[Oldvampiregoat]

I have the chance to bid on a office building aprox. 200 000 sq.feet surface to clean.
Just offices, bathrooms, storage rooms, allways, lunch room, stairwells and a conference room.
Duties: dusting, vacuuming, mopping, emptying trash cans, clean and sanitize, arrange forniture.
80% carpet; 20% tiles. Carpet cleaning can be arrange separately.

Frequency 5 days/week.

I was calculating 10 people for 4 hours a day.

Asking price 12500/13500 per month.

Any feed would be appreciated.

[talaniman]

Does that cover your supplies, and salaries, and other intangibles such as profit margin?

[Oldvampiregoat]

Does that cover your supplies, and salaries, and other intangibles such as profit margin?

It should.
Would that be a fair market price? Too low? Can I go higher? Or too high?

[talaniman]

It's a bid, therefore a competition between other bidders. Maybe one, maybe many. Knowledge of the competition will let you know if you can go higher or need to go lower.

Ever bid against others before?

[Oldvampiregoat]

It's a bid, therefore a competition between other bidders. Maybe one, maybe many. Knowledge of the competition will let you know if you can go higher or need to go lower.

Ever bid against others before?

Yes but never on such a big office building like this one.

Any idea on the price then? Competition is pretty rough here in Indiana.

[smoothy]

And as Talaniman has pointed out... knowing that the average wages for this are in your area... in some areas you won't get anyone to do this at the minimum wage... even th eillegals. THe more you pay the more talent you can attract and keep... but the less competitive you are. The less you pay the more likely you are to get the people nobody else would hire, and those you do get will leave for higher paying competitors.

Thats the knowing the competition part he was talking about.

[Oldvampiregoat]

And as Talaniman has pointed out... knowing that the average wages for this are in your area... in some areas you won't get anyone to do this at the minimum wage... even th eillegals. THe more you pay the more talent you can attract and keep... but the less competitive you are. The less you pay the more likely you are to get the people nobody else would hire, and those you do get will leave for higher paying competitors.

Thats the knowing the competition part he was talking about.

You're not helping guys and you're stating the obvious. I am no hiring illegals here.
Let's just pretend that 13000/month would allow me to get a profit out of it... Would that price be a fair market price? Compared to where you work and live maybe? Your experience?
Let the calculation of all the expenses to me. I just need to know if that asking price would be fair enough.

Thanks.

[smoothy]

None of us know what city you are in... so none of us know what an average price is for that area, that's the key problem here.


You can try and charge anything you want... but if its out of line with what the others in your city care charging.. you won't get any contracts.

What is average for one city might not be the same for another city just 100 miles away.

[Oldvampiregoat]

None of us know what city you are in... so none of us know what an average price is for that area, that's the key problem here.


You can try and charge anything you want... but if its out of line with what the others in your city care charging.. you won't get any contracts.

What is average for one city might not be the same for another city just 100 miles away.

The city is Indianapolis.
I won bidding with .10 per sq foot per month and other with .14, but I lost a couple bidding the same price and in between.
They were small office building thoug, 5000 - 6000 sq foot

[Fr_Chuck]

The issue with lowest bids, is that often, they are done by companies that provide poor service or quality of work. Also, many start up companies bid too low. No profit.
That happened in Atlanta, many times, then two months later, the company that won the bid, closes or defaults on contract

[talaniman]

You overlook the obvious part of providing the details that leads to an educated guess. Like prevailing wages and competition. Those are crucial details you have and we don't. Those are the kinds of facts I would seek in making up a bid taking in consideration not just size but financial needs of the company, asking for the bid.

Without them it's a shot in the dark, hit or miss. Sorry but what you need is local help. Bet you don't know what the company has spent in the past, or who they have used either. Or more important WHY they are taking bids assuming they have a contractor.

Rule of thumb, costs + desired profit = bid. The ultimate bid is dependent on how much profit can you reasonably make which for such a size jump would be quite low. So what is your profit margin? How low can you go?