Hi everyone! I am starting a commercial cleaning company looking to do janitorial and wet work projects in Idaho. Tired of working for a regional cleaning company that was very irresponsible with pay and didn't learn until later that they had a bad reputation with store managers. I'm not familiar with store pricing (bids) and only have the sub-contractor prices given to us to go off of. I know you have to add in insurance, workman's comp, equipment, etc. Not sure how to calculate this in, any advice? Thank you!

Some people total up the expenses than add a % for their profit or take home. Others use an hourly figure such as $ 35.00 per hour which is expenses + profit.
Brad bdjanitorial.com

Do some commercial cleaners charge $35 an hour? Everyone always tells me $25 or less so just wondering.....??

Sprintcar...interesting ??? I just canceled my service agreement with a customer. The customer emailed me asking if I knew any other cleaning companies they could call for a quote. I gave her ThumbTack.com and suggested they post their commercial cleaning offer at that site.
The bids rolled in and they picked a cleaning company. I asked my customer if she would send me the quotes received w/o company name, she agreed.
the office to be cleaned has 4 RR 4 offices--small 1 kitchen area w/table..it takes about 65-75 minutes per clean 1x per week
I was shocked at what the bids came in at:
90.00 per week -
70 per hour
60 per week
34 per hour
Brad bdjanitorial

Me too but I'm glad the prices are high. About time commercial people get paid for the hard work they do.

Not sure that all of those prices are high if someone priced at $34.00 per hour for only one hour of cleaning? I would have probably priced that office at $75.00 - $85.00 per cleaning. In commercial cleaning prices are all over the place. I'll give one quote where I am the the highest price and then another where I was one of the lowest prices. We are on average in the middle or higher then other companies but never really know what the heck the competition is doing!
Peter Weiss
Total Maintenance Services
www.totalservices.org

Yeah, those 1 hour or less cleans would be tough. I never bid on any of those. I guess because I never really went after commercial. People would seek us out that wanted HUGE jobs done for cheap!

Most of the time in residential I don't think we are in competition for bids. They just get a flyer on the door, call us, I give a bid... they either take it or leave it and if they leave it I don't think they seek anyone else. But I could actually be totally wrong. Almost 20 years now and I've never really cared about anything except if we got the job or not. I give 2 prices and if they don't choose either, we move on to the next. Most of the time I can persuade them to take it. Although, I'm in the middle of setting up a system to fix that problem. I need to stay in contact. I won't ever go down on price but they may change their minds... ya never know. Persuading a mom to pay $12 more to get her house cleaned is much easier than persuading some lady in an office to clean her whole building.

Peter, thanks for your reply and sharing your pricing info. So I gotta ask, you say you are about in the middle or higher in price, of the bids you give about how many get accepted? and become new customers?
Thanks, Brad BD Janitorial.com

Anytime Brad. I would guess that I am somewhere around 1/3rd of the appointments that I get I close. Sometimes I get hot and other times nothing seems to go my way. Just part of selling. It also depends on where you have most knowledge and good references. Lately whenever I get an appointment with a surgery center, dialysis center or other medical offices my closing rate is higher because of our experience with similar locations and their need for a company with experience. If I get an appointment with a property manager, real estate office, bank, daycare center, etc., my odds are low because lowest price usually wins out.
Peter Weiss
Total Maintenance Services
www.totalservices.org

Peter..thank you for your valuable information. If I may ask 1 more ?. Does location have a part in your bidding? If a New Account Opportunity is close to another 1 of your other accounts or home base does that factor into your pricing ? I ask because I am trying to consolidate the areas I serve to be closer to my home base and also cost of gas & travel time & future expenses like a mileage tax.
Thanks, Brad BD Janitorial.com

Since I am not cleaning the accounts myself, I do not factor in location. I can also find local cleaning people in any area that the account is located. If you try to raise prices because of distance I would expect that other local cleaning companies will have lower pricing. If you plan to always be the cleaning person for the location then you would have to factor in those extra expenses for gas, tolls, etc.
Peter Weiss
Total Maintenance Services
www.totalservices.org