A Quest for Legitimate Home Business

Good Morning Everyone!

This morning I renewed my search (my ever on-going search) for profitable and affordable home businesses.

Not long ago, I posted a list of 10 businesses that were affordable and pretty good niche markets for the stay at home parent.

After about 5 hours of research I come up with the big one.

This is based on the number of successful franchises available... and my own personal experience.

This opportunity isn't for everyone... because basically, the world is split into three categories when it comes to this opportunity:

Those that can and like it
Those that can and hate it
Those that can't

That's why it's such a lucrative business.... conceivably 2/3rd's of the population will pay 1/3 of the population.... to do it!

It is clean.

That's right. While I sit and blog, in the back of my head I am thinking about the laundry, the unvacuumed floors, the untidy kitchen, the unmade beds, the NEVER SEEN A DUST RAG table tops, the cluttered kitchen table and coffee table, the messy toy area, the refrigerator, the counter tops... You name it... I need to address it.

But alas.... I fall into the second category. Those that can, but hate it. In fact, I would gladly work an extra 10 hours a week to afford to pay someone $100.00 every 2 weeks to come into my home for several hours and clean it up.

Years ago I knew a Slovakian woman who would come to my home and clean it. Here are the tips I learned from her to make it a lucrative business:

#1) Pricing:
Client commits to every 2 weeks - Figure about 4 hours for average house @ $25.00/hr
Client requests, 1 time clean up - Figure at least twice as much

-Here's what my Slovakian friend told me, if she comes every 2 weeks, the house remains cleaner and cleaner and eventually she spends only 3 - 4 hours in the house, but still makes the same amount of money.

If the house is a one time clean-up, it is probably very messy, and with no ongoing maintenance, she doesn't want to be called back once a month to spend a lot of time without getting paid for her time. She values her time at a minimum of $25.00.

She also explained that she always tries to convert one-time clean ups into bi-monthly clients.
She didn't advertise, she got ALL of her clients by word of mouth and towards that end, she ALWAYS did an exceptional job cleaning.

She NEVER brought her own supplies. She would use the home owners supplies and leave a list of items that needed to be replenished before the next visit.

She would leave a list of cleaning tools that needed to be purchased or replenished before the next visit

AND for her bi-monthly clients, once she gets the cleaning and clutter under control she always picks an extra project, like the refrigerator, the kids toy bin, the hall closet or office.

AND it's primarily a cash business.

Let's do the math together:

If you want to work part-time, while the kids are in school, you have approximately 6 hours available. That's easily 1 regular customer a day, and a random new or one time clean up customer.
5 Regular customers a week @ $100.00 a day is a weekly income of $500.00, for perhaps 20 hours of work.

If you could possibly eeek out another client on any given day, that's ... an additional $100.00

---------------------
How to start

The best way to get reliable consist work is... Word of Mouth.

Start with a neighbor or friend and let them know that you are starting a home cleaning business and tell them to let their neighbors know that if they want someone reliable, affordable and trustworthy to come in and clean... they can give you a call. I think you will be surprised at how many people... would like someone to come and help them out with the cleaning.

let me know what you think.