[Mike Halliday]

the way I see it.....

 Ercol suite (mostly cushions, a bit less work than a standard suite)       £140
    Protector applied to suite                                                                     £80
    8x5 pure wool Tibetan rug, cleaned & protected                                  £100
    9x3 Persian runner, cleaned & protected                                              £75
    400ft² 80/20 cut pile carpet (downstairs hall & upstairs bedroom)       £100 (the bedroom was upstairs so would tale as long as a T/L )
    Protector applied to carpet                                                                    £60
    Roughly 10m² Amtico flooring, stripped & sealed ( a guess!!  )                £80

maybe i'd give a discount...... but i was thinking as you said she moaned about the price you had charged what a professional such as your self is worth

[Billy Russell]

Jim,

I think your pricing is fine!!!

i would of gone in for £435 + Vat    £522 total!!


John,

I think your outlook is wrong!

[JandS]

Not low self esteem Jim just realistic.
What's the joiner argument about.
The customer realises that materials  are
extra.
By the way the average day rate for a joiner
round here is a lot less than £250.
If you can get work at that price fair enough
but if they moan 'cos they find out your charging
£500 per day is it any wonder.
What was the actual labour cost?
About £350.

[Craigp]

Sounds fair.

Thing is with the tradesmen comparison, my brothers a plasterer and he does not spend anywhere near what I do on advertising and business running costs.

She got a bargain with that after complaint reduction.

[Jim_77]

I think there's a bit of a geographical difference to be fair John

[clive ware]

Bit late but I would have gone in at £495 without looking at all the other posts!
Sounds a right old cow!

[JandS]

Just a little  

Brother's a builder and I was talking to the joiner
who was doing the roof trussing yesterday dinner.
He reckoned round here if you can get £150 a day
your doing well at the moment.
Not knocking anyone's prices, if you can get it go
for it.
But I'll bet there's one or two out there sat on their
bums most of the week and not because the phone
'aint ringing.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My mate is a wood butcher/joiner and he charges £200 plus 10% on materials, he recently did a attic bedroom conversion and made just as much on the materials as the labour.

Shaun

[Fran84]

My dad is a joiner and yes he gets £150 a day but do we all really think the bloke who he subbies for only charges £150 to the client.

I think we all have to take into account overheads, tax liabilities (more for ltd) etc.

We should never judge each others price as we dont know each others overheads.

Fran

[Paul Moss]

Jim your price is fine mate. I would have charged the same.
 I have had a few occasions where the customer is about to say the same ( but so far never has) I did a easy suite 2x rugs, hall way,lounge and bedroom carpets last week, she is a customer i have done twice before. Still went and quoted the job before hand at 255 quid . It took us 2 hours taking it easy. The suite and carpet had been done 18 months ago by me and where not very dirty. Because  we did it in 2 hours (2 of us)i felt a  little guilty takind 250  for 2 hours. But as Dean always says to  me, thats the price you  have quoted and she was happy with  that..      you have done an excelllllent job, but  just because you have a truck and are very experienced means that you work smarter and easier for your money.

Dean is correct. (My son who works with  me)

So Jim dont lose  any sleep over it. You have spent thousands on kit and training and your are now at the top of your trade,so take your money and  be happy..

One   tip though  going forward. Always quote before hand,  it does not  matter who it  is  or how many times you have cleaned for them. You will never, ever, be  in this situation again then

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Sometimes people will ask us to come and clean without asking the price before hand this occassionally can be dangerous my preference is to pre qualify price before I start and I break it up to per room etc then add it all together so the customer can see where and how I came to my figure (I guess you already know this you're a smart bloke ) the trick is to learn from your experience just bloody annoying and YOU are partly to blame!!!! as it's your business and you can't blame anyone else.

Shaun

[Paul Heath]

I don't see anything wrong with your price Jim..broken down it works out at £50 p/hr....she got a very good deal....put it to bed and move on..(has her old man just lost his knitghhood, might expalin her mood)

[jasonl]

I can buy a servicemaster franchise in anyone of about 20 areas and in a month clean with your equipment. Hardly skilled . 

Carpet cleaning is not a skilled job , it is low skill, electricians , plumbers, joiners  , they are skilled trades .

Lets take your days work , it is worth £150 at best , plus £150 to hire van and equipment , plus materials and fuel £100 , plus profit , that is where you get the £500 from .

Your customer is quite correct in saying you are just a cleaner , what she needs educating in is the fact that she is hiring a lot of expensive kit too , not a couple of grands worth of tools that a tradesman will have.

[Neil Williams]

 Ercol suite (mostly cushions, a bit less work than a standard suite)       £120
    Protector applied to suite                                                                     £40
    8x5 pure wool Tibetan rug, cleaned & protected                                  £60
    9x3 Persian runner, cleaned & protected                                              £40
    400ft² 80/20 cut pile carpet (downstairs hall & upstairs bedroom)       £120
    Protector applied to carpet                                                                    £60
    Roughly 10m² Amtico flooring, stripped & sealed (don't do don't know)

Total £440 (£366.67 before Vat)

But this is only a rough guess as each job along with attitude of customer and general condition of items can effect final price.  

What some people don't realise it's not just labour they are paying for, there's fuel, products, knowledge and to a degree a guarentee as to quality of work.
Alternatively get a pikey in for £99 and don't expect any of the above.          

[Neil Williams]

Carpet cleaning is not a skilled job , it is low skill, electricians , plumbers, joiners  , they are skilled trades . 

Skilled as in a 4 year apprenticeship it is not but skilled as in knowing materials, products, machinery and limitations it is.
How many on here can publically state they use a steel wire brush on some carpets? And of course going by the book you shouldn't. I have and I do and have yet to muller a carpet to the point of a complaint or claim. That's because I have knowledge and time learnt skill to know the limitations.
Therefore there is a skill but more so knowledge.

[Paul Heath]

it really annoys me when people say its "only cleaning".....if we ruin your £50 per sq mtr carpet ...you expect us, quite rightly, to put it right. Ok you can go and buy a RD and call yourself a carpet cleaner and not do any apprenticeship.
A lot will do it properly, get training, invest in good machines, go on forums and get advise etc and in time you gain knowlege...you then have to market your business, insure your equipment etc do estimates, talk to customers etc...so you are more than "just a cleaner"
With expenses including chemicals used i think Jim's price is a very fair deal.....the thing that kills it is the VAT, which we can do nothing about.

[mark_roberts]

Its the protector thats upping the price a lot on this job.  Perhaps the discount should be here and not the cleaning labour directly.

Its really a business decision what you charge a full day at but for the customer it will seem high.  Im paying my tradesmen £80-£120 a day to renovate my house so this is where the skilled argument comes in, and they work for it!!

Sometimes IMO a TM can work against you!!

Mark

[Colin Day]

My dad is a joiner and yes he gets £150 a day but do we all really think the bloke who he subbies for only charges £150 to the client.

I think we all have to take into account overheads, tax liabilities (more for ltd) etc.

We should never judge each others price as we dont know each others overheads.

Fran

That's the most sensible comment I've read on CIU....

To add, not all of us are the bread winners either. I know a few C/C's who clean carpets to top pensions up and use the money for the odd luxuries.

[pete jones]

Jim,people are getting very tight,plus there are a lot of leaflets advertising cheap prices splash and dash,cowboys.She uses you every year,if they are protected they cannot be that hard to clean,and do they even know by now,if you apply it.I never said that.You know you are a pro,if you  lose the job,will it effect your bissiness,do you need her and her recommendations.Anything above 300 plus your chems a day sounds good to me.Its your biz you know the answers

[Simon Gerrard]

Jim,
The only rational explanation is that your customer has hit upon hard times, many have, even the apparently well off.

Simon