How to Start a House Cleaning Business

You decided you can make money and you are good for the cleaning service job.  Is the job good for you?  Before starting your cleaning business, be informed that cleaning is very hard work. In addition, a cleaning business is a business... i.e., you will need to know how to handle customers and your bookkeeping work that comes with it.

As far as permits, you will need a business license, and a dba if you use a name such as "Cleaning King" instead of your last name to do business.  In addition, to get your cleaning supplies, you may want a seller's permit tax id number.

 In addition to home and office cleaning services, the information applies to:

• Window Cleaning
• Carpet Cleaning
• Party Cleaning 
• Business Offices Cleaning
• Real Estate Cleaning
• New Construction Clean-Up

Advantages and Disanvantages of a House Cleaning Business

• An advantage is the additional money you will be making compared to working and an employee.
• You will have your own hours.. no 9-5 hours
• There is currently a sufficient demand for professional house cleaners becase baby boomers are lazy.
• Plan your own route  of houses and work close to home
• No one except a client briefly is your boss.

The disantvantages: 

• If you do it yourself, this is no easy work
• You are exposed to a lot diseases from client's homes
• Cleaning bathrooms and kitchens is not the most respectable job
• Good employees are very difficult to get and retain

Advertising: 

Let the public know you are in the house cleaning business.  Advertise in the Yellow Pages, the internet, newspapers, door hangers, and business cards.  You will soon have a lot of  clients.  You will need to get some professional flyers and business cards.

To protect yourself from diseases, use a hand sanitizer and wash your hands often while cleaning homes.  Also buy and wear gloves to avoid picking up germs from your client's houses.

Obtain a seller's permit to get your cleaning supplies because  most customers prefer that you bring your own cleaning service supplies.   Most do not want to bother doing the shopping for cleaning materials plus some use special agents to remove difficult stains so have all kinds for supplies in your inventory to satisfy these needs.

The hardest part of starting your own cleaning service is getting clients. Most clients are concerned about how long you have been in the cleaning service business, how good you are and what clients have you served. To calm any fears, just let them know something specific about how you will clean their house. For example, how would you take a stain out of a marble countertop in their kitchen.  New clients appreciate cleaning service professionals that know what they are talking about.

Past clients: Offer your cleaning service for free to some new clients and then ask them to be references for you.  Just try to get a good job done cleaning and you will have enough clients willing to put in a good word for you.

So when cleaning a clien't new home, just go for the quality of it. For example, make sure you sweep under the beds, clean stains in corners, remove dust from the top selves and other such detailed work to impress them.

 If you currently have a job, don't quit to start a cleaning business.  There are serious expenses in starting a business, so make sure you got some money for at least six months.

 Make a list of the fees for your service.  Don't cheat yourself. This is hard work so charge accordingly.  Make sure your people don't steal things from the houses they clean.  The word gets around and you may lose clients.

What fees to collect for cleaning services.

First make sure you don't  sell yourself cheap.  Charge for your work as if you had others working for you and make sure you do a very professional job.  You should know what is the going rate and try to match that one or higher for higher quality work.

You can charge by the hour, charge by the room,  charge a flat rate per home or charge by the square foot.  However, a flat rate may work best for most jobs.  In addition, you may want to charge per house cleaned.   Don't nickle and dime your customers; let them know what is the price in advance.

Growing Your Cleaning Service Business

After getting used to it, and after you have enough employees, you may just want to expand and stay home doing the management of the business. 

You may also want to consider offering these additional services in addition to home and office cleaning services:

• Window Cleaning
• Carpet Cleaning
• Party Cleaning and Assistance
• Real Estate Cleaning
• New Construction Clean-Up

Simply follow the procedures of submitting your business information on this site and we will get it for you.

1. Submit an online form
2. Pay for our service
3. Receive your form.

You can get in online at this website address:  www.businessnameusa.com

To get your business license, you need the form to apply.  The reason is that you re required by law to get a business license application form fill it out and submit it. You can do it here online:   www.businessnameusa.com/Order.aspx 

Here is a checklist.

• Information on New Cleaning Service Business: This articles should be enough.
• Business Research: You just need to know your competition so you may want to research.
• Business Licenses and Permits: You can get all these permit here online.
• Hiring and Managing Employees:  That is kind of difficult, but put an add and try out some employees.
• Starting a Business and Keeping Records:  Just keep receipts of  money earned and money spent.
• Businesses with Employees: If you have employees, you will need a federal and state employer tax number you can obtain here on this site.

Prices range from $5 to $399 depending on your business application procedure and form.  www.businessnameusa.com