Not much luck getting into commercial cleaning... hwe? Encap? What can I do?

[bonedrycarpet]

I have a decent amount of residential work, that keeps me quite busy. I know that there will be slow times, so I really want to start to get some commercial work. I have been giving prices, based on my hwe price of about .25 per square foot. Each time I end up too high...example:

Both examples pretty trashed...

2600 Sq ft of Chinese Buffet-- $600 with them moving everything. Told they got a hwe price of $400...

3000 Sq ft Chicken Wing place--$700 with me moving everything. Told they currently pay $350 for hwe. Said my price was way way too high.

So, what can I do to compete? I tried encapping a little with the Oreck Orbiter and my host crb machine but the results are not that great. I know I am asking it do a lot so I accept it may be my fault. I have not used it on large areas, just small offices, spots, and stairs. Sometimes great, sometimes does not touch it. What am I doing wrong?

So, my question is... What machine would get me in the game for commercial?
What would be your price for encap on my two examples?
How confident would you be that it would look great?
Is there one universal machine that would work on all commercial carpet?

Thanks so much!

[lee@deepclean.us.com]

The two restaurant examples you gave are accounts I stay away from. It is not a question of beating prices like that. Why would you? I recommend you focus on businesses like dentists, doctors offices, manufacturing and high end retail as a start. For equipment the Low Boy Rick is selling is a good choice. It works great and is affordable for your needs. I believe it better to focus your efforts on profitable work. Hang in there!

[leofry@1966]

I agree with restaurants are not on my MUST DO LIST but i would also say .25 to me, in my area well i would not get any either... if they move it i do it for .10 a sq ft and that's a very good price.. cause i clean between 2 and 3 k an hour so that's $200 an hour... i like that ...


note the reason restaurants are not the jobs i seek out is because the time of night they need to be done and a lot of them are a lose cause ...


1. cimex machine
2. between 9.9 and 12 cents per sq
3. very confident
4. once again cimex

[encapman]

I agree with both of the replies above! Restaurants are not normally worth going after. And the pricing above is pretty accurate too. Only exception is that it is OK to creep up higher than .12 per sq ft. The going rate in many places around the country for average commercial work is falling in at .15 per sq ft. And I'd suggesting sliding upward into the .20-.25 range for problematic or small jobs. And yes, a Cimex can open more doors for you and make it easy to turn a nice profit on commercial accounts.

[bonedrycarpet]

I am trying hard to get into VLM'ing in commercial accounts. It sounds like even with the cimex restaurants may not be the right fit for vlm?

Rick, any tips on getting my foot in when it comes to commercial?

What are true production rates with:

Cimex?

Low Boy?

Anything else that might work?

[encapman]

Cimex 2,000-3,000 sq ft per hour
LowBoy 2,000 sq ft per hour





Rick Gelinas
The Encapman
1-800-330-1888

[encapman]

Check out www.EncapBlog.com - I think you may find some ideas there.




Rick Gelinas
The Encapman
1-800-330-1888

[bonedrycarpet]

Thank you Rick! So nice to have you respond personally. I think the lowboy with the wheel kit looks great. When I buy, it will be from you sir.

Last question...promise.

Is the low boy better than the Mytee powerglide in your opinion? The Mytee includes the tank. The difference is the tank and the wheel kit, right?

[encapman]

The Mytee is a rotary machine. It is a nice rotary, one of the nicest on the market today. However, the LowBoy is a oscillating pad machine. And there's considerably greater agitation with an OP machine. In fact, there is 10 times greater agitation. And that amounts to deeper cleaning and higher production.

P.S. There's no need for that to be the "last question".
That's what we're here for

[ebarnett]

Restaurants can be done with the cimex and I do have several greasy accounts. However I will say that they pose a real challenge to encap. But I believe grease poses an equal challenge to all types of carpet cleaning including HWE. The key is to get heavy grease loads out of the carpet first, then light grease loads can be encapped. That being said, my results have been just alright on restaurants, but I am keeping the accounts because my results are better than the last guys who tried (mostly HWE)

[Ed E]

Eric- When you say the key is to get the heavy grease loads out first, do you use a porty, then go back over with a Cimex/OP? Are you using Punch as a pre-treater/first pass with HWE (if you are using HWE)?

[Shorty]

I must say, I am surprised that no-one has mentioned the most important (to me), item that you need to be getting commercial work.

To get into commercial work you need how to approach the client, not as simple as residential household carpet cleaning.

Getting commercial work is a fine art, and one that we should continually strive to get more of.

You also need to know how you are going to price this work.

Breaking down the barriers that many "gatekeepers" throw up in front of you can be daunting.

I must admit that I am not really religious, sorry, but that's just me.

Although I do refer to MY Bible regularly, still.

Different to yours, mine is called the Releasit CMS, available here..............

http://www.excellent-supply.com/CMS-Comm...p_312.html

Follow the instructions and you will have commercial customers in a very short time.

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[AusCapper]

Ok Shorty,

I think I'm gunna have to get me the Releasit CMS now.

SOLD!

Next Question- where in OZ?

[jtmellon]

"2600 Sq ft of Chinese Buffet-- $600 with them moving everything. Told they got a hwe price of $400..."

"3000 Sq ft Chicken Wing place--$700 with me moving everything. Told they currently pay $350 for hwe. Said my price was way way too high."

In my area I would go hungry with your prices. You want 600 for 2600 sq ft. I am lucky if I can get 200.

I don't know where you are at but in my part of NJ, I am lucky if I can get 200 a job.

I know what it takes to feed my family and I also know that in this area there is no loyalty. Someone comes by and offers one of my customers 25 cheaper I would be out the door.

[Shorty]

Hey Auscapper, try Gary or Jim at PowerClean Australia

1300 276 937

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