I put my prices up 20% and booked out.

[JohnHawkP]

I took the advice of the esteemed members of this forum and trialled cleaning carpets without prescrubbing every one. I probably pre scrub one in five now.

I also increased my prices by 20%.

I have 5 Real Estate Agents that constantly refer work to me and none of them showed any concern at the price increase.

Word of mouth is strong.

Every online review is 5 star with positive comments.

I am booked out solid at least a week in advance and finished my Sunday at 6pm.

This is the 6 month mark since setting up my business.

 

[Mikey P]

What TM and wand are you using?

 

[JohnHawkP]

What TM and wand are you using?

Prochem. Legend
PMF 12 slotted glide

I run at 450 psi and stainless steel 6501 spray tips

 

[Mikey P]

4 Jets?
Max out your vacuum and up your flow. 6 or 8 if you're willing to dry stroke



What lint filter?

 

[JohnHawkP]

4 Jets?
Max out your vacuum and up your flow. 6 or 8 if you're willing to dry stroke



What lint filter?

I always dry stroke.

I used to use an inline filter but just the standard Prochem basket then fine filter in the waste tank.

Sure I'll up the flow..

I also used to use a kunkle valve set at 17hg when I had a White Magic.

I might get another one.

Do you know if Green Glides still sell them?

 

[hogjowl]

Congratulations
But upping your price means nothing.
Nobody knows where your price REALLY started from, or how much that 20% actually is.
20% of $39.95 is $8.00.

 

[Bob Savage]

Years ago (1990) I also upped our prices. We went from charging $44.95 for 2 rooms and a hall to charging $120 for 2 rooms and a hall.

We started in business in 1984 and I had no idea what I should charge other than what other cleaning companies were charging. I attended all of the IICUC training classes that I could find and took every test to become certified in cleaning, restoration, dye work, stretching and repair, etc. When we raised our prices, we lost quite a few customers because they were not willing to pay that much, but I didn't care because I was doing good work and felt we should charge accordingly.

You just do not want to clean for people just looking for a "good deal"!

Believe me there is an entire group of people out there who are willing to pay for good work.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I'm sure by now, there are more than a few Lil Peeder CRB's

20% of $39.95 is $8.00.

that's a pack of ciggys and a froo-froo coffee


on a more serious note...

Damon needs to consider this thread
It will be mucho headaches and monumental challenge for him finding solid employee(s) that will stay around for more than a little while

he's at the "crossroads" that all the conscientious O/ops arrive at sooner or later
He's going to start to burn-out in a year or two at the pace he's at now
(already starting to see it in the pi55 buckets he's cleaning)

time to carefully look at all the forks in the road Damon


..L.T.A.

 

[steve_64]

I'm sure by now, there are more than a few Lil Peeder CRB's


that's a pack of ciggys and a froo-froo coffee


on a more serious note...

Damon needs to consider this thread
It will be mucho headaches and monumental challenge for him finding solid employee(s) that will stay around for more than a little while

he's at the "crossroads" that all the conscientious O/ops arrive at sooner or later
He's going to start to burn-out in a year or two at the pace he's at now
(already starting to see it in the pi55 buckets he's cleaning)

time to carefully look at all the forks in the road Damon


..L.T.A.

Forget the fork I'm looking for the silver spoon.

 

[hogjowl]

I'm sure by now, there are more than a few Lil Peeder CRB's


that's a pack of ciggys and a froo-froo coffee


on a more serious note...

Damon needs to consider this thread
It will be mucho headaches and monumental challenge for him finding solid employee(s) that will stay around for more than a little while

he's at the "crossroads" that all the conscientious O/ops arrive at sooner or later
He's going to start to burn-out in a year or two at the pace he's at now
(already starting to see it in the pi55 buckets he's cleaning)

time to carefully look at all the forks in the road Damon


..L.T.A.

Yeah
Or you might end up hanging Sheetrock

 

[Dolly Llama]

Forget the fork I'm looking for the silver spoon.

you chose the wrong career fo-dat

if Joni wasn't married , I might of considered a different career path when I was younger ......

lta

 

[Mikey P]

Damon does excellent work at far too low a price. Its eirher his lack of confidence or his shitty market, or both, to blame.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Yeah
Or you might end up hanging Sheetrock

or taking more naps

Curly


..L.T.A.

 

[Nomad74]

Damon does excellent work at far too low a price. Its eirher his lack of confidence or his shitty market, or both, to blame.

Thanks. I think. My problem is I'm too nice and want to help everyone. I raised my prices this year and I’m considering another increase. I lose a lot of business due to price shoppers but thats okay. The customer quality and average price of my jobs has steadily been climbing. I just don’t want to fall off the bell curve.

 

[Mikey P]

Well

 

[Jim Williams]

I took the advice of the esteemed members of this forum and trialled cleaning carpets without prescrubbing every one. I probably pre scrub one in five now.

I also increased my prices by 20%.

I have 5 Real Estate Agents that constantly refer work to me and none of them showed any concern at the price increase.

Word of mouth is strong.

Every online review is 5 star with positive comments.

I am booked out solid at least a week in advance and finished my Sunday at 6pm.

This is the 6 month mark since setting up my business.

Way to go! I raised mine this year also and got very little price resistance. After 14 years I finally got tired of being broke and barely getting my taxes paid. I decided if I can't feed my family then I'll go work at McDonalds. I'm thinking seriously about switching to Sq. Ft. pricing at Mikeys board cleaner prices. Not to brag, but I have built an excellent reputation in my area and I feel like the way my area is growing and the number of people moving here and finding me on Next Door that it's a great time to give myself another raise.

Keep on doing excellent work and people will pay. We have to also remember that we are not our customer. WE may think $240-$280 for 4 rooms is a lot, but to many middle to upper class people several hundred $$$$ for a carpet cleaning is pocket change.

 

[sassyotto]

We have to also remember that we are not our customer. WE may think $240-$280 for 4 rooms is a lot, but to many middle to upper class people several hundred $$$$ for a carpet cleaning is pocket change.

This is what Mack Clark called Pricing in your own Economics. What you think may be a lot is not what your customer may think is a lot. You want to be cleaning for people that have Mercedes, Audis and BMWs in their garage.

One word of caution though. If you feel that you don't need to prescrub on every job and go to 1 in 5 jobs, what is the next thing that you will drop? Pretty soon you will be like every other hack just going through the motions. I prescrub on EVERY job no matter what. Look at it like this - if you had an employee decide if they are going to prescrub or not, would they? Probably not and therefore the quality suffers.

 

[JohnHawkP]

This is what Mack Clark called Pricing in your own Economics. What you think may be a lot is not what your customer may think is a lot. You want to be cleaning for people that have Mercedes, Audis and BMWs in their garage.

One word of caution though. If you feel that you don't need to prescrub on every job and go to 1 in 5 jobs, what is the next thing that you will drop? Pretty soon you will be like every other hack just going through the motions. I prescrub on EVERY job no matter what. Look at it like this - if you had an employee decide if they are going to prescrub or not, would they? Probably not and therefore the quality suffers.

Sure you have a point.

I have prescrubbed on almost every job for the past 18 years.

I have souped up my mixture and only prescrub the nasties which I am charging extra for.

The quality hasn't been affected.

 

[Jim Williams]

This is what Mack Clark called Pricing in your own Economics. What you think may be a lot is not what your customer may think is a lot. You want to be cleaning for people that have Mercedes, Audis and BMWs in their garage.

One word of caution though. If you feel that you don't need to prescrub on every job and go to 1 in 5 jobs, what is the next thing that you will drop? Pretty soon you will be like every other hack just going through the motions. I prescrub on EVERY job no matter what. Look at it like this - if you had an employee decide if they are going to prescrub or not, would they? Probably not and therefore the quality suffers.

I agree. If you're going to charge higher prices you need to make yourself worth it. Paying attention to detail goes a long ways. Things like breaking out the edging tool to get the crumblies out of the cracks gets noticed. It's a matter of slowing down and not rushing through 5 houses a day.

 

[hogjowl]

It’s a hard balancing act for most of us

 

[steve_64]

I'm less than perfect. I get tired moody and sore. I do the best I can but sometimes it's under appreciated. Sometimes I get kudos from the hardest to please.

It all pays the same.

 

[joey895]

Sure you have a point.

I have prescrubbed on almost every job for the past 18 years.

I have souped up my mixture and only prescrub the nasties which I am charging extra for.

The quality hasn't been affected.

I pre scrub every job. For me it's about perceived quality as much as it is actual end result quality and my customers perceive my crb gets them a more thorough deep clean.

Also, as mentioned already, when I started sending out employees they knew the rule was every job gets scrubbed. Just avoids the argument about whether or not a specific job needed it.

 

[Acp]

I prefer mid/upper pricing.. we arent the most expensive but enough that it doesnt take too much work to produce $800+ in a day with a truck

Its hard to be completely off the wand with very low pricing or very high pricing. Very low and you just cant afford to ever pay anyone, very high and your hitting a smaller market and losing a lot of easy in and out $300 jobs.

Most important thing for me is to not be on the wand, Ill gladly take much less per month out of this business if it means I can have tons of free time to work on my other businesses that I am more passionate about and are not hard labor.

being o/o is still a great job but I have seen enough 60+yr old guys at the local jon don to know I dont want to do that... not to take anything away from them its awsome they are active at that age but its just not for me.

 

[Hack Attack]

pricing I find hard without being face to face to gauge them

I've given $500 prices over the phone and they have said I dont want to know the price I want it done

I've given my $140 min and been told I can get my whole house done for that through xxxxx

so I'm trying to base my pricing on my costs +profit not others expectations, cant please them all and dont want to

 

[hogjowl]

That’s the correct way to do it
But determining your real costs can be difficult

 

[Cleanworks]

That’s the correct way to do it
But determining your real costs can be difficult

That's one of the main reasons carpet cleaners go out of business, imo. They don't get a handle on their costs and under price their service. Carpet cleaning is a high overhead type of business.

 

[Old Coastie]

WAIT a sec! We’re supposed to make a profit?

 

[steve_64]

WAIT a sec! We’re supposed to make a profit?

Just pay your taxes and everything will be fine.

That's where you really learn what you're making.

 

[Cleanworks]

Just pay your taxes and everything will be fine.

That's where you really learn what you're making.

A lot of us owner/operators have merely given ourselves a job for life, myself included. Really, we should look at what it takes to start a new operation from scratch and see how we compare. Some common expenses, a new van and truck mount/ office or shop rent/ telephone/fax/internet devices and services/receptionist/cleaning tech/insurance/chemicals and misc supplies/fuel and whatever else I am missing. We should base our prices on what it costs to run a single truck operation, multiplied by how many trucks we are running. I regard myself as a great carpet cleaner but one hell of a lousy business man. I am happy with what I do but as a business, it sucks.