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There are currently 1.47 million people working in the UK cleaning and hygiene industry, that’s 5% of the UK workforce.
If you’re thinking about starting your own cleaning business that figure might seem reassuring, knowing it’s such an established career, or a bit daunting when you think about the competition.
In reality, 2024 is a great year to be joining the cleaning industry. It’s a service that’s always in demand and is easy and inexpensive to make a career out of. Even in the current cost-of-living crisis, there are still many people looking for cleaners.
So whether as a full-time business or as a part-time earner, here’s how to start a cleaning business on a shoestring budget and scale it to your ambitions.
The following topics are covered in this article:
Starting a cleaning company is one of the cheapest easiest businesses to start. It takes very little upfront capital, earns solid money and is easy to scale. This makes it a great business to get into, whatever your ambitions.
If you want to keep it small and local that’s easy to do or if your aim is to grow, the path to scale is straightforward and relatively easy to do.
On a budget, you can start a cleaning business for under £15. This covers the cost of the cleaning products you’ll need.
It is possible to start with 0 expenses if your customers ask you to use their cleaning products, which is common. However, it is recommended to have your own products available.
This price doesn’t cover additional costs that you will have to pay as your company grows. Once you include the cost of registering your company, insurance and advertising, the total cost of setting up will be approximately £150.
If you want to work on commercial cleaning projects there are further costs such as professional training, equipment and DBS checks which will cost around £150 on top of the other expenses.
You do not need a license or any professional qualification to start a cleaning business in the UK, but you do need to register your business for tax purposes.
It can also be helpful to get a DBS check before you start as this will help reassure customers and allow you to win work you might not otherwise be able to, however, there is no requirement to do so.
You can pay for a DBS via the UK government website.
When you first start out as a cleaner, if you earn less than £1000 within your first tax year, you do not need to register with HMRC. However, we would strongly recommend you do, as it will make your life far easier once the business grows. If you're earning under £1000 you will not be charged tax regardless.
To register your business follow the step outlined by HMRC.
As a sole trader in the cleaning industry, there is no requirement for you to have insurance, however, it is a good idea to get public liability insurance in case any property damage occurs while at work. This costs about £120.
Also, if you employ cleaners to work for your business then you are legally required to have employers' liability insurance. This covers the cost of damages if one of your employees or contractors gets into trouble.
When first starting out it’s a good idea to set your prices at the lower end of the market, typically around £10 - £15 per hour. This will allow you to win more customers early on. As you grow you can then raise your prices and move from an hourly model to a quoted rate.
At this point, you should be able to charge around £300 to £350 per month per home - for 4 weekly cleans. However, you should base your prices according to your customer demographic and the area you’re operating in.
For more help deciding your prices read our article on how to price a job.
When starting out, there are a few cleaning essentials you need.
The following list of cleaning supplies is a good place to start:
Some of these products you may find cheaper in-store, so it’s worth popping into your local shop before buying online.
If you own a carpet cleaner, this is also a great way to make more money. You can charge for carpet cleaning as an additional charge allowing you to make more from each clean.
There are a number of different methods you can use to get clients when first starting out in cleaning, but the best method to do this cheaply is by printing flyers or posting a Gumtree advert.
This is probably the cheapest method possible to gain new customers. Depending on how cheap you want to start you could either:
Once you’ve got your flyers, and potentially some business cards if you want to look extra professional, start posting them through doors in your target area.
It might be an idea to target high-value properties as these can be more profitable, however, all domestic properties are worthwhile.
Remember you will need to be able to bring your cleaning equipment to the home including potentially a vacuum cleaner, so bear that in mind if you don’t have a car.
Gumtree is a great way to pick up your first clients and is fairly inexpensive. Just sign up for a Gumtree account and create an advert offering your cleaning services. This will cost between £7 to £12.
What’s great about Gumtree ads is that they are localised to your area, meaning the people local to you will see your advert. All you need is 3 or 4 people to contact you and you’re up and running.
When designing your advert there are some essentials you should include:
Flyers and Gumtree are obviously not the only methods you can use to find customers. Other options such as using social media, word-of-mouth recommendations or other paid services are also options available to you.
Another site to look at is Bark.com, this allows you to boost your profile to potential customers in your target area.
Once your first customer makes contact, you need to arrange your first clean. How you handle this is important as it will determine whether or not you can secure the client as a repeat customer.
It is always a good idea to offer a free consultation before you complete your first clean.
This has two benefits:
One
Firstly it allows you to assess how extensive the clean will be and how long it will take. This avoids the situation where the customer thinks the job will take 2 hours and is prepared to pay for that price when in fact it takes 4.
It also prevents the scenario where either you're asking for more than the customer is expecting or are forced to clean to a lower standard to ensure you’re completed in time.
Two
The second benefit is you have a chance to meet the customer in person and properly introduce yourself. This makes you appear more professional and allows you to get a feel for the client.
Asking the right questions is a powerful tool that will help you win over customers and deliver a better service.
When you arrive at the property, have some questions pre-prepared. You need to find out information about their quirks and preferences for the clean. This will ensure they’re not disappointed.
The following questions are a good place to start:
If you don’t do laundry or don’t do the dishes then let them know. Be clear about what the clean does cover and what isn’t included.
Remember good customer service is key to winning long-term clients. Most cleaning businesses do not offer a high level of service, if you do, you will stand out.
For some extra tips on how to mange your customers and deliver the best service we've written an article on how to improve your customer communication.
Completing your first clean to a high standard is key to winning repeat work.
In most cases, those who reach out to you will initially ask for one clean and won’t mention repeat work. However, most of the time this is as a precaution to test you out.
If you clean to a high standard and the customer is happy, chances are they will ask about a regular clean. At this point, you can arrange a day and time and sign them up for a weekly clean.
As you acquire more customers, it's important that you stay organised and keep track of the appointments you have booked. To make life easy for yourself we’d recommend investing in a good CRM with service plan functionality.
This type of investment may be a bit much for you at the start but once your business starts to grow it’s a smart investment to make.
Payaca is a great option for this, as within their software you can set up repeat payment plans that allow you to easily organise your jobs and take payments from recurring subscriptions. This is even more useful once you move to a per-job rather than hourly pricing structure.
This is something we go into in more detail in our article on how to secure recurring revenue.
Once you’ve got an established base of customers, you can start thinking about growing your business. This means hiring an additional cleaner.
We would usually suggest doing this when you have around 15 homes but take this step whenever you're ready. However, do bear in mind that if you're charging a low hourly rate you’ll need enough customers to support an additional salary.
When you’re ready to hire a new cleaner a good place to advertise is on Indeed.
To do this, create an account and post an ad for a part-time cleaner working in your operating area. You should include the hours they will work per week and the area they will operate. Again the more information you can provide the better.
Once you receive applicants, take them on a trial clean where you will shadow them as they work. This way you can ensure they’re cleaning to your standards.
If you’re happy with the quality of their clean you can take them on as a cleaner for your business. However, remember to provide regular spot checks to ensure they’re continuing to clean to the standards you expect.
Once you start taking on new staff, you’ll quickly find that you need to increase your prices.
This can be a bit daunting, but if you’ve been cleaning to a high standard and your customers like you, then in most cases clients will accept the raise. For those that don’t, this opens an opportunity to switch to more high-value customers.
Inevitably there will be a turnover of customers as your business grows. This is to be expected and allows you to increase your profit margins. Winning high-value customers should become easier as you establish a reputation.
Steps like creating your own website and setting up a Facebook page are important stages in the process of establishing yourself as a business that will allow you to win these customers.
As a rule, you should aim to move away from a price-per-hour model and instead price per job. Once you’ve got multiple cleaners working under you a reasonable price to charge would be around £300 to £350 per month on a recurring subscription. This would include one clean per week.
It is at this point that it’s a good idea to seriously consider a software like Payaca. As we mentioned earlier it makes your life so much easier, allowing you to easily manage multiple accounts and take payments seamlessly.
When processing your old financial information you might also benefit from tools that can help you import bank statements to Quickbooks, allowing you to easily digitalise your paper records.
For more help with increasing your prices check out our article on why your service business should increase it’s prices.
With business booming, you can now think about diversifying your portfolio of clients. Where before your focus will have been on domestic properties you can now start transitioning towards commercial cleaning.
To do this you will need to provide quality assurance. This means using staff with a recognised cleaning qualification, DBS checks and insurance. Investing in these aspects of your business will allow you to put in bids to win larger commercial jobs.
You can also consider other types of cleans such as AirBnB cleans. With the right hosts, you will gain work from multiple homes, which is a very efficient way to grow.
Remember at this point you will be doing very little, if any, cleaning yourself. Your job is now to manage your cleaners and make sure the operation goes smoothly.
Starting a cleaning business is a great idea.
It’s one of those operations that is very easy and inexpensive to start and can be amazingly profitable. There are many examples of people starting from the bottom who are now earning millions from their cleaning business.
There are plenty of shady salesmen promising rich quick schemes, but cleaning genuinely is a profitable profession that does bring results. It does take some upfront work, but with relatively little effort you can be very successful.
And if your aim is for a small-scale operation cleaning is great for that too. You can even build the company to make it into an essentially passive income.
So if you’re in two minds about getting started, stop thinking about it and just start. The most you’ll lose is £15 for cleaning equipment.
So go for it and good luck.
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