[Richard iSparkle]

I'm interested to get opinions and advice from people who deal with bigger commercial clients.

So i have a comercial client who we have been cleaning for over 7 years. Its a large local business with multiple sites in our area.

We don't have a contract with them so we just work adhoc for them, as and when required and invoice them

This last year thought they have a number of times booked large amounts of work and then cancelled it at the last moment.

A couple of weeks back they booked 8 days full of work. and then cancelled it all the day before it was due to start.

they have now got in touch and want work completed this week for an open day they have on saturday.

how would you handle this? my issue is i have no terms of cancellation for commercial work. they issue PO's but then cancel them.

before this year we had none of these issues whatsoever. they have always tended to book in work with little notice, but we have been flexible and moved jobs around to fit them in, and we earn good money for them. its the last minute cancelling thats the issue here

the issue is i suppose i cant be moving all work off friday to do this job, if they are going to cancel it and then we have a work free day

But you leave a note with your next clean date as you said in another thread. How do you tell them that you are no longer coming on the set date? Seems like you're prioritising this commercial job over your bread and butter work.

we leave a next clean date, but sometimes they do need moving.. bank holidays, sickness, annual leave, van issues etc etc

we dont like to move things about but we do if needs be.

this commercial client  is bringing an extra £10,000 profit to me this year so its important to get the money while i can.

but yes, its a balancing act how far i can deal with it when they swap things about

Is it 10 k profit or 10 k turnover from the job  ?

profit from the customer this year

[robbo333]

I think this is a difficult situation.
A meeting with your client would be good, but I wouldn't hold out much hope of it changing anything.
I'm sure your client has the best intentions but probably his hands are tied and this situation will no doubt happen again.
I think the ball is in your court.
Are you prepared to put up with the hassle, or not? Is it worth the financial reward.
10K profit on good commercial work; I can see how you want to make this work for you.
If it were me, I would continue with the client and have a plan A if the work goes ahead and a plan B if the work does not go ahead. Review it in 9 months time and see if it's worth the hassle.
Ironically, I would actually push for more work.

[Richard iSparkle]

I think this is a difficult situation.
A meeting with your client would be good, but I wouldn't hold out much hope of it changing anything.
I'm sure your client has the best intentions but probably his hands are tied and this situation will no doubt happen again.
I think the ball is in your court.
Are you prepared to put up with the hassle, or not? Is it worth the financial reward.
10K profit on good commercial work; I can see how you want to make this work for you.
If it were me, I would continue with the client and have a plan A if the work goes ahead and a plan B if the work does not go ahead. Review it in 9 months time and see if it's worth the hassle.
Ironically, I would actually push for more work.

yes i think this is the reality of it.

i think without a contract in place i just have to decide if this ad hoc working basis is worth the hassle, and where to draw the line really.

so long as i can do it, without harming my main business (domestic) i suppose i just get th cash while i can