Starting A Cleaning Business

[2dads]

How was this weeks work load @Fasted

 

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[MattR82]

@2dads its going to be £325 this week and around the same for last week. Not where I’d like it to be but it’s taking a little longer than I expected to get my appointments filled with regular repeat customers. End of tenancy are great and all but they’re one and done type jobs you don’t see them again.

Just started using bark.Com for my leads and hoping for some more traction there. Gumtree has dropped off severely so gotta look at other ways to find customers. Already signed up two regular customers from bark so it might be worth the spend, we’ll see. Haven’t seen much from the flyers, not entirely surprised by that but will keep at it, I’ve bought enough of them lol.

Closed a £500 deal from a Facebook ad lead last week that was really encouraging, just received his deposit, will be a days work. It’s in a couple of week so that should pump this months earnings a bit.

There’s lots of customers that need this service. But I can’t be too shy on the marketing spend otherwise I’ll never find them. It’s taken me a while to get my head around the spend £ to earn £££ mindset with marketing/sales but I think I’m getting there. Particularly if I look at lifetime value of that customer it’s easier for me to see that the marketing CPL is in fact quite small.

Are you looking at commercial cleaning as well, like small offices attached to showrooms or industrial areas, gyms etc?

 

[pipedream2017]

There's two situations if you're just starting out.

1. You have a unique connection or family business you could hop into. Or you have some unique situation to take advantage of ("What should I do I just inherited 27 rental homes" type of situation). Or you have some insane skill that you can monetize.

2. You have none of those things.

In situation 1, take advantage of it and that is where you should start. I always recommend getting involved in a family business. I have two friends that make mid six figures in their 20's because number 1 they are smart and number 2 they got involved in their family business and did a great job. Not taking anything away from them, they're smart business owners, but if you have something to take advantage of, do it. If you have an actual skill like the ability to build products with a cnc machine, or coding experience, or whatever, use that too.

In situation 2 (which is where I was), where you have nothing other than common sense and a burning desire to be free, I like either high-end sales, home services, or a combination of the two. There's also digital marketing businesses, ecommerce stuff but I am not the expert in those. I like high-end sales (not car sales or selling life insurance lol, but rather enterprise level sales, big ticket stuff) because you can make big big money. My best friend is soon to be an account manager at a huge company that sells telehealth and other stuff to hospitals and the entire VA as well. The top sales guys there make millions each year. He should be in the mid 6 figures in a couple years as a salesman there. He's doing great right now too. We both sold cars before doing what we do now so I'm not saying it's a bad job to start off with for a year.

I also like home services because it's not cutthroat like trying to sell on Amazon, and you can get started with practically no money. And you'll be pretty much guaranteed to make some money if you're not dumb and can handle some elbow grease. You can get a brush and a ladder and make a grand a day cleaning off roofs. Not bad at all. You can get a recurring business going like I have and not really have to work at all and have employees do it.

You can try to build it up like I am trying to, or you can use it to fund other things. When you become a business owner you tend to roll with a different crowd and make new friends. All of my friends are on a different path than the scripted sidewalk/slowlane path. Most of them own a business and are pretty much free. You'll learn from them, see how they do things, and gain a lot of experience just by osmosis. When you grow your own business up a bit and have some actual cash saved up, it will only be the next logical step for you to have another idea, throw a bit of money at it, and have another business going. You may even do some joint ventures. It's good to have friends that are on a higher level. You'll talk about your goals to pull in 275k of profit next year and the buddy with a centurion card will tell you to stop thinking small and be more intelligent. Gotta love that shit lol. Keeps you responsible and on track.

The important thing is to break away and start hustling. It will have 100 other benefits to your life and soul that I can only sorta describe. It will change the way you think and how you see the world and the sooner you break away the better. Even if you just escape the misery of listening to average people talk about their retarded distractions like sports and politics, going out on your own to start a business will pay dividends for you. Trust me.

There's a million different types of businesses and almost all of them are not a great place for you to start. I don't think you'll do very well right now opening up a manufacturing plant to build circuit boards for CNC machines, or opening an oil refinery, or things like that. Those can come later. For now, just get hustling and keep your eyes open for opportunities. You only see them when you think differently than other people. Maybe you start a service business and realize all of the tools you use suck. For example when I was cleaning off a roof, I was annoyed at the brushes I was using and couldn't find one that was effective and made for roofs. I think you could manufacture one that had very firm bristles and was shaped better for use on a roof. Then you use money you saved up to run some ads and make a 3-d mockup and try to get sales to test the market, then you make them and sell them once you've confirmed demand, then you scale up your marketing and now you're making money selling brushes to other roof cleaners. Just an example.

Skys the limit just start walking now.

How many roofs do you average a month??

 

[Johnny boy]

How many roofs do you average a month??

I run a lawn care company

If you wanted to do roof cleaning I think a reasonable amount would be 1-2 a day for an average of like 10k a month working part time

 

[pipedream2017]

Well done mate! Thats some serious cash!!! Im in the uk too and am looking to do something similar, where do you find your end of tenancy jobs?

 

[Fasted]

Well done mate! Thats some serious cash!!! Im in the uk too and am looking to do something similar, where do you find your end of tenancy jobs?

Gumtree and Bark buddy

 

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[2dads]

When I have had to have a (as a renter) End of tenancy cleans, I have always asked the real estate if they have a preferred cleaner.



Normally these cleaners are local and if anything needs to be cleaned work with the real estate to get it rectified, letting me get my bond back quicker etc.



They normally (I would presume and would expect) have a kickback program to the real estate. Each property they do – maybe $x amount goes to the real estate for a referral, no idea the legality of this however I am 75% sure this would be the case.



Ask people in the real estate (renting game or sales) about who they use for end-of-lease cleans. Maybe suggest a referral system, once again no idea if this is frowned upon in your area/country.



A great way to get business is to make it easy for your end-user to deal with you, you take care of it and if something was not cleaned to a level of satisfaction, you go back and clean it – the end-user gets their bond and every one is happy.



Real estate agent gets a cut or commission..

End user gets there bond back

New Tenant gets a clean house to move into

 

[missinfinity98]

Inspiring, thank you for creating this thread!

 

[Fasted]

Good afternoon, I am currently working in a cleaning company as a Development Director. Passed the way from sales manager, development manager, etc. I know all the intricacies of this business, how to work with individuals, commercial firms, government agencies - from small one-time jobs to contracts for several years. I know how to select a team of the commercial department and directly performers. If you are interested in my experience - write to the mail - Sbasof@gmail.com.

Good luck to you!

I'm sending you an email. Thanks for offering to share your experience.

 

[Fasted]

Took on first employee this week who is the daughter of one of my customers. She's been helping me out with the AirBnB work I've been doing. The AirBnB cleans can only really be done after 11am unless they check out early - and usually have to be done by 3pm. On my own I can only really manage 2 of these a day and they pay £45-50 depending on size. But with 2 of us cleaning I think 3, maybe even 4 cleans within the 11-3 time slot, is achievable. AirBnB client was keen for me to bring someone on so it made sense, they're still saying they want to help me build my team because they're happy with my standard of work and want me to train people that I bring on. They asked me if i had access to or could get a van. So they're definitely making the right sounds and are keen to grow too which is good. Been looking at vans online which will be my next purchase - i know you can pick them up relatively cheap but i genuinely know F*ck all about cars. Also theres possibly a "clean air tax" coming in soon in my city. If this happens a large estate could be a better option. Lets see.

Either side of these cleans I've been maintaining the odd end of tenancy clean, deep cleans that contact me from gumtree and the few regular cleans that I have. If I can just add a few more regular customers from bark.com that are happy to have me clean and my employee after 4pm or before 11am, I'll be comfortably in that £750-£1000pw bracket. Still lots of scope to grow here, everything very grass roots right now. My momentum has returned and my passion for trying to make this work is strong.

 

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[Fasted]

These 8 bar steam pressure cleaners look great. I know some cleaners using them and it saves a huge amount of time, not to mention being a better quality clean without a need for chemicals. Something like 2k USD give or take.

How much?! Absolutely not mate!

 

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[Fasted]

@Fasted - how is it going buddy!?

Yes mate we still about it

 

[Fasted]

Congrats on your success mate

Thanks mate. Long way to go…

 

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[Fasted]

Throw them away and look into VLM carpet cleaning. It's perfect for commercial carpets. I'm making like $300 per hour cleaning offices with an Orbot Vibe

Will check it out man thank you. Still need to go through your thread properly

 

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[MattR82]

Throw them away and look into VLM carpet cleaning. It's perfect for commercial carpets. I'm making like $300 per hour cleaning offices with an Orbot Vibe

Encap vlm and commercial glue down carpet is awesome.

 

[3amintheuk]

Sounds like you're doing a great job! I'm not too far from you so can imagine the challenges with making it work in Manchester.

Have you tried approaching housing associations for regular work? If I were dropping flyers I'd also be looking at areas with concentrations of bungalows and/or looking to partner with companies that provide carers. Those options may bring in leads that don't have the option to pay a premium price but could provide regular work at volume. If I were looking to charge more, I'd look at carer services that are priced higher so you know customers have the funds available.

There are a few comments in the thread about violating Entry but in my area I know multiple people looking for a cleaner who can't find anyone competent. The people they've hired are unreliable or lazy. Heard a story recently where an elderly lady walked in on her cleaner, feet up on the couch and watching YouTube videos while charging hourly.

How is figuring out the tax situation? I had my first conversation with an accountant about VAT recently and it was... an experience.

 

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