The cleaning industry has two main market segments, namely the direct consumer and the commercial market. The consumer market is a non-frequent market comprising maid services, household servicing, window cleaning, carpet cleaning and pool services to name a few. The commercial market on the other hand is a larger scale service offering, contracted on a regular basis. Under general services could be janitorial and maid services. This could cover offices, restaurants, schools and hospitals among some. It’s a business that doesn’t require that much of an investment to start with and you can start on a small scale scope.

It’s a business that doesn’t rely that much on technological gadgetry. It being a service oriented kind of business you must go back and focus on the core. Your employees. Just take extra care on the service that your staff must accomplish and do be very thorough about it. Do remember that the special care on the small details will enhance the whole picture of the total outcome. Another important thing is to find your niche market. You’d want try to target a higher income family who can afford the services you offer and not have the time themselves to do the household chores. Let’s take a look at a few of these businesses to scale:

1. Maid services – A vehicle (not necessarily brand new), a vacuum cleaner, a few mops, some industrial cleaning solutions which include dirt removers and polish, a few rags, and a well disciplined, hard working staff then you’re on your way to start your cleaning business. Congratulations!

Usually as the owner of the business you’d like very much to dig in with the staff with the dirty work. Aside from the time you spend cleaning you’ll be faced with the other chores of doing customer relations, purchasing equipment and accounting. As the business grows you will need to focus on running the business instead of helping in the workforce.

2. Carpet and Upholstery cleaning – residential customers mostly just have their carpets cleaned. Commercial clients would also require maintenance of seats and couches in areas like schools, churches, recreational centers, banks, offices, hotels and terminals. If you’re in a major city, you may need only a few clients to keep your staff constantly at work.

Carpet cleaning services covers more than just carpets. Wall cleaning, curtain and draperies, stain removal, applying a fabric or surface protector, carpet dyeing and restoration, odor removal and flame-retardant treatment.

3. Janitorial services – This is a service which covers cleaning of areas in the hospital, office, hotels, restaurants, and theme parks among some. Unlike the services which a maid does you may typically find a janitor working at night and up to the early hours of the morning. The reason for this is because most employers for janitorial services would rather that their cleaning not get in the way of the office workers. So they much prefer having the janitors doing much of their work when there is hardly traffic from business hours.

For more information: Starting a Cleaning Business

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