If you are tired of working for someone else and you want something more for yourself, you should consider starting your own business. Unfortunately, most businesses require thousands of dollars and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to start. If you are looking for a business that doesn’t require quite as much money to start and that can be quite lucrative, you should consider starting a cleaning business. Before you begin your cleaning venture, there are several things that you are going to need first. There is more to running a cleaning business than purchasing work uniforms, cleaning products, and a window cleaning backpack.
#1 Design Your Business
The first thing that you need to do before you start your business is deciding what type of business you are going to run. Some cleaning services do strictly residential cleaning, some do commercial cleaning only, and some do both. You need to decide what type of service you are going to start.
#2 Name Your Business
Choosing the right name is very important. You want to make sure that it sounds catchy and that it is going to be search engine friendly. If the name of your business has already been registered by another company, you will need to find another one, therefore, you should make sure that nobody else has the name. Finally, you want to make sure that the name of your business is available as a domain name. It will help your customers find you online. If the domain name has been taken, you should consider another name. After you have a name for the business, you should design a logo. It is something that you can put on your business cards, your websites, and other promotional materials.
#3 Set Your Business Up for Tax Purposes
In order to register your business, you need to fill out the necessary forms at the register of deeds office. If you are going to be hiring employees to work for you, you will need an EIN. Depending on where you leave, you may need to get a business permit or a license. If you are unsure of the guidelines in your particular area, you should contact the Small Business Bureau.
#4 Purchase Business Insurance
It is very important that you take out insurance on your business. For starters, if you do any damage to a client’s home, your insurance policy will cover it. Also, if you want potential customers to respect your company and see you as a serious professional, you would need to have an insurance policy. You should not go out on any job, regardless how small until you have insurance.
#5 Purchase Your Cleaning Equipment
It is best to purchase your own cleaning equipment rather than using the equipment that the homeowner or business owner has in the house. First of all, you don’t know if the client will have everything that you need, and second, you won’t know if they have quality equipment in the home. Before you start, you should have a broom, dustpan, a quality mop, a quality vacuum cleaner, rags, sponges, and anything else that you will need to properly clean your clients’ homes or businesses.
#6 Purchasing Cleaning Products
It is best to purchase your own cleaning products for your business. When purchasing your cleaning products, you don’t want to use the products found in the supermarket. For starters, these products are not as high quality as industrial products. Also, you can purchase industry grade products in bulk, which you will definitely need once your business starts picking up.
#7 List Your Services
Before you start advertising your business and taking on clients, you need to figure out what services you are going to provide and what services you won’t. You also need to figure out if you are going to charge per service, per square foot, or if you are going to offer a variety of cleaning packages. These decisions should be based on your own preferences and if your business needs change in the future, you can change your business model.
#8 Create Contracts
Once you have created your service list, you should create your contract template. It should include a section for the client’s information and your information. There should be a section with the services that the homeowner needs done, how often they want your service to clean, and your fee. Finally, you need a section for your signature and your client’s signature. The contract is going to be very important to your business and legal matters.
#9 Advertising
Your business won’t go anywhere if you don’t start advertising. If you don’t have much money spared for your advertising budget, social media is a great start. You can create a Facebook page for your business and invite your friends to “like” and “share” your page. You can even create a YouTube commercial and put it on your Facebook page. If your community sends out a weekly magazine, you can pay to place an ad. This should get your business name out to thousands of people. If you have money in your advertising budget, you can advertise in your local paper or purchase a spot on the radio. This is a great way to get your name out there.
#10 Build a Website
The last step to starting your business is to set up a website. It should contain all of the necessary information, such as service areas, services provided, your contact information, and anything else that you think that your customers should know. There are sites that help you build your own website, however, you would be better off hiring a professional to do it for you.
Starting a cleaning venture is not as easy as you might think. There is a lot of work to get the business off the ground before you can even get down to cleaning your clients’ homes or businesses. It is a lot of work, but it will all be worth it.
