Power Washing Bid Presentation

[warbuff]

I just started my 5th year in business and I expanded adding 6 commercial accounts last year. Now some of those clients are requesting power washing bids and I'm also working on a large bid referred by a colleague. The math is pretty straight forward, numbers wise I feel I done my homework and will do well with my bidding, forum calculators were very helpful in laying the ground work I needed. But where I'm struggling is in the write up. I'm out of my comfort zone presenting on these to clients. Generally for my lawn care bids I use a packet that has pictures, my brochure, insurance/pertinent info and references. I think I need to do something similar for power washing but I'm at a loss for ideas. I have to submit a large bid in about a week that was the referral I spoke of in the beginning of this post. I'm the only bid right now and I really want to look l professional and nail this one down. Thoughts, ideas on the presentation process? Essentially new to this aspect of the industry.

[ratchetmaster2]

Lawn care business tips

I'm kinda confused what the problem is. You're offering a service to a client the same way you offer any other service. The only difference is you exchange the word "mulch" or "weekly lawn maintenance" with "pressure washing". You said you have calculated your desired price, just like any other service. So present it to them like any other service. As far as your packet, I guess you don't really have pictures of pressure washing, or referrals, if this is your first time. I'm sure the insurance would apply. Present them with accurate data and claims. Give them measurements such as "the required efforts consist of 1000sq.ft. of pressure washing". And say things like "I guarantee a consistent and even cleaning across all surfaces services". Are you referring to the bid/invoice on paper? Maybe you want more than one item, "pressure washing". Maybe you could fancy it up by throwing some stuff in. "Pressure washing @$.25/sq.ft. (or whatever)" "equipment maintenance fee" "transport fee" IDK. You guys are good at filling up paper with fees and whatnot

[The Cleaning Doctor]

The first thing that you need to consider is the added insurance worth the cost to provide the service to a few customers or would you be better subcontracting that portion out to a pressure washing company. Your current insurance will not cover pressure washing. Insurance can run anywhere from $500 to $1500 or more per year. Not to mention the cost of equipment. The home depot pressure washer will not be efficient enough. Sub it out and add 10% and continue to gain more lawn customers.

[Steve]

Sub it out and add 10% and continue to gain more lawn customers.

That is a very interesting point.

What is your view on that? Will expanding into this field, take your time away from a field that you could make more money on? Or are you looking to offer more services and you want to go into this direction?

[warbuff]

Originally Posted by The Cleaning Doctor

The first thing that you need to consider is the added insurance worth the cost to provide the service to a few customers or would you be better subcontracting that portion out to a pressure washing company. Your current insurance will not cover pressure washing. Insurance can run anywhere from $500 to $1500 or more per year. Not to mention the cost of equipment. The home depot pressure washer will not be efficient enough. Sub it out and add 10% and continue to gain more lawn customers.

We're already covered for it, that portion of our insurance is an extra 720 per season. Hadn't really considered subbing it out, but I'm going to look into it thank you for the suggestion.

[Steve]

Generally for my lawn care bids I use a packet that has pictures, my brochure, insurance/pertinent info and references.

Why can't you do the same thing for the power washing?

Just take pictures of the areas that need to be cleaned and point out how you will deal with them?

Take after pictures later and use them in future bids.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

Originally Posted by Steve

That is a very interesting point.

What is your view on that? Will expanding into this field, take your time away from a field that you could make more money on? Or are you looking to offer more services and you want to go into this direction?

My feeling is that you do not make money doing the actual jobs but on the sales end of things is where the money is made. The money is already made when you get to a job, you just have to stay within budget to meet your numbers. You can make money on a job IF you can keep expenses lower than budgeted.

So my question is, Which would make you more money? Washing a building for 4 hours or landing 2-4 new clients? Maybe even one large client?

To me, stick with what you are good at. Providing your customer with the best possible services while keeping it under your sphere of influence, does not mean that you have to be the one to do the actual work. If you want to keep it all under your umbrella, find experts that you can use to bring into the fold and sub to them. A general contractor does none of the actual work, they hire experts.

[Steve]

So then there are two facets one must improve upon.

• A: the sales presentation and ability to estimate the job accurately.
• B: the ability to get the job done within the time estimated.

If either is blown, you will most likely not make money on the job. So you have to get good at both.

When you get into a new field, you won't know how long a job will take so then you can't sell it accurately? Is that correct?

But with that said, what if you want to experiment and see if you are more interested in other services or that other services could make you more money per hour than the ones you are used to selling?