[CARPET KNIGHTS]

can anybody give me an idea of what to charge for commercial jobs per meter in relation to domestic jobs. cheers


goron

[mark_roberts]

You price will depend upon your expences and desired level of income.  Have you worked this out yet?

Generally it will be less than residential put dont give a stupid price or youll regret it.

Mark

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

i am running a truckmount so i would say that my expenses were higher than a portable user. i was always under the assumption that commercial work payed better than domestic

[Scott Martin]

I tend to work on a set price for residential.

Would disagree about profit levels on domestic and commercial, def more in it financially in the commercial market. Always a bit more expensive cos you wait to get paid.

Cheers

[Len Gribble]

Goron

Being a tm’er would have thought you would have already done commercial work with it?

Commercial a mine field location and logistics come into play no matter what bees knees system you have and as Scott pointed out payment terms, I personally load it in my favour

Len

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

hi len

don't really understand what you meant by that.

I am new to the business so just because i run a tm doesn't mean that i have used it much!

[Scott Martin]

why truck mount if you are new to it?
Cheers

[ian richards]

My thoughts exactly Scott.

Truckmount!! Whats the story i would have given my right arm for a tc when i started up, which would have been a bit stupid really as i would not have been able to clean anything!!!!

Anyway, how long have you been planning this venture mate? You must have been very confident that you were going to like the industry! 

I suppose it looks the part

Ian

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

i bought the tm because i could afford to and in my opinion they do a better job ie reduced drying time etc. which is a selling point in its self, isn't it? any way back to my original question what are your veiws on pricing commercial jobs?

[bennymon]

good luck mate  im new and not sure on pricing but everywhere i go commercially  aready seems to have a carpet cleaner

[Ian Rochester]

There is no true answer to this, you charge whatever you want to, some jobs you will get, others you won't. 

The answer is to find a price that earns you a satisfactory income, if we all charged the same where would the fun be!!

As an aside, I find it surprising that you have no experience, have invested a significant amount of money in a TM because you believe it is better, but have no idea of what you are going to charge for your services.  You obviously did not deem that a realistic business plan was essential before you ventured into this, otherwise your question would be already answered.

Are you looking at B & Bs and small hotels as being commercial or are you talking about large hotels, office blocks, factories etc?

Good luck, if you get bored of your TM, give me a call!!

Ian

[Neil Gott]

If you work on your own, and presuming that work is not difficult to come by then you should aim for the same rate per hour whether commercial or domestic.

[neil 47]

 hi goron

I run a carpet cleaning company in the penzance area,
I have the same thoughts as most have aired ,why a t/m straight away when this is a very difficult area to start up,in the truro area there is about 12,to 14000 households as you said you put out 500 leaflet and got one inQuirey that means if you leaflet all of truro you will get about 28 jobs will this keep you in profit.as for commercial pricing  there will always be someone cheaper. quote what ever you need to make you feel good about doing the job because if you quote low your heart wont be in the job and you,ll just rush it .
personnal I quote 25p a sq ft and then for commercial discount it until I,m earning about  £30 a hour.

ps if you want a chat goron give us a ring

I,m in the yellow pages,telephone directory,thomson local etc under coastal carpet cleaners + on yell . com

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

i did not mention and nobody asked, most of you just assumed, but my truck mount is not brand new. i actually got it at quite a bargain price. yes i might appear to be confident and i am because i have the determination to succeed. Thought that by coming onto these sites i might get some support. and to the last person from coastal cleaning and some others thanks for the positive comments.


cheers Goron

[Scott Martin]

Hi Goran,

As some have said it really depends on the hourly rate you want to earn for yourself, i usually target £18.00 per hour for me and my guys and i pay them £10.00 per hour.

To achieve this i need to take into account other factors such as insurances, travel, chemicals etc and accomodate this into the costs.

I work on sq mtres, usually around £2.25 gen but this changes, can be cheaper if a regular client and cheaper again for contract cleans. i.e 4 cleans a year and the i can go as low as 90p sq mtre.

Once i size area i then lose a bit to take ito account items that dont move, desks, cabinets etc.

For example a normal office on a Fri night:

250 sq mtre @ 2.25 is £562.00
Increment for late work £75.00
Total: £637.00

Wages £152.00, two guys + me for 4 hours.
Chemicals £50.00
Insurances - nominal £10.00apx
Travel - 2 hours - £36.00
PDs - Food etc for guys £30.00
Total £278.00

Company profit £359.00
This goes to my company to target expansion, advertising daily running costs etc.

Hope this helps but everybody is different.

Best

[Len Gribble]

Goron

In a catch 22 here you made an assumption and so did I, it’s not often one hears of a total newbie to the game buying a tm be it second hand or not.

One thing for sure a tm is very good but so are some porties one should not forget the operator they also has a very important part in the equation.

Back to pricing charge what you think you are worth and what you can get away with and never forget you salesmanship, one word of advise don’t tell them you have the bees knees machine and never cleaned a carpet!

I wish you all the success.

Len

[CARPET KNIGHTS]

thanks len

[Len Gribble]

Goron

Thanks for the positive note

Len

[Ian Gourlay]

Goran

You will get a lot of positive help from these Forumns but you need to give a bit aswell.

I know its difficult because you do not want rivals knowing to much about you.

But if members do not understand your business etc  its hard to advise.

Personally on large commercial jobs i charge 15p a square foot. I know some who charge 10p.

[Ian Rochester]

Goron,  

Sorry, I too made the assumption that you had bought new and invested £15,000 - £20,000+ on your machine, vehicle, etc.

However if you got it for a fraction of that and it's in good conditon, then well done.  we are mere portable users at the moment, but some of the commercials we do could not be done with a TM due to security access, etc.

You will probably find that quite a few TM users have a portable as a back up anyway.  I am going the other way, I am looking out for a TM as an option for my business growth, therefore going down to the NEC next month to see what's on offer.

Once again, good luck, check your PM's