How to charge for office cleans

[Emb1290]

Hi everyone,

Absolute newbie here. I'm a self employed cleaner. I've only ever cleaned homes. But recently got an office cleaning job. I told the office client that I charge £12 per hour and her eyes lit up and she said that's a very good price. So now I feel I am under charging loads? Does anyone know what the hourly charge usually is to clean offices?

Many thanks

 

[Novevan]

Hi everyone,

Absolute newbie here. I'm a self employed cleaner. I've only ever cleaned homes. But recently got an office cleaning job. I told the office client that I charge £12 per hour and her eyes lit up and she said that's a very good price. So now I feel I am under charging loads? Does anyone know what the hourly charge usually is to clean offices?

Many thanks

If you think the price you give is right for you, it's good. Of course, you can also look at the labor market to check the average hourly charge.

 

[Mr D]

Its easier to price up the job.
Look around the job, figure time it will take for the cleaning required, then charge per day or per week.
If you do the job in half the time you estimate then great. If it takes you longer than you estimated then tough, you suck it up and plan better next time.


But they are not employing you. Hourly rate should be used by you in your estimates, not given to them as a wage.

If they think the job takes an hour and you offer to do it for £12 when they are paying £30 then great for them.

 

[mattk]

The best approach is to phone a few of your local competitors and ask for a quote.

 

[Emb1290]

The best approach is to phone a few of your local competitors and ask for a quote.

I've tried this but they always want to come out to have a look at my office and obviously I dont have one haha.

 

[Alyson Dyer]

We have office cleaners, they charge by the hour after inspecting the premises. We pay £13 per hour

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Hi everyone,

Absolute newbie here. I'm a self employed cleaner. I've only ever cleaned homes. But recently got an office cleaning job. I told the office client that I charge £12 per hour and her eyes lit up and she said that's a very good price. So now I feel I am under charging loads? Does anyone know what the hourly charge usually is to clean offices?

Many thanks

A fiend of mine worked as a cleaner on min wage and the contractor he was working for charged the client something like £28.

Obviously they have all the overhead to cover but, in his case, the overhead was a team of managers who did nothing at all productive. I believe this is fairly common.

£12 is fine so long as you have covered your expenses but you should look at increasing this the next time since you'll often be competing with contractors, not individuals.

 

[Mitch3473]

You cant really run a small cleaning business on anything less than £15/18 per hour dependant on where abouts you are. Do you use your own chemicals and equipment, if so incorporate that into your costings, will you need further staff, if so their wages and expenses plus your management costs will need to also be incorporated. Good cleaners usually charge more because they're good....

 

[SillyBill]

I pay a fixed rate per week, probably works out about £35.00 a hour for the cleaner based on his actual working time. I like the bloke a lot, owner operator, I'd guess about 10% of his time on site is chatting to me...Been cleaning our premises for 20+ years; I wouldn't even entertain getting another quote in honesty - not interested in any saving and happy with the service/price. There are a quite a few relationships like this I have in my business so you find the right clients they will pay. But I will hammer down to fractions of a penny on the cost of bulk deliveries all day long mind...so find companies where the priorities aren't shaving £50.00 off the monthly cleaning bill.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

You need someone to take over when you are on holiday, that's the min wage for starers, You need insurance in case you knock a table leg off with your hover, and a computer falls off the table, Your paying travel costs and tax and NI on employees, equipment, just a few things to consider

 

[Darren_Ssc]

you're paying tax and NI on employees

She isn't

 

[Alison Moore]

£12 an hour is probably ok, but after you've taken out expenses etc, (petrol, cleaning equipment, replacing equipment (is mops, vacuums etc), wear and tear on your car etc) , it's probably more like £10 an hour, so I guess it depends if you're happy to work for that. Also, if the client expects you to arrange cover if you're away/sick etc then you would need to be charging more to cover those additional overheads.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

She isn't

She will be on holiday periods