Learning to adapt

[Jeff 232]

Well I'm going to be targetting other work other than condo & parking garages. My #'s are down from last year this time. Some of it is because I cant always reley on condo complexes to do the work annually, actually most do it every 18-24 months and most dont really want to clean the buildings, common areas until after the pollen season. We get a ton of green/yellow pine pollen every year for 3-7 weeks.

I also lost the banks i used to do ( still trying to get the new comapny to clean also but they just dont do it like these banks did)

Im not dieing for work , but my guys arent getting a lot of hours every week some weeks great, others............

Now I got a ton of condos set up for this year but some are on hold due to a late start of pollen

So I've been thinking, to become King, I have to think the big picture and the big picture to me is growth and raising my prices were it can be done

Now I'm thinking what do I want to target? I need more (have hardly any) monthly, quarterly & bi annual types of work, so there is money coming in regularly. Now I got this gig with the hospital and it looks good. Its a hard sell to get ost businesses to think maint contract cleaning, most will say say every year, but the in 12 months they say it doesnt look that bad call in 6 months Arggggg.

I'm going to go for other hospitals, malls and other larger properties. but I know many just dont have great budgets for PWing so I have to think of monthly & 1/4ly strip malls, banks even restaurant walkways/dumpster areas etc. I also am signing up on vendor list for the counties, cities and state work

I just have to get my mind in the right place, some of this type of work I dont like and some types I'll never do, but other types night work, we can do

I still am going to be the condo king and target them like crazy, but expand a little. My problem is I love the BIG jobs and doing drivethroughs and little strip mall just doesnt always seem like its worth the hassle, but I have to think whats best for the growth of my biz

Im just thinking out loud !!!!!!!!! thanks. I just figured learn to adapt & conquer!!!!!!!!!!

What has changed in some of your businesses that got you where you are today

[COOPER 14]

Hey Jeff, I usually give business several different price plans based on how often the cleaning gets done.

Usually I price a one time cleaning (meaning they have no commitment on when it will be done again) Then monthly, 1/4ly, twice a year, and yearly. I tell them that yea it may not look dirty when it is time to clean again, but that is why it is called "Maintainance Cleaning" and why I can do it so much cheaper the more often it is done.

I have one strip mall that we clean monthly now, we used to clean it quarterly. It is 29,000 sq. ft. I clean it for 2 cents per ft. montly. We only fully clean one third of it each time and also hit all the high traffic spots and dirty spots. My guy will fully clean the first third on the first month, then rinse and clean dirty spots over the rest of it. The second month he cleans the middle, and dirty spots and rinse the rest of it, etc.

The PM couldn't get the owner to go for a full cleaning each month, so I sold her on this way of keeping it clean. We have been doing it this way for 4 years now and it stays looking great. And it only takes my worker about 4 or 5 hours to clean the whole thing and he has about 2.5 hours other work just right around the corner from this place so it works out good.

[Steve Kiser 14]

I clean it for 2 cents per ft. montly. quote]

Was this a typo??

[Don L 14]

Man ,for Cooper's sake I hope it is WOW.

[John T 744]

Cooper can you explain that again..I must be misreading it..it looks like you clean a third of it each time and it takes your worker 4-5 hrs to do it when he;s there. So lets say its 4 hrs and 29,000 sq' divided by 3 =9667sq' x .02 per sq to clean it= $193..for 4-5 hrs worth of work.. That can't be right..Is it??

[COOPER 14]

Hey guys sorry for the confusion. I get paid to maintain the sidewalks at the strip mall, so they pay 2 cents/ sq. but it is for the whole 29,000 sq ft. So $580 for 4 to 5 hours work. Is that a little better. LOL

My guy cleans one third of it each time fully, that takes about 2 to 2.5 hours. He then rinses over the rest of it and hits dirty spots and whatever gum he sees. That takes about 2 hours.

When we first started cleaning it, we were getting 6 cents/ft. to do it quarterly, but I didn't like the way it looked come about the start of the second month. It would take him about a night and a half to do it. I also had a couple accounts around the corner from there that were done monthly and only took about half a night/month. So it was just logical that if he could get all of it done in one night that would work out better, plus the strip mall stays clean looking all the time and not just for the first month- month and a half after we clean it.

The first time we cleaned it, it took me and another guy 3.5 nights to do it with 2 hot water rigs. I bet there were at least 1 million pieces of gum. It was a mess, but luckily I have a good friend that owns a parking lot sweeping business and he would send one of his guys over a couple times/ night to pick up our mess with the sweeper. I jokingly told the pm when I turned the bill in that I should have charged per piece of gum. No kidding in a one square foot section, I counted something like 70 pieces of gum. Now it wasn't that bad everywhere but I would bet on average there were 20-30 pieces of gum per sq. ft. After that, I guarauntee you will not just spit your gum on the sidewalk anymore. LOL Heck I didn't even want to chew gum for a long time after that. HAHA

[COOPER 14]

I clean it for 2 cents per ft. montly. quote]

Was this a typo??

If I was cleaning every bit of it every month no I wouldn't do it for this price. I get paid to maintain it (the whole 29,000 ft) at 2 cents/ft. I only fully clean one third of it and rinse the rest each month. The next month I clean the another third and rinse and hit the dirty spots on the rest.

Now this would probably not work in Memphis, as there would probably be too much traffic on the centers each month.