[derek west]

got a call today for a quote on a letting agency office, its got me thinking, they want me to quote for cleaning the office, surely they've got cc's on there books so are they feeling me out, they have 14 offices in my vacinity but its the local one they want the quote on, they also have a few thousand houses let out, dilemma time, do i go with my prices for domestic as thats all ive done so far or do i quote low and hope i get extra work from the quote, dont worry i wont be quoting brightclean prices, i want to make a living not dig an early grave. i want this job, ive not done any commercial yet and i so want to give it a go, i really need some sensible advice as to how to approach this one..

[Jim_77]

Price it so you make a decent amount of money from it and SELL the job.

Give them the benefits.

If all they're looking for is rock-bottom pricing, take a walk...

[The Great One]

Hi

Depends what they want?

Do they want just a clean of desks, toilets & floor, or do they want you to also quote with bags, toilet rolls etc (consumables)

Do not sell yourself cheap, you HAVE to price as if you are staffing it, because at some point you may want to and you don't want to be in a position of cleaning at a loss, otherwise you will be paying them to clean their office.

Go in with your PL Ins, refs, biz card and your letter also.

Min price is £12.50 per hour, try for £15, if they dither you can drop to £12.50. I do a LA office, I am also their main cleaner

Good luck

Regards

Martin

[derek west]

its just the carpets they want cleaning but the chance of getting the other offices and maybe a chance to clean there lettings. £12.50 an hour sounds ok but as a newbie i'm not sure how long it will take, even after seeing it. eeeeek,

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Offer them a 2 tier clean, your super dooper for all over freshness and very dirt dwellings and a freshen up clean where you go in to clean the carpets after the general cleaners have been in and vacuumed first, clean around beds and move basics.

Keep your minimum charge though don't get fooled into lowering that.

Shaun

[derek west]

no shaun, they want me to clean there office. not sure if there doing this to check out my prices and quality and then they can compare it to  there regular cleaner if they have one. or they just dont have a regular cleaner and they just want there office cleaned, ?

[davep]

£12.50 a hour for carpet cleaning aint enough, triple it at least 

[derek west]

then theres a chance i wont get the job? dave

[Gerry Styles]

Derek

Some you win, some you lose. You need to make a living and pay for the tm. Give them your best price and sell the service.

[derek west]

best price as in lowest price that i'm prepared to do it for gerry?

[The Great One]

Ah, apologies. Thought it was a general clean, not CC.

In that case charge per sq m

Regards

Martin

[Jim_77]

Fer christs sakes!!!

How many m² is this office?  What sort of carpet?  Is it open plan, plenty of elbow room or is it all squished up with hardly any floor showing?

Town location?  Parking?  Time restrictions?

OK here's an example.

I do the office area for a warehousing company.  There's a hall with an external door from the car park, a door in from the warehouse and a door in from the kitchen, so 3 bad soiled areas that all converge in the middle.

The job's only 45m² and I don't clean every last square inch of it.

The hall is a T shape with a huge plant pot and some filing cabinets to negotiate round, one of the offices I can barely get between the desks with my rotary it's that cramped, the other office is easy to whizz round.  I can park right outside the door, there's water within 6ft of my machine and I can tip it away right next to my work area.

I do this in daytime hours, they make me as much coffee as I can drink and don't care about noise or not having to work for an hour or two.

It always needs prespray, scrubbing like hell with a stiff brush on the rotary and then a thorough rinse through.  Takes me a couple of hours and I charge them £140+VAT, they are chuffed to bits with the results and the service so they think this is great value for money.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

if they have there owner cleaner then there not happy with them ! why else would they be ringing around , and if you go in cheap they will want every job done cheap after that

now if you skint and need the work you havnt got any room on this so cheap it is ,

 but if you want to play safe then go in about halfish if your one of the  dear guys  but make a show of it ! use a  air mover takeing a big stain removel kit in even  if you dont need it , shirt n tie  see where i am come from  

[*brightclean]

We do not do this type of work as payment is always slow in coming, and as our business is based on quick turnover (and ALL our customers pay on completion and in cash) we shy away from this, unless of course the tenant is paying direct and is in situ at time of clean.

[derek west]

thanks for the advice, i'll take some of it on board, here i go, wish me luck.

[Gerry Styles]

best price as in lowest price that i'm prepared to do it for gerry?

Yes but sell it on service with a good price

[Steve Chapman]

derek,

you need to go and talk properly with them and see if they will give you the lettings contact for there properties, and then bargain on what being offered.

As an example we have dealt with one letting agency for about 10 years and we do there offices and some of the staffs home carpets for free in return for the contract, believe me they wont go any where else if theres something in it for themselves, but you have to make sure its worth it.

we are guaranteed work from them every week, so for us its a good deal.

regards
steve

[prodry]

As they have 14 offices they more then likely have a property management team for all their offices who deal with the maintenance issues of their portfolio.

I wouldnt quote to cheap for it and do a good job as I am sure you would. If you get the job use the opportunity to find out who it is that deals with the maintenance and where they are based.

[derek west]

quoted £60 for 2 small rooms  a very small box room and a corridor, i also said if they can get me work on there lettings i could offer £10 towards there own cleaning per job they get me, office or home, they said it sounds great but didn't commit, is that the kiss of death, also cos i'm not vat registered they seemed to frown when i told them i'm not, is that letting me down,

[Joe H]

Some perceive if you are not VAT registered then you are not big enough to do their job. Whether thats the case or not here, I dont know.
You have to register for VAT if your turnover exceeds a certain amount (about £58k but someone will have a correct figure)
or you can voluntary register.
Remember you will have to show VAT on your domestic clients as well. Either you charge them 17.5% so the tax man can have his/her bit or you absorb it in your current charges and you pay the VAT out of current turnover.
If you charge 17.5% to a domestic client that undoubtedly puts you less favourable with your competitors.