a bit off topic but is builders cleans good money? it's something i'm yet to go into simply because i was scared away when i first started that i'd get blamed for damaging something and also being way under priced. confident now we can easily do this if good money is there
Margins are very tight (more now than ever) and standards / conditions etc. vary from builder to builder.
This is aside from the fact that the housing market is still struggling to get back on track.
Finally, we are established build cleaners and even now getting new sites is bloomin difficult. On a couple of occasions recently we quoted lower than we should (for good reasons), but we were still undercut by 12% on one and 20% on another. I have no idea how these prices are possible but it highlights how desperate some companies are for the work.
In short this is a hard nut to crack.
Yes you are right about the low cost that you have to go to, to get the work. I know its hard. On average I would say providing you are a well organised team, and have agreements in place prior to setting foot in the building(s) that you are to clean you can easily undercut the competition.
We go in low, I wont say what prices. But we earn out of them very well. But we undercut to get the job. I dont mind admitting that. I am afraid that is the commercial world. Its driven on price.
If you are cleaning areas that you already cleaned then you are not organised and are wasting valuable time. Get an agreement in place.
Its a case of turnover, cashflow, providing work, opportunities and expansion. I dont agree on the "Shows how desperate we are".
We have work comming out of our ears from window cleaning, carpet cleaning, office cleaning, IT Cleaning, EOT Cleaning the list is endless. We work on volume. So you have to go in low and provide a top quality clean every time.
We just carpet cleaned a school and nursery. total 3 days work. Day and night. But we only won it by beating the price of the competitiors. We know this how? By talking to the client. Even though we were the most professional company to come out and quote we had to lower the price.
Now the opportunity we now have is the window cleaning of the school. They said we did a fantastic job and asked if we would be interested in doing the windows. They already have a window cleaner. But his work is poor to say the least. We took pictures of how he left the windows. So you see there can be good reasons why to go in low.
We were only asked the other day about our EOT cleans, By one letting agent "How on earth can you go so low and provide such a quality clean" The price included carpet cleaning, and cleaning of the entire 3 bed house. He said you must pay your staff peanuts. We said no, we just dont want you looking else where. He replied we certainly wont go else where. Now what that does is ensure we have the work and its regular. We still earn out of it and have a tidy profit. No point if you dont earn and have a tidy profit is there...?
However that is not to say we take all jobs. We cant. If the price is too rediculous then it goes to the competition.
Dave
