Pricing ? Not just a theory please.

[Matt Saleu]

Hi everyone,

I would like to give quotes to customers but sometimes I do struggle to do price for each job, even the simpliest ones. I am asking here to stop repeating mistakes with pricing the work.

I do understand that it is up too me, how I feel or how much work must be done. I need an examples to judge correctly.

How much would you charge for full house clean (deep clean):

2 bedroom, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, hallway
2 bedroom's, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, hallway & stairs

I do understand that a lot of you might not want too share own prices but I am asking for proffesional quote example from those who don't mind.

 

[James Smith]

At the end of the day it's your business and you charge what you think is a fare price and not what others charge

 

[Matt Saleu]

At the end of the day it's your business and you charge what you think is a fare price and not what others charge

"Very informative post as well as useful. " If you don't wish to answer a question, why would you post something just to post? We come here for a reason, we ask for a reason. I do not see a point to answer with a post which isn't helpful to the author of the topic as there is a specific question in the post.

Thanks for the replay, I don't mean to be rude or something but your post doesn't answer my question even in 1%.

 

[Gary Rendall]

What involved in your deep cleans

 

[Dan Woodhead]

Firstly, James is spot on above. He may not have offered as much information as you would have liked but your reply did come across as rude which doesn't go down well on this forum.

To

2 bedroom, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, hallway
2 bedroom's, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, hallway & stairs

This information doesn't really help much as everyone property is a different shape and size and in a different condition.

My advise would be to decide, do you want to charge by the hour or by the day? Then decide what your hourly rate and day rate are respectively.

If you charge £250 per day and you think that it will take a day to clean then your labour charge is £250. Then calculate the cost of your materials, if your materials cost £25 then your total price would be £275. Finally, decide if you would like to add on a little profit and add that to the total price.

Do you want to charge an additional set fee for an oven? If so then add that price to the above amount.

If you choose to charge by the hour then calculate how many hours it will take. If you charge £30 per hour and it will take you six hours then that's £180. Again, add on for materials, special items like ovens and any profit that you decide.

In terms of how much to charge, as James says above, you need to decide. If your a new business that isn't well established then you may want to be a little more competitive than your competitors (but not necessarily cheap).

Carry out market research and find out what others are charging.

 

[Jamie Biles]

I only do quotes with visit. Estimates are done via other means if in person not practical but warn them could be as much as 30-40% more. Kitchens and bathrooms will vary hugely

 

[John Gone]

I charge a set price 'per room'. I have a minimum amount that I charge no matter if your having your Living Room or a single scatter cushion cleaned.

Most of my conversions are done over the phone, via Facebook, WhatsApp or Text etc. I visit every commercial job, Upholstery job that I think could be 'iffy' and every hardfloor job to set the customers expectations and my own.

All customers are made aware that the price given is an estimate and every £ sign has 'roughly' put before it. Does the estimate deviate from the final bill? Not often unless they have another room cleaned on the day or the stair case is like the Natural History Mueseum. If I feel like it I can also lower the final bill like I did yesterday on a living room and the world's smallest hallway, a customer will always appreciate that.

For me to do that job it would be £140-£165 plus a travel charge depending on area and it would take me just shy of three hours.

 

[Dan Paton]

Your overheads plus what profit you want to make should decide your charges.
Both of them are different for everyone. You really need to work out how much an average job is costing you to acquire, how long it takes and how much you personally want to earn. Then you'll come up with what to charge. Anything else is just guessing.

 

[pete ashton]

Hi Matt,
Is this an EOT clean or a furnished property?
Either way I would charge by the hour £30 to £35 including materials, 3 hours was mentioned earlier I would add 20% leeway onto that. Carpets and ovens i always price seperately minimum £50 for just an oven, carpets by the sqr meter anything between £3.00 and £4.00 depending on soilage. I would hope to walk away with £300+ but regional prices can vary considerably, hope this helps.

 

[John Gone]

Ohhh hold on a minute... This isn't just Carpets my post is about just Carpets, sorry about that! I need to read the subheading in future!

 

[Andrew Evans]

Pricing is one of the hardest things to do.

Initially you have to price to be competitive.

So you will charge in line with other companies. After a few jobs you can evaluate your pricing and charge accordingly.

That said just because you want to charge £1000 doesn't mean someone will pay it.

I have a couple of friends who do commercial cleaning they all work it out by the hour.

It seems to be a competitive market with high turnover and tight profit margins.

They all price by the hour plus materials so until you know how long something will take it will be hard.

A lot of my friends have got out of it now, the lack of staff seems to be why.

 

[Ken Wainwright]

A simple question but an extremely complex set of answers. Every answer is right but may not be applicable to you.

I'll start with location of your business. Lets take a typical home that you live in is a 3 bed semi with a garage. In some parts of the country this may cost as little as £150k. In the South East of England, it may cost as much as £750k for an identical house. Where you live will seriously affect how much you need to charge to earn a living.

If your business model dictates that you are offering a service for a set, advertised price, any prospects will almost certainly be making their buying decision with price being a high priority, after all, the only question they know to ask is "how much"? If, however, your business model is to visit the customer and carry out a comprehensive inspection survey and testing regime, you will be selling not only your service, but also yourself. You can cost accurately according to the many variables of each location and with the opportunity to upsell and maybe even include more areas/rooms/items.

So how much should you charge? Is your own home the £150k or the identical £750k mentioned above? In one part of the country you will need to earn, and hence charge, much more so I can't give you a figure.

At our training academy down in Cornwall, we have trained many technicians over the years from your part of Scotland, many of them wishing to come out of the oil industry. I gather that property prices up there are strong, so do your own research about how the market is in YOUR area. You are NOT a cleaner. You are a businessman working in the cleaning industry, so work with that fact in mind.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

 

[Trevor Ives]

You have to sit down and list EVERY business expense - Two columns Capital and Running expenses. Capital is van and machine cost. Running is tax, insurance maintenance on van - same for machines. On top is cost of materials eg cleaning solutions.
Then the same for your own private expenses - house- wife- children own expenses.
Add a percentage on both for unforeseen costs and inflation.
Divide the total requirements by the number of days you want to work and this will give you a rough idea of income requirements.
Add some on for mishaps and this will give you some idea of how much you need to earn per day.
Then work out how long on average it takes per room of average size and you will end up with a rough idea how much to charge.
Instead of room it ought really be per square meter/yard. (I got trapped in the early days by a sitting room 25 40 ft.)If when I did a quote there was a Ferrari outside with a Merc to take the kids to school then a bit was added on yes I had one of those!
Really it is horses for courses and how long is a piece of string.