For the cost of cleaning supplies and a stack of marketing materials – you can be well on your way to starting a Home or Office Cleaning business! A cleaning business is flexible and versatile in many ways. You can offer your services to small business offices, churches, day care centers, private homes, and much more. Due to the ease of start-up and low overhead costs, the cleaning business is often crowded and can be very competitive in some areas.

Here are a few things you will want to keep in mind if you are considering a Home or Office Cleaning Business:

1. What range of services will you offer?: This is one service based business where it may be best to keep your list of services as flexible as possible. Where one client may want to hire you for a weekly deep cleaning of their home, another client may need a one time service of clearing a cluttered garage.
Someone may want a laundry service while another wants carpet cleaning. Be open to your clients needs and wants.

2. In what ways can you set yourself apart from the rest?: A home-owner or business in the market for a cleaning service ultimately want just two things – a clean home or office and peace of mind. How good you are at providing those things will determine the success of your business. When a person allows you into your private space, they are trusting that you will not steal or do anything else to betray their trust. As a small business owner, you do not have the brand recognition of a larger cleaning company, so you will have to work harder to gain clients. To give them peace of mind it may be wise to insure and bond your business, keep an up-to-date copy of your driving record, and criminal background check. You should offer to show any new client this information.

As society grows more conscious of the environmental impact of certain chemicals, people are moving towards eco-friendly or “green” alternatives. You can reach that demographic by offering green cleaning solutions and child-friendly methods. This will be very important for families.

3. How can I market and advertise my cleaning business: When it comes to advertising – you will want to concentrate your efforts to high volume social places. Your local grocery store, day care facility, church or shopping plaza are ideal locations. Consider spending the money to run a print ad in your towns newspaper and CraigsList.com is another great (free) alternative. Building your word of mouth reputation will be important, offer to clean the homes of friends and associates in exchange for a testimonial of your services. You may also want to consider marketing a contract deal to local apartment complexes, Realtors and credit unions. These companies will always need a reliable service to thoroughly clean apartments and homes after leases end, evictions and foreclosures. In fact, specializing in foreclosure clean-up may prove to be highly profitable.

Though the overall start up costs of a cleaning business are very low, you don’t want to make the error of skipping over the important steps. Make sure to register your business legally with your county, state and the IRS. Purchase a domain name and establish a website. Finally, you are a cleaning professional and must present yourself as such at all times. Although you are cleaning messes, your appearance should remain tidy!

Sam Rodman has a great manual available for just $37.97  where he gives step by step guidance on starting your business, securing leads, submitting job bids and appropriate price models.

Purchase yours today at the low price of $37.94 : Start Your Own Cleaning Service

Do you find yourself going to your friends or family’s homes to organize their mess? Does your brother call you when he needs help decluttering his home office? Or perhaps your mom tempts you with her tasty baked apple pies in exchange for tidying the kitchen pantry? If this sounds like you, then chances are – you have a talent suited for a professional organizer! One of the wonderful aspects of starting a professional organizing business is the minimal costs involved.

Professional Organizers aren’t required to have years of formal training rather an uncanny skill for establishing useful systems and order in peoples homes and office spaces.If you are looking to start your own professional organizing business, here are a few useful tips to get you started:

5  Tips to Starting a Professional Organizing Business

1. Establish your business legally: The most important step in starting any business is legal set-up. Due to the nature of a professional organizing business, this step should be relatively simple and quick. It will be important to research the state tax requirements for your business type. You will also want to inquire about any insurance needs as well. Even if your state does not mandate business insurance for professional organizers, you should consider purchasing liability insurance, heavens forbid you break an antique while organizing a client’s home.

2. Establish your online presence: Waste no time in purchasing your domain name and building your website.Although you may be tempted to spend a ton of money on a fancy webpage design, it isn’t necessary. There are many template services that allow easy set up – you can have your site up and running in a matter of hours. Using WordPress as your site’s platform is also another inexpensive option to explore. There are literally hundreds of free WordPress themes (templates) that are easy to install.

3. Determine your target demographic: The key to effective marketing is to focus on your target demographic. Are you going to market your services to families, busy professional singles, small businesses? The answer to this will help you navigate the best advertising approach. If you intend to market your services towards families, you will want to place advertisements in places like super markets, daycare centers and schools. For busy professionals you may choose to advertise at local gyms, lounges and meeting places.

4. Build your Professional Organizer portfolio: When courting potential clients you will need a professional portfolio to display your work. This portfolio should include before and after photos of the work you’ve done, examples of your methods, systems and literature about your services. Building an adequate portfolio will likely require that you organize several homes free of charge in exchange for permission to use these photos in your book. This will give you an opportunity to hone in on your skill while developing your client interaction.

5. Set your price model: As a Professional Organizer there will be times when you will charge per hour and other instances where you will charge per job. $35 to $50 per hour is the going rate for professional organizers – the greater your experience, the higher your rate.

The job of an organizer goes beyond clearing clutter – in many ways you will also be a teacher and a psychologist. There are varying degrees of disorganization, messier homes are often an underlying symptom to a larger problem. Your role will be most pivotal in identifying that problem and providing solutions to overcome them.

There’s a great book available for download: How to Start a Home-Based Professional Organizing Business, for just $29 – you will have instant access to the best walk-thru manual on the subject.

$29.00 Start a Professional Organizing Business