Commercial and fleet work
Commercial work is bought by a person with a job title, and almost nobody approaches them.
That is the whole opportunity. Residential customers are competed for through search, reviews and word of mouth. A letting agent, a small fleet manager, a dealership sales manager or an office manager can be walked in on, and the field is nearly empty.
The constraint is paperwork, not capacity. Commercial buyers typically want three things: proof of insurance, an invoice they can process, and someone who turns up on a schedule. A solo operator with all three is a viable supplier for a lot of small contracts. Insurance for a one-van operation.
The value is predictability, not rate. A recurring commercial contract fills slots you would otherwise sell one at a time, which is worth more than a slightly better price on a one-off.
Two things to plan for rather than discover. Payment terms: 30 days after invoice is normal, which means you are financing the gap. And concentration: one client who becomes half your revenue can end that revenue with one email.
Who actually buys
Small fleets. Trades, couriers, care providers, hire companies. Anyone with four to twenty vehicles has a presentation problem and usually no supplier.
Dealerships. Used-car preparation is real, recurring detailing work. Often already supplied, and suppliers change.
Letting agents and property managers. End-of-tenancy cleaning, on a schedule set by someone else, with recurring volume. Pricing a move-out clean.
Offices, gyms, salons, clinics. Regular cleaning with a predictable slot.
Car parks and building managers, for on-site vehicle work.
What these have in common: a person whose job is affected by the work being done, and a budget that already exists.
The approach
Go in person, once, briefly. Ask who handles it. Leave one page. Follow up in a week. That is the whole method and it works because it is so rarely done.
One page, not a brochure. What you do, what it costs, that you are insured, when you can start, and how to reach you. A price on the page is a feature, because the person you handed it to has to justify a decision internally and a page with no price cannot be forwarded.
Ask a question rather than making a pitch. "Who looks after the vans at the moment?" gets you the actual situation, and the answer is often "nobody, properly."
Follow up. Once, in writing, a week later. Most of this work goes to whoever was still there when the need became urgent.
What they will ask for
Proof of insurance. The most common blocker and the reason to have it before you go. Insurance.
An invoice with your business details on it, that their system can accept.
Terms. Frequently 30 days. Negotiable occasionally, and mostly not.
A named contact who answers. For a solo operator this is trivially you, and it is a genuine advantage over a supplier where nobody is accountable.
Consistency. The thing they are actually buying. A commercial client will tolerate a slightly worse job done reliably over a better one done unpredictably, which is the opposite of a residential customer's preference and worth knowing.
Pricing it
Per unit, with a volume structure, rather than one figure for everything. A per-vehicle or per-unit price with a schedule attached is easy to approve.
Price the terms in. If you are paid 30 days after invoice, you are lending them the money. That belongs in the number rather than in your overdraft.
Do not discount to win the first one unless the volume genuinely changes your cost per job. A price set low to get in the door is the price you have forever, and commercial buyers do not re-tender because you would like more. How to raise your prices.
Put a review date in the agreement. Twelve months, in writing, so an increase is a scheduled conversation rather than a request.
The risks
Concentration. The main one. A client at 40 percent of revenue is a business risk, not an achievement, and the decision to end it will be made by someone who has never met you.
Cash-flow gap. Thirty-day terms against weekly costs. Plan the buffer before the first invoice rather than after.
Scope creep. Commercial scope drifts steadily: an extra vehicle, an extra room, a bit extra each time. Write down what is included and what is not, with prices on the exclusions.
Time cost. Commercial admin is real. Invoices, terms, purchase orders, chasing.
What Rigsheet does with this
Recurring jobs create themselves on the agreed schedule, which is exactly the shape commercial work takes. Customers hold the site details, access notes and contacts. Invoices go out from the job with your business details on them, and payment status is visible per job rather than reconstructed from a bank feed. Before-and-after photos on every visit are what a commercial client's own internal justification is built from.
Recurring jobs, quotes, invoicing and payments are on every plan, including the $4 Starter tier. Photos start at Lite ($9), which is the tier most commercial work makes worth having.
When a customer does not pay. · Seasonality and the slow months. · What each plan includes.
More in this section
About Rigsheet
Rigsheet is a job app from Baker Ventures LLC for one-to-three-person mobile service businesses: mobile auto detailers and residential cleaners first. Scheduling with drive-time gaps, quotes with vehicle and home-size pricing, deposits, "on my way" texts, before and after photos, invoices, and automated review requests. Plans start at $4 a month, with unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices on every tier and no per-user fees.
It exists because the alternatives charge a solo operator team prices. A one-van business is not a small version of a ten-truck business, and pricing built around seats and add-ons makes that mistake expensive. The pricing calculators and operator guides on this site are free and need no account.
Questions and answers
Can a solo detailer or cleaner get commercial work?
Yes, and the constraint is usually paperwork rather than capacity. Commercial buyers typically want proof of insurance, an invoice they can process, and someone who turns up on a schedule, and a solo operator who has those three is a viable supplier.
What do commercial clients require that residential ones do not?
Proof of insurance, invoicing on terms rather than payment on the day, a named contact who answers, and consistency. The work is often less demanding and the administration around it is more.
Do commercial clients pay more?
Not necessarily per job, and the value is in predictability rather than rate. A recurring commercial contract fills slots you would otherwise be selling one at a time, which is worth more than a slightly higher price on a one-off.
How do you find commercial work?
Directly. Dealerships, small fleets, letting agents, property managers, offices and gyms are all bought by a person with a job title who can be approached, and almost nobody approaches them.
What are payment terms and should I accept them?
Commercial buyers commonly pay 30 days after invoice rather than on completion. That is normal and it is a cash-flow question: you are financing the gap, so it has to be priced in and planned for rather than discovered.
What is the biggest risk with commercial work?
Concentration. A single client who becomes half your revenue can end that revenue with one email, and the loss of a large contract is harder to absorb than losing several small customers.
Rigsheet. “Commercial and fleet work.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://rigsheet.bakerventuresstudio.com/guides/getting-commercial-and-fleet-work/