Whether we are talking about our homes or our offices, cleaning is a task that doesn’t appeal to many people. Some would say it’s a chore they don’t love at all. For that reason, nowadays there are specialized businesses that will take care of that problem for you.
Cleaning is a necessity for both households and offices. So it’s no wonder that there is a huge potential for growth in a niche such as this.
But opening a business that appeals to so many people can be tricky. That’s why, when you’re asking yourself how to start a cleaning business, the answer is longer than you might expect.
Let us tell you more about this business and how to begin planning for one and make it a success.
A business plan comes in handy when starting any business. And a great business plan comes with a good amount of research. Research is a step that cannot be skipped and needs to include the following:
- Your competition – see how many businesses like your own are in the area
- Your niche – will you be looking into commercial cleaning or domestic business
- Finding employees – unless you have already people willing to help, finding employees is a main concern
- Creating the price plan – you need to know how much you can earn and see if it’s profitable by creating pricing plans
- Marketing – see how to advertise your business efficiently
- Paperwork – before anything else, there is a ton of paperwork involved, from registering the business and getting a license to employment contracts and making sure the products you are using are within the legislation.
See who is your competition
Before diving into the paperwork and legalities of creating a business, you must check who is your competition. See how many businesses with the same profile as yours are in the area.
Industry research might give you valuable insights on how to tackle the pricing plan, how to name your business, how to choose your niche, and choose the proper marketing channels. Search engines could provide great information for what you need to know about the competition and other relevant businesses.
Having a good website should also be your top priority since it’s the most efficient and cheapest way of reaching your customers. Having a website is like a great business card, the first thing people will notice when researching you.
So make sure, to put that on the “to-do” list.
By researching “how to start a house cleaning business” you can get a feel for how this industry is moving, how many entities there are, and how they present their overall image to the clients.
Make sure to write down relevant information such as: what their prices are, how they advertise themselves if they work with other companies or with regular people. After this initial research, you’ll see things more clearly and you’ll be able to move on to the next step.
Position yourself on a niche
Establishing if you’ll be working for regular homes and people or if you’ll want to clean offices and commercial spaces should be your next step.
There are benefits as well as inconveniences to whatever you would choose so let’s examine this for a bit.
If you are wondering how to start a commercial cleaning business here’s the thing: it’s the same as starting a house cleaning one, but you’ll deal with businesses instead of people. The perk of having a B2B approach is that there will be just one person to coordinate everything and the job could be long-term.
The niche will also determine what kind of equipment and products you’ll need, how many employees, and what licenses or legal paperwork will be involved.
Commercial cleaning
For commercial cleaning businesses, you’ll want to consider that jobs are not easily found since many companies already work with a cleaning firm.
Most of the work will need to be done at night when the offices or the stores are closed to not interrupt their workflow. Make sure your employees know that and are willing to work those hours.
The cleaning equipment will need to be professional and withstand intensive labor. You’ll also need: spray bottles and sponges, reusable and disposable towels and other supplies, professional cleaning solvents, and protective gear if necessary. This is also a topic worth thinking about, will you be using eco products or traditional ones?
Home cleaning
For cleaning homes, things are usually more straightforward in terms of employees and hours. You could start on your own and see if you need any other help. If you have experience with pools, windows, or carpets you can add them to your service plan and charge extra for them.
You can also search for how to start a pool cleaning business if you live in a state where sunny weather prevails.
However, you could find yourself in a position where you might want to explore how to start a carpet cleaning business especially if you don’t lack experience in that area.
Those options, along with whatever experience you might have in another relevant field could be enough to start a home cleaning business on your own. Those are pretty handy skills to have when cleaning residential houses and make sure to use them.
If you start with homes, be open to criticism and keep in mind that the space you are cleaning is a personal one so demands will be higher. You’ll need to adapt to meet expectations.
You need to remember that there are different times to clean an office versus cleaning a house. While an office building might seem like the bigger space, you don’t have so many items to clean and lift and put back as in a home. So you might want to try a friend’s house and see how much time it takes you to do a cleaning job properly. This is a great exercise for when it’s time to decide on pricing plans.
Hire employees
If you are bent on starting a commercial cleaning business, you’ll need to think about hiring people to help you with everything the job entails.
Not only the paperwork involved is on a different level, but you’ll also need to train your employees so that the work they do is flawless.
Make sure they all have just a little bit of experience and if you start a general cleaning business then you can group them according to their skills.
Don’t forget to invest in training and fair payment so they stay happy and do a good job.
Set up pricing
After careful consideration of all the investments you’ll need to make when opening a cleaning business, you’ll be able to make a budget.
The price for your services should reflect your investment.
But for determining the exact pricing plan you have at your disposal three ways: charging an hourly rate, charging on square feet, or a flat price.
Depending on the niche you’re focusing on the rates can benefit one or the other.
For example, when cleaning a house, you could start with an hourly fee and then move on to a flat rate after a while. Commercial spaces could benefit from the square feet price calculation.
If you’re wondering how to start a window cleaning business and set the price just right, we have a great solution for you, try charging for the square feet then move to a flat rate.
Check the competition to see if your rates are fair, then review all your expenses and see if the price covers them all and also makes a profit.
Take care of paperwork
This part is not the most pleasant one, mostly because it involves paperwork, licenses, and legislation. But it is necessary and you should take that into account when deciding on how to start a business cleaning houses.
After choosing the business name, check with your state’s legislation on what you need to follow for your business to be legal.
Most likely you’ll need permits and licenses, and some of that could require a fee. Make sure to also add business and liability insurance to protect your business.
Working in people’s houses and offices can, sometimes, be riskier. So, insurance is for the best.
Set a marketing plan
One of the most important parts of starting a business, any kind of business, is advertising.
Things are great until you need to find customers and keep up with the market’s demands.
Where to start?
We can offer you advice on how to begin advertising and make sure you don’t spend a lot of money on channels that don’t work.
Offline advertising
This kind of advertising requires media channels such as radio, newspaper, local television, billboards, events, and word of mouth, among others. It is an efficient type of advertising as it reaches a lot of people, but it is expensive and it’s hard to measure.
If you are starting a house cleaning business, try word of mouth first. Pitch for friends or old associates, even family, and see how that goes. Doing a good job will earn you a good recommendation.
If you start commercial, try calling the local businesses and offer your services. Establish a meeting with the manager and convince him/her of your company’s unique approach.
Online advertising
Starting to promote yourself online is a great and more effective way of beginning a business.
Some social media channels don’t require a big budget to begin with and can bring some clients.
Even if you mix offline advertising with online, make sure to have a brand identity ready to be put out there.
Invest in a good logo and a catchy name for your business and don’t forget to make a website.
Helix Solutions’s developers work side by side with business owners, big or small, and create the best websites to represent their businesses.
We have experience with plenty of companies and we can implement and develop the website according to their present and future needs. We have a dedicated team that takes the project from the start and helps them improve along the way.
See here the services we can provide and the platforms we work with.
After creating a website, the next step is promoting the services, experience, and differentiators on the search engines. This kind of advertising has the great benefit of targeting specific clients for your business. It’s not just testing, like with the offline kind of ads, but Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or TikTok messages can reach your target.
Having a website that comprises all the information you want people to know about your business and your team is a great way of introducing yourself. It gives your business credibility and stability.
If you throw in some reviews, you are on the way to succeeding.
Just visit our website and see what kind of businesses we have worked with and how we can help you turn your dream into a success.
