How to set up a cleaning business in the UK
The recent global health pandemic has made people spending most of their times indoors in their homes to safeguard the public. Setting up a cleaning business during this challenging will be very advantageous since staying home will obviously implies a higher amount of house chores falling upon households. In fact, home schooling and working from home has turned upside down the loads of household tasks. More particularly for family with kids which are seeing a large increase of cleaning responsibility around their residential home. But also, commercial cleaning for businesses like the cases of restaurants, schools, supermarkets, hospitals which are already strictly controlled industries in term of cleanliness. Due to the pandemic, cleaning businesses in the UK and abroad has witnessed a more important pressure on improving their hygiene measures to meet the Governmental Health and Safety guidelines for the protection of all. The positive market’s growth observed from the past decades combined to present events make the cleaning industry a profitable investment for years to come.
How to become a cleaning business owner?
Isn’t a dream for all of us to be our own boss? Managing your own timetable without pressure or discouraging feedbacks from your supervisors. In the UK Cleaning business are mostly owned by small companies and under the status of self-employment. The British Government and specific funding organisations do offer funding support, training and access to resources to help entrepreneurs to start-up a cleaning business. Obviously, it is not as simple as being said. Being a cleaning business owner requires hard work, management skills, a thoroughly studied market research and well-prepared business plan to present to obtain a grant or a business loan. Grab the opportunity of entrepreneurship path; and get ready to invest in a prosperous business venture.
Cleaning team management requires a minimum of skills.
All cleaning businesses owner must deal with their daily cleaners’ team management. Even tough, no specific degree is needed, although an affordable range of online learning courses will provide you with beneficial information for greater chance to flourish in this industry. A professional training in team management to acquire managerial skills should be considered in order to be thrive in the industry. The main skills to have when managing a professional cleaning team are: First, effective communication skills; as your will, be the main middleman between your cleaner and your clients. Secondly, having a problem-solving approach is necessary as the nature of the cleaning industry services count on achieving 100 % clients’ satisfactions to win over potential competitors. Finally, valuable table management abilities are needed to effectively organise your business and optimize the quality of the cleaning services you will provide.
Difference between Commercial Cleaning Business and Domestic Cleaning Business.
There are two types or cleaning business: Domestic cleaning or Commercial cleaning. Both can specialise in Specialist cleaning for windows, offices, hospitals, schools, public spaces and many more specialities. The principal difference between commercial and domestic are the number of cleaners employed to carry out the cleaning job. Obviously, a hospital will employ the services of a professional large team of cleaners specialised in large surfaces with more sophisticated machines and medical graded cleaning products. However, a standard family will hire the services of a small local cleaner or individuals for a weekly or occasional cleaning job. The difference of price quoted is evidently different between commercial and domestic cleaning services. Some specialised cleaning companies are specialised in specific areas such as vehicle cleaning, carpet cleaning, events cleaning, public spaces cleaning and so on.
How to well market your cleaning business?
The key to strive in this industry that worth £3bn for the UK domestic cleaning industry alone and over £9bn for commercial & specialist cleaning is to analyse; and then gather an accurate market research on cleaning businesses in the UK. A profitable cleaning business offering a service-based services relies strongly on researching about your competitors, potential clients’ profiles and pricing implementation which are the main criteria to focus on. Your marketing strategies will then need to be planned according to your business structures, budgets and goals. Promotional advertisement is the best used technique to advertise your services. However, promotions budgets will depend on the size of your company. Typically, big enterprises invest thousands to millions of pounds on TV ads, billboards paid to professional advertising agency; whereas Small Medium Companies use Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click, social media platform to promote their cleaning businesses services. It is recommended to take a short course on Online Marketing strategies for Cleaning Businesses.
- Want to know more about becoming a franchisee
Getting the support from qualified and experienced individuals or companies that know all the bits and bots to be a successful in the cleaning industry is an asset. Becoming a part of a cleaning business franchise is the right option to learn more about the cleaning industry; for newbies adventuring in this field. The good news is that becoming a cleaning business franchisee is accessible to anyone no matter what their professional background is. Yes! It does implies paying a cost depending on the company’s name and package. It might not be that inexpensive, but the marketing resources, expertise and business model support you will get are worth taking if your want to start generating leads to you newly marketed cleaning business.
- Basic equipment to start your cleaning business.
Your purchase of basic cleaning equipment will vary on either you clients will be providing their own products, or you will have to bring your own. It will also differ on whether you will be offering commercial cleaning services or domestic cleaning cleaning services. If you are a household cleaning provider, your small start-up cleaning business equipment will require inexpensive basic professional cleaning products.
A basic list:
– Protective gloves
– Bucket and mop
– Dustpan and brush
– Cleaning sponges
-Bleach and multi-purpose cleaner
– Vacuum
If you choose to provide your professional cleaning services to large businesses like restaurants, schools, manufacturing premises, private clinics and others. In that case, specific products and cleaning equipment will be operated to meet the cleanliness standards level of these businesses. This will involve higher expenditures in special cleaning machines such as professional carpet steamer, window washer platform, a cleaning van, uniforms for the team and other expenses. We have explained above that some organisations and institutions must follow strict level of sanitation to meet the Health and Safety cleaning standards specific to its industry. As an example, an aesthetic clinic operates as a private sector company, yet the services and products they provide make them be regularly assessed by a National Standards Authority institution. Keep in mind that before setting up your cleaning business, you must do a full research online on cleanliness requirements and hygiene regulations in which your services will be operating in to avoid fine and closing your business.
