I have no idea about this potential contract

I received a call from the first customer I cleaned for today. A really simple job out in the country consisting of just a single room off the garage. I told him that I would do it for my truck minimum ($100) but would gladly clean more than just the one room. We ended up driving over to his Sister's house a few miles down the gravel roads to clean a living room.....then he paid me $220 cash. The Sister also paid me $100, but I refused both and only accepted the $100 like we agreed on.

I know, you don't have to say it, really bad way to run a business giving back money. I realize that, but I just didn't feel right about taking more at the time. I don't mind a little tip, but not triple the fee as a tip.

Fast forward to an hour ago and that same customer called me back. He wants me to meet with his Brother this week to discuss quarterly cleanings of his business. I thought, sure, Karma coming back already, but the early details of the "business" is a little troubling.

This is what I know thus far. The "business" is actually a major data firm that consists of a 24 story office building with 12 offices per floor and a break area as well on each floor. He wants me to bid it on Friday. I am at a bit of a loss on going about it.

I have been mostly a commercial cleaning guy my whole career, but never office buildings. It has always been banquet halls, day cares, museums, event centers, theaters, but never an office building. I am not a big fan of encap cleanings, but a TM would be pointless here. I do still have my Steamin Demon and know where I could buy 2 more pretty cheap. IF that building has a decent size water heater and mop closet on each floor, it might work.

Just not sure how I would approach this one, let alone bid it for quarterly cleanings.

The likelihood of dirt impaction is pretty low. You will probably have more coffee stains and toner ink to deal with than anything.

I know a guy in Indy that would encap that with confidence. Encap and a porty are the only ways you are going to clean a building like that. It could be GREAT money.

It sure could be and I have been trying to set myself up for this winter, so the timing would be good. Just seems like I would have to factor in a lot of the pita costs.

The last thing that I want to do is under-bid a quarterly cleaning job like that.

I know your Superman butvcan you clean all the floors in on session?
If the floors are identical bid one and multiply by 24. Good time that Orbot to use

Well the problem will be:
1 When are you going to clean it? After hours or only when they are there?
2 How long of a time frame will they give you to clean all that? I don't think a solo guy could get more than 3 or 4 floors in a good day. So you'd be looking at 6 days to complete it.
3 Is noise going to be an issue? If you have to clean while they work, will you need to crb it all to keep the noise down?
4 A worry of mine would be as well, is over payment. That is a HUGE bill to wait on if it's not VERY prompt. I am waiting on payment now, for a commercial job I did a week ago. While it's ONLY a week, I asked if they needed terms for payment, and they said no. Just leave my bill and they will cut and mail a check right away. It will be mailed local and doesn't need to go out of town for sorting. I should have had a check the next day. Still haven't been paid.....

I don't like waiting on/chasing payments. On a job like that, no way I would want to wait weeks or months.

5 This may be a total waste of your time. They may be thinking you work for peanuts.

All valid points to consider, thanks.

I'm waiting on checks all the time. It used to be 7-10 days, but this year it can be as long as 30 days just do to some unorganized managers. I hate that part of the game, but it just seems to happen.

It might be a waste of time, but I will show to find out. I don't think I will really know what to do until I get to sit down and find out what their expectations would be. I am just not set-up for that type of building, so it might take some additional equipment to meet it.

A good auto fill auto dump 1000 psi portable and a rotary floor machine should be able to handle anything you could run into.
They do weigh a lot, but once you get them into the building, you're good to go.
This is also a great job for encapping as maintenance where hwe is not required. Light spotting and traffic area maintenance is where encap works great.

On larger commercial jobs, I allow up to 30 days then I start to charge interest.