One of the fastest growing businesses that requires little to no money? You guessed it: the house cleaning business.
Wanting to start a business that’s almost guaranteed to bring in money right away – and with little to no startup? You guessed right! It’s the house cleaning business.
Starting a house cleaning service can be a fun and lucrative way to be the boss while setting your own schedule, and making a great daily income. However, just like with any other business, starting a house cleaning service business requires thorough and careful planning, careful preparation, and hard work. Make sure to watch Betty’s house cleaning journey video at the end of this blog post! She was kind enough to share her life story. Her business is www.StCharlesHouseCleaning.com of Illinois.
In this guide brought to you by Talk Benjamin, we will walk you through step by step to start a successful house cleaning service business this year. Here we go!
Step 1: Get Ready To Conduct Market Research In Your Area
Before starting any entrepreneurial venture, it is quite important to do the necesscary market research to determine whether or not there is a demand for your house cleaning services in your town or city. Researching your competition is crucial and also understanding what they offer can help you determine whether or not your business can win over customers over the competition. Here are some ways for you to pin point accurate conduct market research in your area for your house cleaning business service:
- First, you’ll need to analyze the competitors in your area: Look at the other house cleaning services in your town to see what specific cleaning services they offer, how much they charge to clean the home, and what sets them apart from other cleaning businesses in your area.
- Check the market demand in your city: Check on how much demand there is specifically for house cleaning services in your city by talking to people locally, looking at online reviews of competitors, and conducting surveys locally to get a better idea of the need for house cleaning services in your town..
- You’ll need to identify potential customers in your town: Identify who the potential customers might be for your house cleaning service by understanding their specific needs. Do they want the whole house cleaned? Do they want part of the house cleaned?
Step 2: Get Prepared To Develop A Detailed Business Plan
When you get ready to prepare your house cleaning business plan, you’ll need to know what it is exactly. In short, it is a document that outlines your specific business goals for the house cleaning service, strategies to get customers, and tactics on how to grow. It is an essential tool that can help you secure funding if you decide to expand, attract more customers in your area or even outside of your area, and also for you to stay focused on your goals for growth. Here are some things to include in your house cleaning business plan:
- You’ll Need An Executive Summary: This is an overview of your business plan, which will include your mission statement of the house cleaning business, products and services of your business, target market in your area, and financial projections over the span of the business.
- Products & Services Of The House Cleaning Business: This part will describe the cleaning services you will offer, which can include any other additional services such as doing laundry for the customer, or ironing services, and even window cleaning. There are many ways to upsell in a cleaning business.
- Target Market: Identify your target market in your city, including demographic information such as the age of the potential customer, income of potential customers, and the geographic location you want to focus on. As you grow, you can expand across into broader territories.
- Marketing & Advertising: You will outline how you plan to market and advertise your business in your city, including on social media marketing (online marketing and advertising), direct mail postcards and mailers, and also word-of-mouth advertising if you continue to provide a great house cleaning service.
- Realistic Financial Projections : You will need to include what your projected income & expenses for your business will be, you’ll also need to include start-up costs, monthly expenses of the house cleaning business, and what the estimated revenue will be.
Step 3: Next, You Will Need To Register Your Business
Before you can start your house cleaning services business, you will need to properly register it with your local government in your town. This typically will involve your registering the business name, next you’ll be obtaining a business license, and lastly, obtaining any other necessary permits in your area. Follow the steps below:
- Choose A Fun And Unique Business Name: Choose a name that is easy to remember, fun & catchy!
- Next, You Will Need To Register Your Business: The next step is to register your business with your state and/or local government, and obtain a business license last.
- Obtain The Needed Permits: Depending on what state you live in, you may also need to obtain even more additional permits, such as a permit to work in your customer’s homes or a specific type of permit to operate a business from your home.
When you’re setting up your business infrastructure from the beginning to end, it will involve everything from setting up a website to choosing the right type of cleaning supplies. Here are some things to consider before moving forward:
- Set up a great website to attract customers: A dynamic great looking website is essential for any business today, especially a house cleaning business. It is the first place many of your new customers will go to learn about your house cleaning services, so make sure you hire a professional to make it look great and for it to be an easy to navigate house cleaning website. You can also build your own site with GoDaddy & WIX.
- Choosing the right cleaning supplies: This is important! You will need to choose the right type of house cleaning supplies to get the job done right without damaging the customers home. This might include specific types of cleaning products, great vacuum cleaners that won’t ruin right away, great qualitymops, and buckets that will last.
- Develop a pricing structure for your house cleaning business: You will need to determine your pricing structure based on your expenses, your local competitors, and the great value you provide to your customers.
- Create contracts for your customers to be safe!: You should consider creating contracts for your house cleaning customers that outline exactly what type of services you’ll be providing, the pricing to clean the home, and terms and conditions of your house cleaning service.
Step 5: Hiring Great Employees
If you don’t plan on working solo doing the house cleaning yourself, then you’ll need to hire the right employees. You will need to carefully select the right type of employees to ensure that you are hiring the dependable and ethical people that will be cleaning the homes. Here are some things to consider before hiring:
- Create a detailed job description on Indeed or other similar job hiring sites: Create a solid detailed job description that outlines the duties and responsibilities of the job of the house cleaning business.
- Screen potential candidates: Be thorough and take mental notes. Do they have house cleaning experience as well? This is an added bonus to look for.
Lastly, marketing, marketing & more MARKETING!
You need to post either daily or weekly “before & after” photos on your social media show the value your business creates. Share these images to the “What’s Happening..” groups in your towns locally. After each job, after your customers right a review. Then, take a screenshot of those reviews and share it to your social media as well!
Like what you read? Follow us for more cool stories and videos! Watch the story below of Betty, who became a house cleaning entrepreneur by accident over 20 years ago! Subscribe to the Youtube channel “Talk Benjamin” for more cool videos. Click HERE TO WATCH HER HOUSE CLEANING JOURNEY VIDEO!
