Key Points:
- My story
- How I would get clients (and have done successfully in the past)
- How I calculate my fee
- Quick start guide to your own janitorial company
- Products I use
This post contains affiliate links
In 2003 I was 25, had a good job, but $9,000 in credit card debt and about $15,000 owed on a car loan. I also had a baby and my wife did not work. I wasn’t incurring more debt, but I could only make the minimum payments.
I was in purchasing and knew what the cleaning crew was making, so I decided to go in the business myself. I sent out 100 personalized letters, taking me about 6 weeks over the weekends. That led to 2 quotes and 1 account.
Not knowing what I was doing, I went after the biggest companies. I landed one of those, which would later become a DuPont facility. I bid $4,500 per month for the account and they accepted on the spot, little did I know they had been paying $12,000 per month!
In the beginning, I would work one job 8-5:30, then go straight to my account until about 1 am. That was tiring, so I hired a part-time employee Monday – Thursday and brought my best friend down from Ohio as a 50% partner. With extra services, waxing and carpet cleaning, that account was over $70,000 per year in income. We then picked up another cleaning account and several floor care accounts.
Over time, I learned and streamlined the business and got the hours down to 18-20 hours per week for the standard services, and billed $70 per hour for the extra, which included costs of materials.
It only took me a few months to pay off my credit card, and within a year I had paid off the car. The following year, I had the down payment for our first house. Within 2 years I purchased a waterfront lot as an investment on the coast, using just the income from cleaning.
A year after purchasing the company, DuPont transitioned to internal employees. I had one other account and was just doing this part-time, so it was actually a relief to me.
In 2008, I left my job and went back to school to complete an Accounting degree. I had savings, but I didn’t to use up. I picked up the phone seven times, starting in the A section of the phone book, which happened to be accounting. I picked up two new accounts from that, and soon after a third from a referral.
This allowed me an income of approximately $30,000 part-time, while returning to school. I worked less than twenty hours per week and went to school full-time, without incurring student loans. Little did I know, five months after leaving my position, the stock market would tank. I lost a large portion of my savings, which I had invested disproportionately in Sigma Designs (SIGM.) I lost over $35,000 on that one stock and learned a valuable lesson.
Today I have a great job, and have only kept one account that I got in 2004. If I ever lose, I may not replace the income. I clean twice per week, Tuesdays and one day over the weekend, which equates to five to six hours per week. I gross $885 per month, approximately 20 percent goes to expenses since I perform the work myself.
If I was starting a business today, I would use the phone as the main way to pickup new clients. It’s not easy, but is the cheapest and most effective. Once I got the chance to quote, I would figure out how long it would take me per week and multiply by $35 per hours time 52 weeks per year. Divide that by twelve, and you get your monthly quote. Some high cost markets can probably get more than $35 per hour.
Your expenses are going to be a business license and I would recommend some insurance. If you get a small account, just use household cleaning supplies and vacuum. I wouldn’t recommend a large commercial client first like I did. I was lucky that Servpro had lost the mall account and I got a storage unit of chemicals and equipment for $3,200, otherwise it would have cost me over $10,000 to enter. Plus a large account cost me $1,750 per year for a bond and general liability insurance.
I also wouldn’t recommend doing personal homes because they are usually done during work hours, people pay a lesser rate and are pickier with their personal homes.
Not the most glamorous business, but it pays pretty good, anyone can do and is cheap to get in. I worked full time from September 2003 through November 2005 and made over $95,000 NET in 2004, the only full year I worked in it full-time.
Starting Your Own Commercial Cleaning Company
If you want to start your own, I would recommend doing on the side first and grow organically. I do not recommend franchises, since they offer little in return for the costs.
- Pick a niche (mine was professional offices for the most part, restaurants are a good one too, but need more chemical training.)
- Decide on your name (I was not cute with mine, 2 words and simple – Economy Cleaning. It told others what I do and in the beginning I did compete on price.)
- Get a business license with your city or county and I would recommend filing with your State for extra legal protection as a LLC or other entity type than sole-proprietor or partnership. I also recommend getting a business bank account.
- Now you need to market, before spending other money on equipment and insurance. Some of the ways to market are:
- Cold calling by dropping in and introducing yourself (time and mileage is high) or calling on the phone (very low cost.) Phone cold calling is very hard to do due to the high rejection, but effective in cost and results. Truthfully, it is less of an interruption than dropping in on a potential client.
- Email, but you need to build a list first. This is time consuming, but cheap.
- Post card mailing. Cost is about $0.45 per card to print and mail. It’s not very effective, so you need really good copy for someone to not throw away.
- Mail personal letters. I got my largest client this way. Write a personal letter and mail with a handwritten address to an actual person and regular, not metered stamp. This is intriguing to the prospect, but very time consuming and costly, about an hour to compose and research per letter and $0.60 to mail each letter after stamp, printing and envelope.
- Get a supplier. Once you have your account, you can go to a local distributor, Sam’s Club, Home Depot or order supplies or equipment online. Only purchase what you need in the beginning.
- Get insured. A lot of companies will require you to be bonded or have a commercial liability policy. You may also have to shop worker’s compensation insurance. Insurance for a small firm of 1-2 employees that has revenue of under $100,000 annually should cost about $1,500 to $2,000 per year, not including a vehicle if you do not use your personal vehicle.
Vacuum Cleaner I Use Now for a small account
Vacuum I used when I had a large account that needed vacuuming daily
Hope this helps you get started quickly. As you grow, there are a lot of other steps. I am in the process of writing a startup guide, so check back in a couple of months.
Another Easiest Side Hustle article about designing shirts on Amazon Merch.
This is a great post! It’s always exciting to come across ways that people have made money outside of a traditional job. I’m particularly impressed when it’s doing something that “anyone” can do. Sometimes you read stories of someone who made a fortune developing an app — and although that’s great, it’s not reasonable for everyone. Cleaning is something that many people can do. Great read! Thanks for sharing.