Whether you’re looking for a new career or just want to start your own business, starting a carpet cleaning business can be an exciting opportunity. It’s a simple business model that can be operated from home and doesn’t require much training or education beyond what you’d learn in high school.
You’re about to take the first step to become a successful, thriving business owner. We know that this can be a scary first step. But this guide will walk you through everything from planning your business to setting up your website and acquiring the necessary equipment.
If you want to get into the industry, here’s how to start carpet cleaning business :
Plan Your Business
A business plan for your carpet cleaning business lays out its growth for the years. The plan outlines your business goals and strategies to reach them. A business plan also highlights how you’re to raise funding for your new business. You keep updating your business plan as your business grows and expands.
What to include in your carpet cleaning business plan.
Executive Summary
The executive summary is an overview of your business plan and the last section to write after putting down all other sections. Your executive summary explains to readers the kind of business you’re running, its status, and how much does it cost to start a carpet cleaning business.
Other contents in the carpet cleaning business plan include:
- An overview of the carpet cleaning industry
- Type of cleaning business
- Direct competitors and target customers
- Snapshot of your marketing strategy
- Overview of your financial plan
Company Overview
You highlight the type of carpet cleaning business you’re running in this section. Some niches you should consider in this industry include:
- Carpet cleaning for homeowners
- Carpet cleaning for business owners
- Carpet restoration and replacement
- Steam carpet cleaning
Customer Analysis
This is where you highlight the potential customers for your carpet cleaning. Your customer segment determines the services you offer and how much does a carpet cleaning business make. You can come up with customer segments by demographic and psychographic profiles.
Analysis Competition
You identify your direct and indirect customers to your business. Direct competitors are those businesses dealing in carpet cleaning like yours. Indirect competitors are options that may give the customers a chance to avoid ordering your services like DIY carpet cleaners.
After profiling your competitors, you do a SWOT analysis to understand their weaknesses and strengths. This allows borrowing anything good from your competitors and capitalizing on their weaknesses to get an edge in the industry.
Marketing Plan
Your carpet cleaning marketing plan must document the 4Ps, including product, place, price, and promotion. Let’s go through these in detail.
- Price – how much you’re charging for your carpet cleaning services compared to competitors.
- Product – this highlights the type of carpet cleaning you’re doing and the services you’re offering.
- Place – this documents the location of your business and your potential customers.
- Promotion – how you’re planning to market your business to potential customers.
Management Team
A strong management team is another aspect of how to start a rug cleaning business. So, having this section in your business plan is very important. The ideal team should have strong skills and proven experience in the industry.
You must be very careful when selecting a management team since it best answers how to have a successful carpet cleaning business.
Get License And Insurance For Your Carpet Cleaning Business
Licensing is one of the essential steps to starting a carpet cleaning business. You need a special license for cleaning or a license for service contractors. The requirements vary by location, so you must visit the small business administration website for guidelines on what applies in your state.
The license requirements vary by state, federal, and local levels. For example, there’s no license for carpet cleaning business owners in Michigan. However, you must check the clerk’s office in your local city or the local sewer authority for local requirements.
Some types of licenses you may need to operate your carpet cleaning business include:
- A general business license is usually acquired at the federal level
- Certificate Of occupancy to operate in a commercial building
- Sales tax permit to create an account with your state’s department of revenue
- Waste water disposal permit
The process of getting a license for your carpet cleaning business varies by state and city. However, some basic requirements may include:
Filing an application
- Filling out the paperwork
- Opening a bank account for your business
- Getting an employer tax identification number
- Purchasing a bond
- Getting a surety or janitorial bond
Equally important is to get insurance to protect your business against all forms of risk or liability. You must understand the appropriate license for your carpet cleaning business. The three primary insurance policies for a cleaning business include:
- Commercial auto insurance to protect the driver, vehicle, and third parties
- General liability insurance to protect your business from accidents to third parties
- Workers competition insurance to protect workers from work-related injuries and injuries
Obtain The Necessary Equipment
Starting your carpet cleaning business requires investing in the right equipment. However, carpet cleaning equipment comes in three categories highlighted below.
Green Carpet Cleaning Equipment
As people are becoming more aware of their impact on the environment, carpet cleaning business owners have to adjust their business to become green. One way is to use green carpet cleaning equipment and suppliers.
When purchasing equipment for your carpet cleaning business, consider the power and water consumption, compatibility with green products, and overall impact on the environment.
User-Friendly Equipment
The ideal carpet cleaning equipment and supplies are user-friendly, allowing your team to do their work seamlessly. When purchasing equipment, consider the weight, ease of maneuver, and maintenance requirements.
Outdated cleaning equipment is hard to move, slowing down your team and leading to frustration. Modern equipment is light and easy to move, lowering the chances of onsite accidents.
Smart Cleaning Equipment
The use of smart carpet cleaning equipment improves productivity with less effort. Carpet cleaning management software eases scheduling, communication, invoicing, and routing. The software also makes managing on-site teams a breeze, sending customized invoices, and accepting payments at your fingertips.
After understanding the type of carpet cleaning equipment you need, you need to know the right tools to buy.
Vacuum Cleaner
A vacuum cleaner is a basic tool for accomplishing carpet cleaning tasks. The ideal vacuum cleaner should have an adjustable beater bar for use when handling various types of carpets. Additionally, it should be lightweight and with a HEPA-microfilter system.
The vacuum cleaner should also have a motorized brush for deep carpet cleaning without damaging the finish on the doors.
Defoamer
Some carpet cleaners require a defoamer to prevent foam from the carpet detergents from effective drying time and efficiency. Defoamers include silicone or oils to limit foam and to encourage faster drying time.
Ensure to invest in cleaning products that can’t damage your machine. And always use the recommended settings that come from the product manufacturer. This will significantly extend your machine’s useful life.
Air scrubber
Air scrubbing devices are air filtration systems to eliminate airborne particles and foul odor from the carpets. During a deep cleaning, tiny particles, including dirt, skin cells, and pet dander. Using an air scrubber eliminates these particles to purify the air.
All your clients will appreciate the improved air quality when you’re done with the job. Remember that happy customers don’t hesitate to leave a 5 star review and recommend you to people they know who need carpet cleaning.
Carpet Rake
When cleaning carpets, you need to get deeper into the fibers to remove dirt, hairs, and pet dander. A carpet rake is for priming the carpets for quick and effective absorption of your cleaning solutions.
The carpet rake has stiff bristles for dislodging and loosening debris, hair, and dirt from the deep ends of the carpet. A carpet rake may have rubber or silicone bristles with adjustable handles to boost efficiency.
Stain Cleaning Solutions
These are special detergents for removing stains on carpets. You need various options to handle all kinds of stains. Spot cleaners come in different sizes and prices. The rule of thumb is to invest in products that don’t harm the environment, animals, or pets.
Equally important is to ensure that the stain cleaning solutions aren’t corrosive. This is very important since clients usually pay for carpet cleaning and expect to see their places looking the same but with clean carpets. Using corrosive stain cleaners may distort the beauty of the clients’ floors.
Smartphone Or Tablet
A smartphone comes in handy for carpet cleaning business owners in various ways. You need a smartphone with the best carpet cleaning software to manage your business seamlessly at your fingertips.
The app will make functions like invoicing, scheduling, monitoring, and communication a breeze. You manage the whole process seamlessly, and your staff in the field use the smartphone to keep you updated on whatever is happening at the customer’s location.
Hire Professionals
Apart from learning how to start your own carpet cleaning business, another step to starting your carpet cleaning business is getting a team to work with. The success of your business will depend on the people working with you. Building a winning team for your carpet cleaning business requires looking for people with traits including:
- Friendliness so that they don’t scare aware your customers
- Trustworthy to sent to your customers’ locations
- Previous experience carpet cleaning experience
- Ability to multitask and quick learner
- Problem-solving skills
- Dedication and self-motivation to the job
After understanding the traits to look for when building your team, the next step is advertising your job offer. So, you must understand the various ways for prospective employees to learn about your offer. Here are a few options.
Career Section On Your Website
Having a website for your cleaning business is valuable in various ways. One of these is advertising your job offers. You should make a careers section on your website where prospective employees check to see the vacancies available in your company.
Social Media
Social media is a valuable tool for business owners today. And, a lot of people spend time on social media today. So, when looking to hire staff for your carpet cleaning business, consider posting it on your social media profiles like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Anyone interested in the job offer will come to your inbox.
Ask Friends And Family
Another wonderful idea when searching for carpet cleaning staff is to ask friends and family. There’s a big chance that the people in your circles may know someone looking for a job. This is the easiest and simplest way to find employees for your carpet cleaning business.
Use Announcements
Lastly, you should consider placing ads in mainstream media for people to know about your job offer. Place ads on local TV, radio, and newspapers so those qualified can apply to fill the vacant positions in your company.
Manage Finances With A Software
After discovering how much to start a carpet cleaning business, the key to success is the appropriate management of finances. Fortunately, you can use a carpet cleaning business management software to streamline your operations. Using this software, you can manage your business’ financial aspects, including invoicing, financial reports, and payments.
Using the software allows converting job estimates into invoices using any device of your choice. You can also send bulk invoices to various carpet cleaning customers. The software also allows for creating financial reports to track your incomes and expenses. You can also accept payments through the app when out in the field.
Marketing Your Carpet Cleaning Business
Now that you know how to start a carpet business, it is time to market your business. This is where your marketing plan comes in. There are various options that determine how much can a carpet cleaning business make. Remember, no option works for everyone. So, a good idea is to use a combination of ideas for the best results.
Here are a few ideas that determine how much do carpet cleaning businesses make.
Get a Website
Having a website for your carpet cleaning business is paramount. The website offers a platform where to show visitors your visitors and how to contact you. Additionally, you can have a gallery for people to see before and after pictures of your projects. You can also include testimonials and reviews from your past clients on the website.
Post Pictures On Social Media
Another wonderful option to market your new carpet cleaning business is to post pictures on your business’ social media pages. People are likely to click when they see your pictures to generate leads to your website.
The best thing about marketing on social media is the cost-effectiveness because you just put in time and creativity. It best answers how to start a carpet cleaning business with no money.
Use Video Reels
Video content today is very effective at meeting the various marketing needs of businesses. And there are various avenues where you post videos. You can use Instagram, YouTube, or Tik Tok to post before and after videos of your work. Alternatively, you can post a video on the landing page of your website.
Google My Business Profile
This is a free offer from Google for business owners to market their business. The best thing about creating a Google My Business page is for customers to leave reviews about your business.
Additionally, the page allows becoming more visible when people in your local area search for service providers in your industry. The chances of your business page appearing on top of the search results are high when your Google My Business page is well organized and updated.
Ask For Referrals
Another wonderful idea to market your carpet cleaning business is to ask for referrals from past customers. Any happy customer won’t hesitate to recommend your services to people they know. Apart from people trusting referrals from those they know, it makes getting employees for your carpet cleaning business cheap.
Congratulations! You’ve made it through the entire guide. You now have all the tools and information regarding how to start your own carpet cleaning business. All that’s left is for you to put them into practice. It starts with one step: using Field Complete to streamline your carpet cleaning business.
