[ian loughlin]

I know there is no definitive answer...

but can someone give me a rough guide to what i should be charging for commercial jobs.. ie: Offices, hotels, pubs.

I like to charge by the sq ft.

Commercial will be less than domestic???

[Simon Gerrard]

About £1.25 per sq yd / metre, depending on the size and what equipment you have at your disposal.

Simon

[COLIN BRIGHT]

double that!

[liahona]

and maybe even double that....

£1:25 a yard isnt worth going to work for.  Even if you are cleaning a vast amount of carpet £1:25 just isnt enough.

Best, Dave.

[Simon Gerrard]

Like I said, you're price has to be based on what equipment you've got.
We use twin RX20's on a Maxx 470, soon to be three RX20's on a Titan 875, when it arrives next month.
We do a restaurant twice a year that measures 1243 sq yds and we do it in three and a half hours with a drying time of one hour twenty minutes, that's 355 sq yds an hour, that's £443.00 per hour.

If you're your combination cleaning it with a portable machine, or wanding it with a small TM you won't get that sort of production, so it follows that you have to charge more to fit with the time it is going to take to complete and make it worth your while.
Simon

[jeff1966]

Don't price your self out of the market.Prices vary from place to place,work out how long it's going to take you,and what your hourly rate is.Let's not forget we're cleaners,as you will have probably noticed there a lot of greedy c/c out there. At the end of the day I don't think  going on a 2 day carpet & upholstery cleaning course justifise  charging silly money, it's not like going to university for 3 years is it!

[elliott cleaning]

£1.25 per square meter, double that, £2.50, double that again, £5.00 per meter square.  Yes Dave, I've cleaned art galleries in the West End for that sort of money and more without them batting an eyelid,  but I don't think Simon was referring to that kind of commercial work

[klinger (spa clean)]

Did my first office carpet the other weekend took a flyer went in with £2.50 per sq mtr, as it was saturday work thought its all extra even if I under-sell myself,did it in 9hrs got £320, they were pleased with the price and I was reasonably happy with my days work. Wasnt massive money but not a bad days pay really. Oh used HWE.

[markpowell]

I charge 30p per sq ft using hwe
mark

[Simon Gerrard]

£2.50 per sq metre for a small to medium commercial job is fine and reasonably competitive, but if you start trying to charge that kind of money on anything larger you may get the odd job here and there but you certainly won't get a steady flow of work because you're too expensive and therefore uncompetitive. Commercial buyers aren't stupid, they know what everything costs and how much is a fair price for a job and what is not. If you want to build a commercial client base then you have to get your prices so that they are both competitive and rewarding.

Simon

[liahona]

Simon, I understand what you are saying about being competitive.  I would say in reply, why would you want to be competitive.  I am not and dont claim to be.  By not being competitive I dont have competition, simple really.

Best, Dave.

[mark shannon]

I think its a case of horses for courses even as low as £1.25s/m commercial can be profitable.

[mark_roberts]

Charge as much as you can get.

Thats what every business does its just no one will admit to it.

Mark

[Simon Gerrard]

Dave,

If you live in an area where there are no other carpet cleaners say for 50 miles!! I can understand why competition is not an issue. However in an area saturated with carpet cleaners, every job you quote for is against all other quotes. The customer will then narrow down the competition and pick the company they believe will give them the best service and quality and that's where being competitive comes in.
Simon

[klinger (spa clean)]

I agree with simon in that if your offering a good service at a reasonable price you are by doing this being competitive, even if you dont realise it.

[liahona]

But thats kind of my point.

I dont offer a reasonable price.  I am more than  most every one else.  Hence I dont have the competition.  If the client only wants to spend £1:25 a sq yard or 30p a foot which is a bit better then they have that choice to go to those cleaners.

 That suits me too as then I dont have to work for approx 12p a square foot.  I am simply worth more than that as indeed what I chose to clean is, if that makes sense.  Might upset some I am sure but each to their own.

In terms of carpet cleaners in or around "my area" then I may just have more competition then any other person or company on here. 

But I stress again, I dont want or ever have been competitive.

Best, Dave.

[francis]

What must be taken into account with some of these posts is as to whether carpet cleaning is the only & dependant source of income or whether it is an also run business

[Simon Gerrard]

Dave,

I think reading between the lines that you're simply taking the opportunity to tell us all that you are just such a fantastic carpet cleaner that you can charge whatever you like and people will pay it.
The trouble is the majority of colleagues on here can't afford to be quite so complacent as they have bills to pay, children to feed and a business to maintain, or is it your advance to the guy who ask the question to quote £5 per sq metre despite the fact that he may well be surrounded by competitors who will beat him every time because they want the work, whereas you clearly don't.

Simon
 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I think reading between the lines that Dave is saying in around about way that we are not selling our services properly, if you have the best equipment you should shout about it from the roof tops and realistically not be bothered what or who the competition are because you have sold yourself so well on it being an exceptional job that they are buying YOU.

These forums can work for and against in terms of pricing, some on here will say that they need to raise their prices because they didn't know what was achievable and some will say that they couldn't possibly charge that price as there is too much competition in their area, it comes down to the person that does the selling or as they say state side 'selling the sizzle not the steak'

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

Shaun,
As always you make a very valid point.
The best 'shouting from the rooftops' you can possibly do is show, don't tell. Shouting from the rooftops is just words, mumbo jumbo as far as the client is concerned.
We have a system that is absolutely state-of-the-art and can clean more carpet to a higher specification than almost any other cleaning system on the planet. Tell a client that and they only want one thing, proof.
We get the jobs in preference to our competitors because we can do the job faster and better than anyone else. Like I said earlier, commercial buyers, facilities managers are not stupid and they know perfectly well what the going rate is for carpet cleaning and will simply laugh at someone quoting £5 psm when they know they can get the job done every bit as well, if not better by using other, more competitive companies. Dave doesn't need nor want the work, that much is perfectly obvious, either that or he has found a seam of customers that will pay any price to get there carpet cleaned, if so, good on him.

Simon