A few years ago, I agreed to help my best friend with his new office cleaning business.
There had been a sizable complex of office buildings being built in our community.
They were asking for bids from people for general cleaning services. My best pal easily thought it would be a breeze to take care of cleaning offices. She had watched enough films & cable shows to learn that they vacuumed, cleaned windows, did general dusting, & emptied waste bins. She wrote up a bid. She included cleaning materials, uniforms & the cost per employee. She figured roughly five cleaning people would be enough to wash thirty offices. I asked her about the appliances needed & cost of benefit packages & paying herself. She was completely overwhelmed when she saw her bottom line for getting this one contract for his office cleaning business. She needed more than five of each cleaning appliance so they didn’t need to be moved all around between floors. She was stunned at the final line for a seven-year contract for the office cleaning business. She was fairly sure they wouldn’t pay her price. When they called her in for an interview, they said they didn’t want to provide a contract for more than two years. They didn’t want to be tied to an office cleaning company for longer than that, if they didn’t handle the work as needed. They also didn’t think it would be tolerable if the office cleaning company were tied to them for any longer, if they didn’t think the company was a great fit. We have now been finally working for this company for a number of years, & I have no intention of quitting the office cleaning business.