How do you guys Charge? Residential and Commercial

[Newman]

Welcome Crazymcnick! I am also in Chicagoland and your Park Ridge area is awesome.

Before you drop thousands on the hope of a return on investment, check out if this is really what you want to do. Be careful what you wish for - it may come true.

You have the right idea, glom knowledge off others. Do not reinvent the wheel.

If you are serious, I offer to you a ride along. Jump in my truck for a few days and see how this stuff works. I am in St. Charles. You game?

 

[sweendogg]

Crazymcnick take Newman up on his offer. The hands on will offer you insites you just can't glean from a board and will get you asking questions in your class you otherwise might not have thought about.

 

[Fletch]

:shock: what the hell are you doing with my Co. name!

It’s a hyphenated name; like a modern marriage between Mr. Ever and Mrs. Fresh! :wink:

Actually, in looking for a good dot-com to help in deciding on an unused name, I pressed forward with it. By the time I went to secure the domain, good ole Rug Doctor got it while I spun my wheels thinking about it. I was committed by that time, so that is what I have stuck with.

The name of your Co. had nothing to do with my decision; I didn't know you even existed. Feel complimented... you have good taste in names!

(After just looking at your website, I'm glad that I didn't go with the pine trees in my logo! In testing, it came out even with what I ended up opting for).

 

[rick imby]

The rotovac 360 is probably a better unit than the regular two headed wand. I think you will pay a couple of hundred bucks more for the 360 but if you try to find them used they are a lot more money than the regular .

Look at a Steamin Demon with a machine to agitate. Much faster if you get some larger jobs and the same hookup idea as the cfx. Less to carry around.

Rick

 

[Bob Savage]

Pretend for a moment Thomas is real (give the guy a little break), and is wanting some quick advice on what to charge.

Thomas, you should have a minimum charge, even if they only want one room of carpet cleaned.

From there you can go with square foot, or room pricing - those are the usual ways of pricing.

To properly clean a standard depth, 6' sofa, I wouldn't do it for less that $70, and that is with no skirt, no loose pillow backs, and no extra side pillows.

You should try to get at least $30 for a room no larger than 15 X 14, bedrooms for about $25 with moving no heavy furniture, $2-$3 per step.

Work some, watch your time on the jobs, and the amount of effort required for each type job. Process all that, and adjust your prices accordingly from time to time.

Most importantly, do your BEST on each and every job, and people will seek you out.

 

[XTREME1]

I get 10 cents a sq commercial HWE and 12 cents with a full 175 prescrub and pile lifted

 

[TimP]

The best advice I can give this guy is to clean some rooms (and furniture once you get some knowledge) and see how long it takes you to get the job done right and try to make about 100 an hour or so (it really takes around that much to pay your overhead and make a profit). Many of the guys here make more of course. To do a good job with moving furniture (sofas, end tables etc), vacuuming, scrubbing you're looking at probably 300 sq ft per hour, traffic lanes only probably 600 or more, with a TM too. That puts most quality cleaners in the .30-.40 sq ft price range. Of course where I'm at I can't get that much since the previous cleaner in my area was working for SS prices doing SS work though.

When I first started I wanted to charge the same as SS (stanley steamer). After I cleaned my home and some other family members home I changed my mind instantly. I still started out pretty cheap compared to where I started. I was doing sq ft but only areas cleaned. Now I charge wall to wall and for BR's with limited cleaning area I do a $20.00 room minimum so I don't have to spend time measuring. Plus I feel guily charging 30-40+ bucks and only have like 50 sq ft to clean and not move furniture of course. BTW those furniture prices are way too low. Even here where everyone is poor I get 100 a sofa and 75 a love seat and I have no regrets charging it cause that's what it takes for me to make what I feel is worth doing them (i don't like doing upholstery).

 

[Jimmy L]

I started with a 10 gallon EDIC portable mounted on one of those big tricycles for adults.

:shock:

 

[steve r]

if i were to do what your doing i would get a 17 inch 175 rotary machine with a pad driver a tank and a dozen or so cotton bonnets and some scrub pads too. get a bunch of nice white towels a good vacuum and a mini van. just get a dozen or so shirts with your company name and decent shorts.

use a good product like releasit and go to town. id charge about .35 a sq ft. and dont do furniture just carpets. for commercial go to about .20 or .25 cents.wipe all baseboards when done and prevac every job.

get some practice on friends and family first.theres a lot more but you can get started for under $3000 minus van.

before long you will forget about being a firefighter.

 

[Crazymcnick]

Thanks for the reply's I'm going to do some ride alongs with Newman; however, I'm gonna wait on doing any Upholstery and just stick with Carpet cleaning until I get a hold of that (baby steps). And thanks Rick I'll look into that Demon machine.

Tom

 

[everfresh1]

:shock: what the hell are you doing with my Co. name!

It’s a hyphenated name; like a modern marriage between Mr. Ever and Mrs. Fresh! :wink:

Actually, in looking for a good dot-com to help in deciding on an unused name, I pressed forward with it. By the time I went to secure the domain, good ole Rug Doctor got it while I spun my wheels thinking about it. I was committed by that time, so that is what I have stuck with.

The name of your Co. had nothing to do with my decision; I didn't know you even existed. Feel complimented... you have good taste in names!

(After just looking at your website, I'm glad that I didn't go with the pine trees in my logo! In testing, it came out even with what I ended up opting for).

What's wrong with the logo? I designed it myself, I think it's one of the best ones I've seen what kind of logo do you have?

 

[Fletch]

After just looking at your website, I'm glad that I didn't go with the pine trees in my logo! In testing, it came out even with what I ended up opting for).

What's wrong with the logo? I designed it myself, I think it's one of the best ones I've seen what kind of logo do you have?

Sorry, I wasn't implying that there was anything wrong with your logo, just that it may have appeared beyond coincidence if I had gone that direction after looking at your website.

I was torn between a sunburst with sharp (instead of rounded) lettering, or "Ever-Fresh" with a pine tree. I wanted mountains and a small pine tree, but could not develop exactly what I wanted. Where I live there are mountains and lots of trees, which I thought would "relate' to those in the area, but the idea was used a lot here for everything. It would have blended in and been lost in the blur, though I thought the way you did it demonstrated the idea of "fresh" more directly to most peoples minds. I went the direction of "fresh' with a visual of "bright." If I lived elsewhere where the idea of mountains or pine trees was not so used, I would have jumped on it.

 

[Newman]

Hi Tom, Take your IICRC class at Jon Don next week. Study hard and do well on the test. Talk to the guys in the room and learn all you can. Contact me when you are done and we will work out a time to meet. Good Luck!

 

[jeff powell]

Man, these post make me glad i live where i live and charge what i charge.

Jeff Powell

 

[BlinkClean]

I came up with the prices by looking at other peoples websites.... right now I'm just a straight newbie but on Weds I'm putting in my order getting a RotoSoaker with the CFX and a Defender. I know a lot of people don't really like the Rotovac but I have to get the CFX because I can't get a Mytee to fit into my buick. How do those prices seem... I'm in Chicago near Park Ridge very rich area and a ton of houses by me. I have probably 15,000 houses within a square mile.

Hey, I know you sent me a message but I haven't been able to respond...let's start by what kind of vehicle you have...first off the cfx itself is not a full extrator (vacuum and pump and definetely no heat) to my understabding so you gotta work with me here.

 

[D Rice]

Ron that's pretty bad when you have to take a groomer on your dates, and I thought I took out some ugly girls.

 

[Richard Crawford]

What's wrong with the logo? I designed it myself, I think it's one of the best ones I've seen what kind of logo do you have?

Don't design. That answers your question.


DL

 

[everfresh1]

Man, these post make me glad i live where i live and charge what i charge.

Jeff Powell

Yea well in Cali you might be able to charge those high ass prices in MI it's not that easy

 

[Ron Werner]

Won't be long and no one will have any money in California, the gov't will tax it all just to stay afloat

 

[BlinkClean]

Won't be long and no one will have any money in California, the gov't will tax it all just to stay afloat

Your statement proves my point exactly...real estate agents (the idiot ones) in Cali say that here in tx the economy is bottom of the barrel low...they're too naive to notice that the economy here is of the best in the US at the moment...as if they didn't read reports of of Cali being right next to Florida with the highest unemployment rate in the country...Texas is the state with the least unemployment in the US...

 

[integritycarpetcare]

Wow, I think you are way low. The guy who owned the business before me said to build value and you can charge a little more. Usually it's .29 per square foot, if I have to move and block up furniture it goes to .34. A couch is $12 per linear foot (7 foot couch is $84). Stairs are $3 each (up to 4 foot wide). Commercial is tricky, there are a few factors: again, do I need to move some furniture or work around everything? I quoted a commercial job the other day where the dining rooms they wanted me to move and block up the tables and chairs, everything else work around it and I quoted .19 per square foot. I have a furniture store where I work around all of the displays and charge anywhere from .13 to .16 to .19 per s.f. depending on the area, how dirty it is and if he's proned to call me back and complain. Bottom line: get paid for the work you do, overservice the customer, do more that what is expected and they will feel good about what you are charging. I also leave behind a spot out bottle with my name on it for between cleanings.