[blacksheep]

hi guys & girls, got my second chance now , will to it to the letter, i got a phone call for 3 buildings to day i am quoting tomarrow afternoon. is there any thing i should know about this type of quote. The lady on the phone said your quote will go to a borad so dont under price but dont over price, there council buildings do they expect anything different to a normal office building. i drove down to look around the outside to day, one is a bigish building 3 storys high i recon a team of 2-3 cleaners depending on what their after of course & the other two buildings one cleaner in each, i do know one of the buildings have a cleaner 3 days a week, these are the people that are helping me do bussiness plan ect the business enterprise. They also are geting two other quotes from other contractors. i can let you know my progess after i survey the sites  regards blacksheep

[blacksheep]

they also want a detailed breakdown

[Art]

Are they going to supply you a job spec?

[blacksheep]

i have no idea, i assumingi go and surevy the buildings and give a quote, not sure to do all quotes seperate for each building but i am assuming they want an over all price.no the phone she seemed to think i was going to quote when i got there, but i was talking to the office girl and said i need to survey the site first, wont know much till tomarrow. when i was doing my costing for my business plan i got the impreshion i was to  high priced. so not sure if you go a little bit cheper beacuse i am  doing all three

[domestic bliss]

I am in the middle of doing a council quote for a block of flats.  When you go and look at the job they should give you a job spec they gave one to me outlining exactly when and how they want things done.
Good luck

[CMS]

The main two things are these................

1. Make sure you are all 'singing off the same hymn sheet'. It's no good you quoting for 5 days a week cleaning if someone else is putting in a price to clean 3 days a week.

All quotes MUST be for the same thing.

2. Never 'BUY' turnover. In other words, if you think that you have put in the right price for the job - stick with it. Don't be tempted to go lower just to win the contract. You don't want turnover that you can't service at a profit.

Take a look at the 'pricing policy' section on our web site and you'lll see what I mean.

Good luck.

CMS

[blacksheep]

hi cms ,if they do specs wont they tell me how many days they want cleaning, they work from a budget. if the current contractor is doing 3 day cleaning for one lot of office ,the other being the same size, this gives me a guide . its the bigish  one i will have trouble with. Hoping to get help from the forum,something i would like to ask the forum. what do others do when they get a contract with regards to equipment. when you buy equipment for the contract do  you charge the customer over the year for this and at the end of contract they keep equipement or is it yours to take to the next contract but dont charge . only charge for chemicals, only asking because the equipement was always there when i ever got a cleaning job.

[Fox]

Blacksheep

When working out costings for a quote always include things like equipment and chemicals etc, costs of plant / machinery (eg: scrubber dryer) would be costed at a % for depreciation.  This is then all within your weekly charge and the equipment is still yours at the end of the contract.

So when you are working out costs you will need to list

Cleaners wages
Employers NI
Holiday Provision
Chemicals and equipment
Plant and machinery
P&EL & Uniforms
Administration / Overheads
Margin

Think I've remembered everything!  Obviously this list is for you to calculate and doesn't always get shown to the client.

If I remember rightly CMS had a costings sheet on his web site, which may help, not sure if you could use it or if it was an example though.

Fox

[CMS]

Its still on our website under the section 'Calculate your costs'. But remember, it's what has always worked for me and it bases the wages on being 57% of the charge. If you want to use different margins and know enough about spreadsheets you can change the formulas to suit you.

[blacksheep]

good morning cms, thanks for that i had a look yesterday .now with a post from fox a while back she told advised me not to load all my insurance costs on the one client, does this also apply for equipement. on your cost sheet your equipment came in at £3 odd is that for a week or month i can see mine for equipement been high as with 3buildings all equipement been colour code plus vacuums for each thats before pay rool

[*Chris Browne]

CMS
I see on your section"calculate your costs" that you charge your clients by the calander month, i do also, but it would be interesting to see if others do it different.

chris

p.s. your website is coming on brilliantly, can i pinch a few ideas off it? lol

[CMS]

The equipment costs are per week, depreciated over three years. In the example on the website the £3.00 a week over 3 years means I can put a small tub vac in there worth £156.00.

Chris

I charge by the calendar month and what's more I charge in advance! (it's in the agreement too).

I invoice on the 1st of the month for that months cleaning and it becomes due by the 7th of the following month (by which time all cleaning for the period will have been completed).

The staff also get paid monthly, on the 14th in arrears. That means that if a Client pays on time the cheques have cleared before I pay the cleaners.

It doesn't half help the cash flow!

If you're wondering about the 'attendance allowance' I (along with the Client) can choose whether to cost it in or not. If a cleaner has any time off during the calendar month, for whatever reason (even funerals) they lose a whole months attendance allowance.

Therefore a cleaner working 2 hours a day and getting an attendance allowance can lose as much as £30 - 40.00 if they take a day off, not just £11.00.

Needless to say I have very little sickness.

[CMS]

What did you want to pinch by the way? Ideas or text?

[*Chris Browne]

I wish i had thought of that idea when i first started   ( charging per calandar month in advance).......................
i was thinking of using your costing calculater and putting it on my site but now i'm not so sure if i want clients knowing about how much proffit i make, or was it not put there for clients?

chris

[Fox]

I invoice on a 4 or 5 weekly basis (to the last Friday in each month) in advance.  Invoices are out on the 1st of the month and due 30 days thereafter. 

The reason I invoice in weekly amounts rather than monthly is that the client is always quoted for 52 weeks of the year with the quotation stating cost per week, seems that clients understand this type of invoicing easier than the monthly!

Fox

[CMS]

Chris

You can take the calculator if you like BUT remember it works with my margins not yours. You will need to adjust the formulas to suit your business and the margins you want/need to make.

Unless you're familiar with spreadsheet formulas, I'd be careful.

Yes, it's there for Clients to see - why not? We're here to make a profit just as they are 

[blacksheep]

hi ity was ideas. well it went well i think the buildings wernt council but development trust. i recon 25 hrs total for all 3 buildings, see what you think building 1 main office kitchen with altro floor, fridge and micro to clean, 2nd office like meeting room,windows double frontage plus door (inside only  = 1 hr ?  for whole building BUILDING 2    2 KITCHENS  2 TOILETS genarl office plus meeting room back yard , double fronted window and door, enternal window cleaning only on all 3 = 1.5 per day 7.5 a week.building 3, 3 story, first floor,main office disabled toilet and yard 2nd floor one office plus kitchen , third floor shower loo sink plus 2 offices , landing and stairs2.5 hrs 12.5 per week about 25 hrs total. 5 day a week jobs  they want it all deep cleaned all 3  and i have to get my quote in 24 hrs the cleaner is finished tomarrow so expecting deep clean this week end by the sounds of it. thats not going to happen one building may be 3 not a hope, i am putting a ad for casual staff in local shop in case i get this, get the idea they want a very basic clean for pennys, what do you lot think of the time for tasks

[CMS]

I can't possibly comment on the times without seeing it, but...............

If they want a basic clean for pennies then there's nothing wrong with that. It's when they want a good clean for pennies that you've got a problem. As long as everyone knows what to expect from the beginning AND IT'S WRITTEN DOWN IN THE SPEC there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

But if they're talking about the insides of fridge and microwave for a basic clean I think you're on different wavelengths there.

[blacksheep]

hi there ,just doing a costing for a year wages will be£7,800  equipment will be £984.53 not counting insurance, does this look about right for 3 buildings

[blacksheep]

i forgot to put my profit in lol