sample business plan for cleaning business

Free Cleaning Service Business Plan (Download PDF Sample)

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A cleaning company business plan is a comprehensive document outlining your cleaning company’s objectives and explaining your marketing plan , cleaning services, and funding information. It serves as the blueprint for your cleaning business. 

• Savvy entrepreneurs create a business plan when starting a new business, and they continue to update it as their business grows. 
• A well-written business plan will guide you through your journey as a small business owner. It will help you make critical decisions as you work hard to reach your goals over the years.
• You’ll be able to glimpse the bigger picture and keep track of your progress when you’ve got it all written down.
• A business plan will significantly increase your company’s chances of success , setting a clear path to long-term growth and helping you plan efficient organizational processes. 

If you’re aiming to gain the trust of potential investors, a business plan is a must-have tool that will show them if your business is worth taking the risk.

We’ve created a downloadable cleaning services business plan PDF that you can easily edit to fit your needs. Get my sample template below:

Components of a Cleaning Services Business Plan 

Now that you understand the importance of a cleaning company business plan, the next step is to start creating your own. But there’s no need to worry! We’ve done much of the legwork to ease the process of creating a business plan for you. 

Our free downloadable cleaning services business plan PDF contains essential components to help you define your goals and make better business decisions. 

However, keep in mind that every business plan is unique. You can remove or add any section as you deem necessary to create the best business plan for your cleaning company. 

Include the following elements to get started in the right direction: 

1. Executive Summary 

The first part of a comprehensive business plan is an executive summary, which provides an overview of your company and summarizes your entire business plan.

Highlight what makes your cleaning business stand out from competitors in the cleaning industry. You can also describe the weaknesses and shortcomings of other cleaning firms and how your company aims to solve these problems. 

You can include the following information in your executive summary: 

• Owner’s experience
• Mission statement
• The leadership team and employees
• Financial and growth goals

2. Company Description 

• Why did you decide to start a cleaning services company?
• What particular problems are you trying to solve, and how do you intend to beat competitors in the cleaning industry?

Your company description is where you emphasize the strengths and competitive advantages of your cleaning business. 

3. Objectives

Set the best objectives that will help keep your cleaning business on the right track.

• Think about the key goals you want to achieve, whether to reach a certain amount of sales revenue or expand your operations to a broader service area.
• When you carefully define your main goals and objectives, you’ll be able to take the proper steps to get where you want to go. 

4. Market Analysis

Market analysis gives you an insight into your target market share, the needs and demands of your customers, and your competitors.

• Do some research about the cleaning company industry and what your competitors lack to know how your company can gain an edge over others.
• With proper market analysis, you can also analyze the need for funding from financial institutions and investors. 

5. Organizational Structure 

• Define the specific roles that need to be filled, such as cleaners, an office manager, and a project manager.
• You can also talk about hiring competent personnel as your company grows and outsourcing services for processes like digital marketing and accounting. 

6. Cleaning Services

An essential part of a cleaning company business plan is identifying the type of cleaning services you intend to provide: 

• Scope of Cleaning Services – Do you plan to focus on bidding on commercial janitorial jobs , residential cleaning, housekeeping, post-construction cleaning or all types?
• List of Specific Cleaning Services – Talk about your company’s services and prices, from interior home cleaning and damage restoration to industrial cleaning. 
• Benefits of Your Cleaning Services – How will your target market benefit from your company’s services? Think about the problems you’re trying to solve for your customers, like giving them a wide selection of cleaning services to reduce the need for hiring multiple contractors. 

7. Marketing and Sales 

To survive in a competitive industry, your cleaning business needs to employ tailored marketing strategies to help you stand out and beat competitors.

Outline your marketing and sales strategies to promote your cleaning services, gain leads, and ultimately boost sales. You should determine the number of clients you must win to achieve your cleaning company’s profit goals. 

The most effective marketing strategies for cleaning businesses include: 

• Online Marketing – Your objectives can include building an authoritative business cleaning service website design , using paid advertising like Facebook ads , leveraging social media, implementing email marketing, and maintaining an excellent reputation online. 
• Offline Advertising – Timeless strategies include direct mail, distributing pamphlets and flyers, connecting with the local community, and creating branded merchandise. 

8. Funding Requests 

• Add this section if you need additional funding for day-to-day functions and operational expenses.
• You can create a table outlining your cleaning company’s expenses, letting potential investors and lenders know precisely where their money will go. 

9. Financial Projections 

Your cleaning company business plan should have a realistic financial forecast based on your extensive market analysis and company goals.

• It should include well-researched financial projections for the future to demonstrate your targeted profits. 
• Try to include a cash flow estimate, capital expenditures, and approximate payrolls for the next few years.
• You can create an annual or quarterly target profit that your team can work to accomplish. 

Pro-Top : include a cash flow estimate, capital expenditures, and approximate payrolls for the next few years. You can create an annual or quarterly target profit that your team can work to accomplish. 

10. Appendix

Your business plan ends with an appendix where you add all relevant documents, definitions, legal notes, and other critical information.

• You can include resumes, certifications, bank statements, credit reports, charts, and other supporting documents. 
• Refer readers to this section anywhere in your business plan when necessary. For example: “See Appendix, page 5, for management team certifications.”

Example of a Cleaning Services Business Plan PDF

You can open or download our free cleaning business plan PDF below:

To get an editable version on Google Docs, enter your email below:

Why Does My Cleaning Company Need a Business Plan? 

You might think, “But making a business plan sounds like a lot of work! Do I really need it for my cleaning company?” The quick answer is: Yes, you definitely need that business plan!

As tedious as it sounds, preparing a strategic business plan is crucial to set yourself up for success and not get lost along the way. 

Take a look at the following key reasons why your business will benefit from a cleaning company business plan: 

Find Out If Your Cleaning Services Business Idea Is Viable

Creating a business plan will help you test if your business idea is feasible, saving you time, money, and energy. Many aspiring entrepreneurs believe they have outstanding ideas that could never fail.

However, around 20% of business startups fail during the first year due to a lack of planning, among other things. 

To survive the cleaning business startup phase, you must perform careful and methodical planning and create a well-developed business plan. It’s the key step between visualizing the concept for your cleaning company and turning your vision into a successful business. 

Increase Your Chances of Growth and Success 

The cleaning industry is enormous, and competitive residential and commercial cleaning businesses are everywhere. There’s always demand for cleaning services. Around 80% of households in the US are expected to use home cleaning services by 2024. 

Considering the competition you’ll be facing, it helps to create a business plan that will help you identify how your cleaning company will stand out. 

• Extensive planning will help you pinpoint your target market, determine your unique selling proposition, and develop a startup and operating expenses budget.
• This process will ultimately set your cleaning business up for long-term growth and success.

Secure Financing

Established financial institutions, lenders, and investors typically perform an extensive investigation before committing to an investment. With a solid business plan, you’ll be more likely to secure the funds you need to get your business up and running. 

Common Questions about Cleaning Company Business Plans

A business plan will help you determine if your cleaning business idea is viable, increase your chances of success, and secure financing.

An executive summary includes a mission statement, information about the leadership team, and financial goals.

Final Thoughts: Driving Your Cleaning Company’s Success With a Solid Business Plan 

Equipped with a well-researched business plan, you’ll have much higher chances of succeeding in the cleaning services industry. It’s also a valuable tool that can help you secure funding for your operational expenses as a cleaning startup. 

After downloading our free cleaning services business plan PDF, make sure to edit each section and include all essential information to create a comprehensive document.

Our free sample cleaning company business plan serves as an excellent starting point – a helpful template that you can personalize as necessary.

Written by Nelmie Jane Pardo

Nelmie Jane Pardo is a senior contributing writer who lends insight into digital marketing methods and business solutions. She regularly writes at BusinessHue to help business owners take their online marketing to the next level.

Free Resources for the

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How much to charge for house cleaning: 2022 pricing guide, why is the average cleaning business success rate so low, cleaning service marketing plan: promote your business in 2022 (pdf).

Cleaning Business Plan Template (+Free PDF Download)

Read Time 8 minutes

Author Joanne Bratton

Published March 29, 2024

Download the Guide

Table of Contents

Executive summary: Setting the foundation

Industry analysis: understanding the market landscape, marketing plan: promoting your cleaning services, financial plan: estimating costs and projections, operations plan: running a thriving cleaning company, set up your commercial cleaning business for success.

A commercial cleaning business plan can kickstart a new endeavor or clear the way for growth for an existing enterprise.

Crafting a comprehensive commercial cleaning business plan is pivotal to starting a new venture or fostering significant growth in an existing service. A well-structured business plan becomes a cornerstone for:

Making informed decisions

Setting objectives

Navigating the competitive commercial cleaning market

A cleaning company business plan isn’t a one-and-done task. You should regularly review and revise your business plan to evolve as your company grows to reflect your current vision, market, and financial targets.

This template provides a sample to help create a business plan.

An executive summary is an overview of your entire business plan.

While the executive summary is the first section of a business plan, most business owners find it makes sense to write it last. The executive summary often is one to two pages, but you should keep it as short as possible.

Essential components of an executive summary include:

Mission statement: Defines your company's mission, vision, and core values.

Company overview: Write a company description of services, locations, and number of cleaning staff. Include a short history of how the business started, names of owners, and business growth milestones.

Market synopsis: Provide an overview of your market, mentioning your commercial cleaning business's size and competitive advantages.

Financial elements: Summarize your business financials, including sales, profits, and projections for one to two years.

Future objectives: Outline your company’s plans for growth, such as offering new services, adding verticals, or expanding your service area.

Your executive summary must be clear and concise. If you’re seeking funding for your small business, the executive summary should demonstrate your cleaning company’s value to potential investors.

An industry analysis identifies the potential market for your commercial cleaning or janitorial services. This involves defining and comprehending key elements such as:

Target customers

Competition

Cleaning industry trends 

Customer’s changing demands

Customer analysis

Commercial cleaning companies perform a customer analysis to understand and meet customer needs. This research-based process identifies your potential client base's demographics, values, and behaviors.

To perform a customer analysis:

Gather information about your target market through your existing customer data, industry research, online tools such as Google Analytics, and social media surveys.

Segment your customers based on similar demographics, traits, preferences, and pain points.

Create customer personas, or fictional profiles, of your target customers and their specific needs.

Leverage your customer analysis to inform business services, products, and prices.

Customer relationship management (CRM) software assists market analysis by providing invaluable information about your customers and their buying journeys.

→ Aspire commercial cleaning business software helps businesses connect the dots with real-time customer data, feedback, and analysis. 

CRM data empowers companies to retain existing customers and expand their customer base by cultivating strong relationships with prospects and customers through:

Efficient communication

Personalized offers

Proactive support to address potential issues before they escalate

Competitor analysis

A competitive analysis identifies the competitors in your market. It helps you understand market demand and gives your business a competitive edge.

For instance, if you plan to specialize in carpet cleaning or window cleaning, you’ll want to know if competitors offer these services and what they charge.

Steps to perform a competitor analysis include:

Identify and gather information about your competitors.

Evaluate competitors’ services, service areas, prices, promotions, reputation, sales tactics, marketing strategies, target audience, and online presence.

Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your business.

Develop sales, marketing, and pricing strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

Once you know your customers and competitors, these assessments will help you develop effective marketing campaigns.

While a service business plan template provides a guideline for developing a marketing plan , it’s crucial to identify your company’s marketing goals and include methods to measure outcomes.

An effective marketing plan includes the following components:

Market research: Know your audience, their preferences, and their preferred online channels.

Marketing objectives: What do you want to accomplish? Increase cleaning contracts? Generate leads? The more specific your objectives, the better.

Marketing strategies: The marketing channels you use depend on your target audience. The most effective marketing campaigns use an omnichannel approach to share a consistent message online and offline.

Pricing strategy : A cleaning service pricing strategy should cover costs and include an appropriate profit margin. Your target market preferences and competitor pricing should also be factored into your pricing strategy.

Marketing budget: Determine the percentage of revenue for your marketing budget. Focus on the channels that deliver the best return on investment (ROI). You can adjust your budget depending on objectives, channels, and results.

Key performance indicators (KPIs): Measure marketing effectiveness with KPIs. These could include conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, cost per lead, customer lifetime value, and overall ROI. Track KPIs to make better marketing decisions and improve your ROI.

Review your marketing plan annually. Some businesses review their marketing strategy and budget quarterly to adjust as needed.

A solid financial plan ensures your commercial cleaning business doesn’t just stay afloat but thrives.

To get funding for business operations, you’ll need a realistic estimate of: 

Initial startup costs

Ongoing operational expenses

Financial projections 

A comprehensive, realistic financial plan shows potential partners and investors the value of your company and outlines business growth.

→ Include graphs and visuals in your financial plan to break down the numbers and easily communicate business information.

If you struggle with financial planning or creating budgets and forecasts, consider hiring a professional financial advisor.

The right business management software makes collecting accurate data in your initial months much easier to ensure your initial estimate and projections are sound. 

→ The earlier you can adjust operations and pricing to maintain profitability, the quicker you can set and achieve new goals.

The following sections provide more detail about key areas of a financial plan.

Calculating initial startup costs

Initial startup costs cover one-time expenses for a new cleaning or janitorial business.

While startup expenses vary based on several factors, the average cleaning service spends $3,500 on startup costs .

Startup costs may include:

Legal fees: If you seek the advice of legal professionals, you’ll need to budget for legal expenses.

Business licenses and permits: Check on local regulations because you may need to register in additional states if your business performs work or hires employees from another state.

Cleaning equipment: Equipment such as floor buffers, vacuums, brooms, mops, cleaning supplies , cleaning products, and other specialty equipment.

Office space and equipment: Property purchase or rental deposit for an office space and technology costs.

Company vehicles: Depending on the size of your company, you may use a fleet of branded company vehicles.

Operational software : Instead of implementing siloed solutions for different aspects of your business, look at comprehensive software capable of scaling with you as you build. 

You’ll also want to consider additional marketing and advertising dollars to spread the word about your business.

A clear understanding of operational expenses ensures you correctly price cleaning jobs and target realistic revenue goals.

Recurring expenses are costs you pay regularly to keep your business running. Ongoing expenditures include:

Employee payroll and benefits

Mortgage or rental payments

Office utilities

Business insurance

Vehicle insurance

Cleaning products and supplies

Equipment maintenance

Technology subscriptions

Some expenses may be fixed, such as the mortgage payment, while others may be variable, such as the cost of cleaning products. 

Follow a budget, use best-practice accounting procedures, and track expenses to make needed financial adjustments.

Aspire’s comprehensive business management software collects financials above the gross margin line and pushes them in a one-way data sync to your accounting platform so you have clean, accurate data to inform your business plan updates. 

Financial projections and realism

Financial projections predict business revenue over a certain period. Data-backed financial plans drive better business decisions and help you plan for the future.

A startup cleaning business uses projected financial statements to determine future revenue and expenses. Industry and market analysis data can provide a starting point. In the case of an established cleaning business, use your historical data to project a percentage of financial growth.

To create a financial projection, you’ll need the following financial statements:

Income statement: An income statement, or profit and loss statement (P&L), shows your income and expenses. Your income statement should cover one year.

Cash flow statement: This statement projects all incoming and outgoing expenses for one year. A break-even analysis shows you how much revenue you need to break even with your expenses.

Balance sheet: This document lists business assets and liabilities and shows a summary of a business at present. 

In financial projections, accuracy is key. You don’t want to inflate your numbers, fail to reach your goals, or underestimate and miss out on growth opportunities.

As your business continues to operate, it’s important to use the right software to capture accurate financial data to achieve financial objectives and increase the accuracy of future projections. 

Aspire commercial cleaning business software integrates purchasing, invoicing, accounting, and payroll for full financial visibility. Robust reporting allows you to drill into sales, financials, job costs, and KPIs.

With real-time data , you gain deeper insight into business performance and can develop more effective business growth strategies.

A business operations plan outlines how your company will deliver high-quality service and achieve operational goals.

As you create an operations plan, involve your management team for ideas and input. After all, your managers are the ones who provide on-the-job oversight and remain accountable for operational goals.

An operations plan includes these elements:

Determine operational goals: Set business and departmental  goals. For instance, you could set a goal to increase annual revenue by 20% or a sales goal of 10 new cleaning contracts monthly.

Create roles and job descriptions: Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each position. This ensures accountability and the ability to measure performance.

Plan the how-tos: Detail business processes and workflows in every department so your team delivers consistent, efficient results. This includes investing in commercial cleaning business software to centralize data and streamline operations.

Track performance: Set KPIs to measure short-term goals and identify areas for improvement. Operational KPIs measure the performance of your operations, such as average contract amount, contract renewal conversion rate, closing percentage, and gross profit percentage by department. 

Aspire provides user-based dashboards so every role can see the KPIs relevant to their short- and long-term goals. Having accurate, real-time information fuels responsive management, building ongoing growth momentum.

Commercial cleaning business owners who optimize operations experience the greatest profitability and growth. Aspire commercial cleaning business software provides seamless workflows in every area of business, including:

Crew management

Job costing

Equipment and supply management

Streamlined processes reduce waste, increase efficiency, and improve performance in your operations.

Creating a thorough commercial cleaning business plan sets the stage for business growth. But successful results rely on how well you execute your plan.

Aspire commercial cleaning business software provides industry-specific management tools to empower business owners to take control of operations. From simplified scheduling to accepting customer credit card payments online, Aspire’s advanced features give cleaning contractors full visibility into business operations and finances.

To get your business plan off the ground, implement the right tools to improve business and boost year-over-year growth.

Ready to see what Aspire can do for you? Request a demo to see Aspire features in action.

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How To Write a Cleaning Services Business Plan + Template

Creating a business plan is essential for any business, but it can be especially helpful for cleaning services businesses that want to improve their strategy and/or raise funding.

A well-crafted business plan not only outlines the vision for your company, but also documents a step-by-step roadmap of how you are going to accomplish it. In order to create an effective business plan, you must first understand the components that are essential to its success.

This article provides an overview of the key elements that every cleaning services business owner should include in their business plan.

Download the Ultimate Cleaning Business Plan Template

What is a Cleaning Services Business Plan?

A cleaning services business plan is a formal written document that describes your company’s business strategy and its feasibility. It documents the reasons you will be successful, your areas of competitive advantage, and it includes information about your team members. Your business plan is a key document that will convince investors and lenders (if needed) that you are positioned to become a successful venture.

Why Write a Cleaning Services Business Plan?

A cleaning services business plan is required for banks and investors. The document is a clear and concise guide of your business idea and the steps you will take to make it profitable.

Entrepreneurs can also use this as a roadmap when starting their new company or venture, especially if they are inexperienced in starting a business.

Writing an Effective Cleaning Services Business Plan

The following are the key components of a successful cleaning services business plan:

Executive Summary

The executive summary of a cleaning services business plan is a one to two page overview of your entire business plan. It should summarize the main points, which will be presented in full in the rest of your business plan.

• Start with a one-line description of your cleaning services company
• Provide a short summary of the key points in each section of your business plan, which includes information about your company’s management team, industry analysis, competitive analysis, and financial forecast among others.

Company Description

This section should include a brief history of your company. Include a short description of how your company started, and provide a timeline of milestones your company has achieved.

If you are just starting your cleaning services business, you may not have a long company history. Instead, you can include information about your professional experience in this industry and how and why you conceived your new venture. If you have worked for a similar company before or have been involved in an entrepreneurial venture before starting your cleaning services firm, mention this.

Industry Analysis

The industry or market analysis is an important component of a cleaning services business plan. Conduct thorough market research to determine industry trends and document the size of your market. 

Questions to answer include:

• What part of the cleaning services industry are you targeting?
• How big is the market?
• What trends are happening in the industry right now (and if applicable, how do these trends support the success of your company)?

You should also include sources for the information you provide, such as published research reports and expert opinions.

Customer Analysis

This section should include a list of your target audience(s) with demographic and psychographic profiles (e.g., age, gender, income level, profession, job titles, interests). You will need to provide a profile of each customer segment separately, including their needs and wants.

For example, the customers of a cleaning services business may include:

• Small businesses
• Commercial businesses
• Industrial businesses

List the needs and wants of each customer segment, as they relate to your cleaning services. For example, a small business owner may need their office cleaned on a regular basis, but may not have the time or resources to do it themselves. Conversely, a homeowner may want their home cleaned but may not be willing to pay for professional services.

You can include information about how your customers make the decision to buy from you as well as what keeps them buying from you.

Develop a strategy for targeting those customers who are most likely to buy from you, as well as those that might be influenced to buy your products or cleaning services with the right marketing.

Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis helps you determine how your product or service will be different from competitors, and what your unique selling proposition (USP) might be that will set you apart in this industry.

For each competitor, list their strengths and weaknesses. Next, determine your areas of competitive differentiation and/or advantage; that is, in what ways are you different from and ideally better than your competitors.

Marketing Plan

This part of the business plan is where you determine and document your marketing plan. . Your plan should be clearly laid out, including the following 4 Ps.

• Product/Service : Detail your service offerings here. Document their features and benefits.
• Price : Document your pricing strategy here. In addition to stating the prices for your services, mention how your pricing compares to your competition.
• Place : Where will your customers find you? What channels of distribution (e.g., partnerships) will you use to reach them if applicable?
• Promotion : How will you reach your target customers? For example, you may use social media, write blog posts, create an email marketing campaign, use pay-per-click advertising, launch a direct mail campaign. Or, you may promote your cleaning services business via word-of-mouth.

Operations Plan

This part of your cleaning services business plan should include the following information:

• How will you deliver your product/service to customers? For example, will you do it in person or over the phone only?
• What infrastructure, equipment, and resources are needed to operate successfully? How can you meet those requirements within budget constraints?

The operations plan is where you also need to include your company’s business policies. You will want to establish policies related to everything from customer service to pricing, to the overall brand image you are trying to present.

Finally, and most importantly, in your Operations Plan, you will lay out the milestones your company hopes to achieve within the next five years. Create a chart that shows the key milestone(s) you hope to achieve each quarter for the next four quarters, and then each year for the following four years. Examples of milestones for a cleaning services business include reaching $X in sales. Other examples include expanding to a new city or adding additional services.

Management Team

List your team members here including their names and titles, as well as their expertise and experience relevant to your specific cleaning services industry. Include brief biography sketches for each team member.

Particularly if you are seeking funding, the goal of this section is to convince investors and lenders that your team has the expertise and experience to execute on your plan. If you are missing key team members, document the roles and responsibilities you plan to hire for in the future.

Financial Plan

Here you will include a summary of your complete and detailed financial plan (your full financial projections go in the Appendix). 

This includes the following three financial statements:

Income Statement

Your income statement should include:

• Revenue : how much revenue you generate.
• Cost of Goods Sold : These are your direct costs associated with generating revenue. This includes labor costs, as well as the cost of any equipment and supplies used to deliver the product/service offering.
• Net Income (or loss) : Once expenses and revenue are totaled and deducted from each other, this is the net income or loss.

Sample Income Statement for a Startup Cleaning Services Business

Balance sheet.

Include a balance sheet that shows your assets, liabilities, and equity. Your balance sheet should include:

• Assets : All of the things you own (including cash).
• Liabilities : This is what you owe against your company’s assets, such as accounts payable or loans.
• Equity : The worth of your business after all liabilities and assets are totaled and deducted from each other.

Sample Balance Sheet for a Startup Cleaning Services Business

Cash flow statement.

Include a cash flow statement showing how much cash comes in, how much cash goes out and a net cash flow for each year. The cash flow statement should include:

• Cash Flow From Operations
• Cash Flow From Investments
• Cash Flow From Financing

Below is a sample of a projected cash flow statement for a startup cleaning services business.

Sample Cash Flow Statement for a Startup Cleaning Services Business

You will also want to include an appendix section which will include:

• Your complete financial projections
• A complete list of your company’s business policies and procedures related to the rest of the business plan (marketing, operations, etc.)
• Any other documentation which supports what you included in the body of your business plan.

Writing a good business plan gives you the advantage of being fully prepared to launch and/or grow your cleaning services company. It not only outlines your business vision, but also provides a step-by-step process of how you are going to accomplish it.

Now that you know what should be included in a cleaning services business plan, it’s time to get started on writing your own. The template we’ve provided can help you get started, but don’t forget to personalize it to reflect your unique company and its goals.   

Finish Your Cleaning Business Plan in 1 Day!

Wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Cleaning business plan?

With our Ultimate Cleaning Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

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Cleaning Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

• Cleaning Business Plan Home
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Company Overview
• 3. Industry Analysis
• 4. Customer Analysis
• 5. Competitive Analysis
• 6. Marketing Plan
• 7. Operations Plan
• 8. Management Team
• 9. Financial Plan

Cleaning Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Cleaning business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Cleaning businesses.

Below are links to each section of your Cleaning service business plan template:

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Cleaning Business Plan FAQs

What is a cleaning business plan.

A cleaning company business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your cleaning business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your cleaning company business plan using our Cleaning Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Cleaning Businesses?

The most common cleaning service businesses are residential and commercial cleaning businesses. There are also cleaning service businesses that offer more specific services like windows cleaning, washing, carpet cleaning, swimming pool cleaning, and car washing.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenues and Expenses for a Cleaning Business?

The primary source of revenue for a cleaning business is its cleaning fees. Most companies charge an hourly rate for their services.

The key expenses for a cleaning business are labor expenses and supplies.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Cleaning Service Business Plan?

Cleaning company business plans are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding. This is true for a cleaning service business plan and a commercial cleaning business plan.

What are the Steps To Start a Cleaning Business?

Starting a cleaning business and becoming a business owner can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals, get started faster and lead to a thriving business.

1. Develop A Cleaning Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed cleaning business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the cleaning services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your cleaning business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your cleaning business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Cleaning Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your cleaning business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your cleaning business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Cleaning Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your cleaning business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your cleaning business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

Learn more about how to start a successful cleaning business and cleaning business planning:

• How to Start a Cleaning Business

Where Can I Get a Cleaning Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free cleaning business plan template PDF here . This is a sample cleaning business plan template you can use in PDF format.

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Commercial Cleaning Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Commercial Cleaning Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their commercial cleaning companies. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a commercial cleaning business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a Commercial Cleaning Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your commercial cleaning company as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Commercial Cleaning Business

If you’re looking to start a business, or grow your existing cleaning business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your commercial cleaning business in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Commercial Cleaning Companies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a commercial cleaning business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for commercial cleaning companies.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a commercial cleaning or janitorial business.

If you want to start a commercial cleaning company or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below we detail what should be included in each section of your business plan:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your cleaning company business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a commercial cleaning company that you would like to grow, or are you operating businesses in multiple cities?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of your industry. Discuss the type of business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of commercial cleaning company you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types of commercial cleaning companies:

• General Commercial Cleaning : this type of commercial cleaning service focuses on cleaning bathrooms, floors, kitchens, desks, tables and floors. Standard services may also include dusting, watering plants and other miscellaneous activities.
• Healthcare and Lab Cleaning: this type of business focuses on white-glove disinfection services for healthcare settings.
• Damage Restoration: this type of commercial cleaning generally encompasses water extraction, dehumidification, mold and mildew remediation, debris removal and site reconstruction.

In addition to explaining the type of business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of customers served, number of positive reviews, total number of contracts won, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your commercial cleaning company? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: office buildings, healthcare facilities, manufacturing facilities, and airlines.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of business you operate. Clearly, owners of office buildings would respond to different marketing promotions than owners of medical labs, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most commercial cleaning services primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other commercial cleaning companies.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes companies who maintain in-house janitorial staff. You need to mention such competition as well.

With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other commercial cleaning companies with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be commercial cleaners located very close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What cleaning services do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide better cleaning or sanitation services?
• Will you provide services that your competitors don’t offer (i.e. green cleaning, or white glove cleaning)?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a commercial cleaning company, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of commercial cleaning company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to general commercial cleaning, will you provide custom services, such as specialized disinfection services or high-tech cleaning options?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the products and services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your commercial cleaning company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your commercial cleaning company located within driving distance of multiple business districts, etc. Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your commercial cleaning marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local websites
• Social media marketing
• Local radio advertising

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your cleaning company business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your business, including securing contracts, sourcing supplies, site supervision, cleaning activities, specialized training, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to enter into your 100 th contract, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your cleaning business to a new city.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your commercial cleaning company’s ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing commercial cleaning companies. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing janitorial companies or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you service five properties per day, or just one specialized customer property? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your commercial cleaning service, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a commercial cleaning service:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Cost of equipment and supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a list of special services and capabilities.  

Putting together a business plan for your commercial cleaning company is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful commercial cleaning business.  

Commercial Cleaning Service Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my commercial cleaning business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Commercial Cleaning Business Plan.

What is the Goal of a Business Plan's Executive Summary?

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of commercial cleaning business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a commercial cleaning business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of commercial cleaning businesses?

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Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Cleaning Business Plan Template [Updated 2024]

Cleaning Business Plan Template

If you want to start a Cleaning business or expand your current Cleaning service, you need a business plan.

The following Cleaning business plan template gives you the key elements to include in a winning cleaning service business plan.

You can download our Business Plan Template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

Cleaning Company Business Plan Sample

I. executive summary, business overview.

[Company Name], located at [insert location here] is a new home cleaning service providing home and apartment cleaning services to its clients. [Company Name] is headed by [Founder’s Name], an experienced home cleaner and cleaning services manager.

[Company Name] will focus on providing weekly home cleaning services to upper class residents as well as specialty cleaning services to other clients. These specialty services will include exterior cleaning services (porches, patios, building exteriors) and deep cleaning of homes that have heavy build up of debris and garbage (preparation for moving or estate sales).

The founder, [Founder’s Name], will also develop proposals for cleaning services specific to the needs of the client and the amount of space to clean. [Founder’s Name] will write newsletters to clients describing the best practices in home cleaning, reviewing new products, and answering frequently asked client questions.

Customer Focus

[Company Name] will primarily serve the residents within a 10 mile radius of our location. The demographics of these customers are as follows:

• 27,827 residents
• Average income of $74,700
• 58.9% married
• 49.6% in Mgt./Professional occupations
• 75% of residents are homeowners
• Median age: 38 years

In addition to this relatively wealthy adult demographic for a cleaning service business, there are five large apartment buildings in the area. The management companies of these apartment buildings may require cleaning services to prepare for new tenants to move in.

Management Team

[Company Name]’s most valuable asset is the expertise and experience of its founder, [Founder’s Name]. [First name] has been a cleaning services manager for the past 15 years. He has spent much of his career working with Regal Hotel Management, where he oversaw housekeeping operations for fifteen hotels. He spent the more recent portion of his career at a smaller firm, King’s Cleaning, where he sold cleaning services worth over $1 million to homes and businesses.

[Company name] will also employ an experienced assistant manager to manage cleaning operations. This will be an experienced operations manager who will be trained in cleaning services operations by [Founder’s Name].

Success Factors

[Company Name] is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• [Company Name] will fill a specific market niche in the growing community we are entering. In addition, we have surveyed the local population and received extremely positive feedback saying that they explicitly want to make use of our services when launched.
• Our location is in a high-wealth area where customers are in need of house cleaning services.
• The management team has a track record of success in the cleaning services business.
• The local area is currently under served and residents rely on independent and often illegal house cleaners.

Financial Highlights

[Company Name] is seeking a total funding of $92,000 of debt capital to open its cleaning service. The capital will be used for funding capital expenditures and location build-out, hiring initial employees, marketing expenses and working capital.

Specifically, these funds will be used as follows:

• Headquarters design/build: $46,000
• Working capital: $46,000 to pay for marketing, salaries, and lease costs until [Company Name] reaches break-even

Top line projections over the next five years are as follows:

II. Company Overview

Who is [company name].

[Company Name], located at [insert location here] is a new home cleaning service providing home and apartment cleaning to its clients. [Company Name] is headed by [Founder’s Name], an experienced home cleaner and cleaning services manager.

While [Founder’s Name] has been in the cleaning services sector for some time, it was in [month, year] that he decided to launch [Company Name]. Specifically, during this time, [Founder] met with a former friend and fellow independent cleaning services provider in Fort Lauderdale, FL who has had tremendous success. After discussing the business at length, [Founder’s Name] clearly understood that a similar business would enjoy significant success in his hometown.

Specifically, the customer demographics and competitive situations in the Fort Lauderdale location and in his hometown were so similar that he knew the business would work. After surveying the local population, [Founder’s name] went ahead and founded [Company Name].

[Company Name]’s History

Upon returning from Fort Lauderdale, surveying the local customer base, and finding a potential retail office, [Founder’s Name] incorporated [Company Name] as an S-Corporation on [date of incorporation].

The business is currently being run out of [Founder’s Name] home office, but once the lease on [Company Name]’s office location is finalized, all operations will be run from there.

Since incorporation, the Company has achieved the following milestones:

• Found office space and signed Letter of Intent to lease it
• Developed the company’s name, logo and website located at [website]
• Determined equipment and fixture requirements
• Began recruiting key employees

[Company Name]’s Services

[Founder’s Name] will be able to provide clients with the following services:

• Weekly Residential Cleaning: regular, general residential cleaning services, customized to the needs of each client, for apartments, small homes, and large homes.
• Exterior Cleaning: cleaning of exterior walls, patios, porches, driveways, etc
• Deep Cleaning: garbage removal, carpet cleaning and deep cleaning of walls and floors for tenants who are moving, home sales, and landlords of apartment buildings
• [Company Name] Newsletter: frequently asked questions, cleaning tips, and product reviews for clients

As [Founder’s Name] understands, the key to a successful cleaning service is being responsive to the particular needs of clients. [Founder’s Name] will have a full-time assistant manager who will, among other things, manage operations including scheduling, supply procurement, inventory, and bookkeeping. This will free up the time of [Founder’s Name] to work on sales and customer service.

III. Industry Analysis

The cleaning industry is generally strongly correlated with the strength of the real estate market. However, last year, according to Freedonia, the commercial and residential contract cleaning services market was $48.4 billion in the U.S. The market will grow at 5.3 % annually for the next three years and that “gains will be driven by the shift toward “”do-it-for-me”” cleaning services in the residential market and by the outsourcing of noncore functions in the nonresidential market.”

The cleaning industry includes nonresidential interior building, residential interior, swimming pool, street and parking lot, exterior building, chimney, transportation equipment, window, and more. Within the residential interior segment, some providers specialize in areas such as carpets, kitchens, walls, and floors.

Trends in the cleaning industry include the following:

• Customer interest in companies that clean with all-natural or environmentally-friendly products only.
• Customer interest in companies that clean with non-toxic products.
• Market downturn leads to growth in residential customers hosting dinners and events at their homes to save money, leading to increase in cleaning services before and after such events.
• Customer interest in expert advice as to how they clean and maintain their homes better.

IV. Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

[Company Name] will serve the residents of [company location] and the immediately surrounding areas in a 10 mile radius.

The area we serve is populated mostly by the middle and upper class and lead busy lifestyles; as a result, they have both the need for cleaning services and the means to pay for it.

Customer Segmentation

The Company will primarily target the following three customer segments:

• Middle and Upper Class Homeowners: The area in which the Company will operate has a significant population of homeowners. Many homes have two working parents with limited time to keep up with housekeeping and cleaning. Even homes with one parent staying at home can have a need for regular cleaning services or specialty services from time to time, especially when there are three or more children to care for.
• Wealthy Renters: Many wealthy singles and couples chose to rent apartments and homes rather than to buy because of a temporary living situation in [company location]. These renters tend to work long hours at consulting companies, banks, and financial services and do not have the time or interest in cleaning their apartments regularly.
• Apartment Management Companies: There are five apartment buildings in the vicinity which may be interested in outsourcing their cleaning services for apartment units when they are vacated.

V. Competitive Analysis

Direct & indirect competitors.

The following two cleaning services firms are estimated to serve 50% of the house cleaning services customers within a 10 mile radius of [Company Name], as determined by a survey of 100 homes. Independent housekeepers are used by many more, although the exact number is difficult to determine.

King’s Cleaning

King’s Cleaning is an established local business and residential cleaning service that has been in operation for ten years. The company earns approximately half of its revenue through residential cleaning and half through business and office cleaning. [Founder’s Name] is very familiar with this competitor, having served as its sales manager for the past five years.

King’s customer reviews are often mixed. There are often reports of cleanings being incomplete. While King’s does send crews back to redo any shoddy work, their reputation has been damaged by these incidents over time.

[Company Name] will create a brand built around the specific cleaning needs of homeowners and renters rather than serving both home and business owners.

Merry Maids

Merry Maids is a nationally franchised brand that cleans more than 300,000 homes, apartments, and condos in North America every month. Founded in 1979, the company has more than 300 locations and calls itself the largest home cleaning franchise network in the world.

Merry Maids operates on a similar model to [Company Name], providing customized proposals to clients based on an estimate of their specific needs. They encourage weekly service, but can provide service on any schedule chosen by a customer or one-time cleanings.

However, Merry Maids does not offer any rates on their website, insisting that a home inspection must take place before any cleaning rates can be discussed. [Company Name] will offer basic rate ranges (competitive with Merry Maids) on their website, helping customers to come to a decision faster. Furthermore, [Company Name] will build its brand as a cleaning expert through its intelligent weekly newsletter.

Independent Housekeepers

Dozens of independent housekeepers operate their own businesses, generally illegally, for area residents. These housekeepers advertise their services through word-of-mouth and flyers in supermarkets and local stores. They offer low rates (as low as $10 per hour) to clean homes and require payment in cash.

While many customers seek out these “off-the-books” workers to clean their homes, others are wary of hiring illegal workers who avoid taxes and don’t hold insurance or business licenses. Those who are legal to work in this country can potentially become employees of [Company Name], effectively buying them out as competition.

Competitive Pricing

Competitive advantage.

[Company Name] enjoys several advantages over its competitors. These advantages include:

• Client-oriented service: [Company Name] will have a full-time sales manager to keep in contact with clients and answer their everyday questions. [Founder’s Name] realizes the importance of accessibility to his clients, and will further keep in touch with his clients through weekly newsletters about cleaning.
• Management: [Founder’s Name] has been extremely successful working in the cleaning services business and will be able to use his previous experience to assure clients of the care that [Company Name] will take to do the job right. His unique qualifications will serve customers in a much more sophisticated manner than [Company Name’s] competitors.
• Relationships: Having lived in the community for 25 years, [Founder’s Name] knows many of the local leaders, newspapers and other influences. Furthermore, he will be able to draw from his ties to homeowners from his work at King’s Cleaning to develop an initial client base.

VI. Marketing Plan

[Company Name] will use several strategies to promote its name, develop its brand and reach its target customers. By using an integrated marketing strategy, [Company Name] will win clients and develop consistent revenue streams.

The [Company name] Brand

The [Company name] brand will focus on the Company’s unique value proposition:

• Client-focused home cleaning services, that treat each home individually and get the job done right the first time
• Service built on long-term relationships
• Big-firm expertise in a small-firm environment

Promotions Strategy

Targeted Cold Calls

[Company Name] will initially invest significant time and energy into contacting potential clients via telephone. In order to improve the effectiveness of this phase of the marketing strategy, a highly-focused call list will be used; targeting individuals in homes are most likely to demand the services of a cleaning company. As this is a very time-consuming process, it will primarily be used during the startup phase to build an initial client base.

[Company Name] understands that the best promotion comes from satisfied customers. The Company will encourage its clients to refer their friends and neighbors by providing discounts for new client produced. This strategy will increase in effectiveness after the business has already been established.

Additionally, [Company Name] will aggressively network with local area hardware and cleaning supply stores that sell products used by [Company Name]. This network will generate referral leads and give out flyers to customers at no charge in exchange for the steady purchase of cleaning supplies. In return, clients who seek to use the high-quality products that [Company Name] uses will be directed to these stores.

[Company Name] will invest resources in two forms of geographically-focused internet promotion—organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. The Company will develop its website in such a manner as to direct as much traffic from search engines as possible. Additionally, it will use highly-focused, specific keywords to draw traffic to its website, where potential clients will find a content-rich site that presents [Company Name] as the trustworthy, well-qualified home cleaning firm that it is.

Publications

[Company name] will place print advertisements in key local publications, including newspapers, area magazines, and local sport programs. Additionally, the Company will print brochures and place them in specific locations frequented by target individuals, such as supermarkets and real estate offices.

Pricing Strategy

[Company Name]’s pricing will be competitive compared with Merry Maids and lower than King’s Cleaning, although higher than illegal independent housekeepers. For regular, weekly clients, pricing will be based on the average labor needed for a job and a steady fee will be set. For one-time clients, or clients who are trying out the firm’s services, a competitive hourly rate will be charged.

VII. Operations

[Company Name] will carry out its sales operations through phone calls and home visits/consultations. House cleanings will be scheduled within time ranges (i.e. 10 am – 4 pm Wednesday) rather than at exact times to allow leeway for jobs that may be longer or shorter than expected. After clients are served a number of times, appointments will be scheduled more tightly together based on the average service time for each home.

The headquarters will not be used for client meetings, allowing savings on the renovation costs needed for this space. This space will house the three full-time, non-cleaning staff as well as cleaning supplies for the cleaning staff. Cleaning staff will be required to travel to client homes in their own vehicles and will be reimbursed for travel expenses.

[Founder’s Name] will work as the primary salesperson for the company’s services, although the assistant manager and administrative assistant may be trained in sales activities over time. The assistant manager will manage company operations, under [Founder’s Name]’s supervision. The administrative assistant will handle basic scheduling work for the assistant manager, as well as light bookkeeping, answering phones, and organizing human resources.

[Company Name]’s long term goal is to become the highest quality provider of consistent home cleaning services in the [city] area. We seek to do this by ensuring customer satisfaction and developing a loyal and successful clientele.

The following are a series of steps that will lead to this long-term success. [Company Name] expects to achieve the following milestones in the following [xyz] months:

VIII. Management Team

[Company Name]’s most valuable asset is the expertise and experience of its founder, [Founder’s Name]. [First name] has been a cleaning services manager for the past 15 years. He has spent much of his career working with Regal Hotel Management, where he oversaw housekeeping operations for fifteen hotels. At Regal, [First name] learned the requirements for detailed cleaning from both a technical and customer service perspective.

[First name] spent the more recent portion of his career at a smaller firm, King’s Cleaning, where he sold cleaning services worth over $1 million to homes and businesses over the past five years. During this time he witnessed firsthand successes and failures in service operations and service quality, while developing deep expertise as a customer service representative.

[Company name] will also employ an experienced assistant manager to manage cleaning operations. This will be an experienced operations manager who will be trained in cleaning services operations by [Founder’s Name]. The desired individual with have an undergraduate business degree or years of small business operations management experience.

Hiring Plan

In order to launch the business we will hire the following employees:

• Cleaning Staff: 9 full-time, experienced home cleaners. Must be read and speak English in order to take directions directly from clients, as needed. Cleaning staff will be added consistently to fill the growing need for [Company Name] services.
• Administrative Assistant: Must be organized, with good phone skills, facility with numbers for bookkeeping, and good writing skills.

IX. Financial Plan

Revenue & pricing.

[Company Name]’s revenues will come primarily from cleaning fees to residential clients.

[Company Name]’s main revenue streams will be:

Key Cost Drivers

As with most services, labor expenses are the key cost drivers. Cleaning staff will earn a competitive salary, allowing [Company Name] to hire workers who previously operated independent businesses. Furthermore, the costs of supplies and travel to client sites are expected to be roughly 20% of revenue.

The major cost drivers for the company’s operation will consist of:

• Cost of cleaning (supplies and travel to homes)
• Lease on company headquarters

Moreover, ongoing marketing expenditures are also notable cost drivers for [Company Name].

Capital Requirements and Use of Funds

[Company Name] is seeking a total funding of $92,000 of debt capital to open its cleaning business. The capital will be used for funding capital expenditures and location build-out, hiring initial employees, marketing expenses and working capital.

Key Assumptions & Forecasts

The following table reflects the key revenue and cost assumptions made in the financial projections model.

5 Year Annual Income Statement

5 Year Annual Balance Sheet

5 Year Annual Cash Flow Statement

Summary Crafting a cleaning services business plan is an essential part of the business planning process. The cleaning company business plan template above provides you with the a solid foundation to get started on your own cleaning services business plan.

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How to Start a Cleaning Business

Candice Landau

11 min. read

Updated April 12, 2024

Free Download:  Sample Cleaning Service Business Plan Template

So, you’re in the market to start a cleaning business? You have the skills. There aren’t that many hurdles or license requirements compared to other operations. And you can get started fast and affordably.

The thing is, you’re not quite sure what, exactly, is involved in starting a cleaning a business.

In this guide, you’ll get a better sense of the industry, what skills you should develop in order to be successful in it, and how to go about starting your own operation.

You will also find information provided by two people currently involved in the industry: Matthew Mercuri, Digital Marketing Manager at Dupray, and Simon Brooks, who founded a cleaning company that was featured by NBC . Simon is testimony to the fact that yes, anyone really can start a cleaning business.

• 1. Overview of the industry

The cleaning services industry is comprised of janitors and cleaners, maids and housekeeping cleaners, first-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers, and building cleaning workers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , as of 2023 there were 2.2 million janitors and cleaners in the U.S., 840,00 maids and housekeeping cleaners, 173,000 first-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers, and 14,000 building cleaning workers.

According to data from PayScale’s salary questionnaire, house cleaners, nationwide, earned an average of $19.70 per hour for pay. Most were women who claimed a high level of job satisfaction. However, just 3 percent reported having health care benefits such as medical, dental, or vision plans.

Products that sold best, and that were used most by the commercial cleaning industry, included brands such as P&G, 3M, Spray Nine, and SC Johnson. Cleaning managers cited high quality and effectiveness of the products, as well as a low price point as key to adding value.

• 2. Skills you need to start this business

Cleaning other people’s houses and offices is a dirty job—pun intended! More than that, it’s an intensely personal job as you will be entering someone’s home, or a private office space that may contain confidential data.

The people that hire you are taking you into their trust.

To be successful in this industry, you will need a number of skills and select character traits. If you do hire employees, they will also need these characteristics:

• Trustworthiness
• Diligence, or the ability to get a job done
• An eye for detail
• The ability to focus
• Excellent timekeeping and time management skills
• Physical stamina and strength
• A polite and professional manner

While it’s important to develop and maintain a positive relationship with your clients, you are not entering a house or office to socialize. A professional manner should be adhered to at all times. This will count greatly in your favor if the client ever has friends who ask for a referral.

If you want to learn more about your own strengths and weaknesses, you can conduct a SWOT analysis on yourself (as well as your company), or you can take this quiz that will help you determine where your strengths lie.

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• 3. Market research and business idea validation

It’s not hard to see why starting a cleaning business is such a popular option: It requires little upfront investment and is not a highly skilled business (in the simplest understanding of that concept) with many barriers to entry. Just about anyone can start doing it.

Of course, while many people may be able to start a cleaning business, not everyone can turn it into a thriving business. To do really well, you need business smarts and you need to stand out from the crowd.

This is where market research comes in.

Don’t skip your market research

Because you’ll be entering an already-saturated market, you will need to figure out a way to differentiate your service offerings. Sometimes this is referred to as figuring out your unique selling proposition, or USP.

Getting a handle on what you specialize in and how you operate—different to your competitors—will come in handy later on. It will help you find customers, and craft the right marketing messages so that they choose you!

Here are some things you might want to think about:

• How far are you willing to travel? 10 miles, 20 miles, 50 miles?
• Will you offer domestic, or commercial cleaning services? Will you offer both?
• Will you charge by the hour, by the room, or in some other way?
• Will you work weekdays and weekends?
• Will you serve everyone, or a select group, perhaps targeted by income bracket, age group, or something else?
• Will you do everything yourself or hire employees?
• What will your role be? Worker or manager?
• What will you pay yourself? And your employees?

If you’re not quite sure how to answer the above questions, you could take a look at the cleaning businesses in your area. Look at what they charge, how they charge, and who they seem to be targeting.

Beyond scouring the competition, conduct your own market research. Here are some additional resources to help you do it.

Pricing your services

Once you’ve figured out who your ideal target audience is, where they’re located, and what type of cleaning services you’re going to offer, you’ll have a much easier time pricing your services.

If you’re going to go down the route of creating estimates for every new contract, you might want to consider a few things.

Factors to consider when pricing your services:

• The size of the house or office (how many rooms?)
• How often you will be cleaning
• When you will be cleaning
• Special requirements such as cleaning ovens, windows, and so on
• Your own experience
• How many people will be involved in cleaning (just your or your team?)
• How you want to charge—by the hour or by the job

Don’t go down the route of charging too little for your services. Not only will you lose money, but people looking to hire you might not think you offer a great service. By that same token, don’t overprice. Take a look at what other companies are charging and be prepared to negotiate.

According to Care.com , in metropolitan areas, individual housekeepers usually charge between $17 and $21.50 per hour. Naturally, you’re going to need to figure out what your target audience is willing to pay. If you’re going into the eco cleaning business and choosing only eco-friendly brands, you can probably charge more.

Here are some additional  strategic ways to price your services. And, you can always start by first determining your own hourly rate: Look at plenty of websites and apps to get a feel for what others are charging.

Validating your idea

So, you’re at a stage now where you know some important things:

• You’ve documented your key assumptions about your business
• You’ve spoken to your customers
• You’ve got a sense of what people are willing to pay
• You know what your startup costs are and what you have to purchase to start

You should now have the information you need to determine if there’s enough interest in your idea to move forward. At this point in the process, we recommend creating a one-page pitch for your business. Either way, by the end of the process, you’ll have a much better handle on who you are, what your competitive advantage is, and who your customers are.

You can learn more about validating your idea in our guide.

• 4. Getting funded and writing a business plan

If you’re going to need an injection of capital in order to get your business going, you’re more than likely thinking of getting a bank loan. If this is the case, you will need a business plan.

Typically, domestic cleaning business operations need very little upfront investment and as such, can bootstrap their business idea, or get started as a part-time operation.

If, however, you are considering a large operation, perhaps a commercial cleaning service , you may want to invest in equipment and more expensive commercial supplies. In this case, you’ll likely need some startup capital.

If you’re considering opting into a franchise, you will need to meet a different set of requirements. You’ll need enough money to buy into one, a good credit history, management experience and skills, and to remember that you’re not the only one in control of the business.

For help on figuring out whether a franchise is right for you, see the FTC’s consumer guide to buying a franchise.

If you do need funding before you can start, there are a few options for you. Let’s review them:

• Bootstrap your business with a side business
• Take out a loan
• Ask friends and family for help
• Seek alternative funding sources

If taking out a loan is an option you’re interested in, speak with the SBA . You can find a local office using their search, and then get help figuring out which loan best suits your needs. To learn more about SBA loans, see our Complete Guide to SBA Loans.

If your credit is in disrepair, today it’s even possible to crowdsource money for a loan! That’s what Simon Brooks did with his social lending site called Kiva .

Simon says, “Our mission is to ‘clean up the cleaning industry,’ which is known for its low pay and culture of fear… Our business model fixes them all.”

Simon says, “I started this business with zero money in my pocket. Six months later we’d moved into our own Palo Alto office and are a viable business. Ours is a good story that shows you only need an idea and tenacity to get going.”

Writing a business plan to get funded

If you are going to go down the route of asking a bank to fund you, you’re definitely going to need a business plan. Lenders will want to see you’ve thought everything through and will pay special attention to the financial section of your plan. Make sure you understand this section.

It also helps to go in knowing how much money you need. In general, it’s better to ask for less, enough to get you started and going, and then to ask for an additional loan later. This is because a bank will be much more likely to give you another loan if you’ve made good on your last one and can show you’re running a profitable operation. It also minimizes your own risk.

Below you will find a selection of sample business plans. Start with a one-hour business plan (something you probably did when you were doing market research), then move to the traditional plan.

Free cleaning business sample plans

On Bplans, you have access to a library of over 550 free sample business plans. Within the services industry, there are a few different cleaning business plans. You can use these plans to get a better sense of how to write your own.

• Cleaning service business plan
• Janitorial service business plan
• Cleaning products business plan
• Carpet and upholstery cleaning services business plan

Dig deeper: How to write a cleaning service business plan

• 5. Making it legal

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our business startup checklist.  This includes all the things you’ll need to do before you can be considered a legal entity, from choosing a business name through registering for an employer identification ID.

Be sure to register a name that is uniquely your own. It will make it easier for others to remember, will give you a better chance of competing for online real-estate that you can own (a domain name and social media profiles), and will mean you don’t inadvertently send business your competitors’ way.

Some of the key things you’ll need to start with include:

• Registering a business name
• Applying for a federal tax ID number
• Choosing a business structure
• Setting up payment systems, if you’re not just taking cash

You can read more about formally setting up a business in our business startup checklist. If you need additional help, speak with a lawyer.

• 6. Opening your business and marketing it

As a service business, you will rely heavily on your customers for further business. Ensuring you have a process in place to receive reviews, comments, and feedback right from the start will go a long way toward helping you build a reputation.

Ideally, your existing customers will refer acquaintances, friends, and family to your service, so be sure to uphold your values and the things you stand for.

Before you open your business, consider marketing a promotional offer:

Is there some discount or benefit you can provide anyone willing to give your business a try? Maybe you can offer a free additional cleaning service if someone signs up for two services. Or you could offer a free hour of cleaning, or discounted hour of cleaning in exchange for a referral.

Sites like Postcardmania, offer excellent deals on postcards you can send out to prospects via mail.

• 7. Resources for cleaning businesses

Cleaning business associations and forums:

• International Cleaning and Restoration Association
• Building Service Contractors Association International
• International Executive Housekeeper’s Association
• ISSA: The International Sanitary Supply Association

Cleaning supply websites:

• Grainger Industrial Supply
• Office Depot Cleaning Supplies
• Amazon’s Janitorial Supplies

Interesting articles and blogs on the topic:

CleanGuru YouTube Channel:  A YouTube channel that covers everything you could want to know about the industry.

The Janitorial Store: Learn everything from bidding and estimating through marketing your business.

Clarify your ideas and understand how to start your business with LivePlan

Candice Landau is a marketing consultant with a background in web design and copywriting. She specializes in content strategy, copywriting, website design, and digital marketing for a wide-range of clients including digital marketing agencies and nonprofits.

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Did you find what you are looking for.

Increasing complex waste management and housekeeping needs make cleaning, maintenance, and repair businesses lucrative for new entrepreneurs.

Whether you plan to start a waste management or commercial cleaning company, you need a clear roadmap to drive your business to success.

This library of cleaning and maintenance business plan examples here can inspire and guide you as you begin to plan your business. So, don’t worry; we got you covered on that part.

Let’s learn more about these repair and cleaning business plan samples, starting with their benefits.

Benefits of using an industry-specific business plan example

Believe it or not, using an industry-specific business plan example is the best and probably the quickest way of writing a business plan.

Doubt it? Hold, this may change your perception; an extended list of the benefits of using an industry-specific business plan template.

• Inspiration : Reading a business-specific template can be incredibly helpful in getting content inspiration. Furthermore, it helps you gain insights into how to present your business idea, products, vision, and mission.
• Risk-free method : You are taking a reference from a real-life, let’s say, auto repair shop business plan—so you know this plan has worked in the past or uses a method subscribed by experts.
• Deep market understanding : Analyzing and reading such examples can provide clarity and develop a deeper market understanding of complex industry trends and issues you may not know but relate directly to the realities of your business landscape.
• Increased credibility : A business plan developed using an example follows a standard business plan format, wisely presents your business, and provides invaluable insights into your business. There’s no question it establishes you as a credible business owner, demonstrating your deep business and market understanding.
• Realistic financial projections : Financial forecasting being a critical aspect of your plan, this real-life example can help you better understand how they project their financials—ultimately helping you set realistic projections for your business.

These were the benefits; let’s briefly discuss choosing a maintenance, repair, and cleaning business plan sample that best suits your business niche.

Choosing a Maintenance or Repair Business Plan

This category itself has 18+ business plan templates for various cleaning and maintenance businesses. With many similar business types and templates, you may not find the most suitable one through manual scrolling.

Here are the steps to consider while choosing the most suitable business plan template.

Identify your business type

Are you going to be a pest control service provider? A carpet cleaning company? Or a laundromat business?

Asking yourself these questions will help you identify your business type, which will help in choosing a niche-specific business plan template.

Once you identify your business type, you can choose between templates for different business segments.

Search for the template

We have an in-built search feature, so you can easily search for a business-specific template using your business type as a key term. Once you have the search results, choose the most suitable one. Simple as that.

Review the example

Look closely at the content of the sample business plan you are considering. Analyze its sections and components to identify relevant as well as unnecessary areas.

Since all the Upmetrics templates are tailored to specific business needs, there won’t be many fundamental customizations. However, a hybrid business model targeting multiple customer segments may require adjustments.

No big deal—you can view and copy sections from other business plan examples or write using AI while customizing a template.

That’s how you find and select the most suitable repair and maintenance services business plan. Still haven’t found the perfect business plan example? Here’s the next step for you.

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Popular Templates

Sample Janitorial and Commercial Cleaning Business Plan

Example commercial cleaning & janitorial service business plan.

This is a comprehensive tutorial on putting together a sample janitorial & commercial cleaning service business plan. This template can be used by cleaning services, janitorial service, commercial cleaning specialty and carpet cleaning businesses.

The goal was to write out a custom business plan using practical information and cover the main topics.

Some of the topics were too big and we had to use an introduction and then provide a link to the full resource. Every section has a link to view details of specific sections.

The plan divided into 6 sections:

• Business Description

Table of Contents

Commercial Cleaning- Janitorial, Carpet Cleaning, VCT, Tile, Office Cleaning

In the executive summary we list all the main sections and then give a brief description of the topic.

• Business Description – Next Door commercial cleaning service located in Toledo Ohio and was incorporated as an S Corp July 2020. We are currently in the start up stage with August 1st 2020 as our first day of business. We currently have 3 employees, one marketing person and 2 cleaning technicians. ND currently leases 5 000 sqr feet of office and warehouse space out of Toledo. Our current target market is employers with 50- 100 plus employees, primarily professional offices with cleanable office space of 10,000 sqr feet minimum.
• Services – Next Door will provide daily cleaning services to local businesses including an emphasis on specialty cleaning services such as : Carpet cleaning, hard tile cleaning, VCT waxing, furniture and general disinfecting. Most businesses don’t have the time to recruit, hire and especially training cleaning staff. It can take 3-6 months to train a good cleaner, this is time, money most businesses would rather devote to their specialty and their clients and not on maintaining a clean building.
• Marketing – The company is going to use Account Based Marketing, what this means is weighting our budget to best payoffs. The strategy is to shift our resources to the biggest payoff and not market to every business equally. Some businesses will spend $1200 year, while others might spend $50k. We want our marketing plan to reflect that . This can really hit home – if we apply 80% of our effort to just 20% of our leads (our Key Accounts) we will receive 80% of the  rewards.
• Management – As we grow especially in commercial services where its common for businesses to have 10, 20 and even hundreds of employees. We want to avoid this first slide of every employee, every customer, invoice, equipment question coming to you directly. This is guaranteed to fail eventually and create lots of stress in the process.
• Operations – Commercial cleaning employee manual or handbook, this can be used for janitorial, carpet cleaning and commercial cleaning services. The purpose of this sample is to share some topics and general information to include in an employee manual.
• Financial – The financial part is the final part of the business plan and here we will use charts, graphs and spreadsheets mainly to map out a long term successful future.

1.Business Plan- Summary

Next Door commercial cleaning service located in Toledo Ohio and was incorporated as an S Corp July 2020. We are currently in the start up stage with August 1 st 2020 as our first day of business. We currently have 3 employees, one marketing person and 2 cleaning technicians. ND currently leases 5 000 sqr feet of office and warehouse space out of Toledo.

Our current target market is employers with 50- 100 plus employees, primarily professional offices with cleanable office space of 10,000 sqr feet minimum.

Client sustainability is going to be the main variable to consider when deciding which business to market to. We want to be thinking of industries that will be in business for the next 20 years.

Medical, clinics, doctor, technology, professional services like architect, law, financial. We see these as basic services that will survive the ups and downs of the macro economy. The main threat long term is the use of remote workers but we feel this is still a long ways out in large numbers.

Next Door plans to be diverse offering daily building cleaning services and also high margin specialty services. We believe this mix will balance our revenue/profits out over long term macro changes.

1.1 Industry Overview

Currently the retail sector of the industry is a mess and very difficult to make work. As more people continue to buy online retail stores continue to close stores and significantly cut back on cleaning budgets.

Right this second hospitality is also in shambles with pandemic and government ordered shutdowns or limitations on capacity. This includes restaurants, hotels, leisure, etc. We believe there will be permanent damage to this sector and will stay away for the first couple years. Even when they do get back on their feet they will be keeping budgets tight.

Industrial businesses are hit and miss, really depends on the specific product they make. This will be a sector ND will keep in the marketing mix

Medical, including hospitals clinics and doctor services are always needed and with an aging population only will be needed more. The only risk long term is more doctors using online tools to speak with patients but they will always need to see patients face to face somewhat.

Professional services including technology, lawyers, engineers, management, etc is one of the safest in our opinion long term. These are services that can’t be replaced easily by future robots. These services require thinking and not just repeating tasks. The risk is remote staffing but we feel in large numbers there will always be enough office space needed.

Commercial Property Management is currently experiencing a lot of financial problems with 20-30% of tenants not paying leases. We will be avoiding this sector over the short term.

1.2 Company Description

Next Door is an S Corporation formed in the state of Georgia with 2 shareholders Jason & Lisa Jones. The state or city does not require any special permits or licenses. The company will provide building cleaning services to other businesses.

The office/shop is located in between 2 main thruways giving access to all areas throughout the metro area within 30 minutes. This was a major reason for choosing this location, it is centrally located. Also with commercial cleaning businesses we needed warehouse space to hold various equipment and store misc cleaning products.

 Office is currently leased for 5 years.

Most cleaning staff will report directly to the buildings they service and not come to the office often. The office will be staffed with marketing, management and human resources. Supervisors will share workspace in the office but mainly work in the field at client buildings.

Because of this we only needed 3000 sqr feet of office space and 2000 sqr ft of warehouse.

Mission Statement Our goal is to provide a clean and healthy environment for our customers through state of the art cleaning technology and a commitment to customer service Method Clean Biz

Safety is a priority for our customers and employees, while in your facility we follow a detailed health & safety program, This insures quality service, happy employees and competitive prices.

One of the things Next Door wants to be about is safety, this is as a value proposition for marketing but also be aggressive in training, supervising employees through monthly safety meetings. We feel this is a topic that will be important in the forseeable future.

Also the large employers we target are generally the ones that care about safety. Under 50 employees you will start to see the topic be less and less important.

1.3 History and Current Status

The company is a start a up and we don’t have any history to share. Jason and partner Lisa Jones started the company August 1 st 2020. Jason has worked in the commercial cleaning industry for 20 years as a former franchise owner, operations manager and salesperson for 2 different businesses in the industry.

Lisa is a former office manager and salesperson for a landscaping service for 7 years with an MBA from Georgia University.

Jason feels after 20 years in the industry with practical real life experience in various management roles that the industry is changing and one variable is to focus more on high margin project work to combine with lower margin cleaning contracts.

Lisa has an MBA and can add the business structure needed to grow and sustain long term growth.

Both have experience in sales specifically in the service industry and know how to market, sell contracts.

1.4 Goals and Objectives

The goal is to build the business to about $1.5 million in sales with an owner benefit of about 20% which equals about $300k in benefits, wages and profit for the shareholders. The timeline is 5 years with a slower rate in the first 2 years while they are building the core infrastructure and then dramatically scale that up in years 3-5 after the core is solid.

One of the experiences Jason has had is small businesses growing too fast too early and then crashing because they don’t have enough management in place. Often owners try to do everything themselves and burn out.

1.5 Critical Success Factors

The key to success in the cleaning industry is human resources, people. Recruiting, hiring, training and supervising staff and also developing management, supervision talent in house. We feel the best way to grow and sustain it long term is by developing our cleaners into supervisors.

Each lead person is creating the next lead person. Trying to hire supervisor’s from other cleaning businesses comes with a lot of challenges, some have bad habits to begin with that are difficult to change. Also run the risk they quit after a short time and have information about the internal workings of the business and client lists, training material etc.

Training and supervision will be key success factors. The challenge In the cleaning business is employees are working at the customers location, mainly unsupervised on an hour by hour basis. This is why hiring the right people in the first place is so critical and then getting them in a routine through training.

We will create a culture of everyone sticking together and supporting each other. With 90% of the workforce working remotely it becomes important we communicate with each other on a regular basis and trust each other.

There will be a big emphasis on communicating nightly through email, text, phone so employees are tuned in.

1.6 Company Ownership and Exit

The company has 2 shareholders with Lisa owning 40% of the shares and Jason 60%. Each has the option to buy the other out at an agreed upon price after 5 years. Shares cannot be sold to a third party unless agreed to by both.

Jason will hold the title of CEO and have direct authority over Operations dept. Lisa will have the title of President with administrative and Sales/Marketing directly reporting to her.

The long term plan is operate the business for approximately 15 years and sell to the general public splitting the sale price 60/40.

2. Services

Next Door will provide daily cleaning services to local businesses including an emphasis on specialty cleaning services such as : Carpet cleaning, hard tile cleaning, VCT waxing, furniture and general disinfecting.

Most businesses don’t have the time to recruit, hire and especially training cleaning staff. It can take 3-6 months to train a good cleaner, this is time, money most businesses would rather devote to their specialty and their clients and not on maintaining a clean building.

The 2 nd part is specialty work. Most businesses do not want to invest $10ks of dollars of capital into cleaning equipment that is used 1x month or maybe even only a couple times a year. Also the training of employees required, again for a task that might only need to be done a couple times a year.

Businesses would rather spend that capital on areas where there is a much bigger payoff.

2.1 Service Description

• Daily janitorial and office cleaning
• Carpet steam cleaning truckmount
• Carpet cleaning low moisture
• Hard surface steam cleaning including ceramic, porcelain and quarry tile
• VCT floor waxing, polishing
• Office furniture steam cleaning
• Disinfecting services

Daily Janitorial and office cleaning

The company feels the key to success in daily cleaning is one initial training and two communication. Often cleaning businesses are small and lack management talent, understaffed and overall desperate for bodies on any given day.

We feel the competitive advantage is in training cleaners not only the technical skills but also the importance of service skills. Often clients will like a cleaner and think they are the greatest in the world even if their technical skills are average.

NEXT DOOR wants to make this a key part of training cleaning staff. Some of the training elements will be uniform, appearance, communication with the client, body language, how to address complaints, safety equipment like wet floor signs, tone to use when speaking with clients, etc.

Training will take approximately 3-6 months with technical training only taking 30% of the time. The company feels not only will we have happier clients but cut down on employee turnover by reducing the stress. We feel by training employee’s customer service skills they will also feel like we care about them and want to see them succeed in life in general.

More than anything clients want to know you care and we want to focus on training staff to be proactive in relaying that message. Most clients understand people are human and will make technical mistakes. BUT it is unacceptable to not care about a client building or the staff that works in that building when they are paying you.

2 nd Key element is communication. Most cleaning employees work remotely and does not interact with management on a daily basis. This more than anything can lead to cleaners feeling like nobody is watching and worse nobody cares.

The company is going to be very aggressive in creating a communication system so we interact with every cleaner, every day in some way. Either by a supervisor stopping by, calling, texting or maybe even email in some situations. Our thinking currently is daily text alerts mixed with phone calls.

Carpet Steam Cleaning- Truckmount

The company will invest almost $40k in a van based carpet cleaning system. This system will allow us to steam clean carpets at a very high level of quality and production. With advanced systems we can have a 10 on quality and a 10 in production. This system can also clean up to 300 feet away from the van, targeting large employers we will need to work at great distances on a regular basis.

Carpet Cleaning- Low Moisture

An emerging and often overlooked service is using low moisture technology to clean carpets. With this service the company can sell high margin services at an affordable price. Often in larger buildings access can be a problem or they need the area turned over quickly, low moisture provides a quick 30 minute dry time.

Hard Tile Steam Cleaning

Using the van based carpet cleaning system we can quickly change tools and offer steam cleaning of various tools. This is another high margin service to offer and it makes the daily office cleaning a lot easier and quicker.

Often these areas are the toughest areas to clean: restrooms, lobbies, cafeterias and also the areas that receive the most complaints.

The long term goal is create a route just cleaning hard tile surfaces, the benefit is it’s a high margin service and also can help get our foot in the door to sell big monthly cleaning contracts.

VCT Floor waxing, Polishing

VCT flooring is usually located in high traffic areas like hallways, cafeterias and restrooms. We have found the overall appearance of a building can be greatly impacted by having shiny, clean looking floors. This can be accomplished by stripping old finish off and applying new or high speed polishing.

How clients “feel” about a cleaning service overall can come from how well a cafeteria floor looks. This is medium profit margin service in most cases because how labor intensive it can be. But can help greatly in the overall satisfaction of clients.

Office Furniture Cleaning

Office furniture is another high margin but niche service. The company will use the van based truckmount system in most cases to keep production high. This can include partitions, chairs and small sofas

2.2 Competitive Advantage

In section 2.1 we covered what we believe our competitive advantage is for janitorial and daily office cleaning.

Specialty cleaning services: carpet cleaning, upholstery, office furniture, VCT, hard surface cleaning has some of the same focus but there are two key points to make.

Two things we have found true with specialty services is most janitorial businesses are not very good at them. The main reasons are lack of training in staff and equipment. We believe in buying the highest production equipment available and spending considerable resources in training of technicians.

These two variables can give NEXT DOOR a significant advantage over competitors and get our foot in the door for janitorial services at client buildings of competitors.

#1 Using van based truckmounted system and also current low moisture carpet cleaning systems.

#2 Using dedicated technicians that have been through specialized training at certified organizations like the IICRC.

Often janitorial services will send general cleaners out to complete these tasks with limited training and modest equipment.

3. Marketing Plan

Marketing is a huge subject in itself, we already have a large section with a specific marketing plan. In this section we will give a brief overview and then the link to the full marketing plan.

3.1 Marketing Research

Toldeo Ohio metro area is the designated service area. Toledo has a total of 18,000 businesses but we need to narrow that number down to a manageable number.

Key Accounts – businesses with 100+ employees = 328

Businesses with 50 + = 659

Key Account total = 987 businesses

These represent where we will dedicate 75% of our budget and resources

Growth Accounts- businesses with 10 -50 employees = 4300

These are growing businesses that we will dedicate roughly 15% of our budget too. Remember some of them will grow to 50 employees over the long term.

Advertising – misc. advertsing will receive the smallest piece of the pie of 10%. This will include google, adwords, social media etc. The reason is we can’t control always who calls from a big advertising campaign, some will be big and most small but its still an opportunity for PR/Marketing and fill in gaps. 

3.2 Competitors- High Barriers To Entry

Part of our marketing strategy is coming up with areas that are difficult for our competitors to easily repeat. If there is one thing we know about human behavior its if something is easy everyone will do it. So we want to look for tactics that are very difficult for our competitors to do.

Difficult to do: targeting businesses with 50 plus employees is a key part of this strategy. Most commercial cleaning services will find it very hard to do consistently over long periods of time. One of the biggest reasons is patience, larger jobs take a lot more patience and lets face it most cleaners are not very patient and our current society is built for on demand.

EASY To Do:

• Lead generation service
• Google search adwords
• Facebook marketing

HARD To Do:

• Telemarketing
• Door to Door sales
• Highly Targeted Google display ads
• Direct Mail

3.3 Sales Plan

6 Simple Steps To Creating a Commercial Cleaning Sales Plan

How to create a commercial cleaning sales plan, this can apply to commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning and janitorial services. We are going to cover 6 steps to creating a dedicated sales plan we can follow every day, month and year. A sales plan is meant to be a living document that as we learn will be updated and improved over time.

Step 1 What is our objective or financial goal?

Step 2 What Resources are available, what is your commitment level?

Step 3 Targeting, who are the types of businesses you will focus on?

Step 4 Services, what services will you focus on?

Step 5 Activity Log- What physical actions will you take on a daily/weekly/monthly rotation

Step 6 Training- What Training do you need to accomplish your goals?

3.4 Pricing Strategy

Pricing Strategy- After deciding on a goal we then can create a pricing strategy.

Cost Plus – we figure our costs for a job and then add our gross margin. Our gross margin goals will be as follows

• Specialty cleaning  jobs including carpet, tile, furniture and VCT- gross profit- 70%
• Small cleaning jobs less than $10k per year- 60% profit
• Medium jobs- $10k – $30k per year – 50% profit
• Large Jobs- $30k plus- 40% profit

The reason is smaller jobs require much more office support in fill in staff, supervision, training, supplies, etc.

Larger jobs are self contained with a team leader working on site at a client building to provide all those tasks.Supervisor will inspect 1x week.

Square foot – sqr ft or unit pricing is best when you have experience with a specific service and type of client. Sqr ft pricing will be used using the above gross profit goals.

Time and Materials – or another way to use this is hours X hourly rate. This is often used when you are unfamiliar with a service or type of client building. This strategy will be used when we are unfamiliar with a job, misc tasks, obscure requests and 1x jobs.

3.5 Sales Strategy

Strategy section: objective is increase cashflow, measure by percentage increase, goal is 30%. How do I increase our cash flow? How does this change our sales strategy?

 In commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning or janitorial cashflow is extremely important, maybe the most important challenge we face. What happens whenever taking on a new project is we have costs of labor, chemicals, equipment, gas but might not see a payment for 30, 60 or even 90 days. First is the data or analytical part, we currently are at 22% and in previous months hovered around 24% but now need to greatly increase that.

How to: look at the current client list, is there a pattern with accounts that fall below our goals? Reduce invoice terms, is there a pattern of industries, sizes or areas that are paying in terms greater than 30 days net? Change our terms to 15 days net for all one time jobs, these are usually specialty cleaning services carpet cleaning, windows, small construction projects.

Over time I think most of us find certain industries have industry logic built in that it is commonplace to pay in certain invoice cycles. This is fine but something we have to think about as we grow.

For example you are currently cleaning a lot of property managers and they are all paying 60 days plus, that might be a situation where its time to stop marketing to that group and find a new target

3.6 Sales Forecasting

This is a quick video on using forecasting to determine when it is time to hire a new technician. Often us contractors wait until the last minute to hire new staff and that usually doesnt work out too well. Regardless if hiring a part, full time or casual employee its always best to plant the seed and start the process months before we actually need someone.

The easiest way is to create a table in word or spreadsheet in excel or just take a piece of paper and a pencil. This is an example of a sales forecasting table separate by 3 columns. Customer, estimate amount and probability or forecast.

In the first column list name of the customer or bid, examples medical building, restaurant and property management account. Second column list the gross amount of the bid, in this example we put $1000 dollars for medical, $12000 restaurant and $3000 for property management company. The total comes to $16,000.

To forecast list low,medium and high of 25 percent%, 50 percent % and 75 percent %. Now this is subjective, sometimes we win low % bids and lose bids we think we have nailed down, it happens.

At this point its time to start placing ads, time to collect and read resumes, interview the best applicants. You want to have all this pre-planned and set up 2 weeks, 2months and 4 months in advanced so when the work does come in you have a list of contacts to put in place.

4. Management

4.1 company organization.

As we grow especially in commercial services where its common for businesses to have 10, 20 and even hundreds of employees. We want to avoid this first slide of every employee, every customer, invoice, equipment question coming to you directly. This is guaranteed to fail eventually and create lots of stress in the process.

This second example is more of a traditional organizational chart for a commercial cleaning service, janitorial service. In this slide we show 3 departments: operations, sales and administration. You can see a big difference right away in this structure, instead of every employee reporting directly to you, now they report to the managers and the manager’s report to you.

The Operations Manager will have all the supervisors, team leaders, technicians, specialty cleaners and cleaning staff reporting directly to them.

Sales Person might have 1-2 assistants working for them setting appointments, sending out direct mail, emails etc. Often these can be part-time staff that either work inside sales setting appointments over the phone or outside sales/networker going door to door and attending events.

Office Manager or Administration might have the bookkeeper and 1-2 office assistants helping with employee interviews, HR, fact checking resumes etc. Note, some owners prefer to have the bookkeeper/financial staff next to them and report directly to owner and not under admin.

4.2 Professional Support

The company needs to make a list of various vendors, suppliers and professional services. Below is a starting list of vendors will need to hire.

• Accountant/ Tax
• Financial advisor
• Equipment supplier
• Day to day cleaning solutions supplier Main
• Back up supplier
• Payroll service
• Credit card
• Credit card processing
• Website hosting
• Digital marketing
• Design marketing
• CRM provider
• Technical consultants – IICRC or ISSA
• Business specialty consultants
• Phone service
• Van mechanic- tires, inspection, etc.

4.3 Management Structure

In this section we will show some examples of organizational charts to structure a commercial cleaning, janitorial or commercial carpet cleaning service.

5. Operations

5.1 employee handbook.

Commercial cleaning employee manual or handbook, this can be used for janitorial, carpet cleaning and commercial cleaning services. The purpose of this sample is to share some topics and general information to include in an employee manual.

** Note this is not a legal document and any employee manual should be customized and verified with a local consultant or lawyer based on your specific state laws.

Welcome to Commercial Cleaning Service!

On behalf of our big family of fellow associates, owner, vendors, customers and management we want to welcome you to our team.

At Commercial Cleaning Service, we believe that every associate contributes to our growth and are also rewarded equally. We want every team member to take pride in driving our van, wearing our uniform and serving our customers to the best of your ability.

This employee handbook is a simple way to describe the expectations of our team members and outline the policy and procedures we follow to provide the absolute best service experience possible.

All associates are expected to become familiar with the contents of this handbook in the first 30 days of employment and share all questions they may have with management.

Topics to be covered:

• Timekeeping
• Direct deposit
• Termination
• Phone usage
• Equipment usage

5.2 Recruiting, Hiring and Interview Process

How to hire employees for your commercial cleaning service. The goal is to create a flow chart to map out the hiring process, I find it very helpful to be able to see processes and map out the different steps involved. I feel it helps a lot in understanding and the actual follow through.

The 10 Essential Steps To Hiring Amazing Employees For Your Commercial Cleaning Service

• Job opening

Job Description

• Create Database

Find Recruits

Phone Interview

Onsite Interview

The first step is determining we have a job opening or several job openings and writing a job description. A job description has the basic tasks involved, hours/days, full time or part time, any certification or education requirements.

Identify the type of person we would like to hire. Some positions require a detail minded person while others need a lot of physical labor. It is our job to find good matches of the recruits with the position.

Before running ads we want to create a database to hold all of this information and make it easily searchable in the future. Often we will have several qualified candidates but only one opening currently and want to find the other candidates later on.

Run Advertisements

Decide where we will run advertisements on, for how long and what is our total budget. The best place to start is referrals of course by sharing on social media and through email blasts of our current database and reaching out to former candidates. Some options for advertising are indeed, monster, local newspaper.

Go over the resumes and score the best qualified candidates for contact.

I personally like the phone interview first to reach out and get a feel for the candidate, ask a couple basic questions and make sure they understand the job description.

This will depend on the position of course, next an onsite face to face interview. Also can meet in a coffee shop, some people prefer a relaxed setting so candidates are more comfortable.

Go over all the information and make a final decision.

This is where we have the new employee fill out required paperwork, insurance, sign off on employee manual’s and layout the next steps.

5.3 Safety Meetings

The goal of this template is to create a 12 step safety manual with meetings on a monthly basis covering different topics. Cleaning businesses encounter several situations at clients building’s, company shop, office and driving to commercial carpet & tile cleaning jobs.

12 Month Health & Safety

Month 1 Introduction

The purpose of this health and safety program is to establish company standards for working in client buildings, driving in company vehicles and working in company office/shop.

The company has identified 12 key topics to be covered in monthly safety meetings that all employees must attend. It is intended that this manual is a “living” document to be upgraded and added to with input from employees, owners and managers.

• Introduction
• PPE- personal protective wear
• Electrical Cords
• Work area signs, tape
• Vans/Equipment maintenance
• SDS Sheets, Chemical storage, mixing

5.4 Employee Compensation

Often, we try to reward employee behavior through bonus programs and focus on one specific performance at a time, for example an attendance bonus.

In this example instead, we are going to create a Balanced Scorecard using a point system. The difference is we will have 5 different performances instead of focusing on only one.

The points vary from poor to satisfactory to excellent and at the end of the review we will add the points up give a financial bonus based on the number of points.

The five variables we will be using in this bonus evaluation are

• Inspections
• Customer Survey or Review

The Top 5 Performance Evaluations

Attendance- Attendance will depend on if the employee is full time or part time. I think we definitely have to weight this somehow. We could deduct a point for every day missed but honestly anymore than 1 is too many and even 1 is not good.

On Time- I understand some cleaning jobs when they clock in doesn’t matter a lot but for project work like carpet cleaning, floor work, etc. often clients are waiting for us, so it is critical.

Inspections- This can be a weekly or monthly inspection you would normally have. To make this easier I would just use a 5 point system or grades A,B, C,D,F and then transfer that to the scorecard.

Equipment- will depend on the type of service, for office cleaners we will be mainly looking at floor machines and maintaining vacuums.

For project work though like carpet cleaning, tile cleaning the equipment is critical and cost upwards of $50k plus. In that case I would weight it much higher than an office cleaning position.

Customer Survey or Review- This will break down between residential and commercial cleaning services. With residential nowadays reviews have become very important in digital advertising.

5.5 Inventory

The company will use an inventory control system made with excel spreadsheets managed by the operations manager. Inventory will be made on a 30 day cycle and 14 day cycle when cashflow is tighter in the first 2 years.

• On site inventory will be delivered and maintained by the building supervisor on a weekly basis. Cleaners and team leaders are to submit to supervisor supply needs and supervisor hands in worksheet to operations manager.
• Specialty Cleaners working out of shop will complete an inventory checklist daily and hand in to operations manager.

5.6 Credit Policy and Cashflow

The company will extend terms to clients following the sales strategy explained above.

Standard 30 days net

Exceptions 60 day net

60 day plus only authorized by CEO

Specialty cleaning jobs recurring 15-30 day net

1x Specialty jobs due on receipt to 7 day net maximum.

The company will follow this policy regarding tracking accounts receivable and payable

Complete an aging receivable at least monthly to track how much of your money is tied up in credit given to customers, and to alert you to slow payment problems.

Also tracking accounts payable using the same format.

Current- 30 day- 60 Day- 60 day + – Charge offs

6. Financials

The financial part is the final part of the business plan and here we will use charts, graphs and spreadsheets mainly to map out a long term successful future.

The main topics we will cover are:

• Start up funds and 1 st year
• Income statement
• Break even point
• Balance Sheet

6.1 Start up and 1st Year

In this section we think about all the money we will need to start up including 1x cost and monthly cost.

GENERAL/ADMIN                           

BANKING FEES  $200.00                $15.00

CONSULT FEES   $500.00                $95.00

OFFICE SUPPLIES              $200.00                $60.00

LICENSE FEES      $150.00                $15.00

BUSINESS INSURANCE   $500.00                $380.00

TOTAL GENERAL/ADMIN              $1,550.00            $565.00

SUBSCRIPTIONS                $237.00

TOTAL OPERATIONS       $-            $237.00

MARKETING/PROMO                    

ADVERTISING    $1,500.00            $1,800.00

PROMO $300.00                $50.00

TOTAL MARKETING/PROMO       $1,800.00            $1,850.00

WEBSITE/MOBILE APP                  

DOMAIN              $1,000.00            $30.00

HOSTING             $-            $30.00

TOTAL WEBSITE/MOBILE APP     $1,000.00            $60.00

RENT/LEASE       $-            $750.00

PHONE $-            $137.00

ELECTRIC              $-            $237.00

GAS       $-            $150.00

WATER/SEWAGE              $-            $50.00

WASTE REMOVAL            $-            $40.00

REPAIR/MAINTENANCE $-            $200.00

SECURITY             $-            $25.00

Then Estimate what the first year will look like.

TOTAL START-UP COSTS $4,850.00

TOTAL RECURRING MONTHLY COSTS               (1 YR = 12 MO)        $87,612.00

TOTAL BUSINESS EXPENSES         $92,462.00

ESTIMATED FIRST-YEAR BUSINESS INCOME          $112,000.00

BUSINESS FIRST-YEAR PROFIT/LOSS         $19,538.00

AVAILABLE CASH/ SAVINGS/OTHER          $30,000.00

BUSINESS BALANCE        $49,538.00

6.2 Break Even Point

In this section we look at how much revenue we need to generate to break even every month. This can be tricky sometimes for beginners, we want to calculate using a fixed monthly cost like rent and also a percentage of cogs or cost of service.

Fixed Cost            $4,300

Cost of goods sold            $3,000

Number of Jobs 1

Average Job Price             $9,300

6.3 Income Statement

Our income statement is a profit and loss statement, looking at net income and then minus taxes to see net, net.

6.4 Cashflow

Cashflow statement is one of the most important financial metrics to follow for a commercial cleaning business. Just because we have invoiced a client doesn’t mean we physically have the money in the bank.

Often what can happen is cleaning services fall behind and then have to start borrowing large sums of money to stay alive each month.

6.5 Balance Sheet

Lastly is the balance sheet what do we own and what do we owe. Including intangible assets like intellectual property which is difficult to judge so be very conservative.