Lost a job to a lower bidder....Monday morning blues...

[icleancarpetz]

Monday morning blues....Had to pull myself together and regroup.....pulled out my man Willie...

 

[Old Coastie]

Well, just look at the bright side.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Trouble loves Mondays.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

If you land EVERY contract you bid on, you are priced to low....

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Monday morning blues....Had to pull myself together and regroup.....pulled out my man Willie...

This is one of those "heart and head" type of experiences.

Losing a bid can hurt one's pride. But if you were sharp on your numbers, you already knew you priced it as low as you could and still make money.

So if you would have had to have the lower price to get it, you probably would have lost money.

The other thing that I have found in business life:

The job you got at the lowest price you could have bid it to make just some marginal profit (which is tempting this time of year), is invariably the one that ends up having some costly problem associated with it:

A complaint and reservice
An equipment breakdown
An accident going to and from the job
An employee doesn't show up

I don't know why it happens this way, but it seems to.

Use this to drive you to make the next call, and remember, always leave a little extra for any of the above problems that we never anticipate, but always seem to have happen.

 

[J Scott W]

The low bidder and maybe the customer will likely be the ones with the blues soon enough. Rejoice when you don't get a job based solely on low price.

 

[Newman]

Well, just look at the bright side.

When you are chewing on life's gristle, just give a whistle.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

Ive had this happen multiple times. I now never get upset about it, as a matter of fact I just wait....
Inevitably, the lower priced company usually is desperate, they don’t know their margins, and do shyte quality work.
THEN, after the ‘low baller’ has done their work, the individual calls us to fix the problem. They have not done quality work, and the margin was so tight, low, they refuse to go back, and make it right....
This has happened MULTIPLE times for us...
They don’t vacuum, they don’t spot treat, they don’t use a quality prespray, and or rinse product, they don’t use ANY agitation, and they certainly don’t post bonnet, or speed dry....
They are usually running a SMALL blower, don’t maintain their machine or equipment....
Point is, these hacks are one and doners..... they fumble through life, and are simply desperate for the next contract, so they can put 20$ worth of gas in the van, and buy their next 6 pack of beer....
6 months from now, they are out of business, and the next HACK pops up, and will under bid you again on the next one......

 

[Cleanworks]

I lose jobs all the time. Often I am called the next time.

 

[Desk Jockey]

If you land EVERY contract you bid on, you are priced to low....

Yes but you'd be a happy somebeach.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We all have a point when it's just not worth the effort. However saying that, are you doing everything possible to maximize production? Was this a commercial bid? Lots of guys price themselves out of the commercial market by trying to get residential rates.

The joke of you'll make it up on volume isn't a joke for commercial. You should be able to be more efficient in your setup and processing. I hear lots of guys say "I would never clean for those rates!"

Yet when the numbers are compared the low rate commercial job brings in twice as much as their normal residential hourly rate.

No, you won't get all jobs but you'll get more with high production equipment, tools and chemicals.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

We all have a point when it's just not worth the effort. However saying that, are you doing everything possible to maximize production? Was this a commercial bid? Lots of guys price themselves out of the commercial market by trying to get residential rates.

The joke of you'll make it up on volume isn't a joke for commercial. You should be able to be more efficient in your setup and processing. I hear lots of guys say "I would never clean for those rates!"

Yet when the numbers are compared the low rate commercial job brings in twice as much as their normal residential hourly rate.

No, you won't get all jobs but you'll get more with high production equipment, tools and chemicals.

10-4

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Do you Really want Willy when you got #theblues?

 

[Cleanworks]

We all have a point when it's just not worth the effort. However saying that, are you doing everything possible to maximize production? Was this a commercial bid? Lots of guys price themselves out of the commercial market by trying to get residential rates.

The joke of you'll make it up on volume isn't a joke for commercial. You should be able to be more efficient in your setup and processing. I hear lots of guys say "I would never clean for those rates!"

Yet when the numbers are compared the low rate commercial job brings in twice as much as their normal residential hourly rate.

No, you won't get all jobs but you'll get more with high production equipment, tools and chemicals.

On a recent large job I charged roughly $.11 per sqft. Had to pay labour, chemical and pad costs over a 2 day job. 14 hours total. After all direct expenses, I still netted $3000. $1500 per day. Today is a Holliday here today. I forgot and booked 2 jobs anyway. First job is a house with 4 bedrooms, hall and stairs. Empty. Carpets are in good shape and need no scrubbing. Takes me 20 minutes to vacuum. Hook up the TM and prespray with the hydro-force. Hook up the wand and vac hose and start cleaning. Carpet is cleaning easily and it takes me an hour and half. 1 hour and fifty minutes from start to finish for $300. My truck is ready to go as soon as I arrive on the job. I have worked with guys who mix the chemical on site and spray with electric or pump up sprayers and by the time they are ready to start spraying, I would have been done already. I usually arrive at the shop early and prepare the truck. Make sure the vacuum has a fresh bag in it. Load up the crb or rotovac. I'm not very organized in my personal life but on the job, my systems rock and it enables me to take more time cleaning and doing dry passes rather than fooling around with other things.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Doing well Ron. Just remember to figure that prep time into your calculations. One day you'll be paying a helper to do those things and as much as we hate paying them, they only work for money.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

On a recent large job I charged roughly $.11 per sqft. Had to pay labour, chemical and pad costs over a 2 day job. 14 hours total. After all direct expenses, I still netted $3000. $1500 per day. Today is a Holliday here today. I forgot and booked 2 jobs anyway. First job is a house with 4 bedrooms, hall and stairs. Empty. Carpets are in good shape and need no scrubbing. Takes me 20 minutes to vacuum. Hook up the TM and prespray with the hydro-force. Hook up the wand and vac hose and start cleaning. Carpet is cleaning easily and it takes me an hour and half. 1 hour and fifty minutes from start to finish for $300. My truck is ready to go as soon as I arrive on the job. I have worked with guys who mix the chemical on site and spray with electric or pump up sprayers and by the time they are ready to start spraying, I would have been done already. I usually arrive at the shop early and prepare the truck. Make sure the vacuum has a fresh bag in it. Load up the crb or rotovac. I'm not very organized in my personal life but on the job, my systems rock and it enables me to take more time cleaning and doing dry passes rather than fooling around with other things.

Happy Family Day to my fellow Canadians.... went for a walk with the family around the property, and am now making Lebanese food for dinner...

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

Happy Family Day to my fellow Canadians.... went for a walk with the family around the property, and am now making Lebanese food for dinner...

Listening to Jack Johnson, sun is shining , drinking white wine, making tabboleh.....

 

[hogjowl]

Ok
Get over it

 

[Cleanworks]

Doing well Ron. Just remember to figure that prep time into your calculations. One day you'll be paying a helper to do those things and as much as we hate paying them, they only work for money.

Hardest thing in the world it seems is to train someone to properly dilute chemicals. I think math is a dying science. I recently visited with another carpet cleaner who I used to work with years ago. As he was telling me about his jobs and equipment, I just felt sorry for him. He is using old style portables, 100 psi pumps, pump up sprayers, unglided wands and complaining his elbows, back and shoulders. He is not someone who takes advice so I just shut up and listened. You have to move with the times. That's the biggest benefit of Mikey's board and getting out and going to Mikey fests or other shows like the experience. You get to see how others are doing it. That's gold.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

Yes but you'd be a happy somebeach.

‘Do you want to be a big fish in a small ocean, or a small fish in a big ocean?’ Just something my father used to say to me before he passed on.... heck no.... I want to be a BIG fish in a BIG ocean.... that’s what I’m striving for.... just under the radar.....

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Bahaaaa, my stepdad also told me 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing

 

[icleancarpetz]

First off...thank you all for your advice and experiences. Appreciate that.

Second my Monday morning blues was more out of ‘you win some, you lose some’...then there’s...know when to walk away from some’ and be ok with it.
When some are only concerned about is how low can you go and expecting McDonald prices for prime steak regardless of your best efforts/scripts...then that’s a garbage customer.
Willie helps remind me...”and now your gone...and I’m sitting on top of the world”

Btw...in my experience, some of the best clients are those in the $92k and up per capital income that don’t blink an eye at your price cause what they want is to experience quality and trust worthy service. Especially if you are recommended / refered to them from one of their neighbors or friends also in the high income....you know ‘birds of a like feather usually flock together...you’re in like flin with these types of type of folk.

 

[jcooper]

Yet when the numbers are compared the low rate commercial job brings in twice as much as their normal residential hourly rate.

By low rate do you mean Cimex/encap jobs?

 

[Desk Jockey]

No commercial jobs. You should be able to HWE for the same rate you can encap. Now to do that you need the equipment and tools to do so.

Zipper/Zipper Spinner.

For example 1500x.12=$180.00 an hour
I'm not suggesting .12 be your rate, just an a real life example how low one can bid and yet still make decent money.

You still need to factor, soil load, setup time, access to water, time of day, etc.

 

[hogjowl]

Larry Chavez

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Larry Chavez

You've turned into a predictable old grump.

 

[Mikey P]

Turned?

 

[Cleanworks]

Depending on the size, you can lower your square footage rate but still make a good hourly rate. It makes more economic sense to spend the day on one job rather than driving all over the place doing multiple jobs. Factor that into your estimate.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Depending on the size, you can lower your square footage rate but still make a good hourly rate. It makes more economic sense to spend the day on one job rather than driving all over the place doing multiple jobs. Factor that into your estimate.

It’s not #rocketscience but it is #science