Facility Management as a Service: Winning Your First Estate or Office-Complex Contract
Turn building know-how into a real FM business: register the company, license your guards, handle the service charge as a trustee, win on a clear SLA not the lowest price, and survive the cash-flow squeeze.
by Sankofa Skills Studio · vetted expert author
What you'll gain
Facility management is not "cleaning and security" — it is running a building as a business so it holds its value, stays safe, and its people are looked after. You need no practising licence to deliver FM (it is an open field — only estate management and valuation are ESVARBON-regulated), but you hold the residents’ service charge as a TRUSTEE — a separate audited account, no blank cheques — and you carry life-safety liability: a faked lift or fire check is where FM kills. Register the CAC company, license your guards through the NSCDC (private guards may never bear arms), and carry the statutory pack (₦70,000 wage floor, PENCOM, NSITF, ITF, fire and waste compliance). Win on capability and a clear SLA — not the lowest price (quality carries 60–70%), split hard services (generators, lifts, fire) from soft (cleaning, security), and run planned preventive maintenance with diesel as your dominant cost. And master the money: margins are thin (~5% global benchmark), you pay wages and diesel up front but collect the service charge in arrears, so working capital — not the contract value — keeps you alive. One well-run building becomes an FM business that lasts.
Pass a real exam and earn a publicly verifiable certificate employers trust.
Unlimited practice mode + spaced-repetition flashcards, then unlimited exam retakes.
Keep the lessons and every future update to this course, forever.
What you'll cover
10 modules · 13 lessons · timed certification exam
1. Orientation — what facility management actually is 2 lessons
Why FM is not "cleaning and security" but running a building as a business — and the two hard truths that decide whether an FM firm survives.
- More than cleaning and security · 16 min
- Two hard truths and the opportunity · 16 min
2. The business and where you are allowed to play 1 lessons
Registering the FM company, the honest answer to the licence question, and the ESVARBON boundary you must not cross untrained.
- The CAC company and the licence question · 18 min
3. The one thing you do need a licence for — security 1 lessons
Manned guarding is the single licensed part of an FM bundle: subcontract a licensed guard company or license your own through the NSCDC — and never put a firearm in a guard’s hands.
- Guards are NSCDC-licensed · 16 min
4. The statutory and safety pack you carry 1 lessons
What an FM employer owes its staff and the building it runs — the wage floor, pensions and levies, fire and waste compliance, and the insurance that protects the funds you handle.
- Your staff and the building · 18 min
5. Winning your first contract 2 lessons
Who actually buys facility management and how a new firm reaches them — then the proposal, the bid that is not won on price, and the SLA that is the contract’s spine.
- Who buys, and how you reach them · 18 min
- The bid and the SLA · 18 min
6. The service charge — money you hold in trust 1 lessons
Building and collecting the estate budget, accounting for it as a trustee under Nigerian law, and surviving the non-payment that wrecks estates.
- Budget, collect and account · 20 min
7. Delivering it — operations 1 lessons
Planned preventive maintenance over run-to-failure, managing the dominant diesel cost, keeping the safety-critical systems serviced, and running the frontline honestly.
- PPM, energy and the frontline · 20 min
8. The money — pricing and the cash-flow squeeze 1 lessons
How FM firms price the work on thin margins, and the cash-flow gap between paying up front and collecting in arrears that sinks more firms than bad service ever does.
- Price thin, survive the gap · 18 min
9. The failure and fraud museum, and the bright lines 2 lessons
A dated, sourced record of what goes wrong in facility management — embezzled service charge, a lift death, a fatal fire, pension enforcement — and the bright lines that keep you off it.
- What goes wrong, dated · 18 min
- The bright lines · 16 min
10. Your action plan 1 lessons
A phased path from a skilled operator to a compliant, solvent facility-management firm that wins on capability and keeps its buildings safe.
- The phased path · 14 min
Frequently asked
Is the certificate verifiable?
Yes. Every certificate carries a unique ID and a cryptographic signature. Anyone — an employer or a client — can confirm it instantly on our public verification page, with no login.
Who teaches this course?
A vetted expert author — Sankofa Skills Studio. Every expert course is reviewed and fact-checked before publication, and the author earns a revenue share on your enrolment.
How long do I have access?
Lifetime. Once you enrol you keep access to the lessons, practice mode and flashcards — including future updates to this course.
What happens if I don't pass the exam first time?
You can retake it — up to 5 attempts, with a 12-hour wait between attempts. Practice mode is unlimited, so rehearse with the same verified question bank until you're ready.
Can my team enrol together?
Yes. Talk to us about group and organisation rates — certifying a whole team is faster and cheaper than one at a time.
Continue your path
Learners taking this course often go on to: