Hey Guys,

My company focuses on VCT tile and I have recently purchased a Cimex unit, and I am interested in cleaning carpets. Can you provide me with some pricing suggestions? I do not want to lose jobs from overpricing yet I do not want to be the low-price company. I would appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thank you.

Scott Summerlin
Owner: Industrial Floorcare of NC

Here in Alabama, the two biggest cleaning companies are Stanley Steemer and Peaches-n-Clean. Both companies price in the $20 per room range, which equals out to somewhere around 14 to 16 cents per s.f. However, they sell a ton of add-on work, and they can clean a 4 room and a hall job for $99 and be in and out in under an hour. So they make good money.

I, on the other hand, am a solo operator, so I price by the sf and serve a better, though MUCH smaller, market. I price between 25 and 35 cents a sf. I'm not as busy as I would like to be, but make a pretty good living.

I know what my hourly costs to do business are, and what I need to make a profit. So my pricing is not based on a guess, but on solid numbers. If I ran crews, and had to keep two or three trucks busy, I probably would switch to the per room pricing and market myself at a lower price ... may be not in the $20 per room price range ... but certainly not in the price range I currently serve. I'd lower my prices even though my hourly break even rate would rise, simply because I would need to have more work available to keep my crews busy. I'd be able to actually turn out more work per hour, and still be able to make my hourly goals.

If I were you, I'd start out pricing by the sf and have a target range of somewhere around 25 or 30 cents per sf, on residential, and between 8 and 15 cents per sf on commercial. As I gained more experience with working and pricing, then you can adjust your rates to you individual market.

The end goal is to get to the point where you actually know what your real costs are, how much you need to make per cleaning hour, and what your sf price should be to make that target goal. Until you get to that point, start off in the pricing range I recommended and you should stay out of any real trouble until you can learn your costs.

If it doesn't work for you, blame Ray Moody. He taught me everything I know about pricing.

Excellent post Marty! Most of the time you cannot believe the prices that are posted on the internet (.45 & .50 cents a square foot) but this is a honest post and is about the same that I charge here in the Georgia market.

These guys are totally correct. You really need to figure out what your market area will bear. Last year my area was ranked the lowest paid Metropolitan city in the states. It was also the first year being ranked as a metro. Do you think people here will pay the prices that you read other cleaners say they are charging? not even close. The most expensive company in the valley here is .22/ft. Would I love to charge .30 cents a foot? absolutely. Would I make any money? not a chance. But I'm fortunate in that CC is not our core business, we own a commercial cleaning business and offer carpet cleaning to our clients so we have all the equipment for that.