To cut down on start-up costs, you could always start with one computer, and then add a second (or third) computer later, and have all the computers networked together.

I generally recommend purchasing a computer from one of the major manufactures such as Dell, or HP. An important consideration: Check to find out what kind of support you’ll get from the company where you purchase your equipment. Once your house cleaning business is running day-to-day, you’ll become reliant on your computer system, and if and when there is a problem, you don’t want to have to start sending the computer back to the manufacturer via UPS or FedEx, and then have to wait days or weeks for the computer to come back. While the computer is in transit, all your precious business-sensitive data will be at risk. Your business won’t be able to afford a period of days or weeks without access to the computer system.

Probably the best bet for most people is to find a reliable computer consultant near you, who will help guide you through the entire process of purchasing the computers, setting up the network, and installing your software. In addition, the consultant can be available for you if and when there is a hardware problem.

I have seen many people, in the residential cleaning business, as well as in other industries that I work with, try to save money on their initial computer purchases – hardware as well as software – and who regret it later, when unexpected problems arise.

You are going to need some basic software, which every business uses. This is known in the software industry as “horizontal software”, meaning that it can be used for any business in any industry. Here, I would recommend a program such as Microsoft Office, which includes Microsoft Word (for word processing) and Excel (for spreadsheets). Note that you can also purchase Microsoft Office Professional, which will include Microsoft Access (a database program) and PowerPoint (used for making slide presentations.) You won’t need Access unless you plan to be doing some simple database programming of your own. PowerPoint can be useful if you want to make slide show presentations, for prospective investors, to train office staff and/or cleaning staff, etc.

The most important choice will be your choice of specialized software for your house cleaning business. (This is known as “vertical” software – it is created for businesses in a specific industry – such as house cleaning, home health care, exterminating, trucking, hairdressing, etc.)

There are a variety of companies that produce software specifically for the residential cleaning industry. Search in one of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) for terms such as:

Maid service software
Residential cleaning software
House cleaning software

One company you'll find in your searches for maid service software is Thoughtful Systems of New York, who have been producing software for the cleaning industry for 20 years.

Nowadays, free support for life is a part of history. Whatever software you purchase, you can expect to pay something at some point for support. Software development companies charge a certain up front price for their software. If they didn’t have an ongoing stream of income from ongoing support contracts, they wouldn’t be able to pay their support personnel to provide answers to your questions and fix problems that may arise in the software. Most companies providing maid service software will offer some sort of free support with your initial purchase. Some offer limited support for a certain number of hours; some offer free support for an initial start-up period – one month, two months, three months, etc.

I’m personally suspicious if a software company offers free support for life. No company can afford to provide reliable, professional support for any complex software system without receiving some sort of payment from time to time from its users.

People don’t expect to receive free service for life for their cars, their washing machines, their TV sets or any other piece of equipment. You should expect also to have to pay something for support. Just find out in advance what you should expect to pay, year to year.

Find out what sort of issues will be covered by the support, whether it’s free or paid. Will the support contract include answering your questions about how to use the software (training), as well as questions concerning other issues concerning the software? Or is training and tuition considered separate, another service that you have to sign up for separately?

It might seem like a good idea to purchase software form another maid service company. They would know about what is needed for a maid service company, after all. Wouldn’t they?

Well, the answer to that is: Perhaps. My experience has shown me that no two house cleaning businesses are run the same way. Each one of the hundreds of businesses I have worked with has its own particular needs, problems and other differences.

If you purchase a software program that is designed by another maid service company, the software will be designed around that company’s way of doing business. This might not be yours. Look for a software program that can be adapted to your way of doing business. Don’t get trapped in the strait jacket of another person’s particular way of running their business.

Is there an additional charge for enhancements and updates?
Is there an additional charge for training?
What is the cost of annual support? (and is there a special charge you’ll have to pay to reinstate your support contract if you allow it to lapse for a month or two?)

Some companies have a starter version of their software that you can begin with. Then, as your residential cleaning business grows, you can update the software, and move to the next highest level of the software.

Good software will save you a lot of time in your business. Having the right software means you don’t have to re-write customer details each time you send your maids out. It also means you can save details concerning your customers’ likes and dislikes, thus allowing you to provide better service, and reduce the number of customers who cancel their service because their wishes are not being met.

Also, the right software for your house cleaning business will include time-saving features, such as mapping, which allows you to provide your cleaners with detailed directions of how to get to clients’ houses. This saves your workers time, and saves you money, as you’ll probably be paying them for travel time. Some companies also provide cars to employees.

At he same time, your software should include, at a minimum, the following modules:

Customer Information
Accounts Receivable
Job Scheduling
Payroll


Each of these modules saves you time, makes you more efficient, and allows you to provide better service for your customers. Without proper software, you or one of your employees will be spending several hours a week maintaining accounts, preparing invoices, managing complex job schedules, preparing payroll, and more. If you save only 10 hours a week (that’s 2 hours per day), you’ll be saving 520 hours a year. And if you pay your office employee only $10 per hour, that represents a potential saving of $5,000 per year – just in terms of time saved. Add to that the fact that with the right software you’ll have better customer retention! The value of that is impossible to estimate.

I have seen jut one aspect of a program save a business owner many hours per week. For example, one maid service operator purchased a credit-card processing module, which integrates with their residential cleaning software program. Before using this feature, the owner’s husband was spending at least 10 hours a week running credit cards through a manual machine. After implementing the automated credit card module, he had to spend only a few minutes per night running through all the credit card charges for the day.

Some web pages for house cleaning businesses have a section where visitors to the site can enter their details and request a quote. Some even have software included in the web site which generates a quote for the prospective customer. I personally don’t recommend this unless your prime approach to getting customers is based on having the lowest price.

Once you have selected a web designer whose previous work you like, you’re almost done. Once the web page is completed, you’re going to register a URL for the web site, and arrange for the site to be hosted at a server somewhere. Many web designers can help you in arranging to get your URL registered, and your hosting account set up. Inquire from them before you sign your contract. Are these services included? If not, what is the cost for each service?

You may think that now your web site is completed, and it’s hosted, and you can now type in www.my-house-cleaning-business.com, and see your new site, that you’re done. Not so fast! Now you have to think about how people will find your site, and SEO (Search Engine optimization).

The first thing you’ll need to do is submit your site to all the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, etc. This can be time-consuming to do yourself. You might want to arrange to have your web designer do this for you.

Search Engine optimization (SEO) is a new field of endeavor related to the web, that is becoming a specialized industry in itself. Once your web page has been created and is now sitting on the web, along with a billion others, you may want to consider finding ways to have your listing do better in the search engines. A SEO specialist can help you do this.

PPC Campaigns: Most people searching the web with a search engine – Google, for example – will read through only the first ten or twenty listings that appear in response to the search term they entered. Fortunately, you can pay Google a certain amount to arrange to have your listing/s appear in the “Paid listings” section of their site. (How do you think Google makes those enormous annual sales figures, and why their stock keeps soaring upwards? PPC is a huge multi-million dollar business!)

Costs for this will vary. First you need to sign up with Google, and then you’ll need to decide how much you want to bid for individual search terms. You can also set a daily limit, defining how much you’re prepared to spend a day for clicks.

Leaflets, Door Hangers, etc.
Leaflets are an old standard for marketing any service business. Many maid services around the country use leaflets from time to time to advertise their services. One of our clients spent between $30,000 and $50,000 on leaflets and door hangers in the first few months after opening his doors, to attract new customers. He was successful in giving his maid service business a good, quick kick start. However, this was before the days of the internet, when internet advertising wasn’t available. This doesn’t mean, however, that leaflets and door hangers won’t continue to be effective in this day and age!

I look back at this with some amusement. I invested only a few dollars in the enterprise and actually sold enough water beds over a three-year period to give me a reasonable income. But I missed out on the opportunity of becoming the waterbed king of the city! No worries. That was a long time ago, and money wasn’t the most important thing on my mind back then.

You’re probably going into your new residential cleaning business with the object of making a good profit, and having a good living come out of the business. You will be putting a certain amount of capital at stake, and spending a considerable amount of time, so the fewer mistakes you make the better. If you are planning to become part of a national franchise, you’ll receive a lot oft training from the franchise organization. If the franchiser has done their job well, they will provide you with a lengthy and detailed list of things to do, and not to do. For this you’ll pay an up front franchise fee, and you’ll also be paying the franchiser a percentage of your monthly sales every month, for as long as you continue to be a member of the franchise organization.

Statistics show that a large percentage of new businesses fail within the first year of starting. Many more fail in years 2 and 3. There is a very small percentage of small businesses still in business after five years. However, the figures for members of franchises are much better.

Why is this? A lot of it has to do with the fact that a good and competent franchise organization have thought through all the aspects of what it takes to run a successful house cleaning business. They’ve thought about how to select and train the employees; the design of uniforms, the company logo, where you should spend your marketing dollars, and more. Some franchisers also provide you with computer software, which you can use to help manage your franchise (and which will be used to keep track of your monthly sales, so that the franchiser and you will know exactly how much you owe the franchiser from month to month.)

Note that some franchisers will allow you to choose your won software. This is not a bad idea, in my opinion. Consider what could happen of you’re locked in to using a particular piece of software. One very large national franchise chain nearly had a resolution on its hands a few years ago, because the franchisees found the software they were provided to be inadequate and slow, and lacking in flexibility.

Another alternative is to find a different way of educating yourself about running a home cleaning business. These days, there are other alternatives. Some other options include:

Books
CD’s
Internet Sites (such as this one)
Consultants and Coaches