Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 171 Undercharging Fix: Why It’s NOT a Pricing Problem (Systems + Positioning That Make You Profitable)

Transcript

CBL EP 171 Undercharging Fix: Why It’s NOT a Pricing Problem (Systems + Positioning That Make You Profitable) · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: What's up?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back everyone.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why what are we talking about today, Dannan?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are talking about the undercharging fix and why undercharging isn't a pricing problem.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it has very little to do with numbers and everything you do with positioning and systems.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So just because you are being book solid doesn't exactly mean that you're being profitable.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we see this a lot in the groups, and I know we mentioned this a lot, and I felt I feel like I'm on my soapbox, but it really still needs to be addressed today.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are, five years into this, and we're still talking about pricing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal is to get the industry where it needs to go.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you ask, you know, what do you charge?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I asked Jamie, what do you what does she charge?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do you charge for cleaning?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I can get a comparison note.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It it gives me flashbacks from when I was with Mary Maids.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started Castle Keeper Cleaning all of those years ago, I took the Marymaids model legitimately and I did that, but I was even lower than what they were charging.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I wasn't making any money, and I didn't realize it until I started to do the math.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I see it all the time in the groups about, well, I'm booked solid.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, I've been 10 years in the business and we have a five-month wait list.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, yeah, but I at the end of the day, are you profitable?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's what that's what matters.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to charge enough to make sure that not just you're turning a profit, but you know, if you're having employees too, they have to turn it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: The whole company as a whole needs to turn a profit in order for this to work.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: And the way to do that is definitely having a system, a system in place.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and and it and it's it can be scary initially.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times when I first started working with people like, I am never Shannon, I'm never gonna get those prices.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you'll get it, you'll get it.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, I'm I'm never I don't even know why you're making me do it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't make me do it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Please, please, please.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't, I I can't.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just oh my god, I can't, I can't.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then they like I hear back from them a couple years, like, I got it, I got it.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I uh I remember seeing somebody was asking something in inside the maids network.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: And if you guys haven't gone there, please go over there.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure you fill out all the the questions.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: But and I don't want to call out who it was, but somebody had said, you know, it's charging three$300 enough for a top-to-bottom deluxe cleaning inside windows, inside the and so many people came to her with love, mind you, with love in their heart, because I love this group.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: This is why I love this group.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: It is you're allowed to ask these questions, no matter how stupid it feels.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: And she came back and said, Thank you, you guys.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I he accepted the bid at$500.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember I was like, Woo! I was like, you know, hold on to that moment and know, have some patience.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: People will respect you and they will pay your rates.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I just ran another little price increase and I'm still getting bookings.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Am I getting all of these bookings?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, and I don't want to.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Some people are really out there just bargain shopping.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: And there's cleaners out there, I'm sure, that will accept the bargain shoppers.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I really wish they wouldn't, so that we could price, you know, if I'm getting these these prices in our area, you can too.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Please.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: For the love of everything good.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse and or the reason, the second reason that they give us is I live in a rural community.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Both Jamie and I live in a rural community.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jamie's actually more rural than I am.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think the largest house cleaning job you got was like 10 grand.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, there was a lot to it.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: That was a clean.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I believe it or not, and it was an off-grid clean.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: You would think, oh, what?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I remember somebody saying I was only gonna charge them$1,500.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad I gave it to you.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, really?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I could never, and then uh there that was a$3,500 one.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: There was, you know, a$7,000.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: There was the, you know, they don't come all the time, you guys.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think that it comes.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that is a rare case, but it happens, right?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: It does happen.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I was scared to death.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: I had to have Shannon actually walk me through those bids.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Those were the bids that I had to walk.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can do it, but those first couple of big ones, my very first big one, it was that log cabin home where we had to do, and it was my biggest one, which was$2,500.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, there's no way.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember whenever I told him that it was gonna be$2,500.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: And he, if you guys are watching, he literally went, he winced.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: But he goes, Hey, can I give you your deposit right now for up$300?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Yeah, I I knew I I had sold the deal.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the deposits have gone up exponentially over the over time.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's always interesting to go through the process with someone when they're first learning how to price and getting the price that is actually what the job is worth.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I say this a lot, we're we're groomed in condition.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us are women here, and we do have some males, and this isn't against you at all.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Women are inherently groomed and conditioned to be the support system of whatever's going on.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't like inherently, we don't like conflict.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we will we'll take whatever's just given to us, whether it's two crumbs or 10 crumbs, and we'll say, okay.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you start to see everyone else getting more money, that's when everyone's like, well, maybe I can get more money by, you know, charging the right amount of money.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The notorious group, and I still see this all the time, and this has a lot to do with the website they're on, is Home Glow.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is a Facebook.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you ever want to look at what is really going on on the other side of the cleaning industry for house cleaning, go onto the Home Glow Facebook page and read some of those prices and what's going on with them.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just it's you get pigeonholed into a certain mindset and you just you you can't facilitate the growth.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes it's a hard thing to like go, oh my god, I'm not gonna really get 2,500 bucks for this job.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: Really, it really is.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you feel like you're on the top of a cliff getting ready to jump and hoping that your parachute's gonna catch because you want that money, you want that client.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And now it's like whenever it happened the first time, it's like okay.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: Then it happened the second time, and it's like, all right.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, that that tells me that that we are in the industry where it they do accept those prices.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: And you I'm telling you, you don't want every every client.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want it.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I yeah, it's nice to have it, but you know, I I think, you know, our turn, our conversion rate is about it's it's in between 60 and sometimes 80 percent.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I nail it and I'm like, woohoo, I have a really good week.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: But then there's uh there's other weeks where it's like, dang, I'm not getting you you start second guessing yourself.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: So don't think that you're alone on that either.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: You you start second guessing, am I charging too high?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then you're you know, don't make this mistake of running back and readjusting your your prices.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna work.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then your pricing starts to fail once your business starts to grow.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Once you, once you proclaim to the universe, I want to scale, I want to grow, I eventually want to get out of the field, I have a deadline, blah, blah, blah.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then your expenses are higher.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So your pricing isn't going your pricing has to be adjusted for each expense.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I heard a podcast the other day.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was listening to something while I was waiting for an appointment, and they were talking about the need of having an office or a job site manager.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So they realized that they needed it, and so they had to get another job to pay for that manager.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about an office manager that's getting 60 grand.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: They just realized that the price, I believe the price they threw out was$2,000 a month.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they they just knew that they had to hunt for a job that covers the$2,000.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how they layered in the growing.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that that's the ideal way, but it's a method to the madness, so to speak, right?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that your pricing starts to correlate with what your expenses are.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's expensive when you fully automate it, it can be$1,500 a month without ad costs, depending on if you, you know, you do booking qualer or not do booking qualer or whatever platform you're picking.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of expenses.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jamie has the premium jobber, and I think it's four or five hundred dollars a month.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I now I it's$528 a month, right?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, but I'm gonna tell you, I've run I've tossed this around my head.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do I need this?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And the the answer is yes.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: I also have every single add-on feature that you can possibly imagine.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: I have the bells and whistles.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, all of the bells and whistles.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: I have, I'm on the grow plan, which I believe is like 400 bucks a month.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: They don't start off.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you, I never did start off at that rate.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: I started off with the very lowest tier that they have.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: They go by tiers and and they have three.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: And once you get up to, say, the grow plan and you grow into the grow plan, you can always tell them because it says it's up to 15 users.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I also let people, my accountant is in there, my bookkeeper is in there, my virtual assistants are in there.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Do I fill all those 15 slots?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't have 15 employees or do it however I'm doing it, you can call Jobber and say, hey, can we renegotiate this?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Their customer service is on point.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm saying it's refreshing to hear, especially in today's climate.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: I I I've always wanted to make that announcement to please talk to them before you just say, I I can't afford this.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna tell you, I didn't think I could afford whenever I remember whenever uh Shannon told me that you know we use Jabber.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, what you pay that much a month for this?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot now I cannot live without it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: I cannot, it runs my whole my whole business.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, that's part of a business.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's just part of, and that's why we need to charge what we charge.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you want a legitimate business.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a legitimate business, then that's a different story.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: You want to do side hustle, there's nothing wrong with that either.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Whenever you want to take that step over into from side hustle over to becoming a real business, that's whenever you need to start looking into your CRMs and always be partial to jobber and looking to raise your rates.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I did it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: First jumped in, I was charging hourly, and Shannon told me the start charging flat rates.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it clicked in my head, like, oh yeah, I am gonna get faster.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's gonna cause a problem down the road.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: But as soon as I got those that money, I took it and put it towards my insurance.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Or no, I do my doing business ads, my DBA.
• 13:44
  unknown: Right.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: I ran a thing on the ad and then I took that piece of paper because you got to run an ad of three weeks in the newspaper.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Then I took that piece of paper, went and got insurance on the next job that I got.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I videoed the whole thing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: I I took pictures, you'll see it on my social media.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: If you go, what?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're talking, it'll be four years ago.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Four years ago.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: A while ago.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I I documented all those little small wins like that.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: And whenever I did that, whenever I started getting my DBA, my insurance, my prices went up just a little bit.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: I was scared to death.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: I was scared to death.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, there's no way.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's one of my biggest competitors.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: They've been in business for almost 30 years.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's the only people that I really look at as like a competitor.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just now trying to make a name for myself.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, but that's how it started.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I looked, kind of took a sneak peek and seen what they were charging.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're their insured bond, you know, they're all the things.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: They're all the things.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: They got all these reviews.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, that's who I kind of want to strive to be.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: I want those reviews.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I got a website.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, little by little I was building, but I'm telling you, whenever I did it, I had my nose to the ground.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it all started with having, sorry, Shannon, having Shannon walk me through making sure I was pricing right.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, and then all these systems started building in place because that's what you're doing is building a system.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a machine now, you know, and I'm all I'm here is I'm oiling the machine and uh it, you know, now it's to where I'm like, I can see my slow months that I've been in business now, or my high months, and what I need to be charging and and learning production rate so that you know that you're charging enough to support your employees.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um definitely because that that you can't make it without them.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we undercharge because hearing no feels like it's personal in the service-based industry.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we see this a lot in a lot of the groups.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I gave this person with this 4,500 square foot home, three levels, eight bedrooms, two baths, or you know, whatever, whatever.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I I gave them a price for 150 and they said no, what did I do wrong?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Am I doing something wrong?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it must be where I live.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: I see that too.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right or then in the comments, because that's where the T's at, you ladies and gentlemen.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's in the comments.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: It ain't the post, but whenever you look, and I do because I I want I look at the comments and I do respond often because I I want us all, I and I know that's what Shannon wants to us to be all charging about the same because we can't.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: The whole industry will shift when we're all charging the relatively the same marker.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that we all have to charge the same marker, but when we get up from where we are, so it evens out the playing field, so that clients who have 4,500 square foot homes don't expect a top-to-bottom deluxe cleaning for 200 bucks.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Not for us, putting it in their heads.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: We, the business owner, are giving the client a very false narrative of that's well, my last cleaner charged that.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: I hear that often.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, well, I you want to say, and I would never don't do as I think.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: I want to say, well, then your last cleaner's wrong.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: The question you should be asking.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Your cleaner didn't make it because they bankrupted themselves because they didn't charge enough money.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: So they were still making it.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are in 2026 now.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have Jennifer has been cleaning for, I want to say 30 years.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: She has the same house as she's had for 30 years.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: She still charges the$95 to the one house.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's five bedrooms, three and a half bath, three levels, 6,500 square feet for$95.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she's in there once a week.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: She's somebody like that.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's I love her, but you know.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I had somebody I have, you know, I could tell you guys story after story, especially now that I've been in the industry long enough, to tell you that I you get it too.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: You'll hear it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: I I had a client, a potential client.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Now, mind you, this client forgot that she she'd actually used me way back in the beginning, whenever I was first starting.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then the third time she called, and I have it on the phone whenever she calls.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: Do not accept this call.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: This is who this is, blah, blah, blah.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: Anyways, she calls and says, Well, I have a cleaner right now, and they're charging me about$75 an hour now.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: I say no to that.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Oh, well, really?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's about I never heard from her again.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Never heard from her again.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now that was in one of our personal groups here, my community group.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that's I I I run stuff all the time, you know, front and center.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you just you hear the stories in in the groups, you see the stories, you can reply to the stories.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and we have to remember too, cleaning is intimate, physical, local work.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're when you're starting to expand, hearing that no does feel personal.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's it's also a reason why, because it's so close to you, because it's your baby, that it's the hardest thing for an owner to let go and let others clean for them.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that's when you really need to make sure that your money, your your pricing is right on the mark, because if you're already having an extra expense and you don't have the money to pull in to cover for the payroll, it can be stressful.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Even shopping can be stressful.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: I remember remember this one cleaning tech can pull in about$70,000 for the business a year.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: One one cleaner tech.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to grow and learn how to make that money, they get to make money.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like we're sitting there hogging it all to ourselves.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you had 12 cleaning techs, it would be$840,000 is what you gross at$70,000.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: There it is.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just something to think about.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: Just uh so raising prices uh uh is don't think you're charging current market value.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: People pleasing and care-based conditioning in the industry is I think that there should be care-based conditioning anonymous.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us could sit down.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Shannon.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a care-based condition person.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I care for the following laundry list of things every single day, and I don't want to do it anymore.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: I really think that there should be little groups for us because we we we see things, you know, family members who aren't making it and they say that they don't have the money, but yet the new car arrives, or they go on vacation to Costa Rica, or the the little old lady who has the brand new tooth 2026 Camaro, because it's always what she wanted, but you know, she only has 90 bucks for cleaning, but has to have the cleaning, right?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: It has to have, you know, so it's uh the whole dynamic.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: See, we see it, you see it, I see it, Jamie sees it.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I really wish that there was an anonymous for people pleasing and the care based conditioning that happens a lot in our industry.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you see the free cleanings, you see a lot of things that you go, oh my gosh, I can't believe that happened.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, often undercharging is a conflict avoidance.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you take it and then you make it and then it's the next one, right?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you're you don't want to have the conflict, right?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: You just like if I just say, if they say I'm gonna pay this happens a lot in the short-term rental, it pays 75 bucks, and the girl goes, Okay, and there's 15 loads of laundry.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and they have the energy efficient washer and dryer, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just not a good combination.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that too.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, you were building, we're not trying to survive here.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: You're separating your self-worth from pricing, letting pricing filter clients, using structure to neutralize emotion.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's hard.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: It is neutralizing your emotions because, like you just said, it just you take it so personally, and you want that so bad, especially whenever you start having employees.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, you guys, it's like, am I pricing too high?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: Am I I I need to find you you will find that sweet spot.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: And whenever, and don't make whatever you do, do not make an emotional draw yourself back, especially if you've gotten, you know, a couple of bids at that price.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: I remember telling that that girl in the maids network, I was like, I want you to hold on to this feeling and this moment and remember.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: That you can get these prices.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: So once you do this one and nail it, you're going to maybe I can go up about 50 bucks.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see what happens.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're having it people time again, time over time over time taking your bid.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to raise your rates, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime you have a wait list, it's time to raise your rates.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there's there can be the hidden cost of avoiding no is that there's a consequence.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to have that consequence because you don't want to lose the bid.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: But on the same level, you have to get the price.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: The price is the price is the price.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't get the price that you're looking for, then resentment, dread, irritability, not wanting to finish the job.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember who it was.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had some cleaner openly tell the homeowner that they ran out of products.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: The house was dirtier than she had anticipated.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And she had prepared for what he had described over the phone.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So she shows up, he's not there, and doesn't renegotiate the job right then and there.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: So she tries to clean what she can with the product she has, but because it's so dirty, it requires 10 times more of that product than what she has.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: So she had to pull off a job, run over to Home Depot, and then it became the job became longer, and then it became the the scope of the job changed, and he didn't want to pay more.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like all of the stuff.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why didn't you renegotiate?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't you don't want to do that because then you then you don't do a good job when you become resentful.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's fair too.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing worse than than cleaning a house, because I've been there, you know?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: There's nothing worse than cleaning a house for peanuts knowing you're working for peanuts.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: It sucks.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: You're you you have and it it sets the tone for the whole day, or possibly even the whole week, and you're down in a funk because you it's like and then whenever you finally get rid of the client that you're like, I'm up in your price, it it's such a gratifying, like, okay, I want to cancel.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can put somebody in the slot that I know will fill it and appreciate, and I'll get 50 bucks more.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: And the reoccurring, or you know, whatever the case may be.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not saying that all clients are bad, you just outgrow clients, right?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Initially, you get the legacy clients, they stick around, and then as you have to increase, they eventually drop off your schedule.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just the nature of our business and our industry.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so scope creep, unpaid extras, endless communication.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I often reference the point of the lady with the what I believe it was 27 pillows on her bed and we had to take a picture.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and in reality, I should have taken on the responsibility of trying to make sure that her pillows got exactly to her preference because it was unrealistic.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I wasn't there, then it didn't get done right, even with the photograph, right?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then I would get a phone call at nine o'clock at night.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, and it just became to the point where it just was not worth it.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're not pulling in enough money, you're you're not gonna have an opportunity to, you know, to hire scale and and or rest.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I spoke to someone who we have a little bit of background noise or something.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who had worked 31 days for the whole month of December, she had worked every single day.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did you get a big big bonus?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: What was the whole point of, you know, and she's like, well, the the clients didn't want to schedule in the right time slots.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, that's when you tell them.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I have open.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's uh there's time blocking, and and that's something that I'm learning myself.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: But you also have to make sure that uh your if you have employees, your employees are paid.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be able to pay the payroll taxes.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta make sure that those you you're making enough to be able to pay the government whenever that time comes.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, I'm there right now, you guys.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: And without as you get bigger, it it gets the amount that you make, you know, is a bit intimidating.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: And that's whenever I honestly have called out for help to delegate some of that because it gets a little, I don't know, a little nerve-wracking that you have these amount of people to feed that are relying on you.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: You have your own business and and and stuff, and you still have to make this business run smoothly.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I have you guys, I I just as a matter of fact, today I threw out a cast.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, hey, I I need some hands up, I need some help here.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying that I'm perfect because I'm far from it, but I will let you guys know how that goes.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: But I that's where I'm at now.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: I am in the position to where it's like, okay, we're getting up there.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can hear the crack in my voice.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a little, it's intimidating to me.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I just do not want to mess this up.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: And Shannon can only take me so far, especially whenever it's in certain like she cannot go into my actual bank account and say, here, I'm gonna pay these bills for you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's not gonna happen.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely, and then you don't want to get exhausted either.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're not charging enough and you're working 31 days in a row, it you can the if you go down because you're the ship, the ship isn't gonna sail.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And everyone who's dependent on your crew, your family, your littles, everybody else, and in between, you're just you you have there's nothing worse than being so exhausted that you can't even function.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: That all you want to do is lay in bed and be inert.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen people I I actually think it's probably called something, but I don't know what that is.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that you're not at that point.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the whole way of having the boundaries, and you guys hear me talk about boundaries until I'm blue in the face, is so that you have slots of time where you can manage yourself and eventually step out and become an absentee owner.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: So a clean no at the beginning is far cheaper than a resentful yes six months in.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: That then then there's you exacerbate the whole situation.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: The person doesn't appreciate you, and not only are you not making any money, they're kind of a little bit of verbal abusive and they're spicy and salty, and then maybe there's other things going on, you know, it just becomes a whole hot mess.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: So higher prices without structure collapse under pressure.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you raise your prices and you don't follow through with anything that you say or you're gonna do, uh, the whole thing can collapse, and then people are like, Where's my race?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: Very true.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or I thought you were gonna do those windows for free, and it's 54 windows, and you had said yes on a whim one day when the sun was shiny and you got some time to yourself.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's great.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's where I really like Jobber.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: This is I I know this is sounds like, but literally, you can set it up to where it shows inside windows.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: We charge$7 a window pane, and it comes out and it spits out seven dollars.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: How how many windows?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, darn it, I didn't count all the windows, but I took pictures, so sometimes I have to come back and I'm like, okay, I gotta count all these pictures.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: I still do that to this day, you guys.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: So most homeowners aren't gonna know how many windows unless they just had them replaced.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: They'll they'll count the whole window and they don't understand, even if you try to explain.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: But the fact is, is they can visually see the complete breakdown of everything, like that we charge$125.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do the inside of the oven, and then just call me Walmart.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm not a Walmart, but definitely now you're going shopping at my at my business.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's all a car.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can pick what you need.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes there's the the factor of raising your prices and panicking at pushback.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have you gotten that?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds for me.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands, probably.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: I so many times.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Whenever you are, you feel like, okay, I got we gotta make some sales.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: We need to, I need to close these.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've thought about it.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I've thought about it, but I stayed firm.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Probably in the beginning, first two years, I probably definitely panicked.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, we're only charging.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: And but just like you said, six months later, you regret it.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I just said, you know, I try to raise my rate$15 on this one one gal.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: And but that's okay, because one of my cleaners said why she was, she was like, You're not the only one, Jamie.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I hear whenever I'm cleaning, she's on the phone just complaining about everybody.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, there it is, right there.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's sometimes too when you when you fold or you say, I'm gonna give you a frequency discount, or you're over-explaining, or you're justifying the expense.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And typically when I say, you know, it sounds like it's a budgetary thing.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: If that should change, I'm happy to put you on the schedule.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: Please reach out.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't argue, I don't engage.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while, I can be kind of naughty if they're really, really feisty with me.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been doing this 15 years, so you can only imagine what I say on the other side of the phone.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_02: You can explain.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, you know, I got an email that I I'm paying$130 an hour.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, wait a minute.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're first of all, you're a monthly.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Second of all, there's two people that come over and clean your big, big home, huge home.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't take it into effect actually, you're only make you're only paying like 70 something an hour per man hour.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: And uh they wanted that slow scope creep.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: Can you just wipe out real quick my what was it?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Four, four wolf wolf ovens.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Just do a quick wipe out.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't understand I'm paying some really good money here.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: I want something extra because now I, you know, now I need to make sure I get my money's worth.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I and I I I got my ass handed to me too.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Whenever she came back to me, she goes, You belong in the commercial field.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is exactly why I don't and you know what?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: In the past, me would explain like, Well, I got this to pay for and this and I said, Okay, thank you.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: If down in the future you want to use us again, we'll be more than happy to.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know she came back at me and she goes, Well, I am gonna have surgery in six months.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'll reach out then.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: This is after the crappy email.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you just never know with people.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: So when you just and sometimes you catch people on a bad day.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you and also another way the pricing can fail is if you have lack of policies, you don't have firm scripts, like if you have a full-time salesperson closing deals, or you're not familiar at closing deals, and the the boundaries.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: You hear me talk about boundaries all the time.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have any of those threes, that can also make your pricing structure fail.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then guilty as the owner, I've said things, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I don't write it down, and then so-and-so ends up showing up.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, She said that you said this.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I did.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Gotta write that stuff down or put it in the computer right away off your phone.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh right into the notes somewheres.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: And those policies, you know, speaking of policies, you guys, I definitely need to revise mine and and go through my script.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm still kind of all over the place with my script of closing.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm really good at asking for a deposit now.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a good script.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: I and and nobody really argues with that.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, okay.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's more common in mainstream now than it was five years ago, that is for sure.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes confidence isn't enough either.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it you there's just there was someone who said something to me the other day.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's we take on every project, but we don't take on every client.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's good.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a case like that.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: So pricing without boundaries is just wishful thinking.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: So and we see owners, they raise their prices, they feel confident for a week, and then they fold at the first objection because nothing else changed.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you can there's a workaround.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like if they've been Mrs.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Smith, I always use Mrs.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Smith, she's a busy lady.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: You guys, Mrs.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Smith.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe Mrs.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Smith has had a hard year and she's gone through cancer, or her husband's gone through cancer and he rallied and you know they've had a lot of expenses.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they prepay.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is only with a an established individual.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they prepay in cash or a check and they stick with that year's pricing, and then the following year you raise the rates.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't hold back on raising rates and charging what you need to charge because you're paying for the privilege of cleaning someone's home.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the case and you can do that, you have the true the choice and the right to do so.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: When you get some of your legacy clients who just can't afford it, just give them the free cleaning.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let them pay.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Say, we're gonna, you know what?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I've had someone who had cancer and they had nobody.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, well, we're gonna be cleaning that house for free until the end.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we did.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's something that you have to decide whether you can afford it.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's it wasn't the, hey, can you do this for Mrs.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Smith?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was the I know this individual, she's been my client for seven years, she's dying.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: The least I could do now with the move out cleaning, I ended up making up some of the money because we ended up packing up the house and helping with the estate sale and all the other stuff.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that I I consider that a carmetic payback.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, I you just never know which way to go.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it definitely needs to be someplace from your heart.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: And and you do need to look at your financials and make sure that you are financially able to take to pay for that labor.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to pay for the labor and and because it's physically taxing mentally too.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: Mentally too.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: It can be mentally taxing for my cleaning tax.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: I I know they take a lot because they see they see a lot.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: We all see a lot, you know, and it's just and then the fix is a system, not a mindset.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's courage and motivation.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So pricing for the business you're building and not surviving, that is the mind shift that you get that whole aha.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: I often speak of the time when I charge$25 an hour and I started to do the math in my head.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna have to work all these crazy hours.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when I was like, this is before any of the internet and Facebook groups.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: I started to try to figure out how I could charge a flat rate.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And like all of the trades charge flat rates.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, how do I build that and figure that out?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that was me going from just surviving to thriving, right?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Once you figure out the flat rate price and how many labor hours are in there, what production rates are, you're like, okay, well, I'm making this much money off this job.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the sweet spot is.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you also have to separate self-worth from your pricing.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, again, Jamie went through this.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: I went through it myself.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've walked thousands of people with a pricing blueprint masterclass.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's you deserve to be paid top dollar.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: We work hard.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're out in the field, you're working, you're still working hard.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: There is no sugarcoating it.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's physically demanding.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard on your job.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: You a lot of people can't do this past five years.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of if you get that's cleaning tech who works 10.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I also think that people think that they're an employee.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: They have an employee mindset.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: You yes.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't realize that we have to pay for our lights to stay on.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta pay for all those products.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: An employee gets all those things to them because there's somebody above them that's paying for all the lights, the desk equipment, all the caddy.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's somebody out there that's paying exactly.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's an employee mindset and not an actual business owner because you do have to pay for all those expenses, and you deserve to get paid.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: The CEO mindset, I believe, was the last book I wrote.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's on Amazon.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then letting pricing filter clients.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is so valuable.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like it took me a long time to let my pricing filter clients.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm talking about, and we'll we'll we're kind of lagging behind, this is my fault.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Monthly clients.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Monthly clients for us this year start at$225 to$250.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: That is the minimum charge that I start off any monthly client.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is because that's how much that spot is worth on my on my schedule.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it filters out all the people who are$125 or$90 or$80 or$150 or$185.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: I need to hit the$250 mark and it covers three and a half hours of labor.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that that's just I'm making$100 off every monthly cleaning just by default.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: The cleaning tech's making great money.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're only working three and a half hours, and we we do it on, you know, they get the certain percentage of the job.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I get my share of the job.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it went, it ends up being a win-win.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm talking about letting pricing filter clients.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then it takes out, and I don't want to say this in the mean or derogatory, but it takes out the bottom feeders.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not that there's anything wrong with it, but those clients are not as fluent in the cleaning industry as the rest of us, right?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they're still learning, they haven't caught up to the rest of us.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it does filter out a lot of people because that's your price.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's your price to operate is so important.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: And make sure that you are making business decisions and not personal judgment.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know Jamie talked a lot about emotional, and every time I've made an emotional decision, it has cost me thousands.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: You regret it.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: You do, you regret it really hard, and they're really hard to get rid of.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not really about being expensive, it's really about being sustainable.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be in the game, like I said, I've been doing this 15 years.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of businesses don't make it past five.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure that you are not being expensive, that you really are being sustainable, that your business is going to be there.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: A legacy is what you're creating.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if this episode makes you realize that undercharging is just isn't just a number, the next step isn't guessing higher pricing.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: In time, growth, real life, and just labor.
• 42:07
  unknown: Right?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly why yep, that's exactly why I built the pricing blueprint.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a profit first pricing system designed to fix undercharging at the system level, not just the number level.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn more at Clean Freaks University.com.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, that you guys, and I you know that first pricing system.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you haven't read profit first, you guys, or listened to it in audio and grab the workbook as well.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: I highly suggest you do that.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not greedy, you deserve a ton dollar.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're still looking for we have one spot left for sponsorship.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: If that is something that you are interested in, please hit Jamie or myself up and we'll guide you through the process.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we love it.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, guys.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.