How to get janitorial contracts, and keep them

01

How janitorial contracts are bought in the United States

How to get commercial cleaning contracts depends on the buyer. Most janitorial work reaches a contractor in one of four ways.

• Direct private buying: an office tenant, a property manager, a medical practice, a retailer or a private school asks two or three janitorial companies to walk the building and quote. Referrals and a well-run walkthrough decide most of these, often with no formal request for proposal (RFP).
• Through an intermediary: integrated facility management companies and large property management firms buy janitorial services for owners across a portfolio, often as a subcontract under their own agreement.
• State and local government: states, counties, cities, school districts, transit agencies and public universities buy under their own procurement codes, usually through an invitation for bid (IFB), where the lowest responsive and responsible bid wins, or an RFP, where proposals are scored.
• Federal government: agencies buy under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), with published evaluation factors and, above small dollar values, formal source selection.

For federal work, the Small Business Administration sets out the basic requirements for federal contracting: get a Unique Entity Identifier, match your services to a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, check that you meet the size standard, and register in the System for Award Management (SAM). SAM.gov entity registration is what "allows you to bid on government contracts"; SAM.gov warns that registration "can take up to 10 business days to become active" and that "You must renew your registration every 365 days to keep it active." Federal notices, from pre-solicitations to awards, are posted as contract opportunities on SAM.gov, which anyone can search without an account.

Janitorial services are NAICS 561720. Under 13 CFR 121.201, SBA's table of size standards, a janitorial business counts as small with average annual receipts of up to $22.0 million. SBA's guide to size standards explains that receipts are averaged over the latest five complete fiscal years. Check the table when you bid, because SBA adjusts it.

02

What buyers look for in a janitorial contractor

A buyer is trying to reduce risk: tenant complaints, an injury, a theft, or a contractor that cannot staff the building on day one. The evidence they usually ask for is:

• Insurance: commercial general liability at the limit the buyer sets, workers' compensation as your state requires, commercial auto if your crews drive to sites, and often a janitorial or fidelity bond covering theft by employees. Expect to name the owner and property manager as additional insureds.
• A safety program: janitorial crews work with chemicals every shift, so buyers ask about hazard communication. Under OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, employers "shall develop, implement, and maintain at each workplace, a written hazard communication program," and train employees "at the time of their initial assignment." In the states that run their own OSHA-approved plans, the state's standard applies instead, so name the right one.
• Training: how new hires are onboarded, how they learn the chemicals and equipment, and how supervisors are developed. Some buyers ask for the ISSA Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS), an independent certification of how a cleaning organization is managed.
• Supervision and coverage: who manages the account, how often it is inspected, and how absences and no-shows are covered.
• Past performance: accounts of similar size and type, with references who will pick up the phone. In federal work, past performance is formal: under FAR subpart 42.15, it is "relevant information, for future source selection purposes," and evaluations are recorded in CPARS.
• Financial standing: enough working capital to carry a full payroll before the first invoice is paid.
• Hiring practices: background checks where the building needs them, and employment eligibility. Federal contracts over $150,000 with a period of performance of 120 days or more carry the E-Verify clause, FAR 52.222-54, under FAR subpart 22.18.
• Certifications that open doors: SBA's business certifications, the 8(a) Business Development program, HUBZone, Women-Owned Small Business and service-disabled veteran-owned small business, let agencies reserve contracts for eligible firms.

Together these decide the shortlist, and several are pass or fail: a missing certificate of insurance or a lapsed registration ends the bid unread.

03

Before the bid: finding work and choosing it

The most common mistake growing janitorial companies make is bidding on everything. Every proposal takes days, so bid less often, for work you are well placed to win. Decide bid or no bid on a short list of questions:

1. Is it a building type you already clean well: offices, schools, medical, industrial, retail?
2. Is it close enough to your other accounts to supervise and cover properly?
3. Can you meet every pass or fail requirement today, not by the start date?
4. Why is it out to bid, and who is the competition? If there is an incumbent, what are the complaints, and how is it performing?
5. Is it covered by a prevailing wage rule or a predecessor's union agreement?
6. Is the budget realistic for the scope of work and the frequencies it asks for?

Know where the work is listed. Federal opportunities are on SAM.gov. State agencies, counties, cities and school districts each have their own procurement portals, and many let you register as a vendor and receive notices by NAICS or commodity code. Large prime contractors post subcontracting work too: SBA's page on prime and subcontracting says that "any large business can post a notice of a subcontracting opportunity, including the solicitation, to SBA's subcontracting database, SUBNet," and points to APEX Accelerators for help finding subcontracting opportunities.

Subcontracting is often the best first step. As SBA puts it, "subcontractors do not work directly with the government, but instead work for other contractors," which lets a smaller firm build experience and references before bidding as a prime. In the private market, a facility management company that needs a reliable partner in your city is a buyer worth cultivating.

Build relationships before an RFP is out: facility managers remember the contractor who walked the building and followed up. Public buyers say little once a solicitation is open, but many hold pre-bid conferences and site walks. Go, and count the restrooms yourself.

Keep a bid library of current certificates of insurance, your safety program, training records, references and past answers, so each proposal starts from your best previous work.

04

Writing a proposal that scores

Know how you will be judged. The FAR describes a best value continuum: in a tradeoff award the agency may pay more for a better proposal, but "The perceived benefits of the higher priced proposal shall merit the additional cost"; in a lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) award, the contract goes to "the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest evaluated price," and a better approach earns nothing extra. State and local IFBs work much like LPTA. Read the evaluation factors before you write a word.

Much federal janitorial work is bought as performance-based service. FAR subpart 37.6 requires a performance work statement (PWS) and "Measurable performance standards (i.e., in terms of quality, timeliness, quantity, etc.) and the method of assessing contractor performance against performance standards." The PWS should describe "the required results rather than either 'how' the work is to be accomplished or the number of hours to be provided," and the government may ask you to propose the quality assurance surveillance plan. That hands you the method: your answer is the how.

A high-scoring proposal:

• Answers the question asked, in the order asked, in the buyer's own terms. Evaluators score against the solicitation, not your company brochure.
• Is specific to the building: this lobby, these restrooms, this school's summer deep clean, the floors that need stripping and refinishing, not a paragraph that could go into any bid.
• Shows the method: how many workers, on which shifts, doing what, supervised by whom, and inspected how often.
• Includes a transition plan: the steps from award to day one and the first 30 days, including hiring or retaining staff, equipment, supplies, keys and badges, and site orientation.
• Includes a quality control plan: inspection frequency, the performance standards you will measure against, how deficiencies are corrected and how the customer is told.
• Gives evidence: how you did it elsewhere, with a reference the buyer can call and records you would actually show.
• Prices extra work separately: carpet extraction, window cleaning, floor care and one-off requests, so the base price can be compared on the same basis.
• Addresses the pain points: if the account is out to bid because of complaints, show how you would stop them recurring.

If you bid often, train someone in proposal writing or bring in a writer for the largest bids, but the operational detail must come from the people who will run the account. Evaluators can tell a method from a brochure.

05

Pricing, prevailing wages and the incumbent workforce

Labor is by far the largest cost in a janitorial contract, so pricing starts with hours: how many are needed to deliver the scope at the frequencies stated, based on realistic production rates for each area type, at what times, and at what rate. Then add supervision, labor burden (employer payroll taxes, workers' compensation, paid leave and any benefits), training, equipment and its upkeep, supplies and consumables if you provide them, insurance, overhead and margin. Check each wage against the minimum that will apply over the life of the contract, not just today's: federal, state and local minimum wages differ, and some cities and counties set higher rates for their own contractors.

Federal service contracts carry their own wage floor. The Department of Labor's summary of the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act says that contractors and subcontractors on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 must pay service employees "no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality." The rates come from a wage determination written into the contract, and you can look them up through SAM.gov wage determinations, which SAM.gov describes as "a set of wages, fringe benefits, and work rules that the U.S. Department of Labor has ruled to be prevailing for a given labor category in a given locality." Price the health and welfare fringe as well as the hourly rate.

The incumbent's workforce shapes the price too. On a federal service contract, DOL's summary says the rates must include those "contained in a predecessor contractor's collective bargaining agreement," including prospective increases. Some cities and states have worker retention rules for building service contracts, and many owners want the crew they know to stay. Ask whether any of this applies, and price the workforce you will inherit.

Value is not the lowest price. A bid priced below the hours the scope needs either loses money or cuts service, and experienced buyers mark it down or reject it as unrealistic. Show how the price is built and, where allowed, offer the scope as written and a clearly explained alternative.

06

Keeping the account is the best bid for the next one, and where SiteClara fits

How do you keep large commercial cleaning contracts once you win them? The answer is the same across the janitorial industry: make the customer's life easy, and never let them find a problem before you do. Accounts are rarely lost over one bad night, but over a run of small complaints the property manager had to raise, with nothing to show what was done. When the contract comes up for rebid, the incumbent's record is either its strongest evidence or its biggest weakness, and in federal work it is written down in CPARS for every future evaluator to read.

SiteClara gives a janitorial contractor that record. A printed QR code poster at each location, with an optional NFC tag behind it, lets crews scan or tap with their own phone, with no app to install, to see the checks due there and mark them done, or explain what stopped them. Problems found on the round, such as a leak or a broken dispenser, are reported there with a photo and go onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes them. The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, and approves a daily report that goes to nominated managers or customer contacts at 8 a.m. the next morning: what was reported, what was completed, what is still open, and how scheduled checks went, for example 12 of 12 completed.

In a proposal, that is something to describe in your quality control plan and, on a rebid, to point to.

07

Questions people ask

Where can I find open bids for cleaning contracts?

Federal bids are on SAM.gov, and state, county, city and school district bids are on each buyer's own procurement portal. The SAM.gov contract opportunities page says they "are procurement notices from federal contracting offices" and that "Anyone may search contract opportunities without an account." Search under the janitorial NAICS code, 561720, and register as a vendor with the local buyers you want to serve so their notices reach you.

Can I get commercial cleaning contracts for free?

You can find federal cleaning contracts and register to bid on them without paying a bid service. Anyone can search SAM.gov without an account, and SAM.gov's entity registration page points small businesses to APEX Accelerators, formerly PTACs, "to get free help completing registration in SAM.gov." The real cost of a contract is the time your company puts into each bid.

What is the best way to get cleaning contracts?

Bid for work you are well placed to win, and if your cleaning business is new to government work, start as a subcontractor. SBA's page on prime and subcontracting explains that "subcontractors do not work directly with the government, but instead work for other contractors," and that any large business can post a subcontracting opportunity to SBA's subcontracting database, SUBNet.

How do I quote a commercial cleaning job?

Walk the building, work out the hours the scope needs at the frequencies stated, then add supervision, labor burden, supplies, equipment, insurance, overhead and margin. On a federal service contract over $2,500, the Department of Labor's summary of the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act says service employees must be paid "no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality," so price from the contract's wage determination, not your usual rate.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

For federal work, start with SBA's basic requirements for federal contracting and SAM.gov entity registration, then read the parts of the FAR that decide janitorial awards: subpart 15.1 on source selection, subpart 37.6 on performance-based service, and subpart 42.15 on past performance. The Department of Labor explains the Service Contract Act, OSHA publishes the Hazard Communication Standard, and ISSA publishes the CIMS standard. For state and local work, register as a vendor on the portals of the buyers you want to serve.

Before your next bid, check that you:

• have decided bid or no bid against a short, honest list of questions;
• are registered in SAM.gov and on the portals your buyers use, with registrations current;
• know your NAICS code and whether you meet its size standard;
• can meet every pass or fail requirement today, including insurance and bonding;
• have walked the building and understood why it is out to bid;
• have priced the hours the scope needs, at the wage floor that will apply, with the full labor burden;
• answer each question specifically, with evidence a buyer can check;
• include a transition plan and a quality control plan with measurable standards;
• can show how your current accounts are performing, night by night.