New Friday Client (once a month)

[chevygirl57]

I just got off the phone with a new monthly client

Hopefully she'll take Friday's but we'll see. She said her last cleaning lady quit on her a few days ago so I assume her place is pretty clean already.

She lives in a small apartment and said she just needs floors, dusting, and the bathrooms done. I told her $20 an hour but I am having problems coming up with prices for clients. I keep getting conflicting information from a lot of people. Mainly those that don't know much about the business and think $20 an hour is absurd.

So, this isn't helping me much.

Depending on the size of the place (I assume it is smaller), would $75-90 a month be too much instead of $20 an hour? I will probably be there 3 hours a month, maybe 4. It just depends on how dirty the place gets. I hope no more than 2-3 hours though, which would bring her to $40-60 a month if I kept with $20 an hour.

Basically with everyone telling me different things, I am having a hard time coming up with a pricing plan.

I know $20 an hour isn't too much if I get clients in the more expensive houses.

But, seeing as this is an older woman living alone, I don't know what would be appropriate.

How does everyone deal with friends and family saying you charge too much or should charge this way or that?

[Grizzly]

Afternoon:
Is it their business, NO? You have costs as soon as you drive out of the driveway, gas to get to the job, insurance, etc. and as a businesswoman, you need to be compensated to cover these costs. Ask these people to come and clean your toilet for $20.00 and see how many say yes. We have a minimum charge of $40.00 for ANY the smallest job.. The prices go up from there. I do some commercial establishments that take only 1.5 hours and yet command a price of $60.00. You are a businesswoman, calculate your costs to run, ie. amortize your insurance over a year, gasoline costs, material costs, etc.etc. and you can justify to yourself what to charge.
I'll tell you that Walmart or Bell do not worry about what their friends say, they want a return on investment. Charge what you need to charge and be proud.

Bill

[kim]

I realise everyone has there own preference on what to charge on first time cleans and continuing clients.
I m going to tell you what happened with me recently. A women called, said her old house keeper had to quit for some family crises. She needed her home cleaned every other week. she paid 100.00. So dumd Dorra here, ME, agrees to clean her house for 100.00. Thinking it must be pretty clean since she had a housekeeper. BIG MISTAKE!!! Two of us went as was there a little over 4 hrs. The place was a mess. I do not believe she had a house keeper and if she did she did not do anything. I learned my lesson the hard way with first time cleans. Now I always charge 30 an hr per person on first time cleans and just explain that it will take longer then a reg maint. clean. After cleaning it once I can come up with a reg. price to charge for following cleans. Just be careful what you agree to if they tell you there old house keeper quit. Kim

[chevygirl57]

kim said:

Now I always charge 30 an hr per person on first time cleans and just explain that it will take longer then a reg maint. clean. After cleaning it once I can come up with a reg. price to charge for following cleans. Just be careful what you agree to if they tell you there old house keeper quit. Kim

I like this idea a lot. I was thinking of doing it backwards: charge a flat fee for first cleaning and then hourly thereafter. But, I think explaining to them that you charge hourly for first time and then flat fee thereafter may be better. Now, the problem is how much to charge hourly for first cleaning...

Edit:

Okay, here is what I have come up with in regards to prices for initial & maintenance cleanings

As stated in my price list

Blissful Cleaning charges a flat fee for all services, except initial cleanings. Our rates are based on the size, amount of dirt, clutter, and frequency of cleaning. We do not charge by the hour. This is an advantage to you because we do not have a time limit. We are in your home until it is thoroughly cleaned.

Please realize that initial cleanings are per hour because we use the first cleaning to come up with a price on maintenance cleanings. This way, you are not over charged and we can properly estimate the time that a maintenance cleaning will take, thus giving you a fair and reasonable price. Initial cleanings usually take twice as long as maintenance cleanings, sometimes longer.

Initial Cleaning – First cleaning
Starting at $15.00 per hour

Maintenance Cleaning – Weekly, Bi-Weekly
Starting at $50.00 per cleaning

I think this could work.

[kimmierue]

Yesterday I did an Initial Cleaning for a large home that was a good 45 minute drive from me. I thought that the man was going to try and screw me like everyone else when it comes to One-Time cleans and Initial Cleans...but I scheduled him again for the 15th and 29th already and we've decided on a time. So that was cool. Anyways, I quoted his home for $100 bi-weekly. Which by the way was raised a little because of the distance. For the Initial Cleaning I charged him that price for the first 4 hours and then after that I charged $25 an hour.

I cleaned this house for 9 hours on a Saturday afternoon. From 9:30am -6:30pm. It's a 4 bedroom-2 1/2 bath, hardwood, tons of furniture, 4 kids, and 2 hairy slobbering dogs, and with dust so thick it could have been disquised as dryer lint.

When that man pulled out a stack of 20's and counted out $230, I still felt kinda ackward. He seemed fine with it considering he included an extra $5 because I had gotten lost on the way there. He asked how much he owed me and I kinda stuttered it out. "You said that was $20 an hour?" I corrected...."No, it's $25 an hour."

It was hard but I kept reminding myself that I earned that money. I tell myself if wasn't for me, they would have to scrub their own toliets. And I'm quick to remind them when they don't want to pay at the end.

All in all, this family with be shelling out $430 total this month for me to clean their house.

[kimmierue]

Whatever you decided with the pricing stick to it. You know, I have this little thing I do when I'm about to give an estimate. Whatever price I am thinking in my head, right before I say it...I mean right at the second before it comes out of my mouth, something inside me tacks on $5-10 dollars automatically. Hehe.

I could be thinking $90 the whole time, but when they ask I will say $95 at the last second. I dunno what's wrong with me. It's worked for me so far though.

Also, if they challenge the price at that point you can always come back down $5 and not be disgruntled about it.

[chevygirl57]

kimmierue said:

It was hard but I kept reminding myself that I earned that money. I tell myself if wasn't for me, they would have to scrub their own toliets. And I'm quick to remind them when they don't want to pay at the end.

All in all, this family with be shelling out $430 total this month for me to clean their house.

I know how you feel. Sometimes I get that way. I feel bad that they're paying me that kind of money, but I have to realize that they hired me and were quoted beforehand, so they knew what it could run.

I hope to get a few big houses like that myself. I am going to go put flyers up in a subdivision with big houses Monday.

That's great that you got that client too. People that live in big houses like that CAN afford to pay, and if they couldn't, I don't think they would hire you.

Congrats on that one

[kim]

Kim,
That is such a great thing you do , at the last min. add 5 or 10 dollars when quoting a price.
I seem to do the opposite / Then beat myself up after words.
From now on I m doing it your way! And sticking to it.
Thanks for posting that info.
Kim

[genieclean]

I just started a weekly client that said her last cleaning lady never came back and she wanted a quote last lady charged her 100.00 a week. I told her until i had a chance to meet and go room by room with her I could not quote a price or go with the previous price. Thank goodness I went. I am not sure what prior arrangement she had but the house is easily 5000 sq feet four full baths etc. plus she considers her screened in prch part of her house. I quoted her 220.00 for initial clean that would take at least 5 hours (took 6) and then from then on it would be 140.00

[chevygirl57]

genieclean said:

I just started a weekly client that said her last cleaning lady never came back and she wanted a quote last lady charged her 100.00 a week. I told her until i had a chance to meet and go room by room with her I could not quote a price or go with the previous price. Thank goodness I went. I am not sure what prior arrangement she had but the house is easily 5000 sq feet four full baths etc. plus she considers her screened in prch part of her house. I quoted her 220.00 for initial clean that would take at least 5 hours (took 6) and then from then on it would be 140.00

Wow, looks like a great client you got there as far as making money goes. I hope I get a few bigger houses here soon as well.

A lot of people think cleaning isn't worth what it actually is and that is why they try and get you to charge far, far less than you're worth.

Cleaning isn't easy work, at all. Especually when you're doing an entire house alone.

-Nicole