How to Start Your Own Cleaning Business to Guarantee Success
So – you want to start your own cleaning business and make your fortune. Well, before you jump in and make all the wrong decisions and become one of the depressing statistics, let’s take a look at what you need to succeed.
The cleaning trade is filled with people who have started their own business and quickly failed. That’s usually due to the lack of planning, the lack of the necessary business skills and the lack of cleaning knowledge. There are many types of cleaning businesses you could start, but you will succeed only if you know what you are doing.
Too many people thought all they had to do was purchase some cleaning products down the street and start distributing cleaning flyers. That may get you a few jobs, but I can guarantee you they are not the jobs you need to have a successful cleaning business. These low-end clients are only willing to pay the lowest price and they can’t wait to tell you how to clean their house or business. Now you have only succeeded in trading one boss for another – your demanding customers.
Each type of cleaning business will be limited in profits depending on how the business is setup. If you plan to do all the work yourself, you can only clean so many customers in a month, so your income will be dependent on your health and the number of days you can work. A business that is setup to hire workers has the most potential for unlimited income, but will be dependent on the hiring, training and management process you establish.
Each of these cleaning business models can be started with a small investment with you doing the work yourself. If you have planned to hire workers, start your business as if you already have the workers. This means you start with the business procedures in place that will make it easy for you and your customers to transition to hired workers.
First you need to decide what type of cleaning business you want to start and run:
House Cleaning Business – Most people clean their own house so it’s not hard to find workers and train them to work for you. The hours are good – most customers want their house cleaned during the day when they are home or at work. The working environment is good because you’re in a nice home all day. Your cleaning products, equipment and procedures will be very important to keep the best customers. It’s possible to start your business for under $200 and grow it as large as you want.
Window Cleaning Business – This is a lucrative business, depending on what part of the country you are in. If you are in a city with year-round sun, you can create a very busy and profitable business. This will have the lowest start-up cost due to the type of products and equipment needed to do the job. You will be working inside houses and businesses, but you will also be working outside. You’ll definitely need to know how to clean in the environmental elements.
Commercial Cleaning – You’ll need business and marketing skills to break into commercial cleaning in your city. Most businesses want their cleaning done after hours, so consider if you are willing to work late afternoon, past midnight and on the weekends. Finding workers is difficult but not impossible. Supervising the workers will be your most challenging task along with keeping your workers. This type of cleaning business is best started with family or friends to help you build up your customer base. This type of business is the most costly to start due to the insurance, contract and equipment requirements. If you can build this cleaning business by managing the issues, it can be the most profitable type of cleaning business to run.
Construction Cleanup – This will be the hardest work to do because of the work to be done. Cleaning up after construction workers is not easy, it’s very dirty and it’s not easy removing glue, paint and other residue left behind. This type of work takes a lot of “elbow grease” and is therefore specialized. Don’t expect to hire workers who have done residential cleaning to be effective in this type of work. This work is also seasonal and dependent on the economy.
Foreclosure Cleans – Most of this work requires emptying out residences of personal items that have been left behind. You’ll need to know how and where to get rid of all the stuff you encounter, such as sofas, tables, electronics, etc. This may be dependent on the financial institutions that hire you to do the work. Many of these houses will be in bad shape due to the financial constraints of the prior owners. This work is dependent on the economics and may only be in-demand during specific time periods.
As you can see, you need to do your research for the type of cleaning business you want to start. Cleaning is hard work and the workers are not easy to manage. After all, the work is not pretty and many of your customers will never be happy.
The bright side to starting a cleaning business is that anyone can be successful without having the education or trade experience. All you need is the know-how to build the business and the desire to be a success. Plan to do the research that is needed, plan to work hard and invest in the right information.
Author: Anne-Marie Moore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Are You Ready to Start Your House Cleaning Business?
Have you ever started something that you wished you had not? Starting a house cleaning business can turn out to be a disappointment like that if you haven’t done your research and planning.
And what better business to get into than house cleaning? You can start a house cleaning business with little or even no expense and build as large as you want to take it. The best part is, there is a never-ending supply of customers waiting for you.
Many people start a house cleaning business as a way to bring in extra income on a part-time basis. This type of business is not hard to start and you can usually begin with your family and friends as your first customers.
For those of you that have already started this way, there are several ways to take the business you now have and generate even more income. You can use add-on services like windows cleaning; allowing you to charge extra for the windows in the whole house.
And there are also people that have done this and now want to take their house cleaning business to the enterprise level. If you’re one of those interested in saying good-bye to your corporate job and hello to your own business, there are specific steps you need to accomplish in getting your cleaning business built.
Starting any business (or even expanding) requires some investigating on your part. You may currently have a full-time job in a different or related field, you may be a professional cleaner working for someone else or you may have a one or two-person house cleaning business and want to expand.
There are many different kinds of cleaning companies that provide general cleaning, to very specialized service:
1. Residential House Cleaning
2. Janitorial Services
3. Window Cleaning Services
4. Construction Cleanup
5. Organizational Services
6. Carpet Cleaning
7. Computer Cleaning
8. Dryer Clean-Outs
You need to investigate which type of service you want to start or expand into. Consider the type of work that is done and who your customers are.
Make this a fun exercise and really do some daydreaming about how you see yourself enjoying this type of work. Too many people jump in and realize later on that they’re not happy or even hate the work!
Each type of service is relatively easy to get into with little or no cost (exceptions being carpet cleaning and
janitorial). Examine your funds and determine how much you’re willing to invest in yourself and your new venture.
This should be an enjoyable project for you and one that is very important to your future success. Be very creative and fantasize about how great or small you want your business to be. Record what thoughts come to mind as you go thru this process. Any concerns or negative thoughts? If you only get positive responses to your visualizations then take it to the next level and see what comes up.
To start any successful business, you need to be able to see yourself in the job and visualize exactly the kind of life you will build with it.
Imagine the steps you will need to go through to be in the kind of business you vision. How will you get through each step? Can you start part-time and increase the amount of time you spend in your business as you grow your customer base? How long do you think this will take?
If you’re comfortable with your visualized business, you’ll need to start making plans and setting goals for yourself to make it a reality.
The more you visualize and the more you document, the better chance you have of your dream becoming a success.
Author: Anne-Marie Moore
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Employ to Expand Your Contract Cleaning Business – Advice For the Small Business Owner
This article explores the benefits of staffing out your contract cleans to free up your time to manage and expand your contract cleaning business, and why playing it safe may not be so safe after all.
Small cleaning businesses will usually reach a point where they have as many contracts as they can comfortably oversee themselves without having to employ cleaning staff. This is often the case for ‘husband and wife’ teams, partnerships or sole traders and the reluctance to employ means that the business can never grow as they can only take on additional customers when others leave. These businesses are almost exclusively reliant on customer loyalty and being able to hold onto customers by providing a consistently good service, but there is a danger of getting too comfortable.
The ‘one-man-band’ cleaning business usually provides daily or weekly cleaning to small premises for which contract cleaning is rarely an essential expense. In the current economic climate cost cutting is rife, and for small pubs, cafes, shops and offices, it is often the case that a member of staff, or the owner themselves can take over the cleaning and relive the company of a monthly cleaning bill. Loyalty goes out the window and the small cleaning business owner can suddenly find their income reduced to a crippling level, without an immediate solution. This isn’t to say that this scenario is only a problem for cleaning businesses that don’t employ, but is a warning that you shouldn’t get too comfortable with your ‘morning and evening cleaning round’. The small cleaning business owner should be exploring all the ways in which they can maintain the level of work they want, and how expanding could be the way in which to do this.
So where does this reluctance to employ come from? It is often not just a matter of the fear of employment law and the heavy weight of responsibilities as an employer, but it is also because those cleaning business owners who ‘do it themselves’ believe that they could not find someone else to do what they do, all well as they do it.
There is a certain truth behind this, and of course it is only natural that the business owner has more incentive to look after a contract clean than a cleaner who is just working part time. But doing the cleaning yourself is not maintainable in the long run for a number of reasons and it will invariably mean that the owner becomes a self-employed cleaner rather than the manager of a cleaning business. With comprehensive and thorough training, regular supervision and staff incentives, there is no reason why your employee won’t perform just as well.
There are two main dangers when starting a contract by doing the cleaning yourself and then hiring a cleaner to take over, and the first one is that the owner is used to getting a full income from the contract cleans, rather than a smaller percentage once wages, holiday pay, and employers insurance have come out of it. The other danger is that the customer becomes far too used to the owner coming in who has perhaps over the years done all the little extras they have asked of him or her, whether it be unblocking a toilet or cleaning the shop front windows when their window cleaner didn’t show up.
When an employed cleaner shows up who works only to the schedule provided and never works beyond the allotted hours (even when an important client from overseas is visiting the next day!), then it is no real wonder why a client will become annoyed and disgruntled. It is then that it shows hat the little extras were just unpaid extras, and they never bothered the small business owner when s/he did them, as it didn’t cost the owner anything but a little time. Now the owner has to pay the cleaner an additional half an hour in wages for going in early to wash up all the dishes from the oversea visitor’s lunch in the boardroom, and now the cleaning business owner thinks that it’s about time that the client gets billed for this. Well after all, they are now out of pocket. The client starts looking at their monthly bill which all of a sudden has a lot of extra hours added to it which has never been the case and then thinks that perhaps it is time that they found a new contract cleaner.
The key to running these contract cleans successfully is in the very sentence; running them. From the point of quoting it should be viewed as a clean that will have cleaners employed, with the Manager’s time built into this for training and regular supervisory visits. Holiday Pay and Employers Liability Insurance should be worked into the costs and the contract should state clearly that additional cleaning to that on the contract will be at the cleaning firm’s discretion and will be charged for. It really is a matter of getting it right from the start that is key to all-round satisfaction and success.
This means that the owner now has the time and incentive to go out and look for additional cleaning contracts and expand their client base. The owner of a cleaning business is now a manager and their priority is running the business as a manager and owner, and not keeping afloat as a self-employed cleaner.
Author: Laura Elizabeth Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Starting a Cleaning Business – Simple Guide to Starting a Winning Maid Service!
Owning a successful cleaning company can be very lucrative and a great long term investment. Companies who provide great service and a professional experience for their customers can create a continuous repeating revenue stream. The residential cleaning industry has exploded in growth with more dual income families and the janitorial business has also seen healthy increases. Individuals who run cleaning companies as a business verse a job can experience great financial rewards.
Making you business legal and official are one of the first few important steps to be taken. Customers want to be assured when allowing someone in their home or business that they are properly insured. Most homeowners will demand insurance as will larger corporate accounts. The process for doing this is not difficult and will definitely assist a new cleaning business in distinguishing themselves from a non-professional independent company. Establishing your type of business formation can be done typically with your accountant who can also apply for a federal tax id number for the business. Determine with your accountant if you’re going to be a sole proprietor, limited liability partnership or a corporation. Once your business formation is complete you’ll need to register your business with your municipality or county. Businesses will also want to register a fictitious business name the company can run under which is unique to your business only. Once this is all completed you can now open a business bank account so customers can make checks payable to your business name.
To finalize the official part of your cleaning company you’ll want to make sure to obtain insurance for your business. You will be required to have general liability, workers compensation and insurance possibly for your vehicle. General liability insurance will help protect you personally from losses should your business be found personally liable for damages. Bonding your employees for dishonesty will also assure customers you’re committed to protecting them and also that you have run background checks on your employees as the insurance company will require this. Workers compensation is the final requirement that will protect your business if an employee is injured on the job. Typically these insurance premiums are determined based on a percentage of your payroll exposure. The longer you are in business and the more experience you get the lower your percentage amount will become.
Once your business is legally formed and official you’ll want to establish a marketing agenda. A company logo, stationary, email address, business phone line, website if possible, estimate sheets, business cards and signs will all be needed. Vista Print is a low cost effective business to get all these tools for a low cost. Establish your target market and location to begin your marketing. Door hangers, flyers for car windshields and brochures with mailing list are very effective forms of advertising targeted homes. This form of advertising allows you to advertise your business to the area’s you want to be in. College students can be hired cheaply for this and paid a bonus based on returned phone calls from the marketing. For house cleaning businesses large mansions might seem appealing, though they take longer to clean and you won’t get the same return as you would in a nice average household neighborhood. For commercial cleaning business join a local chamber and networking chapter to get your business out in front of others. Typically direct mail or the internet will produce greater returns than a newspaper ad or telephone book.
Now that your marketing has begun you’ll want to establish a pricing model that is competitive with the local market. Consider calling around to your local competition to see their pricing f or you to build your own pricing model. Have a few competitors visit some family houses for an estimate to compare how you can price. Listen to their presentation and try to ask a lot of questions to learn as much as possible. Establish how you’ll price your homes based on the amount of pay you’ll be offering employees, supplies needed to clean the home and taxes that need to be paid. This sum of all those cost should all come in under 60% of the cost to clean the home. The remainder should go towards running the business and profit for the owner. The cost for running a cleaning company will decrease dramatically as your customer base increases over time making it much more profitable.
Calls should start to rapidly come in for estimates. Make sure to purchase ahead of time all necessary cleaning supplies for the particular cleaning business you’re looking to start. Typically a good upright vacuum, canister vacuum, mop, rags, sponges, brushes and some good chemicals can get you started all for under $500. Once your first few appointments are set you’ll want to make sure to have ads ready to advertise for employees to be hired. Consult an attorney about proper employee paper work and local requirements. Make sure that you have designed a program for your cleaners to follow when cleaning homes. Train them in your home or a friend’s house. Develop a system for them to follow that you can advertise to your customers of how you’ll clean their home. Train your employees to clean this way and consistently remind them of what you’re advertising to meet your customer’s expectations. It is highly important in the cleaning business to consistently inspect your employees work to be assured that your quality is what your customers expect.
This was just a quick summary of the basics of starting a successful cleaning business. Cleaning companies are relatively simple businesses to run provided you always advertise for new customers, manage employees well and inspect your customer’s homes to make sure they’re receiving the best possible performance. Cleaning businesses have great add-on capabilities by offering carpet cleaning, tile & grout cleaning, window cleaning, laundry services and many other opportunities. Start off by mastering one trait first to build your brand as you will have your hands full in the beginning until you hire a manager to assist.
Customer relationships and service are highly important to establish a great image in your community from the start. The cleaning industry has great opportunities in both the residential or commercial side. Franchises and business opportunities are available for those looking for greater assistance, though many structured independents have extremely successful practices. In conclusion starting a cleaning business can be extremely rewarding and simple with a well structured plan.
Author: Michael Kawula
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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5 Cleaning Businesses You Can Start
If you are you looking for the perfect business to start, why not consider a cleaning business? Before you convince yourself that cleaning is boring, too hard, and not glamorous enough for a person such as you, consider the reality. A cleaning business is easy to start, easy to learn, and, most important, one of the quickest ways to start making money. Remember, it is often the most unexciting business that is the most profitable. To help you get started, here are five of the most popular cleaning businesses to choose from.
1. Residential Cleaning Service - One of the easiest and least expensive ways into any type of business is to start your own residential cleaning service. Start with a couple houses you can clean by yourself or team up with a partner and work more. You can easily market your service in local publications and through word-of-mouth from satisfied clients. After a while you will probably want to hire people to do the cleaning while you concentrate on bringing in more clients as well as the rest of the office work. Make sure you are licensed, bonded, and insured if you intend to grow this business beyond the few houses you can clean by yourself.
2. Pressure Washing -Pressure washers use specialized equipment to clean many types of surfaces with water and various cleaners under high pressure. Some of the surfaces you can clean will include the exterior of houses and commercial buildings, concrete and brick, wooden decks, fences, furniture, and boats. The list of possibilities is very long, as is the list of potential clients. Many of the people who will need your service may not even realize it, and much of your marketing effort will be to show them how they can benefit from what you offer. There are many investment levels at which to get started in this business from a few hundred dollars to several thousand or more but this still puts it within reach of those who are forced to start small and work their way up.
3. Steam Cleaning -Steam cleaners use various types of equipment to clean carpet and fabric-covered furniture. This equipment can be entirely self-contained with a hot water and vacuum assembly permanently installed in a van or with a unit that carries the water with the machine. This second option is the least desirable since it forces the cleaner to empty and refill the water in the unit, thus wasting time that could be better spent cleaning (and making money). Depending on the exact type of equipment you go with, steam cleaning can be the most expensive option on this list to get started, but it also has the potential to make more money than the rest as well.
4. Green Cleaning Service -A green cleaning service is similar to a traditional cleaning service with the work performed but “green” because of the cleaning supplies used. Instead of using harsh, toxic chemical cleaners, these new services are using all natural, non-toxic cleaners, and charging premium prices for it. Many people are so dedicated to this new way of cleaning they would not consider going back to the old way. People with pets, children, or allergies will be especially attracted to the benefits of a green cleaning service.
5. Pool Cleaning -If you live in the right location, a pool cleaning business can be a very lucrative, year around business for you. Most people who own a pool love swimming in it but hate the cleaning part. It is an endless chore to keep the water clean, clear, and debris free and many are glad to rid themselves of this unpleasant task.
Starting your own business can be exciting and fun, but it can be fraught with anxiety as well. The way to remove much of this anxiety is to start making money as soon as possible. Very few things are better for a business, and consequently, the sanity of the business owner, than a positive cash flow. By opening a cleaning business instead of a more exciting sounding one, the new business owner is far more likely to prosper than their more glamorous counterpart. Remember, fill a need and you will be successful, the greater the need, the greater the success.
Author: Aldar Nagy
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Starting a Commercial Cleaning Business
If you’re looking into starting a commercial cleaning business then these 3 tips will show you exactly how to make money office cleaning . Starting an office cleaning business is not as difficult as you might think and it requires very little money to start. Many people don’t enjoy the ideal of starting a business that gets their hands dirty, although when they figure out how much money they can make in their own office cleaning business after they learn “The Right Way” of how to make money office cleaning … they suddenly realize how nice of a business it can really be.
One important thing to understand about how to make money office cleaning is that office owners don’t have the same picky high standards that you would find with the owner of a residential home. Therefore, offices are easier to clean then homes. Homeowners are emotionally tied to the appearance of their house and if the job isn’t done perfect you will often get nasty criticism. When you clean offices, instead of homes, the customer just has a list of task that needs performed and when you do the task to a certain level of proficiency you will be met with glowing enthusiasm. .
Starting A Commercial Cleaning Business Tip #1 – Don’t be afraid of the small jobs
When many people begin in their own office cleaning business they often feel that they need to make a zillion dollars starting right out of the gate from day one. If you have this attitude, you might think that the only way of how to make money office cleaning – is to get the large jobs which the giant corporations are fighting for also. This just simply isn’t true.
What most new office cleaning business owners don’t know is how easy it can be to get the jobs with small companies. Large cleaning businesses overlook them. There simply isn’t enough money in the small jobs to satisfy the greed of the bigger cleaning companies. If you’re a small one or two man operation you can easily fill your bookings just picking up these little jobs.
Starting A Commercial Cleaning Business Tip #2 – Always look for ways to save time – because time is money
The best way to save time is to plan ahead. Make sure you have all the equipment and supplies that you are going to need to get the job done. Do the work to be performed in an order that won’t require you to come back and redo work that you have done already. For example, do the higher dusting before you do the lower dusting and empty the trash before you do the sweeping. It doesn’t take much brains to realize how to make money office cleaning , in this case, it is to not waste time doing the same job twice.
Another important way to save time is to make sure that the jobs you book are in the same neighborhood. Nothing wastes time more than driving your car halfway across a large city. You don’t get paid for the miles that you drive – you get paid for the offices that you clean! When your offices are right by each other it takes little time and effort to clean one and then go to the next. When doing a lot of small jobs, like I suggested in how to make money office cleaning tip number one, being able to get from one job to the next quickly is an essential part of making doing small jobs profitable.
Starting A Commercial Cleaning Business Tip #3 – Become a full service cleaner
One of the best and often most overlooked ways of how to make money office cleaning more profitable is to increase in gross profit of each job by offering more services than a typical cleaning would consist of. Instead of just doing dusting, emptying trash, sweeping, or cleaning bathrooms… you might think about adding services such as shampooing carpets, cleaning upholstery of furniture, and maybe even window washing. By doing this you increase the money you make by two or even three fold. If that isn’t one of the best ways of how to make money office cleaning that you ever heard – then I don’t know what is.
As you can see, it isn’t very difficult to figure out how to make money office cleaning if you just use a little common sense. By thinking outside the box and not waiting for business to come to you – you can start making money much easier than you ever thought possible. There are many tips of how to make money office cleaning that I did not include here which would be sure to make your business explode. Although I could not share everything in this short article… I hope that it was helpful and you start making the kind of money for your office cleaning business that you dream of.
Author: Thomas Ridgeway
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Clean Up With A Cleaning Business – Four Good Reasons For Starting Yours Today!
If you have ever hankered after running your own business, why not consider the commercial cleaning industry? Believe me, cleaning is no longer a dirty word and the rewards can be more than you might expect . . .
Although these days I mainly write informational articles like these and run an online business, for many years I ran a redbrick janitorial supply company. Some of the things I learned there made me think that maybe, just maybe, I’d made the wrong choice within the cleaning industry!
What made me think that? Well, my company supplied cleaning chemicals and equipment (it still does – I just don’t work there anymore!) to end-users and also to what, in the UK, are termed Contract Cleaners. These are firms who clean on a commercial and contractual basis for other businesses – hence the term Contract Cleaning.
Some of these companies specialise in heavy-duty, one-off cleans at industrial and catering sites. That’s a dirty, tough job. However, the ones I noticed who seemed to be making the money – and some of them made really serious money – were the ones who specialised in light office cleaning.
It took me a while to figure out why and, by this time, my own business was well established and I didn’t want to change it. Had I known the money to be made in cleaning offices a few years earlier, I would have put the wheel over and changed to cleaning services instead of supplies.
But that’s history. The thing I’d like to share with you in this article is WHY you should look at a cleaning business as your choice of employment. Here are a few reasons that might tempt you:
1. Low entry cost. You can start an office cleaning business with just a few hundred pounds or dollars plus a pickup truck, panel van or even an estate car. I’ve seen it done. Contrast this with starting up a janitorial supply business. In my experience I would say that if I started that type of business again – knowing what I know now – I’d want to have about £50K ($100K) in my pocket before I’d even consider it.
Why? One word – stock. OK, let’s make that two words – stock and premises. No, that doesn’t do it. Three words – stock, premises and transport. I think you might see where I’m going!
Yet I’ve seen many Contract Cleaning businesses start up with minimal equipment and succeed. Yes, some fail. In business this happens. But generally in the office cleaning industry those who work at it will succeed. That brings us to the next point.
2. Grow as slowly or as quickly as you like. This is one of the few types of business where a pretty good income can be had from the word go. If you’re happy with that, fine! Maybe you just want to work three or four days and spend the rest of your time on your leisure. On the other hand, I have seen these office cleaning businesses simply explode in terms of turnover for those that want it. One in particular that springs to mind went from zero turnover to just under £1M (about $1.9M) in SIX MONTHS.
If that doesn’t get your attention I don’t know what will! Now before you get too excited, that’s a turnover figure from a firm who was really trying hard. Profit margins are generally pretty good though, so although you might not be an overnight millionaire like some business ideas promise, you would be earning serious money at those sort of figures.
3. Swift transition into a management position. Sure, at the start you’ll be the one doing all the work. That’s the way things are – but office cleaning businesses have to employ workers to do the work. That leaves you – the boss – to manage the business. I have yet to see one successful owner of this kind of business get their hands (or anything else) dirty on a regular basis. Maybe sometimes you WILL have to do that – but the vast majority of the time you’ll be the one in the suit – out getting further contracts!
4. Good exit opportunities. It may seem strange to mention selling a cleaning business before you have even started one but consider this: most people never, ever think of the day when they may well want a change. Cleaning businesses with a good contracts portfolio and a healthy turnover to profit balance can literally be worth a fortune. Bigger outfits snap them up every day of the week. Could you see yourself retiring in ten years time? Or less? I’ve seen it done. Maybe you can do it too!
To conclude this short article I would point out that, although starting and running a cleaning business is pretty easy, only you will be able to make it work. It’s not an easy money option – but it’s a darned sight easier than many other business options I have seen. A last piece of advice. If you are serious about starting out down this road, go and work for a cleaning business for a while. Sure, it’s maybe not the greatest job you’ll ever have but consider it an investment for the future. Then go and set your own up!
Author: Steve Dempster
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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How To Start And Maintain A Cleaning Business
There are many people today who have the desire to run their own business. Doing so can be rewarding and fulfilling, but it also takes hard work. I say this from experience because my husband and I have been running our own cleaning business for the past 5 years and it was not an easy task. There was a lot to learn and really there remains a lot to learn. How do I get started? What type of experience do I need to have? How do I get and keep clients? These were some of the questions that we had to answer as we started our business. Now, I know that every individual is different and no one thing applies to every person. That having been said, I’d like to give you an idea of our my husband and I started our cleaning business. Hopefully there will be something from our experience that will help you with your business venture.
The first thing we did was decide that we wanted to start a cleaning business. I know that may sound strange because if your reading this article, your obviously interested in starting a cleaning business. But, there is a big difference between being interested in and making the decision to stick with starting your own business. We had to make a firm decision about starting our business and get serious about it. Once we did that, it became easier to do research on what to do to get started. My husband’s mom had already had her own cleaning business for many years so we decided to ask her what it was like. She explained that the main way she got her clients was through word of mouth. We have learned that if your good at something, people usually take notice. Ask around to other people that use a cleaning service and you’ll probably discover that what most people want is someone trustworthy, reliable and thorough. It might be a good idea to ask friends and neighbors what they would want in a cleaning service so that you can try to develop those qualities.
Another thing you’ll want to consider is how much time and money you can invest into getting your business started. If you work full or part time, how much time can you spend on getting your business off the ground? You’ll also want to find out what the licensing requirements are for your area and what business laws you’ll have to abide by. Consider the cost of these things and if you can afford to lose that amount of money if your business doesn’t take off as quickly as you’d like it to. Having some business cards and fliers made up (or making them yourself) is another expense to consider. We did this and put an ad in the local paper in order to get our name out there. You may want to try this as well as passing out fliers and business cards in your local area. Consider too the cost of cleaning supplies. Will you be providing your own or will the client pay for them? Also, consider who will do your accounting and taxes. I was the main one in-charge of this aspect of the business and I found it helpful to use tax software that I was comfortable with. You may want to do it yourself or hire a professional. Depending on what type of cleaning business you start, there are many other costs to consider. Will you focus on cleaning just residences or will you venture into commercial cleaning, move-outs, new construction, windows, or floors? We decided to start advertising with local apartment complexes to do move-out cleaning. This really helped us to get our foot in the door, gain experience and have references to use for obtaining more work in the future. Eventually, we headed into residential cleaning and now our focus is on commercial cleaning. Take the time to really think about what aspect of the cleaning business you would like to pursue and consider the cost of getting started.
Now we come to the area of pricing. My husband and I called around to some local cleaning companies to get an idea of what the going rate was. We found that many companies in our area were charging an hourly rate so, we came up with an idea of how much we wanted to make an hour and set our prices based on that. We wanted to stay competitive with the local companies but at the same time, give the clients a good deal. When we started cleaning apartments, we thought about how long it would take us to clean each type of apartment and then decided on a flat rate. This worked out pretty good because eventually, we were able to work much faster and thereby make more an hour. Our clients really appreciated fast and thorough work and so they were willing to pay the rates we charged them. We advertised to more that one apartment complex so that we could have steady work. This really helped us because in our case, the work was sometimes slow with one apartment complex and steady with another. Remember, any type of contractor work can have slow times so be prepared in case work does start to dry up.
What I consider to be one of the most important parts of the cleaning business is customer relations. Keeping the client happy is good for business. We have had many clients ask us to do extra things and depending on what it was, we gladly took on the work, sometimes not charging extra for it just to keep the client happy. Now, I’m not saying that you have to do extra work pro bono everytime. You’ll have to decide for yourself what your comfortable with. Just remember that a happy client makes for a more solid business. Important things to consider that will make the client happy is doing the work thoroughly, being efficient, being on-time and being respectful. Everyone appreciates doing business with honest and hard workers so keep this in mind as you work on the relationship with your clients. Many times we obtained clients because the previous cleaning company they used were not doing a very good job or weren’t willing to do extra work and we quickly proved that we could do a great job at a reasonable price. This helped the client to see that we were a trustworthy company that they could depend on. Being dependable is a key quality that you’ll want to develop in your cleaning business.
Now, I know there are many subjects I haven’t covered such as major marketing plans, keeping records of each client whether to have a dedicated phone just for work and so forth. I couldn’t possibly cover everything in one article. But, I do hope that I’ve given you some good imformation to start with that will help you in starting your business. My husband and I have learned that the best thing you can do is RESEARCH. Ask questions, read articles like this one and others that pertain to the cleaning business. I truly believe that you can never know enough and that there’s always room for improvement. Remember, if your determined and willing to invest yourself and your resources, you too can start and maintain a successful cleaning business.
Author: April Hill
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Unix inter-process communication (IPC)
How to Start a Cleaning Business on a Shoestring Budget
Would you like to learn how to start a cleaning business on a shoestring budget? No matter where you live, there is always a need for cleaning services. After all, life is messy! Commercial buildings of all types and sizes need to be cleaned daily, weekly, monthly, or somewhere in-between. By offering commercial cleaning services you can satisfy a need in your community and can build a profitable cleaning business at the same time. By taking the right steps at the beginning, you can start your cleaning business with very low up-front costs, and, unlike many small businesses, you can actually clear a profit in your first year of operation!
What are the advantages of starting a cleaning business as opposed to owning and operating another type of business?
- A successful cleaning business can easily be started by one person who does everything from billing to marketing to the actual cleaning. You can start the business part-time and keep a full-time job until the business grows and can support your lifestyle.
- You’ll provide the cleaning services at the client’s building, so more than likely clients will never go to your “place of business”. Therefore, you can easily run a commercial cleaning business out of your home. A spare room or garage can hold your supplies and equipment, and you can use a spare bedroom or small corner of any room to do your paperwork. Working out of your home saves the cost of leasing or owning a building and you can write off part of your home mortgage and utilities as business expenses.
- You can start a cleaning business with only a small investment in supplies and equipment. As your business grows and you offer more services such as carpet cleaning or stripping floors, you can buy or lease equipment.
- When just starting out you will probably do most, if not all, of the work by yourself. If you need employees you can work with a temporary employment agency and avoid the challenging tasks of payroll and paying employment taxes, social security, unemployment, and worker’s compensation.
- A cleaning business can start out as a sole proprietorship, which is the easiest and cheapest way to set up a business entity. As the business grows you can consider changing the structure to a corporation or limited liability corporation, which may require an attorney and an investment of several hundred dollars.
What steps are needed to not only start a cleaning business, but to make sure that it is a successful cleaning business?
- Begin by writing a business plan. This does not have to be a long document, but a three-to five page document that you prepare to help you focus and decide the basic parameters of your cleaning business. Include the following in your business plan: business name, location, geographic area you will serve, competition, business structure, marketing plan, accounting procedures and a cash flow spreadsheet. Remember, a business plan is to help get you focused – it is not a hard and fast document that outlines the day-to-day operations of how you will run your cleaning business.
- After deciding on a business name and business structure, it is important to decide on a particular “niche” for your cleaning business. Do you want to clean small office buildings, large office buildings, medical clinics, banks, new construction or government buildings? It is much easier to start with one particular niche and focus your marketing efforts on a select group, rather than spreading yourself too thin.
- When just starting out your cleaning business you can easily operate on a shoestring marketing budget. Avoid the expensive and often ineffective newspaper and radio ads. Market your cleaning services through networking (especially through your local chamber), cold calling (in-person and by telephone), talking to property managers, and watching for new buildings going up in your area.
- Once you decide to start a cleaning business, develop a relationship with a janitorial supplies distributor. Although it may seem like buying supplies through a distributor is more expensive than buying through a “big box retail store”, there are many advantages in working with a distributor. A distributor can teach you how to use supplies and equipment properly, which will save your cleaning business time and money.
- A distributor has knowledge of new products and can let you know when a cheaper product works just as well as a more expensive item. Through a distributor you will be able to buy concentrated and more effective cleaning chemicals. Knowing what chemicals to use and how to use them can directly affect your bottom line. This is advice you cannot get from a big box store! And besides giving advice and training, a janitorial supplies distributor may have leads and referrals that can lead to profitable cleaning accounts.
- Another important person to find right at the start of your cleaning business is an accountant. A good accountant does much more than figure out your taxes at the end of the year. He or she will provide financial advice and guidance throughout the year and help you make important financial decisions such as when to buy or lease a piece of equipment or whether you should rent office space. This will help to save you money.
Hard work, dedication and attention to detail will keep your cleaning business going. Taking the time to make plans for your cleaning business will help to ensure that your cleaning business is successful!
Author: Steve Hanson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Unix inter-process communication (IPC)
Success For Your Cleaning Business
Cleaning businesses are one of the emerging business ventures in the past months. More and more people have been putting up their own cleaning companies in the past months. This is seen to be the simplest business that you can ever put up which is why people are taking their chances and trying to make it big in this business. Although it is very easy to enter in this cleaning business, it is so hard to stay in it. With all the competition that you will have in this business, you need to make calculated moves in order to survive in this business.
Since a cleaning service is very important in the lives of the people, this is the best business that you can put up. With so many people living such busy lives, they need to have a hand or two when it comes to taking care of the cleaning jobs that they have. They can now have their homes cleaned with your business just around the corner. This is why you really need to make sure that you have the best cleaning service there is for the people.
This is why you really have to do your research first before you start in your business. You need to make sure that you are equipped with all the knowledge that you should have when it comes to a business before your enter it. It is too risky to just enter into cleaning without knowing a thing or two because this will work to the advantage of your competitors and you would now want this to happen to your business, right? So what are you waiting for? Do your research and gather all the knowledge that you can get when it comes to a cleaning business.
The first thing that you have to do is to identify the type of business that you would want to put up. There are so many cleaning businesses available out there. You may choose to have a general cleaning service, where you will just have to clean and fix up mess. This would usually include sweeping, vacuuming and dusting. There are cleaning businesses which do cater to specific cleaning job. There are carpet cleaning services, window cleaning and other cleaning jobs. Depending on which you think will work best, you may choose to have a cleaning business that you want.
The next thing that you have to keep in mind is to research on your competitors. This is very important since you need to know the weaknesses and the strengths of your competitors. Knowing these will now give you the advantage of having to conceptualize how you are going to run your business. You need to come up with a plan that will give you the best cleaning methods and at the same time, avoid the mistakes that you see that other cleaning businesses have. This is what sets a successful cleaning business. Of course, you need to give your potentials customers a reason why they should go for your business and not for other companies. The success of your business will lie in this so you need to make sure that you keep this in mind.
Great advertising is appreciated in a cleaning business. Since this is a service type of business, you need to make sure that you send the message to your potential customers that you are willing to help them out in their lives. Reaching out to them will be very much appreciated by the clients so make it a point to do a great job in it. Identifying your potential market will make it very easy for you to come up with effective marketing. Whether you would want to serve homes or offices, you may need to have an effective advertising strategy that you can use for your business. There are so many advertising strategies which you can employ. There are flyers, posters, websites, on line ads and print ads. For a cleaning business, you need to use a marketing strategy that will require you to use the minimum amount of money. Cheap but very effective advertising methods can really contribute to the success of your cleaning business. The most effective way to advertise your cleaning business is to use online ads. There are so many free websites out there which allow for free advertising of your business. Since there are so many people who are using the internet each day, you need to make sure that you use this for your advantage. Knowing that there are so many people who are using the internet each day, if you put up online ads, at least 20 people or more will see your ads each day. Ina matter of a few minutes, people will call you to inquire about your cleaning business.
Apart from these, you need to research on the things that you have to use for your cleaning business. There are certain cleaning methods that you should use when you have a cleaning business. The best way that you can clean is through green cleaning. This is the latest way that cleaning is done in present time, so you need to take advantage of this one. You need to make sure that you do your research when you want to use the most effective cleaning tools and cleaning solutions for your cleaning business.
There are so many things that you have to research when you want your cleaning business to be very successful. This does not mean that you have done your research, you can now go on and run your business and be guaranteed to be very successful in it. As you run your business, there are things which you are going to learn. There are things that will contribute to the success of your business, so be open to these things. There are so many things that you need to consider and once you become successful, do not be afraid to expand your cleaning business.
Author: John F Smith
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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