Top tips for starting a cleaning business

Have you ever thought that you wouldn’t mind cleaning the house so much if you only paid for it? Big news! I can’t pay you for your cleaning own Home, not necessarily, but I can show you how effective starting your own cleaning business can be. Straightforward, too! If you love the satisfaction of finishing with a clean floor and folded toilet paper, I’m here to show you how you can cash in on it with my starter’s guide.

For this guide, I also spoke with Jamie King, who owns it King’s Cleaning Service California. When he was 23 years old and clearing his way through college, he dreamed of one day owning a business – only to realize that he had already built a business foundation! It was just a matter of organization and building his client base and King’s Cleaning Services was born. He started his small cleaning business as a solopreneur cleaning the houses of family and friends – today, he has a whole team of cleaners who not only clean houses, but also do commercial cleaning. They even offer decluttering and concierge services.

Clearing business start-up costs

From the beginning, you need to establish a budget for your new business venture. The great thing about starting a cleaning business is the built-in ability to scale – it’s definitely something you can start alone and then hire others to help as your business expands. Basically, you’ll be investing sweat equity in your business from the start – doing everything from advertising and clerical work to the actual cleaning.

Here’s what you’ll need to budget for:

Starting a business – Do everything by the book and legally establish your cleaning business with your state. The cost of registering as a business depends on your state of residence and whether you are establishing a sole proprietorship, LLC, or another type of company. To register as a limited liability company, for example, costs between $50-$500. You’ll also need to find out if you need any licenses or permits.

being insured – Cleaning someone else’s house isn’t something you want to do without insurance: Accidents happen and, when something breaks, you’ll want an insurance policy to back you up.

Purchase the right equipment – Having the right equipment is essential to doing a professional cleaning job that will win you loyal customers.

Branding and advertising – You don’t have to spend a ton on it at first, but have some business cards and a branded t-shirt because your uniform goes a long way in projecting professionalism; Creating a logo can also be great for building confidence and establishing your presence.

First step

Now that you’ve established your budget, it’s time to dive right into the first steps you need to take to start your cleaning business.

Choose a name. It seems like an easy step, but you might find yourself agonizing over it! Think about it while you get all your other ducks in a row. You can go with your own name (“Carol’s Cleaning Service,” for example) or choose something that expresses your values ​​(like “Easy Green Cleaners” if you specialize in eco-friendly cleaning) or even your favorite animal (” Shiny) otter cleaning service”). Your name choice can also help define other branding aspects like your logo and slogan.

Establish yourself legally. “Make sure you have all the insurance and licenses required by the county and city,” Jamie told us. Find out what permits or licenses you may need and pay the fees accordingly. Working with a service like IncFile or IncAuthority can make it fairly easy for you to establish your business with your state.

Shop around for insurance. Since your business will take you to other people’s homes, it is highly advisable to have on-the-go insurance. You will want to be protected in the event of property damage or injury related to your service. Shop around for a better rate. Hiscox offers a number of options.

Ready to get social. Go ahead and grab all the social media usernames for your chosen business name. You might not be able to use them right away, but when you do you’ll be happy to have the correct name saved on Facebook and Twitter. (You might also want to snag your name on Instagram and Pinterest.) It might also be a good idea to buy a domain name for your business – check out Bluehost for a domain name and website hosting.

Set up your book. Make it easy on yourself (especially at tax time!) by setting up your accounting software from day 1 of your business. QuickBooks (which Jamie recommends) is one of the most trusted names in home business accounting and is relatively inexpensive when choosing small business or self-employment options.

equipment required

While you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment for residential cleaning, you’ll definitely want reliable tools and a good supply of basic materials. Here’s a list to get you started:

• Clean the rag
• Scrubbing brush
• the sponge
• Duster
• paper towels
• Heavy-duty vinyl gloves
• water bottle
• Cleaning solvents and disinfectants (go green when you can)
• Broom and dustpan
• Dry and wet mops
• Vacuum cleaner (Jamie recommends a Compact vacuum)
• Apron with pockets

These items are the foundation of your business. If you have a membership to a warehouse store like Costco, this works for you: Stock up on your cleaning supplies like all-purpose cleaners, disinfectants, and paper towels in bulk there. This will save you money and ensure you have enough supplies on hand to get the job done.

Find your first customers

Cleaning someone’s house is personal, and it’s a great way to find customers. Reach out to your family and friends for your first clients – and ask their friends and family to refer you. Build your business this way: Advertising is free and word of mouth carries the endorsement of satisfied people with clean homes Good references are worth their weight in gold for your business startup.

“My first clients were mostly family and friends, neighbors of family members,” Jamie told us. “I started using a referral service that helped a ton but was expensive. Hiring Lamb Consulting to create my website and business plan was the best move I ever made. This was about 3 years after I started cleaning.”

Once you feel comfortable and have a bigger budget, you can also do some more conventional advertising. If you want to expand to a specific location, doing flyers or door-hangers can be a smart move – you can even take up local billboard space. Use targeted ads on social media to advertise to the demographics you want to clean homes for Take advantage of branding in your everyday life and have your business name, logo, and number printed on large magnetic decals you can place on your personal vehicle.

make money

One of the most important considerations when establishing your house cleaning fee is that you don’t undervalue your work. For one thing, time is money and your business should earn enough to make a living. Also, you don’t want to set rates that are too low to begin with and either lose loyal customers due to increased rates or operate at a loss because you’re charging too little once you start hiring and paying employees.

There are many ways to determine how much to charge your customers and how you want to determine your fees: Do you charge by the hour? Next to the house? Some even charge a flat fee per house or per square foot. The two most popular methods seem to be charging by the hour and by the room. A compelling argument for charging by the room is that your customers don’t determine how long you spend cleaning versus how they can watch the clock when you charge by the hour.

However you slice it, Jamie told me: “Cleaning companies should be comfortable charging at least $30/hour per worker.” I have also read reports of other small cleaning businesses who have built their businesses until they are able to charge over $100 an hour.

How you collect your money is just as important as what you charge. Jamie recommends that you take a deposit from every first-time customer. You should also collect payment on the day of service – of course cash is king, and it’s up to you what other forms of payment you want to accept. Checks can be risky, especially if you don’t know the customer well yet. Credit cards or PayPal can be effective payment methods these days, with all the apps on our smartphones and such Square Reader.

Be sure this job is for you

I know I’ve already introduced you to many important aspects of starting your own cleaning business, but here’s one more: Make sure that cleaning for a living is for you. It’s not enough to think you’re good at cleaning the house. You really need to understand that you’re going to be scrambling for your source of income all day, every day, at least at first. (Unless you’re doing this as a side business, in which case you’ll spend all your off-time – evenings, weekends – cleaning for money.)

Cleaning professionally takes a certain kind of temperament – ​​one that doesn’t mind the repetitive tasks of vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing, polishing and sweeping. It’s also physically demanding, so you need to make sure you’re in good enough shape to withstand the stretching, kneeling, scrubbing and other physical demands of the job for hours every day.

As you run your own business, make sure you are both ready and able to handle the management and clerical aspects of the business. You have to hire customers, service customers, bill customers and then receive supplies, balance the books and do taxes. Once you’re able to hire employees – if that’s a direction you want to go – you’ll need to manage them and all the additional requirements of insurance (including being bonded), payroll and taxes.

When we asked Jamie what it’s like to be a successful cleaning business owner, she told us, “Pretty high energy. I run a crew myself, estimate on the phone, go over schedules with my assistant, restock products, repair vacuums, wash rags and handle any quality control issues.”

(One of Jamie’s top tips for hiring small cleaning business workers: “Do background checks on potential workers.” Don’t forget that you will be responsible for the behavior of your workers in a private residence.)

Owning your own small business can be and often is incredibly rewarding – just make sure you’re up for the challenge!

You should have all the information you need to start your small cleaning business and turn your house cleaning fever into dollar bills. So get started! And don’t forget to come back and tell me all about your new business – I love to see my readers succeed.