You can spend months perfecting a pricing model. In your first year, don’t. Use a simple method, check it against your costs, and get on with building the business. You will learn more from a hundred real quotes than from any spreadsheet.
1Start from the market
Find the three to five competitors in your area with the best reviews, and the most of them. Their prices are your anchor: the market has already told them what customers will pay. Start at their price, or up to twenty percent above it.
Pricing below everyone is tempting when you are new, and it is a trap. It attracts the customers who leave for the next cheapest, and it leaves you nothing to pay a team with.
2Check it against your real costs
Then make sure the price works. For a single job, add up:
- Labour: the hours the job takes, times what you pay per hour, plus payroll taxes if they are employees.
- Supplies: what each job uses.
- Travel: fuel and time getting there.
- Card fees: around three percent of the price.
- Overheads: software, phone, insurance and marketing, shared across the jobs you expect in a month.
Then add the profit you need on top.
3Choose how you charge
Most customers prefer a fixed price to an hourly rate, because it takes the risk off them. The common models:
- By size: bedrooms and bathrooms for cleaning, lawn size for mowing, the number of windows for window cleaning, square footage for pressure washing or painting.
- By the hour: simple to start with, harder to sell, and it rewards slow work.
- By the job, after a quote: for bigger or variable jobs you need to see first.
- A base price plus add-ons: inside the oven or fridge for cleaning, edging and leaf removal for lawns. Extras carry a lot of the profit.
- Recurring plans: visits every week, every two weeks or every month at a lower price per visit. In most service businesses, the money is in the regulars.
Whichever you choose, set a minimum job price, so small jobs still cover the trip.
How different trades usually price
- House cleaning: by bedrooms and bathrooms or by square footage, with a higher price for a first deep clean or a move-out, and lower prices for regular visits.
- Lawn care: per visit by lot size, often sold as a seasonal plan.
- Window cleaning: per window or per pane, with inside, outside and upper storeys priced separately.
- Pressure washing: per square foot for driveways, patios and decks, and per job for house washes.
- Junk removal: by how much of the truck the load fills, with disposal fees built in.
- Painting: per room or by area, with materials either included or quoted separately.
- Handyman work: per job with a minimum charge, or by the hour with a minimum.
Check what your best competitors use; customers compare like with like, so a familiar unit makes your price easier to accept.
4Win your first customers
With no reviews, you are asking people to take a chance on you, so make it easier. A first-visit offer works. When I started, I took about a third off for the first ten customers and stepped it down as reviews came in, until new customers paid the normal price with a small welcome discount. Another offer that worked well for me was $25 off each of the first three bookings: it gave people a reason to come back, and every job stayed profitable.
Two rules. Keep your normal price visible, so the offer reads as an offer. And never make a discount conditional on a review: Google forbids it, and US law prohibits rewarding positive reviews.
5Know your margin
Your margin decides what you can pay your team, spend on marketing and pay yourself. In my experience most local service businesses land between fifteen and thirty-five percent profit once everything is counted, with labour the biggest cost. Some trades, like exterior painting, can run much higher. If yours is well below the normal range for your trade, the fix is usually pricing, not more marketing.
6Quote quickly, and book on the call
A fair price quoted fast beats a perfect price quoted tomorrow. For standard jobs, give the price on the phone or online and book it while you have them. For bigger jobs, offer a visit or a video call and send a written quote the same day. AI can turn your pricing rules into a quote template; check every number it produces.
7Raise your prices as you earn it
Your first prices aren’t permanent. Raise them when you have the reviews, when you are booked out, or at least once a year as your costs rise. Raise them for new customers first, give regulars notice in writing, and watch your booking rate for a few weeks after any change. Losing a few price-sensitive customers is usually fine if the rest pay what the work is worth.
As one student put it: “I just booked out my last spot available! To put the cherry on the cake all clients are at my new higher rates and new clients don’t even blink at the rate.”
Questions people ask
Should I put my prices on my website?
Yes, or at least “from” prices. People leave sites that make them call to find out, and published prices filter out the enquiries that were never going to fit before they cost you time.
What if a customer says I’m too expensive?
Some will. Explain what is included and what you promise, offer a smaller option if it makes sense, such as fewer rooms or a smaller area, and let the rest go. If many people say it, check your price against the market again and watch your booking rate.
Should regular customers get a discount?
Usually a modest one, because regular visits are quicker, easier to schedule and cheaper to sell. Make sure the recurring price still covers your costs and your margin.
How often should I raise prices?
At least once a year, and whenever you are consistently booked out. Give regular customers written notice, and raise prices for new customers first.
Price for the business you are building, not the one you are afraid of losing. The right customers will pay for work that turns up on time and gets it right.