I`m a Millionaire, Cleaning Service Owner !

[Kevin]

When you see advertisements like that online, it is usually followed by a purchase for $9.99. Can you make a million dollars with a cleaning service....sure.. can your business be worth more than a million dollars sure.. Can you incorporate, franchise, and go public. Sure but before you vision gets blurred by cloud nine, its hard work. To build your business up to support a family, and yourself should be your main goal. You can earn a very good living with your cleaning janitorial business. It will take alot of work, mental and physical. You will devote countless hours and make a commitment. I am proud to be friends and know , many cleaning, janitorial service owners worldwide. Out of the ones I do know sole proprietors, LLC`s and small corporations. Not once has the owner brought home a Million Dollars a year. On average a 10-20 year owner, successful with their business will be equivalent to a well paid executive $80,000-$125,000 a year. A janitorial cleaning service starting out owner, national average I would say $15,000 to $20,000 a year, with some proper marketing and proper devotion Ive seen 35,000+ first year. Regardless if you are deciding to run a janitorial cleaning service weigh out the benefits of your current job. Always a possibility is to make the time to do both, till your comfortable on your own.

[Pages Personal Cleaning]

Very good advice Kevin. Some people start a business and expect the money to just start pouring in within a few months. It just doesn't happen that way. It takes a lot of time, hard work and great customer service to get there.
Patti

[jeg8344]

The problem with most cleaning services is that the owner is a janitor instead of a business operator. Instead of running and growing his business, s/he spends the majority of his time doing the actual cleaning work. One can only do so much this way and ones earnings are extremely limited. People get in the janitorial business because it has low entry costs but this low entry cost creates many competitors and many competitors creates low prices since the supply of service providers is high. To be successful one needs to focus on volume since profit margins are low within the industry. Your goal should be making 5% to 8% on a $1,000,000 instead of 50% profit on a $1000 job . To do this you need to strive for industrial and commercial contracts. The best way is to " find a horse to ride" which is a company with multiple locations that you can service. I rode UPS from South Carolina to doing their facilities in Kansas.

[RED3TAS]

JUST LIKE ANY BUSINESS VENTURE ALOT OF HARD WORK AND OF COURSE LIKE THE OLD SAYING GOES AND SOMETIMES DOES APPLY YOU HAVE TO HAVE TIME AND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY. DONT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT THEY STARTED WITH $5 IN THEIR POCKET,A VACCUM,BROOM AND DUSTPAN AND MADE A MILLION IN THE FIRST YEAR OR BY THE END OF THEIR 20 TH IT TAKES TIME,PATIENCE,DILLIGENCE, AND A CERTIAN KIND OF PASSION TO BECOME REAL SUCCESSFUL AND BELEIVE ME I KNOW FROM EXPERIANCE A LOT OF LUCK.

[godofcleaning]

all of the above is very good advice.It takes at least 5 years to get yourself establised,and even then you cannot sit back and gloat on how well you have done.As soon as you rest people will come in and take over your contracts,its a dog eat dog business.
You also have to be in touch with every aspect of your business,you need to know exactly who is doing what and when they are doing it.
Do not distance yourself from your employees,you need a good working relationship with them,always remember without them you are nothing.A happy employee will work twice as hard,let them know they are important to you.
This is the way i work with my employees,and i feel i am in touch with them,i know each one of them personally,their husbands,wifes,children etc.
NEVER TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE BALL

[English Janitorial Services]

I'm just getting started with my company and i have a few question if any body can help.
1) what is the current rate per square ft. to charge
2) i also do apartment turnovers and i wanted to know what the going rate is.
Thanks
Reggie
English Janitorial Services
Detroit, Michigan

[Kevin]

Always glad to help a fellow Detroiter, Welcome to IJCSA. What is the current rate per square ft. to charge? What type of cleaning?

Apartment turnovers were charging .09-14 in Detroit now depending on condition.

[jumpintojanitorial]

In my 25 years of experience, I have found two types of owners in the janitorial business. One is the person who starts as the cleaning person and builds their business. The other is a highly educated person who sees the great potential in the cleaning business, yet takes lightly the work that is done. My advice to someone starting in this business is to understand the three pillars of business.
#1. Every business has a pillar regarding the understanding of accounting and financial issues.
#2. Every business has a pillar regarding marketing and sales.
#3. Every business has a pillar that is about the product or service you provide. In our case, that is cleaning.
Each area is important and must be learned. In our case regarding cleaning, it is imperative that you know how to clean and take this business seriously. I do not believe those highly educated professionals that do not clean and know what it takes, will ever be great in this business. By cleaning and knowing what it will take, you then are able to hire and train properly. For example, my motto is "good help is easy to find." When I first started in the cleaning business, I was like everyone else. I looked for the down and out to clean. Then I realized that I am a professional who cleans, why not hire people like me. I now have virtually no turnover. I have great people who clean who never ask for raises. I have people who never call in sick. My life is stress free in the cleaning business. How did I get here? By cleaning and learning what it takes. By understanding the nuts and bolts so to speak of cleaning, my estimates in sales are great. In seventy percent of my business, I can charge a customer around $50.00 per labor hour. (Of course the customers do not know I charge this much.)
In regards to the cleaning owner who cleans and understands this business, his downfall is not continuing to educate himself. After I got into business, I read about 50 business books a year to improve. I bought and still buy training programs. I got advice from as many people as I could. Sometimes it is very painful to read when others are watching great programs on TV. The real pain comes when you learn how to market and sell. Pain comes from rejection. I hate rejection as much or more as the next guy. The difference now is that I can pick myself up and go get more rejection. The funny part is that with the rejection comes great rewards. After awhile, you do not even notice the rejection because the victories are all that stay in your mind.

Eventually you will find people who will like you. My estimates are that two out of ten will hate you. Two out of ten will love you. If you get yourself in front of enough people, you will have all the business you will ever need just by finding those two of ten that love you. The two that hate you will always hate you so move on. The trick is figuring out how to turn those six in the middle that will go either way. When you learn skills on communication, you will get those six, plus the two that love you and will be astonished to find you can win over eight out of ten people you meet. If you are not getting new business, you are not well versed on how to get it. Getting business does not take a lot of money on advertising. It takes knowledge of how to do it.

I wish when I started my business 25 years ago I had known what I know now. For example, one person who I have coached started with me as a part time janitor. He was just out of the Navy for about 9 months. He was working full time at a company that built boilers and worked for me part time. He was a great employee. He had enthusiasm and a thirst for knowledge. He would always volunteer to do any job. He told me once that his biggest fear was that he would get fired from his full time job and not be able to take care of his family.
After about 6 months, I hired him full time. He worked for me for about 3 years and he eventually started his own company. I still coach him to this very day 5 years later. In 5 years of his own business, he pulled himself up from bankruptcy. He bought a house. 3 years ago, he sold that house, gained about $300,000. equity and bought a house for $600.000. That house today is worth about one million. He bought a corvette as a third car. He bought a $40,000. boat and bought a camper. I could go on and on and brag about him. He is my favorite student. The point is he did it and so can anyone else. He spends no money on marketing. He knows how to do it and can get accounts anytime he wants more. The issue is not how to get accounts. The issue is your self image. The issue is your thinking. Change your thinking and you can change your life. If he wants to be bigger than he already is and is feeling stress. The stress shows that he is trying to be more than his self image. The solution? Build your self image. There are many ways to do this. Too many for this response to the above question.

The point is that you can be anything you want to be. My advice is to know your values. Write them down. Set long term and short term goals. Write them down. Know your business by knowing marketing, sales, cleaning, hiring, training and all the other things associated with your business. In five years, which by the way will go by whether you are taking the time to improve or not, will be here before you know it. In five years you can build a tremendous income to take care of your family.

Ron Piscatelli

[B&D Janitorial Services]

This is great information and has really lifted my spirits! Thank you Ron!