[galaxian]

Hi,

My wife has been cleaning offices and domestic homes for several years.  She regularly makes nearly as much in tips as in what she charges the customer.  Less and less of her income is via her hourly paid work which comes from a major franchise in the area.  I'd rather not say which one. 

She will only be working on new contracts and will not be taking any staff with her from her current employer, its just that 60%  of her current workload is not agency related and she could replace all her work by this means over next 4 weeks should she decide to make the leap.  She would just work her notice and try to ensure clients she currently services via the agency are provided for, allowing for agency agreement. Her word of mouth business is booming and now she has more work than she can comfortably handle without breaking out on her own and taking on cleaners. 

I want to give her all the support I can in starting a cleaning business and have looked around the web and found a number of packages - mainly for the information - which often appears interesting ( www.point2point-cleaning.co.uk , and a number of US based packages such as www.start-cleaning-business.com ).  Can the information such as  how to handle insurance, legalities, pricing etc be found elsewhere on the web or are such packages well worth the time to purchase and study.  Her business needs are different in several respects than my own and therefore advice would be appreciated.

Another issue she has is that while she has trained a lot of girls to clean professionally some will always be human and try to get around the difficult aspects on a cleaning job.  While my Wife knows the level of effort she will put in she does worry about the potential problem of ensuring quality cleaning on each and every job from cleaners that she will soon have to employ.  This is the main thing stopping her becoming an employer as she hates the possibilty of providing a service that may prove to be difficult to monitor for quality.  While I believe this to be something which would not put me off, she will be the decision maker and so she has to be happy with the personal involvement and level of detachment which she may have to adopt as an employer.

A lot asked there and apologies for this but any and all info and advice is appreciated.  Thank you and good luck everyone.

galaxian

[Art]

Hi GAlaxian,

 When i first registered i was advised to fill out more of my profile and it was goood advice as more people responded to my questions when i did 

[CMS]

Not a bad idea that.

[galaxian]

Sorry about that SNA and CMS.  I have updated my profile details but never use msn or yahoo ids etc so not much has changed really. 

As for myself, I can't bring myself to clean , the reason I'm on this forum is only to bring whatever suitable knowledge is available to the awareness of my other half.  Any and all info is welcome.  See, I'm a techie.  Techies just sit around making work for cleaners as they tend to sit at their desk transfixed on the glowing image and can't move to assist in the day to day cleaning ritual which seems to be inbred in my wife and probably many who use this forum. I believe the Sahara is the result of a lot of neat and tidy people brushing all the sand into a nice neat pile.  I'll quite readily clean the insides of my PCs just won't pick up after myself the everyday material that as I sit is beginning to climb upwards off my desk, somewhat hiding and making my cup of tea slightly less available. 

So you now know that I am a mess maker and not a cleaner.  You also know my Wife is my arch nemesis in this regard and sees me as the dirty pig that makes her day longer as she has to clean up after me at the end of her long day.  Any help offered by you all is warmly welcome and this is solely aimed at helping my wife see that there are others out there that share some of the same reservations regarding her need to look after her clients as completely as possible.  I have no doubt there are many out there that ensure that they have a tight rein on the quality and thoroughness of the cleaners they employ and will have suggestions as to the best way to assure such quality from their cleaners. 

By the way this appears to be the best info resource available for the cleaning professional that is UK specific.  Searches for UK cleaning blogs and groups bring very limited results.  Any useful links or insight as to where else to go for info and advice is again appreciated.  However I don't believe there is a bigger infobase than cleanitup.co.uk so I'm just glad I've found you all.

Thank you very much.
Regards, galaxian

[M Walker]

Galaxian you seem to have ruffled a few feathers on this forum which I suspect is affecting the responce rate to your questions. So I will help you out as best I can hopefully others may follow.Your wife needs to decide which route to take there are several options depending on the long term plan and how much income the new venture is likely to generate. Sole Trader Self employed is probabley the more convenient route however she could register as a limited company that will complicate things more as she will become an employee of the company with immediate affect. Further complicating things. Insurances required again depend on if she is going to employ. Public Liability and employers liability insurance are things she will need to consider as well as accounting issues and an accountant There will be lots of advice on her local business link and hopefully more to come from this thread.
Kindest regards
Mark
The Exeter Cleaning Company

[AJCleaningServices]

I would like to say that almost every day somebody starts topic asking for advice on how to start new business.  In order to get useful info about starting new business, you should go through the archives.

I would also suggest you this topic.

Good luck,

Arthur

[galaxian]

Hi Mark and Arthur,

Thanks for the advice, I've been thru most of the forum areas of interest to myself.  With so many it can take a while hence placing a request immediately on forum.  You immediately get those telling you the info is already there, which of course some of it is, but there are aspects of my initial query regarding info packages which have scant comment on this forum.  Its that which I look for response to primarily.

Regarding the ruffling of feathers. 
When someone takes - in my opinion - an extremely heavy handed and offensive attitude to another person, especially a newbie then I will very readily become involved.  My remarks have been removed after they had the effect I expected.  Its simply to assure those that will be aggessive that forums are formed from myriad interpretations of comments some of which may go against them.  They can be glad of the positive responses in such cases but they shouldn't expect the concensus to go all their way.  Remember forums can make Gods or Idiots out of the same people based on the readers viewpoint.  Expect to be either of these at some point.  This is the same regardless of the forum you visit.  I can live under both banners and I'm sure others can to.
 
Regards and thanks again.
galaxian

[reallyatreasure]

Hi, I too am looking into opening my own domestic cleaning business and I also have been told to look through the forum with regard to the insurances and liabilities I will need to set up correctly, unfortunately although i have looked for the last few days through the archives and forum I have yet to find the information. If you have managed to find a thread that explains any information about the insurances or liabilitys can you send me the link to the thread.
I have very similar reservations as your wife does, its one thing knowing how thorough you are at a job but its a giant leap trusting someone else will be a clean/thorough/dedicated as you are. I have also scanned the web and found the sites you mentioned and my reservation are with the point2point package that it is mainly for agency cleaning business as appose to a small family run business which I was thinking of for myself. if you do decide to get this package from point2oint will you let me know if you find it relevant. its also quite a lot of money to buy if it has no specific relevance.

[AJCleaningServices]

You could find some comments made by Lynn (lulu) regarding point2point here.  I would also suggest visiting your local Business Link.
Good luck,
Arthur

[galaxian]

Thanks Arthur,

I think it can't harm to purchase, worth a shot.

Reallyatreasure,

I have very similar reservations as your wife does, its one thing knowing how thorough you are at a job but its a giant leap trusting someone else will be a clean/thorough/dedicated as you are. I have also scanned the web and found the sites you mentioned and my reservation are with the point2point package that it is mainly for agency cleaning business as appose to a small family run business which I was thinking of for myself. if you do decide to get this package from point2oint will you let me know if you find it relevant. its also quite a lot of money to buy if it has no specific relevance.

Yeah, that is the humdinger, it is likely that initially at least she will need to monitor individuals in some way.  Its a fine line this one between being an advisor and a nuisance to your crew.  Some other articles mention getting dummy houses cleaned (those owned by acquaintances) to test the water and this is a good idea.  Some people just find it hard taking the risk that someone may let you down by not cleaning properly or not turning up.  There are always issues such as this with any business.  I know my wife would cover this herself at least initially as I've seen her cover others and I've had to pick her up at 2 in the morning as the clean was being done for someone who is away in the week and was back the following morning.  In that case it has to be done. 

When she does start recruiting properly I'm sure she'll soon know who is most capable.  It has to be borne in mind as well that businesses couldn't survive if they had to rely on workers to be as exacting as those that launched the enterprise.  What one will consider their impact point on others lives, most will quite fairly see as just another job.  You can only cherry pick to a certain extent and then just hope for good results. 

Hi, I too am looking into opening my own domestic cleaning business and I also have been told to look through the forum with regard to the insurances and liabilities I will need to set up correctly, unfortunately although i have looked for the last few days through the archives and forum I have yet to find the information. If you have managed to find a thread that explains any information about the insurances or liabilitys can you send me the link to the thread.

I have also read on a different forum people searching for insurance and coming back with quotes on a per cleaner basis of £200+.  I have not had a good look but a site which you can play about and get quotes on initially is the following as a guide at least to insurance costs.
http://chadwell.apcinsure.co.uk/apcinsure/secure/QuotePage.aspx?TradeCategoryId=12

Regards, galaxian