I have a successful summer mowing company and would like to clean small businesses (500 to 3000 sq ft) in the central Maine (Lewiston/Augusta area). I have accts at Home Depot and Lowe's for my supplies but need help with quoting a cleaning job or what a average hourly rate would be for clean small commercial spaces?

Each area of the country dictates its going rate for bidding and the going rate to pay employees. Competition is another strong factor Bob.

In my area (Chicago) for facilities up to 3,000 sq ft you have to cover your basic costs for taxes, profit, equipment, supplies, insurance etc. Since the sq ft is less the price per sq ft has to be more. As you start to do larger jobs that price will go down.

Although we do not seek jobs less than usually 10,000 sq ft, we price each each job three ways; Computer program, sq ft and hourly. After this we combine the totals for a final bid price. This combined with how our competition is pricing local jobs leads us to a price.

Again, remember that the smaller the job the higher the price has to be to cover your costs and profit.

If I were to price a job about 3,000 sq ft for a general office building without any particular needs (special needs), I would use about $0.25 per sq ft and price the carpet cleaning and the striping and refinishing of the VCT as an extra: VCT $0.30 and Carpets at $.20 per sq ft. Test your market and make adjustments where necessary, the best teacher is experience.

As far as labor, obviously you have to pay at least minimum wages. Figure how many hours are dedicated nightly to the job and go from there.

Hope this helped, although these are only suggestions, you are always responsible for your own pricing Bob.

Stringer

Smaller jobs are usually priced at an hourly rate rather than a square footage rate.

Basically, you have to figure out what you need to charge to make a profit at the end of the day after paying for supplies, labor, insurance, gas, etc.

Usually, the going rate for small commercial is the same as for homes. It ranges state to state, but the average is somewhere b/t 35-45 an hour.

Good luck!

With all respect, what residential area is paying $35 to $45 per hour? For residential that is very high.

I pay my cleaner $35/hour. That is the norm for my area.

May I ask what part of Pa?

Southeast. Near Philly. But I am very rural here... lots of farms and amish. I had cheaper ones, but you get what you pay for. The "professional" businesses all over the tri state area are all around $35. The not professional ones (no license, insurance) are low around $20. I would rather pay more and get the job done properly.

Interesting HBF.

My wife started a residential cleaning company several years ago from scratch and sold it 4 1/2 years later at a very nice profit. She had built it to almost 60 homes and had 7 employees and a supervisor.

She was incorporated, insured, obviously paid all her taxes and was very professional. The going rate in and around Chicago is $15 to $19 per hour. Anything higher is simply not competitive.

I am from the Pittsburgh area (yes, I know it is about 450 miles from Philly) and visit family regularly, even in the very nice suburbs the rate is comparable to Chicago. I could see a possible variance in pricing, maybe up to $20 to $25 on the east and west coasts for many reasons. If you are paying $35 to $45 per hour I might suggest that you get some competitive bids with references.

Although actually the OP was not looking for residential pricing, he was looking for commercial. Residential and commercial cleaning has many differences which make it difficult to compare the two successfully.

Stringer

You should always bid all jobs at a per job rate, not hourly anyway. That way the client won't try to knock off an hour here or an hour there. Just figure out your hourly rate for your own reference and provide the client with a per job bid proposal.

According to cleaning service members on ICPA, the national average is $20-$32/hour but, again, that will vary greatly depending on where you are located and the competition in your area.

I would recommend visiting ICPA to gain some more insight into the business. They are a VERY helpful group of people there.

Good luck!

Agreed giving a lump sum price is always better.

Another good website to explore is:

How to Start a Successful Cleaning Business

Stringer

I just did a search for some cleaning websites in Chicago and saw prices from 22 to 32 per hour. I guess prices have gone up since your wife sold her business. However, many places can afford to price lower if they have a lot of accounts. So, if you have many employees, you can afford to take on more clients, thus bringing in more money. That is why those franchises such as merry maids charge below the mom and pop operations.

A great way to get an idea of what the going rate is in your area is to do a search for cleaning business websites in your area. Many will have their rates on there. That will give you an idea of the competitions rates to better help you decide on yours.

Good luck!

On small to medium businesses is sq. ft. standard in Maine at .25 cents per sq. ft?