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sub contracting option?

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Baldmonkey

Baldmonkey

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Hi guys

i was out front today working on some concreting in the garden (as you should on a sunday) when i ended up having an interesting conversation with one of my neighbours, she works for a local cleaning firm that does office cleans etc and maybe on the look out for adding the exterior window cleaning service to their portfolio for the comercial clients they clean for, if they can find a good reliable window cleaner...has anyone got any dealings with sub contracting etc.

i know some will say find your own work or dont work for someone else, but if you can get fed commercial jobs on an ad hoc basis, is that not a good thing????? 

 
I have been some sub contracting for big national cleaning companies for a long time now aswell as my own work. Some of these companies have their window cleaning guys & some will look to sub out the contract and gain their margin. The problem first off is how much of a margin these guys are willing to accept. 

It is swings and roundabouts, big cleaning, facilities companies can get contracts that most of us cannot get. The way I see it is if I can get a job that I wouldn't get without the name of a big company and it pays ok and is not too much hassle... happy days. One thing I will say is once you organise the price, expect delays in payments. It is standard for most of these guys to have certain dates when they pay out amounts of money. Some are better than others.

I don't get much hassle off the jobs that I sub for, I deal with the customers as if I was working for them directly. If they want something done, they will ask me directly. If a big contractor can get a reliable guy to look after the windows, it is an absolute gift for them as the work gets taken care, me or you take all the responsibility and they get the money in the bank doing little or nothing. When you think about it, it's genius. Pick the right guy and watch the money roll in with minimum effort.

You may get asked for method statement, safety systems as well as your public liability insurance. They may throw these words out, easy to do and i'm sure there are templates knocking around on here. It is just formalities for them. In my opinion, mixing up your work and having that experience of dealing with these people is a good thing. What I have found is that it will all come down to price, most of the contractors I work for seem to except an average clean once they are making money... some of them couldn't give a monkeys. I try to be as straight forward with them as possible from the get go. Say it out straight "I know you have to make your margin" kind of thing, I put in a fair and reasonable price and most of the time it seems to be well received and I get pushed more work because of it. At least both of you know where you stand and you won't have to go through that tedious dance of beating around the bush.

Pro and cons subbing but I certainly wouldn't rule it out. You will know yourself if a certain job just isn't worth the money.

 
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Daniel Perkins said:
I have been some sub contracting for big national cleaning companies for a long time now aswell as my own work. Some of these companies have their window cleaning guys & some will look to sub out the contract and gain their margin. The problem first off is how much of a margin these guys are willing to accept. 

It is swings and roundabouts, big cleaning, facilities companies can get contracts that most of us cannot get. The way I see it is if I can get a job that I wouldn't get without the name of a big company and it pays ok and is not too much hassle... happy days. One thing I will say is once you organise the price, expect delays in payments. It is standard for most of these guys to have certain dates when they pay out amounts of money. Some are better than others.

I don't get much hassle off the jobs that I sub for, I deal with the customers as if I was working for them directly. If they want something done, they will ask me directly. If a big contractor can get a reliable guy to look after the windows, it is an absolute gift for them as the work gets taken care, me or you take all the responsibility and they get the money in the bank doing little or nothing. When you think about it, it's genius. Pick the right guy and watch the money roll in with minimum effort.

You may get asked for method statement, safety systems as well as your public liability insurance. They may throw these words out, easy to do and i'm sure there are templates knocking around on here. It is just formalities for them. In my opinion, mixing up your work and having that experience of dealing with these people is a good thing. What I have found is that it will all come down to price, most of the contractors I work for seem to except an average clean once they are making money... some of them couldn't give a monkeys. I try to be as straight forward with them as possible from the get go. Say it out straight "I know you have to make your margin" kind of thing, I put in a fair and reasonable price and most of the time it seems to be well received and I get pushed more work because of it. At least both of you know where you stand and you won't have to go through that tedious dance of beating around the bush.

Pro and cons subbing but I certainly wouldn't rule it out. You will know yourself if a certain job just isn't worth the money.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the concise reply, I appreciate it ?

 
I have never seen the need or point in sub contracting , the person you are doing the work for will stick a bit on the price so they make money as well , just get your own work and cut out the middle man giving you more income and the customer gets a better deal as well .

 
I have subbed in the past and it is a good option if you need to boost your work while still looking for more work of your own

I used to sub off a firm years ago who would give me as much work as I wanted trad for 20%

Not bad for over 10 years ago and could knock out 160 quid in a day after his 20%

Not a long term solution to not having enough work of your own though

 
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I had one job that a local cleaning company subbed me. I priced the job up to what I wanted, the cleaning company added their bit on, and I did it for a year. Then when the the cleaning company lost their contract with the office block that I did, one of the managers came out to me and approached me and asked me to deal with them directly. And I’ve been there 4 years now. It’s turned out to be my best payed job. They always pay on time and staff are really nice. Also have done internal glass on a couple of occasions which is well payed. I don’t expect all subbed work is like this, but my limited experience is good. I’ve never liked the idea of buying work or subbing work, but this job fell in to my lap and was too good to pass up.

 
Funnily enough I've just been offered some work on a sub contract basis from a guy i bumped into while filling up. He's got more work than he can get through. Adds up to over 2 decent days a week. All the cleans are regular maintenance cleans, he texts them the night before etc and sorts payment. I just turn up and clean. Perfect while i build my own round up, but i agree with others, i don't see it as a long term thing

 
Pjj said:
I have never seen the need or point in sub contracting , the person you are doing the work for will stick a bit on the price so they make money as well , just get your own work and cut out the middle man giving you more income and the customer gets a better deal as well .
Click to expand...
I can understand you point of view and yes you are correct that it's better to cut out the middleman, but for someone starting out I thought getting jobs through these companies maybe jobs I wouldn't have got in the first place as they have a contractor already in place. 

 
Part Timer said:
I wouldn't have any problems with sub contracting. As long as you earn enough out of the job then does it really matter whose name is on the contract. 
Click to expand...


problem is it’s never your work , they can get rid of you at any point , when it’s your customer usually you end up with a better rapport with the customer and they trust you rather than some faceless firm 

 
Pjj said:
problem is it’s never your work , they can get rid of you at any point , when it’s your customer usually you end up with a better rapport with the customer and they trust you rather than some faceless firm 
Click to expand...
Yes if he can get the work directly but the OP said that he  had very little chance of getting the work directly as he's a newbie. 

I do a lot of work with a property management company, who can take the work of me, which is really only sub contracting as I don't deal with any of the residents or the residents management committee. 

The other side of it is once he does it if he loses it he can then approach them directly and they'll know he's done them well before. 

 
I lose a fair whack by subbing out my pressure washing work.

The only chance I have to do them is on a Saturday and I love my weekends so no intention of working them.

I’m friendly with two windies near me. One buys any extra work I pick up (got more than enough for two of us every 6-7 weeks), the other is happy to work all day Saturday pressure washing, so bungs me 50-80 quid a job depending on size.

Personally I’d rather lose the extra money than work Saturdays. More to life ?

 
Pjj said:
I have never seen the need or point in sub contracting , the person you are doing the work for will stick a bit on the price so they make money as well , just get your own work and cut out the middle man giving you more income and the customer gets a better deal as well .
Click to expand...
And also if you act as a sub contractor and their is a issue, may not of your making you will probably find when working in organisations, s**t rolls downhill, and guess where you are on the hill !!!

 
AJ Fry said:
Funnily enough I've just been offered some work on a sub contract basis from a guy i bumped into while filling up. He's got more work than he can get through. Adds up to over 2 decent days a week. All the cleans are regular maintenance cleans, he texts them the night before etc and sorts payment. I just turn up and clean. Perfect while i build my own round up, but i agree with others, i don't see it as a long term thing
Click to expand...
This is interesting as I've been considering the same setup for some of my excess work. 

It would be the same- as in I deal with the customers. I would text them the day before, payments are all Gocardless then I send the sub contractor his share when it comes through a week later.

They would have to turn up, clean windows, go home, get paid with no hassle.

I'm unsure what cut would be fair? Handling the collecting and dealing with the customers would give a larger percentage that a guy renting the round and dealing with the customers themselves I'd have thought.

Did he make you sign anything? Or do you have to give each other notice if you wish to end the arrangement?

Has anyone else done this with domestic work?

 
Skxawng said:
This is interesting as I've been considering the same setup for some of my excess work. 

It would be the same- as in I deal with the customers. I would text them the day before, payments are all Gocardless then I send the sub contractor his share when it comes through a week later.

They would have to turn up, clean windows, go home, get paid with no hassle.

I'm unsure what cut would be fair? Handling the collecting and dealing with the customers would give a larger percentage that a guy renting the round and dealing with the customers themselves I'd have thought.

Did he make you sign anything? Or do you have to give each other notice if you wish to end the arrangement?

Has anyone else done this with domestic work?
Click to expand...


For me its very informal, i simply tell him how many cleans i want for the next day and he sorts that amount out. All the cleans i do i get paid for at the end of the week. Its a 72% cut which I'm personally happy with as this work helps fill my quiet days so i see it as a bonus anyway. I haven't signed anything although he did ask if i have public liability.

Its perfect for me as it gets me work and money in the most flexible way whilst building my round up around it. And i guess its great for him as he's getting through his work he's running late on and getting paid well to do a small amount of admin.

 
I had a bad experience not so long ago and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I hired a carpenter contractor and he left with my money without doing anything. Of course, after that I found him and sued him, but the job wasn't done. I asked my friend Max for advice and he told me about a reliable contractor from contractorstoday.com he hired a year ago. I contacted him and he finished the job. Maybe for windows cleaning this is not truth? I don't really know.

 
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