doing cleaning in spare time how to start

celligraphy

Anyone have advice on how to start a home cleaning business / office cleaning ? I'm not sure what supplies would be needed or how much to charge , realizing I won't be getting a job anytime soon and rather start making money my own way thanks

jimmii

Around €10/hour seems to be the going rate but will vary slightly depending on the local competition. How much to charge would also depend on whether you supply the cleaning supplies too. In terms of how to start just start asking people if they need someone to come clean! Only other thing you need to do to get up and running is get insurance.

celligraphy

Might get flyers printed out and hand them around was also thinking of ironing clothes too maybe 10 per bag of clothes , I 'll ring up about insurance during the week would be great if I could pay it off monthly too

jimmii

Per bag might come back to haunt you people have some big bags! Better off making it per item or even per kilo or something like that.

newacc2015

jimmii wrote: »

Around €10/hour seems to be the going rate but will vary slightly depending on the local competition. How much to charge would also depend on whether you supply the cleaning supplies too. In terms of how to start just start asking people if they need someone to come clean! Only other thing you need to do to get up and running is get insurance.

Depends on the City. Dublin is a lot closer to €12-15 an hour. €10 was the norm well over 10 years ago. Cleaning supplies are cheap if you get them in Lidl. There is honestly nothing wrong with lidl cleaning stuff. It is just you are paying for Unilever or P&G multi-billion euro advertising.

OP have you consider hassle.com? You list your self on the site and people book you via the site

You need to tell Revenue you are self-employed. An accountant can tell Revenue immediately pretty much and you can start really soon. You will have to pay an accountant. You can do it yourself with Revenue. But it is like a 4-8 week wait to register for it.

jimmii

newacc2015 wrote: »

Depends on the City. Dublin is a lot closer to €12-15 an hour. €10 was the norm well over 10 years ago. Cleaning supplies are cheap if you get them in Lidl. There is honestly nothing wrong with lidl cleaning stuff. It is just you are paying for Unilever or P&G multi-billion euro advertising.

OP have you consider hassle.com? You list your self on the site and people book you via the site

You need to tell Revenue you are self-employed. An accountant can tell Revenue immediately pretty much and you can start really soon. You will have to pay an accountant. You can do it yourself with Revenue. But it is like a 4-8 week wait to register for it.

Yeh it depends on local competition! Hassle cleaners get paid €10/hour so thats very much the going rate but would definitely seem likely to result in more bookings well worth doing if possible.

celligraphy

Never heard of hassle , must give it a look tomorrow , and thanks for the heads up on the lidl supplies what's confusing me is if I were to get office work aftecr awhile do i need to supply the floor waxers and all that ?

Per item sounds like the best bet would 20c be suffiecient or is that far too low , while waiting to register will I still be able to work doing cleaning , I'm a qualified bookkeeper so could sort accounts myself

jimmii

celligraphy wrote: »

Never heard of hassle , must give it a look tomorrow , and thanks for the heads up on the lidl supplies what's confusing me is if I were to get office work aftecr awhile do i need to supply the floor waxers and all that ?

Per item sounds like the best bet would 20c be suffiecient or is that far too low , while waiting to register will I still be able to work doing cleaning , I'm a qualified bookkeeper so could sort accounts myself

Hassle is basically a booking agent much the same way Uber or Hailo works for taxis. If I were looking to book a cleaner that is where I would head.

In terms of how much to charge for ironing what do people normally get ironed? Time yourself ironing what you think will make up a typical load and then work out how much you need to charge to give yourself the hourly you are looking for. Problem with per item is people are obviously not going to get you ironing socks and are much more likely to start throwing in more duvet covers etc! Tricky one to work out.

Stheno

I pay 1 euro per shirt at my local ironing service.

newacc2015

celligraphy wrote: »

Never heard of hassle , must give it a look tomorrow , and thanks for the heads up on the lidl supplies what's confusing me is if I were to get office work aftecr awhile do i need to supply the floor waxers and all that ?

Per item sounds like the best bet would 20c be suffiecient or is that far too low , while waiting to register will I still be able to work doing cleaning , I'm a qualified bookkeeper so could sort accounts myself

AFAIK to be considered a contractor you need to supply some of the items yourself. Otherwise revenue will classify you as a employee.

You need to get a decent stream generator for ironing. It is a fair bit bigger than an iron but far more powerful. There used to be a waiting list for them in Dublin, as so many people were buying them to get into ironing businesses.

I think your pricing is far too low. I would maybe look at your local dry cleaner and knock 20-30% off as you have lower overheads.

I would get leaflets done and mail shot your local area. I know a few people who got their cleaner from it. I would get a separate mobile, so you can turn off your business phone now and again.

celligraphy

Apparently a black bag full of clothes to iron goes for 25 a bag in my area wow and I only wanted to charge 10.

Still going to invest in a good iron and time myself doing a bag full of my own just to see how it works out

VincePP

My two cents

When I was looking for a cleaner I ignored all the adverts that quoted €9 / €10 per hour and picked one that charged 12.50 and one that charged €40 for a 3 hour clean.

I finally picked the €40 person.

By not being afraid to charge well over the cheaper rates, it suggested she was good. When I met her she went through all the things she'd do and gave references of people in the locality.

4 years later she still comes once a week.


Basically, if you know what you are doing and won't take shortcuts, you can charge a proper price.

On the cleaning stuff - don't go for lidl / aldi, yes they are fine, but prople like brands and yo will always see offers in Dunnes / Tesco / Supervalu - simply stock up when flash/windolene etc is half price.