What Is A Home Cleaning Business?

A home cleaning business is a business that a person runs from their home in which they provide cleaning services. With this type of business the owner may or may not target specific types of cleaning, such as cleaning homes, cleaning offices, or only cleaning apartments when tenants vacate.

A cleaning business run from one's home can be started by an individual or can be purchased as a franchise. Some home cleaning businesses get big enough that the owner decides to lease office space, thus bringing the business out of his/her home. But, we’re going to focus on running a cleaning business from one’s home.

1) Cleaning homes and offices is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the U.S and Canada. It’s multi-million dollar business and statistics indicate this growth trend will continue. This means that there will continue to be demand for your services.

2) You have control over your schedule. You decide when you want to work. Do you want to work full-time or part-time? Do you want to work only in the morning or only in the afternoon? Or, do you want to work your home cleaning business on the weekends around your current job?

3) Because a home cleaning business is a service-based business, you can grow your business large and still run it from your home.

4) Start-up costs for a home cleaning business are low. Your costs will include a telephone and/or cell phone, cleaning supplies, cleaning equipment, and marketing expenses. If your clients prefer that you use their cleaning products and equipment, your costs will be even lower. If you decide to primarily market your business through referrals, your costs will also be lower.

5) You can grow your business as large as you want, or keep it as small as you want.

6) You have a limitless supply of potential customers. Everyone who lives or works somewhere is a possible lead for you. Think about it – every home or work space has allergens, pollutants, dust mites and germs.

7) More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of keeping “inside pollutants” to a minimum. You can even differentiate your service from your competitors by offering non-toxic, environmentally safe cleaning services.

8) Because cleaning services are always in high demand, you can build your business without having to “sell” it to people.

9) A home cleaning business does not require special skills or training. However, make sure that you’re good at cleaning and have an eye for detail. Otherwise, you’ll either grow tired of the work, loose clients quickly, or both.

10) You can easily hire people to do the cleaning. You may decide that you want to own a home cleaning business, but not actually do any of the cleaning. Or, you may want to start out doing the cleaning and build the business to the point where you hire people to do the cleaning for you. Either way, it’s fairly easy to find people who will work either part-time or full-time for you, cleaning your clients’ homes or offices.

Once you decide that a home cleaning business is for you, here are some steps to get your business going.

1) Create a working business plan for your home cleaning business. Take the time upfront to put together a complete business plan. Doing so will keep you focused and on track with your business versus being overwhelmed by it and possibly being pulled in too many directions.

When putting your business plan together, you’ll need to consider the following:

2) Determine what the legal requirements for running a home cleaning business are. For example, for commercial office cleaning service you will need to obtain a bond.

3) Obtain business insurance as a protective measure. Shop around for insurance estimates to find the best rate and the most comprehensive plan for your money.

4) Decide upon what types of service you will provide. Are you going to focus on residential cleaning? If so, are you going to include or exclude window cleaning services?

5) Next, determine what equipment you will need. This will depend upon the types of services that you will be offering. For example, if you’re going to provide drape cleaning services you may need to rent the appropriate equipment.

6) Are you going to hire a staff? Or, are you going to do the cleaning yourself? Perhaps your plan is to start out small, do all of the cleaning yourself, and then gradually bring on people to assist you with the cleaning as your client base grows. Decide now what your long term plan is for your business and make a plan. Include your growth plan in your over all business plan.

7) If you’re going to hire people to work for you, either now or in the future, then develop a training plan.

8) Determine how much you’re going to charge for your services. Conduct research to see what your local market will bear for cleaning services. This research is important. If you charge too much it is going to be difficult for you to acquire clients and get your business going. If you charge too little, you’ll be selling yourself short.

On average, cleaning service rates across the country range anywhere from $10 an hour on the low end to $30 an hour on the high end. Generally speaking, you can charge more for cleaning offices than for cleaning homes.

9) Develop and implement your marketing plan. Your marketing plan is a key component of your business plan. Consider the following when developing your marketing plan:

Target marketing: Focusing on target markets can be a good strategic decision. For example, let’s say you decide you want to obtain your clients through referrals. Let’s also say that you’re going to target working moms. Then, when you speak with people about your home cleaning business you can ask, “Do you know any working mothers that are looking for or would consider trying a home cleaning service?”

Assess your competition. Know what they are good at doing and where they may be weak, but avoid looking at your competition as the enemy. Some of your competitors may become allies if you or they need help servicing clients when times are busy.

The value in knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors lies in you having a complete picture of what is going on locally with regards to cleaning services. This is your market. When you have a keen awareness of what is going on in your market, you then can see where you can provide value and differentiate your business.

Determine how you’re going to promote your services. Some marketing ideas are:

Promote your business by asking people whom you know for referrals.

Create a flyer, brochure, or postcard and distribute around neighborhoods, introducing yourself and your services.

Place an ad in the classified section of your local newspaper. Look for other local publications that have classified section in which you can advertise. Make sure you test which ads and which publications work best for you.

Track how your ads are doing by asking people who contact you how they heard about your services. Then, keep a record of how people are hearing about you. Continue to place ads in the publications from which you’re getting the most response.

Offer a discount in your ads to provide an incentive for people to contact you. Put a time frame around the discount you offer, such as “call before September 30 and receive a 20% discount off of your first cleaning service.”

Contact your local phone book publishers and have your business listed in these publications. You may have to pay for a listing in publications such as the Yellow Pages.

Consider radio advertising. Check out how much it would cost to conduct some local radio advertising. You may be able to find something that you can afford on a local radio station at off-peak times, which may be precisely the times your prospective clients are listening to the radio.

10) Have business cards printed. You can get 250 to 1,000 business cards printed for about $20. Visit your local print shops or shop on line for this service. You need a simple business card that has your business name, your name and your contact information on it. Keep it simple. Keep it affordable.

11) If you’re going to offer commercial cleaning services, then you need to create quote sheet to give potential customers when bidding on a cleaning job. Most business people will ask for quotes from two to three cleaning services before deciding which service they will use.

Make sure that your quote sheet looks professional and has your business and contact information at the top.

Note: It is not always the least expensive service that people choose. People look for value. So, if you can show that you provide good quality services for a reasonable price, you stand a better chance of getting the business than simply providing the lowest price.

12) Get organized and stay organized:

Put a contact management system in place to keep track of your clients: names, addresses, phone numbers, directions to their location, whether or not there is a dog at that location, hourly rate, days and times you provide them cleaning services, and any special requirements that they have.

You may also want to create a schedule for yourself that you can keep visible. This will help when a customer or prospect calls to inquire about your cleaning services. You’ll be able to easily look at your schedule and see what times you have available to reschedule an appointment or add a new client.

After reading all of the above do you think that you need additional help getting your home cleaning business off of the ground? If so, contact us. We’re here to help.

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