[M.Acorn]

  was doing a 3 story town house clean today,painter was there doing a bit of finishing off.Got chatting to him about work etc.Then we got onto the subject of money,told him i was earning £250 for this job,his jaw dropped,he asked me how i had the bollox to confront the customer with that kind of price ! I just said beleive in what i am charging to be reasonable,if you work out how much it costs to replace carpet 
Especially as i was going to be there max 3 hours.He was also self employed,and told me max he charges was £125 per day ! But he was there for about 10 days.
Think i might have got myself some more competition now !

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Mark

He's slapping paint on a wall, it's hardly skilled - and he hasn't got any equipment more expensive than a paint brush and roller and he doesn't supply materials.

 And finally, he thinks he runs a business when in reality he is just working every day for day rate, he may just as well be an employee.


Steve

[M.Acorn]

Yeah true when you look at it like that  I did start reeling off all the replacement parts i have had this year.
1x inline heater 1 x sol pump 1 x vac not much change out of a grand for that lot !
It is an expensive business to keep running tip top

[daysdeepclean]

I was cleaning upholstery in a restaurant and when I went to fill my bucket in the kitchen, a bloke's fixing the vents or something....
"Is your job as important as mine then?" He sneered...
"Well I'm getting £440 for doing it mate, and I'll be finished by 3, what do you think?"
The fat twit changed his tune a bit then

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I'm a poor carpet cleaner of 21 years, I prefer to keep quiet when the tiler in my house said to me 'well I'll have to charge you £140 a day if you want me to work Sunday as well'

Shaun

[John Kelly]

Don't gloat, its not nice

[Ricky M]

how bizzare to mention painting folk just done 1 of my regs 2 days ago and the this issue of skill came up and he talked at length about from quote to end result and I was a little shocked at the thought that gos into painting . I have 3/4 clients that are in the decorating biz who may dis agree slightly to the slapping paint suggestion 
1 is the same as your man , day rate type an other is an owner on 6 figures a year regional company and the other owns a national  company that has 1 of Englands biggest painting divisions who is a millionaire .

each to there own as long as we are working I suppose


 

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Thats kind of my point Ricky - I know loads of different trades.

One pal is a chippy on day rate, another pal is a chippy who runs a multi-million pound company and is a millionaire himself.

This painter charging a day rate for a 10 day job can't see the woods for the trees, a decent tradesman doing a 10 day project wouldn't be doing it for wages.

Steve

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It's not the quality of the work it's the realisation that you have to be a businessman to make more than a wage, if you are really that good at your job the next step is to sell yourself as being the best and target your ideal customer or sell yourself to a customer that you are going to offer a far better job than your fellow workman and also the benefits of a better service ie painters should say that the finish will not just look flawless but make the expensive wall paper match better and not curl off BUT you do have to follow it through.

Shaun

[brianbarber]

Sometimes  decorators tend to quote daily rate  because I think they feel it's safer than quote say £500.00 for two rooms and over run by a day or two!!

Mr B

[Mike Halliday]

I've just got a price on some decorating £120 a day for 7hrs this was from a woman who has worked at Buckingham palace!! when i worked on site I got £10 an hr for a job that took me 4yrs to learn.

were all these tradesmen go wrong is not creating demand for their services if they had 4 people aday calling them they would soon learn to charge higher prices but they stroll from one job to another. they don't know how to run a real business, they just have a job

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Had a "clearing of the air" discussion with a largish firm of cleaning contractors boss yesterday. (Sorry for the tangled syntax of that last sentence.)

In a nut shell he thought my daily earning capacity/rates was outrageous. However the main problem he had was that whilst he had used cheaper cc's in the past he had ended up not paying them as the job hadn't been done right/to a satisfactory level thus causing him headaches and hassles.

So I asked him to the effect wasn't he therefore paying me more because he knew the job would be done right first time and as such would save him hassle and heart-ache. In any case of course he wasn't paying me; it was the ultimate client and as such the boss of the cleaning company was guilty of second-guessing what the ultimate client thought was a value-for-money price for cleaning carpets.

Whilst it may be unfair that contract cleaners don't earn the same rates as cc's unfortunately that is the way the cookie crumbles. Of course we are (in certain quarters) as price driven as the contact cleaning market, but because we are a more fragmented market (ie. more one-man-bands) it does mean that the cream will rise to the top and be able to command top-dollar prices.

Well that's my take on it anyway.

Roger

[Neil Williams]

,told him i was earning £250 for this job, max 3 hours.

Right then, you can afford to get that wreck of a van sorted now

[daysdeepclean]

 

[Mike Osbourne]

When you think about it, carpet cleaning is a bloody nice job.

I did get wet today but you can't have everything.

[Len Gribble]

Got a builder to put a staircase to the loft he quoted me £3k week’s work he said! He and other was here 2 and half days and asked for more money due to staircase being pine and not mdf as he requested told him where to go and deducted £600 for the cleaning, as for painters always advise customers to up lift carpets as it will cost them dearly perhaps.

Len

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

When you think about it, carpet cleaning is a bloody nice job.

I did get wet today but you can't have everything.

From the inside out? Or the outside in? Or both?

[Mike Osbourne]

Got rained on. Put me jacket on. 10 mins later sweating buckets.

The secret to staying warm is not to get too hot.

 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

The weather at the moment is crap but the money keeps you going

Shaun

[Stu.Clem]

Who needs a painter....


Quoted an office carpet  a few  months ago an easy 100m2.  Staff were moving out and emulsion walls needed re-doing.  His painter had quoted him £650 and let him down so I quoted  him £650 for carpet and paintwork.  He bit my hand off.  5 litres of coded colour matched paint £30 - started 530pm had a couple of pints in pub next door bout 10ish was home for 2am paint and carpets mint £650 better off -  custy got his bond back and well pleased.

Stu