Would you pay these charges for ironing?

cobbingstones

Hello all,

I have already posted on the small biz board but would really appreciate your input on my charges for ironing. I live near Reading and I'm trying hard to balance things out fairly. Please remember that I have to pay extra insurance due to the business, such as personal and car. Extra electricity, petrol and clothes wraps.

I am going to collect and deliver within my local area for free

I would like to charge £4.30 per kilo for clothes excluding shirts.

I am thinking of charging £1.50 per shirt.

There is a business where I live who charge £4.49 per kilo and £1.70 per shirt. They also run and shop and use their 'ironing reps' across the county who collect and deliver free. They seem to be doing well.

What are your opinions?

many thanks

tea_lover

Roughly how many items is a kilo?

BitterAndTwisted

Is there a good reason why you intend to undercut their prices? If people are happy to pay those prices then I doubt they'd change just to save a few pennies. In any case, people are cutting down on these services anf the kind of price-reduction you are proposing wouldn't persuade me to continue once I'd decided it couldn't be afforded any longer. Are you certain the other business are making a decent profit?

In any case, I have absolutely no idea how many garments a kilo of dry laundry might entail. How many hours work do you estimate it might be?

JodyBPM

Based on the other companies costs, then it certainly seems a fair price. Beware, though, that if they are a reasonably big concern, and you steal some of their business, its likely that they will drop their prices and undercut you, which could lead to you having to drop your prices too to keep hold of customers.

Why are shirts priced differently to other clothes? (£1.50 per shirt ironed seems a lot to me, but I'm a well known skinflint, and wouldn't be your target customer tbh!)

ilikewatch

I pay £1 per shirt or 12 for £10 for ironing at my local launderette, however, I live in Lincolnshire where prices are relatively low, I guess if I lived elsewhere I would be happy to pay the going rate.

BitterAndTwisted

tea_lover wrote: »

Roughly how many items is a kilo?

Baby's bibs and cotton handkerchiefs: probably dozens. Duvet-covers, probably about two. I'd rather hang myself than iron someone else's duvet covers.

Shirts are expensive because they are a beast to do properly and quickly. When I ironed my cotton work-shirts it used to take me about ten minutes to do only one.

peachyprice

No way would I pay £1.50 per shirt, my local is £4.15 per Kilo for everything, shirts included and 10p each extra if you want the shirts starched.

Tea Lover, a kilos is roughly 10 items of clothing.

spugzbunny

I live in Reading and I've seen one particular van drive around a fair bit. A quick look at there website suggests they charge £1.50 shirt and £15.50 per 3kg so you are looking competitive on your rates.

I wouldn't pay for ironing though!

cobbingstones

1 kilo is around the weight of 5 shirts.

Thanks

cobbingstones

Or the other option is price per item. So I could charge 85p per item and children's clothes half price (excluding duvet covers, sheets and curtains).

Would this work better?

Ich_2

We use a company that charges £7.50 per hour so more in tune with the stuff actually being ironed