Most cleaning entrepreneurs in Nigeria are losing money on every job.

Not because they are not working hard enough. Not because they do not have enough clients. But because they priced their service without ever calculating what it actually costs to deliver it.

They looked at what competitors were charging. They guessed what clients would accept. They picked a number that felt reasonable and hoped the margin would work itself out.

It almost never does.

I made this mistake myself in the early days of building Platinum Beam Concept. I took jobs that felt profitable on the surface and discovered, only when I sat down with the actual numbers, that I was essentially working for free. Sometimes less than free.

That experience is why pricing is one of the first things I address in every programme I run for cleaning entrepreneurs. Because you cannot build a profitable cleaning business on a price you guessed.

This article gives you the exact method for pricing your cleaning service correctly, not from guesswork, not from what the market charges, but from your real numbers.

WHY MOST CLEANING BUSINESSES UNDERPRICE

There are three reasons cleaning entrepreneurs consistently underprice their services.

The first is market anchoring. They look at what other cleaning businesses charge and set their price around that figure. The problem is that nobody knows whether that figure is profitable for those businesses either. You may be anchoring to another business that is also losing money.

The second is fear of losing the client. They worry that a higher price will scare clients away, so they keep the price low to win the job. This creates a business model built on volume rather than value, and volume without margin is just exhaustion at scale.

The third is invisible costs. They calculate the obvious costs, cleaning products, the staff member’s pay, and forget everything else. Transport. Equipment wear and tear. Insurance. Their own time managing the job. Admin and communication time. All of these costs are real. And when they are not included in the price, they eat the margin quietly.

Understanding why you underprice is the first step to pricing correctly.

THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF CORRECT PRICING

Element one : calculate your direct delivery costs

These are the costs that exist specifically because of this job. They include the labour cost for the time it takes to deliver the service, the cleaning products used on that specific job, any equipment that is specific to that service type, and transport to and from the site.

Write down every single cost that would not exist if this job did not exist. That total is your direct delivery cost for that service.

Element two : add your overhead allocation

Overhead costs are the costs of running your business that are not tied to a specific job but exist regardless of how many jobs you take. Insurance. Phone and communication costs. Marketing costs. Admin time. Software subscriptions. Office costs if relevant.

Calculate your total monthly overhead costs. Divide by the number of jobs you complete in a month. The result is the overhead allocation per job, the share of your running costs that each job must contribute to keep the business operating.

Add this figure to your direct delivery cost.

Element three : build in your profit margin deliberately

This is the element most cleaning entrepreneurs skip. After calculating costs they set their price at cost plus a small buffer and call it profit. That is not a margin. That is a safety net, and a thin one.

A cleaning business needs a deliberate profit margin. Not whatever is left over. A decided percentage that reflects the value of the service, the expertise behind it, and the investment required to deliver it at a professional standard.

A healthy profit margin for a cleaning business depends on the service type and market, but in most cases should be between 20 and 35 percent on top of total costs. This is not greed. This is what allows a business to invest in growth, absorb unexpected costs, and build financial stability over time.

Element four : price for your standard, not the market average

Once you have your cost-plus-margin figure, compare it to what the market charges. If your figure is higher, do not automatically lower it. Ask instead whether your service standard justifies a premium position.

If you are delivering a professional service, trained staff, written SOPs, quality checks, reliable communication, consistent delivery, you are not competing with the lowest price in the market. You are competing with the most professional option.

Premium service justifies premium pricing. And premium pricing attracts clients who value what you deliver rather than clients who will leave the moment someone cheaper appears.

Element five : review your pricing every six months

Your costs change. Your experience grows. Your standard improves. Your pricing should reflect all of these changes on a regular basis.

Set a calendar reminder for every six months to review your pricing across all services.

Calculate your current costs.

Assess your current standard.

Adjust your prices where necessary.

Never apologise for a price increase that reflects the real cost of delivering your service. Clients who value what you deliver will stay. Clients who only valued the low price will leave, and that is often the best thing that can happen to the profitability of your business.

A SIMPLE PRICING FORMULA

For any cleaning service you offer, the formula is:

Direct delivery cost plus overhead allocation plus profit margin equals minimum price.

Work through this formula for each of your core services. Write the numbers down. Do not do this in your head. The point of the exercise is to see your actual numbers clearly and to stop pricing from feeling, intuition, or market pressure.

Once you have your minimum price for each service, you have a floor. You should never price below that floor regardless of client pressure, competition, or the fear of losing a job.

A job priced below your floor is not a revenue opportunity. It is a drain on your business.

WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE

Consider a standard two-bedroom residential clean. Let us say the job takes two hours with one operative.

Labour cost for two hours at your rate, let us say 3,000 naira.

Cleaning products used on that job — approximately 500 naira.

Transport to and from the site — 800 naira. Direct delivery cost total — 4,300 naira.

Monthly overhead allocation per job — let us say 600 naira. Total cost — 4,900 naira.

Add a 25 percent profit margin — 1,225 naira. Minimum price for this service — 6,125 naira.

If you are currently charging 4,000 naira for that job, you are not making money. You are losing over 2,000 naira before you have paid yourself a single naira for your time as the business owner.

Run this calculation for every service you currently offer.

The results will be uncomfortable.

They need to be.

Discomfort with the numbers is better than the slow erosion of profitability that happens when you do not face them.

THE CONVERSATION ABOUT RAISING YOUR PRICES

The fear most cleaning entrepreneurs have when they run this calculation is: if I raise my prices, I will lose clients.

Some clients will leave. This is true. And it is usually good for the business.

The clients who leave when you price correctly are the clients who were only there because you were cheap. They were not loyal to your service. They were loyal to your price. And the moment a cheaper option appeared, they would have left regardless.

The clients who stay when you price correctly are the ones who value what you deliver. They are easier to work with, more likely to refer others, and more likely to upgrade to additional services over time.

Pricing correctly is not a risk to your business.

Underpricing is the risk.

It keeps you busy without building anything, exhausted without reward, and trapped in a business model that cannot sustain itself.

The pricing templates inside the Premium Cleaning SOP Vault include a cost calculation worksheet for each major service type, residential, commercial, and deep cleaning. It walks you through every cost category with prompts for each line item so you never miss a cost again.

If you are ready to stop guessing and start charging what your service is actually worth, that is your starting point.

The link is at bunmiobanise.com.

AUTHOR BIO: Bunmi Obanise is the Founder and CEO of Platinum Beam Concept and Creator of the C.L.E.A.N Framework. She is a Cleaning Business Strategist, Consultant, Trainer, and Author of The Clean Sweep. She works with cleaning entrepreneurs across Africa to build profitable, professional operations. Learn more at bunmiobanise.com.