Did she take the piss deliberately or am I being U?

[Oopsydaisyy]

Got my first customer to do ironing for as I'm venturing in an ironing business. I advertised per black bin bag for £15, 4/5th full, not to the brim just to undercut a few companies. She gave me a huge sack that wasn't even a black bin bag and it has 50 items in it, very creased tops and long thick dresses and shirts as it has all literally been twisted and bunged in. So I worked all day for 30pence per item! I am a bit miffed. Can anyone tell me what to do in future to make a profit at least? What are you willing to pay? If you iron or have an Iron Lady, how much do you charge/they charge? I feel so silly and have shot myself in the bloody foot

I pay £7.50 for dps shirts to be washed and ironed

Otherwise I don’t iron anything.

£15 for a bin bag full sounds very very cheap.

My friend charges £10 per basket (normal laundry sized filled with folded items).

Another friend charges £10 per hour

She took the piss. So sorry. Time to get tougher, OP, and best of luck with your new business.

Hi OP,
Firstly you have to forget the “bag “ idea as it’s never going to work in your favour .
Also where are you located?

Hmm, so can you work out how long it takes you to iron the most nightmarish condition of a variety of types of clothes? Then you're accounting for the fact people may give you things in much more of a state than your own stuff would ever be in.

Do you slow down a bit because it's other people's clothes? If so, allow for that as well. What about if it's something delicate?

There's no harm in setting different standard rates for types of item as long as you're clear. The difficulty you've found with the black bag approach is that it's too vague (also, you can buy different volumes of black bin bag - I think I have 60 and 80 litre ones), open to people squishing things, and you have no control over how manageable the workload is.

But it's a useful lesson that you can put to good use in refining your approach, so don't be too disheartened.

I suspect people would pay more than you're banking on for the convenience if you do a good job, are reliable and trustworthy.

Do you need and do you have insurance in case something accidentally gets damaged?

A black bin bag could mean anything.
Round here ironing is charged by weight.

Don’t agree a price per bin bag

saraclara,
Yes your right.
The same here to .

I would charge by item. £2 a shirt or something. (that may be steep I have no idea but you get the idea)

I pay £10 per hour, it’s always a minimum of £10 to cover pick up drop off time and fuel.

People will happily pay more for things they consider valuable - so bring the value you provide to the forefront, don't try to compete by undercutting on price. Build your reputation.

Quality, convenience, reliability...etc etc. Go that way.

The danger of being the cheap option is that people might assume you won't be as good, won't be reliable, might rush and damage their clothes etc. Plus you'll get more people taking the piss.

Per item, or by weight.

I wouldn't be keen to pay someone by the hour unless they came recommended. It's not a transparent pricing model for the customer, just as "as much crap as you can ram into a black bin liner" isn't a great pricing model did you!

Good luck with it, OP

thetimekeeper,
Absolutely Right .
Totally agree with you.

I think it needs to be per item, but you need to factor in tat you spend less over all time doing 20 items for one person, than 2 items for 10 people.
I don't know if you collect / deliver or if they bring to you, but is obviously easier for you if you have 20 items from one person arrive at one time. You set up the board once, warm the iron once, put everything away once, bank the cash once, etc etc, so you might do a higher price for up to 5 items, and what then sounds like a 'bargain' price for a greater number of items (with the 'bargain' obviously being the real price and the 'individual items price' being a supplement).

You need to earn more than 30p per item. I was paying 60p per men’s shirt nearly twenty years ago.

Definitely per item. If you charge by the hour you could be accused of anything. Have a clear price list per item. Learning curve here, but I do know that local ironing ladies where I live do very well indeed. Research your competition, undercut by pence and I imagine you'll have a successful business! Good luck

Forget asking Mumsnet and research your own local area.

Ring up the service providers and ask what they charge.

No-one here is really going to help as much as local (to you) research.

Always charge per item! I used to do ironing about 11-12 years ago now, and even then I used to charge £1 for shirts, 80p for t-shirts, 80p for trousers, £2 for tablecloths, and 50p per item for anything else. No-one ever brought me any sheets, thank god! (Hate ironing them!). This was in a leafy part of Surrey, and I didn't pick up or drop off - they brought the stuff to me.

I used to pay per hour. That was 15 yrs ago £6.
My friend charges per basket load.. The flat baskets iyswim
She had one person who literally packed it all in sooo tight. My friend just explained that it needed just folding normally.

Don't beat yourself up OP. It is a learning curve and we all have to go through it in business to guage what the market will bear. Whether that's up or down there's scope to get it wrong.

I would say 12 items for 10 pounds or 25 for 20 pounds would be fair?

Either charge per item or by weight, if by weight, have one of those scales for weighing luggage that you hook on the bag, weigh as they drop off in front of them so they know how much it will cost & they cant argue that you are ripping them off.

I pay £4.50 per Kg for ironing in the SE

I pay £20 for a sac of up to 25 items with a maximum of 10 suit shirts but that includes collection and delivery.

OP has done it per bag as that's what she's seen others do. I've also seen that advertised.

But your first client has taught you....when you next receive a bag, you MUST point out if it's more than full...AND if it's not a standard black bag.

I agree per weight is a good idea.....weigh a load of laundry, decide what the ideal amount is for the money and on your ad say "X amount for X pounds....extras will be charged at X amount..." AND say "For your reference, this weight is around x mens shirts and x childrens' clothing"

We have a local service (never used them, my idea of 'ironing' is stick in tumble drier with damp cloth for 10 minutes, then hang to air/dry off)

They charge per kg. Free collection & delivery for a min 3kg then 4.50/kg.