Start a Cleaning Business

Launch Checklist

Companion to the lesson "Your first thirty days."

Week one: become a business

☐ Territory chosen: three to five contiguous zip codes you can drive in a loop.
☐ Entity or DBA filed; EIN obtained; city clerk called about licenses.
☐ General liability bound; janitorial bond bought; certificate requested (the one you show clients).
☐ Kit bought: vacuum, flat mop, color-coded cloths, concentrate chemistry, caddy, gloves.
☐ Google Business Profile set up (service area, photos); dedicated phone number, not your personal line.
☐ One-page service agreement and price list drafted.
☐ Business checking account opened, plus the tax set-aside savings account beside it.

Checkpoint: you could hand a stranger proof of insurance, a price, and an agreement today. If not, the weekend closes the gap. Nothing client-facing starts before this box is checked.

Week two: manufacture proof (founding-cleans tracker)

Founding clean	Review asked (day after, direct link)	Review posted
1	☐	☐
2	☐	☐
3	☐	☐
4	☐	☐
5	☐	☐
6	☐	☐

☐ Each clean run exactly to the checklist (you are calibrating your own standard).
☐ Door hangers hung on the four nearest doors after each clean.
☐ Profile link, rate range, and photos posted to neighborhood apps and local groups; every reply answered within the hour.

Checkpoint: six or more public reviews, and your first inbound inquiry. Reviews lag: the exchange was not explicit enough. Inquiries lag: re-examine the territory choice, do not double the effort.

Week three: fill and convert (conversion counters)

Counter	Count
Inbound calls run through the quote-call script
One-off deep cleans / move-outs booked
Day-after recurring callbacks sent
Recurring clients on the calendar (target: at least 3)
Days-before texts / arrival windows / autopay running from day one	☐

Checkpoint: at least three recurring clients and a week of work you did not discount to win. Zero recurring with lots of one-offs is a treadmill forming: reread the retention and pricing lessons before week four.

Week four: density and rhythm

☐ Recurring clients scheduled by geography: same neighborhood, same weekday.
☐ Referral credits announced to every client; door hangers on streets you now clean.
☐ Nothing raised, nothing discounted; the flywheel turns at posted rates.
☐ Money hour run twice: invoices, set-aside transfer, supply restock, replacement-rate count.
☐ One honest half-day off taken.

Checkpoint: the month closes with roughly eight to twelve clients, at least a third recurring, a review count in double digits, and a fourth week that ran on systems instead of adrenaline.

Seasonal checkpoint

Run the plan against your calendar, not a generic one. Spring carries the deep-clean surge; summer thins residential schedules with vacations; the weeks around the holidays pause whole routes. Launching into a natural slow season means extending the founding-clean phase and leaning harder on move-out work, not pushing panic discounts. Your region's rhythm: