Have you thought about starting a cleaning business but don’t know where to start? Are you questioning whether or not starting a cleaning business will be challenging or a simple process? Well, it might be easier than you think! Cleaning services will always be in demand, proving that starting a cleaning business can be incredibly lucrative, no matter the challenges involved. We’re breaking down the most difficult and less challenging aspects of starting the company to help weigh out all the pros and cons!
In general, no, it is not hard to start a cleaning business. There are complex and manageable components of starting a cleaning business. Just like any other business, starting a cleaning business comes with its own set of pros and cons.
Challenges and Tasks
Here are some areas you might find challenging and a few that will be easy tasks to accomplish when starting your business. Possible challenges of starting a cleaning business:
- Finding the time to create a business plan
- Finding and hiring the right employees
- Creating policies and procedures
- Training employees
Possible easier tasks when starting a cleaning business:
- Identifying a name for your business
- Identifying yourself as the first employee of your business
- Obtaining the general startup supplies to start your cleaning business
- Asking friends and family to be your first customers for your cleaning business.
Starting a cleaning business can be a very lucrative career choice. Cleaning our homes is not always a task we look forward to doing. Many of us actually put this task off or try and avoid it altogether. By creating a cleaning business, you will be tapping into a market that will always be in demand regardless of your location or business size.
Now that we’ve listed out the critical components of starting a cleaning business, we will dive deeper and break down all you need to know before you get started.
Check out this article to learn more about starting a cleaning business.
Creating a Business Plan can be Challenging
Many people only dream of starting their own business but they don’t know where to begin. For many people who understand the importance of building a business plan before getting started, this might be the place their business ends.
Creating a business plan before you get started can be a time-consuming and challenging process but in the long run, it will help you avoid many obstacles and uncertainty. It might be challenging to set time aside to develop ideas and information to include but overcoming this challenge will lead to a successful business. For example, when you’re working with clients, purchasing cleaning supplies and paying employees, you need to have a reliable system of checks and balances in place before you take on your first client. Making sure your business plan includes the following can be challenging but also a critical component of any business:
- Describe your business. Who are you and what will services will you offer?
- Create a system of checks and balances
- Develop hiring procedures and guidelines
- Identifying your customer base
- Identify ways to scale your business
Including these components and other pertinent information might be challenging when you sit down to write your plan but in the end, this plan will help avoid other challenges from occurring.
Start your Business on Your Own and Avoid Hiring Challenges
Once your business plan is established and in place, and you’ve decided on a name and location for your business, it might be tempting to begin hiring employees. That might not be the best move. When first starting your business, the first cleaning jobs you secure should be done by yourself. This will help avoid the challenging task of hiring the right employees and will also save you money.
As a business owner, the best way to identify all the ins and outs of each part of the business is to complete each task on your own before hiring out. This will eliminate confusion in the future and will also help you find the right employees for each position when the time comes to hire outside support. Completing the work initially on your own will also help with the challenging task of creating policies and procedures for your cleaning business.
When you hear about business owners pouring in blood, sweat and tears into their business, you know they have experience in all areas of their business. From the hard labor to the accounting and even marketing, successful business owners have experienced all facets and in doing so, have successfully overcome the challenging aspects of starting a cleaning business.
The Challenge of Hard Labor
Starting the business on your own might avoid other challenges such as finding the resources to pay for employees when starting your cleaning business. Still, this approach could also lead to new challenges. When you’re working on your own, you might experience burnout from the hard labor associated with cleaning. Somebody starting their business might even be overcome with stress and pure exhaustion from taking on all your business’s responsibilities on your own.
This might even lead to a time when you think about quitting your business. It’s those who preserver and push through this challenge that will find how just how fruitful a cleaning business can be.
A cleaning business requires light and in-depth cleaning strategies and both can be physically straining, which can be challenging. It might also feel stressful working alone because you won’t have others who can help with tasks or take care of work and allow you to rest and recover. Working alone can also be difficult because you might not have the skills needed to accomplish each task and you will have to learn as you go. This could lead to frustration when accepting new jobs and clients.
It might not be easy to develop the cleaning and business skills necessary but once you acquire these skills, you will know what is needed when hiring employees for support. When you hire employees to build and scale your business, finding dedicated and committed employees who genuinely enjoy cleaning and committed to your company might be difficult. You will want to be sure that you find employees with a strong work ethic, long-term employees and those you can trust.
Hiring staff to support any business can be challenging for many business owners but with the right hiring lens, you will be able to find the perfect fit for your company. Don’t let the challenges of hiring employees detour you from starting your cleaning business. There are plenty of hard-working employees waiting to join your company and many who will add even more expertise and skill to your business; you will need to be prepared to train and manage each employee.
Training Employees
Like any business, once you hire employees, you will need to train them. Having concrete policies and procedures in place for employees to reference will help avoid potential obstacles.
Before you train your employees, you will need to identify the type of work you will ask of them and how they can best accomplish these tasks. Setting your employee’s expectations to understand and follow can be challenging but critical when creating a successful team around you. You will need to be clear and create a training guide for each employee.
This will ensure that your employees understand exactly how you want the work to get done. Training your employees might also include inspecting their cleaning skills to ensure the job is always done appropriately and to your standards as the business owner. Managing and training employees is not for everyone and can be a challenge. You might find that you enjoy managing employees. Still, if this part of the business isn’t for you, you can always hire a general manager to oversee your employees and remove yourself from this part of the company.
Scaling your Business
Once your business is running smoothly, scaling your business might be easy with the right network of support but can be challenging if you aren’t sure where to begin. Understanding the best approach to growing your business with your resources might not be an easy task. Still, it will be imperative should you decide to expand with more employees or even multiple locations for your business.
Referring back to your business plan and continuously updating your plan will keep your business on target with the growth and development you established once you decided to start a cleaning business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time will it take to start a cleaning business?
Starting a cleaning business is no easy task and will require hard-work, time, energy and a great deal of patience. The time it will take to develop a business plan and build a solid client base could take up to 2 years to build a profitable business.
Is there a market for cleaning businesses?
The cleaning business will always be in-demand. Finding clients to service with your company will be much easier than you might think. Many of us dread the thought of cleaning our homes and seek out help to keep our homes neat and tidy.
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.
About the author. Entrepreneur and Cleaning Business Fan.
Hi! I am Shawn and I am a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online cleaning business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a cleaning business owner, I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Cleaning Business Boss: I want to help cleaning business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.
