Starting a Cleaning Business ... when you hate to clean

Recently I was invited to join two other women who want to start a part time cleaning business. My immediate gut reaction was "Hell NO!"... and then my secondary and third reactions were equally as negative and not appropriate for print but they basically summed my feelings up like this, "I can't stand cleaning my own house, why would I want to clean someone elses?"

And then.... what often happens to me... happened and I had an epiphany.

I realized that I don't have to clean houses to earn money cleaning... I can clean office space!

I enjoy vacuuming, mopping and dusting uncluttered surfaces, provided I have gloves, I don't mind cleaning bathrooms. That my friends, sums up the office cleaning responsibilities... right? I would say that in most offices you aren't going to run into dirty laundry, toys, crayons.... and a sink full of unwashed dishes..... Oh did I mention that most offices don't have dog or cat hair!

So, I set out to do some research.... (most of which was performed in my head... right before I fell a sleep)... I thought back about the cleaning services I have witnessed.

1.) JaniKing - cleaned a post-secondary school I worked at as an instructor in the evening. Basically, they wiped the bathrooms down, emptied the garbages and vacuumed the floors. They didn't clean any table tops or computer monitors... Maybe, they used fantastic on the cafeteria tables, but I don't think so. I NEVER saw a mop on any of the tile floors, but that doesn't mean they didn't do them... I never saw them. AND I remember that they did NOT remove stains from the carpets.

2.) Alfredo - The guy that cleans the office where I work now. Alfredo comes in every Saturday for an hour or so, and cleans the bathrooms and empties the garbages. He also vacuums the carpeted areas... OH, I think I've seen him damp mop the tile floors.

Again.... no toys, no dog hair, no cat hair, no laundry, no dishes.

I guess the question would be, how much would you need to make a cleaning business worth the money. And that question, will be answered after additional research... Until then, have a great day!

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.

Do What You Love, Love What You Do!

Is finding a job that you love to go to every day a Fairy tale? I don't think so. If you disagree, then stop reading this article now, because you need to believe that you can do it, in order to find the job.


There, have we lost all of the negative nay sayers? Now let's get down business. There are 2 kinds of people in the world. Those that live to work and those that work to live. OK OK there are also the people that don't work at all! HA HA, let's make a couple of assumptions.


First, we are all willing to work.

Second, we find sheer joy in something.


Are you asking yourself, "Did she say, Sheer Joy?"


Yup, I said "SHEER JOY"


Finding joy in something--anything is the key to finding that occupation that you absolutely love. Start to think in terms of "what do you really love doing" not in terms of "what jobs are listed on Career builder" Now... I'm not saying that there aren't those people that love and enjoy the money they earn from a job they hate... MORE than they want to enjoy their job.

Let's face it... if you have a nice high paying job, and it is making your life easier to live and making it easier to raise your family and afford the things you like... you should probably keep that job. This article is really more for the people that are either not satisfied with their jobs or simply can't keep a job.

Think outside the box. It's scary and you might need to move outside your comfort zone... you might need to physically MOVE... but think about it. Really think. And Answer this question.
What 3 things do you really LOVE.

Here's my list:

Books
Coffee
Giving People Advice / Solving Problems

Nice right. Here's what I found... I love books, love to own then, love to read them, love to sell them. So I started an eBay bookstore. I do pretty well, when I keep up on the listing inventory, I enjoy everything about selling the books... except -- keeping up on the listing inventory. (shameless plug for my bookstore: http://stores.ebay.com/attic-stairs-bookshop) So, I make some money, but more like a hobby then a real job. Part of the problem (or at least I explain to myself) is that I have to pay bills, so I can't invest as much time as is required into looking for the GREAT books. Well... I never would have known if I hadn't tried.

I LOVE Coffee... My dream. ..... sigh..... one day, I will own a coffee shop. You know, one of those coffee shops with Internet access... maybe even a couple of PC's on the wall... Maybe a coffee shop / gently used book store. Ahhhhh that would be nice. Let local bands come and play on Saturday Nights... That is what I'm shooting for, that's the dream that I'm putting together.

Now back to you, Why is being JOYFUL important? Because it's true, once you start doing something every day, day in and day out, unless you really love it... it will lose some of it's luster.

Now the hard part. How do you make money doing that thing you love. First realize that not everyone can do what you do. Whether it is reading a book, walking a dog, cleaning a house, using a computer, talking on the phone, liking cats, dogs, badgers raccoons... Find you niche.

If it's animals that are your thing, call the local animal control service, or local vet and tell them you're looking for a job. You get the idea, right?

Don't fall into the trap of under valuing yourself, your product or service. Frequently, because you are offering something that you love doing, that you find easy, you may think everyone can do it so why would they pay. Do the research, Google your job idea. See if there is a specific name for what you like to do, See what other people are paying people to do that job. If it's a business idea (like my coffee shop) then do the research. Take a look at successful businesses, see why they are successful and how they run the work place and what they provide.

Before I leave off on this article... You MUST MUST MUST create a business plan. There are hundreds of business plan helpers on the Internet and I think Microsoft (http://office.microsoft.com/) even has several business templates for MS Word. You business plan is a road map. A Road Map to success... it's helps you measure your success and ultimately achieve your success.

Good Luck keep me Posted.