How to Start a House Cleaning Business on a Tight Budget

First of all, before you decide to start your cleaning business, make sure this kind of work is right for you. You will need to be in good physical condition. Cleaning is very hard strenuous work. You will need to have good customer relation skills. You will need to have basic office skills and some accounting skills.

If you are planning on leaving your full time position to start a cleaning business, make sure you have at least six months of savings. Or keep your full time job and start out part time.

Research all the aspects of the cleaning service business. From customer service to advertising, taxes, employees, insurance and bonding, what to charge and how to clean a home professionally. Cleaning your own home and cleaning professionally is totally different. Learning how to clean professionally takes a lot of time. When a client pays for your services they expect to come home and find their home spotless.

Getting those first clients takes time, persistence and patience. You will not get a hundred clients overnight.

Obtaining Those First Clients The hardest part of starting your own cleaning service is obtaining those first clients. Most clients want to know how long you have been in business and want references. The best thing to do is let clients know that, yes, you are new to the business but that you have thoroughly researched all aspects of the cleaning business and assure them that you know what you are doing and that you are quit capable of cleaning their home to their specifications. Be confident. I can't stress this enough. Clients love to see confidence. It relieves their worries and lets them know that their home is in good hands.

References: To get a few good references when starting out, ask some friends or family members if you can clean their home for free or at a discounted rate. The sound of working for free may not be appealing but it will be worth it to get some good testimonials.

When cleaning those first homes, go for quality, not how fast you can clean the home. Cleaning efficiently takes a long time, but you will get to the point where you can do a thorough cleaning in a short time. After cleaning make sure you go back and double check all rooms to make sure you didn't miss anything. Impress those first clients and word of mouth will spread soon.

Advertising Your company image is everything. Before you start advertising, decide what image you want to portray on your advertising material. Your image is very important. Be consistent with all your advertising. If you have a logo be sure to use it on all your advertising materials. I think it is best to have a website developed before you start advertising. When advertising, stick with the same logo and colors.

Advertise in Local Paper: Start by running a text ad in your local newspaper. Try to come up with an eye catching ad. Do not sell your services on low rates, sell your services on your quality of work and what you can do for the client that other companies don't. There is a lot of competition in the cleaning service. You have to stand out from the rest.

Magnetic Signs or Lettering for your Vehicle: Having your business name and contact information on your vehicle is a great way to advertise. We use the vinyl lettering. The lettering looks much more professional than the magnetic signs.

Flyers: You can print nice flyers on your home computer, but I would suggest investing in some professional flyers. Hang flyers at Hair Dressers, Laundromats, Restaurants, Bakeries, Grocery Stores, etc. Put flyers on car windows at local groceries stores and businesses. You can even go door to door in neighborhoods you would like to work in. You cannot put them in mailboxes. but you can put them in the front door.

Door Hangers: Door hangers are a great way to get new clients. Pick the neighborhood you would like to work in and hang the door hangers on the doors. When people get flyers or ads in their mailbox they usually throw them away with the junk mail. But if there is a door hanger on the door they will take the time to look at it.

Business Cards: Start passing out your business cards to friends and family members. You can also ask your local businesses if you can leave some cards on their counters.

Referral Program: A great way to obtain new clients is through a referral program. Offer existing clients a discount when they refer a friend. You can give your existing clients a discount when the friend uses your services three times.

Website: These days people live very busy lives so they use the convenience of the internet to shop for the services they need. A lot of working women will shop for services while at work. Everyone that has a business should have a website. It shows clients that you are serious about your business and allows them research your business in their own time.

Cleaning Products: By using all natrual products, you can offer your clients a healthy cleaning experience and protect ourselves against harsh chemicals. Clients love the natural cleaning products with essential oils. They come home to a healthy clean home filled with the wonderful scents of aromatherapy essential oils.

Tip: Always carry hand sanitizer and wash your hands often while cleaning homes. Wear gloves when cleaning bathrooms. You will be exposed to a lot of different germs in clients homes.

Remember most customers prefer that you bring your own cleaning supplies. That way they do not have to worry about going to the store for cleaning supplies before you clean. Some customers have special cleaners for certain appliances or floors in their houses. These customers usually will have these cleaners on hand for you to use. We almost always use the customers vacuum cleaner. That way you do not have to carry a heavy vacuum from house to house.

What to Charge I mentioned earlier that you should sell your services on your quality of work and not your low rates. If your rates are too low, clients will think that your work is sub-standard and that you are not experienced. Also you want to attract the clients that can afford your services. I made the mistake of pricing my work too low when I first started out. Cleaning is hard work, charge what you are worth. As the old saying goes "You get what you pay for."

Some companies charge by the hour, some charge by the room, some charge a flat rate per home and some charge by the square foot. I think it is better to charge by the home, not by the hour. If a client knows they have to pay one set fee, they don't care if you take 2 hours or 5 hours. Also your clients will know what they are paying up front and won't have to worry about added expenses.

No two houses are the same. And there is no set charge for all homes. You have to clean for awhile yourself to get some experience and to work out a system to clean efficiently. Only you know what you want and need to make. Decide what you need to make hourly to cover all expenses and still make a good profit.

A word of advise: Make sure when you start your company that you charge what you would charge if you had employees. Some people make the mistake of under charging when they start out just to get customers and then later on when they grow and need to hire help they aren't making enough money on their houses to pay help. Don't under price your work. Cleaning homes is very hard physical work and you didn't get into this business to work for nothing.

New Construction Cleaning If you decide to do this type of work you will need more equipment. You will need ladders, window cleaning kits with long extensions, a shop vac, etc. These types of jobs are usually 2 to 3 person jobs. New construction cleaning requires a lot more cleaning. You may have to remove stickers and labels from windows and bathroom showers, sinks and toilets. Some require that you clean the vents to remove dust from construction work. There will be ceiling fans to clean, scrubbing floors, and cleaning woodwork to remove dust. New construction cleaning rates depend on the area you live in.

Insurance and Bonding. You need to be an honest person and somewhat personable. People will need to trust you to be in their homes. Most clients are concerned about having someone new in their house, with good reason. You should be bonded and fully insured. Liability insurance rates depend on your insurance carrier and where you are located. Each person you hire will increase your liability insurance. It's well worth the cost. You can pay quarterly or yearly. You can purchase your bond through your local insurance company. You will need to renew the bond every year. *Note: if you hire employees and cover them under your insurance, they must be an employee on payroll and not a sub-contractor. If you employ them as a sub-contractor your insurance will not cover them. If they are a sub-contractor they are required to carry their own insurance. You

Hiring Help If you start out cleaning the homes by yourself, you will eventually get to the point where you need to expand your business. Start out with one part time employee. Train her and let her take your place one day a week. Then have her take your place 2 days a week and so on. This will give you the free time that you need to market your business and obtain more clients. After you get more clients you will be able to hire more part time help. Eventually you will be able to stop doing the cleaning yourself and just run the business end, which is the only way you will be able to grow your business. When training new employees, always, either train them yourself or have a lead person train them. Make sure there is a lead person on each and every cleaning job. Employees have a tendency to slack off when they are on their own.

Growing Your Business You will eventually get to the point where you have enough employees and lead people and you will be able to stop working in your business and start running your business. You will find that after awhile it will get to be too much trying to clean everyday and at the same time giving estimates, answering calls, scheduling, doing book work, obtaining new clients, etc.

Remember one of the most important qualifications for a cleaning service is TRUST. A client has to know they can trust you alone in their home. After you acquire a few cleaning positions ask the clients if you can use them for a reference. Most of the time they are more than willing to let you use them for a reference. This is how you build your business and acquire new clients is through referrals. Be dependable. Most clients will want to be set up on an every week or every other week schedule on the same day of the week. Try to always keep this same schedule unless the client asks you to switch to another day. If you have to cancel a cleaning date, make sure you try to reschedule at the earliest possible date to make up the cleaning.

How Independent Cleaning Businesses Should Have Responded to Price-Cutting Competitors

If you're an independent janitorial cleaning business, you may have been asking yourself lately, "What's happened to the cleaning business?" And you'd be right to wonder. You see the world of janitorial work, or if you prefer, commercial cleaning, doesn't look the same anymore.

Independent cleaning businesses - the ones that decide to own and operate their own cleaning business without financially 'handcuffing' themselves to a franchise, used to 'reign supreme'.

That's right; independent cleaning businesses used to be the 'backbone' of this important industry. Building owners and property managers alike turned regularly to their local, trusted, independent cleaning companies when it came time to arrange for someone to maintain their building's appearance.

Why?

Well, customers were happy because they could count on getting quality cleaning and reliable service from cleaning people they knew, liked and trusted.

Employees were happy because they were given enough time to deliver quality cleaning; the kind they could be proud of, not embarrassed of.

And, you guessed it, the independent cleaning owner was happy too, because he could steadily grow his business, and at prices that gave him a healthy profit.

That's right; he could make a good living.

Well, not anymore, at least not for many cleaning businesses. That's right; slowly, but all too surely, everything changed.

Independent cleaning businesses 'lost their way'. And here's part of the reason why:

They faced a 'perfect storm' of challenges. The struggling economy combined with the widespread use of illegal workers by unscrupulous contractors, put many independent cleaning businesses into a tail spin. But, unfortunately, there was even more trouble on the horizon.

Already off-balance, many would soon find empty-promising cleaning franchises and national cleaning management companies taking some, or all, of their best, oldest and what for a time were, their most loyal customers.

And, the reason?

Well, to be fair, some independent cleaning contractors were caught flat footed, not prepared to adjust their own cleaning businesses to the changing demands of business customers scrambling frantically to save money by cutting costs.

Being ready to respond to a changing economy is something all businesses have to be prepared to do - and cleaning companies are no exception.

In addition, many independent cleaning businesses were simply unable to come up with a good answer to this question thrust at them by building owners and managers, namely, "Why should I keep buying from you when this competitor is saying they can do the same job, but for a lot less than I'm paying now?"

If nothing else comes out this crisis in the cleaning business, one thing is certain - it points to the importance of pricing routine, regularly scheduled janitorial cleaning projects (i.e. 3 days per week) starting from the point of determining cleaning time required, rather than simply using an oversimplified price per square foot approach.

So, how should these independent cleaning business owners have responded?

First, they should have pressed hard on an important point - the direct connection between the time (hours) spent cleaning a building and the quality of cleaning in that building.

There's no question that time alone isn't a guarantee of high quality cleaning. The amount of training and level of supervision provided, makes a difference in both the appearance of a building, as well as, how efficiently that cleaning was delivered.

But that said; there is still a strong, direct connection between time and quality. Put differently; when it comes to reducing time, the 'cleaning business' is simply not the 'mass producing widgets business'.

All things being equal - the amount of time (hours) spent cleaning still, to a great degree, determines the resulting quality of the cleaning (building appearance).

So, the independent cleaning contractors should have strongly encouraged building owners and managers to ask the following three questions when those 'big guys' that low-ball prices arrived to deliver their slick-looking proposals:

1. What budged hours is the price based on? 

2. How exactly was the time determined? 

3. How can you assure me I will consistently receive this important budgeted time?

We suggest that would have gotten their attention! Why?

It is our strongly-held belief that many of these low-balling characters give little or no consideration to the time required to deliver quality cleaning.

We believe it is, in fact, their hidden weakness or 'Achilles heel'.

Instead, we suggest their pricing strategy often seems no more complicated than this: Low ball the price to get the job, and then later on figure out how much cleaning time they can afford, or are willing, to give to it.

Well, that's a problem. And Independent cleaning businesses should have pointed it out then. They should point it out now.

Cleaning Proposal - How To Differentiate?

The Commercial Cleaning Industry is a competitive industry with a large quantity of new companies entering the market daily due to the low barriers of entry. What does this mean to you as a Cleaning Company Business Owner? It means now more than ever it is imperative your cleaning proposals are structured in a way to differentiate you from your competition and help deliver a compelling message to your customers.

We all have seen the generic, traditional cleaning proposal which has the boring same old sections: cover letter with all the stats and history on the company, the specifications, the price, references and sample contract. Most cleaning companies are presenting this traditional format and are not taking the opportunity to be consultants and provide the customer with customized cleaning solutions within their cleaning proposal.

What is a solution? It is just as it sounds; it is a plan of attack and action for solving a problem or challenge. Take the opportunity to focus on solutions and benefits. Look at implementing a consultative approach in your sales process by incorporating the following into your cleaning proposal:

1) Provide a Customer Profile - Look at this as a recap of the current customer environment. By utilizing this approach you are demonstrating to the customer that you were listening to his/her challenges and understand their business environment. Thus, you will want to outline what the current customer business and facility challenges are; what solutions you are providing to combat those associated challenges; what is the result the customer will experience by implementing your solution(s).

2) Highlight What Makes Your Cleaning Company Different (Why "xyz" Cleaning Company) - Provide a concise description of your specific cleaning company advantages or differentiators and what the associated benefit to the customer will be for each advantage. Make sure you are not referencing features of your service but rather unique advantages of your cleaning company.

3) Minimize the customer's risk - One of the take action motivators for a customer to move forward on a specific cleaning proposal is that specific proposal was able to minimize the risk for the customer. What is meant by minimize the risk? Think about it, if you are a new cleaning company in the market and are competing with more established companies, the customer may feel hesitant to move forward with you. Thus, you need to remove the customer's fear by providing additional resources to help combat this perception. Are you outlining staffing profiles, transition plans, or a training matrix? These would be additional tools that may be incorporated into your proposal which more than likely most of your competitors are not doing. Immediately you are differentiating yourself from the "pack".

In summary, focus on what your cleaning company's key differentiators are, so you can translate those advantages into your cleaning proposal. Your goal is to make sure the customer clearly understands from reading over your cleaning proposal what sets your company apart from the rest and how those differentiators will prove to be beneficial in the customer's specific environment.