Many cleaning professionals visit the International Custodial Advisers Network (ICAN) Ask the Experts page for insight and, every business day, we deliver advice to better help you perform your job.
Tuesday’s Question:
How do I price the following?
We want to clean a 15,002 sq. ft. strip mall that is used to provide services for individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities.
It would include cleaning 11-15 restrooms (wiping walls as needed), vacuum, mop, sweep, dust baseboards, window cleaning, damp wipe 54 trash cans inside and out (carrying to trash dumpster), wipe down tables, blow off patio with leaf blower, and water plants.
Also, clean the inside of 3 microwaves and 2 refrigerators. All of this will be done 5 days a week.
Tuesday’s Answer:
You price it by determining the cost of doing the work and adding a profit for your future expansion.
1) List every task that must be done.
2) Time each task. In other words, clean a restroom, time the operation, multiply by the exact number of restrooms, not 11 or 15. Same for a sample window, table,etc.
3) Add the totals to come up with a daily service time in man-hours. It could be 24 (example only) in which case you will need 3 cleaners on an 8 hour shift to reach the needed total time.
4) Apply the labor charges to your time. 24 man-hours times $10 per hour equals $240 a shift … Lynn E. Krafft, ICAN/ATEX editor
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