All businesses / Contract cleaning company

Fingerprint: capital · hours · speed to income · margin · ceiling. The dashed line is mid-scale.

Start a contract cleaning company: the real numbers

Crews on nightly office contracts. Below is what it actually costs, how long before money arrives, and the part most guides leave out.

Startup capital

€6,000–€35,000

Hours / week

30–55

First income

~12 wks

Net margin

30%

Saturation

high

Realistic ceiling

€1,500–€11,000+

This ceiling is not a wall

The figure above is what this earns in the shape described — you, running it. Past that it keeps going, but by hiring people or adding units, not by you working more hours. That is a different job from the one you would be starting, and worth knowing before you start it.

What nobody usually tells you

The step up from cleaning yourself: contracts renew annually and thirty cleaners put the ceiling into five figures. Margins per hour are thin, you finance the payroll gap out of your own pocket, and someone will always not turn up.

The route, in five steps

  1. Win two anchor contracts before hiring a single cleaner
  2. Hold two months of payroll: clients pay at 30-60 days
  3. Price per square metre per month, on annual contracts
  4. Supervisors, not you, check the sites past ten cleaners
  5. Staff turnover is the business problem, not sales

What you'll need to buy

These are the categories every contract cleaning company pays for in the first month. We break down what each one actually costs at this size on the tools page.

payroll floatequipment and chemicalsinsurancescheduling softwarevehicles

Does it hold up for you?

These numbers are the average case. Whether this business clears your target depends on your capital, your hours and how long you can wait — put them in and see.

Run my numbers → See the tool stack