I am going to bid on cleaning the sidewalks in front of a chain of stores. They are open from 7am to 9pm approx. Most stores are strip mall or shop centers where sq. footage is 500 to 700. My bid will be for time vs sq footage because of inconvience of work hours. I am going to bid very high and probably won't get the job but I was wondering if anyone here has a simular situation. The mgr. of 1 store asked me to do his store front and then gave me the number of the maintenance mgr. so its not a cold call. If they want me to do all [28] locations I may consider subbing out the long distance ones. Any info would help.
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sidewalk cleaning before or after store hours
- Thread starter jeffex11
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mrmagic
Guest
After Hours
Man I just cleaned a Conoco Yesterday and I spent more time stopping for customers then I did work. My 2hr job became 5 because of it. But this was and Emergency job...a painter spilled red paint all down the front sidewalk. I got it off but man wish I would have done it real early or late. So my advise to you is when posible clean after hours.
Man I just cleaned a Conoco Yesterday and I spent more time stopping for customers then I did work. My 2hr job became 5 because of it. But this was and Emergency job...a painter spilled red paint all down the front sidewalk. I got it off but man wish I would have done it real early or late. So my advise to you is when posible clean after hours.
north coast
New Member
We do chains of stores and entire shopping centers year round always after closing. They should never be done during the daytime. What’s the big deal of working at night or scheduling employees for night work? It would take fore ever during the day having to stop for customers all the time. If you don't want the work because it’s at night send it my way.
The commute may be a little rough!!! from OHIO !! When you bid on a chain of stores they want you to service them all. Good and Bad . the stores closer to me will pay the price to subsidize my travel to the greater distance stores. I am adding up the price for each store based on travel and wash time. I don't need the work so bad as to under bid. My question was simply does anyone have an account simular to this where the price may be $100 for one store close to you and $200 for one with a greater travel time as well as the limited time to service before or after hours
Aplus
New Member
What you're describing is fairly common. Yes you sometimes have to travel, yes it's the nite shift, and some sites are smaller than others.
Why bother to bid at all if you figure you're not going to get it, or purposely overbid the work?
Is power washing your full time gig or do you have another full time job and do p/w on the side?
P/W is my full time gig, so I take all jobs I can get. 600-700 s/f should be less than an hours work, so even with fuel and supplies, even a $100 job would pay good looking at it as an hourly rate. You would just need to do a few of those a nite.
Why bother to bid at all if you figure you're not going to get it, or purposely overbid the work?
Is power washing your full time gig or do you have another full time job and do p/w on the side?
P/W is my full time gig, so I take all jobs I can get. 600-700 s/f should be less than an hours work, so even with fuel and supplies, even a $100 job would pay good looking at it as an hourly rate. You would just need to do a few of those a nite.
EXACTLY! the bid will be the average price x # of stores. I am NOT giving them an itemized price [$100 store A $300 store B]for each store.Some stores may be a 3 hr drive. One price for all stores[ $x,000 per month]. I DO have another business[lawn] . I have a full time job too. I'm a mailman and I have lunch at one of the stores and the Mgr is friendly and talks to me daily. He asked me what I would charge him to do his sidewalk. I told him I have a $150 price minimum but for him I could go $100 . I tried to get the property owners to pay for him. I did call the property Mgr of the strip mall to try and get the whole place. Would not give a return call and was always out. NOTHING VENTURED NOTHING GAINED. I have been pressure washing for 16 yrs doing mainly decks and houses. 100% residential so far. If I get this gig it will require me to hire or sub out some of the work . A new venture for me as my family has been the only workers in our business so far. No problem getting the work done I have the luxuary of selecting the jobs I WANT vs the ones I need. My main motivation is to get something to keep my son working over the winter until the lawn season kicks back in. He is very responsible and can handle some of these jobs solo until I can hire and train someone. FYI it seems the contact person the mgr gave me doesn't return calls either so I'll try again today. I would rather just do the stores that are local and keep the price reasonable but If they want one company to do it all there are additional cost factors relating to travel and scheduling. THAT is my question to the board . does anyone do the same with a chain store
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north coast
New Member
jeffex11 said:
Again if you don't want the work send it my way. A chain of stores scattered around a state or even a country is not a problem. I am well aware of where Maryland is in relation to Ohio, beside the ride cannot be that rough there are paved roads from here to there.
5 Star Johnny
New Member
ALWAYS before or after hours. We do a chain of retail stores which I always do before hours. Even then, arriving employees in the morning still slow us down a bit. From a liability standpoint, you reduce your exposure by not spitting stones and other debris into the path of a customer or vehicle.
My experience in proposing entire chains for an area is that some store managers will not go with you even if corporate is asking for a collective price proposal. The individual store managers often have the last word if they're happy with their current contractor, and its competitive. Corporate simply uses the collective approach to garner lower pricing, and even drive down pricing of its current contractors. Price jobs so you make money. If they have 20 stores in your region, you might get 10. My $.02 worth.
My experience in proposing entire chains for an area is that some store managers will not go with you even if corporate is asking for a collective price proposal. The individual store managers often have the last word if they're happy with their current contractor, and its competitive. Corporate simply uses the collective approach to garner lower pricing, and even drive down pricing of its current contractors. Price jobs so you make money. If they have 20 stores in your region, you might get 10. My $.02 worth.
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