James Nokes Editor

Come visit us at build-a-business.com (we're always adding new content) Email address: jfntci@aol.com The Cleaning Institute 955 Karol Way, #3 San Leandro, CA 94577

I put the question mark in the title because being an IC isn't for everyone. I wrote this article to help you decide if it's something you want to do.

Put as simply as possible, IC's or cleaning subcontractors work for other cleaning companies who in turn have the actual cleaning accounts with the clients. The contractor you will work for, gets the customers, bills them, and handles everything else involved in maintaining the account. You get a percentage of what the cusomter pays (usually around 70%) for doing the actual cleaning.

 Why I Became a Cleaning Subcontractor 

A long time ago I was young, and healthy, and if I wasn't "good-looking" in the traditional sense, I had the innate goodness that makes you handsome on the inside, where it counts. And if you don't believe me, you can ask my Mom!

Back then I worked as a computer jockey producing endless reports analyzing how different materials would withstand micro impacts to their surface. These reports helped engineers design space probes and high-tech weaponry. If this sounds like interesting work, I'm explaining it wrong; the work was tedious, and solitary, and it didn't pay that well. I wanted out and I desperately wanted to get my long-delayed college degree. That left me with the problem of finding work that I could do outside of regular hours but still earn enough to support myself while going to college.

After thinking it over for about ten minutes I decided to become a cleaning subcontractor. This quick decision was based on two things. The first was the fact that, as a teenager, I had worked as a janitor and knew I could do the work well. Also, a local cleaning company was advertising for subcontractors to service cleaning accounts for them. So I gave notice at my hated job and spent the next two weeks getting ready to become an independent cleaning contractor.

It took me awhile to get up to speed doing cleaning work and to get enough accounts to support myself. But by the start of the fall semester I had the steady income I needed to enroll in college. But while being a cleaning subcontractor worked out well for me and led to bigger things later on, it's not for everyone. So read on and decide if being an IC is for you.

 Pros and Cons of Subcontracting Cleaning Accounts 

Pros

• Starting as an Independent Contractor is a great way to get into the cleaning field quickly and start making money right off.



• Once you get a reputation as a good subcontractor, it's usually pretty easy to get more work from your first contractor and get new accounts from other cleaning contractors as well.



• You can learn a lot by observing how the contractors you work for conduct their busines: how they do their estimates, make bids, and most important, get sales. Once you learn these things, you are a long way towards creating your own successful cleaning company.



• Many subcontractors end up doing well-paid specialty cleaning work for large contractors.



• You can continue to work as a subcontractor after you start getting your own customers, giving you the best of both worlds.

Cons

• Being a subcontractor can be lucrative but it can also turn into a comfortable trap. Some IC's never quite work up the nerve to go out and get their own customers, limiting their potential for success.



• The contractor you work with might pay poorly or just be hard to work with. The cure for this is to do accounts for several contractors and never rely too much on any one of them for your livelihood. Whenever possible start out doing only one account for a new contractor and wait several months before you do any more work for him. That should give you long enough to decide if you want to continue your realation with him.
  
  
• * Your business can be held back if you sign a contract with an overly restrictive non-compete clause or areement. 

* It occured to me that not everyone will know what a non-compete clause is; so I wrote the following section to tell you about them. However, before I go on I have a warning for you.
WARNING: I am not a lawyer. I did my best to make sure my information on non-compete clauses is accurate but I give no guarantee that it is, use it strictly at your own risk.

 What are Non-Compete Clauses 

In most cases, a non-compete clause is very simple. A fair non-compete clause is a clause in your contract designed to keep you from stealing customers away from your contractor. Generally it will require you to agree not to work for any of his customers while you still work for him and for a specific period of time after you leave his employ. It varies, but I would expect the period of time you are prohibited from working for his customers to be something like one to two years.

As a quick aside, the few times I've found non-compete agreements to be an issue was when the owners of one of the offices I cleaned for a contractor, approached me to see if I wanted to work directly for them. I always refused both because it's wrong and because for a subcontractor it's professional suicide. No contractor will ever hire you if you get a reputation for stealing customers.

 It all Depends on Where You are At 

Non-compete contracts are not legal in all states and in the ones where they are legal, how much they can restrict you varies widely. So you need local help if you want to determine if a non-compete agreement or clause is legal. Sometimes they aren't, usually because the contractor wants to bluff you out of competing with him.

To discover if non-compete agreements are enforceable in your state, start by contacting the nearest labor relations office. If they don't have an answer, they can probably steer you to a government agency that does. And you can always go online to research your State's Labor and Employment Laws.

 Last Words 

In my opinion, it is absolutely fair for a contractor to ask you not to seek work from any of his clients while you work for him and for a reasonable amount of time after you stop. As long as that his all he expects you to agree to and his non-compete agreement says this in plain, easy-to-understand English, I would not hesitate to sign.

If it asks for anything more than this or if you are not absolutely sure you understand the meaning of the non-compete agreement or any other employment-related contract, see an attorney first. It might save you real problems later in your career when you are ready to go out on your own. The contractor is required give you a reasonable amount of time to think it over before you commit yourself.