Started my business and am practicing cleaning my whole house (Didn't realize how long it takes to declutter everything and you need to declutter first in order to clean properly) and was wondering do you guys tell your clients to declutter before you come? Or do you charge extra for de-cluttering or is it included in your price?
Started my business and am practicing cleaning my whole house (Didn't realize how long it takes to declutter everything and you need to declutter first in order to clean properly) and was wondering do you guys tell your clients to declutter before you come? Or do you charge extra for de-cluttering or is it included in your price?
I run a small residential/commercial cleaning business and am trying to figure out the best way to pay subcontractors fairly while protecting margins.
Right now, I’m considering using a labor pool model where a fixed percentage of the job revenue is allocated to labor.
Example:
If 2 subcontractors clean the job, I’m debating between two approaches:
Option 1: Equal split
This works if both contributed about the same.
Option 2: Split by hours worked
Example:
Pay based on share of hours:
For those running cleaning businesses (or other service businesses), which system has worked better for you?
Do you prefer equal split, hourly-based labor pools, or something else entirely? Why?
I run a small residential/commercial cleaning business and am trying to figure out the best way to pay subcontractors fairly while protecting margins.
Right now, I’m considering using a labor pool model where a fixed percentage of the job revenue is allocated to labor.
Example:
If 2 subcontractors clean the job, I’m debating between two approaches:
Option 1: Equal split
This works if both contributed about the same.
Option 2: Split by hours worked
Example:
Pay based on share of hours:
For those running cleaning businesses (or other service businesses), which system has worked better for you?
Do you prefer equal split, hourly-based labor pools, or something else entirely? Why?
I run a small residential/commercial cleaning business and am trying to figure out the best way to pay subcontractors fairly while protecting margins.
Right now, I’m considering using a labor pool model where a fixed percentage of the job revenue is allocated to labor.
Example:
If 2 subcontractors clean the job, I’m debating between two approaches:
Option 1: Equal split
This works if both contributed about the same.
Option 2: Split by hours worked
Example:
Pay based on share of hours:
For those running cleaning businesses (or other service businesses), which system has worked better for you?
Do you prefer equal split, hourly-based labor pools, or something else entirely? Why?
This is a bit embarrassing, but I’ve been trying to come up with an invoice naming convention that my employees and internal systems can use to look up invoices quickly.
My goal is to make invoice searching fast and consistent while keeping things simple for everyone.
Right now, I’m thinking of using:
Commercial invoices:COM-####-(First 6 characters of business name)
Example: If the client is TIME CLEANERS, we ignore spaces and use:COM-1001-TIMECL
Residential invoices:RES-####-(Last 4 characters of customer’s last name)
Example: If the last name is Nguyen, it would be:RES-1001-NGUY
My concern is that this feels a little tedious because I have to manually count characters (like finding the 6th letter of a business name or last 4 of a last name), which slows things down.
I know it sounds minor, but I’m trying to build a fast and efficient company with organized systems from the start.
What do you all think? Is this a good system, or is there a more efficient invoice naming convention you’d recommend?
Running a residential cleaning company in the Conroe/North Houston area and thinking about adding a dry cleaning pickup and delivery service as an add-on for existing clients.
The idea: when we come to clean your house, we grab your dry cleaning, drop it at a local cleaner, and bring it back on the next visit. You never have to make a separate trip.
Fees would be:
So a $50 dry cleaning order in The Woodlands would run you $90 total. Same order in Conroe would be $80.
Would you actually pay for this, or is the delivery fee a dealbreaker? Genuinely trying to figure out if there's demand before launching.
Started a residential and commercial cleaning company in Houston, Texas, and I’m currently in the process of interviewing subcontractors (I’ll hire employees later once the workload increases).
Right now I’m deciding on a fair pay structure. My initial thought was around $15/hour. I posted about it and got mixed feedback—some people were pretty strong in saying it’s too low for cleaners. I looked up averages and saw it’s around $14.31/hour, but I also understand cleaning is physically demanding work, so I’m open to adjusting it upward.
I’ve also considered a different structure: paying subcontractors a percentage of each job, especially for residential work, while possibly keeping commercial work hourly. I’m still figuring out what makes the most sense operationally.
For those of you who run cleaning companies or manage teams—what pay structure do you use for subcontractors or employees? I want to make sure I’m paying fairly. I’ve done cleaning work myself, so I understand how tough it is, and I don’t want to underpay people.
Started a residential and commercial cleaning company in Houston, Texas, and I’m currently in the process of interviewing subcontractors (I’ll hire employees later once the workload increases).
Right now I’m deciding on a fair pay structure. My initial thought was around $15/hour. I posted about it and got mixed feedback—some people were pretty strong in saying it’s too low for cleaners. I looked up averages and saw it’s around $14.31/hour, but I also understand cleaning is physically demanding work, so I’m open to adjusting it upward.
I’ve also considered a different structure: paying subcontractors a percentage of each job, especially for residential work, while possibly keeping commercial work hourly. I’m still figuring out what makes the most sense operationally.
For those of you who run cleaning companies or manage teams—what pay structure do you use for subcontractors or employees? I want to make sure I’m paying fairly. I’ve done cleaning work myself, so I understand how tough it is, and I don’t want to underpay people.
I started a residential/commercial cleaning business 2 months ago and I have no clients but I want to focus on cleaning and automating my business. So I implemented a voice chat bot that sounds like a human that can book cleaning appointment, answer questions, etc. What do you guys think? Honestly you can tell its AI But I am not sure how consumers feel? I also implemented because I want anyone calling at anytime of the day to be able to book an appointment and not have too wait until the next day business day.
I recently started a residential cleaning business and landed my first client. It was definitely a learning experience.
After dusting, I use an all-purpose cleaner and a folded microfiber towel (using the 8-side method). When the towel picks up dirt and gunk, what's the most efficient process: continue switching to clean sides and sweep/vacuum later, or use a wet rag and bucket system to rinse the towel as I go?
For those in the cleaning industry, what's your workflow for balancing speed and quality? Also, how do you know when it's time to switch to a fresh microfiber towel, and do you carry separate bags for clean and dirty towels?
Also my method of cleaning is (Top -> Bottom) so I would look for cob webs and if there is a surface (Like a night stand) I dust that as well and spray my all purpose cleaner (If there are items in the back I move it to the front and clean the back and then clean the items and push it back and then clean the front -> Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell where I learned it from so not sure if its efficient)
Just started a small commercial cleaning business in my hometown and landed my first client this week.
Right now I’m trying to figure out the best setup for:
For those running service businesses, what has worked best for you?
I’m currently looking at options like QuickBooks, Wave, Stripe, etc., but wanted to hear real experiences before committing to anything.
Started a commercial cleaning business in my hometown, got my LLC setup, website live, and automated booking running so clients can schedule directly online.
Landing my first client on Saturday and trying to automate everything so I can work on the business instead of in it (shoutout The E-Myth Revisited).
What software do you guys recommend for:
Still trying to figure out the best payment setup for a cleaning business.