First real bid

[NJ104]

I am bidding on my first real bid on a carpet for a church. I have done other cleaning but mostly for friends and family. I estimated that the area is 1500 square feet moderately to heavy soiled some stains prob. coffee I may or not have to move the chairs not sure yet. I was thinking of charging the church 35-40 cents per square foot which if my calculations are correct would come out to 525-600 with out the tax. The room is one big room and I would be cleaning a the foyer and steps as well. I just wanted to make sure that I was charging enough to make a profit.

 

[sweendogg]

Hate to burst your bubble, but while ideally that would be a nice price, churchs fall into the comercial marketplace that rarely like to pay over 25 cents a sqft. (that doesn't mean you can't try as some will pay for a quality job,) I wish you luck!

 

[Desk Jockey]

1500 sq/ft .12-.18 range

Without knowing all the particulars we would be .14 HWE, .12 Encap
Add more if heavily soiled, lots of contents to move or extended hose lengths.

Less a few cents per sq/ft when over 5,000, 10,000, 20,000sq/ft

 

[NJ104]

Your not bursting my bubble. I just wanted to know what I should charge the church. Thank you for letting me know it would of sucked if I quoted the price at 35-40 cents a sq ft and not understood why I didn't get a call back. That is exactly why I love this forum everyone is there to help each other out no matter what level of business you are in. I guess I should ask what is the average for residential also.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It's all over the place also, we charge .35 sq/ft but have some competition at .50 and some as low as .10.

Most in these parts are in the .20-.30 range for residential.

 

[sweendogg]

Same as Chavez, about .35/sqft. And for commercial accounts, don't be afraid to ask if they had an idea on what they were budgeting. Sometimes this can get you a job that you may have only slightly over bid, and showing consideration for their bottom line especially churches and commercial business in the economy over the last year, is a positive moment of truth. If show they can have a quality cleaning that meets their budget, people are much more likely to spend their hard earned dollars with you. Also asking up front can also save you alot of leg work in working numbers if you find they simply want it dirt cheap... or... it gives you the opportunity to reset their expectations especially if Joe No Carpet Cleaner did it for $100.00 last time (and probably caused the need to put it back out for bid)

 

[Bob Foster]

Two bits per at the highest. But also try and get some referrals from the church elders or such.

 

[joe harper]

I am bidding on my first real bid on a carpet for a church. I have done other cleaning but mostly for friends and family. I estimated that the area is 1500 square feet moderately to heavy soiled some stains prob. coffee I may or not have to move the chairs not sure yet. I was thinking of charging the church 35-40 cents per square foot which if my calculations are correct would come out to 525-600 with out the tax. The room is one big room and I would be cleaning a the foyer and steps as well. I just wanted to make sure that I was charging enough to make a profit.

I see you are in Cherry Hills, NJ....between .30 & .40...may FLY.... :idea:

If they say the price is TOO HIGH.... :shock:

Tell them ...That INCLUDES "sCotcHgUaRd".... :roll:


You have to learn to "LIE" in this bIz... "jus kiddin"

I learned this tEcHNiqUe from "MIKEY"... !gotcha!

He does spray down ..."LIEsol"...tHouGh....

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I am in the process of bidding out 20,000 sq ft electrical collage near me. I am doing it between 16-20 cents a sq ft. With that I also have to set up their program for quarterly cleaning.

I am going to encap about 90% of the job, its going to cost me approx 1-2 cents a sq ft when I encap vs 12-14 cents a sq ft it would cost to run my beast TM. Not to mention I dont have to work that hard to do it. They gave me a 3 week window to do it.

The best part is I am competing with myself for the job, she is not getting any other companies to bid on the job. She has full trust in myself and my company to do what right. Its all about building confidence with your client.

Yes they got burned by a porty hack that made the carpet worst. Da Da Da Go Green to the rescue.

BTW thank you Craigslist for the job.....

 

[NJ104]

I am excited about this new opportunity because it could lead me to other jobs by word of mouth but I have never given a estimate to anyone. I have always worked for someone who was also the one doing the estimate. Can anyone give me advice how I can break down a job to show the client why is costing them so much

 

[renegade_cowboy]

There are so many ways to make this a great job for you. Like I said be confident in anything you do, because if youre not then it really doesnt matter what you do after that, they wont like your services.

Keep this in mind, you want to hoover around a minimum of $100-$150 an hour production rate. They will most likely need the church cleaned 3-4 times a year depending on traffic. Sumit the ongoing maintainence program for them as well, what it would be over the course of the year.

If you want to be really sweet give them the protector for free the first visit is they agree to a yearly contract. But show the price you discount. I sweeten the deal by giving free stain removal between cleaning dates, to mostly show we are there for them. Relationship building as I like to think of it more than anything.

Allowing them for you to set up a little brochure area for your business, you can at least pull a few grand from the members over the course of a year, not to mention the referral potential.

But you really have to sell yourself as well. Clean shaven, complete uniform(no jeans), smelling pretty and dammit vacuum before you clean it.

But rememeber be confident, act like you do these estimates all the time.

Good Luck.

 

[NJ104]

I went to the church yesterday and measure the area checked the carpet. well after measure the carpets and came up to be 2555 sq. ft and I come to a price of $0.22 cents a sq ft which comes to 562.10 plus there are thirty stairs which I figure I would charge a dollar a stair which comes to a total of 592.10. Now i am asking anyone if this is a good price. It is a two story building too.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

That is a fair price.

If someone else comes in and bids 350, you will loose out unless you sell a better job, show your truck off, and sell your experience and the fact that you are not a spray and suck hack.

Now if you are using a porty and doing a spray and suck job, I would just say 400 even. You will make money and have a better shot at winning the bid. When you get more clients then start going up on your price.

 

[NJ104]

I am going to be using a portable. Now should I charge less cause I am using portables ? I am hoping to one day have enough to buy a truck mount

 

[daniel@procarpet]

No you should just charge a fair price and make a profit.

You should be able to do the job in under 4 hours.

Go with your gut.

If you think they will pay 500 then go ahead, but if they are getting competing bids somone will put a bid in at 200 guaranteed. That's the way it works.

I would say 400 with a free demo cleaning.

 

[NJ104]

Your saying it will take four hours to clean 2550 sq ft of commercial carpet. reason I asking is that the secretary had told me that the other company came in at 6 am and got done at 7 pm at night. I got the opportunity to bid for this cause its the church my father attends

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Go with your original bid and take your time to do a great job.

The fact that your father attends church there is a plus.

 

[Dolly Llama]

the secretary had told me that the other company came in at 6 am and got done at 7 pm at night.

13 hours to clean 2500sf of carpet ONLY??? :shock: :shock: :shock:


they must of done other work too, like the pews, and all the chairs, tile, etc

you can clean 2500 sf with a TOOTH brush in 13 hours


..L.T.A.