Talk to me... do you have a cleaner or are you a cleaner

[Studyinghell]

I'm thinking of starting cleaning self employed part time. What do I need to know?
Have you got a cleaner, how much pay and what services do you expect?
Are you a cleaner? Do I need specialist insurances? Any info would be appreciated

I pay £40 for about 2.5 - 3 hours a week (but some of that goes to the agency).

The only time I have felt I have had a problem with a cleaner is when a former cleaner lost the keys to my house twice in the space of a few months. Both times were apparently accidental, but I wasn't very happy about the fact that she had been carrying my keys around all the time rather than storing them safely on the days when they were not needed. So I think my top tip would to be very careful with clients' keys, and to think about insurance to cover that possibility.

I pay £20 and she does between 1.5 and 2 hours. She is a neighbour and also feeds my cats if we are away for a couple of nights.

I pay £25 for up to 2 hours.
Sometimes it's 1:45 but the fee is still £25.
I would not expect her to clean my fridge or oven.
If she could do that I would expect to pay her more.
Hoovers, dusts, mops, cleans work surfaces, bathroom, etc...
Basically what I would do if I was to clean my house but done much better!

She uses her own organic cleaning supplies.
Her own sponges etc....
She likes to use 'employers' hoover but mine is so shite she brings her own (Yes G-Tech you are crap)
She uses my mop and bucket.

And there's usually a huge demand for cleaners.
It took me an age to find one when we moved.
Get your name out there when you go out and let people know.
Facebook community page and facebook selling page are great places to start.

Thanks every1 for all your replies, v helpful, I'm definetly getting liability insurance sorted & sticking to domestic cleaning :)
It's seems very personal to each person about using my products or the clients so think I'm going to deal with that when I get enquiries.
After looking on websites and reading all the replies I'm thinking £8.50ph (not ovens and big jobs) assuming that they will be providing the products.
What do you all think?? I'm based near sheffield so don't really think I could charge London wages

£8.50 an hour is so so cheap. That's just £1 over minimum wage, factor in fuel or travel time, insurance, costs for advertising if you go down that route, plus admin time to write their invoices, and you'd probably earn less than minimum wage. Personally I think you'd be selling yourself short. There is demand for domestic cleaners, charge more!

£12.50 ph for my wonderful cleaner who has insurance and brings her own hoover, mops and cleaning products.
We were both v clearat the start what was expected.
Why don't you or a friend ring a few local cleaners to see what the local prices are?

8.50 is an insult to you and all the other cleaners working hard to dispel the myth that all cleaners are cash in hand on the fiddle and happy with being chucked a couple of quid.

To be honest if you can't figure out why this figure is too low despite me spelling it out to you then self employment isn't for you.

Absolutely agree with you! @donajimena

£8.50 is absurdly low. To be honest if I was looking for a cleaner and someone quoted £8.50 an hour I would wonder what was wrong with them and not be inclined to hire them.

You need to check out other cleaners in your area to get an idea of price. I don't think you should charge less than £11, £10 if you really feel that you need to get some experience first but I still think £10 is too low.

I think £8.50 is too low

You also need to account for fuel/bus or train travel to the jobs, your insurance, advertising yourself, cleaning products if you are providing them.

Look up other cleaners for your area and see what they charge for an idea of what people pay locally

My cleaner is £12.50 per hour and I'm in NI.

She is fab and most importantly to me flexible. Sometimes she can't make it due to family commitments and that's fine by me as sometimes I need to change her. I appreciate this arrangement might not suit everyone.

She is not insured. I consider it my risk if she breaks something.

I met her through a recommendation and have recommended her to various family members and friends and she now works for them all.

In somewhere the size of where I live, a recommendation is worth its weight in gold. A good reputation is everything.

donajimena I am already self employed, have been for almost 10 years... it's just cleaning for a living is new to me.
Thanks every1 for your replies again. In my local (village) paper 3 different cleaners are advertising between 8.50 and £10ph so thought it would be better to go in on the low end. I have called up a couple of larger businesses and one of those only charged 10.50ph.
Also regarding the references, do you think clients would mind they are totally not related to cleaning, would it put you off? Or would you be more bothered about reliability etc
Thanks again

What type of jobs the references are for wouldn't bother me personally if I liked you at the interview/chat we had. Reliability would be my corncern as I said before my current cleaner I had a lot of problems with turning up late/not turning up late/changing the day at the last minute etc

Don't sell yourself short just because you're a new start up.
Cleaning is really hard work and you don't want to take on clients at a low rate and then regret it. I speak from experience!
It's easier using all of your own products and cloths. You know what item is good for floors/furniture/toilets etc so doesn't waste time.
I've got insurance with Aviva. It's only about £5.50 a month.

As a PP mentioned, on the first few cleans of a new house i do approx half an hour extra at no cost to the customer.

Get some epsom salts in for when you finish work and need a hot bath.

We are a domestic cleaning service and very much involved in the industry.

You will not get far on much less that £12 per hour, all expenses considered. If you ever want to grow with staff like we did you need around £15 per hour coming in to pay employee costs plus all the other associated costs of doing business. We charged around that until we hit the VAT threshold and that takes our rate to around £18 per hour now but we still can't hire fast enough to meet the demand for service.

We are in the North West. Apparently cleaning is cheaper in London because of all the people trading illegally driving the London market down.

Elsewhere premium prices are easier to command, having said that, i do have a friend with a cleaning company in London and she has no trouble pricing like we do and she too cannot hire fast enough to meet the demand so i think, once you get established as good you can name your price.

If you go in cheap now (£10 an hour or less) you will regret it bitterly down the line, you will find you are left with much less than min wage with all things considered, and the customers you will have attracted will not want to be converted to your higher prices. You will be stuck in the low end of the market.

Price correctly now and you will make it work for the long haul with potential to grow.

Also the bigger companies charging as low as £10.50 per hr have ways of cutting the service level to match that price so they can advertise a low price on their website. The often have higher 'tiers' of service level available too.

No quality service would charge anywhere near as low as that.

I would start at £10ph. People won't expect to pay less

The main thing (apart from doing the cleaning!) is reliability.
In the past year I've tried 2 cleaners both who ended up cancelling 3 out of 4 weeks on most months.

I pay £10 per hour south east. The fee was set by the cleaner
I think you should charge £9 to £9.50ph. My dad is in the NE and pays about £9. His income is quite low so he couldn't afford more tbh

I think you should charge minimum of 12.00 it might sound harsh but a low income isn't your concern.
Sainsburys doesn't lower its prices for my low income friends.

dona is right. You would barely make a living at £10 an hour and any less you may as well just clean for free. You will be a busy fool.

Cost it all out - you need at least min wage for the actual time spent cleaning on job sites, for any travel time , for time spent doing things for your business, sourcing and buying supplies etc. time in admin and developing your service. You need to cost in fuel costs, insurance costs, paying for damage (insurance usually has an excess of £250 so small damage not covered but some clients will expect you to pay for it) paying for supplies and equipment, and it goes on and on.

The £10 an hour brigade don't last long, they either pack it in as it isn't going anywhere and they are working for peanuts or they get wise and raise their prices then they can afford to be in it for the long game.

I would say a bare minimum is £12 per hour to make it pay you a wage.
it's blooming hard work to do it well and you need to be able to take a wage for yourself after all that.

Our cleaners are from an agency and come for 3 hours every fortnight - this is the minimum they will do. It's actually 3 people who come for 1 hour. It's £14.50 an hour - so £87 a month. I do think it's expensive and they do an ok job but it doesn't blow me away and I am wondering whether I should cancel and look for a non-agency cleaner. They hoover, dust, clean and mop the floors. I tidy the night before so they can work around things. I do not expect them to change/make beds. They are insured and have their own key, as I hate being in when they come x