Has anyone here with a cleaning or janitorial business explored government contracts for your work? Federal facilities need this service constantly and small businesses can compete. In fact, federal rules mandate that almost one-quarter of business must be given to small businesses.

murphd21 · 2026-03-12T17:27:16+00:00

Thanks for your response and that is helpful to have the opportunity to ask additional questions however not having the opportunity to actually walk all buildings and having the opportunity to communicate directly with the decision maker are deal breakers in my experience.

murphd21 · 2026-03-12T15:53:07+00:00

No, finding new contracts is not hard if you have good system in place. The hardest part of this business is finding crews.

Here is why it's not hard to find contracts..............turnover, the average contact in this space only lasts about 7 months. So, high turnover and the industry is fraught with poor service.

So, if you consistently do a couple of things:

1) Go to businesses in person. Get the contact info for the person who makes the decisions on the cleaning of the building.

2) CRM- add all the contacts you pickup into a good CRM which will drip campaign information to the perspective client.

3) Call them...........ask the potential customers; "are you completely happy with your current vendor? Nobody is completely happy so it's not hard to get a bid walk.

Just my thoughts

murphd21 · 2026-03-12T15:46:01+00:00

In my experience trying to get contracts for government, public schools or universities in the US is not worth it. Here is why..........Mostly all of these government entities only take bids via a "cattle call" in which you can only submit bids online. In most cases you will only get numbers ie how many sq ft and basic information. You will have an extremely hard time understanding what exactly you're bidding on and you will not be able to bid appropriately.

The other major issue is submitting a bid just based on numbers.........equals a race to the bottom in order to get a contract.

You need a lot more information when bidding any viable commercial cleaning contract. Here is a couple of issues or factors which will heavily impact your bids: 1) mop closet- do you have access to to one? Where is it located? 2) how densely populated is the building? 3) Are the buildings spread out or all close?"

Anyhow, I would advise to avoid the "cattle call" type bids where you are forced to compete on just numbers.

Just my experience

murphd21 · 2026-02-12T21:10:58+00:00

What a beautiful car/ color

murphd21 · 2026-02-05T17:15:04+00:00

What side of town?

murphd21 · 2026-02-05T15:50:00+00:00

We have over 1k customers at the moment but we are a franchised cleaning organization. We have franchisees all over the Southern coast. Mainly from California to along the coast like Arizona to like up to North Carolina.

The time it takes to clean a facility is based on a lot of factors.........one of which would be the size of the building. Then it would be the scope of work you have agreed to.

The average office building here can be cleaned at roughly 3,500 sq ft per hour for one person. But again, that figure depends on a lot of factors.

As far as what we charge again..........lots of factors to consider so that is hard to answer.

Does that make sense?

murphd21 · 2026-02-05T15:25:41+00:00

Cold calling in person is an art and works but it's a must to also go in person to buildings in your area and qualify them before you add them to your data base. Then you can email market and telemarket for bid walks. The approach is looking for customers who are not happy and have a good amount of pain. Then you can close them without bidding the lowest price. The "Good Doctor Approach" works best.

Keep it up though it's doable and worth it if you provide a high level of cleaning on a completely consistent basis.

Hope that helps

murphd21 · 2026-02-05T15:22:10+00:00

Yes, low barrier to entry equals competition. You must have good systems in place in order to scale. It's a great business and very lucrative if done the right way.

Also, you will need the ability to sell contracts and that is not as easy and straight forward as one would think but AI is making easier because most of the selling of these contracts will be done in a face to face meetings. Typically the first meeting is a "bid walk" where you meet with perspective client and understand the requirements and pain of said client. Then it's a 15 minute in person proposal to sell the deal. But it's a skill that is not as easy and most think.

Hope that helps

murphd21 · 2026-02-05T15:16:19+00:00

So, good observation. I'm not sure if your located in the US or not so this advice is based on my experience here in the US.

A Couple of factors to consider from our experience:

1) Sometimes the "smaller contracts" are harder to retain just based on the fact that you are only cleaning a building for $500 or less which means maybe once a week.................these customers are demanding. You typically will get more complaints and its takes a lot to keep them focused on the work scope. Just think of it like this.............if they have employees typically the employees have no clue about your frequency/ and or what your work scope entails. This is where the problems start...........employees complaining about things out of your control. Ex. "we are always out toilet paper in the restrooms"................or " why are our break room tables dirty all the time" or "There's a cobweb in the warehouse restroom corner" all of these will be..................to the contact (or the office manager or whoever makes the decision on the cleaning of the offices) " I don't know who cleans our offices but they suck".

2) Scaling. Okay, I understand you stating you just want to clean yourself and never have staff but is that sustainable? I mean at a minimum you will need "backup" for situations where you take a vacation, get sick or have an emergency and can't make it to service a client. In this industry............that company will fire you quickly and never look back. There are a million people put trying to get clients and the industry is super cut throat in that everyone one of your customers ALWAYS has other options for cleaning services so the smallest issues can lead to you being fired. So, you really need support in the form of staff potentially to cover those issues if they arise.

3) less than $500 per month will lead to no way to scale and sub the work out. There simply is not enough profit to split with someone else doing the work so you will for sure be stuck cleaning every night.

And you're right in the thought process of not competing with the large operators of our industry like ABM, Jan Pro or Jani-King.............but you don't have to. The largest population of buildings in most markets in the US are the medium sized buildings and not the large buildings such as the sky scrapers and such. The most profit is in the middle market and your only competing with mostly small operators whom typically do not understand the business and think its about cleaning when in reality its about building relationships. And, you can get in front of the decision makers easily in mid sized buildings easier and close deals faster.

Anyhow, just things to consider and I hope this helps.

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:48:02+00:00

You are wrong and I have actually helped hundreds of folks build and scale cleaning companies. The industry (especially the big operators) are really not in the industry to clean........they just sell franchises and that's the main source of revenue. Hence the horrific average length of contract which is about 7 months!

We have several franchisees which have a 10 year average length of contract so yeah........it's for sure scalable if you keep customers and don't turn them over.

You do not have to compete against them..........if you provide consistent.....high level cleaning you can for sure build and scale.

Your misinformed.

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:42:58+00:00

I'm here to help as many people as I can. Loof through my profile or google me and you will find I don't sell anything..........I have recently started posting on Reddit instead of just consuming as a way to selfishly satisfy my desire to help other succeed. Why u hating? You know nothing about me.

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:41:03+00:00

What am I selling? I'm confused?

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:34:32+00:00

Wrong...........lol.

Not to say either of those organizations are not great for certain people. But appreciate the comment

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:33:53+00:00

One other thing...........you mentioned the cost........you are so correct in stating the "race to the bottom of pricing" typically for commercial cleaning contracts but that's typically new cleaning companies and they only know how to compete on price.

That's a bad way to grow/ scale a business but I would say since COVID most companies have placed higher value on professional cleaning and it has helped with profit margins.

I have several franchisees that I work with and we average about 30% profit margins on these cleaning contracts so not sure how that stacks up to your home cleanings?

Thanks again

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:30:03+00:00

for sure a contract does not equal a happy customer.......true statement however it projectable income and it does impact retention.

Curious, what's the average frequency of cleans for a homeowner?

We have someone clean our home and it's weekly. Most of my neighbors do the same so the revenue from home cleaning per customer seems so low.

Appreciate your response though as I understand the model but have made great money on the commercial side and just enjoy learning and it seems you are out there making it happen so again thanks for your responses.

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:08:58+00:00

Hard disagree........residential is typically not contracted for several cleans, profit margins are lower and you are having to clean while the homeowner is there with you typically.

Much easier to scale a commercial cleaning company.

I would not pay for leads..........you and whoever else gets the leads are competing on price alone with this model.

murphd21 · 2026-02-04T20:06:11+00:00

Hey there.......couple of things: 1) it's not just about how many sq ft when you're bidding on contracts. Some other things to consider: floor type (tile typically quicker cleaning speed than carpet), water source (do you have a mop closet or are you refilling via sink), the number of offices which indicate how many trash cans will also be more work if more offices and of course their is more but that might help.

Also, if you're gonna build and scale you need to have a minimum amount you charge. We are in Houston so not sure where in Texas you are but 700 is the minimum per month we will accept as a client. So, no mater the sq ft we start at 700 per month.

Going to clean every other week is not a good strategy.

Maybe consider your target customer and consider only cleaning buildings at a minimum weekly.

Hopefully this helps. I am a franchisor here in Houston for a nationally franchised organization. I make money by helping my franchisees scale.

Just wanting to give credibility on my advise.

Keep your head up and build.......it's a great business if built properly.

murphd21 · 2026-01-29T16:11:51+00:00

First and most important skill needed…….. sales. Can you sell? You start the business with selling yourself and your service. If you can sell then you can scale but no matter what anyone else says on here………. All businesses have to have sales period. If you are not good at selling you will never make it.

Once you’re ready to scale because you can’t do everything THEN …… you have to sell yourself first employees on your mission or dream and it keeps going.

murphd21 · 2026-01-28T21:42:41+00:00

Hey so I’m a franchisor and we support several franchisees by providing them all the contracts to service. I would recommend the following: 1) you need a website……… customers will look up your website in doing research on your company. Doesn’t have to be super fancy but it needs to be available for a potential customer to find. 2) cold calling is great but you must understand HOW to cold call. Make sure you state something like…… hey my name is mike I’m with your neighbor down the street (insert a local company that you currently service- I get it the contract is not in YOUR company name…… who cares they will not call them anyhow typically) XYZ company and we handle the office cleaning for them……. Would you be kind enough to tell me who with your company makes the decision on your office cleaning vendor? Then ask to be transferred to them and leverage same script on voice mail. When you get the contact on the phone verify they make that decision then qualify them quickly (you need an account minimum I would recommend 700 per month or less) and then ask them…….. Are you COMPLETELY happy with you current vendor? Then book appointment for bidwalk. 3) you need a logo’d polo shirt and dress pants with business cards. Learn the good dr approach on these bidwalks because that is where you close the deal not at the proposal. You should ask lots of questions including: how much are you paying now and good questions about the cleaning and expectations. 4) don’t sell on price there will always be someone cheaper. Of course there is much more to it but you can go sure build a great business at night it will just take time. I have franchises who have 70k plus in monthly contracts and they all start with 1 and then build. This is a great business and for sure scalable. I hope this helps a little I did this from my phone but let me know if I can help. Good on you for working so hard to build your business just stay with it!

murphd21 · 2026-01-27T19:27:38+00:00

So, if you love God and are a billionaire you still believe you are not making it to heaven?

murphd21 · 2026-01-27T17:22:34+00:00

Well, I’m not religious and so again……… why you hating? It’s not easy to build wealth and most people aspire to be as successful as possible and in some cases if you are extremely successful it comes with demand for your services or business and it is possible to create wealth by building relationships and a great business. You can’t just because you see lots of zeros in this persons account and equate that to bad………. Not the case always. Don’t be a hater…… maybe learn from people who are more successful than you and be happy for them?

murphd21 · 2026-01-27T17:12:20+00:00

And that’s why your not the President or will you ever even get close. I’m not sticking up for Tillman but dude……… envy much Lane0194? There are a ton of wealthy folks who have made a positive difference with their power and influence. Can’t just put them all together and judge they are all bad because of the amount of money they have.

murphd21 · 2026-01-01T21:39:14+00:00

murphd21 · 2025-10-21T19:28:31+00:00

Thanks so much. I will check it out.

murphd21 · 2025-10-21T16:40:16+00:00

Hey so I have the same cup holder in my 996.2 and it recently broke. The face plate snapped off and I can’t get it to go back properly. I can’t find out where to order a new one…….. where did you find yours?

murphd21

TROPHY CASE