Want to launch your own cleaning business but not sure where to begin? Learn how to start a home cleaning service in 2025. This is a step-by-step guide with tips on business costs, marketing, finding clients, and scaling with automation. At the end of this article, you will have a clear roadmap for how to start your own housekeeping business.
People worldwide spent over $415 billion in 2024 alone on cleaning services, and it’s expected that by 2030, it will grow to $617 billion. With low startup costs and growing demand, building a housekeeping business in 2025 is a great opportunity.
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Why starting a cleaning service in 2025 is a great opportunity?
A few years ago, a global pandemic affected the entire world, changing the way people interact with their surroundings, including how they clean their homes.
This tragic event in the history of our planet made humans more anxious about hygiene than ever before. All of a sudden, people started paying more attention to the cleanliness of their homes.
At the end of the day, people want to be safe, which includes having a nice and clean home, but most don’t enjoy the process of cleaning something. After a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is mop your floors. That’s where cleaning businesses come in to help.
Setting a budget
Although it is a relatively inexpensive business to start, it is still important to budget. For this kind of business, you have 4 types of operating expenses, no matter how big or small the operation is.
The first is supplies and equipment. The key here is to invest more where it makes sense while saving where you can, to keep costs low. It might make sense to buy an expensive vacuum cleaner, while a generic window cleaning solution might do the job well enough.
As a rule of thumb, don’t buy huge quantities or expensive products you might not even use. Start small, with the basics, and over time, buy what you feel like is missing from your toolkit (focus on products that make you work faster or that can let you offer new services). Buying in bulk might make sense, but only when you have a good idea of what products you go through the fastest, thus saving money.
According to a study published by Grand View Research, floor care services account for about 30.93% of the market share in 2024. This includes a wide range of services such as sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, stripping, waxing, buffing, and polishing, tailored to surfaces including tile, hardwood, carpet, and vinyl.
Cleaning as a business is different from cleaning for yourself because now you have to think about the client’s needs and wishes. Some might have allergies, pets, or might prefer eco-friendly products, and for all this, you have to adapt and charge accordingly.
The second operating cost is transport, and you can’t do this business without it. You can start with your car and invest in a van later, but even in this case, you must account for fuel, spare parts even the car depreciation over time. And thus you should include these costs both in your budget and service price.
The third cost is rent. You need a place to store your supplies and equipment, as well as to wash dirty clothes and microfiber towels. You can postpone this by using your own house, but you must still track your costs. You must account for expenses such as water and electricity bills, home repairs, and even storage shelves when budgeting.
The fourth and last cost, the employees. When getting started, you should work yourself even if you can afford to hire someone, because you must learn the business first. Later, you will be able to step back and manage other people who will clean for you. That’s when your business scales.
This will likely be your biggest expense, because this business’s profit is limited by how fast someone can finish a job. If you want to scale, you can either help your existing employees finish jobs faster through training and better equipment or hire more. Thus, you will most likely spend more and more on salaries over time to keep up with demand.
Costs add up quickly, so you must write down every expense. Use spreadsheets to organize every cleaning product you buy or vacuum cleaner you own. This will not only help you to plan, but also let you keep track of your assets, thus making sure you are not losing anything.
What services to offer?
As stated before, anything floor care-related had a huge market share of over 30% in 2024, and it can be a place to start.
Some services require bigger investments, like waxing, buffing, and polishing tile or hardwood, while others, like sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming, can be done with a small budget.
Even if these services are popular, this is not necessarily all you might want to offer. You can pair these with any other cleaning tasks, as well as ask your clients: “What other work would you like me to do for you?”.
From the same study, we learn that people want regular cleaning of carpets and upholsters furniture to eliminate allergens, dust, and polluants. This can be a good opportunity to offer some discounts and book recurring cleaning sessions for the same client.
How to stand out in a crowded market?
The fact that this field is easy to start in is a double-edged sword. Because of the low barrier to entry, it means that loads of people will try it. Which might seem bad for you until you realize that not everyone does a good job.
Clients who are frustrated by previous experiences with cleaning companies will likely stick with you if you do a good job, and of course, recommend you to friends and family. The truth is that word of mouth is the best marketing tool you can use. Make your customers happy, and they will do the marketing for you.
Here are some of the things you might do to stand out from the crowd:
- Tailor your offer to accommodate their needs, be mindful of cats and children, and listen to your client’s needs.
- Do little extra things and show that you care. It can be as simple as cleaning a light fixture.
- Be respectful, on time, and try to be as discreet as possible; you are someone’s home at the end of the day.
As a basic rule, you should first understand who your customer is and where is he comming from. What does it make him tick? Does the client expect you to do something in particular? This, of course, varies from client to client, from personality to personality, and you will not be able to do a good job in this area all the time. Nevertheless, you should always try to make a good impression, so you get recommended to friends and family (and do future jobs for this client).
How to do market research?
Most home cleaning businesses are local, serving the community around them; thus, this should be your starting point.
To conduct this research, go online and try to find as many details about your competitors. Not just how much they charge, but the services they offer, how they operate, and how a customer can contact them. Any details that tell you just a bit more about how this business operates.
One hidden gem that is often overlooked is the Google review section of your competitors. You can read reviews (from real people hopefully) and find out what do people appreciate and what they don’t when it comes to this kind of services.
If you are not able to find much information online (they might not have a website or much online presence), then you could ask a friend to give them a call. They should act as a client trying to book a cleaning session and ask questions about the price and various other services they provide. It’s important to pay attention to stuff like how fast they picked up the phone, how nice they were, when the next available appointment is, and so on. All these possible weaknesses of your competitors can become your key differentiator.
Your home cleaning businesses, as well as any service-based business, thrive only if your customers like the job you’ve done for them.
Think about your personal experience. When you contact someone for a service, and they hardly pick up the phone, and when they do, you regret even calling? Yes, nobody likes that. Housekeeping services are very personal to the customer, as they are basically inviting a stranger to their own personal home.
How to price my services?
One important thing to note here is that you should never offer a price outright just by talking on the phone, because every job is different. You should always schedule a visit and go on location, without any equipment, to assess the size of the job.
Later, you will charge by the hour, square footage, per couch cleaned, or even offer a flat price. While not being limited to just one pricing strategy, it’s important to be open with your clients and explain how they will be charged. Then, if you find an agreement with your clients, schedule a time to come back and do the job.
Automate scheduling
Once you start growing, more and more people are going to call you, which gets difficult to manage, especially if you try to do cleaning work at the same time. To avoid this, you should use an online scheduling tool like ManySeats. Your clients can book their appointments at any time within the range defined by you, thus you spend more time cleaning and less time managing calls.
After you decide when and how to meet, you just have to show up, estimate the cost of the job, and present that to the client. No more back and forth with clients trying to get a hold of you, while you try to not be interrupted every 30 minutes while wearing gloves, drenched with cleaning products.
We are offering the essential features completely free, like unlimited team members, multiple meeting locations including in person, over the phone, or online meetings, and even the ability to avoid double-booking.
How to get my first customers?
This is always the most difficult part, especially for service-based businesses that are built by word of mouth and destroyed by the lack of it.
The easiest way to get started, for most businesses, is to ask someone you know if they need your services. You can sweeten the deal by offering discounts, but make sure you get paid. Also, ask them to critique you so you can see what you did wrong. If everything goes well, hopefully, some of them will recommend you to friends and family.
But this can only get you so far, and from here, the way you approach customer aquisition differs from place to place.
Finding new clients
There are many ways to find new clients. Some are old school, like flyers, some get expensive like radio or TV ads, and some might not work depending on your location.
For instance, if you live in a big city that is also very popular (like New York City), then social media would be an amazing outlet. Thanks to the short form content, over on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok you can reach new audiences quickly just by sharing what you do on a day to day basis.
The thing is, service based businesses usually do well on these platforms. People want to learn new stuff, from the latest cleaning tips to how a business like this operates behind the scenes. It’s educational entertainment. Don’t get scared to share. Nobody is going to steal your business, and you are not going to have fewer customers if someone learns from you how to clean a particular stain. In reality, most people only watch content because they enjoy doing so. They are not here a compete with you, so that is the last thing you want to worry about.
One thing to note about social media, and promoting in general. Try to stay away from telling your customers how amazing you are and how you should be their choice. Before publishing something, ask yourself a question: Would I watch this video? Would I find any sort of value out of it? Or is this only an ad, with no substance, that is trying (unsuccessfully) to convince me of something just by telling me to do so?
Note that I mentioned big city, not because creating cleaning content in a smaller city will not generate views. But even if you have a large following, it might not be relevant if few people from your community see your business on social media.
Your clients are not buying cleaning services, even if they don’t realize it. They buy time back, instead of them doing all that work, they pay you to do it for them. It’s purely transactional; you get the money and do the tasks, and they get their free time to do whatever they want.
There can be exceptions to this, of course, like jobs that require specific equipment or technique, or the job might be dangerous. But for the most part, people choose not to clean themselves and rather hire you to save time and thus you must respect their time.
Another way to find clients is to partner with small businesses. Go after property managers, landlords, and Airbnb hosts. Even contractors and handymen can refer their customers to you.. In this case, you might offer discounts for volume or find other arrangements to benefit both parties.
Keep your customers happy, and they will bring more
Stating the obvious: to win in this space, you have to do such a good job that everyone recommends your services to friends and family.
Be aware, when I say “do a good job”, I didn’t just mean make the house spotless. That is the bare minimum.
The key difference is in the small things. Gifting your customer an air freshener (don’t open it, the customer might not like such products, so you can leave it up to them if they want to use it or pass it to someone). Doing some small extra steps that will leave the client saying, “I didn’t even realize that I should ever clean that”. You can also leave a thank-you note, wishing them a happy birthday, or anything else that they enjoy. So please genuinely listen to your clients and try to understand who they are, what makes them tick.
If possible, brand everything, from the uniform you wear to the chemical bottles you use. This will help you in unexpected ways. Other than the fact that you will look professional, other people will notice you. The neighbours will see the new cleaning team, and if you do a good job, there is a high chance that you will be recommended.
The client’s work colleagues, their friends, and family will need cleaning services at some point. If you make yourself memorable in a good way, then you will likely be their recommendation.
Another approach to secure the next job is to offer discounts to your clients if they want to book future sessions in advance.
Why should you get insurance?
No matter what services you choose to offer to your clients, there is always a chance that something can go wrong. Accidents always happen despite our best intentions, so insurance gets you protected in those cases.
And there are tons of things that can go wrong. You might damage something expensive, like a hardwood floor or an expensive piece of furniture. Injuries can happen not just to you or your employees, but the client can sue you too for various reasons if they believe you harmed them in any way.
Going to court it’s expensive, even if the client suing you doesn’t have a case, you will still have to pay for lawyers. Equipment might break, leaving you not just with a big bill to pay, but you might not be able to work at full capacity if you don’t have the tools anymore.
On top of all this, having insurance improves client trust. It makes you seem like a true professional, and there might even be cases when the client will ask for your insurance before they hire you.