As an entrepreneur and founder of Australia’s second biggest locally owned commercial cleaning brand Urban Clean, Damien Boehm often gets asked what’s the best way to succeed in the cleaning industry.
People eyeing the sector want to know which cleaning business make the most money – commercial cleaning or residential cleaning?
Damien, whose business cleans over 500 commercial spaces across the country every day, breaks down the difference between the two types of cleaning businesses.
Residential or Commercial?
“There are two types of cleaning businesses. “One is a commercial cleaning business, and the other is a residential cleaning business,” says Damien.
Damien on Residential Cleaning
“Residential cleaning businesses are often once a week, or once a fortnight, and means the cleaning of people’s homes. In Australia, we have NDIS as well, so people can clean for that, by getting registered for an NDIS provider and clean people’s homes.
The challenge with residential cleaning is it’s a discretionary spend, so people can often change their minds. When the household gets less busy, they decide they don’t need a cleaning service, and the income is limited, they may cease or reduce the service.”
Damien on Commercial Cleaning
“Commercial cleaning can range from very small offices to huge office towers and stadiums. So, the revenue in a commercial cleaning business is always going to be much higher than a residential cleaning business. In fact if you have a residential cleaning business that’s, say, turning over a million dollars, that is huge for residential cleaning.
But for commercial cleaning business, $1 million is nothing. It is a very small revenue amount.
“There are different types of cleaning you can do with commercial cleaning. You can do ongoing regular cleaning services, which is pretty much the same as doing residential cleaning, there is one off or specialized cleaning, such as high windows, carpet cleaning, and stripping ceiling. These all tend to be one offs, or what we call in our industry: ‘industry periodicals’.
Whereas commercial ongoing cleaning is regular monthly contracts. So, for most people who want to get into the business and want to sort of make a lot of money, commercial is the way to go. Then it’s just understanding how do you become more than just a commodity?”
Damien’s Tips for Success
You have to position your business so it can attract your ideal client, and then your service also must have exactly what those clients are looking for. You have to identify their needs and then provide that solution for them, and that way that people will start looking at you as a quality provider, not just as a commodity service where people are only purchasing you based on price.
The other good thing about commercial cleaning, it is non-discretionary. Businesses have to have a cleaning service. It’s not optional and that often means that businesses will sign long-term contract agreements with you. That secures sort the financial side of the stability side of your business.
To find out more from Damien Boehm on how to build a successful commercial cleaning business, get his book:
Clean Up With Franchising: The Tips, Tools and Tenacity you need to build a small business.
