When you notice the new Mercedes parked beside you, you may wonder if
it belongs to a doctor, attorney, executive, stockbroker or perhaps even a drug
dealer. It could be but, today, it might
well belong to the entrepreneur who owns the cleaning company that cleans your
home every other week.
Cleaning homes these days is a far cry from the independent “cleaning
lady” your parents used to hire 15 or 20 years ago. In fact, the profession used to be the domain
of individuals who were unable to find “regular” jobs for a number of reasons
such as: insufficient education, illegal
alien status and lack of job skills.
Some even wanted to avoid paying income taxes by being members of a vast
underground economy.
Now, in the 21st century, highly-educated folks with
high-paying careers are leaving the corporate world to start – of all things, a
residential cleaning service. The
industry in 2013 is almost devoid of the worker element which was its face in
days gone by. In fact, the degree of
business sophistication which has grown throughout the industry over the past
decade makes it very difficult for the lone-wolf house cleaner to compete.
Not all that long ago, even in major franchise organizations, hearing
of cleaning businesses generating $300K - $400K in annual revenues was not that
common. Now, the number of home cleaning
services generating $1million and up in sales is more common place. And while some are franchises, independent
business owners are not lagging behind.
In fact, many are building their own office, training and warehouse
facilities – up to 10,000 square feet in area.
And, yes, they are able to afford the finer things in life like luxury
vehicles, nice homes, summer cottages, boats and great vacations.
Not to be ignored is the fact that the business can be successfully
launched and maintained with a smaller investment than almost any other type of
business you can think of. In fact, some
of today’s industry leaders got started cleaning homes themselves for several
years. In this instance, what they
lacked in capital equity they made up for with sweat equity. Obviously, the more funds available to invest
in the business, the faster it can be launched.
Above all, what is critically important is that anyone going into this
type of business should seek out expert guidance to avoid the pitfalls, long
learning curve and expensive trial and error most new owners otherwise
encounter. There are a number of
excellent resources one can refer to which can be a great first investment in
order to learn the “dos and don’ts” that you NEED to know and which you will
otherwise learn the hard way.
So, next time you glance at a Mercedes, think of this article. That might be your ride in the
not-too-distant future.
By Gary Goranson, serial entrepreneur,
business coach and creator of the popular www.housecleaningbiz101.com course for over 4,000 cleaning business
owners in 60 countries worldwide.