$100 an hour....

[Todd the Cleaner]

How important is this number. Do you really do it?

Sometimes I have jobs where I do $100 an hour or even more and sometimes I may only get $50 an hour.

At the end of the day my daily goal is $500 for the day and I usually end up somewhere between $300-$600 for a day when I work. Of course there are days I don't have any work so I am not claiming to do that every day.

So how important is that magic number of $100 an hour?

 

[Gasoline]

Depends on one's costs and what profit percentage you are shooting for. But you should have a target to shoot for, is $100 it? Maybe. Sure. Depends.

 

[emeraldclean]

Ive always ran my business over the month. All my bills are due once a month , payroll included. I know what I need to bring in every month to stay afloat.
Is that $100 an hour important to me ... no.
Paying all expenses ( set& unforseen) yes!
Also in my gravy months ( Sept-end of Nov) I bank what I call my winter fund. Aside from fuel and chems due to less work , I still have the same expenses .
I pay myself the same monthly salary regardless of the dollars generated in the month/ day etc.
Been in business since 1992.
Opened up when I was 26 .. will retire fully by age 55. That's in another eight short years.
Ive posted many times how important it is for O/O to prepare for retirement through a monthly contribution.

 

[Dennis Anderson]

Are you looking for a war there Todd the Cleaner? I don't know if it means anything. Lots of people mention it on here though from time to time.

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

Are you looking for a war there Todd the Cleaner? I don't know if it means anything. Lots of people mention it on here though from time to time.

I have just seen it talked about a lot in the last couple weeks. I remember back in 1993 when I started working for Coit my boss told me they try to book the techs out at $100 an hour. (this was long before the internet and TMF).

Honestly I use it as a guideline but it is not horribly important to me. If I go out and work 6 -8 hours and bring home $400 I am fine with that. Of course I like the $1000 days too which don't happen often enough.

 

[emeraldclean]

Ive had custy's when handed a bill say ... Wow $350 in only 2 hours, you MADE $175 an hour. My reply is " That is NOT all profit ... lots of overhead comes off that $350.
They still scratch their head and think... ya , fuel , a little chem big deal.
Unless that custy runs a business of their own.. they really don't understand the true cost's of STAYING in business.

 

[dmreed4311]

I'm like you Todd, My goal is 600 a day 5 days a week, I get that or pretty close every day and I do it in 8 to 9 hours. My operation costs are very low so I feel like i'm banking it most days.

 

[Rick F]

I find working in cold weather its harder to make $100 an hour, everything takes longer. Monday i was locked in a bank with porty cleaning T&G and i made a little over a $100 an hour. Go figure!

 

[wandwizard]

I think 100 an hour is a nice goal, but as far as running your business it means nothing whatsoever. What matters to me is how much of that 100 I SPENT doing the job and how much I get to KEEP out of each job. My bookkeeping software lets me run what is called a General Ledger. Basically it shows me everything I made for the week, month or year or any dates I set it to run and every single dime I spent during that same period. I'm sure Quickbooks has something similar. I can also run a profit report that shows a monthly or weekly profit. I'm running debt free right now so that definitely helps with profit margins! All I'm saying is if you can't put your profit and loss on paper (or on your pc screen) it ain't real. 100 an hour is just some mythical number someone came up with and everyone jumps on the band wagon. One person may actually be doing better at 50 per hour than a guy getting 100 an hour. It's all about what you have left at the end of the month or year, what you can prove on paper.

 

[vader]

Only people I know who make a $100 hr are lawyers, doctors - Consultation, and a good hooker I mean escort. Hell most jobs that i've done are $25-35 an hour, $50 is a jackpot. I heard that people who do crime/trama clean up get anywhere from $80-120 hr here in Canada…But in the states it goes anywhere from $200-300 hr

 

[Robin Metzger]

My boss wants mebto avg $125.00 an hour which in most cases I can do.

Me.. I set a goal of $800-$1000 aday on a full 4 job day. Then thetes days like today which I will be @ $1400ish when done on one big job..

Robin Metzger
www.advanced-cleaning.ca

 

[Prosteam-sonomacounty]

I think it's not an effective tool to determine anything useful. "$100" per hour is more of a novelty to me. It's something guys like to say but it doesn't have any real value in terms of quantifying your profitability. Factoring in overhead can mean that on some days you made $0 per hour. I like to set daily goals. I keep a running total on the day and do whatever I can in order to make that goal. Once I hit my daily goal , I like to invent a new goal. I make sure that it's something that is attainable and towards the end of the week I like to start thinking in terms of a weekly number. Going into December is my favorite time to crunch numbers because of the years end.

 

[Troyster]

Ive had custy's when handed a bill say ... Wow $350 in only 2 hours, you MADE $175 an hour. My reply is " That is NOT all profit ... lots of overhead comes off that $350.
They still scratch their head and think... ya , fuel , a little chem big deal.
Unless that custy runs a business of their own.. they really don't understand the true cost's of STAYING in business.

Depreciation on equipment is huge moreso if you have a 20-30 thou TM vs a porty

 

[Dennis Anderson]

I'm like you Todd, My goal is 600 a day 5 days a week, I get that or pretty close every day and I do it in 8 to 9 hours. My operation costs are very low so I feel like i'm banking it most days.

Huh? Your operational costs are low? How did you come by low operational costs?

 

[emeraldclean]

Depreciation on equipment is huge moreso if you have a 20-30 thou TM vs a porty

That's factored into my business. I know that every 7-10 years I replace with either new or gently used. Now some guy's put money aside each month for future replacement,
Me , I just take a business loan over 4-5 years. In my 23 years in business 1/3 of the time I have a business loan expense.
No big deal to me , cost of doing business.

 

[Dennis Anderson]

Ive had custy's when handed a bill say ... Wow $350 in only 2 hours, you MADE $175 an hour. My reply is " That is NOT all profit ... lots of overhead comes off that $350.
They still scratch their head and think... ya , fuel , a little chem big deal.
Unless that custy runs a business of their own.. they really don't understand the true cost's of STAYING in business.

You know I find that a lot from people who like you said have never owned a business. Especially those who have been handed a paycheck all their lives. According to a lot of those people, people who own businesses are rich people. Little do they know!

 

[Dennis Anderson]

I find working in cold weather its harder to make $100 an hour, everything takes longer. Monday i was locked in a bank with porty cleaning T&G and i made a little over a $100 an hour. Go figure!

You mean you personally made substantially less than that. Your company grossed $100 an hour. Sorry just a pet peeve of mine!

 

[emeraldclean]

You know I find that a lot from people who like you said have never owned a business. Especially those who have been handed a paycheck all their lives. According to a lot of those people, people who own businesses are rich people. Little do they know!

Dennis... a buddy the other day at my Tuesday poker game said to me " Hey you should buy me a set of winter tires!". My response was " Why would I do that.?. His response was " Well it's a right off for you!".
All I could do is shake my head...
But you hear this alot " But it's a right off" as if you pull that $1000 for tires out of your hat!

 

[Dennis Anderson]

Going into December is my favorite time to crunch numbers because of the years end.

Here too. Takes a while, but you get some useful information from it. I suppose not the way to do it though, because you can't make any adjustments month by month or whatever. But it is better than not doing it at all.

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

Huh? Your operational costs are low? How did you come by low operational costs?

My costs are low compared to some others as well. I work out of the house (no office rent) and I work debt free. I know my net is usually 40%-50% of gross after paying for all expenses including taxes, insurance and all the other operational costs. I do use quickbooks and track everything.