How to operate
A Cleaning Business
How to Start a Cleaning Business and How I Made $1,000+ a Week
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[Music]
hey guys angel here okay this video is
like so long overdue I've been getting
so many requests for this video first
let me say this I did a video
I believed like two years ago and it was
called how to have I made a thousand
dollars a week cleaning houses I believe
or it was how to start a cleaning
business on a shoestring budget I can't
remember which one it was but it was one
of my most viewed videos and I took it
down because I no longer clean however I
didn't realize that there was still a
video out there that when I was talking
about me being in the cleaning business
and I said if any of you guys have any
questions about the cleaning business
let me know so I'm just seeing this
video the other day somebody reposted
that video from years ago and I was like
this is where this is coming from so I
said all that to say for you guys for
you new people that are going to come to
this channel because of this video I am
no longer in the cleaning business
however I did have a successful cleaning
business and I'm going to share with you
everything like everything that I did
I'm gonna share with you everything so
again I'm no longer in the cleaning
business I was in the cleaning business
15 years ago approximately 15 years ago
so everything that I'm going to share
with you today this applied 15 years ago
but it's still going to apply to you
today the only thing that you're going
to want to do is adjust your prices
because the prices that I charge 15
years ago is not the same that I would
charge today even though I was averaging
about a thousand dollars a week
only working 20 hours a week and I made
sure that like I wanted to be home when
my oldest daughter got home from school
like all of them sometimes she would
even come to my clients houses with me
when she was in kindergarten so
obviously things go up over the years so
as far as your pricing for houses I'll
get into that let me just let me
go I got a lot of tips to share with you
guys and I actually used to charge for
this information so get out your pen and
your paper and take some serious
freaking notes and I'm going to go
really really quickly through this list
because like I said I'm no longer in the
cleaning business but I just want to
honor what I said in that other video so
number one is to write a business plan I
didn't have a business plan I cannot
express to you how important it is to
write out a plan before you start to
take action I now know that as a
grown-up however when I was younger
starting all these different businesses
that I had I would just get out there
and start it never on plan so number one
is to write a business plan and always
remember that clarity is kid number two
pick a good name pick a name like if I
were to go back into the cleaning
business today I would do something like
Baltimore's finest cleaner or
Baltimore's best cleaner Baltimore's
favorite cleaner something like that
that had my state's name in it so that
it would be more credible people kind of
take companies that have the state's
name in it just a little bit more
credible so I will probably do something
like that back then oh my god the name
of my business was called heavenly
cleaning what did that have to do with
cleaning I don't know but I just picked
that name because my name is angel and
then it's like heavenly cleaning and
then one of my good girlfriends at the
time her husband uh did my website and
this was back in the day one you
couldn't just sit down and drag-and-drop
a website and it had like pennies
falling from the sky I mean like really
embarrassing I mean it was a beautiful
website at the time but I'm like why did
I ask for pennies to fall out I was less
than okay
so pick a good name and then okay pick a
good name third thing is to register
your name with the state and make sure
that it's not taken that's very
important you do not want two years
later down the road realize that you
have somebody else's name and they're
coming to get their name from you the
next thing is to get your insurance for
your company you're going to need to be
insured and bonded now let me say this
when I first started I was not insured
and I was not bonded I'd even know that
you needed insurance I just knew I
to clean and let me clean your house and
I guess if I break something i'ma pay
for I never even thought about that so
make sure that you get up insurance
you're going to get your going to need
to get bonded and insured and you will
need that to go into businesses and I'll
talk about that in a minute so the next
thing is to another this is in any
particular order the next thing is to
purchase your domain name and set up
your preferred social media sites under
that name as well so whatever social
media you decide to use make sure you
set that up under the name under your
name or your business name however you
want to set that up um
and set up your social media sites and
in that and when I say set up your
social media sites it's not what what
people don't understand in business is
that when you set up your social media
platforms and you are a business you're
not there to just say hey buy my stuff
or come hire me to be a cleaner you want
to give you want to give tips you want
to teach people things on your social
media so if you are a house cleaner you
clean homes make some videos or toast or
whatever
to share with your clients like um
things that they can do in between time
just you know little little tips that
you can give them to help them stay tidy
from the time that you leave until the
time that you come back I didn't do any
of that because I didn't have social
media at that time so the next thing is
to order all your marketing materials
now I got all my stuff from Vista prep a
business cards a t-shirt with your your
logo on it and magnets for your car and
whatever else that you see fit that you
want to use for uh for marketing
materials um then let me say this about
the marketing piece of this so for the
marketing I had no clue the technical
terms for what I was doing so when I
first started cleaning houses you know
you're cleaning so what you don't need
to put on cute clothes because you're
going to go clean somebody's house but
what I was doing was I was just throwing
on a t-shirt some sweat pain
and some tennis shoes and going to clean
these people's houses and I started to
realize over time like the more clients
that I got I was like I want to look a
certain way
and so I got a t-shirt with my logo on
it and I had khaki shorts or khaki pants
now the shorts were not really short
they were like professional shorts like
longer than this skirt that I have won
like down to like right above my knee
and as a woman you definitely want to do
that because if you're cleaning
someone's housing you got on some booty
shorts in our husband I mean that's just
not cool professional or just whatever
you don't I'm saying so get a uniform
don't just go into these people houses
and think that oh I just cleaned houses
so this is how I'm gonna dress like I
started doing my makeup with my uniform
I didn't do any of that I would just
throw my hair up no makeup nothing and
just go to these people houses and like
I said eventually I started to think
like I want to show up different and I
didn't realize that that was marketing
and that was branding I had no clue what
I was doing I just knew instinctively I
just wanted to show up different and so
the next point is to clients keys now
some of the clients won't be home when
you come to clean and they will give you
a key that always blew my mind because
I'm like wow this is my first time to my
to your house and you're giving me the
key to your house but it happens and you
have to honor that and just be take care
of it because this is somebody's house
key so I had a whole separate ring that
I would use for my my keys for my
clients and I had little white labels or
them that had their name and address on
it so you want to take like you want to
guard those keys with your life because
people will give you access to their
home because they're not going to be
there the next thing is to save all your
receipts from your food gas everything
so you can be prepared for taxes I just
recently did a video about that couple
days ago next thing is to take all the
donations that people give to you when
you go into people's houses they're
gonna like have stuff that they no
longer want and they're going to offer
it to you and I would take everything
that people gave me because even if I
didn't want it I would donate it or if
I didn't um didn't donate I would give
it to somebody that I mean televisions
closed like people want people fall in
love with you and they want to help you
so take all donations and you know just
help them get it out of their house get
it off of their hands if you don't want
it donate it or give it to somebody that
you know can could benefit from it the
next thing is to run um to always let
your clients know that like what I wrote
down was run specials if you if they
refer friend give them money off of
their next cleaning so what I would do
is if one of my clients referred someone
to me and I actually got that job the
next time I would come in to that person
that referred me I would give them
either 10 or 20 dollars off depending on
how much that house was that I actually
claimed so make sure that you um that
you want to honor the people that refer
you because that's a big deal
word-of-mouth advertising number STUV
all is just always going to be the best
so when people actually do that you want
to honor them and that's what I would do
so the next thing is to do not do extra
stuff now what I mean by that is that
okay here this goes to my next point
so what I mean by that don't do extra
stuff is this you want to have something
totally written down this is actually oh
my god can you guys see this it says
heavenly cleaning and this is the actual
contract that I used to give to my
clients now let me tell you why that's
important you want to have everything
written down that's included in what you
do - someone's in someone's home because
this will happen and it happened to me
and it's not a comfortable feeling
because I bet then today is something
totally different but back then I didn't
like telling people no I didn't really
even know how to tell people do these
extra things that they would ask me to
do but honey today is a totally
different story I know how to say the
word know with confidence and with pride
and with um with care
so don't be like I used to be and just
do things so one client would say to me
I remember her I'm in her home she's not
there she called me and she asked me
angel could you clean out the bottom of
my refrigerator today while you're there
and me I'm just like oh I'm thinking I
have a lot of the time for this house I
got to get to a next house but like I
said back then I was insecure I wasn't
confident in myself and I would just
bite it and say yes and I mean as I'm
cleaning the bottom of this refrigerator
I'm so upset with myself because number
one I'm not getting paid extra for it
and number two I need to get to my next
job but because I wasn't confident I
didn't say no so you want to have
everything written down that you're
going to do in their house so they
automatically know they can't call you
and say hey angel can you clean out the
bottom of my refrigerator today because
that's not in your contract so if that
does happen if they want to say can you
clean out my refrigerator or can you
clean up my stove have a price that's
already set for that so you can say
short and I'll add that on to your bill
just like that okay so the next thing is
okay so the next thing that I want to
share with you guys is actually pricing
now I'm not going to tell you how to
price these houses like I said I'm no
longer in this field you guys can google
it you can contact Merry Maids actually
call somebody to come out to your house
give you an estimate if you live in a
home that is your prospects home that
you would like to clean call and get
some estimates around in your
neighborhood just to see what the going
up fee is so the one thing that I will
tell you about pricing is that when you
do the initial cleaning you definitely
want to charge more for that because
that's going to take time it's going to
take more time than it will when you
come back the second third and four
times so when I called a cleaner for the
house that we live in now it was double
the amount that they were going to
charge regularly and I never did double
back fifteen years ago I think I would
do like thirty or forty dollars
now even still with that I was still
making good money like I said I was
working no more than 20 hours a week and
I was bringing home an average of $1,000
a week that's not a bad income when you
are a high school dropout and on welfare
and yeah that wasn't the bad income so
you want to think about every little
thing is going to take time now this is
going to sound so like really angel but
yes when you go into someone's house you
don't know where all their outlets are
all of that is going to take time and
you will notice that once you do
somebody's house for the first time
watch it clock in time it and then when
you go back the second and third time
that time is going to go down so that
initial cleaning needs to be more
because number one you're going to be
finding out where everything is number
two it's when you do the most you know
that's when you're going to hit the
baseboards where you're going to get
cobwebs in the corners when you're
you're literally going to clean
everything so then when you come back
you may depending on how frequently you
come back either weekly I had clients
that were weekly bi-weekly or monthly
depending on how often you come back if
you go if you have a weekly client you
don't necessarily need to hit their
baseboards every seven days but if you
have somebody that's once a month that's
something that you you're going to need
to focus on in that that time that you
go back to clean but make sure you
charge more for that initial cleaning
because it's going to take more time as
far as cleaning products now when I
would clean my clients home some of them
would have their own cleaning supplies
some people have you know
allergies to certain things that are
just over the cattle in the market that
you can buy in the stores cleaning
products so some people will have their
own cleaning products and some people
want some people don't care they just
want you to come in and clean their
house but the one thing I did not do now
I would share of you to use the Windex
and the duster and all of those things
but and if and I would have my own
vacuum cleaner the only thing that I
wouldn't do is that if the homeowner had
pet I wouldn't take my vacuum cleaner in
there because that scent from that home
or you know the dog hair the cat hair
whatever it is if the next person's
house that I went to was allergic to
animals they're gonna feel that through
you know sharing vacuum cleaners so if
that person had a animal I always told
them over the phone or when I want to do
that estimate that they need to provide
their own vacuum cleaner due to the
animals so you definitely want to to
make sure that you're not sharing you
know dog hair cat hair to your next
house uh what else so I wanna share with
you guys um let me give you guys another
tip and this there's you guys are if you
are a cleaner you're a cleaner you know
what you're doing but let me just share
with you one thing that I really enjoyed
doing for my customer so when you are
vacuuming every room that has carpet
make sure that you can find a plug that
you can that you can like pull out of
the wall when you're done so you want to
vacuum out of the room so you want to
start like I hope this is making sense
you want to vacuum to vacuum your way
out of the room and then let get outside
of that room and yank the cord out so
there's no footprints so when the person
comes home from work or whatever and
they walk into their bedroom the only
thing that they see I I love vacuum on I
know I'm not by myself
please somebody in the comment tell me
how much vacuum lines carpet lines make
you so I mean they just make me feel all
warm and fuzzy inside
I love vacuum lines in carpet but so do
other people and so make sure that it
looks like that so when your client
comes home it's like oh my god it looks
absolutely amazing in here so let me
tell you about the marketing side of
this I know I shed a little bit of it
before let me tell you about the
marketing side of this like I said I was
at your marketing and didn't know what I
was doing I just knew that I needed
people to know that I liked cleaning
houses and let us plan your house so I
printed off some fliers like I just made
some flyers and I printed them off me my
mother and my sister would go around to
commune
that had the homes that I wanted to
clean and we would like to sit there and
like ball up these sheets of paper of
the flyer
we will ball it up and I would rap like
um I think it was like blue a blue
ribbon around it and like put it in
their door I would not do that today
what I did I don't know that's I don't
know do whatever you want but that's
what we used to do as far as a part of
marketing that I market it in another
way that is when I tell you guys if you
guys are cleaners and you do this you
will see a big spike in your business
this is what I did so I ordered the
magnets for the car so I had them on
each side so while I'm cleaning for my
clients there would be so many days that
by the time I got back home I had so
many messages on my answering machine
messages on my answering machine I mean
a standalone answer machine I'm telling
y'all my age right now but I would have
so many um messages on my answering
machine because while my car is sitting
in the driveway while I'm cleaning
somebody's house their neighbor sees me
and so their neighbor things will well
with my neighbor trust this person then
I can trust them and then some go into
this print stuff and I mean it just it
was incredible so get those magnets that
is a huge marketing piece um what else
and like I said tell your clients if
they refer you that you'll give them a
certain dollar amount off that's always
so so awesome um the holiday times if
your cleaning if your your clients love
you I mean I would get so much stuff
some people would just double up my pay
during the holidays some people would
double up my pay and give me a gift like
it was juicy um what else what else what
else what else
okay so I'll briefly share with you guys
uh what's on the contract that I used to
give out to people so it just says oh
this oh so let me say this I'm so sorry
so I also clean for Johns Hopkins
University there turn their apartment so
the college kids live
these apartments and when they moved out
I was the person that came and it's
called turnover cleaning so I would do
their turnovers also I did a real estate
agent I would clean that office my
husband I would clean that office twice
um twice a week and so the Realtors that
worked in that realtor office that I was
in we formed relationship with
relationships with them you know just by
being in there saying hi to them and
then when they would sell a house they
would contact me and my husband to go in
and clean that house to turn it over so
they could sell it I mean it was just
it's a snowball effect once you get out
there and you're consistent and you do
good work your business is going to pick
up it's going to take off especially
people like you and so how I got that
those businesses and I also had three
banks that I would clean my husband and
I also clean backs so everybody always
wants to know how did you get the
contract how did you do it I picked up
the phone and I called in literally in
the phone book I went down and called
apartment complex I called Johns Hopkins
University and I just said hi my name is
angel I'm the owner of heavenly cleaning
are you guys interested in taking on
what I say are you guys interested in an
estimate from a new cleaner everybody is
always looking to save money and always
looking at their bottom line so even if
somebody has a cleaner that doesn't
matter if you call and say you know I'm
looking if you are you guys interested
in taking a bid or taking it offer from
another cleaner from a cleaning company
if they say yes go in there with your
proposal written up and present it to
them that's all I did I would just sit
on the phone so how I got Johns Hopkins
University I called them hi this is
angel the owner of heavenly cleaning I
was wondering if you guys are looking to
accept a new proposal or a bid from
another cleaner sure and come in like
just pick up the phone and call people
that's all it is that's how you get out
there
how you put yourself out there you pick
up the phone and you introduce yourself
that's how I got the businesses that I
was able to get in my business so the
contract it just say it just says okay
so this is what I would send over to the
apartment complex or to people you're
not the cop not just the apartment
complexes or the businesses also to
people and it just says we would like to
present this proposal for market ready
cleaning of all vacant apartments at
Avalon Village Green that was the name
of the apartment place I think that's an
owns Mills um by heavenly cleaning our
services include excuse me our services
include cleaning and sanitizing the
following so then you break down the
room so I got kitchens then you put
appliances inside and out drawers
cabinets pantries inside and out
whatever you do in that kitchen write it
down then I got bathrooms vanities
cabinet sinks toilets floors shower tub
baseboards mirrors door knobs I got that
written down then you have your living
areas then you have your balconies if
you guys choose to go um in the back
then I have the prices for one bedroom
two bedroom three bedroom and then
corporate then it says this estimate is
for services proposed um we will revisit
any unsatisfactory cleaning at no cost
please contact us to discuss any further
options you may require thank you for
your interest in heavenly cleaning and
we look forward to being of cert being
of service to you in the near future and
then it says should you wish to excuse
me
should you wish to retain our services
please sign below and so once that
signature is there that's it that is
this is what you clean this is how after
you clean this is when you shop anything
outside of what you have written down
charge for it they know that they should
be paying for it because trust me people
will try you oh my goodness people will
try you and I was young and
impressionable and I would just be like
okay who not today
alright guys so I hope this has helped
you um like I said I'm no longer in the
cleaning business so if you guys have
any questions if I can answer them I
will but I like this is all I got
anything else you guys can google and
all of that stuff I'm not saying that I
won't answer your questions but just
make sure that um you can't figure out
the answer before you ask me because for
me to answer the questions in this for
this video um I gave you guys really
everything that there is to know about
how I cleaned houses and made it a
successful business for myself so that's
it that's all I have for you guys and I
love you and I'll see you guys in the
next video and it won't be about
cleaning bye
