a better job done.

The cheaper he job the dirty they are and the less they will have you back because they are just sold on price, I have a customer retension of about 80%ish when I was at the lower end (but definately not the lowest) I had a retension of about 25%.

Shaun

[David_Annable]

Hi

I would agree with Chris, but the big difference now is that there is a huge amount of info out there that wasn't available when we started.

The biggest thing I would change if I started again is charging higher prices.

Dave

[Chris R]

Yes

but you all started off at the low end and built your business up?

It worked for you ( AND ME)

Would it have worked if you had gone straight in with your current ( high ) prices ?

People read £130 + for a suite and think that they can get this money from the start ?

I dont think so

regards

Chris

[carpet guy]

Chris

I've been hammered on here on several occasions for saying what you posted, but am still of the opinion that to enter any service industry and charge high prices, is a sure way to get the cowboy tag and do no favours to experienced people.

It's constantly emphasised on here, that it takes time and a great deal of training  / practicing, to achieve a reasonable standard, so how can that equate with charging high from day one.

Architects, Engineers, Lawers, etc are recruited at £25k per annum and take a number of years to become high earners.

Even tradespeople have to spend at least a couple of years on low pay, before being regarded as competent !!!!!!!!

Please don't quote crazy advertising  / running costs in the £400 - £500 per week level ,you can start up with weekly costs of around 20% of that and build on the quality of the work you do, or you might be in the wrong business.

[David_Annable]

H

I would say that newbies that come from a sales background could charge that kind of money.

But & its a big but can they do the job?

On the other hand when a customer ask " just give me a price for the suite while your here " & then looks at you as if youv'e kidnaped one of there children, is always dishartening.

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you know how to sell then that is the greatest start, I think Dene Aquamagic isn't the cheapest and he's only been going 18 months I read somewhere, look at some of the past and present Fast trackers some have left their jobs in management etc and have hit the floor running as they know that if you get a high profit it allows you to advertise more or save for a rainy day.

It's easier picking customers up at the low end of the market as it is at the top but I bet my average customer spends 5 times what they used to spend with me and I would be there the same amount of time, ok I have the customers now but even when you were cheap how long did you pray for the phone to ring?

I bet you turn people away because they won't pay you r prices sometimes well a good saleman can start from nothing and get the right price from the same amount of calls as you or I did when we first started and be in a better position than us in 5 years not 10.

Shaun

[John Kelly]

Chris you are right in saying that most people started off with low prices but that doesn't mean its correct.
Most people will admit they charged low because they thought it was the right thing to do after seeing other leaflets, paper ads etc and only started putting prices up because they began to see the errors of their ways. Not because they planned to start low and move up.
I can't see the logic in targetting a certain market that wants to pay a certain price and then a couple of years down the line moving into a different market at higher rates. Granted you will drag a few customers along with you but you'll also loose quite few.
During the past 18 months since I started my supply business I have had about 4 serious people starting up who came in to buy equipment and seek advice. They had all been on various training courses but had limited experience.
The main peice of advice I gave them was to be realistic in their pricing. By realistic I meant to charge enough to enable their business to grow, provide them with an income comensurate with operating a business rather than just replacing a wage from a full time job. And also not having to worry if their machine breaks down, but be able to pull the cash out and get it repaired or buy a new one straight away.
I have seen so many people come into carpet cleaning with good intentions and charging low prices then becoming disheartened and packing up. In the meantime doing damage to other established cleaners.
If you can come in and start earning reasonable, I'm not talking about charging really high, just sensible, then it gives you the impetous to take your business forward.
2 of the new starters have taken that advice, I'm not too sure about the other 2 as they aren't so forthcoming.
They are both making massive strides and 1 is now buying a truckmount after only 8 months. He quoted a job with Steve Gunn recently and Steve was taken aback as he quoted twice what Steve was going to quote and they got the job.

[carpet guy]

It's a personality thing, to a fair extent and as already mentioned, someone who is confident, but possibly, in the opinion of others, " full of s**t "will often be more successfull, simply because they have the brass neck to ask for high prices.

This may make them " successfull " but not necessarily a credit to the industry as they are diving in, all gloss and glitter, but with little or no training, simply  " taking the money " and leafleting huge geographical areas.

I fully appreciate the " business sense " of not being too cheap and would never advocate it ( I've been there ) but to get inexperienced and possibly incompetent people going into homes and charging some of the prices recorded on here can only do damage for the industry.

No matter what anyone says or thinks, society is being driven more and more by price awareness, which, as M & S has shown, can only be addressed, by marketing VALUE / QUALITY when they were previously regarded as EXPENSIVE.

The difference is..................M&S deliver what the promise !

[AquaMagic]

My Experience.

Started of High ish 27p per sq foot, had not much trouble converting the quote by doing survey, but didnt have as good a referall rate.  This was becuase i simply wasnt as good as i am now, as much as i did the training and read on theese forums there is no substitue for experince, lucky i had a TM which helped me achieve a better result easier.

As Shaun correctly points out 18 months later, referall rate is great becuase im a lot better at what i do (even if i have to work a little hard with a portable) but i tinked with my prices and found that at 25p per sq foot i was winning more quotes which then lead to more referalls.

So its a bit ironic really when i was crap i was more expensive than now im (i think) good at what i do.

Becuase im new im more interested in building a custmer base than going for the really top end prices (which will come later).  I dont think im cheap at 25p but i dont think im expensive either, for my area i feel im about right at the moment.

Id receommend one of Shauns tricks tho, now Xmas is on the horizon when the phones start going daft, put your prices up its a great time to test and will help pay for the lull in Jan/Feb.

So to summarize, you definatelly can charge high to begin with but you need to get good fast, if you charge cheaper you will win more quotes , gain experience faster but your back will know about it, me i like to think im somewqhere in the middle.

dene

[Mike Osbourne]

When I first started I read a few posts on prices and got in my head the going rate for a suite was £140. I think I quoted about 5 before someone said that's too much.

Then I came on here once and made the mistake of mensioning it.

Now I know this is way too much I have found that I only get about 2-3 out of 5.

All I know is life would be very tough if I didn't charge the prices I do. It's not the quotes declined it's getting the leads in the first place.

And I don't think it's salesmanship either. It's believing you are offering value at your price.

The main thing if you succeed in sales is not letting rejection interfere with your head. People know that it can severly screw you up and that's the main reason many stick to the safety of cheap prices.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

It's a balance and I tend to be of the mid range.

When I started I was at the bottom of the mid range and now I'm near the top.

I have never gone with the cheap prices because I have never done a cheap job and I have never gone with the 350 a suite as I cannot justify this in my head, although I do charge 200 to clean and protect leather.

I now get lots of enquiries and will quote differently if they are old custys or recomendations or higher if new/internet etc.

I do agree with Chris that to attempt to get top prices when you have little experience is difficult.

Cheers

Doug

[carpet guy]

How about honest and ethical, as opposed to difficult. If you run an honest and ethical business you can easily retain clients and they will easily go along with price rises as long as they are only fractionally over the rate of inflation.

If Dene was getting 4 results at £95 per suite he makes £380, if he only converts 2 from 5 he gets £280.

Personally I am happier to get the higher conversion rate at the lower price and use them to get referrals..............

Do a good job at a price that seems to be good value and you will get tons of referrals...............whether you ask for them, or not.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

But Robert if he goes further he could get 5 out of 5 if he were to quote £70, that's alot of cleaning for £350 although taking your point of quoting too high will yield you a fat 0 out of 5 jobs quoted, it depends on you, your percieved value, your customers percieved value of you and probably bare faced cheek.

Shaun

PS there isn't really a ceiling

[David_Annable]

Hi

What your fogetting is that lots of other newbies who dont post will be pricing to low and either giving up or having to increace prices later.

What is the percentage of self employed new starters in all fields still trading after 3 years ?

My guess would be less than 50%.

Dave

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Dave

I would bet less than 20% in CC.

Cheers

Doug

[David_Annable]

Hi

Slightly of topic.

If CC wasn't for you what else does it equip you for.

I have noticed one or two people have left the industrie lately.

Dave

[carpet guy]

At the end of the day Shaun, as I mentioned elsewhere and you just touched on it, it's a personality thing and nothing to do with the quality of service.

Everyone has their own level at which they're happy and some will happily graft away for much less than others, while a few will brass neck it and get lucky, some of the time.

If it's purely about making money.............then you should get the maximum price your market will bear, but if you want to build a long term saleable business, the middle road will give you a bigger customer base, which is what a potential buyer will want to see.

Swings and roundabouts / Horses for courses , etc.

Good to get calmer more constructive debate these days !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I agree with your last sentence but a more saleable business is one with a high turnover with a good quality database not a database with customers who may pay a bit more if they feel like it. I would stick my neck out and say the higher end of customers don't like anyone to clean for them they like security and go for the same company so they get the same results and don't mind paying for it.

Shaun