AVERAGE INCOME - Carpet Cleaning Issues

Carpet Cleaning Issues - Carpet construction, upholstery cleaning, stain removal, equipment, events, etc.

AVERAGE INCOME

Posted by rob_s (rob_s), 31 January 2004

Hi
Does anyone know the average income of a full time carpet cleaner. Just wonderd if I was in line, or whether I have got to work until I am seventy.

I have heard the income is higher in the home counties (£500 a day).

Regards rob-s Wink

Posted by ALEXDH (ALEXDH), 31 January 2004

I have heard , not doing it full time dont know ,that turnover of 35K are realistic for a single man running a portable. Offering higher end quality service. this is not splash and dash.

I know you won't tell us what you earn ,why should you but how about a plus or minus of my figure for what you earnt in your first correct financial year.

Posted by mike_halliday (mike_halliday), 31 January 2004

betreen £20,000 & £100,000 Grin

i can't wait to see some of the answer that come out of this question.

how about telling us how much you earn, then everyone can say if they earn more or less, and from that we can work out the average wage.

of course all those earning less won't admit it, and everyone else will say they earn twice as much Wink

Rob sorry this is'nt much help

mike

ps post 10yrs £50-60k down south, 38k-45k up north this is my guess

Posted by Phil_@_Deep_Clean (Phil_@_Deep_Clean), 31 January 2004

I think one man would struggle to turnover more than 50k in one year, although as Mike says there will be plenty of false answer's on this one.

Your estimate of 35k is very realistic after the 1st few years.

£500 per day nahhhhhh!!!!! Shocked

Phil

Posted by Cloverleaf (Cloverleaf), 31 January 2004

I dont think that earnings are as important as job satisfaction.

I used to earn £20k per year as an injection moulding technichian, shifts, stress, no job satissfaction.

After being in the buss for few years, still getting established, no presssure or verry little, I now find that I am earning much more than I used to £00000?

I can have days off when I want.
I can work 7 days if I,m busy, If I want!
I can put a few hundred quid in my back pocket! Grin

I can can meet lovely people and have a cup of coffee.
I can start mapping out my future from what I have learn't.
I love the job!

It aint all rosses but its pretty good Grin

John

Posted by SteveTruman (SteveTruman), 31 January 2004

Best day was £650 started @ 9 finished @ 5 wont get out of bed for less than 100 a day

Regards

Steve

Posted by ALEXDH (ALEXDH), 31 January 2004

I am happy with £35 pound an hour £30 pound of that being profit. before taxes.

I plan to have a month off total a year.

Hopefully I will have enough work for 30 (15
customers) hours a week or enough for say 25 hours a week on more profiable jobs, as I am working for myself i will happily spend an additional 12 hours a week administration stuff for nothing.

I am fat so posting 1000 flyers a week will cost me less than paying £120 a month not go to the gym.

What do you reckon am i dreaming from what i have seen others do and I have made so far i think not.

I very much doubt i will get 15 customers a week for a good while yet i am happy with three whilst still doing my other job.

I work seven days a week often at the minute and my current jobs responsibiltys mean I have to work funny hours often and go abroad at short notice. I am on a fixed salary.

£35.00 * 30 = 1050
£1050 * 48 = 50400
£7200 running costs
So £43,200 estimate take home to be 30,000 ish.

If it all goes rubbish only half of that i'll live on baked beans and still be happy i am my own boss.

Posted by Dave_Lee (Dave_Lee), 31 January 2004

Basically though obvious, it all depends on how many enquiries your marketing brings in. Of these how many you convert into jobs. How much revenue the average job yields. You can dash around doing 1000 jobs a year, and earn less than the guy doing 200. Its how much value the customer places on your service that dictates how much you are able to charge. If you are very high priced - doing a brilliant job, you wont get as many bookings as a cheap end guy doing an acceptable job - but you will still earn more money, taking it easier than that cheap guy rushing around desperatly trying to fit all the jobs in, just to survive.
If the job is acceptable and you are cheap end, you can get away with spending little on advertising - then rush around to turn over £20,000 - £30,000 and be broke in the process.
If the job, presentation & marketing are first class, then it costs substantially more to get the work, but turnover of anything between £50,000 - £80,000 for a one man operation is more than likely - bringing in an income of £500 per week plus.
Dave.

Posted by ALEXDH (ALEXDH), 1 February 2004

some of my sums may be balls , but it looks like i am not that far off then

a take home of 30K - 35K will do me quite nicely FOR NOW

All the best

Alex

Posted by mike_halliday (mike_halliday), 1 February 2004

Dave, 50k-80k is £1000-£1600 a week not £500 as you say

I'll stick my neck out and say if you are starting up and having to spend a lot on marketing (because you've no existing customers) then these net amounts are what to expect

1st year 15k raising by 5-7k per year after that. these figars are from my knowledge of local carpet cleaners around the yorkshire area so will very from the southern regions.

of course ther will always be exceptions who earn £50k in their first year Shocked

Mike

Posted by Dynafoam (Dynafoam), 1 February 2004

John,

Your reply is so close to my own feelings about the business.

We all would like a comfortable lifestyle but there aint no pockets in a shroud.

John.

Posted by mark_roberts (mark_roberts), 1 February 2004

I'm going to get a bit personal here for the benefit of those new guys to our industry as I don't want you to make the same mistakes as I did.

In this business you must be realistic about costs. In my opinion you will not run a carpet cleaning business on £5 per hour if you plan on doing it professional. By that I mean clean nice van, good machinery for all types of jobs(quality HWE machine, dry cleaning system, few hand tools, stair tools, blowers, spotter, sprayers vacuums), marketing efforts( yellow pages, flyers, BNI, direct mail), training (I've spent about £3000 over the past three years on training), the best of solutions, stationary, corporate identity, fees, breakdowns, etc etc etc.

I aim to work 5 hours per day moving the wand. You only make money in the customers home. The rest of the time is spent driving, on the phone, admin work etc.

Based on that my costs are approx £13 per hour. I add £5 for profit for new equipment etc. I want £22 per hour before tax for me.

25 hours per week equals

costs £325
profit £125
drawings £550

So I need to charge £40 per hour to make £1000 per week turnover.

These are average figures ie. on Friday I made (turnover) £415. On Monday I made nothing as no work on that day.

So you can see once you reach a certain level of turnover your drawings will be much higher as your costs will only rise very slightly.

After 2.5 years in business on my own I hope to hit my target this year.

Hope this makes sense and help the newer guys to see that it costs more than you think to run a professional cleaning business.

thanks
Mark Roberts

PS. feel free to give opinions on this as I don't claim to know it all.

Posted by strakercleaning (strakercleaning), 1 February 2004

I have checked back over last 6 months and have averaged £118.08 a day. Some weeks are 5 days to 7 days and holiday/xmas period not worked. Wink

I have 8 hour job to do this week that is done over 2 mornings ( 0900 - 1300 ) which is £560 and carried out twice yearly. Jobs like that can soon bump up your average daily rate but small £40 minimum jobs can soon drop it back down again. Sad

Only advice i can offer is NEVER STOP FINDING WORK even if you are too busy to get it all done......... link up with another CC who you can trust not to nick customer and get them to cover job on your behalf Cool

Posted by Dave_Lee (Dave_Lee), 1 February 2004

Mike,
The £500 I refered to was net income per week, off around £50,000 plus annual turnover. This works out around 50% of takings, alldepending on what amounts you actually spend on marketing. As I stated some will make their £500 a week only doing two jobs, while others will do, say ten or more, to make their £500. This is just a rough guide as I see it.
Dave.

Posted by martin_606 (martin_606), 1 February 2004

Hi guys

I will sum it up in one word...

LEVERAGE!

the greater your leverage the more you will earn. Your limits are set by your own reality. (deep huh)

You will earn what you want. You want six figures? change your reality.

regards

Martin Cool

Posted by Shaun_Ashmore (Shaun_Ashmore), 1 February 2004

Mike has opened yet another can of worms. I think Mr.Straker was correct in saying always keep looking for work, supply and demand is a great way of increasing your success and what I mean by this is that the more you are booked up the more clients will want you or perseive you to be better than a competitor and will pay more for your services or wait until it is there turn in the queue.

Clive Ware has a regular 1 month waiting list and he works approx 10 - 11 hour days, and he still advertises in YP to keep them coming in, or is it the fact that he is the worlds best looking carpet cleaner!

Shaun

Posted by clive (clive), 1 February 2004

Posted by Les (Les), 1 February 2004

I came into the business having turned down a job offering £38k basic plus commission...DOH! Cry

However I was already doing the job, (dealer principal at garage group) and felt that if I carried on doing it I would be 'Cuckoo' Tongue

within a few years.
My wife was really pleased to see me turn down the job to go 'Cleaning', and even more pleased to be joining me a year later as a partner in the business. Cry

Nearly 4 years on I still enjoy the variety of the work, meeting mostly nice people who are grateful for what you do, being my own boss, (apart from the wife that is ) Grin

and reasonably pleased with the income.
Having joined this much valued discussion group, we have realised that we can afford to charge more than we have been in the past and enjoy a more comfortable standard of living for our efforts.
I would agree that we (Cleaners) should be the first to recognise our true worth and to charge a sensible fee for doing what most people see as damned hard work, whilst maintaining high standards. Wink

Posted by lenpg (Len Gribble), 1 February 2004

I totally agree with Chris, never stop looking for work, be it commercial or domestic, there are six other cc in GB (two are local to me) that I trust completely; we often pass work to each other or I/they call in to help on a big job.

Always provide the best service they will come back and also recommend you, that way you make more money.

Mark I think you have hit it on the nail, also know one knows it all, we learn daily, and store it for future reference.

Shaun can you e-mail me a copy of Clive Ware yp advert I must of missed something in mine.

Len

Posted by rob_s (rob_s), 1 February 2004

Hi
Has anyone thougt of going for the big contracts,then take on more staff to do them.

As a one man/woman band , who runs your business if you sustain an injury.

Have you all taken on good accident insurance to cover you.

wonder what premium you pay ? No I am not in the insurance game.

Regards
rob-s Lips Sealed

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