FOR CLEANING BUSINESS OWNERS
How to price cleaning jobs without guessing
Build the quote from paid cleaner-hours and the real cost of completing the job, then protect a minimum charge and target margin.
1. Count cleaner-hours, not just elapsed time
Two cleaners working for three hours create six cleaner-hours of labour. Add paid travel where the business pays for that time.
2. Add job-level costs
Include cleaning chemicals, cloths, laundry, equipment wear and any job-specific consumables. These costs may look small individually but become material across a full month.
3. Allocate overhead
Insurance, software, phone, admin, marketing and storage still need to be funded by completed jobs. Use a realistic expected job volume rather than an optimistic capacity figure.
4. Protect a minimum charge
A small clean still consumes travel, setup, customer communication and administration. A minimum charge stops short jobs from using valuable schedule capacity without enough contribution.
5. Solve for margin
Set the margin the business needs after the costs and fees you have modelled. Then sense-check the resulting customer price against scope, service level and the local market.