How Much Do Cleaning Business Owners Make? (Real Numbers)

Eight owners have sat in our hot seat and told us what they make, on camera, with their names attached. Our own numbers are in the table too. Some are in their first year. One is at $2.8M in cumulative sales.

Every figure below came out of their own mouth.

What owners are billing

Notice the shape of that list. Nobody is making millions in month three. Jake and Emmy did $6,500 in their first month and were pleased, and they should have been.

Revenue is not what you take home

Your cleaners take the largest share of every dollar you bill. That is the point of the model, and the owners who pay well are the ones who keep people.

So run the arithmetic on a $20,000 month at a 28% margin. That is $5,600 before tax. On a $50,000 month it is $14,000.

Our margins are lower than Daniel's on purpose. We pay our cleaners roughly double the going rate in our city, which is about $22 an hour. That costs us margin and buys us a team that does not leave.

What it looks like in year one

Jake and Emmy are the clearest picture we have, because they gave us the full breakdown two months in.

• Revenue: $6,500 in month one, projected $8,000 in month two
• Net income at the end of month two: around $1,500
• They needed $3,100 a month in revenue just to break even
• They were spending about $700 a month on marketing and $400 on tools

"When you start doing the math on your hourly rate, right now it doesn't make sense at all. But we can see that this will scale with the exact same effort we're putting in now." Jake, Dubuque Iowa Clean

That is an accurate description of year one for almost everybody. The hourly rate is bad. The trajectory is the point.

How long until you can quit your job

Thomas in Wyoming had a number and he hit it. He was a data analyst for the state, and he decided he would quit when the cleaning business replaced his salary.

It took one year and four months.

Tommy in Cincinnati kept his full-time tech job the entire way and did it on purpose. He wanted a different challenge, not an exit. Stephan in South Africa spends two hours a week on his and is in no hurry.

Nakita built hers from the front seat of her car on breaks from a job where phones are not allowed inside the building. She had a $10,000 month back in 2020, then lost it for years, and got back there six years in.

There is no single answer. There is a number, and it is yours, and you will know it when you write it down.

Why owners in the same city make different money

Three things separate the owners billing $10,000 from the ones billing $50,000, and none of them are luck.

• Recurring versus one-time. Darren is billing $22,000 a month mostly on one-time cleans, and he is trying to flip that ratio, because one-time revenue has to be won again every month. About 80% of our clients are recurring. That is the difference between a business and a treadmill.
• What they pay for leads. Darren was spending $3,000 to $5,000 a month on ads. We spend about $300. That gap comes straight out of the margin.
• Whether they stopped cleaning. Daniel puts it most bluntly.

"If you can walk away from this conversation with just one thing, this is it. Stop cleaning. Don't clean. Do not clean." Daniel, Clean Co Greenville

What the owners at the top chase

I asked Sandra what her number was, after fifteen years in finance and a decade running her company.

"You know what, I don't even know what that number is." Sandra

Jen and I set out to bill three million a year so we could sell for ten. Then we learned how businesses are valued in Canada, revised our expectations, and realised the goal had changed underneath us anyway.

What we have now is time. I go to yoga in the middle of the workday. Jen writes screenplays and is trying to get her next movie made. We answer to nobody.

The money matters and it is worth naming plainly, which is why every figure in this post has a person attached to it. For Jen and me, the money stopped being the reason somewhere around the point we could pay our bills without fear.

If someone else has already done it, why can't you?

Frequently asked questions

How much do cleaning business owners make a year?

It depends on recurring clients and margin. About 100 recurring clients produces roughly half a million a year in billings, and at a 28% margin that is around $140,000 before tax. Owners in our community bill from $6,500 in month one up to $80,000 a month once established.

What is a good profit margin for a cleaning business?

Between 26% and 40% net in our community. Ours at Oak Bay Clean is 26% to 28%, which is lower on purpose because we pay our cleaners roughly double the local going rate. Daniel runs 40%. John runs 33% net.

How much can you make in the first year of a cleaning business?

Jake and Emmy billed $6,500 in month one and $8,000 in month two, with about $1,500 net income at the end of month two. John and Layla did $450,000 in their first year. The first year usually has a poor hourly rate and a good trajectory.

How long until a cleaning business replaces your salary?

Thomas in Wyoming decided he would quit when the business matched his data analyst salary, and it took one year and four months. Others keep their job on purpose. Nakita had a $10,000 month in 2020, lost it for years, and got back to $10,000 a month six years in, while working full time.

Why do some cleaning businesses make much more than others?

Three things: the share of revenue that is recurring rather than one-time, how much they pay for leads, and whether the owner stopped cleaning. Recurring revenue does not have to be won again every month. We spend about $300 a month on ads where some owners spend $5,000.

How much do cleaners get paid in a cleaning business?

We pay 60% of every job, which works out around $45 an hour against a local going rate of about $22. Sandra pays 55%. Daniel pays employees $18.10 an hour plus mileage at 65 cents and $3 a laundry load. Paying well is what stops the turnover that destroys cleaning companies.

How many clients do you need to make six figures cleaning?

About 100 recurring clients gets you to roughly half a million in billings, which at typical margins is well into six figures of profit. You do not need thousands of customers, just a hundred households who rebook without being asked.