When planning your home based cleaning business, one of the most important factors is finding a name for your business. Your name should be the main key focus of your business and your name should aim closely in identifying the type of business you are running.

Once you come up with a name, you will then have to purchase your business license. Go to your local county department to apply. Depending on the size of your company, the fee will vary but if you are starting out small between 1-10 employees, your license should vary in the range of 125.00 or more depending on your state.

Second thing you must do is apply for your employers identification number which is called your EIN number, you can apply for this online at the Internal Revenue Service. Just click on the link to your left and apply for your EIN number.

Next you will need to obtain your insurance and bond for your cleaning service and you may do this by either calling your local car insurance company or look in the phone book under regular car and home insurance and call for a quote. This will vary anywhere between 100-300 dollars, once again depending on the size of your company. Your bond fee normally costs 100.00 for the whole year. You will have to renew your bond yearly. Your insurance will vary and normally just like your car insurance, you will have monthly payments in the range of 40-50 dollars a month.

Once you have your license, Employer Identification Number , bond and insurance you will be ready to start your home base cleaning service.

What do you need next? Next you will need your cleaning supplies which includes a mop, mop bucket, broom, dust pan ,dust mop, Vacuum cleaner, cleaning bucket, dusters, cleaning solutions, rags etc.

Getting the word out, you will then need business cards, you may do your own or you may have your business cards made up by a printing company. Make up some flyers with special promotions, advertise in your local telephone book, just call and find out when the next listing is and check pricing and place a small ad or listing if you are able to afford the advertising price or you can either do a list yourself with your own names and phone numbers of family, friends, co-workers, church members and so forth. You may elect to keep the cost down since you are just starting out. You can mail out post cards so get a mailing list of the areas you plan on targeting. List your business on the Internet on free sites, call your community newspaper and advertise with them in their neighborhood listing, tell everyone you know and tell them to tell their friends and once you get your first client, tell them you will give them something off if they refer some one to your business. This is called a word of mouth and it is a strong free tool to bring you business.

When first starting you may use your own vehicle when starting your home based cleaning business, you may also want to purchase magnet signs for your car and put them on both sides of your vehicle doors to advertise your business. Also invest in company shirts with your name and logo on it.

You can sign up with companies that will help you promote your cleaning business and help you get started, two sites that I know of is service magic.com and respond.com and of course these sites charge a fee of 100.00 or more sign up fee and they have a pay per lead cost as well. You will be competing against other service techs and this is not a guarantee so you will be at your own risk.

You also need to take time an write out a service plan on all the work you plan to do in the home for your cleaning business, you need a point check list that covers everything you will do to maintain the home. Over look your own home when writing out your plan. And for example, we clean baseboards, window sills, remove all cobwebs, make beds, empty trash, and so forth. Come up with a list.

What should you charge to do your cleaning? First start out running specials on your entire package. Starting anywhere from 50-100 depending on the size of the home and the condition of the home, it’s best to have a price list from 1 bedroom to 4-5 bedrooms. Set a price for your move-out and move in home. Call other cleaning service and ask them what they charge, pretend like you are a potential customer looking for service.

Another good thing to purchase for your business is a good camera, this way when you clean your home you will take before and after pictures that you can post onto your web site or have a photo album book which you keep and stores your pictures. You can show this book when going out giving estimates on the job.

You will need a web site and there are several ways you can do this they offer free web pages on the Internet plus you may purchase one that I recommend at Go daddy.com . Get your domain name which will cost you less than 10.00 a year and the web hosting which comes in different packages and pricing. You may pay on a monthly basis or you may pay for the whole year, but if you are unskilled in this field you may want to hire someone to do this for you, however it will keep the cost down if you are computer savvy.

Last and most important you need to keep a customer profile I bought a software called customer management by quick books and it keeps all my information stored, plus get some index cards and a file box to write it down on pen and paper or you may purchase a planner to keep all your appointments in, if you don’t have a computer, you should have an address book. If you can’t purchase the quick book software then use regular school paper and folder. You also will need when going to your clients home a mileage log sheet. You can either make one by using plain white paper and dating it when you go to your appointments or you may look for a free one over the Internet. Save all your receipts including your food receipts and your cleaning supplies receipts for tax purposes. The best way and easiest way is to buy a package of legal yellow envelope and keep this in your car and every time you make a purchase, put the receipt in the bag. Staple your mileage sheet on to your envelope and when that month runs out, have another one and by the end of the year you should have 12 envelopes from January through December , making it easy for your tax preparer.

Now you are ready to start and run your own home cleaning business.

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