Per Room, Per SQ?

[bensurdi]

By living in Snohomish or most recently woodinville.

 

[Becker]

Oh, I get it.. Umm I think..

So your Min is $200 when you don't live in the SNOHO or WOODINVILLE areas. Hmmm I thought I got it..

Still confused on what your min is.. But IDGAS... sounds to complicated.

 

[bensurdi]

. If you don't call about the special than you pay $200.

 

[Becker]

Still seems confusing..

 

[bensurdi]

Lol, lay off the weed brownies Becker

 

[Becker]

Lol, lay off the weed brownies Becker

Nope, Just a nice Merlot.

A brownie does sound good!

 

[handdi]

did 2 in home estimate yesterday
one had 1250 sq ft empty 5 rm and hall
other had 6 rm 1230 sq ft empty


50 or 60 a room ya may come out ok
but ya know lets say its a 300 dollar job prob join to take me 2.5 to 3 hrs to do this

lets say joe blow does it for 200 and take him 1.5 or 2 hrs to do the same job
who does the better job?

thats the big picture in my mind

 

[Jim Martin]

did 2 in home estimate yesterday
one had 1250 sq ft empty 5 rm and hall
other had 6 rm 1230 sq ft empty


50 or 60 a room ya may come out ok
but ya know lets say its a 300 dollar job prob join to take me 2.5 to 3 hrs to do this

lets say joe blow does it for 200 and take him 1.5 or 2 hrs to do the same job
who does the better job?

thats the big picture in my mind

time is where you make your money...you want quantity...but you don't want your quality to suffer...got to find that balance...I am a firm believer that efficiently is the key to making money...

 

[ruff]

time is where you make your money...you want quantity...but you don't want your quality to suffer...got to find that balance...I am a firm believer that efficiently is the key to making money...

Time + Efficiency + A good price for a great service = Good business
Efficiency alone won't do it.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Ofer are you saying people that it must be a good price for great service?

Has the economy changed people so much that they are no longer willing to pay more for great service?

I've seen Jimmy naked

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Youll make more charging per sf. We went to room pricing and have remained very profitable but I'm thinking of adjusting back to sf pricing.

We charge $200 min
$67 for silver up to 200 sf
$77 for gold up to 200 sf
$97 for platinum up to 200 sf

Very easy to sell with room pricing.

Hey billy, we had a meeting recently discussing charging for inspections. We currently charge for urine inspections but charging for carpet inspections makes sense too. How has it gone charging for your estimates?

After the 200 sq ft do you charge a sq ft price or count it as two areas?

 

[hogjowl]

[quote="Jim Martin":r49zsmso] time is where you make your money...you want quantity...but you don't want your quality to suffer...got to find that balance...I am a firm believer that efficiently is the key to making money...

Time + Efficiency + A good price for a great service = Good business
Efficiency alone won't do it.[/quote:r49zsmso]

I don't recall him ever saying efficiency alone is enough.

 

[handdi]

we charge sq ft and we do a fair amount of repairs also.
So i'm saying if ya did 25 bucks a room i don't care how efficient any one is
1200 sq ft empty house its probably goin to be a hack job.

i sticking to my guns on sq ft pricing
and as always ya probably goin to get what ya pay for.

ya we give in home estimates or should i say my wife gives a lot of them
so i guess it depends on what your situation is.
i know if i had to answer the phone and work i would be looney tunes by now.
i did it last week she was gone.

 

[Billy]

Ofer are you saying people that it must be a good price for great service?

Has the economy changed people so much that they are no longer willing to pay more for great service?

I've seen Jimmy naked

NO or we wouldn't be in business still. We just did two rooms today (Living Rood & Dining Room) at .85 psf = $288.15 (no Protector though -sniff ). "Client said it was worth the extra cost to know it was done right"

We also already started booking next week.

 

[Jim Martin]

we charge sq ft and we do a fair amount of repairs also.
So i'm saying if ya did 25 bucks a room i don't care how efficient any one is
1200 sq ft empty house its probably goin to be a hack job.

i sticking to my guns on sq ft pricing
and as always ya probably goin to get what ya pay for.

ya we give in home estimates or should i say my wife gives a lot of them
so i guess it depends on what your situation is.
i know if i had to answer the phone and work i would be looney tunes by now.
i did it last week she was gone.

this is not necessarily true...if you have your self set up right and the tools to do it...most empties you can get in and out of...and still go a great job...I fail to see what this has to do with sqft pricing or by the area...

give me an empty any day...sure I am cleaning a bit more square footage for my price...but I am still making good time and money because I am not having to move or edge or work around everything....

and I hate that saying.." you get what you pay for "......all I have seen come out of it was some one put an extra shinny bolt on something....called it better... and jacked the price up.....I have cleaners in my area that are higher then me...bigger company then me....take twice as long...and make less then I do....and have nothing but complaints.......

 

[Billy]

we charge sq ft and we do a fair amount of repairs also.
So i'm saying if ya did 25 bucks a room i don't care how efficient any one is
1200 sq ft empty house its probably goin to be a hack job.

i sticking to my guns on sq ft pricing
and as always ya probably goin to get what ya pay for.

ya we give in home estimates or should i say my wife gives a lot of them
so i guess it depends on what your situation is.
i know if i had to answer the phone and work i would be looney tunes by now.
i did it last week she was gone.

this is not necessarily true...if you have your self set up right and the tools to do it...most empties you can get in and out of...and still go a great job...I fail to see what this has to do with sqft pricing or by the area...

give me an empty any day...sure I am cleaning a bit more square footage for my price...but I am still making good time and money because I am not having to move or edge or work around everything....

and I hate that saying.." you get what you pay for "......all I have seen come out of it was some one put an extra shinny bolt on something....called it better... and jacked the price up.....I have cleaners in my area that are higher then me...bigger company then me....take twice as long...and make less then I do....and have nothing but complaints.......

Jim is correct just because you pay more doesn't Guarantee a good job same as Companies that advertise Guarantees as a marketing gimmick they may or may not stand behind. But if a price looks too cheap that person most likely can't deliver the same results as someone that can afford to spend more time on the same job.

Now with all that said I do believe that the majority but not every case you do get what you pay for. This statement is true for most anything not just Carpet/Floor cleaning.

In my case just it seems when I have tried to go the cheaper route it rarely works out so I just wait to get what I really want instead of settling.


None of this has much to do with Room vs sq' pricing since both are subjective & can be the same depending on how they are structured. Now I have never in my 20 yrs seen a room price cleaner that charges what I would consider a comparable to a higher priced sq' cleaner. But that isn't to say there isn't one out there somewhere.

In our pricing scale we really have to charge based on sq' IMO.

 

[Billy]

Hey billy, we had a meeting recently discussing charging for inspections. We currently charge for urine inspections but charging for carpet inspections makes sense too. How has it gone charging for your estimates?

We have been slowly phasing out Free to potential Client Estimate/Inspections for a few years with no real issues or even resistance. If there is a question we will offer to give them what we call a Guesstimate so they can have an idea of our pricing.

We also find once we tell someone our minimum charge $225.00 - $300.00 normally for anything it weeds out the ones that primarily value price more.

 

[floorguy]

it goes back to.....WHERE YOU LIVE....

now up north where Mike Draper is, he may be able to get more...but along the wasatch front....Ogden to Provo...about 100 mi long stretch...

you would find under 5% of the people that would pay almost $300 to get half their house done let alone 2 rooms....it just aint gonna happen...

and i hope the guys on here from out here in utah chime in about that.....IT JUST ISNT IN THEIR DNA......and even though we have a bunch of people who have moved to Utah....they jump on the cheap bandwagon

now there are some people, places, businesses that dont mind paying a little more...hey i have a few i do...that have come right out and said i was more, then the guys trying to get in...but they went that route once before....

now that doesnt mean i can go out and add another 25% and think its hunky dorry


and i want to know what you would charge for that empty 1200 sqft house??? and how many and what rooms...lets compare...

 

[pasadena]

I advertise 30 per room 3 room minimum (up to 400 sq ft) then per sq ft after 400 from 22 - 35 depending on area and condition. I am not getting rich but it works.

 

[Luis Gomez]

open areas=.50

If I measured wtw I could charge 40 and make more but the explanation would take too much time and cleverness...

Mikey, how do you deal with the customer that makes you run and extra 75ft of hose up or downstairs to clean one spot next to the bed or the lady that just want in front of the sofa?
Do you just charge her $3.50 for the extra 7 sq ft?.
Luis

 

[Billy]

it goes back to.....WHERE YOU LIVE....

now up north where Mike Draper is, he may be able to get more...but along the wasatch front....Ogden to Provo...about 100 mi long stretch...

you would find under 5% of the people that would pay almost $300 to get half their house done let alone 2 rooms....it just aint gonna happen...

and i hope the guys on here from out here in utah chime in about that.....IT JUST ISNT IN THEIR DNA......and even though we have a bunch of people who have moved to Utah....they jump on the cheap bandwagon

now there are some people, places, businesses that dont mind paying a little more...hey i have a few i do...that have come right out and said i was more, then the guys trying to get in...but they went that route once before....

now that doesnt mean i can go out and add another 25% and think its hunky dorry


and i want to know what you would charge for that empty 1200 sqft house??? and how many and what rooms...lets compare...

I just never understand the statement, "I can't get higher prices in my area". When ever someone says that I usually ask them if anyone in their area drives a Cadillac or comparable luxury car. I then say what my mentor taught me everyone has their own value system so you have to find people that value what you have to offer at the price you truly believe you are worth.

One thing others routinely mistakenly think about us is we only have wealthy clients. This is far from the truth, we have many clients that live in the less affluent areas but still use us for their cleaning needs. we have managed to have actual positive growth during the bad economy mostly because of our loyal repeat clients along with our middle class clients. We are in more 3,000 & smaller houses than larger ones.

But we couldn't get higher prices if we didn't believe we could or if we didn't have USP's which make us different from most.




P.S. Even here in Mid-TN other cleaners say "I Can't get higher prices here" so in reality that statement can be used everywhere.

 

[Jim Martin]

its not about what you believe...its more about what your market will handle...

I think that for the service that I give I should be charging more....but the reality part of it is that I really have no desire to live under a bridge because I think that I am better then my market will handle...

I am much further ahead by offering a good service at a far price......

 

[Billy]

its not about what you believe...its more about what your market will handle...

I think that for the service that I give I should be charging more....but the reality part of it is that I really have no desire to live under a bridge because I think that I am better then my market will handle...

I am much further ahead by offering a good service at a far price......

Jim the Market will handle more than most think it will.

As for living under a bridge we have been in same house for over 20 yrs & self employed with no outside employment during that time also. We originally priced just like most everyone did & still does. We looked at what the general market was getting which left us with

1. A $40.00 min

2. $39.95 for 2 rooms & a hall coupon which didn't even meet our min that in reality was what we always received

3. We needed to do high volume so we would see a profit which meant we had to be FAST.


Now if I said there wasn't hard times & allot of mistakes along the way I would be Lying. I am very thankful for my Mentors convincing me that I could get more than others think you can.

 

[Jim Martin]

We also find once we tell someone our minimum charge $225.00 - $300.00

if I were to call........what would this get me..............

 

[Billy]

We also find once we tell someone our minimum charge $225.00 - $300.00

if I were to call........what would this get me..............

What that would get depends on the job specs. This is just our minimum charge not a price for a job & not our Average job.

But today we had a job that was for a Living Room & Dining Room that was .85 psf measured wall to wall (no protector) which totaled out to $288.15 which is above the min for this area. If it had just been the Living Room it would have been $225.00 because it didn't reach the minimum but we may have made the suggestion to add protector & given the price for this but sometimes this is above the min a little in this scenario.

 

[floorguy]

whats the ratio of Cadillacs, Lexus, etc, vs good ole fashioned reliable, decent priced vehicles??

as i stated before...maybe in another thread, or maybe implied here...

i dont doubt its there....but i am certainly not using my time to dig out the big gold chunk, when the little and moderate ones will do...and have more of...

YOU have made it...thats GREAT...but its not for everyone....customer or service provider...

do the math .85 a sqft...how many times would you clean it before it was over kill and to just replace???

anywhere from 1-5....AND if they do it how they are suppose to (which figureing if they pay that much...once a year is for them) they clean it once a year.....

screw that in 5 yrs i may as well get new....

kinda like lease vs buy on cars...

you higher priced cleaners say we always bitch about not getting it....

truth is most are happy with where we are at...look at Jim and myself...

the real truth...WE ARE TIRED OF ALL YOUS SHOVING IT DOWN OUR THROATS...that we can get more.. J/K J/K J/K J/K

 

[Jim Martin]

truth is...you bring that pricing here..and you will die a very fast painful death....I KNOW what my market will handle and it will not fly here.....

If you decide to..just let me know which bridge you pick and I will be sure to toss a few bottles of water over the edge as I pass by...get pretty hot here..it is important to stay hydrated..........

 

[Billy]

whats the ratio of Cadillacs, Lexus, etc, vs good ole fashioned reliable, decent priced vehicles??

as i stated before...maybe in another thread, or maybe implied here...

i dont doubt its there....but i am certainly not using my time to dig out the big gold chunk, when the little and moderate ones will do...and have more of...

YOU have made it...thats GREAT...but its not for everyone....customer or service provider...

do the math .85 a sqft...how many times would you clean it before it was over kill and to just replace???

anywhere from 1-5....AND if they do it how they are suppose to (which figureing if they pay that much...once a year is for them) they clean it once a year.....

screw that in 5 yrs i may as well get new....

kinda like lease vs buy on cars...

you higher priced cleaners say we always bitch about not getting it....

truth is most are happy with where we are at...look at Jim and myself...

the real truth...WE ARE TIRED OF ALL YOUS SHOVING IT DOWN OUR THROATS...that we can get more.. J/K J/K J/K J/K

I don't shove anything down anyone's throat & you are correct there isn't as many that will pay our prices but I don't need that many to make a good living.

So since you brought it up, you lower priced cleaners say we always brag about us getting it....

truth is most of us high priced cleaners don't want everyone to be the same price this would be bad for our small market share...... eat shit! would the real rob allen please stand up?


On the serious side there is room for everyone & I have friends that are very successful in the lower prices. I tried lower pricing early on but I found I would not be able to do what I wanted to do with lower pricing so I changed from low per room pricing to higher psf pricing.

My point is not to shove my way down anyone's throat I just hate hearing I can't from someone that wants to make more on each job. Besides aren't there plenty of people saying they charge lower prices & do well?

Look when you go up, doesn't matter room or sq' you may lose a few clients but you will most likely make the same or more.

If you drop your prices, room or sq' doesn't matter you will have to increase volume to make same amount as before price drop.

This formula is why we survived 2009, we didn't lower any prices & it wasn't easy with a Large debt load (BBT etc) but we made it & ended up with a Gross increase in the end. We didn't need the volume because we made more per job. I'm not going to say we didn't think about lowering prices because we did but in the end it didn't make since for us.

 

[handdi]

all i know is this is hard work
we offer customer service 2nd to none

the way we clean the time it takes us to do the job right
we normally are a little higher then by the room cleaners.

But when i see one of my customers i am always proud and happy to see them
that whats important building good relationships.

We also have some pretty big places we go into we see great rooms a lot 450 to 600 sq ft
i would really like to know how a room cleaner would go about that.
we have been behind ss - where there bills run 500 bucks for 1200 sq ft furnished
but ya figure there room pricing it should be some where in the 250 range.
i know we miss some work because of sq ft pricing but it works for us.
i have thought about room pricing for years just can not see it for us.
then on the other hand there is a franchise cleaner in richmond va i think 79.00 for200 sq ft
they have some where in the 270000 a yr truck average.i'm sure they up sale very good.300 job average if i rem right.
well heck look at snows operation same thing.

all i know is this is a tough way to make a livein and we all should be paid well to to it.
just to bad everyone can't get on the same page. but never happen

 

[Jim Martin]

all i know is this is hard work
we offer customer service 2nd to none

the way we clean the time it takes us to do the job right
we normally are a little higher then by the room cleaners.

But when i see one of my customers i am always proud and happy to see them
that whats important building good relationships.

We also have some pretty big places we go into we see great rooms a lot 450 to 600 sq ft
i would really like to know how a room cleaner would go about that.
we have been behind ss - where there bills run 500 bucks for 1200 sq ft furnished
but ya figure there room pricing it should be some where in the 250 range.
i know we miss some work because of sq ft pricing but it works for us.
i have thought about room pricing for years just can not see it for us.
then on the other hand there is a franchise cleaner in richmond va i think 79.00 for200 sq ft
they have some where in the 270000 a yr truck average.i'm sure they up sale very good.300 job average if i rem right.
well heck look at snows operation same thing.

all i know is this is a tough way to make a livein and we all should be paid well to to it.
just to bad everyone can't get on the same page. but never happen

same page..??.......most aren't even in the same book.....you got to do what works for you and not worry about how everyone else structures there company...each market is different and each handles it accordingly.....sounds to me like you found what is working best for you....your making good money your way and I am making good money mine....it does not matter how we get there...it is the end result that says it all..........