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What Should You Charge For Your Cleaning Service?

You’ve worked hard at getting your name out on the street, and finally you’re gaining interest from potential clients – they want a quote. And now you’re left wondering; “How much should I charge for my cleaning service?”. There really is no right answer, however you don’t want to overcharge by submitting a quote that is significantly higher than the competitors.

Your price could make a big difference between your business and other cleaning companies in this industry.

I’ll be honest and say that setting prices was the most difficult part for me when I started out. Numerous opportunities for quotes kept popping up, yet I had a tough time deciding on a price to charge. Should I charge hourly? Per square footage? or should I charge a flat fee per cleaning visit?

I was concerned with making a buck, but more importantly I wanted to stay competitive right from the beginning. One thing that you should always do, and I follow this religiously – evaluate the job before you quote.

Fresh on the Scene

I’ll never forget quoting my first job. Part of me was overwhelmed to have the opportunity to quote and another part of me was nervous not to mess up. I visited the local office earlier and got a call back for a quote. Rather than giving any numbers over the phone, I promised to drop by and speak in person. Between me and you though, I was stalling and buying time. I had no clue what to quote.

Anyways, I finally got to the office, took a tour with the manger and evaluated the facility and what needed to be cleaned. I took my sweet time and made small talk with the office manager. I asked some important questions to gauge my quote based on the response:

  • Do you have a particular time limit that the office needs to be cleaned?
  • Are we supplying the cleaning supplies or will you be supplying?
  • Has anyone previously cleaned this office?
  • What happened to them? How much did they charge?

Based on the four answers to the questions above, I’m quickly able to come to a very rough estimate of what I’m going to charge. Sometimes you won’t get the answer to all four questions, but try your best.  The key to asking questions is making them personable and not make the other person feel like they’re in an interview.

What I Quoted

During the office tour/evaluation, the manager mentioned to me that they previously had one of the girls clean the office before or after work. She is no longer with the company, and that’s why they were looking for a cleaning company. The manager also mentioned that they paid the girl $300 per month to clean the office three times per week.

So, based on the above info that I was able to squeeze out of the manager, I went ahead and quoted the following:

Total Billable Hours: 24 Hrs (2 hours per day x 3 days per week x 4 weeks)

Supplies: $50 / month (my cost was  $25 roughly)

Total Per Month: $400 + Taxes

In spirit of helping you price your jobs more easier, here are some tips to help you determine how much you should charge for a particular cleaning job:

Hourly

By the Hour

Pricing by the hour is the norm for charging clients in commercial or residential cleaning scenarios.It’s the most simplest process. You consider how many rooms the location has and how long on average it will take you per room.

It would be wise to give your self some cushion on time, but don’t abuse it either. If you’re hiring staff, don’t forget to multiply this by the hourly rate of your staff to get the total cost of labor then add on the total amount of other expenses.

When I first started quoting the average hourly rate I charged was $15 per hour. A year after establishing my business and having prepared hundreds of quotes, I became more comfortable, and started to quote higher hourly rates.

If at all possible try to determine the going rates in your area. This way, you’ll have a rough estimate on how much fee would be acceptable or whether you can have the same pricing structure.

By Square Footage

 

Pricing by the square foot is most common in commercial cleaning service. But don’t forget that rates may change depending on the location. To get an estimate on how much to charge, you need to go to the business establishment and check the following:

  • Total square feet
  • Floor surface type (vinyl flooring, carpet, or ceramic tile)
  • Entire area (types of rooms, number of toilets, restrooms, office, etc)
  • Specific service required (dusting, mopping or vacuuming, cleaning restrooms, etc)

You may also need to adjust your price rate per square foot as the building size increases. Meaning, you need to decrease your usual rate per square foot if you’ll have to provide service to a building with 13000 total square feet than you would to a building with 4000 square feet.

As a new cleaning business, setting prices will be one of the most difficult and daunting tasks for you. It will take time before you truly become comfortable.  You’re in business to earn a profit and make a living. It is not wise to set your prices too low just to attract clients as you will not just be making enough profit. So this won’t give you an assurance that you will be in the business for so long. Besides, you’ll just be hurting the whole cleaning industry and you’ll just have a hard time to raise your rates in the future.

Photo Credit (tml)

Side Hustler – I’m a Cleaning Geek

When I started my first blog (Finance Fox) , I used it as an online journal to keep my self liable for getting out of debt. I knew the journey out of debt was going to be a long one, so I started with the basics of trimming my budget, putting more money towards my debt and even went cold turkey on shopping which you can read in my post called; It’s been 127 Days Since I Last Shopped.

Eventually the excitement towards debt freedom became tiring. And after months of sticking every last available penny towards my debt, I became exhausted and the road seemed longer than initially planned.

Something needed to be done. I wanted to eliminate my credit-card debt at a faster pace. And after weeks of pondering it, I picked up a part-time cleaning job at the local pharmacy. Fives days a week, two hours every night after working 9 hours in my full-time job. And it was worth it. The long hours and the extra money gave me the opportunity to dump more cash towards my debt, and 347 days later I became credit-card debt free.

This eventually motivated me and I started my own cleaning company called Father & Son Cleaning Services.

One of the biggest reasons for turning my part-time cleaning gig into a part-time cleaning business was due to;

  • Low start up costs
  • I already had one customer
  • I ran it out of my home (invoicing and storage of supplies)
  • Made easily an extra $500/month to start

The above four reasons were enough for me to start my own cleaning company, so without much hesitation I started it.

Low Start Up Costs

When I first started cleaning for the local pharmacy the agreement was that they’d supply all the supplies. All I had to do was show up each evening for 1-2 hours of cleaning.

After a few months of cleaning, they asked for some carpet cleaning to be done and windows washed on regular basis. We worked out a fair price and I did both on top of my regular cleaning.

I got a few extra cleaning supplies for the window cleaning and they cost me less than $40. The carpet cleaning machine I rented from my local Home Depot, and purchased the carpet cleaning solution to do the clean. The total for the supplies for carpet cleaning ran me $150.

Eventually I got around and got my logo designed for $80 and printed 1000 business cards for $75 (shipping included).

I went ahead and got liability insurance and a bond.  This was kinda optional but not only does it protect me and my clients, it also helps me stand out from the crowd.  Insurance and the bond cost me $65/month or $780 for the year.

My total start-up cost for my newly formed cleaning business was less than $1,000. And I didn’t have an issue forking the money out because I’d make it back in less than three months.

One of the best parts of doing cleaning part-time or owning a small cleaning business is flexibility. I control how much work I want to take on. I do the carpet cleaning, window cleaning and general cleaning around my schedule.

I don’t need to work a part-time sales commissioned job, which consists of standing around and if I don’t sell anything, I don’t get paid, but I still stood around for hours and had to be there.

Anytime I’m working, I’m actually making money. Not having a physical place of business also leads me to my next needed quality, running my business out of my home.

Home Business Space

Another amazing part of starting a small cleaning business is that you don’t need any fancy office space. I run my cleaning business out of my home. The second bedroom was converted into an office, which is where I do all my invoicing and customer contact. I’m also fortunate enough to have a large storage in my condo unit, which also happens to be the place where I store all my cleaning supplies and tools. Having a home office helps me keep the costs to a minimum, and therefore profits to a maximum.

My ultimate goal for this business is to eventually turn it into a 5+ employee business that brings in over $100K annually in sales.  I realize that it will take time. If I charge $25 an hour and have costs of $15 an hour (payroll and overhead), then I would have $10 an hour profit.  Which means I would have to work 10,000 hours per year.   This works out to 192 hours per week, or 5 full time employees.  Of course, these are very rough numbers, but it’s something definitely worth striving towards.

Eddie

Lost My First Customer, And It Kinda Sucks

I’ve been fortunate enough that I never had to go through the process of losing a customer with my cleaning business- that was until this weekend. Yup, I lost my first customer. A customer I had a cleaning contract with for the last eleven months. I was fortunate enough to gain repeat business with this client, and got the opportunity to do cleaning at another location owned by the same customer. Prior to gaining this location, I worked my butt off to gain repeat business because I knew the owner had multiple locations. It was a no brain-er, doing repeat business with a source I felt comfortable with and more importantly a reliable source that paid on time.

For the past eleven months I worked hard at maintaining the facility which I was given the opportunity to clean, maintain and upkeep eleven months earlier. Sadly, despite my loyalties, showing up on time and going beyond the call of duty at times, this was not enough to keep me as a supplier.

So, just how loyal are customers?

Loyalty is never a one-way street. Customers are also cynical when they see expensive advertising campaigns with enticing offers to attract new customers, but feel they-the existing customers-are often ignored and taken for granted by the supplier.

Not me though. Not my cleaning business. I worked hard at maintaining this relationship. Sadly though higher powers prevailed.

Beginning to the End

This beginning to the end started about three weeks ago. I got approached by the manager and she expressed that certain parts of the cleaning process could be improved.

Talk about being caught off guard.

Eventually after  a short discussion, we went through the cleaning process, reviewed the cleaning after all the offices were cleaned and agreed mutually how we’d move forward. Everyone seemed to be on the same page and the manager/receptions from the doctor’s office expressed their desire to have me on board and continue working together. And by the way if you haven’t figured it out now, the facility that I was cleaning consisted of a doctor’s office and a pharmacy.

A few weeks passed by and it was business as usual. Everyone was in a happy state and compliments were flying in on the cleaning. I was happy my self and glad that I was able to steer the ship in the right direction, or at least I thought I did.

I Always Hated Surprises….

Few weeks had passed by since the mini pow-wow with the manager. I thought things were back to normal and moving in the right direction. I suppose I was the lone one who thought that. During the same pow-wow weeks earlier, I had expressed to the manger the need for new supplies. Garbage bags, mops and other cleaning supplies were of the essence. She promised to get new supplies within a week. This was part of our arrangement in the initial contract, they supply the supplies and we do the cleaning.

On this very Saturday I had arrived in a joyful mood and ready to work as always. During my brief chat with her upon arrival, I inquired about the supplies, which by the way were two weeks overdue, and the response I got was as follows;

“Eddie, I haven’t gotten the supplies yet for a reason. The doctor has asked me to find a new cleaner, and I’ve yet to do so. I wanted to be honest with you on this matter, but the doctor wants a new cleaner.”

Damn. Talk about being caught off guard again. How did it get to this? I thought we worked through the problems. I was loyal, on time, and always there for whatever. I offered a fair and competitive price. They were happy or at least I thought that they were.

Moral Of It All

Never assume you’re doing fine just because nobody says anything. I held this contract for eleven months without a single hiccup. It all fell apart in three weeks. Remember how I said that loyalty is a two way street. The owner who contracted me could have been loyal and spoke up to the doctor, arranged a meeting of some sort amongst all the parties and worked through this. It could have been done differently, but in the end it wasn’t.

In order to create loyalty, it’s important to tell staff or contractors how well they are doing and not just give them a boot in the butt when things go wrong.

Likewise it’s also important to regularly let your regular customers know-often-how much you appreciate their business rather than wait until they’ve left or are about to do so. It’s too late then to try and win back their loyalty once things go sour.

Someone once said:

‘It takes years to win a customer and only seconds to lose one.’

Eddie