New cleaning business

Wolfmother_2

Hello all,

We have started an account here to try and learn a bit more about what is required for us to start a local cleaning business.

My wife is due to return to the workforce after 12 years off raising our children and we as a family would like the flexibility of working for ourselves and if we are lucky enough to be is a position to expand the business in a few years then we have four daughters....:D

so, os it as easy as just printing up some flyers posting them and when the phone rings off you go...is it as easy as that?

How much do we charge per hour? Do we supply cleaning products? insurance? Tax? What services do we provide? How do we get paid? Record keeping.......

My head is spinning.

Any advice for a hardworking family who want to give this a go?

phill99

HMRC often run business start up courses, as do your local Business Link and it's worth booking onto something like that.

Define what cleaning you want to do - private dwellings, shops, small office users, builders cleans, etc etc. There are many variations on this theme. Some clients are happy for you to provide all the equipment and materials while some will prefer for you to use their vacuum and materials. If the former, you need to work out all of your estimated costs of materials, (polish, cif, mr muscle etc) plus consumables such as bin liners etc. add on depreciation on equipment such as vacuums, polishers, mops etc, add on an amount to cover advertising, travelling, mobile phone, liability insurance, stationary, holiday pay, sick pay, closed periods (Xmas), then add how much you want to earn an hour, then add profit.

Decide on the best medium for advertising, run a few adverts, drop some flyers, do some cold calling to local business who might need your services, then hope you get a few bites.

Meet the client. Agree a specification with them, turn up on time, do the work, then raise an invoice and wait for payment.

In synopsis there are three key elements to running a business:
1. Getting the work
2. Doing the work
3. Getting paid for the work.

If you fail at either one of those, your business will fail.

bankhater_1965

i have been self employed for 13 years , and you say expand when kids grow , never run before you can work regards to business, its bound to fail , you need to have a diff approach , firstly you need to see if theres any room or a market in your area first , anything at the moment is hard even for est business , what makes you think yours will be any differant ? im not trying to be negative by the way !!