A cleaning business provides services such as dusting of surfaces and fixtures, wiping, mopping and vacuuming of floors, stairs and carpets to a market of people who may not have the time or patience to carry it out for themselves.

A cleaning business is generally composed of two segments which are the residential and commercial markets. It’s a business which requires only a minimal start up capitalization and can be started from your own home. The market is a niche market which is huge and sustainable. This maybe due to the fact that a large number of married households that are both holding day office jobs are having lesser time to tend to house care. Clocking in at least twelve hours a day each for the office leaves barely a few quality hours for the children and when they get home they have hardly enough time to do the household chores. And this is everyday of the week till a vacation comes within sight. And by then, nobody really wants to spend that in cleaning the house.

The main target for this would be a middle income family with these situations. If you’re lucky enough to be situated in a neighborhood which comprises a lot of these households you may not need to go far to establish a good customer base.

A residential cleaning business mainly offers is a maid service. It requires that you collect hardworking, determined and honest individuals who share in the outlook of your business. It actually requires very little skill and hardly any hi-tech gadgetry to do the job. You would also not want a clumsy staff member, so as to have their head in what their doing and be relied upon not to take anything from the premises they are servicing on. It’s also good if you can get staff members which do not require much or any supervision at all, this will allow you to focus in running the other aspects of the business.

The commercial market segment requires mostly a janitorial service, which is quite like a maid services but handles a much greater area of work and responsibility. Your list of customers may include large offices, banks, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, theme parks, and hospitals.

It’s a wise thing to do to plan out your business by devising your policies and how you will be running your operations. A rate system should be developed and possibly service packages where your client can easily choose from. Aside from your basic offerings you may want to add services like rug and carpet cleaning, which will tackle deep dirt and stains caused by treading, food and beverages, art materials and other household chemicals that may mar and discolor the materials, disinfecting them along the way as you clean out odors from usage or from pets. You can include upholstery, wall cleaning and false ceiling restoration also. An Application of a high quality surface protectant or fire retardant is a premium some clients are willing to spend for also.

For more information: Starting a Cleaning Business