Don't worry this isn't about what everyone charges, but you can post it if it makes you happy.

How does everyone determine the price for cleaning?

I know alot figure by the amount they want to make per hour, but what are the different formulas you use say compared to cleaning an open 1500 sq. ft. area to say a 15,000 sq. ft. area.

How do you figure the price if your cleaning every 3 months, 6 months, or only once a year.

I know there are alot of variables and I probably should explain better but just curious to hear the best way to go about figureing price.

Thanks

Most of our commercial contracts go year by year, we review pricing each year.
We use a spread sheet to calculate our costs, and than use a couple different formulas to come up with a selling price

In order to stay in business, I see it as needing to generate $xx.xx dollars per hour. Enough to cover my overhead and make a profit.

So, esentially I figure how long it will take to do the job, and the dollar number covers expenses such as chemical, gas if using the truck mount, and other general expenses.

Easy jobs of a given sq ft will cost the customer less than a difficult job of the same sq ft.

Sure, I am wrong occasionally, a job I figured to take 4 hours may take 5 or 6 hours, and I am either in a break even state or perhaps a loss state.

So, then other jobs have to make up for the loss in some way, or future cleanings of the same job will cost them more.

But my average is pretty high on getting them right in the first place, so in a year's time, I am in a profit situation.

Gary

Gary, what do you look to make per hour, say with encap vs. HWE? I'm sure it'll depend on # of guys or gals but as a general rule of thumb?

p.s. how many years did it take you to estimate how long it would take to do a job?

I'm seeing jobs I used to hwe takeing alot less time to encap and still not makeing much if I had to pay two people to work nites.

I shoot for $100 per working hour. That of course has to cover all the time not working, traveling, lunch, setting up and breaking down equipment, time in the hot tub, etc.

So... what I want is not necesarily what you want or need. Perhaps you need more, perhaps less. I can only speak for myself.

Now, that's $100 per hour per man, so on some big jobs, when I have a helper with his own truck (He subcontracts to me) I want- and get- $200 per hour, or if 3 trucks 3 men, $300 per hour.

Of course, I don't pay my subcontractors $100 per hour, it is a bit less, because I want- and get- a profit from each man's work.

How long did it take me? Years!! But with each mistake, I did learn, and hopefully not make the same mistake over and over.

Gary

Everyone would like to make a $100 an hour but is it realistic? I can make it doing disaster jobs. On an average I can make at least $45 to $60 an hour. I always price carpet cleaning by sq. ft. and always make money. If you sell QUALITY you will make money.

Is $100 per hour realistic? You betcher booties. It depends on what you charge per sq ft, and how many sq ft you can do per hour. Part depends on equipment, part depends on chemicals, part depends on how efficient you are.

Old timers like me, that have done the same thing over and over for many years, find ways to become more efficient. Not cutting corners, these always need done, but say with a roto or Cimex, using a standup brush for edges and corners that takes a fraction of the time to do this way compared to hands and knees brushing. Using Sliders to move furniture, or a Sofa Jack to lift furniture, or when HWE, using a shorty stair wand under beds, desks etc, anything with legs instead of moving the beds, desks etc, or if bonneting, OP, shampoo or encapping, using a long handeled dustmop with a cotton head that swivels for under beds, dressers, some stairs, etc, or a better chemical that allows quicker cleaning instead of several steps, just one step, and so on.

Other old timers may use other tricks to speed up the total job, and I tell ya, $100 per hour- or more is easily doable.

Gary

We have a number of different pricing levels. There really is no set answer to your question.

To begin with, we sub-contract a fair amount of work from a national contractor at .05 per sq ft. Even at a nickel a foot, we can still generate $100-$150 per hour since we clean at 2K-3K sq ft per hour.

On our own accounts we enter the pricing at .10 per sq ft and go up or down from there. I'll go as low as .07 if there are larger areas over 20K sq ft, or if they have multiple locations, or if they need frequent cleaning. In this case we'll generate $140 - $210 per hour.

On smaller accounts or less frequent servicings we'll gradually slide the scale right on up to .25 per sq ft range. Our highest rate that we charge is .27 per sq ft for a dentists office that is a pain to clean because there's so much stuff to work around. And I think we barely make $100 per hour on this one. So the more difficult the job is (in other words, the less profitable it will be for us to service it) the higher our rate slides upward.

We also charge differently for varying levels of service performed. For instance we have some accounts that get monthly spot cleanings, and traffic area cleanings, in addition to their routine full cleanings. These different levels of service are priced accordingly at appropriate varying price levels. One example of a profitable monthly spot cleaning service is one that takes our tech about an hour to clean each month and we get $170 for it.

So there are several variables. There is no concrete pricing structure in our business. I would recommend entering at .10 per sq ft and then adjust it up or down from there according to the circumstances.

I hope this gives you some food for thought.




Rick Gelinas