Customers who want term time only cleaning-should I ask for pavement/retainer-help

melissa'smoney

Hi all,
I have just started my own cleansing business and it's going well and I have a waiting list. I have a couple of customers who I took on and want term time only as they are teachers. I initially said yes but on review I cannot afford to drop 15 weeks a year pay, in effect half pay for the year. This isn't just pocket money for me this is a proper job which has to be finilancially viable but at the same time I want it offer people a flexible service.
What is reasonable to ask customers? Ask for weekly pavement regardless of whether they want me or not? Ask for a retainer for weeks they don't want me? (I charge £12 an hour for a minimum of 2 hours so was thinking £12 a week)
Any help would be appreciated please xx

Mojisola

melissa'smoney wrote: »

Hi all,
I have just started my own cleansing business and it's going well and I have a waiting list. I have a couple of customers who I took on and want term time only as they are teachers.

Drop the teachers and start working for people on your waiting list.

Pennywise

It's a commercial decision. You are certainly within your rights to write your contracts to include a retainer for the weeks you're not needed or even to insist on it being a regular service which they pay in full for whether they need you or not. Whether your customers will agree is a different matter, but if you are in demand, you can probably afford to lose the customers who don't want you regularly and replace them with those who do.

How about offering it as £12 per hour for a permanent, every week, regular booking, or say £15 per hour for term time and/or irregular work. Effectively giving a discount for a long term regular booking. In your contract they sign when they engage you, they either choose to pay £12 per hour every week until the agreement is terminate, or £15 per hour on a more casual "as and when needed" basis.

But £12 per hour isn't a lot, especially with the new living wage being introduced over the next few years. Given your travel time, down time, admin time, and your extra overheads of being self employed, it's probably barely minimum wage for the actual hours you work running your business. I can't get a window cleaner for less than £15 for less than an hour's work, so I do think you have scope to increase your prices generally and then you may not be so badly affected financially if some customers don't want you every week.

Mistral001

I would have thought there is not much you can do about it since I assume that all customers can dispense with your services at any time and you can stop going to them at anytime as well.

HappyMJ

I would go with £15/hour 37 weeks or a casual rate and £12/hour 46.4 week rates or a long term rate. You will earn exactly the same. I didn't say 52 weeks as I'm sure you would want some weeks off during the year too and that may also conflict with customers who also get 5.6 weeks of leave and may not want your services during that time.

Pennywise

Mistral001 wrote: »

I would have thought there is not much you can do about it since I assume that all customers can dispense with your services at any time and you can stop going to them at anytime as well.

Indeed, but presumably the customers would like the OP to come back and start cleaning again after the school holiday, so there has to be some kind of payback for the customer not having to spend time trying to find someone else, at short notice, if the OP has taken on a replacement customer, (perhaps a better customer in that it's someone who wants them all the time, not just 38 weeks of the year) in the meantime. I'd imagine it would be real pain to try to find a new cleaner so it must be worth it to pay a little more and retain one you're happy with.

RobsterUK

In a similar vain to what others have said I think you could reasonably switch to trying to get a consistent income from people who don't want cleaning outside term time by offering them a monthly rate for up to one visit or X number of hours per week that's cheaper per week or per hour than your normal rate. That way you get the same income from them every month and if you get any ad-hoc work in the weeks they don't need you it's a bonus.

As for what your normal rate is I'd say increase it to £15/hr. I did gardening for a while and charged £15/hr and I'd say they are comparable jobs. I know it's a scary step to make as you're not sure if people will accept the higher rate, but I've done similar and it was fine. I run a man with van business and I started off charging £20/hr. I was very hesitant to do it but after a while I started charging £25/hr and I didn't notice any affect on my bookings.

Another thought is that you might be able to pick up some extra work in the summer doing end of tenancy cleaning for landlords as students generally move house in July. Also people in general move house a lot more in the summer months.

RobsterUK

By the way, do you have a website or facebook page? (not sure if you're allowed to post it here so maybe PM me)

melissa'smoney

Thank you all for your time in replying you have been an invaluable help and made a lot of sense.
The £15 ph for term timers is a great idea and I will definately go with this, I'm not sure how to word it though so if anyone could help me put a simple text message together to send that would be fabulous.
End of tenancy cleans are also a fab idea as are one off deep cleans on the weeks I have less customers so will look into this.
RobsterUK-yes I have a Facebook page-my business is called Spick and Span. I have t got a website as yet, I was trying to have as little start up costs as possible and so far FB has been wonderful and my customers have come from there or word of mouth.

I''m not sure I can put my prices up as yet as only been 'trading' for two weeks but I will definately consider this for later In the year, I also provide all my own cleaning products.

Again, thank you so much for your help. It's so hard to know what to do when your self employed and I end up missing out or out of pocket as I'm too giving and I need to be more business savvy!

Thanks, melissa x

HappyMJ

As you've only been trading for two weeks then £12 introductory rate to attract customers is fine, Make sure you tell them it's just an introductory rate and it could go up at any time when you've got a full schedule.

Mojisola

melissa'smoney wrote: »

It's so hard to know what to do when your self employed and I end up missing out or out of pocket as I'm too giving and I need to be more business savvy!

Keep very careful records of every penny spent and hours worked - you quickly toughen up if you realise that you're working for a couple of pounds an hour!