Cleaning agency - approaching offices for work

[DogsTail]

I run a cleaning business, up till now have been doing domestic work but I don't find it very reliable. How should I go about obtaining contracts for cleaning offices, shops, gyms, etc.?

Should I email, go in person or is introduction by someone vital? Any help would be appreciated.

No one? You don't need to have any experience in cleaning business, just how to approach new clients for mkore serious contracts.

If you can afford it print up a covering letter and enclose a leaflet of your services and prices and post it out to potential clients. You could make a list of places to target e.g. accountants, schools, etc and find out their addresses. If you cannot afford to do this (I run an admin business and want to do this but cannot afford all the postage at the moment!) you could cold call your target audience instead (not the nicest thing to do but a lot cheaper).

Sorry if they are not the best ideas, hopefully someone else will be along soon.

No experience of marketing a cleaning service (sorry) but I would say:

• I would have thought that letters/calls/emails would be more successful. Just not sure about the turning up, although I guess it completely depends on the business.

• I am guessing that the reason a company would switch to you could be:

• Price (guessing you could be cheaper than a large Clean Your Office?)
• Quality (if their supplier has slipped etc)
• Timings (their supplier is closing/moving/changing)

So the problem you are solving is related to these things and your messages/collateral should reflect that.

I would agree with Flower2009 that printed would stand out these days, with email/calls as follow up.

Could you offer a free session as a taster, that could provide a good hook?

It could also be worth going to a local networking events?

You have probably thought of this, but I guess your rate/t&cs/approach needs to be different as a commercial cleaner? I'd look at what your local competitors are doing to see if you can offer something different etc.

Not sure if that is of any help.

Good luck.

DogsTail try different things and dont expect the first attempt to work. i dont know your market at all but i do know i make a lot of mistakes but i learn from them, and try again.

i would try offices near one of your domestic clients and say you have a local client and are looking for new business. they probably wont ask if they are domestic or commercial and as long as you dont lie you have not done anything wrong.

Thank you flower, water adn yoyoyo for the responses! Yes, I will go down the mailings route, I already do networking for my other, small, business and do mention the cleaning from time to time but sometimes it is a bit confusing as they are two very different ventures. Will put some money away over the next few weeks and probably will do mailings in September.