How to get commercial cleaning contracts in the US

Commercial cleaning work comes from about six kinds of buyer, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 2,432,600 janitor and building cleaner jobs in 2025, so there's a lot of cleaning being bought:

• Offices, stores and small businesses that hire a cleaning company directly.
• Medical and dental offices, schools, day cares and gyms.
• Property managers and HOAs that need lobbies, hallways and shared areas cleaned.
• Facilities management companies that look after many buildings and subcontract the cleaning.
• Federal, state and local government buyers, which usually put work out to bid.
• General contractors and builders who need post-construction cleans at the end of a job.

Each one buys differently. An office manager wants someone reliable and easy to deal with. A government buyer wants registrations, documents and a price that scores well.

Federal cleaning contracts are posted on SAM.gov, and state and local contracts are posted on each government's own purchasing site. To bid for federal work:

1. 1Search contract opportunities on SAM.gov. The site says anyone interested in doing business with the government can use it to search opportunities, including pre-solicitation and solicitation notices.
2. 2Register your business in SAM. The SBA says that you'll get a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) when you register with SAM, and you need one before you can bid on government proposals.
3. 3Match your services to a NAICS code. The SBA says each NAICS code has its own size standard, which decides whether you qualify for contracts set aside for small businesses.
4. 4Check your state's procurement website and the purchasing departments of your city, county and local school districts. Ask whether they keep a vendor list or send bid alerts.
5. 5Ask large prime contractors about subcontracting. A company that wins a big facilities contract often needs local cleaning crews.

Private contracts are rarely advertised. You find them by asking. Walk your local office parks and retail strips, introduce yourself to property managers, and ask existing clients who else needs a cleaning company.

Buyers compare more than price. Have these ready before you bid:

• Certificates of insurance, such as general liability and workers' comp. The SBA says the federal government requires every business with employees to have workers' compensation, unemployment and disability insurance, and that laws vary by state.
• A bond if the buyer asks for one. The SBA says many public and private contracts require surety bonds, and it guarantees bid, performance and payment bonds issued by certain surety companies.
• Safety data sheets and a plan for storing and using cleaning chemicals.
• A scope of work: what gets cleaned, how often, by whom and how you check quality.
• How you cover sick days and vacations so the building is never missed.
• Background checks and training for staff, and your key and alarm code procedures.
• References from current clients, ideally similar buildings.

Then read the specification carefully and answer every question. Many bids are lost on missing documents, not on price.

Labor is the biggest cost in a cleaning contract, and the median pay for janitors and building cleaners was $17.71 an hour in 2025, according to BLS. Two rules set the floor under that.

First, minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and the Department of Labor says some state laws give workers more protection, so employers must comply with both. Many states and cities set a higher rate, so check yours before you price.

Second, federal service contracts. The Department of Labor says the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act covers contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts over $2,500, who must pay service employees no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality. The solicitation will include a wage determination. Price from that, not from what you pay today.

Your price then has to cover payroll taxes, workers' comp, paid time off, cover for absences, travel time, supervision, supplies and your margin. For example, a contract needing 20 cleaning hours a week can't be priced at 20 times the hourly wage. By the time you add those costs and your overhead, the hourly price to the client will be well above it. Our guide on how to price cleaning jobs works through the full sum.

One property or facilities manager can look after a dozen buildings, so winning one can mean several sites at once.

1. 1Find the property management and facilities companies that run buildings in your area.
2. 2Ask what they need from a cleaning contractor and how they add new vendors, including any insurance minimums.
3. 3Start with one site, clean it perfectly and report problems before the client notices them.
4. 4Answer their calls. A manager with a crew no-show at 7am needs someone who picks up.

Reliability is what they buy. Missed cleans and unanswered phones lose contracts faster than price.

Residential clients search locally and ask friends, so start with your free Google listing:

• Fill in your Google Business Profile. Google says businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results. If clients don't visit you, set it up as a service-area business with a designated service area.
• Ask regular clients for reviews and referrals. One happy client often knows three more.
• Offer move-out cleans to local property managers and real estate agents.
• Look at Google Local Services Ads if your category and area qualify. Google says you pay only for leads related to your business, and that if you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected. Our guide to Local Services Ads and missed calls explains what that means.
• Lead sites such as Angi, Thumbtack, Nextdoor and Yelp can fill gaps. Judge them by the cost of each client you keep, not the cost of each lead.

Quickly, because people asking for cleaning quotes usually ask several companies at once. In a CallRail survey of 1,000 US consumers, 82% said they'd call a competitor if a business didn't answer, and only 42% said they leave a voicemail. Our guide on whether anyone still leaves voicemail has more on that.

The cost of a missed inquiry is its value times the chance it would have booked. For example, a weekly house clean worth $150 a visit is $7,800 a year if the client stays. Miss one of those inquiries a week, booking one time in three, and the lost work adds up fast. Put your own numbers into our missed call calculator.

Then follow up:

1. 1Call back missed callers within the hour where you can, or at least text them. Our guide to missed call text back covers what that does and doesn't fix.
2. 2Send quotes the same day after a walkthrough.
3. 3Follow up on quotes after two or three days, and again a week later for commercial contracts.

Pest control companies sell to many of the same buildings. Our guide on how to get more pest control jobs covers commercial service agreements from their side.

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