1. The first thing you need to do when starting any business is to decide why you want to start the business. Deciding what your goals are is the first step in reaching them. If you have a clear idea of WHY you want to start a cleaning business, you can plan your business accordingly so that you reach your goal and end up with the type of business you want. For example, you might decide that you one of the main reasons for your business is to give you control of your own schedule, and so that you can be home during the day with your kids. If this is the case, you'll want to consider this when you plan your business as it will affect the type of cleaning business you'll want to start. Generally speaking, if you want to work during the day then start a house cleaning business. If you want to work in the late evenings and be free during the day, start an office cleaning business. There are many other reasons that having a clear idea of your goal is important, so be sure to decide now WHY you want a cleaning business of your own.

2. The second step is to create a business plan. This isn't as difficult as it sounds, and summarizes great deal of the startup process so that you can think through the important (and sometimes forgotten) parts of starting a business. There are a lot of guides and free resources online to help with this. At the very least, look up some of these resources and come up with a simple plan of your own.

3. Step three is to start your marketing efforts. Depending on the type of cleaning business you plan to start, this could be anything from passing out fliers to contacting a direct mail company. You should plan on several months of marketing efforts at least, and keep this in mind when planning a budget. If you are low on startup funds then you'll want to use as many low-cost and no-cost marketing methods as you can, and save the costly ones (like direct mail) for later if possible. We should take note that this is the stage at which most people quit. Don't get discouraged if you don't get your first customer in the first month or two? just keep working until you get that first job.

4. Once you get your first customer, the main thing to focus on is keeping your customer happy and fine-tuning your own work flow and cleaning process. Keep your marketing efforts going on the side but make sure you focus on learning how to work in your own business, and documenting each part of the job.

5. The final step is simply to continue growing your business based on your experience with the first customer. By now you've probably adjusted several of your methods and techniques and will have a better idea of what's needed for any given job. The whole idea is to get all the kinks worked out with the first couple of customers, so by the time your business really starts growing it is running like a "well-oiled machine". This is also the step at which you would begin to hire additional help if you are planning on going that route.

These are the bare-minimum, most basic steps needed to start a cleaning business. If you do each of these steps you'll find that the whole process, including the details that we didn't have time to cover here, will go much easier. Whatever you do, whether you use this outline or your own, make sure to have a plan and stick to it. Your chances of success will increase dramatically if you are following a step by step plan.