I always like to hear carpet cleaners talk about pricing. It’s always an interesting discussion!
I remember attending a course at Ashcombe Distributors (remember them?) in the 1980s about marketing a carpet cleaning business. Until that time I didn’t realise that I needed to market my business. I assumed that if I was good enough at my job, people would be forming a queue outside my door.
What prompted it was the appearance of a competitor in the next road to where I lived with his van boldly signwritten with an offer of Lounge, Dining Room, Hall, Stairs & Landing AND a three-piece suite for £30. At the time I was charging more than that for the suite alone.
I remember being convinced that my business was finished. So I learned about marketing out of desperation.
However, after the course I learned that in EVERY industry there are price points. Some budget, some premium, some in-between.
For example, did you know that here in the UK you can buy a smartphone for £20 on Amazon right now? Why then are people waiting in line every time a new iPhone is released and paying 30 times more! Why are Mercedes, BMW and Audi selling in droves when you can buy a Ford or even a Kia for a small fraction of what they are charging.
The answer is that in every market there are price shoppers looking for the cheapest and there are premium buyers even in carpet cleaning.
How often on cleaning forums do you see the question… “How much should I charge for carpet cleaning? What is the “right price”? This is what has been called “marketing incest” where every cleaner looks at everyone else and does what they do and just like real incest ends up pretty stupid.
Business is all about margins and profit. The competitor I referred to earlier went out of business long ago. He has been replaced by many more like him who have also gone out of business. Many, many carpet cleaners are slowing going broke…they just don’t realise it yet.
A turnover of 60K or 100K is NOT salary. It’s NOT what you take home. Getting the customer (or more accurately “buying the customer”) takes time which is also work. And of course, there’s all the other business expenses. And then there’s holidays.¦
It’s often said on cleaning forums we’re NOT dentists or doctors, we’re only carpet cleaners.
By the way, I’m not a qualified dentist or doctor but I often earn MORE than them because unlike them I’m a risk-taking business owner (ie. owner of a cleaning business, owner of a business marketing a cleaning business, owner of a client retention business, office manager, hirer and firer, employee parenter etc etc).
Oh, and at one time, (before I paid it off) my house was on the line.
That’s why I charge high prices!