In any service business, the right pricing may be hard to achieve at first because there are no products to speak off. In fact, you are pricing the cost of your labor and this is a precious commodity. However, simple research can actually be a big help in this task. Designating a fee for your services need not be perfect, an educated guess would suffice. You will have time to correct it later on when you start calling for cleaning service bids.

The first thing you need to investigate on is how much your competition is charging. Call up various listed cleaning businesses outside your area, just in case you slip up and admit that you are thinking of establishing your own cleaning business, and ask for their fees. Make your own house an example because they might ask for specific space measures, areas needed to be cleaned and equipment that the cleaning task might need. List down a few quotations and average the figures for you to have a clearer idea of the pricing involved in the existing cleaning industry.

Next, you will need to have a long list of how much cleaning supplies cost. These include cleaning chemicals and solutions, cleaning tools and equipment, and other related products. You can visit the local stores for this and you can tell them your plans outright. They would be very much willing to help you out since you are now a prospective client. In fact, they might even make your job easier since they can give you a brochure of their products.

If you want a better idea on how much of these products you will probably use up in cleaning houses, buy a few products and clean your own house. List down all the products you use up and see how much area they could clean. Afterwards, you will have a strong basis for your fees for the cleaning products and you now have the opportunity to price your labor.

After that, make quick run of the list of cleaning services in your area. As the law of supply and demand goes, the more supplies the lesser the price for it. So, it would be to your advantage if the cleaning industry in your town is lacking, that means you can charge higher prices for your services. But if your area has more than its share of cleaning businesses, you might want to specialize in a few areas of cleaning or offer a new service. Aside from that, you still need to have a competitive price to get your foot inside the market.

Lastly, you need to remember that you are in business to make profits. As a business, you only not need to purchase cleaning products and equipment, you also need to pay your taxes and receive a salary. Moreover, you need to save up some cash for the maintenance, repairs, or replacement of your own cleaning equipment.

For more: How to start a cleaning service