Task Force Entrepreneur
Task Force Entrepreneur (TFE) is a podcast for entrepreneurs interested in the service industry. It began as a way to document the creation of a new service-oriented business, and aims to provide a no-fluff narrative on all things entrepreneur!
Task Force Entrepreneur
How much does it cost to start a cleaning business?
In this episode, we'll discuss the true cost of starting a cleaning business. We'll also discuss the essentials - the things you must have when starting, and I'll even get a chance to share how much I spent starting Mission Cleaning Services. Episode originally aired 9/4/2023.
Now, how much did it cost to start mission cleaning? I would say all in probably $3,000. That's probably a safe estimate. Now the real question is what do you want? If you want that really like buttoned up professional approach from day one, you can still get that for a budget. You don't have to go with this very excessive kind of like let's have a spare of everything approach that I took. You could start from much less and you know what. Let's walk through that scenario.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, Mike here and welcome to Task Force Entrepreneur. The podcast I started went from being a tech engineer to starting a house cleaning business. Yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:What's up everybody, mike here, welcome to today's show. We're going to talk about money in this show, that's right. We're going to talk about a topic which I think a lot of people starting a cleaning company it's near and dear to them. They really want to know how much is this going to cost me. So before we get into the dollars, let me just start off by saying this when I started mission cleaning and I say when, like it was, you know, three years ago, when in reality it was now or up until now when I started it, I had a very specific brand in mind, and part of our value proposition to me that I want to show our customers is an incredibly high level of professionalism and just being very, very put together. And you know, that kind of goes back to the name mission cleaning, right, I kind of envision it like a military right, similar to when I was in the US Army. We have uniforms, we wear a mission cleaning shirt, we show up with all of the same equipment, we clean the same. I really wanted it to be a very, very professional operation from the beginning, because to me that is part of our sales process as well, right, developing that brand. Now, I think that this approach is pretty unique from what I've seen from other cleaning companies. A lot of people just kind of start with what they have and grow from there, and that's fine, that's great. I don't see a problem with that. Unless you're like me and your goal is from the beginning you want a certain kind of experience for your customers and you know it's. I don't think either approach is right or wrong. I think they're just different. So you have to define what you're trying to go for.
Speaker 1:Now, the other limiting factor here obviously is money. How much money do you have to put into the business? My personal advice is don't put anything in that you're not willing to lose, just like gambling. So you know. Just to give you some examples, right, I bought a total of, let me think, three vacuums. I bought a SIBO vacuum, which is known to be an excellent brand, one of the best on the planet. I bought a I think it's called like a Henry 160. It's a very small kind of a canister vacuum that's the name of it and it is known to be really, really good for hard floors, even for our commercial business. Those other two are for residential. For our commercial, I bought a backpack vacuum, which was quite a bit more expensive than the others but is definitely more efficient for commercial and very large properties. And I guess I should add to this One of my ways of operating is I believe in always having what we need plus one or two of everything.
Speaker 1:Now why did I take this approach? Obviously, this is more expensive. The reason for me is, first, I want to ensure that we have a backup at all times. I want something there. I don't want to be in a situation where we have a vacuum die and then we have no solution other than run home and grab my personal vacuum. The other very, very serious reason why I am doing it this way is because I plan on hiring very quickly. I don't want to be restricted if we get very busy and I need to make a quick hire. I don't want not having a vacuum or not having a cleaning apron or enough spray bottles. I don't want that to be the reason we can't go to a customer. I'm essentially front loading a lot of the investment in our supplies up front, so that way we don't have to do it mid-flight Now I'll still have to buy stuff as we go, obviously, but we are definitely set up. I would say confidently, we have enough supplies to handle one or two months of full-time cleaning.
Speaker 1:Now, how much did it cost to start mission cleaning? I would say all in probably $3,000. That's probably a safe estimate. Now the real question is what do you want? If you want that really buttoned up professional approach from day one, you can still get that for a budget. You don't have to go with this very excessive. Let's have a spare of everything approach that I took. You could start from much less.
Speaker 1:Let's walk through that scenario. What do you need at a bare minimum, to start a cleaning business? In my opinion, you need a website. You need to form a legal entity, such as an LLC. You need a professional email address. You probably need business cards or maybe some flyers. You need some basic supplies.
Speaker 1:We're talking about dusters and spray bottles and whatever cleaners you plan on using Toilet bowl cleaners. I'm using disposable ones so we don't have to reuse them in customer toilets because gross. But you get the point. That pretty much gets you to the point where you could walk into a customer and feel good about everything. You have a professional appearance on your website. You have a business card. You've got some decent supplies.
Speaker 1:I think you could do all of that for $300. And I don't think that's a bad place to start. So the question to me is could you start for $300? Yeah, and I think that's a great start. Could you start for zero? Yeah, I would say so. You could technically create a Facebook page or a LinkedIn page or something like that and use the supplies you have at home. That's okay, that's perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, the benefit there is from almost day one. You're making profit. For us, it's going to take probably a month of jobs before we're profitable, but I have accepted that because our longer term goals are to scale very quickly and I don't want to be bogged down by not having the right stuff. The other thing I would recommend just considering is if you start off with really, really light things like so.
Speaker 1:To me, one of the most important things out of all of the expenses of starting a business is your website and having a professional scheduling slash, booking, slash invoicing system. So we use Housecall Pro and I'm relatively new to it, but so far I really, really like it. I would say their customer service has been awesome. I mean, I have contacted them many times and they are always on top of it and very quick to respond and super helpful. So if it was me, I would say at least get a decent website and get a professional booking system and get a professional logo.
Speaker 1:I think I got our logo done on Fiverr. And one thing I will tell you, just a pro tip plan to spend like $100 on a logo you can spend. You know, on Fiverr you can spend whatever you want, right? You could find someone that will do a logo for 10, 15 bucks probably. But what I found is in the past for other businesses. When I did that, I was not always happy with the result. So what I actually did for mission cleaning for our logo is I actually hired two separate people from Fiverr at the same time, gave them the same exact brief and then let them go right. I think each of them charged like 40 bucks or something, but I was okay with eating that extra cost because I wanted to make sure that the result I got back was good and I wanted a couple of different viewpoints on our logo and ultimately it paid off because I love our logo now.
Speaker 1:So if you kind of start with those things a website, decent logo and a scheduling slash, booking system. I think it will set you up for really good success. And the extra stuff you know the having extra supplies and you know all of that that can come right. And I would add to this that you know our approach of spending a little more on our startup cost is, you know, I think it's pretty unique to cleaning businesses and I don't think a lot of people would recommend that and I don't think I would either. But I think I have a very clear vision of what I want us to be and I needed it to be. I needed it to be present from day one to build that brand and a lot of that, by the way, is not just on the residential side. I want us to have that brand so that we can go after larger jobs on the commercial side from day one.
Speaker 1:Hey, I really appreciate you listening to this podcast. If you wouldn't mind, leave me a review. It would be awesome. And keep following this journey to $1 million a year is going to get crazy. I know it already. I'm expecting it. So I hope you enjoy it and I hope you continue listening.
