Am I being unreasonable increasing my cleaning rates to £17.50 an hour?

[Chattychoo]

I am a cleaner , I am half semployed half self employed. I charge £15 an hour(north west) , some I provide cleaning products some they provide.
I last increased my rates 3 years ago but now employ my daughter a few hours a week.
I have a few clients I travel to (20 mile round trip) and due to inflation, fuel and general increased prices thought it was time for a price increase.
i have googled and tried to find what the general prices people charge and I don't want to overcharge anyone.
i have sent a couple of clients that I travel to an email raising to £17.50 an hour but it's not going down well. I haven't heard off one but the other has questioned it . I stated costs have risen and did mention fuel which I probably shouldn't have.
Ive been asked to re consider as it's now coming back down but all my other costs have gone up, insurance , minimum wage even cost of washing my cloths , even my rent so now I don't know how to reply , I feel I'm overcharging and wish I'd never mentioned it!

We are in wetherby and ours have increased recently to £22. I did think it was a lot but I don’t want to lose good cleaners. I think if you do a good job you are justified in the cost you are charging

I think the issue is you should have increased your prices on a yearly basis so that it’s expected and doesn’t come as too much off a shock when you increase your prices significantly after three years.
I would plough on with the increase if I was you, you may loose one or two clients but you’ll hopefully gain some more. To back down now will cause confusion and you’ll think you’ll never be able to raise them again.

Mine did mention petrol costs as well as everything else. Also being self employed has costs, no pension etc. I think you are justified in pointing these things out.

The price of fuel makes a difference to self employed people. My dog walker put hers up and it was fine because I would happily pay more rather than she shut her business due to rising costs making it uneconomical.

It’s fine for you to put your prices up and fine for them to question it and not want to pay the increase.

Do you pay tax OP?

I would stick to your guns, yes £ 2.50 is a pretty sharp rise but if you haven’t changed your rates in 3 years then it’s not really that much! That being said I wouldn’t mention fuel etc, just that business costs have increased.

Travelling 20 miles to collect £30/£45 is not goid business, realistically you will be driving for an hour.
£17.50 per hour is a fair rate if you are a good cleaner, yoyr mistaje was outting it up 15% all at once rather than a smaller % each year. I paid £15 (cash) about 7 years ago.

I have quite a few clients but sent the email to the 2 I have to travel 2 , I guess I wanted to see how they took it first. Not well apparently 🫤

That’s because you have an employer and a salaried position which is a completely different kettle of fish. I can almost guarantee that if you tried to book an out of area service provider like a plumber or electrician for example, that you’d be charged some sort of mileage as it’s out of their usual catchment area; it’s really no different for the OP apart from the fact she’s been sucking up the cost all this time.

The only mistake OP made was trying to justify the cost rather than just saying it’s due to “business needs”.

If her clients don’t like it, they can find a local cleaner who perhaps charges less but I know from experience that good cleaners are like gold dust which is probably why they looked further afield in the first place.

It's ok for you to raise your price and it's ok for your clients not to want to pay it. Not many people have seen their salaries go up by £2.50 an hour, and their salary still has to pay for petrol increases on their commute and so on. If they want to absorb your price increase they will try and find a way, and if they can't then they won't.

Not unreasonable at all. I used to be self employed, when you think that minimum wage is £12.71 p/h you might be actually earning less than that. If you factor in your business costs, such as, fuel, insurance, products, time spent on admin, ni and tax, pension contributions etc. I do think some people just don’t understand the associated costs with being self employed. No sick pay, no holiday pay. If you are busy let them find another cleaner!

As they grumbled I would look for more clients closer to you instead.

It doesn't sound unreasonable to me! It isn't really a £2.50 pay rise, because the increase is intended to cover all of your business costs, not just your labour!

I feel really sorry for self-employed people when their clients think that their hourly fee can be looked on as if it were the same as an hourly wage rate.

Yes I pay tax, ni and I also pay into a private pension

do not say leave it as it is, COL is only going to get worse and if you back down now you're going to feel as if you can never raise it again and will be working at a loss in a few years' time.

I'd reply saying something like 'I've undertaken market research (MN counts!) and this is a standard rate for the area, I'm sorry, but my previous rate is unaffordable for me to continue.' Maybe specify how much it costs you to make the round trip to them and tell them that once you've paid for insurance etc. you're actually earning under minimum wage.

At most you could compromise and say something like 'I can reduce it to £16.50 but I'm afraid no lower' or promise that you won't increase your prices again for at least x years, but definitely don't back down completely.

This ^
i think the key fact is that you haven’t raised your price for the last 3 years. I wouldn’t reconsider because where would you draw the line ? There is always someone who is unhappy.

Do you know what others in the area charge? Petrol aside, a £2.50 increase after 3yrs seems reasonable to me for your increased cost of insurance etc etc. You also gave them a months notice which is also reasonable. Don't sell yourselves short. If you lose these people, advertise on nextdor.com in your area or maybe flyers in supermarkets? I'm not sure I'd have different prices for different people either as it would surely get too confusing.

I've had the same dog groomer for a year. The day before visit, I get a reminder txt from her. This time the reminder informed me she had increased by £3 to £45 a time now. I appreciate that costs have risen, but I did feel a bit annoyed that the first I knew about it was the day before the visit. I'm still using her, recommending her and would be too embarrassed to try to barter the price!

Good reliable cleaners are like gold dust round me so charge what your worth as you will get clients willing to pay a fair price. 👍

Ditch the moany client as you’re losing money with the time and expense of travelling and I’m certain you’ll have no problem filling her slot with someone more local.

You're undercharging OP. Don't back down or you'll be stuck at that rate forever.

Message back saying unfortunately staying at the current rate isn't financially viable so prices will be going up by X amount from x date. You'll be able to fill their spot, good cleaners are hard to come by and your prices, with even the raise is competitive.

Have some faith in yourself.

I think you’re under charging. Did you give them 4 weeks advanced notice of the change?

You are not overcharging. Can you research prices of other local cleaning agencies for comparison?

I pay £20 in SW just risen from £18.50

if you lose people, others will cone along

I am a home based massage therapist I charge £40 an hour. People pay it after all costs etc it isnt actually anywhere near £40. You need to find your confidence and tell them its £17.50 an hour if they don't like then go elsewhere (they wont).

I think the issue maybe that you haven’t increased the price for everyone.