PC BIZ of the MONTH

Excerpts from the book, "101 Computer Related Businesses",
Copyright 1994 by Michael A. Tims.

BIZ-011  BUILDING SERVICE CONTRACTING

The building service contractor provides janitorial services and
other building maintenance services such as window cleaning, carpet
shampooing, floor and wall cleaning, lighting maintenance, pest
control, parking lot maintenance, as well as building security
services.

Many building service contractors negotiate for their accounts
face-to-face with the building owners, but others obtain their
jobs through the bidding process.  The building service contractor
must be able to analyze the client's cleaning specifications and
then estimate the labor time to do the job.  Since labor is the
biggest expense for the contractor, it must be figured as close as
possible.  Other factors which will go into the estimating process
will be cost of equipment and supplies, transportation, office
expenses, etc. Finally, you have to add in the contractor's profit to
arrive at the final bid price.

Although starting a building service business is quite easy,
failure rates are very high.  It is generally felt that the high
rate of business failure is due to poor accounting procedures,
under-bidding on contracts in order to win the contracts,
over-extension of the entrepreneur's resources, inability to
collect on past due accounts, and many other reasons.

In general, the returns on investment are quite good, as it is
fairly inexpensive to start up such a business.  Besides the
computer and other general office equipment, the busness will
require such equipment as floor buffers, vacuums, carpet
shampooers, mops, buckets, brushes, and other assorted cleaning
supplies.

Usually building service contractors will do best in or near a
large city, as the urban area will provide more opportunities for
accounts.  Consider the number of buildings in the area and the
potential for growth when choosing an area.  Also, it would be wise
to check out the competition in the area, ie. how many other companys
will you be bidding against?

Many budding building service contractors market their services
through personal contacts, cultivating contacts in the business
world who are responsible for maintaining buildings and grounds for
large as well as small businesses.  Other contractors feel that
their Yellow Page ads are the most important sales tool for gaining
contacts and contracts.  Many contractors also use a sales brochure
telling about the company and its services.  This is mailed to each
and every business in the area.

Further information on building service contracting may be obtained
by contacting the following source:

     Building Service Contractors Association International,
     1750 Old Meadow Rd., McLean, VA., 22101.

In addition, the following books and magazines will provide
excellent background information on a business of this type:

       Building Service Contractor magazine, MacNair-Dorland
       Publishing Company, Inc., 101 West 31st St., New York,
       NY., 10001.

     BSCA Bulletin, BSCA International, 1750 Old Meadow Rd., McLean,
     VA., 22102.

     Maintenance Supplies magazine, MacNair-Dorland Publishing
     Company, Inc., 101 West 31st St., New York, NY., 10001.

     Sanitary Maintenance magazine, Trade Press Publishing Company,
     407 East Michigan St., Milwaukee, WI., 53201.

Many companies are offering franchise and business start-up packages
in the commercial cleaning field.  Contact the following companies
directly for more information.

     American Vapor Technology, 315 Birchfield Dr., Marietta, GA.,
     30068.

     Jani-King International, Inc., 4950 Keller Springs Rd., Ste. 190,
     Dallas, TX., 75248.

The computer requirements for this type of business are not
critical as you will be working mostly with word processing
software to write up your contract bids, etc.  I have found that
a basic 286 based computer will probably be sufficient for most of
your basic business needs. Of course, if you already have, or can
afford, a faster CPU such as a 386 or 486, it would probably
eliminate the need for you ever having to upgrade.

A hard disk, however, is a must.  Without a hard disk, you would
have to constantly change floppy disks back and forth to run most
programs which would be too time consuming and inefficient.  Many
programs come on multiple floppy disks and require a hard disk to
even use them.  There is an old saying that you can never have
enough hard disk memory.  Start with a minimum of 250 Megabytes of
disk storage space and if you will be running "Windows" programs,
think about an even larger hard disk.

A dot matrix printer will probably suffice for most printed
output you would have for in house use, memos, etc., although for
more professional looking letters or if you will be doing your own
advertising circulars, that you may be sending to prospective clients,
a laser printer would be preferable.  The newest models for personal
use have up to 600 dpi (Dot Per Inch) resolution and carry street
prices less than $1000.

Other office equipment you may want to consider might include a
FAX machine to be able to send and receive your abstracts reports,
etc., directly to and from your clients without having to wait for
the regular postal service or even for over-night priority mail.

One of the new FAX/modems might be an even better addition to your
computer set-up than a stand-alone FAX machine.  A FAX/modem is an
electronic device that connects a computer to the phone line (much
like a plain modem) and enables the computer to act as a FAX machine.
A FAX/modem can be an internal type called a FAX board that plugs
into an expansion slot inside your computer.  External FAX/modems are
more costly but are easier to connect to your PC.  In either case,
the FAX/modem allows you to send a file as a FAX document to any
stand-alone FAX machine or to receive a FAX document which can be
viewed, stored as a file, or printed out on your printer.

A telephone answering machine which can sense the difference
between FAX transmissions and voice  may also come in quite handy
in the home office, although you will probably want to have a
second phone line installed to promote a more professional image.
A second line would also cut down on personal call interruptions
during your "working" hours.

I haven't been able to find specific software for a building service
type business, but there are several shareware software packages that
could be used by anyone creating and submitting bids which involve
jobs and labor.  Among the better programs is, "Propose It", "Job
Cost", and "Contractor Bids".  Any one of these programs will help
you keep track of your costs and help write bids.  In addition to
specific software for this business, general software would consist
of the usual word processing, database, accounting and personal and
business income tax preparation software.  As with most of the
business ideas presented in this book, I feel that properly selected
SHAREWARE (try-before-you-buy type software) will prove to be more
than adequate for all your basic business software needs.  In fact,
using shareware when you are first starting a business can save you
hundreds of dollars in start up costs.  I have found most shareware
packages to be as good, if not better, than high priced commercial
software packages.

For word processing software, I would recommend either of two fine
shareware programs.  The first is "Super WP", an excellent WordPerfect
clone that has many features superior to the commercial program.
The second is "PC-Write", which is said to be one of the finest
wordprocessor programs available at any price.

A database program is usually needed to keep track of customers,
client data, mailing lists and many other forms of data, etc.  The
shareware program, "PC-File", is an excellent shareware database
program that has features such as custom report writing, letter
writing with mail merge, data analysis, plus charts and graph
support.  "PC-File" also features dBase III and Clipper
compatibility, should you ever wish to write a custom application
for your business.

Every small business needs bookkeeping software to keep track of
income and expenses.  What they don't need is a full blown
accounting package that takes more time than the business itself.
The shareware program, "Medlin Accounting", is an easy to use,
time saving IRS approved single entry bookkeeping system which is
more than adequate for the small-to-medium sized business.  It
features a general ledger module, an accounts receivable module,
an accounts payable module as well as an inventory module.

Another financial program I would recommend to any small
businessman, or individual for that matter, is the shareware
program, "Checkmate Plus".  "Checkmate Plus" is an easy to use,
yet powerful, checkbook style, double entry accounting system
which will also print checks on either laser or dot matrix
printers.

Spreadsheet programs are sometimes required by the small business
and I would concede that the industry leader is the commercial
program, Lotus 1-2-3.  However, an excellent clone to Lotus 1-2-3
is the shareware program, "As Easy As".  Menu-driven for easy use
yet a very powerful spreadsheet program.  Features 8192 rows by
256 columns, dBase III import/export, macro playback, dot matrix
and laser printer support, worksheet linking, charting and much,
much more.

Communications software for use with telephone line and computer
modem is often needed by the small business.  By using
communications software, the home based entrepreneur is able to
access remote computers, informational databases, bulletin board
services (BBS's) client's computers, etc., right from his/her home
office over the phone lines.  This makes many high tech businesses
able to be run successfully from any place a phone can be
accessed.

The full featured shareware communications program I would
recommend is "Procomm Plus Test Drive".  This time-proven shareware
offering of a commercial program will prove perfect for most of your
communications needs, and has such features as a 100 number dialing
directory, script file capability and support for most major file
transfer protocols including XMODEM, TELINK, and COMPUSERVE B.
However, If you should purchase a fax/modem for your office, many of
them come already bundled with communications software.

For a complete listing of commercial as well as shareware programs
featured in this book, see Appendix A.

******************************************************************

If you have been looking for ideas to make money with your own PC,
"101 Computer Related Businesses" is available on floppy disk, as a
virtual book, directly from the publisher for only $29.95 Postpaid.
State disk size preferred when ordering from the author, Michael
A. Tims, POB 509, Suite 410D, Roseville, MI., 48066-0509. Many
other PC business ideas and opportunities are also available.

Excerpts are carried on AOL in the SMALL BUSINESS FORUM-STRATEGIES FOR
BUSINESS FILE LIBRARY and EPUB FORUM-NEW FILES LIBRARY. They are also
carried on Delphi in the BUSINESS DATABASE. Just look for "PC Biz of
the Month".

An abridged version (10 of 101 Chapters) of "101 Computer Related
Businesses" is now carried on AOL. Keyword to SOFTWARE and do a
search for BIZ101A1.ZIP

Thanks, Michael A. Tims - MTims48021@aol.com