# New business: part time maids



## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

Hello everyone,

Been thinking about opening a cleaning service business. Just wondering, how many of y'all use part time maids like maids.ae etc. and what do you think about them?

There are a few maid companies which operate in the Marina, jlt, palm jumeirah etc. so I am trying to figure out what would my business offer to take the customers away from these guys. It seems like they usually charge about 140AED for a 4 hour service (1 cleaner).

any suggestions are welcome


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

Its a saturated market ...... all Maids are part time from the employers point of view but they seem to work 24/7

Personally I would have to have something major go wrong to change my maid service and price wouldn't be it - they get paid so little as it is that any reduction in price would mean less for the staff and then they wouldn't be good.


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

thanks for the response. 
Who do you use, if I may ask.
The salaries of the employees would remain the same, just the profit will be less to get some regular clientele. I think most maids work 9-6...some until 8pm.


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## QOFE (Apr 28, 2013)

I would rather see more money going to the cleaners. They get paid a pittance as it is. I would also like to see their living conditions being better. 

Happier workforce= better performance.

PS. I do tip my cleaner every week and I also pay additional bonuses so that she gets more money.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

QOFE said:


> I would rather see more money going to the cleaners. They get paid a pittance as it is. I would also like to see their living conditions being better.
> 
> Happier workforce= better performance.
> 
> PS. I do tip my cleaner every week and I also pay additional bonuses so that she gets more money.


Same here - she gets to keep all the change as we overpay, work less hours and gets a bonus at Christmas.

I would struggle to believe many company owners would pay the staff more although many undoubtedly do - their problem is that they cannot change jobs for a few years to get a better salary. Our cleaner would like to do so, but has to do another year, and by then the poor girl would be burned out.


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## SirReg (Sep 8, 2014)

You would almost certainly be running a business with unhappy, exploited staff. Can you live with that? In any case, already a saturated market. Everyone charges a similar price. Customers who want something cheap will be nasty and awkward. Low margins. Not worth the aggravation.


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

No obviously i won't be happy with that. So that's why I want to give the employees 25% more than what they would get in another company and I want to charge the customers a bit less to get the market share.
I would love to know why y'all keep saying it's a "saturated market". Don't get me wrong, but I have no idea how I would go about doing the market research for this sorta thing so I am just curious to know the basis of your statement. 
A simple google search spits out about 8-12 maid companies, out of which 2-3 are the ones known to me.
In the marina,JBR,JLT area alone there are a few hundred buildings with thousands of apartments and not everyone has a fulltime maid.

On average the cost of getting your apartment cleaned is about 120-160AED (do let me know if I am wrong)

So I would like start-up a business which:
- can provide a better compensation and accommodation to the employees, 
- offer cheaper rates and better service to the customers 


too far fetched?


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

steve_99 said:


> No obviously i won't be happy with that. So that's why I want to give the employees 25% more than what they would get in another company and I want to charge the customers a bit less to get the market share.
> I would love to know why y'all keep saying it's a "saturated market". Don't get me wrong, but I have no idea how I would go about doing the market research for this sorta thing so I am just curious to know the basis of your statement.
> A simple google search spits out about 8-12 maid companies, out of which 2-3 are the ones known to me.
> In the marina,JBR,JLT area alone there are a few hundred buildings with thousands of apartments and not everyone has a fulltime maid.
> ...


Hi,
So if you setup a company and send us a maid for 4 hours and charge us 120 AED - how much of that do you intend to pay your maid?
Cheers
Steve


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

The most common complaint I hear from people who can't find maids is that if you live a 1 bedroom apartment, you really only need about 2-3 hours work but most maid agencies require a minimum of four hours. Paying 160/week isn't worth it if you have a small apartment and most of your clothes goes to the dry cleaners. 

I suspect you'd find the overhead to be quite high. Visa costs, accommodation, transportation costs, flights for the maids and training. And the scheduling is probably a nightmare. 

There's probably more money to be made in the villa communities rather than the Marina. While people will forgo a maid when living in a small apartment that they can easily tidy up themselves, people in villas have bigger spaces and are more likely to have families making more mess, so the demand for part time maids are higher. 

By the way, the Philippines has apparently put a ban on recruiting any new maids. They now need to make a higher minimum salary before they can receive an export permit.


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> So if you setup a company and send us a maid for 4 hours and charge us 120 AED - how much of that do you intend to pay your maid?
> Cheers
> Steve




I do understand that all you fine people are very concerned about the welfare of the maids, security guards, workers etc ....at least virtually you are. But that's not the topic of discussion here. It's out there somewhere in a different post.
To ask me how much would the maid get out of the 120AED that I charge the customers is probably not a question which applies to most of the businesses. That's the* profit sharing model*. Does your employer run this this model at the company you work for or you have a fixed yearly salary? 
My company certainly doesn't do this with the 60k employees that they have.
Like I said in my previous post, they would make at least 25% more than what they are making now.


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

TallyHo said:


> The most common complaint I hear from people who can't find maids is that if you live a 1 bedroom apartment, you really only need about 2-3 hours work but most maid agencies require a minimum of four hours. Paying 160/week isn't worth it if you have a small apartment and most of your clothes goes to the dry cleaners.
> 
> I suspect you'd find the overhead to be quite high. Visa costs, accommodation, transportation costs, flights for the maids and training. And the scheduling is probably a nightmare.
> 
> ...



Thank you SIR, that's the sort of response I've been looking for. I have also struggled getting a maid for only a couple of hours to clean my space. That's the reason I would like to do things a little differently and offer solutions which the customers are actually looking for. 
Overheads are pretty high but it's profitable nonetheless. 

appreciate your input.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

steve_99 said:


> I do understand that all you fine people are very concerned about the welfare of the maids, security guards, workers etc ....at least virtually you are. But that's not the topic of discussion here. It's out there somewhere in a different post.
> To ask me how much would the maid get out of the 120AED that I charge the customers is probably not a question which applies to most of the businesses. That's the* profit sharing model*. Does your employer run this this model at the company you work for or you have a fixed yearly salary?
> My company certainly doesn't do this with the 60k employees that they have.
> Like I said in my previous post, they would make at least 25% more than what they are making now.


Hi,
That does not really answer the question - the reason that i asked the question is that i know how much the maid currently gets from that 120 AED - so i was checking to see how much you had researched your idea.
It was a test of your hourly rate perception.
25% more than they currently get is a bottle out answer  !
Cheers
Steve


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

Stevesolar said:


> Hi,
> That does not really answer the question - the reason that i asked the question is that i know how much the maid currently gets from that 120 AED - so i was checking to see how much you had researched your idea.
> It was a test of your hourly rate perception.
> 25% more than they currently get is a bottle out answer  !
> ...


try to focus on the original post and the question that was asked and not dig into my strategy. Don't worry about my research little buddy. I am sure you love to start a conversation about how your maid is only getting a fraction of what she makes for her employer but like i said, that's not the discussion here.
A bit more is expected outta the mod's. try to maintain that rep.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

steve_99 said:


> try to focus on the original post and the question that was asked and not dig into my strategy. Don't worry about my research little buddy. I am sure you love to start a conversation about how your maid is only getting a fraction of what she makes for her employer but like i said, that's not the discussion here.
> A bit more is expected outta the mod's. try to maintain that rep.


Excuse me - but this has nothing to do with me being a mod on this forum!
This is my personal opinion and i am trying to help you with your business quest.
I also research this subject two years ago and went a long way down the road of doing what you are talking about.
I also looked at innovative solutions to the common problems and was simply asking a few questions to test how far your research had gotten!
Cheers
Steve


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## steve_99 (Jul 12, 2012)

Stevesolar said:


> Excuse me - but this has nothing to do with me being a mod on this forum!
> This is my personal opinion and i am trying to help you with your business quest.
> I also research this subject two years ago and went a long way down the road of doing what you are talking about.
> I also looked at innovative solutions to the common problems and was simply asking a few questions to test how far your research had gotten!
> ...


Lemme just stay, you haven't been of any help at all:focus::focus::focus:. few more things come to mind but o well.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

steve_99 said:


> Lemme just stay, you haven't been of any help at all:focus::focus::focus:. few more things come to mind but o well.


You can lead a horse to water..............................


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## QOFE (Apr 28, 2013)

There really are so many cleaning companies here so I'm wondering what your potential company will be offering that is going to be so different and successful. 
I have had several cleaners through different companies. My first cleaner here was very good and I built up a good and trusting relationship with her. Unfortunately the company was not treating the workers well. They were only paid about 1000 DHS per month each and the company owner was slacking with visa arrangement for many of the workers. Finally he just folded the company, no doubt leaving a mess behind with unpaid wages.
It would be great if we were allowed to hire cleaners directly without the money grabbing middle men. One cleaner would probably bring in 5000-6000 DHS (before deductions) so how much are you intending to pay the cleaner?


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## SirReg (Sep 8, 2014)

25% of very little is very, very little. So, whatever you offer will still be exploitative of people with little choice of how and where to work. I don't know how people who run businesses like this sleep at night let alone look in the mirror in the morning.


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## BedouGirl (Sep 15, 2011)

My questions relate to trade license and visas. To have sufficient staff to operate on a trade license costs quite a lot of money. I suspect one of the reasons agency maids don't earn that much comes down to that alone plus most of the companies that employ them provide accommodation, which - as we all know - is not cheap. Again, another reason why the agency maids are not paid a huge amount. Are these aspects that you have considered?


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