Cleaning company capability statement: what goes on it

A cleaning company capability statement is one page that tells a buyer what you clean, which kinds of buildings you clean, how you run the work and who to call. It's the page a facility manager forwards to their boss after a good walkthrough, and the page a school district or government office asks for before they put you on a bid list. Plenty of small janitorial companies don't have one, and the owner who says "I'll send something over" and then sends nothing loses ground to the one who attaches a PDF the same afternoon.

Here's what goes on it, how to handle past work when you're small, and where it belongs on your website.

What it is and who asks for it

Think of it as a résumé for the company. The format comes from government contracting, where a contracting officer wants to see in under a minute whether you do the work they're buying. The SBA's page on the basic requirements for government contracting covers what sits underneath it: registering in SAM (the federal System for Award Management), getting a Unique Entity Identifier, and matching your services to a NAICS code. You only need those if you're going after government work. If you are, they go on the page.

Outside government, the request usually comes from property management companies that approve vendors, larger medical groups, school districts, and the facility manager who liked your walkthrough and now has to explain you to an owner or a regional manager. That last one is the request most small cleaners get. The person who met you often isn't the one who signs, and they need something to attach to the email.

What goes on a cleaning company capability statement

Six sections, in this order, all on one page.

Core services

Write three to six lines, each a service you do every week, in the words a facility manager uses on a scope of work: nightly janitorial, restroom service, trash and recycling, floor care like VCT strip and wax or carpet extraction, day porter. Put the work you want more of first. Leave off one-time jobs you've done twice.

Buildings you clean

Name only the building types you clean now or have cleaned: offices, medical and dental, schools, warehouses, churches, retail. If you clean two dental offices and want more medical work, put medical first. A short, true list helps a buyer match you to their building faster than a long one.

How you work

This is where most statements say "quality service" and "attention to detail," and a buyer skips right past it. Put facts a manager can check instead. Your general liability amount, whether you're bonded and for how much, and workers' comp. Who gets a background check and when. How keys and alarm codes are logged. Who inspects the work and how often, and how a complaint gets fixed. What supplies and equipment you bring and what the building provides.

Write only what's true today. If you aren't bonded, leave the line off. A manager who asks for the paperwork and doesn't get it won't call back. These are the same questions buyers ask of your website, which we go through in what facility managers check on your website before they call.

Past performance

Two or three jobs you've actually done, described by building type, size, services and how long you've had the account. There's more on this below, because it's the section people get wrong.

Company data

Year started, number of employees, and NAICS 561720 (Janitorial Services). Add your UEI and CAGE code if you're registered in SAM. List certifications like woman-owned or minority-owned only if you hold the certificate. Government buyers read this section first. A property manager will skim it, and that's fine.

Contact

One named person, a direct phone and an email, plus a link to your walkthrough request page. A shared inbox works for the email as long as there's a person's name next to it.

Past performance when you're small

This is the section that tempts people to stretch, and it's the one buyers check. They call references, and property managers in the same town talk to each other.

If you have commercial clients, describe each job by building type, size, services and length of the account, for example "Two-story medical office, 18,000 sq ft, nightly cleaning since 2021." Swap in your own job; that line is only there to show the format. Ask before you name a client. An office manager you've cleaned for over a couple of years will often say yes. If they'd rather not be named, the description on its own still tells a buyer what you can handle.

If you're new to commercial work, use what's real. That might be the years you've been cleaning, the building types you've done as an employee or a subcontractor, or the owner's own background, like "owner ran night crews for a regional janitorial company for six years," if that's your story. Subcontract work counts when your crew did it. Name the company you subbed for only if they agree.

Never list a client you haven't worked for, a building you only bid on, or a contract that belonged to someone else, because one reference call is all it takes to find out.

Design: one page that reads in black and white

Buyers print these, file them and photocopy them into bid binders, so design for an office printer. Dark text on white, your logo at the top, section headings set a size larger, and nothing that depends on color to make sense. A photo of your crew in uniform can help if it still looks like a photo once it's printed in gray.

Keep it to one page. When it runs over, cut adjectives before you cut facts. Save it as a PDF named "[Company name] capability statement.pdf" so it's easy to find in a download folder full of files called "document (3)."

It's worth keeping a master copy and adjusting it per bid. For a medical office, move medical to the front of the building list and lead past performance with your clinic work.

Put it on your website next to the walkthrough form

A capability statement sitting in your email drafts only helps people you've already talked to. Put it on your website as a PDF, on the same page as your walkthrough request, with a plain link like "Download our capability statement (PDF, one page)." A manager comparing three cleaners can forward yours to the boss before they've spoken to you. Link it from your commercial cleaning page and your footer as well.

Keep the website and the PDF saying the same things: same insurance, same building types, same contact. When one changes, change the other that day. A manager who sees $1 million on the site and $2 million on the PDF (example figures) will ask which is right, and you'd rather they asked about your schedule.

The walkthrough form next to it needs its own care. We cover the fields and the wording around them in what to ask on a commercial cleaning quote form.

We build and look after commercial cleaning websites with your capability statement as a download beside the walkthrough request. Keyholder Commercial Cleaning, a sample design for a fictional business, shows how credentials and a walkthrough request sit on the page. It's $99 to start, refunded if you pass on the preview, and $399 all in at our founding price for the first 25 clients. Hosting is $99 a month.