How to set up your own cleaning business

© ☺ Lee J Haywood (Flickr) Robot at work
© ☺ Lee J Haywood (Flickr)
Beginning your business
What area of cleaning interests you
Will you concentrate on carpet cleaning, window cleaning, offer a vehicle cleaning service or clean industrial premises during their hours of not being in operation.

Know your local market and competition
You should do a study of the local area and undertake to fill any gaps in the market. Find out what the competition are charging, what your profit margin needs to be and once established what will be your profit margins and possibilities for further investment.

How many hours per week
You will need to decide if this business is to be full time or part time. How many days each week you plan to be in operation and whether this will be your only source of income or do you plan to work elsewhere until established with a good customer base.

Initial investment and training
A cleaning business can begin with very little investment from the start.

You will not need heavy machinery or equipment or costly premises to begin with. Run your business from home with a supply of cleaning materials, using your own vehicle for transport. Training is not a requirement to begin with, although if you hire staff at a later date you should instruct them on how you want them to clean to your standards and how to safely use the materials you supply.
Advertising and growing
Insurance and documentation
Check with the local authorities over things like insurance and whether you need to be licensed to begin operating a cleaning business.

Start small and expand
Do not over extend yourself or your capabilities at the beginning. Start out small offering a few services and as you become more experienced then is the time for expansion into other sectors of the cleaning industry.

Advertise
Place ads locally in newspapers, circulate flyers, get business cards printed. Use as many resources as you can to advertise your business. Use existing customers to spread the word, nothing is better than personal recommendations of your customers.

Feedback
Use any feedback you receive from your customers in a positive way to improve the service you offer, you can turn complaints into positives with the correct approach.