Gas station bid how to charge

I spoke to an owner at a Valero gas station that is private franchised. I scheduled a demo with him and when i came today i feel i may have over shot the bid and spooked him. His pump area, side parking lot, and front parking lot add up to 17,000 square feet. I did some research and got anywhere from $.1 per sf to $.75 per sf. So I bid 15,000 at $.15 which came to $2,250. He didnt bite and said that we werent even on the same page. My cost on the job is about $350 and i would be fine with going back and offering $800-$1000 but i worry it will hurt my image coming down so drastically like that.

So my questions are:
1)Did i bid too high? Im doing chemicals with 1 hotwater machine 5 gpm 3500 psi and one coldwater 4 gpm 4200psi. and re-stripe his parking spaces. Will take me a whole night maybe 2.

  1. Will i lose my credibility if i come back so much lower?

Yes im very new at this.

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What we’ve done in the past when it was obvious that a customer’s price expectation was totally different than ours was to ask them what they had in mind. I don’t think it makes you lose credibility to work with your customers in an attempt to gain their business. But I will also make it clear they are hiring a professional business that has tax, marketing, insurance, equipment, and many other expenses. They are not hiring some joker with a power washer out to make a quick $.

I have not bid a gas station but heres my .02 cents
At .15 a sqft i dont thing you where too high. I can get .16 in residential with no oil, gum, or hot water.

I explain my prices by item. So i go down the list say this is X this is X with a total of X. That way they can see where all the money is going.

If the they dont like the price i then give them options. “i understand that may seem high and you would like to pay a little less so what we can do is…” if they dont need the entire area clean you can “we can only clean the gas station pad (pump area) making it only 7k sqft which brings the price down to X. If we take off re-striping it brings the price down to X.” This “saves” them money but you dont lose credibility for just changing your prices randomly and also gives them a choice. People love choices.

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I don’t mess with gas stations. I know lots of guys have tons of success doing them but from my experience they don’t want to pay much. It’s kinda like mowing yards, you need several of them to do on a regular basis to make any money.

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Nice break down!

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I’ve been in the business going on 25 years. I’ve done nothing but gas stations. I never charge by the sq. ft. I charge $200 per hour and that should cover all your cost to make a profit. Now, not all of us clean the same. Some clean with more detail, remove gum, swing the gun faster… etc. So the faster you get and the more machines “employees” you have running the more money you will make. I work in high volume. You have to, to be in this “flat washing” business. If you need to know anything else about cleaning gas stations, feel free to send me a message or call.

Centex Solutions
COO- Shane Gill
254-721-2186
centexsolutions@yahoo.com

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hey shane, I did my first gas station the other day, it came out ok but the owner wasn’t that surprised. He thought for my price I would of got the gum up. which was well over 1000 pieces. my question is what is the fastest safest way to remove the gum spots? thanks bro.

Hot water, also in your bid you should have specified if gum removal was apart of the price that way there are no surprises.

Thank u sir