$100 an hour....

[Pinosan]

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?

It's all bullshit. Yesterday I made around 120hr to day about 200 Tuesday about 0 tomorrow is a big day I think I will be around $50 what counts to me is I profit; a little or a lot but bringing profit everyday is what I want

 

[CENTRICCLEANING]

GET IT!

 

[Swede]

GET WHAT? I don't care about the $100.00 per hour. Tell me what it is I am saying exactly. I did say price matters, because it does. What is my point?

 

[Swede]

Look! I'm here to learn from those who are experienced. I dont think talking about price is bullshit. That not what I Learned as an undergraduate. The truth is I am listening so that I can learn from what'sbeing talked about here.

 

[Swede]

I love carpet cleaning and all related services. This is a great business...

 

[Nomad74]

I used to think that the guys bragging about $100 an hr were full of it. But now that I have been around a bit, I find myself hitting and beating that mark. Every job I do isn't $100 per hr but I have been hitting it often. My baseline goal is $50 to $75. If I fall below that I start to punch myself in the face.

A couple of times I hit $200 and hr, but that is rare. The trick is to be efficient in your movements. Don't waste trips back and forth to the van, pre mix chemicals and stay organized. Unless you are selling or bonding with a customer, keep the chit chat to a minimum.

Spend money on equipment that decreases your cleaning times without compromising quality. An example if this is my purchases of my CX15 and Penguin electric sprayer.

I am by no means rich but I'm working on it I'm just happy to get my bills paid, especially after going through a period of thinking I was going to be homeless.

 

[Swede]

Thanks for the heads up Nomad. I want to learn what ever I can to be good at this business. I enjoy what im doing
Thanks,
Mike

 

[carpet cleaning sydney]

the tax man makes low overheads impossible

 

[HiCrestRick]

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.

Yeah, I've ran into that with customers AND helpers, usually it's the lower income customers, and the HIGHER paid helpers, ironically, I usually briefly defend myself by asking them to fill the van up with gas, because that's the smallest expense I have...

 

[EVDOG]

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.

Yeah, I've ran into that with customers AND helpers, usually it's the lower income customers, and the HIGHER paid helpers, ironically, I usually briefly defend myself by asking them to fill the van up with gas, because that's the smallest expense I have...

Just tell them it's none of their fu*#ing business.

 

[HiCrestRick]

Just tell them it's none of their fu*#ing business.

I'm not above throwing my helper out of a moving van, but I try to be nicer than that to my customers

 

[Kilara]

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

 

[mrotto]

I know this is an old thread but I was just talking to another cleaner about this.

Its not so much about the $100 per hour so don't focus on that. Try it this way.

Put up your top number for the month. Lets say its $10,000. then divide that into the number of days you plan to work in that month. Lets say Monday thru Friday. so there are 5 work days each week and four weeks in the month so $10,000 / 5 / 4 = $500 per workday.

Now on a sheet of lined paper, write in
column 1 each day of the month - 1 thru 30 (or whatever)
column 2 the daily goal number next to each workday
column 3 the actual amount made on each workday
column 4 running +/- total
column 5 comments (probably the most important because this is where you analyze why the number was higher or lower than your daily goal

Now there will be some days where you did not plan to work but you do anyway which is why you make a line for each day

Now this forces you to look at the paper each day you work. You can see in black and white whether you are ahead or behind. After awhile you will see the number increase. why? Because your thinking will take over and now demand you make those number and get excited when you exceed them

Who does this? Every Fortune 500 company

 

[snelling]

Depends on how skilled the labour is. People working in the tech industry like to charge over $100/hour.

 

[Fedri]

I know this is an old thread but I was just talking to another cleaner about this.

Its not so much about the $100 per hour so don't focus on that. Try it this way.

Put up your top number for the month. Lets say its $10,000. then divide that into the number of days you plan to work in that month. Lets say Monday thru Friday. so there are 5 work days each week and four weeks in the month so $10,000 / 5 / 4 = $500 per workday.

Now on a sheet of lined paper, write in
column 1 each day of the month - 1 thru 30 (or whatever)
column 2 the daily goal number next to each workday
column 3 the actual amount made on each workday
column 4 running +/- total
column 5 comments (probably the most important because this is where you analyze why the number was higher or lower than your daily goal

Now there will be some days where you did not plan to work but you do anyway which is why you make a line for each day

Now this forces you to look at the paper each day you work. You can see in black and white whether you are ahead or behind. After awhile you will see the number increase. why? Because your thinking will take over and now demand you make those number and get excited when you exceed them

Who does this? Every Fortune 500 company

I agree, I do very similar, however instead of dividing it with 4 I use 4.33 because some months are 31 days which will give more accurate daily amount.

 

[JaneofTrades]

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?

I just wanted to say that I like your think.
That you have a set numerical goal you're trying to reach each day, not month.
Keep up the good work!

 

[C&DClean]

I know this is an old thread but I was just talking to another cleaner about this.

Its not so much about the $100 per hour so don't focus on that. Try it this way.

Put up your top number for the month. Lets say its $10,000. then divide that into the number of days you plan to work in that month. Lets say Monday thru Friday. so there are 5 work days each week and four weeks in the month so $10,000 / 5 / 4 = $500 per workday.

Now on a sheet of lined paper, write in
column 1 each day of the month - 1 thru 30 (or whatever)
column 2 the daily goal number next to each workday
column 3 the actual amount made on each workday
column 4 running +/- total
column 5 comments (probably the most important because this is where you analyze why the number was higher or lower than your daily goal

Now there will be some days where you did not plan to work but you do anyway which is why you make a line for each day

Now this forces you to look at the paper each day you work. You can see in black and white whether you are ahead or behind. After awhile you will see the number increase. why? Because your thinking will take over and now demand you make those number and get excited when you exceed them

Who does this? Every Fortune 500 company

Exactly how you do it! Put this in an excel spread sheet.....have a subtraction column that deletes your expenses for that day from total made (i.e. gas, pay for workers, etc). This can be done daily or weekly. Then you have your gross numbers per day, net numbers per day or week. This makes it easy to make business decisions down the road. My big days are when I do.....xyz. So, my marketing will be focused on gaining more xyz clients. You can also determine what season is good for what in your respective areas.

 

[mkpol1]

I shoot to gross $150-200 per hour not including drive time.

 

[Lars]

 

[knew]

$100 is a good goal but there's so much more that goes into it: margins, customers, drive time etc.