Starter guide
How to start a cleaning business
Few businesses turn a spare afternoon and a bucket of supplies into paid work as quickly as cleaning does. The economics only really work, though, once a handful of one-off jobs turn into a standing round of regulars you can plan a week around.
The fast version
- Sort self-employed registration and liability cover before your first booking.
- Pick a lane: domestic regulars, end-of-tenancy deep cleans, or commercial contracts.
- Price one-offs and recurring visits differently, with a floor for small jobs.
- Win the first few clients through people you already know.
- Bill every visit so a growing round never depends on memory.
The starting bill
Compared with almost any other trade on this site, the entry cost is small. A working kit, cover, and a way to register are usually all that stand between you and your first booking.
| What you need | Rough price |
|---|---|
| A basic kit: mop, vacuum, cloths, and chemicals | £100–£400 |
| Liability cover | ~£60–£140 a year |
| Self-employed registration | Free |
| A simple listing or business card | £0–£100 |
| Invoicing app | No cost to start |
Sole trader status and cover
Notify your tax authority that you’re trading as soon as money starts changing hands; it’s a short form, not a barrier. Cleaners work unsupervised inside someone else’s home or office, so a policy that covers accidental breakages and spills is worth the modest annual premium. Keep receipts from the start rather than reconstructing them later.
Pick a lane, then price it properly
Weekly or fortnightly domestic cleans, one-off end-of-tenancy jobs, and commercial contracts each behave differently on price. Regulars are usually a flat per-visit fee once you know the property; a deep clean or tenancy turnover is priced on condition and size; commercial work is often a monthly rate agreed up front. Whatever the mix, set a floor so a tiny flat still covers your travel.
Where the first bookings come from
Tell everyone you know that you’re taking on work, then post in the local groups people actually check. Once you have a few jobs done, ask each client for a short review: cleaning is a trade people research before letting a stranger into their home, and a handful of genuine reviews closes that gap faster than any advert.
Keeping a growing round straight
Remembering which of a dozen regulars is due this week stops being realistic surprisingly fast. Cleaning business software logs each visit against the client so you can turn it into an invoice without re-typing the same details every week.
Made for a growing round
ServiceInvoice tracks every client’s visit history and turns it into a branded invoice with one click, so a growing round of regulars stays organised instead of scattered across a notebook. See the cleaning business software.
Set up your accountWhere new cleaners lose money
- Charging a deep clean and a routine maintenance visit the same rate.
- Building a recurring round with no system for tracking who’s due next.
- Deciding public liability cover can wait because it’s “just cleaning.”
- Agreeing a price on the doorstep and invoicing whatever feels right afterwards.
- Absorbing the cost of supplies instead of billing them as their own line.
Sort the paperwork, price one-offs and regulars differently, and bill consistently. A reliable round builds itself from there.