Thinking of starting up a house cleaning business with my wife. Has anyone had any experience with this type of business? What are the pros and cons? How do you set your rates?

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), May 02, 2002

Answers

Call around to find out rates. Will you provide all your equipment (independent contractor) or will the customer (employee relationship)? Do you clean domestic space or commercial areas? Regular dirt or crime scenes? All this will make a difference in rates and pros/cons. Check out Ken's e-book on earning cash in the country.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), May 02, 2002.

I read an article in the paper about how many small house cleaning businesses were turning away customers because they already had so many. I got the impression that there was a lot of demand and not enough cleaners to keep up with it. It osunds like a good proposition especialy if there is a residential/city type area near you. It seems like a business that middle and upper middle class people would frequent more than other rural home-owners. If you advertise, you'll probably get a few customers but pick up the most by word of mouth. Even just a couple of houses a week could really boost your income. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

-- Erika (misserika129@hotmail.com), May 02, 2002.

A friend of mine started her own cleaning business after getting laid off and having trouble finding work. Last I heard(she's in another state) she had 15 people working for her and all the work she could handle. Make sure you and anyone working for you is bonded.

-- Terri in WV (mrs_swift_26547@yahoo.com), May 02, 2002.

There are like 20 questions on the IRS website that determine whether you are an indie contractor or not. Just because one customer would like you to use non-toxic cleaning supplies does not make you an employee for tax purposes.

I don't know how well it will work with the economy the way it is right now--personal services (housecleaning, nannies, chefs, etc.), are usually first to go when there is a downturn.

Also decide whether you are charging by the hour or by the job.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 02, 2002.

Emil, 8 years ago my husband left me and our three kids. I was a homeschool mom, ran our successful farm and stayed plenty busy....I was forced into having to find a job, and find it quick. It was known in church the problems I had finding a good job that paid well, so I was asked to clean some offices, which lead to cleaning some more offices, which lead to people asking about me cleaning their homes, etc. Suffice it to say, I made very good money, was able to continue homeschooling the kids, and ran the farm to boot! Not to say it didn't take some adjusting on all of our parts! The kids were my "crew" and we only worked 4 days a week. I had this business for 7 years and it was great! Please feel free to email me privately if I can answer any questions. In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), May 03, 2002.

Make sure you have insurance for that type of work. Last thing you want is to have some home owner saying your broke scratched or damged somthing.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), May 03, 2002.

DH's niece does this! She makes great money but can't keep help (something you won't have to worry about if you are doing it as a team!). Se has more houses/small business that she can do. She does three houses a day. But she says it is affected by the ecomony --it's something that can be 'cut' from the household budget!) She buys all her chemicals and equipment. That way she says she doesn't have to worry if her customers have forgetten to purchase something or had the vaccum repaired!!! Good luck.

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), May 03, 2002.

I used to clean houses and new construction and businesses for some income, part time. I liked to charge by the job. You could then know what you would make each week and also the employer would know too. I probably liked to do new construction the best and got paid so much per square foot. Nobody around to bother you, no knickknacks to dust etc. Private homes were my least favorite. I don't like dusting and moving peoples stuff around to do it. I didn't mind the laundromat or the real estate office cleaning either but had to do that at night which I didn't care for. On the new houses I only did houses that were around 1200 to 2000 sq. feet. Didn't do those fancy, really big houses.

-- Nancy (nannyb@huntel.net), May 03, 2002.

My oldest daughter started a house and business cleaning business in a county close to us (where she lived then) about two years ago.

She just put a couple of little ads in the local weekly paper and put some little fliers up in laundrymats, grocery stores, etc.

Soon she was getting recommendations by word of mouth.

She was doing great, making good money, working around her kids schedules. Then she decided to expand, and hired about five or six employees and quit cleaning houses herself. MAJOR MISTAKE!

She was soon in big financial trouble!

So I would suggest trying it out yourself and seeing how many you can get in about a month, don't hire employees, and don't spend a lot on overhead such as tee-shirts with your company name on it and all that.

Most people just want a really clean house and if you do that, they don't care what you wear or that you are not a "company." good luck!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), May 03, 2002.

I would also suggest that you (for your health as well as that of your customers) offer non-toxic cleaning products where you can. Many people today don't want any toxics used in the home because of chemical sensitivities, and you don't want to come down with something either, 5 or 10 or 20 years later.

And the above is also why you might want to be "a real business" instead of doing it on the side, so that you can be covered by insurance and so forth. I know that if you don't tell your insurance company you are using your car for business purposes they can cancel you, I am not sure how it works for health insurance.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 03, 2002.

cool! missed this thread earlier. go for it it is great pay, hard work,& flexible hours. call around to other cleaning biz. for rates, here they go by the sqr. ft/job. i went to www.vistaprint.com & got colour biz. cards for just the price of shipping, when local co. wanted 20.$s to print up b&w cards!

since you would be cleaning as a team i would HIGHLY suggest a 'meeting' to discuss cleaning standards, tools & how much $ to spend on tools, job attire, signage for the vehicle, who is the phone person who is the billing invoice person, do you accept checks,rates, etc.

there is a book called 'speed cleaning'by jeff campbell that i think is imperative for a new house cleaner to read. it will save you a lot of time, since it gives you a GREAT game plan on how to clean a house, so you don't spend time reinventing the wheel so to speak.

i wished i had found the book before i began cleaning it has helped speed up most all of my jobs.

but even tho when i finally read it i was by then using many of the methods/tools described i incorporated many more of his methods .i had arrived at similar cleaning solutions through trial & error & more error instead of having them handed to me on a sliver platter like the book does.

-- bj pepper ,in central MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), May 04, 2002.

Link to Dollar Stretcher article this week on starting a housecleaning business:

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/01/010507b.cfm

I had misgivings about a couple of suggestions in the article:

Cold-calling tells me you 1) have no respect for me as a potential customer, and 2) signifies you are either desperate or dishonest, a message you don't want to send to customers. Don't do it.

Also (this was not in the article, but happens fairly often) don't stick flyers in people's mailboxes without postage--you've just created a big trust issue right there (gee, did you steal mail while you were there?). It is against the law to get into someone's mailbox, or even hang stuff on it.

Do not assume/expect that the customer will provide equipment and supplies--would you go to a quick-print shop and bring your own copy machine? Of course not. Customers expect you to be prepared and to know what you're doing. If they do give you something non-toxic to use, consider it an opportunity to do a product testing--who knows, it might be something you will choose to use in your business instead of something else.

Hope this helps.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 06, 2002.