Start-Over Success Business Under $500
Housekeeping

1. What must you make?

What income must you earn? Probably more than what a cleaning company will pay you. After all, they make money with marketing and scheduling. Isn’t it better for you to make $30 to $40 an hour!  

According to Cleaning4Profit.com, a 1,000 square foot house takes 1.5 hours to clean. Do the math for other size homes.

Vacant homes, require less time. Deep cleaning, first time, or move-outs require more time. You may need to double or triple your rate for these.

EXAMPLES

How many jobs/mo to make $70,000 a year?

How many jobs per month must you do? 

9 jobs per week @$150 = $1,350 X 52 = $70,200 annual

So, you must do 9 jobs per week. 

To grow income, you’ll need to do more work, but there aren’t enough hours in the day. So,

Get a helper and pay them minimum wage or whatever you feel is fair. You are doing the marketing, scheduling, and client care. 

What services will you offer:

Basic cleaning
Which services will you include as “basic”?

Additional services
– microwave
– refrigerator
– Kitchen cupboards
– blinds
– windows
– tall cupboards
– Laundry

More:
Charge more for these services. They are more work and/or require special expertise, equipment, or products.

Decluttering

Organizing

Carpet & upholstery cleaning

Special treatment for wood floors

Grout cleaning

5- what do you need to streamline hours, invoicing, etc
Use a specific Book/binder for record keeping
Set up payments with Venmo, PayPal, or Stripe. Use their method for sending bills. 

Get paid upfront! The franchises do this, why not you?

Set Agreement/standards for clients & your work. Have them give their agreement by text or email. This agreement does have legal force.
 

While it’s a good idea once you’re established, to use a service like freshbooks.com or quickbooks.com for sending bids and invoices, in the beginning, you’ve got other costs you must pay for.  

What do you need, personally?

– know how to clean well 

  • high standard, 
  • professionalism

– speed

– transportation

4- what equipment, materials, etc do you need? $275 Total

– Insurance ($100) annual

  • Mop & bucket combo ($35)
  • cloth towels ($1 per job x 20) (Use cloth instead of paper)
  • Cleaning products. ($1 per job x 20) Consider making your own for pennies with organic, non-toxic ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide. Make it a selling point that you are organic and eco-friendly! (Marie Kondo says you should almost always just use water for cleaning!)
  • Vacuum cleaner ($100)
  • Transportation gas to get to and from jobs ($X)

Business practices:

Create a written agreement to let clients know what they can expect from you and what you expect from them.

Collect payments before you deliver service. The large franchises always collect upfront; why not you? Remove any problems with non-payment, bounced checks, or clients forgetting to leave cash payments for you. 

Collect payments with Venmo, Pay Pal, or Stripe. There is a small fee, but you avoid problems. It’s professional.  

 

How to get new clients

> Make, print, and distribute flyers in the area you want to work in.
> Call local realtors, property management companies, Air-BnB managers, and builders for referrals. Give them a slight price break for regular work OR leave room to pay them a small commission for referrals.
> Call other home maintenance companies about cross-marketing and/or swapping referrals: handymen, lawn care, auto detailers, and painters. This is a win-win, plus it builds your image in the community.
> Contact Senior Citizen Centers to post your flyers. 

> Do a fantastic job and ask for testimonials and referrals.

Make it easy for clients to find you…and to choose you.

What's Next For You?

BUILD A PROFITABLE AGENCY.

Once you’ve built your business, doing marketing, scheduling, and more, why not start an Agency? You can hire people, do more marketing, coordinate jobs, schedule, and follow-up with customer care. 

OR

Use the business skills you’ve learned – and the seed money you’ve created – to start another business. 

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