For the longest time, people were running away from menial jobs. Families taught their kids to get a college degree so they wouldn’t have to do heavy labor for the rest of their lives. Aside from heavy physical strain, these jobs were often underpaid and would provide barely any support for workers’ families.
Fast-forward to 2025, and our perception of labor-intensive jobs has changed drastically. As there aren’t enough people to do this type of work, good cleaners, and construction workers can make heaps of money. Electricians and plumbers are slowly becoming the middle class, usually making more money than their college-degree counterparts.
This also makes it a good idea to invest in a labor-intense business. In this article, we’ll talk about the prospect of having a cleaning company. We’ll also share a long checklist with all the prerequisites you must fulfill when starting a new brand.
1. Examine the Local Market
Cleaning companies usually work within a wider city limits. Your biggest competition is other local brands, which makes it rather easy to conduct a market analysis. Keep in mind that cleaning services are split into residential and commercial, with commercial requiring a bigger workforce.
“You can do a great market analysis from your computer,” according to Compass Cleaning Solutions, a cleaning business from Phoenix, Arizona. Here are a few things you should focus on:
- Use Google to find other local businesses. Go through their prices, services, and reviews.
- Ask friends, family, and neighbors about the cleaning service they use. Try to get as much info as possible, specifically pinpointing their weaknesses.
- Find your target audience. See if you can offer a better service than your competitors to meet prospective clients’ needs.
- Consider your initial investment and whether you can create a strong, feasible business.
It’s worth noting that this initial analysis isn’t the be-all and end-all; you’ll learn much more about your competitors as you start working. Nevertheless, the analysis gives you a strong basis for determining whether you can even compete in your local market.
2. Select Your Cleaning Services
When we talk about cleaning services, most people think about vacuuming, window cleaning, and mopping. As you’ll soon notice, there are many other services you can offer to your clientele:
- Residential and commercial cleaning
- Seasonal cleaning
- Various maid services
- Deep cleaning
- Move-in/move-out cleaning
- Sanitization
- Construction cleaning
- Laundry and dishwashing
- Eco-cleaning
If we were to go a bit deeper, you could split these bigger categories into smaller ones, such as pool, carpet, upholstery, window, and gutter cleaning. The good news is that you can easily see what other companies are doing in your city and tailor your offer to fill the gaps.
We also recommend that you conduct extensive competitive research in an attempt to learn how much companies charge for each of these services. That way, you can put competitive prices that will allow you to get as many clients as possible.
3. Register Your Business
The next step of the process is registering your business. If you live in the US, you should check the local business registers to see whether someone else is using your name. After that, you can trademark it and create a website with the same name.
Among other things, you should learn about different company structures:
- Sole Proprietorship – In this particular case, you have full control over the organization. Although you’ll get all the profits, you’ll also have to cover the potential liabilities if the business doesn’t make money.
- Partnership – In this scenario, you share the burden with your business partner.
- Limited Liability Company – This model is much better for cleaning companies with higher risk as it separates your assets from the company’s assets and liabilities.
- Corporation – Corporations are the most complex business structure. However, they completely isolate your personal funds from the company assets.
You must get an EIN (Employee Identification Number) during registration. This will help you resolve tax issues. Depending on your location, you might require additional identification for local taxing.
4. Get the Necessary License
Getting a business license is a vital part of the process, as it allows you to run the company without having to worry about potential penalties. Every larger city has a business development department where you can get this document. During the visit, you’ll need to leave basic info about your brand, such as the cleaning services, location, and name.
To get the necessary documents, you’ll need to cover licensing cost. As per usual, the fee will vary depending on the state and the city. The license has to be renewed on an annual basis, which won’t cost you that much.
5. Buy Cleaning Company Insurance
Every company in the US requires appropriate business insurance, whether you like it or not. Even if it wasn’t mandatory, you shouldn’t risk damaging your pricey equipment. Without insurance, you would have to pay damages from your pocket, potentially halting your operations.
The great thing about specialized cleaning business insurance is that it covers you against the biggest hazards you might encounter. Among other things, it protects you from:
- General liability insurance
- Vehicle insurance
- Health insurance
- Workers’ compensation
- Business owners’ policy
- Employment practices liability
Although you need insurance to get things going, you shouldn’t be too hasty acquiring one. Companies offer different plans with different costs, so it pays off in the long run to find insurance that fits your particular needs.
6. Set Up Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is important for your taxes and helps you determine how you’re doing revenue-wise. But before you form a new department, it’s vital that you open a special business account where all your cash will flow through.
We also recommend that you create a business plan ahead of time. That way, you can establish if your venture is feasible or not. You must also determine the expense budget for utilities, inventory, gas, equipment, and other types of overhead. Although you should stick to the budget, keep in mind that this is a flexible category that gives you a lot of leeway.
Nowadays, most cleaning companies use accounting software. These programs are usually on the cloud and allow you to easily access data at any time and create expense reports. You might also consider outsourcing accounting services abroad, as this will save you a lot of money, especially during the early days when cash is tight.
7. Figure Out Your Cleaning Inventory
In an ideal world, you should invest heavily in cleaning inventory. The quality of products and equipment you use is directly connected with homes’ cleanliness and customer satisfaction.
In reality, most business owners have to calculate when buying the first batch of supplies. They need to figure out the following things:
- Determine your initial cleaning supplies budget.
- Calculate the amount of supplies you’ll need for each residential and commercial job.
- Create a list of equipment and tools you should get as much as possible. Consider getting quality vacuums and other sophisticated tools.
- Consider the importance of a tool/supply, budget, price, and how quickly you’ll need them.
- Browse popular stores for supplies to see where you can get them for cheap.
Among other things, you should consider whether certain tools and equipment are hard to use. In some cases, it is better to buy a vacuum that provides subpar results than to get a tool that’s too heavy or too much of a hassle.
8. Set Prices and Make Estimates
An important part of your business is setting prices and assessing job requirements. Here are a few tricks that will help you do both:
- Go from competitor to competitor to see how much they would charge for that particular service.
- Find the lowest and the highest prices. This is most likely the range that clients are willing (unwilling) to spend.
- Take into account your employee’s salary, supply costs, taxes, and other overheads.
- Besides hourly rate, you can also go with a pricing structure that focuses on flat rate, square feet, room number, or specialty service.
- Each service has to include your markup. That way, you can rest assured you’re making money from each job.
If you’re not sure how to approach the issue, you can always consult your accountant. He or she might do the assessment themselves, so you don’t have to worry about the nuances. Later on, when you get a hang of pricing, you can make tweaks on your own accord.
9. Market Your Business
The last step of the process is marketing and onboarding your first clients. Today, cleaning companies have a lot of promotional tactics at their disposal. Some of them include:
- Digital Marketing – You can utilize all sorts of digital promotions, such as search engine optimization, paid advertising, affiliate marketing, and so on.
- Local Listings – Most clients find their cleaning providers in close vicinity. This is why it’s vital to set up Google My Business and list your brand in all major directories. After that, you’ll have to get positive reviews to appear in Google 3 Pack.
- Personal Connections – Personal connections are vital for spreading a good word. Create rapport with as many entrepreneurs locally, and start promoting your commercial services to them.
- Branding – For marketing efforts to be successful, you’ll need to create an intriguing brand image. Create a logo, mission, and vision that will resonate with your target audience.
- Traditional Marketing – Traditional marketing tactics such as brochures, business cards, billboards, and radio ads still work the best for cleaning companies.
Last Thoughts
Running a successful local cleaning business isn’t that hard as long as you follow this checklist. Take your time researching the market and packaging your services. After that, create a business plan and budget that will help you project future spending and income.