Commercial Maintenance Idea

[CHEESE2009]

I saw an ad, & it was pretty interesting. A guy offers the following for commercial properties; * Cleaning of the Main, Employees and Rear Entrances * Weekly Sweeping and removal of any debris * Wash and Pressure Cleaning front door and window area once per month to control dust * Empty of Ashtrays and Garbage Cans * Shoveling of the snow in the winter seasons * More.... What do you guys think?

[Yard Elements]

Lawn care business tips

I don't really want to be a janitor LOL, Empting ash trays and ish.

[Steve]

It seems like someone must perform the services. If you are already there and can perform the services, you could potentially make more by offering these upsells.

Are you considering doing this and seeing what kind of results you get?

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by Steve

It seems like someone must perform the services. If you are already there and can perform the services, you could potentially make more by offering these upsells.

Are you considering doing this and seeing what kind of results you get?

Well it's something to consider, I mean it's a few extra bucks added to the customers bill for a small amount of your time.

There are problems however, you'd have to arrange where the "trash" goes.

Commercial buildings often have their own dumpsters, & you would need a spare key. No one wants to travel with garbage & compost dumps will NOT accept garbage, haha!

Most apartment complexes have their handymen do this work, but store fronts & strip malls would probably be interested in hiring a service like this.

So much can build off of this, which is a good thing;

Many buildings are infested with spiderwebs & such, you could give the building a complete wash for a grand or so.

Weeds often pop out of cracks, you could remove them.

Let's not forget about graffiti! Someones gotta remove it!

You could even get up on a ladder & do some detail work on the shops signs. Light-bulbs need to be replaced, & the signs need to be cleaned out.

Roof fixtures should be secured & maybe some caulking work could be done.

A lot of emergency exit doors rust over, & maybe you could paint them.

Birds often build nests all over the building, it sucks, but someones gotta remove them.

Anyway, I'm on a ramble... lol

[Steve]

Those are all great ideas! Will you be promoting them this year?

Also, what's your view on charging for them? When you have so many potential services, what's the best way to go about charging?

Just charge by the man hour and show the customer what you did during that time?

[CHEESE2009]

Will you be promoting them this year?

Nah, I'm not interested in commercial properties this year. I don't even think about them anymore :P


Also, what's your view on charging for them? When you have so many potential services, what's the best way to go about charging?

If one were to consider going into this, I would set up a few programs that suit the properties needs. Then I'd set up a schedule, at what times certain tasks are to be performed throughout the season. I'd probably bill the client every 2 months. I would not demand payment after each task is performed, the client is paying for a program, not a "job here & there".


Just charge by the man hour and show the customer what you did during that time?

The problem with that is, clients who own property like the ones we'd advertise to, wouldn't be around all the time. They probably wouldn't want to be bothered by a "handyman" at all, so the above would apply.

I would probably go in first thing & figure out how long each individual task is going to take me to complete. I'd do this for every commercial client. I'd then combine all the tasks that the client is interested in having me do, total it all together.

I will then create a schedule for him/her, on which dates I will be arriving to perform X' task(s), & payment due dates.

Though the thing is, we want all the business we can get. So the client will have to pay out a MINIMUM. E.g, let's say every client MUST hire us for window washing in order to receive additional work. This way we are 'guaranteed' work & generate a better income.

We don't want to be hired/bothered to pick up the odd cola can in the parking lot... We want to make our trip worthwhile, right?

[Steve]

Though the thing is, we want all the business we can get. So the client will have to pay out a MINIMUM. E.g, let's say every client MUST hire us for window washing in order to receive additional work. This way we are 'guaranteed' work & generate a better income.

How do you get them so they MUST contact you for all these services?

When you say they must pay a minimum, would this be like they pay out a property maintenance fee every month all year long?

[CHEESE2009]

How do you get them so they MUST contact you for all these services?

Put boobies on the advertisements! Hahahah!

I suppose I could create a deal. Hire us for the programs full term, & X service will discounted the following year. It's throwing away money, but it has it's retention purpose. Maybe, hire our service 2 years in a row, get x service 50% off. (i sound like vistaprint, wow)

I have no idea, it'd be fun/tricky.

When you say they must pay a minimum, would this be like they pay out a property maintenance fee every month all year long?

Well lets say we're talking about a residential customer.

This customer wants gutter cleaning & garden weeding...

Gutter Cleaning: $100.00
Garden Weeding: $100.00

I would say, "you need to spend a minimum of $300.00 in order to receive any of our services, I recommend our Hedge Trimming service"

Which will total up the cost to $300.00, our minimum price. We will be receiving more work, more money, & it's all worth more.

Hedge Trimming: $100.00


NOW, in order to pay. Being a property owner, & not being around often (& too cool for us folk). The best way would to have the client pay every 2 months give or take depending how annoying they are.

There are 6 months in my season, so I would expect payment on;

May $100 - July $100 - September $100

If the client does not want any additional services, but will pay the extra $100.00 or so, they will be billed exactly the same.


Other than the above, I have no idea what I'm talking about. LOL, just to be honest.

[Steve]

Well it certainly would be worthwhile experimenting with this, this year to see what comes from it.