First you need to advertise. Make up some flyer s and go to different business and give to the managers. If you want to do homes do the same thing just distribute them around neighborhoods. I get at least 3 a month. Good Luck with the business
What a great and inspiring answer Mike gave you! I clean small offices, which is easier-and less expensive-to start than the big commercial accounts Mike referred to. It also pays well and consistent, particularly if you have your customer under contract. It can be tough in this economy to find customers, but there are certain small offices that always need to be professionally cleaned, like medical facilities, doctors, dentists, funeral homes. Many times these businesses aren t so pleased with who is cleaning it now, but do not have the time or know how to find an alternative. Also, keep an eye out for newly constructed office complexes for leads.Before you begin getting customers, though, you need to do a few things. You said you have the license, do you have liability insurance or a bond? This is important because it protects you from claims of damage or theft. Those are usually false claims, but why not have the insurance agency deal with it?! Plus, having it is a great sales tool for either residential or commercial. And, keep in contact with your agent, they can be a good lead source for new businesses or home owners.There s a lot more and I have tons of tips and resources for you on my Squidoo lens and blog about starting a cleaning business. The links are in My Profile.Go for It and Good Luck!
My father and I also own a cleaning service.We ve been in business for over 17 yrs.We re located in the west burbs.I normally wouldn t give advise to a competitor, but there is enough work out there for both of us.Also, I think that what comes around goes arouind.If I can help someone out, then it will come back to me somehow.Maybe someone will help me in my time of need.1. When we first started, we were cleaning houses.This is a great place to start, but it is tough work and with the economy the way it is, it s tough.Alot of people don t have the money to hire someone to clean.Don t be discouraged by this.You can find the jobs, but just be patient and diligent.2. After cleaning houses for years, the work began to wear down my mother.We had 6 houses a day, but we split them up.My mother and my father would do 3 and me and my good friend would do 3.The money was pretty good, but like I said before, it was tough work.3. we got our first commercial account with a big well known company about 11 yrs ago.It was a warehouse aprox. 350,000 sq ft.I had no idea how much money there is in this.It was tough though.For these kind of accounts you need to have some money saved.You will have to hire several people.We had to have enough to pay our employees for the first 30 days until we got our first check from the cleaning.Also included with our bid was the supplies(toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning products, ect.)It s best to do as much work as possible yourself.This will avoid having to pay several employees when you first start.Once you get a few checks in, then you can hire more people and kinda act as a supervisor instead of doing all the hard work.Commercial accounts are a little tougher to start up, but that s where the real money is.From that first commercial account we were getting 18.5k per month.After taxes , insurance,payroll and supplies, we were netting 12k per month.Also, we started hauling thier wooden pallets away.We were getting the pallets for free and selling them for $4 each.Not much $ per pallet, but we were getting 500 pallets minimum per day 5 days a week.Do the math.We were easily pulling over 40k per month out of that building!We had that account for 11 yrs, but lost it due to the down economy.If you don t have the money to start out with commercial buildings, then improvise.Where there is a will there is a way.You have 3 options.1. You can do houses and save up the money.2. You can borrow it from someone(that s what we did). 3. You can try to get some kind of small business loan that will cover payroll.They re called payroll loans.I hope this helps you out.Good luck and remember ...STAY VIGILENT!!!Don t ever give up.Every successful person has something in common.They never gave up.
