How to Get Commercial Cleaning Contracts (Even With No Experience)

To get commercial cleaning contracts as a new company, contact local businesses directly, offer a free walkthrough, and deliver a written bid within 24 hours. Most first contracts come from small offices where one person makes the decision. You do not need years of experience. You need insurance, a clear scope of work, and enough conversations.

This guide covers what to set up first, how to win clients quickly, and how office, medical office and post-construction contracts differ.

What a commercial cleaning contract is and who signs it

A commercial cleaning contract is a written agreement to clean a business on a set schedule for a set monthly price. It names the tasks, the days, the price, the payment terms and how either side can cancel. Most small-business contracts run month to month or for one year with a 30-day cancellation clause.

The person who signs depends on the building. Calling the wrong person is the most common reason new cleaners hear nothing back.

What you need before you ask for work

You need five things in place before your first pitch, and all five can be done in about two weeks.

1. A registered business. Form an LLC or register a business name with your state, then get a free EIN from the IRS. Buyers pay companies, and they will ask for a W-9.
2. General liability insurance. This covers damage you cause at a client's site. Commercial buyers ask for a certificate of insurance before they let you in the building. Many ask for $1 million per occurrence, so confirm what your target buildings require before you buy.
3. Workers' compensation, once you hire. Most states require it as soon as you have employees. Check your state's rule, because a client's property manager will ask.
4. A janitorial bond, if clients ask. A bond pays a client back if an employee steals. It is inexpensive and it answers an objection before it comes up.
5. A one-page scope checklist and a business bank account. The checklist becomes the core of every bid you send.

A license specific to cleaning is not required in most places, but a general business license often is. Your city or county clerk's office can confirm it in one phone call.

How to get commercial cleaning clients fast

The fastest way to get commercial cleaning clients is direct outreach in a small area, repeated daily. Ads and SEO work, but they take weeks or months. A phone call or a walk-in can produce a walkthrough tomorrow.

1. Pick a territory you can drive across in 15 minutes. Tight routes keep your labor cost down and let you say "we already clean two buildings on this street" sooner.
2. Build a list of 200 businesses. Use Google Maps and a drive through the area. Record the business name, phone, address and the name of the manager if you can find it. The commercial cleaning lead generation guide lists eleven places to find them.
3. Contact 50 a day. Call or walk in between 9 and 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m. Ask one question: "Who handles your cleaning service?" Then ask that person for 15 minutes to walk the space. Word-for-word versions are in the cold calling scripts for commercial cleaning.
4. Do the walkthrough and send the bid within 24 hours. Speed is the easiest way to beat an established competitor. Many take a week to send a price.
5. Follow up three times. Day 2, day 5 and day 10. Most buyers are not unhappy enough to switch today. They switch the week their current cleaner misses a trash can, and they call the last company that followed up.

Keep count. If 50 contacts a day produce two walkthroughs a week and one in four walkthroughs signs, you add about two accounts a month from outreach alone. Your own numbers will differ, so track contacts, walkthroughs, bids and signed contracts from the first day.

Outreach gets the first conversation, and then the buyer looks you up. A new company with no website and no Google Business Profile loses bids it should win. If you would rather not build that yourself, Fairhaven Design builds websites and lead follow-up for commercial cleaning companies, so a prospect who searches your name finds a real business.

How to get janitorial contracts with no experience

You get janitorial contracts with no experience by removing the buyer's risk. A buyer asking "how long have you been in business?" is really asking "what happens if you are bad at this?" Answer that question directly.

• Offer a paid trial. Two weeks at the quoted rate, cancel any time. A trial is easier to say yes to than a one-year contract.
• Put a 30-day cancellation clause in every contract. Tell the buyer they can fire you with one email.
• Show the paperwork. Hand over your certificate of insurance and scope checklist before you are asked. It reads as professional, and many small competitors cannot do it.
• Promise an inspection schedule. Say you will walk the building with them after the first clean and once a month after that. Then do it.
• Be the owner who shows up. Larger companies send a salesperson and then a rotating crew. You can say "I will be the one cleaning your office for the first month."
• Get three references quickly. Clean a friend's shop, your church or a relative's office at a discount in exchange for a written reference and permission to list them.

Do not invent clients, years in business or reviews. Commercial buyers call references, and one false claim ends the relationship and follows you around a small market.

Another honest route is subcontracting. Larger janitorial companies and franchises hand overflow accounts to small crews. The margin is thinner, but you get paid work, a reference and real production numbers for your own bids.

How to get office cleaning contracts

Office cleaning contracts are the best first target because offices are everywhere, the work is predictable, and it happens after hours. Aim for single-tenant offices between 2,000 and 10,000 square feet: insurance agencies, law firms, accountants, real estate offices and small tech companies.

Ask for the office manager, because cleaning complaints land on that desk. Three questions in the walkthrough tell you what to put in the bid:

• "What is the one thing your current cleaner keeps missing?"
• "How many days a week do you get service now, and is it enough?"
• "Who has keys and alarm codes, and what time is the building empty?"

Put the answer to the first question in the first line of your proposal. Then price it using the method in how to bid on commercial cleaning jobs. Standard recurring office cleaning runs roughly $0.07 to $0.20 per square foot according to Housecall Pro's 2026 pricing guide, but your labor hours should set the price, with that range as a check.

Multi-tenant buildings work differently. The property manager hires one company for common areas and often recommends vendors to tenants. Ask to be added to their approved vendor list, send your insurance certificate, and check in each quarter. Contracts usually come up for review once a year.

How to get medical office cleaning contracts

You get medical office cleaning contracts by proving your staff are trained for exposure to blood and body fluids. Practice managers pay more than general offices, and they screen harder.

The key rule is OSHA's Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1030. OSHA's guidance for housekeeping staff says the standard applies when workers have occupational exposure to blood or other potentially infectious materials. As the employer, that means you need a written exposure control plan, training for each exposed employee when they start and every year after, protective equipment, and an offer of the hepatitis B vaccine.

What to have ready before you pitch a medical office:

• Bloodborne pathogens training certificates for everyone who will enter the building.
• Your written exposure control plan.
• A list of the EPA-registered disinfectants you use and their contact times.
• A color-coded cloth and mop system so restroom tools never touch exam rooms.
• A cleaning log the practice can keep for its own records.

On HIPAA: HHS guidance treats janitorial services as generally not being business associates, because any contact with patient information is incidental. Many practices still ask cleaners to sign a confidentiality agreement or a business associate agreement. Sign it, and train staff never to read, move or photograph paperwork or screens.

Regulated medical waste, such as full sharps containers, is normally removed by a licensed medical waste hauler. State clearly in your scope that you do not handle it unless you are licensed to.

Start with lower-risk practices: chiropractors, optometrists, physical therapy and counseling offices. Move to dental, urgent care and surgical suites once you have a medical reference.

How to get post construction cleaning contracts

Post construction cleaning contracts come from general contractors, and you win them by getting on bid lists before a project needs you. The buyer is the project manager or estimator, and the work is priced per project.

The work normally comes in three phases. ZTERS describes them as a rough clean, a final clean and a touch-up, each with a different purpose. ServiceMaster Clean puts post-construction cleaning at $0.15 to $0.75 per square foot, well above routine janitorial rates, because it takes more labor.

1. Find active projects. City and county building permit records are public and list the contractor on each commercial job. Job-site signs name the general contractor too.
2. Call the contractor's office and ask for the estimator. Say you do final cleans, you are insured, and you want to be on the bid list for their next project.
3. Send a one-page capability sheet. Include your insurance certificate, crew size, equipment and the phases you offer.
4. Bid from the plans. Price each phase separately per square foot, and list what is excluded, such as exterior windows above the first floor or debris hauling.
5. Protect yourself on schedule and payment. Construction runs late and pays slowly. Net 30 is common and longer happens. Put a re-clean rate in the bid for when other trades dirty a finished area.

Post-construction work is a good way to fill gaps in revenue, and a final clean often leads to the recurring janitorial contract for the same building. Ask the contractor who the tenant or property manager will be.

When to go after government and larger contracts

Go after government contracts after you have steady accounts and at least a year of records. Federal work requires a free registration at SAM.gov, where solicitations are also posted. Cities, counties and school districts post bids on their own purchasing pages. These contracts are stable, but the paperwork is heavy and low bids are common, so treat them as a second-year goal.

Mistakes that cost new cleaners their first contracts

• Quoting a price on the phone. You cannot price a building you have not seen. Sell the walkthrough.
• Pricing by guesswork. A low bid wins the account and loses money every month. Build the price from labor hours.
• Chasing buildings that are too big. A 60,000 square foot account needs staff, equipment and payroll you may not have yet.
• Stopping follow-up after one "no." Cleaning vendors get replaced often. Stay in touch every month.
• Skipping the written agreement. A one-page contract with scope, price, schedule, payment terms and cancellation protects both sides.