The household cleaning industry is projected to be worth a whopping 40 billion dollars by the year 2025. When aspiring entrepreneurs see that number, many are inspired to claim their piece of that wealth by starting a carpet cleaning business.
If you’re flirting with the idea of launching a carpet cleaning operation, flirt no more and go through our steps below! By combining our simple instructions with your desire to be successful, you’ll be cleaning your way to riches in no time.
Step 1: Understand Why You Want to Get Into Cleaning
Cleaning carpets isn’t glamorous work. As a matter of fact, it can get downright messy.
You’ll have to deal with a number of customers face to face, many of which will be difficult. You may have to manage cleaning projects that particularly challenging and might end up costing you more than you had anticipated.
Those potential pitfalls just scratch the surface of the liabilities that come with the territory of cleaning carpets.
To make sure that you don’t get into carpet cleaning just to search for a way out a couple of months later, think about what a carpet cleaning business offers you that other ventures don’t. If you can come up with a good answer, you can move forward with launching your business confidently.
Step 2: Learn the Business
No business venture, cleaning or otherwise, should be tackled without you understanding the industry’s ins and outs. In a perfect world, you’d have a background in cleaning carpets and can lean on that knowledge to guide you. If you’re coming into carpet cleaning cold, take the time to get educated before investing money in your operations.
There are a number of books and online materials that can brief you on the details surrounding managing a cleaning brininess. Shadowing a professional cleaner or becoming one yourself through another company are also great ways to get your bearings.
Step 3: Consider Franchise Options
There are a number of nationwide carpet cleaning operations that offer people like you the chance to run your own cleaning business under the umbrella of their trusted brand. This business arrangement is called “franchising” and it can take a lot of pressure off of starting your own company.
As a franchise owner, you’ll get access to a rich pool of information, access to discounts on supplies and marketing assistance that would cost you thousands of dollars if you were going at it alone.
The downside to operating under a franchise is that there are certain decisions regarding business that you won’t be able to make.
Bottom line: If you’re looking for an easy way to launch a cleaning business, try becoming a franchisee. If you’re looking for autonomy, go at it alone.
Step 4: Craft a Business Plan
A business plan lets you spell out everything from how much it’s going to cost to launch your carpet cleaning business to how much you’re going to charge for your services.
While creating a business plan can get tedious, a well-thought-out plan lets you navigate potential problems on paper rather than having to deal with them in reality. That advantage can save your company tons of money and might even prove to be the difference between your company staying open it having to close its doors.
Step 5: Think About Which Areas You’ll Cover
Since carpet cleaning means having to make house calls, you’ll need to specify your service area. In a perfect world, the area that you service will be the same area that your cleaning trucks are stored in. If that area proves to be rife with competition, you may want to branch out to lesser served communities where carpet cleaning demand is higher.
Step 6: Decide on Client Acquisition Funnels
How are clients going to engage with your services?
Are you going to have a number that they can call? Are you going to sell your services through task apps like TaskRabbit? What about creating a personal website?
The more avenues that you can give clients to buy through, the better. Just be wary of purchase mediums that ask for too lofty a percentage of your take-home pay (TaskRabbit requires a 15% cut).
Step 7: Buy the Right Gear
The biggest barrier to entry when it comes to launching a carpet cleaning business is the equipment that you’ll need to get started. You’ll have to find trucks/vans, you’ll have to hunt down truck mounts for sale which you’ll use to pump water to and from your cleaning machines, and more.
All of these expenses can easily run you thousands of dollars unless you choose to rent or lease equipment.
Step 8: Start Selling Your Services
With your foundation and equipment in place, you can start attracting customers and selling your services. Bringing in your first few customers can be tough so don’t get discouraged if it takes a while.
In order to jump-start your business and get positive reviews pouring in, offer discounted services to friends, family and the community. Also, do what you can to learn about the basics of digital marketing.
Launch Your Carpet Cleaning Business & Wash Your Way to Riches
Starting a carpet cleaning business might seem overwhelming. As you can see though, like all things in life, getting your company off of the ground is just a matter of taking things step-by-step and staying motivated when you bump into snags.
If you’d like additional information on all things related to business, check out more of the how-to content on our website!