[bennymon]

Just put my minimum call out up it's been £60 for the last 8 years it's now £75 but like mike says there are exceptions . By the way £75 pounds is on the survey twice . Del

[Dave_Lee]

The question was about minimum price for a room and most answers have been about minimum charge.
In the great scale of things and at the end of the day the true 'result' is the percentage of profit.
You can maybe get away with charging highly for little work or charging little for much work, it all depends on how much getting the work costs.
If you are needing to spend say £25,000 per year on marketing to turnover £50,000 (I know someone who did)  then you are not charging enough, your marketing is not working or you are not converting enough quotes.
If on the other hand your marketing spend is only £250.. to reach the same £50,000 turnover (as I did the same year) then you don't have to concern yourself too much about marketing or minimum pricing.
So what is the big difference between the two business - the first was fairly new start up, so needed to market heavily to find clients, whilst the second was long time well established with a good repeat business and most new clients generated from referrals.
The point being that people on this forum are all at different levels in their business's so thoughts will differ.
It all depends on the type of person you are and what you want from your business.
If your customer is happy with what you charge and the job you have performed, then you have succeeded so long as you have made sufficient profit for yourself.
To answer the question my minimum is £55.. which would cover a small lounge. For attempting a small stain for a repeat client, I would do it for free when passing, or even a new client if it was nearby and I had the time.
My marketing costs by the way are still minimal.

[Ian Gourlay]

Yeah but you did acquire an expensive truckmount a few years ago,
So you needed to factor that cost in.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

He's selling it to me, he's far too old to clean carpets, Dave usually gets lost on fells when he goes out for a paper in the morning.

Shaun

[Ian Gourlay]

Thought you got a new one about the same time . Is HIS BIGGER THAN YOURS

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Faves tm is one of the biggest and best.

Shaun

[COLIN BRIGHT]

the amount spent of advertising is costly at the beginning of a business, agreed, but i dont see how having less to pay out a few years on makes any difference to a min spend, just means you make more profit, i thought that was the whole point of building a business, and staying in business long term, isnt it?

[Dave_Lee]

Colin, what I was meaning was, that if in the early years having a high marketing overhead, then each job has higher cost compared to later on when the marketing costs can come down, and the minimum charge can be more flexible. To be honest Ive never been too concerned re minimum charge and treat each individual job on it's own merit. However I do agree there's no reason to alter or decrease ones minimum charge just because overheads decrease.

[Phil @ Extreme Clean]

Usually £40 minimum then i discount to £35 2 rooms  and £30 3 or more and just about to do a 2 room £49 special offer  i'm happy with that and i do a good job so value for money i would say and not cheap splash and dash 

[Craigp]

Phil in the nicest possible way   people was charging more than that in the 80s when you could buy a nice detached house for what £30k. ?


My osteopath was telling me she paid £60 to have her lounge carpet cleaned when she was student in 1990


Now in 2014 to fill up my van and TM with fuel costs £120. and a detached house costs £260k but you are charging less.

To make more money you could make a time machine or put your prices up.


Food for thought.

[Phil @ Extreme Clean]

It's plenty enough for me mate I can do 2 rooms in 1-2 hours and I charge more if going further a field the £49 for 2 rooms is just a special offer not permanent I have a 3 room job in a bungalow for £90 il be no more than 2 hours to me that's good money and a good living can be made on those prices