When it comes to government cleaning bids, top dollar earners are subcontractors who keep more control over the revenue flow, and their own pockets. That makes winning cleaning bids an even bigger deal for entrepreneurs like you.
According to Data Lab for USA Spending, the federal government spends nearly $500 billion on contracts each year. That’s just about the size of Sweden’s economy. That amount should have you looking for ways to get your commercial cleaning team working on government cleaning contracts. The good news is, we can help with that.
With that said, this is still the government you are working with. You may be wondering, is it hard to get government contracts? In this article, we leave you with five helpful tips that will help you find and secure cleaning contract opportunities cleaning government buildings.
Tip 1: Government Requirements for Cleaning Contracts
Before you can apply for government cleaning contracts, you need to make sure you are registered as a government contractor. Below we break down the steps you need to follow to get your business in the race.
Make sure your business qualifies as a small business
Gross $7.5 million or less in annual revenues
Have 500 employees or fewer
Create a DUNS number
You’ll need this 8-digit number for each location of your business.
Match your products and services to a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code
You can find a list of these codes with the U.S. Census Bureau.
Register with the federal government’s System for Awards Management (SAM)
Agencies use this database to find contractors
Tip 2: Government Subcontracting Guidelines
Winning janitorial bids with the government means fitting within the subcontracting guidelines. Bookmark this page for later to assess whether your business meets the criteria below.
Meet Size Standards
Sourcing rules that prevent your company from making its own materials
Aligning with the Buy American Act and Trades Agreement Act
Limitations on subcontracts and who you get into contract with
Minimum costs for materials per project
Carefully record business activities and expenses in relation to contract
Otuvy can help you track the above information and not miss a detail, which is vital for government contracts. See it in action here.
Tip 3: Types of Government Cleaning Contracts
Now that you’re in the system and you’ve evaluated your business to optimize it for government cleaning contracts, it’s time to decide what level of government you’d have the most success finding a contract with. You have to decide how much work your business is able to take on, along with how much money it has upfront to put into applying for bids.
On average, small businesses have managed to secure their first federal government contract bid wins after being in the game for about three years, and one year of active bidding on three or more contracts.
These stats are promising, but it may be more beneficial to build strong and reliable relationships with state and local governments depending on your business size.
Tip 4: RFP- Request for Proposal
Your RFP will be a determining factor on how much success you are seeing with time and money spent in order to land bids. This document is used to outline the bare bones of your project, and will be compared with RFP’s from other companies to weigh in on price and price justification.
Your RFP needs to include background information, a detailed description of the project, specifics about systems, tools, materials and products you’ll be using, as well as your project timeline with mapped out dates and milestones. You will create a new RFP for every project you bid on.
Tip 5: Proving Cleaning Contract Fulfillment
The last step, and arguably the biggest, is proving your success rate. Whether it’s your first bid or your 50th bid, you need to show your track record in a clearly defined and easy-to-navigate way. Using software like Otuvy to track project success rates and streamline communication throughout the contract will give you a centralized source to share and monitor your business’s track record. Learn how technology can take your facility management to the next level, and set you up for winning cleaning bids.
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