[calmore]

A friend has pointed me in the direction of a couple of contracts will be up for tender shortly by a Government body.

Having never tendered for contracts before, any advice? It all seems simple enough.

However, some of the work involved is "normal" cleaning..would I be better off employing staff directly, or bringing in another company to do this work?

[Graeme@Access]

Hi,

Beware when going for cleaning in the public sector.  As far as i know, you will have to employ the staff that are currently working on the job and continue the pension schemes etc.  You cant just take over a contract and make everyone redundant.

Look into this before you even consider tendering for the work.

Graeme
Access Cleaning Solutions

[calmore]

Many thanks. I will certainly look into the employment aspects.

[Matt Lindus]

The ordinary cleaner guy is not experienced in obtaining large rolling contracts with large organisations.
That's why a lot find it hard obtaining commercial carpet cleaning contracts. Proper contracts I mean, not just one off cleans where by a quote is submitted, accepted and the work is carried out.
Proper legal documentation needs to be submitted, this is a seriously massive amount of technical paper work. We use a local solicitors to finalise paper work and company lawyer to check to make sure there are no legal or commercial implications. After about 5-10 meetings and presentations with the company's heads of departments and directors, your submissions are held and tendered. After about 6-12 months a finalisation of accepted contacts is announced for the following year or several years depending on what you initially tendered for.

The technical knowledge, paperwork, legal assistance required for proper commercial work is mind blowing. Very few can do it right, and they lose the contracts.

Stick to Mrs Jones Lounge and 3 piece suite, its much easier!

Matt   

[calmore]

I'm led to believe it's a bit simpler than that for smaller contracts. A friend works in a different field but has contracts with local schools, council offices etc.

In essence he just puts a bid in, some he wins, some he loses. (OK it's slightly more complex than that not not much more)

[Chris34]

I currently work in the contract cleaning industry and have done for the last 11 years.  I am currently in the process of switching over to being a self employed carpet and upholstery cleaner.  The reason I am doing this is because I am fed up with the cut throat environment of the daily contract cleaning industry. 

The legal law means that you have got to take on the existing cleaning staff under the same pay and conditions and this all comes under what is called the Tupee regulations.  When you take over a contract from which another cleaning company used to clean then you have to contact that company to find out all the pay and conditions that the employees were on.  I do not find this a problem really as most cleaners are on pretty much the same pay and conditions which is typically the national minimum wage and the minimum legal holiday entitlements.

What I don't like is having 30 odd cleaners all doing 2 hours either very early in the morning or in the evening at different contracts all over the city if your lucky and more likely over a 20-30 mile radius.  It leaves you with say 2-3 cleaners phoning in sick each and every day which you have to then get the job covered which is very difficult because you need somebody that has done the job before and knows what needs cleaning and where everything is (cleaning materials, keys etc).

All this work will just about pay you a wage but I don't think it's worth all the hassle.  Carpet cleaning on the other hand can pay you a decent wage for a lot less effort and the income is available pretty much from the word go, and the best bit is you only have to rely on yourself to bring in the money and do a good job rather than 30 odd other cleaners who you cannot realistically keep an eye on to provide the service you want them to. 

Having to be on call from 6 in the morning right through till 8 at night is very tiring and I constantly wonder why so many cleaning companies exist when there is a lot easier ways to earn your money.  When the company expands you normally find that a manager gets employed to look after about 25-30 contracts depending on how many cleaners work at each contract. 

I will be be glad when the time comes when I can finally turn my back on the daily contract cleaning industry.


Chris.

[Cleaning Resource]

That`s got to be one of the truest statements I have read, but I wanna do great things and get rich so I get through it, along with many others on here. There are plenty of good points and it can be highly rewarding in so many ways but there is no denying that at times it can be the most sole destroying thing in the world.

I guess it comes down to where you are in your life and where you, personally feel contented.

I would personally put the tender in after all you might not even get it. If you do then this could be the start of something good.

I would say to myself could I afford to pay the staff for the first 3 months as my first payment would prob be on a 60 day invoice ( have an extra month put by incase)

Can I afford the equipment.

Is there penalty`s payable if I f*#k up (i`ve seen clauses to say, if you mess up big time  they can kick you out , employ a new company and you have to pay the difference which would be huge cos the other comp would take the p)

do I want the agro

do I want the money

do i want to go bald

do i want to get divorced