Every one on this forum that talks about charges per hour say in the region on £12.00 - £15.00. I am in no way saying they do not get this price.
I myself have contracts that we even charge £35.00+ vat per hour on the cleaning side. However it depends on the variables at hand. Location, parking, access times, area size, density etc the list goes on.
Now even at £8.55 you could earn a profit. But and its a big BUT. This would need to be a large number of hours to make profit that would be worth while. And the cleaner(s) would need to be on minimum wage.
We have contracts as low as £9.00 including cleaning materials and black bags and make a reasonable profit.
The other important factor is training your staff not to waste cleaning materials. Train them to add the correct dilution rates, not just pour it in and judge. You will be amazed on how much you save.
Also train them in they way they clean and how to clean. Time effeciency is very important.
I can see that some might include the cleaning materials. They probably invoice seperately for black bags, bin liners. Then again it depends on their purchasing power. They may get 200 black bags for £7.50 on average that 4 bags a day. that will last 6 weeks.
The other things is every company has overheads. They will all be different. Some expensive some very economical.
So no one can say you cant go in as low as that. They dont no what you need to make a profit.
For new comers, if they are just starting they need to be competitive enough to earn a wage and a profit. Profit is what a business is all about.
They need to earn slightly more at the begining to make it pay. As the company grows and work is expanding you can lower your hourly rate. It all depends if you are working on VOLUME if on VOLUME you can be lower. If however you want a few good contracts you need to be higher priced. Most of the big boys work on VOLUME.
Some contracts run at break even, some at a loss, some at profit, and some even pay for the others. But as an overall they make a profit.
Also TURNOVER is important to big boys. The TURNOVER will allow you/them to tender for bigger jobs. As if you are a low turnover, you wont be able to tender for certain jobs.
It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
Dave
