To charge £10 an hour as a cleaner?

[shrunkenhead]

Just the above, really. Times are hard and have asked my boss if she has a house cleaner and she said she didn't but needs ones so volunteered my services.Am also advertising in my local area. Do you think £10 per hr is about right or too low? I am fully CRB checked and don't smoke so won't be bobbing off for fag breaks every ten mins.

£10 per hour is about right. As worra (non pissily) said, you need to think about insurance. You also need to register with HMRC, and remember to save for the tax bill (am assuming it's a second job as you mention your boss so will be taxable at a fairly high rate).

I used to be a SE cleaner for a number of years.

You must register as self employed with the HMRC for self assessment purposes. Even if you're only going to be cleaning for 2 hours a week and earning £20, you must still register within 3 months of 'starting your business' as they call it.

I charged £8 per hour (Glasgow-ish area) and supplied my own products. I also don't drive, so walked or used public transport. I had all my cleaning stuff in a little 'granny' shopping trolley which had my business name and contact details sewn onto it.

i also advertised locally and had some leaflets printed out by vistaprint. I also got two t-shirts printed out to match the leaflets, which i wore to my cleaning jobs, visiting potential customers for quotes, and delivering leaflets.

I charged by hour, not by tasks/roomsize. They just listed what they wanted me to do for the day and how long they wanted me for, and i cracked on. If, for example, they wanted me to clean the inside of their oven and microwave, depending on the state of them, this might be all I'd manage to do in 2 hours.

I took out insurance, but never had to claim on it thankfully. It cost me about £70 for the year and i took it out mainly to put my customers at ease.

You must think about how you will be paid. Cash? Paypal? Bank transfer? Cheque? And you must keep tabs of all incoming and outgoings for HMRC purposes.

You should be able to manage your 'books' by yourself unless you get ludicrously busy and have to emply staff etc. In that case, you may want to look into an accountant.

I'm happy to pass on any advice if you want to know anything?

That's what I pay in the SW. She is relatively expensive as most cleaners charge £8.50 but she is fab. If you are going to charge a higher price be prepared to clean REALLY well there will be cheaper cleaners out there.

Thanks, Ewe, that's really helpful and informative. Thanks for everyone's input and advice, appreciate it.

I know people who pay £15 per hour. We're in Cornwall.

I'm from Cornwall originally, Lemon, so prob fair price for that area of the world. Don't want to out price myself as new to this malarkey!

I live in the Southof England and cleaners in my town charge around £12 an hour.

I pay that in Central Southern England.

Simply Business will sort out insurance for you, you can get a quote on-line.

£10 an hour is fine, i am a self employed cleaner.

am in the midlands, around here cleaners / cleaning agencies charge anything from £8 - £15 an hour

£8 an hour for an agency cleaner here.

I pay £10/hour, we are in East Anglia.

Sorry , forgot to say it's an agency cleaner and they are all insured.

Cleaners £10-12 per hour round here (SE) good luck

I think £10 an hour is v reasonable.

Non smoker would be a big factor for me in choosing a cleaner.

I pay £10 per hr here in West Midlands and so do my mum in devon and sister in london. Was quoted £50 for 3 hrs by one local agency - theyd have to be amazing to charge that!

LaQueen, stop pissing on the OP's french fries with all your insurance talk!

Fairly standard rate IMO (south - outside London weighting)

I pay £8 an hour in Cheshire.

I pay £15 for one hour a week, and for that my entire (though admittedly small) house is dusted, polished, vacuumed & mopped, plus bathroom cleaned. I think that's a bargain