professional cleaning business plan

How to Write a Cleaning Service Business Plan + Free Sample Plan PDF

Elon Glucklich

7 min. read

Updated February 17, 2024

Free Download: Cleaning Service Business Plan Template

With busy schedules and job demands, not everyone has time to clean up after themselves. 

That’s why nearly 10 percent of Americans hired residential cleaning services as of 2020, and the demand for cleaners is rising. And despite a resistance to return to the office, commercial cleaning remains a $100 billion industry . Building owners still need pristine spaces if a lease or sale opportunity arises.

If you’re getting into the cleaning industry, or trying to grow your existing business, you’ll need to do some upfront work. That’s where a business plan comes in. This article will help you ensure that you’re meeting the right market opportunity, and that your business brings in enough revenue to be profitable long-term. If you need a bank loan or investment , a business plan will be crucial.

Are you looking for a free, downloadable cleaning service sample business plan PDF to help start your own business plan, Bplans has you covered.

• What should you include in a cleaning service business plan?

Keep your plan concise, and focus only on the most important sections for your business. Your plan will likely include some or all of these sections:

• Executive summary
• Market analysis
• Products and services
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Company overview
• Financial plan

It’s especially important for a cleaning service business plan to consider the wide range of services and related products you may offer. Your business might provide specialized cleaning services, or sell eco-friendly cleaning products along with cleaning homes or office spaces.

You’ll need to detail your strategies for promoting each of these products and services to maximize the revenue you generate from each client.

Here’s an example of a cleaning service business plan outline.

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• The 8 elements of an effective cleaning service business plan

1. Executive summary

The executive summary is a broad overview of your plan. Without going over one to two pages, outline all of the components of your cleaning service business. 

Include a mission statement in your executive summary. This simple, action-oriented statement explains your company’s purpose. Maybe your goal is to grow into your area’s leading residential cleaning service. Or to expand the market for eco-friendly cleaning solutions. It summarizes what your company does for customers, employees, and owners. It also helps someone reading your business understand in greater detail what sets your business apart from competitors, and how it will be profitable.

If you’re writing your plan for a bank or investor, they will start with the executive summary. So it’s where you’ll want to make a good first impression. Try to draw them in right away by showing you have a clear value proposition.

2. Market analysis

The market analysis section is where you make the case that your business can generate enough demand to be successful. To do that, you’ll need to thoroughly assess your market, identifying key trends in the region’s home or commercial real estate sectors that might indicate a need for your services.

Evaluate the size of your potential market , including residential and commercial segments. You should also analyze the competition . Start by identifying the number of existing providers and their service offerings, and highlight any gaps you observe in the market that your business can fill.

3. Cleaning services and products

This section should detail the cleaning services and products you offer. These may include various residential and commercial cleaning services, like standard cleaning, deep cleaning, specialized disinfection services, or eco-friendly cleaning options.

If you plan to use specific cleaning products or specialized equipment, also detail these. Emphasize any services or products that set your business apart from the competition, like allergen-free cleaning services for homes or exclusively green cleaning products.

4 . Marketing and sales strategy

Your marketing and sales strategy is how you put your market research into action to attract and retain customers for your cleaning service.

Start by identifying the most effective marketing channels for reaching your target market, such as online advertising, social media , local flyers, or partnerships with real estate agencies.

To reach the broadest customer base possible, outline your digital and traditional marketing strategies. Discuss the importance of a strong online presence, including a user-friendly website and active social media profiles to build brand awareness and credibility. 

You should also provide information about your pricing strategy , and whether you’ll offer special promotions or loyalty programs to encourage repeat business and referrals.

5. Milestones

The milestones section is where you outline the key objectives for your business and timelines for achieving them. This section can be short, with individual milestones listed as bullet points.

Milestones could include securing initial funding, acquiring necessary licenses, launching your marketing campaign, reaching a certain number of clients, or hitting revenue targets. Be sure to list when you expect to achieve each milestone, and which members of your team will be responsible for reaching them.

6. Company overview

The company summary gives a brief overview of your cleaning business. Include the legal structure , target service area, and history of your business if it already exists.

If you’re writing your plan because you’re seeking funding for your business from a bank, clearly state how much you’ll need, how you plan to use it, and how it will benefit the business. Funding uses could include purchasing new equipment to expand your services, or hiring additional staff to widen your service area.

You can also include a brief management team section covering your key employees, their roles, responsibilities, qualifications, and experience. 

If you plan to contract with cleaning crews instead of hiring employees, describe how this arrangement will work and why you think it will benefit your business.

7. Financial plan and forecasts

Your financial plan should present detailed financial projections, including revenue , costs , and profitability .

If you’re a new business, list your startup costs , including initial equipment, supplies, licensing, and marketing investments. Also, outline your funding sources, such as loans, investments, or personal savings going into the business.

Include a cash flow statement , income statement , and balance sheet . The financial statements and projections should demonstrate your cleaning service’s potential to generate sustainable profits over the long term.

8. Appendix

The appendix is an optional section for you to add supporting information or documents that don’t fit within the plan. This could include market research data, lease agreements, employee contracts, or licensing and permit documents.

• Writing an effective cleaning service business plan: Key considerations

When writing your cleaning service business plan, focus on these areas to increase your likelihood of success.

1. Offer diverse service offerings

The cleaning industry caters to a wide array of customer needs, from residential homes with regular upkeep, to commercial spaces that need specialized sanitation. Offering services to the broadest customer base you can manage will help you expand your share of the market .

2. Pricing strategy  

Your pricing strategy is vital to balance attracting and retaining customers to ensure your business remains profitable. 

Extensive market research into competitors should help you understand what represents a competitive pricing structure in your target area. Offering flexible pricing models, like flat rates for certain services or discounts for recurring appointments, can also appeal to a broader customer base. Just make sure your forecasts show that you’ll generate more revenue from repeat business through any discounts you decide to offer.

3. Protect your reputation

Trust and reputation are crucial in the cleaning service industry, where small mistakes can cost you customers. Consider in your marketing plan whether your branding and customer feedback policies emphasize your commitment to quality work and reliable service. And make sure to check how your business is being reviewed online.

4. Professional training and standards

To achieve a reputation as a high-quality cleaning service, your standards as a business owner need to trickle down to your employees. The operations section of your plan should include training your workers on the latest cleaning techniques, customer service best practices, and safety protocols to ensure your team meets those high standards you’ve set.

5. Online marketing and presence

We touched on this in the marketing and sales strategy section, but strong online and social media presences are fairly low-cost tactics for reaching new customers. Consider how much a professionally designed website that’s search engine optimized, active social media engagement, and strategic online advertising might increase your visibility.

• Download your cleaning service sample business plan PDF

Download this cleaning service sample business plan PDF for free right now, or visit Bplans’ gallery of more than 550 sample business plans if you want more options.

Don’t get hung up on finding a sample business plan that exactly matches your cleaning service. Whether you’re setting up a boutique eco-friendly cleaning service or a broad-scale commercial cleaning operation, the core elements of your business plan will largely be consistent.

There are plenty of reasons cleaning service business owners can benefit from writing a business plan — you’ll need one if you’re seeking a loan or investment.

Even if you’re not seeking funding, thinking through every aspect of your business will help you ensure you’re not overlooking anything critical as you grow.

Elon is a marketing specialist at Palo Alto Software, working with consultants, accountants, business instructors and others who use LivePlan at scale. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism and an MBA from the University of Oregon.

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Cleaning Business Plan Template (+Free PDF Download)

Read Time 8 minutes

Author Joanne Bratton

Published March 29, 2024

Table of Contents

Executive summary: Setting the foundation

Industry analysis: understanding the market landscape, marketing plan: promoting your cleaning services, financial plan: estimating costs and projections, operations plan: running a thriving cleaning company, set up your commercial cleaning business for success.

A commercial cleaning business plan can kickstart a new endeavor or clear the way for growth for an existing enterprise.

Crafting a comprehensive commercial cleaning business plan is pivotal to starting a new venture or fostering significant growth in an existing service. A well-structured business plan becomes a cornerstone for:

Making informed decisions

Setting objectives

Navigating the competitive commercial cleaning market

A cleaning company business plan isn’t a one-and-done task. You should regularly review and revise your business plan to evolve as your company grows to reflect your current vision, market, and financial targets.

This template provides a sample to help create a business plan.

An executive summary is an overview of your entire business plan.

While the executive summary is the first section of a business plan, most business owners find it makes sense to write it last. The executive summary often is one to two pages, but you should keep it as short as possible.

Essential components of an executive summary include:

Mission statement: Defines your company's mission, vision, and core values.

Company overview: Write a company description of services, locations, and number of cleaning staff. Include a short history of how the business started, names of owners, and business growth milestones.

Market synopsis: Provide an overview of your market, mentioning your commercial cleaning business's size and competitive advantages.

Financial elements: Summarize your business financials, including sales, profits, and projections for one to two years.

Future objectives: Outline your company’s plans for growth, such as offering new services, adding verticals, or expanding your service area.

Your executive summary must be clear and concise. If you’re seeking funding for your small business, the executive summary should demonstrate your cleaning company’s value to potential investors.

An industry analysis identifies the potential market for your commercial cleaning or janitorial services. This involves defining and comprehending key elements such as:

Target customers

Competition

Cleaning industry trends 

Customer’s changing demands

Customer analysis

Commercial cleaning companies perform a customer analysis to understand and meet customer needs. This research-based process identifies your potential client base's demographics, values, and behaviors.

To perform a customer analysis:

Gather information about your target market through your existing customer data, industry research, online tools such as Google Analytics, and social media surveys.

Segment your customers based on similar demographics, traits, preferences, and pain points.

Create customer personas, or fictional profiles, of your target customers and their specific needs.

Leverage your customer analysis to inform business services, products, and prices.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software assists market analysis by providing invaluable information about your customers and their buying journeys.

→ Aspire commercial cleaning business software helps businesses connect the dots with real-time customer data, feedback, and analysis. 

CRM data empowers companies to retain existing customers and expand their customer base by cultivating strong relationships with prospects and customers through:

Efficient communication

Personalized offers

Proactive support to address potential issues before they escalate

Competitor analysis

A competitive analysis identifies the competitors in your market. It helps you understand market demand and gives your business a competitive edge.

For instance, if you plan to specialize in carpet cleaning or window cleaning, you’ll want to know if competitors offer these services and what they charge.

Steps to perform a competitor analysis include:

Identify and gather information about your competitors.

Evaluate competitors’ services, service areas, prices, promotions, reputation, sales tactics, marketing strategies, target audience, and online presence.

Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your business.

Develop sales, marketing, and pricing strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

Once you know your customers and competitors, these assessments will help you develop effective marketing campaigns.

While a service business plan template provides a guideline for developing a marketing plan , it’s crucial to identify your company’s marketing goals and include methods to measure outcomes.

An effective marketing plan includes the following components:

Market research: Know your audience, their preferences, and their preferred online channels.

Marketing objectives: What do you want to accomplish? Increase cleaning contracts? Generate leads? The more specific your objectives, the better.

Marketing strategies: The marketing channels you use depend on your target audience. The most effective marketing campaigns use an omnichannel approach to share a consistent message online and offline.

Pricing strategy : A cleaning service pricing strategy should cover costs and include an appropriate profit margin. Your target market preferences and competitor pricing should also be factored into your pricing strategy.

Marketing budget: Determine the percentage of revenue for your marketing budget. Focus on the channels that deliver the best return on investment (ROI). You can adjust your budget depending on objectives, channels, and results.

Key performance indicators (KPIs): Measure marketing effectiveness with KPIs. These could include conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, cost per lead, customer lifetime value, and overall ROI. Track KPIs to make better marketing decisions and improve your ROI.

Review your marketing plan annually. Some businesses review their marketing strategy and budget quarterly to adjust as needed.

A solid financial plan ensures your commercial cleaning business doesn’t just stay afloat but thrives.

To get funding for business operations, you’ll need a realistic estimate of: 

Initial startup costs

Ongoing operational expenses

Financial projections 

A comprehensive, realistic financial plan shows potential partners and investors the value of your company and outlines business growth.

→ Include graphs and visuals in your financial plan to break down the numbers and easily communicate business information.

If you struggle with financial planning or creating budgets and forecasts, consider hiring a professional financial advisor.

The right business management software makes collecting accurate data in your initial months much easier to ensure your initial estimate and projections are sound. 

→ The earlier you can adjust operations and pricing to maintain profitability, the quicker you can set and achieve new goals.

The following sections provide more detail about key areas of a financial plan.

Calculating initial startup costs

Initial startup costs cover one-time expenses for a new cleaning or janitorial business.

While startup expenses vary based on several factors, the average cleaning service spends $3,500 on startup costs .

Startup costs may include:

Legal fees: If you seek the advice of legal professionals, you’ll need to budget for legal expenses.

Business licenses and permits: Check on local regulations because you may need to register in additional states if your business performs work or hires employees from another state.

Cleaning equipment: Equipment such as floor buffers, vacuums, brooms, mops, cleaning supplies , cleaning products, and other specialty equipment.

Office space and equipment: Property purchase or rental deposit for an office space and technology costs.

Company vehicles: Depending on the size of your company, you may use a fleet of branded company vehicles.

Operational software : Instead of implementing siloed solutions for different aspects of your business, look at comprehensive software capable of scaling with you as you build. 

You’ll also want to consider additional marketing and advertising dollars to spread the word about your business.

A clear understanding of operational expenses ensures you correctly price cleaning jobs and target realistic revenue goals.

Recurring expenses are costs you pay regularly to keep your business running. Ongoing expenditures include:

Employee payroll and benefits

Mortgage or rental payments

Office utilities

Business insurance

Vehicle insurance

Cleaning products and supplies

Equipment maintenance

Technology subscriptions

Some expenses may be fixed, such as the mortgage payment, while others may be variable, such as the cost of cleaning products. 

Follow a budget, use best-practice accounting procedures, and track expenses to make needed financial adjustments.

Aspire’s comprehensive business management software collects financials above the gross margin line and pushes them in a one-way data sync to your accounting platform so you have clean, accurate data to inform your business plan updates. 

Financial projections and realism

Financial projections predict business revenue over a certain period. Data-backed financial plans drive better business decisions and help you plan for the future.

A startup cleaning business uses projected financial statements to determine future revenue and expenses. Industry and market analysis data can provide a starting point. In the case of an established cleaning business, use your historical data to project a percentage of financial growth.

To create a financial projection, you’ll need the following financial statements:

Income statement: An income statement, or profit and loss statement (P&L), shows your income and expenses. Your income statement should cover one year.

Cash flow statement: This statement projects all incoming and outgoing expenses for one year. A break-even analysis shows you how much revenue you need to break even with your expenses.

Balance sheet: This document lists business assets and liabilities and shows a summary of a business at present. 

In financial projections, accuracy is key. You don’t want to inflate your numbers, fail to reach your goals, or underestimate and miss out on growth opportunities.

As your business continues to operate, it’s important to use the right software to capture accurate financial data to achieve financial objectives and increase the accuracy of future projections. 

Aspire commercial cleaning business software integrates purchasing, invoicing, accounting, and payroll for full financial visibility. Robust reporting allows you to drill into sales, financials, job costs, and KPIs.

With real-time data , you gain deeper insight into business performance and can develop more effective business growth strategies.

A business operations plan outlines how your company will deliver high-quality service and achieve operational goals.

As you create an operations plan, involve your management team for ideas and input. After all, your managers are the ones who provide on-the-job oversight and remain accountable for operational goals.

An operations plan includes these elements:

Determine operational goals: Set business and departmental  goals. For instance, you could set a goal to increase annual revenue by 20% or a sales goal of 10 new cleaning contracts monthly.

Create roles and job descriptions: Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each position. This ensures accountability and the ability to measure performance.

Plan the how-tos: Detail business processes and workflows in every department so your team delivers consistent, efficient results. This includes investing in commercial cleaning business software to centralize data and streamline operations.

Track performance: Set KPIs to measure short-term goals and identify areas for improvement. Operational KPIs measure the performance of your operations, such as average contract amount, contract renewal conversion rate, closing percentage, and gross profit percentage by department. 

Aspire provides user-based dashboards so every role can see the KPIs relevant to their short- and long-term goals. Having accurate, real-time information fuels responsive management, building ongoing growth momentum.

Commercial cleaning business owners who optimize operations experience the greatest profitability and growth. Aspire commercial cleaning business software provides seamless workflows in every area of business, including:

Crew management

Job costing

Equipment and supply management

Streamlined processes reduce waste, increase efficiency, and improve performance in your operations.

Creating a thorough commercial cleaning business plan sets the stage for business growth. But successful results rely on how well you execute your plan.

Aspire commercial cleaning business software provides industry-specific management tools to empower business owners to take control of operations. From simplified scheduling to accepting customer credit card payments online, Aspire’s advanced features give cleaning contractors full visibility into business operations and finances.

To get your business plan off the ground, implement the right tools to improve business and boost year-over-year growth.

Ready to see what Aspire can do for you? Request a demo to see Aspire features in action.

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Sample Cleaning Service Business Plan

Writing a business plan is a crucial step in starting a cleaning service business. Not only does it provide structure and guidance for the future, but it also helps to create funding opportunities and attract potential investors. For aspiring cleaning service business owners, having access to a sample cleaning service business plan can be especially helpful in providing direction and gaining insight into how to draft their own cleaning service business plan.

Download our Ultimate Cleaning Service Business Plan Template

Having a thorough business plan in place is critical for any successful cleaning service venture. It will serve as the foundation for your operations, setting out the goals and objectives that will help guide your decisions and actions. A well-written business plan can give you clarity on realistic financial projections and help you secure financing from lenders or investors. A cleaning service business plan example can be a great resource to draw upon when creating your own plan, making sure that all the key components are included in your document.

The cleaning service business plan sample below will give you an idea of what one should look like. It is not as comprehensive and successful in raising capital for your cleaning service business as Growthink’s Ultimate Cleaning Service Business Plan Template , but it can help you write a cleaning service business plan of your own.

Cleaning Service Business Plan Example – PristineClean Experts

Table of contents, executive summary, company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

PristineClean Experts is a professional cleaning service located in Jacksonville, FL, dedicated to providing top-notch cleaning solutions for residential and commercial clients. We are committed to maintaining a high standard of cleanliness and hygiene, with services tailored to meet the diverse needs of our clients, ranging from regular home cleanings to comprehensive commercial maintenance. Our team, equipped with the latest cleaning technology and eco-friendly products, aims to offer an unparalleled cleaning experience, ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. Our focus on quality, reliability, and customer service positions us as a leading choice for cleaning services in the Jacksonville area.

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. We’ve built a strong reputation in the Jacksonville area through our reliable service, attention to detail, and the ability to tailor our offerings to meet the unique needs of each customer. Our team’s expertise and use of advanced cleaning technologies have set us apart in the industry. To date, we’ve achieved significant milestones, including a growing base of loyal residential and commercial clients, and we are continuously expanding our services to cater to the evolving needs of our community.

The cleaning services industry is experiencing robust growth, driven by increasing demand from both residential and commercial sectors. In Jacksonville, FL, this upward trend is reflected in the growing number of households and businesses seeking professional cleaning services to maintain hygiene and appeal. The industry’s expansion is further fueled by heightened health awareness and the need for sanitized environments, particularly in the wake of health crises. PristineClean Experts is well-positioned to capitalize on this demand, offering comprehensive cleaning solutions that cater to the specific needs of our diverse client base.

PristineClean Experts targets a wide range of customers in Jacksonville, FL, focusing primarily on homeowners and apartment dwellers seeking regular and one-off cleaning services. Our tailored approach aims to accommodate the unique cleaning needs of each homeowner, ensuring their spaces are impeccably maintained. Additionally, we serve landlords and small to medium-sized businesses, including office spaces and retail stores, who value professional cleaning to enhance their environment for tenants and clients alike. By addressing the distinct requirements of these customer segments, we ensure high satisfaction and loyalty.

Top Competitors:

CleanMaster Solutions: Offers a range of residential and commercial cleaning services. Sparkle Homes: Specializes in residential cleaning with customizable packages. OfficeClean Express: Focuses on commercial spaces, providing tailored cleaning services.

Competitive Advantages: PristineClean Experts stands out through our commitment to using eco-friendly cleaning products and state-of-the-art equipment, ensuring a thorough and environmentally safe clean. Our highly trained staff and personalized service plans offer a superior cleaning experience, setting us apart from competitors and making us the preferred choice in Jacksonville.

Our marketing plan emphasizes the diversity and quality of our cleaning services, with competitive pricing to match. We offer a range of services from basic home cleaning to specialized commercial maintenance, ensuring a tailored approach to meet the specific needs of our clients. Pricing is structured to provide value while reflecting the high standard of our services. Promotions will be conducted through various channels including social media, local advertising, and word-of-mouth referrals. Special offers and discounts for first-time clients and loyalty programs for regular customers are key strategies to attract and retain our customer base.

Our operations are centered around efficiency and customer satisfaction. Key processes include streamlined booking and scheduling, responsive customer service, rigorous staff training, and stringent quality control measures. We employ reliable scheduling software and maintain excellent communication with clients. Our equipment and inventory are regularly checked to ensure operational readiness. Financial management, marketing efforts, and compliance with safety regulations are also integral parts of our daily operations. Achieving these operational milestones is essential for delivering consistent, high-quality service.

Our management team consists of experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds in business management, customer service, and the cleaning industry. Their collective expertise provides the strategic direction and operational oversight necessary to achieve our business objectives. This strong leadership is instrumental in fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, and customer-centricity within PristineClean Experts.

Welcome to PristineClean Experts, a new Cleaning Service making waves in Jacksonville, FL. We pride ourselves on being a local cleaning service business, filling a much-needed gap in the community. Our mission is to provide unparalleled cleaning services, as we’ve identified a lack of high-quality local cleaning service businesses in the area. Our team is dedicated to ensuring every corner of your space shines, offering a comprehensive suite of cleaning solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client.

At PristineClean Experts, our services cater to a wide range of needs including Residential Cleaning, Commercial Cleaning, Janitorial Services, Move-In/Move-Out Cleaning, and Specialized Cleaning Services. We understand the importance of maintaining a clean and healthy environment, whether it’s the comfort of your home or the professionalism of your business space. Our team is equipped with the latest cleaning technology and practices, ensuring efficient and thorough service delivery. We are here to simplify your life, providing hassle-free and reliable cleaning solutions right at your doorstep.

Based in Jacksonville, FL, PristineClean Experts is strategically located to serve customers throughout the city. This prime location allows us to respond quickly to our clients’ needs, ensuring timely and reliable service. We are committed to making a noticeable difference in our community, one clean space at a time.

PristineClean Experts is uniquely qualified to succeed for several reasons. Firstly, our founder brings a wealth of experience from running a successful cleaning service business previously. This experience is invaluable in understanding the intricacies of the industry and ensuring that we stay ahead of the competition. Moreover, we are confident in our ability to offer better cleaning services than our competitors, thanks to our dedicated team, state-of-the-art equipment, and innovative cleaning techniques.

Since our inception on January 3, 2024, as a S Corporation, we have achieved several milestones that we’re incredibly proud of. Our journey began with the creation of a unique logo that represents our brand’s ethos and dedication to cleanliness. We also invested time in developing a memorable company name that resonates with our mission and values. Additionally, we secured a great location that serves as the hub for our operations, enabling us to efficiently manage our services and cater to the needs of our clients in Jacksonville, FL. These accomplishments are just the beginning, and we are excited about the future of PristineClean Experts.

The Cleaning Service industry in the United States is currently experiencing significant growth and is poised for continued expansion in the coming years. According to a market research report, the industry generated approximately $46.3 billion in revenue in 2020. This indicates a substantial market size and highlights the demand for professional cleaning services across the country. Furthermore, the market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2% from 2021 to 2028, reaching a projected value of $74.3 billion. These figures demonstrate the immense potential for growth and profitability within the Cleaning Service industry.

Several trends in the Cleaning Service industry are contributing to its positive outlook, which bodes well for PristineClean Experts. Firstly, there is a growing emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers are now more conscious of the importance of maintaining cleanliness and sanitization in their homes and workplaces. This increased awareness has led to a surge in demand for professional cleaning services. Secondly, an aging population and busy lifestyles have resulted in a greater need for outsourcing household chores, including cleaning. As more individuals seek convenience and time-saving solutions, the demand for Cleaning Service providers like PristineClean Experts is expected to rise.

Furthermore, technological advancements and the adoption of innovative cleaning methods are shaping the future of the industry. Cleaning companies are increasingly utilizing advanced equipment, environmentally friendly cleaning products, and digital platforms to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. PristineClean Experts can capitalize on these industry trends by offering state-of-the-art cleaning solutions and leveraging digital marketing strategies to reach a wider customer base. By staying ahead of the curve and providing exceptional service, PristineClean Experts is well-positioned to thrive in the growing Cleaning Service industry in Jacksonville, FL.

Below is a description of our target customers and their core needs.

Target Customers

PristineClean Experts will target a broad spectrum of local residents in Jacksonville, FL, focusing on homeowners looking for regular and one-time cleaning services. This group is expected to form the core of their customer base, seeking to maintain their homes in pristine condition without dedicating personal time to the task. The company will tailor its offerings to meet the specific needs of these homeowners, ranging from basic cleaning to deep cleaning services.

Aside from individual homeowners, PristineClean Experts will also cater to apartment dwellers and landlords who require cleaning services for move-ins and move-outs. This segment recognizes the value of maintaining clean living spaces to attract and retain tenants. By offering flexible and customizable cleaning plans, PristineClean Experts will address the unique demands of apartment cleaning, ensuring spaces are spotless for current and future residents.

Moreover, PristineClean Experts will extend its services to small and medium-sized businesses in Jacksonville, FL. This customer segment comprises office spaces, retail stores, and small clinics that must uphold a high standard of cleanliness to ensure a healthy and appealing environment for employees and clients alike. The company will develop commercial cleaning packages that guarantee thorough cleaning, disinfection, and maintenance of business premises, aligning with the professional image these establishments aim to project.

Customer Needs

PristineClean Experts can fulfill the profound need for high-quality cleaning services among Jacksonville residents who desire a spotless living environment without the time or energy to achieve it themselves. Clients expect thoroughness and attention to detail, ensuring that every corner of their home meets their high standards of cleanliness. This demand highlights the necessity for a service that can consistently deliver exceptional results, tailored to the individual needs of each household.

In addition to the basic expectation of cleanliness, customers also seek reliability and trustworthiness in their cleaning service provider. PristineClean Experts understands the importance of sending only well-vetted, professional cleaners into clients’ homes. Customers can rest assured knowing that their personal spaces are being treated with the utmost respect and care, fostering a relationship based on trust and mutual respect.

Moreover, the modern customer values convenience and flexibility in service arrangements. PristineClean Experts addresses this need by offering easy scheduling options and customizable cleaning plans. By accommodating the busy lifestyles of Jacksonville residents, PristineClean Experts ensures that maintaining a clean and healthy home environment does not add to the stresses of daily life but rather alleviates them.

PristineClean Experts’s competitors include the following companies:

Bonnie’s Maids offers a comprehensive suite of cleaning services tailored for residential properties, including standard house cleaning, deep cleaning, and move-in/move-out services. Their price points are competitive, aiming to offer value through quality services at accessible rates. Revenues for Bonnie’s Maids suggest a strong local market presence, indicative of their ability to retain and satisfy a diverse client base. They operate primarily within the Jacksonville area, focusing on residential customers seeking regular or one-time cleaning services. Key strengths include their established reputation and customer loyalty, while a potential weakness is their limited service offerings beyond residential cleaning.

Evolution DR Cleaning Service specializes in both residential and commercial cleaning solutions, providing a broad spectrum of services ranging from regular housekeeping to specialized cleaning for offices and retail spaces. Their pricing strategy is flexible, offering customized quotes based on the size and specific needs of the job, allowing them to cater to a wide range of budget considerations. Evolution DR Cleaning Service generates significant revenue, reflecting their broad service offerings and ability to serve both households and businesses effectively. They serve the greater Jacksonville area, including some neighboring regions, targeting both homeowners and commercial entities. Their key strengths lie in their versatility and ability to handle diverse cleaning needs. A potential weakness could be the complexity of managing a wide range of services, which might impact service consistency.

Nicki’s House Cleaning focuses on delivering personalized cleaning services to residential clients, emphasizing customer satisfaction and attention to detail. They offer a variety of packages from basic cleaning to premium services, including eco-friendly options, with pricing that varies based on service depth and frequency. This approach allows them to attract different segments of the market, from budget-conscious to premium clients. Nicki’s House Cleaning has a solid revenue stream, supported by a loyal customer base and strong word-of-mouth referrals in Jacksonville and its suburbs. They exclusively serve the residential segment, providing them with a focused market approach but potentially limiting their growth in the commercial sector. Their strengths include high customer satisfaction and personalization of services. However, their focus on only residential services and the absence of commercial offerings could be seen as a weakness in diversifying their customer base.

Competitive Advantages

At PristineClean Experts, we pride ourselves on offering superior cleaning services compared to our competition. Our team is dedicated to providing meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that every nook and cranny of our clients’ spaces are impeccably cleaned. We understand the unique needs of each customer and adapt our services accordingly, which allows us to deliver personalized cleaning solutions that exceed expectations. Additionally, our use of eco-friendly cleaning products not only ensures a thorough clean but also promotes a healthier environment for our clients and their families.

Moreover, our competitive advantage extends beyond just the quality of our cleaning services. We are committed to exceptional customer service, making sure that we are always accessible and responsive to our clients’ needs and feedback. Our flexible scheduling options can accommodate even the busiest of lifestyles, making it convenient for our customers to enjoy a pristine clean without disrupting their daily routines. Furthermore, our team consists of highly trained and trustworthy professionals who are passionate about what they do, which reflects in the quality of their work. With PristineClean Experts, clients can expect a seamless and satisfactory cleaning experience every time.

Our marketing plan, included below, details our products/services, pricing and promotions plan.

Products and Services

PristineClean Experts caters to a wide array of cleaning needs for both residential and commercial clients. Their comprehensive service offerings ensure that every nook and cranny, whether at home or in the office, is meticulously cleaned to perfection. The services they provide are not only varied but are also customized to meet the unique requirements of each client, ensuring satisfaction across the board.

Starting with Residential Cleaning, PristineClean Experts offers a thorough cleaning solution for homes of all sizes. This service includes dusting, vacuuming, mopping, bathroom cleaning, and kitchen cleaning, aiming to create a pristine living environment for homeowners. Prices for their residential cleaning services start at an average of $120 for a small home, scaling up based on the size of the property and specific cleaning requirements.

For businesses looking to maintain a clean and professional atmosphere, Commercial Cleaning services are available. PristineClean Experts understands the importance of a spotless workspace for both employee productivity and customer perception. Their commercial cleaning package includes office cleaning, restroom sanitation, trash removal, and floor care, with prices beginning at $200 for small office spaces. Larger commercial spaces can expect custom quotes based on the area to be cleaned and the services required.

Their Janitorial Services are designed to cater to institutions such as schools, hospitals, and large office buildings that require daily or weekly maintenance. This service focuses on ensuring that these high-traffic areas are consistently clean and sanitized. The starting price for janitorial services is around $250, adjusting for the frequency of cleaning and the scope of work.

Understanding the chaos associated with moving, PristineClean Experts offers Move-In/Move-Out Cleaning services to ease the transition. This comprehensive cleaning ensures that new residents step into a spotless space, and those moving out leave behind a clean slate. Prices for these services begin at $150 for small apartments, with variations depending on the size of the property and the extent of cleaning needed.

Lastly, Specialized Cleaning Services are available for those requiring more than just the standard cleaning procedures. This includes deep cleaning, carpet cleaning, window washing, and pressure washing, among others. These services are tailored to the specific needs of the client, with prices starting at $100 and increasing based on the complexity and requirements of the job.

In summary, PristineClean Experts offers a broad spectrum of cleaning services designed to meet the needs of both residential and commercial clients in Jacksonville, FL. Their commitment to providing impeccable cleaning solutions is reflected in their diverse service offerings and competitive pricing, ensuring that every space they touch is left in pristine condition.

Promotions Plan

PristineClean Experts leverage a dynamic mix of promotional methods to attract customers in Jacksonville, FL, with a primary focus on online marketing. They understand that in today’s digital age, a strong online presence will not just be beneficial but essential for reaching their target audience effectively. Hence, they will engage in a comprehensive online marketing strategy that includes the use of social media platforms, search engine optimization (SEO), and targeted advertising campaigns. Through these channels, PristineClean Experts will showcase their cleaning services, share customer testimonials, and provide valuable cleaning tips to engage with potential customers.

In addition to online marketing, PristineClean Experts will also deploy traditional marketing techniques such as distributing flyers and placing ads in local newspapers. These methods will complement their digital efforts by reaching potential customers who may not be as active online but are equally valuable to their business. Moreover, PristineClean Experts will establish partnerships with local businesses and real estate agents, creating a referral network that will help spread the word about their exceptional cleaning services.

Email marketing will play a crucial role in their promotional strategy. By collecting email addresses through their website and at local events, PristineClean Experts will send out regular newsletters that include special promotions, cleaning tips, and updates about their services. This direct line of communication will keep them at the forefront of their customers’ minds and encourage repeat business.

Understanding the power of word-of-mouth, PristineClean Experts will implement a customer referral program. Satisfied customers who refer new clients will receive discounts on future services, incentivizing them to spread the word about PristineClean Experts. This approach will not only help in acquiring new customers but also in building a loyal customer base.

Lastly, PristineClean Experts will actively seek out opportunities to sponsor local events or participate in community service projects. This will not only increase their visibility within the community but also build their reputation as a business that cares about the well-being of Jacksonville, FL.

By combining these promotional methods, PristineClean Experts will effectively reach and attract customers, establishing themselves as a leading cleaning service in Jacksonville, FL.

Our Operations Plan details:

• The key day-to-day processes that our business performs to serve our customers
• The key business milestones that our company expects to accomplish as we grow

Key Operational Processes

To ensure the success of PristineClean Experts, there are several key day-to-day operational processes that we will perform.

• Utilize a reliable scheduling software to manage appointments efficiently.
• Confirm appointments with customers a day ahead to ensure readiness and prevent no-shows.
• Maintain a responsive customer service system, including phone, email, and chat support.
• Collect feedback from customers after service completion to improve quality and customer satisfaction.
• Conduct daily briefings with cleaning teams to discuss the day’s assignments and any special instructions from clients.
• Ensure staff are well-trained in cleaning techniques and customer service skills.
• Regularly check and maintain cleaning equipment to ensure they are in good working condition.
• Keep track of inventory levels for cleaning supplies and reorder as necessary to prevent shortages.
• Implement a quality control checklist for all cleaning jobs to ensure high standards are met consistently.
• Conduct random spot checks on cleaning jobs to ensure compliance with company standards.
• Monitor daily expenses and revenues to manage cash flow effectively.
• Process payments promptly and follow up on any outstanding invoices.
• Regularly update the company website and social media platforms with engaging content and special promotions.
• Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews online to enhance the company’s reputation.
• Ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations regarding cleaning services and employment.
• Conduct regular safety training sessions for staff to prevent accidents and injuries.

PristineClean Experts expects to complete the following milestones in the coming months in order to ensure its success:

• Secure Necessary Licenses and Insurance: Obtain all required business licenses and insurance policies to operate legally and safely in Jacksonville, FL. This step will mitigate legal risks and protect the company and its customers.
• Establish an Effective Branding and Online Presence: Develop a strong brand identity, including a company logo, website, and social media profiles. This milestone is crucial for attracting customers and establishing trust in the market.
• Hire and Train Cleaning Staff: Recruit, hire, and extensively train cleaning staff to ensure high-quality service. This includes training on cleaning techniques, customer service, and safety protocols, which is fundamental to building a reliable and professional team.
• Launch Our Cleaning Service Business: Officially start offering cleaning services to residential and commercial clients in Jacksonville, FL. This involves marketing the launch to generate initial customers and feedback.
• Secure Key Contracts with Commercial Clients: Obtain contracts with commercial entities such as offices, retail stores, and apartment complexes. This will provide a steady income stream and help in achieving financial stability.
• Implement a Customer Feedback and Quality Control System: Establish mechanisms for collecting customer feedback and conducting regular quality checks. This system will ensure continuous improvement and high customer satisfaction, which is critical for repeat business and referrals.
• Reach $15,000/Month in Revenue: Achieve the financial goal of generating $15,000 in monthly revenue. This milestone will indicate market acceptance and the potential for sustainable growth and profitability.
• Expand Services or Service Area: Depending on market demand and operational capacity, consider expanding the range of services offered or extending the service area beyond Jacksonville, FL. This growth strategy should be based on solid customer demand and the ability to maintain quality standards.

These milestones are designed to build a strong foundation for PristineClean Experts, mitigate risks associated with starting a new business, and guide the company towards achieving success in the competitive cleaning service industry.

SavorFest Caterers management team, which includes the following members, has the experience and expertise to successfully execute on our business plan:

Ava Thompson, President

Ava Thompson, President, brings a wealth of experience to PristineClean Experts, having previously led a successful cleaning service business. Her entrepreneurial journey is marked by her ability to identify market needs and respond with innovative solutions that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ava’s leadership style is characterized by a hands-on approach, fostering a culture of excellence and accountability within her teams. Her proven track record in business management and strategic planning makes her uniquely qualified to guide PristineClean Experts towards achieving its vision of becoming the leading provider in the cleaning services industry.

To reach our growth goals, PristineClean Experts requires significant funding. This investment will be directed towards expanding our service offerings, marketing efforts to increase brand visibility, and enhancing operational efficiencies. By securing the necessary funding, we are poised to capitalize on market opportunities, drive revenue growth, and establish PristineClean Experts as a market leader in the cleaning services industry in Jacksonville, FL.

Financial Statements

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Income Statement

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Cash Flow Statement

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Cleaning Service Business Plan Example PDF

Download our Cleaning Service Business Plan PDF here. This is a free cleaning service business plan example to help you get started on your own cleaning service plan.  

How to Finish Your Cleaning Service Business Plan in 1 Day!

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Business Plan for a Cleaning Business: Complete Guide

• January 30, 2023

👇 Check all our resources on cleaning businesses 👇

Whether you’re looking to raise funding from private investors or to get a loan from a bank (like a SBA loan) for your cleaning business, you will need to prepare a solid business plan.

In this article we go through, step-by-step, all the different sections you need in the business plan of your cleaning business. Use this template to create a complete, clear and solid business plan that get you funded.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary of a business plan gives a sneak peek of the information about your business plan to lenders and/or investors.

If the information you provide here is not concise, informative, and scannable, potential lenders and investors may lose interest.

Why do you need a business plan for a cleaning business?

The purpose of a business plan is to secure funding through one of the following channels:

• Obtain bank financing or secure a loan from other lenders (such as a SBA loan )
• Obtain private investments from investment funds, angel investors, etc.
• Obtain a public or private grant

How to write an executive summary for a cleaning business?

Provide a precise and high-level summary of every section that you have included in the business plan for your cleaning business. The information and the data you include in this segment should grab the attention of potential investors and lenders immediately. Ensure that the executive summary doesn’t exceed 2 pages in total.

The executive summary usually consists of the five major sub-sections that include:

• Business overview : introduce what services your cleaning business offers (commercial vs. residential cleaning), what type of customers you focus on (individuals, businesses, factories, etc.), any specific cleaning service you focus on (e.g. carpet cleaning), your company structure and, more importantly, how and why you want to start such a business today
• Market overview : the market overview section will contain an overview of the expected market size and growth of the cleaning industry in your area as well as your target customers. Another important part of any market overview is a clear and thorough analysis of your competitors
• People : introduce your company’s management and employee structure. Provide a brief (no more than a couple of sentences each) of the experience of the team. Also, speak about your hiring plans: who will you hire and who will report to whom?
• Financial plan : how much profit and revenue do you expect in the next 5 years? When will you reach break-even point and start making profits? Include here your key financials such as revenue, gross profits, and net profit
• Funding ask : what loan/investment/grant are you seeking? How much do you need? How long will this last?

Cleaning Financial Model

Download an expert-built 5-year Excel financial model for your business plan

2. Business Overview

The business overview section is sometimes called the company description and is one of the most important parts of the cleaning business plan.

Here, you will want to provide crucial information about your cleaning business, including your services, pricing structure , customers, and company structure.

a) History of the Project

This is a brief description of your business, outlining its origin and your reasons for venturing into this field. As one would put it, it answers a major question about business; why a cleaning company? 

When starting a cleaning business, you want to use all your best tools to show the lenders and investors that your passion is deeply built around the need to fill an existing market gap. For example, you would argue that many customers in your area need eco-friendly cleaning, tile and grout cleaning, or commercial kitchen cleaning services.

b) Business Model

You should be clear if you are opening an independent cleaning company or partnering. Also, make it clear if you are buying an existing franchise.

Franchising has an added advantage of simplicity, given an already established market base. However, every model has its risks and benefits. So, choose what’s best for your target market and long-term goals. 

c) Services

Don’t get it twisted. Cleaning companies offer a range of services to their consumers depending on the business location and demand. So, an important aspect of laying a solid foundation is to explain to your customers what they should expect from your business. In other words, what type of cleaning services do you intend to offer? 

The 2 main categories of cleaning services are: residential and commercial cleaning.

Residential cleaning targets private residences and homes. If you choose this option, you can specialize in home maintenance, move-in and move-out cleaning, deep cleaning, green cleaning, and residential event cleanups. 

On the other hand, commercial cleaning suits businesses and requires significant manpower, more space, and sophisticated equipment. You can’t run this business in some regions without enough vehicles to transport your equipment. 

If you plan to specialize in commercial cleaning, you can focus on general office cleaning tasks, large-scale specialized cleaning, construction cleanups, commercial kitchen cleaning, and hazardous waste cleaning.

d) Pricing Strategy

Another important part of the business overview section is your pricing structure. It should be as clear as possible because investors will rely on it when assessing your financial need.

Most cleaning companies in the US set their rates per square foot, per room, per hour, or as a flat fee. And the standard national hourly cost of house cleaning services in the US ranges from $50 to $90 per hour per cleaner.  

e) Target Customers

Who is your ideal customer? And which cleaning services do they need? You might have already identified your target market if you can answer these questions correctly. 

For instance, if private residences and apartments dominate the region, many individuals will probably need residential cleaning services. Make sure you offer that.

Similarly, a busy city center with many offices and commercial properties will probably benefit from commercial cleaning services as mentioned above. Identifying your target market is one of the fastest ways to increase revenue potential after assessing the competition. 

f) Legal Structure

Finally, your business overview section should specify what type of business structure you want. Is this a corporation or a partnership (LLC)? Who are the investors? How much equity percentage do they own? Is there a Board of Directors? If so, whom? Do they have experience in the industry?

3. Market Overview

To run a successful business, you need all the facts that back your decision to start a cleaning company in the region at that time. Market analysis will help you identify the level of competition in the region and whether the investment is worth it. 

For example, offering commercial cleaning services in a residential setup would make little sense. Similarly, overpricing your services when the dominant population is low to middle-income earners won’t fast-track business growth. 

a) Cleaning Business Industry Status Quo

This section should answer two obvious questions about your cleaning business;

• What is the market size of the cleaning industry in your area? 
• How fast is the cleaning industry growing? 

Both questions will help you set realistic expectations when getting into this field, having analyzed the market trends and size. 

How big is the cleaning industry in the US?

It’s always good to start any market overview by assessing the market size at a national level.

Of course, the figures may not represent the actual status of the cleaning business in your region, but they offer a solid foundation for building a thriving business. According to the latest statistics, the cleaning service industry in the US had a value of $97.6 billion in 2022 . 

The staggering need for cleaning services means that the commercial cleaning sector will likely grow at a steady rate of 5.4% up to 2025 . Although this may be a good sign for setting up your cleaning business, you should also assess market growth in your area (see below).

How big is the cleaning industry in your area?

Getting the market data at the city level gives you a clearer picture of what to expect from the market. It may complicated, but you only need the total number of cleaning companies in your region and their services to assess your area’s market size.

For example, let’s assume you want to get into the carpet cleaning business. With close to 32,000 carpet cleaning businesses in the US, and a total market value of $4 billion (carpet cleaning US market), we can safely assume each carpet cleaning business generates $125,000 in sales per year on average.

Now, assuming there are 25 competitors in your area, the estimated market size of the carpet cleaning industry in your area is $3.1 million.

How fast is the cleaning industry growing in your area?

You may need to analyze multiple factors to determine the growth rate of the cleaning industry in your region. Sometimes, this involves a few calculations to get an actual figure when drawing your conclusion. 

For example, if the region had 120 cleaning companies in 2020, which increased to 150 in 2022, you can assume that the industry is growing at a steady rate of 12% per year. 

Pay attention to all factors that may directly impact the growth rate, including a population influx, increased demand, and increased income potential. 

However, don’t be shocked if you notice a successive drop in the demand for cleaning services in the region. This is possible even when the national statistics show otherwise. Its part and parcel of the business and could indicate that this isn’t the right time to launch a cleaning company. 

b) Cleaning Business Competitor Analysis

Another crucial step in the business plan of your cleaning company is to assess the existing competition. There are a couple of questions to guide you here, including;

• How many cleaning companies are there in your region?
• What services do they offer (residential, commercial cleaning, or both)?
• What’s the average price of hiring a cleaning company in the region?
• What’s the total number of individuals employed by a typical cleaning company in the region? 
• How many customers do they serve per week/month? 

Why do you need a competitive analysis in the business plan of your cleaning business?

Assessing the competition in the area where you plan to start your cleaning business will allow to better understand whether there is sufficient demand, and whether you are well positioned to take market share from competitors.

For example, starting a new business would make perfect sense under the following circumstances;

• There’s a clear market gap that you can fill in the region (For example, offering a service that other companies might have missed, like eco-friendly/green cleaning) 
• There are no or inadequate cleaning companies in the region. This would present the perfect opportunity to tap into the market potential and grow a thriving business. 

c) Cleaning Business Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section is almost similar to your target audience . However, this is your chance to prove to the lenders that your target market is real and available. You can use the following questions to analyze your client base; 

• Which individuals need cleaning services in the region? 
• What’s the average income of the individuals in the region? (This is also important when determining your pricing structure)
• Which cleaning services are they interested in?
• How often do they need cleaning services? (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Are they more likely to benefit from commercial or residential cleaning services?

Usually, the level of competition in the region also influences your customer analysis. So, that should be clear to help you determine the market demand or predict the success of your cleaning business.

4. Sales & Marketing

The sales and marketing strategy sums up your plans for acquiring new clients. Here are a few helpful questions to guide you:

• Which marketing channels are best suited to your business (online vs. offline marketing)?
• Do you have a unique selling point? If so, what is it?
• What is your marketing budget for the first months / year?
• How can you track the success of your marketing strategy?
• Do you plan to offer any promotions to attract new customers? 

Cleaning Business Marketing Channels

You can use the following channels for marketing your cleaning business locally;

• Pay-per-click campaigns (e.g. Google ads)
• Email, SMS marketing
• Social media content & ads 
• Word-of-mouth advertising
• TV and radio advertisement

What are your Unique Selling Points (USPs)?

A unique selling point is what puts you ahead of the rest. It’s no secret that you will face stiff competition from established cleaning companies in the field. So, how you set yourself apart matters. Some factors to consider include;

• Price : Cheaper services than your competitors
• Location : Your proximity to the target market gives you a slight edge over the rest
• Quality : Stellar cleaning services with modern equipment will attract more clients

5. Management & People

You must address 2 things here:

• The management team and their experience/track record
• The organizational structure: different team members and who reports to whom?

a) Management

Small businesses often fail because of managerial weaknesses . Thus, having a strong management team is vital. Highlight the experience and education of senior managers that you intend to hire to oversee your commercial cleaning business.

Describe their duties, responsibilities, and roles. Also, highlight their previous experience and explain how they succeeded in their previous roles.

It is also important that you explain how their experiences and qualifications help you in offering the services you are proposing. If they have specialized training and education (such as carpet cleaning, industrial cleaning, etc.), add that information too.

b) Organizational Structure

Even if you haven’t already hired a senior manager and any other relevant staff members, you must provide a flowchart of the organizational structure defining the hierarchy of reporting as shown below.

6. Financial Plan

The financial plan is perhaps, with the executive summary, the most important section of any business plan for a cleaning company.

Indeed, a solid financial plan tells lenders that your business is viable and can repay the loan you need from them. If you’re looking to raise equity from private investors, a solid financial plan will prove them your cleaning business is an attractive investment.

There should be 3 sections to your financial plan section:

• Your historical financials (only if you already operate the business and have financial accounts to show)
• The startup costs of your project (if you plan to start a new cleaning business, purchase new equipment, etc.)
• The 5-year financial projections

a) Historical Financials (if any)

In the scenario where you already have some historical financials (a few quarters or a few years), include them. A summary of your financial statements in the form of charts e.g. revenue, gross profit and net profit is enough, save the rest for the appendix.

If you don’t have any, don’t worry, most new businesses don’t have any historical financials and that’s ok. If so, jump to Startup Costs instead.

b) Startup Costs

Before we expand on 5-year financial projections in the following section, it’s always best practice to start with listing the startup costs of your project.

For a cleaning business, startup costs are all the expenses you incur before you start making sales. Luckily, these expenses are rather low for cleaning companies and mostly include the cost to purchase equipment and the vehicle you will use to transport them.

As an example, it costs on average $73,500 – $167,500 to start a small commercial cleaning business with 2 vans and 4 employees. We have laid out below estimates for the key startup costs you can expect for a cleaning business.

Note that these costs are for illustrative purposes and may not be fully relevant for your business. For more information on how much it costs to start and run a cleaning business, read our article here .

c) Financial Projections

In addition to startup costs, you will now need to build a solid 5-year financial model for your cleaning business.

Your financial projections should be built using a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel or Google Sheets) and presented in the form of tables and charts in the business plan of your cleaning business.

As usual, keep it concise here and save details (for example detailed financial statements, financial metrics, key assumptions used for the projections) for the appendix instead.

Your financial projections should answer at least the following questions:

• How much revenue do you expect to generate over the next 5 years?
• When do you expect to break even?
• How much cash will you burn until you get there?
• What’s the impact of a change in pricing (say 20%) on your margins?
• What is your average customer acquisition cost?

You should include here your 3 financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement). This means you must forecast:

• The number of customers over time ;
• Your expected revenue ;
• Operating costs to run the business ;
• Any other cash flow items (e.g. capex, debt repayment, etc.).

When projecting your revenue, make sure to sensitize pricing and the number of customers as a small change in these assumptions will have a big impact on your revenues.

7. Funding Ask

This is the last section of the business plan of your cleaning business. Now that we have explained what your company is about, the services you offer and to whom, what’s your strategy, where you go and how you get there, this section must answer the following questions:

• How much funding do you need?
• What financial instrument(s) do you need: is this equity or debt, or even a free-money public grant?
• How long will this funding last?
• Where else does the money come from? If you apply for a SBA loan for example, where does the other part of the investment come from (your own capital, private investors?)

If you raise debt:

• What percentage of the total funding the loan represents?
• What is the corresponding Debt Service Coverage Ratio ?

If you raise equity

• What percentage ownership are you selling as part of this funding round?
• What is the corresponding valuation of your business?

Use of Funds

Any business plan should include a clear use of funds section. This is where you explain how the money will be spent.

Will you spend most of the loan / investment in paying your employees’ salaries? Or will it cover mostly the cost for the lease deposit and the renovation?

Those are very important questions you should be able to answer in the blink of an eye. Don’t worry, this should come straight from your financial projections. If you’ve built solid projections like in our Cleaning financial model template , you won’t have any issues answering these questions.

For the use of funds, we also recommend using a pie chart like the one we have in our financial model template where we outline the main expenses categories as shown below.

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Free Cleaning Service Business Plan (Download PDF Sample)

Download Our Free Template to Get Started

A cleaning company business plan is a comprehensive document outlining your cleaning company’s objectives and explaining your marketing plan , cleaning services, and funding information. It serves as the blueprint for your cleaning business. 

• Savvy entrepreneurs create a business plan when starting a new business, and they continue to update it as their business grows. 
• A well-written business plan will guide you through your journey as a small business owner. It will help you make critical decisions as you work hard to reach your goals over the years.
• You’ll be able to glimpse the bigger picture and keep track of your progress when you’ve got it all written down.
• A business plan will significantly increase your company’s chances of success , setting a clear path to long-term growth and helping you plan efficient organizational processes. 

If you’re aiming to gain the trust of potential investors, a business plan is a must-have tool that will show them if your business is worth taking the risk.

We’ve created a downloadable cleaning services business plan PDF that you can easily edit to fit your needs. Get my sample template below:

Components of a Cleaning Services Business Plan 

Now that you understand the importance of a cleaning company business plan, the next step is to start creating your own. But there’s no need to worry! We’ve done much of the legwork to ease the process of creating a business plan for you. 

Our free downloadable cleaning services business plan PDF contains essential components to help you define your goals and make better business decisions. 

However, keep in mind that every business plan is unique. You can remove or add any section as you deem necessary to create the best business plan for your cleaning company. 

Include the following elements to get started in the right direction: 

1. Executive Summary 

The first part of a comprehensive business plan is an executive summary, which provides an overview of your company and summarizes your entire business plan.

Highlight what makes your cleaning business stand out from competitors in the cleaning industry. You can also describe the weaknesses and shortcomings of other cleaning firms and how your company aims to solve these problems. 

You can include the following information in your executive summary: 

• Owner’s experience
• Mission statement
• The leadership team and employees
• Financial and growth goals

2. Company Description 

• Why did you decide to start a cleaning services company?
• What particular problems are you trying to solve, and how do you intend to beat competitors in the cleaning industry?

Your company description is where you emphasize the strengths and competitive advantages of your cleaning business. 

3. Objectives

Set the best objectives that will help keep your cleaning business on the right track.

• Think about the key goals you want to achieve, whether to reach a certain amount of sales revenue or expand your operations to a broader service area.
• When you carefully define your main goals and objectives, you’ll be able to take the proper steps to get where you want to go. 

4. Market Analysis

Market analysis gives you an insight into your target market share, the needs and demands of your customers, and your competitors.

• Do some research about the cleaning company industry and what your competitors lack to know how your company can gain an edge over others.
• With proper market analysis, you can also analyze the need for funding from financial institutions and investors. 

5. Organizational Structure 

• Define the specific roles that need to be filled, such as cleaners, an office manager, and a project manager.
• You can also talk about hiring competent personnel as your company grows and outsourcing services for processes like digital marketing and accounting. 

6. Cleaning Services

An essential part of a cleaning company business plan is identifying the type of cleaning services you intend to provide: 

• Scope of Cleaning Services – Do you plan to focus on bidding on commercial janitorial jobs , residential cleaning, housekeeping, post-construction cleaning or all types?
• List of Specific Cleaning Services – Talk about your company’s services and prices, from interior home cleaning and damage restoration to industrial cleaning. 
• Benefits of Your Cleaning Services – How will your target market benefit from your company’s services? Think about the problems you’re trying to solve for your customers, like giving them a wide selection of cleaning services to reduce the need for hiring multiple contractors. 

7. Marketing and Sales 

To survive in a competitive industry, your cleaning business needs to employ tailored marketing strategies to help you stand out and beat competitors.

Outline your marketing and sales strategies to promote your cleaning services, gain leads, and ultimately boost sales. You should determine the number of clients you must win to achieve your cleaning company’s profit goals. 

The most effective marketing strategies for cleaning businesses include: 

• Online Marketing – Your objectives can include building an authoritative business cleaning service website design , using paid advertising like Facebook ads , leveraging social media, implementing email marketing, and maintaining an excellent reputation online. 
• Offline Advertising – Timeless strategies include direct mail, distributing pamphlets and flyers, connecting with the local community, and creating branded merchandise. 

8. Funding Requests 

• Add this section if you need additional funding for day-to-day functions and operational expenses.
• You can create a table outlining your cleaning company’s expenses, letting potential investors and lenders know precisely where their money will go. 

9. Financial Projections 

Your cleaning company business plan should have a realistic financial forecast based on your extensive market analysis and company goals.

• It should include well-researched financial projections for the future to demonstrate your targeted profits. 
• Try to include a cash flow estimate, capital expenditures, and approximate payrolls for the next few years.
• You can create an annual or quarterly target profit that your team can work to accomplish. 

Pro-Top : include a cash flow estimate, capital expenditures, and approximate payrolls for the next few years. You can create an annual or quarterly target profit that your team can work to accomplish. 

10. Appendix

Your business plan ends with an appendix where you add all relevant documents, definitions, legal notes, and other critical information.

• You can include resumes, certifications, bank statements, credit reports, charts, and other supporting documents. 
• Refer readers to this section anywhere in your business plan when necessary. For example: “See Appendix, page 5, for management team certifications.”

Example of a Cleaning Services Business Plan PDF

You can open or download our free cleaning business plan PDF below:

To get an editable version on Google Docs, enter your email below:

Why Does My Cleaning Company Need a Business Plan? 

You might think, “But making a business plan sounds like a lot of work! Do I really need it for my cleaning company?” The quick answer is: Yes, you definitely need that business plan!

As tedious as it sounds, preparing a strategic business plan is crucial to set yourself up for success and not get lost along the way. 

Take a look at the following key reasons why your business will benefit from a cleaning company business plan: 

Find Out If Your Cleaning Services Business Idea Is Viable

Creating a business plan will help you test if your business idea is feasible, saving you time, money, and energy. Many aspiring entrepreneurs believe they have outstanding ideas that could never fail.

However, around 20% of business startups fail during the first year due to a lack of planning, among other things. 

To survive the cleaning business startup phase, you must perform careful and methodical planning and create a well-developed business plan. It’s the key step between visualizing the concept for your cleaning company and turning your vision into a successful business. 

Increase Your Chances of Growth and Success 

The cleaning industry is enormous, and competitive residential and commercial cleaning businesses are everywhere. There’s always demand for cleaning services. Around 80% of households in the US are expected to use home cleaning services by 2024. 

Considering the competition you’ll be facing, it helps to create a business plan that will help you identify how your cleaning company will stand out. 

• Extensive planning will help you pinpoint your target market, determine your unique selling proposition, and develop a startup and operating expenses budget.
• This process will ultimately set your cleaning business up for long-term growth and success.

Secure Financing

Established financial institutions, lenders, and investors typically perform an extensive investigation before committing to an investment. With a solid business plan, you’ll be more likely to secure the funds you need to get your business up and running. 

Common Questions about Cleaning Company Business Plans

A business plan will help you determine if your cleaning business idea is viable, increase your chances of success, and secure financing.

An executive summary includes a mission statement, information about the leadership team, and financial goals.

Final Thoughts: Driving Your Cleaning Company’s Success With a Solid Business Plan 

Equipped with a well-researched business plan, you’ll have much higher chances of succeeding in the cleaning services industry. It’s also a valuable tool that can help you secure funding for your operational expenses as a cleaning startup. 

After downloading our free cleaning services business plan PDF, make sure to edit each section and include all essential information to create a comprehensive document.

Our free sample cleaning company business plan serves as an excellent starting point – a helpful template that you can personalize as necessary.

Written by Nelmie Jane Pardo

Nelmie Jane Pardo is a senior contributing writer who lends insight into digital marketing methods and business solutions. She regularly writes at BusinessHue to help business owners take their online marketing to the next level.

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How to Write a Cleaning Company Business Plan + Free Template

Ever dreamed of starting your own cleaning services business?

If yes, you’ve come to the right place. It’s time for you to venture into an exciting world of clean and nicely organized spaces.

However, you need to think about resources and funding for navigating the ins and outs of the cleaning business.

Also, you need to identify if there’s a market opportunity to be successful, how many competitors you’ll face, and what potential clients expect from companies like yours.

Surprisingly, a professional business plan will help you answer all these questions. Here’s our sample Cleaning Company Business Plan to give you enough motivation.

We have created this sample business plan for you to get a good idea about how a comprehensive business plan should look alike and what elements you need to include in your business plan.

But before you start writing a business plan for your new cleaning company, consider a few tips and business planning hacks compiled for you.

Industry Overview

The commercial cleaning services industry stood at an impressive value of $89.7 billion , and its growth shows that it’s not going to slow down.

Especially after the pandemic, the significance of cleaning has grown. The household cleaners or residential cleaning market is projected to be $40.38 billion by 2025.

And if you have a knack for cleaning and organizing spaces, there’s a golden opportunity to build a thriving business.

Before you go, we have some important things that you have to keep in mind.

Things to Consider Before Writing Your Cleaning Business Plan

Choose what you’ll clean.

Decide what kind of spaces you want to clean. You can go for anything from cleaning outdoor areas, hotels, schools, or office space.

This will help you hire employees who are the best at specific jobs. After all, cleaning different spaces requires a different set of skills and precision.

So, having a niche would help you become a specialist at your work and make your customers avail of your service more often.

Decide what additional services you can provide

Sometimes business is all about going that extra mile. Decide what additional services you can provide apart from the primary ones.

This would also largely depend upon your potential clients and the industry sector you are in.

For example, if you clean office spaces, you can specialize in the organizational services that can set you apart from competitors. Also, this will open opportunities for additional revenue.

Know your competitors

Knowing your competitors is crucial. Identify their strengths, weaknesses, and position in the market. It helps you stay ahead of them and have a foresight of what might happen next in the industry.

Hence, maintaining a competitive advantage in this dynamic and rapidly evolving sector is a must.

Adapt to technology

The cleaning industry is a lot about putting technology to maximum use. So, embrace technological advancements, such as online booking systems and machines for better cleaning.

This will ensure that your business remains competitive and aligns with the evolving needs of your customers. And to keep up you’ll have to change too.

How to Write a Cleaning Company Business Plan?

1. write an executive summary.

An executive summary is the first and most significant section of any business plan, usually written in the last when the entire plan is ready.

It provides a high-level overview of your cleaning company business plan, offering a quick understanding of your business. So, keep your executive summary clear, concise, and engaging to grab readers’ attention.

This section includes the business name, concept, core values, objectives, marketing plan, management team, and financial projections.

You may start your executive summary with a compelling introduction to the cleaning business, including what is your idea behind this business and what type of business you are running.

Briefly outline your cleaning services and clarify how your services will be different. Describe your target customers, and don’t forget to explain how your cleaning business satisfies their needs.

Name all the key members of your team and provide a summary of your cleaning company’s financial projections for 3-5 years.

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2. Provide a Company Overview

As the name suggests, the company overview section provides a detailed description of your small business.

It includes the business name, owners, legal structure, location, history, and other such information, providing an in-depth understanding of your company.

You may start this section by providing all the basic information about your cleaning business, such as the name of your company, type of business, legal structure, location, and the reason for choosing that place.

Highlight the owners of your cleaning company, along with their percentage shares and responsibilities. Include vision-mission statements that summarize your business objectives and core principles.

After that, mention your cleaning service business’s history and explain how it came into its recent position. Also, describe your future business goals.

Here is an example of PristineClean’s business goals written using Upmetrics AI-writing assistant :

Next, you may outline some personality and intriguing details like business achievements or recognition, if any.

3. Conduct an Industry and Market Analysis

Starting a cleaning services business requires a strategic roadmap, and the key to developing it lies in a complete industry and market analysis.

This chapter provides valuable insights into your external business environment, including the cleaning industry in which your business operates and its dynamics.

It helps your readers or potential investors to better understand the broader cleaning industry, local market, target customers, emerging market trends, potential challenges, and opportunities.

Here are a few key components your industry and market analysis section must include:

Market Size and Growth Potential

Give a detailed overview of the cleaning industry and determine its market size, growth potential, and target market. Use industry publications, market reports, and statistical data for thorough research.

Also, Identify and describe a few market influencing factors, such as increased hygiene awareness, growing urbanization, eco-friendliness, and changing lifestyles.

Target Market

Specify your target market and define the attributes of your ideal clients. Try to break down the market into segments based on residential or commercial focus, demographics, and specific cleaning service needs.

Learn more about your customers and define the geographic regions you wish to serve. Recognize the local cleaning services demand and identify whether your cleaning business will focus on certain services.

You may also display your cleaning business’s market distribution as follow s:

Competitive Analysis

Explore all the commercial cleaning businesses in the local market and identify key competitors, including direct and indirect competitors.

To know more about the competitive landscape, analyze their strengths & weaknesses and evaluate their market positioning. From that, pinpoint untapped areas in the market and understand the scope of competitive advantage.

Try to explain how you can offer qualitative cleaning services and develop unique selling propositions(USPs) that set your cleaning business apart.

Conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate internal & external factors and get better insights.

Market trends

Stay updated on emerging market trends and recent industry practices to write this section. Observe current innovations in cleaning technology and eco-friendly practices. Also, explore ways to implement online booking systems, automated scheduling, or smart cleaning equipment.

Regulatory Environment

Highlight regulatory considerations for your cleaning services business. It includes local regulations, business licenses or permits, health & safety compliance, and insurance requirements.

Have a look at the PristineClean’s regulatory environment:

Regulatory environment

In [Westminster] and its adjacent areas, the commercial cleaning industry is bound by several regulations to ensure quality, safety, and environmental responsibility:

• Safety Codes: Adherence to [specific state/city safety codes] is mandatory for all cleaning operations.
• Licensing: Obtaining a [specific janitorial license] is crucial for operating within the city limits.
• Eco-regulations: Guidelines to limit the use of harmful chemicals, ensuring the safety of both clients and the environment.

“[PristineClean Commercial Solutions]” is committed to full compliance with all regulatory requirements, ensuring our clients receive services that are not only superior but also responsible.

4. List Your Service Offerings

This section provides details of your service offerings and elaborates on your service range, description, pricing strategies, and more.

You may start by describing specific cleaning services that you will be going to offer your customers. Also, highlight the overarching benefits and solutions your cleaning service business will serve.

Your cleaning services might be any of the following:

• Commercial cleaning services
• Residential cleaning services
• Window and Glass Cleaning
• Carpet cleaning services
• Furniture and general disinfecting
• Janitorial Services
• Green cleaning services

Effectively communicate your cleaning services to the customers by sharing clear pricing plans and service descriptions with project timelines.

Here, you may refer to the below example to draft your own cleaning business’s service offerings:

Next, mention any additional services or customized cleaning service packages based on specific client needs.

5. Outline a Sales and Marketing Plan

The sales and marketing strategy section involves a list of strategies you will use to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

It will help you streamline your marketing tactics and develop effective marketing campaigns to reach your target audience while keeping track of the projected budget and maximizing return on investment.

Here are some of the sales and marketing strategies for your cleaning services business:

Unique Selling Points (USPs)

Specify the USPs for your business that set you apart from the other cleaning services. Emphasize a few aspects, such as specialty services, environmentally friendly cleaning services, or customizable options.

Pricing strategy

Create a pricing strategy that is affordable and competitive, yet profitable. Consider proposing discounts, promotions, or cleaning service packages to entice new customers.

Refer to the below example written for a commercial cleaning business:

Pricing Strategy for PristineClean Commercial Solutions

Our pricing structure is meticulously crafted, reflecting the quality we offer while remaining competitive:

Base Pricing: Competitive hourly rate per [sq. ft./service] to ensure accessibility for various businesses. Our gross margin objectives are outlined based on the nature and scale of the cleaning projects:

• 70% for specialty cleaning services(carpet, tile, furniture, VCT)
• 60% for small cleaning jobs (less than $10k per year)
• 50% for medium job ($10k – $30k per year)
• 40% for large project work (more than $30k)

Promotions: Seasonal discounts or offers for first-time clients to encourage trial.

Packages: Bundled cleaning solutions tailored for businesses of varying scales, providing savings on combined services.

Professional Branding

Implement a strong online presence through a user-friendly website and spreads a wider reach. Show your project work with virtual tours and 3D imaging to build trust among potential clients.

Social media advertising

Use engaging social media channels to enhance online visibility. Share industry trends, news, and other events on social media to attract potential customers searching for cleaning services.

Partnerships

Always try to build strong relationships with local businesses and real estate agencies. Also, offer special promotions for collaboration. This will expand your reach and generate referrals.

Customer retention strategy

Explain how your commercial cleaning business will build loyalty and retain clients. Try to mention loyalty programs, personalized cleaning services, or various packages.

6. Introduce Your Team

A management team is crucial to demonstrate your business’s ultimate success in the cleaning industry.

This section introduces the business owners and key managers, along with their roles & responsibilities, qualifications, work experience, and compensation plan.

A dynamic and experienced leadership team can be important to weigh authority and help investors to be confident about your cleaning services business’s idea and vision.

You may start by introducing the cleaning business’s owners/founders and key employees, such as the operations manager, marketing director, cleaners, etc. Highlight their education, professional background, and relevant experience in the industry.

Try to include an organizational chart for the management team that depicts the reporting lines and the decision-making flow.

For your reference, you may have a look at the PristineClean’s organizational structure:

Don’t forget to describe your compensation plan in this section. Include salaries, incentives, or benefits for the management team and cleaning staff.

If your team is lacking, consider mentioning the board of advisors for your business. Also, define their roles and experience in handling cleaning services or small businesses.

7. Outline Business Operations

Now, it’s time to highlight an impactful description of daily business operations and activities. This section includes key aspects such as staffing, operational processes, and quality control measures.

Operational excellence can be critical to achieving your business goals and optimal results committed to clients.

So, briefly outline operational planning, emphasize how it directly impacts the quality of services, and pique the reader’s interest. Here are a few key factors that your operations plan section must include:

Convey the staffing needs for your cleaning services business, including the number of cleaning professionals required, experience, and responsibilities. Also, mention the employee perks and training programs you will provide.

Here is an illustration of a staffing requirement with the help of Upmetrics:

Cleaning operations

Summarize the processes and methods you will use to run your cleaning business. It includes the scheduling of appointments, strict cleaning protocols, responsive customer service, communication channels, etc.

Quality control measures

Discuss the regular cleaning service inspections, compliance verifications, and ongoing improvement initiatives through client feedback surveys. This will help you maintain customer service excellence.

Equipment and cleaning supplies

Describe equipment and cleaning supplies to guarantee that all your cleaners have the resources and tools required for high-quality cleaning services. Include inventory, replenishing supplies, latest cleaning techniques, and technology.

8. Prepare Financial Projections

A well-structured and in-depth financial plan is the most crucial and demanding section of any business plan.

In fact, it’s one of the deciding factors for potential investors, banks, or partners to invest or lend money in your cleaning services business.

This section is a detailed blueprint of your company’s financial information and the strategies you will use to reach its long-term goal. It may include all the cash flow & revenue streams, initial startup costs, and earned profits.

This financial forecast is significant in terms of whether you secure funding or not. So, highlight all the below key components in your cleaning business plan:

• Profit and loss statement(Income statement)
• Sales forecast
• Cash flow statement
• Balance sheet
• Break-even analysis
• Tax considerations
• Business ratios

From the above financial statements, you can identify the funding needs and evaluate the funding resources for your cleaning company, including bank loans, SBA-guaranteed loans, investors, or personal savings.

Download Cleaning Company Business Plan Template

Need help writing your business plan from scratch? Here you go; download our free cleaning company business plan pdf to start.

It’s a modern business plan template specifically designed for your cleaning company business. Use the example business plan as a guide for writing your own.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Start preparing your business plan with AI

With Upmetrics, you will receive easy-to-follow steps, 400+ business plan examples, AI support , and a financial forecasting tool to simplify your entire business planning process.

Whether you’re venturing into a new business or expanding an existing one, Upmetrics provides valuable insights and resources you need to create a successful business plan that perfectly aligns with your goals.

So, don’t wait; start planning now!

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Frequently asked questions, what sections are included in the cleaning company business plan.

A professional cleaning company business plan should include the following sections:

• Executive summary
• Company overview
• Industry & market analysis
• Service offerings
• Sales and marketing plan
• Management team
• Business operations plan
• Financial plan

What financial information should I include in the business plan?

You should include below financial information in your business plan:

• Income statement
• Use of funds

How often should I update my cleaning company business plan?

It is advisable to review and update your cleaning company business plan at least once annually or more often to reflect specific changes in the business environment, service offerings, or market trends.

Can a business plan template help me secure funding?

Indeed, a well-prepared business plan helps you secure funding or bring on new business partners. It offers a clear overview of your business model, strategies, target market, and financial projections. So, this will significantly enhance your chances of securing funding.

Can the template be customized to fit various types of cleaning businesses?

Absolutely! A modern business plan template can be easily customized to fit various cleaning businesses, such as commercial cleaning, residential cleaning, or other specialized services. Upmetrics provides customizable templates for your specific business needs and cleaning services.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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Starting a Business | How To

How to Start a Cleaning Business: Complete Guide

Published October 18, 2022

Published Oct 18, 2022

WRITTEN BY: Meaghan Brophy

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This article is part of a larger series on Starting a Business .

Starting A Business?

Step 1: Choose Your Type of Cleaning Business

Step 2: write a quick business plan, step 3: get necessary funds, step 4: file legal paperwork.

• Step 5: Get Proper Licenses & Insurance

Step 6: Purchase Cleaning Equipment

Step 7: market your cleaning business, bottom line.

With the janitorial services industry currently valued at $98 billion , starting a cleaning business may be a profitable venture, whether you’re looking into residential or commercial cleaning services. In this guide, we go through the steps and talk about low-cost strategies to get your cleaning business up and running on a budget.

You can also download our complete guide to starting a business, which you can reference later:

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The first step you need to take is to determine if you’d like to create a residential or commercial cleaning business. Your decision here will affect everything else you do, from the financing to the equipment to the marketing.

Most cleaning companies don’t provide services to both residential and commercial customers because each includes different services and requires unique equipment. You also need to decide if you’re starting your biz from scratch or purchasing a cleaning-based franchise.

Residential vs Commercial Cleaning Business

A residential cleaning service specializes in homes while a commercial cleaning business specializes in businesses. But it gets more complicated. Typically, the residential cleaning business is a lower cost to start (primarily because of simpler equipment needs); however, commercial can be very lucrative because of the add-on services such as floor waxing, window washing, and deep disinfecting.

Generally, residential cleaners earn a slightly lower hourly wage than cleaners who provide services to businesses, government buildings, schools and universities, and other commercial clients. However, there are more residential cleaners than commercial ones, suggesting higher demand for those services.

Employment and wage per industry for janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners (Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

You also want to consider that residential is done during the day, and commercial is done during the night. Also, residential cleaning is more detail-oriented because the homeowner is more likely to inspect your work and be particular about how you do certain tasks, such as arranging pillows and blankets. Commercial covers more square feet, so you’ll have to work faster and be less detail-oriented than residential.

From a business perspective, the residential space has more customers available. Overall, your choice between residential and commercial depends on your budget for equipment and lifestyle.

Should You Buy a Cleaning Franchise?

Cleaning franchises are popular—you can choose from many brands. One aspect that makes cleaning franchises appealing is they’re generally low-cost to start. Many also provide an option to start from home or part-time. For example, the Stratus Building Solutions franchise costs as little as $1,000 down.

Now, it’s important to remember that not all cleaning franchises are low-cost. Some require up to a $150,000 investment . These types of franchises often require vehicles, a location, and advanced equipment.

Many new business owners choose to buy into a franchise because it provides business and industry training. For example, The Maids offers seven weeks of business training, plus two days of culture training at headquarters, six days of admin training, and four days of on-site training at your location. It’s a cleaning business boot camp!

Here are the top cleaning franchises to consider:

You might also consider ISSA (one of the top five janitorial companies )—it’s actually an association that can recommend franchising options for you.

The next step to starting a cleaning business is to create a one-page business plan. You should also research the startup costs and make financial projections by forecasting how much money the cleaning business will earn and spend over the next two years.

If you’re seeking a large amount of financing from a bank or investor, you will need a traditional business plan . Most people use business plan software to assist with planning financial projections. If you find yourself wondering what an income statement, balance sheet , or breakeven point is, you will likely need software.

• Create a One-page Business Plan
• Set Up a Budget
• Establish Your Cleaning Rates
• Determine Your Net Income

You should be able to complete the one-page business plan in less than 15 minutes (assuming you’ve done your research). It’s simple: Write down one to two sentences to the questions in the free template below:

One-Page Business Plan Template

Along with the business plan, you need to estimate the financials of your cleaning business. You need to determine three figures: startup costs, estimated monthly expenses, and estimated monthly income.

The following are common expenses for a low-cost cleaning business.

• Licenses and permits: $100–$500 to register as a limited liability company (LLC) .
• Insurance: $500–$3,500 annually, depending on number of employees. Expect to pay a few hundred dollars per month.
• Cleaning equipment and products: $300–$600 depending on the type of tools. High-quality vacuums can cost $200–$300, $10 for several large all-purpose cleaning solutions, $10 for a broom, $20 for a mop, and $20 for dusting supplies.
• Advertising: $100–$200 for print and online marketing.
• Labor: Roughly $14–$20 per hour for each employee, just counting wages.

Once you have your expenses estimated, you need to determine your rates and how much income you will earn every month.

Factors such as your location, competition, clientele, and interior condition will determine your exact rates. You can also earn additional revenue with upgrades such as window cleanings, appliance cleanings, or wall washings.

Consider these options when determining your rates:

• Hourly rate: $30–$90 per hour. The hourly rate is the most common billing method. Establish an estimate for your hourly rate by calling competitors and inquiring about how much service would be.
• Flat rate: $120–$150 for a single-family home. Determine this rate by estimating how long it will take to clean a particular house. Customers may prefer this rate because they know the exact amount to pay every month.
• Square foot rate: It’s standard in the commercial cleaning business to charge a square foot rate. Expect to charge an office building anywhere from 5–20 cents per square foot.

Now that you have your startup costs, monthly expenses, and potential income, the next step is to determine your net income (income after expenses), and how long it will take to earn your initial investment back—also called breakeven.

For example, let’s say your startup costs are $4,000. Regarding monthly expenses, you determine that you’ll spend $1,000 every month, including your quarterly tax withdrawal (about 20% of income).

For income, if you clean 20 homes per month at $120 per home, that is $2,400 in revenue. Taking out the $1,000 in monthly expenses leaves you with $1,400 net income every month.

In this scenario, it will take you at least four months to break even and make your initial $4,000 back. Keep in mind that it’s likely you won’t have 20 homes in your first month of business. It may take longer than four months to build up this clientele and make your money back.

Ideally, you’ll want to use personal funds to start the business so you can avoid debt. That may not be possible if you’re starting a cleaning business with vehicles or a physical location. Whatever type of business you’re opening, remember you’ll still have to pay back the debt if the company fails.

Consider the following funding options to start your cleaning business:

• Personal funds: Before using any of your personal funds to start the biz, transfer the money into a business bank account (discussed below).
• Crowdfunding: This is a funding option many new cleaning businesses overlook. Use crowdfunding to raise funds from potential customers, such as family and friends, before opening. Use the funds to purchase equipment and then perform the prepaid services.
• Credit cards: We don’t recommend taking on a substantial amount of debt to start your first business. However, if you choose to take on debt, a credit card is an option. If you have good credit, you can get a 0% introductory APR for 12 to 18 months.
• Personal loan: Generally, we recommended you don’t take out a personal loan to start a cleaning business. The interest rate is relatively high (above 12%) because the loan isn’t secured to collateral.
• Home equity loan: If you have equity in your home, you can take out a loan to start your business. Because this loan is tied to your home as collateral, the interest rate will be lower.
• Rollover for business startups (ROBS): A ROBS is when you use 401(k) money to open a business—it is complicated and potentially risky, so carefully consider it. It is also only available for entities organized as a C corporation (C-corp).

Until you have at least a three-year history of income and expenses, or paid off equipment such as vehicles, don’t apply for a traditional bank loan or Small Business Administration (SBA) loan . Typically, banks don’t lend to startups.

If you’re franchising, a bank loan or franchise financing could be an option. The franchise may have a relationship with a bank and can organize funding for you. A bank may be open to financing a franchise if the overall failure rate is low.

Once you have the funds to start your cleaning business, it’s time to get your legal paperwork in order. You’ll need to get an employer identification number, register the business as a legal entity, and open a business bank account.

• Get an Employment Identification Number
• Register as a Legal Entity
• Open a Business Bank Account

The employer identification number (EIN) is provided by the federal government to identify small businesses. You’ll use this number when filing taxes, opening a bank account, or getting a loan. You can get an EIN for free through the IRS . The entire process takes about 15 minutes.

All cleaning business owners need to register their business as a legal entity. Registering as a legal entity protects personal assets if a lawsuit were to ever occur against the business. Depending on your state, the cost to register a business is anywhere from $40 to $500.

Tip : Don’t try to save money by skipping this step! A cleaning business carries a risk—you’re using chemicals in the homes of your customers. If, for example, you ruined or broke something in a customer’s home, they could sue you for damages. Without a legal entity, your personal assets are at risk to cover damages.

• Sole proprietorship: This is the default business structure if you don’t register your business as a legal entity. There are no legal protections with a sole proprietorship .
• Limited liability company (LLC): An LLC is the legal entity you’ll most likely choose for your cleaning company. It’s easy to set up and takes little maintenance every year.
• C corporation: A C-corp is more complicated to set up compared to an LLC. Often, business owners hire an attorney to assist in the setup. The C-corp is typically for larger companies that have multiple investors in the business.
• S corporation: Technically, the S-corp isn’t a legal entity—it’s a tax designation. Congress created the S-corp so that small businesses could get similar tax advantages as corporations. You can use a custom calculator to determine if designating your LLC as an S-corp will save tax money.

To register your business, visit your state’s official business registration website. If you find the site cumbersome and challenging to navigate, consider using an online legal service to handle it for you.

Before incurring any expenses or taking on any new clients, get yourself a business bank account . As a business owner, you want to ensure you keep personal and business finances separate . Separate bank accounts help with keeping track of business income and expenses for tax purposes. Plus, this separation of finances helps the process of IRS audits go more smoothly.

If you have a current banking relationship, you can go to that bank to open a business checking account. However, if you’re still looking for a bank, consider Bluevine . It’s an online bank designed for small businesses. Bluevine charges no transaction or monthly fees and offers qualified accounts a high-interest rate of 1.5% annual percentage yield (APY) on balances up to $100,000.

Step 5: Get Proper Licenses & Insurance

A cleaning business is likely to need a license in the city where it’s operating. Regarding insurance, all cleaning businesses will need at least general liability insurance to cover any damages in a customer’s home. If you’re hiring employees, you’ll also need workers’ compensation insurance.

These are the general requirements you should look into:

• Business License
• General Liability Insurance
• Janitorial Bond
• Workers’ Comp

It’s likely your state won’t require a license for a cleaning business. To confirm there’s a license requirement, search on your state’s business regulation website.

Your city will likely require a General Business License . Most cities simply want a record of what businesses are operating. To obtain the General Business License, visit your city’s official government website.

For example, Atlanta requires all businesses to obtain a General Business License—even at-home and online businesses. The cost to acquire the license is $75. Failure to obtain a license can result in a $500 fine.

At a minimum, you’ll want to purchase general liability (GL) insurance . This insurance covers bodily damage and property damage. GL insurance for a small cleaning company will cost around $300 per year.

You may find that customers ask for proof of general liability insurance before hiring your cleaning business. They want to know whether they can collect on any damages your cleaning may cause in their home or business.

CoverWallet is a great option to check out for business insurance for your cleaning company . The marketplace will match you to a variety of carriers that fit your needs, helping you find policies that help with general liability, along with commercial property, workers’ comp, and any other customized needs.

You will try to hire the best employees for your cleaning business, but unfortunately, you can’t guarantee they won’t commit theft on the job. A janitorial bond ( surety bond ) protects the homeowner’s assets in the event of a theft.

Here’s how it works: If an employee steals an item from a customer’s home, the bond company will pay to replace it. The bond company puts your business on a payment plan so you can pay them back over time. This is preferable to a lawsuit or a large payment to the customer.

New cleaning companies definitely need a bond so that a significant expense from a theft doesn’t sink the business. A janitorial bond will cost around $200 per year.

If you have employees, you’ll need workers’ compensation insurance . This provides payments for medical bills, rehab costs, and lost wages for employees who get injured on the job. Workers’ comp will cost around $500 to $600 per employee each year.

You’re almost ready to accept your first customer! But first, you need to purchase the required equipment to get the job done. We’ve compiled a list of low-cost items to get your cleaning business started on a budget:

• Cleaning uniform or apron
• Paper towels
• Microfiber cloths
• Latex gloves
• Scrubbing brushes
• Toilet brush
• Grout brush
• All-purpose cleaner
• Window cleaner
• Wood cleaner
• Tile and grout cleaner
• Extendable duster
• Disinfectants

If you’re starting on a budget, don’t get overwhelmed with the number of cleaning supplies—or brands. Remember that when first starting out, purchase items that will get the job done. Don’t spend more money—or go into more debt—than necessary.

Regarding your wish list cleaning items, write them down. You may want that premium vacuum now but resist the urge to acquire it. List your wish list items in your business plan. Indicate at what net income level you’ll make each purchase. You’ll have milestones to look forward to in your business!

Let’s talk about low-cost and free strategies to get your cleaning business noticed. Online marketing such as Google My Business, social media, and online directories are all free. Physical marketing materials will have a cost, but you can use them creatively to make a memorable impact on customers.

Online Marketing

Consider these free online marketing strategies to get your cleaning business in front of a digital audience:

• Google Business Profile: Google’s free listing and business profile is especially helpful for attracting local customers. When a potential customer searches for what you sell (residential cleaning business), they’ll read your Google Business Profile before your website.
• Social media: A great best piece of advice for social media success is to choose one platform and do it well. Choose whichever social platform you enjoy the most (for cleaning, it could be Facebook , Instagram , or TikTok ) and grow your following there.
• Local business directories: For a cleaning business, you should be listed on at least Yelp and Yellow Pages. To determine other directories to be on, do a Google search for the specific service you provide, and see what directories show in the results. Also, as we mentioned earlier, consider joining cleaning industry trade association ISSA .

Physical Marketing Materials

There are several options for physical marketing materials, such as business cards , flyers, and postcards. Because we’re discussing marketing on a budget, we’re going to focus on one low-cost marketing strategy.

After every cleaning of a new home, leave a card with a handwritten note. In the note, thank the homeowner for their business and ask them to pass your card to anyone interested in getting their home cleaned.

When promoting your business with marketing materials, make sure to leave a small gift such as chocolates or something the homeowner would find beneficial, such as a small hand sanitizer. This is a persuasion tactic called reciprocity . This personal marketing strategy makes an emotional connection with the homeowner and makes them more likely to reciprocate a customer in return.

Network in Your Community

In-person networking is a memorable and effective way to get your business in front of potential customers. Experiment with attending several small business organizations in your city such as the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club. To make a lasting impact on an organization, volunteer to be in a leadership position.

We’ve discussed the necessary steps and several low-cost strategies to get your cleaning business up and running. If you’re a first-time business owner, consider starting a low-cost franchise to get the training and support you need. Once you have your first customers, you need to do great work—a clean home or office is your best marketing.

You May Also Like…

• Our complete guide to starting a business
• Learn how to market a new business and try local advertising ideas
• How to make a website for your cleaning business

About the Author

Find Meaghan On LinkedIn Twitter

Meaghan Brophy

Meaghan Brophy is a Retail Expert at Fit Small Business focusing on small business retail and ecommerce content. Meaghan’s 10+ years of retail experience includes working at local book and dance supply stores, handcrafting gifts at an eco-friendly manufacturer, developing private label brands, and managing a team of more than 40 sales and service professionals at a local spa.

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Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template

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Cleaning Business Plan Template

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to your most frequently asked questions:.

Immediately upon purchasing Growthink’s Ultimate Cleaning Business Plan Template, you will be taken to our Member’s Area where you can instantly download our template and begin working on your business plan.

If for any reason you are not delighted with our product, simply contact our friendly support desk and you’ll be issued a full refund. You have an entire year to request a refund if desired.

Unlike other software that charges you a fee month after month after month, you only pay once for Growthink’s Ultimate Cleaning Business Plan Template and you own it.

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How to Start a Cleaning Business in 7 Steps

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If you're looking to start a new business with low overhead, the absence of typical operating costs and reliable demand, a cleaning business might be a good choice.

Cleaning services tend to have lower up-front costs than other ventures, and this is one of the few businesses you can start operating quickly with little capital, provided you’re willing to work hard for modest profit and gradual gains.

Excepting some specialized cleaning chemicals and equipment, most cleaning jobs will entail the same products as your own household chores. Formal training or certifications aren’t required for typical home and office cleaning, but that doesn’t mean the job is easy. If it were easy, there wouldn’t be such a large market for domestic cleaners. That said, cleaning can be a lucrative and rewarding business for individuals with a great work ethic and customer service demeanor.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about how to start a cleaning business.

Do your industry research

When you start mulling over how to start a cleaning business, make sure your work is worth paying for. Start with close friends or family — you might offer a free house cleaning in exchange for candid feedback and cleaning supplies. Alternatively, if you know someone who works as a cleaner, you could ask to accompany them on a job to make sure you have what it takes. The important thing is to make sure your personal cleaning standards meet the expectations of paying customers — the best way to do that is tackling a job for someone else.

You’ll also need to decide what kind of cleaning service you want to provide. Cleaning services range from one-person operations to national chains, and from the most basic light home cleaning to specialized services, like pressure washing and industrial carpet cleaning. If you have experience cleaning windows or another skilled service, it’s worth considering honing your business focus to your skills and resources.

Individual cleaners work primarily in personal residences, for a small number of clients — if you go this house cleaning route, you’ll spend less. Some independent contractors keep weekly appointments with a fixed schedule of clients and jobs. Other individuals are available for short-term or one-time services by the day or hour.

Finally, consider purchasing into an existing cleaning franchise opportunity . This option has its pros and cons — it might require a bigger upfront investment, but it will likely also offer a more streamlined process.

>> MORE: How to calculate startup costs

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

How to start a cleaning business in 7 steps

Cleaning businesses range from individual home cleaners to specialist industrial cleaning services. It’s important when figuring out how to start a cleaning business to determine the focus of your service early on because the upfront investment you make depends on the size of your team, the cost of equipment, and competitive rates in your local market. Home-cleaning businesses larger than a few individuals will need more structure than a service you operate alone or on the side of another job.

Once you’ve established a target market, you can start to flesh out the details of your business plan and make arrangements for transportation and supplies. You’ll want to get the word out about your service as soon as you’re far along enough to begin taking on clients. Depending on your personal network, you might start with friends or acquaintances, and expand to a larger market with an online presence and marketing.

Step 1: Fund your cleaning business

Financing a new venture can be the most difficult part when it comes to starting a cleaning business from scratch. This often requires entrepreneurs to borrow money from friends or family, take out a business loan , or spend on credit. Depending on the scale of the business, startup costs for a cleaning service can be comparatively low. This means you can keep debt to a minimum when first planning a cleaning business from scratch, then expand operations and spending as you generate revenue.

Generally, the costs associated with starting a cleaning business include the price of cleaning supplies and products, advertising, cleaning business insurance , and business licenses and permits. Supplies can usually be purchased for less money at big-box retailers.

The items you need will depend on your business's specialty, but products most cleaners use include mops, window cleaner, latex gloves, paper towels, brushes and the like. Once you establish your business, you may even be able to buy directly from manufacturers.

Step 2: Choose your market

The clientele you pursue and services offered should be based on local demands, in addition to your personal abilities and access to transportation. For example, if you need to be able to walk to your cleaning jobs, establish a radius you feel comfortable commuting within and focus your market research on that area. Individuals with access to a car or public transportation have more flexibility and can start by searching online for existing businesses that offer similar services.

Competitor research is a fundamental part of planning any business, so when you're wondering how to start a cleaning business, it’s worth taking time to research cleaning businesses in your area. Keep an eye out for services that other businesses seem to be missing.

When just starting out, residential cleaning is easier to get into than commercial cleaning. The commercial-cleaning business is usually dominated by large janitorial companies, and they typically have more resources at their disposal. Within the residential cleaning sector, you can narrow your market down even further — such as apartments or single-family homes.

Also, when selecting your market, keep in mind that you'll more than likely be doing your initial jobs on your own. So this means being selective in terms of the clients you choose to work with. You might not want to take on a job where you're cleaning a large mansion on your own, as this will probably take more time than it's worth. Further, doing the jobs on your own will minimize costs and provide you with the flexibility to plan work around your schedule.

Step 3: Find a specialty — and stick to it

Success as a cleaner will come down to the quality of the service you provide, whether that’s expertise in a specialized area — like cleaning carpets or porcelain — or simply efficient and friendly service. Specialized equipment and services are only worth providing if you already have experience or access to necessary resources; otherwise, training, equipment, and other costs might outweigh your cleaning revenue.

Once you do get to the point where it makes sense to specialize, options you might consider include commercial kitchen cleaning, eco-friendly cleaning, and tile and grout cleaning.

Step 4: Plan the business budget

Supplies and transportation are the two major expenses of basic cleaning services. Depending on the services you offer, your cleaning expenses will vary from very low for an individual cleaner, to considerably more for a business with a multiperson team and company vehicle. Once you establish a transportation and backup plan, you can start to estimate the other costs of starting up your business.

Transportation

Transportation is essential to any mobile business like a cleaning service, and one of the most important prerequisites— before starting a job, you have to get there first.

Most cleaning services assume the responsibility of getting to and from cleaning jobs, so keep in mind that transportation arrangements and responsibilities will most likely fall on you.

The cost and amount of supplies you need to operate depends entirely on the services you offer and how many clients you have. If you’re cleaning a handful of private residences each week, you can buy supplies in bulk at retailers like Sam’s Club or Costco.

Some clients might prefer you to use their products. Wholesale vendors will likely require proof of your business’s legitimacy, but if you’re operating a bigger service, finding discounted prices from suppliers shouldn’t be a problem once you register the business.

Transportation and cleaning supplies are the main expenses for basic cleaning services, but equipment and other rentals will also add up. Unless you already own or have free access to equipment, special machines and cleaning agents for carpets, flooring, and exteriors can be costly rentals.

If you already know how to use a certain type of equipment, it’s worth investigating the costs of renting — you can always hold off on extra expenses until you’re more established.

>> MORE: 25 low-cost business ideas

Step 5: Register the business

The legal parameters around domestic services like house cleaning and babysitting aren’t always clear, especially when the service is just one individual and clients are paying in cash. The amount of registration and income reporting you need to do depends on the extent of your business (namely, your revenue).

Cleaning your aunt’s kitchen once a week in exchange for $20 doesn’t really constitute a business, so if you’re only providing services for immediate family, it’s probably safe to hold off on registering your business. If you’re making more than a few hundred dollars in a month, you need to use the formal channels for reporting income to the IRS.

You can choose to operate a cleaning business on your own as a sole proprietor or as a partnership with another individual, or you can set up a limited liability corporation if you want to separate your business and personal finances.

When considering how to start a cleaning business, you might also look into becoming a franchisee of a large cleaning services chain. The benefit here is that you already have built-in brand recognition, policies, and procedures. However, you won't have as much control over your business.

If you’re interested in working as a cleaner outside of homes, it’s worth noting that it’s much easier for private individuals to pay other individuals than it is for a business to pay an individual who is not an employee. Business registration and proper tax documentation are particularly important for cleaning services with corporate clients.

Commercial vs. consumer

Individuals working in private homes are classified as “consumer” cleaning services, whereas “commercial” cleaners like janitorial service providers have contracts with state or corporate entities.

1099 contractor

Depending on the services you offer, a local business might be willing to contract your services on a recurring basis. The IRS requires a business to provide a 1099 contract to individuals who provide services exceeding $600 annually.

When registering your business, you'll also need to pick a business name. You'll want to be thoughtful in the name you select for your business, as it is an important aspect of your marketing and branding efforts. The name you choose should reflect the services you provide, the values of your company, or some combination of both.

Step 6: Find and maintain clients

Increasingly, online forums and service platforms connect individuals with local cleaning businesses, but word-of-mouth still plays a big part in the domestic services industry. Consider asking clients who are particularly pleased with your cleaning services to share your Facebook page, or give them your business card to pass on to interested friends.

Since showing prospective clients your best work can be difficult, it’s a good idea to provide contact information of past customers who are willing to be available for references. Better yet, ask pleased customers to provide a written referral for your website.

Home cleaners often find new business through current clients. While you don’t want to rely on clients for new jobs, establishing a rapport with customers can help you build confidence, and in turn, they might let you know about potential opportunities.

An important part of finding and maintaining clients is having set rates that you can provide. According to HomeAdvisor, the average price to clean a single-family home is $120-$150.

These prices can be impacted by your location, level of competition, the services you offer, and other factors. In terms of your pricing model, there are three ways cleaning services will typically quote prices: by the hour, by the square footage of the area being cleaned, or with a simple flat rate.

Regardless of the pricing model you choose, it would be a good idea to do some market research to ensure your rates are competitive, especially when just starting out. What's more, you may also want to invest in a payment processor, such as Square, to help you accept payments for clients who want to pay via credit card. Just keep in mind that you will be charged fees for accepting credit card payments.

Step 7: Invest in advertising and expanding

Even if you rely on clients to find new customers, investing in an online presence for your service benefits your business in the long run. It’s important that current and potential customers can find you online — even if you don’t have a full website. Create a business Facebook page, and keep your contact information up-to-date.

Once you have an established service and roster of clients, you can sign up for a platform like Care.com , TaskRabbit , or Handy to make it easier for clients to find your business. Having customer reviews and a registered business will strengthen your online profile. For offline networking, consider printing business cards.

Start Your Dream Business

The bottom line

Cleaning may seem like a simple business, but it’s hard work. Before you make cleaning your side job or full-time career, it’s worthwhile to spend a few days “on the job” to ensure you’re cut out for the work.

With a cleaning service, you can incrementally take on more work and new customers as you get accustomed to the job. As you figure out your scheduling and accumulate regular customers, you’ll be able to optimize your time and spending, and continue to deliver excellent service, provided you take the right steps in advance.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

On a similar note...

Sample Janitorial and Commercial Cleaning Business Plan

Example commercial cleaning & janitorial service business plan.

This is a comprehensive tutorial on putting together a sample janitorial & commercial cleaning service business plan. This template can be used by cleaning services, janitorial service, commercial cleaning specialty and carpet cleaning businesses.

The goal was to write out a custom business plan using practical information and cover the main topics.

Some of the topics were too big and we had to use an introduction and then provide a link to the full resource. Every section has a link to view details of specific sections.

The plan divided into 6 sections:

• Business Description

Table of Contents

Commercial Cleaning- Janitorial, Carpet Cleaning, VCT, Tile, Office Cleaning

In the executive summary we list all the main sections and then give a brief description of the topic.

• Business Description – Next Door commercial cleaning service located in Toledo Ohio and was incorporated as an S Corp July 2020. We are currently in the start up stage with August 1st 2020 as our first day of business. We currently have 3 employees, one marketing person and 2 cleaning technicians. ND currently leases 5 000 sqr feet of office and warehouse space out of Toledo. Our current target market is employers with 50- 100 plus employees, primarily professional offices with cleanable office space of 10,000 sqr feet minimum.
• Services – Next Door will provide daily cleaning services to local businesses including an emphasis on specialty cleaning services such as : Carpet cleaning, hard tile cleaning, VCT waxing, furniture and general disinfecting. Most businesses don’t have the time to recruit, hire and especially training cleaning staff. It can take 3-6 months to train a good cleaner, this is time, money most businesses would rather devote to their specialty and their clients and not on maintaining a clean building.
• Marketing – The company is going to use Account Based Marketing, what this means is weighting our budget to best payoffs. The strategy is to shift our resources to the biggest payoff and not market to every business equally. Some businesses will spend $1200 year, while others might spend $50k. We want our marketing plan to reflect that . This can really hit home – if we apply 80% of our effort to just 20% of our leads (our Key Accounts) we will receive 80% of the  rewards.
• Management – As we grow especially in commercial services where its common for businesses to have 10, 20 and even hundreds of employees. We want to avoid this first slide of every employee, every customer, invoice, equipment question coming to you directly. This is guaranteed to fail eventually and create lots of stress in the process.
• Operations – Commercial cleaning employee manual or handbook, this can be used for janitorial, carpet cleaning and commercial cleaning services. The purpose of this sample is to share some topics and general information to include in an employee manual.
• Financial – The financial part is the final part of the business plan and here we will use charts, graphs and spreadsheets mainly to map out a long term successful future.

1.Business Plan- Summary

Next Door commercial cleaning service located in Toledo Ohio and was incorporated as an S Corp July 2020. We are currently in the start up stage with August 1 st 2020 as our first day of business. We currently have 3 employees, one marketing person and 2 cleaning technicians. ND currently leases 5 000 sqr feet of office and warehouse space out of Toledo.

Our current target market is employers with 50- 100 plus employees, primarily professional offices with cleanable office space of 10,000 sqr feet minimum.

Client sustainability is going to be the main variable to consider when deciding which business to market to. We want to be thinking of industries that will be in business for the next 20 years.

Medical, clinics, doctor, technology, professional services like architect, law, financial. We see these as basic services that will survive the ups and downs of the macro economy. The main threat long term is the use of remote workers but we feel this is still a long ways out in large numbers.

Next Door plans to be diverse offering daily building cleaning services and also high margin specialty services. We believe this mix will balance our revenue/profits out over long term macro changes.

1.1 Industry Overview

Currently the retail sector of the industry is a mess and very difficult to make work. As more people continue to buy online retail stores continue to close stores and significantly cut back on cleaning budgets.

Right this second hospitality is also in shambles with pandemic and government ordered shutdowns or limitations on capacity. This includes restaurants, hotels, leisure, etc. We believe there will be permanent damage to this sector and will stay away for the first couple years. Even when they do get back on their feet they will be keeping budgets tight.

Industrial businesses are hit and miss, really depends on the specific product they make. This will be a sector ND will keep in the marketing mix

Medical, including hospitals clinics and doctor services are always needed and with an aging population only will be needed more. The only risk long term is more doctors using online tools to speak with patients but they will always need to see patients face to face somewhat.

Professional services including technology, lawyers, engineers, management, etc is one of the safest in our opinion long term. These are services that can’t be replaced easily by future robots. These services require thinking and not just repeating tasks. The risk is remote staffing but we feel in large numbers there will always be enough office space needed.

Commercial Property Management is currently experiencing a lot of financial problems with 20-30% of tenants not paying leases. We will be avoiding this sector over the short term.

1.2 Company Description

Next Door is an S Corporation formed in the state of Georgia with 2 shareholders Jason & Lisa Jones. The state or city does not require any special permits or licenses. The company will provide building cleaning services to other businesses.

The office/shop is located in between 2 main thruways giving access to all areas throughout the metro area within 30 minutes. This was a major reason for choosing this location, it is centrally located. Also with commercial cleaning businesses we needed warehouse space to hold various equipment and store misc cleaning products.

 Office is currently leased for 5 years.

Most cleaning staff will report directly to the buildings they service and not come to the office often. The office will be staffed with marketing, management and human resources. Supervisors will share workspace in the office but mainly work in the field at client buildings.

Because of this we only needed 3000 sqr feet of office space and 2000 sqr ft of warehouse.

Mission Statement Our goal is to provide a clean and healthy environment for our customers through state of the art cleaning technology and a commitment to customer service Method Clean Biz

Safety is a priority for our customers and employees, while in your facility we follow a detailed health & safety program, This insures quality service, happy employees and competitive prices.

One of the things Next Door wants to be about is safety, this is as a value proposition for marketing but also be aggressive in training, supervising employees through monthly safety meetings. We feel this is a topic that will be important in the forseeable future.

Also the large employers we target are generally the ones that care about safety. Under 50 employees you will start to see the topic be less and less important.

1.3 History and Current Status

The company is a start a up and we don’t have any history to share. Jason and partner Lisa Jones started the company August 1 st 2020. Jason has worked in the commercial cleaning industry for 20 years as a former franchise owner, operations manager and salesperson for 2 different businesses in the industry.

Lisa is a former office manager and salesperson for a landscaping service for 7 years with an MBA from Georgia University.

Jason feels after 20 years in the industry with practical real life experience in various management roles that the industry is changing and one variable is to focus more on high margin project work to combine with lower margin cleaning contracts.

Lisa has an MBA and can add the business structure needed to grow and sustain long term growth.

Both have experience in sales specifically in the service industry and know how to market, sell contracts.

1.4 Goals and Objectives

The goal is to build the business to about $1.5 million in sales with an owner benefit of about 20% which equals about $300k in benefits, wages and profit for the shareholders. The timeline is 5 years with a slower rate in the first 2 years while they are building the core infrastructure and then dramatically scale that up in years 3-5 after the core is solid.

One of the experiences Jason has had is small businesses growing too fast too early and then crashing because they don’t have enough management in place. Often owners try to do everything themselves and burn out.

1.5 Critical Success Factors

The key to success in the cleaning industry is human resources, people. Recruiting, hiring, training and supervising staff and also developing management, supervision talent in house. We feel the best way to grow and sustain it long term is by developing our cleaners into supervisors.

Each lead person is creating the next lead person. Trying to hire supervisor’s from other cleaning businesses comes with a lot of challenges, some have bad habits to begin with that are difficult to change. Also run the risk they quit after a short time and have information about the internal workings of the business and client lists, training material etc.

Training and supervision will be key success factors. The challenge In the cleaning business is employees are working at the customers location, mainly unsupervised on an hour by hour basis. This is why hiring the right people in the first place is so critical and then getting them in a routine through training.

We will create a culture of everyone sticking together and supporting each other. With 90% of the workforce working remotely it becomes important we communicate with each other on a regular basis and trust each other.

There will be a big emphasis on communicating nightly through email, text, phone so employees are tuned in.

1.6 Company Ownership and Exit

The company has 2 shareholders with Lisa owning 40% of the shares and Jason 60%. Each has the option to buy the other out at an agreed upon price after 5 years. Shares cannot be sold to a third party unless agreed to by both.

Jason will hold the title of CEO and have direct authority over Operations dept. Lisa will have the title of President with administrative and Sales/Marketing directly reporting to her.

The long term plan is operate the business for approximately 15 years and sell to the general public splitting the sale price 60/40.

2. Services

Next Door will provide daily cleaning services to local businesses including an emphasis on specialty cleaning services such as : Carpet cleaning, hard tile cleaning, VCT waxing, furniture and general disinfecting.

Most businesses don’t have the time to recruit, hire and especially training cleaning staff. It can take 3-6 months to train a good cleaner, this is time, money most businesses would rather devote to their specialty and their clients and not on maintaining a clean building.

The 2 nd part is specialty work. Most businesses do not want to invest $10ks of dollars of capital into cleaning equipment that is used 1x month or maybe even only a couple times a year. Also the training of employees required, again for a task that might only need to be done a couple times a year.

Businesses would rather spend that capital on areas where there is a much bigger payoff.

2.1 Service Description

• Daily janitorial and office cleaning
• Carpet steam cleaning truckmount
• Carpet cleaning low moisture
• Hard surface steam cleaning including ceramic, porcelain and quarry tile
• VCT floor waxing, polishing
• Office furniture steam cleaning
• Disinfecting services

Daily Janitorial and office cleaning

The company feels the key to success in daily cleaning is one initial training and two communication. Often cleaning businesses are small and lack management talent, understaffed and overall desperate for bodies on any given day.

We feel the competitive advantage is in training cleaners not only the technical skills but also the importance of service skills. Often clients will like a cleaner and think they are the greatest in the world even if their technical skills are average.

NEXT DOOR wants to make this a key part of training cleaning staff. Some of the training elements will be uniform, appearance, communication with the client, body language, how to address complaints, safety equipment like wet floor signs, tone to use when speaking with clients, etc.

Training will take approximately 3-6 months with technical training only taking 30% of the time. The company feels not only will we have happier clients but cut down on employee turnover by reducing the stress. We feel by training employee’s customer service skills they will also feel like we care about them and want to see them succeed in life in general.

More than anything clients want to know you care and we want to focus on training staff to be proactive in relaying that message. Most clients understand people are human and will make technical mistakes. BUT it is unacceptable to not care about a client building or the staff that works in that building when they are paying you.

2 nd Key element is communication. Most cleaning employees work remotely and does not interact with management on a daily basis. This more than anything can lead to cleaners feeling like nobody is watching and worse nobody cares.

The company is going to be very aggressive in creating a communication system so we interact with every cleaner, every day in some way. Either by a supervisor stopping by, calling, texting or maybe even email in some situations. Our thinking currently is daily text alerts mixed with phone calls.

Carpet Steam Cleaning- Truckmount

The company will invest almost $40k in a van based carpet cleaning system. This system will allow us to steam clean carpets at a very high level of quality and production. With advanced systems we can have a 10 on quality and a 10 in production. This system can also clean up to 300 feet away from the van, targeting large employers we will need to work at great distances on a regular basis.

Carpet Cleaning- Low Moisture

An emerging and often overlooked service is using low moisture technology to clean carpets. With this service the company can sell high margin services at an affordable price. Often in larger buildings access can be a problem or they need the area turned over quickly, low moisture provides a quick 30 minute dry time.

Hard Tile Steam Cleaning

Using the van based carpet cleaning system we can quickly change tools and offer steam cleaning of various tools. This is another high margin service to offer and it makes the daily office cleaning a lot easier and quicker.

Often these areas are the toughest areas to clean: restrooms, lobbies, cafeterias and also the areas that receive the most complaints.

The long term goal is create a route just cleaning hard tile surfaces, the benefit is it’s a high margin service and also can help get our foot in the door to sell big monthly cleaning contracts.

VCT Floor waxing, Polishing

VCT flooring is usually located in high traffic areas like hallways, cafeterias and restrooms. We have found the overall appearance of a building can be greatly impacted by having shiny, clean looking floors. This can be accomplished by stripping old finish off and applying new or high speed polishing.

How clients “feel” about a cleaning service overall can come from how well a cafeteria floor looks. This is medium profit margin service in most cases because how labor intensive it can be. But can help greatly in the overall satisfaction of clients.

Office Furniture Cleaning

Office furniture is another high margin but niche service. The company will use the van based truckmount system in most cases to keep production high. This can include partitions, chairs and small sofas

2.2 Competitive Advantage

In section 2.1 we covered what we believe our competitive advantage is for janitorial and daily office cleaning.

Specialty cleaning services: carpet cleaning, upholstery, office furniture, VCT, hard surface cleaning has some of the same focus but there are two key points to make.

Two things we have found true with specialty services is most janitorial businesses are not very good at them. The main reasons are lack of training in staff and equipment. We believe in buying the highest production equipment available and spending considerable resources in training of technicians.

These two variables can give NEXT DOOR a significant advantage over competitors and get our foot in the door for janitorial services at client buildings of competitors.

#1 Using van based truckmounted system and also current low moisture carpet cleaning systems.

#2 Using dedicated technicians that have been through specialized training at certified organizations like the IICRC.

Often janitorial services will send general cleaners out to complete these tasks with limited training and modest equipment.

3. Marketing Plan

Marketing is a huge subject in itself, we already have a large section with a specific marketing plan. In this section we will give a brief overview and then the link to the full marketing plan.

3.1 Marketing Research

Toldeo Ohio metro area is the designated service area. Toledo has a total of 18,000 businesses but we need to narrow that number down to a manageable number.

Key Accounts – businesses with 100+ employees = 328

Businesses with 50 + = 659

Key Account total = 987 businesses

These represent where we will dedicate 75% of our budget and resources

Growth Accounts- businesses with 10 -50 employees = 4300

These are growing businesses that we will dedicate roughly 15% of our budget too. Remember some of them will grow to 50 employees over the long term.

Advertising – misc. advertsing will receive the smallest piece of the pie of 10%. This will include google, adwords, social media etc. The reason is we can’t control always who calls from a big advertising campaign, some will be big and most small but its still an opportunity for PR/Marketing and fill in gaps. 

3.2 Competitors- High Barriers To Entry

Part of our marketing strategy is coming up with areas that are difficult for our competitors to easily repeat. If there is one thing we know about human behavior its if something is easy everyone will do it. So we want to look for tactics that are very difficult for our competitors to do.

Difficult to do: targeting businesses with 50 plus employees is a key part of this strategy. Most commercial cleaning services will find it very hard to do consistently over long periods of time. One of the biggest reasons is patience, larger jobs take a lot more patience and lets face it most cleaners are not very patient and our current society is built for on demand.

EASY To Do:

• Lead generation service
• Google search adwords
• Facebook marketing

HARD To Do:

• Telemarketing
• Door to Door sales
• Highly Targeted Google display ads
• Direct Mail

3.3 Sales Plan

6 Simple Steps To Creating a Commercial Cleaning Sales Plan

How to create a commercial cleaning sales plan, this can apply to commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning and janitorial services. We are going to cover 6 steps to creating a dedicated sales plan we can follow every day, month and year. A sales plan is meant to be a living document that as we learn will be updated and improved over time.

Step 1 What is our objective or financial goal?

Step 2 What Resources are available, what is your commitment level?

Step 3 Targeting, who are the types of businesses you will focus on?

Step 4 Services, what services will you focus on?

Step 5 Activity Log- What physical actions will you take on a daily/weekly/monthly rotation

Step 6 Training- What Training do you need to accomplish your goals?

3.4 Pricing Strategy

Pricing Strategy- After deciding on a goal we then can create a pricing strategy.

Cost Plus – we figure our costs for a job and then add our gross margin. Our gross margin goals will be as follows

• Specialty cleaning  jobs including carpet, tile, furniture and VCT- gross profit- 70%
• Small cleaning jobs less than $10k per year- 60% profit
• Medium jobs- $10k – $30k per year – 50% profit
• Large Jobs- $30k plus- 40% profit

The reason is smaller jobs require much more office support in fill in staff, supervision, training, supplies, etc.

Larger jobs are self contained with a team leader working on site at a client building to provide all those tasks.Supervisor will inspect 1x week.

Square foot – sqr ft or unit pricing is best when you have experience with a specific service and type of client. Sqr ft pricing will be used using the above gross profit goals.

Time and Materials – or another way to use this is hours X hourly rate. This is often used when you are unfamiliar with a service or type of client building. This strategy will be used when we are unfamiliar with a job, misc tasks, obscure requests and 1x jobs.

3.5 Sales Strategy

Strategy section: objective is increase cashflow, measure by percentage increase, goal is 30%. How do I increase our cash flow? How does this change our sales strategy?

 In commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning or janitorial cashflow is extremely important, maybe the most important challenge we face. What happens whenever taking on a new project is we have costs of labor, chemicals, equipment, gas but might not see a payment for 30, 60 or even 90 days. First is the data or analytical part, we currently are at 22% and in previous months hovered around 24% but now need to greatly increase that.

How to: look at the current client list, is there a pattern with accounts that fall below our goals? Reduce invoice terms, is there a pattern of industries, sizes or areas that are paying in terms greater than 30 days net? Change our terms to 15 days net for all one time jobs, these are usually specialty cleaning services carpet cleaning, windows, small construction projects.

Over time I think most of us find certain industries have industry logic built in that it is commonplace to pay in certain invoice cycles. This is fine but something we have to think about as we grow.

For example you are currently cleaning a lot of property managers and they are all paying 60 days plus, that might be a situation where its time to stop marketing to that group and find a new target

3.6 Sales Forecasting

This is a quick video on using forecasting to determine when it is time to hire a new technician. Often us contractors wait until the last minute to hire new staff and that usually doesnt work out too well. Regardless if hiring a part, full time or casual employee its always best to plant the seed and start the process months before we actually need someone.

The easiest way is to create a table in word or spreadsheet in excel or just take a piece of paper and a pencil. This is an example of a sales forecasting table separate by 3 columns. Customer, estimate amount and probability or forecast.

In the first column list name of the customer or bid, examples medical building, restaurant and property management account. Second column list the gross amount of the bid, in this example we put $1000 dollars for medical, $12000 restaurant and $3000 for property management company. The total comes to $16,000.

To forecast list low,medium and high of 25 percent%, 50 percent % and 75 percent %. Now this is subjective, sometimes we win low % bids and lose bids we think we have nailed down, it happens.

At this point its time to start placing ads, time to collect and read resumes, interview the best applicants. You want to have all this pre-planned and set up 2 weeks, 2months and 4 months in advanced so when the work does come in you have a list of contacts to put in place.

4. Management

4.1 company organization.

As we grow especially in commercial services where its common for businesses to have 10, 20 and even hundreds of employees. We want to avoid this first slide of every employee, every customer, invoice, equipment question coming to you directly. This is guaranteed to fail eventually and create lots of stress in the process.

This second example is more of a traditional organizational chart for a commercial cleaning service, janitorial service. In this slide we show 3 departments: operations, sales and administration. You can see a big difference right away in this structure, instead of every employee reporting directly to you, now they report to the managers and the manager’s report to you.

The Operations Manager will have all the supervisors, team leaders, technicians, specialty cleaners and cleaning staff reporting directly to them.

Sales Person might have 1-2 assistants working for them setting appointments, sending out direct mail, emails etc. Often these can be part-time staff that either work inside sales setting appointments over the phone or outside sales/networker going door to door and attending events.

Office Manager or Administration might have the bookkeeper and 1-2 office assistants helping with employee interviews, HR, fact checking resumes etc. Note, some owners prefer to have the bookkeeper/financial staff next to them and report directly to owner and not under admin.

4.2 Professional Support

The company needs to make a list of various vendors, suppliers and professional services. Below is a starting list of vendors will need to hire.

• Accountant/ Tax
• Financial advisor
• Equipment supplier
• Day to day cleaning solutions supplier Main
• Back up supplier
• Payroll service
• Credit card
• Credit card processing
• Website hosting
• Digital marketing
• Design marketing
• CRM provider
• Technical consultants – IICRC or ISSA
• Business specialty consultants
• Phone service
• Van mechanic- tires, inspection, etc.

4.3 Management Structure

In this section we will show some examples of organizational charts to structure a commercial cleaning, janitorial or commercial carpet cleaning service.

5. Operations

5.1 employee handbook.

Commercial cleaning employee manual or handbook, this can be used for janitorial, carpet cleaning and commercial cleaning services. The purpose of this sample is to share some topics and general information to include in an employee manual.

** Note this is not a legal document and any employee manual should be customized and verified with a local consultant or lawyer based on your specific state laws.

Welcome to Commercial Cleaning Service!

On behalf of our big family of fellow associates, owner, vendors, customers and management we want to welcome you to our team.

At Commercial Cleaning Service, we believe that every associate contributes to our growth and are also rewarded equally. We want every team member to take pride in driving our van, wearing our uniform and serving our customers to the best of your ability.

This employee handbook is a simple way to describe the expectations of our team members and outline the policy and procedures we follow to provide the absolute best service experience possible.

All associates are expected to become familiar with the contents of this handbook in the first 30 days of employment and share all questions they may have with management.

Topics to be covered:

• Timekeeping
• Direct deposit
• Termination
• Phone usage
• Equipment usage

5.2 Recruiting, Hiring and Interview Process

How to hire employees for your commercial cleaning service. The goal is to create a flow chart to map out the hiring process, I find it very helpful to be able to see processes and map out the different steps involved. I feel it helps a lot in understanding and the actual follow through.

The 10 Essential Steps To Hiring Amazing Employees For Your Commercial Cleaning Service

• Job opening

Job Description

• Create Database

Find Recruits

Phone Interview

Onsite Interview

The first step is determining we have a job opening or several job openings and writing a job description. A job description has the basic tasks involved, hours/days, full time or part time, any certification or education requirements.

Identify the type of person we would like to hire. Some positions require a detail minded person while others need a lot of physical labor. It is our job to find good matches of the recruits with the position.

Before running ads we want to create a database to hold all of this information and make it easily searchable in the future. Often we will have several qualified candidates but only one opening currently and want to find the other candidates later on.

Run Advertisements

Decide where we will run advertisements on, for how long and what is our total budget. The best place to start is referrals of course by sharing on social media and through email blasts of our current database and reaching out to former candidates. Some options for advertising are indeed, monster, local newspaper.

Go over the resumes and score the best qualified candidates for contact.

I personally like the phone interview first to reach out and get a feel for the candidate, ask a couple basic questions and make sure they understand the job description.

This will depend on the position of course, next an onsite face to face interview. Also can meet in a coffee shop, some people prefer a relaxed setting so candidates are more comfortable.

Go over all the information and make a final decision.

This is where we have the new employee fill out required paperwork, insurance, sign off on employee manual’s and layout the next steps.

5.3 Safety Meetings

The goal of this template is to create a 12 step safety manual with meetings on a monthly basis covering different topics. Cleaning businesses encounter several situations at clients building’s, company shop, office and driving to commercial carpet & tile cleaning jobs.

12 Month Health & Safety

Month 1 Introduction

The purpose of this health and safety program is to establish company standards for working in client buildings, driving in company vehicles and working in company office/shop.

The company has identified 12 key topics to be covered in monthly safety meetings that all employees must attend. It is intended that this manual is a “living” document to be upgraded and added to with input from employees, owners and managers.

• Introduction
• PPE- personal protective wear
• Electrical Cords
• Work area signs, tape
• Vans/Equipment maintenance
• SDS Sheets, Chemical storage, mixing

5.4 Employee Compensation

Often, we try to reward employee behavior through bonus programs and focus on one specific performance at a time, for example an attendance bonus.

In this example instead, we are going to create a Balanced Scorecard using a point system. The difference is we will have 5 different performances instead of focusing on only one.

The points vary from poor to satisfactory to excellent and at the end of the review we will add the points up give a financial bonus based on the number of points.

The five variables we will be using in this bonus evaluation are

• Inspections
• Customer Survey or Review

The Top 5 Performance Evaluations

Attendance- Attendance will depend on if the employee is full time or part time. I think we definitely have to weight this somehow. We could deduct a point for every day missed but honestly anymore than 1 is too many and even 1 is not good.

On Time- I understand some cleaning jobs when they clock in doesn’t matter a lot but for project work like carpet cleaning, floor work, etc. often clients are waiting for us, so it is critical.

Inspections- This can be a weekly or monthly inspection you would normally have. To make this easier I would just use a 5 point system or grades A,B, C,D,F and then transfer that to the scorecard.

Equipment- will depend on the type of service, for office cleaners we will be mainly looking at floor machines and maintaining vacuums.

For project work though like carpet cleaning, tile cleaning the equipment is critical and cost upwards of $50k plus. In that case I would weight it much higher than an office cleaning position.

Customer Survey or Review- This will break down between residential and commercial cleaning services. With residential nowadays reviews have become very important in digital advertising.

5.5 Inventory

The company will use an inventory control system made with excel spreadsheets managed by the operations manager. Inventory will be made on a 30 day cycle and 14 day cycle when cashflow is tighter in the first 2 years.

• On site inventory will be delivered and maintained by the building supervisor on a weekly basis. Cleaners and team leaders are to submit to supervisor supply needs and supervisor hands in worksheet to operations manager.
• Specialty Cleaners working out of shop will complete an inventory checklist daily and hand in to operations manager.

5.6 Credit Policy and Cashflow

The company will extend terms to clients following the sales strategy explained above.

Standard 30 days net

Exceptions 60 day net

60 day plus only authorized by CEO

Specialty cleaning jobs recurring 15-30 day net

1x Specialty jobs due on receipt to 7 day net maximum.

The company will follow this policy regarding tracking accounts receivable and payable

Complete an aging receivable at least monthly to track how much of your money is tied up in credit given to customers, and to alert you to slow payment problems.

Also tracking accounts payable using the same format.

Current- 30 day- 60 Day- 60 day + – Charge offs

6. Financials

The financial part is the final part of the business plan and here we will use charts, graphs and spreadsheets mainly to map out a long term successful future.

The main topics we will cover are:

• Start up funds and 1 st year
• Income statement
• Break even point
• Balance Sheet

6.1 Start up and 1st Year

In this section we think about all the money we will need to start up including 1x cost and monthly cost.

GENERAL/ADMIN                           

BANKING FEES  $200.00                $15.00

CONSULT FEES   $500.00                $95.00

OFFICE SUPPLIES              $200.00                $60.00

LICENSE FEES      $150.00                $15.00

BUSINESS INSURANCE   $500.00                $380.00

TOTAL GENERAL/ADMIN              $1,550.00            $565.00

SUBSCRIPTIONS                $237.00

TOTAL OPERATIONS       $-            $237.00

MARKETING/PROMO                    

ADVERTISING    $1,500.00            $1,800.00

PROMO $300.00                $50.00

TOTAL MARKETING/PROMO       $1,800.00            $1,850.00

WEBSITE/MOBILE APP                  

DOMAIN              $1,000.00            $30.00

HOSTING             $-            $30.00

TOTAL WEBSITE/MOBILE APP     $1,000.00            $60.00

RENT/LEASE       $-            $750.00

PHONE $-            $137.00

ELECTRIC              $-            $237.00

GAS       $-            $150.00

WATER/SEWAGE              $-            $50.00

WASTE REMOVAL            $-            $40.00

REPAIR/MAINTENANCE $-            $200.00

SECURITY             $-            $25.00

Then Estimate what the first year will look like.

TOTAL START-UP COSTS $4,850.00

TOTAL RECURRING MONTHLY COSTS               (1 YR = 12 MO)        $87,612.00

TOTAL BUSINESS EXPENSES         $92,462.00

ESTIMATED FIRST-YEAR BUSINESS INCOME          $112,000.00

BUSINESS FIRST-YEAR PROFIT/LOSS         $19,538.00

AVAILABLE CASH/ SAVINGS/OTHER          $30,000.00

BUSINESS BALANCE        $49,538.00

6.2 Break Even Point

In this section we look at how much revenue we need to generate to break even every month. This can be tricky sometimes for beginners, we want to calculate using a fixed monthly cost like rent and also a percentage of cogs or cost of service.

Fixed Cost            $4,300

Cost of goods sold            $3,000

Number of Jobs 1

Average Job Price             $9,300

6.3 Income Statement

Our income statement is a profit and loss statement, looking at net income and then minus taxes to see net, net.

6.4 Cashflow

Cashflow statement is one of the most important financial metrics to follow for a commercial cleaning business. Just because we have invoiced a client doesn’t mean we physically have the money in the bank.

Often what can happen is cleaning services fall behind and then have to start borrowing large sums of money to stay alive each month.

6.5 Balance Sheet

Lastly is the balance sheet what do we own and what do we owe. Including intangible assets like intellectual property which is difficult to judge so be very conservative.

How to Start a Cleaning Business in 2024 (10 Simple Steps)

• Last Updated: May 13, 2024

• Consistency is key – have a regular cleaning schedule for your clientele.
• Employ top-notch cleaning products to get optimal results.
• To deliver outstanding customer service, properly train your personnel.
• Use technology to boost productivity and optimize your business processes.

The cleaning business is hotter than ever, fueled by a collective desire for sparkling sanitization. Thanks to COVID, hygiene is no longer a suggestion; it’s a battle cry. And that translates to serious opportunity – the global cleaning market is projected to be a powerhouse by 2030, growing by a whopping 6.5%!

The cleaning business is your gateway to entrepreneurship without breaking the bank. Startup costs are manageable, and you get to call the shots on your schedule. Every grime-fighting victory, every dust bunny banished, becomes a stepping stone to your business empire.

So, if your vision involves transforming grimy office spaces into productivity paradises, this guide is your roadmap to cleaning business mastery. We’ll cover everything from wielding your first weapon of mass disinfection (the trusty mop) to polishing your brand until it shines brighter than a freshly squeezed window. Let’s get this germ-busting business off the ground!

Table of Content

10 Essential Steps to Start a Cleaning Business

Pros and cons of starting a cleaning business.

• Frequently Asked Questions

Here are 10 important steps to kickstart your cleaning business journey. Make sure you follow each of them for desired results and projected revenue:

1. Know your competitors

Before you start a cleaning business, it is crucial to understand the cleaning industry’s landscape in your area. You must learn about the industry leaders and study their services and business models. It is also important to find out your target market’s problems and recognize their expectations from a professional cleaning service business. This will help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. 

Detailed competitive research will help you position your services more effectively, pinpoint your niche, and deliver the best to your potential customers.

2. Decide what cleaning services to offer

Once you study your competitors and recognize the needs of your customers, it will now be easy for you to decide what cleaning services you are going to offer. 

Aligning what your competitors are lacking with what your targeted customers still want can set you apart from others. 

Clearly define what types of cleaning services you will offer. Decide whether you’ll specialize in certain areas, like green cleaning or deep cleaning, or provide a broad range of services.

3. Choose your business structure

Once you decide what services you will offer, you should choose a business structure that best suits your needs, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or LLC. Each has different implications for liability, taxes, and ongoing compliance requirements.

A. Sole Proprietorship: 

Among all the business structures, sole proprietorship is ideal for those who plan to work independently. It allows for direct control over all decisions but does not provide a legal separation between personal and business liabilities. This directly means your assets could be at risk if your business incurs debt or legal issues.

B. Partnership: 

When one or more individuals are likely to operate together, the partnership can be ideal for you. This structure allows you to share responsibility and resources. Partnerships require agreements on the distribution of profits, shared liability, and the roles of each partner. This is done to avoid future disputes between individuals.

C. Limited Liability Company (LLC): 

An LLC combines the benefits of a corporation and a partnership. It protects against personal liability, similar to a corporation while offering the operational flexibility and tax advantages of a partnership. This structure is beneficial if you want to protect your assets without the formalities of a corporation.

4. Create a business plan & secure funds 

Prepare a comprehensive business plan that outlines your business goals, operational procedures, pricing strategy, marketing plan, and financial projections. A solid plan will guide your business decisions and can be crucial for securing financing.

Moving ahead, based on your plan and the budget estimated, consider different funding options, such as small business loans, personal savings, or investments from partners. Ensure you have sufficient capital on hand to cover startup costs and initial operations.

5. Set up your cleaning business: Get registration, business license, insurance, and accounting

Check with your local city or county about required licenses and permits to operate a cleaning business. This will help to protect your new business from any legal complications. 

Next, securing general liability insurance is crucial. This insurance will protect you against unfortunate financial events resulting from accidents, such as damage to client property or injuries to third parties that occur during cleaning. 

Once you fulfill legal formalities, shift your focus to streamlining accounting operations. Consider using automated software that can track your business expenses and income, automate bookkeeping operations, and simplify the complexities of financial management.

6. Equip your cleaning business with the required supplies and equipment

To offer quality cleaning services, you must be clear about the niche and services you want to provide. You can choose one niche from the below options: 

• Sanitization and disinfection
• Residential/ house cleaning services
• Commercial cleaning services
• Pressure washing services
• Pool cleaning
• Janitorial services

Based on your niche, you should focus on purchasing the best-class equipment and resources for your business.

7. Fix your rates

Setting competitive and fair pricing is critical to the success of your cleaning business. Start by researching the local market to understand what competitors are charging and what services they offer at those rates. 

Analyzing competitors’ pricing structures will help you set service prices and ensure that you offer higher value to your clients. Before finalizing your service price, you must include the profit margins, labor hours, other fees, and taxes. 

You can set prices based on flat rate, room rate, square foot rate, hourly rate, and specialty services rate.

Additionally, consider offering discounts for recurring services to encourage long-term contracts. Communicate your rates and any conditions on your website and marketing materials to maintain transparency with potential clients.

8. Market your cleaning business

Marketing helps to promote the professional cleaning business among your target audience. Both organic and inorganic marketing strategies boost your reach and visibility. Additionally, you can use digital marketing strategies to scale your residential and commercial cleaning services. 

Communication is also the key to maintaining your customer base. So, increase communication with existing and new clients and give them different incentives, discounts, and multiple special offers to retain current customers. 

Moreover, you can also develop referral programs to bring on new customers when you have high customer satisfaction.

9. Hire the right employees 

Creating a team of employees based on your business structure can assist you in achieving your desired business goals. It would be best if you analyzed the applicants based on your residential and commercial cleaning business requirements.

This will help you to understand their thinking and skill levels to handle operations in real-world scenarios.

Below are some of the useful tips that will help you ensure the smooth entry of the right personnel into your cleaning business:

• Start by defining the roles and responsibilities clearly in your job postings. 
• Look for candidates with a good work ethic and a history of reliability. 
• Conduct thorough interviews and consider background checks to ensure trustworthiness, especially since employees will be working in clients’ private spaces. 
• Provide comprehensive training to all new hires to familiarize them with your company’s cleaning standards, customer service expectations, and safety protocols. 
• Foster a positive work environment to retain your best employees, as consistent staff leads to consistent service.

10. Automate your cleaning business with Upper

In the cleaning industry, just as the right tools and supplies are essential for smooth operations, integrating the right cleaning business software to enhance efficiency is also essential. 

Leave behind manual planning and embrace automation with Upper. 

See how Upper can transform your business operations:

• Client detail management: Safely store and access client information to personalize and streamline service.
• Optimized route planning: Plan efficient cleaning routes to ensure timely service and minimize delays.
• Real-time traffic updates: Receive real-time traffic data and road closure updates to save fuel, energy, and time.
• Business analytics: Gain insights from detailed reports and analytics to make data-driven decisions and improve operations.
• GPS tracking: Track your teams in real-time, ensuring timely and efficient service delivery.
• Live updates: Provide live service updates to customers, enhancing communication and satisfaction.

Maximize Cleaning Business Potential

Prompt planning, optimized routes, single-click dispatch to drivers, live traffic updates, and on-time deliveries—Upper assures you of leveling up your operational efficiency.

There are always two sides to a business: advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we will shed more light on both sides.

First, let’s take a look at the pros of starting a cleaning business.

• The cleaning service startup needs minimal capital as it does not require a lot of specialized equipment. Just a microfiber cloth, a vacuum cleaner, and a mop can be sufficient.
• A flexible schedule is another benefit, as you can control everything yourself. You can work a few hours or clean several times a week.
• If you have a good understanding of what your ideal customers want, you can easily complete this task. A general understanding of cleaning and online self-training is enough to start profitable cleaning services.
• With the rapid growth of the cleaning industry, the potential for generating revenue also increases. Cleaners are adopting advanced technologies for more efficient cleaning.

Following the pros, it’s time to talk about the cons of a cleaning company.

• Cleaning services require a lot of manual labor, such as wiping surfaces, cleaning toilets, and mopping floors. The operation of a heavy vacuum cleaner is also tiring. Other cleaning chores like washing windows on a hot sunny day can also take a toll on you.
• Due to the growing demand for cleaning services, you will always be competing with your competitors at lower prices. Many cleaners would start offering the service for half the price you charge to retain a contract.
• If you work as a professional cleaner, you will maintain specific cleaning equipment. This equipment can get damaged or break down and may need repairs over time, which can be costly. Therefore, it is important to be prepared for these additional costs and avoid damage. 
• The cleaning industry often has high employee turnover, which can be very costly and time-consuming for your business. It is important to avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive salaries, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Upper Route Planner

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To start with, research the market, choose your niche, and decide what you will offer. Then, register your business, obtain the necessary licenses, permits, and insurance, and invest in quality cleaning supplies and equipment.

Cleaning businesses can be highly profitable, especially with low startup costs and the continuous demand for cleaning services in residential and commercial spaces.

The residential cleaning business is often the easiest to start. Followed by the business structure, an LLC is popular for providing liability protection and tax flexibility.

Yes, you’ll likely need a general business license from your local city or county.

Typically, you need a business license, liability insurance, and workers’ compensation insurance when hiring employees to run your cleaning business.

Because of a few reasons like low entry barriers, minimal operational costs, flexible working hours, and potential for steady income, it is worth starting a cleaning business.

Leverage personal networks, create attractive promotional offers, and use local advertising and social media to attract clients.

Use online advertising (Google Ads, social media), local flyers, business cards, and promotional events.

Cleaning has always been an on-demand industry with high-income potential. Therefore, starting your own house cleaning business is a smart move that goes beyond just registering your business. All you need to do is strengthen your foundation, overcome challenges, and implement result-oriented tips to stand out from your existing competition.

Also, timely advancements are essential to level up your existing business potential. Embrace innovation and continuously seek ways to improve your services and operations.

One way to start is trying Upper, an efficient cleaning business software that is completely free for 7 days . You can even book a demo with us to get detailed insights.

Rakesh Patel, author of two defining books on reverse geotagging, is a trusted authority in routing and logistics. His innovative solutions at Upper Route Planner have simplified logistics for businesses across the board. A thought leader in the field, Rakesh's insights are shaping the future of modern-day logistics, making him your go-to expert for all things route optimization. Read more.

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How To Start a Cleaning Business The Right Way

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Already started a cleaning business? Learn how you can partner with Pro Housekeepers .

Cleaning is something everyone has to deal with, but few people truly enjoy. For those who do enjoy it, working as a cleaner can be a lucrative way of earning a living. The benefits of cleaning for a living include the freedom to set your own hours and work with clients you like, an opportunity to escape a desk or hard labor job, and plenty of exercise. Cleaners also typically earn more than minimum wage, with excellent cleaners able to set much higher rates once they’ve built a strong reputation. Whether you’re thinking of working as a sole trader, or starting a business employing several cleaners, it’s an industry that’s always in demand.

How to start a cleaning business from scratch

Starting any business from nothing is a daunting task. How much do you need to invest? What if something goes wrong? How do you find your first customers and/or employees? At Pro Housekeepers, we’re experts in setting up successful cleaning companies, growing them from nothing to become the top-rated cleaning businesses in their areas. In this post we’re going to share the benefit of our experience so you can launch your cleaning business and make it a success.

The first thing to consider when founding any business is how big (or small) you want to start. Many cleaners start out as sole traders with a handful of clients, and build up their businesses through hard work until they’re able to expand. That doesn’t mean you can’t set up a larger cleaning enterprise immediately, although you will have more upfront costs to consider. Employee wages, advertising costs, equipment purchases and rentals, and taxes and insurance, all require consideration. Starting a solo cleaning business is cheaper in the beginning, but might be more difficult to scale as the company grows.

Before starting your cleaning business, take a look at the competition. How many cleaners are already in operation in your area? How many commercial and residential properties? Decide in advance what market you intend to target. While cleaning companies often have a combination of residential and commercial clients, specializing may give you an edge over the competition. Some industries require cleaners to use specific solutions or equipment that require training. This adds an upfront cost to starting your business, but allows you to charge a higher price for your services.

Once you have a business idea for your cleaning company, you can take steps toward becoming established. A good place to start is by gaining industry certifications that demonstrate your abilities. The American House Cleaners Association offers certification courses for cleaners. While we all know the basics of cleaning, as a Pro you (or your staff) will be expected to know how to clean a variety of surfaces and stains in the most effective way. Getting certified is a good way of improving your cleaning skills, and building trust with your clients.

Things you need to start a cleaning business

As well as getting certified as a cleaner, it’s good business practice to make sure your company starts out on the right foot in other areas. While all a sole trader really needs is a client willing to pay them to clean, it is a good idea to establish your business as a professional outfit right from the start. This can also help save you headaches later when it comes to tax time, or when expanding or changing the structure of your business.

First, your business needs a name. As a sole trader you can work under your own name, but if you ever want to grow your business it pays to give it a name that you can brand. Independent contractors can register under another name with a Doing Business As (DBA) application. Check your local regulations to find out what requirements are necessary to register. Generally a DBA is the cheapest and easiest way to establish a company name, with a small registration fee and the cost of an announcement in a local newspaper.

Choose a business name that is easy to spell and pronounce, is memorable, and isn’t too similar to other cleaners already operating in your area. Pay attention to local ordinances as well as federal requirements for naming and registering your business. Even a sole proprietor will need to register a business name if they’re not trading as themselves.

Also consider the structure of your business. While setting up as a sole contractor is the fastest and cheapest way of beginning a cleaning business, it can also leave you exposed to legal trouble if something goes wrong. Forming a limited liability company (LLC) can protect your assets in case of a cleaning disaster. It’s worth consulting with the SBA or an attorney to get advice on what business structure is best for your company model. Additionally, consider the legal aspects of your venture. Protecting your brand and services is crucial in any industry, including the cleaning business. This step is often overlooked but immensely important for safeguarding your business’s intellectual property rights from potential infringement cases. Consulting with firms specializing in intellectual property law such as, Heer Law can provide peace of mind and save you from unnecessary legal complications as your business grows.

Common types of business structure

• Sole proprietor / self-employed — working by yourself, under your own name (e.g. John Smith)
• DBA — a sole proprietor doing business under another name (e.g. John Smith trading as Mr. Mop)
• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) — two or more co-owners of the businessLimited Liability Company (LLC) — a small business that protects personal assets from company liabilities 
• S-Corp — an independent corporation that allows profits and losses to pass through to the owner’s personal income
• C-Corp — an independent corporation that is taxed separately to the owner’s income

Getting a cleaning business license — Do you need a license to clean houses?

Once you’ve established your business, you need to become licensed. Any business regulated by a federal agency needs their approval, for example the ATF regulates stores selling alcohol and tobacco. While cleaning businesses generally don’t require federal agency approval, if you clean in a niche industry or use restricted cleaning solutions, it’s worth making sure. 

Even if you don’t need a business license approved by a federal agency, you still need to register your business for income tax purposes. You’ll also need a vendor’s license in order to calculate and pay sales tax. You can apply for a vendor’s license with your city clerk or local administrator.

Before starting your business, speak to your city clerk about all the local ordinances in order to ensure you’re fully compliant. Some cities or counties require that cleaning services are bonded, and even if it isn’t mandatory, many large businesses won’t hire a company that isn’t bonded.

Bonding requires you to pay a surety company a sum of money to insure your business against claims from your clients. Unlike standard insurance, the business pays the full amount of the bond upfront and has to reimburse the surety company for any claims that are paid out. As a business owner, being bonded is a way of protecting your clients and shows that you’re a reliable, trustworthy company. Some places require that cleaning services be bonded, so make sure to check if you have any such requirement before setting up your business to avoid any large unexpected expenses.

Sole proprietorships generally have a lower barrier to entry than other businesses, but don’t assume this means you don’t need to be licensed and bonded. Always check with your city clerk or state business office to be sure.

How much money do you need to start a cleaning business?

What entrepreneurs really want to know is how much it will cost to get their cleaning business started. Unfortunately there’s no simple answer to that question, although starting a sole proprietorship working as a residential cleaner is significantly cheaper and easier than setting up an LLC with multiple employees working in a niche industrial field.

Even though starting cheap is one of the big advantages to founding a cleaning company, it’s worth spending a little extra on insurance, even if it isn’t a legal requirement. This is especially true for sole traders, because there’s no separation of business and personal liability, meaning if you accidentally drop a family heirloom onto a marble floor, you could be on the hook for thousands of dollars in damages.

Starting a cleaning business checklist

Although each business will have its own expenses and requirements to get started, here’s a basic cleaning business starter kit of factors you should consider.

How much to charge when starting a cleaning business

An important factor to consider when starting your business is how much to charge clients. If you’re working as a sole proprietor, you might make the mistake of thinking your hourly rate is the only important calculation. However there are more expenses associated with running even the smallest business than just your wages to consider. Your overheads will soon add up, and there are additional taxes to pay if you’re self-employed that can quickly reduce your overall profits.

Start your calculation with your hourly rate. According to Freshbooks , the standard rate most cleaners charge is $25-$90 per hour, depending on area and expertise. Check out the local cleaners in your area to see what the competition is charging. Your rate should be competitive, but if you want to price yourself higher than other cleaners, consider the value-added extras you can include in your service to make it worth the additional cost. Including some chores as standard, such as making or changing beds, sweeping external spaces, and washing windows, could give you an edge over companies that tack on additional fees for those services.

Next, consider your tax liabilities. The federal self-employment tax rate is 15.3 percent. This is in addition to other income taxes you may have to pay, and is twice the rate of employee taxes. That means a self-employed cleaner earning $25/hour owes an extra $1.90 per hour in taxes, compared with an employee earning the same hourly rate.

Generally speaking, small business owners should reserve 30 percent of their income to cover taxes. Adding that to the rate you want to take home increases your prices from $25/hour to $32.50/hour. Paying taxes out of your hourly rate instead reduces your profit to $17.50/hour.

Cleaning businesses also have other overheads to consider. There’s the cost of bookkeeping and accounting, transportation costs to and from clients’ houses, the time spent traveling between jobs, advertising, and the cost of purchasing cleaning materials and equipment. Cleaners rarely work a full eight hours per day in a single property, and you need to account for that extra time in order to make enough profit each day for your business to be viable.

Let’s say your hourly rate is $25/hour.  How many hours will each cleaning job take? In order to make that calculation, you need to visit the property. As a general rule, it takes approximately 1.5 hours to clean 1000 square feet. However it’s much faster to clean a minimalist apartment than a cluttered home with small children who leave toys and sticky messes wherever they go. Establish your own baseline for how quickly you can clean an area based on the floor plan, and then adjust for variables such as kids, pets, delicate and expensive ornaments that need extra time and care, and additional tasks you might offer such as vent or window cleaning. Your hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours the job will take is your labor cost, and the basis of your overall estimate.

If we assume an estimate of 4 hours to clean a two-story family home at a labor cost of $25/hr, your base rate is $100. Next, add on your taxes. Self-employed individuals will have to pay 15.3 percent tax. Employers have to pay FICA (payroll) taxes at 50 percent of this rate, or 7.65 percent. There are also state and federal taxes to consider. Sole proprietors should withhold 30 percent of their income to cover tax liabilities. Larger businesses share some of the FICA tax burden with their employees, and might only need to withhold 20 percent of their income for taxes.

Adding 30 percent for taxes onto the $100 labor cost brings the total to $130. This will cover labor and taxes, but there are still other expenses to consider. If you supply your own cleaning equipment, materials, or personal protective equipment (gloves, booties, work shoes, eye shields, etc.), these costs should be added to your calculation. For general domestic cleaning, 5 percent overhead is usually sufficient to cover these costs, bringing the running total to $136.50.

If your cleaning business will be working in a niche industry using specialist equipment or solutions, it’s advisable to calculate the exact cost of each job, as it could be several factors higher. If you’re using $50 worth of cleaning solution for each client, that will eat into your profit and significantly reduce your hourly rate.

Next comes your overheads. These are the everyday costs of running your business. That could include office rent and administrative employees, business licenses and fees, advertising fees, website hosting and maintenance, traveling time and more. In terms of maintaining a digital presence, understanding domain name change is also an integral part of managing your cleaning business. It’s something you may need to consider if your business evolves, or if refreshing your website identity aligns with your marketing strategy. This three-step process shows you an easy, seamless way to change your domain name without disrupting your online operations. So, make sure to set aside resources for potential web domain shifts. Any costs your company incurs that are not a direct result of being in a property cleaning also need to be covered by the rate you charge for the work you do.

If you’re working from a home office for a couple of hours a week keeping your books in order, your admin costs might be comparatively low. However a large scale cleaning operation with a number of employees could see administrative costs soar as high as 50 percent or more. If we assume administrative costs of 25 percent for this calculation, that brings the cost of a 4-hour cleaning to $170.63.

Finally, add in your markup. This is your business profit and a buffer in case of unexpected costs. A good rate is 33 percent. This means a third of your fee goes toward profit and covering the cost if the estimate was short or another expense runs over. The final cost of cleaning the property over 4 hours comes to $226.94 — a long way away from the $100 hourly rate you started with. Be sure to make invoices for your clients, no matter what you charge. They’ll come in handy during tax season.

Pro Tip: Check out our ultimate guide to setting your price for house cleaning .

How to pay employees for a cleaning business

As we’ve just seen, the factors that go into determining the price for your cleaning estimates include far more than simple labor costs. If you intend to start a business with several employees, or expand your sole proprietorship to take on additional staff, you need to consider how you’ll handle payroll.

Payroll services take care of distributing wages on your behalf, and usually charge reasonable fees. For a small to medium sized business, expect to pay around $50-$100 per month base fee, plus a per-worker charge of $5-$15. That means for a company with five employees, payroll expenses will cost about $150 per month. That’s a price worth paying to ensure your employees’ paychecks and earnings calculations are in order. For small additional fees, most payroll services will also provide direct deposits and generate and file tax forms on your behalf.

Even if you only have one employee, it’s important to keep your payroll accounting in order and separate from the rest of your income. This not only makes it easier during audits to demonstrate that your business accounts are in order, but helps you understand the impact of wages on your overall profit and loss.

Hiring cleaners to undertake work on behalf of your business may also have an effect on your rates if you intend to take a step back from carrying out the work, as your personal income becomes an overhead rather than a labor charge. The more staff and work you have, the smaller overall percentage of your income your wages become, but a sole proprietor expecting to rely on the profit generated by one or two employees might have to rethink their rates in order to maintain their personal income.

How much does a cleaning business make in a year?

Many entrepreneurs consider starting a cleaning business because cleaning can be incredibly lucrative. However there is no guaranteed income, with some companies scraping to stay afloat while others are highly profitable. So what makes a successful cleaning business? Here are some of the factors that can determine if your business will make it:

• Competition — the less competitors in your area or niche, the more clients are available to you
• Reputation — new businesses can have a hard time getting off the ground. Work hard to build trust with your clients
• Price — the cheapest cleaners might be the busiest, but not the most profitable. Find the right price point for your business to maximize profits
• Size — the more employees you have, the greater your chances of earning record profits. However your liabilities also increase, especially if work dries up
• Niche — domestic cleaning is the most common cleaning service, but not the most profitable. Consider specialist industries or cleaning techniques to increase your income

Unique cleaning business ideas

If you want to start a cleaning company that has an edge over the competition, it pays to come up with a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. Start by considering the businesses in your area. Commercial cleaning could be an option, but so could residential cleaning tailored toward the employees of local companies. For example, if there is a hospital nearby, out of hours cleaning services that cater to medical staff who work shifts could be a good business opportunity. Other ideas include:

• Pool cleaning
• Appliance cleaning
• Electronics cleaning
• Boat and RV cleaning
• Waste disposal
• Air duct and dryer vent cleaning
• Graffiti cleaning
• Exterior cleaning
• Rental property and Airbnb cleaning
• Foreclosure cleaning
• House showing cleaning
• Cemetery headstone cleaning
• Eco-friendly cleaning
• Pet-friendly cleaning
• Post-construction cleaning
• Mattress and furniture cleaning
• HOA cleaning
• …and so much more!

How to get clients for a cleaning business

Once you’ve decided on your company structure and the type of cleaning you want to do, you need to find clients. This can be the hardest part of starting a cleaning business, because reputation and trust are extremely important, especially when working in residential homes. Getting your first clients (and reviews!) is critical to getting your business off the ground and turning it into a long-term success.

Pitch family and friends

Cleaning your mom’s house won’t make you a millionaire, but word of mouth recommendations are considered the most trustworthy and produce the best results. Ask the people you know to put the word out to their friends, relatives, and coworkers. You might be surprised how many people will learn about your business and are prepared to trust a recommendation from someone they know.

Cold call local businesses 

If you intend to undertake commercial cleaning, draw up a list of businesses who could benefit from your services. They might already have a regular cleaning company, but you don’t have to compete just on price. Offer extra services that other companies charge for in order to make your business more competitive. And don’t overlook commercial opportunities for domestic cleaning — search for property management companies, realtors, Airbnb hosts , and more to win bulk contracts cleaning domestic properties.

Set up business pages on Facebook and Yelp, start a Google My Business profile, and build an inexpensive website using SquareSpace or WordPress. Domain registration costs as little as $10, and you can buy cheap hosting for less than $5 per month. Having a web presence makes your business easier for potential clients to find, and makes your company seem more reputable — even if it’s only you and a mop!

Get reviews

Once you’ve landed your first customers, ask them to review your business. Online reviews provide what is known as “social proof.” People are more likely to trust a service if others say it is trustworthy, so the more reviews you can get, the better your business will do.

Join an online marketplace

There are plenty of home service websites available where you can promote your cleaning business and get clients. Thumbtack and Handy are two specialized marketplaces where homeowners can request quotes from local businesses. While the competition is higher in online marketplaces, and prices for services are usually lower, they’re a good place to start looking for clients and building your reputation.

Start a postal campaign

It might be old-fashioned, but sending out flyers in the mail still works. Sites such as Vistaprint offer low-cost printing, and advertising materials are deductible business expenses come tax time. This is a great way of targeting neighborhoods where you’d prefer to work, limiting your travel time and making your business more effective to run.

Advertise in local papers and businesses

If your area has a local paper, or businesses have notice boards where you can promote your company, remember to take advantage. Many people rely on classified ads to find nearby service providers.

Promote repeat services

The best way to keep your business in the black is to encourage repeat customers. It’s far easier to convert a one-time client into a monthly or weekly customer than it is to find a brand new client every time. Offer discounts for repeat services and consider selling packages of 10 or 15 cleanings in order to secure returning customers.

Final thoughts

Cleaning is an industry that’s always in demand. Many people would love to stop cleaning, even knowing a clean home is a healthy and happy home , meaning there’s no shortage of potential clients for your business, wherever you’re located. Starting a cleaning business can be as simple as picking up a mop, but to do it right you should put some extra time into setting up properly. Not only will this cover you against unexpected taxes or liabilities, but it’s the best way to ensure that your cleaning business is profitable for years to come.

Related posts:

• The House Cleaning Pricing Guide
• What is Commercial Cleaning and Where Do You Start?
• Vacation Rental Cleaning Guide for Success
• Why Your Business Should Be Surface Testing for COVID-19 According to Science

2 Common Ways to Start Your Legal Cleaning Business

Many self-employed house cleaners start with a simple legal business structure.

The two most common business forms are the sole proprietorship and general partnerships.

Both are considered “informal” business structures because they don’t involve setting up formal paperwork such as articles of incorporation or partnership agreements with state and federal governments. They are both very easy to set up and maintain.

Yet, like everything else in life, “easy” comes with both benefits and downsides.

Pros and Cons Of Common Legal Business Forms

Sole Proprietorships and General Partnerships are two popular ways to get started with a residential house cleaning business.

Both legal forms have pros and cons that you need to be aware of when you start your business.

Sole Proprietorship

The sole proprietorship is the most common legal business structure.

A sole proprietorship is a business controlled and owned by one individual and is limited to the life of its owner, so when the owner dies or dissolves the business, the business ends.

The owner receives the all the profits and takes all the losses from the business. The owner alone is responsible for the debts and obligations of the business.

Income and expenses of the business are reported on the sole proprietor’s individual income tax return and profits are taxed at the sole proprietor’s individual income tax rate.

In Arizona , Colorado , Oklahoma and Washington , married couples can form sole proprietorships. In other states married couples can only form general partnerships.

Sole Proprietorship Pros

• A sole proprietorship has less paperwork and lower costs .
• Decisions are made by the owner.
• There are fewer reporting requirements to government agencies.
• Corporate “double tax” is avoided.
• Business losses may be taken as a personal income tax deduction to offset income from other sources.
• All profits are taxed as income to the owner at the owner’s personal income tax rate.
• Ability to do business in almost any state without a lot of red tape.

Sole Proprietor Cons

• Sole proprietorships cannot take advantage of certain tax benefits the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code gives to corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships.
• The business terminates upon death of the owner.
• Investment capital is limited to what the the owner can raise.
• Loans are based on credit worthiness of the owner.
• Owner’s assets are subject to business liabilities . For example, if the owner’s work vehicle is involved in an accident, the owner’s personal assets like bank accounts, real estate or other vehicles may be taken by the court to compensate the injured party.

Sole Proprietor Tax Notes

Income from the business is taxed as personal income by the IRS (use Form 1040, Schedule C).

Sole proprietors must pay self-employment tax each quarter to the IRS (and in many states). Use Form 1040, Schedule SE.

A sole proprietor who does not expect to have employees is not required to apply for an Employer’s Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. The EIN is also known as a Federal Employer’s Identification Number (FEIN).

However, it is a good idea to get a EIN for other business purposes, like opening bank accounts , loan applications and state and county registrations.

Not Sure Where To Begin?

The Get Started Checklist and Workbook will help you set up your house cleaning or maid service business step by step without getting stuck or lost.

Get Started Checklist and Workbook

Get yours today!

General Partnerships

A general partnership is another common legal business form of self-employment, similar to a sole proprietorship.

However, general partnerships include two or more people (for example, a married couple), who operate the business together.

In general partnerships, all partners share equally in the right and responsibility to manage the business.

All partners are responsible for all debts and obligations of the business.

How profits and losses are handled, who manages what areas of the business and other issues about the partnership are usually defined in a written partnership agreement.

It is extremely important for people starting a general partnership to draw up a written agreement before starting the business . Hash out as many details about how the business will be run as possible.

In a partnership agreement, no detail is too small (like what happens if a partner is frequently late for work) or too scary (like what happens if a partner is injured in a car accident and can’t work).

Making a written plan is the first step in setting up solid lines of communication that will lead to the partnership’s success. This is especially true if the partners are married or are related to one another.

Related: Get more details about partnerships in Self-Employed House Cleaner’s Deep Guide to Cleaning Business Partnerships

General Partnership Pros

• A general partnership is easy to organize and has few start-up costs . In many states, partnerships can be started through oral or written agreements.
• A general partnership is funded and managed by all partners.
• A general partnership can have a semi-formal legal position separate from the individual partners. For instance, in some states a general partnership may own assets, contract in the partnership name, may sue and be sued in the partnership name and may file separate bankruptcy.
• Liability is shared by all general partners, not just some of the partners.
• General Partners can take business losses as a personal income tax deduction to offset income from other sources.

General Partnership Cons

• Each general partner is personally liable for all the obligations of the business, not just his or her share . For example, if a work vehicle is involved in an accident, each partner’s personal assets may be taken by the court to help compensate the injured party.
• Each general partner has the power to act on behalf of the business, which requires that partners be chosen with great care.
• The general partnership has no continuity of life. If any partner dies or becomes incompetent, the partnership is dissolved.
• All general partners must pay tax on their share of partnership profits, although profits may be kept in the business.
• A general partnership has more opportunity than a sole proprietorship but less than a corporation, to take advantage of certain business legal benefits.

General Partnership Tax Notes

For federal income tax purposes, a General Partnership is not a separate from the partners themselves.

Each individual partner is subject to the same reporting requirements and tax rates as the Sole Proprietor.

General Partnerships are required to apply for an Employer’s Identification Number (EIN), whether they have employees or not.

General Partners must pay individual self-employment tax each quarter to the IRS and in some states.

The General Partnership files a yearly Federal return using IRS Form 1065. Many states have similar yearly partnership forms.

Related: How To Get Ahead Of The Game With Partnership Taxes

Limiting Liability

If you plan to have employees someday, you can start as a sole proprietor or form a partnership with someone.

You can then change the business form to an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or Corporation before you hire.

The greatest drawback of both sole proprietorship and general partnership is they leave you open to full legal and financial liability .

For example, if something goes wrong in your business such as major damage to your customers property (like bleach spills on carpet) or being accused of theft.

How Business Insurance Helps

As a self-employed house cleaner, an umbrella liability insurance policy that covers you up to a million dollars plus a janitorial/cleaning bond will help to reduce your liability and help you sleep at night.

Related: A Self-Employed House Cleaners Deep Guide to Insurance

How you choose to set up your business is up to you. Remember the benefits and downsides of “easy”. Choose wisely.

US Cleaning Business Laws

Use this full map of US state and city laws to help you:

Just click on the map to find your state and get started.

How have you set up your cleaning business?  Share your experience in the comments below. ⬇︎

Hello Judith my name is Dominique Naugle and i’m interested and starting a cleaning business im doing alot or researching and want to know what do you recommend as far as with me being a beginner..

Hi Dominique,

I would start with learning about your state laws at https://selfemployedhousecleaner.com/state-start-up-laws/ . Then I would get more information about the basics of starting a legal housecleaning business at: https://selfemployedhousecleaner.com/tag/cleaning-business-basics/ .

Dominique, I hope that helps.

Comments are closed.

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Airbnb specialist. Homes. Apartments. Companies. Fully Registered. Fully Insured. Here is the best place to got a service. We really take care about the quality and compromise. Promote for you and your family a clean and fragrant place is our goal. We are going to treat your place as ours. …

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Our house was really dirty and we got the deep cleaning. BEST.DECISION.EVER. They started with 2 Cleaners and 2 more joined halfway through. Deep cleaning includes things like scrubbing the fridge, stove, and oven. They also staightened up our hopelessly ramshackle bookcases. They scrubbed the scale off our bathtub. They even pulled our bed away from the headboard and vacuumed about 17 years of dust out of there. That was all included. We paid for some services, like organizing our scary linen closet and steam cleaning our rugs. Everything was SPOTLESS. Now we will use them every few weeks and hopefully our place will never be as dirty again! Highly recommend!

Absolutely perfect. I had an initial deep cleaning and my home is absolutely spotless. I've never been happier with my choice. The company delivers what is promised! I am choosing the maintenance plan without hesitation! Joel, Josie and William are kind, hardworking and professional. You won't be sorry! Highly recommended.

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Apr 13, 2024

Thank you so much, Ms Cherie! Was our pleasure cleaning your house and making you guys happy, that is our goal. We’re so proud working together with you!

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