[Max Campbell]

I log on on the desk top and my ipad, they think I'm 2 different people. No, thank God, we don't really overlap with Susan. had one this week, aussy guy, had 3 quotes, says, jeez CCing's dear over here - he'd picked us as the cheapest - £251 for an hour & a half - what can I say?

[Richard Meads]

I'm further south, phew  Quoted a job today £350 she booked with me and then told me she already had one  quote for £800! damn should have gone with £799   

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Two Max Campbells! Took me a moment to work it out, I met Oliver at the Flood School, IICRC training, glad you guys are busy. So you are in the same area as Susan? Just shows, different marketing, different customer.  I'm not up to 60p sq ft, think I need to put my prices up 

don't think all the people we clean for are single mothers and live it dumps  , Fridays work was two jobs in Braintree , for two  bankers that work in London , they  gave us the code for the gates and the drives were  nearly 2 mile long !

they use to use this this other guy.  he too as a t.m. but he wont be there again as they now know they have been ripped off , having been in the cleaning game for a 100 years were doing something right (handed down from my farther and grand farther)

over the years ive found that the guys that have done all these cleaning  corses and been briain  washed buy people that are no better then cowboys themselves , they sit there telling the new people you should charge this you should charge that , if anybodys cheaper then xyz there cowboys and wont last long ! WRONG , they push there working ways and tell people to use only one type of chem why ? because there part of the black hand gang getting chems cheap , and new merchines half price  its been the same for years 

this is the same people that work in to there late 50s and are almost bend double with a bad back , so what they preach is bull because if  there so called dear priceing and good work , worked they why they still working and not sat on the beech somewhere hot counting there cash

you should nt worrie about what other people are doing that I agree with , however you should always keep an eye on what everybodys doing and take note , that way you keep yourself on your toes ,

i just think to many people make this job to hard and make themselves more work and more  important then they realy are were just cleaners not doctors the jobs simple why make it so hard

and befour the hates start we use full chems and i think my staff eat cit gel , and cardboard squares , we don't cut corners just don't stand talking bull poop that the training corses tell you too

 your there to clean not give the customer a low down on what ph your chems are , when we got the house built i didn't ask the builder what size trowel he was using to put the bricks down . i didn't  care ,didn't want to know just wanted my house built to which he did

[Simon Gerrard]

I totally agree with what much of Susan says.
The problem with people telling us about all these high prices they charge is that the reader has no way of telling whether its the truth, bravado, or just plain bragging and for all we know their phone may not have rung for a week and to me that makes the mentioning of prices pointless.

Simon

[Mark Weedon]

Fair play Susan you make some good points. Some I agree with some I don't.

I'm assuming you are referring to other board where some of the guys possibly take it to the enth degree. Your point about charging more but still working till 50 odd with bad back, well we are carpet cleaners so majority of us ain't gonna get rich enough to retire by 50 whatever we charge, and there is two ways to look at it. Yes charge less smash out the work, but remember when we get to 50 your not gonna have energy to smash it so you may need to slow down but your client base is used to paying x amount, so your turnover does slow down or do as some do charge more and earn same amount for less work.

Either way your still working till 68-65.!!!

Anyhow interesting topic. Glad to hear your busy, still stand my point that your £80 charge could rise to £100 your def not ripping anybody off with either price. Try it this week think what you would normally charge and add 10-20 quid. Be interesting to hear if it works or not.
 
Mark

[Richard Meads]

I too agree with a lot you've said Susan, I hope you don't think I was knocking you, as I pointed out earlier in the thread that your business model is successful.
If you get the amount of money you want for a job it doesn't matter if they are bankers or single mothers. If you offer whole house packages, a slightly smaller house is quicker to clean!

[Craigp]

*bankers being ripped off by carpet cleaners.

Thats a good one.

[Radek Jablonski]

The problem with people telling us about all these high prices they charge is that the reader has no way of telling whether its the truth, bravado, or just plain bragging and for all we know their phone may not have rung for a week and to me that makes the mentioning of prices pointless.

Yep

Few months ago I asked my neighbor to call few carpet cleaners for the price, guys from top 10 google, and others professional.
The question was: - price for 3 bedrooms (2xdouble, 1xsingle), stairs and landing.
- price for 3pc suite

The cheapest were the companys that I was expecting to be on high prices.
Carpets were between 120 - 150 euro, furnitures 95-195 euro. The cheapest was the guy that I think that is most known, best advertised, top 10 google, a half page in golden pages etc. F...n funny !?
Before that I was expecting me to go much higher with the gear I own, training, insurance. Not a hope. Could not find even one company on the good high prices.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Prices are based on traffic the more you get the higher you can be also how much you want to or can sell at.

Susan has been a member on here a long time her business model isnt for everyone but to understand it we arent asking the right questions so Susan here goes:-

Do your vans work as a 2 person crew
Do you move most furniture
How long does it take to clean a 3 bed home?

No porkies now I know you like to torment a few but there's a lesson to be learned Robert Meldrum was always good at teaching these practices.

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

And from that we can determine what, exactly?

Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Takes longer to move furniture than not so you aren't taking as long so tm not on long you can fit more jobs in derrrrr!

Shaun

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

Takes longer to move furniture than not so you aren't taking as long so tm not on long you can fit more jobs in derrrrr!

Shaun

shaun !!!!!

yes we move most of the furniture ! come on you know us and should know better theres no way I would have my staff clean round things !

it takes us 2-2.5 hours to clean a three bed house , I like my staff to either rx20 them of r.d.m. them we carry both , and  put snails up stairs while cleaning the down stair each van carrys 3-4 snails ,

thing is when I joined this site 8 years ago I got mocked and some people even got nasty , how ever I am still here three you them are gone 1 went under and lost his house the other two got  that deep in bills they had to pack in shame eh what happened to all that cash they were getting ?

ive also tried for three years upping my prices and my worked all dryed up over night !  Julian tm only did 2 thousand miles one year and most of that was going to the shop ! lucky that we have a big house rental company to keep him busy and at the same time we were building our house so I didn't care

however back to last year I more then half my pricses over night as I got sick of him round the house , his bother was out of work so I sent him to Essex bought a window clean round join the two together and boom I went mad we now have two window cleaning vans and one tm there they like the cheap prices and were picking a lot of management work up off the dear guys 

work fast ,work right,

 don't stand gobbing off and trying to look clever with your talk as heres a little tip from a house wife ,
buy the time you have left we feel that you have come in to our home and called us dirty pigs looked down your nose at us and we had to pay you to do so , we know our stuff needs cleaning because we rang a carpet cleaner just get your sucker thing out and clean  that's from a female kind of see where I am comeing from ? 

[Paul Moss]

 . How you guys doing, long time.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I know you do a good job you also have the tools but for the benefit of the forum I asked the question, I was very sarcastic towards Simon but lets face it its a working class forum and that was a bit of a working class answer, I take these places with a pinch of salt you would have to try bloody hard to offend me on here.

Shaun

[jim mca]

Susan

What TM do you have in the transporter and what model is the van if you don't mind