Who's does Janitorial work? And how do you charge.

[Moser Bros.]

A few of the Commercial buildings that I've been targeting have janitorial contracts, and the janitors do the carpet cleaning. Since some of their contracts are about to be up, I was thinking, I should bid on them to get my foot in the door for carpet, tile and upholstery cleaning. I have a helper that has managed janitors at a casino. I can give them a pay raise to do all the janitorial, and I'll do the rest.

I have no idea how to charge, what the hourly rate should be, how often to clean, and how to write the contract, and how long to write the contract for?

 

[Larry B]

I have some info I am scanning for Josh on this subject. If you would like it PM me an email address or FAX number and you can have it also.

 

[americlean]

We do commercial Janitorial and found that trying to win a bid is impossible if you want to make good money at it. Find businesses that will hire without a bid process, clean once for free. You get in the door, client loves "free", but most importantly you will know what amount of time it will take. I charge $100-$125 per hour with 2 employees working.

We give a standard fee per cleaning and list out add on (waxing floors, carpet cleaning, windows etc.) With the turn in the economy, our Janitorial division has overtaken carpet cleaning.

 

[Lonny]

Wow. To be competitive in this neck of the woods, you will end up charging about $20-$25 per man hour. Commercial janitorial is a nightmare IMHO. Constant turnover, 24/7 operations, I was up to $30k per month, in 5 yrs from absolute scratch, gave it to the ex, and will never go back.
Better yet approach the janitorial firms, many of them subcontract the work.

 

[CapeCleaner]

I have a commercial side to my business. Small right now but undertaking a major effort to build this division using complete building services - regularly scheduled cleaning, carpets, windows, tile and grout, VCT - as the value proposition.

There is no way I could get $50-60/man hour in my area. I'm getting about $35 right now. The clients have a fixed cost for the cleaning and pay as they need the other services. What I hope to do is to get as many clients as possible to agree to a yearly cleaning plan that incorporates all their needs, add up the cost, divide by 12, and have everything paid for as part of their monthly invoice. This way they get used a fixed monthly cost instead of deciding on additional costs several times a year. More efficient for them and me and creates a more steady cash flow.

Bidding is an absolute PIA. I receive a call last week and visited the facility. They had no idea what they were really looking for and I spent about 45mins explaining to the assistant director what types of things they needed to consider and put down in writing so the bids could be properly evaluated. "OK, I'll talk to the director and call you on Friday." No call from her so I call Friday afternoon. She's not in. I call yesterday and she tells me the other services they called for bids told her the same thing regarding requirements for cleaning. She hasn't even spoken to the director yet. Bidding is a complete PIA. I agree 100% with prospecting for a business that is not interested in a bidding process but just wants a good quality service. They are out there.

 

[Larry B]

If I gave a bid of $110 to $125 per hour around here they would just close the door.


For small accounts we give them 1 FREE month of service for giving us the account. It pays for itself in the long run and we have never lost money doing this. Its hard to say what the average would be because we service so many different kinds of businesses and they all have different needs. We have a few we break even with on monthly services but the extra work they give us could work out to another 8 to 10K per year.


There is no 1 person with the answer to bidding commercial janitorial work because every area is different and you may be willing to do more or less than the other guy. Its best to take all the info you get and find out what works for you! I personally don't try to get rich off 1 or 2 accounts but would rather have more accounts for longer periods of time.

The one thing I think everyone will tell you is the bigger the business the less per night you will make. Large janitorial companies target large business that gets cleaned 5 to 7 nights per week and they run the bids into the ground because if they profit $15 a night its fine because they have 100 more buildings turning this same $15 profit.

 

[XTREME1]

$30-45 and the key is the cleaning products and system

If you can get a bunch of medical facilities you can charge more and do more often

 

[lesterj2]

Larry B, i sent ya a PM requesting some of the info...

 

[ACE]

I have meet allot of people that told me the got into the janitorial business because they thought it was recession proof. Yes, It will always be there but every Tom Dick and Harry jumps into the game in a down economy with the idea of out biding everyone. You can make money at anything if you’re good. But very few people run a successful janitorial and carpet cleaning business for long.

 

[Larry B]

I have meet allot of people that told me the got into the janitorial business because they thought it was recession proof. Yes, It will always be there but every Tom Dick and Harry jumps into the game in a down economy with the idea of out biding everyone. You can make money at anything if you’re good. But very few people run a successful janitorial and carpet cleaning business for long.

Its like any business you have tons of people that jump in but very few that have the drive to follow through.

 

[CapeCleaner]

The cleaning industry is Darwinism epitomized. The janitorial sector is no different.

 

[Guest]

I have some info I am scanning for Josh on this subject. If you would like it PM me an email address or FAX number and you can have it also.

:?

Did you loose my email?

Josh-
fullycleansed@gmail.com

Thanks, Larry!