setting up to clean

minimoneysaver

I'm after a cleaner on the Fylde Coast. If anyone is interested please pm me!

rainbow_carnage

This is such a word-of-mouth business. I live in North London, and we get loads of flyers through the door. Cleaners (windows, carpets, etc.), builders, men-with-van, computer repair "experts". I would never hire someone based on a flyer. You have to ask around and find someone you trust enough to let them into your home. I've joined a message board for the people on my street. A couple people have recommended their cleaners. That is the only way to do it.

If you're just starting a cleaning business, ask your customers and friends to recommend you to people. You can even offer a discount to those who get you more clients. It's especially helpful if you can get a few jobs in the same neighbourhood. It'll save you time and travel costs.

I'm self-employed at the moment and money is a bit tight. As soon as I get back on my feet financially, I plan on getting a cleaner.

Anyone need a copywriter? ;-)

Emma37

No one has mentioned this, but there is a £500 government grant available for starting up your own business. My friend had a flyer through the door from a cleaner and employed her. She told my friend that she had to write a business plan and then was given £500 to start up the cleaning business. Certainly worth looking into.

cazac71

We want to cut down on the cleaning, and just focus on doing more Ironing, that way we can do it at home, anytime. We arent having a lot of response to our ads tho

Caz

Sue-UU

You might need to broaden what you do to include the cleaning Caz as so many people perhaps wouldn't bother to have it done for them especially if there's only a couple of folk in a house. Maybe if you were to "prove yourselves" by showing them what sort of people you are and what your work in cleaning is like, you might then be able to pick and choose more about the work you do - or don't do and just stick to the ironing.

Food for thought maybe.

Sue

philgee

My wife has been doing this for the last 2.5 years. It's worth bearing in mind that if you do this "properly" i.e. fully insured, registered with the tax man etc, plus with your overheads, you don't always end up making a decent living!

Wouldn't want to put anyone off, as being self employed after working for a large company for many years was extremely liberating for her, I'm just saying please do your homework first.

One of my wife's biggest expenses is petrol. Living in a rural area means that she has to travel to get work. The cost of petrol has obviously rocketted in the last coupe of years, however, often it is difficult to pass this cost on to your customers without losing them - many of my wife's customers are elderly so she is a bit of a luxury to some of them. Having said that, they are usually much kinder at Christmas than her more affluent customers!

We did her books a few weeks ago. Income was about £12k last year, which for part time cleaning is pretty damned good (she does about 20hrs per week).

After all her expenses though, she actually earned around half that, plus had to pay a bit of tax & NI.

One off cleans can earn you decent money, but of course, you cannot rely on these if you are working to put food on the table.

One of her main reasons for becoming self employed was to work around school hours, which she is now able to do. However, it is worth bearing in mind also, that if you need time off, you don't get paid!

She has just bitten the bullet and applied to Tesco as they are now recruiting for the massive expansion at our local store - this will hopefully allow her more time at home in the day to do things here (by working 1 or 2 night shifts), plus will provide her with a more reliable, dependable income with benefits of paid holidays etc.

She will probably still continue to do ironing for 1 or 2 or her customers just to earn a bit of pocket money, but I think her days of being self employed will soon be at an end... /:)?

cazac71

Sue-UU wrote: »

You might need to broaden what you do to include the cleaning Caz as so many people perhaps wouldn't bother to have it done for them especially if there's only a couple of folk in a house. Maybe if you were to "prove yourselves" by showing them what sort of people you and what your work in cleaning is like, you might then be able to pick and choose more about the work you do - or don't do and just stick to the ironing.

Food for thought maybe.

Sue

We have no trouble getting jobs for cleaning, (a couple are from when we used to work for a firm, and when we left, the clients wanted to leave, as they only wanted us to clean!) its us that dont want to take on any more, and just stick to the the jobs we have now, but get more ironing to do at home.

Caz

1stclasscleaning

Friend need a help for suggestion in cleaning coffee stains from cushion

Francophile

I don't know what it's like in your area but where I live the contract cleaners tend to get a bad name. They charge top whack and do the bare minimum. Private cleaners around here charge between £8 and £10 an hour and people are more than happy to pay that.

Sue-UU

1stclasscleaning wrote: »

Friend need a help for suggestion in cleaning coffee stains from cushion

Hi Friend . Try here

and I think you'll get all the advice you need.

Good luck.

Sue