[maria38]

Hi All,
 
Afraid im new to this, need some advice, I am currently self employed i work with a good friend who i employed at begining of the year, ive been working for a lady who runs serviced apartments in sheffield, i dont think im going to be in business much longer things are not cutting it, im basically treated like an employee, we have always done weekly cleans for long term customers and also checkout cleans, some customers stay months, weeks or nightly, im currently getting £20per hour for the both of us, i had to walk out for her to agree to pay this as she argued that she was already paying me for my employee as it was'nt taking me as long to clean, and the time was halved, im allowed half hour for 1bed, 1hour for 2bed an 1half hour for 3bed, checkouts have no time limit,  i get a rota every week on a weekend for the next weeks work we can have up to 13 apartments on 1 day, she is involved in every aspect of my business, if i have to go to doctors etc, an we have a busy day she will ring me an have a go at me for picking a bad day to go,( sorry for dying) I cant take on any more staff as it will lead to another argument about im already being paid for them, im employed by her in the way she tells me wot to do, well and for the tax so i have to pay it myself, im not making any profit whatsoever, i cant have any holidays as i cant afford not to work, and i cant pay anybody else to take my place, i invoice her every fortnight and guaranteed she will ring me up and complain about how much it is, after ive paid everything out concerning my business i have no profit, im new to this and needed a decent income to pay my rent, i did have customers of my own but had to give them away cuz i had to keep letting them down i did'nt have the time to clean them, we have over 40 apartments a week, i also replenish apartments with tea, coffee, sugar etc,and do laundry which includes sorting it out for apartments, changing beds, removing dirty, doing a weekly count, sending it to be cleaned and picking up clean, all included in my hourly pay, no matter wot i say to her she's adamant that she's right and im stupid, i have no contract after endless promises, she basically tells me wot i want to hear and then it goes back to the way it was, i need the job but im killing myself, nothing i say is taken notice of, apart from grassing her up i dont know wot else to do any advice would be really appreciated.
                              Thanks

[aderyn06]

I am also quite new to this business also, maybe you know the answer deep down. What is the point in being your own boss if you get treated like this? I suppose if you had a safety net of some kind you could just put your foot down and give her a contract instead of the other way round. Surely any laundry should be extra also. I'm sure the experts will give you advice on this later.

Good Luck

[need a cleaner]

sorry to be blunt , but are you sure you are running a business? Because for what i read you are her employee and not a cleaning contractor.

The way i see it you only have 2 options
:
1" Giver notice that unless a contract is sign with very specific terms and conditions and services to be provided  and consequente charges, you will walk away, but stick to your guns. :

2" give up as self employed and get a perm job with her, as it seems to me that the only difference at the moment is that you have to pay your own discounts.

[wilclean]

Hi

   I agree with Hugo - you need to get an air tight contract with the terms and conditions all writen out or you'll suffer even more.



                                              Paul (Wil-Clean Ltd)

[Cleaning Resource]

I think you know where you went wrong, when you gave up your other contracts to keep satisfying  this one.  I would suggest that you get looking for some alternative contracts and then suggest that this woman employs her own cleaners.

Don`t give up, it`s just a hitch, you managed to get jobs before and you managed to get this job so there is no reason you can`t get more, even if it means pushing the bounderies with this pain in the ar$e woman to give yourself time to find more jobs.

once you have replaced your existing contract with some decent ones and you find you have a bit of time available get on the phone and invite all and any salesman (double glazing/ kitchens) round, to get a bit of practice dealing with pushy people you can play games and lead them on so they start to get really pushy, great practice (just don`t buy anything!!!) You can also pick up pointers on selling your self to future customers.

We all make mistakes, it don`t mean we should all give up I know someone whos 3rd business has just gone down the pan and he`s already planning his next...............Life goes on

[maria38]

 Hi,
         Thanks for all ur advice, and being blunt, Ive been told im quite brash, (and) even though it dont get me anywhere.
 I think im going to get "pain in the arse" to sign my contract.
 I know how much she needs me, things are going down for her, she wanted me to take on more staff i refused, she already has 2 employed cleaners. I did talk to her about going on her books, that was a no, no.
 She's been trying to get decent cleaners since August last year, i end up cleaning up after them.
There are some real shameful people saying they are, but there not,

The Big One,
 The price Increase. OMG the stress, i basically keep her going ive had her on the phone (begging) me to come back after i walked out,
Now i get an hourly rate of £10, Do you think that if i tell her i want £15 im takin the u no wot out of her?

I work an 8hr day , sumtimes a 10, every day

                      Thanks

[cleanandneat]

Hello there,
So it bothers you so much,you can't go to sleep...
Where are you based?

Ildiko
Clean and Neat Service

[maria38]

Hi Again,
               Well,  Im a pretty laid back person, things dont really get me down, life's to short.
 But when her employed cleaners r treated more self employed than me, sumthings got to give.

 Im based in Sheffield, as im not gettin any younger, i dont need much sleep, really i could say the same bout u!!.. U seen the time?

[GeoffDerby]

Hi Maria, I started my own business to be the boss and I sell all our new business so I can vet the clients  before we start, we do not have any clients who pull the strings because we agree upfront the cleaning specification, standards and KPI's. then we sign a contract and we deliver what we have agreed. I understand what you are going through as we do a similar property, we do not price by the hour we price the job and the client has no involvement in the time it takes or who cleans as long as the agreed standards are achieved. Break the tasks down and price per weekly clean and special cleans by apartment size, the client will give you a weekly planner and 24 hours notice for changes.  You will be able to plan resource and should not need to be on site so much as long as you can get good staff.

If its not good business then its probably not worth doing, an alternative to walking away would be to sell if you want a chat about selling please drop me an email geoff@ecomsl.co.uk
Good luck, Geoff