Do You Own a Cleaning Job or a Cleaning Business?

The difference between working for someone else and working for yourself is the boss. People who are self-starters and can work without supervision often choose to “do their own thing” and strike out on their own – in essence, they become their own boss. In doing so they generally set up a legal entity, give it a name and go into their own business. Working for oneself definitely has its advantages (and disadvantages) and it does provide a sense of freedom accompanied by the opportunity to earn more money then they could earn working for someone else.


The fact is, however, that hanging up a shingle like “Mary’s House Cleaning Service” often means that the owner of that legal entity has only switched bosses. Instead of being employed by someone else, she is her own employee. Her job description remains about the same. She still goes out and cleans homes. Only now she has the opportunity to retain all the profits for herself – and of course, is responsible for any and all expenses related to operating her business.

Now, there is nothing at all wrong with being self employed. All kinds of people choose to work for themselves: plumbers, electricians, carpenters, handymen, landscapers, pet sitters, house sitters, pool cleaners, roadside hot dog vendors, accountants, investment advisors, mortgage brokers . . . and the list goes on, including, of course, house cleaners. However, what all of these folks really own is a “job” (even though they operate as legally established companies). They can earn a very, very good living – just as successful employees of large companies can.


The $85,000-per-year house cleaner.


I have a client in the state of Texas who set up his own cleaning company. He chose to operate the business as a one-man show. This was his comfort zone and he is a typical example of someone who did very well working for himself. On his own, without any other employees, he generated $85,000 in annual revenues. Of course, he had some expenses to cover but, working on his own from his home, those expenses were minimal.


When I started coaching this young man, his revenues were nowhere near $85,000 per year. By restructuring his pricing, dropping unprofitable clients and analyzing and reorganizing a very inefficient cleaning schedule, we were able to double his annual sales without adding any extra expense.


For someone who is content to own his own job, this is a shining example of how well that decision can work out. However, one has to realize the limitations of this decision. Eighty five thousand dollars has to be at or near the upper limit of what an individual can generate working as an independent house cleaner. I also know that he worked longer hours every week than many people who run cleaning businesses that are doing $1 million or more in annual sales. Owning even a great job does not provide the opportunity for growth or income that building a real business does.


Advantages of building a REAL business.


When you’re essentially a one-man or one-woman show, what happens to your business if you become ill and perhaps hospitalized or disabled? How can you take a vacation with the family when you’re committed to a full cleaning schedule? Do you really want to be stuck with your head in someone else’s toilet bowl five or ten years from now? How are you going to get down on your hands and knees scrubbing shower door tracks when you’re in your 50s or older? Even if you have two or three helpers you need to be out there cleaning along with them in order to earn a decent living.


In addition to answering the above issues, your income potential is not capped by how much cleaning you can personally do in a day. When you clone yourself, you’re multiplying the revenue exponentially by the number of clones you wind up with. I don’t think there are too many cleaning employees who generate $85,000 a year in revenue, but a reasonable output is around $1,000 per week per employee. Thus, 10 good employees should turn out about $500,000/year in gross income with a resulting profit to you of between $100,000 and $125,000. Roll that out into 20 good employees and you can easily double those numbers. Interestingly enough, this can be done by putting in even less time on the job than our friend who eked out $85,000/year cleaning homes himself!

There’s an old saying: “If you spend all your time working IN the business, you’ll have no time to work ON the business.” So, if you are really interested in owning a real business, you need to plan on extracting yourself from the chores of cleaning homes. Since you can replace yourself for $10 to $15 per hour, by not changing your job description from house cleaner to the owner of a house cleaning business, you’re saying that your worth is $10 to $15 per hour. Considering that you could earn around $125 per hour with a crew of 20 people, one could conclude that being out there cleaning homes might not be in your best interest.