Carpet cleaning bluebook.

Who has the most recent book and how much are the ongoing rate for hwe in the west coast ? I'm just curious.

Same as it was 20 years ago .30 a square foot

I do, and you should too. And it's far from prices 20 years ago.

Why shouldn't you pay for it like I did?...it's our pricing bible.

I'll say it's well into the 40's.

Davey Cracker wrote:I do, and you should too.  And it's far from prices 20 years ago.

Why shouldn't you pay for it like I did?...it's our pricing bible.

I'll say it's well into the 40's.

Wow, Dave can you list some of the cleaning prices here please ? Like stairs, upholstery, t&g, etc.
I know for some of you price is sensitive issues, and I apologize if I'm offending someone by talking about prices however I seriously think that carpet cleaners are not charging enough for their services, doesn't matter if you're an owner operator or have employee/s. Charge enough, pay your employee/s a good wage and live a happy life, that's my motto.

I hear ya DP. I've been in business for 7 years and have never raised my prices. In fact I lowered my prices fro tile and grout and rug cleaning

You are correct, we do not charge near enough.

The average owner around here is only grossing around 80-100k per year. That only amounts to about 50k net. Not that it is bad money, but there are easier ways to make that kind of money. I used to make 30k delivering pizza for pete's sake.

Nowing that, I am still the worst businessman when it comes to billing. I ended up cleaning a 2 bedroom apartment last weekend for a guy who just lost his wife of 30 years to cancer. I didn't have the heart to discuss billing...just shook his hand, wished him luck and tore up the invoice.

It felt good, but it happens too often and my business's bottom line reflects it. The money side is the toughest part of this business...cleaning is easy.

Price guides are just that. A guide. If you can command the price in the guide (or more), AWESOME! The most IMPORTANT thing is knowing ALL your expenses, and what profit margins you will acceptably take everyday.

Guides are no different than the mythical 100+ an hour claimed on MANY boards. Great when you can get it, but are you able to truly do it everyday, consistently?

I agree, we should be charging more. But who pays it? Us or the client? THEY need to be convinced why we are worth more.

dp1 wrote:

Davey Cracker wrote:I do, and you should too.  And it's far from prices 20 years ago.

Why shouldn't you pay for it like I did?...it's our pricing bible.

I'll say it's well into the 40's.

Wow, Dave can you list some of the cleaning prices here please ? Like stairs, upholstery, t&g, etc.
I know for some of you price is sensitive issues, and I apologize if I'm offending someone by talking about prices however I seriously think that carpet cleaners are not charging enough for their services, doesn't matter if you're an owner operator or have employee/s. Charge enough, pay your employee/s a good wage and live a happy life, that's my motto.

You want me to WHAT?!?

Why don't you have a BB?  
It's a necessity of this biz, and more important than a wand as far as I'm concerned.

So you save yourself the $80 it cost but then very possibly it causes you to short yourself 8k or more a year by not charging the going rate, or close to it...........makes sense I guess.......if your a charity.
Mo, said it well, stating it's the same as it was 20 years ago, .30 s.f.

milspec6 wrote:You are correct, we do not charge near enough.

The average owner around here is only grossing around 80-100k per year.  That only amounts to about 50k net.  Not that it is bad money, but there are easier ways to make that kind of money.  I used to make 30k delivering pizza for pete's sake.

Nowing that, I am still the worst businessman when it comes to billing.  I ended up cleaning a 2 bedroom apartment last weekend for a guy who just lost his wife of 30 years to cancer.  I didn't have the heart to discuss billing...just shook his hand, wished him luck and tore up the invoice.

It felt good, but it happens too often and my business's bottom line reflects it.  The money side is the toughest part of this business...cleaning is easy.

Well said, there are easier way to make that kind of money without the headache and customer's complaints and such, as for me I haven't clean much for free except for small churches and a couple people that I see have trouble paying their bills and a military reserve guy that was furloughed during the government's shut down.

Dave, I'm going to be cheap and borrow your book and make a photo copy of a few pages of our areas cleaning rates, lol.

Just answering the questions here, trying to be helpful...........which is totally honesty from me, no BS'in.

Freemind1 wrote:Price guides are just that. A guide. If you can command the price in the guide (or more), AWESOME! The most IMPORTANT thing is knowing ALL your expenses, and what profit margins you will acceptably take everyday.

Guides are no different than the mythical 100+ an hour claimed on MANY boards. Great when you can get it, but are you able to truly do it everyday, consistently?

I'm not sure why you say $100 an hr is "Mythical", but yes I'm truly able to do it daily, and consistently. But for me to say I never do a job where I get less than a $100 hr. would not be total honesty.  Of course there are times when I'm just simply not able to do that, or sometimes that $400 job takes me 5 hrs to do.....but then there are plunty of jobs that work out just the opposite, and I may do that $400 job in less than 4 hrs.....but it all averages out.

Freemind1 wrote:I agree, we should be charging more. But who pays it? Us or the client? THEY need to be convinced why we are worth more.

There's plunty of people that will "Pay it".  But you have to be willing to ASK for it.  I'm a salesman before I'm a cleaner, so it's my job to find, sell myself and my service, and "convince" them why I'm worth more.....sometimes that requires showing them.
Does it work all the time? No
Do I work for everyone that calls me? No
Do I work less for more money than most other cleaners? Probably
And do I want to do all the jobs? No....
I'd rather do less jobs and make as much or more than the average cleaner.
Do I walk away from those cheap customers, expecting me to charge them less? Yes, I do most of the time.

I know for a fact most cleaners are scared to ask for a higher price.
I've trained guys, and helped 5 of my friends get into this biz, I'm dead serious, and only one has had true success The other 4 never lasted more than a couple years, because they didn't make enough money. And it was because they were unwilling to ASK for it, and sell themselves.

The good thing is, once you're willing to go threw the numbers and find those customers willing to pay for quality service and provide it for them it's usually a done deal and you have customer(s) that will call you back yearly expecting that great service and to pay that high end price for it.

I think most guys would be surprised what happens when you ask or quote more for a job.....The customer say's "OK go ahead and do it" a lot of times, but then of course there is those times when they balk at your price and you have to be willing and know how to deal with it.....It's sales, even though most don't want to accept or believe it.  

we charge lots,     dont need a blue book.      each van making 1k most days with little to no furniture moving and I like it that way

many days starting around 10am off by 4-5

just dont be the groupon guy or the whole house 200 guy and your fine

ACpower1 wrote:we charge lots,     dont need a blue book.      each van making 1k most days with little to no furniture moving and I like it that way

many days starting around 10am off by 4-5

just dont be the groupon guy or the whole house 200 guy and your fine

You forgot to say you get paid in all cash!

I don't expect to be taken seriously, bucause it's easier to disbelieve than do something different right?............Carry on as normal.

Like I said^, just trying to help but I can only lead the horse to the water, drinking it is his choice..

The fact of the matter is selling our cleaning services is a very easy soft sale

Mo wrote:The fact of the matter is selling our cleaning services is a very easy soft sale

Selling the service is pretty easy, who wouldn't want clean carpet and furniture? The difficult part can be on the price. That is where the real selling takes place, which makes me ask the question: Why does this industry have such a haggle aspect to it?

If you call a plumber to the house to repair a busted pipe, do you normally haggle over the cost? Same goes for the electrician, cable installer, etc. Why do people assume that we are like a car salesman and that haggling is the expected process in hiring a cleaner? Where did that start?

I am considering a change here. I am thinking about creating a menu, like at a restaurant, that I can hand to the customer before I start and allow them to "choose their meals" accordingly. That way, there is no confusion and no sense of a haggling option outside of a few "specials" or "combos".

Over in Europe, you find this method in a lot of service industries....even the brothels operate that way. IF they have a menu of set prices, maybe they will not feel obligated to haggle like I was a Ford dealership. I really get tired of all the jousting before closing a deal, especially by the guy in his Armani suit trying to get me to drop my price in half.

Mo wrote:The fact of the matter is selling our cleaning services is a very easy soft sale

That is very true. It's certainly not a high pressure sale from me, more of a matter of presentation and suggestion really.

Wow Rob, that's the thing that we ( me and Dave ) were talking about just earlier today, why is price a sensitive issues in our industry, I don't think it's like that in other industry, I told him that I have a plumbing company as a client, their office is very small and yet they have 3 - 4 trucks with a few employees, I refer them to another local cleaner as he needs a plumbing service, they went to his house, gave him an estimate of $ 800 and guess how long they were done ? 2 hours flat, mind you this is a specialty service, not typical root rooter stuffs, but $ 400 / hr for 2 man crews, I've made that in the past once in a great while but d@mn, I wonder if it's consistent, made me want to switch career, lol.
But the point is seems like our industry is not being looked at as professionals or may be the cleaners are not seeing them as professionals ? If we can't see ourselves as professionals, how can we expect to be paid like professionals ? To make matters worse, there are also bait and switchers that made the industry in worse shape, we can't change things overnight but if we take it one step at a time, we can change things.

milspec6 wrote:

Mo wrote:The fact of the matter is selling our cleaning services is a very easy soft sale

Selling the service is pretty easy, who wouldn't want clean carpet and furniture?  The difficult part can be on the price.  That is where the real selling takes place, which makes me ask the question:  Why does this industry have such a haggle aspect to it?

If you call a plumber to the house to repair a busted pipe, do you normally haggle over the cost?  Same goes for the electrician, cable installer, etc.  Why do people assume that we are like a car salesman and that haggling is the expected process in hiring a cleaner?  Where did that start?

I am considering a change here.  I am thinking about creating a menu, like at a restaurant, that I can hand to the customer before I start and allow them to "choose their meals" accordingly.  That way, there is no confusion and no sense of a haggling option outside of a few "specials" or "combos".

Over in Europe, you find this method in a lot of service industries....even the brothels operate that way.  IF they have a menu of set prices, maybe they will not feel obligated to haggle like I was a Ford dealership.  I really get tired of all the jousting before closing a deal, especially by the guy in his Armani suit trying to get me to drop my price in half.

Seems to me we've done this to ourself's. And I don't mean we as in us on this forum, but cleaners and cleaning company's in general. By out pricing each other & lowering prices to out due the next guy to get the job, and then the bait n switch certainly hasn't helped either. If we can't consider our self's professionals, then the consumer sure won't either.

I'm trying to tackle it one customer at a time, by not giving any prices other than in person face to face.........it allows me to sell myself, service and price jobs individual on a what's needed bases.

HAS ANYONE HAD ANOTHER SERVICE CO. IN Their homes? IF I am not making $125 an hour- by myself, I am losing money. It's up to YOU to change your customers perceptions on what carpet/upholstery/tile cleaning costs, never feel that because splash and dash Co. down the road is doing 5 rooms for $100 ( They are going to walk out of there with $500 and do a terrible job.) that you need to as well. When they ask why you cost more it's your job to inform them about bait and switch, about quality service, about carpets re-soiling, about splash and dash tactics. There is a certain segment of the population that wants to pay more! They have the money and they are willing to spend it. God help you if they are not the majority of your customers base. Every profession has the best and the worst- even doctors. Which one are you or are you going to become?
PS. I do charge more than my plumber!

Wow Diablo you're not saying that your breaking even at 125 an hour are you? I know the cost of living is pretty high in NJ but dang.

We also need to be careful that we don't price yourself out of the market by charging .65 cents a square foot like a local company here in town. When I first started I would see this company's van all the time now I hardly ever see them. I know that for a fact from feedback that I have received from their former customers.

I think that its a mistake to assume that because a company is chasrging less than you are that they can't possibly do a a good job.

If you work like a sloth, you need to charge more for you spending 3 hours to do a one hour job. half of the price difference is due to operators. I know a guy in town that takes 3 hours to do a 5 rooms. I got it done in an hour and 40. according to the customer I did a every bit as good of job.

The 3 hours guy charged 325, I charged 200,

If you get the drill down and learn to become efficient you can charge less and make more.

of course we have the guys that do a 2500 sf house in 45 minutes but do a crap job.

every operator has his own unique pace, and own cleaning style . that is why there is such a wide range of pricing.

I belive this is a point that we don't hear discussed to often.

I knew another cleaner that charged 45 cents a sf, for basic clean and charged extra for stain removal and charged insane amount for pet Odor.

and he was slow as snot, he actually got kicked out of one house because the home owner got sick of him screwing around for 6 hours and only was half way done with the house. they were used to a cleaner being there for about 2 hours and had not planned on the job taking the whole day.

This guy used to brag about how he gets so much more money per job then me. He is now out of bizz ness.

Andy shows the point of my last post. It doesn't make a bit of difference what "average" for an area is, OR what someone else charges.

The ONLY thing important is that YOU are making a profit YOU are comfortable with. You can't compete with anyone if you aren't making profit. You can't stay in business charging 30 cents a square if your costs are 29 cents a square.

The are MANY variables to any business, but profit margins are the most important to us. Without it, we are out of business.

Wow, the last few responses nail this subject, the time it takes to get the job done, and if you charge accordingly and yet your efficiency is high, that will make the sky the limit in your hourly pay

/waste of time

ur welcome

Davey Cracker wrote:/waste of time  

ur welcome

I don't think it was a waste of time Dave.

But you have to realize with SO MANY cleaners working for peanuts and making nothing, a guide means little. A guide is ONLY good when everyone charges a fair rate that allows them to be profitable. You just will never get everyone in this industry on board with that.

Mechanics use book rate. There are too many variables and different opinions on things like what "trashed" means, for there to be a time rate book for us.

So, your time involved in a job IS a important factor. The tools you use, the chemistry you use, and your physical capabilities make big factors in your time in any given area of carpet to be cleaned.

Some can make a killing at 30 cents a square, while others would go bankrupt at that rate.