[cleanability]

Ok I been having a moan about people being fully booked weeks ahead and on eg £70 an hour. Which I still find hard to believe. And here's the reason why.
      I have been trading ( sole trader run from home) about 9 years. I'd say and without blowing my own trumpet that I'm one of the best carpet & upholstery cleaners in my area. I get nothing but praise from so many people. I bend over backwards for customers. I'm careful, thorough, thoughtful and a good honest genuine nice guy. Would never rip anyone off. I often turn work away if I think a clean would not make much difference. And I get referrals for doing that cos I'm honest. I'm not the cheapest and I'm not the dearest. I have ads in the Yellow Pages ( quarter page) and Thompson ( the only carpet cleaner in the section with a bigger box advert). I deliver leaflets when I can. I send out reminder cards every month. I give out calenders every xmas with my company on them. I have leaflets in plastic dispensers dotted around my area. I give out business cards like confetti. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I am never ever ever fully booked up a week ahead let alone months ahead. I end up with a full week most weeks but I have never got to the stage where I am too busy to accept bookings for the current week. I'd say that I have literally maybe 1 or 2 bookings beyond the following week.
So that is why I think newbies should be weary of thinking £70-£80 an hour and booked up until xmas is probable, and in my opinion actually possible.
The only thing I can think is that it all depends which area you live in. I work in the Welsh valleys and if I tried to charge £70 for cleaning a 12 x 10 room which would take an hour then I just as well stop trading coz I'd get no bookings.
Any thoughts  would be appreciated.
P.S   have spoken to several other C & U cleaners around the country who visit this sight and they are as gob smacked as me with some of the claims on here.

Thanx  Chris

[cleaning co]

i know what u are trying to say chris, and yes u are spot on

[gmccleaning]

afternoon chris,   im in stranraer s/w scotland and like yourself take alot of pride with my business and the customer,i know if i was to quote some of the prices here the customer would laugh at me,

i know im not the cheapest or the dearest,just last week some one phoned me asked about cleaning ,give them my price(after i went to the house and looked at the job),they told me what other cleaning company quoted(over the phone) i was dearer still got the job,when i had finish got tip aswell.

just wish i could earn £70 p/h,in my dreams

only booked up the now because i talked customers into waiting to the school holidays were finished(not worth cleaning with kids runing about house).

             George                    GMC cleaning

[cleanability]

Thanks chaps. Good to know its not just me then !

Thanx
Chris

[John Kelly]

Chris, as a supplier as well as a contractor I obviously get to know a lot of cleaners both local and around the country.
I also deal with a few of the franchises such as Chem Dry.
Locally, we are based in Newcastle, there are cleaners who do a suite and carpet for 30 quid. We also have companies with a few vans on the road who charge anything from 120-250 for a suite, obviously this includes vat.
As I have said before there are 2 types of carpet cleaners. Those who are happy being self employed making a reasonable living and those with a good business head who want to reap the benefits of having multi van outfits but are also willing to take the extra burdens this brings.
My advice would be to not worry what people on here say about what they are earning. Look after your own business and it will look after you.
If someones earning a thousand pounds a day, good luck to them, but is doesn't make one jot of difference to me or you.

[terrymaloy]

Can the guys on this site who are booked 2 weeks or more in advance and earning big bucks PLEASE LET US INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
It must be lack of competitition / area
Like Chris, I seem to be doing all the right things, but would certainly welcome more enquiries.

"Red Carpet" you said last week you were just about fully booked for August...approx earnings £4 grand (AUG)and you've been going less than a year !!!!
If there is any truth in this bold statement, please tell us where we're going wrong.

ps ...I'm in Tyneside ( predominently working class and would show me the door if I quoted £70 for one hours work to clean their living room carpet)

Terry

[John Kelly]

Terry there are people doing it on your doorstep. Also about time you popped in to see me

[cleanability]

Hey Terry that "Red Carpet" claim stuck in my mind too !!!!!!!!!!

Chris

[Ian Gourlay]

Chris,

I agree with you in pointing out that Carpet Cleaning is difficult.  I do not know if it was you but someone said recently that they thought there was a conspiracy by equipment suppliers to make us think high earnings are easy


That to succeed all you have to do is put out loads of leaflets etc.

Again I read that Terry Burrows the world champion window cleaner is not having much luck with adverts and I believe leaflets in his attempt to switch from windows to carpets.

I read most posts and I can not remember seeing anyone booked up to Nov or even Oct.

I do know that some cleaners do make £70 an hour, They have usually found a Niche Market.


One young cleaner who is earning a reasonable amount has really gone for it and put into practice the information available on this site.

The question is can he keep up the pace of working 6.5 days a week, or will he have to find other methods to do the tasks he is doing himself.

[Mike Halliday]

I did 2 jobs a today

1) a suite and 2rugs for £140 took me 2 hours 30mins

2nd) a full 2 bed house  £160 took me an 1hr 20minns

so I  'worked' 3hrs 50mins made £75 an hour

I work as a 2 man team so paid out £30 in wages so still made £68ish an hour this is typical for me.

but this is £68 per hours 'worked' not 8 hours a day,  I don't work more than 4- 5 hours a day .

mt travel time between jobs is never over 15mins.

I'm booked up this week and a job each day for next week.

it would be better if we systematised our quoted earnings so we are quoting on the same playing field. I'm basing my  time on how long  I am actually at the house.

HOW MUCH WOULD EVERYONE EXPECT EARN IF THEY WORKED FOR ONE SOLID HOUR AT A CUSTOMERS HOUSE? if its only £40 then you are too cheep, if its £160  I would say its too expensive.

Mike

[Neil Grainger]

Gents

this is possible but depends on the area you are in, I live on the Surrey Hampshire Berkshire Borders where the average salaries are very high, a 3 bed Teraced house costs a minimum of £200,000.

People do pay these prices and will pay them anwhere if you sell it to them, Their is a guy based in braford that charges £10 a meter and gets it, so area is not so important.

I clean for about 4-5 hrs a day because thats enough for me but will always try to get between £70 and £100 for doing this. I also have to do my own marketing, paper work and everything else that goes with running your own business so you could add another 3 hrs onto that every day. Thats why I try and always get £70 to 100 an hour cleaning because it needs to be that high to offset for the hours you put in not cleaning.

Ford charge £75 an hour for labour on servicing your cars, The guys doing that work are spotty 18 year olds with an NVQ in Vechicle Mechanics being supervised by a master Tech. Why do you think that you cant charge these prices if the likes of these companies are doing the same or worse. Hairdressers cutting mens hair 0n a saturday can get through 6 -7 people an hr charging from £8.50 per customer working for 8 hrs a day, thats £ 400-500 a day so why dont you think you can charge the same if not more.

Put it against other types of business  and you will see that you can charge higher prices.

You are not selling to you.

[Phil Marlor]

Got to a job today @ 10.00am , a few carpets from a reg customer, left at about 3.00 with a cheque for £280.00. so that was £56.00 per hour, however this lady talks to me all day, and could have done the job by about 1.00pm if I was left to get on.

Did a quote on the way home for £620.00, this will be a 2 day job.

Yesterday I did a quick job in an empty flat, 2 bed, Lounge, hall £95.00, took me just over an hour.

You need a TM to earn £70.00 ph.

Booked up all this week and next week with some booked in for Sept. Honest!!

Obviously this isn't the case all the time.

Working in the Welsh valleys must restrict your earnings a bit!

Phil

ps I dont do any marketing, so dont ask me how its done, however most of my work now is regular customers or recomendations.

[HolmansUKLTD]

IM BOOKED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 14TH (commercial & Domestic)

 

NIck

[Neil Grainger]

Only 8 Days booked in advance but do have the odd job booked for Sept.

Hows it going Nick

[HolmansUKLTD]

Good Neil, its taken 4 and a bit years but im flying down here in London plenty of work!!

Just brought a DF machine for my commercial contracts, they seem to be expanding all the time!  big money in them but also big headaches

I have lost your number can you email it to me please?

See you soon, i was in Yately last week, stepping into your mannor now

Nick

[Steve Chapman]

took £370 today and worked 6 hours, about £60 an hour,  work being residential homes, good money if you can stand the  wee smell

Booked up until sept 16.

I think it was dave Liahona who said "don't look for people like yourself, but the ones who don't mind shelling out a few bob"  -   It was something like that anyhow

well thats what i've been doing and it makes sense

cheers

steve

P.S. Sorry dave if i've mis quoted

[mark_roberts]

Why worry what others are doing if your happy with what you are doing.

To make £70 an hour ie. from the time you arrive to the time you leave will require you to have a TM, not vacuum and move only the suite.  Agitation is also a big time eater and not always needed since Ive stopped using microplitters so much. 

Last week two of us did £320 in 1h20m.  That is not the norm for me but can be done.

Again cleaning carpet is not a slow process but its moving the furniture, setting up, vacuuming, breaking down etc which eats the time.

Mark

[Mike Halliday]

we move everything the customer asks, vac 70% of jobs and pre-spray, scrub & extract .then on big jobs position a blower.

we use a T/M. we still average the near £70.

a 2 man team is the way to go.

Mike

[colin thomas]

no disrepect meant here but it seems to me that there are a few people around who are cutting corners at the expense of the customer, how would you like it your car went into have a service and they didn't change the oil filter to save time but charged you for it? or used second hand parts to save money, i think it's too easy  to get into the habit of giving the customer second best, just out of interest, if you knew you were being watched by one of those consumer programes, would you work to the same standards?

colin

[stevegunn]

Well here is one to throw in the melting pot.What would you charge for this its a nursing home

2512 sq ft of carpet low profile
21 high back seats