How to Start a Cleaning Business in the UK – A Complete Guide

Are you dreaming of setting up your own cleaning business? Whether you’ve got a passion for transforming grime and mess into sparkling order or see the potential for a seriously profitable business, the cleaning industry has plenty of opportunities for those who aren’t shy of a little elbow grease. If you want to know how to set up a cleaning business, our complete guide has everything you need to get you started.

Can a cleaning business “clean up” financially?

According to the British Cleaning Council, the cleaning industry contributes nearly £60 billion to the UK economy annually and is now represented by over 1.47 million workers. With over 69,000 British cleaning businesses registered in 2021, it's evident that the adage "where there's muck, there's brass" still rings true.

How much do cleaners earn?

Before exploring what’s involved in starting a cleaning business in the UK, it’s important to understand earning potential. Employed cleaners (outside niche sectors) have traditionally earned close to minimum wage, but this doesn't accurately reflect the earning potential in the cleaning industry.

Self-employed domestic cleaners often charge around £20 per hour for their general services, and Checkatrade estimates that they could earn more than £36,000 annually. If you own a cleaning agency with contracts for office cleaning or other commercial work, they estimate potential earnings of over £60,000.

Is cleaning a profitable business?

You’ll learn more about the costs of setting up a cleaning business later, but compared to other businesses, these are relatively low (especially for domestic cleaning), allowing you to start seeing a profit quickly.

As with any service-based business, the key to profitability is securing a regular client base and retaining good-quality staff. Staff wages aside, the running costs for a cleaning business can be relatively low, and there is great potential for high-earning repeat contracts that keep your profits gleaming.

What types of cleaning businesses are there?

There are three main types of cleaning businesses: domestic, commercial, and specialised.

Domestic cleaning

Domestic (or residential) cleaning involves cleaning within other people’s homes. From weekly chores like dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, polishing, and cleaning bathrooms and kitchens to deep cleaning jobs and laundry, domestic cleaners keep their customer’s home clean and comfortable. Some domestic cleaners attend with their own cleaning kit, while others use their customer’s products.

Starting your cleaning business in this sector is a good option if you want to start your business solo, with the potential to hire staff as your customer base grows. It is a physically demanding role, and you may be on your own most of the time. You need an eye for detail, and it's best suited to those who really enjoy the transformative nature of cleaning and gain a sense of pride from helping customers with their housekeeping.

You can choose your work radius and advertise within it, from local cleans to a county-wide service. Good domestic cleaners are valued, and “word of mouth” advertising is a powerful tool.

Commercial cleaning

Commercial cleaning involves cleaning within commercial premises such as offices, schools, shops, hospitals, and medical centres. Usually, you will set up a contract with these businesses or organisations and send a team in daily or weekly to follow a pre-agreed sanitation and cleaning routine.

When you set up a commercial cleaning business, you take on the role of sourcing contracts, managing your teams, monitoring health and safety, and maintaining stock and equipment—in other words, you won't necessarily be doing the physical cleaning.

It requires a greater initial outlay (especially if you use specialist equipment) and has higher running costs than domestic cleaning, but the earnings can be significantly higher. Once you build up a good reputation and maintain and source new regular contracts, you have the potential to grow your business not only locally but nationally, too.

Specialised cleaning

There is a range of specialised cleaning niches, from window and carpet cleaning to specialist areas that require certified training such as cleaning chemical spills, medical waste and other biohazards, and graffiti.

The benefit of offering a specialist service is that you can charge more for it. When setting up a specialised cleaning business, you need to factor in the purchase of PPE (personal protective equipment) and specialist cleaning products and equipment, but these are reflected in the higher price of your services.

You can work alone or hire a trained team, allowing your business to offer your specialist cleaning skills over a wider area.

Pros and cons of running a cleaning business

The client base is certainly there for those who want to start a cleaning business, but is it right for you? The work is hard, the field is competitive, and you have to be on top of your game when it comes to insurance, health and safety, and training. But with the potential for good financial gains, is cleaning the way to go? Take a balanced approach by reading through the following pros and cons.

Pros:

• You’re your own boss
• Low start-up and running costs
• Easy to set up and run
• Demand tends to stay high in the face of economic fluctuations
• Can be highly profitable
• Domestic cleaners can work their own hours

Cons:

• Physically demanding work
• Competitive field
• Some cleaning environments are unpleasant
• Can be lonely
• Need to expand with staff to see significant profit increases
• There may be challenging clients
• It can be hard to find and retain the best staff

Rules and regulations for setting up

Knowing how to start a cleaning company involves familiarising yourself with the UK's self-employment and business regulations, as well as industry-specific requirements.

Health and safety considerations

Even though you work in someone else's home or premises, you can still be liable for personal injury or property damage attributable to your business activities. For this reason, cleaners and cleaning businesses take out insurance cover and you'll learn more about this shortly.

In addition to sufficient insurance cover, you can keep your cleaning business safe by complying with COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) regulations in relation to the cleaning products you use. Even standard household cleaners have the potential to be hazardous, so reading the labels thoroughly and understanding the risk of mixing common cleaners is essential. If you employ staff, they must be thoroughly trained in the safe use of cleaning chemicals, too, and you can enrol them in training courses such as COSHH Awareness. All your products must be clearly labelled (especially if your refill containers), safely stored, and disposed of correctly.

Legal considerations

All new businesses within the UK must be registered with HMRC before operations begin, and you can register as a sole trader or a limited company. If you plan to work alone, registering as a sole trader and completing a self-assessment tax return may be the most tax-efficient route. If you plan on setting up a cleaning business and want to employ staff, consider registering as a limited company.

When you're a sole trader, legally, you and the business are one and the same, and this places all financial burdens on your shoulders. The plus side? All profits are your own, and the financial figures of your business are not made available to the public.

With a limited company (which must also be registered with Companies House), you and your business are viewed as separate entities, and as a result, in some circumstances, you shoulder less of the liabilities. You will pay corporation tax and the public can have access to your financial figures. Your business profits will belong to the business, you will pay yourself as if you were an employee, and you must become a shareholder to take dividends from the profits. There is no legal obligation to choose one business structure over the other – it is a case of personal preference.

How much does it cost to set up a cleaning company?

The cost of setting up a cleaning business in the UK varies. If you plan to be a domestic cleaner who uses their client's personal cleaning products and only advertises on social media, your set-up costs are minimal.

For domestic cleaners that hold supplies and for commercial and specialised cleaners, you may need to budget for:

• Cleaning products (eco-friendly and specialist products will be more expensive)
• Tools and cleaning accessories such as brushes, mops, buckets, cloths, and dusters
• Electrical appliances such as vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, steam cleaners, sweepers, buffers, and polishers (each cost anywhere between a few hundred pounds and £2000.
• Cleaning trolleys and caddies
• Uniforms and PPE
• Transport to get your cleaning team and their gear to their contracts
• Wages
• Insurance
• Advertising
• Business IT, such as a laptop and work phones

Analysing your competition and marketing

You're not the first person to have spotted that cleaning is a lucrative business and you may have plenty of local competition. That doesn't mean you can't succeed, but you need to think about how to start a cleaning business to make sure you offer something a little different.

How can you stand out from the crowd? Think about offering:

• Eco-friendly cleans
• Weekend cleans
• Evening domestic cleaning for those who work night shifts
• Discounts for clients who get your referrals

Pricing is important, but many new cleaners and cleaning businesses make the mistake of thinking that undercutting the prices of local cleaners will bring in business. When it comes to cleaning, homeowners and commercial businesses don't necessarily think cheaper is better. While they want competitive prices, they're most concerned about receiving the best service at the local going rate.

With this in mind, when you’re setting up a cleaning business and marketing it on social media platforms, in local publications, or with direct marketing to homes and businesses, you should focus on the quality of your cleaning.

Cleaning services offer solutions for home and business owners. Make sure you highlight those solutions when marketing your services. You give people the gift of time, allowing them to do the things they love instead of vacuuming dog hair off their sofas or scrubbing limescale from the toilet bowl. For businesses, you maintain a neat and healthy working environment, optimising productivity and boosting staff morale. Aspirational marketing works for cleaning, too!

Finding employees

Cleaning businesses are built upon their reputation, and if you choose to hire staff, you have to learn to sniff out great-quality cleaners and then keep them motivated and happy in their roles. In the current financial climate, many people are looking to take on second jobs, and this is a valuable pool of workers to tap into.

This type of job isn't for everyone. While some people find cleaning therapeutic (enjoying nothing better than popping in their earphones and getting stuck in), others find it boring and repetitive and struggle with the lack of mental stimulation. You'll quickly learn to spot who will be happy cleaning for hours every day, and for cleaning to be done to a high standard, you need people who find satisfaction in the work.

As a lower-paid role, it's easy for staff to feel demotivated. Great leadership is key. Offer your cleaners training with certified courses that give them useful qualifications. Encourage leadership skills in those who show promise and emphasise the value of their work.

Insuring your business

Setting up and growing a cleaning business takes hard work, so protect your investment with the right cleaning business insurance cover.

Public liability

Whether you’re a self-employed cleaner who works alone or you run a large cleaning agency, public liability can be considered your core cover. This deals with claims made against you by members of the public for personal injury or property damage.

You could be cleaning in someone's home, and a member of the household trips on your vacuum cable, falls down the stairs and breaks a bone. A staff member could be mopping the floors in an office building, and the security guard slips, hurting their back and leaving them unable to work for weeks. In scenarios such as these, you could be landed with a hefty personal injury claim. With all those powerful cleaning chemicals, spillages on expensive carpets, upholstery, or office computers could also cost your business.

Public liability covers the cost of any compensation, alongside medical bills and legal fees.

Employers’ liability

If you hire staff, even on a part-time basis, it is a legal requirement that you hold at least £5 million in employers’ liability cover. This cover is used to defend and pay for claims made by employees for illness or injury attributable to their employment with you.

Tools and equipment cover

Whether you're a house cleaner with a top-of-the-range vacuum, steam cleaner, and carpet cleaner or a large cleaning company with dozens of industrial cleaning appliances, insuring these assets can protect your investment and keep your business ticking over.

Personal accident cover

If a serious illness or injury leaves you unable to work, your cleaning business earnings could grind to a halt. Personal accident cover gives you a financial safety net if you face being unable to work for an extended period.

If you’d like to learn more about insuring your cleaning business, get in touch with the experts at Park Insurance today. We’ve been working with UK’s small businesses for over three decades, giving us the skills and knowledge you need to protect all your hard work.