{"id":1397,"date":"2018-12-20T21:56:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T02:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2021-11-11T01:00:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T06:00:05","slug":"count-the-cost-of-your-janitorial-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/count-the-cost-of-your-janitorial-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Count The Cost of Your Janitorial Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Suppose you wanted to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and check if you have enough money to complete it? I call that “Counting the Cost”…<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\"CleanlyRun\n<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, this person began to build and wasn\u2019t able to finish.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n

These wise words written 2000 years ago are still true today. And these foundational truths has guided me well for many years, from running multiple businesses to navigating life.<\/p>\n\n

In this Blog Post, I\u2019m focusing on how to determine what it will cost to clean a building before you set your bid price. You MUST \u201cCount the Cost\u201d first!<\/p>\n\n

Based on my three decades in the Janitorial Industry, here\u2019s my Top 10 list of considerations required to calculate a profitable<\/i> Janitorial Bid!<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. GENERAL BUILDING TYPE: Different building types have different cleaning times\/production rates. A 3,000 sq\u2019 fully carpeted Library may only take 2 hours to clean, while a 3,000 sq\u2019 Medical Clinic with 1500 sq\u2019 of waxed VCT floors may take 4 hrs.

    <\/p><\/li>

  2. CLEANING FREQUENCY AND LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Cleaning difficulty level is gauged not just by the size of a building, but rather by looking at the number of employees in the building (Building Density), plus the number of customers or patients or clients – the “Traffic” – that frequents this building on a daily basis. Higher building density\/traffic results in longer cleaning times, which equates to a slower cleaning production rate for you and your cleaning staff. Basically, the more people in and out each day equals more trash, spills, messes, etc., which means it takes you longer to clean.

    <\/p><\/li>

  3. CLEANABLE SQUARE FOOTAGE AND FLOORING TYPE: Whether you count ceiling tiles, get the number from your potential customer, or look online at the County Property Appraiser, make sute that you get the actual Cleanable Square Footage. Did you know that carpeted floors clean 15-20% faster than hard floors? And that waxed, vinyl tile floors with a shine can take 10% longer to sweep and mop than other hard floors like ceramic tile?

    <\/p><\/li>

  4. DETERMINE PRODUCTION RATE: A facility\u2019s Production Rate refers to how many square feet of a building can be cleaned by one person, in one hour, performing a set of standard cleaning tasks. Of course, you will have a much slower production rate when doing residential and construction cleaning.

    <\/p><\/li>

  5. TOTAL DAILY CLEANING\/LABOR HOURS: Once you have your Production Rate, this rate is then used to compute how many hours are required to clean a building per visit (i.e., the Daily Cleaning Hours). And once the Daily Cleaning Hours have been workloaded – that is, labor and wages have been distributed across these hours – then the bid’s Labor Costs can be computed by the system.

    <\/p><\/li>

  6. LABOR COSTS: Once the Daily Cleaning Hours have been workloaded – that is, labor and wages have been distributed across these hours – then the bid’s Labor Costs can be totaled.

    <\/p><\/li>

  7. ADDITIONAL PAYROLL COSTS: These costs typically include applicable Federal, State dan Local Taxes, as well as Work Comp, etc. There are government websites that can give you your state rates to go by. Your Accountant can help you. Also, there are many payroll software programs as well as many Employee Payroll Companies and Employee Leasing Companies that will give you an exact percentage.

    <\/p><\/li>

  8. CHEMICAL \/SUPPLY COSTS: These can run 3-10% of your monthly costs and expenses. These costs typically include floor cleaner, glass cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, disinfectant cleaner, bowl cleaner, stainless steel polish, etc. Buy chemicals in dilutable, concentrate form to keep costs down. Chemical mixing stations are great also. Products like bowl cleaner and stainless steel cleaner are usually sold “ready to use” (RTU), and cost a bit more, so shop around for reasonable pricing. Equipment like vacuums, buckets, floor buffers, etc. are an upfront cost that can be depreciated over time (talk to your Accountant).
    Chemicals like floor stripper, floor finish and carpet cleaner are an expense if you provide your customer with extra Specialty Work, but is included when and if you add these services in your bid.

    <\/p><\/li>

  9. OTHER MISCELLANEOUS COSTS \/ EXPENSES \/ OVERHEAD: These typically include things like.. higher level managers over multiple buildings doing inspections, training, cell phone costs, fuel, etc. When you’re just starting out with only a few buildings to clean, these costs are minimal and can be hard to define, but figure in at least 2-3% to be on the safe side, even if you are the only employee and do all the work.

    <\/p><\/li>

  10. TOTAL JANITORIAL COSTS \/ EXPENSES: Congratulations, now that you\u2019ve calculated all of these costs and expenses you\u2019re ready to \u201cSET YOUR PRICE\u201d (via Profit Margin or Cost Markup)!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    ***<\/strong><\/div><\/p>\n

    \nKeep in mind: <\/strong>  When you get requests for a Janitorial Proposal, that\u2019s the time to create a winning bid! If you\u2019re content with the way you\u2019ve been calculating your Total Janitorial Costs\/Expenses,” that\u2019s great. But if you\u2019re looking for a proven competitive edge – my automated best practices – I encourage you to try a free 30 day trial<\/a> of CleanlyRun<\/em> Janitorial Bidware<\/a><\/strong>. \n<\/p>\n\n

    Check us out at CleanlyRun<\/em>.com<\/a><\/strong>… Let’s grow your business!<\/p>\n\n\n\"CleanGuidePro\"Drake\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Suppose you wanted to build a tower. Wouldn’t you first sit down and check if you have enough money to complete it? I call that “Counting the Cost”… \u201cFor if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, this person began to build and … Continue reading “Count The Cost of Your Janitorial Proposal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,35,75,20],"tags":[68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1910,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleanlyrun.com\/wpDrakeBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}