How Much Should I Charge For My Bin Cleaning Services
One of the first things new trash bin washing owners want to know is how to price their services. It's obvious why this is of so much concern to them. This is a key factor that will determine how profitable you can be with your trash can washing business.
Being a new business owner and new to trash bin cleaning services in general, you'll naturally be curious about how to price your curbside trash washing service plans. Remember that this is a very important aspect to both you and your customers. Pricing your services cannot be simply about what you'd like to charge. Your prices need to be reasonable and competitive.
So how should you price your trash bin cleaning services? The short answer is that pricing will vary based on several factors. While this may initially seem baffling and certainly not answer your question, read on and I promise to clarify.
The Region You Service Will Help Determine the Pricing of Your Trash Can Cleaning Services
Having setup nearly 300 trash can cleaning businesses across the US and Canada, I have a little bit of experience with pricing these type of services.
The first thing you have to keep in mind when pricing your trash can cleaning services is to consider your locale. Your region will determine the price you charge for these services and it will be determined by a few main factors.
Density of Population and Median Income
Probably the strongest factor to determine the pricing of your trash can cleaning services is how many people are living in the region you'll be servicing. More densely populated areas will generally drive the cost up if not at least increase your revenue. This is because more densely populated locations like NYC, Miami, and Dallas (for example) will have much higher median income levels than other parts of the country. The higher the income levels, the more disposable income people will have for things like trash bin cleaning services. This is important to remember because trash can washing services are definitely not a necessity for most people. And so, if they don't have the extra income, they can't spend it on your trash can cleaning service.
Additionally, you can run a more much more profitable trash can cleaning business in areas that have a larger population. This is because you're able to have more customers over a smaller distance. The less you travel means less time wasted and less money spent on gas. This allows you to clean more bins, more efficiently. Obviously, the more trash cans you clean, the more money you make.
This isn't to say that it's required to be in a place like New York City in order to succeed. Just that it's easier to sell when you have more customers to sell to. In fact, working a trash can cleaning company in larger metropolitan areas isn't for everyone and definitely has its own set of challenges. Navigating your truck or trailer through crowded streets and doing your cleanings can be much more challenging than doing it in local communities.
What I'm trying to illustrate though, is simply that it's easier to obtain customers the more potential customers you have available to sell to.
Do You Have Competitors and What Are They Charging
If you're lucky enough to be in a location where no one else is offering trash can cleaning services, it will be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one-hand, you'll have no competition and so all of those residents and businesses will be potential customers for you. On the other (and this is probably a much smaller issue, but still worth considering), you'll have nothing to base your pricing off of. This means you'll need to test the water and see what people are willing to pay.
Obviously, if you have competition and someone else is also servicing your region, then you'll have to remain competitive with their pricing. After all, the only way to charge significantly more than another business for the same service or product would be to differentiate yourself. Think of cars… a Porsche will generally sell for much more than a Honda. This is because the Porsche is a much more stylish car with a more powerful engine and lots of luxury features. Trash bin cleaning can be a little harder to differentiate though, so you'll probably need to remain competitive.
What the Market will Bear
At end of the day, your pricing will boil down to what the market will bear. This can certainly change over time. In general, we see the pricing of products and services rise. However, we can see prices rise and then drop. This can be especially true for a luxury service like trash bin cleaning and even more so if your pricing was on the higher end to begin with.
In times when the economy is struggling, people will start to cut corners and try and spend less. Obviously, something like trash can washing services is not a necessity, and so people will eliminate it before something like groceries.
If the pricing of your services was on the higher side during a good economic period, you may need to lower them during a downswing in order to remain viable.
