[Baileysdwpc]

Hi,

I am predominantly a dog walking business, fully insured etc.  I have a couple of cleaning clients (who are actually friends not clients), my plan is to get a few more cleaning clients to fit around the dog walking which is usually between 11am and 3pm. 

My questions are:

Best company for insurance?
How much liability for domestic cleaning - I had a quote of £165 per year for £5m liability.  What else do I need to consider when obtaining cleaners insurance?

I have been asked if I would like to quote for end of tenancy cleaning - What does this entail please?  In a previous life I have cleaned a pub and a nursery but never done end of tenancy before so need to know everything there is to know before going in with quotes and making a business plan if I decide it is something I want to do.

Is there anything else I need to know with regards to domestic cleaning please?  Should I be using a contract like I do with dog walking? 

All help is very much appreciated.  I should add, I have no desire to "make it big" and take on staff etc, I just want to make a living for myself and have regular happy customers.  I went self employed from the corporate world to have a stress free life so my focus is on working with clients who are right for me and the life I want to live. 

In anticipation, thank you for your help and support.

[daniel osmore]

Insurance: I would make sure that your insurance includes cover for damage to property worked on and treatment risks. This means that if you damage something whilst cleaning or chemically treating it, you should be covered, most policies do not include this cover. Public liability insurance will only cover you for injury to members of the public or clients or damage to the structure of the building you are working in. The figure of £165 for public liability cover for a single operator sounds about typical, but you'll have to pay more for the extra cover I've described.

End of Tenancy Cleaning: I've been providing this sort of cleaning for more than 10 years, the necessary cleaning standards can be very high and it is often hard to satisfy the client (both the tenant and the agent/landlord). Sometimes client expectations are unrealistically high. That being said, you can still make a good living doing this sort of work if you know what you're doing and you target the right clients.

Regarding domestic cleaning in general, it is a high demand service, so it should be relatively easy to find clients. My main advice would be not to price your services too low, you don't have to compete on price. Most independent or agency cleaners charge around £10 - £15 per hour, but rates of £20+ are possible if you provide the right service to the right clients.

There is so much that I could say about these subjects, but this post would become extremely long. I'm always happy to help and encourage new starters to this industry (I wish someone had done that for me when I started!). Feel free to ask me any specific questions or contact me directly.

[Baileysdwpc]

Thanks for the advice.  I think I'll stick with domestic cleaning for now.  I prefer building a relationship with the same client.  I'm planning to charge £12.50 per hour. There's no way I can charge higher in this area at the mo.

Are there any insurance companies you can recommend please?

Thanks again, I may be back with lots more questions!  Really appreciate your help.

[daniel osmore]

There are two main specialist cleaning insurance brokers that I know of, Gleaming Insurance and Polished Insurance. I think they both tend to use the same insurers because there are not many that provide cover for property worked on and treatment risks.

[Baileysdwpc]

Thanks again for the reply, I managed to get a £1m liability with the cover you mentioned for just over £150 but for £5m liability it was nearly £300 - with only 3 clients and not likely to have many more than that I can't warrant the expense.   If I end up needing more liability cover at a later date I can up my insurance cover.   Polished came out best value for money.

Thanks again.  Your support is invaluable.

[daniel osmore]

Public liability cover upto £1m is generally fine for domestic work (bear in mind that most self employed independent cleaners probably won't have any insurance), you may be asked to obtain a higher level of cover if you want to do commercial work.

[dustee]

So what area are you in
Are you planning on doing the cleaning yourself or using staff
If staff £12.50 is know way near enough IE pay staff £7.50  plus material costs etc etc  you need to be charging at least £15 p/h
Or price by the job min £27 per job

[Stoots]

Surely you are not going to charge 12.50 per hour and clean it yourself? After all overheads etc you'll be lucky to pocket s tenner an hour. Why bother, there are much more profitable cleaning avenues to explore, look around the forum.

[Baileysdwpc]

No one will pay more than £12 per hour around here.  I have one client who I would like to charge £15 per hour but she's made it clear she won't pay that much but as she's a friend and I need the money at the moment as the both businesses have only been going a little while I am sucking it up.  The other client I have is absolutely fabulous, I love them, their house and struggle to find the dirt!!!  So I am keeping them as they are so much fun to work for.

Dog walking is my main business, as that gets busier I will gently let my friend's house go. 

I do not provide any cleaning products or kit, they customer provides everything and my clients are in the same village as my dogs so I don't travel more than a mile between clients.    Once I have been up and running a while and got a good reputation (already have that with the dogs) then I can start creeping my prices up. 

I don't want to do end of tenancy contracts, I don't like cleaning enough for that!  I like the intimate relationship with my clients in the rural location that I work in. 

[dustee]

Using customers own stuff is a no no  , what happens if you spill ( say bleach ) whos going to pay for the damage , same as if their vac breaks ( your fault or not ) whos going to buy the new one
One word   

                           YOU

[Leza]

Insurance: I would make sure that your insurance includes cover for damage to property worked on and treatment risks. This means that if you damage something whilst cleaning or chemically treating it, you should be covered, most policies do not include this cover. Public liability insurance will only cover you for injury to members of the public or clients or damage to the structure of the building you are working in. The figure of £165 for public liability cover for a single operator sounds about typical, but you'll have to pay more for the extra cover I've described.

End of Tenancy Cleaning: I've been providing this sort of cleaning for more than 10 years, the necessary cleaning standards can be very high and it is often hard to satisfy the client (both the tenant and the agent/landlord). Sometimes client expectations are unrealistically high. That being said, you can still make a good living doing this sort of work if you know what you're doing and you target the right clients.

Regarding domestic cleaning in general, it is a high demand service, so it should be relatively easy to find clients. My main advice would be not to price your services too low, you don't have to compete on price. Most independent or agency cleaners charge around £10 - £15 per hour, but rates of £20+ are possible if you provide the right service to the right clients.

There is so much that I could say about these subjects, but this post would become extremely long. I'm always happy to help and encourage new starters to this industry (I wish someone had done that for me when I started!). Feel free to ask me any specific questions or contact me directly.

Hi Daniel,

I hope you don't mind me butting in here? I am just starting out and got a job next week doing an end of tenancy (my first!). These are the jobs I would like to do. Could you give any advice on pricing (Merseyside), what they expect to be done and to what standard (as you mentioned earlier), any tips and tricks you've leaned would be greatly apppreciated. Leza 

Oh by the way I have public liability 1m, and they have asked me to freshen up the carpets - I agreed as just starting out and want referrals, etc.

[Kev Martin]

Leza

Check the dates of the post as his was nearly a year ago

[daniel osmore]

Hi Leza,

Good luck with your end of tenancy cleaning venture. Although I don't charge my clients by the hour for most of my cleaning services, I generally target £15-£20 per for EOT cleans (plus vat), and around £40 for carpet cleaning. My standard inclusive rate for a one bedroom flat is £168 and around £228 with carpet cleaning. In truth, I'd like to put my prices up, but it's difficult because I'm already dearer than most of my local competition. I don't know how competitive your local market is, but Ideally you should try to keep your average EOT general cleaning prices above £15 per hour and probably  closer to £20 or more. Also bear in mind that you'll almost certainly get faster as you gain experience, so I wouldn't worry too much about your effective hourly rate to begin with. Sometimes offering a free clean to reputable local lettings agents can be a good way to get your foot in the door and can lead to a regular stream of work and referrals. I have been undertaking EOT cleans for more than 10 years, I'm always happy to help new starters, feel free to contact me directly if you need any general advice or if you have specific questions. Probably the best quick tip I can give you is don't be a perfectionist, to make reasonable money you need to get the job done quickly and efficiently. I'm not saying that you should do a rushed or rubbish job (quite the opposite, your work will need to be good to get referrals) , but you do need to be very aware of time and set yourself limits and targets. You'll learn that you don't necessarily need to clean everything to the nth degree, some aspects of the clean will be more important than others, most minor or out of eyesight  details won't even be noticed or checked.  If you try and do a perfect clean you could end up spending all week at the property when you realistically only have a day.