Rag Spinner
Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
- Messages
- 26
- Name
- Greg Vitagliano
Happy New Year my fellow cleaners.
As a lurker this is a topic that has always intrigued me enough to post a response. I can debate for both sides, room pricing and square foot pricing. Ultimately your price needs to be equal to your cost plus profit. Each and every one of us have different costs and different profit margins we need to work with. I found that after spending many years cleaning I can walk a job and determine how long it will take to clean. That to me is key....TIME. How many man hours will I spend on that job?
Now the pricing part. Mrs. Piffleton calls and would like a quote on the phone. What is it going to cost to clean my carpet? I can guarantee you Mrs. P has no clue how many square feet of carpet she has in her home, so giving her a square foot price wouldn't mean a thing to her. Mrs. P on the other hand knows how to count the rooms she needs cleaned and multiply that number by your per room price. I then tell Mrs. P my per room rate AVERAGE is $50 per room. This is when I explain to Mrs. P that my room price is just an estimate and that I would need to see the condition of the job to give her an actual price. At this point you schedule your visit to the home and price it the way you see fit. Measure and multiply by your square foot pricing or stick with your room pricing and add on any extras.
Or you do like I try to do. I figure how long I will be there and multiply by $100-$125 per hour. I strongly believe that this is a fair rate for YOUR time, your equipment, your knowledge and your profit. If I have a helper along for the cleaning I adjust my rate accordingly don't forget profit. If you pay your help $25 per hour add your profit margin to that number.
3 hour job
$125 x 3 = 375
35 x 3 = 105
________________
$480 divided by the $50 per room rate = 10 rooms
With steps and hallway counting as 2 rooms I don't usually have a problem cleaning 10 areas in 3 hours. My clientele doesn't often throw me into a filthy house. Lucky me. I do however get the occasional trashed out rental unit, most likely from one of my residential customers.
Just my lurking point of view.
Happy New Year
As a lurker this is a topic that has always intrigued me enough to post a response. I can debate for both sides, room pricing and square foot pricing. Ultimately your price needs to be equal to your cost plus profit. Each and every one of us have different costs and different profit margins we need to work with. I found that after spending many years cleaning I can walk a job and determine how long it will take to clean. That to me is key....TIME. How many man hours will I spend on that job?
Now the pricing part. Mrs. Piffleton calls and would like a quote on the phone. What is it going to cost to clean my carpet? I can guarantee you Mrs. P has no clue how many square feet of carpet she has in her home, so giving her a square foot price wouldn't mean a thing to her. Mrs. P on the other hand knows how to count the rooms she needs cleaned and multiply that number by your per room price. I then tell Mrs. P my per room rate AVERAGE is $50 per room. This is when I explain to Mrs. P that my room price is just an estimate and that I would need to see the condition of the job to give her an actual price. At this point you schedule your visit to the home and price it the way you see fit. Measure and multiply by your square foot pricing or stick with your room pricing and add on any extras.
Or you do like I try to do. I figure how long I will be there and multiply by $100-$125 per hour. I strongly believe that this is a fair rate for YOUR time, your equipment, your knowledge and your profit. If I have a helper along for the cleaning I adjust my rate accordingly don't forget profit. If you pay your help $25 per hour add your profit margin to that number.
3 hour job
$125 x 3 = 375
35 x 3 = 105
________________
$480 divided by the $50 per room rate = 10 rooms
With steps and hallway counting as 2 rooms I don't usually have a problem cleaning 10 areas in 3 hours. My clientele doesn't often throw me into a filthy house. Lucky me. I do however get the occasional trashed out rental unit, most likely from one of my residential customers.
Just my lurking point of view.
Happy New Year
