Running a successful cleaning business doesn't need to be complicated!

You don’t need to wake up at 5am. Journal for 45 minutes. Take an ice bath. Read 72 business books a year. Manifest your seven-figure cleaning empire. Or post a photo of your laptop next to a coconut on a beach!

Despite what social media might have us believe, running a successful cleaning business really doesn’t need to be that complicated.

You don't need the perfect morning routine, the latest business trend or another complicated strategy. What you do need are strong foundations.

You need:

• Prices that make money.

• Customers you actually want.

• Reliable people.

• Clear systems.

• Good financial control.

• And a business designed around the life you want.

Get those things right and you've already dealt with many of the problems that hold cleaning business owners back.

1. Prices That Actually Make Money

Being busy and being profitable are two very different things.

One of the biggest mistakes cleaning business owners make is setting prices based on what other cleaners charge, what they think customers will pay or what feels like a "reasonable" hourly rate.

Your pricing needs to be based on your business and your numbers.

Your cleaning prices need to cover wages, employers' costs, travel time, products and equipment, insurance, software, management and admin time, holidays, sickness and all the other costs involved in running the business.

And after all of that, there needs to be something left for profit. Otherwise, you've simply created yourself a very demanding job.

Before worrying about how to find another 20 customers, make sure the customers you already have are actually making you money.

2. Customers You Actually Want

More customers aren't always the answer either. The right customers are far more valuable than simply having more customers.

You want clients who value what you provide, understand your terms, pay the price you need to charge and are a good fit for the way your cleaning business operates.

That means it's OK to have boundaries. It's OK to have minimum booking times. It's OK to have cancellation policies. It's OK to decide which areas you cover. And it's absolutely OK to say no to work that isn't right for your business.

Growing a cleaning business isn't about saying yes to everybody. It's about building a customer base that works for the business you're trying to create.

3. Reliable People

If you want to grow beyond cleaning everything yourself, eventually you're going to need other people. And recruitment is one of the biggest challenges in the cleaning industry.

The temptation when you're desperate for staff is to recruit quickly and hope for the best. Usually, that creates even more problems.

Good recruitment starts with being clear about the person you're looking for, having a proper recruitment process and making sure applicants understand what's expected of them.

Then you need good onboarding, training, communication and management.

You're never going to remove every staffing headache. We're dealing with human beings after all, but a proper process dramatically improves your chances of building a reliable cleaning team.

4. Clear Systems and Processes

If everything in your cleaning business lives inside your head, you've created a business that depends entirely on you.

You don't need a 300-page operations manual. You do need clear, repeatable ways of doing the things that happen regularly.

• What happens when a new enquiry comes in?

• How do you quote?

• How do you onboard a new customer?

• What happens when a cleaner calls in sick?

• How do you deal with a complaint?

• How do you recruit?

• How do you train somebody?

• How do you check cleaning quality?

The more often you find yourself explaining the same thing, answering the same question or fixing the same problem, the more likely it is that you need a system.

Good systems don't make your business robotic. They make it less dependent on you. And that's a huge difference!

5. Good Financial Control

You don't have to be an accountant to understand your cleaning business numbers. But you do need to know them.

At the very least, you should understand your turnover, costs, wage percentage, gross profit, overheads, cash position and actual profit.

You also need to know which services and customers make you money and which don't.

Because a growing turnover can hide a multitude of problems. I've seen cleaning businesses get busier and busier while the owner earns less and becomes more stressed.

That's not growth. 

Good financial control gives you the information you need to make better decisions about pricing, recruitment, investment and growth.

6. A Business Designed Around the Life You Want

This is the one that often gets forgotten. What do you actually want your business to give YOU? Not what somebody on Instagram says you should want. 

• Do you want a large cleaning company with multiple teams?

• Do you want a small, highly profitable business?

• Do you want to come off the tools completely?

• Do you still enjoy cleaning and want to keep some clients yourself?

• Do you want more money?

• More flexibility?

• More time with your family?

• The ability to take holidays without constantly checking your phone?

There isn't one definition of a successful cleaning business.

The important thing is that you deliberately build a business that supports the life you want, rather than creating a business that eventually controls it.

Stop Making Business More Complicated Than It Needs to Be. There's always another strategy you could try. Another app. Another book. Another course. Another productivity hack.

Another person online telling you that the reason you're not successful is because you don't get up at 5am!

But when a cleaning business is struggling, the solution is very often much less glamorous.

• Look at your prices.

• Look at your customers.

• Look at your people.

• Look at your systems.

• Look at your numbers.

And look at whether the business you're building is actually taking you towards the life you wanted when you started it.

Get the fundamentals right first.

Sometimes business really doesn't need to be made quite so complicated.

Need Help Getting the Foundations Right?

If your cleaning business feels busier than ever but you're still struggling with profit, people, systems or simply getting some of your own time back, I can help.

I've spent years building and running cleaning businesses, and now I work directly with cleaning business owners who want practical support to build a stronger, more profitable business.

No 5am club required!

Book a free 30-minute coaching session and let's look at what's really holding your business back!