Today, many people are starting their own small businesses as opposed to having regular employment. Among the many types of business to launch, a cleaning business is one of the easiest. With low start-up costs and negligible experience, one can be in business in no time. Even better, going into the cleaning business is much easier when you decide to buy into a franchise. How much cleaning franchise costs will depend on several factors. However, you’ll save yourself a lot of the hassles associated with starting a business.
Steps to Starting a Cleaning Business
If you choose to go at it alone, here are the basic steps to set up your cleaning business today.
1)Take Inventory of Your Resources
Everyone has to start somewhere. You want to assess your resources before venturing into the cleaning business. If you have some money saved, it will give you a leg up. If not, you may have to sell some of your personal assets or take out a loan to get your cleaning business off the ground. Whatever the available option, ensure that you have sufficient capital.
2) Have a Clear Financial Plan
Clear financial goals help you achieve your business objectives when starting your cleaning business. A crucial part of this plan includes a comprehensive budget. A budget gives you a good picture of all the expenses you’ll encounter upfront in addition to the recurring ones. While individual proprietors will have different business plans, most of them usually have a basic structure. A typical business plan for a cleaning business includes:
i) Inventory
ii) Insurance costs
iii) Operational costs for advertising or transportation
iv) Costs associated with legal documentation and licenses
v) Cost of hiring employees
A good financial plan in the form of a budget helps you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with new businesses. For example, without a proper budget, you may find that you have to lay off some of your staff to stay in business. This is one of the numerous pitfalls that can be avoided by having a clear and sound financial plan for your cleaning business.
3) Niche Down
When starting a cleaning business, it’s usually best to focus on one type. You can choose to focus on cleaning residential homes or commercial buildings. Even when focusing on one of the aforementioned types, you can still niche down further. For example, you may choose to focus on cleaning large residential buildings like mansions or simply cleaning regular apartments and bungalows. The specific kind of cleaning that your business caters to will determine a lot of your business goals.
4) Find Your First Client
With no experience, it can be difficult to start getting clients that want to hire your cleaning services. After all, not many people are thrilled at the prospect of hiring a cleaning business with no references. However, with some strategic planning and old-fashioned hard work, you can land your first client. Start by contacting family and friends to help with referrals. It may mean doing one or two jobs for free. The idea is to show that your new cleaning business can do a magnificent job. This will help you get good reviews and recommendations.
When you do land that first paying client, take it one job at a time. Personally supervise that job to ensure that your staff does a fantastic job that impresses the client. This will go a long way towards helping to build your cleaning business’ reputation. If you’re lucky and this first client is a big company or a wealthy individual, they may want to retain your cleaning business for regular services. This could be the beginning of steady business for your new venture.
5) Build Off of the Momentum
Once you begin getting more and more clients, it’s easy to start feeling a little too comfortable. You may forget the hard work and dedication that got you to that point. You want to always be mindful of the basics and utilize this initial momentum for further success.
While you may be enjoying some success, it is crucial to always remember that you’re still learning the intricacies of the cleaning business.
Re-invest as much of the initial profits as possible back into the cleaning business. This will help you to scale your operations. Depending on your financial goals, you may need to keep reinvesting most of the profits into your business for months or even the first few years. The longer you can do this, it means that your business is thriving.