Cleaning business startup checklist

Skip the parts that do not matter yet. This is the short list that does.

Before your first job

• Work out your hourly rate from the income you need, not from what competitors charge. Here is the arithmetic.
• Set a minimum job price and hold it.
• Get liability insurance. You are working unsupervised in people's homes.
• Check local registration — a business licence or registered name, depending on where you are.
• Open a separate bank account. Mixing personal and business money is the single biggest cause of painful bookkeeping later.
• Write down what a "standard clean" includes. Vague scope is how you end up cleaning an oven for free.

From day one

• Log every job and every expense — reconstructing a year later is miserable and costs you deductions.
• Track mileage from the first drive.
• Set aside a percentage of profit for tax each month.
• Record access details for every client as you go.

In the first few months

• Compare quoted hours against actual hours. Requote the jobs that lose.
• Ask happy clients for referrals — the cheapest marketing there is.
• Raise your rate for new clients before you raise it for existing ones.