Thinking of starting your own cleaning business? Here is a simple step-by-step guide that you can follow to establish a cleaning business of your own.
Decide what kind of cleaning business you want to run
As you begin, you have to be specific about what kind of cleaning company you want to run. Many entrepreneurs start out with limited amounts of money, so it’s wise to start by choosing a specialized cleaning field. This will allow you to develop experience in a chosen vertical quickly, instead of trying to learn and understand too broad an area. Here are some of the most popular vertical cleaning niches:
- Carpet cleaning.
- Window cleaning.
- Pressure washing.
- Washroom/ Restroom cleaning.
- Disaster cleaning/ Restoration.
- Domestic cleaning and housekeeping.
- General office cleaning.
- Commercial cleaning.
According to Nicholas Pastras, a person with over 20 years’ experience in the cleaning industry and the owner of Australia’s fastest-growing commercial cleaning company Smart Cleaning Solutions, people change cleaning suppliers often, and the main reason they do is because they feel their incumbent cleaner has let them down. By specialising in one area of cleaning, you will be able to develop competence and reliability more quickly, and Pastras insists that reliability is the key to building a successful cleaning business.
Once you have decided on a niche in the cleaning industry and are armed with the inside knowledge from a seasoned pro that your success will be built on being reliable, you have several decisions to make so you can move forward.
Decide whether you want to create your own brand, or if you want to join an existing franchise
Both options have their inherent advantages and disadvantages. If you join a franchise, you will be working under an established brand name which has a proven business model, and which offers great business advice as well as marketing support to its franchisees. However, you will have to put up a huge initial investment and pay a large chunk of your profits to the parent company. You will also have limited options when you want to expand your business. If you start your own company, you will pretty much have to figure out everything on your own, but you will have the flexibility to run your business however you like.
Deal with all the essentials of the business registration process
You have to go through the legal process of registering and incorporating your cleaning business. First, you will have to decide what kind of business structure to use. Do you want your cleaning business to be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a company? You can do some research or talk to an accountant to figure out which structure suits you the best. You will then have to acquire state licenses and find out if your local council requires you to get other permits. You will need to find an insurance provider for your business, and you might need to hire an accountant to maintain your tax records. Most jurisdictions don’t require training qualifications for cleaners, but you may want to take a brief course from a trade school if you don’t already know how to run a cleaning business.
Select your cleaning products and equipment
Most of your start-up capital will go into purchasing equipment and products for your cleaning business, so you should do your homework, and you should be very specific about what you are looking for. If you are starting a residential cleaning service, a few basic items will suffice. If you have chosen to take the commercial cleaning route, or a field like carpet cleaning, you will need specialist equipment. When kiting up with equipment, try and buy from reliable professionals because being reliable means you’ll need reliable equipment, suggests the specialists at cleanerslondon.com. If you buy cheap equipment, and you’re cleaning professionally, you’ll wind up consistently forking out money on repairs and downtime, plus the inevitable cost of replacing unreliable tools.
Come up with a strategy to outshine your competitors
You need to brainstorm strategies that you’ll use to distinguish yourself from your competitors. You will be entering a market that will be saturated with other players that are doing the same exact thing that you are, so how do you distinguish yourself from them? Well, as we have learnt previously, good cleaners focus on reliability, because it’s a lack of reliability that gets cleaners fired. Customers are always looking for cleaners that offer a consistently high quality of service, and they tend to keep hiring and sacking different cleaners until they find the right one. From the very first contract that you get, you should strive to establish a reputation for reliability.
Come up with reasonable prices for all your services
Most clients will want to know your prices up front, so make sure that you do your research and establish a pricing system for all your services. A reasonable price for a cleaning service should be able to cover:
- The cost of your cleaning products and disposable cleaning equipment.
- Transportation costs.
- Utility costs (some clients may ask for discounts if you use their water and electricity in the cleaning process).
- Labour costs for your employees (most likely based on an hourly rate).
- Overhead costs.
- A reasonable profit margin.
You may be able to calculate your prices per unit square footage, and you can then extrapolate your final quotes for your individual clients based on the sizes of their premises.
When you find customers, do your best to impress them
To find customers, you need to be proactive. This can be difficult at the start, especially if you don’t have much capital to invest in marketing. Advice on how to find and get clients is beyond the scope of this article, but a lot of cleaners these days are hired on contracts, so look for ads in the paper and online. When you find clients, try and build a good personal relationship and ask them to refer you to other clients. By offering a reliable personal service, you will be able to hold onto clients you get and build your business by word of mouth.
