Small Cleaning Business

[fram_james]

Hi All,

I am thinking about starting a small cleaning business. Small being the keyword here. A small number of customer as so not to get in over or heads. I am in the business of selling cleaning supplies to an extent, so I feel that may cut down on the supply overhead.

My main question is, does anyone here have any experience with this type of thing, and if so what kind of direction can you give me?

Thank you to all who reply!

James

[Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.]

Hi James

I read this the other day, but didn't know which angle of the cleaning business you might be interested in.

Some areas of the business are very hard to break into unless you join a franchise company, which is actually your safest way to go.

I would imagine that your surely not talking about residential home cleaning services, but more along the lines of something in the commercial field.

Too much competition and too low fees in residential cleaning. The commercial field is much more broad, but unfortunately mostly tied up by the franchises with long term contracts.

My cousin was cleaning commercial offices, one of the offices she had been doing for over 7 years, when they finally agreed to a contract with a franchise company that was handling other offices of theirs. Her fee was less than they agreed upon with the franchise outfit, but the franchise outfit tossed in some extras, like bulb changing, minor maintenance, etc. in order to get the contract signed.

In any case, my cousin decided to join a small franchise group that handled public rest rooms. Sounds yucky for sure. But she says its the most cushy job she ever had and it pays almost double of the drugery of cleaning office buildings. And she did not have to provide her own liablity insurance, it was part of the franchise deal. With franchise routes, seniority plays a big role of WHERE your route will be. But fortunately for her, the most unwanted route was the route second nearest to where she lived. Eventually she got the route that radiated around her own neighborhood. The franchise handles all the billing and supplies all the materials and trains on the methods they use. She is still free to use some of her own cleaning aids if she desires, but what the company supplies is usually better than anything she can obtain. They don't use their hands, even gloved for hardly anything. Tongs and long handles are on everything, and in some establishments, even hoses and mini power washers can be utilized.

She loves it! And it takes a whole lot less of her time. Lot of driving though from place to place. But most places have at least

2 cleaning jobs, many have 4 and a few have 6 to 8 at one location.

Just food for thought!

TTUL Gary