Charge by the Hour

[ronald pantelas]

Why not charge by the hour? The last couple of jobs I have been charging an hourly rate for my regulars/repeats. Instead of square foot pricing or room pricing, why not just have an hourly rate. When doing the invoice I do write down every little thing that was done, to build value. Vac, prespray, Icapsol(agitate), extract, applied protector, rake, etc. I do like this type of pricing. Take your time, no rush, do what is necessary and get paid what you are worth. I found it extremely relaxing not to have to rush. No time wasted measuring or calculating invoice. Get paid when you pull up at the job, and until you pack up. Will be using this pricing more. Seems a little easier to make a cheerleader customer. If we did this more as a group, maybe people would start respecting are profession. Why Not, Just my thoughts, What do you think? Thanks, Ron

 

[alazo1]

Not a popular way to price but give it a shot. Only thing for me would be things like protector or other items that are costly but let us know how it goes.

Albert

 

[easy1dave]

People do not want to know that it is a 100 Hr to have there carpet clean.They do not want to look at it that way is my thought.

 

[ronald pantelas]

I wasn't going to share this info with the customer. Hourly seems to be what we are all about anyway. Thanks, Ron

 

[Bob Foster]

Not in a million years. 99% would either say or think you're not worth that much. You would have every cheapo prick standing there staring at his watch and timing you with a stop watch.

 

[RickL]

Where's the incentive

I've worked by the hour and don't like it. where's the incentive to spend money to buy tools make your job quicker/better? For me it just didn't work.

 

[TimP]

I would never hire a contractor by the hour especially at $100 an hour. That would give them free reign to make all the money they want. But if you can find customers to pay you that way I say go for it.

 

[ronald pantelas]

It seems your regular customers never ask how much. They just say we need this and that cleaned. I do not advertise(yet). Do not like to talk price . But when the customer calls, you must talk price. I understand that, I'm strong on the phone. So you close them on your sq. ft. or room price. But your regulars I think should be hourly to be fair to both you and the customer. Why shouldn't we make 100 an hour, with all our costs. Today I had great results with it. So I'm going to use it more. I am concerned about incorporating expensive products like odor removal and protector in that cost though. Thanks, Ron

 

[The Preacher]

a good friend of mine is in the HVAC and appliance repair biz. He gets $89 per hour and has customers lined up down the street for his service.

i think having your tools paid for and running a tight ship could lead to being able to do hourly charging. if i had everything paid for and kept it maintained and had a 10-15 year life span $60-90 per hour would be a good living IMO!

you and i both know we charge by the room or SQFT because everyone else does, ya bunch of lemmings!!!

 

[Johnnyone]

Most jobs I charge by the room. If there is additional services I charge accordingly, stain removal, protectant, odor. Some times I charge by the hour. different for residential or commercial. I have done sq ft measurement and that's help alot to.

We all have or rates but I kinda like the $100 hr rate but dont like to tell the custy that

 

[Bryan Irvin]

Ron, the way I see it is like this...your profile says you're a startup business. As you get more experience cleaning, you will become more efficient, which means naturally you will be faster. So in charging for your time, and not what you do, as you get better, your customers will be paying LESS! I'm sure your customers wont mind paying this way. I dont mean to sound like an ass, but if you just want to be paid dollars for hours, why did you go into business for yourself? Think about it, every job you go on will pay you the same. You asked for opinions, and I just dont think its in your best interest.

Bryan

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Only with my property managers who don't know what there paying until they get our bill in a week or so. I can then look at the gps and say ok they were there 2.7 hrs at xxx is fair for me. Usually they get a deal because were not charging a book price for any specialty work the techs may have done and it's easier.

I would never do this with residential customers for too many reasons to list. Although residential setting is fine. I also wouldn't feel right having my techs responsible for tracking their time. Most people wont consistently record times with accuracy if they don't HAVE to. At every company I've worked for most of the times are just guesses. At my final job we would all fill out our time cards for the past week on the final day at the final hour. It was sad how inaccurate we were. I'm not comfortable with charging extra time by mistake for our regular customers. At $150 per hour 15 min. = $37.50 and that's just 15.

 

[Al]

We work for one guy that way but it is commercial, he pays us 150. per hour.

It might work for you but we could never do it for home owners and make the money that we do.

 

[RickL]

Yes

Absolutely most all metro areas have $.50 per sq customers. The problem is most CC'rs don't give $.50 value cleaning and are perceived pretty much like every other cleaner.
The magic is in the presentation explaining what they get for $.50 and then delivering it. (assuming that there is value in the cleaning)

 

[-JB-]

Ahhh, one of my favorite comments...

People do not want to know that it is a 100 Hr to have there carpet clean.They do not want to look at it that way is my thought.

Don't assume you know what your customers/clients want, your not them, you might be pleasantly surprised!

HOWEVER, I will say this is about MAKING MONEY, not punching a clock, if we charged hourly we would lose HUGE in many cases, esp. as you get along in bus. and get your systems down. Don't forget your not just charging for what your doing ON THE JOB, you need to be compensated for your non production time too.

 

[Steve in Omaha]

WTF!

Quit measuring years ago. To those that charge by the sq ft, at the end of a job you have the hourly rate for that job. Does it vary significantly from job to job for like service? Home void of furniture vs home loaded with antiques would not be charged at the same sq ft price would it? Does it not boil down to how much you time is worth?

 

[ronald pantelas]

Great Posts. Bryan have updated my profile. Have been a full time carpet cleaner since 98. Anyways as stated earlier it just felt good pricing this way. For the owner/operator with no employees maybe it can work. I only want to work 4-6 hrs a day. I do love owning my own business. The flexibility is awesome. You know when the customer writes you the check if you made a cheerleader. The money is important, but the satisfied customer is what we want. I consider myself a high price cleaner. I do not think my customers look at the price all the time. When I go over the reveral program with them I gage their responses. Its great to hear we certainly will recomend your firm. I could be wrong, God knows I've been wrong before! Thanks, Ron