How To Start A Cleaning Business In Just 6 Steps In 2024?
Cleaning your house can be one of the most excruciatingly difficult things ever. Therefore, instead of doing it themselves, they hire a cleaning service – who are in high demand. Thus, learning how to start a cleaning service will be a profitable venture in 2024.
Most people I know suffer from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) and will do anything to live in a clean house.
However, cleaning all your rooms can be difficult, especially if you live alone. Moreover, it takes a lot of time and requires getting your hands dirty.
Therefore, hiring cleaning services to clean your house or office is a smart way of getting things done. Moreover, it’s one of the best best small town business ideas.
I recommend reading this post to learn how to start a cleaning business in five steps!
Things You Must Do Before Starting a New Cleaning Business in 2024!
Before you learn how to start a cleaning business, you must first ensure that some things are in order. These are essentials that you must do and have before you register your new cleaning business.
Therefore, you must ensure that you do these things before you begin the process of starting a cleaning business:
1. Conduct Market Research
Conducting market research for startups must be your number one priority before starting any business in 2024. It refers to using various tools and methods to learn more about the customer base and the competition.
Therefore, conduct online surveys to find out the preferences of the customer base regarding their need for cleaning businesses. This will let you assess which cleaning sector is the most profitable – residential or commercial.
In addition, you can learn more about your competitors in the cleaning business. Therefore, you can look at their operations, skills and tools, and pricing structure.
2. Choose Your Cleaning Specialization
Typically, all cleaning businesses can be sub-categorized into four types:
- House Cleaning: The most common cleaning service providers clean your house’s floors, walls, and ceilings.
- Office Cleaning: As the term suggests, these service providers clean your office space.
- Deep Cleaning: Applicable for residential and commercial cleaners, it involves cleaning everything – furniture, appliances, photo frames, etc.
- Movers Cleaning: Another standard cleaning service where you clean residential houses after their owners move out or move in.
Therefore, before you learn how to start a cleaning business, you must decide what type of cleaning service you wish to provide.
This decision is necessary because all these above services have different market sizes. Moreover, each of them has different cleaning processes and requires different equipment.
3. Arrange Funds
Before you learn how to start a business, you must first arrange funds to start any business.
You can arrange the capital yourself (creating a bootstrap startup) or, more commonly – borrow business loans from the bank.
Therefore, depending on your startup requirements, you must arrange your finances to start a cleaning business accordingly. Moreover, if you start a small business, you must store all your funds in your small business account.
4. Purchase Your Equipment
Since you wish to learn how to start a cleaning business in 2024, do you know what cleaning equipment you need?
Before registering your business, you must ensure you have all your cleaning equipment ready. This includes:
- Brooms
- Mops
- Cleaning agents
- Sprayers
- Scrubbers
- Sponges
- Buckets
- Hazmat suits
- Towels
- Trash disposal bags
- Vacuum cleaners
- Ladders
… and lots more!
5. Rent or Buy an Office
Every business has a location – its head office. Therefore, you must rent or purchase commercial property for your business’s office.
However, I recommend purchasing an office suitable for your cleaning business. Since most of your work will occur outside your office, I don’t recommend taking an office that is too big for your cleaning business.
6. Create a Business Plan
Finally, the last thing you must do before you start a cleaning business is create a solid business plan.
Your business plan documentation must explain in detail the following aspects of your business:
- Branding: You must state all the elements you want your customers to identify you with – brand name, logo, etc.
- Market Analysis: Remember the market research you conducted in the previous step? Its findings and conclusion that prove the viability and profitability of your business are your market analysis.
- Mission and Goals: State what SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) goals your business wishes to achieve in the next five years.
- Services Offered: State what services you are offering in all their forms and versions.
- Organizational Structure: Chart the hierarchical structure of your business.
- Business Model: Explain how you will provide these services and how they will generate your revenue.
- Financial Plan: Explain how you are going to finance your business.
- Marketing Plan: Explain how you will use STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) to market your business and get clients.
- Exit Plan: If your business fails (I hope not), state your final course of action (sell the company, liquidate your business, etc.)
Here’s What You Must Do to Start a Cleaning Business in 2024
Once you meet the above requirements, it’s finally time to learn how to start a cleaning business in 2024.
Therefore, follow these six steps:
Step 1. Register Your Business
The first step you must take to start a cleaning business is to register your company. It would help if you did so with your state’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
In your registration form, you must state the name of your business and its structure. In addition, you must also mention your business structure, which can be of four types:
- Sole Proprietorship: You are your company’s sole owner and bear all its liabilities. Do so if you believe you can make it to the top, having the qualities of a successful entrepreneur.
- Limited Liability Company: You are the company’s owner but don’t bear complete liability. However, you can’t issue stocks for funding.
- Limited Liability Partnership: You have another person as your business partner, owning the business and being liable for it.
- Corporation: Your company has a board of directors, with everyone being liable to the business as per the valuation of their stocks.
Registering your business will help you get all the necessary licenses and permits for starting a cleaning business.
Moreover, you will also get two important documents – your Tax Identification Number (TIN) and Employer Identification Number (EIN).
Step 2. Hire Good Cleaners
The next step in starting a cleaning business is to hire your workforce. Therefore, post on online job boards applicable in your city or send out fliers and posters requesting interested candidates to apply for various positions.
Moreover, while choosing suitable candidates for your job, constantly review their application, especially their previous experiences. Therefore, you must hire experienced staff members.
In addition, you must hire an admin manager as well. This person will be responsible for presiding over your staff’s daily tasks.
Step 3. Set Your Prices
After you complete hiring your cleaners, it’s time to set your rates for the cleaning services you will provide.
Do you remember conducting market research earlier on? This is where it will be handy since you must set competitive rates.
Cleaning businesses commonly set rates based on the type of cleaning they will provide and the total square feet of the area they will clean. This rate can also be hourly, where you will charge by the hour.
Therefore, ensure that your prices are reasonable compared to other cleaning businesses in your region.
However, if you are confident about offering top-class premium services, charging higher than the competition makes sense!
Moreover, always consider your expenditure and profit margin when setting your prices.
Step 4: Launch Your Website and Social Media Pages
After setting your prices, it’s time to create your business website and social media handles.
Your websites must be your primary method of taking orders from clients. Therefore, ensure a good UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) design.
Moreover, you must have pages that state essential business details, such as an About Us page and a Meet the Team page.
In addition, you must also have a page that directly takes clients’ orders and provides payment gateways.
Step 5. Market Your Business
The final step to starting a cleaning business is to market your business.
Since we are in 2024, doing it through social media is the best way to market your business. Therefore, make attractive posts and ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok if you specialize in residential cleaning services.
However, if you specialize in providing commercial cleaning services, it’s best to market heavily through LinkedIn since that’s the norm for B2B businesses.
Starting a Cleaning Business is Easier Than Before Now!
Now that you know how to start a cleaning business in just six steps in 2024, what are you waiting for?
It’s time for you to meet the requirements of starting a cleaning business and implement these six steps. I wish you the best of luck in starting a new cleaning business!
Thanks for reading this post! If you need further assistance starting your cleaning business, please comment below.
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