How to find cleaning contracts
A cleaning contract is the difference between chasing one-off house cleans every week and waking up to revenue that already exists. A single mid-size office on a monthly agreement can be worth $1,500 to $6,000 a month, and a portfolio of eight to twelve such accounts is a real business. But contracts are not “found” the way job-board gigs are. They are won through bids, walkthroughs, and follow-up against incumbents who already hold the account. Here is how to actually land them.
Know which contracts are worth chasing
Not all contracts pay the same way, and the gap is huge. Residential recurring (weekly or biweekly homes) is the easiest to start but caps out fast. Commercial janitorial (offices, medical, retail) is where the durable money lives, because the work is nightly, the square footage is large, and the buyer values reliability over price. Specialty contracts (post-construction, gym sanitation, daily restaurant kitchens) pay a premium because most cleaners will not touch them.
The real prize is the multi-location buyer. A property management company, a facility manager, or a regional retail chain controls many buildings under one signature. If you can pass their insurance and reliability bar on the first building, the next three to ten often come without a competitive bid at all. That is why one good relationship is worth more than fifty cold calls.
| Contract type | Typical monthly value | Margin band | Who buys it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential recurring | $120 to $400 per home | 20% to 35% | Homeowners |
| Small office (under 5,000 sq ft) | $600 to $2,000 | 25% to 40% | Office manager, owner |
| Mid-size commercial | $1,500 to $6,000 | 30% to 45% | Facility / property manager |
| Medical / dental janitorial | $1,800 to $7,000 | 35% to 50% | Practice manager |
| Post-construction (one-off) | $0.20 to $0.60 per sq ft | 40% to 60% | General contractor |
The pattern: chase the right side of the table. A handful of facility-manager relationships will out-earn a phone full of homeowners, and the work is predictable enough to actually hire and schedule around. For the buying side of that math, see how much you need to start a cleaning business.
Bid the building, not the hour
The fastest way to lose a commercial bid is to quote a price over the phone. You cannot. Square footage, floor type, restroom count, traffic, and trash volume swing the labor hours by 3x for two buildings of identical size. Always walk it first.
The standard commercial method is the production-rate estimate: figure how many square feet your cleaner covers per hour for that floor type (often 2,500 to 4,000 sq ft per hour for open office, far less for restrooms and medical), divide the total by that rate to get labor hours, then load your fully burdened labor cost, supplies, and target margin on top. Price the scope of work, then attach a clear scope document so there is no argument later about whether windows or carpet extraction were included.
Pricing structure is its own decision, and it is the one most new owners get backwards.
Flat monthly contract
- Predictable revenue you can schedule and staff against, 12 months out
- Higher perceived professionalism; facility managers prefer one fixed line item
- Margin improves as your crew gets faster on a building they know
Flat monthly contract
- You eat the cost when scope creeps (extra events, spills, a messy tenant)
- A bad estimate is locked in until renewal, often 12 months
- Requires accurate walkthrough math up front, which beginners often miss
The decision rule is flat-rate for recurring, hourly for the unknown: price stable nightly scopes as a flat monthly fee, but quote post-construction, move-outs, and one-off deep cleans hourly or per square foot until you know the building. For the deeper pricing breakdown by service line, see the step-by-step start guide.
Get in front of the people who sign
Contracts are awarded by a small set of buyers: facility managers, property management firms, office managers, GCs, and procurement departments. Reaching them is unglamorous and works.
- Target property managers directly. They control portfolios. One relationship is a pipeline, not a lead.
- Watch for trigger events. New construction, a business relocation, or a building changing management companies all create open contracts. A GC finishing a build needs post-construction cleaning on a deadline.
- Bid public RFPs. Schools, municipalities, and government offices post janitorial RFPs on bid boards. The paperwork is heavy but the contracts are long and stable.
- Ask every commercial client for the building next door. Referrals inside an office park close at 2 to 3 times the rate of cold outreach.
Expect cold commercial win rates of roughly 1 in 8 to 1 in 15 bids, so keep 20 to 40 live prospects moving at all times. The owners who stay booked treat outreach as a weekly number, not a thing they do when work runs dry. The same relationship-first logic drives growing a cleaning business, and it pairs with the local tactics in how to advertise a cleaning business.
Clear the credibility bar before you bid
Commercial buyers screen on liability before they screen on price. You cannot win contracts you are not insurable for, and the requirements are non-negotiable on most real buildings.
You will need general liability insurance (commonly $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate), and most facility managers also require a janitorial bond and proof of workers’ compensation the moment you have employees. Many will ask to be named as an additional insured on your policy before you set foot in the building. Have a certificate of insurance ready to email the same day it is requested, because slow paperwork loses bids to faster competitors. For entity setup and registration that underpins all of this, see set up and register your cleaning business and the equipment side in buying equipment and supplies.
Win, keep, and compound the contract
Most contracts turn over because the incumbent got sloppy, not because someone undercut them on price. That is your opening and your warning. After you win, protect the account: do a documented walkthrough in week one, fix complaints same-day, and send a monthly quality check. A retained commercial account compounds, because every clean building becomes a reference for the next bid in that buyer’s portfolio.
Where this gets high-stakes is how prospects check you out before they ever call. A facility manager comparing three bidders will Google you, and a slow, vague, or amateur website quietly removes you from the shortlist. A good cleaning site is concrete: it states your service area, names the commercial work you do, shows your insurance and credentials, and turns a visitor into a quote request in one click. Getting that wrong is expensive in a way you never see, because the buyer who bounces never tells you they bounced. If you want a site built to turn commercial prospects into booked walkthroughs, get a free video walkthrough. If the ads, SEO, and paid social that feed it are the gap, see what we run for service businesses at our services. And if you are still deciding which contracts or service lines to build the whole thing around, start the plan at expntl.com.
Frequently asked questions
Where do commercial cleaning contracts actually come from?
They come from facility managers, property management firms, office managers, general contractors, and public RFP bid boards, not from gig sites. The highest-leverage source is a property manager who controls many buildings, because one relationship can produce several contracts over time. Treat outreach as a weekly numbers habit, not an emergency.
How do I price a contract I have never seen?
You do not. Walk the building, count restrooms and square footage by floor type, estimate labor hours from a production rate, then load burdened labor, supplies, and margin. Quoting over the phone is how you either lose the bid or win a job that loses money on every visit.
What insurance and paperwork do I need to win commercial contracts?
General liability (often $1M/$2M), a janitorial bond, and workers’ compensation once you have employees, plus the ability to name the client as additional insured. Most buyers ask for a certificate of insurance before they will even schedule a walkthrough. Have it ready to send same-day.
Why do I keep losing bids even when my price is competitive?
Usually it is one of three things: you quoted without walking the building so your scope looks vague, you were slow on the insurance paperwork, or the buyer checked you out online and found nothing convincing. The first two are habits you fix this week. The third is why a credible, fast-converting website matters as much as the bid itself.
Are residential recurring contracts worth it, or only commercial?
Residential recurring is the easiest place to start and builds cash flow fast, but it caps out and churns. Commercial and multi-location accounts are where durable, schedulable revenue lives. Most owners start residential, then use the profit and reputation to move up the table into commercial.
