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Starting up a small housecleaning business
Glipher
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Greetings!
My mom wants to start a small housecleaning business. Because I have no clue about how one would start a small business and because I've already done some scavenging for links online, I figure H/A is the most practical place to turn.
Background info:
Because of the rough economic environment, she's a little fearful that she might eventually be laid off from her job. She'd like to start a business in order to make a little money on the side assuming her job stays in tact. If it turns for the worse then if the business works out, she'll at least have something to fall back on.
She does not have a college education, and she works at a casino as a supervisor. She's also worked with the casino for over 10 years, though, obviously considering this thread, she's got some doubts about her employment security.
She is essentially the sole provider for a household of 7, making around $ 60,000 yearly, which we seem to do fine on. My uncle does construction, but doesn't have steady pay for it, though otherwise he would help contribute. My brother works and probably wouldn't hesitate to help to spend more to keep the family afloat, but of course, that situation is not ideal.
Moving on, startup costs for starting a housing business do not seem very high (~50 dollars from the links I've sent her) but I realize that does not factor in a lot of other considerations that need to be made. She has my uncle to help her with the cleaning to help get it started, and if it seems to take off, she's also got 2 or 3 friends that seem to be willing to help out.
I asked her about things she's particularly worried about and this is what I've gotten:
"I'm just interested in resident cleaning. What's a general price I should charge by--some people anything less than 2000 square foot would go for $80, anything more around $100. Is that correct, is that a good price to charge by?"
In short:
What are some general tips to give for a person that wants to start a housecleaning business? Things to consider?
I can provide more information if necessary. Of course I'm hoping this'll work out, but I have doubts myself.
Thanks for any feedback given!
Edit: Also, if any links, books, or other references on this subject seem helpful, do send them my way!
My mom wants to start a small housecleaning business. Because I have no clue about how one would start a small business and because I've already done some scavenging for links online, I figure H/A is the most practical place to turn.
Background info:
Because of the rough economic environment, she's a little fearful that she might eventually be laid off from her job. She'd like to start a business in order to make a little money on the side assuming her job stays in tact. If it turns for the worse then if the business works out, she'll at least have something to fall back on.
She does not have a college education, and she works at a casino as a supervisor. She's also worked with the casino for over 10 years, though, obviously considering this thread, she's got some doubts about her employment security.
She is essentially the sole provider for a household of 7, making around $ 60,000 yearly, which we seem to do fine on. My uncle does construction, but doesn't have steady pay for it, though otherwise he would help contribute. My brother works and probably wouldn't hesitate to help to spend more to keep the family afloat, but of course, that situation is not ideal.
Moving on, startup costs for starting a housing business do not seem very high (~50 dollars from the links I've sent her) but I realize that does not factor in a lot of other considerations that need to be made. She has my uncle to help her with the cleaning to help get it started, and if it seems to take off, she's also got 2 or 3 friends that seem to be willing to help out.
I asked her about things she's particularly worried about and this is what I've gotten:
"I'm just interested in resident cleaning. What's a general price I should charge by--some people anything less than 2000 square foot would go for $80, anything more around $100. Is that correct, is that a good price to charge by?"
In short:
What are some general tips to give for a person that wants to start a housecleaning business? Things to consider?
I can provide more information if necessary. Of course I'm hoping this'll work out, but I have doubts myself.
Thanks for any feedback given!
Edit: Also, if any links, books, or other references on this subject seem helpful, do send them my way!
Glipher on
+1
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
having worked in the cleaning industry for a couple of years earlier, cleaning for private households tend to be more of a hassle than cleaning a office or similar. A private person pays some amount of money and expect a hell of a lot more than a business will for the same amount, basically a private person is more likely to try to fuck you over for small bullshit you forgot to do than a business is, they want their moneys worth and whatnot. A business/office tend to be more forgiving for small mistakes that will be made.
I also concider a business a more stable and reliable income source than a private household.
Its also significantly easier/faster to clean a office than a regular house. A office just has some desks, some trashbins, usualy one type of floors and toilets. a reguar house can have a nice mix of all sorts of floor types, decorative objects etc etc.
Cant give any tips on pricing since i dont live in the US.
How would you go about getting your name out there in the first place, though? How do you find people that need cleaning? Just up and ask someone about it?
Getting your name out there can be a problem, but depending on the size of the clients building you just need 1-3 clients, so calling around might be a viable option, just ask to talk to whoever is in charge of keeping the place clean.
Before you do this id recommend figuring out the price of cleaning for your area, this can be done for both private and office buildings easily, take a reasonable area size and call around asking for prices.
Figure out how many hours a day you want to spend on cleaning, and probably start of small just to get a feel for how long something takes (it will speed up once you get routines set), time management on something like this is tricky. again, you can call around to competition and say you have X square feet of normal office space, and ask for a price and time estimate, squeeze whatever kind of info you might need from competitors.
a small note about business cleaning, dont be afraid to take on big locations, you wouldnt need to clean the entire building each day, but you split it up into sections (except toilets and cantinas, clean them every time). so for instance a 3 story building, you split up into 3 sections, mondays you clean the first floor, wednesday second floor etc.
Again, pretend to be a potential client and call around the competition and ask about their plan, and what it includes.
Some businesses might, if they are sensible, ask about yearly maintenance plans for floors and complete cleaning (walls, ceilings and so on), have a sensible answer ready, most likely your going to have to outsource this to someone else with the proper equipment and experience (i used to do this and it can be a pain in the ass and seriously expensive if you dont know what your doing, its also possible to make some decent cash from this).
sum it up; call around the potential competition and pose as a potential customer. ask about prices, how long it would take, whats included in the price and take it from there.
A private house will need cleaning once a week? a business of normal size, 2-3 times a week.
Dont worry about getting your name out there, get the business plan all sorted out, figure out a reasonable price, what is included and a plan for specialized anual cleaning, and have a backup solution for when the main person gets sick. then call around.
Im not saying getting into the market is easy, but you just need 1-3 clients, depending on the town size, this can be either trivial to get or difficult as hell.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea - just go in with your eyes open. It sounds like she may be relatively well-positioned to start her own business of some kind, since she has management experience, particularly with the labor market that she will be employing from/competing in. Not to sound racist, but if she's from the same background and speaks the same language, it could be something else to her advantage, as it should allow her to better screen and recruit employees (and she could very well have some people she can get to work right away).
Not that it matters much if she doesn't mind it, but it does leave much to be considered.
I don't know how serious she is about going through with this, but information such as this will definitely help her in deciding if it is or not.
Will work on researching what you've said further; thank you very much!
Nah, we're Asian. Laotian, specifically. I don't suppose that makes as much of a difference?
I assume since we're not at the point where this is her primary source of income (and it may not become so at all, may just end up as a way to earn a little cash after all) that lower-than-minimum-wage can't hurt too much. If she can build the business up and be able to eventually rise above that, it'll have paid off, I suppose. Overly optimistic?
Mind elaborating further on "and it's not just the people doing the cleaning who get dirty."? Perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it, but that sounds a little scary!
No problem, personaly, id stay as far away from private cleaning as possible, had alot more problems with that than regular businesses. again, a person is alot more carefull/picky about their own house than their office.
just ask if theres anything else youre wondering about.
Edit: I should be heading off to sleep now. Thanks for the responses, some good food for thought. Got to admit I was surprised not only at how fast they were, but also how helpful!
Will update later today/tomorrow with any further questions I or my mom have concerning the responses made in this thread. Good night!... or good morning, since it's 5:00 here.
Somewhat related though, and this is a question for myself: I had to read a book relating to it for my English class not too long ago - Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Went into some pretty disturbing details about maid-work.
For example: Cleaning places that are easy to see, avoiding ones that aren't (under the rug, for example).
Places that are "cleaned" aren't necessarily clean, just made to look it. One example she cites is that a family had a napkin fall on the floor after it was cleaned by maids, and the napkin was soiled with some very gross substance. Don't remember what, but it certainly wasn't clean!
I assume these are possible realities for residential cleaning? If so, is it also applicable to cleaning for small businesses?
Floors - Monday, friday
Desk - Monday
Toilet - Monday, Wednesday, Friday
so over a period of say a month, you have cleaned everything in a room atleast once. whatever gets dirty fast needs cleaning more often than things that dont get any real use.
Its also true that you dont really make something clean-clean, unless your cleaning a operating room at a hospital, this isnt a problem. As long as there isnt dirt/dust/whatever laying on the floor, its clean in my opinion. You know if something is clean or not, common sense or some such.
As an aside, some people are perfectly fine operating under such conditions. After all, everyone does it, and the people they are paying are willing to accept those wages, right? And if the government really cared, they'd actually enforce those laws. Etc. etc. etc.
She might have a slow start, but business might pick up if she does a good job.
I'm not sure what my sister charges... I'll ask next time I see her.
Residential cleaning will generally be done in the day when the family is out. Commercial at night when the workers go home. Which one is better depends on her schedule.
I pay $100 for my apartment to be cleaned.