[mark_roberts]

Came across a cleaner today who charges £20 an hour.  Big van, lots of directory advertising (so its costing him to run his business) and Im lead to believe he may have a truckmount.

How does he do it.

Mark

[Karl Wildey]

He doesn't but he is yet to find this out. Give hime sometime then he will realise he was better off stacking shelves in asda and getting holiday pay as well

[Mike Halliday]

how do you know he charges £20/hr?

perhaps he works 12hrs a day so gets £240 a day, but he'd need some marketing to bring in that amount of enquiries to give him work for 10hr days

[John Gregory]

I did a job last week for a hotel took me 7 hours £ 180  not ideal work but I,m struggling £180 is better than sitting at home watching Jerermy Kyle

John

[markpowell]

I would rather be out earning £200.00 5 days a week than earning £250.00 3 days a week. Charge a little less get more work which leads to more referralls and repeat work. Choose how ever you look at it at the end of the day we are only cleaners if i can work 30 hours a week for £1000 then thats fine by me.
Mark

[carpet guy]

Karl, don't be daft, you would get £6.50 or there abouts for stacking shelves and a driving instructor gets around £20 an hour, which apparently, is more than many tradesmen !

There always were and probably always will be, people who seem to work, just for works sake. They're a pain, but have to be endured.

If they're on your doorstep, your only problem would be if they did a good job at low prices, but even then, you can widen your work area, or specialise ( quick drying / allergy treatment / protection / FREE spot remover ) or whatever.

The £20 per hour is probably just notional anyway, with much of his work taking double and treble that rate.

[M.Acorn]

Jesus i am circa £100 on most of my jobs would rather do 3 £500 plus jobs a week ,and have time off

[will01]

probably £20.00 ph before bait n switch.

will

[spencer davies]

I agree with Mark, you soon get other people ringing up for cheap deals, although I can understand that when you start, needs must.


S

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

The most important thing to remember is that we earn gross per hour.

If true expenses are taken off, then you would be lucky to get half that figure.

Cheers

Doug

[Andy Foster]

My accountant always says "It's not what you earn that matters, its what you keep", so if you are earning £20 an hour and keeping 19 of it then I guess it is good money... better than earning £50 an hour and keeping 10!!!

Its all about perspective.

Andy

[M.Acorn]

I am lucky really ,a lot of my work comes from a letting agy ,who i do a discount for as they pass on so much work , and they also add a bit on for their time sorting out payments ect.They also recomend me to their clients who can book me directly ,the clients tend to use me as they know they are not going to get any probs when the final inspection day comes  .The £650 job i did on sat was a commercial one and the last time i cleaned there was in Jan so i knocked off £57. i know i will be back there come end of this year so it`s a banker so to speak.It just depends on how much work i have coming in as to what i charge people though,there are people around this way that charge peanuts i wont compete with them ,don`t see the point getting stressed about it ,as it comes accross in my voice on the phone when i am getting desperate to work.
I need time off to work on my scirocco and countless other bit`s and bobs i do,Selling books on Amazon,selling records on Discogs,and growing my own veggies  and spending too much time surfing on the net

[Steve Chapman]

We've done £20 an hour and taken £1000 a day, i dont think life is that simple

that you can dictate £100 an hour all day every day, which is what we aim for.

I would still do the £20 an hour if thats all that was on offer and we had nothing

else to do, but thats just our choice, i 'd rather be working than watching telly  


steve

[M.Acorn]

I wory about the £20 customer and the £100 customer meeting 

[Karl Wildey]

carpet guy
The asda guy works 48 weeks a year so the true £6.50 is higher, he is guarantee the weekly wage, were as the 20 quid guy worked 48 hrs the 20 quid goes down, add  accountany, fuel costs, business expenses etc the 20 quid drops even further, ok the asda guy will never make more than the 20 quid guy, but the asda guy has no haslles at all, the 20 quid guy has all the hassles of running a business.
i was trying to make a point, 20 is not enough to justify the hard work of running your own business.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

i wolud not start the engine up for£20.00 Per hour
by the time you get there and do the job, you'll be losing money hand over fist
someone said to me once, don't be a busy fool!

[Mike Osbourne]

Obviously it depends whether you really,really need the money NOW.

The time would be far better spent marketing your services or dreaming up new ideas to find and attract quality Clients.

However another way to look at it is doing certain work for NOTHING as a means to getting more business could equally be valid.

It's the difference between firefighting and thinking long term.

[carpet guy]

The same arguments always rage when hourly rates / charges are discussed and the same claims are made, opinions expressed

From LOW COST cleaning, over a 20 year period, a business owner who posts on here, has accumulated a property portfolio with 20 properties, which effectively makes the owner a Millionaire.

I don't know the actual value, but in this area the rental income from that ownership would amount to around £15 k per month, plus the increasing value of the property, which always increases, even in quiet times and there is still the value of the properties, if sold.

Is that a Business Model to emulate, are they busy fools, or are they damned shrewd business people ?

[Mike Halliday]

lets assume you have a van parked on the drive full of all the equipment you need to clean carpet & upholstery ( which I would think most of us have) we have paid our liability insurance, van tax & insurance and everything else we need to pay to be in business.

these cost are fixed & paid, if we never do a job or work 12hrs a day they stay the same.

to say now that i would never work for £20 an hour is tricky, I could stand by my principles and sit in front of the tv all day or i could go out to clean carpets for 5hrs and make £100. Apart from a little bit of fuel & chemicals my cost are the same 

So in truth my principles will make me lose money.

some are lucky and work full time on high paying jobs, but some don't, perhaps they need £20 an hour.

[Dave_Lee]

Carpet Guy,
We know who you are talking about and dont they have other business interests. I mean its not as though their property portfolio was built up on carpet cleaning (Cheap at that ) alone, which is what it looks like you are suggesting.
Dave.