Today, starting a home-based Business is a hot trend and setting up a cleaning service business is an excellent option for this kind of a business. While the cleaning business may not really be a “bed of roses” for the ones who are actually cleaning the mess of others, nevertheless, a cleaning service as a business opportunity has immense potential and is profitable too.

Setting up a home-based cleaning business from scratch is no mean job; however, you would be heartened to know that some of the biggest conglomerates in the world that we admire so much such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and the list goes on, started their humble beginnings in homes and garages and you can read our article on how it all happened here.

So, if you’re up to taking on the challenge of starting your own cleaning service, you can even start one as a side hustle that could be an excellent way to supplement your income from your full-time job. And the best part is that you don’t need a huge capital investment to start your cleaning business and you can do it even with a limited budget. In this article, we will be discussing how you can set up your cleaning business using cost-effective methods.

Steps to Set up Your Cleaning Business

Decide Your Offerings

The first step to setting up your cleaning business is that you need to decide whether you want the business to be a full-time on or a part-time side business that will generate extra money. It is a good idea to determine the set of services you will offer. If you are planning the cleaning business as a side hustle, then you can start with cleaning for 1-2 clients and offer basic cleaning services such as vacuuming, mopping and dusting, or if you plan to take it up as a full-time business, you can offer a wider range of cleaning services like furniture polishing, upholstery cleaning, mold removal, window washing, etc.

Location

Your cleaning service company should be legitimate and have a professional image. The best part of having your cleaning service as a home-based business is that you can the save on the overhead that you would incur for an office setup, which you do not need, as your clients will never really visit your office because all the cleaning work will be done at your clients’ premises.

However, this is not the only issue that really influences the decision of working from a commercial or home-based office. Several areas and municipalities have regulations which limit commercial activities in residential areas. While some do not allow the setting up of home-based businesses at all, others may allow such businesses with restrictions regarding employees, traffic, signage, vehicles, etc. It is a good idea to check out the rules and regulations for your specific area before you decide on setting up your cleaning business as a home-based business.

Choosing the Name of Your Company

Choosing the name of your company is a very important task. The name that you choose can be as creative as you want it to be and when you are thinking up names for your company, think of catchy names and decide on one that will be memorable and stick in the minds of your potential clients. The name should allow you to be unique and distinct from your competition. You may want to select a name that is 2 to 4 words long and includes the words cleaning, clean, or some name that describes what your business does. This will help in search engine optimization and also in brand recognition.

You can use Thesaurus.com to help you find synonyms for the names that you have chosen and also check if the domain name is available for registration on Namecheap.com. However, before you actually go ahead and register your domain name, run a Google search with your business name to ensure that there are no similar sounding business names that can confuse people looking for your website. Ensure that the name is not being used by any other business, which you can check online via the company directory and also run the domain name through Whois.com to ensure that the domain name is not already owned.

Registering Your Business

To start your business, it is necessary to register the business with the local governmental agency, which makes your company more legitimate. You can run your business as a sole proprietorship, an LLC (limited liability company) or a corporation. You can either complete the registration process on your own or make use of an online legal service such as LegalZoom or RocketLawyer to do the work for you.

Not only does registering your company makes it legitimate, registration also has other benefits such as:

It allows you to open an account in the bank.

Avail business deductions.

Get loans.

Join trade associations.

Makes you eligible for discounts on cleaning supplies.

Allows you to get government contracts.

Lets you hire full-time employees as you get the state identification number.

However, if you want to run your cleaning business as a side business to earn extra money, then a business registration is not needed.

How To Setup A Home Office For Your Cleaning Business (so you appear professional, and get clients to take you seriously)

Using a PO Box vs a UPS Store Mailbox

For your home-based cleaning business, you can make use of a PO box or a UPS Store Mailbox so that you can keep your address private and prevent people from seeing where you live via your Google map listing.

A PO box or a postal box is a mailbox that is located in your local post office and can be locked. PO boxes are the traditional way in which you can get your mail when you do not want it delivered to your home.

Advantages of a PO Box

Usually, the PO Box is located in the post office and you can access it only if you have the proper key or the right combination. The mail stored in your PO Box is more secure than your home mailbox which is unlocked. You can also access your PO box any time you want.

The mail is usually delivered faster to your PO Box as these are housed by the post office and there is no need for you to keep waiting for the mailman to drop off your mail.

The main advantage of a PO Box is that renting one lets you protect your privacy, especially when you don’t want your clients to know where you live. The PO box allows you to get a different mailing address for your business transactions and contacts.

PO boxes are quite inexpensive and you can get one for a 6-month period for as low as $10.

PO boxes are extremely useful for people who are always on the move, which saves you the time and effort of changing your mailing address each time you move.

Advantages of a UPS Store Mailbox

Although a PO box has many advantages, a private mailbox such as a UPS Store Mailbox offers several advantages in the case of your home-based cleaning business such as:

The UPS Store Mailbox gives you a street address which is more professional for your business as compared to a PO box number.

A UPS Store Mailbox also allows you to maintain your privacy and not reveal your address to your client.

UPS Store Mailbox offers 24×7 access to your mailbox and you can pick up your mail whenever you want. And all your mail, as well as package deliveries, remain confidential and safe.

When you receive mail or packages, the UPS Store Mailbox sends you an alert via text message or email.

You need not stop and check your mailbox like you would at the post office; all you need to do is call the UPS Store to know whether you have any mail or any packages waiting for you.

Buy a Business Phone Number for Your Mobile Phone

An important thing you need when setting up your home-based cleaning business is a business phone number which will allow you to receive and make all your business calls. The best option is to go in for a virtual phone that gives you complete freedom to make and receive your calls which you can route to any phone you want. A virtual phone system allows you to program your greetings, configure the phone menus and offers many other features such as call forwarding, faxing, etc. The installation of the phone system is very quick as there is no extra equipment to set up and the best part is that the phone services are quite inexpensive. You can opt for service providers such as Grasshopper or Phone.com for your business phone.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper is a virtual phone system targeted mainly at small and medium businesses and entrepreneurs that require an easy-to-use, affordable and reliable communication system. Grasshopper provides you with local, 800 and vanity numbers, voicemail transcription and an auto attendant. The best part being that all of these features can work along with your existing phone line.

Grasshopper Benefits

You can convert your smartphone into your business phone and start making or receiving calls wherever and whenever you want.

You can increase the credibility of your business with a toll-free number.

Grasshopper allows you to separate your business and personal calls.

Offers features such as fax, international calls, conference calls, mobile app, softphone, voicemail to email, call forwarding, caller screening, call transfer and call blocking.

Phone.com

Targeted towards small businesses and entrepreneurs, Phone.com provides innovative telecommunication solutions. Phone.com provides customer support to over 25,000 customers across the United States. The iOS and Android apps let you manage many phone numbers on your smartphone and also allow you to separate your business and personal profiles. The solutions from Phone.com are very adaptable and offer comprehensive reporting and analysis.

Phone.com Advantages

Offers 24×7 customer support in the US.

The service is inexpensive and does not need you to sign a long-term contract.

You get local and toll-free numbers.

Unlimited extensions and voicemails.

Greetings, menus and hold music to enhance the user experience.

Dedicated conference call room free with all the plans.

Offers call forwarding with customization and rules.

Setting up Your Cleaning Business Website

Setting up a website for your cleaning business is the best way to market it. Designing and setting up a website is extremely easy. You create your website using WordPress, which is the best content management system that allows you to develop and set up your website very easily. The first step to creating a website for your business is to buy a domain name and you can easily buy and resister your domain on sites such as GoDaddy, Register.com or Whois.

And, once your website name has been decided and registered, you need to buy server space to host your website. Today, there are many hosting providers out there; however, it is a good idea to evaluate the options available and look for a web host that offers a WordPress focus and also has all the functionalities required for your cleaning business. There are hosting service providers like Siteground and Bluehost. Here are some of the features of both these:

Siteground

Siteground began its operations in 2004 and compared to Bluehost, it is quite a recent entrant.

Siteground has its server infrastructure spread across four countries.

The web host makes use of a cPanel that is quite user-friendly, easy to navigate with quite a clean interface.

Siteground offers several web hosting and WordPress features and the pricing of Siteground is quite competitive.

The customer support offered by Siteground is excellent and more reliable when compared to Bluehost.

Transferring to another web host is quite easy and free of cost.

Bluehost

Bluehost is among the top 20 website hosting companies and was started way back in 1996.

It has hosted over 2 million websites.

Like Siteground, Bluehost also provides a cPanel. While the cPanel is quite intuitive and user-friendly, the cPanel of Bluehost is packed with their upsells and offers, which may be quite annoying to the users.

Bluehost has many features and offers excellent WordPress hosting and web hosting features.

Bluehost also offers 24×7 customer support like Siteground.

To transfer your services to another web host, Bluehost charges a fee of $149.

Creating Your Logo

Having a logo is very important for your cleaning business, as the logo is the representation of your brand and makes it unique from the scores of other products and services in the market. With a logo, you can be sure to make a lasting impression in the minds of your customers. And, if you don’t want to really spend megabucks hiring an advertising agency to design your logo for you, you can create your own logo by using some of the best logo builders available on the internet. You can consider logo builder websites such as Tailor Brands, SquareSpace, Canva, Hipster Logo Generator, etc.

Designing Your Visiting Card

A very important tool that can help you market your business and also give details of your business to your customers is your visiting card. And if you don’t really have a budget to have your visiting card designed and printed by a professional printer, then you have great options to do it yourself using an online printing service such as Vistaprint.

Vistaprint is quite a popular online printing service that is used by thousands of businesses to especially print visiting cards. Not only does Vistaprint print regular visiting cards, you can make your cards quite fancy by using their specialized printing options such as metallic finish cards, raised print and spot glass, while offering them at quite inexpensive prices. Vistaprint offers a wide range of around 1,300 designs you can choose from and the print quality is also quite good. Vistaprint is an excellent option for your cleaning service start-up, especially if you’re looking for a large number of cards to distribute.

So, now that you are aware of the steps required to start a home-based cleaning business, you are all set to get your business rolling, which is sure to be an extremely successful and fulfilling enterprise!

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