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The Proposal
Larger companies generally require more professionalism. If you want to get their business, a well constructed proposal is your ticket. The business in the picture to the right has a space of 3,800 square feet and is almost entirely carpeted. There are ten executive offices and one conference room. In the center of this space are 8 cubicles. With one receptionist, the total number of occupants comes to 19. There is a kitchen area with 2 tables, a sink, counter, cabinets, microwave, refrigerator, and 300 square feet of vinyl tiled flooring. There are 2 washrooms with 2 sinks each. The women’s washroom has 2 toilets – the men’s washroom has 1 toilet and 1 urinal. The washroom flooring is 5 inch square ceramic tile. The hand towel dispensers are built into the wall which are to be replenished by the cleaning service from owner’s stock. This type of business is an Accounting firm. They are looking to be serviced 3 times a week. Aside from the kitchen floor which will require a weekly machine buffing, I would consider this account to be Variable Neutral. After correcting the present service’s negligence, it appears that this space could, for much of the year, be quite profitable. However, come tax season, this type of business can generate a lot of garbage as well as increased traffic flow. You may want to factor that in except that this firm has strong promotional value
Remember, that’s 2 minutes for every 100 square feet over the base square footage, in this case, over 3,000. 8 x 2 = 16 added to 70 is 86 minutes. We then divide by 2. 86 / 2 makes our per visit rate $43.00. We multiply the number of times we visit per week, in this case $43.00 x 3 = $129.00 per week. To get our annual price we multiply $129.00 x 52 = $6,708.00. To arrive at the monthly charge, which we will be entering on our proposal and monthly invoices, we divide our annual total of $6,708.00 by 12 months = $559.00 per month.
Do we want to round this number off, give the company we’re bidding on a rebate? We’ve already established that this account has strong promotional value. But it does have enough vinyl tile to require a floor machine once per week. As far as difficulty in cleaning, the checklist indicates that the services to be performed are no more complex than the office with 1,150 square feet. Because I do want this job and am willing to accept $25.00 per hour for my services, my monthly charge for these services will be $520.00. The following 11 pages is what a complete Proposal for Janitorial services looks like. I have variations from other services in my possession. But most all of them have the same progression which, upon written completion, is then presented to the office manager – preferably presented inside an attractive binder.
• Introduction • Checklist • Schedule / Cost • Contract • Insurance / Bonding • References
Chapter 13__The Proposal Explained
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Looking at our minute/price chart, 3,000 square feet at 3 times a week will require approximately 70 minutes per visit to service. We still have to add 800 square feet to those results.
