How to Start a Cleaning Business and Get Contracts?

When you are in the beginning stages of starting a cleaning business, you want to ensure that you get your new business set up on a solid foundation and start landing contracts quickly. If your desire is to focus on commercial cleaning, contracts will be essential in helping you grow your business and secure clients. Contracts can make a huge difference for the success of your business and we have the details you need to know.

In order to start a cleaning business and get contracts, you need to maintain a great reputation with your clients, ensure your business is visible online, and network with other business owners. By landing contracts, you will be able to make sure that your company has regular business coming in which will result in more income. These three steps will work as your foundation to help you start getting new contracts with ease.

Maintain a Great Reputation with Clients

The very first step you need to take in order to build your cleaning business and land contracts is to make sure that you maintain an excellent reputation with your current cleaning clients. Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of marketing.

If your clients are pleased with you, they will be much more likely to refer you to their family, friends, and colleagues. If they are not pleased with the services you have provided, they are more likely to pass on negative feedback instead (which will hurt your reputation with both your current client and potential clients).

To maintain a great reputation with your clients, we recommend that you consistently check in with them to get their feedback on the quality of the services you have provided. Are there areas of the building they would like you to focus on cleaning more? You want to know what you can do to improve their experience regularly. This will help you ensure that your clients stay satisfied and they are more likely to refer you to others.

Once you have been in business for any length of time, it is unavoidable that you will eventually get some sort of negative feedback. All businesses will get some sort of criticism that isn’t positive at some point while the business is running. In order to maintain a great reputation with your clients, it is important that you properly handle any negative feedback that you may receive.

To handle it in a positive way, you need to remain professional, fully listen to what your client is saying, acknowledge that you understand what they have told you, and explain how you will work on improving it in the future. Even if you do not agree with the feedback, we still recommend thanking your client for taking the time to provide you with the feedback.

To maintain an excellent relationship with your clients, you want them to feel like you care about them and that you value their business with you. By listening to the feedback they provide you and taking the correct action to fix any concerns they may have, your clients will have more trust in you and will be more likely to refer you to others.

Visit our article about cleaning business referral and how it works.

Be Visible Online

In order to start landing cleaning contracts shortly after you have launched your business, you will want to ensure that your business is visible online. Maintaining an excellent relationship with your clients helps your word of mouth marketing, but being visible online will really help your business be seen by a larger number of people. Being visible online is absolutely essential to take your business to the next level.

There are multiple ways you can help your business be visible online. Two of the most common ways are through a website and by being active on social media platforms. Launching a website is highly encouraged for all new businesses. With multiple websites hosting platforms available, you can maintain a website without breaking your budget, especially if you are willing to put in some time to maintain it on your own.

Websites like GoDaddy and WordPress provide website builders that allow you to easily design your own website without having any web design experience. You can often maintain your website on these types of platforms for around $20 per month. If your budget allows, you can also spend more to have a professional web designer build your business.

One thing you want to keep in mind when it comes to a website is that you can start small and then add to your website over time. As you start your business, you can use a website builder and build your site on your own. Once your business grows and brings in more revenue, you can spend more to build up a better website that is professionally designed.

A website helps you land cleaning contracts because it gives potential clients an easier way to find you and reach out to you. To help you land contracts from your site, we recommend having a list of your services, a way for clients to get quotes on cleaning, and providing at least two methods for a potential client to reach out to you.

Network with Other Business Owners

Another excellent way to help your cleaning business land more contracts (especially when it comes to commercial cleaning) is to network regularly with other business owners. When you are around other business owners and have a positive relationship with them, you will have an easier time finding more businesses to clean for.

Even if the business owners you meet while networking does not need a cleaning company for their business, they may be willing to refer you to other colleagues who are searching for a new cleaning company. Networking can only increase the amount of people that are aware of your business and help to bring in new customers.

There are multiple ways you can network with other business owners. We would recommend starting by finding entrepreneur-based networking events in your area. This could be hosted by your city or by an organization around you. These types of events are a great way to put yourself out there, meet other business owners, and pass out your business cards to anyone who may be interested in your services.

Networking in general is important when it comes to building your business and increasing the amount of overall clients you have. By meeting more people, you will be able to share your business with more people.

Networking can be done on a daily basis, no matter where you are. It can be done online through local social media groups, business groups, or at any sort of local event in your area. When it comes to networking, it is important to be intentional about it. You want to ensure that the people you network with are having a positive experience.

By following our three essential steps listed above, your new cleaning business will be on its way to landing new contracts and seeing an increased amount of revenue. Maintaining a good reputation with your clients, being visible online, and networking with other business owners are the stepping stones to making sure your business is started on the right path.

Wondering where can you advertise your cleaning business for free? Check out this article to know where.

Frequently Asked Questions

What qualifications do I need to start a cleaning business?

There are not a large amount of basic qualifications required to start a cleaning business. Most of the qualifications can also be learned! We recommend that you have a thorough understanding of cleaning and basic business skills regarding having an understanding of how to get your business online and how to communicate well with potential clients. If you are looking to get additional funding for your business from business grants or a financial institution, there may be more qualifications you must meet. Some financial institutions may require you as the owner of the business to have a certain amount of experience in the cleaning industry.

Is it expensive to start a cleaning business?

It definitely does not have to be expensive to start a cleaning business! If you are working on a limited budget, you can start off with the minimum amount of supplies needed. The great thing about cleaning products is you can often find great products at your local discount stores. As you are starting your business, you will need some essential resources that will help you operate your business as well as protect your business. This includes cleaning supplies, transportation to your cleaning jobs, business insurance, and assistance with business accounting. As your business grows, your expenses will also increase over time.

How much do cleaning businesses typically make?

The range that cleaning businesses make largely depends on the location of your business and the type of cleaning you will be offering. If you are offering residential cleaning, most cleaning businesses charge an average of $20 to $30 per hour per cleaning professional. Once your experience increases, you can slowly begin to increase your prices.

If you are looking to make an increased amount of income, we recommend adding in commercial cleaning clients. When it comes to commercial cleaning, these jobs often involve contracts, which frequently have larger rates than residential cleaning. Plus, contracts help assure that you’ll have regular business while the contract is valid.

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.