[d.ward]

Im looking at quoting for commercial window cleaning on places like care homes, hotels and so on and im thinking of offering contract cleaners as a secondary service. Just wondering if anyone here has cleaners on commercial property and what prices should i be looking at charging?

[Phild]

If you are asking should you go into commercial daily cleaning services the big answer is NO.

Highly competetive, dominated by national companies, operating on low gross profits (which is the true income of any business), needs infrastructure - people/systems/ admin to operate and also one heck of a lot of working capital as your average debtors days will be in the 40 - 50 days bracket. What that last bit means is that if your running a 'small' DCS business of say £100k t/o you need £14k just as working capital never mind the investment in equipment etc.

As a new starter your first work will be in the leisure industry or small retail, pubs and clubs. They are terrible payers, go pop with alarming regularity and are used to 'screwing' contractors.

Finally remember even a small £100k t/o busines will probably need 20 p/t staff. I assume you know about employment legislation? We have done something like 15 industrial tribunals this financial year. Yes we may win the vast majority of them but in a lot of cases because of the way the system works it's cheaper and a better use of your time to pay off some 'deadleg' with a few hundred quid simply to get them out your hair. Believe me that sticks in your craw and takes some reconciling in your own head.

Sorry if I sound jaundiced and I don't want to dampen enthusiasm. Whatever you do, do as much research as possible. The average net margin in the contract daily cleaning industry is 4 - 5%  Work smart, not hard and find a niche service where you can specialise and build a business on your own reputation.