Hi there, I'm Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner.
This is the show where you get to ask a house cleaning question
and I get to help you find an answer.
Today's question comes from a brand-spanking-new house cleaner who is going to start her own business.
And she wants to know "What am I supposed to charge customers for house cleaning?
I have no idea what the going rate is.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to charge.
Wow.
That is a that is an exciting question because every house cleaner at some point has asked
that question.
So, what you need to know, and this is based on Home Advisor and Angie's List which are
two national websites that do house cleaning referrals across the country.
And this is the country of the United States.
In the United States, the going rate for house cleaning is anywhere from $25 to $45 per hour.
There's a range in between you could say the average is $35 an hour and that would be a
fair price just about anywhere.
There are some way tiny remote places out in the country the charge a little bit less.
There are places in New York City and probably Boston and some other really highly populated
areas where might be a little bit more.
But the going rate across the country is about $25 to $45 per hour.
Now there are two ways you can bid a job.
The first way is you can bid by the hour and you can just charge a flat rate.
"I charge $30 per hour or $25 per hour."
The second way you can charge by the job.
And it depends on the way your business is setup which will determine which way you choose.
If you're just getting started in the house cleaning business and you're brand spanking
new and you don't have a business plan setup, and you're just getting started, my recommendation
is this; make it easy on yourself.
Don't get hung up on, "what is the square footage of the home?"
And "what is going to be involved?"
And how… you don't know how to bid a house you don't know how long it's going to take
to clean.
You don't know what is involved as far as the chemicals and the cleaning supplies and
all of the things that you're going to have to bring and provide, in order to offset those
expenses.
So, having said that.
Don't charge by the job when you're getting started.
It's super complicated for somebody who has no idea what they're doing.
If you're brand-spanking'-new to the business, (I love this,) just charge by the hour.
Now, you don't have the credentials because you have not done this as a business.
You don't have a big list of happy customers.
Okay?
So, you don't have the credentials of the referral system behind you.
You probably don't have a certification of where you've been through house cleaning training.
So, if you're just kind of winging it, and you're going to figure it out as you go, my
recommendation is that you don't charge top dollar.
If you screw up something people are going to be really quick to fire you.
And say "I'm paying top-dollar and you're just kind of screwing around
figuring things out."
So, don't do that.
I don't want to encourage you to lowball your prices because I'm a very big advocate that
has house cleaners we get what we are worth.
Having said that though if you're just getting started here's an easy way to get started;
charge $25 per hour.
And I know that's right at the very bottom of the rung, but here's what that is; this
is an easy math problem.
So, the easy math is I only have 4 hours to clean your house. So however big or however
small your house is, I only have four hours."
So if I can clean your house in 2 hours it will be $50 dollars.
If I can clean your house in 4 hours it will be $100 dollars.
And you can do the math and so can the client so that's super easy.
When you get to a customer's house and the customer says "Well, I have a hoarding problem
and I have all of these things that I have collected over the years how long will it
take you to do that?"
Please do not try to bid by the job.
You have no idea what you're doing, and you have no idea how long it's going to take.
So, bid by the hour and say "Listen I only have 4 hours, let's see how far we can come
in 4 hours that will cost you $100."
Now, as you're getting started, what this is going to do for you is it's going to
fill a time slot.
They call it low-balling the price.
And the reason I recommend this is because you don't have a system in place.
You don't have cleaning systems in place that will tell you how quickly and how fast.
The more you do this the more proficient you will become.
You'll walk into a house and you will look around and will say "This will take me 2.5
hours and it's going to cost x amount of dollars."
And you'll get that good at it.
But right now, in the beginning, $25 an hour.
And then you can figure it out as you go you have a chance to create some systems.
And to figure out how fast and how efficient you are.
What cleaning supplies you're going to need, and it gives you a little bit of wiggle room.
Right?
Because the customer is not taking the biggest bet on you at $50 an hour.
If it takes her twice as long at least that's the $50 bucks.
So, they'll say "Well, I'll give this girl a chance.
If it takes her twice as long at least that's the $50 bucks."
Right?
So, they will give you a little bit more leeway.
The second thing is once you fill up your schedule there will be people that drop off.
That's just the natural progression of this business.
As people drop off if you decide that you're worth more, and you want to charge more, you
can certainly raise your prices.
But keep your beginning clients at $25 so the people that you hire you in the very beginning
when you're just getting started, that you've got them locked in at that rate.
This is the only profession I know where you can jump in,
This is not anything that you should laugh about.
This is the only profession I know where you can jump in, where you don't need a college
degree.
You don't need four years of training, and you can walk in the first day on the job and
say "I get $25 an hour."
Right?
That's a pretty good income for somebody just starting out on any job.
On any job that's pretty good money.
If you work 8 hours a day at $25 an hour you just made $200 in your pocket.
If you do that five days a week, you just made $1,000 in one week in your pocket.
Right?
So my point is that you can earn some pretty good money just starting out even if you start
at the bottom of the rung.
And as you start out at the bottom of the rung and you work your way up you're going
to become quicker at what you do.
And your processes will change.
And you may switch altogether from bidding by the hour to bidding by the job.
But at the $25 an hour there's another element here that's really important.
Because the math is simple, the math is also simple for the people that you work for.
So they can turn around to their friends and say; "Listen, I just got this really great
house cleaner and he only charges $25 an hour."
And the person that they're speaking to thinks in their head "Well, wait a second.
I'm paying my current housecleaner $35 an hour and they're not very good.
I should give your guy a try."
And immediately you're going to pick up some referral business from friends and neighbors
of the people that you work for.
So very quickly, your schedule will become full.
One of the biggest problems that I see and this again goes back to social media.
There are house cleaners that will jump on the internet and say; "Well, I'm worth $50
an hour I'm going to charge $50 an hour."
Okay.
That's fine but how do you justify that price?
If you're just new and you don't have the systems in place, and you're not efficient,
and you don't have the credentials, and all of these things, you're going to get fired
very quickly.
And then instead of having some money coming in, you have no money coming in.
And now you have to go out and spend money to advertise to get new customers.
Because you have this attitude that's a little bit on the arrogant side; "Oh, I'm worth so
much more money."
If you don't have anything to back it up, guess what?
You're not worth that much more money!
You have to be able to back it up.
And so stay humble in the beginning.
Charge a lower price, completely fill up your calendar.
And in the event, that you have customers that drop off.
And you're going to get new customers, and I'm talking six months down the road and you
want to raise your prices, you can do that at that time.
Right?
Because now you can justify that price.
Alright, so until I see you again,
figuring things out."
if I can clean your house in 4 hours it will be $100.
where you don't need a college degree.
leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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