Why House Cleaning Is The Perfect Business Model

In today’s fast paced world, families are demanding more cleaning services. Married couples with children usually work and cannot handle the time and effort to run a household in addition to raising kids. They need the welcome relief of house cleaning help. It also goes without saying that single parent household would require domestic cleaners as well.

As the trend towards a faster paced society continues, the demand for house cleaning services will continue to rise. If you can fulfill the need of tidying and organizing households, the house cleaning jobs will come your way. Furthermore, the great thing about residential cleaning is that it is repeat business. Houses get dirty all the time. Be a trusted cleaner and you’ll be scheduling your clients on a regular basis.

Let’s face it, house cleaning is literally a chore for some people. But what is someone’s chore is your path to riches. Rejoice in the fact that people dislike house cleaning. This means more clients for you in a business that has extremely low start-up costs.

Get Your House Cleaning Business Started

If being your own boss and starting a business that is in demand sounds good to you, then it’s time to develop the business plan that will serve you well for the next steps to take. Some people will forge ahead into new ventures without much thought but as simple as house cleaning sounds, remember to treat it as a business. Even though the profit margin of running a company for yourself can be huge, you can lose money if you are not aware of your finances. Consider expenses such as transportation and inventory costs and decide on how much to charge your clients. You can easily find a point of reference by researching the large cleaning franchises in your local area and inquire as to how much they charge. You’ll be shocked as to how much you can earn for yourself by running your own house cleaning business.

The holiday season, with there being big family gatherings and Christmas parties, people want their house to be looking at their best – but they don’t want to go through the trouble of cleaning it themselves. There is a spike of cleaning jobs to be done. If you are a regular housekeeper, there might be a bonus in store for you as well.

However, if you’re new to cleaning houses and considering giving housekeeping a try even if just temporarily to make extra money, then here are some tips on how to go about it.

Just ask around your network of friends if they know anyone who needs house work done for them. The best way to get this type of job is word of mouth. After all, for these quick one off situations, people rely on good recommendations. This is not exactly the type of job that requires a resume but someone to be trustworthy. And who knows, this one off job might turn out to be a regular thing that you can depend on for extra income.

When your task is finished, express how you would like to work for them again and refer you to their friends and family. These types of situations always snowballs and you’d be surprised how quickly that by putting a few hours of honest work will often lead to something more. If you’re a good worker, people come to you, especially during the busy holiday season.

The bottom line is that house cleaning jobs are good if you’re looking for extra cash for the holidays and you might even parlay this to something more permanent. There’s always a need to be filled this time of year for holiday parties and get together. So what are you waiting for, get your name out there and start looking.

Decide what kind of cleaning you would like to do. Basically there are two kinds – commercial and residential. Commercial cleaning has the advantage of being more regular as most offices will require your services on a daily or weekly basis whereas residential cleaning may be more flexible with your schedule.

Keep an eye on public announcements where many government offices post invitations to bid on cleaning contracts and other cleaning vacancies.

Show businesses how you can improve the first impression they make on their customers by maintaining a fresh and clean environment.

As for residential cleaning, introduce yourself in neighborhoods that likely use and will be looking for cleaning services. Keep in mind that this not only includes wealthy areas but older ones or working families may also welcome the idea of paying for a couple extra hands.

Visit real estate offices as they may know of new families in your area that are looking for a new cleaning service.

Don’t forget that your best advertisement isn’t on paper but in how clean you keep your vehicle and your person.

Be willing to provide a variety of services. Employment in the cleaning industry is rarely as simple as dusting and vacuuming. Many clients or employers may want you to wash windows, shampoo carpets, buff and wax floors, some outside maintenance or even do a little laundry. A variety of skills will give you preference and the advantage of being able to charge a little extra.

Maintain a reliable, honest work ethic. If your client is happy they’ll refer their friends.

Once you get started you may be surprised at the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment you can derive from being in the middle of the cleaning industry.

The benefits of starting your own domestic cleaning services business are that you can keep your own schedule, hours and rates.  No longer will you be sent off to clean a dirty house site unseen while the company rakes in the larger profits.  You have the right to refuse a house cleaning job; or if the house will require a lot of heavier cleaning than usual, you can charge more for it.  In other words, you will be compensated as you see fit.

At the beginning, it might be hard starting out to find clients who need house cleaning.  Thankfully, your start up costs is not a lot as you only require cleaning supplies.  In fact, some households would probably prefer you use eco friendly products.  If that is the case, homemade house cleaning recipes involving baking soda and vinegar are just as good and cheap to boot.  Furthermore, in the age of the internet and social networking, it can save you a lot of money in terms of advertising for your house cleaning services.  All you need to do is post on your local job boards giving listing your services, rates and time availability.  Be ready to have references available in case they ask for it.  Perspective clients might be very careful with who to choose for their housekeeper job you have to expect this as they are letting a stranger into their house.   On the other hand, the good news about picky clients is that if both parties are a good match, then you can pretty much expect a long working relationship.  Clients are creatures of habit and once they pick a housekeeper they are comfortable with and trust, they will stick with you.  That is the benefit in getting into the house cleaning business as it is repeat business.

Once you establish a regular client base, you can choose to expand or not.  As stated, clients are creatures of habit and pretty soon you’ll settle into a comfortable routine of cleaning for your regulars.  However, as your reputation of trustworthiness and work ethic gets around, you might find yourself in high demand amongst your clients who recommended you to their friends.  When that time comes, you will require more help to expand your house cleaning business.  If that is the case, you will soon be on your way to becoming an entrepreneur.