How to price the jobs effectively is part of being a cleaning business owner. The ability to do so may seem insurmountable at times, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it.
At the end of the day you need to practice your craft. Nothing but practice will make you better. This is why you need to do a lot of marketing. More marketing means more bidding opportunities.
When the chance to make a bid does present itself, the rule I always followed when measuring my efforts was pretty simple. In fact it was passed down to me by a mentor of mine many years ago. It was some of the best advice I ever got and it went like this.
- If you get every job you bid THEN you are bidding too low.
- If you don’t get any jobs you bid THEN you are bidding too high.
Now while I’m not diving into bidding specifics today, I did want to touch the topic of pricing just a little. The part I want to touch on is giving yourself ENOUGH TIME to do a job that WILL MAKE AN IMPROVEMENT in the level of service the prospective customer is currently getting.
People are looking to hire another cleaning provider in large part because they are not getting good service. Many times – though not always – this is because the cleaning company that is about to get fired didn’t factor in enough time to do a good job. Don’t make the SAME MISTAKE!
Far too many times beginners worry about getting the price “just right”. While there is nothing wrong with that in a sense, don’t focus exclusively on the price part. Price is only one part of getting hired. Plus, and this is important, you need to do a good job and that TAKES TIME.
So I’ll wrap this up by just reminding you to factor in enough time to do a job that fits what needs to be done. You will not always get it right, but do your best in this regard as there is no use in getting hired only to be fired down the road for not allotting the proper time needed to clean.
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My favorite way of pricing for a new regular customer is to start out by cleaning it by the hour for the first several times, (or for a month) until I have a routine and am comfortable with the job. After those first several times I begin charging a flat per cleaning rate from that point on. My employees have a clear understanding of how much time they have to do an excellent cleaning job. I make sure I have built in a small cushion to cover for those times that the job may take a little longer due to “extra dirty” times. I am covered for the extra training time, plus I don’t need to guess and get it wrong and end up acquiring a “Loser” job.
Thanks for sharing that Nann! Much appreciated!
I just injoy reading all that I can on this although I haven’t took the step to start going yet and I truly want too
Hi Ruthie! That’s OK. Learn as much as you can before jumping in. No need to rush things!
Wow it seem’s like so much to take in but I’m determined to make this work for me and my family any tips or encouragement would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Jermaine! You’ll be fine. Go nice and steady!
I have my own cleaning business but slowly failed because I did not know how to run it properly. Is it possible to come back up?
Hi Jose! Sure it is. Just dig back in and get started. I would try to address what went wrong the first time so you don’t make the same mistakes again, but we all fail to a certain degree. Failure is part of the process. Just don’t let it beat you into submission!