It’s true that running a side business steam cleaning carpets can bring in a sizable profit. Your home seems snug and warm with carpets. But over time, they also have a tendency to acquire dirt, filth, stains, allergies, and pests. By starting a carpet cleaning side business or working as a freelance contract cleaner in your spare time, you can take advantage of this opportunity.
In order to start this company concept, you’ll need to invest in the necessary tools, such as vacuum cleaners, carpet brushes, and cleaning agents. To reduce your rental costs, consider renting equipment for an entire weekend and securing 5–10 customers to maintain it. If your firm is profitable, you’ll eventually be able to buy your own equipment, boost your margins, and transition from a side hustle to a full-fledged enterprise.
Eight steps to launching a carpet cleaning company
1. Write a business strategy.
Writing a business plan is the first step in launching any kind of business. Business plans are essential for entrepreneurs because they offer a clear road map outlining your company’s objectives and how you expect to achieve them over the coming months (or years, if you’re taking the long view) given the resources at your disposal. Your initial business plan can be as professional or casual, in-depth or general, as you feel comfortable making it. Because it is a dynamic document, you can always update it as your company grows and your priorities change.
However, your initial company strategy must at the very least answer the following inquiries:
What products will you provide your target clients, and who are they?
What equipment and tools are required to get started?
What are your hiring intentions?
How will your services be marketed?
What are your monetary objectives?
What will the cost of your services be?
We’ll reiterate that your initial company strategy is not final. Instead, consider your original plan as a chance for you to gather your ideas and assess your available resources. You’ll be able to start your company with confidence if you do it that way.
Create a budget.
You must create advance arrangements for your spending in addition to your company plan. Analyze your current cash flow and any potential future funding requirements to determine how much you will need to launch your business. Calculate the cost of your equipment, any beginning charges like business permits, training and certification fees, and employee salaries, if you intend to hire personnel, as well as your anticipated daily costs, such as petrol for your truck. If financial planning isn’t your strong suit, choose one of the many free small company budget templates available.
2. Obtain training and certification.
You’ll need to have enough carpet cleaning experience under your belt before you can advertise your services and take care of your clients’ property. Better yet, enroll in a legitimate program and obtain a license. You can become certified as a carpet cleaning technician, a commercial carpet maintenance technician, a rug cleaning technician, and other related specializations by taking a course from the IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification). You can either choose a local IICRC course that you can attend in person or you can earn your certification online.
As an alternative, consider TMF Academy’s online-only training programs. Additionally, certain equipment vendors, including Jon-Don and Rotovac, provide training courses and educational resources for prospective carpet cleaning business owners. Regardless of the training you choose, ensure sure all new hires have the same credentials.
However, nothing can substitute for actual work experience, so get in touch with other proprietors of carpet cleaning companies in your neighborhood & ask if you can observe their staff in action for a day or 2. If they say no, see if they’ll let you pick their brain instead. Make a list of questions to ask the professionals about all facets of owning and running a carpet cleaning business, such as startup expenses, suggested tools and equipment, advice on hiring and managing personnel, maintaining client relationships, and managing a budget.
3. Obtain a permit and register your company.
After laying the groundwork for your carpet-cleaning company, you’re prepared to formalize it by obtaining the required licenses and permissions and registering your company with your state.
If you want to learn more about the local license and permit requirements for cleaning businesses, you should first contact your city, town, or county clerk’s office. Check out our state-by-state guide to licenses and permits for more on requirements at the state level.
The next step is to choose a business entity and enroll in accordance with it. A sole proprietorship, which does not really require registration with your state, is an option if you own and run your carpet cleaning business alone or with your spouse. However, because there is no distinction between the owner and the firm with a sole proprietorship, you will be liable for all obligations and liabilities incurred by the company.
Instead, you might wish to think about forming an LLC. It’s easy to register an LLC with your state, and this structure offers you legal advantages that sole proprietorships do not, most importantly the fact that your personal assets won’t be at risk if your business encounters financial difficulties or other legal problems.
4. Create a company bank account
To keep your personal and professional finances separate at this time, we advise creating a business checking account. To shield your personal assets from business-related legal difficulties, you must keep your funds separate (provided you are properly registered). Separating your financial data may also make bookkeeping much simpler, which may make asking for company loans much less complicated.
5. Find the appropriate insurance.
The final piece of documentation is the application for the essential insurance for your cleaning service. The best place to start is with general liability insurance, which can shield your company from a wide range of potential lawsuits like those for physical harm, property loss, and personal injury. If you’re hiring staff, you should also think about getting commercial auto insurance, which can pay for damages to your company’s truck in the event of an accident as well as cover medical and legal costs. You should also think about getting workers’ compensation, unemployment, and state disability insurance.
6. Compile your tools.
Without the proper tools, running a carpet cleaning service is impossible. You can lease your tools from a neighboring hardware store if you’re just starting out, have a small number of clients (or none at all), and are on a limited budget. But if you’re serious about expanding your business, it’s worthwhile to make an early investment in certain reliable, fundamental tools.
Start with a steam carpet cleaner, an industrial vacuum, and cleaning agents and detergents. You can then broaden your toolkit once you gain a feel for the job: Upholstery wands, stair tools, spotters, rinsers, carpet rakes, deodorizers, pets odor and stain removers, and a variety of additional carpet cleaning instruments could be required. Once more, finding out which equipment local carpet cleaning company owners choose to use is a good idea.
7. Invest in your company
Undoubtedly, it requires money to buy equipment, obtain a business license, become licensed, and pay other startup expenses for a carpet cleaning company. Because of this, it’s essential that you set aside enough money to pay for these startup expenditures as well as your daily expenses after your firm is up and running. Ideally, you determined the precise amount you require while you were planning your original business budget.
Startup funding typically originates from your own resources. Brand-new business owners frequently take out personal loans for company, draw from their savings, or borrow from family and friends because getting a business loan can be challenging for startups without the financial track history lenders require to make a credit decision.
But if you’re determined to get business finance as soon as possible, start by using a business credit card to cover your smaller, more frequent expenses. It only takes a few minutes to apply online for a company credit card, and even newly established companies with scant or no financial history may be eligible: If the business doesn’t have any financial information to provide, the credit card firm will instead assess the applicant’s personal finances in order to determine whether the cardholder or its guarantor is competent of repaying their credit card debt.
Additionally, you can try your luck with equipment finance, which will enable you to get access to the essential (and pricey) instruments for your job. For start-up companies, equipment finance can be a relatively easy source of capital. This built-in safety net makes lenders feel more comfortable approving equipment loans to firms without the strong financials required to qualify for traditional loans. The equipment itself serves as collateral in the event you default on your loan payments.
8. Promote your company
If you don’t have any clients to service, beginning a carpet cleaning company is pointless, so you must start marketing right away.
Start by providing services to your friends, family, neighbors, and local businesses. If they are pleased with your work, ask them to recommend you to their network. Word-of-mouth marketing is how most service-based firms get traction. You can get valuable input regarding your work and methods by starting with your close network, which will allow you to adjust your services later.
You should start by developing a company website. Having a website not only gives your company legitimacy, but it also makes it much easier for potential clients to find and get in touch with you online. Your company website can be as simple as a page with links to your social media accounts, your Yelp page, and your business Facebook page, along with information about your services and contact details. Alternatively, if you’re up for it, you may make your website so intricate that it has a blog and an online store where you can sell things like pet odor removers and stain removers.
The essentials of starting a carpet-cleaning business
It’s normal to be intimidated by the idea of establishing a business, but if you follow these eight steps, you can start out strong. Writing up your strategy, reviewing your finances, registering and guaranteeing your company, getting the necessary licenses and certifications, purchasing high-quality equipment, securing enough cash, and marketing your offerings to potential customers will ensure success.
After you’ve completed these fundamental procedures, you can really concentrate on making a profit, requesting significant business funding to expand your operations, and, most importantly, how to keep giving your clients the greatest service possible.