Want to learn how to start a cleaning business?
Great, you’ve taken the first step towards financial freedom and business success.
Cleaning is one of the most tiring and time-consuming household chores. Everything from cleaning the carpets and windows to proper house cleaning is really hectic, especially for people who work full-time.
They don’t have the time and energy that everyday cleaning jobs demand. That’s why many of them happily hand over house cleaning and office cleaning to professional cleaners.
In such a scenario, starting a cleaning business can be a lucrative business option for you. However, you need to learn how to start a cleaning business from scratch and build it into a profitable venture.
If you’re planning to start a cleaning business, this article has all of the crucial information you would need at the start. Read on to find out exact how to start a cleaning business.
What Type of Cleaning Services Do You Want to Offer?
Before you start, you need to figure out what type of cleaning business you want to set up. Do you want to clean carpets and windows? Or, are you planning to offer full-fledged residential and/or commercial cleaning services to your potential customers?
Wondering what options you have when it comes to choosing the type of cleaning services you will offer?
The most common cleaning services that you can offer when you start a cleaning business include:
- Residential cleaning services
- Commercial cleaning services
- Maid services for daily household cleaning and other chores
- Carpet cleaning services
- Window cleaning services
- Laundry and dry cleaning services
- Sanitization and disinfection
Once you’ve decided which services you’ll offer when you start a cleaning business, you can move forward. You can always expand your service line in the future as your revenue grows.
For example, you can begin with residential cleaning services, but after a year or two, you can add maid services as well. After you start your cleaning business, the sky is the limit.
Now, if you wonder how to start a cleaning business, read the next section.
The Step-by-Step Guide on How to Start a Cleaning Business
Here is the step-by-step process to help you start a cleaning company from scratch:
Step #1: Set a Budget and Arrange Finances
Be it a small investment or a big one, you need to invest some money to start a cleaning business.
The cost to start a cleaning business can range anywhere from $3,500 to $200,000 based on the scale of business and equipment quality.
Following is a high-level cost breakdown to help you start a cleaning business:
- Licenses and permits can cost anywhere between $100 to $500, including registering the firm as an LLC
- The cost for janitorial insurance generally ranges from $350 to $8,000 per year
- The equipment cost can range between $300 to $600 depending on the type of supplies you’re opting for. Following is the cost breakdown for equipment:
- High-quality vacuum cleaner costs between $200 to $300
- $10 each for broom and multiple cleaning solutions
- $20 for a mop
- $20 for dusting supplies
- $100 to $200 for print and online marketing because marketing is essential
- Lastly, the labor cost varies as per your area of business. However, you can consider a minimum of $15 per hour of minimum wages.
Also, keep room for additional expenses like workers’ compensation in case they’re injured. You’ll have to pay $2,000 per year in such cases, which can be a huge financial burden for you at the start.
The best way to start a cleaning business is to start small and scale-up as your business grows.
What this means is you should keep your initial setup cost as low as possible to avoid huge debt at the start. As soon as you get the momentum and start seeing higher revenue, you can expand your line of services as well as your geographical area of operation.
When you’ve calculated the cost estimates, it’s time for you to obtain the necessary funds for the capital required to start your cleaning business. Don’t rush to the bank directly. Sit back and see if anyone from your network would want to invest in a business.
If you have some of your contacts interested to invest in your business at the start, show them our business plan if you’re lucky, you’ll get the investment. Otherwise, banks are always there.
What’s next on our guide on how to start a cleaning business?
Keep reading to find out.
Step #2: Decide on Your Cleaning Company Name
First things first, you need to decide on a business name for your cleaning company before you can move further and start your cleaning business.
When picking a cleaning business name at the start, you should consider how your prospects will perceive it and choose a name that is:
- Unique
- Relevant to your business
- Professional
- Short and easy to spell
There is one more thing that you need to take care of while choosing your business name. You need to make sure it is available to register by checking with the Secretary of State. You should also check if the exact name is available as a domain online. This is an important step to start a cleaning business as it will help you take your cleaning business online.
What’s the next step to start a cleaning business?
Step #3: Choose a Business Structure for Your Cleaning Company
The next step to start your cleaning business is to decide on a business structure. It is required by the federal government to register your company as a legal entity and get authorized to conduct business within the state where you register it.
Some of the most common business structures that cleaning business owners choose to form are mentioned below. Each of them has different requirements. Our application for each one is simple to fill out. We will take care of all of the required federal and state legal documentation.
When picking a business structure for your cleaning company, you should consider the ownership, operational, and taxation needs of your new business.
Once you’ve decided on a business structure to start your cleaning business, you will have to complete the legal state and federal filing requirements and submit the necessary documents. You can either do this by yourself or have a legal documentation service like ours do it for you.
Along with state and federal filings, we also offer important legal documents that you may need as a new cleaning business owner.
You can check out pricing plans and package inclusions here.
Before moving ahead, you should also check with your local town, county, or state government to see if there are any business licenses or permits you will need to start a cleaning business. You can find this information by contacting your local government offices.
The next step to start a cleaning business is related to revenue and prices, so pay special attention to that.
Step #4: Set Your Prices Strategically
The price sheet for most cleaning service providers remains more or less similar. Following are the typical prices of cleaning services in the US:
- Flat rate: $120 to $150 for a single-family home
- Hourly rate: $50 to $90
- Deep clean or one-time visit: $400
- Move out cleaning: $200 to $400
- Junk removal: $130 to $350
Many cleaning businesses charge based on square foot, especially for commercial avenues and non-residential places. The rates range from $0.05 to $0.20 per square foot.
The rates listed above are just for reference and may vary from state to state. If you want to know the cleaning rates in the area where you start your business, just search for “cleaning services rate in [your area],” and you’ll find what your competitors charge for cleaning services in your area.
However, deciding the prices for general cleaning services shouldn’t be a problem for you. The real issue arises when you bundle a few of your services. To fix the prices for service packages, you can either go with the cost + profit approach or find out what your competitors are charging for the same services.
If you start a cleaning business with a differentiation approach, you might have trouble comparing your cleaning services with your competitors to fix the price. In this case, go with the value proposition approach and price your services based on the value you deliver to your customers.
Lastly, make sure that you provide your customers with an easy way of billing. You can even offer subscription packages to ensure recurring income and happy clients for your business.
What’s next on our list of steps on how to start a cleaning business?
Step #5: Open a Business Bank Account for Your Cleaning Business
Once you’ve registered your new cleaning business, you should collect all legal paperwork and open a business bank account. Doing this will help you separate your cleaning service income from your personal account and finances.
A separate business bank account is also helpful for streamlining the overall financial reporting of your cleaning business. You can easily track and calculate your business income and expenses, which will make it easier for you to file your company taxes.
Step #6: Sort Out the Logistics
Other than the human resources cost, transportation and supplies are among the two highest expenses for any cleaning business. Once you plan both these elements of your cleaning business, you can figure out the true cost to start a cleaning business.
Here is a further explanation:
- Transportation: The transportation factor is crucial for mobile cleaning businesses. In order to provide the cleaning services, your team needs to get to the customer’s house or office, right? This is where a transportation vehicle becomes necessary. Now, how many and what types of vehicles you’d need depends on your area and scope of operation.
- Supplies: The type and quality of supplies you’d need depends on the types and number of customers you serve. If you have dozens of houses to clean every week, it’s better to stock your supplies in bulk. However, not every customer would want you to bring in your own cleaning supplies. Some people prefer that you use their preferred cleaning products.
Depending on the scale of your cleaning business, you need to have just an adequate inventory of the supplies you need for cleaning.
Why?
Because inventory management costs a lot to cleaning businesses. You don’t want to run out of supplies, and neither do you want to load your supply stock unnecessarily. Ordering too many supplies means that you block your working capital and will have to spend extra on inventory handling as well.
This is why you have to plan for the supplies as per demand since the start.
What’s the next step to start your cleaning business?
Step #7: Put Your House Cleaning Supplies Together
Due to the increasing demand for professional cleaning services, there are a lot of cleaning business startups launching in the cleaning industry. To stand out among your competitors, you should make sure that you offer the best cleaning jobs and use the best cleaning supplies in the market from the start.
You should buy cleaning chemicals, sponges, microfiber cloths, mop heads, and other cleaning supplies in bundles to save time and money.
When you’re just starting a cleaning business, you can consider buying cleaning chemicals in concentrated form. You should transfer them to empty bottles in the recommended amount and then fill the rest up with water.
Along with regular house cleaning, you should pay special attention to cleaning windows, door frames, and baseboards. Providing an additional deep cleaning service can help you attract more customers via word-of-mouth marketing in the long run.
What’s next to start a cleaning business?
Step #8: Buy Cleaning Business Insurance
Before you start offering house cleaning or office cleaning services, you should have proper general liability insurance for your business.
Not just your business needs the insurance, but your potential clients may also ask you to show proof of your liability insurance. You may be wondering what makes general liability insurance so important.
New businesses are prone to service failures and accidents. And so will you be when you start your cleaning business.
Having liability insurance will help you make sure that you are financially covered from lawsuits if someone is injured or any damage happens to the property as a result of your cleaning service.
We have partnered with a leader in small business insurance that can help you get a quote for exactly what you need. You should definitely get a customized quote and buy general liability insurance for your cleaning company before you start taking cleaning jobs at houses or offices.
Along with this, there are other types of cleaning business insurance that you may need for your new business. Some of these include:
- Property Damage Insurance to provide coverage for any damage to the property caused by theft or fire
- Workers Compensation Insurance to cover medical expenses and the loss of wages to an employee who gets hurt while doing the cleaning job
- Business Vehicle Insurance to provide coverage for the vehicles that your cleaning company owns or uses
- House Cleaning Bonding Insurance or Janitorial Service Bond to protect your business in case an employee does theft, fraudulent activity, or dishonest act at a customer’s home
The next step to start a cleaning business focuses on getting you new clients.
Step #9: Create a Modern Marketing Plan
The key to marketing your cleaning business is to build a presence where your potential clients are looking for cleaning services.
You should list your cleaning company on Google and social media platforms. Also, create a website for your cleaning company.
Why?
Because the world has become digital, and in 2022, if your cleaning business isn’t online, then you’re more likely to fail. The reason is that people look for cleaning services online, which creates a huge opportunity for your cleaning business to get more customers.
Regardless of whether you rely on your personal contacts to find new customers, you still need to have a website where your prospects can explore your cleaning services.
But can you afford building a website when you start your cleaning business?
Gone are the days when building a website used to cost a fortune. With website builders like WordPress and Wix, any small business can build its website without having to pay for development services.
All you have to pay for is the domain registration and hosting charges. You can find tons of free themes that you can use to design your website. Website building with these platforms is a breeze, and you won’t require any software development-level technical expertise to do it yourself.
What else would you need to start your cleaning business?
You also need to list your cleaning business on the top local directories so that your target customers can find you easily. One such business directory is Google My Business.
To list your business on Google, go to the Google My Business website and complete the process. Once verified, your business will appear on Google.
If you can find the bandwidth, you can also be active on Instagram and Facebook to connect with your potential customers.
Lastly, ask your existing customers to review your services or provide testimonials. Ask them for a suitable time and get them in front of a camera to share their experience with your cleaning services. Once you have their testimony, share that on your website, and social media handles to gain trust among other prospects.
That’ll be a great start to your cleaning business branding.
Step #10: Identify Your Ideal Client Base
The most critical step toward starting your cleaning business is to identify your target customers and connect with them.
The most promising method of finding new clients for your cleaning business is word-of-mouth. You should, therefore, delight your customers with your services so that they refer your services to others.
Earlier, we suggested you ask your existing clients to leave you a positive review. Your ideal customers are generally those who are delighted with your services.
The following questions will help you identify your ideal client type for your cleaning business:
- What households and business types will find your cleaning services helpful?
- Which households and businesses can afford your cleaning services?
- Who are the decision-makers in these households and organizations?
- How can you contact them?
- How can you learn about their interests and demographics?
- Can you connect with them on a personal level?
At the start, you need to understand your target audience and create customer personas so that you focus on the customers who are ideal for your business.
Why is it necessary when you start your cleaning business?
Because marketing costs are high, and if you keep your target audience profile generic, you’ll have to spend thousands of dollars to reach the right audience. Which, of course, you cannot afford at the start. Hence, it’s better to create buyer personas before you start marketing your cleaning business.
Here is how you can create buyer personas:
- Start by filling in your ideal buyer’s basic demographic information like age, gender, profession, interests, etc.
- Identify your ideal customers’ goals and pain points that you can solve.
- Determine what motivates them and what value proposition they look for while investing in cleaning services.
- Try to determine their budget for cleaning services
Based on this information, you can identify several types of buyer profiles. They’re called personas. Use them to narrow down your marketing campaigns’ target audiences.
This will be a great start to getting new clients.
Step #11: Get Clients for Your Cleaning Business
Once you’ve identified your ideal customer segment, you need to find them. This is the hardest part for a business that has just started.
At the start, you won’t have a reputation in the market nor the past work experience to showcase. It gets trickier to win customers at this stage.
So how do you win customers?
Don’t fret. You can get customers via the following methods:
Pitch Your Services to Family and Friends
Of course, cleaning your friends’ houses won’t make you a millionaire, but it can be a good start for your business.
As discussed earlier, word-of-mouth marketing is the backbone for cleaning service providers, and no one can market you better than your friends and family.
Provide them with an exceptional cleaning service to take them in confidence. You’ll be surprised to see the results you can get by promoting your business via your social circle.
Make Cold Calls to Businesses in Your Locality
If you’re going into the commercial cleaning niche, create a list of businesses in your locality who can benefit from your services. Call them and pitch your services.
The chances are that they already have a cleaning service provider, but before you presume, you don’t have to differentiate just on price.
So how do you compete with the competition?
When it comes to businesses, price isn’t the first parameter in choosing a service. They look for service consistency and additional benefits.
Hence, you can start by offering them extra services coupled with the core services. This can prove to be a great approach to attracting new businesses and winning over your competition.
Distribute Flyers and Business Cards
Sending flyers in office buildings and households might seem old-fashioned, but the traditional methods of marketing are still effective, at least on a local level.
Hire a local marketing company to get your flyers ready and distribute them. Don’t do it by yourself. These marketing companies are experts in these areas and know where and when to distribute the flyers.
Get your business cards made and don’t miss any chance to distribute them.
Advertise in Local Papers and Magazines
If your business location has a popular local newspaper, it’s a great place for you to advertise your cleaning services.
Again, a local marketing agency will be the best pick for you as they would already have an established relationship with the newspapers and can buy ad space at a cheaper rate.
Another great way to establish awareness about your services in the local market is through ads in local magazines.
Advertise on Billboards
Will billboard marketing ever die? Not at all.
Having your advertisement for cleaning services shown on a few huge billboards will create a big impact on your target customer base.
However, this will also impact your marketing budget. As such, you should keep the ROI in mind when planning to go with billboard ads.
Bonus Tip: Focus on Customer Retention
While it’s important to win new customers, don’t forget that loyal, repeat customers are more profitable in the long run. Focus on customer retention and convert one-time shoppers into loyal customers.
The customer retention cost will always remain lower than the acquisition cost (unless you offer renewal discounts recklessly). Hence, you should focus more on providing quality services to your existing customers.
When you start a cleaning business create a marketing strategy that focuses on both customer acquisition and retention. This will go a long way in making your cleaning business successful.
What’s next to start a cleaning business?
Step #12: Hire Employees
With the strategies discussed above, you’ll get a lot of work. How are you going to handle that by yourself? You can’t.
If you want to offer services at a decent scale, you need to hire employees to serve your growing clientele.
Hiring employees comes with its own set of legal and regulatory requirements. So how would you manage them?
Let’s talk about them in brief.
Employer Identification Number
You can obtain an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) department. If you don’t want to handle the complex government document filing process yourself, hire our EIN services and we’ll do it for you.
Tax Filing and Withholding
All new employers in the US need to apply for federal as well as state tax filing. Moving forward, you’ll have to keep a record of employment taxes, including state tax accounting docs and special forms.
Don’t fret; ask us if you have any queries before or after you start a cleaning business.
Unemployment Insurance Tax
You can pay unemployment insurance tax via the UI Program, which comes under Social Security Tax for employers.
Other Legal Requirements Include
- Federal employment and labor law compliances
- State’s new hire program
- Employment eligibility verification
- Worker’s compensation insurance
- Occupational safety and health administration
- Disability insurance (norms differ per state)
Employee Compensation
Employee salaries are going to be the most significant operational expense when you start a cleaning business. There are several compensation models you can follow for your cleaning business. Let’s talk about two of the popular ones that you can use when you start.
- Pay-Per-Performance Compensation: Many cleaning businesses in the US use this model of compensation where the employees receive a pre-defined percentage of revenue from every job. This empowers them to earn more by completing more tasks.
- Hourly Rate: Although the minimum wages start at $15 per hour, you can offer your employees competitive wages as per industry standards.
Although these two compensation methods are the most popular ones, businesses also use other types of payment structures like fixed salaries for their employees.
However, if you’ve just started your cleaning business, there is no need to employ more people and plan for payment structure.
The best and easiest foot forward is to stick with the pay-per-hour compensation method to keep things simple.
Still, have some queries on how to start your cleaning business?
Check out the answers to commonly-asked questions below.
FAQs
1. How to start a cleaning business from scratch?
Here is a quick guide on how to start a cleaning business:
- Set a budget and arrange finances
- Decide on your cleaning business name
- Choose a business structure for your cleaning company
- Set your prices strategically
- Open a business bank account for your cleaning business
- Sort out the logistics
- Put your house cleaning supplies together
- Buy cleaning business insurance
- Create a marketing plan
- Identify your target clients
- Win clients for your business
- Hire employees to handle big projects
You just need to follow all of these steps to start a cleaning business from scratch.
2. How to start a carpet cleaning business?
To start a cleaning business that offers carpet cleaning services, you need to:
- Write a business plan.
- Choose a business structure.
- Pick a business name and register it.
- Either hire carpet cleaners or learn to do it yourself.
- Set up a pricing model.
- Buy business insurance.
- Promote your carpet cleaning business to start getting customers.
3. Is it worth it to start a cleaning business?
Starting a cleaning business can be a lucrative business idea. People who work don’t have enough time for cleaning their houses, carpets, windows, etc. You can not only offer residential cleaning services but commercial cleaning services as well.
It is easy to start with minimal investment. Starting a cleaning business is totally worth all of the effort.
4. How much money do I need to start a cleaning business?
To start a cleaning business, you need to pay state and federal filing fees and also buy the required cleaning supplies and equipment.
If you provide the services yourself, you can start with as little as $1000-$1500. However, if you want to hire cleaning staff, you will also have to consider the wages of your employees.
Following is a high-level cost breakdown to start a cleaning business:
- Licenses and permits can cost anywhere between $100 to $500, including registering the firm as an LLC
- The cost for janitorial insurance generally ranges from $350 to $8,000 per year
- The equipment cost can range between $300 to $600 depending on the type of supplies you’re opting for. Following is the cost breakdown for equipment:
- High-quality vacuum cleaner costs between $200 to $300
- $10 each for broom and multiple cleaning solutions
- $20 for a mop
- $20 for dusting supplies
- $100 to $200 for print and online marketing because marketing is essential
- Lastly, the labor cost varies as per your area of business. However, you can consider a minimum of $15 per hour of minimum wages.
Also, keep room for additional expenses like workers’ compensation in case they’re injured. You’ll have to pay 2,000 per year in such cases.
5. How do I get clients for my cleaning business?
When you start a cleaning business, use the following tactics to market your business:
- Ask your friends and family to buy your service plans and spread the word about it at the time when you start your cleaning business.
- List your business on Google My Business to help local clients find you.
- Build a website for your cleaning business or launch an app.
- Create a list of businesses in your locality that can benefit from your services. Call them and propose your services.
- Distribute flyers in the office buildings and households in your locality to start getting new clients.
- Promote your business on social media. You can offer a discount on your monthly cleaning packages to early joiners.
- If your geographical area of business has a popular local newspaper, it’s a great place for you to advertise your cleaning services at the start.
- Use billboard marketing because having your advertisement for cleaning services shown on a few gigantic billboards will create a huge impact on your target customer base.
- Encourage referral orders by providing good quality cleaning service to your existing customers. You can also offer free cleaning credits to clients who bring you referral customers.
- Lastly, retain your existing customers because the cost of retaining customers is lower than acquiring new customers.
6. What prices can I charge my customers for cleaning services?
The price sheet for most cleaning service providers is quite similar. Following are the general prices of cleaning services in the US:
- Flat rate: $120 to $150 for a single-family home
- Hourly rate: $50 to $90
- Deep clean or one-time visit: $400
- Move out cleaning: $200 to $400
- Junk removal: $130 to $350
Many cleaning businesses charge based on square foot, with the rates ranging from $0.05 to $0.20 per square foot.
Determine what pricing structure your want to follow before you start a cleaning business.
7. How to acquire customers for my cleaning business at the start?
Here are some ways to acquire customers when you start a cleaning business:
- Start by serving your family and friends
- Make cold calls to businesses in your locality
- Distribute flyers and business cards
- Advertise in local papers and magazines
- Advertise on billboards
- Lastly, focus on retaining existing customers
8. How to find ideal customers for my cleaning business?
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself to determine your target customers at the start:
- What households and business types will find my cleaning services helpful?
- Which households and businesses can afford my cleaning services?
- Who are the decision-makers in these households and organizations?
- How can I contact them?
- How can I learn about their interests and demographics?
- Can I connect with them on a personal level?
Based on your answer to these questions, you can create buyer personas for your cleaning business.
Also, at the start, you need to narrow down your customer profiles so that you focus on the customers who are ideal for your business.
9. What is the ultimate checklist for starting a cleaning business?
Here’s a detailed checklist on how to start a cleaning business:
- Decide the cleaning services you’d want to offer
- Create a cost budget and arrange finances
- Decide your cleaning business brand name
- Choose a business structure for your cleaning company
- Choose a pricing model and fix the prices for your services
- Create service bundles and offers
- Open a business bank account for your cleaning business
- Sort out the logistics
- Put together your house/office cleaning supplies
- Buy cleaning business insurance
- Create a modern marketing plan
- Identify your ideal customer profiles
- Create your customer acquisition strategy
- Hire employees to handle large business and demand
10. How to choose a brand name for my cleaning business?
When picking a cleaning business name, you should consider how your prospects will perceive it and choose a name that is:
- Unique
- Relevant to your business
- Professional
- Memorable
- Short and easy to spell
There are two more things that you need to take care of while choosing your business name.
- You need to make sure it is available to register by checking with the Secretary of State.
- You have to check if the exact name is available as a domain online. This is an important step at the start as it will help you take your cleaning business online.
Are You Ready to Build a Successful Cleaning Business?
Starting a cleaning business is a booming business idea with a lot of potential for turning profitable. While it is possible to start a small house cleaning company with low investment, you need to put a lot of time and effort into scaling it up.
You should go through all of the steps mentioned above and create a cleaning business start-up checklist for yourself to get started. This will help you keep track of everything and make sure that you don’t miss a crucial step while starting your cleaning business.
Do you have questions on how to start a cleaning business? Feel free to drop them in the comments below. We’ll be happy to help you through your entrepreneurial journey.