How long is a piece of string?
First, define the area of cleaning the industry that you wish to enter. As one previous forum member has stated, commercial cleaning is a different “kettle of fish” to domestic cleaning.
Cost! How’s the home life? Start a Commercial Cleaning Company and kiss that goodbye for a few years until you start to employ staff, and they will have to be reliable and trustworthy.
Cost! Define cost. Are we talking money or the state of your nerves and physical well being at the end of a long and tiresome week? Or are we talking filthy lucre? A vacuum cleaner, a few dusters, some chemicals, and, the one thing that money cannot buy. Experience!
Let’s not forget, Insurances, Risk Assessment, Health & Safety, CoSHH oh and most importantly an understanding of how to clean a commercial environment.
Acquiring clients, that’s another cost – cannot be defined.
Wages, equipment, materials, on costs! Telephone, transport costs, invoicing, bank overdraft, oh and of course, bad debts. Where does it end? Not to mention the client who one day thinks you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread and the next day you are toast because he’s had a bad day or your staff have let you down, or both.
The winning numbers for this week’s lottery on Saturday are. 06 - 17 – 36 – 37 – 42 – 44. Bonus ball 02. Could be a better gamble!
All jokes and jibes apart, I would refer you to my first statement. How long is that piece of string?
To go legal you will need Public and Employee liability insurance. Not cheap for a small company. The back-up paperwork as stated above and more. Equipment, E-bay sometimes has equipment from companies that are no longer trading. (Why are they no longer trading?)
No sorry, but to ask such a question is akin to asking the ultimate question. WHY?
How to cost a potential contract and how much bottom line you may achieve, that would be a better question. Do you know how to properly cost a contract, a per hour rate, a contingency budget, how much do you allow for depreciation, replacement, holiday pay, sickness and maternity benefit. The list is not endless but it grows.
Sorry to be so negative but the cost of starting a cleaning company is an imponderable until you have a Cleaning Contract. Don’t spend a penny until you see the whites of the client’s eyes when he says the contract is yours.
Some of the information alluded to above is available from the members of the forum, but you, and only you can be the final arbiter of what the cost to you will be. And I don’t mean just financially!
Good Luck.
