Do you have a cleaner and how much do they charge?

Take your own cloths, dont rely on your clients having decent clean ones for you to use. That way you can have new cloths for every house. We use cloths of 3 decent colours for different areas of the house, then wash at 90 degrees. These cloths are the ones used in professional kitchens and can be bought at your local Cash n Carry (Bookers in my case). If you Pm me, I will tell you the supplier of fantastic cloths for getting streaks off chrome, cleaning mirrors etc.

My cleaners who are here for two hours bring in a large shopping type bag of clean cloths and I can see that they have several in the boot of their car. I am their first client and after me they go across to a neighbour which is where I got the recommendation in the first place. I can assure you the cloths they use at my house go into the boot and and fresh ones are used for her.
A bonus for me is that as my H's illness has progressed they have seen and recognised the changes and are great with him.
Another benefit of two coming is that I have never had a time when they can't come as one will come on her own and do a full morning or someone else will come as well.
Bonus number two where would I find so much time to be on GN if I was cleaning all the time?
Seriously Biker I hope you have had some help and ideas from us all and I wish you well in your plans.

Bikergrandon't worry. Obviously not many people think like me. Good luck.

Oh, do it yourself! Can't understand anyone wanting a cleaner. It's all so easy these days, with modern cloths and vacuums.

But you would get transfer of dirt and bacteria from one house to the next. And I bet they don't wash the cloths very often. Sounds alright for a hotel room, but never for my house!

I think your plan of wearing a polo shirt with a logo and having business cards is a good idea - it looks professional. During a recent visit I made to a patient at home in bustled two middle-aged East European women in matching polo shirts who set about their work, in about 45 minutes they:

Stripped and remade the bed - they had brought the clean linen with them and bagged the old to take away; quick clean of large kitchen and small bathroom; general dust and polish of sitting room and hall; hoovered/mopped floors

I was fascinated with the bed linen thing and thought what a useful service - many older/infirm people have trouble changing sheets on a large bed and then having to launder, dry and iron cumbersome items. From the plastic wrapping it looked like they'd been professionally laundered.

They brought all their equipment, including hoover, cloths, sprays so they obviously came in a small van or were dropped-off. Apart from usual pleasantries no chat or small talk, just in and out and off to the next job! There's a limit on how much you can carry on your scooter but having cloths, sprays etc will look good and instill confidence that you're a professional and not just a 'treasure' who's handy with a duster.

Neversaydie sounds like you had a lovely person there, flexible etc which is what I am hoping to achieve.Although not a lover or ironing lol

I had the same cleaner for 11 years when I worked ft .I found her through an ad in local shop-thats where I'd look .She did 2 hours cleaning (4 bed roomed house,2DCs) and an hour's ironing weekly. I hate ironing. .She concentrated on kitchen and bathrooms , as DH would put the Hoover around and dust has never bothered me .I paid her the local going rate initially (the equivalent of £10 per hour today I think) but she got a pay rise every year.She stopped cleaning eventually but carried on doing my ironing for another three years till younger DD went to Uni . We were on first name terms, though DDs called her Mrs L, at my insistence) She had house keys .She came in if we were on holiday and the second week did things like skirting boards and inside of windows .One year I'd left clean bedding on the stripped beds and she'd made them up ,which was lovely . I really missed her when she retired.And she never minded if I had a delivery/tradesman in when she was here A godsend not having to take time off.She even kept an eye on a sick child on a couple of occasions (the DDs really liked her )And we did tidy up the night before she came .
We have been retired a while and finally made the decision to stay in our biggish house a while longer and have embarked on a renovation programme .I am going for everything as streamlined /easy to clean as possible but will be having a cleaning lady again soon!I actually quite like cleaning but suffer from arthritis and find it increasingly tiring .
I had no qualms about employing a cleaner I think if you pay a decent wage and there is respect on both sides it's not an issue.

I could never afford a cleaner but a friend of mine has enquired about work and she says the going rate in Northumberland is about £10 per hour. My disabled friend pays £10 per hour to someone to do her shopping, says its cheaper than one of the agencies via social services who charge £14 per hour.

Thanks Scooter (maybe I should change my name to (Scooter2) now lol.

Hi ruby and thanks, hope today is a little better day for you! (just been reading your thread)!

Just caught up with this thread,wishing you all the luck in the world with your new venture Bikergran,and with your new Scooter,it looks great.

Yes, biker how are you going on with the plans to go self employed?

I know, if I do get awarded the mobility car, I can come over to you .

You could be the only person that someone sees in a week if you do decide to do your cleaning. I hadn't gone out all last week so my cleaner was the only person I saw (apart from the bear with the sore head, of course). The only person who I could have a lovely chat with. You would be brilliant at it.

I think £8-£9 an hour is about the going rate in our area ruby as I know you are not many miles from me, although I was hoping to stretch to the £10 an hour or £9-50 at least, I will have to have a good think. As it will be the only income I have coming in (until the time I may be able to claim some tax credits) then I have to try and earn enough for a reasonable wage.

sprinkling some fairy dust all around Gn * * * *
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Glad to here it rubylady magic fairydust

Mine came yesterday and I could have kissed her when she had finished waving her magic wand over the place. She hadn't been since before Christmas due to one thing and another so it was wonderful to have a lovely clean tidy home last night. I pay her £8.00 an hour but paid her £20.00 yesterday as she stayed a bit over time to do what needed to be done. She is brilliant and has become a friend.

It won't be tidy tomorrow though if I decide to get the glitter out to do some craft work!

I still work full time and found that something had to 'give' so have a cleaner for 2 and a half hours a week. She keeps the house looking presentable, and charges £8.50 per hour which seems more than fair.

I pay £22 for 3 hours to the cleaner but I pay the agency £14.50 a month. That amount depends on the number of hours the cleaner works, mine never exceeds 3 hours.

thank you for sharing what you pay for your cleaners, I am giving the pricing some thought

I live in a 4 bed roomed quite large house with only me in it most of the time.
My cleaner comes 3x a week for two hours each time. She does also change my bed and launder bedding and towels. She does my ironing as well.
She charges £11 an hour which means she earns £66 from me alone. She works a 5-6 day week and is very booked up. Her husband is my p/t Gardner and handyman. He charges the same and does 6 hours a week for me. He is also fully booked up.

Bikergran well done and all the best for your business. It may help, or not, as the case may be. I live in a 1930's semi. 3-beds. bathroom, loo, kitchen and I have a cleaner every other week for 3 hours @ £13,00 per hour (since yesterday!!!). This may help towards working out your prices. I know a lot depends on the area and I am in the outer London suburbs in Hertfordshire. Good luck.

at the end of the day I can only give it a try, I am not loosing anything and investing very little money, other than a logo t shirt, few business cards etc, my dd works for a local magazine we have delivered so hopefully I may get to place an add (with a bit of discount) If I don't succeed then I will go back onto jobseekers and continue my search for a job, but at least I will have "give it a go"

I already have one client waiting on the wings

Hi Tizliz unfortunately I don't do facebook or twitter (but maybe I am going to have to take the plunge with that also)

Charleygirl it is only a small town and easy access to nearby towns via bus, although a small compact town we are also on the edge of the country side, large houses easy access, lots of small local thriving shops. When the Lady who did my initial interview on Tuesday she asked where I lived, she raised her eyebrows and said that I was in a good spot, even for walking to various (hopefully potential customers) I am not looking to start a big business, I am just looking for something to tide me over until official retirement in 6/7 yrs time..and keep as local as possible, as I say If I have managed on £73 a week for the last 7 months and kept my bills straight/never gone hungry, dressed ok etc.I am not looking for the earth.

I can buy a weekly bus ticket if need be this would allow me to travel around and our buses are pretty good/regular, my nearest bus stop in three directions is 3/4 mins walk away.

Have you thought of how you are going to get to various jobs if the weather is inclement or your bike breaks down? Do you live in a large town? Will the jobs be on a bus route? Are you going to supply cleaning materials- liquid as well as cloths?

My cleaner went to one house once and all she was offered was tap water and a filthy rag to clean the entire house. Maybe have spare cloths so that the job could at least be finished and explain to the occupier that for hygienic reasons you need a few more cloths.

bikergran is there a local Facebook page? We have several and they allow local businesses to post on them as long as they don't do it too often. I found someone to mend my fence via one of them, and it was useful to look at his postings and see that he knew people that I knew so he was genuine. He wanting paying via Paypal which was secure, my plumber also wants me to use Paypal so perhaps setting up an account with them will be good.

To answer an earlier question. I would want to know what sort of price you would charge before contacting you in case you were asking far more than I could afford and that could be embarrassing.

Thanks Falcon and Charleygirl I am noting all this advice down in my little black book for reference.

Charleygirl that is something I will have to think about, although I have my scooter now, the weather is not always suitable, plus to get all my gear on takes about 8-10 mins, boots, trousers.jacket gloves helmet etc then bck off again.