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Helen

Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #20 on: February 09, 2011, 05:17:50 pm »
A bit naive of you Helen to believe that people in £2 million mansions wouldn't bargain, they might be feeling the crunch too. I have more respect for people that discuss costs it shows that they live in the real world - that's just business surely.

Jeez, did I really put that ???
Not I'm not naive at all.  Everyone looks for a good deal and so they should, I always do, but I never ever go on price alone. My actual statement said that I am sick of the "rich" people bartering. (in my book bartering is not discussing costs and services). I am not daft either and so when I quote at a largish place I always add a bit on, gives me room to come down a bit if necessary and if the potential customer feels they have knocked you down a bit then everyone is happy.

Matt Lindus

Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #21 on: February 09, 2011, 07:02:53 pm »
Ok,,

The thick man who is sat at home with nothing to do takes 15 calls. He needs the work, so thick head under quotes all of them in a vain attempt to bag them all. He manages to convert 10 of the calls into work. Each job ticket is around £40.00. So he achieves £400.
He spends £50 on petrol getting from job to job.
He puts 350 miles of associated wear on his van.
He spends 8hr in total on the road servicing the jobs.
He puts 20hrs of associated wear on his machine and tools.
His FREE valuable marketing time is spent on other things (servicing the cheapos)

So the thick head above comes out with a gross profit £350, a worn van and equipment and more worryingly, an empty diary for the days ahead (he was too busy working to market the next batch of cheapos)
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The clever man is sat at home with nothing to do. Again he takes 15 calls. He needs the work so tries to compose himself correctly on the phone, he keeps the customer talking by asking questions essential to the proposed work and also sells his services and explains in great detail the process. He also states that a visit would be beneficial to establish what needs to be done.
By doing the above he happily manages to secure ONLY 3 jobs, but each job ticket he has got is worth £250. So he achieves £750.
He only has 3 jobs to service so only spends £15.00 on petrol
He only puts 75miles on his van
He is sat in his van for only 2hrs
He puts 7hr wear on his machine and equipment.

So clever man comes out with a gross profit of £735. And with the extra time he had on his hands, he has managed to do plenty of marketing and filled his diary with another very small batch of premium paying customers.
Does he feel guilty about losing most of the people who call him. Does he hell, he’s a clever man! 8)

Matt

 
 

Simon Payne

  • Posts: 44
Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #22 on: February 09, 2011, 07:56:21 pm »
Simon....having looked at your website, i find it strange that you want to get involved in domestic carpet cleaning.I just think it's an odd match to what you are offering now.Why are you thinking of adding domestic carpet cleaning and what is your thinking behind it?

Dave, Thank you for your interest in what we do and for presenting such a great question.

We have staff in to us every day asking for extra work, so................
What is the point in sending them away telling them no when we could train additional staff in a trade such as carpet cleaning, it has high yields and low cost, we have the kit that is already paid for and due to the amount we spend already with suppliers we get massive discounts on carpet cleaning chemicals so it is a credible business move, just trying to find our feet with charges.

 Any help would be great.

JandS

  • Posts: 4250
Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #23 on: February 09, 2011, 08:08:19 pm »
350 miles for 10 jobs is a lot of mileage - for me anyway.
Probably less than 100, maybe 65.
About £8 in petrol.
2.5 hours max driving.
Can't remember the last £250 domestic I did.
Sounds like me though, get lots of single roomers at
£40 ish.
Can see where your coming from but if all those £40 jobs
are near at hand it's worth it.
About 7.5 machine hours.

John
Impossible done straight away, miracles can take a little longer.

robert meldrum

  • Posts: 1984
Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #24 on: February 09, 2011, 08:26:09 pm »
What Matt omitted from his post was the work that gives him £250 plus per job....................it's NOT carpet cleaning.

Helen

Re: Hourly rates - keep getting undercut
« Reply #25 on: February 09, 2011, 10:13:57 pm »
What Matt omitted from his post was the work that gives him £250 plus per job....................it's NOT carpet cleaning.
Out of every 15 calls we receive, I would say that only one would be in the region of £200 plus.
We are finding that although people would like to have more cleaned, they are settling for just main areas, as they are having to cut back on expenditure.