Journey
Start a cleaning business
Learning path for people starting a domestic, office, end-of-tenancy or window cleaning business. Choose how to trade, check which permissions your services need, insure the business and make the work safe, win customers, take on your first cleaners, and check you have covered everything.
What this journey is for
Starting a cleaning business is quick, but some duties apply from your first job. This journey covers domestic, office, end-of-tenancy and window cleaning in the order you will meet each decision. The guides it points to hold the rules and the detail.
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Decide how you will trade
Your mix of services shapes the steps that follow. A solo domestic cleaner can usually trade as a sole trader. A business that plans to take on staff or win office contracts may prefer a limited company. Settle this first, because it affects your tax, your liability and your paperwork.
Start a service-based business
Check the basics of running a service business, from qualifications to client contracts.
Sole trader or limited company
Compare trading as a sole trader with trading as a limited company and choose the one that fits your plans.
Register as self-employed with HMRC
Register as a sole trader once you have decided to trade that way.
Set up a limited company
Register a company if you have decided to trade through one.
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Check which permissions your services need
No general licence applies to cleaning anywhere in the UK. Carrying customers' waste away, such as in an end-of-tenancy clearance, holding customers' keys as a paid service and window cleaning in Scottish council areas that licence it each bring their own permission. Work out which of these your services involve before you take bookings.
Licences and permissions for a cleaning business
Find out which permissions apply to your services and where to apply.
Registering as a waste carrier
Follow the steps to register if you carry customers' waste.
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Insure the business and make the work safe
You work in premises you do not control, with chemicals, ladders and keys that belong to someone else. Plan for this before your first job. Public liability cover is not a legal requirement. Employers' liability cover is different and is covered in step 5.
Business insurance: what you need
See which cover is compulsory and which is a choice for your business.
Work safely in customers' premises
Plan for chemicals, windows and high surfaces, working alone, and keys and customer data.
Set up and run a safe operation
The safety, fire, equality and data protection duties that every building services business shares.
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Win and keep customers
Domestic customers have statutory rights when you provide a service. Office clients are businesses that pay on terms, and some pay late. Set your terms and your approach to payment before you quote.
Consumer rights for service providers
Reasonable care and skill, and the contract terms you cannot exclude.
Write consumer-friendly terms and conditions
Draft clear terms for domestic customers that are fair and enforceable.
Late payment: your rights as a business
Your rights when a business customer pays late.
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Take on your first cleaners
Decide whether each cleaner will be employed or self-employed, because status decides your insurance, pay and tax duties. The first guide below explains the employers' liability insurance that applies once you employ anyone. It also covers the pay questions that travel between clients raises for cleaners.
Employ cleaners: pay, travel time, status and checks
Insurance, pay for travel between clients, employment status and criminal record checks.
Employment status
Work out whether each cleaner is an employee, a worker or self-employed.
Before you hire your first employee
What to prepare before a cleaner starts work.
Check someone's right to work
How to check a new cleaner's right to work.
Register as an employer (PAYE)
How to register with HMRC as an employer.
Workplace pensions: your auto-enrolment duties
Your pension duties for eligible staff.
Step 6 (optional): Grow into commercial and public contracts
Come back to this step when you start to chase larger contracts. If you take over an existing cleaning contract, the cleaners already doing the work may transfer to you with it. Public bodies buy cleaning services through tenders, and your turnover may bring you into VAT.
TUPE: protecting employees during business transfers
What happens to existing staff when you take over a cleaning contract.
Win public sector contracts
How to find and bid for public sector work.
VAT registration
When your turnover takes you over the registration threshold.
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Check you have covered everything
Work through the checklist before you take bookings, and again when you add a service or take on staff. It covers the workplace and employment duties shared across building services. Check the cleaning points against the guides in steps 2 and 5, because the checklist is written for building services in general.
Building and landscape services: compliance checklist
Confirm the shared workplace and employment duties are in place.