Need Your Imput......

[marcath]

Ok folks,

The Bible says in Proverbs 11:14

" Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory"

So I am looking to you guys for some of my counseling, any imput is appriciated!!

This may be a little long winded, but I would sure like your input.

I am just kicking around an idea right now and have been thinking about it for a few days.

I am a house painter by trade, but am getting tired of chasing around to find the next job, and in this economy it is really tough. And I have been sitting some days with no work.

So I have been thinking of a way that I do not have to find the "next job" and have clients that need work week after week.

Something that is not inffluenced by weather, is reccession proof, and no to terribly strenous ( I am starting to worry if I can keep painting into my older years, for I am now 50)

So I did some googling on this subject....."Office Cleaning" and think this might be the answer.

If I landed only 5 accounts that needed basic cleaning such as....

empty all trash recepticles

light dusting

vacumming all carpeted floors

wet mop floors that can not be vaccumed

clean and sanitized all bathroom areas


Doing this for professionals such as docs, lawyers, banks, ect. seems to me would make the job recession proof, as they will always be in buisness.

If I had 6 clients that needed this service 5 nights a week...Mon-Fri and charged $200 avg. a week per a client, I would make $4800.00 a month.Which is better than I am doing now!

If it costs roughly $200 a month for supplies...profit would be $4600.00 by doing the jobs myself. (I think I would keep it small and do the work myself, that way I KNOW I would show up for work, and the quality I do can be higher. With hired help that is not always the case.)

anyway...

$4600.00 subtract 30% taxes= $3220.00 or $805.00 a week...or $41,860.00 a year after tax.

I did some office cleaning as a kid for a company many moons ago, and if I remember right, the average office took 30-45 minutes to clean as outlined above.

if it took 45 minutes on average per office, 6 clients would take 4-5 hours to complete per night. Right? And my wife may be able to help sometimes.

SOooo... What do my many couselors think,

Am I missing anything?

what other cleaning service may I be leaving out in the list above?

does this plan seem do-able or a pie in the sky thing?

Anybody with experience in this?

Thanks in advance for any imput!!!!!

[partndn]

I have NO idea about it legally... But I'm just guessing, unless you only take clients that know and trust you personally, you might be required (to make them happy) some kind of bonding insurance, etc.
You may have already run into this in painting at people's property.

The office cleaners I know always seem to have done pretty well.
I don't think you'll find clients that fit that time slot plan perfectly, but it still might avg out.. ya know? One might be a 6 bathroom place, and then another might be just a two room, two "holer".
I clean my uncle's house, and the four bathrooms take me the majority of 2 hours. They're not dirty.. (he lives alone) but it takes that long to go over everything like you need to in a bathroom.

Good luck! I sure know how you feel, sittin around trying to think of stuff. Me too.

[scatyb]

I do know some guys that do this and they are(or at least were) fairly successful. They did however need to become bonded and insured.

[clovis]

Your are going to need to be insured as well.

It is a competitive business, where most business sign yearly contracts with established businesses. It is going to take a while to get into the business unless you are lucky. "Our contract runs thru August of next year. Call us then."

It is priced competitively. What is the going rate in your area per square foot?

You are probably going to need to learn to strip and wax floors, as well as other specialty services like "We had toner tracked thru this floor. Can you clean it? How much?"

It is a very doable business, but it isn't going to happen over night, but there are lots of VERY rich people in the office cleaning business.

[seagullplayer]

It is a very competitive buisness, they rebid ours ever year regardless of how good a job the crew does. it is hard to find loyal companies these days.

On a side note because you paint do you do apartment ready work? I know it is very competitive as well...

I painted a little some years ago, my dad was a house painter among other things. I found that for some reason the "big guys" stayed away from doing any work at Nursing homes? I am not sure why, but many times I had the only bid, no one else would even show up.

I know I wrote answers to questions you didn't ask, sorry, I was just trying to help.

Good luck!

[How Do I]

It is doable, but as mentioned there's bonding, insurance, business license, promotional literature, equipment costs (do you already own a buffer?). Many places are going to want a 'jack of all cleaning trades', like clovis said, do you know how to strip and wax floors? What are you going to say when they ask, "Do you have any references?" Maybe clean some homes for friends/family to get some "great" references and see who your friends or family know business-wise to get your foot in the door.