Am I making too much money with this contract?

[AdkinsPwrWash]

First off, I know the ole' saying "never count your chickens before they hatch", but I have stumbled across an account, that would make me rediculous money. It's a pretty decent sized fast food chain around here, and they have 5 stores in my town, all 5 of them do bang-up business, and are very well known. Anyhow, I was there one day getting lunch, and had my trailer behind me and the manager started asking questions about it, one thing led to another and I had the company owners cell number b/c I heard he was looking for a new company to clean his property.

I called him the other day and he said he was happy with who he had, and they had not given him a reason to lose his business, and I said that was cool, and I didn't want to steal someoen elses' business, but I noticed that they had left alot of gum/grease in the parking lot and that I could get that up. Well, he ends up telling me to come out to clean the parking lot the other night, for kind of a "demo clean" to show I could get up the gum..which I did. The parking lot is decent sized, and all 5 of the stores are cleaned every week=20 cleanings a month. Now, supposedly they have it set-up where they do 3 cleanings of the drive-thru then the final cleaning of the month is the entire parking lot. Now-these guys supposedly charge him $250 per visit, it's a larger company several guys, dodge dually HUGE gooseneck trailer etc., but they do a shitty job, and I had been figuring it up, that just me by myself ( I have ZERO overhead), could make that, if not $350.00 a cleaning, and have him know that when I leave the site everytime, his parking lot and building are SPOTLESS.

What I don't understand is, that works out to $5,000 a month at $250 a pop, or at $350 per cleaning it would be $7,000 per month. Or, $350 times 5 times 52, equals $91,000.00....just off of ONE ACCOUNT. Is this unheard of? Or, could this actually be doable? I know when broken down between the 5 shopw, over a year it's actually not as bad as it sounds, but even at $65,000 a year for the $250.00 cleanings, that is some good money.

So, tell me your opinions, does that kinda money sound about right? The parking lot gets VERY dirty, and is always riddled with gum, not to mention the grease etc., that come from the grease trap area which happens to be uphill, and runs down-hill for some reason..so it leaves nice streak marks every where.

Thanks Guys,
Jason

 

[onecallpowerw]

If ya dont mind nights/weekends

Does not sound bad although I would question them having the service weekly. Hell, I take care of all the Burger Kings in my area and they only are contracted for quarterly cleanings. Same with the Merch account I have. I bet they do not have this done weekly. If so it will surprise me. Also, this should be all night work after they close. You dont want to have your hoses ran over every 5 minutes from the fast food junkies.

I also recommend getting this down as a contract and not just word of mouth. This will protect you from them trying to change cleaning times etc....

Check into it but I bet cha its not weekly.....

Also, what about reclaiming. You will get into some real trouble without it.

 

[AdkinsPwrWash]

I have already spoken to the owner of the business, and it IS weekly..which, shocked the hell out of me, but hey...if the people before him did it weekly, then I am NOT going to change their schedule they have set-up. Don't want to sound greedy, but hey..I'm not going to set it up to where I make less money. The guys who do it now do not reclaim, and, if I get the contract, then I will look into a bigger trailer to mount my set-up on, along with some tanks to carry my own water, and to re-claim with.

The owner siad if I could get the gum/stains up like I said I could, then I could have the contract...and, well I already got the gum/stains up..just trying to set up a time to meet with the man, to go over the details. The guys who clean it now, I watched them last night, and they seriously just rinse everything, no getting any stains/spots off of the concrete...and they chargeg the $250 mentioned above...I dunno how they can sleep at night? :shrug:

 

[timhays]

one of the biggest ploys with restaraunt managers is too promise more regular cleanings then what they will wind up doing.

also none of our accounts spend anywhere close to 75,000 a year with us ,it could be a gold mine or it could not,keep your eyes open

the one thing i like about these boards is it HELPS keep the consumer from pulling the wool over unsuspecting eyes.

one of our customers who have signed a maintenance agreement (HOPS) broke there contract 3 months after signing and is now in bankruptcy court.
and they were only paying $75 every 30 days payable 45 days,and alway late pay.

something to think about

 

[Aplus]

I have to agree that weekly cleanings sound too good to be true. Look at it this way.....after you are done cleaning, the owner may see the difference and realize it is so much cleaner that maybe it doesn't need to be cleaned weekly afterall. The other guys never got the concrete really clean, so naturally it always looks like it needs to be cleaned again. That will change.

Good luck.

 

[oneness]

Of course, if business is booming for them and the owner wants his restaurant to look great at all times, that may not change. I agree, though, keep your eyes open.

 

[Mike Gwas]

Aplus said it.... Here is what you sell. "When we are done I could save you 50% annually". Look how clean your lot is when we leave as opposed to the competition. Maybe we should cut your frequency in half ???? Bam you got him hook line and sinker..... Don't look at is as half the money look at it as half the work....I have found many customers to piss away alot of dough. Why not give it to the wash guy !!!!!

 

[oneness]

Aplus said it.... Here is what you sell. "When we are done I could save you 50% annually". Look how clean your lot is when we leave as opposed to the competition. Maybe we should cut your frequency in half ???? Bam you got him hook line and sinker..... Don't look at is as half the money look at it as half the work....I have found many customers to piss away alot of dough. Why not give it to the wash guy !!!!!

EXCELLENT point!

 

[Cody]

<font color=e87400>ADKINS

Don't let anyone here talk you out if it! The account is probably legit. I've had many weekly accounts like this. If you go in & change it you will be lowballing yourself & your competitors in addition you will be leaving money on the table. Take the account as is, if they change the game on you later you will be able to adapt. Remember if they sign on as a weekly account & then try to change to a monthly "THEY" are in breach not you, thus you are in the drivers seat not them. You will have to option to adjust to a reasonable price, per you're liking, within reason since you are the driver here, or you could let the account breach & cancel contract with a 10 percent contract term penality.

Cody!</font>

 

[Sberry]

You are adding up numbers but how long does it take you to do one? You have to be able to do it in 3 hrs, or 4 max ? I mean, its not like winning the lottery, its work.

 

[AdkinsPwrWash]

3-4 hours per store shouldn't be out of reach, but the initial cleanings are what's going to kill me. The previous cleaners didn't ever get anything up, so the entire parking lot is coated in gum, and heavy grease. I know, that if the stores are done regularly and THOROUGHLY, thoroughly being the key word, that the cleaning time should be cut down significantly.

Here's a shot looking down the drive-thru lane.

And, here's one quick shot of the area by the back door...you can see more of it in the above pic.

 

[AdkinsPwrWash]

Here's another close-up of a little bit of the drive-thru lane.

 

[Bob Gates]

Jason.....

In a word... YES...You would be making to much money...However; Go ahead and take the job...And send me $400.00 per month for consulting fees.... [hello]