Raising prices

[Todd Millar]

How many of you raise your prices yearly ?
How do you determine the percentage ?
Thanks

 

[Old Coastie]

Todd, I hold prices for prior customers, but make sure they kow it.
Otherwise, you can index to inflation, or how big a sofa Mrs. Millar wants to buy.

 

[hogjowl]

I do.
I pull it out of my ass.

 

[Old Coastie]

I do.
I pull it out of my ass.

Consistancy is a virtue.

 

[Cleanworks]

I used to work for a small company in the Pre computer era and the owner maintained a complete list of all his customers, what he did for them, the dogs name, etc. All on paper. He would raise prices 10% a year. Mrs. persnickety paid $300 last year, this year she will pay $330. He also had a lady who would call all of his customers every 6 months. Very profitable 2 van outfit with a rug shop. 6 employees, including the owner and secretary.

 

[EDS]

I have been at $50 per area since I began 3 years ago. Due to inflation I should be charging 7.5 % more. To lazy to do the math and I like round numbers (only learned 5 times table) LOL. Seriously considering raising my prices though...
(my prices are low compared to some of yours and mine are in Canadian dollars which is like 0.43 cents, a toe nail and a roach.

 

[steve_64]

Raised prices last year first time in about 8 Years. Saw a 20% increase this year or last year.

I'm increasing more in some areas but holding in others this year.

I like keeping pricing simple so I can do it in my head on the spot or on the phone.

 

[PrimaDonna]

Every year.


Not for all services. But always for carpet. Our T&g pricing has remained steady. Search other posts to see why. To tired to go into all of it again.

$5 per room every year. And a few bucks per room for Scotchgard and Maxium. But that isn't always every year. We gauge it off what we think our market/demographic can bear

 

[Mikey P]

Were were steady for close to a decade, now we've been going up a bit, by bit.

It can be psychologically challenging when you're the highest in town.

 

[hogjowl]

I'm still pricing by the sf because whenever I try by the room someone gets screwed.
Usually me.

 

[Papa John]

It's difficult to raise prices when you have a lot of competition willing to just work for beer money. I suspect many are not ligitimate companies with all the insurance, equipment and training expenses we have.
I raised prices last year but had to had to lower them a bit due to all the complaints about the new prices.

 

[jcooper]

I'm still pricing by the sf because whenever I try by the room someone gets screwed.
Usually me.

Yep.

One of the best things we did was switching to per/sqft.

By the room I would often not measure and just eyeball, give away too much $$$. I'd charge them 50$(whatever) for a large room and be happy. Now the same rooms can be 80, 90,100$, etc. Helps take the pricing out of my hands(toooo generous). Much more profitable.

We might lose a few jobs during the year because people are too lazy and can't give us some idea of sq/ft.

 

[Old Coastie]

Marty is exactly right. The room sets the price. I find that a simple description of what we'll do for the money sells the job.

 

[Cleanworks]

I usually measure and price by sqft. I raised my prices from .20-.25 per sqft. to .25-.35 per sqft. Depends on what I am doing. Empty houses and condos get the lower price, furnished places get the higher prices. It is still to low. I spoke recently to another carpet cleaner in BC who is getting .50 per sqft. 25 years ago, we were charging .25 per sqft. We all should be a lot higher. I usually estimate over the phone and measure when on site. I can usually guess within $50 and that's what I tell the customer.

 

[The Wizard]

Here's some advice … Just do it !!!

Here's some more advice … raise your stair cleaning price by one dollar per stair … your sales will rise an extra $1000 per month without doing any extra work ( based on cleaning at least 4 stair cases per day. That's 4 homes or two homes if your cleaning both your customers upstairs and down stairs on the same visit.

Use the increased month sales of $1000 you just generated each month by increasing your stair cleaning price and purchase some real equipment ...

Hey, what the heck increase your stair cleaning price per stair by $2 per stair, start enjoying cleaning stairs, purchase some real cleaning equipment and put the extra $1000 into your RRSP. You will thank yourself in your retirement years !!!!!!

Think about it, what's an extra $12 at $1 increase or an extra $24 dollars on every customers bill, if you charge $2 extra per stair ?

Just for reference … we currently charge $8 per stair ))))))))

I dare you all to at least charge $1 extra each stair starting tomorrow. Whose in ?

 

[Desk Jockey]

$1.00 when you're charging $8.00 a step that's a 12% increase. $1.00 if you're charging $3.00 a step that's a 33% increase.

An asinine move. Raising your prices is always a good idea but small incremental increases will pass by mostly unnoticeable.

Large jumps unless you have high end clients, is just going to come with complaints.

 

[hogjowl]

Even high end clients notice

 

[hogjowl]

Sorry.
I left GOOBER off ^^

 

[Desk Jockey]

Signed "Goober"? Kinda redundant, isn't it?

We know who you are.

 

[Old Coastie]

That's what the edit button is for,

GOOBER.

 

[The Great Oz]

How many of you raise your prices yearly ?
How do you determine the percentage ?

Yearly, typically. During the last depression we skipped a year but nothing had really changed as far as expenses that year.
We typically look at the overall inflation rate, then factor in any increases in expenses that are particular to our service or our area.

For example, in Seattle we have to account for the cost of Socialist stupidity. Our minimum downtown is $200 and we charge .85 psf. There haven't been many complaints, but if we get one we say 'city council decisions that increase our costs' and everyone understands.

 

[Mikey P]

Our minimum downtown is $200 and we charge .85 psf.

Mostly portable work?

 

[The Great Oz]

Mostly portable work?

Yes, high-rise condos. (Thanks to Ofer for getting us to make the move to a higher high-rise price.) Our regular residential is between .40 and .60 psf and a $175 minimum.


PS: Just checked the price book; we raised the downtown minimum to $225 last month.

 

[Old Coastie]

Dang