Cleaning business expansion?

[dcs lpool]

Hello all,

Great forum, been lurking for a while now and decided to take the plunge.

We run a small domestic cleaning company and although work is steady it is limited. What i would like to do is tap into other areas such as landlord property cleaning or even into garage / outbuilding clearance and the likes.

Are there any members in the cleaning arena who could advise us on how to build up our workload outside of the domestic dust and polish work.

Cheers

 

[owas]

What about tendering for bigger contracts such as schools, government buildings, bigger companies etc, if you haven't gone thought this process before you may find your local bossiness advice centre do free course on them.

 

[Talay]

Not sure how Mrs Duster would take to being told her next job was cleaning druggies needles from a derelict garage or having her school time friendly hours changed to after office workers have gone home.

What I am trying to highlight is the "horses for courses" requirement as domestic cleaners aren't necessarily the best staff to do other types of cleaning.

Here and elsewhere there have been folk posting great numbers from office cleaning and apartment block cleaning but as a director of both offices and a property management company, I'd never sanction daft payments to cleaners for next to no work. Hence I am sceptical.

Any type of government work means jumping through a gazillion hoops which to my mind places it on the "jobs for the larger companies" register.

Estate agents are one area you mention but be prepared for kickbacks and commissions.

 

[dcs lpool]

Thanks for that.

So I guess really we may be better off pushing for more domestic cleaning work and if necessary taking on extra staff.

My only issue is that I find the domestic work is not that lucrative in terms of profit margins. After charging the client £9 an hour and then paying £7 to the cleaner, then taking off other expenses we are left with slim pickings.

Another area I had looked at is providing a cleaning and decorating service for landlords. For example we would go in and clean out the property then paint / paper as required all as part of the package. Would this appeal to landlords or are they more likely to carry out the decorating themselves?

 

[KeithP]

I own a couple of BTL properties and to be frank, I simply let the Letting Agents deal with all that sort of stuff as that's what I pay them for.

Perhaps another approach might be to 'package' some specific cleaning services which you could then use to target different consumers.

An example might be to come up with a 'Home Move Clean' whereby you go into a property on the day the Sellers move home and do a thorough clean before the new owners move in. This would be relatively easy to target with flyers/direct mail as most houses for sale have a 'For Sale' board outside.

By packing and targeting your services, you can charge more for them. I suspect that during the stress of moving home, many people would happily pay £49.00 for a cleaning service which is probably a lot more than you'd pay for a standard hourly-rate job.

There are plenty more opportunities in the cleaning industry, you just need to think a little more out of the box.

Hope that helps.

 

[dcs lpool]

There are plenty more opportunities in the cleaning industry, you just need to think a little more out of the box.

Hope that helps.

That's exactly my train of thought. Its getting the brain cells into gear and coming up with the solutions

There are a million and one domestic cleaning companies all fighting for minimal work. It's the extra or different services that can make or break at the moment.

 

[dcs lpool]

An example might be to come up with a 'Home Move Clean' whereby you go into a property on the day the Sellers move home and do a thorough clean before the new owners move in. .

Thinking about it, this idea may work but I wonder how many people who move out can be bothered cleaning up and may just leave it for the new owners to sort out?

 

[Talay]

Thanks for that.

So I guess really we may be better off pushing for more domestic cleaning work and if necessary taking on extra staff.

My only issue is that I find the domestic work is not that lucrative in terms of profit margins. After charging the client £9 an hour and then paying £7 to the cleaner, then taking off other expenses we are left with slim pickings.

Another area I had looked at is providing a cleaning and decorating service for landlords. For example we would go in and clean out the property then paint / paper as required all as part of the package. Would this appeal to landlords or are they more likely to carry out the decorating themselves?

With the greatest respect, you haven't done your sums at all.

Firstly, you won't get much in the way of cleaners if you're paying £7 per hour as "self employed" because that is (without doing the maths) just about under the national minimum wage, though I know some are glad of any money these days.

Secondly and irrespective of the first point, you are not charging enough. You cannot possibly make a profit at these prices after all costs are taken into account. As an example, Molly Maid runs an effective hourly rate of around £17 to £25 an hour and many successful operators in this field, not one man band cleaners that is, are charging the best part of £20 an hour to the client.

If you say your clients will not pay that, then you should consider stopping right now because if you are providing a quality service with fully insured and legitimate employees, providing all materials and so forth, then £15 to £20 an hour, either billed hourly or as a per property clean, is par for the course. People will pay for quality and service.

I wouldn't worry about diversifying. You need to work out a price which delivers full coverage of costs and provides you with a reasonable profit. Of course, your existing clients may leave for a cheaper service and you will need some thought as to how to transition them to the new arrangement. Personally, I'd accept that all will leave and I'd keep them on the old rate only until I could deploy the cleaner elsewhere. If they stay, then all well and good.

If you can't use Excel, then learn. If you can use it, then start building a spreadsheet with all your costs in it to work out where you need to be charging to make a decent profit.

 

[dcs lpool]

We originally based our hourly rate on the rates charged by others in the area. We pay NMW at the moment but any increase in wages would cripple us. At the moment we only have 3 cleaners as well as myself and my wife.

A quick Google of cleaning companies for example -

Maid2Clean charge £9.50ph another local one timeforyou charge £10.50ph so you can see the rates are low.

 

[Tom McClelland]

My only issue is that I find the domestic work is not that lucrative in terms of profit margins. After charging the client £9 an hour and then paying £7 to the cleaner, then taking off other expenses we are left with slim pickings.

Talay beat me to what I was going to post.

You're running a business, not a charity. That margin is a fraction of what it should be in order to have a chance of providing you with a living. Whether or not you can get decent cleaners for minimum wage I can't say (though I have first hand experience of other businesses that manage to get good hard work out of minimum wage workers)

 

[KeithP]

Thinking about it, this idea may work but I wonder how many people who move out can be bothered cleaning up and may just leave it for the new owners to sort out?

A friend of mine runs a Removals company and his answer to that question is "most of them do".

I think I'm also right in saying that contractually, the Seller has to leave the house in a reasonably clean state.

 

[Maxi Cleaning Services]

Maid2Clean charge £9.50ph another local one timeforyou charge £10.50ph so you can see the rates are low.

These must be agencies, that charge a quarterly agency fee PLUS £9.50ph or £10.50ph..

Where are you based?

If you provide cleaning products, are insured and professional, you should charge at least £12 per hour. For deep spring cleans, move out cleans etc £15-£25 per hour.

 

[dcs lpool]

We are based in South Liverpool and yes we provide equipment and cleaning supplies for the job.

 

[Talay]

We originally based our hourly rate on the rates charged by others in the area. We pay NMW at the moment but any increase in wages would cripple us. At the moment we only have 3 cleaners as well as myself and my wife.

A quick Google of cleaning companies for example -

Maid2Clean charge £9.50ph another local one timeforyou charge £10.50ph so you can see the rates are low.

Stuff what they charge. I know both those franchise models and what you pay is based upon two components. Firstly you have to pay the cleaner direct and second you pay the agent a monthly fee based upon a set amount per hour plus VAT, if registered. They both ask clients to provide all materials.

If you want my opinion, both also break HMRC rules by using disguised employees.

If your model isn't this currently, I'd research some quality cleaning products and set yourself up similar to the Molly Maid business model, where you provide all materials.

Immediately you add value and the cost of your materials is far less than the money the client saves by not having to buy expensive consumer products. That extra goes into your pocket through higher hourly fees.

Secondly, don't charge per hour. Charge per job after you work out how long each job should take you. To do this, break each room down in to the time taken to clean and build up to costs for regular 2/3/4/5 bed houses. Easy to do, transparent for clients and your only direct competitor will be Molly Maid and you'll make more money than them and undercut them because you don't have some daft franchise fee to pay.

I'd also call Molly Maid and push them really hard for a price over the phone for a 3 bed house. They won't want to tell you and will try to get an appointment but eventually they will back down because they want the business. My guess will be around £57 to £69 plus VAT.