If you are wondering “how can I start a cleaning business” then you are in the right place. I had the same thought myself, way back in 2001. My cleaning business grew to a 7-figure franchise system. So I have some inside tips on how to start a cleaning business. Read on to learn steps, best practices, checklists, and links to tools you’ll need.
Types of Cleaning Businesses
First, some explanation about the cleaning sector.
Just like there are many varieties of apples, there are many kinds of cleaning businesses. The services provided and the target audiences are very different. Each also have different start up costs, operating expenses, and management needs. Here are the highlights:
Residential
Clearly, this is cleaning private homes. When you start a residential cleaning business, your customers are the homeowners. Services are usually weekly, biweekly, or monthly cleaning. This makes scheduling very easy since there is repeat business. Building this type of cleaning business with a base of loyal customers provides stable revenue throughout the year. Additionally, there are also these services which provide extra income:
- move out cleaning
- move in cleaning
- AirbNb turnover cleaning
- tenant turnover cleaning
- one time cleaning
Restoration
What is restoration cleaning? This is what is required when there has been damage to the surfaces of the home. Typically, this is after a fire, flood, storm damage, mold, or pest infestation.
Restoration cleaning is very specialised service. So it requires investing in training and equipment. The IICRC is the best place to start with this. Also, given the nature of the work, this is a 24-7 business. Expect calls from insurance companies at any time of the day or night to respond to emergency situations.
Commercial
Commercial cleaning is also known as janitorial cleaning. Here, your customers are business owners, not home owners. Contracts are set up for regular cleaning services. So like with residential cleaning, there is the opportunity to build a loyal base of customers. loyalty and have a secure income.
However, while a residential cleaning business tends to be more 9-5, commercial cleaning is around the clock. This is because offices, restaurants, malls, and factories prefer to get their cleaning services done at night when the space is empty of employees and customers.
And like restoration cleaning, starting a commercial cleaning business means investing in education. Because while a homeowner may just want a shiny sink, building managers require that certain health and safety standards are met. See the Cleaning Industry Management Standard for more information if you are thinking about starting a cleaning business in the commercial or janitorial sector.
Market Research Tips for Starting a Cleaning Business
First – discover WHO is operating in the same city, area, or region where you want to operate.
Then, learn WHAT they are doing. As in: services offered, pricing, hours of operation, customer experience, value, and messaging.
Finally, understand what customers are saying about your competitors. Check out reviews on Google, Yelp, HomeStars, and anywhere else. This gives powerful insight into what customers love and expect. And also, what your competitors are doing well – and NOT doing well.
Hint – Use software for this! Spend your valuable time on analysis, not clicking around getting data. Check out web-scraping services on Fiverr.
How to Start a Cleaning Business
So you know what kind of services you want to offer, and you are ready to start building your new company. Perhaps you even have an idea for a business name.
Congratulations!
Now, here are steps on how to start a cleaning business.
1. Do Market Research
You may be tempted to skip this step. That would be a mistake. Why? Because knowing your competitors is KEY to competing.
For example, if you start a cleaning business offering exactly what a well-established company already does, and you are charging 3% more than their rates, what do you expect will happen?
It’s already a challenge to start a new business and get customers to trust you and hire you. Make it easier by being competitive. By offering services that people are demanding. Or providing a customer experience which is better or unique than what they are getting now. And all of this requires knowing WHAT is going on in your market.
2. Set up Business Basics
Next, set up some business basics. This will also take some research so you can make decisions that best fit your big goals. Think about tax implications for the various business structures available where you live. And what suits your own financial circumstances. Some business basics for how to start a cleaning business includes:
- Register a company
- Open a business bank account
- Set up a DBA (doing business as)
- Obtain business insurance
- Secure marketing assets (domain name, social media accounts)
- Get any licences or permits required in your area
3. Create your Brand
A brand is more than a name or logo. It’s the whole look, feel, and tone of a business. A brand signals to customers what to expect. Here is an example. Say you start your cleaning business as “Angie’s Personal Best Cleaning Service.” Your face is in the logo. The website and marketing message is “Hi, I’m Angie and I will do my personal best cleaning your home as though it were my own.”
Is this wrong?
No.
Not if your long term goal is to be cleaning every day, and to establish yourself as a cleaning person.
However, if your goal is to build a cleaning business that can be managed by staff while you do other things, then this is not the way to go. Why? Because customer will ALWAYS be expecting Angie. So when someone else shows up to clean their house, they will not be happy.
So think about your big picture goals for your business, who your target audience is, and where in the market you want to be positioned. For example, don’t limit yourself by including the name of your city if you want to expand to other cities. And if you are providing a premium service to high-end customers, don’t present it as a discount brand or call your company “Budget Maids.”
4. Map Customer Experience
In a service business, customer experience is everything. After all, they are not purchasing a tangible thing they can put on a shelf. They are receiving a service from your company, and the feelings around that matter just as much as the quality of that service.
Because in a cleaning business, customer experience is not just the quality of the cleaning they get. It’s the entire experience of interacting with your company. Such as:
- How long does it take to get a response when they contact your company?
- What information do they get when they hear from you?
- How easy is it to make requests, change their schedule, or update their billing details?
- How friendly is the staff they speak to and see?
- What response do they get when they make a complaint?
- Do they feel appreciated and valued as a customer?
- How much do they understand about what tasks are being done at every cleaning visit?
Mapping out the customer experience journey for your cleaning business will inform decisions about software, systems, processes, and policies.
Also, use technology to ease communication and improve efficiencies. See this list of software to help you start a cleaning business.
Read examples of good and bad CX in What is Customer Experience?
5. Run your Numbers
An important step in how to start a cleaning business is running your numbers. Use bookkeeping software or spreadsheets to estimate profit and loss statements and cash flow projections.
For example, if a service is $200 and your business has the capacity to do 120 of them in a month, that is $8000 of revenue. But what does that really mean for your business? List out all the fixed and variable costs to calculate your net profits.
Fixed costs don’t change from month to month. Whether you have 1 customer or 100, these costs must be paid. For example:
- Office rent
- Insurance
- Operations (software for scheduling and bookkeeping)
- Website
- Communications (cell, email marketing, CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
- Salaries (managers, supervisors, staff)
However, variable costs are tied to revenue. Meaning that the more customers you have, the more these costs go up. Here are examples:
- Labour (hourly workers)
- Supplies (cleaning fluids and equipment)
- Marketing (usually set as 2-5% of revenue)
Run your numbers to know your break even point.
More importantly, think about your target income for your business. Plug in that number to reverse engineer the revenue required to draw that from profits. Now you have a specific revenue goal to work towards.
6. Hire Staff
Can you start your cleaning business without staff? Sure. You could do the work yourself, in the very beginning.
But get ready for staff early on. Because if you are cleaning all day, then that limits your ability to market, manage, hire and train staff. And having staff means capacity to take on more customers, make more bookings, and bring in more revenue.
Not having enough staff is the #1 reason why a cleaning business doesn’t grow.
So an expert tip for how to start a cleaning business is to get ready for staff. From uniforms to policy manual, hiring process to onboarding and training, this is a significant piece that is directly tied to the success of your business.
7. Start Marketing (and don't stop)
One thing to understand about running a cleaning business is that you will always be marketing. Not just because you want to grow your business. But also to replace the natural turnover that happens. Because customers have life events that may cause them to take a break from hiring a housecleaning service. Like a divorce or a job loss. Or maybe they are moving outside of your service area.
Either way, zero turnover is not realistic.
So launch your marketing when you start your cleaning business. And then keep up a consistent flow of marketing activities to raise awareness of your brand and attract new customers.
Hiring Checklist for How to Start a Cleaning Business
- Know your labour laws to comply with all your responsibilities as an employer
- Uniforms and standards of professionalism and appearance
- Compensation plan (starting pay, when and how do raises happen)
- Staff manual of policies and procedures
- Onboarding process (paperwork, contracts, insurance, benefits, payroll, banking details)
- Training (cleaning process, efficiencies, best practises, documentation)
- Healthy and safety training
- Performance management policies
- Quality control processes
Software to Help you Start a Cleaning Business
Conclusion
Learning how to start a cleaning business is a pathway to build a solid business with a secure income. All businesses carry some risk. And every entrepreneur will tell you that lots of hard work is required to be successful.
But the potential is huge. The global cleaning services sector was valued at $388.4 B in 2023. And the market is growing at a CAGR of 6.50%.
So it may be worth the effort. Carefully evaluate your local market and discover competitive advantages that will differentiate your cleaning business. There are lots of opportunities if you want to start a cleaning business.
