Free Janitorial Bidding Calculators Can Be Too Costly!

Free Janitorial Bidding Calculators Can Be Too Costly!

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FREE janitorial bidding calculator. It doesnt get better than that, right?

Well, not necessarily not if you cant figure out how to use it, dont know or cant find the data it requires to work and certainly not if it doesnt get you the results you want. In that case, free may actually be costing you!

How can I say that? The very sound of the word FREE is appealing, isnt it?

To explain how, consider this old clich: You get what you pay for! These words express time-tested wisdom specifically, the connection between the value of something and what you paid for that something.

So, does this sage advice hold true for free janitorial bidding calculators? Well, if the limitations of many of these bidding tools are any indication, it does.

First, some rely on over-simplified, one-size fits all production rates or price per sq. ft. figures which produce, of course, equally oversimplified answers. And thats where free can cost cleaning business owners real money, especially if it leads to them setting prices that are either too low not having sufficient profit built into it, or too high keeping them from being competitive when bidding on commercial cleaning jobs.

Next, other free janitorial bidding calculators do not come pre-loaded with production rates at all, relying on the user to both know and manually enter their own task-specific cleaning times or overall production rates.

While janitorial contractors may benefit from conducting their own cleaning time studies, the reality is many, especially those new to the commercial cleaning business, have not done so and would feel ill-prepared to even offer answers to the question of what would constitute good or reasonable rates.

In the end, many of these calculators appear to be little more than excel spreadsheets and with the only bidding help seeming to be having the title Janitorial Bidding Calculator pre-written at the top.

In addition, many free janitorial bidding calculators or software programs can be hard to understand and even harder to use. Again, one has to question the real value of free when the user is left feeling the program either doesnt work or, at the very least, they cant figure out how to make it work. Even free cannot rescue something that is, at the very least, not user-friendly or at its worst, not useable at all.

Put differently; what is the value of a free janitorial bidding calculator or software program that does not adequately help the user to quickly and easily determine prices and generate professional looking proposals?

Not much.

Many of these free janitorial bidding software or calculators have other weakness as well. They may offer little or no technical or customer support. In addition, they may not be able to help generate a professional-looking proposal or job specifications report two important ingredients in the contract cleaning sales process.

Therefore, many of these calculators may simply be free and thats all; worth what was paid for them.

Well, for the owner of a janitorial business, serious about building a fast-growing and profitable cleaning business, that simply wont do. Instead, the owners of successful janitorial businesses, and those wanting to join their ranks, know they need tools that can give them the results theyre looking for.

Is cost is an issue? Sure; but only in the context of the value (i.e. results) the tool can deliver.

To explain, heres another clich to consider:

Dont step over dollars to pick up dimes. The sage advice expressed in this clich is to be careful of blindly chasing one thing while completely missing another thing of greater value in the process.

In the case of janitorial bidding, the lesson seems to be this:

Dont lose sight of the real value of paid programs, blindly chasing instead, after free calculators that produce little more than confusion.

About the Author:
Dan Liebrecht is co-founder of Clean Guru LLC. Sign up online at http://www.CleanBid.net to receive the FREE e-newsletter Flip My Cleaning Business from Painful to Profitable! Need help bidding? Check out the CleanBid Program The Quick and Easy Way to Bid Any Cleaning Job Guaranteed! Modules for Janitorial, Construction Cleaning, Move In/Out Cleaning and Tile Maintenance.



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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