Has anyone else noticed an increase in commercial calls?

[Ken Snow]

Our commerial division is showing a huge gain this year after 6 years of continuous decline.

Not sure what you mean you are not "set up" for commerical work? 90+% of the comm work we do is with the same people and equipment that do res work.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Could be as an owner op Fred isn't prepared for larger sq/ft jobs or he feels you need VLM systems for commercial?

But I think the real reason is the evening work conflicts with his real job at the CIA. :shock:

 

[Ken Snow]

LOLOL- I know it use to cut into my David Hasselhoff look alike contests when I was a cleaner in the 80's, but I sure did make some good extra cheese.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think the budget crunches could certainly work in favor of the carpet cleaners. Anyone looking to replace will most likely hold off and clean vs replace in this climate.

 

[tmdry]

Haven't noticed than again I'm not a master seo guru like you. :mrgreen:

 

[Ryan]

15-20 commercial calls a week? Buy a used cimex off craigslist and a get a decent porty for a grand total of 4k.

You will pay it off in less then a week!!

 

[Ken Snow]

Or just string hoses, we do 3-10 story buildings all the time with our butlers and have run as much as 800 ft.

 

[TimP]

I have to say you can't turn down the work. It isn't gonna cost you much to do the work. How many sq ft are these places looking at having you do. Hell I'd load up my cimex and come help you get the jobs done. At 11 cents a ft or less with a cimex you can make a killing.

Also realize that you can get a hell of a lot more work done staying at one job site than driving all over town. 6-7k sq ft single wand is very doable with HWE. And more than double that for cimex, depending on if you can get them to do a decent job vacuuming before you start and if furniture moving is required but then the price should go up. If extraction was required porty work will stink and I'd probably turn it down depending on what they paid and how busy I was.

 

[Ryan]

Or just string hoses, we do 3-10 story buildings all the time with our butlers and have run as much as 800 ft.

Yeah the gravity will help you so you can make some major hose runs.

You can't go wrong buying equipment though... I mean it might take a while to pay for itself but then you will always have it. EDIT: I was talking smallish equipment here.. not 100k vortex or 50 dehu's....

Worse case I would encap with a 175 and red pad. Or you could rent a porty or Cimex from Jon-Don. Take all the money you clear from commercial work from now on and put it into a savings account for some better equipment. I can't stand to turn down work.. not to mention commercial jobs are so much easier then dealing Mrs. Piffilton.

I'm with Tim, I can't stand to turn down work.

 

[Ken Snow]

Okay that is a job that is certainly more complex and likely needing to be done at a fraction of the price of a lot of commercial work. If you can land some 1500-4000 sq ft jobs at .12-.20 per sq ftand clean them in 2-4 hours yourself you may be more viable than going after much large pain in the ass motel jobs that will likely go for 10 a room and .6-.8 for common halls etc.

 

[Jeremy]

If you'd like I can find a few people in your area that have VLM equipment and don't mind helping out.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Everyone has to know your limits and that's not knocking Fred or anyone, but a person can only do so much by themselves.

Fred said it early in the post "Sadly one that I'm not prepared for and I'm having to turn down decent money.....", this can be equipment, personnel, network of other cleaners.

I would encourage you to built yourself a group of 3-4 other cleaners that when you get large work you all tackle. Work out the split and payment ahead of time so there are no hassles, but it could work out good for everyone.

 

[Scott Rogers]

I have to say you can't turn down the work. It isn't gonna cost you much to do the work. How many sq ft are these places looking at having you do. Hell I'd load up my cimex and come help you get the jobs done. At 11 cents a ft or less with a cimex you can make a killing.

Also realize that you can get a hell of a lot more work done staying at one job site than driving all over town. 6-7k sq ft single wand is very doable with HWE. And more than double that for cimex, depending on if you can get them to do a decent job vacuuming before you start and if furniture moving is required but then the price should go up. If extraction was required porty work will stink and I'd probably turn it down depending on what they paid and how busy I was.

It isn't the cost of doing the work. Its a combo:

I don't have the equipment.
I can't really buy the equipment right now.
I have to balance with the resi I do now (not nearly as much as some)
Its just me.
I can't float a lot right now.
I'm slow and time lines are tight.


This thread isn't really about me getting the work. More about identifying a trend that may provoke me to make it work somehow.

Tomorrow for instance I'm going to bid on a 91 room Country Inn and Suites that is 5 stories and needs all the hallways, rooms, common areas, furniture, etc done.

I'm not sure I can pull that off nor am I sure its worthwhile for me to enlist help (for me or the help). Obviously I have to be competitive in my pricing. To be competitive I have to be productive. Its hard to be as productive as others in town when it is just me. Its hard to enlist the help of others when the juice might not be worth the squeeze.

Will I go there tomorrow and submit a bid hoping I can pull it out of my ass......absofookkinglutely..................

You have quite a few of us with equipment close to you. Im about a 1.5 hours south of you. If you need something from time to time hit me up. I know there are many guys in the Atl Metro that would be willing to help as well. I have a M5 for porty work, a Brute and a Defender for VLM, 3 cbm, plus my TM.

If you price the job profitably, you can get any job done given reasonable time restraints.

As far as the Hotel goes, they wont clean it all at once anyway, they will have you do sections at a time so you should easily be able to work that one out .

 

[Scott Rogers]

Well, back on track then. Nothing special going on down here. Doing a little better then struggling, but nothing close to 06/07 numbers. the last 3 years seem to be stay afloat till better days come. Many of my customers are now unemployed and have been for quiet sometime. A few weeks ago Miliken decided to pull out their design center, there goes another 800 or so jobs. hopefully they dont close down any of their mills. The Kia plant is certainly helping float the economy down here, without them i think death spiral.

 

[Desk Jockey]

About the same as it's been the last few years.

We pushed commercial hard a few years back and honesty can't say it made much of a difference. We got a few little jobs here and there, but most of the big work we have is existing customers or referrals, a few just plain luck.

I'd like to blame our marketing girl for her ineffectiveness, but I think it had more to do with timing, and we were out there when everyone was holding every penny with a death grip. :roll:

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

We have noticed an increase in commercial and residential from our website. Not sure what the deal is, I've not done anything different with our website in the last year and a half.

 

[Art Kelley]

Just wondering if other people are seeing a similar increase just because the economy has forced commercial to put off cleaning and its finally a "need" or if I have done something to "cause" the calls that I need to investigate further./quote]

I haven't seen any particular increase in commercial calls lately. I've never gone after this market but many of my customers have businesses they need cleaned and I try to accomondate them, but the volume of these jobs is in the normal range for me.

 

[TimP]

I've noticed some extra commercial but not much.

But I'd tackle it by myself if I could make money on it. If I had to I'd get help. I'm not turning anything away. Although I don't see complex jobs coming my way. I am pretty sure I would price myself out of hotel work. I'd tackle the VCT too as long as I can make 600+ a day doing it. You can get setup to do vct for less than 2,000. I spent 800 to get set up already having a cimex to start with.


I can understand how you're hesitant about getting help or venturing into commercial as much. I just hope you aren't setting yourself up to regret not going after this business later.

 

[bob vawter]

most of the comm jobs...ask up front to see yor workers comp and liability forms......









most won't even talk till you do!

 

[Brian R]

I've landed a few apt buildings just to help out some of the guys I don't have enough work for. $75.00 per and whatever pet urine etc extra.
I normally wouldn't even want them but what the hell. These guys are happy to do them and it makes for a small monthly check for me.

Some other prop managers have picked up...usually do this time of year. Gained some small commercial buildings onesy twosies but nothing serious.

I still haven't got back my hotels that were pretty good. They stopped paying when it got slow for them.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I donno if this helps in your query or not, Fred

but there were two large (lg for "us" 12,000 and 7600sf) com estimates I gave over a year ago.
they BOTH called and scheduled this week


..L.T.A.

 

[SDSinc]

I believe in making my own trends. If you get a little push along the way from a few unexpected prospects than all the better.

Rent the equipment and go for it...

 

[steve frasier]

I have 3 dentist offices that have come back after 2 years absence. Their business is picking back up. Going to do the Janitorial in one of them. Just picked up 20,000 sq ft of carpet from Trinity Lutheran private school and church.

Volume of calls hasn't changed

 

[Desk Jockey]

Rick
I've seen that same video testimonial on several different websites, that customers must own homes all over the county?