The SBA estimates that there are almost 30 million small business owners throughout the United States. Among those businesses, a growing portion are focusing on house cleaning services.
The growth of the home cleaning industry has come about on the back of an emboldened housing market where more homes are being sold than during any other time in the last decade or so.
If you have a natural aptitude for cleaning and want to put it to use, you yourself may be considering starting a cleaning business.
Starting a cleaning business is similar to starting any businesses except for a few unique details.
Below, we’ll explore both the broad strokes and the minutia of professional cleaning step-by-step so you can get your company off the ground!
Step One: Decide If You’re Going Full-time or Part-time
Starting your own business is a big task to take on. One out of every three small businesses will fail in the first two years of opening their doors.
Are you willing to bet your full income on a 66% chance of success?
If you’re not, consider starting a cleaning business as a side-hustle. Doing this will enable you to not live or die by the money it brings in.
Or, if you have money saved up and can weather potential adversity, tackling cleaning full-time could give you the momentum you need to become a household name.
Take into consideration your situation and pick full-time or part-time work based on what makes sense for you.
Step Two: Pick a Service Area
Ideally, you’ll want to service clients in your immediate vicinity. If you do that, you’ll save a ton of money on transportation expenses. You can invest the time it would have taken to get around into growing your business.
Depending on your market though, cleaning clients may be scarce. If that’s the case for you, figure out which neighboring cities you think you’d be willing to branch out to.
Your service area doesn’t need to be set in stone so don’t be afraid to test new markets and make decisions as you go.
Step Three: Research Your Competition
Once you know where you’ll focus, it’s time to look at your competitors in the area.
While analyzing competition can be a scary prospect, it’s also helpful. How competitors position themselves can give you insight on how to position your business.
What services should you offer? What should your process be? What guarantees should come with your services?
All of those questions should be centered around one-upping other quality cleaners like Address Our Mess.
Step Four: Figure Out Service Packages
With your competition analyzed, you should be able to decide on what sorts of you’re going to offer and how much you’re going to charge for them.
Some cleaners only perform general tidying while others do comprehensive work that includes blind dusting, mopping, bathroom cleaning and more.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to what services you should offer. Our recommendation is to match what your competition is doing and to make sure your prices don’t vary too much from what clients in your area expect to pay.
Step Five: Look Into License and Insurance Requirements
Depending on where you’re opening your cleaning business, you may need to have a license to operate. If that’s true of your area, be sure to do everything you need to do to remain in compliance with state and local laws.
Doing business without a license can result in costly legal trouble.
Furthermore, it’s recommended that you have business insurance if you’re going into people’s homes or businesses. Think, if you accidentally left a door unlocked in a client’s residence and valuable jewelry got stolen, what would you do? How would you pay to replace it?
To avoid precarious liability situations, always look to get insured.
Step Six: Put Together Your Marketing Plan
Step six is the starting a cleaning business step that cleaning entrepreneurs have the most trouble with. After all, people that are good at cleaning aren’t necessarily good marketers.
Unfortunately though, without a solid marketing strategy backing your cleaning company, you won’t be able to get enough customers to stay in business.
You can market yourself for free via social media, , SEO, and/or by sending out mailers to houses and businesses in your service area.
If you really need help marketing, think about bringing on an agency to give you an assist.
Step Seven: Join Professional Associations and Expand Your Network
Your network is your net worth. The more people you meet in the cleaning industry, the better chances you’ll have of striking up partnerships and landing excellent clients.
To get started with networking, create a profile on LinkedIn and join relevant professional groups on the platform. You can also see if your community has small business clubs.
The more associations and groups you get involved with, the more success you’ll find starting a cleaning business.
Wrapping Up Starting a Cleaning Business from the Ground Up
If you’re looking to parlay your cleaning brilliance into starting a cleaning business, our recommendation is to follow our steps above as closely as possible.
If you do, you’ll find that success will come to you more naturally and a lot more frequently.
Building a business is a marathon, not a race. If you want to continue to expand your business know-how in order to create success, on At Your Business today!
