If you are a cleaner and self employed may I pick your brains? (or if you have a cleaner actually)

[ConnorTraceptive]

I'm looking for something I can do during the times ds is at nursery and thought cleaning would be an option. I don't want to go employed as I want flexibility and want to stay local.

So my questions are:

1. How to advetise myself (leaflets/shops??)

2. I will only be able to offer 2 hour slots
   at a time will this be enough time for most people (I know it depends on the house size but do you think there would be enough people who would find 2 hours plenty)

3. Do you use your own cleaning products or do customer prefer you to use theirs? My main reason for this is that at home I prefer eco stuff but some people might prefer more industrial strength stuff.

4. What is the current going rate for a cleaner these days

TIA

1. We got our cleaner from a flyer through the door

1. We have 2 hours per week. If people wanted more than that, they could book two sessions per week.

1. Cleaner brings her own cleaning products, which I much prefer as I don't have to worry about whether anything is running out. She brings her hoover too, which is again good because I don't have to worry about whether ours needs emptying etc.

1. We pay £12.50 per hour to a franchise.

Thank you marioncole that's very helpfull

Careful with bringing your own hoover - if you use it in a house where there are pets, then take it to another house where there is someone with allergies, you might not be popular.

I used to have a cleaner, and she used all my cleaning products - she left the bottle out on the kitchen table if I needed to get some more.

Ads - leaflets and local shops.

2 hours is a good wedge of time - I have 3 hours to clean the whole house (3 bedrooms, fairly generously-sized).

Advertise at your nursery & any local parent groups. I wouldn't get stuck with bringing my own products but would say you like eco products & give them a list of what to get.

That's a good point about the hoover poledra wouldn't have thought of that!

What about payment is it best to set up a direct debit or just bill them weekly/monthly?

I have a weekly 2hr slot; it's actually 2 ladies who do 1 hr each.

They bring the hoover but expect me to supply the cleaning products and they leave me a note when things are running out.

I pay cash and leave it in the kitchen on the appropriate day - am I the only one paying this way?

1. Gumtree (I've contacted people advertising on there before) or the newsagents. Be clear what you do - laundry, ironing, beds as well?
2. Maybe
3. Cleaners have always without exception used my products
4. Depends where you are. £10/hour could be reasonable for a short visit. I would say market is more like £9 round here although I do have more hours. If you take the products along you are definitely entitled to charge more - they aren't cheap. For a 2hr slot I would say cash payment.

I generally don't take on people now without a reference (just someone I can call up, but then my cleaner would always be around for long periods without anyone else). Good luck.

where are you.i would love to have someone a couple of hours aweek. i would have thought providing the materials would be fine and about £10 per hour is resonable.

2 hours slot would be good, my cleaner uses my products ( but instructs me what to buy and when to buy more!), £11/ph.

Coming a bit late to this but here are my answers as someone who has a (wonderful) cleaner:

1. We found ours by word of mouth, and round here, good ones get snapped up really quickly! I would suggest a couple of notices on boards or flyers would do the job. Or do a couple of 'trial' cleans for some people to get recommendations.

2. We have only ever had two hours a week. We have a 3 bed semi, and she doesn't do everything every week. So it is usually kitchen and bathroom every week, living room/stairs/hall/landing week 1, and bedrooms week 2. Sometimes if not much needs doing (or if I've had to do an interim clean if we've had guests etc.) then my amazing cleaner will also do some ironing, which is a godsend, if you don't mind! I have also offered her extra work from her own home if she wants to take a bag of extra ironing and she always does! My Mum used to have the same lady, and still 2 hrs a week for a bigger 4 bed detatched house.

3. Our cleaner uses our cleaning products, just leaves a note when something needs replacing or the hoover needs emptying/fixing etc.

4. We're in Cheshire (so NW) and pay £9 an hour. To be honest we put the rate up each new year without the cleaner asking us to, so I am not sure what she charges other people, I have just taken it on myself to increase by 50p an hour each Jan. Until she tells me I'm being too stingy I will continue to do so! That's direct cash in hand to the cleaner, no agency etc. I pay her 2 weeks holiday money a year, which I kind of (silently) object to as I think self-employed people should manage their own holiday pay cover etc. (my Dad is self-employed and nobody pays him when he's not there), but it's not worth arguing over so I just cough up.

You could be onto a good thing. Good reliable cleaners are hard to find, and certainly round here, once someone has a 'slot', they are loathe ever to let it go! E.g. even when I was unemployed for a couple of months, I still moved heaven and earth to afford the cleaner, even though I could have cleaned myself, as losing her would have meant struggling to get her back again if she filled the slot.

D

1. We have a local magazine and cleaning companies advertise through that, although leaflet through door may work too. Once you get one client, if you are any good then you should find no problem getting word of mouth recommendations

2)2 hours should be fine, but make sure you are realistic about how much you can do in this time, and suggest twice a week if people are wanting larger house cleaned or ironing done as well

3)Cleaner uses our stuff, I suppose it would be slightly easier if she used her own, but it's not a big issue either way

4)We pay £20.00 for 3 hours for the cleaner plus £2.50 per hour for the agency, we are in Edinburgh. I'd be more happy paying the cleaner the full amount, but use an agency as saves faff for me. Don't pay holiday pay, but do give a christmas card with extra weeks pay and pay her for christmas week even though not here.

For payment we have always paid cash for cleaners and paid weekly.

Good luck

I found my cleaner as one of my CM's other mums set up a cleaning company. I have seen other cleaners advertise in our local paper, post office and preschool. Her DH now works in the business and they are planning on taking on staff as they are so busy

We have 2hrs per week for a 4 bed, which is on the minimal side, although i know that I can clean it well in that time, so expect a cleaner to be able to do so

They generally use my cleaning products, but bring some bits of their own along in a 'granny trolley'

I pay £9ph, but this was discounted from £10 as i recommended her to a few friends. We pay cash, but they have given us bank details so we can pay by standing order if we want

Good luck with it

I used to have a cleaner when i lived in manchester so can tell you the following:

1. I searched on internet - so may be good to advertise this.

1. We had a 2 hour slot once a week but directed this was for specific things such as oven, bathrooms etc so might be good idea to get direction on what specifically they want done if you think the house itself would be too big to clean everywhere in 2 hours.

1. They gave me the option of paying £1 extra per hour if they used their own products or the normal hourly rate if they used mine.

1. I paid £10 per hour to a cleaning company.

Can i just also say good for you in getting out their and staring on your own - i really wish you every sucess.