Hello!
I am trying to find any and all info. I can on how to start a cleaning service. I have purchased so many how to books on writing a solid business plan. The lingo and terminology can be overwhelming if you can't articulate in words what you really have in your heart and soul about how you want to run your business. I need help with a business plan and I know I will just take off from there. I have a name for my business and have recently registered it with the IRS. Is there anyone out there that can help?:) :confused:

Ok, sorry I am going to play devils advocate here a little bit.

You are bought books on the cleaning business and the lingo and terminology is overwhelming?? Have you been in the business before, have your worked for a cleaner?

Next you don't actually register with the IRS, you would have gotten a EIN nunber to use. If you have a name, and it does not include part of your last name, have you recorded it as a fictitious name with your state, if you are going to be a LLC or Corp have you filed any of those papers.

In the business plan you will need to show all of your initial expenese and normally what you estimate your first year expenses. Also where and how are you gong to get customers, What and who are your competitors.

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Originally Posted by Gon4rnd

Hello!
I am trying to find any and all info. I can on how to start a cleaning service. I have purchased so many how to books on writing a solid business plan. The lingo and terminology can be overwhelming if you can't articulate in words what you really have in your heart and soul about how you want to run your business. I need help with a business plan and I know I will just take off from there. I have a name for my business and have recently registered it with the IRS. Is there anyone out there that can help?:) :confused:

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About 90 percent of the jobs I have held required me to clean. I currently am an Assistant Center program director for a Total Life Center in Wendell North Carolina. Before that I worked in retail, childcare, and was a waitress at Doublegate Country Club. Not to mention I am a mother of 3. My customer base would be churches and Post commercial structures like newly built apartment complexes for now. I want to get my feet wet in that first and see where it takes me. I like cleaning for other people. It brings me satisfaction knowing that I have made a difference in someone else's life. Anyway, my competitors would be Merry Maids and other businesses like the one I want to start. Does this make sense?

In addition to the good advice that you have been given above, I would like to suggest the following. I am sure that you already are familiar with some of it. So, it is just a way of summarizing some things for you. Maybe some of the ideas will be helpful to you.

From my own experience at being in a number of businesses where I have been self-employed, I would like to share with you some information based upon my own experience. I hope that it is helpful to you.

This list is not meant to be complete. All of these suggestions are just general guidelines meant for a start to give you some ideas. For more detail, please ask about specifics.

1. You already know something about this, so this is just a reminder. Make sure that you know how to clean various types of surfaces correctly using the proper cleaning agents for each and knowing how to safely handle any of the cleaning agents.

2. Contact city officials to see if you are required to have any sort of license. Also, ask them if you are required to be bonded. Neither is a requirement where I live. I live in Rock Island, Illinois.

3. Get liability insurance. This is a must have. If you go to an insurance place that has many carriers you are more likely to find insurance that is the best coverage possible for the price you can afford. Some real estate firms have also gone into the insurance business. They are likely to have many carriers. If you are going to have any people working for you, then you are going to have to pay workmen's comp insurance. So, I would speak with the insurance agent as to whether you are going to have any employees.

4. Consider having a contract ready to protect yourself and to insure that you will be working for a specific length of time as in a number of months or a year. Also, it can spelled out in a contract as to whom is supposed to supply the tools and supplies needed for the cleaning.

5. Not every place that you work will have or be willing to supply the things that you will need to clean. Having a small truck, van or station wagon is a good thing to have because you are going to need to haul around everything that you might need. If you get into cleaning and maintenance of hard floor surfaces, you may need to haul around something like a buffer.

6. Check to see what others in the same vicinity are charging for their services. Consider charging a little less than they do so that you can give the customers a better price. You have to sell what you are doing for the customers. Talk yourself up to them.

7. Although not absolutely necessary, you might want to get listed in the Yellow Pages of a phone book. Choose a name for your business that would end up being towards the beginning of the alphabet, such as "Absolute Cleaning Service." I like to use a word such as absolute, rather than AA of AAA because I think that it says a little more about my service being something near the "top of the line" as far as the service I am providing.

8. Have business cards printed or print them yourself. If you design them yourself, then you will have more freedom of the designs that you can use. You don't need 500 business cards. You also have more options available in the design of your cards if you do it yourself. There is plenty of free, in the public domain clip-art available on the Internet to jazz up your business cards. Always carry your business cards with you and bring up your business in casual conversation.

Put either your name by itself, or your business name and your name on your business cards. You will also want to include your telephone number and maybe your email address. Your address is not necessary because you are going to other people's places. You also can put things on your cards not only on the front of them, but on the back of them as to the types of things that you do concerning your business that would also help in selling what you can do for your potential customers.

9. In case you may want to get some free advertising for your business, please read the following:

Advertising on the Internet does not have to cost a cent. I have been doing it for over two years. I have hundreds of ads on the Internet. They are all free. I get the most results from my Internet advertising. More so than from my Yellow Page ads in the local phone book. Although, ads in the Yellow Pages are still a good idea because of some people who do not have a computer, or if they do have a computer, are not on the Internet. The Yellow Pages are probably the first place that most people are going to look for services in their local area.

If you do a Google search for Clough Quad Cities, then you will find ads for my various businesses dominating the first three or four pages in the search. Do a search for the what I do, leave out my name, and you will still get the same result. All of these ads are free. If you take a look at how I have worded them, then you will get an idea how you could word yours, if advertising on the Internet is something in which you are interested.

10. Hang your small "shingle" (advertising flyer) out wherever you see a public bulletin board where business advertising can be placed. Grocery stores, quick mart type places, bowling alleys, Laundromats, etc.

11. Here is a short list of possible supplies. I'm sure that others could be added to it. Rubber or latex gloves, goggles, a respirator, (I'm serious about this one. If anyone knows what it's like to clean the inside of an enclosed shower stall with not much air flowing around while using a nasty-smelling cleaner, then I'm sure that you know what I mean.), small and large brooms of various kinds, dust pans, mops, [various cleaners abrasive and non-abrasive and also shining type products for wood, various metals, marble, enamel and other painted surfaces, vinyl, etc.] scrubbing/scouring pads and brushes, rags and paper towels, a step-stool, a shop-vac and a stand-up type of vacuum, squeegees for windows, various sizes of trash bags, etc.

12. What really does matter is your reputation and the references that you have. And, I don't necessarily mean references geared exclusively to what you have done in your cleaning business. Do an excellent job for someone, and the word will spread. Ask customers if you may use them as a reference.