Starting your own business comes with its risks and rewards. Before starting a business, specifically a cleaning business, there are several questions that you need to ask yourself. Today we’ll cover some important questions to consider so you can be well-prepared to start a cleaning business.
1. What is Your Purpose?
Before getting started, you’ll want to ask yourself why you want to start a cleaning business. Is it to help people? Is it to make money? Is it to be your own boss? Is it to start a new adventure? Establishing your purpose before you start is essential because it is the foundation of the business that you’ll build. You need to believe in yourself and your company, and that you’ll be successful. You need to believe that people will want your cleaning services and that you’ll get good business.
2. How Will You Brand?
Branding can often be overlooked when it comes to starting your own business, especially if you have no experience in branding. Branding is a way of identifying your business and helping your customers recognize your business. It is said that there are four steps of branding:
- Defining how you want your business to be perceived
When a potential customer sees your logo or an advertisement for your business, how do you want them to view your business? - Organizing your business based on that promise
Create your marketing plan based on how you want your business perceived. - Communicating your promise
Decide how you will brand your business, like what social media platforms you will communicate your message on. - Being consistent
Stay on brand by being consistent with the previous three steps.
Branding also includes the look and feel of your cleaning business. Do you want a minimal, modern feel? Or would you rather have a more classic look? Designing your brand can include the name of your business, a company logo, set colors and fonts, and more. Whatever you decide for your branding, stick with it and be consistent.
And FYI – there are some great online resources you can rely on if you need help designing your brand.
3. What Services Will You Provide?
The third thing to decide before starting a cleaning business is what services you will provide. Do you want to clean windows? Maybe you want to clean commercial offices. Or, you can stick with the traditional house cleaning. Once you’ve decided what services you’ll be providing, you’re ready to establish your prices.
4. How Will You Price Your Services?
Set a fair price for your customers, while making sure that you can still make a profit. It will be different for each area, so ask other cleaning businesses or professionals that you trust for a range of prices for the service(s) that you will be providing. You can also do this by looking at other cleaning business’ websites to see their list of services and prices.
5. How Many Employees Will You Need to Hire?
If you’re just getting started, it will most likely be you and a couple other employees doing the actual cleaning work. When starting a business, you’ll have to do a lot of the grunt work until you’re more established and have more clients. This can be beneficial to you because you’ll know how to better train your employees. As your clientele expands, so will your need for more employees. Hire out what you can afford and make sure you do all you can to keep your employees happy so that there is little turnover.
6. What Licenses and Permits Will You Need?
Starting a cleaning business comes with knowing what licenses and permits you will need. This depends on which state you’re in, so make sure you do some research to know your local requirements. However, no matter what state you are in, you will need a vendor’s license and a general business license to operate your cleaning business correctly. A vendor’s license allows you to legally own and operate a cleaning business. You can apply for a vendor’s license at your city clerk’s office. For more information, take a look at this article.
You will also need to be familiar with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requirements. OSHA makes sure that you’re aware of the hazards and risks that you face as a professional cleaner, and how to avoid them the best you can and to ensure that you can maintain a clean, safe environment.
7. What Insurance Will You Purchase?
Starting a cleaning business is appealing to many because it is very easy to get started. Because of this, some may overlook the importance of purchasing insurance. Some may think, “What could go wrong while I’m cleaning carpets?” As a professional cleaner, you face risks every day. If any of your chemicals damages your client’s property, you could also be held responsible to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket. To prevent this from happening, you’ll need to purchase insurance for your company.
Insurance Canopy offers insurance for several cleaning businesses—carpet cleaning, house cleaning, janitorial, maid, and window cleaning. At the affordable price of $26.67 per month, you have the coverage that you need to have your company protected. All you need to do is fill out an application online that will take less than ten minutes to complete. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our licensed insurance agents.
Hit the Ground Running
Now that you have a good idea of what you need to ask yourself before starting your cleaning business, you can know if this is the venture for you. Make sure you define your purpose, establish your branding, services, and prices, hire the employees you will need, get the required licenses and permits, and purchase an insurance policy. We hope this article has been helpful for you.
To read more similar to this blog: 9 Tips to Market Your House Cleaning Business
