For many people, the economic downturn of late has been the best thing that has happened in their lives. Why? It has forced them to think creatively and really evaluate their financial stability.
After a quick analysis, most people have realised that they are just as stable running their own business, as they are being employed by someone else. What is the main difference between the two? Potential! When you work for someone else, your earning potential is capped. If you work for yourself, then the sky is the limit.
Commercial cleaning is extremely lucrative. Grab yourself a handful of contracts you could be on the road to riches. The question is what do you need to get your business up and running?
A Plan
Don’t expect clients to fall in your lap and your business to run smoothly by itself; quite the opposite in fact. What you need to have is a solid plan. This includes every aspect of the business. What is your business going to look like in 3, 6 and 12 months? Where are the funds coming from? How will you gain new commercial clients? Do you have resources or contacts that can help during certain stages of the business? What is the best form of marketing?
Funding
Based on your business plan, you should have some idea of the funding required to start-up a business. Your business plan and budget should cover the expenses related to vehicles, equipment, 12 months of marketing, salaries, utility bills, premises (if applicable), costs relating to external service providers (online marketing companies, telesales and so on) and even fuel. You need to have this funding in place before you start your business. Cash flow is King. If you don’t have sufficient cash flow, your business will fail, even if you have managed to develop sufficient contracts with commercial clients throughout the country.
Marketing
Next, you need to get your marketing material in place. In this day and age, a company without a website is not a company at all. If you start now and work alongside some online marketing agencies, you could have a website that is not just online, but ranking in major search engines such as Google and producing regular leads.
Of course, you will need to develop a range of marketing materials including information packs for commercial clients, leaflets and even business cards. Don’t forget that when you eventually find the right vehicle, you will want to apply sign writing so you are advertising your business all day every day!
Equipment
Reputation is based on a few things for a cleaning service provider. This includes price, customer service, but also the quality of the job. In order to complete the job to a high standard, you need equipment that has been produced to a high standard. Depending on the cleaning business that you are operating you might need things like a dry vacuum, jet washing equipment, a water fed pole system and of course, you will need custom trailers in order to carry all of this equipment.
Conclusion
Running a cleaning business is not easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it and the opportunity would be non-existent. Follow the steps above and get started sooner rather than later!
Alex is a writer that focuses his energy on writing for high quality blogs throughout the world. He has written for blogs based in the UK, Australia, America and even South Africa. Although he writes on a range of subjects, his favourite subjects include starting small businesses and personal finance.