How to get commercial cleaning contracts — including the government ones most cleaners skip.
There are two realistic roads: private clients (offices, property managers, medical and retail) and public contracts (counties, cities, school districts). Most guides only talk about the first. We write bids for public service contracts, janitorial included, so this guide is honest about both — and detailed where the real, underused opportunity is.
Written by a bid-writing desk, not a franchise blog. Last reviewed: October 5, 2026.
Where cleaning contracts actually come from.
Private commercial contracts come from relationships and proof: property managers who run several buildings, businesses near your existing jobs, and referrals from work done well. Public contracts come from a different muscle: finding solicitations on county, city and school district procurement portals, attending the walk-through, and submitting a bid that answers every requirement in the package. The private road rewards persistence; the public road rewards paperwork discipline — and because most small cleaners avoid paperwork, public bids are often less crowded than cold-calling office managers.
How do you get private commercial cleaning clients?
The honest version, briefly — this part you'll find in every guide, because it's true.
How do you get government cleaning contracts?
Counties, cities, school districts and state agencies buy janitorial services on multi-year contracts, in public, on a schedule. This is the part our service covers — here is the actual path.
The five mistakes that get cleaning bids thrown out.
Five checks drawn from how janitorial solicitations are written: four can end a bid outright, the fifth sinks its score — and none of them is about your cleaning.
Check these before you submit anything.
- Hours that don't match the buildings.Fewer labor hours than the published square footage and frequencies imply reads as an underbid — or a crew that can't deliver.
- A building left unpriced.One blank line on a price sheet that lists every site can make the whole price incomplete.
- An addendum never acknowledged.Site lists change after the walk-through; the signed acknowledgment of every addendum is routinely pass/fail.
- Price in the wrong envelope.Where price must be sealed separately, a dollar figure left in the technical volume can void the bid.
- A missed mandatory walk-through.No sign-in, no bid — no exceptions, however good your price was going to be.
The deep version, with the regulatory references for cleaning bids (OSHA hazard communication, bloodborne pathogens, school background checks), lives on our janitorial RFP page.
Getting cleaning contracts: short answers.
How do I get my first commercial cleaning contract?
Start where trust is cheapest: businesses you already know, property managers who juggle several buildings, and small offices near your current jobs. Offer a short written scope (areas, frequencies, price per month) instead of a verbal quote — in commercial cleaning, the company that shows up with clear paperwork already looks more professional than most competitors. Public contracts can absolutely be a first contract too: small county and school district jobs regularly go to first-time government bidders who simply followed the solicitation to the letter.
How do I get government cleaning contracts?
Register where your local agencies post solicitations (county and city procurement portals, school district purchasing pages, your state’s vendor registry), watch for janitorial RFPs and IFBs, attend the mandatory walk-through, and submit a bid that answers every requirement in the package — forms signed, addenda acknowledged, insurance certificates with the exact wording required. Price matters, but most first-time bids die on paperwork, not price.
Do I need insurance before bidding on cleaning contracts?
For public work, yes — solicitations state required coverages and limits (typically general liability, auto, workers’ comp; sometimes a janitorial/crime bond). You usually need the certificates at award rather than at bid, but your bid must commit to the limits, and underpricing a policy you don’t yet carry is a classic rookie loss. Ask your insurance agent for a quote against the solicitation’s exact requirements before you price the job.
How much should I charge for commercial cleaning?
Price from your numbers, not from a national average: productive hours per visit (from square footage, fixture counts and frequencies), your loaded labor rate, supplies, supervision and margin. On public bids, evaluators cross-check your price against the published square footage and frequencies — a price that implies half the needed hours reads as an underbid and can sink scoring even when it is the lowest.
Found a cleaning RFP worth winning? That's our desk.
Send the solicitation. Compliance matrix $390 in 48–72 hours, single sections from $190, or the full written draft from $1,900 — fixed prices, on-time refund.