How to Write Cleaning Services Business Plan

People have, now more than ever, become highly dependent on each other for various services. This is because of the increasingly complex nature of services on the one hand and the enhanced level of sophisticated tools used for the provision of services. One such service that is in great demand in the current times is that of cleaning.

Although cleaning services have been around for some time now, the pandemic scare, grander scale of industries, and better living standards of people significantly aided by technology have shot up their acceptability.

Vital Statistics About Global Cleaning Service Industry

• The global industrial cleaning services industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6% in 2021-25, as per ResearchandMarkets.com’s report.
• A similar report by Beroe Inc. puts the CAGR at 6.3% and estimates the market size to be $88.9bn by 2025.
• This surge in demand for cleaning services in the cleaning industry, primarily in North America and the Asia-Pacific, has led to a spike in service prices.
• Naturally, many start-ups have sprung to fill up the market void. A single person often runs these until the profits and scale of business are enough to afford employees.

The most efficient way to check the viability of a business in a given area is to formulate a small business plan. A business plan is a short analysis of the feasibility of the business with data and information pertaining to its functioning.

It involves an overview of the business, mission and vision statements, management, financial plan, marketing prospects, target client, and USP. This could help small businesses raise capital to run it on auto-pilot or expand and diversify, as the case may be.

Having understood the relevance of a cleaning services business plan, let us learn how to write one for your cleaning business.

Steps to Write Cleaning Services Business Plan

Below are steps to follow for developing cleaning services business plan.

1. Overview

Business overview is significant to create an SOP for your daily operations and availability of resources. It would be easy to understand your business for any third party who wants to collaborate with your company.

2. Cover

The most important aspect of presenting a cleaning services business plan to a stakeholder like a prospective investor is to make an impactful first impression. This small trick sets the tone of your business plan by engaging the reader with it.

The overview should summarise the cleaning business plan and basic information like the cleaning company name, logo, contact info, and registered address.

3. Strategy Implementation

To run a successful cleaning business, you need to formulate a thoughtful business strategy to achieve your business goals. For this, you need to set out the periodic goals to be achieved and lay down the standard operating procedures for achieving those goals.

• Have a domain of primary service and secondary services.

• Every business should operate with a unique selling point to distinguish their service from others. Whether the service is for elderly or corporate-cultured youth or what type of construction is to be catered to, all these things can help identify the market gap in services. This will help your cleaning business to enter from a solid position to address actual demand.

• Get a marketing strategy in place. Digital marketing is the go-to platform due to the overwhelming presence of users on different social media. The marketing needs to be catchy and lead to instant conversions.

  • Facebook and Instagram target ads
  • Google analytics
  • Physical publications
  • Scoring a few renowned brands or HNIs for mouth publicity and instant popularity
  • Referrals work like wildfires in the internet times as everyone eyes a good discount on everything.

• Have a timeline for sales targets and keep track of milestones.

• Assign geographical areas or other functional parameters to employees.

• Ensure good customer support; you can do this through CloudTutorial. It provides a simple self-serve knowledge base that lets a cleaning business automate resolutions to the bulk of redundant queries. It is AI-based software that elevates the efficiency of the management team.

4. Management Summary

The human resource of an organization is the biggest asset and strength of an organization. It needs to be managed well so as not to convert it into a liability. Labor costs can be substantially high in services that require expertise, special care, and handling.

Since cleaning services involve the use of various industry-grade chemicals, the labor employed to handle it should be proficient in their use. Even the slightest mishandling could lead to huge financial losses and even cause harm to human life. It must be evident that the employees and the cleaning business plan as a whole need to be insured for any unforeseen damages.

Some other factors to be forecasted are:

• The number of employees required for your business

  • More employees are not always good for a business as their salary expense needs to be justified and aligned with their marginal utility.

• Number of jobs that can be taken up each day

  • This parameter will help the stakeholder speculate on the scalability of the cleaning business plan while also reassuring work and sustenance during trying times.

• Pricing acceptable in the market per job work

  • Salary should be in consonance with minimum pay as declared by the government.

5. Ownership

No matter what services you provide, you need to get your cleaning company registered (partnership or sole proprietorship). You can add the business description, resources, and equipment that you need while setting up a busines plan. In this process, you may find the questions like:

• What cleaning services will be offered by you?
• How many employees you will need?
• Will you include services for commercial or residential?
• What will be your service cost?

6. Company’s Description

It is crucial to know who runs the show and is responsible for the execution of business. This part of the plan should include information regarding the personnel in charge of different activities in the management, such as procurement, pricing strategy, marketing plan, and accounts.

The company executive summary should also state clearly the mission of the business. This may also include a brief history of the company if this is an update to the Business Plan rather than a new one. The executive summary should have a vision statement that portrays how the organization plans to complete its mission. The pathway needs to be explicit and focused.

For example, if a business is located in North Carolina, it could provide residential cleaning services to all multiple income-source households with an average income of $70,000 and above. The business could have earlier been involved in the provision of services to the corporates. The mention of this detail in the company’s history gives it more gravity and glorifies its expertise in the cleaning service business.

7. Service Details

The company can now explain the range of services it provides with the suitability of different services for target customers. The pricing of additional services offered can also be indicated here.

• Types of services offered
• Packages for bundled services
• Frequency of services
• The pricing schedule for services

8. Legal Entity

Now is the time to talk about the kind of organization you’re running or planning to set up. Whether you want to be a sole proprietor, multi-partner firm, or a corporation limited by shares, you’ll need to have your organization registered to run your business legally.

The information for such registration and any other certifications or eligibility for grants need to be mentioned here. This will help identify the legal owner of the business and the liable person in times of such an instance.

9. Financial Data

Running a business could be a cumbersome task if you do not have a clear view of the costs involved in running the business. There could be high chances of incurring losses if the costs are not appropriately managed. So, it’s essential to list out the startup costs of the business and the assets being used for the operations. If there are any loans or liabilities, such as credit availed on supplies, this section should state the same.

• Operating costs include the cost of supplies used, overheads, batteries, uniforms, other disposables, etc.

• If there is any loan against any assets, that also needs to be disclosed, along with working capital loans or any other borrowing or interest charges.

  • Leased or financed assets need to be disclosed too with their explicit terms of use.

 10. Equipment cost

Before operating your business, you should also consider the equipment and its cost to your business plan. These assets will include the long-term as well as short-term assets used to run the business.

• Long-term assets may include transport vehicles, heavy machinery, office cleaning space, etc.
• Short-term assets may include supplies, stocks of uniforms, cleaning equipment such as vacuum cleaners and vipers or brushes.

Long-term Equipment

Equipment for cleaning services will help you complete large or small projects and that’s why you must consider it while estimating operational costs. These long-term assets don’t need too much maintenance and you don’t have to get them replaced. These assets contribute to your business in such a way that you find them worth buying.

They also denote other parties about how worthy is your business to get grants. When you look out for long-term equipment, you must check out small details like manufacturing year, model number, and retail price. Long-term assets would be generally the company vehicles.

Short-term Equipment

Basically, short-term equipment are those which you use on a daily basis. Some of you may already have such equipment to utilize for ongoing project works. More equipment means you have less overhead and it will eventually result in boosting your profit. Short-term equipment are significant to your business so that you can mention them in the documents and get an idea of your business worth. Assets like dusters, brooms, vacuum cleaners, and mops are examples of short-term equipment.

11. Market Analysis

It is pivotal to know your competitors and what they’re offering to make your services better. Competitive advantages come with an upper hand in either the quality of service provided or the price factor. In the former scenario, you could very well dictate the price in the target market, while in the latter, you need to be always an underdog and fetch quantity.

Identifying your local market position gives an insight into the cleaning businesses model you should choose. There are many other decision points based on the market analysis for the choice of model:

• The composition of target clientele wrt age, income, gender affects the service packages more likely to be selected.

• Weather conditions of the geographical location affect the frequency of service requests.

  • Cleaning services might not be a good business in areas of low pest or favorable weather with less pollution.

• The cleaning service plan can be based on the demand for environment-friendly cleaning business agents and biodegradable disposable material in use.

  • A company having an affiliate manufacturing such chemicals and products can prove to be market-disrupting, given the role it assumes in the market.
  • Prominent players in this industry diversify with such business plans in mind.

• Taxes applicable to the services offered play an essential role.

  • Taxes paid on inputs need to be factored in.

12. Forecasts

The basic assumption to run a cleaning business is that it’s a going concern and intends to function in the coming three years. If this criterion needs to be fulfilled, you need to develop intelligent forecasts for the future and budget all the expenses to realize the profit potential. There need to be estimated for:

• Turnover
• Marketing Expenses and revenue overlay
• Ratio and break-even analysis
• Cash Flow Statements
• Profit Margin Calculations
• Tax Planning
• Insurance and Litigation Expense

The cleaning services business is being promoted with the shift in culture from DIY to do-it-for-me. The primary reasons for this shift are technological advances and a general attitude of developing expertise in one trade and leaving others to theirs. The adaptation of a work-from-home styled routine makes it all the more convenient for residents to outsource household chores such as cleaning while also supervising the work in real-time.

Conclusion

A well-thought-out cleaning service plan will definitely have the edge over illegal independent housekeepers who have enjoyed a big chunk of market share in the past. The company needs to provide personal connection services and build long-term relationships with its clients to overcome this competition. The service industry relies on genuine services, which needs to reflect through your Cleaning Services Business Plan.

Once you, as a cleaning business owner, start your own commercial cleaning business plan, all you need to do is manage it smoothly so that you can focus on other important things in your cleaning business like market your cleaning business.

Thus, FieldCamp is one such cleaning business management software that is mainly designed and developed to automate your cleaning business operations. From job scheduling to managing cleaners, invoices to payments, and reports to analysis of your overall cleaning business, FieldCamp is the best option to adopt. Without giving a second thought, you as cleaning business owners can start your FREE Trial and explore the exclusive features of this software.