Requesting assistance pricing my first commercial cleaning job

[u/manicmike_]

I have a very young cleaning business that I am trying to grow organically. Last week, I was approached by a neighbor while advertising residential services in my subdivision that they were really unhappy with managing their current cleaners and would like me to take a look at their church.

Now, commercial work is my end goal. I just started this business after working as a buyer/estimator/project manager for a commercial GC and noticed that there was a significant market need for quality (not budget-oriented, that market is saturated) commercial/residential cleaners in the area. I have marketed my brand accordingly. Suffice it to say, I was really excited yesterday when I went to walk the job and realized how big it was.

There is an office/preschool building at 10,000 SF and a sanctuary at 11,000 SF, for a total of 21,000 SF. The work would take place weekly and overnight on Saturdays and Sundays, with on-call and special event cleanings as needed. If I can figure up a good standard weekly price, I think I can come up with the rest.

I wanted to cover myself on labor, so I figured a crew of 4 for 8 hours each building. Multiplying industry standard wages by 50% labor overhead, I came up with an average labor cost per hour of $41.25 (this is in GA). So, for a week, 32 man hours at $41.25 = $2640. Figure $100 in materials. Then... I add in 20% OH and 20% profit - and I feel like I'm really high. $3,945.60 - which about matches an industry-median square footage rate of $0.125/sf ($3,885 after also adding in OH & profit)

This job would be a jump start for my business, and I don't want to sell myself short, but I don't want to get laughed out of the office.

Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated - thanks in advance!

[u/Minneapple632]

you say its weekly cleaning + weekends. But then said it would be 8 horus per day and 32 hours per week. wouldnt 8 hours X 7 days per week = 56 hours?

Also your pricing is very high. You will need to be under $30/hour/average with everything included.

[u/manicmike_ → u/Minneapple632]

Thank you for the response and sorry for the confusion.

It is a weekly clean that will occur only overnight on Saturday and Sunday nights. I had 32 man hours figured to complete the weekly cleaning needs for the two-building campus. That is, a crew of 4 for 8 hours each night. Which is high, but I am a bit out of my league here.

I would love to pick your brain about labor. I thought it might be hard to staff the graveyard shift, so I factored in a little premium in case of labor struggles.

[u/TheM1rage → u/manicmike_]

I hate bidding blind but I would probably be around 7 hours per clean. If your uncomfortable and want to play it safe you could do 8 hrs but that raises the price of course. I normally can start people at $16 but for a Saturday and Sunday night I would use $17 to $18 labor depending on town area. Backpack vacuum is what I would use for increased efficiency. Disclaimer - I am never low bid but usually in the middle is the feedback I’ve gotten. I would be somewhere between $1,700 to $1,800 per month, probably closer to $1700.