New to the forum, but needed a platform to voice an opinion. I run a small and so far successful window cleaning business. I have a mix of domestic customers and commercial customers. I have worked very hard to win commercial customers through hard work, good prospecting, through letters, phone calls and arranged meetings. I turn up and quote for the work or tender for the business and then myself or one of my team will fulfil the agreed work. I have also worked very hard at maintaining a reasonable profit margin on my work.
Well let it be known that these large companies that are providing the so called national clean to commercial contracts are creating an environment where no of us will be earning any money in 10 years. They are no different to the fat cat bankers and I blame them and the small minded people that are prepared to work for peanuts in order to get a commercial contract for destroying the hard work of the individual local companies.
My Window Cleaning Company has been cleaning one restaurant of an Italian chain based in Malvern for 3 years. A lot of windows and we had a good working relationship. I turn up to complete the job this Monday find that there is another window cleaning company parked outside. I find out that they have cleaned the windows inside and out. Without being told the chain of restaurants is trailing a nationwide contract clean.
ped off that I cut the family holiday short to complete the weekly clean was bad enough, but then to find out that the fats cats that got the national contract, and no company is bigger enough to clean all the windows in the UK, so what do they do, subcontract to another company, who then subcontracts again to a one man show who is prepared to work for nothing to get the job done and be part of the commercial contract world.
Margins are squeezed as the fat cats that won the contract take their profit without no doubt cleaning a window and then on to the next middle man who takes his cut and then finally our one man band that is prepared to prostitute themselves. The result is that the value for each job will go down and down. What I heard from the little guy who wants the commercial work is that don’t blame me, I was instructed by the fat cats who I have recently started working for. My point is that if you want commercial work, go and win it yourselves, if we become enslaved by the large cleaning companies that are positioning themselves as having the ability to conduct a national cleaning contract but in fact just outsource it to the little guys then there will be no money in this industry in the near future except for the large monopolistic cleaning organisations.
If you are a local company you have the right to work and win the commercial work for that area without giving that profit to two middle men before you get your cut. Where is everybody’s initiative? If you set up a business then be a business and be a business man and don’t let yourself be pimped by the large companies.
If all local businesses refused to be subcontracted, then very quickly the large companies that have only got large through the little guy’s hard work will not be able to complete a “national clean” and then won’t be able to be squeezed themselves on price which they pass down the line and each business would have a chance to negotiate with local businesses. God I am furious.
