Starting a business is an exciting venture. It is your plan for greater income potential, more freedom in your life, and the opportunity to use your skills for your own purpose. Here is our guide on how to start a residential cleaning business from scratch, and then why Merry Maids is a great option to consider.
Step 1: Review of the Current Marketplace
Before you launch a business, you have to know what you're competing with in the marketplace. Make a list of other residential cleaning services in your area, including those that may be unstructured. Find out everything you can about how these businesses operate, including:
- Areas they serve
- Employees they have
- Services they offer
- Rates they charge
- What marketing they have in place
- How established they are in the marketplace
The more information you gather, the better you will know your competition. Now you can rank them as primary and secondary competitors, and services that are not competing with you.
Step 2: Create the Template for Your House Cleaning Business
Using the competitor brief you created, make the template for your business. Decide what areas you’ll serve, whether you’ll have employees, the services you’ll offer, and the rates you’ll charge. Make notes of any advantages you’ll have over the current competitors. For example, perhaps you will offer specialty services that they don’t provide, or you have a disinfecting program that is currently not promoted.
The other aspect of outlining your business template is to decide whether you’ll have employees, and if so, how many you anticipate you’ll need. Adding employees to a business requires additional insurance, expenses, and training, but they also allow you to earn more profit and grow your business at a higher level than you could do on your own.
Step 3: Find Vendors and Suppliers
An integral part of how to start a cleaning business is having reliable vendors and suppliers, both for products and services you will need to operate consistently. It is a good idea to identify three suppliers for each group of services so you always have a backup.
List all the products you’ll need to perform your cleaning work: buckets, cleaners, disinfectants, brushes, cloths, mops, shoe covers, knee pads, gloves, etc. Choose three suppliers to provide your cleaning products and estimate the costs for your products.
List services you’ll need, such as banking, website development, promotional materials (business cards, flyers, etc), accounting or bookkeeping services, software programs, insurance, etc. Source three suppliers for each service you need and estimate the costs for these services.
Step 4: Create Your Financials
One of the most important things to know about how to start a cleaning business is that you have an operation that will be profitable. This requires a cash flow statement that lists your projected income and estimated expenses and shows you will make enough money to pay the bills.
Expenses
Make a spreadsheet that lists all your ongoing expenses and the estimated costs to start a cleaning business. This includes your vendor and supplier costs, but also other expenses to run your business, including:
- Phone, internet, office supplies, software programs
- Vehicle(s), mileage for employees, fuel costs and vehicle expenses
- Staffing costs (including worker's compensation coverage and additional insurance)
- Office space rental, utilities and taxes
Include a contingency line in your expenses list to cover anything you might have missed.
Income
Based on your expenses, you will see the revenue needed to break even and earn a profit. Create the income part of your spreadsheet with different revenue streams of your business. You may include revenue streams as follows:
- Income by service: regular housecleaning, specialty cleaning, move-in/move-out cleaning, etc.
- Income by frequency: weekly cleaning, bi-weekly cleaning, monthly cleaning, one-time cleaning
As you complete this cash-flow forecast, you may need to make adjustments to your expenses or income projections to show a positive balance. If you increase your revenue projections, make sure they’re supported by the research you have done for cleaning services in the marketplace.
Step 5: Create Your Marketing Plan
One of the most frequent questions about how to start a cleaning business is how to let people know about your service, and that all happens from marketing. As a new business, you need to be generous in your marketing spend.
Included in your marketing plan will be everything you can do to get the word out about your business. This may involve:
- Purchasing a domain name and website hosting and having a website built out
- Printing out flyers or brochures to hand out with business cards
- Advertising
- Joining local groups (i.e. chamber of commerce) to network with others
- Investing in vehicle graphics and signage
- Providing cleaning uniforms
You will have to pay all of this upfront, so be sure to budget for that accordingly.
All of this information you’re gathering will be part of your business plan. Your business plan is a guide so you can stay on track with running and growing your business, and you’ll also need it to access funding.
Step 6: Setting Up Your Business Structure
Now that you have an idea of the size and scope of your business, you can establish your business structure - LLC, corporation, partnership , etc. This will allow you to set up the appropriate business banking account, apply for a business license and have a business number for invoicing and tax purposes.
Step 7: Pre-Opening Work
All these duties will take time to complete, so while they’re in progress you can work on your plan for launching the business. Decide when to place your advertising, mail out flyers, order supplies, secure rental space, learn your software programs and hire staff.
Starting a Cleaning Business Franchise
As you go through this guide and determine your expenses and timelines for how to start a cleaning business, you may consider a franchise. With a franchise, all of the work noted in this guide is done for you, which means you get into business faster and with more certainty in the profit-making plan. When evaluating the pros and cons of starting a business or buying a franchise, having this foundational work already completed is a major benefit of purchasing a franchise.
Investigate the Merry Maids Franchise
Merry Maids has been franchising for 40 years, and our business model is extensive in what it offers an aspiring business owner. We offer exclusive territories, full business and marketing support, and brand recognition that earns you instant credibility in the marketplace. There are also additional revenue streams we have developed to further our franchisees' growth potential.
Fill out our form for more information on owning your own maid service franchise with Merry Maids. You can save yourself a lot of time, money, and uncertainty in how to start a cleaning business when you start with Merry Maids.