Quote for the GC

I have always declined restaurant work in the past and for some reason I didnt today. The local golden corral wants a quote. Its 3000 square feet. I dont plan on moving tables and chairs or vacuuming . They currently have it done every two weeks. The manager said they current cleaners is flaky, probably cus his making peanuts per cleaning.

If im going to clean a grease pit after hours Im going to be smiling doing it. What would your quote be? Hopefully they dont accept my quote

I don't do restaurants anymore because there's nothing to "smile" about!

Super super super low pay, a total mess to clean, a lot of work to get it clean and usually done late night/early morning, and what I mean by morning is in the AM, not when you wake up morning. . Did I say Super yet? lol

Who the hell wants to work a nasty grease pit late night every 2 weeks for gas money?..............not me, but there's a shit load of guys that do.

You made it clear that you really don't want to do it, so you need to make that clear to the Manager as well. Tell him straight up that this isn't the kind of work that you normally take, but you will if certain terms are met.

1. Absolutely no moving of furniture
2. Must be vacuumed prior to your cleaning
3. Paid in timely fashion...I would accept 5 working days
4. A signed contract to these terms for a 6 month period
5. Price set according to the amount of time it takes and after-hours

If you have a good rotary extractor, then it would be as low as .25 per foot. If not, it becomes .35 per foot. If you like eating there, maybe work free meals into the deal as well.

He has met the flakes that seek out these jobs for peanuts and he isn't happy with them. If he wants a professional, he must meet the professional's price and terms.

He will probably not take the deal.....okay with that as well, but if he did take the deal, that would out okay too.

If it works out for the 6 months and he kept up with your terms, then sign a year deal and sub out the job for the normal peanuts that the others are taking to clean the greasy spoons. You will make good money and not have to deal with the hours nor effort.

Maybe it's far, very far different in other areas on restaurant pricing than it is here. Because if I could get .25-.35 sf, I might actually consider doing them, but here guy's are doing them for .5-.10 sf all night long, and fighting for them under bidding each other, and prob the main reason the price has been driven so low.

Looks like the earliest start time would be 10:00 PM since they close at 9:00pm. I don't need .35 per square foot to make my margins on this one but not sure if I want to commit to that schedule.

Good point about subbing it out in the future

It is that way here as well, 8-10 cents per foot, but the late start time also means that you will not be able to schedule other jobs that next morning, so to make it worth your time, you need premium pricing.

Those are the kind of jobs to avoid unless they will pay a premium. Once in a long while, you run into one that will, so it is worth discussing.

The important thing is to explain why you are charging a premium over what others will charge. If you don't, that manager will bad-mouth your company for being way over-priced....which you are not when you view the variables involved.

Meet with the guy, explain the situation, make your offer, thank the guy regardless, and walk away if they don't accept it. So many companies miss the chance to explain their pricing and it creates negative reputations when there really shouldn't be.

Its too competitive here as well,    pretty much paying them to clean it for them.  

When I do see them especially the ones doing floor buffing in the grocery stores they all look like meth heads

I just did an estimate for a Japanese restaurant semicolon Benihana Style. 2400 square feet equals $610. Told him I don't do after hours work. I would come in early in the morning half, each appointment. I did a 3 by 3 section test demo for him turned out really well. I used Siager's secret sauce. I also told him that I  would make sure those carpets to dry in 30 minutes by using my Studebaker downdraft fans. to make sure that the carpets were dry when he opens.

I don't explain my pricing. I explain what I am going to do for them and the benefits they will receive.

IMO, I don't feel the need to explain my expenses. My price is my price, FIRMLY my price. If they don't like it, that's fine. Someone else will. I no longer waste my time with people that are hung up on price objections. After hearing what they are getting, if they don't agree to the price, I move on. You're just not going to change the minds of people who are hung up on the price.

Maybe not the way everyone operates, but I have better things to do with my time then chew the fat about prices. I've set them where they are for a reason. I'm a business, not a charity.

Its a whole different world when you stop dealing with people who have price as their #1 concern.

I actually schedule a pretty decent amount of jobs these days without them even asking, not a ton but more than most would expect. Sometimes its a friend of someone we cleaned for so makes sense they dont ask but some just want it done well.

I think price is always a variable in doing any kind of business.  It is not always the first variable, but it is always part of the equation.

I like to lead with the details and explain what I need to do and the time / costs involved with it.  If they don't agree...I move on, but I don't expect customer to be anyway different than myself when hiring a contractor and that is what we are.

If you were to hire a roofer, wouldn't price be a variable?  I replaced my roof last year and believe me, it was one of the variables for me.  I wanted to know what he was going to do to replace the roof and what materials were involved before I could decide if the price was fair.

I think that we should not be offended by price shoppers, we are contractors and if they dislike the price (after hearing all the details) than they were not your customer to begin with.  I am that way with buying wands, I don't own a Prochem Titanium as it didn't seem to be a good value compared to the PMF Titanium, but others felt otherwise.

There are customers for every business, the key is finding the ones that match your business model.

I think there is more involved when pricing for commercial. If you don't have to move chairs and tables that would save  a lot of time. Not having to vacuum 3000 square feet is another time saver.

When giving a quote based time and cost involved in performing those duties the manager will always have his employees do it as opposed to paying you to do it.

If I hire a mechanic, I am not going to tow my broken down car, to three or four different mechanics to get estimates, and compare the "value".

I understand where you are coming from with a roofer, but I am not going to shop a bunch of contractors for that. For me, it not about the price, but the quality of the work. Yeah, if they were charging 500K for a small roof, then sure, price is an issue. If they are maybe a few grand more than I expected, I'm not going to argue if they do good work, and hire American workers, and have a solid guarantee.

If price were truly my issue, I'd hire the cheap hack here, to clean my carpets. Heck, for 20 bucks a room, I'd even get free aqua guard!

All of you guys have made a significant investment into equipment, chems, and experience. Me too. So for that investment, I want my returns!

I don't disagree with you Freemind, I just feel that we shouldn't be offended by the price shopper.

We have our expectations on price and they have theirs. They are both valid, it isn't the customers problem that I overpaid for a Titanium wand and now need to make more money to pay for it.

My expenses require me to charge accordingly and hope that there is a market to support it. If there isn't, that was my mistake and not the fault of the cheap public.

Once or twice a year I get one of those, "I have a price of ?, can you beat that price"?
I say 'no', and they still hire me. So apparently it wasn't about price.
We may need to go into salesman mode and educate them on why use ME. If were not selling ourselves, then we a cheating yourself of a potential good customer. If its a job/customer we'd prefer to not service after that 1st time cleaning, that's a decision you make when you come to that fork in the road.
Now I'm not talking about 'used car saleman'; yes, that car was driven by an older couple, or- That's was a non smokers car....
A saying I heard many years ago; don't step over nickles to pick up dimes.

I don't understand the low pay you complain about....don't you set the price? if they don't take what you want move on! I recently did two restaurants and both paid premium prices....and both loved my work so much they wanted regular cleanings....both asked how much cheaper it would be and I said ...."do you want the same quality?" same price then. honestly, if its about price up front....bail....be sure to make a fair attempt at saying you are not one of the companies who changes price as per situations....a real company should not! Applebees was a little reluctant BUT was under the gun and wanted it done before mothers day (big day for them) I gave my price with a slight padded quote knowing they would try to drop me a little....they love to round off. we said okay and did the job. lost the padded amount.