The playing field in the cleaning industry has been effectively leveled by innovative, intuitive software designed to give small or even start- up cleaning companies the online and mobile tools needed to quickly and successfully compete with much larger building services contractors – even those having hundreds of employees or doing millions in sales.

In the past, cleaning business owners hoping to grow a large and profitable company might have reasonably expected to face years engaged in a painful, uphill battle to get the kind of information and tools necessary to look and operate as professionally as their larger cleaning counterparts.

No more.

While experience is, and will always be, important – sometimes, in some things, it can be dramatically reduced in importance or even replaced altogether by the use of the right business tools, in this case, the software available to cleaning companies today.

That’s right; the years of painful struggle have been largely eliminated by online, mobile tools. Effectively programmed with pre-loaded production rates, cleaning schedules, pricing formulas and contract templates – these software programs can not only take away the ‘big guys’ advantage but even ‘tip the scales’ in favor of smaller, newer cleaning business if the competition isn’t armed similarly.

And, that can happen – big companies move slowly. Cleaning companies are no exception.

Fortunately, for today’s motivated cleaning business owners, who want to quickly move up in the ranks of successful cleaning business in their market, this can be a game-changing disadvantage they can capitalize on.

But, they’ll need to move fast.

Even big, slow-moving companies know today’s high-tech, fast-changing business environment can quickly identify, isolate and then punish companies who fall behind – no matter how big.
The list of major companies, even those with familiar, household names, who missed or failed to react decisively in the face of dramatic technology shifts, who are now either gone altogether or, if not quite gone, are mere ghosts of their former selves – is long.

Big cleaning businesses are no exception – and they know it, making the window of opportunity for eager cleaning businesses wanting to ‘leapfrog’ ahead of their larger competitors shorter than ever.

However, the good news is progressive cleaning business owners who utilize online, cloud based software on their Smartphone or tablet device have reported prospects being at the very least curious and often – impressed.

Stories of cleaning business owners pointing to the use of the latest business software and the professional image and documents it can create as one of the primary reasons given for landing a new account – are not uncommon.

But, the use of today’s intuitive, user-friendly software does more than delight the user – it sends a message.

Prospective building owners and property managers often take their impressions regarding the professionalism and credibility of the software they see being used and project or assign similar positive qualities to the user of the software.

In a highly competitive marketplace like cleaning, being able to differentiate or set your company apart from you competition on something other than price – is critical. Cleaning business software can be one of the fastest, easiest and most cost effective ways to do just that.

Identifying and integrating the best business software can prove to be a game-changing advantage to those forward thinking cleaning business owners who are looking to identify and leverage every competitive edge they can find.

Let’s look at an example, not in cleaning.

The growing trend today towards offering higher education by having the very best university professors teach college courses online, is not only promising – as a way of cost effectively distributing education and leveraging the best instructors to maximize results and minimize costs, but serves as an example of a strategy designed to leverage today’s technology to create a better ‘mousetrap’ – one that serves clients, in this case, students better and at a lower cost.

But don’t expect all the tenured university professors to like it – they won’t.

Similarly, don’t be surprised to hear old-school cleaning business owners grousing about the new technology either- and how it can never replace the traditional ‘school of hard knocks’ education they earned in the cleaning business over the course of 30 years.

It’s understandable.

It can be hard for someone who struggled for years to find the answers needed to achieve a certain level of success – to see today’s cleaning business owners getting software essentially handed to them that not only short-cuts the process of learning the cleaning business – but may, in fact, provide better formulas than the crude, rules-of-thumb procedures relied on by many in the past.

Again, it’s natural, but as hard as they try and as much as they complain, in the end, it’s not going to change a thing. It’s not going to stop the way software is revolutionizing the way cleaning businesses owners run and grow their companies.

For example, janitorial bidding software can effectively eliminate the need to spend years of painful trial and error learning to calculate how long an office building should take to clean or how to price a tile maintenance job.

Janitorial software can definitely level the playing field for cleaning businesses, but, if and only if they identify and utilize it while it still remains a competitive advantage.

There are two parts to the answer.  One deals with the outline you use to demonstrate professionalism; the other deals with the message you send to create interest. Both are important.

Let’s tackle the outline issue first.  Any professional residential cleaning bid or quote for maid services should cover a variety of important topics. These topics should be organized into a logical order so the homeowner can quickly and easily get clear answers to their basic questions.
What questions?

Well, the primary ones include: Who are you?  What do you offer?  How are you qualified or experienced for this job? What does your cleaning plan for them consist of in the areas of service schedule, job specifications and task frequencies?  What systems, policies or procedures do you have in place to guarantee your cleaning?

Other topics needing to be explained in detail in a residential cleaning bid include billing, payment terms, supplies, equipment, and insurances, as well as, references, length of the agreement and provisions for cancellation.

Plus, a cleaning bid should have, whenever possible, insurance certificates, list of references and detailed supporting reports.

Finally, if you offer any additional cleaning services beyond standard maid service duties, it is a good idea to describe them in your residential bid as well. For example, you might offer carpet and upholstery cleaning, stone and marble care, power washing or window cleaning services.

Your residential cleaning bid should follow standard formats homeowners are used to seeing when comparing programs offered by contractors who provide maintenance services. For example, customized cover pages and cover letters provide unique opportunities to demonstrate your attention to details about the home you are bidding on.

The outline or structure of a residential cleaning bid should be clean, thorough, easy to understand and accurate.  It should also be without grammatical or spelling errors to further reinforce their opinion of you as a professional with an attention to detail.

The second part of the answer to the question of how you should prepare a cleaning bid is – the message.  What message you send to your prospective residential cleaning or maid service customer is just as, if not more important, than the layout of the proposal itself.

In some important ways, your cleaning bid becomes you, or at least represents you, during those times in the sales process when you cannot physically be with your prospect to explain the program, answer their questions or handle their objections.  Your residential cleaning bid or proposal becomes in a way, a salesperson for you, remaining with the prospective client even after you have left their home.

From the cover letter to the last section of the proposal, you are sending a message whether you know it or not.  That message is what creates or destroys their interest in you and your cleaning business.  It is a big opportunity.  It is a big responsibility.   You want to be sure you’re sending the right message.

What is that right message?

It is the message of why your cleaning business, more than any other, is the best answer or solution to the customer’s cleaning questions and problems. If the outline is about the ‘look’, your message is about the ‘substance’.

Your message should consist of all the important ‘things’ that defines your company – makes you who you are.  Hopefully, who you are, is different than your competition in important ways that will powerfully attract your prospects to want to do business with your cleaning company.

What goes into the message?

Well, lots of things, but mostly it should be the procedures, policies and most importantly systems that allow you to consistently deliver the kind of residential cleaning you say you can deliver.

Prospective residential cleaning customers want more than promises. If the message in your cleaning bid makes it clear you have the necessary systems in place to deliver on the commitments you make in critical areas such as cleaning quality and customer service, you will have gone a long way in proving your case.

Your message should not be limited to only one or a few sections of your maid service proposal, but should instead be reflected in the wording used and explanations given throughout your bid proposal.  For example, commitments to quality and service apply to how you handle cleaning supplies and equipment as much as they do to how your people are trained and supervised.  Your cleaning prospects need to see and read about it in every part of your proposal.
So, how should you prepare a residential cleaning bid?

The answer lies in having a powerful value message that attracts prospects delivered in a professionally formatted maid service bid that convinces them of your commitment to that message.

So, what else do carpet cleaners need from their bidding program?

Well, they need a program that not only helps them set the price, they also need it to give them a professional looking proposal which they can deliver in person or email to their customer.  Increasingly, documents are emailed rather than submitted in person due to the busy lifestyles of residential clients and the over-loaded work schedules of commercial customers.

Carpet cleaners also need to be able to customize the carpet cleaning proposal to impress even the toughest prospective client.  Being able to change the wording of sections of a proposal, such as the cover letter, gives the carpet cleaning business owner the chance to customize the message to accurately fit the unique prospect they are bidding on.

Carpet cleaning software can provide proposal wording templates which can be easily edited to change bidding documents from looking somewhat standard and boring – to incredibly unique and customized.

Anything else?  Well, yes.

There are a variety of carpet cleaning methods ranging from hot water extraction and dry chemical to bonnet pad and absorbent compound.  A useful bidding program needs to be pre-programmed to help when any one of these methods are needing to be performed.

While hot water extraction continues to be a very common method of cleaning in both homes and offices, there are times these other methods are preferred, or even necessary, due to the restrictions or preferences of the building or home where the carpet is to be cleaned.  For example, there may be no water access in one facility while in another a client will allow only bonnet cleaning for the monthly service of his building’s traffic lanes.

Next, carpet cleaning businesses need a program that can save their bid information – things like directions to the client’s home or office, security systems or even the prospect’s availability for scheduling purposes. They need the bidding program to keep this information organized and safe for later reference.

What kind of program can carpet cleaners what they are looking for?

Well, it’s carpet cleaning bidding software, of course. No surprise that technology would provide the answer to not only providing useful bidding help, but for creating customized proposals and for saving important customer information as well.

In this way, carpet cleaners are much like janitorial business owners, or really any home service provider, when it comes time to quote on a cleaning job – they all need an effective, multi-purpose tool that handles bidding, pricing and proposal.

Carpet cleaners, of course, will very often handle both residential, as well as commercial cleaning jobs, so whatever bidding software they choose should be able (programmed) to handle both.

While it’s easy to think that carpet cleaning is the same no matter where you do it – this idea is, at best, oversimplified.  The reality is cleaning the carpet in a home can very different than in an office for a variety of reasons including whether there are pets, high levels of clutter as well as access or scheduling issues.

In addition, residential cleaning may offer more frequent opportunities for added revenue and profits by providing carpet fabric protecting and deodorizing services, but at the same time also present additional expense challenges.

These cost challenges in residential cleaning can include factors such as a smaller amount of carpet generally available to be cleaned in a home versus a commercial building, the additional travel time necessary to get to and from a greater number of these homes, or other factors such as the level of clutter.

Finally, carpet cleaning companies can also find differences in customer’s expectations between residential and commercial accounts that can translate into greater or lesser costs.

Having a carpet cleaning bidding program to handle factors such as size, carpet condition and the amount of things to move, provides an enormous advantage to the carpet cleaner when it comes time to prepare a proposal.

In addition, while both commercial as well as residential carpet cleaners use the proposal as a tool to communicate their best marketing messages to the prospective client, they may have differences in that go beyond differences in wording.

Specifically, when bidding a residential carpet cleaning project, the service provider may want to shorten the proposal and make things, such as the headings of categories, less formal.  On the other hand, they may choose to may want to make the bidding document longer and more formal when bidding on a commercial job, even going so far as to include a contract or agreement section.

All of these things are possible through the use of a good carpet cleaning bidding software program.  Carpet cleaning business owners know they need to take advantage of every edge they can to compete in today’s economy.

Having a user-friendly and easily customizable bidding method can be one of those important edges – giving them a fast, easy and professional way to bid their carpet cleaning jobs.

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Dan Liebrecht, co-creator of the CleanBid Janitorial Bidding Software Program, Copyright Clean Guru LLC, All Rights Reserved

Sign up online at www.CleanBid.net to receive the FREE e-newsletter “Flip My Cleaning Business from ‘Painful’ to ‘Profitable’!”  Need help bidding?  Check out the CleanBid_® Program – The Quick and Easy Way to Bid Any Cleaning Job… Guaranteed! http://www.CleanBid.net Modules for Janitorial, Construction Cleaning, Move In/Out Cleaning, Carpet Cleaning and Tile Maintenance

How should a janitorial business prepare a cleaning bid?

There are two parts to the answer. One deals with the outline you use to demonstrate professionalism; the other deals with the message you send to create interest. Both are important.

Let’s tackle the outline issue first. Any professional cleaning bid or janitorial proposal should cover a variety of important topics. These topics should be organized into a logical order so the building owner or property manager can quickly and easily get clear answers to their basic questions.

What questions?

Well, the primary ones include: Who are you? What do you offer? How are you qualified or experienced for this job? What does your cleaning plan for them consist of in the areas of service schedule, job specifications and task frequencies, etc. What systems, policies or procedures do you have in place to guarantee your work?

Other topics needing to be explained in detail in a cleaning bid include invoicing, supplies, equipment, and insurances, as well as, references, length of the agreement and provisions for cancellation.

And finally, a cleaning bid should have, whenever possible, insurance certificates, list of references and detailed supporting reports.

Your cleaning bid should follow standard formats building owners, property managers and purchasing agents look for when sizing up the professionalism of service contractors. For example, customized cover pages and cover letters provide unique opportunities to demonstrate your attention to details about the company you are bidding on.

The outline or structure of a cleaning bid should be clean, thorough, easy to understand and accurate. It should also be without grammatical or spelling errors to further reinforce their opinion of you as a professional with an attention to detail.

The second part of the answer to the question of how you should prepare a cleaning bid is this – the message. What message you send to your prospective janitorial customer in your bid is even more important than the layout of the proposal.

In some important ways, your cleaning bid becomes you, or at least represents you, during those times in the sales process when you cannot physically be with your prospect to explain the program, answer their questions or handle their objections.

From the cover letter to the last section of the proposal, you are sending a message whether you know it or not. That message is what creates or destroys their interest in you and your cleaning business. It is a big opportunity. It is a big responsibility. You want to be sure you’re sending the right message.

What is that right message?

It is the message of why your cleaning business, more than any other, is the best answer or solution to the customer’s cleaning questions and problems. If the outline is about the ‘look’, your message is about the ‘substance’.

Your message should consist of all the important ‘things’ that defines your company – makes you who you are. Hopefully, who you are, is different than your competition in important ways that will powerfully attract your prospects to want to do business with your cleaning company.

What goes into the message?

Well, lots of things, but mostly it should be the procedures, policies and most importantly systems that allow you to consistently deliver the kind of cleaning you say you can deliver.

Prospective customers want more than promises. If the message in your cleaning bid makes it clear you have the necessary systems in place to deliver on the commitments you make in critical areas such as cleaning quality and customer service, you will have gone a long way in proving your case.

Your message shouldn’t be limited to only one or a few sections of your cleaning bid, but should instead be reflected in your wording used and explanations given throughout the proposal. For example, commitments to quality and service apply to how you handle cleaning supplies and equipment as much as they do to how your people are trained and supervised. Your cleaning prospects need to see and read about it in every part of your cleaning bid.

So, how should you prepare a cleaning bid?

The answer lies in having a powerful value message that attracts prospects delivered in a professionally formatted cleaning bid that convinces them of your commitment to that message.

How did we get here?

Small hurdles that go along with a slowing economy became bigger as the recession worsened. Finding new jobs became harder for many as building owners and managers raced to find ways to cut costs. And other challenges became more pronounced in reaction to the economic pull back.

For example, the use of illegal workers by unscrupulous contractors and the low-balling antics of empty-promising janitorial franchises and national cleaning management companies made things even worse.

Today, in the face of these mounting problems, many a frustrated, hard working janitorial business owner can be heard asking the question:

“How can I find and land and keep profitable cleaning jobs when I have to compete with ridiculously low prices being offered to building owners and managers desperately looking to cut costs.”

It’s a fair question.

The good news is there is an answer. The bad news is it’s not as easy as ‘flipping a switch’.

The answer is found in fundamentally changing the ‘contract cleaning equation’. If you believe the commonly held belief that building owners and managers only care about low-price… then the crude strategy of simply cutting your price may be the logical answer. Not profitable, but at least logical.

We suggest a better answer can be found in fundamentally changing the ‘contract cleaning equation’ from one focused on price to one focused on value.

When ‘business as usual’ isn’t working…maybe it’s time for ‘business unusual’. And what is ‘unusual’ in the janitorial business is a bold, well-reasoned and equally well-planned effort to break potential customers loose from their negative, entrenched ideas about contract cleaning.

And what ideas are those?

Well, that’s easy. You can hear it in the words and actions of some short sighted building owners and managers who make it clear what they believe about contract cleaning companies, namely, that ‘They’re all the same…so I might as well find the cheapest one’.

Well, if you let them get away with this mentality, or worse yet, buy into it yourself, there may little hope in keeping you from getting washed away with all the other ‘lowest price’ guys who aimlessly fight with each other over unprofitable jobs.

But, you don’t have to.

The good news is in 2010 and beyond, janitorial business can take steps to change how they are viewed in the marketplace – which can change their results.

Specifically, commercial cleaning contractors can:

1. Identify what their prospects want most of all

2. Find (create) creative ways (systems) to deliver it

3. Find (create) ways to measure and track it

4. Be willing to guarantee they’ll deliver it

5. Promote the message consistently and effectively

While the steps are simple the process is not.

1. Identify it. Finding out what prospective customers really want is not always easy or obvious. What sounds like a desire for ‘low price’ may actually be masking an even greater need for someone to offer ‘high value’.

For example, what they really may want is to know they won’t fall victim to the old ‘trash and dash’ routine of many unprofessional cleaner contractors they may have used in the past, who may have, for example, started off cleaning 5 hrs. a night, only to end up running through the job in just 2 hrs. just a few short weeks later.

2. Create it. To stick with our example; simply hoping your employees will put in the necessary budgeted hours simply because you scheduled them… may NOT be enough. You may need to create a daily system for watching or monitoring the actual hours spent cleaning per night.

3. Measure it. Knowing hours have dropped doesn’t fix anything unless you have a system to track the hours and make adjustments to ensure they get the value they deserve and paid for. For example, if you discovered the Monday’s actual cleaning hours were low, you could increase Wednesday’s or Friday’s hours that week.

4. Guarantee it. Saying it is one thing, guaranteeing it is another. Stepping up to offer a strong guarantee puts you firmly in the ranks of those professional cleaning contractors who are willing to stand behind their work.

5. Promote it. None of the above will matter… if no one knows about it. It’s been suggested that each of us has an ‘invisible horn around our neck’…and as the old saying goes ‘You need to pick up your horn and blow it yourself… because no one else may do it for you.’ Bottom line: You’ve got to get your message to the decision makers at the buildings you want to clean.

Are you a janitorial business wanting to succeed in 2010 and beyond?

Change how you are viewed in the marketplace by creating, delivering and promoting more value. The five steps above are a good place to start.

Well, not necessarily – not if you can’t figure out how to use it, don’t know or can’t find the data it requires to work and certainly not if it doesn’t get you the results you want. In that case, free may actually be costing you!

How can I say that? The very sound of the word ‘FREE’ is appealing, isn’t it?

To explain how, consider this old cliché: “You get what you pay for!”
These words express time-tested wisdom – specifically, the connection between the value of ‘something’ and what you paid for that ‘something’.

So, does this sage advice hold true for free janitorial bidding calculators? Well, if the limitations of many of these bidding tools are any indication, it does.

First, some rely on over-simplified, one-size fits all production rates or price per sq. ft. figures which produce, of course, equally oversimplified answers. And that’s where ‘free’ can cost cleaning business owners real money, especially if it leads to them setting prices that are either too low – not having sufficient profit built into it, or too high – keeping them from being competitive when bidding on commercial cleaning jobs.

Next, other free janitorial bidding calculators do not come pre-loaded with production rates at all, relying on the user to both know and manually enter their own task-specific cleaning times or overall production rates.

While janitorial contractors may benefit from conducting their own cleaning time studies, the reality is many, especially those new to the commercial cleaning business, have not done so and would feel ill-prepared to even offer answers to the question of what would constitute ‘good’ or reasonable rates.

In the end, many of these calculators appear to be little more than excel spreadsheets and with the only bidding help seeming to be – having the title ‘Janitorial Bidding Calculator’ pre-written at the top.

In addition, many free janitorial bidding calculators or software programs can be hard to understand and even harder to use. Again, one has to question the real value of ‘free’ when the user is left feeling the program either doesn’t ‘work’ or, at the very least, they can’t figure out how to make it ‘work’. Even ‘free’ cannot rescue something that is, at the very least, not user-friendly or at its worst, not useable at all.

Put differently; what is the value of a free janitorial bidding calculator or software program that does not adequately help the user to quickly and easily determine prices and generate professional looking proposals?

Not much.

Many of these free janitorial bidding software or calculators have other weakness as well. They may offer little or no technical or customer support. In addition, they may not be able to help generate a professional-looking proposal or job specifications report – two important ingredients in the contract cleaning sales process.

Therefore, many of these calculators may simply be free and that’s all; worth what was paid for them.

Well, for the owner of a janitorial business, serious about building a fast-growing and profitable cleaning business, that simply won’t do. Instead, the owners of successful janitorial businesses, and those wanting to join their ranks, know they need tools that can give them the results they’re looking for.

Is cost is an issue? Sure; but only in the context of the value (i.e. results) the tool can deliver.

To explain, here’s another cliché to consider:

‘Don’t step over dollars… to pick up dimes’. The sage advice expressed in this cliché is… to be careful of blindly chasing one ‘thing’ while completely missing another ‘thing’ of greater value in the process.

In the case of janitorial bidding, the lesson seems to be this:

Don’t lose sight of the real value of paid programs, blindly chasing instead, after ‘free’ calculators that produce little more than confusion.

You may have already taken steps to get bonded and insured. You may have already designed your logo and printed up your business cards. You may have even decided which type of ‘green’ products you’re going to use when you clean.

You may feel you’re all set, ready to go. But feeling ‘ready to go’, and being ‘ready to be succeed’… are two very different things.

Being ‘ready to succeed’ in the cleaning business has LESS to do with logos, business cards, insurance and cleaning chemicals and MORE to do with having an effective plan for finding, landing and keeping profitable cleaning jobs.

I know, you may be thinking, “Easier said than done.” Sure, but, all really important things are.

So, what can you do? What do you need to look at? What do you need to plan for?

While there’s no guarantee of success in any business venture, you can greatly improve your chances of being successful in your cleaning business, by looking at, and making plans for, some of the most important parts of owning and operating a cleaning business.

Finding, Landing & Keeping Profitable Cleaning Jobs

In a nutshell, your success will depend to a great degree on… your ability to find, land and keep profitable cleaning jobs. So, let’s take a look at each one of these critical parts.

Let’s start with – Finding
While it’s tempting to think all prospects are the same – they’re not.

Some accounts are hard to get clean and hard to keep clean. Some customers are hard to get happy and even harder to keep happy. Some accounts are hard to get profitable and even harder to keep making money. You get the idea.

On the other hand, some accounts are easy to staff and keep staffed. Some are easy to clean and keep looking that way. Some customers tend to be more reasonable, more cooperative and more loyal than others. And some jobs are profitable right from the beginning and tend to stay that way. Now those sound great, don’t they?

That’s right, you probably guessed already – one challenge is figuring out which is which; namely FINDING out who the good ones are likely to be as well as who you might want to steer clear of.

That’s really the ‘trick’ -finding out not only who they are, but where they are, and how to get to them. Call it prospecting; call it target marketing. Whatever you call it – at the end of the day, it means having a good reason for who you decide to clean – and a plan for how to get a ‘list’ of them that ‘fit the bill’.

Ok, next – Landing
After knowing who you want to clean and how to reach them comes the challenging, yet exciting, work of getting them to want to hire you.

That’s right, once you’ve found your prospect, LANDING them requires a marketing plan that attracts them – and a selling strategy that moves them to take action – to make a decision – to hire you.

And finally- Keeping
If you want to start a successful cleaning business, you’ll want to develop a plan for KEEPING the jobs you land.

Businesses who go ‘all out’ in the beginning to find and land jobs, only to turn around and quickly lose many of them by not delivering quality cleaning and pro-active customer service, may find themselves simply chasing ‘their own tail”- endlessly having to find new customers to replace the ones that keep getting away; all for lack of a concrete plan of how to KEEP them.

Logos, business cards, insurance, chemicals and equipment are all well and good; but, if you want to start a successful cleaning business the right way, consider this:

Right from the start, the more time you put into developing detailed PLANS for finding, landing and keeping profitable cleaning jobs – the better!

If you’ve been in the cleaning business for even a short time – you may have caught yourself asking this, or at least can remember hearing another well-intentioned, but frustrated, janitorial business owners ask it…. as they desperately tried to figure out what to bid on a cleaning job.

Actually, you may have heard a slight variation of it which goes something like, “What’s the going rate for pricing cleaning in my city?” But, no matter which way you’ve heard it – the question is pretty clear.

People want to know the simple ‘one-number’ answer to how much they should charge per square foot for their cleaning services.

They want to hear an answer, like 9 cents/ sq. ft. You see, that way they could just take the size of the building, multiply it by the square foot rate, and they’d have their price.

No fuss, no muss.

So, if that’s what they want, why not just go ahead and give it to them. I mean, someone’s got to know the answer to what seems like a pretty basic question, right?

Ok, hang on, I’ll answer the question. But, first, we’ve got to look at a couple things – ‘real quick’, because everything’s got to be – ‘real quick’; right?

Sorry, if that sounded harsh…but I had to do it. You see, I need to make an important point. And it’s this:

Anybody can give you a quick answer. The neighborhood kid that mows lawns and delivers the paper can give you a quick answer.

Now, of course, he doesn’t know anything about janitorial work. He doesn’t know how long it should take to clean a building. He doesn’t know how to price jobs so that you end up being competitive, yet profitable.

Nope, he doesn’t know any of that ‘stuff’, but, if you’re in a hurry… he may be more than happy to give you a quick, ‘one-number’, answer.

Obviously, you don’t just need a quick answer. You need a good answer; one that make sense; one that is based on the building you’re bidding on.

Cleaning a large, heavily used, fitness club seven nights a week is different than cleaning a very small, lightly used, lawyer’s office twice week. It just is.

And if you use the same “going rate’ to figure out the price to charge for both of these jobs – you may not be happy with where it takes you.

So, what should you do?

Well, for cleaning jobs that you’re going to do on a regular basis, for example three times a week, what you need is an estimate of the cleaning time per day. From there, you can begin to set your price.

Fortunately, some of today’s janitorial bidding software programs, including ones that are now available online, offer easy and, yes, relatively quick, ways for you, not only to get a cleaning time per day figure, but get other ‘things’ you’re going to want, like professional-looking proposal formats to deliver to your prospective customer.

Cleaning business owners are not the bad guys here. Sure, they shouldn’t have relied on either guesstimating or oversimplified, one-size-fits-all square foot rates…but they may have felt they had no choice.

For a long time, there were not many good answers. Many cleaning businesses may have found what was available to be too complicated, too expensive, too time consuming or all of the above.

But, that’s been changing.

Today, there are a number of off-line, and now, online, janitorial bidding and workloading software programs that give cleaning business owners what they’ve always needed:

Not a quick answer to one question – “What’s the going rate to bid cleaning contracts?” but, instead, good answers to a couple very good questions – “How long should this building take to clean? and “How much should I charge if I want to be competitive and profitable?

Developing a set of powerful Measurable Guarantees of Performance, specific service commitments which your company stand behind 100%, may be the single most important thing you can do to quickly move your cleaning business ahead of the competition… and out of the “lowest price trap”

What’s that? What is the “lowest price trap”?

Well, simply put, it’s the misguided and reckless strategy of chasing after your competitors by lowering your prices below what’s reasonable or profitable, in order to win the job or land the account!

It’s easy to fall into if you feel your only way to get and then keep work is by doing the same work for less.

But, it’s not

Your MGP’s or Measurable Guarantees of Performance are the reasons why you’re different than the rest of the low-balling pack.

You don’t offer the “same” service. You offer a better service… and you’re willing to guarantee it!

MGP’s create value for your customers. Prospects are willing to pay more for businesses who offer more … value!

Taking the time to create your own unique MGP’s will allow you to quickly move the conversation from PRICE to VALUE. And that’s where you want to be.

By the way, if your experience ends up being anything even close to ours, you have little to fear in offering these bold MGPs;

Your worst nightmares of customers lined up to “pounce” on you to take advantage of your generous guarantees by demanding refunds… are seldom realized.

And an occasional refund having to be paid to a customer, where you did, if fact, drop the ball, may be a good thing now and again – a ‘wake-up’ call to keep you on your toes, force you to re-evaluate your systems and avoid ever becoming complacent.

Plus, the cost of an occasional refund should be far outweighed by the incredible customer satisfaction, loyalty and referral business resulting from the strong guarantees you promote, and the systems you use to make them possible.

Frankly, over our many years in business, we probably didn’t have more than a handful of clients who either legitimately deserved a refund due to our mistake (which we gladly credited them for), or on their own actually called us to take us up on any of our powerful guarantees.

In reality, human nature generally shows that the great majority of customers are not waiting anxiously to “hold your feet to the fire” to demand a refund; on the contrary, most want things to work out between the two of you.

How can cleaning businesses find more jobs? Again, start by creating more value.

Things have changed.

You know it. We know it. And every janitorial business out there today can see and feel it.

What is it? It’s simply this… the old ways of growing a successful service business simply DON’T work any more.

For example, years ago, when we started our janitorial-cleaning business, nearly anyone could do pretty well for themselves and have a sizable customer list, just by knocking on doors, word of mouth and, of course, delivering a reliable service.

Really, it was really about that simple.

Growth and profitability were within relatively easy reach; hard work and a good reputation would get you more accounts and at prices… that made you money!

Not any more.

Today, when commercial cleaning businesses desperate to find new jobs, send out brochures or post cards with yesterday’s marketing messages such “We’re bonded, licensed and insured!”, they’re likely to hear only the deafening sound of silence in response.

That’s right, little no interest at all, and a blank stare from their prospective business clients, who simply demand more today.

Specifically, more value.

And when we’re talking about service type businesses, like cleaning, you can define value, to a great degree, in terms of being able to guarantee a measureable level of performance or service.

It may be how many hours it takes you to respond to a service request, how little variation you’ll allow your actual cleaning times to vary from your budgeted cleaning times, but no matter the part of the business you’re talking about, it generally has to do with what we call Measureable Guarantees of Performance.

Creating Measurable Guarantees of Performance

As buyers, we are all the same.

We are looking for someone who can show they have real answers to our real problems… and be willing to guarantee it!

We call these real answers – Measurable Guarantees of Performance or MGP’s for short.

Over the years, we’ve read a number of other marketers explain similar concepts called USP’s, which stands for Unique Selling Propositions or UCA’s, which stands for Unique Competitive Advantages.

But, we prefer our term, MGP, for a couple important reasons:

1. MGPs emphasize the importance of MEASUREMENT. Anyone can make broad claims. Measurable ones are more difficult to create, let alone guarantee. But that’s why they’re so much more powerful and effective.

2. MGPs emphasize the importance of GUARANTEE. This speaks for itself. You might say you’ll do something, but will you stand behind it?… with your checkbook if necessary!

3. MGPs emphasize the importance of PERFORMANCE. And in the service business that’s where, as they say, the “rubber hits the road” – namely, performance.

Here’s an example of an MGP from the cleaning industry dealing with the important topic of quality:

Our Quality Guarantee:

“You’ll Be 100% Delighted With The Quality Of Each Cleaning Visit…
or it’s FREE”*

*That’s right! To guarantee you get the quality of cleaning you deserve, your building will be inspected after each visit using our fast, yet effective, “QC Check” form, which will be graded, faxed to our office and placed on your desk. If you disagree with a daily “grade”, or feel you were not cleaned properly on any visit… it’s FREE!

Bold?…Yes!

Hard to create the systems required to support making this kind of strong statement and guarantee?

Absolutely! But think about this for a minute…

How different would your company be if you could offer a set of 3, 5, or more of these MGPs hitting on every single one of the most important “answers” to problems your prospects are desperately looking for?

That’s right – very different!

How can cleaning businesses find more jobs? Start by creating more value.

Well, frankly, they need to have an ‘answer’ to this question from their customers:

“Why should I continue to do business with you when I’ve got your competitors promising me fantastic cleaning at unbelievably low prices?”

Well, each independent cleaning business has to answer that question for their individual company. But, in the end, the answer has to make one thing clear:

How you are different from your competitors, and how that difference benefits customers by delivering them more value, better value. It needs to make sense and it needs to really matter.

For example, let’s say a building owner asks why they should stick with me, rather than switch to one of my aggressive pricing, over-promising competitors.

Rather than begging them to stay out of loyalty, pleading with them to stay because we’re ‘bonded licensed and insured’, or worse yet, out of fear, and in a knee-jerk reaction, weakly negotiating with them to stay, by saying we’ll lower our price to whatever price the ‘other guy’ is offering, – what if I said the following, instead:

“Mr. Customer, I understand what you’re asking, and I understand your reasons for asking it. It’s tough out there and if there’s some way you could save a bunch of money and still get good cleaning – I realize you have to consider it for the sake of the building you own or manage. It makes complete sense.

But, you know me, and I’m here to tell it to you straight. I’m proud that you’ve been our customer for quite a while now; you know that, and I would never do anything to jeopardize the trust you have in me.

Now, I know how long it takes to clean this building properly three nights a week. I can show you based on the cleaning you require and the frequency of that cleaning, plus our experience in handling the cleaning for some time now, how long it takes to perform that work properly.

And I want you to know that we can always work together to reduce some of those duties if you’d like to in order to lower your monthly cost.

But, whether you decide to change the duties or not, I want you to know about some of the powerful systems in place which allows us to make and live up to a number of important guarantees, about how we get and keep your building looking good. These are the ‘things’ that make us different and bring our customers value.

You can see the results in the appearance of your building and hear the results in the comments from your employees and tenants.

I’d like to review just one of those important guarantees today.

Now, we know from work loading this job that it takes approximately 6 hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening to clean your building properly. And our experience in cleaning your building over the last year confirms this time.

As you can imagine, that time can vary, let’s say, 10 or 15 minutes one way or the other, based on conditions; one night we may save a little time, other nights we may need to take a little longer, for example, if there’s been a ‘pizza party’ to clean up after, that kind of thing, but surely, not by an hour or two.

Now, I’m sure you’ve heard about cleaning companies that promise the ‘moon and the stars’ when it comes to cleaning and for a low price too. But when it got right down to it they did little more than empty the trash, put out some toilet paper and, if you’re lucky, run the vacuum a little – basically a ‘trash and dash’. It’s amateur stuff, but it happens all too often.

Well, frankly, that’s not us. That’s not what we’re about. I know what you need and my job has always been to make sure you get it. Not once, but all the time.

Which brings me to the system and the guarantee:

We check the amount of cleaning time you get each visit and we make sure every week you get at least the total weekly budgeted number, no less, in actual cleaning hours, or that week of cleaning is FREE.

That’s how committed we are to doing right by you. We make sure you get what you need the first week – and every week.”

Now, how’s that for an answer to the question, “How are you different?” or “Why should I keep doing business with you?”

Independent cleaning business can once again become the strong presence in the marketplace they once were, but only if they begin to take strong proactive step to offer real answers to address the very real problems faced by today’s customers.

And you’d be right to wonder. You see the world of janitorial work, or if you prefer, commercial cleaning, doesn’t look the same anymore.

Independent cleaning businesses – the ones that decide to own and operate their own cleaning business without financially ‘handcuffing’ themselves to a franchise, used to ‘reign supreme’.

That’s right; independent cleaning businesses used to be the ‘backbone’ of this important industry. Building owners and property managers alike turned regularly to their local, trusted, independent cleaning companies when it came time to arrange for someone to maintain their building’s appearance.

Why?

Well, customers were happy because they could count on getting quality cleaning and reliable service from cleaning people they knew, liked and trusted.

Employees were happy because they were given enough time to deliver quality cleaning; the kind they could be proud of, not embarrassed of.

And, you guessed it, the independent cleaning owner was happy too, because he could steadily grow his business, and at prices that gave him a healthy profit.

That””s right; he could make a good living.

Well, not anymore, at least not for many cleaning businesses. That’s right; slowly, but all too surely, everything changed.

Independent cleaning businesses ‘lost their way’. And here’s part of the reason why:

They faced a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges. The struggling economy combined with the widespread use of illegal workers by unscrupulous contractors, put many independent cleaning businesses into a tail spin. But, unfortunately, there was even more trouble on the horizon.

Already off-balance, many would soon find empty-promising cleaning franchises and national cleaning management companies taking some, or all, of their best, oldest and what for a time were, their most loyal customers.

And, the reason?

Well, to be fair, some independent cleaning contractors were caught flat footed, not prepared to adjust their own cleaning businesses to the changing demands of business customers scrambling frantically to save money by cutting costs.

Being ready to respond to a changing economy is something all businesses have to be prepared to do – and cleaning companies are no exception.

In addition, many independent cleaning businesses were simply unable to come up with a good answer to this question thrust at them by building owners and managers, namely, “Why should I keep buying from you when this competitor is saying they can do the same job, but for a lot less than I’m paying now?”

If nothing else comes out this crisis in the cleaning business, one thing is certain – it points to the importance of pricing routine, regularly scheduled janitorial cleaning projects (i.e. 3 days per week) starting from the point of determining cleaning time required, rather than simply using an oversimplified price per square foot approach.

So, how should these independent cleaning business owners have responded?

First, they should have pressed hard on an important point – the direct connection between the time (hours) spent cleaning a building and the quality of cleaning in that building.

There’s no question that time alone isn’t a guarantee of high quality cleaning. The amount of training and level of supervision provided, makes a difference in both the appearance of a building, as well as, how efficiently that cleaning was delivered.

But that said; there is still a strong, direct connection between time and quality. Put differently; when it comes to reducing time, the ‘cleaning business’ is simply not the ‘mass producing widgets business’.

All things being equal – the amount of time (hours) spent cleaning still, to a great degree, determines the resulting quality of the cleaning (building appearance).

So, the independent cleaning contractors should have strongly encouraged building owners and managers to ask the following three questions when those ‘big guys’ that low-ball prices arrived to deliver their slick-looking proposals:

1. What budged hours is the price based on?

2. How exactly was the time determined?

3. How can you assure me I will consistently receive this important budgeted time?

We suggest that would have gotten their attention! Why?

It is our strongly-held belief that many of these low-balling characters give little or no consideration to the time required to deliver quality cleaning.

We believe it is, in fact, their hidden weakness or ‘Achilles heel’.

Instead, we suggest their pricing strategy often seems no more complicated than this: Low ball the price to get the job, and then later on figure out how much cleaning time they can afford, or are willing, to give to it.

Well, that’s a problem. And Independent cleaning businesses should have pointed it out then. They should point it out now.

Cleaning Guy #2
“We always try to come in a little LOWER than the next guy – you know, beat their price.  Everyone knows price is all that matters; and if that’s what it takes to land the job, so be it; we’ll figure out a way to make money once we get started.”

Sound familiar? Ever heard someone, or yourself, say something similar?  Let’s take a closer look:

On one hand, we’ve got cleaning guy #1 who simply wants what he wants.  He’s made up his mind that he’s worth so much per hour and that’s that.  No amount of explaining to the contrary, we’ll likely change his mind.

The heck with what the broader market wants.  Misguided ego and immovable stubbornness may be his downfall if he’s not careful. He demands what he WANTS and cares little for what the market may WANT.

And to be fair, this strategy may work at first, or even for a while, especially if the cleaning business is small and wants to stay that way.  By the way, there’s nothing wrong with having a handful of loyal customers willing to pay a premium for your cleaning services…simply because it’s you!

But, if you’re looking to grow much beyond a one-person operation, then this kind of narrow-minded thinking can quickly put a stop to any plans for real growth.

Before long, you’re likely to be confronted, or worse yet completely ignored by, a marketplace that dismisses your “My way… or the highway’ approach to pricing janitorial jobs as ‘out of touch’ and therefore unacceptable.

Now, on the other hand, we have cleaning guy #2, whose pricing strategy is based in FEAR and made worse by a total lack of any real ideas how to pick up new business short of dropping his price; what we use to refer to as basically “buying the business”.

What’s that?

Well, it’s having to cut  your price as often, and as far as necessary, in the desperate hope of attracting someone, anyone, to ‘bite’ on your smelly, low-priced ‘bait’.

You see, this fellow just can’t seem to come up with any reason to choose his services beyond the fact that he’ll do it for less than the next guy.

Not very inspiring, is it?

So, what advice can we give to these two cleaning guys to help turn things around for them?  Here’s our suggestions:

To Cleaning Guy #1:

Start thinking of it this way: Premium pricing? Yes! – Excessive pricing? No!

If you want to grow, you need to find the pricing “burn zone”.  And what that means is developing a pricing method that has you regularly quoting jobs at prices high enough to make you a healthy profit, but not so high as to remove you from consideration.  You want to be in the ‘game’.  Not the lowest, but in the game.

By the way, this “burn zone” strategy doesn’t mean you can’t charge more premium service.  You can and should create a cleaning company that can provide superior value to your customers.  But, it’s one thing to be premium priced and it’s quite another to be excessively priced!  Excessively priced leaves you vulnerable even if you do land the account.

To Cleaning Guy #2:

Plain and simple: Create a reason why people should buy from you besides low price… or get out of the business.

Really! For your sake, your customers’ sake and for the sake of the cleaning industry in general… “Get in…or get out!”

You do yourself, nor your customers any favor by offering cleaning services without a clear commitment to quality.  Simply offering and then delivering substandard cleaning at cheap prices does nothing but tarnish the value of all those who proudly have proudly chosen professional cleaning as their vocation.

Quality is the result of many things; and at the top of the list is having a clear connection between the work to be done and a monthly price and daily hours that can support the people and plan needed to successfully and regularly carry it out.

So, where does this leave us? How does a cleaning business create a reliable and repeatable way to find this desirable ‘burn zone” for pricing cleaning jobs?

Well, here are a few tips:

1. Know the type, frequency and difficulty of the cleaning required
2. Estimate how long the cleaning should take
3. Know your expenses and profit requirements
4. Calculate a price to properly support # 1- 3 above

Sure, but how?

Well, there are a number of janitorial bidding software programs available today to help make the process easier.  Check out which meets your needs best; then begin to use it consistently to find the “burn zone” for your specific cleaning company in your particular city.

How Did We Get Here?

Well, as in many things, the changes in janitorial bidding & estimating software have come in waves.

For many years, and still today, various bidding and estimating “rules of thumb”  have been used to create a variety of basic spreadsheet applications or relatively simple bidding “calculators”.

For example, general production rate estimates for standard office cleaning may be used in these calculators, allowing a facility manager to estimate labor hours needed to clean an area, while price per square foot guidelines may be built in to help janitorial contractors determine how much to charge for monthly services.

These spreadsheets or calculators are generally easy to find and available if not free, usually for a modest charge.  They can be helpful, but may be limited in their usefulness, since they may only factor in the only the most general of building information, such as total square feet and overall cleaning frequency.

Technology Leads The Way!

The next wave of change in janitorial bidding brought a number of actual CD format or downloadable “software” type products with varying levels of sophisticated programming and features.

These programs opened the door to a much greater level of customization, not only regarding the building information to be workloaded in the program, but in the appearance and content of the reports as well.  Information entered into the process could be merged into professional style reports and proposals.

Finally, easier and more efficient ways were becoming available for janitorial cleaning contractors and facility managers to actually workload information very specific information unique individual buildings.

With these programs, it was now possible to factor in such specific building information as room dimensions, floor surfaces and degree of difficulty along with the specific production rates associated to the cleaning tasks listed in the work schedule.

The results could be broken down and printed by individual area or for the entire building.  In addition, these CD or downloadable software programs provided a way for the user to conveniently and easily save their individual bids to be reviewed, edited or printed in the future.

This wave of janitorial bidding & estimating software programs represented an important step forward in the accuracy and professionalism of bidding and estimating for both the facility manager and janitorial cleaning contractor as well.

To Be Terrific… Be Specific!
One of the main measures of the accuracy and usefulness of any bidding and estimating software is the degree to which is allows the user to enter building specific information to be factored into the actual workloading.

This critical building information can include actual dimensions of areas, type of flooring, and area breakdown by use, as well as more subjective factors, such as degree of difficulty or density. Many of these programs now allow users to improve the accuracy of bidding and estimating commercial cleaning jobs, by moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to this kind of highly customized approach.

It””s Not Just For Dusting.

While these janitorial bidding software programs are useful for standard office cleaning situations, which call for common tasks such as dusting or emptying trash containers, they are able to do much more.

Any number of periodic cleaning tasks such as hi-speed burnishing of VCT tile, for example, can be work loaded using these type programs.

As long as an appropriate production rate can be determined for the specific task, it can be used to provide a calculated cleaning time by workloading it along with the size of the area along and cleaning frequency required for that task.

Industry associations may offer useful reference guides of cleaning times for a wide variety of cleaning tasks.  However, you may perform production rate studies yourself to establish cleaning times, providing you a useful insight into the efficiency of your own company or department in the process.

Going Online!

One of the most recent developments in janitorial bidding & estimating software is the move to go online.  This next big wave of change in bidding and estimating offers even more opportunity for improvements in speed, ease of use, and accuracy.  While having all the advantages of traditional janitorial bidding & estimating software, online programs have a number of distinct advantages.

The “live” nature of the internet allows for “real time” training on, and updating of, the bidding software.  Users can receive valuable “live” bidding help and training on their actual bid, remotely via the Internet.  And janitorial cleaning contractors can use the program to bid on jobs anywhere and anytime they wish… even in the prospect”s office.

In this information age, janitorial bidding and estimating software is positioned to benefit greatly from the unique advantages of operating in this online environment.

For example, the internet provides a platform where continuous learning can take place based on the analysis of raw building data gathered, not from just a handful of  bids from a few companies, but from potentially thousands of real life bids from  thousands of companies.

The Future of Bidding and Estimating is Promising

The Information Age resulting from the incredible wave of technology, promises to deliver janitorial cleaning contractors and facility managers alike easier, more effective and more accurate bidding and estimating software in the future.

Don’t you believe it; it couldn”t be further from the truth!

In fact, put together the right way, and your bid cover letter can become one of your most powerful selling tools.

However, as we’ve said, most commercial cleaning companies put very little thought, and even less effort, into preparing one. They feel compelled to include it, if for no other reason, than they think it makes them look “professional”.

The result is most janitorial proposal cover letters are filled with the same ‘safe’, but boring stuff that has been putting building owners and property managers to sleep for years such as:

“Thanks for allowing us to bid”
“We’re bonded, licensed and insured”
“We’ve been in business since 1997”
“We appreciate your interest… blah, blah, blah.”

But, if it bores you, you can pretty safely assume…it’s boring your prospects too!

It’s not the just what the cover letter says that’s the problem; it’s what it says about you, the cleaning contractor, that””s the real problem.

And what’s that?

It says you didn””t think it was necessary to take the time to highlight the important details, issues and areas of concern the customer told you and showed you during the bid walkthrough, as well as your plan for addressing them.

And it’s those details, hotspots and special areas of concern that get mentioned in the walkthrough and during your initial meeting with your prospect that hold the key to your chances of creating a powerful cover letter; one that proves, not just that you were listening, but that you understand what they want and have a plan for doing it.

You need to begin to see the cover letter as a powerful tool to attract your prospect to WANT to do business with you by clearly describing how you and your company are uniquely aware of exactly what they need done and know exactly how to do it.

The bid cover letter gives you that opportunity.

By the way, don”t misunderstand; it’s perfectly ok to use some of the standard language you”re used to seeing in professional bid cover letters such as “Thanks for taking the time to show us your facility” or “As you review the bid, feel free to call us with any questions.”

But that”s just the beginning. Written properly, the cover letter to a janitorial proposal can be the place to:

1. Clearly show that you have heard your prospects complaints, concerns and issues loud and clear.

2. Understand them, care about them and

3. Have a definite plan for solving them… and keeping them solved.

For example, let’s say your prospect points out they’re unhappy with the condition or appearance of the following:

- the grease marks on the painted doors leading to the plant
- the amount of dust on top of the office cubicle dividers
- the debris accumulating along the carpeted edges of the office

You should use this list as a fantastic opportunity to highlight one or all of them in your cover letter along with the specifics of your plan to get them clean and keep them clean.

When a prospective client reads through a bid cover letter with MUSCLE; one that lists not only their main concerns but the detailed plan of action, systems and procedures to correct them as well- they’ll be impressed, not bored!

Dan Liebrecht is co-founder of Clean Guru LLC, Copyright Clean Guru LLC, All Rights Reserved
Sign up online at www.CleanBid.net to receive the FREE e-newsletter “Flip My Cleaning Business from ‘Painful’ to ‘Profitable’!” Need help bidding? Check out the CleanBid® Program – The Quick and Easy Way to Bid Any Cleaning Job… Guaranteed! http://www.CleanBid.net Modules for Janitorial, Construction Cleaning, Move In/Out Cleaning and Tile Maintenance

Price Per Square Foot

Some say knowing how much to price a janitorial, office-cleaning bid at is as easy as multiplying the total cleanable square feet of a building by so many dollars or cents per square foot.

Unfortunately, this formula is often tossed about without even mentioning if the figures are based on a month or a year; a piece of information those new to the cleaning business would not doubt find quite valuable to know.

For example, per square foot figures ranging from $0.08 – $0.14 per sq. ft. or $0.95 – $1.50 per sq. ft., are offered up with little or no explanation; assuming it’s common knowledge that the former generally refers to a monthly calculation; while the latter is meant for a yearly price estimate.

Educated Guess

Others suggest you should rely on your own experience, simply guesstimate how long it should take to clean, and then charge so much per hour.

But, that advice can be equally misleading.  And the cleaning contractor with little or no experience is at a real disadvantage.

The number and kind of cleaning jobs janitorial companies face can vary greatly in size, frequency and difficulty, as well as, in the actual nature of the cleaning (i.e. professional office, industrial/manufacturing, retail, restaurant etc).

In time, many cleaning business owners come to realize the differences from one project to the next can be so significant; the idea of pricing jobs based on their best guess of cleaning times is simply not a reliable or effective bidding method.

In fact, even if they could somehow, eventually, develop a way of personally guesstimating the price for cleaning jobs, they may still be leaving their cleaning business vulnerable.

On one hand, what if they ever plan on having someone else do the bidding for their cleaning business? How long would it take to thoroughly teach a new person everything it took them so many years to learn?  Too long is right!

And in the worst case, what if, god forbid, something unforeseen ever happens to the business owner… leaving those left behind to run the cleaning business, but with no systematic way to estimate how long a cleaning job should take or how much they should charge.

Plain and simple, for most cleaning businesses who want to grow, bidding and estimating jobs should not rest solely on one person’s shoulders.  Instead, there needs to be a reliable and easy to use bidding system.

‘Standardized’ Production Rates
Finally, still others insist you should just use a “standard”, generalized, overall, production rate to figure the hours needed to clean a building, and then again, simply charge so much per hour.

There are two primary kinds of production rates in the cleaning business.

One is production rates for individual cleaning tasks; which means how much sq. ft. one person can clean in one hour… performing only one task.  There are also overall cleaning production rates which generally refer to how many sq. ft. of a building can be cleaned by one person in one hour performing an entire set of what some may refer to as “standard” cleaning duties.

This overall production rate approach would suggest you simply divide the total area to be cleaned by a given ‘overall’, ‘standard’ production rate figure – take the resulting hours, and multiply by your hourly rate.

The only problem , of course, is that every building is unique, and the kind, level and frequency of cleaning tasks each prospective customer wants can differ greatly in type, frequency and degree of difficulty.  This makes it difficult to rely on a so-called ‘standard’ production rate designed to cover a whole set of so-called ‘standard’ type cleaning tasks… with an acceptable level of confidence the time estimates will be reliable and the resulting price decision will be a profitable.

Workloading

So, if this one-size fits all approach falls short too – what does work?  What is the best place to start?

Answer: Workloading.

That”s right, workloading each job so you have a calculated cleaning time unique to the building you”re bidding on is the place we recommend most cleaning companies should start when it comes to bidding.

And, what is workloading?

Well, it”s the process of figuring out a time estimate for how long a building should take to clean by basically “loading” the “work”.

What “work”?

Well, of course, all the cleaning tasks needing to be performed.

In simplest terms, workloading is the process of entering specific information about a building such as individual measurements (i.e. room dimensions), floor types (i.e. carpet, tile) and fixture counts (sinks, toilets), and then matching them up with an appropriate series of schedules consisting of specific cleaning tasks and associated production rates to generate an average per visit cleaning time.

It really all comes down to calculating an estimated cleaning time for the building you”re bidding on.  And when you have a calculated cleaning time, you can move forward confidently to pricing the job.

From there, cleaning business owners can multiply a monthly hours estimate times a properly ‘loaded’ hourly rate to determine a monthly price to charge.

When you start with calculating a cleaning time you”re miles ahead of the guy who is simply guesstimating a price using one of many over-simplified methods.

Fortunately, there are useful janitorial bidding software programs available to help you “workload” the janitorial jobs you”re bidding on.

There are many convenient janitorial bidding software programs available today, ranging from simple downloadable, Excel-based programs to full feature, online bidding programs, some of which generate proposals as well.

While these programs can vary in cost and ease of use, they all are designed to help the cleaning business owner bid janitorial, commercial cleaning jobs more effectively and professionally.

Maybe.

Yeah, maybe if all cleaning companies were the same, it might work.

But they’re not.

And, maybe if all customers wanted the same thing, it might work.

But, they don’t.

And there”s the rub.

See, broad, one-size-fits-all approaches to bidding office-cleaning like price per square foot, might work, if all cleaning companies were all the same size, cleaned the same, had the same costs, and expected the same profit.

But they don”t.

The really big ones may come close.

Really large cleaning companies, some of whom, may have 500, 1000, or more employees… may come close.

At that level, the “players” (competing cleaning contractors) may begin to look similar; similar management structure, similar approaches to cleaning, similar quality control methods, and maybe most importantly… similar expense ratios and profit requirements.

And at that level of play, per square foot based pricing may work adequately.

But, the reality is the vast majority of cleaning businesses don’t look anything like that.

No, the truth is most cleaning companies vary greatly in:

• How they CLEAN – one person, area, or “team” cleaning

• How LARGE they are – from one person to a hundred or more.

• What KIND of cleaning they offer – from straight janitorial, office- cleaning to residential, …to any number of other types, such as carpet or industrial cleaning.

• What their OVERHEAD, or PROFIT requirements are.

And those differences… make a difference!

That”s right, for most cleaning companies…

Figuring out what price to charge for office-cleaning should start with figuring out… the TIME.

And what TIME is that?

Well, it’s the estimate for how long it should take, on average, to clean the building.

The reason we say, on average, is, we all know, things come up that may take a little longer to do than usual some nights, or may save a little time on others.

But, that”s not the point.

The point is when you start with a good estimate, or average, of how long a building will take to clean… you”ve got a lot!

And when you start with THAT, you”re miles ahead of the guy who decides on his monthly price by either dividing the total sq. ft. by some arbitrary production rate, or by multiplying it by some just as arbitrary price per sq. ft. figure.

Over-simplified measures give over-simplified answers.

And over-simplified answers in a business, like cleaning, can quickly turn around to bite you in the form of under-priced jobs which leads to lower profits.  To avoid this, we recommend you:

Workload each office-cleaning job you”re bidding on!

For our purposes, workloading is the process of using specific information about a building such as floor measurements (i.e. room dimensions), floor types (i.e. carpet, tile) and fixture counts (sinks, toilets) along with a schedule of job specifications where each cleaning task has an associated production rate per sq. ft. or by item count, to calculate an average cleaning time.

Yes, there”s a lot to it. But, fortunately, there”s help available to make it easy, a whole lot easier, …more about that later.

For now, it”s important to realize how critical it is to start with calculating a cleaning time for office cleaning, and then set the price… not the other way around!

It really all comes down to calculating an estimated cleaning time for the building you”re bidding on.  And when you have a calculated cleaning time, you can move forward confidently to pricing the job.

Cleaning business owners can multiply a monthly hours estimate times a properly ‘loaded’ hourly rate to determine a monthly price to charge.

When you start with calculating a cleaning time you”re miles ahead of the guy who is simply guesstimating a price using one of many over-simplified methods.

Fortunately, there are useful janitorial bidding software programs available to help you “workload” the janitorial jobs you””re bidding on.

There are many convenient janitorial bidding software programs available today, ranging from simple downloadable, Excel-based programs to full feature, online bidding programs, some of which generate proposals as well.

While these programs can vary in cost and ease of use, they all are designed to help the cleaning business owner bid janitorial, commercial cleaning jobs more effectively and professionally.