How to Start a House Cleaning Business

[tomsmith2010]

You need find who want cleaner or cleaning services which can be found some of sites where houseowners advertise their requirment and you should contact them. Otherway is on similar site you put your details and contsct they will contact you.

 

[amanda1112]

I don't think you need any qualifications to clean so long as you do a good job and the client is happy its a win win situation imo.

 

[fedwardss12]

I think you should build a nice website. Online presence is a must in today's market.

 

[Tax-UK]

that was good advice

 

[GeGe Bon Bon]

Hi

Ive just joined the site and am looking for some advice starting my domestic cleaning business.

When you hire people to work for you how do you stop them working directly for your client at a cheaper price??

Also would you take them on a self employed basis or as permanant workers?

I am very good at the cleaning side but need some guidance on the busines side of things lol

Any help would be very gratefully received

Thanks

 

[90DC]

Hi

Ive just joined the site and am looking for some advice starting my domestic cleaning business.

When you hire people to work for you how do you stop them working directly for your client at a cheaper price??

Also would you take them on a self employed basis or as permanant workers?

I am very good at the cleaning side but need some guidance on the busines side of things lol

Any help would be very gratefully received

Thanks

So many questions, why not ask in a new thread? Whereabouts are you based?

 

[grange]

Hi

Ive just joined the site and am looking for some advice starting my own domestic cleaning business within the Durham area. On review there appears to be a wealth of experience on this site but trying to pinpoint north east (initially)

I have received a great deal of advice from Business Link in terms of start up, but would welcome advice from anybody from the Durham area who would be happy to share experiences. Im currently pending redundancy and have a relative (already out of work - CRB checked available for work now) so looking to start small initially (until I can look to focus 100% - but quite happy to still get stuck in)

Any help would be very gratefully received

Thanks

 

[predicmack]

Thanks for your suggestion. I think its helpful for all.

 

[RedDevil]

Hi, thankyou for all the advice. I'm hoping to start my own home based home cleaning business with just myself to begin with but hopefully fairly quickly employing some staff. I have no experience of being an employer and any tips in this area would be hugely appreciated - hourly rates for staff, hourly rates to clients etc. Thank you .

Hi, I am also thinking of starting my own business as a cleaner as im a home care worker with no work really well not enough to live on, the things i want to know is all the legal side of it really, such as paying the government i know about PAYE and tax etc etc but what else legally do you have to pay and what sort of paperwork do you have to have??

Thanks for all the help!

 

[RedDevil]

I have owned my own domestic and commercial cleaning company for the past 4 years and it is very successful. I employ 4 full time staff to do the work whilst i concentrate on winning new contracts and marketing.

I built up my client base through royal mail door to door leaflet drops using targeted audience and through double quarter full colour ads in yellow pages.I have never used free papers as they simply do not work!!If you have any specific questions please let me know,as i am very experienced in managing a cleaning business.

Hey there,

I was wondering if you could mentor me a little, I am looking obv to start my own cleaning business, but was wondering:

What paperwork you need for the legal side
What payments do you have to make for the legal side again
Its just really the legal side I need help with really, I am getting my own printer so I dont have to use the library for printing for advertising.
obv i will need cloths, cleaning products and all the rest of it.
Would I need my own premises or can i use my own house and phone number?

I would just like a short description of everything I will need to know to run a successful company

Thanks for all your help in advance

 

[brucemoe37]

Hmm i must say its a fresh and innovative idea of starting a house cleaning business. Well I would like to advise that after starting a business you must take help of any best and professional advertising agency as it would help in promoting your business and the people would come to know about this business, theses agencies would do media placements, live broad casting, create good pr firms.


_______________________________________________________________
planning media

 

[brianwood76]

Well to begin the above you gotta recruit a dedicated housecleaning staff for your business , next you gotta find out where are you going to provide your services ,then you gotta buy equipments for this operations, you gotta register your business and create a backup plan to support your services, you gotta then start advertising your business steadily to get more customers..

 

[ZyLer]

Hello All.

I have been reading some of the post's here and all the advice’s provided are good.

I personally started my own business for 2 years ago and I had my friends helping me out with this. One year later I had someone interested to buy it and I decided to sell it.

Anyway, my point here is to offer everyone that is looking in to starting their own business some help with a website.

Getting a website, domain name and web host that will meet your expectations is not the easiest thing.

I am very good in what I do, offering websites to my clients and would like to offer everyone interested a custom made website where anything is possible.

A GOOD website with the right TOOLS included in it can help you build yourself up and build your customer database up. It can also promote your business more and help you reach higher on search engines.

My prices are dependent on what you want and how many tools you would like to include.

For a simple cleaning business on 3 pages, it is just matter of days before this can be up and running.

I am happy to assist anyone and advise you on what you need.

Please feel free to contact me at any point.

My email: zaeed-91(at)hotmail.com

Thanks

 

[Dangarwe]

hi all

I just registered my cleaning business TidyNclean Ltd. I have done the google adverts Local paper adverts doctors surgery appointment cards and mail out to companies and all other place i could advertise, however im not getting any customers, has anyone got any ideas as to how else i can market my company.
i have had afew builders cleans this is not good enough to even cover my advertising costs. The only enquiries I am getting via my website are from people seeking work. Please help with any advice, I really want to make this company grow

 

[D4ch0l]

Hi everyone, I have read all of your posts and it was very motivating and inspiring.
I have started cleaning business about 5 months ago and so far so good. I have build my own website www|amdomestic|co|uk I have designed own flyers and business cards and people slowly find out about us. We all have to remember that nothing comes easy, especially when it comes to business where there is lots of competition out on the market. And it takes time to build empire as the Rome was.
I still have my main job and the cleaning is part time, but hopefully that will change.

Thanks Adam

 

[Dangarwe]

Hi everyone, I have read all of your posts and it was very motivating and inspiring.
I have started cleaning business about 5 months ago and so far so good. I have build my own website www|amdomestic|co|uk I have designed own flyers and business cards and people slowly find out about us. We all have to remember that nothing comes easy, especially when it comes to business where there is lots of competition out on the market. And it takes time to build empire as the Rome was.
I still have my main job and the cleaning is part time, but hopefully that will change.

Thanks Adam

When you say you did your own fliers how did you distribute them? Some one discouraged me from using fliers saying that they do not bring in business please advise

 

[90DC]

Sending out flyers is not marketing. Sending out flyers is sending out flyers. Marketing is more of a science.

You need to get onto a level with the potential customer, what is it they need/want?

The local Doctor's surgery wont be looking for 'Miss Mop' at £3.50 an hour, they'll be looking at a more professional operation. I point my advice particularly at dangerwe;

No contact details on the website? - Put me off. No address, nor phone number (clearly visible.
When I did eventually find your telephone number, I then had the thought, "Where do these people operate from? What is their service area?" I had to Google the area code and it came up with Hemel Hempstead or Hampshire.
The website lacks SEO. Simple. If you're expecting online custom, you need to GET SEEN.

Also, many businesses will already have cleaners, whether that be third party or directly employed. Many householders wanting cleaners will already have them, chances are, everyone else will not want one anyway.

What I'd suggest for any budding cleaner is to set yourself apart from all the other generic cleaning companies and shout about it. Forget price, people are prepared to pay more for a service if it is a service delivered in an effective way.

So are you family-run? Are you honest? Do you love your work? Do you consistently meet customer expectations? Are you insured? Are you trustworthy? Can you prove you're trustworthy? Who else have you cleaned for? Etc.

Cleaning 'businesses' are amongst the easiest to set up, but are highly dense in competition due to this. Therefore, you have to set yourself apart to succeed in any way in this industry.

 

[Dangarwe]

Sending out flyers is not marketing. Sending out flyers is sending out flyers. Marketing is more of a science.

You need to get onto a level with the potential customer, what is it they need/want?

The local Doctor's surgery wont be looking for 'Miss Mop' at £3.50 an hour, they'll be looking at a more professional operation. I point my advice particularly at dangerwe;

No contact details on the website? - Put me off. No address, nor phone number (clearly visible.
When I did eventually find your telephone number, I then had the thought, "Where do these people operate from? What is their service area?" I had to Google the area code and it came up with Hemel Hempstead or Hampshire.
The website lacks SEO. Simple. If you're expecting online custom, you need to GET SEEN.

Also, many businesses will already have cleaners, whether that be third party or directly employed. Many householders wanting cleaners will already have them, chances are, everyone else will not want one anyway.

What I'd suggest for any budding cleaner is to set yourself apart from all the other generic cleaning companies and shout about it. Forget price, people are prepared to pay more for a service if it is a service delivered in an effective way.

So are you family-run? Are you honest? Do you love your work? Do you consistently meet customer expectations? Are you insured? Are you trustworthy? Can you prove you're trustworthy? Who else have you cleaned for? Etc.

Cleaning 'businesses' are amongst the easiest to set up, but are highly dense in competition due to this. Therefore, you have to set yourself apart to succeed in any way in this industry.

Thank you for your valuable feedback I have made some slight changes to the website and will now work on the SEO stuff, I really appreciate your comments, if there is anything else you can come up with I would appreciate

 

[90DC]

Thank you for your valuable feedback I have made some slight changes to the website and will now work on the SEO stuff, I really appreciate your comments, if there is anything else you can come up with I would appreciate

I'll have a proper think this evening for you. There's a lot to think about in order to succeed.

 

[Dangarwe]

I'll have a proper think this evening for you. There's a lot to think about in order to succeed.

I'll look forward to hear from you

 

[ultimateu]

I am here seeking information on how to start up a cleaning company, this has always been a dream I have to do for a long time but just didn't get the time around in bringing it to reality. Frist I do have such a great passion for cleaning and I have been working as a cleaner for sometimes now, at present I am working for the same company for almost 5 years at the same office.

I am very honest and trustworthy, extremely reliable and harworking, you can count on me to be at work, I've never been absent from work for more than 2 days in one year and only take leave once and that's last month, my empolyer can depend on me to be at work both on time and doing a job up to certain standard.

I believe I do have the capability of starting my own cleaning company, I know I am a dedicated person and my motives of going into it for myself is the sense of satifiaction it will produce, even though I am with my present employer, no one seems to appreciate the work I do hence still having the contract, I know my reason of saying this.

I do have an idea of what to do but if I could get some more info. then I would be greatful for it. I am not going into it for the money but for the passion and great love I have for it. I know I cannot ask my present employer for any advise because they wouldnt wanted me to go, but I think Iv'e given then a few years well of good service and also I would miss the clients very much because after building up a relationship with then over the years, it would be sad to go but I have to follow my passion.

Even though I have a good relationship with the cleint I would not try to get then to employ me or try taking my employers customers away, I just want to start mine from scratch and put in my own work into building it up. I know it will take a while to get there but I am determine to get it started. If anyone have any advise I would really appreciate it. Thanks. NB I will start off with house cleaning in my area of North London and then move up from there.

 

[ultimateu]

Thanks for your opinion and I do understand where you are coming from.

 

[Feldon]

You can find further advice and information on the following forum's cleanitup.co.uk and cleantalk.co.uk both cover a range of cleaning professions carpet cleaners, window cleaners and general cleaners so you will find a lot of in depth and you will find other members usually give advice (as long as you are not about to start trading in their area).

 

[Franny7]

I sell a very popular domestic cleaning business pack which is like a business in a box. There are loads of free advice there too

www.dcasss.co.uk
Check it out!

 

[Allisdiar1]

Advertising is the most important aspect of making any business a success. It is important to create a buzz in the local area about your business. I would like to give you just one advice, make sure to insure your business so that if there is any loss, still you are able to cover it up. Best of luck for your cleaning service.

 

[Gravic]

I have owned my own domestic and commercial cleaning company for the past 4 years and it is very successful. I employ 4 full time staff to do the work whilst i concentrate on winning new contracts and marketing.

I built up my client base through royal mail door to door leaflet drops using targeted audience and through double quarter full colour ads in yellow pages.I have never used free papers as they simply do not work!!If you have any specific questions please let me know,as i am very experienced in managing a cleaning business.

I am thinking of starting a cleaning business but not yet decided on whether to start-up on my own or to buy a franchise. I have no previous experience of cleaning business but I love keeping my home and environment clean and would love a hands on experience while running the business

Can you help advise me and also tell me if I and my dependants can live on the income and how soon that could be

 

[Gravic]

What is the average decent salary for cleaners. I am about to start a cleaning business and would like to have an idea what to pay my staff. Thanks you

 

[Feldon]

What is the average decent salary for cleaners. I am about to start a cleaning business and would like to have an idea what to pay my staff. Thanks you

I would say that an average price to charge your customers would be around £10 - £12 per hour and you would generally pay your staff around minimum wage or just over, around £6.19 last time i looked. You may well be able to charge and pay a bit higher in more affluent area's and likewise you might have to charge a bit less in some area's but you won't be able to pay any less.

 

[Gravic]

Hi, Am new to this forum

Am about to start up a cleaning business but am undecided whether to start on my own or to buy a franchise. Could you help advise me. Thanks :|

 

[Gravic]

Thank you for this candid expose. Please, was that rogue Franchisor a full member of the Franchise Federation Association.

 

[cleaner with clearview]

My job doesn't involve cleaning, but I do work on the advertising and search engine marketing for an Inverness cleaning company and a good way to advertise any new business is to find free local directories for your specific genre of business on the internet.

Use the search engines and search for "cleaning directories" or "where do I find a cleaning company" and get listed. Though it may not bring through loads of enquiries straight away, it raises exposure, doesn't cost you anything and gets your name out there, and there may well be some direct sales through it too!

Good Luck!

 

[JacobCook715]

Make sure you keep your costs as low as possible

 

[Jonah E]

Hi there,
Nice plan indeed, well starting a business is a great risk and coming up with a great ideas of business is the best solution to the problem. for making your business unique you have to be more innovative and creative. first of all think about the funding- that actually from where and how much funding you posses to get started with your business. Then the second step would be of your organization that how would manage this business.. Then the business marketing plan which is the most essential part of your thought process. in the end the implementation is all that you should take care of.
Hope that works out for you

 

[EmmaG]

Hi All

Just wanted to share with you my story which I hope you find helpful. I started my own cleaning business just over a year ago.I had been cleaning for other companies for a few years and decided I wanted to start my own business. I had no idea where to start. Did I want to leave my cleaning job and take the plunge or do I do it on the side, well for me building it on the side was the more realistic option. I searched for hours on the internet for advice and helpful information. I came across a very helpfull website startyourown .org/cleaningbusiness gave me all the tools I needed to get going. Including printable marketing materials, and a email marketing campaign which is easy to set up, so many usefull resources. It has been hard work getting it going and you have to be determined if you want it to really work, but I now have 35 customers and two other cleaners helping me.

Hope this is useful, any questions please ask?

EmmaG

 

[James66]

Well its not a child play to start a business. Actually there is not much hard to start a cleaning business if you have enough knowledge about that. Like what are the targeted market and then which types of services are most common which people mostly get.

 

[Reliablesid]

EDIT; impotant point. Staff work as hard as they feel that what you are paying is worth. Forget all these things about working conditions and feeling valued and big hugs. At the end of the day it all boils down to how much you pay them. The other things yes are nice, and help staff stay a bit longer, but ITS ALL ABOUT THE PAY.
__________________
Sphinx

This is sad that your cleaning staff are all about the money, I take mine on and regularly still get involved in larger house cleans 15 bed+ student houses and feel generally they work very hard for their money (I pay 20% above industry standard) and if your staff aren't happy then that 20% extra means nothing, getting what you pay for is an untrue statement as some on basic wage are great and some on my higher rate work less hard.
I do however agree retaining staff is hard work and some staff feel its casual work where they can let you down at very short notice. Fact is you may have to go through many cleaners before finding some gems which I have.
Having many good feedback comments on my various advertising for my cleaners is great and one bad feedback comment can and probably has dented my ability on that forum for new business.

 

[Office Cleaning]

I would agree with EmmaG. Running a business is very different from being an employee. Start slowly, learn as you go along, work hard, keep learning, keep working hard and repeat and you’ll get there.

 

[Clean With Envy]

Seeking Advice and Guidance on Starting up a
AGENCY RUN CLEANING BUSINESS Model please?

 

[Clean With Envy]

Anyone experienced in the operation of a
AGENCY MODEL
Where as your cleaners are all Independent Employees and Clients supply their own cleaning equipment and cleaning products as well, client pay cleaners themselves at end of each clean - the client pay you a annual fee plus another fee onside 3 months in advance!
Seems most UK Franchises work this Model and I'm new to UK and therefore, not as familiar with this Model - as were I've lived they Hired their staff and supplied all products and equipments. Seems a lot more benefits and financial profits to be made for the business owner going with this Agency Model. Your basically act as a Introduction Service.

Welcome hearing from anyone and which Model is best to go with.
With the Agency Model: you as owner your role is to Manage and Administer the Business. Go find the jobs and quote them before matching cleaners to clients. It's a Model which doesn't require storage space for cleaning Cars, Equipment and Products to be stored. It seems a very clean cut Business Model to which I could operate within my apartment?

Advice Welcome Please? How and where do I learn how to set up this Model and find which Contract forms? Thank You In Advance to all who respond with a reply!
- Clean With Envy.