I searched the forums for insight into small commercial contracts but didn’t see anything that was relevant to my question. so if this has already been posted then please forgive me and remove if necessary.
I was hoping that some of the veteran owners could explain the exact process of contacting and securing yearly contracts for restaurant’s, doctors offices and smaller commercial work that pertains to flatwork for drive thrus, dumpster pads, walkways and patio areas. Specifically what documents are involved such as W9, business license, insurance certificate, etc?. What document’s should I have on me when I go to introduce myself to the manager? If I secure a contract, how long does it take to get paid from these businesses? Is it normal for a restaurant to sign a yearly contract to invoice each month?
I went out yesterday and introduced myself to the managers on site at about 8 restaurant’s and to my surprise 5 of them were eagerly looking for someone to clean their patios, dumpster pads etc. After returning home I had the sudden realization that I never got any contact info and handed them my card and told them to call me. Also realizing I’ve never signed a contract in a business setting and had no idea of the process. I may be new but I don’t want to present myself as such. If anyone can give me some guidance on these issues it would be greatly appreciated, and Thank You!
No one can tell you exactly what to do unless they are in your state and in your county/municipality. Every state has different laws regarding contracts, some cities and municipalities have additional rules.
Do like we all did at some point, talk to a lawyer. The business negotiations are a whole other matter, you could probably read 19 books on that one. The one thing I can tell you that you will need for a larger commercial contract is proof of insurance and probably a mil at the min.
Yup just have the W9 filled out and email it to them if they ask. Have it as a PDF saved on your desktop.
License you probably just need to have an LLC formed. They may ask for your certificate of authority document or your business registration certificate. Only was the case for me in one or two jobs, one was a library.
Insurance certificate you probably want to have it all, a policy in general liability, commercial auto (for the van), umbrella, and workers comp. I pay about $500 a month for 4 of these policies.
I do everything online, just email them the estimates over quickbooks and have them sign it and there’s your “contract.”
Thank you for the advice. I do currently have a $1 million general liability insurance policy. I did contact an attorney and he wanted 1k to write a contract for me, which i wasn’t necessarily surprised by but I’m going on a strict budget right now and just simply can’t afford to hand out another 1k. I do have a professional terms and conditions contract for residential though. Thanks again!
Thank you for the heads up. I do have a $1 million general liability insurance policy but I’m not sure about the “umbrella” portion. I’ll be contacting my insurance agent today.
Do you normally go in person or make contact by phone to get the proper contact information?
Also do you send a proposal letter with a quote first before sending the business document’s or do you just send it all at the same time? And also, what about pay? I’ve read some guy’s have in the contract payment is due within a week and some that payment is due within 60 days. Any advice on that as well? Can’t thank you all enough to take time out to provide your free expertise!
You’re over thinking it. You’re doing the right thing, making cold calls. A lot of mine has come from that. You need to just talk with them more, especially if they’re interested. Find out how often they feel they need. A lot of local managers may want pretty often, but higher ups may cut it to quarterly or whatever. Get their info, so you can send them a quote. Often they may have to pass up food chain. I provide a COI with every bid, including residential. On commercial just include your COI and w-9. I’ve never had anyone, residential or commercial ask for my business license.
I do about 40% commercial and have never had a contract. I have a contract price. If I do a good job, build a relationship and take care of their property, I’m not to worried about them going anywhere else.
Getting commercial work: Talk to commercial property management companies. If you can start servicing their properties you’ll get passed around when properties are sold or change management and it leads to a lot of work over the years. Stop by properties and talk to the owners or managers. Leave a business card. Follow up. Properties sell (especially gas stations) and change management so be sure to go back. I’ve gone into some of the same businesses for years before they say that they just got a manager who is on board with keeping things clean and they finally have a budget for it. Who you talk to is really important. Try to get in touch with the district manager if you’re going after fast food places and restaurants. Find companies that own or manage several restaurants and talk to the facilities supervisor. Go to hospitals and talk to Environmental Services or Facilities. Banks are great accounts. Try to talk to the facilities manager or business manager. Don’t let a random person take your card and say they’ll pass it on.
After you’re hired: They’ll want a W-9 and a Certificate of Insurance naming them as additionally insured. Some insurance agents charge for those. You don’t have to give them one if they don’t ask. They’re covered regardless.
Pay: Typically it’s about 30 days. But it can be longer. Ask them what their usual term is. Some are 60 days now.
About contracts, I don’t have contracts unless companies have me sign one. I’ve had some accounts for over 20 years. Here’s why I don’t ever initiate one. You do your work and bill them every month and your bill gets paid and there’s often very little communication. The person who hired you moves on and someone else takes their place. If you have to ask to have your contract renewed you risk this new person seeing some reason to not renew it. Maybe they want to look like they’re saving the company money. 6 months later it’s apparent that they really do need a pressure washing and ask for bids and you probably won’t get that job back. As long as you’re doing your job it’s something they don’t have to think about and you kind of don’t want them to think about you.
Use an app like Company Cam for before/after photos. At commercial properties they’ll look at the property and think it’s never being cleaned because they can get dirty fast. It’s saved me jobs to be able to send a link to the gallery showing the dates we were there. Sometimes it’s led to an increase in services.
I’ve never needed a lawyer. Not saying that’s not a good thing to do, but it’s never come up. I’ve put some disclaimers on bids before though. What’s really important is to fix something if you break it. It doesn’t happen often, but we’ve had some crazy stuff happen over the years and no one has gotten upset if I tell them right away and take care of getting it fixed.
Interesting thread and one that we spent some time thinking about.
For commercial contracts we always try to get a form of contract in place. In fact it’s two documents (keep in mind we’re UK based so you may need to do something different):
Service Agreement (SA)
Work Order (WO)
The SA is what you’d recognise as a contract, but it excludes anything related to the actual services that will be provided, including frequency, prices, etc. It has all the ‘legals’ so they are legally binding and run for either 1 or 3 years. A longer term gets you a lower prices.
The WO is the document that has services, description, frequency, price, etc.
Both need sign-off by the client.
In this way, as @Patty suggests, you don’t have to renegotiate the ‘contract’ every time you change some aspect of the services being delivered. Otherwise it’s back to legal for review or some senior manager who want’s to stick their oar in. It becomes total pain.
With a WO they can usually be priced to a level your contact / lower level manager can sign off, within the value of the previously agreed Purchase Order from the client. In that way, we get 1 to 3 years of being left alone to deliver work - most of the time
