How To Start A House Cleaning Business: Part 1

While most of us did not grow up dreaming of starting a cleaning business, the truth is that their are many advantages to a residential cleaning business that no other type of business can match. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall demand for household cleaning services is expected to grow at an annual rate of 7%. The market for residential cleaning services is expected to balloon to over $14 Billion (that’s right with a b) by the year 2014. So while many small business segments are struggling, this segment is growing.

In addition to the growing market, a house cleaning business has many other advantages including: low start up costs, no bad debt (clients pay cash upon receipt of services), low staffing and labor costs, predictable revenues with repeat customers, low facility overhead, and no nights, and no weekends.

Of course once you discover the many advantages of starting a house cleaning business, we believe that their is no Better way to start one than to join our team and open a Better Life Maids office of your very own.

While we would love everyone to join our team, we understand that it won’t work for everyone for various reasons. So are happy to share some general tips on how to start a house cleaning business. This is the first in a series of articles we will write on this subject. We hope that many of you will be inspired to start a cleaning business of your very own.

In this how to start a house cleaning business article, we are going to focus primarily on the regulatory elements that you will need to comply with to get started. In a later articles we will focus on operations, customer support, marketing, and more.

1. Register your new business as an entity. While not a required step, its just about as simple as getting a DBA (which you may still need). You can get detailed advice from a tax adviser or attorney on what type of entity to use or if you will want to use one at all. Each state is different but in general the Secretary of State page should have information on how to do this online, or by mail.

2. If your business name will be different from entity that you registered, or you are planning to run your business as a sole proprietorship at first than you you will need to register to Do Business As other wise known as a DBA.

3. If you have set up a entity, you will need to get it a tax number known as an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Your EIN is simple to set up and you can find the paperwork to register online at IRS.gov.

4. Now you are ready to get a bank account. Each bank is different, but the process is much the same. Bring proof of your registered business entity, and your EIN. Your DBA will be necessary as well if checks will be made out to your business in that name. At this point you should fund your business. Estimate your initial capital requirements, and have at least 3 months operating reserves that you can use until you are cash flow positive. Everyone’s capital requirements will be different here (do you have a spouse that will be working, is this going to be your sole source of income, etc…), so it is hard to give specific advice on how much to fund.

5. Develop you initial business plan before you ever start spending any of that money you put in the bank. You can find formats for a business plan online, but in general you will need to include an executive summary, a description of the business opportunity and the role you will play in the market, a marketing and sales strategy, your management team and personnel, operational information, and financial forecasts. Don’t sweat this too much. It is mostly an exercise to help you better understand your business. It will also help you review if you are meeting goals at various intervals in your first year of operation.