How efficient are you at cleaning?

[Desk Jockey]

If they were 300ft each that's 1,500sq/ft, that would be $525.00

Our cleaning includes everything, vacuuming, precondition, moving of most furniture, spotting, cleaning and grooming. Carpet protection is a separate charge, .18 sq/ft.

 

[Vivers]

I definitely think you can get much more Efficient Not sure where all your times going or what equipment you use but the job you're describing as avg would take us typically about an hour and a half maybe two hours.
That's set up and breakdown and gone. That's with two of us on one van with a Prochem Apex, thorough cleaning, Moving typical stuff, Moving fans around for speed drying, etc....

That's with two people so maybe that should be your next move. However I know when I was doing all the wanding back in the day that should be about a two hour job for myself.

Price increase is always a good step also to lighten up that schedule, weed out the dirties and cheapies and free up some positions for those calls coming in

 

[Goomer]

We move everything(to a point) for free!

To me, the worst thing about moving furniture is not necessarily the physical moving of the piece itself, because with a little ingenuity, sliders, and some leverage, most pieces can be moved with only a little effort, it is the fact that more often than not, the piece being moved has not been moved in years, and dealing with what lies hidden is what adds the extra time and effort.

It's the thick dust, old socks, tissues, wrappers, crumbs, loose change, lost remotes, and who knows what else that pisses me off.

If it was as simple as *slide the piece out * wand behind it * slide piece back, it could be somewhat bearable, but this is rarely the case as your role of "Carpet Cleaner" rapidly deteriorates towards "Housekeeper" in most cases.

 

[steve_64]

I read on a post on here one guy keeps an average production rate at $100/hour. Which I think is really a good goal to be at if not above. I'm not sure if he was cleaning by himself or had a helper though.

Can I ask, how much do you charge for the 5 areas w hallway?

i have been doing 3 rooms and a hall for $100 for quite a while. its usually less than 600 sq ft and takes me less than hour normally, by myself. if its heavily soiled or stained up bad i charge extra. i clean a lot of empty rentals and have got real efficient over the years.

5 areas with hall would be $150 for me but im thinking about raising my price to $60 the first room and $30 per after. im at $50 and $25 now.

with a good helper i can clean 600 sq ft in about 45 minutes pull in to pull out and doing a good job. its about keeping the wand on the floor and keeping it moving, dont jump around in a room where you have to lift the wand off the carpet and carry it to another spot.
once i start cleaning, especially with a helper, the wand rarely comes off the carpet.

 

[PrimaDonna]

Yea, Richard. A helper is the next step, hopefully next year.

Doug, That's too funny. My wife has actually been answering the phone/booking jobs for the last two months(she's off work, broken leg and 8 months preggo) and she's a ringer. I get home yesterday, she tell me she booked some guy for $400 bucks in rug cleaning. I look at her notes and say that's way too much we don't charge that... Her exact words, "we do now"! lol!

Thanks Art, starting earlier would help and will be implemented, starting in three weeks!

Thanks fellas...

I love her! Seriously, she sounds like me.

I agree with many of the posts.

1. Hire a helper, not next year, NOW. We ran a one man operation for years. Thought a 2nd guy on the truck would be an expense/cut into the profits. Boy were we ever wrong. Took an injury that required us to get help during John's recovery. The increase in our average job ticket was a real eye opener for us and something we didn't expect. We realized the "unspoken" part from our customers is that they didn't think one guy could possibly handle all the work. We believe that subconsciously they didn't add on cause they didn't think one guy could handle it. Two guys and suddenly more upselling - our average invoice skyrocketed. . Now part of that is due to the extra help, but the other benefit of a 2 man crew....the time to chat and build rapport. No longer do you have to keep a tight schedule and run off to the next appointment to stay on time. You chat, compliment their home decorating, ogle their pets and family photos, offer to demo another service...build a relationship with the client and suddenly they are leading you around the house asking if you can take care of X, Y, Z. And with two guys you can....or if you can't at least they have an estimate and can call your wife to book for a later time.

2. Raise your prices. Double them. I'm serious. Our min charge (one room) is $150. Two rooms (we start there as rarely do we have a one room job) $170 and each additional room $75. Room is 250 sq. ft. or less. Scotchgard $30 per room, Maxium protection $50 per room. Our average residential invoice is $600-$700 depending on the month. If you think $400 is good, wait till you get that on all your jobs!!

3. You are already on the right track having your wife answer the phones. NO ONE has a more vested interest in your business then her. I joining my husband when my first baby was born (amost 8 years ago) and never looked back. The ladies we had doing it before (had a dedicated cell phone that we forwarded calls to them, stay at home moms) weren't always motivated to answer, chat/build rapport or do more than offer prices and then say thank you for calling, when the client didn't book. And our customers LOVE that we are a family operated business. If you two can handle working together (and it is extremely challenging many days) keep her on board.

4. Get yourself (and your wife) to SFS (Strategies for Success at Jon Don) as soon as possible. Steve Toburen, Bill Yeadon and Chuck Violand are incredible. It is the BEST thing you can do for your business. You and your wife will have the road map of how to continue the success of your business.

Best of luck. These are the stories I love hearing!

Meg

 

[PrimaDonna]

If they were 300ft each that's 1,500sq/ft, that would be $525.00

Our cleaning includes everything, vacuuming, precondition, moving of most furniture, spotting, cleaning and grooming. Carpet protection is a separate charge, .18 sq/ft.

$170 first two rooms, $75 each additional 250 is cut off for a room approx. 15x16, over 250 its a double room $150, over $500, triple, think finished basement). Stairs are by the piece an not "a room or area". This job (5 rooms) would be $395 to clean and $150 for Scotchgard or $250 for Maxium, or somewhere in between for a combination of both types of protection. There is RARELY a job we don't protect. So $545 to $645 would be the cost for 5 rooms. We try to average $250 per hour arrival to pull out time. (Higher, but not necessarily double depending on the skill level of person #2 , with a two man crew. IE. 2 IICRC Master Cleaners then $500 per hour, Owner and unskilled labor (high school kid, unemployed family member that you are trying to help out Maybe $300-$350 per hour) 5 rooms, two guys, we can do in 1-1.5 hours easy (and we move furniture with our rates).

Solo on the truck you could pull $1kper day no problem.

 

[WillS]

Damn really Meg? That is good pricing. Is it competitive to the area? I have family (Dad and Brothers) in Bucks County in Festerville. Do you service that area?

 

[Papa John]

our guys do 4, maybe 5 homes a day- solo. most jobs are 3 rooms and maybe some stairs. if we clean furniture also then maybe only 4 jobs/day.

 

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

$170 first two rooms, $75 each additional 250 is cut off for a room approx. 15x16, over 250 its a double room $150, over $500, triple, think finished basement). Stairs are by the piece an not "a room or area". This job (5 rooms) would be $395 to clean and $150 for Scotchgard or $250 for Maxium, or somewhere in between for a combination of both types of protection. There is RARELY a job we don't protect. So $545 to $645 would be the cost for 5 rooms. We try to average $250 per hour arrival to pull out time. (Higher, but not necessarily double depending on the skill level of person #2 , with a two man crew. IE. 2 IICRC Master Cleaners then $500 per hour, Owner and unskilled labor (high school kid, unemployed family member that you are trying to help out Maybe $300-$350 per hour) 5 rooms, two guys, we can do in 1-1.5 hours easy (and we move furniture with our rates).
Solo on the truck you could pull $1kper day no problem.

If yer getting this kind of cash flow, I'm scared to ask what kind of strategic planning you're doing.

 

[Papa John]

Maybe you should consider raising your prices. That will weed out the dirties and price shoppers on the lower end of your customer list.

Stop moving furniture. One of the best moves I have made . If I do move it ,it is 40% of the cleaning cost. They either say go a round it or they will move it. Either way I win. I do move one or two pieces if it will look bad if i don't for free. I never ever move every thing any more.

I agree with both of these posts-- if you are booked 3 weeks ahead then its the perfect time to raise prices. You are already working pretty fast/hard if you can move all the furniture and do the cleaning in 3-4 hours!

 

[Barry-QDCC]

$170 first two rooms, $75 each additional 250 is cut off for a room approx. 15x16, over 250 its a double room $150, over $500, triple, think finished basement). Stairs are by the piece an not "a room or area". This job (5 rooms) would be $395 to clean and $150 for Scotchgard or $250 for Maxium, or somewhere in between for a combination of both types of protection. There is RARELY a job we don't protect. So $545 to $645 would be the cost for 5 rooms. We try to average $250 per hour arrival to pull out time. (Higher, but not necessarily double depending on the skill level of person #2 , with a two man crew. IE. 2 IICRC Master Cleaners then $500 per hour, Owner and unskilled labor (high school kid, unemployed family member that you are trying to help out Maybe $300-$350 per hour) 5 rooms, two guys, we can do in 1-1.5 hours easy (and we move furniture with our rates).

Solo on the truck you could pull $1kper day no problem.

My first thought when I read this......WOW!!

I don't know you so I'll assume you are telling the truth...(which sounds like I'm calling you a liar...I'm really not!) it's just really hard to believe! A whole bunch of carpet cleaners around here (So Calif) are still charging - or at least advertising - the same prices they were 20 years ago when I got into the CC biz. $69 for 3 rooms. I know a lot of them play the bait/switch game or at least high pressure tatics to add on stuff.

Me personally, I have a minimum of $120 - does 3 rooms (15x15 limit per room - most rooms are much smaller). If they do 5 rooms for $200 I do the 6th room free. Normal job time for that would be 1.5 hours or a bit less. Stairs are $45....most around here are $25-$35 for stairs.

Congrats on that pricing... and even more congrats on people paying it!

 

[PrimaDonna]

I don't know you so I'll assume you are telling the truth...(which sounds like I'm calling you a liar...I'm really not!) it's just really hard to believe!

No offense taken, Barry. I know it does sound hard to believe. You're not the first person who's said something along these lines. I think there are a few guys on here that could vouch for me tho....

When I first joined my husband in the business, we weren't charging this much, but even then I thought to myself, "Who would pay this much for carpet cleaning?", I mean I wouldn't, so I figured other people "like me" wouldn't either. I quickly learned to get rid of this limiting thought. Plenty of people do.

Just closed out the year and crunched some numbers....Our average job this year was $606.58.

 

[PrimaDonna]

Damn really Meg? That is good pricing. Is it competitive to the area? I have family (Dad and Brothers) in Bucks County in Festerville. Do you service that area?

Will,

Sorry I missed this post till now. Yes, we service Feasterville.

And we are on the high end of pricing, but we aren't the only ones...