I am thinking about putting an ad in the paper for house cleaning?

Question

How much do you think I should charge?
Should it be by room or by hour or what?

Answer 1

Certainly you should have a general sense of your worth. You probably can't get away charging by the room. There are a few factors to consider; and suggestions.

First of all you can "Practice" on your own home. To judge your speed. A service is about speed in some measure; but it's also about quality, and how the customer Perceives CLEAN.

Decide what you think YOU'RE worth; and again; in a general sense have a base price to offer even before seeing a job. Obviously every job will be different; and in your thinking you can balance your base price. If you state your fee as $15 per hour for example; and find a prospective customer with a poorly maintained house; then you can state something like this.

Initial BOMBARDMENT cleaning will cost X $. On a regular schedule after, the fee is Y $. Then if they hire you; and ask for special cleaning on occasion; or call you to do an emergency before a dinner party...etc. You can determine that to be an added cost; especially if it detours you from another job.

As a Single sub you'll have to EAT a job or two perhaps, to gain speed, know what a customer wants and defines as satisfactory; etc. But always have a base fee in mind. If you bid a 3 bedroom house; try to determine, by what the customer wants; how long that job will take you, and be fair to both of you. My example of $15 per hour might seem high to some customers? They might expect miracles? If you're in their house for 6 hours you've made $90. Not a horrible wage.
The issue also and again, is about "Service" and the customers intent to either do a white glove test of not. They may have different ideas about Sterile; than you do?
Also; somewhere in your thinking; you'll have to figure the cost of supplies, but can't strictly/ blatantly charge them in a bid. part of the COST of doing business should be part of what you base your fee on. You may even find that a customer has a particular choice of what they prefer in cleaning agents. They may even OFFER those initially, but you should be prepared to purchase those. Otherwise commercial/ bulk cleaning agents work fine for a business owner.

Steven Wolf

Answer 2

i would put in the add free estimates and evaluate each job independently you never know what you might walk into some people expect a house cleaner to do everything (not even put a dish in the sink type)so it could run a lot longer or higher than hourly or room prices!

Answer 3

you should be by aroom