[whitworth77]

Hi,

Me and a friend are looking into setting up a cleaning business, ideally cleaning offices, shops, estate agents etc..
I would like to know if anyone has some advise on how to get things moving. At the moment I am working full time & earning around £14K per year, so i'm worried that i will not be able to leave work & be able to afford the mortgage & bills.
We seem to have hit a brick wall at the moment and would be really greatful for any advice anyone could give!

Thanks for your time,

Lee.

[ok cleaning]

there is allways risks and you have take a step we all did and some of us did well some of us did not time will yell

[Pristine Clean]

Hi Lee,

I made the big step many years ago. Yes at first, the first 2 - 3 years it was hard. Sometimes extremely stressful. At times I even considered going back to working for someone else. Its was that bad.

Even now there are times when you wonder whats it all for.

But I must say most of the time the good outways the bad. I know have found something that works. Its taken hard work, long hours and alot of cut backs. But now I am reapping the rewards even in this climate.

Advice would be to save some money. So you have some to see you through the bad times. You dont need thousands upon thousands but 2 - 3 thousands pounds will help. To pay mortgage, food when you hit a rough spot.

What you could do is start off part time whilst keeping you job.

Cold call companies, Get prices from competitors.. we have all done it! So you have an idea of what to charge.

You could get an automated receptionist for about £20 a month they answer your calls. Forward them to you by email, voice or transfer the call to you. That way you sound like a good structured company. When infact your at home or living in ya car.

Advertise, website is best and cold calling... dont splash out on too much advertising. Get some cards made up.. leave them with estate agents, letting agents.

Your business will grow slowly. What about one off house cleans.

Dont forget about all the tax, insurance you need. Plus what services are you offering. What toold will you require.. do you have the money for them or can you hire them.

it wont happen or take off straight away but it will come. Providing you do not charge over the odds like some I know.


Dave

[Cleaning Resource]

Here is my advice, and possible the best advice you might receive.

 I started my business 4 yrs ago with two contracts giving me an income of £17500, I continued working fulltime for another cleaning company whilst I canvassed to find these first contracts. I spent less than £200 on vacuums and cleaning gear for my two contracts, with insurance etc my total set up costs were less than £500.......I thought, yer this is gonna be easy......and it was until I got to the point of employing staff. Over the past 4 yrs I have employed men, woman, polish, chinese, english, young and old, I`ve payed top wages and min wage, bonuses and incentives but in the end they all let you down.

The problem with the cleaning industry is that the people who want cleaning jobs are generally the people who couldn`t achieve anything better with their lives or they are just using it as a stop gap or top up to their proper job.

The cleaning industry in my eyes is a cheap and easy business to get into, I was earning less than 13k a year working as a cleaner, I had a misses and a young baby, and a terrible credit rating. I spent £50 on business cards, put me suit on and went out looking for contracts, it really was that easy. But take my advice, do all the cleaning yourself, work your arse off and save your money to spend on setting up a different business that does not rely on employing staff, cos thats when it all suddenly becomes very hard and frustrating.........

[shelton]

Here is my advice, and possible the best advice you might receive.

Hard but fair.

[Joe H]

Some good advice from Gleam.

No matter how hard YOU work and how good YOU are - your reputation will be built on what your workers do (when/if you get to that point.

If you can earn a living between the 2 of you - whiich will be tough, then thats fine.

[chloejayne]

Ummm, yeah good advise from a man with the best advise  maybe

Before saying things like that I would make sure my links to my web site WORK first 

[Office Cleaning Company]

I would suggest starting up a cleaning business is much more difficult than a few decades ago. There are all sorts of things which you need to have in place before starting a contract, correct insurance policies, health and safety assesments etc. Once you start employing people then you need to have access to employment law, TUPE regulations etc. If you get any of these wrong it could cost you dearly. You will also need some working capital as your clients will not pay until long after you have carried out the work.

Another point to consider is that this is a highly competitve industry and the cleaning industry is already swamped by cleaning companies with supply outstripping demand, many cleaning companies are currently being consolidated by larger companies because there simply isnt the demand for them and they have to be scaled up to larger companies to try to make dwindling profit margins through larger econmies of scale.

This is probably not what you want to hear, but it is a reality check, starting a new commercial cleaning can be done as we can all attest to, but if doesnt work out is it going to be easy to find a new job for you in this climate?

[heritagecleaning]

Listen to Gleam. That's the best/truest piece of advice/philosophy I've ever read on this forum.

The only upside is that if you do 'keep it in the family' then you can sell on service and charge top money for a top job. This however does, as Gleam says, go straight out of the window the moment you try employing staff.

You could pick up one or two good cleaners, I have in the past, but the rest of what's at the bottom of the barrel will also call you - "Got any cleanin' jobs?"

[newbroom]

Sorry to be a fly in the ointment, but Gleam's advice is not the best advice. Its only the best advice if you have limited ambition regarding your cleaning business.

You and your friend need to ask yourself what are my/ our goals for this business. Do you want to do all the work yourselves and keep all the money or do you want to grow til eventually you are earning even though metaphoricly speaking, you are not lifting a finger.So far you have been given a negative view point of employing staff, it is not the case, it more about your ability to manage people than anything else.


I  currently employ 30 plus staff and yes i do have staffiings issues same as any other s.m.e. but i also have more options when it comes to holiday cover, sickness  etc. Some of my staff have been with me over 8 years, i would suggest it more about indentifying the ideal person to employ than anything else.


Good luck with your venture.

[Gilbert Sprous]

I am going to go out on limb here and agree with every one.  The question is where do you see  yourself in two years, or where do you want to be.  If you are quite happy with doing the cleaning, you can charge a premium if and when you get recognised for above average service you will gain contracts even at a premium rate.  That is how I got started.  If you are a good salesman, you can convince people that the premium is worth the service provided.  But you can only go so far with that, I am finding that now and I am trying to prepare for the next challenge.  If I decided too, I could easily survive with what I am making now but I want to try and take it to the next level.  I do already have 2 employees and a couple of subcontractors that do work for me.  I have already had some of the trials of having employees.  Some are good some are not so good.  I have had to take contracts back from staff because I would have lost the contract.  The clients stated that the staff I had put in was not nearly as thorough as I was.  It would be hard to keep up the premium without the service they had grown accustomed too.  So to grow and be competitive, I will probably have to lower my invoicing and try and find suitable staff.  Now saying that, the first employee I hired is the best that I will probably ever have.  Never sick, alway on time, and will work extra hours at the drop of a hat. 

Saying all that I think you can see, how I agree with everyone.  You just have to decide at what position you will be satisfied and content.

Cheers

[Cleaning Resource]

Green but Green my website is down because I have taken it down because I am not wanting anymore work at the moment..... not that it has anything todo with my post