Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 185 Square Foot Pricing: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Cleaning Business Owners Get Wrong

Transcript

CBL EP 185 Square Foot Pricing: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Cleaning Business Owners Get Wrong · Cleaning Business Life

0:58
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back, everyone, to Cleaning Business Life.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm Shannon Miller, Systems First Cleaning Business Coach.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: I have to look at the script because that is a big tongue full and it's new.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: And today we're talking about square foot pricing and why most cleaning business owners think they're doing it right when they're actually losing money.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: Never want to leave money on the table.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh one of those things that sounds simple on the surface, but it feels like it gets really messy really fast.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: I can see how it could get messy really fast.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: And so today we're gonna break this down in a way that actually makes some sense because there's a lot of confusion over square foot pricing.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: And so you can use it correctly instead of relying on it and hoping hopium, hoping that it works.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Square foot pricing is one of the most misunderstood tools in the industry.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: People love because it feels simple, just like a plug in the square foot, and boom.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people use the pricing calculators.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: I like to know the math behind what I'm doing, so I understand why I'm pricing what I'm pricing.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: And I will say this, and we Jamie and I were just talking about this.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Square foot pricing is just one of the elements that adds into the equation of the total price.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: Just because a foot you someone agrees to 15 square 15 cents a square foot for a 3,000 square foot home doesn't mean that that's going to be enough money or that it's too much money.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: It's just one piece of the pie that you're gonna kind of put together to get the square foot.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: So people think that you can pray, some people really do think that they can price based on size alone.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: And we were just talking about how the how if you have a house that was built in the 60s and 70s, we didn't have a lot of furniture or accumulation back then, but we had a lot of built-in.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: So I've learned over time, because I've done 15,000 move out cleanings, like, hey, you know, what year was your house built in?
2:56
SPEAKER_01: Because that will tell me that all of those cuppies are gonna need to be vacuumed and wet wiped out.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: It's just and some houses can have hundreds of them while the newer builds don't have any of that extra stuff.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: They, you know, they they'll have the large master closet, but that's not gonna be 52 cubicles of trying to vacuum out.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so that goes back to square foot pricing, is one of my least favorite ways to price, but it definitely is in how I get my equation because uh there are no two exact homes alike.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: No, some people live very minimal and have no pets and no children, and the same house next door can be the same size, and they have two dogs, two small children, furniture, because all the furniture, all the toys, all the everything laying around, and their price is gonna be higher than the one your next door neighbor.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: Right.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: So square foot pricing might not work in that type of situation, right?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Right, no.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's just a it's a base for where I can start to price.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: And then whenever you start adding in, factoring in pets, then we're starting to add more money.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: If you have small children under the age of six, I add more money.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: And it's not because I'm penalizing people, it's because little humans are messy.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: And they're children, they get their little paw prints everywhere, all up and down on the refrigerator, all down in the cabinets, on the on every wall.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a lot more wet.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be a lot more wiping and spot cleaning because that's part of our that's part of our our even maintenance cleaning.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh you spot clean.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: You have dogs.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: I have three.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: They they I call it dog love on my walls.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, they have their little Turner and Hooch slobbers whenever they shake their head and it goes everywhere.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: We have clients that are like that.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: So not so two of the same sized houses, if you're charging by the square foot, you're not gonna get it's not that easy.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not as easy as to plug it in, plug in that number, and poof, you get your your your number.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: It's it's you gotta factor in.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: And another thing to say, and this is and Jamie does this too, is this is because I I don't see anything uh in person up front.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm not an individual that does that.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Once in a blue moon, I will, but it's it's sight unseen and scheduled to the price is scheduled to adjust upon walkthrough.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: And your cleaning techs are trained to eyeball what the dirt code is, and that's when you check in with them and say, Hey, what do you think?
6:19
SPEAKER_01: And they'll say, I don't know.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I can get this done in two and a half hours.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: This looks like a four-hour job.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: And then that's when you go, okay, well, that's gonna take four hours, and this is what the price I'm gonna give them because it's gonna take more time.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: And then that's when you renegotiate because that's part of the process of doing any business, it's always renegotiation.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: If I've learned anything at all, when you give a price, you are not committed till death do us part on that price.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: You can renegotiate.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: If you walk in and they they've agreed to certain concessions, like picking up all the laundry and the chonies and the toys, and you walk in and they haven't done it because the dad forgot, air quotes.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: That's more money.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: That's because you're you're tidying and you're cleaning.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: That it's not, oh, I sucked it up and I ate 18 hours.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: What do I do now?
7:05
SPEAKER_01: That we don't want to hear those stories because that sucks.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to eat money.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I fucked houses that are smaller in square footage, but absolutely wrecked.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: We did an 800 square foot condo, one bedroom, one bath.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: They didn't clean it in the seven years that it lived there.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: It took 27 labor hours to get that thing where it so it was livable.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: We've been there.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh did you did you underprice that job?
7:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm curious to know.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, at the time, and this was ironically, this is a condo that's around the corner from my house.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: I now live on that side of town, but it was it was 800 square feet.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: I quoted it, I think this was like, I don't know, a decade ago.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: I think I quoted it at 250 plus appliances.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: And then when I got there and it there was like grease just dripping down.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, this isn't gonna be what we discussed.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: I think I ended up charging her almost a dollar a square foot because we had to like use some heavy-duty chemicals.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: And the the owner of the property was having a fit.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I didn't live here, I'm not the one that did this.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: You know, her just here to clean it.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: We can walk off the job and you'll just pay what you pay.
8:26
unknown: Right.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it was it's it was I probably what what is that math-wise?
8:31
SPEAKER_01: We know I can't add.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: So if it's 800 square feet and I quoted 200, 250 calculated.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: What's the math on that?
9:06
SPEAKER_01: So 250 divided into 800.
9:10
SPEAKER_01: It's 31 cents a square foot, and I ended up charging three times that amount.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: It was a dollar a square foot that I ended up charging, plus appliances.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: The appliances were all have always been extra.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Always, yeah.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: We we do that too.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: We do not even for deep cleans and move in and move outs.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Everybody is like, oh, you you're move in, move outs.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: You you don't add appliances?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: No, they're add-ons.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: Some of these appliances can take two and a half, three hours to get clean.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh and the same with pulling the appliances out.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: I know that some people will do that for them.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: We do not, we make the homeowner or the renter pull it out and reliability reasons.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, square footage doesn't tell you how someone lives in a home.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't.
10:03
unknown: Yeah.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: So everybody has a different lifestyle, and the the square footage should be the baseline, it's the starting point.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Like when I say they're like, I actually was in Walmart yesterday picking up some things for the kids for some party we're going to.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: And this lady's like, What are you what are you doing?
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Because I threw in some barkeepers' friends and some other things that we needed because I was low and I couldn't get it off Amazon in time for what I needed it for.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Man, you're doing a lot of cleaning.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I own a cleaning company.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
10:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: And then it becomes a whole conversation of, you know, why you shouldn't use kaboom because it's got like a 27-page STS versus, you know, why you should use more gentler stuff.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: And so I got like five women.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: It was like, you know, hey, can you answer my cleaning question too?
10:46
SPEAKER_01: Because they didn't know.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, well, what do you have?
10:49
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, I have a lot of mold.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, this is a really harsh chemical.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: You might want to open the windows.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: And she probably shouldn't have been cleaning anyway.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: But you just never know the dynamics of what that's going to be.
10:59
SPEAKER_01: So we started to talk about, well, how much would you charge to come out and do it?
11:03
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, give me a brief scenario.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: And I gave a range.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: I said, if it's a deep cleaning, those all start at 250 to 300 bucks for your size home.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: I go, it sounds like yours might be in the 450, 500 mark.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: Her eyes got really big.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: And that there's just it's a cost.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: There's a cost to put you on the schedule.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: And I see how I gave the range.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: That way it leaves it open.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: So then when you send the paperwork, that's when you say this is sight unseen schedule to be adjusted after we walk it.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not going to drive over to her house, especially with gas.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: It's six, it's$6.27 a gallon right now.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And I have to have like a mid-grade at minimum.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: So then you become like, well, it's really you waste your time going over there.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And then they're like, well, I don't, and then they're still not deciding.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: So if it's better to give them range.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: They see that price a lot of time, you know, negotiate, and it's like, oh, what I could have just went on to the next.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it just so it is a tool, not a solution.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: So and everything is renegotiated.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: So if especially if they don't agree to if they don't do the concessions you agreed on, and then it just gives you a starting point and it helps with consistency.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: So then the next house will call and you'll say, okay, well, those that size house starts at 250 to 300 bucks.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, I only work at solos.
12:25
unknown: Yep.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: If I have a 3,000 square foot home, I'm not sending one person in there to do a deep cleaning, they'll never make it out alive.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: No, there's too much emotionally, you're trying to, and physically you're trying to get in and out, and you know, they're all watching, right?
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's always nice to look back and you know that other person's got you in that size of a home.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look at my arm, look at my arm, look at your arm.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: Look at my arm.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: So it gives you a light, a moderate, and a heavy because everyone lives different.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: First clean versus maintenance.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: And it's funny, everyone always thinks that they have a regularly maintained home and it's not ever.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Once in a while.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: I love how they're always it's always clean, especially for move outs.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it'll be clean.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Just a broom sweep.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Don't I heard that.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: I heard that this week.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: I heard it this week.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be there's gonna be lifestyle factors too.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: Jamie just mentioned kids, pets, water, frequency.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: We walked into a lady who had 275 individual house plants, those shed.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: And now it's good too.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh my gosh.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Now I am a plant mom, but not like that.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: But they collect a lot of dust too.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, there needs to be some training that goes behind that too, because they it does need dust it.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh with your feather does, I mean, it does.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: It needs to have some of that dust knocked off.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: So that takes that's so tedious.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: You can also offer an extra, well, I'm thinking of it, and this is random, totally off topic.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: You could offer people who have artificial plants in the spring and summer, you could offer to take them outside and squirt them off and let them air dry for an extra service.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Just something to think about.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, so this is where your pricing becomes more accurate, not just fast.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Right.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: And instead of it replacing thinking, it actually requires more awareness.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And then you can take it and copy and paste, kind of like, well, okay, this last house that we just did that was like a similar situation, it was an 18, say it, we're just throwing this 1800 square foot home.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh only except they have an extra dog.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Then you then you you have that baseline.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: So again, pricing by the square foot, it's just not a one-size-fit-all thing.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: It just only part of the equation to get to the number that you want to get to.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: And speed and pricing without structure leads to underpricing.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: And if you've realized, and this is key, ladies and gentlemen, if you get to the if you've walked the job, you said, okay, it's gonna be this price, and then you get there and you've realized you've totally underpriced it, renegotiate the deal.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: More than nine times out of ten, if you follow any of my methods, you've already taken a deposit.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna want to walk away from that deposit because if they forfeit, you keep the deposit.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: That's how it's written.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: But renegotiate the deal.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see all this stuff, and they'll say, but, but, but, but, but, you know, I didn't see the 57 spider webs that were hanging down from your ceiling, or I didn't see all that mouse poop because it was late in the afternoon and the light wasn't working in the room and now it is, right?
15:52
SPEAKER_00: It does because yeah, you get to going in there and realize real quick sometimes, like, I didn't see any of this.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't eat it.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, people with all white kitchens.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: I love them, they look beautiful in a photograph.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: White kitchens are hard.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, I wish I could have them.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: It don't work out for me and our family and the way we live.
16:19
unknown: Right.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: But they look beautiful nonetheless, or people who have dark hardwood floors, they usually end up getting them pulled out on year number two because human dust is white.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: So when it settles, it let it sunlight hits it just right.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I have trained all my cleaning techs.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Whenever it comes to floors like that, they all you've got to go back and kind of get that sunlight hitting it just right, and then oh I get it.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can see it, and the same same with the the kitchen counter, the cat, the tops of it.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: You have to get down eye level, and then that's whenever you say, Oh, I did.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: I guess I missed those little crumbs that you can't even see, even if you ran your hand across, sometimes your hand just didn't hit it, right?
17:10
SPEAKER_00: But when you get it down to eye level, yeah, so that's another topic.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: But our eyes aren't trained to see that, especially with the granite and the pattern.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: We just all we see is the pattern, we're not seeing the in-between pieces.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: So that's a great way.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: That's a pro tip.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: Jamie's giving pro tip, so watch out.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: And so if your pricing feels inconsistent, and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, then you you really want to sit down and and figure out how you're gonna price.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: Again, we've mentioned the pricing blueprint masterclass.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: It's like 10 bucks.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: It's on my website.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: It teaches the basics of pricing.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: Does it cover square foot pricing?
17:50
SPEAKER_01: A little teeny bit, not a bunch, because it's one piece of the equation.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: It talks mostly about, you know, billable hours and what the national averages are and how to get that and how to break things down math-wise, because I always want to understand why I'm giving out a certain price.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't want to just get numbers, you want to get a structure that actually works, and then start to track.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to have the address, but you can take an Excel sheet or a numbers page or whatever Google Drive has and start to put in like 1800 three-bedroom, three bath, how long that production rate was, what you charged, and then another 1800 three bath.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And you could put like a little note, it says, you know, three kids or dogs or whatever, so you can try to remember, and you'll start to see the pattern and the nuances of your pricing so that you can get a better spectrum.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: And then even on the easy houses, you can charge the same amount and make a little extra on this one and work a little harder on that one.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Does that I that make sense?
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, that's interesting.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I I would like to talk more about this because that's something that I I'm not good at making uh like spreadsheets, never understood how I can't, but or an Excel sheet or numbers, you said, but I would like to track that better.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: That that is a great idea.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll talk more about that and trying to put that in my you can do it on chat too.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: It'll make you because then you start to see the patterns.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I've done 10 1800 square foot homes, and each this one was, you know, this price, and then this one was like five times that price, and this time was lower than that price.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: So then you can come up with an average to charge, and then just know that you'll have a subcharge for the ones that have this particular attribute, the the ones with the kids and the dogs, and then you'll be able to figure out the pricing.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: That is so smart.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, and so that you're not coming in and guessing every time, right?
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: It just makes it a new patterns.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: But people like simple pricing, so how do you keep them from getting complicated?
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think that we just uh talked about that a little bit, but we uh uh what about quoting quickly over the phone?
20:17
SPEAKER_01: I love I know you do over the phone.
20:22
SPEAKER_01: And and I go back and forth because the economy has just been so weird the last and I keep saying this every year.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: I promise this is gonna be the last year, but it's just we have gas, right?
20:31
SPEAKER_01: We have the gas issue this year.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: But it really does, it's a if you're new to the industry, I highly recommend that you go in person because people don't like to say no to a friendly face that's smiling.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: They just don't.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: So over the phone, it's kind of ambiguous, and they're like, well, this isn't for me, or I'm gonna ask my, you know, air quotes, I'm gonna ask my husband, you know, that type of thing.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: But it does make it easier, and then you can kind of see where the threshold for pricing is.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: Like I know that I could get away with charging even more in the spring and during the summer for top to bottoms or move out cleanings because that's when we're the busiest with them.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: So I can go, okay, instead of the the$400 price or the$500 price, I know I can start at$625 and get away with it.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: And they won't question it because it's the busy time.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in town is doing them, so there isn't a lot of people going, oh well, I'll do it for 200 bucks.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: So there's that knowledge as well.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: And you and you can just make it as simple.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're gonna hit it and sometimes you're not.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: So, and you you just don't want to be blind to your situation.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: So start to track and trace to figure out where you're at.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: And there is no wrong price, just there are impossible prices.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: There was somebody, I don't remember what group I saw it in.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: She did a move out cleaning, and the homeowner only heard$65 instead of$265.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: So she was upset because she got ripped off because it wasn't that dirty.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Where's your contract?
22:00
SPEAKER_00: I did this a lot.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: I and I always say moving forward, no, I bet you you won't do it, let it happen to you again.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:07
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I think she only ended up getting the 65 bucks.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, how could you put in 18 hours for 65 bucks?
22:13
SPEAKER_00: That's like not even that's gonna be a good two.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: It was wild.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Where's my two dollars?
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, no, I hate whenever that happens for people.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: Giving ranges and having not having fixed numbers, you're not committed.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: So if you say 550 and you show up and go, oh, this isn't anything that was described, we think it's gonna be this.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: And there have been jobs, I raised it even more after after they got halfway through because I was like, Oh, I'm really sorry, but I think it's gonna be this now.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: It sucks to have that conversation and they're pissed off, but it is what it is, right?
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And we do that.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: We we whenever we're done with the room, we're done with the room, right?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: It's not waiting to do the floors last, especially on top to bottoms.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: So you can stop where you're at and say, if you would like for me to continue, we can, but it the price is going to be this much.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: But that that this, this, and this got done, you know, like your top.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: You have visible proof that you are working as fast as you possibly can, right?
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
23:24
unknown: Yeah.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: So simple doesn't mean accurate.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Fast pricing without context is like risky pricing.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: And it try not to arbitrarily throw a number out unless you're testing your market.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: And if your pricing doesn't adjust, your profit will so that margin, you guys, I'm not shy.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: 55, 25, and 20, you always want to keep that 20.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's your golden ticket.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: So that's our livelihood.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: That's our that's it.
23:53
unknown: Right.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: You want to make sure that you're keeping that profit margin in check.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not charging enough, that profit margin is going to shrink and shrink and shrink.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: And you could bankrupt yourself really easy.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: So you're either pricing correctly or you're paying for it later, or you're not having a business, which is no fun.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: So here's how to actually use this starting today.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: Set a base rate per square foot.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: So I've seen people do 10 cents a square foot.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: I've seen people do 15 cents a square foot, 25 cents a square foot for monthly.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: You decide what the square foot price is going to be for your area.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Some people are seven cents.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: I really try not to get down to seven cents.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: It makes more sense now with today's market and everything else, at least 10 cents, if not 12 cents.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Or and I've seen in some cases where it's 15 cents for regular maintenance and then 20 cents for bi-weekly and then 25 or 30 cents per for monthly.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then add simple modifiers, pets, clutter, collections, Elvis Presley plates.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why I always attract those ladies.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't touch them, but still they're there.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Frequency and then track the time of your jobs.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: How long is it taking you or your cleaning tech to do those types of jobs?
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Again, go back to the sheet, the spreadsheet.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: You don't fix pricing by guessing, you fix it by tracking.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Tracking the proof is in the numbers.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: The math ain't math, and I hear people say that all the time.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Tracking, it's very important.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: You're not you're not throwing square foot out, you're just using it differently.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: It's a tool, not a strategy.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it is right.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: If you take anything from this, square foot par square foot partying, partying, square foot partying is a starting point, not a final answer.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: A la la la la la.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Condition matters, lifestyle matters.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: And if you're ignoring those, you're the one that's paying for it.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, your business is gonna pay for it.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Your pocketbook is gonna pay for it.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: And like Shannon said, you do not want to bankrupt your business.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And it can so tracking data is very important in this line of work.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: You gotta track it.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: So definitely.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: So your pricing should reflect your reality, not convenience.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: So if someone says I can't afford it, then they're not your customer, unless you decide to do a charity cleaning, and then that's up to you.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: You decide, not them.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: Your system doesn't adjust, but your profit can disappear.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: If this in if this episode has helped you and you are make sure that you're subscribed, like, share, so that you guys never miss out on the next one.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: And we can also reach more cleaners out there that could use this help.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
27:04
SPEAKER_01: So if you're ready to build pricing that actually works, check out the pricing blueprint masterclass 1.0.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: We'll walk you through this step by step so you're not guessing.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Again, as always, we love you.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, everybody.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Bye.