[emz_1988_8]

Im thinking about starting an ironing service from home, Can people tell what the rates are and best way of going about it?

Many Thanks
Emma

[SteveAllan]

The girl that does ours charges £10 per 30 items, excluding bedding, extra £1 each way if she is pick up and dropping back off (local). Still seems cheap though, she does a grand job.

[emz_1988_8]

Ok thanks for your help as i was thinking of charging £5.50 per hour but that is cash. Does she do cash in hand or not?

Many thanks

[dianegreenwood]

i refuse to give advice to someone who thinks its ok to charge £5.50 per hour cash in hand.

this is a site to advise people with businesses or genuinely self employed not someone working on the black market ffs

rant over

disgruntled of Yorkshire

[emz_1988_8]

I said thinking, Im asking for advice from people as this is first time of setting up a form of income.

[Jason Ryan]

Firstly and you have to remeber this-Your going to be running a BUSINESS and so you will have to price accordingly.

Professionaly you will be pricing one of 2 ways, either by weight or by item. As for how much it depends but ironing can take time to do corectly and to a high standard. Look around to see what your competitors are charging but more importanly what you need to charge to make a worth while profit. Consider the fact you will have costs like materials (hangers, garment covers etc), equipment (see below), marketing, business insurance, van & insurance,fuel, tax etc-all before any profit!

Equipment wise you will need professional equipment if you want to do a proper job (especialy if your aim is commercial like B&Bs, Hotels, Restraunts etc), a good starting iron will cost around £200 while you will need a vacum/blower table starting around £300.

To build a business Ironing is slow and hard but can be done, though you will proberly be looking at Laundry & Dry cleaning as extra services as you grow. Talking of dry cleaning, you could approach you local ones to see if you could do ironing for them in return for getting dry cleaning clients for them.

Finaly i have to agree with Diane and you must do this properly and not for 'cash in hand', £5.50 ph is waste of time. As you grow how can you pay for workers on £5.50 ph, dont think you can just up the price as most of your clients at that price will drop you staright away.

J

[emz_1988_8]

Ok thats a great help thanks very much.

[BDCS]

Ironing for £5.50 ? who in their right mind ? *******************

[Jason Ryan]

May as well work in Tesco-you get more!

[BDCS]

I'm out for two reasons 1, I'm totally honest with the taxman and 2, I have a hot work restriction on my insurance

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

The lady by us charges £10.00 for a bag (bag for life size)  you drop it off at hers and she brings it round all ironed and on hangers, you could always get a load of hangers from shops to get you started.

[Jason Ryan]

For that price 'a bag' she aint 'running a business' , just pocket money!!!!

J

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

she seems busy 

[Jason Ryan]

We all can be busy charging silly low prices-wont make a living off it though, and generally you pay for what you get. Pay a bit more, get a bit better.

As you know, same with window cleaning. Charge low for bit of beers money, wont do a good job or have the proper gear but theres a market for it-drives down the prices and puts the 'Pros' in the same bracket.

J

[emz_1988_8]

I cant go out and get a normal job as i have two little one's to look after so the hours of work have to sort me due to commitments thats why im asking best way of going about this as i would only be working 3-4 hours a day 5 days a week at the most.

[Gav Camm lammy 283]

go for it if you enjoy ironing i aint knocking you
trying encourage you personally i think you
would need a fair few clients to prosper gud luck anyway 

[Jason Ryan]

If you run as a business as opposed to 'a bit of cash' you can earn around £6500 before being taxed (apparantly due to go up to £10,000 with new PM).

Dont know your current circumstances but if your then working or ironing as case wou;d be and is more than 16hrs a week you can then get working tax credits also. Plus job centre would help you out and give you a start up grant where you can get around £200-enough for a entry level iron, though as i say i dont know your circumstances.

Good luck with it also, but think bigger than 'just extra cash' and run a BUSINESS. Do it legit and you will be glad you did for several reasons-there a pleanty out there who will report you..

J

[emz_1988_8]

Thanks for all your help, As its hard with commitments to get the right hours and this would suit me very well with looking after my children and my partner working 48hours a week. I just very annoyed with bad comments from people and im just trying to provide for my family as i get tax credits but just doesnt cover the bills and theres people who have council houses and a bum and are so much better off. sorry rant over. I would love to have my own business and in a couple years time would like to also be doing domestic cleaning aswell.

[Daria Taylor]

Thanks for all your help, As its hard with commitments to get the right hours and this would suit me very well with looking after my children and my partner working 48hours a week. I just very annoyed with bad comments from people and im just trying to provide for my family as i get tax credits but just doesnt cover the bills and theres people who have council houses and a bum and are so much better off. sorry rant over. I would love to have my own business and in a couple years time would like to also be doing domestic cleaning aswell.

Few harsh comments are sometimes good to understand what you need to do. Dont charge silly prices, just ring round few places, find out what they charge, make sure you buy a good equipment, as this will really make your life easier, when doing your own ironing time how long different garments take to do etc, write it down, and then based on that calculate how namy you can do in an hour, then work out the hourly rate and devide it by the number of items you ca do. This will then give you how much you should charge per an item.

You can start advertising on here www.gumtree.com put an ad in your area its free and put few in the local shops etc. It's alot easier to get ironing work, than domestic cleaing, although if you was to charge £8 per hour for domestic cleaning youwill get plenty of work in, as many people are looking for cheap prices, but you will not make alot of money, just make a living from it.However if you want to run a business you need to be charging at least £13 per hour etc.

Hope it works out for you,
Dash t

[suffolkclean]

You can still have a BUSINESS & fit it around your children thats the beauty of working for yourself. Thats what I've done since I had my children as babies at home, you can earn money, keep a book with your expenses how much your taking for yourself & take it from there. Thats how you can slowly start up your own business working at times to suit you. You tell the customer I can have it ready for eg. Monday. Do it cash in hand & you'll end up in trouble