Jim OToole ⋅ Tuckerton, NJ Bayside Consulting ⋅ 30 years experience

Good old fashion door to door is always your best option. Go in and tell them you will beat the price of whoever they are using now and ask to see an invoice. It will give you an idea of the competitions pricing and will get you the client. You don't need to be a lot lower, sometimes only $25~$50 per month. Many multi-level office complex building have 1 cleaning company for the whole building so it is harder to get your foot in the door, especially as a small business because you need the staff to clean the entire building every night. Start with stand alone offices and businesses. Look at franchise business that take pride in their cleanliness...like Massage Envy, Hand & Stone Massage; these businesses need weekly cleaning and it needs to be done at night because of the noise.

Jo Prabhu ⋅ San Rafael, CA International Services Group ⋅ 20 years experience

Pick a tall mutli-storeyed building, go up and down the elevator, put on your biggest smiley face and present your card to the person at the front desk who will always be your best friend next time you walk in with a box of doughnuts! Guess who s/he will call next time their cleaning crew screws up? Once you are in one office, then the rest of the building is yours for a box of doughnuts!

Maddie Coffin ⋅ New York, NY ⋅ 4 years experience

Hi Jarod,

Thank you for your question! I did a quick search and found the following resources that could be helpful with gaining cleaning contracts with local businesses:

http://online-cleaning-coach.com/how-to-get-cleaning-contracts/

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/office-cleaning-contracts-16071.html

https://squareup.com/townsquare/how-to-get-cleaning-contracts

I would also suggest reaching out to Advisors through ACP AdvisorNet’s Community tab, who have experience in the area of small business. That way, you can message business professionals for first-hand insights and tips.

If you have any questions about reaching out to Community Advisors, please let me know. Good luck!

Best,

Maddie