Pricing formula for house and office cleaning service businesses

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Looking to find a simple pricing formula for professional cleaning companies? Look no further! We know that finding the right price for any cleaning job can be difficult, time-consuming, and tedious. It doesn’t have to be. In fact if you download our FREE PRINTABLE, you will learn how to create the RIGHT price for your new professional cleaning business.

 

This simple pricing formula for NEW professional cleaning companies will help you create an hourly rate to bid on all house and office cleaning jobs.

 

Let’s break that down, shall we.

 

We all know that there are 2 ways to quote professional cleaning. Right? Right. You can quote by the square foot or by the hour. Let’s explore this “by the hour” concept for professional cleaning estimating”.

There are 3 areas in which you must focus on when calculating professional cleaning rates by the hour.

HERE’S THE PRICING FORMULA… Finding out the minimum wage for the service area, figure your overhead expenses, and determine your preferred profit margin.

 

Let me say that again in plain English and bring clarity to how we have submitted job proposals for our professional cleaning service.

 

1. First: Labor costs. No matter where your house cleaning maid or commercial janitorial service is located, there is a minimum wage or a prevailing salary set for our industry. Find out what it is, for the area in which you do business. This is very important!

Whether you are a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, a salary MUST be paid for all work performed. This is not negotiable. (If you are a union shop, then use the union’s prevailing wage).

 

2. Secondly: Calculate your overhead expenses. Business rent or mortgage, utilities, telecommunications, vendors, insurance costs, taxes, and supplies would all fit into this category. Anything you pay on a regular base outside of labor would fit into this amount.

Once you have this total, decide on a percentage per job to allocate to this total. It might be a challenge at first, but over time, you will get the concept. Nowadays, there are plenty of accounting software, apps, or bookkeeping programs or companies that can assist you with this.

However: When you are starting a housekeeping business or an janitorial contracting business, simple calculations are best.  Learn how to compute this FIRST, then began using digital apps.

 

3. Third: Profit margin. What do you want to set as profit? This amount or percentage will be whatever you decide it to be – 10%, 25%, 42%. The amount is all a part of your pricing strategy.

 

It should look like this…

1/3 = labor costs

1/3 = expenses (overhead)

1/3 = profit

 

Also consider additional cleaning service charges

No 2 house cleaning jobs are the same. Neither is janitorial cleaning locations. So it would be wise to also factor in additional costs you may incur.

Some of these expenses could be on the job parking fees for your work vehicle, extra fuel due to ‘out of service area’ cleanings, or extra equipment rental fees and special supplies needed to complete a work order. Don’t forget to add these extras on before you give your final price for the job.

 

Are you still with me?

 

I know that it can be overwhelming when starting a professional cleaning service, so that’s why this pricing system is as simple as it can get.

 

Keeping it simple will help you or your team members to implement this process for every cleaning bid because its a formula.

 

Sometimes complicating matters create unnecessary misunderstandings. Bidding too high is just as bad as bidding too low.

 

Here’s one FREE template to help your new cleaning business

 

It’s the Customer Profile Worksheet used to collect all pertinent information from each cleaning client in order to calculate more accurate cleaning rates.

Its how I learned to price my very first janitorial contracts 27 years ago. And since, we’ve used this pricing formula to acquire all of our cleaning customers, small and large!

 

There are plenty of benefits for systematizing your hourly rate for professional maid or janitorial services.

 

First, developing a process for your hourly fee is honestly, telling your money where it should go. You will not have a second thought if you have enough money to pay your staff on payday. You will know based upon your bookkeeping.

 

Secondly, having a system such as this relieves the stress of not knowing where the money is to pay your bills. You will have it set aside. You will have a certain percentage, allocated from each and every job, to pay all of your bills. Well, at least you will know how much you have made from each job. 😐

 

Lastly is another benefit for breaking down your hourly rate with this simple pricing formula is that it sets you up the right way for your business’ accounting. At the end of the year, every business small and large has to have their bookkeeping in order to pass off to your accountant. So, before you log into a digital app, or software or website, you will have already categorized every dollar of your income.

 

Take it from me. It helps.

 

This simple pricing formula makes it easy to calculate add-on cleaning services

One more advantage for knowing your unique house or office cleaning rate per hour is that, it allows you to charge appropriately when providing extra cleaning tasks.

 

Say for instance, your customer wants you to clean items not included in your cleaning contract.  Things like the refrigerator cleaning, the oven cleaning, professional carpet cleaning, windows, or even washing pillows can be easy to price.

 

You can give an estimated cleaning price based upon your hourly rate!  

 

So, if you’re asked to perform deep or detail cleaning for any of your customers, you can give a quote based upon your hourly rate.  Got it.

 

And don’t forget, the best way to keep track of each customer’s needs is with the Customer Profile Worksheets.

CLICK HERE FOR OFFICE CLEANING

And because house and office cleaning is very different, CLICK HERE FOR HOUSE CLEANING TEMPLATES.

 

 

This simple pricing formula for NEW professional house and commercial office building cleaning service businesses can help you realize your true labor costs, set aside your business expenses, and maintain the profit margin that you desire.

 

 

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci

Until next time,

Happy cleaning!

 

 

I grew my office cleaning side hustle into a ½ million-dollar corporation with the partnership of my husband and our amazing staff. In 2020, I retired my service-based business to shift my focus and passion from serving cleaning clientele to serving cleaning business owners.

 

Utilizing my 27+ years’ experience, I offer free and paid products exclusively for cleaning business owners and cleaning side hustlers at A Janitor’s Story® Website and my VIP Group Coaching Membership App.

 

I’ve served other cleaning pros by helping them to turn one time cleaning jobs into high paying recurring customers, create excellent client retention practices, develop hiring systems that really work, build marketing techniques that convert and so much more.

 

If this is a place you’d like to explore, I’d love to serve you too. Simply sign up to my free weekly email newsletter for tips and inspiration. I can’t wait to meet you inside.