HP - 60 cents a foot and raising prices etc.

[daniel@procarpet]

I am just curious how many cleaners you know that have done an about face and gone from 2 rooms and hallway for 49.95 to .45 cents per sq ft overnight and said fook the price shoppers only to see it is much harder to get clients at .45 per sq ft and you have to really be on top of your game, and then switch back to 2 rooms and hall for 49.95. I have seen a few do that. What do they tell their past customers? Mam we had to raise our price 300 dollars this time, but the job is a lot better. I just want my dang carpet cleaned. Just curious.

 

[Ron Lippold]

I think to get the bigger money a guy has to do in home est its tough to price by the sq ft over the phone, i do all est no over the phone prices ever.

 

[Mike Draper]

our first year we were bottom feeders. .13-.17 a foot. Changed our name the second year, started out with a whole new image and marketing plan, never looked back. Just cleaned 11,000 square feet at .25 a foot. they called 2 other cleaners in town for a bid who were at least a thousand cheaper than me, they still picked me, and they also picked the better, more expensive package as well. As I see it, people will always want the nicer, more quality options in life, and if they can pay it, they will usually pick it. Just like us cleaners want nicer tools, quality tm's that put out more heat and better suction is what we would rather have if we can afford it. Its just human nature to want more. And just like Ron, we do mostly in home estimates.

 

[Spurling]

I prefer my shrimp from Red Lobster over Ponderosa

 

[randy]

I am just curious how many cleaners you know that have done an about face and gone from 2 rooms and hallway for 49.95 to .45 cents per sq ft overnight and said fook the price shoppers only to see it is much harder to get clients at .45 per sq ft and you have to really be on top of your game, and then switch back to 2 rooms and hall for 49.95. I have seen a few do that. What do they tell their past customers? Mam we had to raise our price 300 dollars this time, but the job is a lot better. I just want my dang carpet cleaned. Just curious.

I don't see any carpet cleaners getting 60-70 cents a square when cleaning a whole house here in the metro DC area. Even with a small townhouse of say 1200 square feet you are talking $720-$840. One 700 sft one bedroom condo $420- $490. Even in the high rent apartments a couple blocks from the White House where folks are paying $4,000-$6,000 a month for an apartment, I haven't seen any evidence to support some of the wild claims I read on the boards.

On our $125 minimum sometimes the per square foot would get into that range, especially with extra charges for pet odor etc.
Does Mr. & Mrs. home buyer fork out $1200-$1400 to clean that empty 2,000 square foot home they are moving into ?

Only in the minds of a few gullible seminar attendees and bulletin board dreamers.

The sad thing is some of the folks new to the industry believe these " I went fishing stories " and start off with a overhead & cost structure that makes these far fetched prices a must. From the loads of expensive, state of the art truck mounts on the market right now we can see how realistic that is. It's time to knock off the bullshit and quit misleading new guys coming into the industry. The bullshit is setting them up for failure when they are just trying to support their families.
That is down right immoral.

 

[Hoody]

Randy, I like you. Spot on!!

 

[Ron Werner]

a cleaner here is getting 65cents for highrise work, tm or porty.
He decided that its not worth the effort to get up there without making a good profit.
ANd he gets it!

Both he and I charge 55cents/sf ,and get it, for normal residential.
When I started I was $20/rm, $10/hall, $2 per stair. Thats $132 for 5rms/hall/12 stairs.
That was in '94. In '96 I switched to sf pricing, had to, I wasn't making enough. I believe I was 20cents/sf then. Slowly kept raising it over the years.
Took the big jump up to 40cents in 2000, after a Piranha meeting and got convinced by a couple cleaners to finally raise my price. Booked two jobs when I got home and never looked back.

You do need to have the service match the price.

 

[DavidB]

a cleaner here is getting 65cents for highrise work, tm or porty.

You do need to have the service match the price.

Truth is most don't, in fact as you know most don't even vacuum. They only vacuum on the forums :roll:

 

[Chris A]

I vacuum almost every job!

 

[Ron Lippold]

There are two ways to do things. I just did not want to have to explain things that are associated with low ball cleaning. Ie Not being able to spend enough time to do the job right and having to do it again for free.

I just dropped off a area rug i charged 2.50 s sq ft she said it looked so much better than the last guy and he was much more expensive . I hate that. she did say that i will get all their work.

 

[Al]

Truth is most don't, in fact as you know most don't even vacuum. They only vacuum on the forums

hmm, interesting..... How do you know that?

:roll:

 

[randy]

There are two ways to do things. I just did not want to have to explain things that are associated with low ball cleaning. Ie Not being able to spend enough time to do the job right and having to do it again for free.

I just dropped off a area rug i charged 2.50 s sq ft she said it looked so much better than the last guy and he was much more expensive . I hate that. she did say that i will get all their work.

Area rugs are a totally different beast. The in plant folks here charge $3.00-$4.00 a square foot. I see that all the time, but a 2,000 square foot residential job for ".70 cents" or $1400 , I have never seen that happen in my life. When pressed many of the .70 a square cleaners need a good calculator.

 

[Mike Draper]

I didn't see anyone post anything about .70 a foot for carpet cleaning.

 

[Hoody]

Have you met Billy Hicks ?

 

[randy]

I didn't see anyone post anything about .70 a foot for carpet cleaning.

Well you must not be on the boards much because .7o a square is a regular claim.

 

[Ron Werner]

but a 2,000 square foot residential job for ".70 cents" or $1400 , I have never seen that happen in my life. When pressed many of the .70 a square cleaners need a good calculator.

I'll get a call and they say they have 2000sf to clean.
That's when I want to go measure. More often they only have about 1000sf of carpet in a 2000sf house. So that's $550 vs $1100. Makes a big difference in the quote.

BUT if they do have 2000sf of carpet, its an $1100 job. That's a lot of carpet and its going to take a good chunk of time to clean it properly.

 

[Wayne Miller]

Daniel, give it a chance and I think you'll find plenty of people value quality and service in carpet cleaning as much as they value the experience of owning the Lexus and BMW in the driveway. Carpet cleaners tend to under-value what they do and then make the mistake of thinking their customers value things the same way they do. Sometimes it's true, often it's not.

It's about more than clean carpet. What about knowing you can call someone you can trust to do the job right, to not rip you off, to not eye-ball you and your daughters, to not cheat when you're not looking, to stand behind their work, to show up on time, to keep your best interests in mind, to not spray your walls and tear up your corners and drag dirty equipment through the house, so on and so forth? How about being be able to call someone you feel comfortable with in your house when it's just the two of you? Someone you can trust alone in your home with a blank check? Someone you can call knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt they'll treat you right?

I always knew no one would pay more than what we were charging right up until we had no choice but to raise our prices. A couple years and 25 cents PSF or so later I knew a little different. I also better understood what people were looking for besides clean carpet.

There's nothing like a fair and profitable margin to help you stay on top of your game.

 

[Derek]

for resi i started at 25-35¢ (w/ pro). was at 60 - 75¢ (w/ pro) for a short time. now i am down a little to 45 - 55¢ (w/ pro).

depending on how busy i am and how much business i need, my price will always fluctuate. maybe it is because i don't do much resi that i can do this, i don't know or care really.

disclaimer: for the record, i don't recommend my prices for noobies. if you price as i do and go under, you can only blame yourself. (i would think that goes w/out saying :? )

:roll: :wink:

 

[The Great Oz]

I recommend these guidelines:

First year of business - .10 per foot or less, 60 to 80 hours per week cleaning apartments and nasty restaurants and bars. You need to do this or you might think you're smart enough to ignore advice. Really good training for spot removal and gets your girlfriend accustomed to handling the phone.

Being in business into a second year proves you're a gamer, so raise your prices to .20 psf and move into residential cleaning. You'll have to become a better shmoozer and you will lose your worst customers.

Third year, raise your prices to .25 psf to cover increased costs because homeowners want you to replace damaged carpet. Your on-line pals make fun of you so take a cleaning class. Raise your prices to .35 and try to work less than 45 hours per week.

If you continue to develop confidence and presence (and keep taking courses) you can stay put price-wise and invest any excess in something other than carpet cleaning, decide to add employees so you can make more money at the same price point, or join a trade association and take advanced classes so you can market yourself as a specialist and raise your prices to the point that others won't believe.

If you try to shortcut the process and charge .50 without much experience, training or shmoozability, you will probably fail.

Don't blame the price.

 

[Ron Werner]

oddly enough, I see some logic in that process.
I think most cleaners progress via a process similar to that if only because of the learning curve.

Use OPE Other People's Experience, will save you a ton of time and money

 

[steve r]

bryan

the only problem there is getting that much work the first year.hek im into my 3rd year and only work about 30 hrs a week now normally.other than that your plan has merrit.

it also depends on what business model you are shooting for. i dont want to push a wand the rest of my life so i will keep the resteraunts and apartments for the second van which i almost did this year but things did slow a little so i will wait.

i have found a price that works for my area and have built a nice small business that supports me well where i live so im happy even though im not a high price cleaner.

 

[The Great Oz]

If his area doesn't have the income level that will support them, a guy that cleans wearing slacks and a tie won't get premium prices and premium prices aren't required to make money cleaning carpet. I was being snarky about everything but the last two lines.

In defense of the guys that push what seem like ridiculous prices; when presenting a concept that may meet resistance from an audience it is common for a presenter to exaggerate or overemphasize to make a point, and of course people will pick on those seemingly outrageous claims.

I remember Mack Clark talking about having a guy at his shop, "Let's call him Larry." Mack said, "Larry is a pretty good guy, shows up everyday, on time mostly, and does what I tell him to. He might mess it up, but he'll watch me fix it, and say he's sorry. He makes enough mistakes that I have to keep a pretty close eye on him, but he's a good guy."

Mack said, "I notice many of you are nodding like you understand. Do you have your own version of Larry back at your shop?" When people laughed and kept nodding, Mack said, "What's wrong with you? That guy is sapping your time and energy! He's costing you money everyday you keep him employed! I don't want you to wait to get home to fire him, call your office and fire him now! He then started yelling "FIRE HIM! FIRE HIM! FIRE HIM!"

Afterward I asked him if he thought people would go home and fire their "Larry."

He said, "Probably not immediately, but they might pay better attention and won't continue to let that kind of employee coast."

Sort of like promoting .70 psf at a seminar. Few will do it, but they might raise their price from .25 to .30.

 

[Wayne Miller]

No need to be snarkey, Bryan. It goes without saying, what someone charges is relative to the economic realities they live in. If someone can get 60 psf, more power to them. I can't and wouldn't feel right about it, but good for them. While I tried and found it wasn't enough, if 25 pays the mortgage and puts the kids through college, that's great too. What I'm saying is if someone is charging 18, 20, 22, 25 cents psf, like I was, and they're looking for more, like I was, chances are they can probably raise it another 15, 20 or 25 cents, like I did, without knocking themselves out of the game. And, I encourage them to try.

When I pulled up to my job yesterday I was greeted with a beautiful BMW. Today it was a Lexus. Tomorrow's job is a master bedroom. It's the entire third floor of a single family home. 1200 square feet according to the owner. Imagine what that must have cost?

People spend money on the things they like. Cars, homes, vacations, dining, carpet cleaning.

It took me ten years to figure it out.

BTW, people feel better with the shirt and tie so I work in it.

 

[diamond brian]

I didn't see anyone post anything about .70 a foot for carpet cleaning.

Well you must not be on the boards much because .7o a square is a regular claim.

Rampage thinks he's getting $.85/sq ft. I can maybe see someone getting that kind of money, living in a huge population center, only doing 2-3 jobs per week, for ignorant customers with very low social intelligence.

I respect guys like Brummet, who lives in a medium-sized city, and has the nads to advertise his much-higher-than-average prices on his website.

 

[hogjowl]

I've been around these boards a long long time. I have met or talked over the phone to more cleaners than I can name. I've picked up on a few things that are related to this topic that I want to share.

Yes, it is possible to get those high prices ... 50 to 70 cents a s.f. No, I have never actually met anyone doing that yet, but I know people and I know the psychology that drives people to do unusual things. There is no doubt that there are a certain number of people in every market represented by cleaners here who will pay those high prices. The question is, how many?

I have more stories than I can remember of cleaners lying to me regarding their pricing, standard of living, size of their business and just about anything else you can name. Most times they don't even realize they have given themselves away because they can't keep up with the lies they tell. Several of the cleaners who have reported to me over the years that they get high prices and only clean for those willing to pay for quality have gone by the way side. Most were liers ... that's just a fact. A few that I know are actually getting those prices, but only run one van with themselves doing the cleaning, and they do very few jobs each week. I have yet to meet a successful mulit-truck, profitable carpet cleaning business that charges more than the normal rate for their market.

Pricing is just like vacuuming. I remember the first time I went to summerfest. I went to van after van of cleaners who posted high prices and/or prevacuuming on every job. I did not see one single vacuum cleaner on a van and the vans looked like their owners couldn't afford to do even minor repairs ... much less replace anything major.

The folks who truly make the money in this business are those companies who charge at the standard rate for their markets, market heavily, upsell on evey job and run more than 5 trucks.

The rest of us single operators can brag and lie all we want on the internet. We might as well, because this is the only place we'll get any respect.

 

[Shorty]

I respect you Marty.

You call a spade a spade & one knows where one stands with you.

I admire honesty in a person.

As to how much anyone makes, or what their status is, I couldn't give a stuff.

I'm happy to live life as I do & keep my family happy and healthy.

I will never be rich in monetary terms, but with family and friends, I feel like a billionaire.

Reagarding how many cents per square foot, big bloody deal.

It's how long that square foot takes to clean and what the result is that truly counts.

Ooroo,

:shock:

 

[Ed]

Bryan and Marty summed it up nicely. We have a $135 minimum. We often clean 1 room for that. Sometimes that room is 100 s.f. or less. I guess I can say that we charge $1.35 per s.f. I guess I'm the new guru. I charge over twice what Howard does We average between .25 and .30 per s.f.

 

[The Great Oz]

I have yet to meet a successful mulit-truck, profitable carpet cleaning business that charges more than the normal rate for their market.

You'll have to go farther than the county line.

 

[Wayne Miller]

lol...

 

[steve r]

hek i dont even know what i charge per sq ft but i bet ive had jobs i got 70 or 80 cents a sq ft but i know ive had other jobs i got 10 or 12 on residential.hek i give a lot of work away for that matter but i figure it all comes around i just have to do my part.

im a room price guy and i do jobs where theres not much more than walkways but i also do a lot of empties.sometimes the empties go faster than the cluttered up ones so i actually make more per hour on an empty even though i clean more carpet.not always but it happens.

so for me its not about how much per sq ft but how much per hour and that also varies now and then but i am pretty consistent on what i get and thats between $100 and $125 hr.again ive made 25 now and then but ive also got 200 but thats not my average.