In my competitors buildings!
That's right, you are reading this correctly. I made money, every single week since April of this year in buildings I have no business in, no contracts with and are being cleaned by my competitors.
What was my secret?
Nothing, a little hard work, some time doing research and investigation and then following it all up ruthlessly.
Back when the economy took a nose dive late last fall, we saw the government, right or wrong, begin to bail out certain industries but not all of them. I started compiling a list from the news, newspapers and business journals of all the companies warning or actually cutting back, laying off and reducing staff and even locations.
In February of this year I started calling, I called property managers of multi tenant sites, I called the branch managers of all the sites being down sized or closed and then I called their corporate offices all over the country.
Somebody will have to clean up after they move out, right?
I know from previous experience that the larger cleaning contractors in the big buildings have flat rate agreements and that they are usually high for doing extra work like this, be it hourly or by the sq.ft.
I told every single person I talked to that I would beat their price.
We averaged 2 empty suite/building clean outs a week since April and I am booked until the end of October.
Easy jobs too, nothing tough, no stripping or waxing, no carpet cleaning. Just clear out debris, throw out anything left in closets, vacuum, dust ledges, window sills and clean the restrooms and break rooms. Quick cleans, done during the day, a ton of good exposure to other tenants which picked me up several carpet and floor jobs and the best part is, the property managers had to sign off accepting the work. Which means I now have new contacts I can work on building a relationship with to help move my competitors out of those jobs.
It's sad that the economy is in such a condition but just like the folks making money cleaning up all those foreclosed homes and abandoned homes we should look for opportunities within the commercial sector too.
I put a few before and after pictures up so you can see what I am talking about.
