Cleaning Business Checklist: 5 Major Keys for Success
Would you like to start a successful cleaning business?
Many people aspire to start a cleaning business because they’re simple and effective, but many of those people also forget to take important steps. Not planning what you want to do and buying things ahead of time will take you down a slippery slope.
Starting a cleaning business doesn’t have to be difficult. A cleaning business gives entrepreneurs a lot of freedom and doesn’t require much to start up, you just have to make a cleaning business checklist for yourself.
Read on to learn 5 keys to succeed in your cleaning business venture.
1. Get Insurance
When you start any type of building cleaning business, you’ll need to ensure that you have insurance in case you break anything. If you break something at a customer’s, they can file a lawsuit against you if you don’t have insurance.
If you have employees working for you, they might break something and the blame can be put on you. Having insurance will prevent anything bad from happening because the insurance company will cover any damages.
Having insurance will also protect you and the customer should anyone steal something. Most services have this because homeowners and office owners want to be equally protected.
There are various types of cleaning business insurance that you can use. Things like theft, property damage, and workers comp are covered under most insurance policies.
2. Get the Proper Equipment
After you’ve taken care of getting insurance, you’ll need to start thinking about the janitorial supplies and equipment that you’ll use to clean. Depending on the type of project, there are a plethora of options that you can use.
If you’d like to clean carpets, you should consider getting things like vacuums, steam cleaners, etc. If you’d like to clean hard floors, mops, brooms, and soap would be your best bet.
To make things simpler and save you money, you should start with some general supplies that most cleaning companies use. Getting the standard products, such as bleach, glass cleaners, brooms, and mops will have you in the beginning.
You should also invest in rags, sponges, bottles, and buckets. These supplies will let you take care of most tasks that involve cleaning surfaces. When you decide what exactly you want to offer, make a cleaning supplies list for cleaning business buildings and homes.
3. Decide What Types of Services You Will Offer
After buying basic supplies, you can start cleaning office buildings and homes. However, you need to decide if you want to start offering more specialized services.
When it comes to things like floor waxing and deep cleaning, you’ll need special equipment to accomplish those tasks. Deciding what you want to do will also help you decide where you want to put manpower and how much you want to charge.
If you decide to work in offices, you’ll have to keep in mind that the hours will vary depending on what office it is. Because offices are regularly open from the morning until the afternoon, you’ll have little to no room to work past that.
Cleaning homes also has its limits because every customer is different. Depending on the homeowner’s work schedule, you might find yourself working odd hours unless you enforce availability hours.
You’ll also receive less money because you won’t be cleaning as much. However, cleaning homes requires less manpower and smaller equipment.
You can also offer a post-construction cleaning service. This is a popular service option that many construction companies use because they want their employees to get in and get out as quickly as possible.
Post-construction cleanup will let you earn decent money while doing small things like vacuuming, removing dust from surfaces, and throwing trash away.
4. Determine How Much You Will Charge
Offering unique cleaning solutions comes with the potential to earn a lot of money. When you’ve decided what services you’d like to offer, start thinking about how much you’ll charge for them.
Many cleaning companies charge their customers a lump sum rather than an hourly rate. This means that you’d estimate how long it would take you to do something, then decide how much money you’d like to make per hour for it.
For example, if you think you can clean a house within 3 hours and wanted to guarantee that you made $25 an hour, you’d charge the customer $75. Customers usually prefer this, too, because it prevents employees from purposely stalling.
You should check around at local cleaning companies to see how much they usually charge for their services. You’ll be able to attract customers if you offer similar services for a lower price.
5. Be Smart About Advertising
Advertising is one of the most important parts of any business. Many businesses rely on advertising locally with the likes of advertising boards and posters. If you’d like to effectively advertise, you should take to the internet.
Today, 42% of the world is active on social media. With social media, your business can reach more consumers and expand nationally rather than limiting yourself to your region.
Placing ads on social media will let you choose who you’re advertising to. You can select the age range, occupation, and location of people that you’d like to target for your cleaning company.
Doing this lets business owners guarantee that their ads are being seen by people that they want to invest in them.
6. Decide What Service to Focus On
Every cleaning company dedicates themselves to a certain set of services. Some perform deep cleans, service cleans, and general work, or whole home interiors such as one great St Louis house cleaning service. Other companies do some common maid tasks, but include alternative options such as steaming, power washing, and exterior windows. The second version is more rare and an entire small business can be dedicated to just one of those options. Your marketing, sales, phone work, and all aspects of your offering will change based on what options your business goes with. It can be good to study the field before choosing what to include. Another idea is to work with referrals for companies that offer different services than you do.
Follow This Cleaning Business Checklist
While many business owners try to think of various ways to succeed, they often miss simple steps that will help them in the long run. Following this cleaning business checklist will prevent your business from failure because you’ll be prepared.
Start investing in insurance and supplies, deciding what you will offer, and advertising on the internet to grow your business and earn money today.
Feel free to browse our blog to read more pieces about entrepreneurship that will help your business grow.
