[AJCleaningServices]

I imagine that a great benefit of "lift and shift" is that Arthur gets to supervise workers, results, performance regularly...

That is exactly what we do... 

[Art]

I imagine that a great benefit of "lift and shift" is that Arthur gets to supervise workers, results, performance regularly.

by the way "lift and shift"... what a great term ... perfect for a courier business, much berrer than "man and van" 

It is the name of a courier business 

Mine, so don't tell anyone or someone will try and steal the name 

[Art]

AJ,

 You said at the start  off this thread that you would have to take a cleaner to the house and then go back and pick them up.
Assuming your core business is domestic, is this something you do with all your staff? as i would imagine this must be very time consuming to lift and shift on a daily basis.

Arthur

The area which we serve is very compact, every sing house over there is a potential customer, so once you there it is not time consuming to lift and shift our staff at all.

By the way, public transport does not go to Stamfordham - the place where we quoted £15-00 per hour.

Regards

Arthur

Is it purely domestic or do you service commercial customers aswell?

[AJCleaningServices]

Ponteland and Darras Hall are residential ares, we do have couple of offices over there and one elderly house, but we consider ourselves as a domestic cleaning company.  Yesterday I have made some amendments to my website.

Regards,
Arthur

[domestic bliss]

To be honest, It sounds like they have tried everywhere else and are having trouble getting a cleaner for their rate of pay because they would leave it if they were just not happy with the quote.
Personally i would just ignore them.
Usually if i quote for a job and they don't like the price, i just don't work for them , strange that they should make such an issue over it.
Nowt so queer as folk!! ( as they say)

[therapist]

I remember being told that you must never carry out low paid work within your business as your time is valuable and should be priced accordingly.............

If you run your workers around, you are actually working for a proportion of the hourly rate charged to clients.............

Assuming the worker costs around six pounds per hour plus transport, NHI, etc, you would be lucky to end up with two ponds per hour for your efforts..........

Not being facetious, just repeating one of the basic rules taught to me at the Scottish Business School, Glasgow University and they certainly knew what they were talking about.

rob m

[AJCleaningServices]

Thank you Rob, for your advice, but I can assure you we get more than £2-00 per hour...
Regards,
Arthur

[therapist]

Simple economics Art' and everyone should be aware of the danger of  '' not charging your worth  '' by carrying out tasks that don't reflect your "  true value  " to your business.................

This is a message, that every marketing, or management program, advocates, as it's one of the classic traps many fall into...............I did it myself, years ago, forgetting what I'd been taught, in my enthusiasm.

When I put a supervisor  ''on the road" it enabled me to concentrate on building the business..........

Don't regard this as a criticism.....but don't ignore it.........

rob m

[AJCleaningServices]

..When I put a supervisor  ''on the road" it enabled me to concentrate on building the business...

Rob,

Could you please be more specific, explaining "building the business" what is it exactly you were doing.  Building a business is not the same as building a house...

Regards,

Arthur

PS there is a cleaning company in that area which charge £7-50 per hour

[therapist]

Arthur

There are low cost providers of services everywhere and every business, it's a subject that's raised on here as often as t/m's v portables.

If this is where you choose to trade............you will sell your services to a price, rather than sell quality and value.

Why would I use your service

Are you cheap, or do you offer more than the others in terms of quality, reliability, green products, emergency call out, additional services..............in other words, a more comprehensive service, with added value.

Would YOU purchase your service, rather than any other.

Building a business...............

It's exactly the same as building a house...........you need a strong foundation, on which to build. This could be the owner, provided they have the skills, the drive, the energy, or they might lack these qualities and just have vision, but the ability to sell their concept to potential clients, as the package the client needs or wants.

You then require the bricks and timbers, etc, this would be the equipment, chemicals, vehicles, personnel, marketing plan, etc.

To hold this all together requires strong bonding materials, sand and cement, of the correct consistency to withstand natures forces.

Or management..............

To build a business requires focus, singlemindedness and determination..........you have to work at marketing and management, it doesn't just happen.

So,  ''  building the business  '' is, continuing with the market research you did before embarking on your chosen venture.............seeking out additional markets for your services or products.............specialising ,where other providers all do the same ..........
considering additional services which would be compatible with your existing business, but most definitely not doing work, which prevents you from  developing, expanding, increasing, your business.........

hope this qualifies my comments

rob m

[AJCleaningServices]

Arthur

There are low cost providers of services everywhere and every business, it's a subject that's raised on here as often as t/m's v portables.

If this is where you choose to trade............you will sell your services to a price, rather than sell quality and value.

I have already referred many times to this Phil’s post:

Harrogate, North Yorks, this is a rich area but what I have found is if you market your self as professional (expensive) company you will get the good jobs…
…£14.50 per hour is my labour rate but on some jobs it works out a lot more as much as £17 per hour…  … I would like to think my main compitition is Molly maids and Merry maids pick up loads of x customers from these.But i did fill my book of work on lower priced jobs, once you have money coming in then try to get the worth while jobs. good luck Phil

Building a business....

It's exactly the same as building a house…

…hope this qualifies my comments

rob m

Rob, not for me I am afraid, as I heard it before, in August 1999 when I attended a short business course “How to become successful owner manager” at Project North East.

I still do not understand what exactly you were doing after replacing yourself with a supervisor… I would appreciate if you could share your own experience, as this is what this form is supposed to about…

However, as far as my business is concerned - I have a strategy, I know what I am doing and going to do to expand my business, I have been in domestic cleaning industry for more than 6 years now… 

You have been doing it for much longer of course…

Regards,

Arthur

[The Great One]

hi

In my opinion you have not mis-sold anything. you have said, on your advertising that it is 'typically' £9.00. you can say that this area is not typical as far as you are concerned, as you do not advertise in it.

As has been said before finance companies state 'typical interest rate' but of course it is always a higher one.

Ifr they re-contact you say

'' I am sorry but we do not consider your area typical as it is outside our typical area of operations, therefore our typical rate does not apply''

I am not a legal exprt, the above is my opinion only.

Regards

Martin

[AJCleaningServices]

Martin,
They've never got back to me  ,
Thanks,
Arthur

[garyj]

The advert NOW reads typically, however this was only added after advice from this board a couple of days ago. Until then it clearly stated £9.00 per hour. When they phoned and told Arthur they wanted 2 hours per week he said he would do it for £15, it is that which has caused the trouble.

I bet you haven't heard the last of them yet.

Everyone else has written these people off as nutters with nothing better to do who have taken advice from a bloke down the pub. If they have got nothing better to do then this saga could well run.

[BSF]

The advert NOW reads typically, however this was only added after advice from this board a couple of days ago. Until then it clearly stated £9.00 per hour. When they phoned and told Arthur they wanted 2 hours per week he said he would do it for £15, it is that which has caused the trouble.

I bet you haven't heard the last of them yet.

Everyone else has written these people off as nutters with nothing better to do who have taken advice from a bloke down the pub. If they have got nothing better to do then this saga could well run.

I must admit, I noticed that it had changed, always state:

Rates start at or from £xx per hour

this covers you!

Regards

Paul

[AJCleaningServices]

The advert NOW reads typically, however this was only added after advice from this board a couple of days ago. Until then it clearly stated £9.00 per hour....

Gary,

I have never changed the ad which was placed in here.  Just two hours after I have started this topic martin19842 has suggested that I am OK because I used word TYPICAL:

...the word TYPICAL is a good word to use,

if you see some adverts on the tv from loan companies i think the phrase goes "OUR TYPICAL INTEREST RATE IS XXXX"...

There is no point for me alter the ad, which has been published here as I am not having a dispute with members of this forum. 

From the very beginning of this topic I said that I can handle this issue, however I welcome your advices and supportive massages.

I have taken Keith B advice and contacted by e-mail the CAP - Committees of Advertising Practice.  Asking them whether my ad is confusing, they have not yet responded.  I will let you know what they say.

Regards

Arthur

[AJCleaningServices]

...I must admit, I noticed that it had changed, always state:

Rates start at or from £xx per hour

this covers you!

Regards

Paul

Paul, what are you talking about?   

[BSF]

Arthur,

Sorry if i'm wrong,, the main point of my post was to state:

From or rates start at...

If you havent changed it then I make a public apology 2u.

Regards

Paul

[AJCleaningServices]

Arthur,

Sorry if i'm wrong,, the main point of my post was to state:

From or rates start at...

If you havent changed it then I make a public apology 2u.

Regards

Paul

Paul, at least once you admited you were wrong 

Not a problem,

Regards,

Arthur

[AJCleaningServices]

...You have to ask is more than a 50% hike in your price to travel 6 miles fair, I have to be honest and say I think that is a rip-off, and that is where you have to be careful...

I have just posted my respond:

Dear Mrs SENDER,

This is my last e-mail to you.

I do not know how you found our company, but I assume that you might have heard about us from you friends/relatives or have seen our advert on shop windows in Ponteland or Darras Hall or in “paper”, “paper”. 

Our adverts displayed in shop windows in Ponteland and Darras Hall related to those and close surrounding areas, but not specifically to the dwellers of Stamfordham.  “paper” and “paper” are not distributed in Stamfordham, so our adverts printed over there were not addressed to the dwellers of Stamfordham.  We have never distributed our leaflets in Stamfordham and close surrounding areas.

However we might be prepared to travel as far as it makes a sense for the business. In you case we would have to travel from Ponteland to Stamfordham four times (take a member of our staff to your home then come back to Ponteland and then again go to your home to take our worker back), 6.3 miles each side, that makes total 25 miles trip.  From our point of view for 2 hours of job in Stamfordham it was reasonable to quote £15-00 per hour....

...By the way, public transport does not go to Stamfordham - the place where we quoted £15-00 per hour...