Introduction
This is going to be a long one. I’m going to reveal basically everything I know and everything that I’ve learned over the past decade now that I’ve helped not only uh myself and my business partner start our own cleaning businesses, but also 3,000 people. And I’m just going to give it away for you. There’s going to be uh nothing held back. I’m going to give you everything I know. How to get customers, how to start the business, how to hire everything. So, let’s get into it. All right, start to finish. How to launch and scale a house cleaning business completely remotely from anywhere in the world.
How to Launch and Scale a House Cleaning Business Completely Remotely
Now, preface. I’m going to cruise through setup pretty quickly here. These businesses are just relatively very easy to set up, so I don’t have to spend a lot of time here. And I’ll link you a lot of the stuff that I’m talking about, too. The free trials, the freebies, all that kind of stuff. It should take you no longer than realistically a week, max 2 weeks to get everything set up. So, um I’m going to do my best to cut out all the fluff as well and just give you uh what you need to build a highly profitable house cleaning business. Again, without having to eventually answer any phone calls and definitely not do any cleaning yourself.
We’ll start with business name and service area. Now, the cool thing about a remote cleaning business is you can start wherever you want, even areas you don’t necessarily live in. However, I just recommend you pick where you live as long as you don’t live in some like ghost town, just because you’re going to know the area a lot better. You’re going to know the routes. You’re going to be able to when you’re getting 3, four, 5, 10 cleans a day, you’re going to be able to, you know, route the jobs for the most efficient route u because you know the area. That’s harder to do if you don’t live in the area.
It’s also easier to do test cleans, which we’ll talk about later. And when you’re thinking about your name, don’t spend too much time unless you’re trying to like franchise it, I guess. But I mean, if you’re watching this, odds are you’re probably just trying to, you know, start a business, make some money. So, all you got to do is pick city name and cleaning. So, like, for example, my first business was Orange Window Cleaning because we lived in the city of Orange, right? And this also helped with SEO as we started to build our reputation up because we were Orange Window Cleaning.
Once you come up with a name, which you don’t even really need at the beginning, you’re going to file your LLC. And you do not have to name your LLC the same thing as your business because you can open up a DBA, which means doing business as.
The Five Things You Need to Start
Now, once that’s all taken care of, you basically need five key things when you’re starting a cleaning business. You’re going to need your website. You’re going to need a phone system because you don’t want to mix your personal phone number and a business phone number. You’re going to need a CRM, a booking software, and insurance.
CRM, phone system, website. Leanworks.co. I highly recommend that. It’s 14 days free and it’s basically a cleaning software that’s going to follow up with your customers until the end of time and make sure that every lead you get from the time you start the business to five 5 years later into the business is going to be followed up with until the end of time via text automation AI.
Next is liability insurance. General liability insurance protects you and your business from general claims involving bodily injuries and property damage. You can get up to a million, $2 million a year general liability policy from HCOX, Fox Quilt, Thimble, Next for anywhere from $40 to $80 a month.
Next is booking software. I really like Allison. It’s very easy to use and integrates with Zel and Venmo so you can pay cleaners and yourself easily.
Hiring Your First Cleaner
Providers are the lifeblood of the business. You cannot grow your revenue if you aren’t growing your roster of cleaners. Think about this like a sports team. Always be closing, always be recruiting.
Screen 10 or so cleaners a week. Many will not be good. Your job is to find the 20% that are. Use Indeed first. You can also use care.com, housekeeper.com, Craigslist.
Ask three things: do they have transportation, one year of cleaning experience, and their own equipment.
Hire cleaners at 40% and no more than 50%. This keeps your margins healthy. After hiring, background check every cleaner using checker.com and do a test clean with a friend or family member pretending to be a customer. Never skip a test clean.
Getting Your Leads – Paid Advertising
Now we move to leads. Google Local Service Ads is still a very viable option. It shows up at the top when someone searches house cleaners near me. These are high intent leads.
You will need insurance verification, background check, and five reviews to get approved. Setup takes about two weeks, but once active, it consistently sends leads. These are some of the best leads you can get for a cleaning business.
Conclusion
This model is designed so you never have to clean, never have to answer calls forever, and never have to deal with the physical labor. By setting the right foundation, hiring correctly, keeping margins healthy, and using the right marketing channels, you can build a highly profitable remote house cleaning business from anywhere in the world.