Start Your Own House Cleaning Business

One of the biggest fears people have about starting a small business is the fear of having no real security.

But for natural entrepreneurs, security comes from designing your own life. My partner Richa and I discovered that we could create security when we put forth the effort to call our own shots and make key business decisions that made sense for our lives. Starting a house cleaning business helped us achieve real security.

We started our cleaning business over nine years ago. Our schedules now burst with other, more creative commitments, but we continue to clean houses and offices. Why? Because the work is steady, the pay is excellent, and we love getting the free time we want in order to pursue our personal goals.

When I first joined Richa as he started a house cleaning business I relished the idea of working for myself but I had no idea what I was getting into. Two things were bothering me a little. First, I was concerned with job security. Second, I secretly doubted my basic cleaning skills. Cleaning had always seemed like drudgery and I wondered if my skills were up to par with the pros. Richa reassured me that my basic skills were good enough. He guaranteed that the short working hours would give me time to spend the way I wanted. I was ready to take a leap of faith, so I decided to try it.

I made three discoveries:

Cleaning is not drudgery when you're getting paid well to do it.
Leaving behind neat, clean rooms is quite satisfying.
Not having a boss is fantastic.

I also found a new use for my research skills. Because I was determined to rank up there with the best of the professionals, I began to research cleaning tips and as a result, learned how to clean just about anything. Best of all, our diligence and excellent service has provided genuine job security all along.

Why do we think starting a house cleaning business is a great idea? Here are 11- reasons:

1. Unlimited income potential

You can grow your house cleaning business as big as you want. Many recent entrepreneurs have built up their house cleaning businesses up to 100k a year within one year. Try that with a JOB (just over broke). Cleaning franchises are booming nationwide, but franchises are a bad deal for the want-to-be professional cleaner. You sink into debt before you even get started. Franchises, while highly appropriate for oil lube shops and Internet cafes, are not a good idea for an entrepreneur who simply wants to start a cleaning business. Oil change shops and cafes are expensive and complicated businesses, cleaning is not.

2. Start bringing in money within two weeks.

You can discover interested clients within days. You can be giving quotes within a week. You can have jobs by week two. You can have a full-force house cleaning business within a few months.

3. Start on a shoestring budget

You can start a house cleaning business for well under $100. This business is one of the best for inexpensive start-ups. Believe it or not you can even start without a vacuum or a car. We did!

4. Be your own boss.

It is absolutely my favorite reason for starting a house cleaning business. My inner compass indicates that when I’m my own boss I’m going in the right direction. I'm sure you can relate. Nothing quite compares to the pride and excitement of calling the shots and being in charge of your own destiny. This is what America is all about, right? What is stopping you? Sure, you'll make mistakes, we all make them. But no one is going to scold you and you'll learn from your mistakes. Besides, as another entrepreneur once said, we have the most sympathetic boss in the world - ourselves!

5. Set your own hours.

We love this aspect of starting a house cleaning business even more than being our own boss. We take days off when we want and as often as we can get away with. We find that we each work smarter instead of harder because both of us are able to tap into our natural sense of responsibility. When you're empowered to take charge of your own schedule you take more pride in the work you do.

6. Get paid Everyday.

This is my second favorite benefit. every day we get at least one check if not several. You won't stress out about paying your bills on time. No waiting two weeks or a month to get paid. This makes your personal accounting system less stressful and a whole lot more enjoyable.

7. Cleaning is easy work, not technical or complicated.

If you prefer to use your brainpower on genuinely creative, significant pursuits, or even if you don't, starting a house cleaning business won't drain your brain. In fact, a lot of people find the gentle, repetitive tasks involved in cleaning to be meditative.

8. Professional cleaning is not emotionally or mentally exhausting.

This is Richa's favorite part of starting a house cleaning business. Richa initially started his business because he was frustrated with how emotionally draining his JOB was, making it very difficult for him to pursue his creative endeavors. He was tired a lot of the time and just couldn't get motivated. Within weeks of starting his first house cleaning business he was realizing a lifelong desire to compose music. He now has seven CDs of music published. Richa and I built a house ourselves with the free time and free mental space afforded by our part time house cleaning business.

9. Choose who you work with.

This is Second favorite on Richa's list. There has always been that one person who made life at work less than enjoyable if not a complete drag. If we discover we don't exactly click with a client, we have a system for replacing them within one week, sometimes sooner. You'll never feel trapped with an unwanted associate again.

10. Work close to home.

No long commute, no commute at all if you prefer. There is plenty of work near you, we drive maybe ten miles a day, and we do 80% of our work in one neighborhood. When Richa started his first house cleaning business he rode his bike and took public transportation to his clients' homes and offices. With a little foresight and planning, you can clean with no supplies of your own. We have met several other cleaners who get to work by bike and on foot as well.

11. Start additional cleaning services.

Maximize your profits by adding any of a dozen additional cleaning services. Carpet cleaning, steam cleaning, house sitting, pet sitting and plantscaping are all natural outgrowths of starting a cleaning business. You can mix house cleaning with office cleaning, or window cleaning with house cleaning, or for variety do all three.

Summary:

Starting a house cleaning business may not be glamorous, but because we did it, Richa and I have gained free time to do what we want to do, lower our stress levels, become more productive and happier, and we make a good living. For people with a sense of independence and a creative spirit, starting a house cleaning business is a wonderful way to provide you with genuine security.

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Handicrafts Business

Crafts Business

If you're creative and enjoy working with your hands, a crafts business could be your path to financial independence. With a minimal investment, you can start grossing up to $100,000 a year doing something you love. This guide starts with an overview of the industry, looks at some specific crafts businesses, and then through the step-by-step process of setting up and running your new venture. You’ll learn about basic requirements and start-up costs, daily operations, and what to do when things don’t go according to plan. You’ll gain a solid understanding of the sales and marketing process, as well as how to track and manage the financial side of your business. Throughout the guide, you’ll hear from crafters who have built successful operations and are eager to share what they learned in the process. This guide from Entrepreneur.com is necessary before diving into this home business venture.

Assembly lines around the world are churning out mass-produced items that are purchased almost as fast as they can be made. But consumer acceptance of low-cost look-alike goods hasn’t eliminated the demand for handcrafted items—although those items are likely to have a much different function today than in the past.

Many handcrafted items are now valued as works of art, but historically their value was primarily utilitarian. For example, baskets and pottery were essential for transporting food, water and other items. And weaving produced fabrics that could be made into clothing and blankets.

Because of the industrial revolution, the need for functional handcrafted items is not as extensive as it once was. But Americans who want quality artistic and decorative items turn to modern-day craftspeople who produce a variety of items such as jewellery, ceramics, wood carvings, furniture, crocheted and knitted goods, decorated clothing, toys and much more.

What Is A Craft?

In this book, craft refers to any handmade item that can be given as a gift or sold—and if you’ve attended a crafts fair, you may have been surprised by what craftspeople sell and what people are willing to buy. The unpredictability of the crafts market is one of the intriguing and challenging aspects of the business.

In Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, Paul J. Smith writes, “In its broadest sense craft refers to the creation of original objects through an artist’s disciplined manipulation of material. Historically craft was identified with producing objects that were necessary to life. Modern industrialized society eliminates the need to make by hand essentials for living. The term craft now must be defined in the context of a society that focuses on greater efficiency by technological achievement.”

The question of whether crafts are art or a separate medium may never be definitively answered. In The Crafts of the Modern World, Rose Slivka writes, “Throughout their long history, crafts have produced useful objects which are later considered fine art. Time has a way of overwhelming the functional value of an object that outlives the men who made and used it, with the power of its own objective presence—that life-invest quality of being that transcends and energizes. When this happens, such objects are forever honored for their own sakes—they are art.”

Of course, for someone wanting to start a crafts business, the question of whether the products are art may not be particularly important. A more critical question is whether you can make money.

The nature of the crafts industry makes it difficult to define and quantify, but industry experts estimate that sales revenues exceed $10 billion annually, and hundreds of thousands of working artisans earn their entire income from the crafts they produce. Most professional craftspeople start making their handcrafted goods as a hobby, and begin selling items to friends and family. From there, they typically expand to selling in crafts shows and fairs several times a year. Sometimes they’re content to keep this as something they do on the side; others are eager to move from part-time to full-time status. Still other artisans tackle their work as a full-time career from the beginning, often renting studio or retail space, or both.

Start-up costs for a crafts business range from literally a few dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on what you are making, what type of equipment and raw materials you need, and whether you already own equipment when you start. Crafters earn as little as a few dollars an hour (for part-time crafters who are not particularly interested in profits) to as much as $20 or $30 an hour and sometimes more if they learn how to market and manage their businesses efficiently.

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Cleaning Service Business

Cleaning Service Business

If it can get dirty, chances are that someone will be willing to pay you to clean it. And that's why few industries can claim the variety and depth of opportunities that professional cleaning can. This in-depth guide shows you how to start three hot cleaning businesses: residential maid service, commercial janitorial and carpet/upholstery cleaning.

Most cleaning service businesses can be operated on either a part-time or full-time basis, either from home or from a commercial location, and the best part is you can build an extremely profitable business that will generate revenue very quickly.

Our easy-to-follow guide will teach you:

Who your customers and competitors will be
The ins and outs of finding clients
What equipment and supplies you'll need to get started
How to hire and train employees
Where to find start-up funds and how to set prices
And much more

The cleaning industry has two primary market groups: consumer and commercial. The consumer arena consists primarily of residential maid services, along with carpet cleaners, window cleaners and a variety of other cleaning services required on a less-frequent basis. The commercial arena is dominated by janitorial services, which typically provide a wider range of services than maid services, along with other cleaning companies, such as carpet and window cleaners, that target businesses rather than individual consumers. While it’s recommended that you decide on a niche and concentrate on building a business that will serve your chosen market, it is entirely realistic to expect to be able to serve multiple markets successfully.

With all this opportunity, what does the competition look like? Glance through your telephone directory—the number of cleaning services may make you think the market is already flooded and there’s no room for you. That’s not true.

First, anyone can get a listing in the Yellow Pages just by having a business telephone line. A mere listing doesn’t mean the company is offering quality service to the market you’re targeting.

Second, the demand for cleaning services is tremendous. Plenty of maid service companies have waiting lists for clients because they simply can’t serve the entire market. Many carpet cleaners and other types of specialized cleaning services are not full-time operations and therefore don’t offer serious competition. And a significant number of janitorial services are mom-and-pop operations run by people who want just enough work to earn a living.

Third, cleaning service customers want quality, and many operators are unable to deliver that. Ask anyone who has ever hired a company to clean something in their home or office if they’ve had any bad experiences, and chances are you’ll hear some nightmarish stories of poor-quality work, damage to property and even theft. If you offer quality service, operate with integrity and charge reasonable prices, you will be a success in a cleaning service business.

The Driving Forces

Shifting demographics and changing lifestyles are driving the surge in residential maid service businesses. Busy consumers don’t have the time or inclination to clean for themselves; they want to spend their limited leisure hours doing things they enjoy. So they’d rather have someone else do their cleaning—and they want it done well.

Linda B., president of a major residential maid franchise, says, “The major trend [in the residential cleaning industry] is tremendous growth. As leisure time continues to shrink, more and more people are searching for personal support in the form of housecleaning services, lawn maintenance, errand-running services and more. Our franchises are growing at tremendous rates, and most of them have waiting lists for customers. Our existing customers are asking for additional services, like indoor plant care, or asking us to pick up and deliver dry cleaning and handle other errands. People are strapped for time, they need help, and they are willing to pay for it. So many of our customers tell us that our service has given them the freedom to enjoy life and get rid of the stress that comes when you are overwhelmed with too much to do.” Adds Linda B., “And as the baby boomers hit their income peaks, and their children are beginning to leave home, they have more disposable income, and they’re going to demand more and more in the way of personal services. We are enjoying a time of wonderful opportunities, and that’s not going to change in the foreseeable future.”

But the companies that truly thrive will be the ones with a heavy emphasis on quality and personal services. “I really think the cleaning industry is getting to the point where people don’t want just a basic cleaning,” says Nancy W., a maid service owner in Raleigh, North Carolina. “With all these new and wonderful homes being built, people are becoming more particular about what they are paying for.”

On the commercial side, the dual trends of outsourcing and niche businesses are behind the growing number of janitorial and specialty cleaning services. Businesses need to have their offices and plants cleaned, but it doesn’t always make sense for them to employ their own cleaning staff. Nor does it make sense for them to own the equipment and expertise necessary for jobs such as carpet shampooing, which are done on an infrequent basis.

“We’re not just a cleaning company,” says Mike B., whose outfit provides carpet and upholstery cleaning, odor control and water restoration in St. George, Utah. “It’s not just about pushing a wand or running a machine. It’s not just kicking the dirt out. It’s a matter of taking good care of people.”

This is good news for an entrepreneur who is more interested in building a solid, profitable business than in conquering new horizons.

Before you leap into the cleaning business, it’s important to look at it with 20/20 vision. Though technology certainly has an impact on cleaning services, this is not a high-tech business. Nor is there any glitz to it. And there will be times when you’ll have as much trouble as Rodney Dangerfield getting respect.

But the upside is that you can build an extremely profitable business that will generate revenue very quickly. Most cleaning service businesses can be operated on either a part-time or full-time basis, either from home or from a commercial location. That flexibility gives this industry a strong appeal to a wide range of people with a variety of goals.

Another positive aspect of the industry is that within each category of cleaning businesses are market niches and operating styles that vary tremendously. Salt Lake City janitorial service owner Michael R. says, “We offer a wide range of services to a very limited clientele. We have refined our customer base to a group that we feel we can best serve in a way that will allow us to maintain those customers permanently.”

This means you can build a company that suits your individual style and talents. If you like doing the work yourself, you can stay small and do so. If your skills are more administrative in nature, you can build and manage teams to do the work. For people who like working outside, the opportunities in service areas such as window cleaning and pressure washing are abundant. Residential maid services offer fairly predictable hours; disaster restoration and cleanup can mean calls at all hours of the day or night.

Few industries offer this tremendous range of choices and opportunities, and the need for general and niche cleaning is expected to increase in the future. To help you find your place in this thriving field, let’s take a look at the day-to-day operations of some typical cleaning businesses.

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