Hear that?

It’s not your SEBO sucking up dog hair as you clean a 5-star Airbnb by the lake. And it’s not your spin mop whirring in the bucket.

Nope.

It’s your virtual assistant, typing furiously as she enters incoming invoice payments in your A/P sheet. Your new cleaning business is up and running like a Karcher steam cleaner.

And it’s all because you took a little time to do your homework.

This guide to how to start a cleaning business has six essential steps, plus tips and advice you won’t find in any other article. That’s because we built it from a survey of 85 cleaning company owners and experts who’ve been doing this for years. (Some of them are now enjoying blissful early retirement.)

So, put on your shoe covers and your nitrile gloves, and get ready to copy-paste and jot some notes. You’re about to get a crash course in everything you need to know to start a cleaning company. (We’ve cut out all the generic nonessentials to save you time.)

Ready?

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1. Choose your market

Some cleaning company owners will disagree with this, but — 

Commercial cleaning is a flooded market. Yes, the work is steady, but the clients are demanding. They’ll fire you for a single window streak. They’ll haggle down your prices until you can’t sleep at night.

By contrast, you’ll work harder to find residential customers, but they’ll pay you more, treat you better, and you’ll make more money.

So — Don’t go with the easy, steady, low-paying, toxic work environment. (You could do that working at your old job, couldn’t you?)

Instead, roll up your marketing sleeves and work a little harder to get higher-paying customers who won’t give you alopecia from their constant dickering.

In short?

Go with residential cleaning.

Pro Tip: How will you fund your cleaning business? That’s the best part about starting a cleaning business. It’s relatively cheap. See our equipment breakdown below for a list of what you’ll need.

2. Make your cleaning business legal

Bad news:

You’re going to be competing with a lot of illegal cleaning companies.

They’ll set their prices low because they won’t do things the right way.

Don’t worry.

Because your new cleaning business is legal, you’ll get higher-paying clients. (You will. They’re out there. And they appreciate an insured, registered, tax-paying business.)

Here’s how to make your cleaning business legal:

Register your cleaning business

When people say you need to “register” a business, what they mean is that you need to tell the government you’re starting it. You can do this with a corporation or sole proprietorship, but many new business owners do it with an LLC.

Don’t pay anyone $500 to start an LLC for you. An LLC is just a “limited liability company.” It’s set up to protect your personal assets, like your house and bank accounts. Without an LLC, if a customer sues you, they can come after your house. With an LLC, they can only get your business assets, like your business bank account or company car.

It’s easy to start an LLC. Just go to the website for your state’s secretary of state. They’ll have an online portal you can use to start your LLC. Then, hire a CPA to do your quarterly taxes.

Get a business license

A business license isn’t the same as an LLC. Typically, you’ll need to apply for a business license with your state, county, or city government.

Get cleaning business insurance

Yes, you need business insurance before you start a cleaning business. Don’t sweat this — it’s cheap and easy. You can get a policy that covers you for up to $1 million for about $40 per month. Several cleaning company owners in our survey use a company called Thimble.com.

Pro Tip: Open a separate bank account for your cleaning business to keep your personal finances separate from your business money.

3. Set your prices

“How the heck will I make money?”

Starting a cleaning business can be frightening because it looks like the numbers won’t add up. If you set your prices low enough to get customers, you may not earn enough to make ends meet. Right?

Wrong.

Here are a few tips to help you set your prices so you make a profit:

• Call a few cleaning companies in your area (or browse their websites) and see what they charge for cleaning. (NOT “by the hour.”)
• Don’t try to be the cheapest cleaning business on the block. Low-paying customers are very hard to satisfy. High-paying customers are happier and kinder.
• Don’t be afraid to charge $40 to $50 per hour per person. (Don’t tell your customers about your hourly rates. Tell them how much it will cost to clean their house. The hourly figure is for your calculations only.)
• A house cleaning can take two to four hours, so plan on charging $100 to $200 to clean a single house.
• Don’t worry about your costs for supplies, equipment, and transportation at first. Once you get customers, those expenses will eat up a small part of your pay for every job.

Pro Tip: You may need to set your prices lower than the local average to get your first few customers, but don’t stay there for long. Do great work, get referrals, and raise your prices soon. Do yourself a favor and read the book – Profit First.

4. Get customers for your cleaning business

The good news?

You only need a few cleaning company customers to get started. Just enough to build confidence and keep your bank account from clipping treetops.

So — Use these strategies to get your first few clients. You’ll find the cheapest cleaning business advertising tips at the top of the list. Don’t spend money on the items further down until you’re making enough money to afford them.

Ask your network: Free

Chat with friends, family, and neighbors and tell them you’re starting a cleaning business. Ask everyone you know if they need cleaning services, including your kids’ daycare and your sister’s office.

Cold call: Free

You can skip this one if it makes your skin crawl. But — if you can muster the courage, walk in or cold call businesses close to you. Even if you’ll steer clear of commercial cleaning, one or two commercial clients can help you get your start. Focus on property managers of Airbnbs and rental homes.

Door hangers: Cheap

You can get more cleaning business customers by putting door hangers or even simple greeting cards or price sheets in mailboxes near you. You might have to place 30 to 50 a day for the first few weeks to get enough customers to get going. Most online print shops like VistaPrint or Zazzle have ready-made templates, and they’ll print hundreds of custom door hangers inexpensively. You can also consider ordering some business cards to give to people who are curious.

Nextdoor: Cheap

Register your new cleaning business on Nextdoor, Thumbtack, Angi, or another local service business website. You’ll have to pay a monthly fee, but you can try it for a month or two to see if you get customers. (You can get a free business page on Nextdoor. Even if you pay for Nextdoor ads, you’ll get more than enough business in most areas to make it worth the cost.)

Website: Cheap

Create at least a simple website for your cleaning business. You can get a templated, easy-to-make website in just a few minutes with Squarespace, for just over $20 a month. A website will help you look more professional to customers. You’ll also have a web address to put on door hangers, business cards, and add to your Google My Business profile, so homeowners nearby can find you in local web searches.

Google My Business profile: Free

Every local business should sign up for a Google My Business profile. It’s free, and it’ll literally put you on the map in local searches. Just click the link above, enter your business info, and if you like, add your hours of operation, photos, and other details.

Referrals: Free

One of the best ways to grow a cleaning business is through word of mouth. When you get your first few clients, work hard — really hard — to do the best cleaning your clients could hope for. If you really wow them, soon you’ll have your hands full with extremely high-paying clients, just because they’ll rave about you to their network. This is hands down the most powerful way to get new customers.

Shirts and signs: Moderately priced

Once you start getting clients, consider buying some customized cleaning business shirts or uniforms for you and your staff. You can also buy vehicle magnets with your business name and logo, or stunning (and more expensive) vehicle wraps. Ask satisfied customers if you can put a yard sign on their lawn in exchange for a discount, too.

Facebook ads and Google ads: Time-consuming

You can make a Facebook Business Page for free, then create a free ad for your cleaning business at Edit.org. Post the ad in the online marketplace and call it, “House cleaning” + your area name. For example, “House cleaning Park Slope.” It will pop up first whenever anyone does a Facebook search for that term — even if they’re not searching in the online marketplace.

You can also post about your services a couple times a week, or pay money for an ad campaign.

Google Ads is another time-consuming way to advertise your cleaning business that can give you good results if you stick with it.

Pro Tip: Don’t kill yourself deep cleaning someone’s disastrous garage, washing dishes, or folding clothes. And avoid customers who hire you every other month and expect perfection.

5. Get cleaning supplies and equipment

What should you buy?

Don’t spend a pile of money on the best vacuum, mop, and cleaning supplies when you’re just starting out. It’s perfectly okay to buy cleaning supplies from Dollar Tree or Family Dollar.

Here’s a basic cleaning supplies list to start your cleaning business:

• Vacuum: SEBO or Proteam backpack vacuum for floors. You can start with a lower-cost Shark but it won’t last as long.
• Broom and dustpan: Get a lobby broom to quick-clean hard floors.
• Mop and bucket: Two-compartment bucket for clean water and wringing out. Microfiber mop with washable heads.
• Cleaning caddy: You’ll need something to carry your supplies in, but a cheap Walmart caddy is fine.
• Extendable duster: Get one with washable heads.
• Shoe covers: Get the reusable kind.
• Step ladder: A two-foot ladder is plenty for a cleaning business, and your insurance company may veto anything higher.
• NO bleach: And no products with bleach. Spills happen, and you can get fired or even sued for just a single mistake.
• Garbage bags: 4 gallon, 8 gallon, 13 gallon, and even a couple of 33 gallon bags just in case.
• Nitrile Gloves: Naturally
• Microfiber cloths: You can color-code these and use different colors in the kitchen, bathroom, and living areas.
• Reusable cloth bags: To carry clean and dirty cloths
• Disinfectant spray
• Zep floor cleaner
• Scrubbing pads
• Bar Keepers Friend
• Scrubbing Bubbles
• Magic Erasers
• Spray bottle of water
• Spray bottle of Windex
• Paper towels
• Oven cleaner
• Stainless steel cleaner

Get these add-ons once you’re making money:

• Steam cleaner: You don’t need this to get started, but once you have a few customers, get one for cleaning out refrigerators.
• Putty knife: For sticky things like gum or melted candy, just in case.
• Scrub brush: For tubs
• Clorox Toilet Wand: In case the customer doesn’t have their own toilet brush
• 0000 steel wool: For ovens
• Squeegees: If you’ll clean windows.
• Microfiber glass cleaning cloths: Use these so you don’t scratch windows, if you’ll clean them.

Pro Tip: If you’ll need a loan to get started, make a detailed business plan that describes your business goals, services, pricing, financial projections, and your marketing strategy. See our article on how to make a cleaning business plan.

6. Grow your cleaning business

“How are you growing so fast?”

That’s the question you want to hear from other cleaning company owners.

And the answer all comes down to efficiency. You’ll want to:

1. Develop a scheduling system that fits all your cleanings, adjusting for customers that take more time than others. You can use Google Sheets to make a working schedule.
2. Plan out your routes so you’re not spending more time driving from place to place than cleaning. Try to group your cleanings by day and by area.
3. Create an invoicing system that lets you generate and send fast invoices without a lot of copy-paste or typing.

As soon as you can afford it, start using a cleaning business CRM like GorillaDesk to handle everything above for you. GorillaDesk is a full-featured field service software tool to trim your workload, tame your schedule, and handle your invoicing.

GorillaDesk is the highest-rated cleaning company software on top review sites like Capterra for a good reason. Our exemplary customer service chats with you in three minutes on average, and our interface is legendary for its ease of use and full-featured power. Call for a free demo today.