How Much Can You Make as a Cleaning Business Owner?

If you are thinking of starting your own cleaning business, you are likely wondering how much you can make as a cleaning business owner. This is a very common question! Starting a business requires a lot of time and energy. You want to ensure that you will be able to bring in enough income to account for all the time you put into the business. We have outlined how much you can make and what will affect your salary as well.

Cleaning business owners can make anywhere from $30,000 a year to well over $100,000 a year. The specific amount you make will depend on the demand for cleaning services in your area, the type of cleaning you provide, how many employees your cleaning business has and how much overhead your business has. New cleaning business owners will start earning around $30,000 a year and will steadily earn more as their business grows!

Demand for Cleaning Services in Your Area

The first factor in how much you make as a cleaning business owner is the demand for cleaning services in your area. If cleaning services are in high demand in your city, you will be able to make more than a business owner who lives in area with low demand.

The reason why you will make more in an area with a higher demand is that you can charge higher rates for your services. If cleaning services are extremely sought after, the average hourly rate will likely be higher in your area. This means your potential clients will be willing to pay higher rates.

To find out the specific range you can charge, you can call around to 3 to 5 different cleaning businesses in your area. You want to ask them how much they would charge per hour. If they won’t give an hourly rate, you can also ask for an estimate on how much it would be to clean your home. If they only provide an estimate, you need to also ask how long they think it will take them to clean your home.

Once you have collected the rates for the cleaning businesses in your area, you want to see if you notice any common range among all the businesses. For most areas, cleaning businesses will all charge within the same range to stay competitive. This is the rate you can plan on charging your own clients for your new business.

Type of Cleaning You Provide

The second large factor in how much you will earn as a cleaning business owner is the type of cleaning your business provides. Cleaning business owners can make more if they specialize and focus on commercial cleaning. Residential cleaning businesses will often make less than commercial cleaning businesses.

You can make more in commercial cleaning because office buildings are much larger than homes. Commercial cleaning jobs will require more employees and more hours. With commercial cleaning, you will be able to set up contracts that will cover a specific length of time for the cost that you have decided on.

A cleaning business owner that focuses on commercial cleaning and has multiple cleaning crews available can make upwards of $100,000 a year. To make a similar amount with residential cleaning, it would require booking double the amount of clients than you would with commercial cleaning (since the contracts are a higher pay rate).

Know if a cleaning business profitable or not  by checking out this article here.

How Many Employees Your Business Has?

If you are the only cleaner for your cleaning business, you will only be able to book so many clients and complete so many cleaning jobs. This will extremely limit your income. By hiring additional cleaning professionals, you will be able to largely increase the amount you make as a cleaning business owner.

By having more employees, you will be able to complete more cleaning jobs, which will increase your income. As your cleaning calendar gets booked up, you can increase your availability by having an extra cleaning crew available to clean at the same time as your first crew. By hiring additional cleaning crews once your current calendars are booked, your income potential will become unlimited.

You may worry about your expenses increasing as you hire additional cleaners. However, you want to keep in mind that your employee’s hourly wages should not equal the same amount you are charging your clients. We recommend paying your employees no more than 2/3 of the amount you are charging your clients.

Your employees’ wages should not be equal to the amount you are charging clients because you need to account for your business expenses and your own time (for setting up the cleaning jobs). We recommend researching the competitive hourly wage in your own area for cleaning professionals and staying close to this amount.

How Much Overhead Your Business Has?

The amount of overhead and expenses your business has makes a large impact on the amount of money you make as a business owner. If your business expenses are extremely high, you will be bringing home less money for yourself as the owner.

To increase the amount of money you make as the owner, we recommend keeping your business expenses as low as you can. There will be some expenses you won’t be able to control the price of and some expenses that will be required. However, you want to look for ways to save money when possible, to keep more money in your own pocket.

Some ways you can keep more money in your own pocket are by shopping for cleaning supplies at local discount stores (who often have name brands at cheaper prices) and shopping around for business insurance (by getting quotes from multiple insurance companies).

Ways to Grow Your Income as a Cleaning Business Owner

After you have started your new cleaning business, it is likely that you want to know how you can steadily grow your income! There are multiple ways you can grow your income, besides keeping your overheard and expenses low.

The best way you can grow your income as a cleaning business owner is finding more clients, which is often done through marketing and advertising. As you first start your business, it is likely there will be a lot of openings on your cleaning calendar. To book more cleanings and earn more income, you need to find more clients.

The ways we recommend finding new clients is through referral programs and using social media marketing. We recommend these two methods because the costs are low, which is important when your business isn’t making a large amount yet.

You can encourage friends and family to share your business by offering a referral program. For example: If your friend sends 5 people to your business and all 5 book your services, you could offer a discount or free cleaning for your friend.

Social media marketing is another way to book up your cleaning calendar. You can create a business account on Facebook for free. Then you can set up advertisements to reach your potential client. The best part is you decide what you are willing to pay by setting a daily limit for each advertisement.

Getting your cleaning calendar booked is the fastest and most effective way to increase your income. Every new client who books your services brings in more money for both you and your business! Once your own cleaning calendar is booked, then it’s time to start hiring extra help and adding a second cleaning calendar to really grow your business!

Check out this article to know how you can provide an estimates for your cleaning house business.

How to Calculate Your Specific Salary?

Once you have started booking clients and your business is earning money, you can easily calculate your own salary to see how much you are making. You will be making different amounts throughout the life of your business. As your business grows, your income will steadily grow as well.

No matter what phase your business is in, your salary will depend on the amount of income your business is bringing in and the total cost of all your business expenses. If your business is earning more and you keep your expenses low, your own salary will ultimately be higher as well.

To calculate your own salary, you need to take the hourly rate that you charge clients, multiply it by how many hours you are working a week and then minus your business expenses from that number. For example: $30 (Hourly Rate) x 35 (Hours a Week) = $1,050 – $100 (Business Expenses) = $950. You would be bringing home the $950 for one week. This example is calculated as if you were the only cleaner for your business.

If you wanted to see what your annual salary is, you could take your average weekly salary and then multiply it by 52 weeks in a year. To follow our example above, it would be $950 x 52 = $49,400 (Estimated Annual Salary).

Owning a cleaning business can be a very financially rewarding adventure! Cleaning services are in high demand in most areas and you can start earning a great salary very quickly! Cleaning businesses also offer large amounts of growth potential, which will also increase your own income over time as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I charge for cleaning homes?

The amount you should charge to clean homes will largely depend on the specific area that you are providing services in. However, the average rate for cleaning services in the US ranges from $25 to $40 per hour per cleaning professional.

To find the average hourly rate for your area, you want to call 3 to 5 different cleaning businesses in your area that have a good reputation. You want to either ask for an hourly rate or an estimate to clean your home. Once you have the rates from the other companies, you will be able to see the common hourly rate for cleaning homes in your area.

How much will I spend on expenses for my new cleaning business?

The amount you spend on expenses will depend on where your budget is currently at. If you are working with a smaller budget, you can find cleaning supplies for lower amounts at your local discount store. You can also start with the basic needed supplies. As your budget increases, you can increase the number of tools you have.

You will also have other expenses like your business license and business insurance. The specific cost for these expenses will depend on your area and how much coverage you’re looking for.

To learn more on how to start your own cleaning business, check out my startup documents here.

Please note that the contents of this blog are for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Any action taken based on the information provided in this blog is solely at your own risk. Additionally, all images used in this blog are generated under the CC0 license of Creative Commons, which means they are free to use for any purpose without attribution.