What service is most profitable ?

In my area with tons of competition, I can't charge too much on upholstery and hard surfaces, as it is with my prices, I already got less upholstery and hard surfaces jobs, most profitable for me would be area rugs and carpets, I can make $ 200 / hour or more with those two services, how about you guys ?

It used to be upholstery, but we have a huge furniture store owned by Warren Buffett that pumps out furniture by the thousands every week, so now they all replace instead of clean.

Most profitable down here right now are house preps for real estate companies. They are more willing to pay since it is all part of an expensive transaction.

That is why Springs are so nice down here, the housing market tends to explode in April.

My most profitable service is tile and grout and sometimes it easier to clean then carpet. The most profitable add on is carpet protector and I don't actively sell it.

Upholstery.....  $150+/hr
Carpet..... $100-125

I'd say for the dollar per hour it would be T&G cleaning and sealing.......sealer is a really big part of that too, because it almost doubles or at least adds 2/3rds more to the job total, and by only adding less than half as much work/time at the max, as the cleaning normally takes........I'm usually really disappointed to only clean and not seal, which luckily doesn't happen very often, because sealer is almost self-selling to most people.

It's easier to make more money, and less work than anything else for me, I think.

Tile & grout is definitely profitable but I don't do enough of it to justify the profitable level. Too many competition undercharge me.

Me too, actually!!

I had one Friday, that I didn't do lol..........I quoted her $315 for 285 s.f., and she says the last guy did it for $100!.............then also says, But he's out of business now!!! Hmmmmm, I wonder why.

pet treatments and area rugs here..     we charge a lot for the yellow gold lol if its bad a lot of those jobs end up in the $700-900 range pretty quickly. Its all about the blacklight walkthrough with hydro shark, having a down pat process that works and simple pricing laid out in tri folds... makes selling the big ticket really easy 

tile and grout or stone cleaning/sealing is great too just not as much work doing it so the first two are top of my list.    

planning on selling a lot of carpet protector this year

Oh, now that you say that^ AC, it has me thinking different............When I read DP's original post, I was thinking more in terms of main cleaning services, and not so much add-ons, like you mentioned.

My answer would still be the same as above, for main cleaning services.....but it we're also taking about add-on services in addition to the cleaning we're there doing, then
i would agree with your list.......


Protectant
Pet odor removal and deodorizing
Area rugs

Would all be up there too, for sure.

I have a much higher over all rate because I do water damage and I have been doing strip n wax jobs....I charge a bunch for it but they want us to do it!....so, my over all rate is tilted from a typical cleaner. I haven't been running any ads either....new phone books came out and it was odd not being in it. last week I did well over $4k and this week will possibly repeat, I have a water damage I'm doing in between that isn't in the mentioned figures. I have worked every day for the last 15 days though.....spring break is a good time for my son to make some cash....so, were busy. I spent most of today cleaning up the van and doing some maint work. Im ready for a good week

Scott, be careful on taxes when you're making that much, my suggestion is to pay quarterly to avoid huge underpayment penalty, unless if you have a "method" in mind to minimize taxes, like "investments", etc

Thanks DP. I have a CPA who does all my stuff and does it on a monthly.

Today when selling jobs people are shopping for value more today than ever. We all know they are working with discressionary money so the more services you can offer the more value you are to them.
PM always are looking for honest RELIABLE cleaning vendors. I will always price volume with them i just put an estimate together for a large 6 floors 80 apts for the hallways right now they are using a janitorial co. but are not happy with results.
Done with portables and long dry times. I am priceing using pad capping $00.15 sq. ft. and apts at $00.40 sq. ft. here are my numbers Per floor hall way $ 638.70 apts $127.60 apts have 2 chairs 1 sofa chair $30.00 reg $65.00 7 ft. sofa $104 ea. reg $ 126.00 I am coming with a fantastic referral . This is what i enjoy when we were finished the walk thru he tells me they have 4 other buildings

It's always nice to get those huge buildings, I hate the work but happy with the check

Good work Pete way to get er done