How to Start a Home-Based Housecleaning Business

by Laura Jorstad and Melinda Morse

Book Overview

This comprehensive guide provides all the necessary tools and strategies one needs to successfully launch and grow a business cleaning homes. The authors combine personal experience with expert advice... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762738766
• ISBN13: 9780762738762
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
• Length: 181 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Easy language with technical details.

This book covered a lot of things I had already started doing on my own, like the importance of an EIN. But also found many important potential problems I had not come across in my own home based business, like the liability insurance section. I liked this instruction much better than the DUMMIES type books. Only thing I haven't seen in this book is section on making a business plan. I avoid the technical stuff like a house cat avoids a water hose, but my partner like numbers too much and he is handling the business plan to "road map" projections based on our first year of business. Wish it had a CD with templates but they are easy enough to copy out of the book. Great buy!

Good, Basic Information

We found many of the tips useful when starting our housekeeping business. The author works by herself, however, and recommends as such so if you are planning to have a larger business with employees as we are then you will not find much information in that regard.

Housecleaning book great read

This book was extremely helpful. It really goes in depth on the topic. This is by far the best book on the subject and is loaded with helpful information.

Very good starter....

I recently read this book by Laura Jorstad and I'm new to the housecleaning business. Because I have no background in this profession, but am considering offering a service like this one in my local community, I found Jorstad's book to be a good place to start. She provides a very good Guide to Services, which seems fairly well thought out, but obviously would revisions based on the cleaning business you start. Overall, the book was easy to read and has good ideas. I think whenever you decide to go into business for yourself (any business) you should do as much reading and research as you can. Therefore, I would not limit myself to reading just this source, but consider other home-based, house cleaning businesses to get more ideas and better understand what lies ahead for you.

Well Thought Out Description of a Small Business

Melinda Morse started a housecleaning business when she was in college, had $80 in the bank, needed an income, had to have flexible hours to stay in school, couldn't find a job. A friend suggested that she pick up just a few housecleaning jobs as a quick fix. She knew nothing about starting a business. In a few years she had learned a lot, probably more than she learned while getting her Ph.D. This book starts at the beginning and talks about what's necessary to set this up as a legitimate business. It covers the legal, moral, and what I call the real rules about setting up a business. And don't kid yourself, it is a business with all the aspects of business that General Motors or IBM has. She presents a lot of sample forms in the book (If she had put these in Excell format on a web site somewhere it would be a great help.) that will help with expenses, what to do at each house, invoices, and keeping your ever present partner (if you wanted a parter or not) the IRS happy. This book is very oriented to a house cleaning business - but house cleaning could well be considered to include janitorial, disaster clean up, etc. And the concepts she brings out are good for nearly any kind of small business. Good, well written book.