TivloYou know the feeling. You put together a quote, feel good about it, then lose the contract to someone who went in 20% cheaper. So next time you sharpen your pencil. And the time after that. Until you're winning work that barely covers your costs.
Pricing is one of the biggest challenges in commercial cleaning. And the race to the bottom is real. But the cleaning companies that build profitable businesses aren't the ones quoting lowest. They're the ones who've learned to price properly and present that price with confidence.
Here's how to do it.
Start With Your True Costs
Most cleaning businesses underquote because they don't know their actual cost to deliver. Labour is the obvious one, but it's only the start.
When you're costing a contract, you need to account for:
- •Labour including holiday pay, sick pay, pension contributions, and National Insurance. A cleaner on £13/hr costs you more than £13/hr by the time you factor in employer costs. Use a fully-loaded rate in your calculations.
- •Materials and consumables that belong to the site. If you're supplying paper towels, soap, and black bags, that cost needs to be in your quote.
- •Equipment including wear, maintenance, and eventual replacement. Machines don't last forever.
- •Management time for supervisors, site visits, and client communication. Your time has a cost too.
- •Overhead contribution including your van, insurance, accounting, software, and your own salary.
Once you know your true cost-per-hour, you can price to a margin rather than guessing.
A useful starting point: calculate your break-even hourly rate (all costs divided by billable hours), then add your target margin on top. Most cleaning companies target 15-25% net margin on commercial contracts. If you're consistently below that, your pricing isn't covering the business.
Understand What You're Really Quoting For
Not all contracts are equal, and price should reflect the real variables.
A COSHH-compliant medical cleaning contract in a GP surgery is not the same as a weekly office clean in a shared workspace. The risk, the training requirement, the compliance burden, and the client expectations are completely different. Price them differently.
When you quote, think about:
Frequency and access windows. Early morning starts or late evening finishes cost more to staff. Out-of-hours work commands a premium because operatives are harder to recruit for antisocial hours.
Site complexity. A single-floor office is simple. A multi-floor mixed-use site with plant rooms, food prep areas, and washrooms isn't. The more complex the site, the higher the risk of getting the specification wrong.
Client expectations. Some clients want a basic sweep-and-mop. Others expect a polished service with inspection reports, photo documentation, and a named contact. The second type of client will stay longer and complain less, but they cost more to service.
TUPE risk. If you're taking over from another contractor, you may inherit obligations under Transfer of Undertakings regulations. Factor this in before you quote, not after you've won.
Getting the specification right before you quote is not optional. Site visits should be a standard part of your sales process. If a prospect won't allow a site visit, that's a warning sign.
Stop Competing on Price Alone
Here's the thing about the cheapest quote: it attracts the worst clients.
A client who chose you purely on price will leave the moment someone quotes lower. They'll push back on every invoice. They'll be slow to pay. They'll escalate every complaint. You'll spend more time managing the relationship than doing the work.
The clients worth having want a professional service. They want to know their sites are covered, their operatives are trained, their documentation is in order, and problems get resolved quickly. They will pay for that.
So instead of competing on price, compete on presentation.
Turn up to your quote meeting with a professional document. Show them how you'll manage the site. Explain your quality inspection process. Demonstrate that you have systems in place for COSHH compliance, staff training, and incident reporting. If you offer client access to inspection reports or a portal for documents, show them.
Most cleaning companies at the lower end of the market cannot do any of this. You can. That's your differentiator.
Build Pricing That Protects You Over Time
A contract signed today needs to be profitable in year two and three as well. There are two killers you need to plan for: wage increases and scope creep.
Wages in the cleaning sector have risen consistently. The National Living Wage has gone up every year, and most responsible cleaning businesses now pay above it. If your contract pricing doesn't include an annual review mechanism, you'll be absorbing those increases as margin erosion.
Include a price review clause in every contract. Annual increases linked to the National Living Wage and CPI are industry standard. Make sure clients understand this at the point of signing, not when you send the revised invoice in April.
Scope creep is subtler. A client asks you to clean "just the reception" after an event. You oblige. Three months later it's happening monthly. If it's not in the contract, it's free of charge as far as the client is concerned. Track out-of-scope work, raise variations, and invoice for them.
Know When to Walk Away
Not every contract is worth winning. A site that's genuinely impossible to staff, a client who's clearly looking for the cheapest possible deal, or a specification that's been written to underpay the contractor are all situations where walking away is the right business decision.
This is easier said than done when you're trying to grow. But a contract that loses money is worse than no contract at all. It ties up your operatives, drains your management time, and damages your reputation if it goes wrong.
The businesses that grow profitably are the ones that know their minimum acceptable margin and hold to it.
Present Your Price With Confidence
How you present a quote matters as much as the number in it.
A well-presented proposal with a site plan, a service specification, a quality process, and a client communication commitment tells a facilities manager that you run a professional operation. A spreadsheet emailed over with a number tells them you're the same as everyone else.
If you'd like to see where your business stands on the fundamentals of pricing, client communication, and service presentation, take the free Tivlo Scorecard at score.tivlo.app. It takes five minutes and gives you a clear picture of where to focus.
Or if you're ready to give your clients the kind of professional experience that justifies a premium, join the waitlist at tivlo.app/waitlist. Tivlo is a client portal built specifically for cleaning businesses, giving your clients access to inspection reports, documents, and invoices in a branded online space.
Stop quoting to win at any cost. Start quoting to build a business worth running.