Ron Werner said:
how much time do you allot for a whole house, 2 story?...
How long will you work for $270??? 1hr? 1.5hrs? 2hrs? 3hrs? 4hrs?
Keep in mind, at those prices, you're going to get the people that REALLY need their carpets cleaned and you have to do it within your time frame.
I've made no secret that my business suffered greatly during the recession. This was largely my fault - clinging to square foot pricing, refusing to price over the phone, insisting upon separate in-home quotes, etc. My market changed. Folks still wanted clean carpet, but many, if not most in m area, were no longer willing to pay 35-50 cents/square to watch me spend three hours vacuuming the traffic lane in front of their sofa. I ignored the fact that my closing rate had fallen sharply from near 100% to a level far below that level. In short, I blame my ego and the blindness to reality that it caused in me.
I am beginning to rebuild my business, and the whole house pricing structure is the basis of my business plan.
I've been working on this for over a year now (you can go back and see some of my posts in the Big Mike thread). Big Mike has been a tremendously helpful resource for me. Ron gets credit for this comment: "why not a $300 whole house special?" he asked, and I said to myself, "Why not?"
I can clean my customer's typical 1800-3000 sq ft 4 bedroom home with one set of stairs in 2-5 hours, with my average time being 3 hours. I include everything except Scotchgard - deo, pre-spray, pre-scrub, HWE, including but not limited to spotting/stain removal of filtration soil, spot claw urine treatments, red stains, gum, rust, paint, oil, grease, & wax. I have no square foot limits, though I do include only one standard staircase - that is my only "fine print," and it is not really fine print at all, as I advertise, literally, "One to Two Story Whole House Special: Every Room, Every Hall, Every Closet in Your Home, Even Your Standard-sized Staircase of Up to 13 Steps, All for One Flat, All-inclusive Price!" Implicit in this wording is the fact that stairs larger than standard and in excess of thirteen steps will incur an additional charge. Also implicit is that a third floor of carpet cleaning - whether a third story, a finished attic space, or a finished basement, will also incur additional charges.
While I am not there yet, my goal is two whole houses per day - a morning and an afternoon appointment, five days/week, 48 weeks/year. Any small orders, e.g. a two room and hall only, are scheduled at the end of any given day only. Again, I try very hard to convert any call requesting a small order into a whole house appointment. Thus far, it seems to be working for me.
Thank you to Big Mike, and to Ron Werner as well!
