Hack pricing

[hogjowl]

I got a call yesterday from the daughter of a friend of mine. She is a young girl of about 26 who is a school teacher and is the cutest little thing you have ever laid eyes on. Sweet as Lisa is. She lives in a small town house with a grand total of 499 sf of carpet in her LR,DR,MBR and M/Bath. Last year, the first time this carpet was ever cleaned, I had to really work on it even had to prescrub with a rotary and had to move all her furniture. I had to charge her so much that she couldn't afford it, so her Dad paid me. I charged her $195.00 (.39/sf) and it took me 2 hours to clean it. So, I made $97 per hour on the job. A little bit off what I like to make per hour.

This time, when she asked me for the price, she said that she really didn't want to have her Dad have to pay, so she thought she could only afford to have her LR cleaned, and would it help if I didn't move furniture. She said all she had was $75.00. I told her $75 was my minimum and that's what I would charge her, but I quickly thought about who she was and how much I liked her and her Dad, so I said, what the heck, if you vacuum everything really good before I get there, I will clean the same areas I did last year, but not move furniture, and will do it all for the $75.00

I cleaned it today and was surprised that I did it all in 35 minutes. Got my $75.00. Made $129 per hour, and got a hug to boot.

Ken Snow pricing really isn't all that bad.

 

[Desk Jockey]

She's 26 and she hugged you?

Respect for the elderly is still alive!


You charged less and made more......try $50.00 on your next job and see if you make even more! :roll:

 

[cu]

see it aint so hard to be nice ......is it

cant wait till you try to be nice again

 

[Greenie]

Sounds to me like you just made yourself a $75 traffic lane special, time to print some post cards pops.

 

[hogjowl]

Post cards cost too much.

I was think of hanging signs on telephone poles.

Anybody had any luck with that?

 

[Lyman]

Nohe changed less and made less.

 

[vincent]

Its people like you that gives this industry a GOOD name. I see nothing "hack" about what you did. And I would bet you do it more often than not.

Good story, thanks

 

[Dolly Llama]

I cleaned it today and was surprised that I did it all in 35 minutes. Got my $75.00. Made $129 per hour, and got a hug to boot.

Ken Snow pricing really isn't all that bad.

DUH....

keep following the "ICS Cleaner" biz model and cleaning to "The Bulletin Board Standards of Professionals" and you too can be the highest priced pr sf cleaner that does 4 jobs a week....
Or..
has to put 40 to 60K miles a year on your truck and 10-12 hours days w/traffic and travel time to find a willing pool of prospects

No he changed less and made less.

I'm ASSuming a typo and it's s'posed to read, "chaRged" less

How so?
She couldn't afford his normal prices and method.
She only had $75 in her budget...
So he already started with a smaller ticket order.
By being willing to modify/tailor his procedures/methods to the "custy's" needs, he made more pr hour than if he would of used some arbitrary standard of how it "should" be done according to some mythical "bulletin board standard"


I just don't understand the logic of NOT adapting to the custy's needs or wants.
We're in biz to make money, not to be the "most thorough CCer ever or we don't do the job" biz model.

am I missing something?
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:


..L.T.A.

 

[Brian R]

It's not what you get per hour, it's what you make at the end of the day.
That doesn't mean $100.00 in one hour is worse than $101.00 for the whole day but you get the idea.


I believe in customizing my prices to fit the customers needs but that doesn't mean cutting my prices.
do what you do for your price and if you want to do a little more...chalk it up to marketing expenses.

That little extra you did for her may have a hellofa return if you refers you out.

with every "Customized" job I do, I make sure they know that they are supposed to refer me to everyone they know. do they do it? Some do, and that is worth it alone.

 

[Jimmy L]

But was it CASH?

 

[hogjowl]

No, check made out to the company.

 

[Rex Tyus]

Nohe changed less and made less.

Good point, but let's break it down. Now $75 dollars is certainly less than $195. So your statement is correct in the most stringet terms. The $195 job took 2 hours so he would probly not do more than 3 of those a day(considering his age and all). So he would take in about $585 in a day at that rate. The $75 job with NO furniture being moved only took 35 min. Lets say half an hour for simplicity. In the same six hours of machine time he could realisticaly expect to gross $825 without moving any furniture which means he would not be as fatiqued and might even work the extra 1/2 an hour and nail an even $900 in the same amount of time.

Not to mention the value of being flexible enough to satisfy the customers needs vs his wants and ego. He will continue to do this young ladys carpet for as long as he is in business. If he had of been obstinate he MAY have gotten by this one last time. But as sure as the Panhandle of Florida will have heat and humidity she would have found someone that did not make her feel inadequate the next time.

Good job Marty.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

I got a call yesterday from the daughter of a friend of mine. She is a young girl of about 26 who is a school teacher and is the cutest little thing you have ever laid eyes on. Sweet as Lisa is. She lives in a small town house with a grand total of 499 sf of carpet in her LR,DR,MBR and M/Bath. Last year, the first time this carpet was ever cleaned, I had to really work on it even had to prescrub with a rotary and had to move all her furniture. I had to charge her so much that she couldn't afford it, so her Dad paid me. I charged her $195.00 (.39/sf) and it took me 2 hours to clean it. So, I made $97 per hour on the job. A little bit off what I like to make per hour.

This time, when she asked me for the price, she said that she really didn't want to have her Dad have to pay, so she thought she could only afford to have her LR cleaned, and would it help if I didn't move furniture. She said all she had was $75.00. I told her $75 was my minimum and that's what I would charge her, but I quickly thought about who she was and how much I liked her and her Dad, so I said, what the heck, if you vacuum everything really good before I get there, I will clean the same areas I did last year, but not move furniture, and will do it all for the $75.00

I cleaned it today and was surprised that I did it all in 35 minutes. Got my $75.00. Made $129 per hour, and got a hug to boot.

Ken Snow pricing really isn't all that bad.

It took you 25 fookin years to fiqure that out?....WOW

 

[hogjowl]

I was on the right track at year 10, Curtis.

But, then I found ICS.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

I hear ya....

 

[Jimmy L]

WHY ON EARTH DID YOU LOWER YOUR STANDARDS?


And I had so much hope for you after your college edumacation at Jon-Don.

Is it simply a case of trailer trash like you figuring out thats all you'll ever be?

Soon my friend you'll be living in your Vortex ..............down by the river.
:shock:

 

[hogjowl]

It's obvious that we haven't talked in a while, jImMY.

We have a lot of catching up to do.

 

[joey895]

Personally I don't think there is a such thing as hack pricing, only hack work. With the exception being bait and switch of course.

On the other hand there is not smart or well thought out pricing both too HIGH and too low.

I have a $60 minimum but I've occasionally done a job for $40-$45 if the person is flexible with me regarding scheduling and just generally nice to me. One of which turned into a scheduled $350 per month commercial account.

 

[Lyman]

Here is what I meant.
3 jobs a day at 195=585 in say 6 hours
5 jobs a day at 75=375 in a 6 hours-you have to figure travel time in between jobs
It is not how much an hour, as how much all day
I personnally make more money per day with bigger jobs then a lot of small ones. I always try to fill the end of the days in with the small ones. Wait till next year when she only has 50 bucks.

 

[XTREME1]

Monday cash special $45 living room or anyother room on the first floor cleaned and protected no minimum in my town

 

[Rex Tyus]

Here is what I meant.
3 jobs a day at 195=585 in say 6 hours
5 jobs a day at 75=375 in a 6 hours-you have to figure travel time in between jobs
It is not how much an hour, as how much all day
I personnally make more money per day with bigger jobs then a lot of small ones. I always try to fill the end of the days in with the small ones. Wait till next year when she only has 50 bucks.

So let me get this straight, when you only charge $75 for traffic lanes it takes travel time. But when you charge $195 for the works travel time magically disappears?

That is why I used machine hours in my original comparison.

 

[TimP]

35 min for the 75 bucks seems great. But like saying above travel time and inspection time and chit chat time with the customer answering questions that usually becomes a 1 hour job. I'm sure he didn't clean all that carpet and get his hug and all that crap in the 35 minutes.

You can get 6-7 jobs in like that in a day IF and only IF you can get that many one the books. So he could theoretically make 525 bucks but only have about 4-5 hours on the TM. Now if you did 3 jobs two at 200 and 1 at 100 and work the same ammount of time it all works out in the end. I don't see you actually making more money either way. Of course at .40 cents a ft you should be clearing way more than 100 an hour though....

In my area there is a lot more travel time to a job. However I'm more willing to match SS prices and do a traffic lane special for my customers, no vacuum, no furniture and all 3 rooms 99 bucks or whatever SS price is on their website.

 

[Lyman]

Okay croc boy, he didn't make 129 dollars an hour. Unless the house was 2 minutes from his house. My ussual drive time is around 15-30 minutes between houses. Travel time has to be figured in on how much you make per hour. In your comparison, you have poor marty doing 11 jobs in one day. Are you kidding me, one guy can clean 11 jobs. Lets say 15 minutes travel time equals 2.5 hours and 11 jobs times 35 minutes equals 6.4 hours for a nice day of 8.9 hours of work.

 

[XTREME1]

very rare I drive more than 10 minutes

 

[Ken Snow]

If you have enough jobs within reasonable geographic areas or lots of crews to route them efficiently it is very possible to do 6 plus jobs a day with only 60-70 min of driving time per day. We do it day in and day out.

 

[Brian R]

This isn't that hard

Less jobs with more money equals

Less drive time, less set up time, Less time break down time, Less gas, Less wear and tear on vehicle and your back rolling up hoses, Less customers to deal with, Less deposits to make, less reminders to send out, less office work booking jobs, answering phones etc etc.


If I have to explain this better you won't understand.

 

[Brian R]

I would rather spend 5 hours at one job making $2000.00
Than spend 8 (drive time etc) hours doing 4 jobs making $2000.00

All same sqft and difficulty of jobs.



anyone else?

 

[maker]

Lots of math equations here to figure out if it was worth it. I think its equally important to factor in the fact you just made someone a real happy customer without compromising your price per hour. Doing the little jobs can bring in just as many referrals as the big ones. And nothing makes a customer happier than when your willing to work with them.

 

[Brian R]

opposite thought


More little jobs may make your company grow exponentially by opening yourself up to more referrals kinda like
"And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on and son on"...you may have to be at least 30 years old to get that one.


But then again, bigger jobs could equate to someone having more money which means more "Friends" and there by telling more people at first to get the ball rolling.


Safe to say there is no definite on either of these two.

 

[hogjowl]

It's easy to look smart with a pricing topic, Brian. It's much harder to actually be smart running a business. I'm not here arguing either way, simply because my years in this business have taught me some lessons that really can't be explained to someone who is unwilling to listen.

I can say this in a way that you can understand. If you can stay busy, day in and day out, with 5 jobs a day at $2000 a day, then, of course, the pricing structure you claim is absolutely the way to go.

If it takes Hagopian 7 or 8 jobs a day to make that money and stay busy day in and day out, then that's the way THEY should go.

Since it's pretty much universally accepted that THEY actually do what Ken claims, I hope it won't hurt your feelings if I tend to listen to Ken a bit more on pricing threads.