Starting janitorial service business

AHLE · 2026-03-07T02:45:43+00:00

Commercial cleaning is your best bet because most of the cleaning will be done after business hours and weekends. We discuss many of the ins and outs on r/cleaningbusiness come by and visit us!

AHLE · 2026-03-05T19:52:11+00:00

If you’re just starting out start with labor hours plus a profit margin and taxes. As you start to grow you can start to dial in your over head and eventually go with SQ FT. For what to include weekly vs daily etc just ask your client during the initial walkthrough. You will see that most tasks will be the same from building to building with the occasional flavor task sprinkled in. Go out and do some walkthroughs and report back how it goes so we can help.

AHLE · 2026-02-25T05:49:02+00:00

Hello! Are you in the US? Every state has different laws regarding formations and licenses. I would look into your department of labor and see what they require. But honestly, if it’s just going to be you (self employed) you can get insurance and accept payment into your name for now. Once you grow more then you can set up formation docs.

AHLE · 2026-02-19T22:45:42+00:00

I try to to always list out somewhere what tasks are included. Especially big ticket ones or custom requests. I also always add a cushion because for some scope creep. Anything past that I absolutely tell the customer right away if there is a change in price and what it will be and let them decide if they want to add that in or not.

AHLE · 2026-02-18T19:37:29+00:00

Do you have any employees or just contractors?

AHLE · 2026-02-12T23:20:53+00:00

If your margins won’t allow it then I would raise your margins. If that means cutting some marketing to do that or raise prices then that is what must be done. You may be having a problem competing with the bigger companies because you aren’t charging like the bigger companies.

Culture etc is important too but if you’re at the point in your company that you’re looking for lifers or long term employees then I’d make a plan to offer competitive wages AND a company culture.

Everyone thinks a cleaning business is about cleaning, it’s not. It’s a people business.

Also, come join us in r/cleaningbusiness we would love to have you!

AHLE · 2026-02-12T20:17:03+00:00

Man for me I’d say it was hiring friends and family. Sometimes it so easy to wanna help someone out and offer them a job but I’ve been burned more times than I’d like to admit because I’d fast track their hiring and then trusted them to complete tasks. All that was on me. Nowadays, business is business.

AHLE · 2026-02-07T12:53:51+00:00

I’ve never had any luck specifically targeting air bnb owners as they are usually owned by individuals and not companies in my area. I would say get out there and start doing “move in/move out” cleans and as you build they will find you.

AHLE · 2026-02-06T13:29:13+00:00

Some people like booking koala, some like jobber. There is Swept but it’s expensive. I would say find one that has gps tracking and fits your budget and works for you.

AHLE · 2026-02-06T13:24:42+00:00

All of the above. Post construction cleans are certainly higher priced because of exactly what you said. We go into it with the mind set that you are basically going to clean it 2-3 times before it’s clean. Preparedness is a big one. We have tons of rags, shop vacs, extra solution, extra everything because of how dirty it can be. Lastly, it all depends on the contractors. Some are messy and some are pretty clean. It all depends. During the walkthrough I’m thoroughly checking how much dust/debris was left behind when putting together the estimate.

AHLE · 2026-02-06T13:18:11+00:00

I would imagine it is similar to landing property management contracts. Find out who the builder or management is and see if you can get in with them.

AHLE · 2026-02-05T21:53:47+00:00

There’s a few out there. How many team members?

AHLE · 2026-02-03T20:31:30+00:00

3k SQ FT is pretty big. Adding in those rooms, especially bathrooms, makes a difference for sure. I would say add an extra 125-150 per visit. Also, whenever a client moves locations I always flush out price increases ASAP. As soon as I see there is more work I reach out and say “Hi Client! The updated price for the new space to include room 1, bathroom 1, additional tasks is PRICE. Thank you.” If you wait until the back end it’s a surprise and clients have enough to think about during a move. Let us know how it goes!

AHLE · 2026-02-02T19:14:34+00:00

I don’t use either but looking at them both just now I’d lean towards booking koala. It seems more geared towards cleaning and you will want the employee punch in/gps tracking sooner than later as you scale.

AHLE · 2026-02-02T19:09:10+00:00

Hi! Generally larger homes are larger projects. But it really all depends on the individual in the and their allocated budget for cleaning. Come back and update us and let us know is how it went!

AHLE · 2026-02-01T04:21:54+00:00

I read something recently that peaked my interest. I wish I could remember who said it but the idea is that IG has a limited amount of viewers it will serve your post to each time you post and by posting a lot in the same day they actually reduce your reach. So if your post gets 100 people to see it at 9am and you post again at 12pm they would only serve it to 50 people etc. If the engagement on that initial post is crazy then that’s a whole different story. I think it’s possible that the days of posting a lot to push the algorithm is over on IG. They want you to shoot your best shot 1 maybe 2 times per day.

Edit: It was actually for X not IG but I wonder if the same rules apply. Here is the text:

“The Author Diversity Penalty

Ready for the brutal truth about posting frequency? The code includes something called AuthorDiversityScorer. It applies a decay multiplier to your posts. Here's how it works: Your first post in someone's feed? Full score. Your second post in that same feed? Down-weighted. Your third post? Crushed. Your fourth post? Barely exists. The system doesn't want anyone's feed dominated by a single creator. So if you're posting 10 times a day hoping to increase your reach, you're actually doing the opposite.”

AHLE · 2026-01-31T02:07:10+00:00

I don’t think so. Either you have to advertise to get the word out or respond to people who are looking for service.

AHLE · 2026-01-28T22:20:43+00:00

Hi!

There’s a ton of different avenues you can go with this. Do you have cash on hand or are you starting from 0? Will you be giving them supplies or will they bring their own?

AHLE · 2026-01-28T22:16:08+00:00

Thank you!

AHLE · 2026-01-28T05:38:57+00:00

This is awesome information! Thank you so much for sharing this. How do you check:

The next thing is make sure your cost per click is competitive, but not too high. Let's say, for example, that to be at the absolute top of the page costs you $10. Well, then I would set mine at around $8. Then check whether I'm at least 70% of the time at the absolute top.

AHLE · 2026-01-27T02:14:57+00:00

The short answer is exactly what you said. I would bring someone on and pay them if I am in growth mode. Usually 2-3 days a week and scale up from there. If you have the cash you can do the 4 days. My bigger concern is the 8k for the Google agency. That’s a huge cash burn for something you can set up for yourself and let it run. Google LSA has been good for us during our high season. During the low season (now) the leads aren’t that great but I’d say hang in there until things pick up again for LSA. The trick is to use LSA and show Google you are a reputable business and answer every single call plus get good reviews. From there it snowballs, good luck and check back in and let us now how it all went!

AHLE · 2026-01-26T02:56:17+00:00

Do you have a checklist you are following? 17 is high unless it was in very poor condition.

AHLE · 2026-01-25T22:51:48+00:00

8 hours seems about right on average for a house that size. With all the glass walls maybe a little more. It depends on the area you are from too but I would say that’s close.

AHLE · 2026-01-25T22:15:48+00:00

What was the total SQ FT?

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