Re: Bidding
There is not one “right†way to bid for janitorial work. Bidding is not an exact science. No person, book, consultant or organization has ever come up with a perfect bidding formula. In the end, the right bid is the one that gets you the account and enough money to make having it worthwhile.
There is also no going rate for commercial cleaning. There does appear to be a range of estimates from 6-10 cents per square foot depending on several variables as mentioned below.
It is just natural when you first inspect an office or tour a building to wonder how many hours and how many people it will take to clean it. You can use this estimate as one way to figure your bid and see how it compares with other bidding methods such as the rate per square foot, costs to service the location and the variables mentioned below.
You can also base your bid on your expenses. Figure in your cost of labor, supplies, your overhead and the profit you wish to make. If you want to have a 30% markup over and above all these costs, divide this total expenses, (cost and overhead) by 70% and that will give you another way to bid on a location. If you can manage on a 20% markup, divide by 80%. This is called the margin-markup method.
There are so many variables when bidding on a new account that you must consider many issues and even figure your bid a few different ways before submitting your proposal.
Some of the issues:
1. How many people work at the location, is it crowded or sparse, this is the density of the building.
2. Is the customer expecting “Tiffany†service or more moderate, basic service.
3. Is the service five or more nights per week or two or three. An account cleaned every night tends to be easier and you can get more area cleaned faster than an office cleaned once or twice per week.
4. Is the location near or far from where you are working.
5. Will the account lead to other opportunities.
All these issues must be considered when you start to formulate your bid and there are actually several more ways to figure your estimate.
There are a variety of factors and ways to bid on a location and with a bigger account it’s often good to do two things:
1. “Sleep†on it. Don’t rush to present your bid, think about it a couple of days, and
2. Use two, three or several different ways to figure your estimate.
3. Remember “our secret†that the longer you clean a building, the easier it gets. So base your bid on how much time and expense the location will take 3-5 weeks down the road.
Robert Kravitz
Altura Solutions Janitorial Resource Center
www.alturasolutions.com
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Robert Kravitz
alturasolutions.com