CBL Episode #63-What are Production Rates for your Cleaning Business?

Unlock the secrets of crafting the perfect pricing strategy for your cleaning business as we dive into the world of production rates. Ever wondered how to give your business that silent raise? You'll learn exactly that as we dissect the standard rates for maintenance and move-out cleanings and reveal how increased efficiency can boost your profits without changing a single price tag. This episode isn't just a lesson in numbers; it's about shaping a prosperous future for your cleaning enterprise.

This time, we put on the business hat to stress the undeniable importance of understanding the nuts and bolts of your cost structure and pricing strategy. From labor expenses to the pivotal role of insurance and supplies, we cover it all to shield you from the treacherous undercurrents of underpricing. Get ready to arm yourself with the knowledge that will help you sail through the choppy seas of the cleaning industry, ensuring your venture isn't just a flash in the pan but a legacy that thrives and endures.

Questions? Feel free to reach out!

Shannon Miller: cleaningbusinesslife@gmail.com

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Chapters

• 0:01 Cleaning Business Production Rates Guide
• 6:43 Importance of Understanding Pricing in Business

Transcript

Shannon Miller: 0:01

This show is brought to you by the Maids Network. Want to get serious in your cleaning game? Join my group. It's one of the larger Facebook groups just for cleaning business owners. I look forward to seeing you there. Recording in progress.

Shannon Miller: 0:16

Welcome everyone to Cleaning Business Life and today we are going to talk about production rates. Believe it or not, in our industry we have them. They seem to be some hidden gem that we don't find out about until usually or about, I want to say, a year in and we're like what? There are production rates for this! And the reason why I'm bringing it up is because production rates play into your pricing and if you don't know what production rates should be for a professional house cleaner here in America, it kind of makes it difficult for you to make a decision over how to price. So right now, production rates for regular maintenance cleanings is right around 500 to 600 square feet per hour. When you are brand spanking new, your production rates might be 300 to 400 square feet per hour. When you are brand spanking new, your production rates might be 300 to 400 square feet in an hour. So what does the 500 square feet in an hour mean to you? That means that if you have a 1,500 square foot home, it hypothetically should take you three hours to clean that home.

Shannon Miller: 1:22

Now, everybody lives a little different, we all know. So sometimes you'll be able to get in and out lickety split and it'll be a two hour clean, and other times it'll be two and a half. But you know that you've priced it for three whole hours. So if you're pricing for three whole hours, you should be able to come up with whatever the national average is and multiply that by three. And the great thing about this production rate and this is just without adding in dogs, cats, kids, spouses and anything else that goes along with the house as soon as you learn how to clean the house if it's you still out cleaning or as soon as your cleaning tech learns how to clean the house by default, you will automatically make more money per hour and give yourself a raise by cleaning the house in a short amount of time. And that always makes it nice to give yourself a raise by default. You don't have to ask for anything, you just come in and out. You know it's perfect. You can adjust it with your cleaning tech depending on how you pay. It can be a little complicated and we can have a conversation about pay in another episode, but right now we're just going to talk about production rates.

Shannon Miller: 2:29

As far as production rates for move-out cleanings and you have to remember that I have done over 8,500 move-out cleanings in the area that I reside and for those of you who don't know, I live in Northern Arizona, right next to Sedona. Not too many people can say that, so we're neighbors, it's a stone's throw to Sedona and I'm lucky enough to be able to travel into Sedona at least once a week to go get my mail and, you know, visit and all that other stuff. But the production rates should be known and you should be conscientious so that you can make an educated decision when you're giving out a price. So, as I just mentioned, we do a lot of move out cleanings. I think right now we're on number 110 and it's just May. We haven't even hit June, july or August, which is the really busy season for us, and the move out season usually starts for us in April. So we do a lot of move-out cleanings every year and the production rates vary. So the production rate can vary depending on a third person. For example, a 3,000 square foot home might be done by a third person. Or a 4,000 square foot home should definitely be done by a third person. 6,500 square foot home should be a team of four. So you need to learn all of these dynamics so that you can make an educated decision on when you're giving out a price.

Shannon Miller: 3:57

So when you're doing move-out cleanings, production rates are usually and this is just the norm. It doesn't mean it's exact, it's not gospel, it's just a guide to go by. So production rates for a move-out cleaning are typically 300 to 400 square feet per hour per person. So if you were to have a 1,500 square foot home like we're going to use that because it's easy math and we know that when I'm talking, I can't do math by myself. I just can't easy math and we know that when I'm talking I can't do math by myself, I just can't. So if we took a 1500 square foot home and we divided that into a 300 square foot per hour production rate, that means that move-out cleaning hypothetically will take about five hours. Does it mean that it will take five hours? No, in my experience I find that most move-out cleanings require 15 to 20 hours of labor. That's why they're priced a little different. But I wanted to give you the production rate so that you were comfortable and understanding what that is for that particular type of cleaning.

Shannon Miller: 5:00

Top to bottom deluxe cleanings the production rate, depending on how much stuff is in the home and what is going on, is right around the 350 mark to 450 mark per person. So if they have a lot of antiques, obviously that production rate is going to scale down really low. We had someone who had Tiffany lamps that should have been in a museum. So because we didn't want to break things, we had to move really slow. So the production rate for that particular house was 200 square feet per hour and yes, it did take a lot longer to do and yes, the homeowner agreed to it. But I didn't want to break a piece of antiquity and get a bad name for myself out there with my reputation for my business. So these are all things to consider. So there is the regular maintenance cleaning. The top to bottom deluxe cleaning and move out cleanings are the top three cleanings that you should focus on your very first year when you're out there cleaning as a business professional, that you should focus on your very first year when you're out there cleaning as a business professional, and those are roughly what the production rates should be hypothetically, and there's lots of variations, a lot of variables that play into getting your production rate.

Shannon Miller: 6:07

But I just wanted to be able to give you some sort of guide so that you could go oh, I heard that on a podcast somewhere. Where did I hear that from? And then you can go. Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember. So a lot of this is described in detail. For my course that has been seen thousands of times. It's called the Pricing Blueprint Masterclass. It is not an app. It is an actual class that you have to use your noggin for. It requires basic math and subtraction and maybe a little bit of multiplication. But I always give the example of every time we go out and the computers go down and then no one knows how to count cash.

Shannon Miller: 6:43

You should know the background behind why you're pricing, what you're pricing. It's worrisome that everyone is depending on an app to give them a price. Well, what if the app is wrong? What if someone else's opinion of what that should be? You should understand the background behind why you're pricing and what you're pricing, so that you can give a better price and a better understanding of where your margins are for your labor costs. You know labor costs workman's comp, payroll taxes, general liability, internet, computer gas, company cars, insurance for company cars, uniforms, supplies, vacuums I mean you name it. There's a lot of expenses when you run a legitimate business. So keep that in mind next time you're going. Hmm, how much should I price this?

Shannon Miller: 7:27

And you have to be careful too, because if you're not familiar with what your production rates are, you're probably not going to price high enough and you ultimately could bankrupt yourself inadvertently, and that is never a fun realization to come to terms with. You've been operating, you've been working it and grinding it and you're just not making ends meet, and then you suddenly realize that you have to take out a loan, or you've sold a car, or you're bankrolling your cleaning business with another job. I see these things happen all the time. So make sure that you are pricing high enough that you are making money. The whole point of teaching all of you thousands, hundreds of thousands of you is so that you can build a business that you can sell or you can gift to your family, and then someone else can take the torch and run with it, right? So that's the whole point of doing all the craziness is not to run yourself and bankrupt yourself out.

Shannon Miller: 8:21

You have to be able to charge enough money to make it here in our industry, as our industry grows and grows and grows. So keep that in mind next time you're giving a price. Make sure you understand what production rates are for our industry. And, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I look forward to hearing from you. Take care, cleaning Business Life is sponsored by Pure Evergreen Cleaning Products. That's P-U-R-E-V-E-R-G-R-E-E-Ncom. Pure Evergreen Cleaning Products.