Steve Hanson

Almost every day we're asked to help with a bid of one sort or another. Sometimes we're given plenty of detail about the location, while other times we're simply told, "I have to bid on a 15,000 square foot office building that has 4 restrooms and a breakroom. How much shoud I charge?" That doesn't give us much to go on, does it? And then to top it off, people wonder why there is no "cookie-cutter" formula or "going rate" for bidding on cleaning jobs.

Let's illustrate why every cleaning bid must be analyzed individually, and why we can't simply plug numbers into a formula to come up with a price that is reflective of the job itself. We will do this by comparing 2 office buildings, each with a total of 30,000 square feet, and each cleaned 5 days per week.

Building A is a 3-story, multi-tenant office building. It has a large double entry with a large lobby, granite flooring, elevators and two sets of stairways. There are two restrooms (Mens and Ladies) on each floor. Most of the tenant offices have either breakrooms or coffee centers.

Building A is cleaned by 3 janitorial workers, each working a 3.25 hour shift, for a total of 9.75 man hours. They are cleaning 3077 square feet per hour.

Building B is a one-story single tenant office building. It has a smaller entry with a carpeted reception area. There are two large restrooms in the center of the buliding, one large breakroom adjacent to the restrooms, and a coffee center. There are a few enclosed offices around the perimeter of the building, with the bulk of the space filled with cubicles and large open areas.

Building B is cleaned by 2 janitorial workers, each working a 3 hour shift, for a total of 6 man hours. They are cleaning 5,000 square feet per hour.

Even though each building is 30,000 square feet, can you see the difference in the amount of time needed to clean each building? Building B has more open spaces with fewer restrooms and breakrooms, and no stairways or elevators to clean. Production rates are much higher in this type of buliding, so the employment costs associated with caring for the building are much lower than they are in Building A.

As you can see, the cleaning price for Building A must be higher than the cleaning price for Building B. As you work on cleaning proposals, make note of these details so you are well-prepared for giving your prospect a realistic proposal for their building. Estimating your production rate will give you a good idea on your employment costs, so be realistic about how fast the building can be cleaned. If you estimate too low, your price could come in too high, which means you risk losing the job. If you estimate too high, you might get the job, but you could lose in the end due to low profit margins.

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Steve Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through his online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com.