Janitorial cleaning businesses provide a wide range of services to clients, including cleaning, disinfecting, dusting, tidying up, vacuuming, floor mopping, and waxing. Lately, with the spike of the Covid-19 virus and the necessity for cleaning businesses to specialize in the Center For Disease Control And Prevention-recommended procedures to help fight off the virus, the demand for janitorial cleaning services is on the rise. As a matter of fact, in the U.S., more than 3 million people are working in the cleaning services industry, with the revenue of janitorial services totaling over $72 billion in 2020 alone.
So if you’re willing to put in the hard work and commitment and become your own boss through establishing a profitable and successful janitorial cleaning business—you’re at the right place. In this quick guide, we’ll discuss the low-cost strategies to get your janitorial company up and running on a budget and how to get your cleaning business started in five easy steps.
Compose a Business Plan About Your New Business
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The first step you should take when you want to become a business owner is to create a business plan for your project. In this case, you’ll need to compose a quick two-to-three-pages business plan for your janitorial operation where you should lay out all of your ideas about the business on paper.
Next, you should research all startup costs and write them down, find all insurance policies, permits, and licenses you’ll have to obtain, and make a prediction or a forecast of how much money the cleaning business will earn and spend over the first two years of its existence. Put everything on paper and let the business plan guide you through the process.
Set Your Business’s Cleaning Rates
Factors such as competition, clientele, location, and interior condition will all determine your exact cleaning rates, which you can modify with a single mouse button click if you decide to utilize a professional cleaning proposal template when providing official proposals to prospective clients. You can also earn extra revenue with upgrades like appliance cleanings, window cleanings, and wall washings. Nevertheless, when determining your service’s rates, consider the options below:
- Your hourly rate should be somewhere between $25 to $80 per hour. You can establish a better estimation of your hourly rate by calling competitors and asking how much they charge per hour.
- If you want to work with flat rates, you should charge from $100 to $150 to clean a single-family household. Residential building clients prefer flat rates because they want to know the exact amount to pay each month.
- Lastly, in the commercial cleaning business, it’s standard to charge a per square foot rate where you can expect to charge an office building anywhere from $0.07 to $0.30 per square foot.
Get an EIN Number for Your Business
The federal government provides the EIN or employer identification number to identify businesses across the nation. Once you have your own EIN, you’ll need to use it when opening a bank account, filing taxes, or getting a bank loan. You can get your EIN for free through the IRS, and the entire procedure should take about 30 minutes.
Register a Legal Entity
All janitorial business owners need to register their business as a legal entity to protect their personal assets and belongings if a lawsuit ever occurs against the business. Depending on the state where you’ll operate, the cost to register a legal entity can vary anywhere from $50 to $500.
You can opt to register your business as a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company, or a C corporation, depending on your needs and wants. To kickstart the procedure, visit your state’s business registration website and read about the steps you need to take or hire a legal service to handle the process for you.
Get a Janitorial Bond
Of course, you’ll try to hire the best workers for your janitorial cleaning business, but you won’t be able to guarantee that your future employees won’t commit theft on the job. For that reason, getting a janitorial or surety bond can protect the homeowner’s assets in the event of theft.
Here’s how janitorial bonds work: if an employee steals something from a client’s home, the bond provider will pay to replace it. The bond company puts your company on a payment plan so you can pay them back over time, which is always preferable to a lawsuit or a large payment to the client.
From our perspective, all new cleaning businesses need a bond so that a significant expense from a theft doesn’t sink the company. Usually, a janitorial bond will cost you somewhere around $200 for the first year.
Final Words
Now that you know the necessary steps and low-cost strategies to get your janitorial cleaning business up and running, you’re ready to take steps to become your own boss. And once you have your first clients, all you need to do is do great work, as a clean office or home space will forever be your best marketing method. Well, the mop is now in your bucket—what are you willing to do today to make your janitorial business a reality?