How to Start a Cleaning Company in 2026

I started my cleaning company in 2022. Since then we've done well over seven figures, but the market has changed and so have the tools. The exact stack I used to get going then is not the stack I'd use today.

So this is the whole thing laid out in order. If I were starting a remote cleaning company from zero in 2026, this is precisely what I would do, step by step, with the tools I'd actually use. Register the business, build the systems, hire the cleaners, then get the clients.

No fluff. Let's go.

Step 1: Register Your Business

Get this out of the way first so everything after it is clean.

• Form an LLC through your state. This is what separates you personally from the business.
• Get an EIN. It's basically a Social Security number for your business, and it's free from the IRS.
• Open a business bank account with that EIN. Keep personal and business money completely separate from day one. It makes taxes, bookkeeping, and your sanity a lot easier later.

One detail most people skip: put the word "cleaning" in your business name. Something like Elite Star Cleaning. It doesn't have to be clever. Having "cleaning" in the name helps you rank in Google and pushes your Google Business Profile above competitors who got cute with their naming. SEO starts at the name.

Step 2: Build Your Systems

Think of systems like building a skyscraper. A tall building needs a strong foundation or it crumbles. A weak foundation caps how high you can go. In a cleaning business, systems are the foundation, and the good news is you don't need many to start.

Here's the starter stack.

Google Workspace + Google Drive

Set up Google Workspace so you have a professional email like info@elitestarcleaning.com instead of a personal Gmail. It costs a few dollars a month and it makes you look like a real company.

Then build out a Google Drive the right way from the start. I keep one master drive (Elite Star Cleaning Drive) with subfolders for legal, logo, financials, hiring, and marketing, each with their own subfolders inside. Setting this up early is one of the first things I do with any business I start. It keeps everything findable when you grow.

A separate business phone line

Get a real business line so your personal number stays personal. I recommend OpenPhone (recently rebranded to Quo). You download an app, get a new number, and take calls and texts right on your existing phone.

The reason this matters more than it sounds: when you hire someone, you don't have to buy them a business phone. You just add them to the app and they log in on their own device. Cheap, flexible, and it keeps your business communication in one place.

Scheduling software

You need somewhere to actually run jobs. I use ScheduleDrop because it's built specifically for cleaning companies. It schedules jobs, processes payments, and lets me assign jobs to cleaners who get their own app. It also has a two-way communication hub, so automated texts and emails go out, and customers can reply and I can respond right back. That two-way piece has been one of the most useful parts for my business.

You can run early jobs out of a calendar if you're truly broke on day one, but the second you have a few cleaners and recurring clients, a real scheduling system is what stops you from becoming the bottleneck for every job.

A simple website

You need a basic site. I used to point people to Framer or WordPress. In 2026 I'd just use Lovable. It's around $20 a month, it's easy, and you own the site. You can host it through Lovable or connect it to something like Squarespace. (In my free course I walk through the exact prompt I'd give Lovable to build a high-quality cleaning website.)

Google Business Profile (the most important one)

If you do nothing else in this section, do this. Your Google Business Profile is the single most important asset in your business. I get two to three calls a day from mine, plus website visits and inquiries. It took time and we're at 200+ reviews now, but nothing else has matched it.

A few things to know:

• You can register as a storefront or a service area. Storefronts rank higher, but they need a physical location and signage. Service areas work without a storefront, but you'll need to show documentation to verify.
• Your verification address has to match your articles of incorporation. If your incorporation says 123 Main Street, your Google Business address needs to match.
• For verification proof you can show articles of incorporation, flyers, business cards, or bank mail. Don't show anything with sensitive info.
• If they offer video verification or a mailed code, choose the video every time. Every time I've done the mail-in code I've been denied instantly. Video gets approved.

Optional for later

You don't need these on day one, but keep them in your back pocket:

• GoHighLevel for more advanced automation and follow-up once you have volume.
• Insurance. If you have a little money, get a general liability policy (up to $1M) through something like Next for around $50. If you're truly on a budget, this can wait until jobs start coming in, but the sooner the better.

Step 3: Hire Cleaners (Yes, Before You Have Clients)

The most common question I get here is "should I hire cleaners if I don't have clients yet?" Yes. Hire two to three, run them through a working test, keep the ones who pass, and set the expectation honestly: "We're a newer company. As long as you show up and do good work, we'll fill your schedule over time, but I can't promise consistent work right at the start." Hire first so you're ready when the jobs come.

Where to find cleaners and what to look for

The best source in my experience is Indeed. Make a post (expect to pay $50 to $100) and you'll get plenty of applicants.

You're looking for cleaners who:

• Have their own supplies and vehicle
• Have real cleaning experience
• Are looking for more work
• Are currently charging below market rate and struggle with marketing, sales, and finding clients

That last point is the whole model. You find clients willing to pay market rate, connect them to cleaners who are great at cleaning but bad at getting clients, and you make a percentage in the middle.

1099 vs W-2, and uniforms

Starting out, I'd bring cleaners on as 1099 subcontractors. Later, if you're fighting quality issues or you want to enforce standard operating procedures, you can move people to W-2.

On uniforms: with 1099 subs, check your local laws. You're usually allowed to offer uniforms but you can't require them. I get nice logo polos from Vistaprint. If you have a little money, it's worth it for how professional your crews look.

Interview and onboard

Interview by Zoom or in person. Group interviews save time, you get several people in at once and quickly see who shows up, who's professional, and who actually has the experience.

Once you pick someone:

1. Send a subcontractor agreement with a non-solicitation clause baked in (usually a 2-year term) so they can't poach the clients you bring them.
2. Onboard them into your scheduling system (I get them set up in ScheduleDrop with the app downloaded) so they're in the system before they ever work a job.
3. Run a test cleaning.

The working test cleaning

A test cleaning is a paid working interview. They're not officially hired yet. You're checking three things: do they show up on time, are they professional, and how do they actually clean against the checklist you gave them.

There's a fourth thing you're testing for, and it's the one nobody warns you about: will they poach your client?

At the end of the cleaning, ask: "You did a great job. Who should I contact for the next cleaning?" The right answer is "the company" or "this number." If they hand the client their own business card, pay them for that cleaning and don't work with them again. They'll steal the customers you paid to acquire.

Step 4: Get Clients

Now the part everyone's waiting for. Work these in order.

Warm outreach first

Before you spend a dollar, reach out to everyone you know. Friends, family, anyone already paying for a cleaning service. Offer to match their current price to get going. Post it on your social media. Text old contacts.

This is how you get quick wins and quick revenue, and it's underrated. I still work with friends today from when I started four years ago.

Also reach out to anyone who owns a commercial building, an office, or Airbnbs, and just introduce yourself.

Guerrilla marketing

The most cost-effective channel, and what I'd lean on early:

• Flyers with your logo, services, and one call to action. Make the CTA a phone number, since that's how most people still prefer to reach a cleaner.
• Apartment complexes. Talk to the leasing agent and ask to place flyers in high-traffic spots, the coffee station, the elevator box, the move-in packages. Most are happy to help, because cleaner units mean less damage and fewer deposit headaches for them. It's a win for both sides.
• Sponsor real estate events. Call a Keller Williams or a large agency and offer to cater their monthly meeting (a few hundred dollars in food) in exchange for a few minutes to present and connect with the agents.

Real talk on that last one: the first time I did it, I got nothing. Zero deals. But my brother ran one and built a relationship with a successful realtor team we still work with today, worth thousands of dollars in jobs. The lesson isn't "events don't work," it's "do it three or four times, not once." Hit every agency near you.

Paid ads

Two main flavors, and they're different on purpose:

• Google Local Service Ads (LSA) put you at the top with a call button, and you pay per call. These are high-intent leads, people searching "house cleaning near me" who are mostly serious buyers. The catch: it's saturated and expensive now, nothing like 2022. To make it work you have to convert callers into recurring clients and track everything.
• Meta (Instagram/Facebook) is distraction-based. People aren't searching for cleaning, they're scrolling and happen to see your offer. Lower-quality leads but higher volume.

Other options like Thumbtack, Bark, and Angi are generally lower quality than LSA and slightly cheaper, but they can work if you actually work and track the leads.

The non-negotiable across all of them: track your numbers. If you're not tracking spend against booked jobs, you'll never know whether to scale a channel up or shut it off. (If building tracking sheets isn't your thing, I use Claude to build them for me for about $20 a month.)

Cold outreach (best for commercial)

For commercial work, cold outreach is your lane: cold email, cold calling, and door-to-door.

• Pull a data list from Apollo (or hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork) targeting the industries you want, medical buildings, real estate offices, insurance brokerages, gyms, whatever fits.
• Run cold email through a tool like Instantly, plus cold calls and in-person drop-ins.
• Google Search PPC works for commercial too, but only if you have a real budget.

Don't Skip Pricing

One thing the startup checklist always misses: how to actually price a job. Underpricing kills new cleaning companies faster than slow lead flow. Price off beds, baths, square footage, pets, cleaning type, and frequency. (I built a free pricing calculator that uses the exact prices I charge in my own business, so you're not guessing.)

The Real Takeaway

Here's the most important thing in this entire guide: try things and find what works for you. I've run Thumbtack, Bark, Angi, LSA, and basically everything else, and I found what works for me through testing. What works for someone in Alaska might flop for you in Connecticut. Your job is to test, track, and double down on whatever actually produces.

Quick-Start Checklist

1. Form your LLC, get your EIN, open a business bank account.
2. Name the company with "cleaning" in it for SEO.
3. Set up Google Workspace, a structured Google Drive, and a business phone line.
4. Get scheduling software in place so jobs don't all run through you.
5. Build a simple website.
6. Create and grind your Google Business Profile — this is your #1 asset.
7. Hire 2-3 cleaners on 1099 with a signed subcontractor and non-solicitation agreement.
8. Run paid working-test cleanings, including the poach test.
9. Do warm outreach first, then guerrilla marketing, then paid ads, then cold outreach for commercial.
10. Price properly and track every channel.

Conclusion

Starting a cleaning company in 2026 is not complicated, but it is sequential. Get registered, build a foundation of simple systems, hire before you're desperate, and stack your lead channels in order. The owners who win aren't the ones with the fanciest tools, they're the ones who set up a real foundation and then test relentlessly until something clicks. Build the foundation first. Everything else gets easier.

If you're at the systems step and you want one less thing to duct-tape together, that's exactly why I built ScheduleDrop — scheduling, payments, cleaner assignments, the cleaner app, and two-way customer texting in one place, built specifically for cleaning companies. We set the whole thing up for you. Start a free trial.