Should I charge more per window for commercial than residential?

Commercial
1

I am bidding on a commercial job, the job would mean cleaning 12 store fronts twice a month. I was going to stick with my residential pricing, but I am not sure if that is wise. Any ideas?

This could potential be my first commercial job.

Thanks,

2

I think you’ll find that you need to charge considerably less for commercial in order to land the job. Unless your market is different to most others, commercial, especially store fronts are very competitively priced.

3

Thanks, I really appreciate the advice, since I am such a newbie to commercial.

4

How big are your storefronts? Think of it has bidding each individual store front through the owner, what are you coming to? In the strip malls where I am located at that I clean on a frequent basis I charge 1 to 2 $ a pain but with a $15 min. Been cleaning them for 4 years.

5

a variety of factors, including location, frequency of service, access issues, height, time/labor required, difficulty of clean, scope of service needed, and many more contribute to coming up with a good price. Most find that residential pricing is higher than commercial pricing.

6

Is that for in and out?

7

Less, once over three stories the game changes a bit due to other companies lack of equipment etc. The price is much less though

8

Less is always on commercial…one thing to keep in mind, when you clean commercial windows regularly then your time down the road will be reduced due to the regular maintenance. For example…I have this one account that never been cleaned in 3 years due to building being vacant. It took 2 people 3 hrs the first time to get them in shape. 6 months later, I am cleaning outside only for a $100 bill and it is taking me 45 mins. You loose on the first cleaning, but it gets easier.

9

Yeah with such a large amount of competition, the prices are always lower unfortunately.

10

Storefront windows are bid much lower than residential. $1-$2 per pane per side versus $4-$6 for residential. The good news, though, is that if they are cleaned once a month or more you won’t have to scrape them - just wet and squeegee. Plus you don’t have to mess with ladders or screens and the windows are spaced much closer together. Get a ledger and a zero degree squeegee and you won’t even need a step ladder. Get a pole and some decent sized channels. I use 22 inch channels the most. A 30 incher will also be handy for some of the larger windows. In the storefront game, you need speed.