4 Strategies To Keep Your Cleaning Business Profitable – The cleaning industry can be attractive for people who are considering starting up their own businesses. The relatively low initial investment of capital required coupled with the high earning potential in some cases is a big draw for entrepreneurs. Cleaning businesses with the most revenue potential can make around USD$100,000 in a year. However, this depends on the level of your business. (1)

The cleaning industry is also expected to grow 10% in the next four to five years. Although close to two million people are employed in the industry, it’s speculated that it’ll have a 6% increase annually due to increasing demand. (2)

In addition to commitment and hard work, it’s crucial that you are aware of some useful business and management strategies to keep your cleaning business profitable, especially since the competition is likely to get tougher every year.

First, familiarize yourself with the kinds of cleaning companies you could venture into.

Types of cleaning businesses

If you want to start your cleaning business with a specific budget in mind, you should first focus on a single cleaning category. Of course, you can always upgrade or add a category as soon as you start to generate a profit and want to invest it back into the business.

For your reference, here are the types of cleaning businesses you can open:

  • Residential cleaning: These mainly focus on homes and residential apartments.
  • Commercial cleaning: These mostly refer to janitorial services for warehouses, factories, and commercial and retail outlets.
  • Special cleaning: Offers special cleaning services, like dry cleaning.

Strategies to keep your cleaning business profitable

Now that you have an idea of the kinds of cleaning business to open, it’s now time for you to equip yourself with strategies to remain on top. Here are a few:

Use route optimization software

Route optimization software like that offered by Jobber enables you to generate the ideal and most efficient route to travel to each job you work on. The software is smart in that it can calculate the optimum route you should take to each appointment, acknowledging various factors like lunch breaks, traffic, time of day etc. As well as helping you be fuel efficient, you are more able to arrive on time for your appointments and encounter fewer conflicts in scheduling.

Give personalized service and fair prices

Knowing how to price your cleaning services will empower you to be able to provide estimates and quotes for jobs more accurately. The first step is somewhat obvious: you don’t charge the same price when cleaning a large house as you do for a small one. Personalizing your services will help you come up with a mutually fair price for both you and your customers.

It’s no secret that great customer experience greatly impacts how likely clients are in becoming repeat customers. One of the ways to achieve great customer experience is to listen to and understand what the customer wants and be able to service this. (3)

Use quality products only

4 Strategies To Keep Your Cleaning Business Profitable

A survey shows that product quality is one of the most important factors for U.S. consumers when deciding what cleaning products to purchase/use. With that said, even though using cheap products may help you save money, using quality ones will help you attract more clients, allowing your business to survive in the long run. (4)

So, as much as possible, only use ecologically friendly and non-toxic products, especially when cleaning specific items such as wood furniture. These non-toxic products won’t leave any strong smells around the home, which your customers will appreciate. Additionally, using these products can be beneficial for you and your team in that you’re not inhaling dangerous chemicals every day.

Have an online presence

Nowadays, even if you have the best team members or use the best or most expensive cleaning products, it’ll be futile if you don’t have an online presence. Current and new clients need to be able to find your company in order to request your services.  If your budget allows, make sure to invest in a website. But don’t have a website just for the sake of it. Take note that a slow-loading website was proven to cost businesses over USD$2.6 billion in 2020. Make sure that it’s user- and mobile-friendly and highly responsive. (5)

If you don’t have a budget for a website yet, invest in an alternative digital footprint. For instance, you can create a business page on various social media platforms. You can then add your contact information making it easy for prospects to get in touch with you. Don’t forget to post some ‘before and after’ photos and positive reviews, enticing prospects to avail of your services.

Takeaway

Note that if your business isn’t generating any profit at the moment, you quickly need to address this or you risk it failing. Consider applying any of the above strategies to prevent this from happening, according to your business viability and available budget. Once you have established what this is, you’ll be in a stronger position to work out how to tackle it and start turning a profit.

References

  1. “Average Yearly Income and Salaries for Cleaning Businesses”, Source: https://cleaningbusinessboss.com/average-yearly-income-and-salaries-for-cleaning-businesses/#:~:text=The%20average%20yearly%20income%20and%20salary%20for%20a,cleaners%2C%20you%20can%20make%20from%20%2450%2C000%20to%20%2470%2C000.?msclkid=17f563cbb01711ec9dc9d36ba3be3e5e
  2. “Top Three Commercial Cleaning Trends in 2019”, Source: https://www.wilburncompany.com/top-three-commercial-cleaning-trends-in-2019/
  3. “The CEO guide to customer experience”, Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-ceo-guide-to-customer-experience
  4. “Which factors are most important to you when purchasing cleaning tools”, Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/943895/most-important-factor-for-consumers-when-purchasing-cleaning-tools-us/
  5. “2021 Small Business Website Statistics You Need to Know”, Source: https://pixolabo.com/2021-small-business-website-statistics/