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

Charge per item.

£1 per men's work shirt.

Not £1. £1.50 at least, and that’s still a bargain.

Ours do it by weight, I need to get them to come this week so will get you a price. They have Ikea bags or I and others just fill up our own then they have these hook scales they come to the door with. They do add a bit on for frilly, double layer or silk tops and things like flouncy maxi dresses. Not sure how much though off top of my head and they text me to let me know, but I know they’ll be extra now when I put those things in but they don’t know until they’ve been through it.

£15 per black bin bag? Definitely taking the piss. Thing is, you can buy wheels bin bags. What if someone turned up with one of those full? Yikes!

Wheely * Darn auto correct.

Per item doesn’t work as there’s too much variation, for instance a very thin work shirt or poly mix duvet cover will be quicker to iron than heavy weight of cotton which will take more steam, water and elbow grease.

Well you need to get your prices sorted. Did you not see that coming?

My ironing lady charges £25 per bin bag , she has some specs around it. I have given her a too full bag before and she ironed it and charged me £32.
I didn’t complain cause I knew I gave her a lot ( I stopped using a bin bag and used a reusable bag so was difficult to measure bin bag size)

My lovely ironing lady has worked for me for over twenty years. She charges by the hour. It's the fairest way.

You could charge by weight, and then by how badly creased. So X weight, badly creased £x, standard creased £x.

Ignore that. I meant to delete not post!

I live in SE and pay my ironing lady £13.50 per hr and she manages a large basket of ironing in 4/4.5 hrs. She's fab.

My ironer charges by the hour - surely that is the fairest way? I try to makes sure everything is as smooth and uncreased as possible. I have had her for 20 years and one move, I am sure she must be coming up for retirement - dreading it!

I take ironing into the cleaners when it all gets too much. She charges per weight. She huffs and puffs over the cotton tops uf they're very creased, but I got six tops done for 9.95 last time. It was worth it to me as I work full time.

£10 for 5 shirts washed & ironed. I take them to cleaners and collect here. You need to be earning at least £12-£15 ph self employed to cover minimum wage + ni + tax etc

I fill a blue ikea bag and its always £15-20 regardless of the items in it.

I simply cannot imagine ironing my way through an entire Ikea blue bag (you can fit a wardrobe full in one of those things!) for 15 or 20 quid.
Whoever does it is being seriously exploited.

I'd time yourself and see how many items you can iron per hour. I times myself once while trying work shirts and I can do only 7 shirts an hour . So I wouldn't never be able to get even minimum wage unless charged over 1 Pound per item.
But see how much you do for an hour and start from there. And take into account electricity costs too. Good luck!

*ironing

Haven't read the whole post but I stopped taking in ironing for exactly the same reason OP. Once I was given a black bin bag with stuff in that must have been there for months if not years. I couldn't get the creases out, and they needed washed again. People are just CF.

And factor in the cost of your electricity too...

BIT Late to this but paid £20 per 40 items plus £1.50 I think for bedding this was about 7 years ago came back on hangers wrapped in plastic the next night she was great had to give her up when I went part time wish I’d id kept her though as takes me a day to iron the same

And yes OP your customer is taking liberties isn’t there a new app to do washing ironing for people wash sava or something it’s advertised advertised on tv

You’ll easily find what other local people are charging. Don’t guess it!!

I’m in Scotland where things are apparently cheap and had my first load of ironing done this week. It was £18.50 for 30 items which was around 60p per item. This was the cheapest I could get and less items would have been more pricey per item.

To charge per black bag etc is ridiculous. Like when you buy pic n mix by the cup in wilko - you’re not just gonna half fill it are you.

Weighing with luggage scales is actually a really good idea too but Xkg of plain t shirts and leggings is going to take way less time to do than the same amount of flouncy tops.

Ironing is a really difficult one to quantify!

When sending mine away last week I did think I can’t believe I’m paying the same for my jeans/work tops etc and the DCs little leggings that take one swipe each side (should probably just be doing them myself!)