How to Start an Office Cleaning Business and Make Thousands Working Part-Time

How Cleaning Offices in my Spare Time made me $15,000 in Three Months

A lot of people consider getting jobs cleaning homes or offices because it's generally easy work, requires virtually no experience, and can be a great source of additional income.

Here I will show you how to start your own office cleaning business. It's exactly what I did to go from nothing to making over $5,000 dollars a month in only a few months.

How I got Started

Benefits to Starting an Office Cleaning Business

Back when I was in college, I was just like any other college student -- broke.

I needed a job, but with my class load, it was difficult to find even a part-time job that could accommodate my hours.

Not having much luck, I realized cleaning part-time was the perfect business because:

It's basically recession-proof: No matter how the economy is going, people are always going to need something cleaned.
It's Easy to get Started: Aside from a few tools, which you probably already have, starting a cleaning business requires NO products, or heavy equipment that many other businesses need.
No experience Required: Anybody can clean. You don't need any special knowledge or experience to get started (there are a few tricks you'll learn, some of which I will share later)
Always in Demand: As long as offices and homes get dirty, they will need to be cleaned.
Very High Paying: While most people might think cleaning is a very low paying job, but if you find and keep the right clients, it can be very high-paying and steady work.
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Benefits of a Cleaning Business

Here's a video of the benefits that while tongue-in-cheek, are totally true. Suze and Ed offer their own tips to getting started and stay in business.
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Why Not Just Get a Job Cleaning Part-Time

The Truth Behind the Cleaning Services that Hire

Back when I was really just getting started, that's exactly what I did. When I needed a job, I looked in the Help Wanted section and started to apply.

When working with a Cleaning Service, you are required to bring your own cleaning supplies, do all the work, and get paid $6-$8 an hour, when the Cleaning Company, makes $35 an hour or more, just from booking your services.

Click Here to set your own hours and be your own boss

I quickly realized that by doing that one thing (getting clients) entitled them to double what I was making, actually doing the cleaning, and I realized what they do is actually the easiest part.

I'll be honest with you, your best business is going to come through referrals, but if you are just starting out and have no one to refer you, or are looking maybe grow on your current cleaning business, I am going to outline what I did to get started.

First Steps: Have a Plan

Where do you want to work today?

The absolute first step when starting you cleaning business or any business, is that you need to define how your business is going to work for you.

By narrowing down your focus, you will be much more effective and profitable, than if you were to take a broad approach and try to do everything.

I know, it's tempting to want to do it all, but by catering your cleaning services to a particular group makes it that much easy every step along the way.

For help deciding on how to operate your business

For example, I chose to clean office buildings because it fit my schedule, the clients were NEVER around, I was able to charge a higher rate for my services since it was businesses, but since these were office buildings, had to do much less work.

To help you figure out what you want to, answer these questions.

Who do you want to work for? Do you want to clean, houses or offices, big or small, you can do well with either, but depending on the clientèle you target, will determine the supplies, effort, and hours you put in.
What do you want to focus on? While it's easy to be a general house or office cleaner, many folks have made a really profitable business focusing on washing windows, cleaning carpets, gutters, or even headstones!
When do you want to work? This will correlate to who you are working for. For example, if you are focusing on cleaning homes, most of your work will be done during the day, and conversely if you plan on cleaning offices, your work will be done almost entirely at night.
Where will you get in touch with these people? Take a minute an think about where your potential clients could learn about your services.

Gather your Supplies

What you Need to Get Started

While starting you cleaning business requires very little to get started, there are a few things you will need:

Reliable Transportation: While this item is often overlooked, it is the most crucial. In fact, you could even get started using your client's available supplies, but without a means to get there, you won't be able to stay in business long.
A Vacuum This is probably going to be your most expensive item. Ideally, you'd want a strong vacuum that can take the abuse of being transported to you clients, but any working vacuum will do.
A Caddy This is what you will use to carry your supplies. It shouldn't cost more than a few dollars.
A bucket and Mop Pretty self explanatory, but s good solid bucket and mop will clean your hardwood and tile floors.
Cleaning Gloves You will be spending most of your time working with chemicals and dealing with grime, a heavy-duty pair will last much longer than cheaper, thinner ones.
Rags and Paper Towels Old socks and wash clothes work great, as well as torn up T-shirts. For windows, you might want to bring some newspaper to reduce streaking.
Solvents Pick your favorites. You will need a variety for different stains and surfaces. Start with a good Multi-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, a wood polish, a bleach cleaner, toilet cleaner, and disinfectant. You can buy these at the supermarket, although you will do much better, both on price and strength by using professional grade cleaners.
A Broom and Dustpan Use these to sweep floors that don;t need mopping as well as any outdoor areas.
Duster Most of your work will involve light dusting, so using a good duster will speed up your work.
Squeegee For cleaning windows, a squeegee is your best friend. It washes and dries windows in a flash and virtually eliminates streaks.
Various Brushes There are a few that I use the most, primarily a toilet brush, a scrubbing brush, an old toothbrush for small spaces, and a good sponge.

Create your Business Kit

Give yourself the Professional Edge

After you've got your cleaning supplies laid out, there are a few things you'll need to get operating:

Business Cards These are a must. You won;t need anything fancy, nor will you need a lot in the beginning. Just make sure they have the basics: Your Name, What you Do, and a Phone Number. You can print them yourself, but it is often cheaper and better to get them through a printer. PSPrint can get you started and has the best prices anywhere.
Price Sheet This is how much you will charge. Take a few minutes and list what services you offer and how much you charge for each. For example, how much do you charge per room, for window cleaning, etc.
Promotional Materials This is where you can get creative. I've had the best results using simple fliers that I printed and hung at various locations, but you can do whatever you think will fit your business.
Business Identity If you plan to expand your cleaning business, you might want to consider your business startup basics, such as opening a separate checking account, establishing a DBA, and setting up to take credit cards. Your local SBA office should be able to help with all of these questions.

Promote! Promote! Promote!

This is where the business happens

As with any business, you need customers. To do this, you need to promote yourself.

Remember when you thought about where your potential clients would be? Go there and tell them what you have to offer.

For example, when starting out with my office cleaning business, I went to local property management companies and offered my services.

Soon, I was able to take out a few ads in the paper, as well as add my listing to the yellow pages.

I also distributed fliers and left business cards at any bulletin board or place they would let me.

Soon, once you develop a few clients and you do a good job, ask them to refer you to friends and associates. They will often be more than happy to do so, and a referral coming from a friend is almost guaranteed work.

Conclusion

It really is that Easy

Just by doing the steps above, I was able to make $5000 a month within my second month in business. The first month is always the hardest, because you have to start everything from scratch.

However, once you get going, you start to generate momentum, people get to know your work, and soon I had to start turning clients away because I was just to busy.

When I was starting, I found two books that were really valuable in helping me get up to speed and learn invaluable advice from folks that had years of experience running a cleaning business.

The first is the Instant Office Cleaning Kit by Sam Rodman. Sam has been running his own office cleaning business business for over 16 years.

In his e-book he teaches you everything from closing your first office account to efficient tips to make your cleaning faster. If you go and check out his page, he even gives his own personal number, so you can give him a call an ask questions.

The second book which I found to be very beneficial was Streak Free Profits. While this book was written specifically for window cleaning, it's got video tutorials, easily customizable business forms and all professionally designed and tested marketing materials that you can customize or use right out of the box.

With a little hard work and a little persistence, you can easily make a full-time income by only working 3-4 hours a day.

Resources

Grow your Cleaning Business even Faster

These are some things that I have used to help grow my office cleaning business. If you want to make some serious money, follow what has worked in the past, and this list provides useful resources to help you on your way:

Clean Up the Profits: This book is awesome. It has taught me nearly everything I now know on running my cleaning business.
Suze & Ev's Method for Creating a Cleaning Business: Suze and Ev offer an entire Library of information on starting, operating, and owning a cleaning business. If anything, sign up for their newsletter and get helpful updates delivered directly to your inbox
Headstone Cleaning: An interesting a specialized niche, cleaning headstones. It's the perfect opportunity to add to your cleaning business and make a lot of money doing it.
Streak Free Profits: Another Favorite. The great thing about this package is that everything is setup for you right out of the box. The business forms and marketing material alone are worth their wight in gold. If you really want to generate profits with your cleaning business, I recommend studying this material.
Carpet Cleaning Blueprint for Success: This resource talks about using the internet to promote and automate much of your carpet and cleaning business. When it comes to marketing your cleaning business through the internet, things can get tricky, but this guide takes you through all the steps.
Power Washing Business: If you have a Power-Washer, these e-books show you how to make incredible profits cleaning out gutters, windows, and other items, charging $50-$75 an hour.

Even if you don't have a power washer, they make cleaning super easy, really fun, and this guide shows you how to make a lot of money.

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