Start and Run a Home Cleaning Business (Start & Run ...) [Paperback]

Susan Bewsey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Start & Run ... | Publication Date: January 13, 2003

This book offers practical hands-on help for anyone wanting to start their own business in a range of disciplines. If you are one of the thousands of people who have expertise you think you can turn into your own business, the "Start and Run" series shows you how to set about achieving your dreams. Written by experts in their respective interest areas, but always easy to read, these books provide step-by-step coaching for businesses as diverse as bed and breakfasts to teaching English as a second language. All Self-Counsel's "Start and Run" titles include a free CD with business and marketing tools to help you get going as soon as possible. Target your market and assess competition. Get started and keep organized. And, polish both your business and cleaning techniques!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Home cleaning is one of the fastest-growing service businesses in North America. A good cleaning service brings comfort and order into people’s lives. In today’s busy world, these are highly sought commodities.

A home cleaning service might start out small, but it has the potential to grow to be a multi-million dollar business with branch offices and franchises. Your business can grow to the point where you need to lease office space, hire staff, purchase a fleet of vehicles, and develop your own products and customized services. With the help of this book, you can get your business up and running, and survive that essential first year. This book answers questions such as —

- Do I have what it takes to run my own business? - What are the legal requirements for running a business like mine? - How do I find and keep clients? - How much should I charge? - What equipment do I need? - What other services can I offer? - How do I hire and train staff? - How does commercial cleaning differ from home cleaning?

Recently updated, this edition comes with numerous forms to get you started and keep you organized, now all included on cd-rom.

About the Author

In 1981, armed with a secondhand vehicle, a small staff, and a dramatic advertising campaign, Susan Bewsey launched her first cleaning business. Within three months, "the little cleaning service that could" was a success, and Bewsey sold her first franchise shortly after. By 1988, she had sold and resold 157 franchises and managed a fleet of more than 80 vehicles. After five more successful years, she parted with her latest home cleaning venture and is now a development and planning consultant for small business, primarily in the cleaning service industry.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Self-Counsel Press; 2nd edition (January 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551804247
• ISBN-13: 978-1551804248
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,081,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written - Very Helpful, September 5, 2006

By 

M. Johnson (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Start and Run a Home Cleaning Business (Start & Run ...) (Paperback)

This book is very well written and an excellent guide if the reader is looking to build a successful, profitable home cleaning business. Susan Bewsey does a good job of outlining the steps you need to take to get this business off the ground, and to maintain the business. She also gives a good general idea of what all the business involves. As far as holding your hand to go get the license, bonding and insurance...no, she doesn't do that. But she does tell you what you need, and where and who to check with to obtain them, and to get more information on them. After all, different country's, states, and even city's requirements differ. If you're going to make it in a business of your own, you need to be able to do some things for yourself.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, May 21, 2005

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A. Combs - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Start and Run a Home Cleaning Business (Start & Run ...) (Paperback)

The book is so basic - no details. For example, you would think it would go into the details of insurance - what the difference is between bonding and liability insurance and advise you as to which you need, and where to go for this, and how much to expect it to cost. Instead the book only says, "This Insurance is important protection" and will "offset the costs of major damages". Same with Licenses. It tells you that you need one - offers no advice as to how to go about getting one, if there are fees, etc. - zero details at all. I was very disappointed in this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, March 8, 2007

By 

Elayne - See all my reviews

This review is from: Start and Run a Home Cleaning Business (Start & Run ...) (Paperback)

I've read and re-read Bewsey's book, Start and Run a Home Cleaning Business and she's done a fabulous job. There are lots of ideas for people generally in business for themselves working out of their homes. She has great goal-setting questions and really tries to focus the reader on thinking, not just about cleaning homes, but providing a service that clients will call upon again and again. Bewsey has wonderful customer service ideas, marketing and pricing your service. She's done a great job and this book has already become a very usable resource.