Spring is almost here

Rob hit the nail on the head;
" For a commercial manager, he wants simple things: Trustworthy; Reliable; Insured; and Reasonably priced. When a company throws out a low-ball, they know it will not come with those things."

Yell them that is what you offer them. Then stop talking. Then let the cream and the whey separate to see if they are the kind of comm job you want to build a relation with. Hint: you want the cream.

A word of warning, they will probably want to see a high insurance policy on jobs that size....expect them to look for a 2 million liability policy.

I even had to get terrorism insurance, but it was like $12 per year, so okay.

And that's why I have a 2m policy.

Davey Cracker wrote:And that's why I have a 2m policy.

Smart, that tells a manager that you are reliable and trustworthy....the budget guys have no chance.

Congrats Rob that is a nice account to secure and ! week a quarter is that much with some help. Another on of those accounts and you'll be kicking yourself in the ass for not running your biz full time.

I see a Cimex in your future or do they require HWE every time?

I used to clean for a guy from out of town that owned a janitorial biz in Vegas. I cleaned his vacation home, He said his biz was very profitable but he did take a big hit when the economy took a dive. That's why I don't clean fo him anymore he had to sell his vacation home. Im sure by now he owns three vacation homes.

Thanks Mo, I kick myself every year during the warm months for not cleaning full-time. Winter can be very humbling in the Midwest and always scared me too much to solo.

I'm still planning on resigning in late March / early April this year, so I hope I can find another good contract like above to solidify my base.

I would love to Cimex it, but they get almost 2 million people through that place per year and the soil loads are ridiculous. I tried to encap when I first got the contract and it was just too much to get decent results....HWE every time now.

This biz does turn you into a manic depressant.

I like the title of this thread

It's been warm here last week and yet business was a little slow, this week is a lot busier even though it cools down a lot, as a matter of fact there's precipitation chance this weekend and I'm solid booked for the weekend, next tuesday I got a hotel to clean ( all the rooms, all the bathroom tiles clean and seal ), I'm tired already just thinking about it.
Mo is right, this business can and will turn you into a manic depressant, whatever that means

Sounds like a Patel, $7 a rm job, DP!!!

Nope, no Patel for me
A chain hotel, a couple thousand dollars, once every 3 months

It keeps growing!

I met with the Zoo again today and they added 2 additional buildings that have never been cleaned in probably 10 years.  One of them suffered urine damage from several cheetahs.....yes, you read that correctly.  

Oh, and the IMAX is now included as well.

I have 4 days off from my current day job to complete all of this work....and that isn't possible, even with my sub, so I will not be sleeping in March at all until the 15th.  We are over 90k sqft and counting at this point in time.

That isn't all that is growing either.  My van keeps suffering freeze damage and the repair list is growing about as fast as the jobs are getting scheduled.

We have been below zero the past few nights and although my tm is winterized and fresh water tank is dumped, I left my softener on board.  I run dual heaters in the insulated van which keeps it around 50 degrees, but some "icehole" decided that he would rather be a thief than an employee and tried to break in.

He pried open the side window and tried to open the door, but the frigid cold last week resulted in a broken handle and he couldn't get it to open.  He fled empty-handed, but he also left the window open.

I woke up and found the inside of van at 12 degrees!!  The softener froze and ruptured and my floor is now a sheet of ice.  

I will be busting my butt to get things ready and keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong before I start the hell week in March.

This industry is always so up and down.....even on the same day.

Wow that sucks Rob stealing from the hand the feeds you. What an ahole.

Yeah Dave not all hotels are patels.

Wow sorry Rob, I can't imagine the look on my face if I come out one morning and see a sheet of ice on my van floor

dp1 wrote:Wow sorry Rob, I can't imagine the look on my face if I come out one morning and see a sheet of ice on my van floor

Pretty much like this...