[tonyoliver]

how do we compete with  nationals like ocs inital ect.

 how can we take on large companys and get bigger better paying jobs.

it is obvious to me that almost all of us here are small buissnes and as such get dwarfed by the big boys.

we can provide better work at a better price ect but we dont even get a sniff at  The contracts on offer.
some of do get jobs through these people but by the time it gets to us we see 10% of the money for 95% of the risk both physical and financial  I AM ASKING THE BEST MINDS IN THE INDUSTRY how do we get a look in? YOUR IMPUT  PLEASE

[NWH]

Charge peanuts and drive half way around your county for nothing,and that`s a fact.

[AJ]

BIG FAT  brown envelopes marked 'facilities manager'

[seandyer2003]

ocs and similar national companies make there money on the quantity of work so they are not charging huge amounts necessarily, and they have the staff directly on hand on minimum wage, its hard to compete! I dont think they have all the work though, still alot of work about.

[NWH]

Forget it you can make more doing terrace houses lol.

[seandyer2003]

this is it, if you price your work up properly it doesnt matter if its wembley stadium or a bungalow, you will earn £20-30 an hour, and the beauty with houses, you dont have to do method statements and waste time trying to win tenders etc

[NWH]

Exactly mate,the bigger the comm jobs your going for the more WC`s will be bidding.Just because you have massive comm jobs it dosen`t mean your earning the money it just looks good on the website,i`m not saying it`s the case with all comm jobs but these days it`s cut throat.I know a bloke that used to do colleges and schools etc in inner london,he used to go in with the pole 3 handed and get 3k for a couple of days work,those days are gone for the short term.Big firms such as OCS etc do some of these jobs for cost and in some cases at a loss just for the turnover,good on the CV not always on the bank statement.

[ftp]

Slightly at a tangent it is strange how big companies will use cleaning contractors and security staff from the major companies when it would be cheaper to use someone local or their own trained staff. My local Supermarket had to get a security guard to drive in fom Kent to Wiltshire to cover the nightshift - daft or what? They pay for cleaners to come in from Wales who are on a higher rate than their own and they pay a premium to the contractors for them.

[seandyer2003]

because the mangers who push the buttons so to speak arent affected by the stupid decisions ie there wage is the same, if it was your company you obviously wouldnt waste money like that but these big companies do. I used to work in the contract cleaning industry and its stupid how little the big companies charge but they do it to put me and you out of work and make money on having LOADS of work, but the quality isnt necessarily any good

[NWH]

The quality is rubbish and it`s only put up with because of price,like everything else in this country it`s ridiculous.If you really looked into what there getting per man per hour you wouldn`t want the job.

[peter holley]

Forget it you can make more doing terrace houses lol.

i havnt read all the posts , but thats what i was gonna say

[peter holley]

i dont do commercial ANYMORE....a window is a window surrounded by bricks ....
£10 cash £7 cash £25 cash £12 cash £50 cash...yes please and thankyou!!

there is amarket other than commercial, and its less competitive :

[P®oPole™]

One word 'volume' 


Pro

[Londoner]

I don't know about the commercial account work in window cleaning but most big companies like to deal with other big companies. They see the small outfit as being risky.
 

[m.b.s.]

i know one of the companys mentioned above make there mony on other things they do for a perticular job
say they had a cleaning contract for a com job and the same con job for the w/c
they make their money on the cleaning side of things not the window cleaning
it s a bonus for them to do there window cleaning as well
this is why you cannot compeat with these companys because if they hold one contract for the job they usually hold them all if they offer the services required 

[Oakley Windows]

So, in that case, what happens to enable small setups to go out and price up certain establishments at rate of something like £350-£400 a day and get the work (Im thinking of schools in particular and NOT of any recent posts on here regarding them)?

[Pj]

Thankfully not every client likes dealing with the big maintenance contract companies.
The upside is that they will always be able to undercut, the downside is the client will never know who is going to turn up to do the job, and many who do couldn't care much about the quality because they're on a fairly low wage.
Not many years ago I had a retail w/c job paid me £112 a week.  Maintenance co. took over everything and then offered me the job at £23 a week!  No way

[bluez]

To compete with the large national co's It is necessary to operate like them imo.

The reason they have the larger contracts is that they employ skilled salespeople to sell to professional buyers and at tendering for this type of work. When the smaller guys try to do this they generally get frustrated with the time scales involved.

You can be chasing a national company for a couple of years before you get the nod and which of us smaller guys can devote that type of concentrate effort to sales and development.

On a positive side when you do get one on board the format for getting the others is basically the same.

The only other way I can think of is to form an agency of medium sized window cleaning co's that can bid and tender for jobs on a national basis, but there would be lots of issues in this.



 

[matt]

BIG FAT  brown envelopes marked 'facilities manager'

thats the 1

i belive they also like " client hosptiality " , free holidays to you and me

[Clive McDonald]

BIG FAT  brown envelopes marked 'facilities manager'

thats the 1

i belive they also like " client hosptiality " , free holidays to you and me

Agree. It's not about price, or doing a good job. The only work you are likely to get is owner operated. Any directors, facilities etc expect wineing and dining minimum. If you were a director of national company would you allocate the work or let regional managers call the shots?