The first professional home cleaning businesses were started in the late 1970s and early 1980s to meet the often neglected cleaning needs of an emerging generation of single entrepreneurs and dual-income families. These were new professionals and second-income families who had less and less time and energy to properly care for their homes. June Cleaver and Alice Mitchell had finally taken jobs, and family life and housekeeping would never be the same.

The demand has continued to grow as more and more people outsource their house cleaning tasks, not because they want to, but because of quality of life issues that often get in the way.

The lure of high profit margins and relatively low start-up costs, combined with incredible growth potential, is attracting many people from all walks of life to try the residential (and commercial) cleaning business.

What seems so simple from the “outside looking in” is often very misleading. Owning and running a professional home cleaning business involves much more than just sweeping, mopping floors, and dusting furniture. In fact, to run the business properly and maximize one’s profits, there are people to hire; equipment and supplies to be ordered; “books” to be kept; and customers to get and satisfy.
Employee turnover in this business is high. Cleaning equipment, maintenance supplies, and insurance premiums are expensive and are all recurring expenses. Getting new customers requires a significant marketing, sales and retention effort. Keeping customers requires strong supervision and excellent customer service, based on building relationships.

Running a home cleaning service industry is not an easy job. It can certainly be a lucrative venture when backed by informed business research, strategic planning, unwavering dedication, and simple hard work.

The most successful will surely have carefully studied the intricacies of the residential cleaning business, including market costs and especially the competition. It is also very important to know the different services that you can offer to your target market. What can you offer your customers and how much can you charge for these services to remain competitive?

Planning your marketing strategy and giving it a realistic budget will be an essential part of your near success. Make sure you take your time and find the best approach. Lock in all the details in a well thought out business plan. This document will become your practical guide and checklist for running a top-notch cleaning business.

There is no substitute for an effective business website

An effective and professional looking business website will play an important role in successful business development. Your website is likely the first place your For Hire recruits and interested prospects will visit to assess what your business has to offer.

Websites are useful tools for amplifying the effectiveness of advertisements in phone books, flyers, door signs, business cards, mailings, postcards, broadcast media, networking, and face-to-face solicitations. By referencing your website address in these traditional advertising mediums, you can provide the customer with a way to quickly and easily review your services and communicate their needs, at their convenience.
Your website must be specially designed for the needs of your business and your customers. The most frequently included professional cleaning service websites are:

• Your company logo
• Attractive, industry-specific graphics and photos
• Easy and logical site navigation
• Content relevant to the industry or business
• Clearly worded “calls to action”
…and all the things that go into effective search engine optimization (SEO).

Just as many customers and potential new employees check the phone book to find cleaning services, more and more, these customers are looking for services online. A strong SEO infrastructure will help you get found ahead of your local competition. Having a professional looking website also helps establish your credibility within the customer community.

Within a website, special offers make sense. Most customers love the opportunity to get more for less and save money. An element of fun that can come in the form of a quiz or drawing often adds to the interest and excitement. Keep this in mind if you really want to stay away from your competition.

Traditional and social media marketing requires an effective business website

Having a great website, by itself, is NOT enough. It represents “taking care of business” in the expected way, but your website must be supported by well-planned social media marketing (SMM) activities.
It is important to understand that Social Networks are a tool. Nothing more and nothing less. And, if used in conjunction with a strong business philosophy, foundation, and plan of action; its awesome power can be unleashed.

The truth is, you need to have a solid small business foundation in place before your social media marketing efforts will be effective. You need to have a unique selling proposition; a dynamic landing page (on your website), an attractive offer, an engaging website, and a knowledgeable blog. That’s when Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn will work best for you. And these (and many other platforms and tools) are free or cheap to take advantage of.

Taking advantage of free advertising means using social media to your advantage. You can do this in several ways. You can encourage current customers to post a review of your business on a site like yelp. You can also start a Facebook page and encourage customers to “like” it so they can take advantage of any special offers you offer, or to find out about deals with specialty businesses (like Chimney Sweep) that you’ve partnered with.

The best way to find clients once you start your home cleaning business is to be aggressive with a well combined traditional and social media marketing plan with a professional looking website where your target audience will land and hopefully take the lead. proper call to action to become a new customer or to apply for a job with your cleaning service.

If all your ducks are in a row, it’s easy to improve your marketing efforts; Eliminate your competition and leave those competing businesses behind in the dust.