Starting an office cleaning business is simple, and requires little start-up capital. For the most part, the only expense involves buying supplies and advertising.

Fortunately, cleaning supplies are cheap, and it costs even less to advertise in local newspapers, or online. Because most business professionals are busy, they are willing to pay a company or individual to clean their offices. You just need to learn how to brand your Office cleaning company in order to grow your business.

Remember, Almost anyone can clean. The trick is to hire others to do all the cleaning once you get things up and running. This leaves you free to generate new business. There are very simple and inexpensive ways to market your office cleaning accounts.

Here are just a few simple ways:

* Specialized Service:

If you offer your cleaning service for just one type of business.. let’s say , lawyer’s offices, by concentrating all your efforts in one type of clients, it will make your life easier, and your efforts far more better than being everything for everyone. Think about this, if a lawyer compares between 2 companies, company A is a general commercial cleaning company that offers service for all type of businesses, and company B specializes in just lawyer offices. Who would he choose?

By specializing in one or few types of service you give a message that you offer a service tailored for their needs,and that’s exactly what loyal clients want. Try to copy this idea by finding a small niche, like Doctor’s offices, dental offices, pharmacies, Real Estate, High Tech offices, etc..

Don’t misunderstand me here. You can still go after any type of offices to clean. But you can tailor your marketing towards each individual type of industry. In other words..You can have specialized services in many different industries.

* GIVE-A-WAYS:

One marketing strategy used by office cleaning business owners are giveaways”. Businesses love to try services for free. Once they see what a good job you do, and once you earn their trust, there’s a good chance you have just earned a client. If you’re running a cleaning business, you could give away a cleaning tips brochure, free cleaning guides, or color swatches. Once you begin giving away authoritative information customers will begin to perceive you as an expert in your field. (This may seem somewhat difficult and time consuming but I promise you it’s not).

* Business Cards:

This is one of the greatest marketing tool for any Janitorial/office cleaning business. The problem is most folks that are new to the office cleaning business don’t know how to do this correctly. If you know how to get your business card into the hands of the right people, at the right time you will generate a ton of business just from this one little strategy alone.

Simply learn how to Provide an irresistible offer on the back of the card for new clients. This has worked for office cleaning business owners many times over!

You don’t have to hand out 200 business cards and hope for the best. There are methods of getting leads that can actually help you obtain more business than if you were running an expensive full-page advertisement in the phone book!

* Print Advertising:

Start by setting an advertising budget. Once you set your budget, decide where to advertise. For a cleaning business it makes no sense and would be a waste of your money to advertise in a large magazine or buy a TV commercial that airs on a Saturday night. Besides being expensive, these ads will most likely not reach your target audience. The common print ad, run in your local newspaper or shopper, is the most basic unit of advertising.

Print ads have launched major office cleaning companies and created many success stories. Running ads in a local paper can be a great way to promote your cleaning business…but you must follow a few basic rules.

Your ad should attract attention! Although this sounds obvious, unless your ad attracts attention you are throwing your money down the drain. The most compelling way to have a “noticeable” ad is to have an interesting and visually appealing headline. If you are designing a large ad, think of using a subhead. This will provide added information and can be longer than the headline.

* Greeting Cards:

Greeting cards can be used as a great Marketing Tool when it comes to repeat business and referrals. Use them to thank clients for their business. Send them as greeting for most of the holiday occasions. Try to send cards as early as possible so they can be the first in your clients mailbox. Surprise them first so they can always remember you. Use handwritten messages to show more appreciation to your customers. If you use this marketing tool,you can always save money by buying cards after occasions, in quantity and keep them for next year.

* Electronic Media:

Buy banner ads in electronic media. Look for websites that target your potential customers, such as your local chamber. This can deliver your information right to the business that needs your service.

Copyright (c) 2008 Brent Wale

Author: Brent Wale
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Get my ex back

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
Get my ex back

Thank goodness starting an office cleaning business isn’t anything like skydiving! If
you fall flat on your face, there’s no chance that it’s going to hurt that bad. Learning
to handle the inevitable occurrence of rejection to the best of your ability will help
you refine your office cleaning business and your business techniques.

Rejection is simply par for the course when you first start an office cleaning
business — it will happen occasionally. So instead of hoping that it never will, it’s
good for your business health to come up with some strategies to handle it, learn
from it and even grow your office cleaning business with that knowledge. As you
start an office cleaning business, aim to minimize your experiences of rejection,
while at the same time, be prepared for it.

Reasons for Rejection.

Not “clicking” with your client when you first start an office cleaning business can be
cause for rejection somewhere down the line. An initial awkwardness between you
may just never go away, and could result in the end of that job. Or you may take on
a new client but you feel some anxiety on their part about your fees. They may hire
you for one or two sessions, and then tell you they aren’t interested in having you
back.

When we first started an office cleaning business we had a continual scheduling
problem with one office manager, who changed her cleaning date many times
during the holiday season. We were as flexible as we could be with her, changing
our other clients’ scheduled dates around in order to accomodate her several times.
But when it came to settling on a regular cleaning date, this person could not be
flexible with us. Funny thing was, Ev and I just knew something wasn’t right with
this particular job from the start. We hadn’t ever really “clicked” with her, so the
schedule problem became bigger than it should have been.

Be aware that scheduling is one of the most important elements of starting an office
cleaning business. Get it right with your clients, and you’ve got a good opportunity
to keep your clients happy. Get it wrong with them, and you may find yourself
moving on.

Superficial concerns like personal style, or appearance, can be a cause for rejection.
People’s perceptions are very important. We’re not saying those perceptions are
right or wrong, only that they’re important. When Evan started to get serious about
making good money with his office cleaning business, he cut his shoulder-length
hair short. His business picked up.

People do make snap judgments on appearances. It’s just a game. If we want the
business, we have to play by the rules of the game. We’re aware that there are a lot
of flaky office cleaners out there who disappoint their clients regularly. You’ll
succeed by playing against the stereotypes. Dress well (as well as you can
considering the nature of this job–you do get dirty on occasion), always be on
time, and communicate well with your clients.

What to Say If and When it Happens.

Let’s say your new client, Mrs. C, calls you on the day after your birthday. Feeling
fine as you pick up the receiver, you assume for a moment that she’s calling about
your schedule. But her voice is quavering, and she proceeds to tell you that she
thinks you are charging too much. Her company no longer wants to do business
with you. She’s nervous, which makes you suddenly nervous. The conversation is
awkward for you both.

You don’t know what to say except, “thank you for your call, I appreciate your
honesty. It’s been a pleasure to work for you. Have a nice day.” (Please note: I have
actually told people to have a nice day, but seeing it in print makes me cringe. Trust
me, you’ll think of something better to say.)

While you’ll never like losing a client, be honest with yourself. Would you want to
clean Mrs. C’s office for less? Would it be worth your time and effort?

So, when Mrs. C calls, you decide. If you want the job enough to lower your
fee, ask if she would be interested in re-negotiating. But if you realize that you
simply can’t do that job at a lowered fee, then say a little mental thank you to her.
She’s opened up your schedule for another, better client to come along. And you
can see how important it is to try and set the fees right at the time of the estimate.

Keep up your marketing campaign.

Do not agonize over it, just do it. And be on the alert while talking to the people in
your daily life. Let them know what you do. Ask them for referrals. Many people
don’t realize how extraordinarily helpful your average person can be. So just ask.
Sometimes that’s all it takes. Don’t allow yourself to skate along smugly on the thin
ice of your regular schedule. Something out-of-the-blue could always happen.

Marketing consistently is especially important during the first three or four months
when you start an office cleaning business. It doesn’t take much time to continually
sow the fields of your daily bread this way. Then when a client drops into the abyss
you can call the people who are patiently waiting for your schedule to loosen up so
you can fit them in, and reap the harvest.

Workplace Trends.

This is a good time to mention that in accordance with the latest workplace trends,
even employees with seemingly secure jobs are being advised never to get too
comfy. “Always be prepared to move on to your next job,” is the advice of career
counselors, who also recommend that employees be discreet about looking for
another job while at work. Companies have no loyalty to their employees, and in the
current economy you never know when companies may be forced to downsize.

How does this translate into language for self-employed people like you and me?
“Always be prepared to move on to your next job.” It’s exactly the same advice.
Except, unlike employees with other companies, you and I do not have to be covert
about it. It’s both smart and natural for self-employed people to always keep a keen
lookout for new clients. It’s all considered intelligent networking.

Shift happens.

As you start an office cleaning business you’ll learn that it isn’t simply that people
are fickle and unpredictable, although they can be both those things. Your clients
are working under the same strenuous system as you, and they are as susceptible to
job loss, solar flares, family crises, illness and temporary insanity as you are. So be
kind to your clients. Even when they can you for no good reason that you can see.
Forgive them, forget them, then go on and market some more.

Author: Suzanne Arthur
Article Source: EzineArticles.com