CBL Episode#123 R-E-N-G-O-T-I-A-T-I-O-N... after the fact!

Pricing mistakes can cost your cleaning business thousands of dollars and countless hours of frustration. In this candid discussion, we break down a real-world example of a cleaning professional who found themselves working for less than $10 per hour after failing to properly communicate their pricing structure.

The cleaning industry is booming with new entrepreneurs, but many struggle with the crucial skill of setting clear expectations from the start. We examine how vague initial quotes, lack of proper contracts, and the absence of deposit requirements can lead to painful financial lessons. When a cleaner quoted a maintenance rate of $250-300 but only vaguely mentioned the deep clean would be "higher," they set themselves up for disappointment when the client simply left $250 on the counter after 21+ hours of work.

We share practical strategies for avoiding this common trap, including implementing non-negotiable deposit requirements, creating time-limited quotes, clearly differentiating between maintenance and deep cleaning rates, and utilizing proper contracts or digital agreements. As seasoned professionals, we emphasize that confidence in your service value is essential - remember that clients called you because they need your expertise.

Perhaps most importantly, we stress that proper business systems need to be in place before you begin serving clients. While it may feel uncomfortable to discuss money or require deposits, especially for people-pleasers, these boundaries are what separate sustainable businesses from those that struggle. Whether you're a solo cleaner or running multiple teams, these foundational business practices will help you build a cleaning business that's both respected and profitable.

The July 2025 Promo Course is this link:

https://klean-freaks-university.newzenler.com/courses/best-seller-pricing-blue-print-master-class

What pricing mistakes have you made in your cleaning business? Share your experiences and help others avoid the same costly errors!

Here is the link to my contract bundle: https://klean-freaks-university.newzenler.com/courses/basic-contract-bundle

It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from

Chapters

• 1:44 When Negotiation Goes Wrong
• 2:52 Breaking Down the Problem Post
• 7:07 Negotiation Tips and Deposit Requirements
• 13:12 Creating Clear Communication with Clients
• 20:28 Setting Proper Boundaries and Time Limits
• 28:08 Final Advice and Call for Reviews

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

All right yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:00

We're celebrating, we get a nice little break after this episode launches, and this Not for you guys the listeners.

Speaker 1: 1:09

No, we do shows a day and we try to throw an interview in on those days too, to bring you guys great content that we know that everybody loves to listen to and learn. And what are we talking about today?

Speaker 2: 1:28

Well, we're talking about taking on jobs and then realizing you shorted yourself, and then you try to renegotiate the deal at the end and then, when it doesn't work out in your favor, you get frustrated and upset. There's a process to doing everything, and this stems from being new in the industry and not being comfortable in negotiations. I can read you this post and we're not going to call out names, because we're not here to call people out per se but, um, these are. This will be like the. I think this is like the ninth or tenth time we've covered this, but it needs to be readdressed because it's starting to come up again and it's our industry as a whole is growing lightning fast. Everybody wants a cut of the cleaning industry now we're pop, now we're the populars. Everybody wants a cut of the cleaning industry Now we're pop, now we're the populars, right? No?

Speaker 1: 2:19

longer the sum of the earth because we're cleaners.

Speaker 2: 2:22

Everybody wants a slice of what we're offering, and because of that we have a lot of new people coming in. So I thought we would take the time to readdress. This is really important and it's really hard to renegotiate at the end and most of the time you'll just get the big fat middle finger because you agreed.

Speaker 1: 2:42

You agreed to do it. Yeah, let's read the post. Let's read the post. Do you want to?

Speaker 2: 2:47

read the post. Or would you like me to read the post? Sure, I'll read the post, okay.

Speaker 1: 2:50

This person says I need some help, and the sooner the better. I have been working in a house for three days. Today will be day number four. My time has been had to be split up due to the other clients school lax. You know the usual usual. I initially quoted for a bi-weekly back in February for $250 to $300. I also included that the initial clean would more than likely be higher. Y'all this has been 21 hours so far and probably at least another five to six hours. I have gone above and beyond. My client just texted me this morning and said they left the 250 on the counter.

Speaker 2: 3:44

There's a little more to the post.

Speaker 1: 3:48

So I was planning on charging. I'm sorry, I was planning on. I was planning on charging $450. After it was all said and done, this house is huge and again, I have done far more than I had anticipated. Help.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Right. There's a lot of things in this couple of paragraphs that is wrong. So, first and foremost, the bidding process is something learning how to sell as a skill. You guys hear me say it until my face is blue learning how to sell as a skill. Part of the selling is negotiation, and I'm not talking about renegotiating the deal because so-and-so doesn't feel the value and wants a discount. We can address that on a different podcast. But you give a bid in February and they don't take it until I believe this post was this week until April. That is your opportunity to give a gray area. So I always encourage people, when they're first working with me, to give a range. So if she quoted 250 to 300, that is right. However, a lot of bids are only good for 10 days, seven days, not 30 days, not 45 days, not 90 days. A lot can happen in someone's house, right, jamie Right?

Speaker 1: 5:07

so, yeah, and you do things a little differently than I do, right, both methods work and both. Yeah, exactly. I give a quote through my jobber app. But this quote because I'm trying to sell the slot for my cleaning techs. On that schedule I have green, which means you can tag it whatever color. Green means it's open. Green means money means I need to fill that area. Those slots are only available for 24 hours. For us, it's not available for months at a time. For us, it's only available for 24 hours and then I'll sell it to the next person. That's how long I hold it, for that green spot goes away. That quote is sitting there. It's awaiting a response. It's a funnel, it's awaiting a response and if it doesn't go, then it goes to the next person, to the person you know because it is our responsibility as cleaning business owners to sell spots.

Speaker 2: 6:25

So either you're doing it verbally or through jobber. I do a lot of the same, jamie, and I do a lot of the same similar things. So she gave the initial. She initially quoted the bi-weekly cleaning at $250 to $300, which to me, without really thinking too deep, indicates that it's a larger home for $250 to $300. Um, but she didn't. She was vague when it said um. I also included that the initial clean would be more like be more than likely higher. First mistake number one your initial clean is always three to four times higher than the initial quoted price. Always, if not more, depending on the scope of the job. Um, I worked with someone this week who was working on a hoarding house and she was going to have to suit up and we went over bio cleans and ozone machines and how you wouldn't be able to work longer than six hours in a day and how you would have to have two suits if you took lunch.

Speaker 1: 7:17

There's this whole like thing because you don't want to cross contaminate your food as you're eating.

Speaker 2: 7:24

I mean there's like, oh, you don't want to get it in your car. I mean, there's right.

Speaker 1: 7:28

And then put it right back on yeah, you didn't. Yeah, very well.

Speaker 2: 7:31

There's. There's costs involved to doing business. So her first mistake was she quoted the initial buy weekly price, but she was vague on the deep cleaning price. You need to be firm, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Communication, right Communication. It just you faltered right there at the end, which it was great, yeah, hey, three, uh, two, 50 to 300. Uh, and then you need to follow through with that communication and say but I need an initial deep clean, which is going to be seven, eight hundred dollars.

Speaker 2: 8:07

You know, right, needed to follow through with that so she didn't specify to the client what the deep cleaning price was going to be. So in the end it says the client texted me this morning, price was going to be so in the end it says the client texted me this morning and said they left 250 on the counter. The client she can't be mad at the client. They don't know what they don't know. They just think they got a fantastic deal. They have their whole house deep clean for 250 bucks.

Speaker 1: 8:29

They're like you're going to jump all over it. Why wouldn't you? I'm getting, I'm only having to pay $10 an hour to the, because the client always tries to break it down hourly, even though it's flat rates. Yeah, they're going to take that. They're going to take it and run. So, yeah, how do you, how do you get out of that situation? Whenever they're okay, I left it on the counter and we're done right.

Speaker 2: 9:01

So at that point, when the customer texted her that she should have said hey, it had this all been priorly discussed. Yeah, you know. Hey, thanks for the deposit, which first of all she should have taken a deposit. That's another uh, another strike, two, um, but it's. It's in reality if she's got six more hours, so that's 27 hours. Wait, it's 21. We all know I can't do math.

Speaker 2: 9:25

I don't know why some sort of eyes are on you right now 27 hours and if we went by 67, 50, which is for middle america, not the coast like jamie's. So 27 hours, hypothetically speaking, in the size of home, could be anywhere from $1,500 to more at $6,750. Is that right?

Speaker 1: 9:56

Well, I'm going to tell bigger quit pricing this job as a side hustle. Right. Price the job as you're running a business which is going to be more and I believe this post is from underneath a business page Right.

Speaker 2: 10:23

Yes.

Speaker 2: 10:24

It is a person operating as a business. So this is a learning curve. So when the guy texted her and said I'm assuming it's a guy or it could be a female I left $250 on the counter. She should have reiterated that was the initial quote for the regular maintenance cleaning. That would have been the step in to negotiate hey, thanks so much for the $250, but that was for the regular maintenance cleaning. Your final price is going to be $450. And then they'll say you didn't say that before and say, well, I'm really sorry for the miscommunication, but I still need $450.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Yeah, for the miscommunication, but I still need 450 bucks For the work that I've done. And then moving forward, right, moving forward. Take this as your learning experience, big time, always. First of all, whatever I quoted you in February is not going to be the same quote that it is today. That, that, that that quote is nil and void and um, we need to renegotiate a different price and and uh, and be firm about talking to them about having your home deep cleaned, which is always, always no matter, even if you just step in some, some people. I see you guys, uh, don't make them do an initial deep clean, which is fine either way, is you know, fine, I know a lot of people like to do a deep clean first and then you're just there to maintain that's how I sell it to the client. I kind of let them choose. I lost my train of thought.

Speaker 2: 12:08

It's really hard to catch it on the back end. So negotiation has to happen. Initially, when I put out my quote through Jobber, all of my quotes say, starts at $450 and goes up from there. And then when they arrive on site, I usually will have them walk in and say, I'm like, okay, how bad is it? And then I will text the clients or I'll go through their portal and say, hey, just to let you know, we have an estimate. It's an estimate again, an estimated price. Between this, this price, I think it's going to be 450 to 625. Oh, my God, 625. That's all I hear.

Speaker 2: 12:43

Right, and you're like well, you know, we are professionals, we do try to work as fast as we possibly can.

Speaker 2: 12:48

However, you want us to get all of the stuff that needs to be cleaned right and you're shaking your head yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't negotiate at the end, it just gives them an opportunity to go. Well, we didn't discuss that. So, and so my main point about this whole blender that she learned very painfully was that all of this stuff has to be done through contracts, whether you do it old school, because you don't have a CRM, a digital calendar system, and you're physically in person and you're dropping off the contract and you're bringing two copies, they're signing and they're acknowledging, and they're giving the credit card information that you have agreed that we're going to do this stuff and this could be this right. Um, sometimes I've negotiated for a job and then I'll check in with the cleaner halfway through and it's way worse than what they anticipated. So then I have to do a second negotiation and they roll their eyes. Oh my god, shannon's calling for more money, but I'm not waiting because I want to get paid.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I want you also ask them how would you like to proceed, right?

Speaker 2: 13:54

I mean no, just finish, get out, leave us alone. You suck.

Speaker 1: 13:57

I'm really very well could be, but at least you're not. And if you're still a solo cleaner, um, you're not sitting there mad because you work. You're working for peanuts, right.

Speaker 2: 14:12

I'm thinking that she works for less than $10 an hour, yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:17

And you can't be mad at the client.

Speaker 2: 14:20

They don't know what you told them.

Speaker 1: 14:21

They heard $250. And even though you gave them the price range of 250 to 300, they're always going to try and take it the lowest. What they heard only here are the one number yeah they, they heard 250, and this is whenever you know nine dollars and 25 cents yeah, now I'm putting chemical costs I always, and it just throws everybody off.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Well, she must have some sort of uh, some sort of formula. Here I always put like uh, 350 O2 or 350, 75. It makes the client think that, oh, she's got some formula, and it's not, it's just this. Is that's how I sell. It's just a little trick up my sleeve that has worked well for me. But yeah, less than working for less than $10 an hour is such an ouch and it's so painful to watch. Um, and my heart hurts for this person and um it's because you did not make clear.

Speaker 1: 17:02

You did not communicate this clear enough. Don't go back from oh that. That was a a quote that I gave back in february. I've since changed the whole structure now. Now the price is going to be 475 22 right, you still want to go forward.

Speaker 2: 17:20

Do you still want to go?

Speaker 1: 17:21

and we have to do, and if you require, some companies do. If you're requiring them to do an initial clean first, um, you tell which is a deep clean. You tell them that, hey, this is for the price of the the deep clean. Then thereafter, where there, we're just there to maintain the home right and they're like, yeah, and this is what the price will be for maintaining $250 every other week or every week, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 2: 17:53

And I will say when you're new and you're not getting a deposit, you're leaving a lot of things open for things. Shenanigans. It's been the last 12 months. I've never seen so many people want to renege on cleaning they're they're happy to get their house cleaned, but they don't want to pay to have their house cleaned, like I saw someone yesterday. I believe there was a carpet cleaner and they broke down the payments into two payments. She got the one payment, but when she went to go collect the second payment, she got ghosted, blocked, and then the person who wrote her a five-star review changed her review to one star because she was trying to collect the money. Oh yeah, it's so it happens. So you want to make sure that you're not. Don't leave a hole open for the mice to get in, because they will come in and go. Woohoo party. This person stopped paying attention.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Right, right, and that's why you have you gotta have these policies in place and I, you know, in the very beginning, whenever I started working with Shanna, I was using, I was just using the paper. I was still I was using paper. I would take one contract for me. I I call it their welcome aboard packet. It was a contract but, um, and I wouldn't make them go over it and look at it and and that took a lot of practice um to feel comfortable enough and confident enough um, and then it took a lot of a lot of uh practice of asking them for a deposit, deposit.

Speaker 1: 19:29

What do you? And and now it's just this is a deposit. I, I, I asked for a deposit for the first time and if you ever use our services again, I don't ask for the deposit. The deposit goes towards your clean. But once we have that relationship, I know we're good. You know my work. There's a little give and take. There there's some trust. There's a relationship give and take. There there's some trust. There's a relationship that has been built. Going into someone's home for three or four days and then them just leaving that 250 and running, you have yourself to be. You know the emoji of hitting your hand on your head, right, that is one of those I should have known moments. And just moving forward and this is for everybody that's new out there Moving forward, make sure that you have let this be a lesson. Get those policies in place, get those CMRs.

Speaker 2: 20:43

CRM you're close. It's been a long day.

Speaker 1: 20:46

It's been a long day already, mrs CRM. You're close. Get your CRM, put your policies and how you want everything. Take heed of what Shannon and I tell you in these podcasts of how to structure your business and make it your own. You can drop it down into the and they have to sign they could. You know they have to sign the contracts and your terms and conditions the same thing as a contract, and you know it's just different verbiage. And get these deposits and make sure that we're communicating to the client. Good enough, don't hold back. They called you. They called you. You are the professional. Have confidence, be confident in your, your work. You know, don't uh, because people will run you ragged out here, um and it's mostly women-based and they, they know we won't.

Speaker 1: 21:57

We don't like the confrontation we don't, and we let people pleasing right, you know?

Speaker 2: 22:02

okay, that's the reason why we're so good at this right. Right, the deposit is and this is the verbiage you can say we're not brand new with the internet. The internet, if you think about 2000,. Right, the internet has been around for 25 years. Can you believe that? Or more right, we won't go about the lifeline before and how it was privatized and all the other stuff so roughly. The internet is 25 years old. It's everything, almost everything, is purchased online.

Speaker 2: 22:29

Now, how many times your customers have Amazon delivered while you're there? They got groceries coming, they got Amazon. They got dog food, they got cat litter. So there, no one's going out to fetch anything. So many retailers shutter their doors. Right, joanne's is going, but the the pitch that you give is you need to. We require a 50% deposit of the initial quoted price to secure your spot on the schedule. You're selling a spot on your schedule, whether it's just you or you have crews, whether it's one or two houses or 50 houses. You're getting a deposit to hold that spot, because what happens is they keep shopping and then poor little Susan goes I'll do it for a hundred bucks, and then they go oh great, a hundred bucks, and they don't call you back, they just go screw it. They're not going to do that. Oh, screw that, they don't care. Right, it's all about them. So you have to secure your, your spot. It's just like when you get airbnb you have that deposit.

Speaker 1: 23:27

They're done, they're done you've closed, they know that in your terms and conditions, that booking fee is yours to keep. If they want to go with what's her name down the road uh, susan, barbara, whoever and if your name is that, I'm sorry but whoever down the road, they can. But that booking fee, it's helped to help with the cost of running business but nine times out of 10, they're done shopping. Once you secure that, once you secure a credit card on file and they paid that deposit're done shopping. They're going with your company and they know in your, in your contract terms and conditions, whatever it is, it states that that booking fee is, uh, rightfully yours.

Speaker 2: 24:20

Um, because it covers a lot of time and effort into selling it.

Speaker 1: 24:26

It's just a fact. Don't feel bad about taking it. It's just how we pay the bills to keep our business afloat.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Right, because you're pre-selling spot on your schedule and when you get the credit card you are closing the deal. It's a done deal.

Speaker 2: 24:47

And then in case your cleaning tech show up at the door and Steve, who didn't know that Maria bought them cleaning, slams the door in their face and won't let the cleaning techs work.

Speaker 2: 24:57

If you didn't have a deposit, you would eat that money. You paid them to show up, you paid them to gather the gear, you paid them to put them on the schedule and Steve doesn't care, he doesn't want you in his house, right? Because you know Maria bought the whatever, so it covers those things. Or when you get there and there's no water and electricity, that's a different fee right, A higher deposit right, and that's to cover the scenario and we can go over all of the details of you know how the clock starts anew after they get the water and electricity on, and it happens legitimately one to two times a year. We get a house, you show up and there's no water. Even though it's mentioned in the online, even though it's mentioned over the phone, even though it's mentioned in the final documents, it's they just sometimes it's always the one person who's like, oh, being serious, yeah, yeah, that's about what.

Speaker 1: 25:47

Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, um, so I've had to go out and fetch water before yeah, it's never that was a 500 fee on top of whatever I was charging, just for the water, for me to stop what I'm doing and go get water right and it's not easy.

Speaker 1: 26:07

She lives out in the boonies like there's a lot of off-grid things, but at this at I still have to have electricity, whether it's off of a generator, whatever solar, and I have to have water. We I don't have to be hot water, but it has to be water right lesson learned for this poor person.

Speaker 1: 26:34

Um, moving forward, make sure that you uh, you never want this to happen to you again. Let this be a learning lesson, and this is why we put these policies in place and grab your CRM and start becoming a professional business owner.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Totally. And there is one more highlight I would like to address in this post. It says I've been working in a home for three days. Today will be day number four. If you are solo and you're not there yet, you can hire in people for the day and pay them at the end of the day to help you facilitate. Typically, when you go into a home two or three times, by the third day, if you're not done, they don't want you there anymore and then the probability of you being able to finish the job is slim. You want to try to bang it out in one day, two days tops. Don't go to day three or day four or day five, unless it's negotiated at the beginning and it's a large project. Right, then it would be acceptable. But this just sounds like it's a normal house that's been large. Yeah, you don't want to have to clean for four days in a row to try to attempt to.

Speaker 1: 27:46

You're invading their. I'm going to tell you the homeowners want you in and out. They don't. They don't want to see you there. Yeah, they don't want to see this. Um, train yourself to learn the speed cleaning technique I don't know and higher end, you are able to pay a subcontractor up to $600. So, without having to get any kind of repercussions from this. So, yeah, hire in some help, because this sounds like the homeowner may have just been like here's $250.

Speaker 2: 28:29

Please get out of my house date number 4 I wouldn't want you in my house either.

Speaker 2: 28:35

I got dogs, cats, birds. I got appointments, people coming and going. I don't want to have to be in my house for 4 days. We wanted to address this so that you guys can be reminded and be aware we're not picking on anyone individually. That's why we didn't name names, but that's what we saw. What was wrong with that post? Again, we thank you for tuning in. We look forward to hearing more of your thoughts and comments. We've got some really great testimonials.

Speaker 1: 29:04

Yes, I want to hear some. I have gotten a lot of great feedback, but what's more important is give us some reviews. You guys, you know, uh put us up at the top if you're really enjoying this content, just uh give us some reviews so that we can get this algorithm yep, it tells apple that, hey, this podcast matters, it really is important it just. It really blows me. I love that. How many people were helping so yep me too.

Speaker 2: 29:35

You guys take care. Bye, you guys.