Books About Starting a Cleaning Service

There are a couple of publishers that have a series of books about how to start your own business. Each book in the series covers a different business and they are written by people who have actually done it. I have two that I read: Start Your Own Cleaning Service (Start Your Own …) by Jacquelyn Lynn and How to Start a Home-Based Housecleaning Business, 2nd (Home-Based Business Series) by Melinda Morse and Laura Jorstad.

Start Your Own Cleaning Service is published by the same people who run http://www.entrepreneur.com/ and publish Entrepreneur Magazine. I like the web site. They have a lot of good information. It covers the cleaning business in general, gives you the options of how to get into the business, and then covers the major cleaning businesses: maid service, janitorial service, and carpet and upholstery cleaning services. Then it talks about some other specialized types of cleaning businesses such as window or pressure washing. Then the book turns to the business side of things: business plans, legal structure, accounting, employees, purchasing, equipment, and marketing. The very last chapter is filled with practical advice. All-in-all it's an informative look at the cleaning business for someone with no experience running their own business. However, the business chapters are so basic that you will probably need to read other more targeted books to get more complete information. I'm not sure I would be able to decide on a legal structure or be able to set up my accounting based on the little information contained in this book. But these chapters are still valuable in that they bring these issues to your attention and give you a basic overview of them. And the book doesn't actually tell you how to clean anything.

How to Start a Home-Based Housecleaning Business is very similar to Start Your Own Cleaning Service. It covers many of the same subjects such as getting a business license, record keeping, taxes, and advertising. But it does have some additional information such as screening clients, some basic information on how to clean, and developing a service manual. As the title indicates, this book is specifically aimed at the housecleaning business (maid service), and does not cover areas that the other book deals with such as janitorial services and carpet cleaning.

I think both of these books are worth reading before going into the cleaning business. They take different perspectives and you will learn things from one book that are not covered by the other. But neither book is really complete. To get a better understanding of cleaning itself you might want to also read a book like 2001 Amazing Cleaning Secrets. This book is mostly an encyclopedia of how to clean almost anything. You just look up the item you are interested in and find what methods and/or chemicals you would use to clean that item. It also has a chapter with a nicely designed housecleaning system. This system will help you plan your attack so that you can clean quickly and efficiently.

You will also need more information about the business side of things. NOLO press (http://www.nolo.com/) has a plethora of books about the legal issues surrounding small businesses. You could also read Small Business For Dummies or other similar books. These books deal with many of the same issues that are in the cleaning business books, but they go more in depth. There are other more specific books dealing with marketing and bookkeeping that you will need to read to really get the best advice.