[Hilton]

I find these topics both interesting & annoying, the topic is interesting but  the delivery is annoying.

It's like there's some secret knowledge that only hilton knows and he wants to brag about it but does'nt want to tell us. he could just explain in plain English (with examples)..... but to be truthful he does'nt actually know enough about what he's on about to give an explanation that would stand up to scrutiny. So he  hints at it and says.......  'we've missed the point'  why not give us the point we've missed?

So Hilton why not   explain in detail what you are hinting at. Make it impossible for us to miss the point by giving a meticulous explanation.

Make your mind up, in one sentence you are informing everyone its a secret but a secret I don't know anything about and then you are asking me to explain something I know nothing about in meticulous detail.

I thought it was obvious clearly you struggled with the concept so I will attempt to explain it at a level you can understand.

1) Do you know what you would like to earn annually
2) Do you know your current hourly rate
3) Does your current hourly rate match your aspirations
4) If it does great you have cracked it
5) If it doesn't then you will need to rethink your pricing
6) If you are a little short of your target then you can take on lower   ( shock horror god forbid) priced work to reach your target
7)If you know your numbers you can set your marketing mix accordingly (simple)
8 ) This is not new it's an aged formula used by many of the top performing business's in the world
9)Once you know your hourly rate you can use it for minimum pricing for example £55.00 as your minimum order
10) Slide it up slide it down to suit your life style , need a new van move your hourly rate up or take on more work at a lower rate.

If I wanted to earn £75k per annum , I would be charging £38.50 per hour or £307 per day or £1536 per week so I know what I am targeting if I had already earned £1200 by Wednesday, all I would need by Friday is to do sales of £168 per day .So if higher earning work was not available I would take lower priced work to reach my target instead of dismissing it out of hand because its beneath me.So If I took a few small jobs at £42 hey presto I am there with out losing any money on my target figures.

By breaking it down into smaller sections and working out what your time is worth  it becomes far more achievable than by just saying I am going to do sales this year of £75000 .Placed in a structured manner it focuses the mind to keep you on target, you might not reach it but its amazing how the mind starts to focus on your numbers and your sales rise accordingly.

The point you spectacularly missed is that this is not about going cheap and mixing it with the rough end of the market it will do the opposite and take many business's (not yours of course as you are a superstar) to another level usually in year one.

Simple really ain't it ?

   

[Peter Sweeney]

What utter rubbish, again

[Mike Halliday]

There was no need to start the post by insulting me

Thank you ( and I do sincerely mean thank you) for going into more details, it make for a much interesting topic.

Lots of points  but to summarise you are talking about using a sliding scale to match your aspirations ( a new van)  and your fluctuating income (made £1200 by Wednesday so can lower your hourly rate)

 But how does this work in the real world ? I need a new van so increase my hourly rate to create the cash to pay for it sound like a good  idea....... but if I am capable of increasing my hourly rate to buy the  van  why don't I do it anyhow ? even if i don't need a new van......because if the potential to increase my rate is there who needs a reason.

So I've earned £1200 by Wednesday so can afford to work for a lower hourly rate for the rest of the week, why should I?  I agree if I don't have work for Thursday & Friday then any money I earn even at a lower rate is still more than I would have if I did'nt do any work  but does this not suggest a marketing problem that should be addressed?

You seem to be fixating on our use of the word cheap as in 'cheap work' I can see the confusion when I say 'cheap' I mean 'lower priced'  because to me if some cost less then it is cheaper...... although the term cheap work has other negative  Connotations  which adds to the confusion.

My personal opinion is a sliding scale is both morally wrong ( why does one customer get the services of a professional person for less than another  purely based on his previous day's income) and business wise wrong.

We are not going to agree on this subject but it is still an excellent topic & very thought provoking (which is always a good thing)

[Hilton]

What utter rubbish, again

Thank you for that well thought out and researched response..
 

[Carpet Dawg]

Why do the rest of the week at a cheaper price just because you had a few good days? just carry on charging your usual price to make even more money  don't use your "what you'd like to earn figure" as an end goal, use it as a bench mark to smash through.

Of course, if you are struggling for work or suffering from a quite spell then by all means do what you have to do to put meat on the table, don't listen to me. That might mean lowering your price slightly or giving a deal i.e. 3 for 2 price or free carpet clean with suite clean etc.
 

[sean oregan]

I struggle with lowering prices as in,
You clean the upstairs of Mrs X on "the close" and charge  her £90
 She then tells friend up road who then calls you (same house size)
You do her house for £60 so she then tells Mrs X she paid less.
To me it makes your business a bit hit and miss

[Hilton]

Why do the rest of the week at a cheaper price just because you had a few good days? just carry on charging your usual price to make even more money 

Read my explanation as to why you might do this again above.

[Hilton]

I struggle with lowering prices as in,
You clean the upstairs of Mrs X on "the close" and charge  her £90
 She then tells friend up road who then calls you (same house size)
You do her house for £60 so she then tells Mrs X she paid less.
To me it makes your business a bit hit and miss

Clearly you would not charge neighbours differently unless there was a time gap between cleans, if you read the above it says you can target others areas of the business, it might be a shop,doctors surgery, front end of an office or a different geographical area altogether etc etc,, you may well market area cleans only ie no moving of furniture which would be lower priced, I think this is where Mike was getting confused as well.

By the way Mike ' he who casts the first stone 'and all that 

[Peter Sweeney]

Hilton, you have simply come up with a ludicrous idea and you have been called on it.  Thats something you will have to deal with. No amount of trying to defend what is a mental is going to make what you have suggested sound appealing.  As has been said, to put food on the table is maybe a different story but you were not referring to that. Heavens, if you have made your ''money'' by Wednesday you are already doing something right, take the days earned  to be off to carry on getting the work that finishes your week by Wednesday, thats the smart move. Its really not difficult to work out, but then........

[Radek Jablonski]

50k euros in profit if what I am looking for and sure I will have it in 2-3 years, I am sure that this plus wifes  15-20 is enough to make a good living. 

[Hilton]

Something I have to deal with 

Look you don't understand it, its so far out of the box for you to comprehend that you are clambering for safety of another leaflet drop, thats okay, I get it but please do not dismiss it with any great authority on the subject when you have none.

Come back with some sensible thought out concerns and I will explain it to you like a grown up, otherwise just accept that there are other methods out there of marketing and business models apart from what you have read on here or bought from a supplier and let those who might benefit from some fresh input get on with it or not as the case may be, choice is theirs......this is supposed to be a 'forum' after all.

[Peter Sweeney]

Hilton, you have explained it very well, very well indeed and the more you explain it the more it doesn't make sense. Not just me, all the comments are calling on how ridiculous what you are suggesting is.  You are suggesting that after you have done very well to market to a ''lesser'' value  client which will bring in more lesser value clients.  Thats is utter madness and no amount of you waffling on is going to change that.  So here is a what I feel sensible question, why would you market to a ''lesser'' client when you are already getting a ''higher'' end client, is it not better to still serve the higher end ones? Take Thursday and Friday off or serve the ones that are affording you to finish work a couple of days early.  Or you are just complicating what isnt difficult.  Last comment because this has run its course.  From a figurative point.   Each day is worth £100.  5 days therefore equals £500.  Your way of thinking is,  Monday to Wednesday is is worth 300 and then, lets do less paying work for the rest of the week, even at 80 each day, the total is now only worth £460.  Or are we missing something.  I know that was very basic but I was trying to keep it simple for you

[Hilton]

Like I said you haven't quite grasped it have you ...?

You have tried to steer it away from the core subject which is hourly worth to earn annually what your target is but that's okay , I can understand why you would want to do that.

So on the very basic question you have asked, the lesser (the arrogance on this site is sometimes astonishing) market as you put it can prove very effective in building towards your annual target if you do not have enough higher value work to fill the month, this ( as I thought I had explained) can help the CC reach the breakdown figure for the week or month,, if however you have enough higher value work to reach you target then quite blindingly obvious you would not have to do this.

I realise that of course up there on your perch looking down on us mere mortals you never get any inquiries that reach your lofty  high end status but 95% of CC probably do , they could then cherry pick the ones they want to do to reach the target.

Thank you for your interest though,

[TonyBrowning]

"the lesser (the arrogance on this site is sometimes astonishing) market as you put it can prove very effective in building towards your annual target if you do not have enough higher value work to fill the month"

Why try to achieve your target with lower value work.....when you can fill it with high value work......that makes no sense if you want to build a quality business.

[Hilton]

Have you actually read what's been posted above ?

[Kev Martin]

The FACT is it doesn't matter what you earn per hour, day, week, month or per annum or what your final turnover is!!!

You can earn a £1,000,000 per annum but if it costs you £990,000 to get there it is pointless. 
You are worse off than the man who earned £20,000 and it only cost him £5,000 to do it.
Turnover is Vanity nothing else!
Net Profit is what counts whether you earn £5 or £55 per hour!

Kev

[Hilton]

The FACT is it doesn't matter what you earn per hour, day, week, month or per annum or what your final turnover is!!!

You can earn a £1,000,000 per annum but if it costs you £990,000 to get there it is pointless. 
You are worse off than the man who earned £20,000 and it only cost him £5,000 to do it.
Turnover is Vanity nothing else!
Net Profit is what counts whether you earn £5 or £55 per hour!

Kev

All very good and clever but....had you followed the thread you would have seen in the example that I mentioned the margins which in CC are very high (conservatively) at around 70% which on £75K would on average give around £52500 gross OR £1000 per week  or £25 per hour, very good by any industry standard this is before  ordinary expenses assuming you operate from home you could expect very high  profit margins 

Just imagine all the £25.00 jobs you could do to get to that.. 

So what your worth is, is very important indeed, hourly, weekly monthly and especially annually. 

[Kev Martin]

Just imagine all the £25.00 jobs you could do to get to that.. 

What does this mean above exactly?

None of your post changes the fact that it doesn't matter what you earn.   It is the amount of net profit you have left after all expenses that count!  Whether you operate from home or a multi million pound premises doesn't change my underlying point of fact!  Does it?

Kev

[TonyBrowning]

£75k / 52 weeks =£1442 PW  / 5 Days =£288  = 11 Hours work a day 5 days a week and no Holiday...no Ta.

[Mike Halliday]

The thing about net profit us it will never exceed your gross takings,  so it ok to say that it's profit not taking that count but if your takings are low then your profit is equally low.........but if your takings are high even if you expenses are very high (which makes your profit low ) you still have the potential to have a high profit by bringing  your  expenses  down.  This cannot be done with low takings as even  if your expenses are zero you still won't exceed a low profit.

If you earn  £5  a hour your profit will never be more than £5.  but if you earn £55 an hour  even if you have £50 expense and earn the same £5 as the other guy....... you still have the potential  to increase it to £55