How to Run a Cleaning Business Remotely (From Anywhere)

Stephan is a data analyst in South Africa. He runs a cleaning company in the Tri-Cities of Tennessee, a market of about 200,000 people, on the other side of the world from where he sits.

He picked the city partly because he has a cousin studying nearby. He works his day job, and he works the business from four in the afternoon his time until nine or ten at night, which is the American morning. The time zone difference, which sounds like a problem, is the thing that makes it work.

So yes, you can run a cleaning business remotely. Let me also tell you what the people selling you courses about it leave out.

The short answer

• Remote within your own country: straightforward. Plenty of owners run their business from a laptop and never touch a mop.
• Remote from another country: possible, and Stephan proves it. Expect a longer setup, a harder time with Google, and someone on the ground.
• Remote from a beach with no involvement: that business does not exist. Somebody answers the phone, and that somebody is you.

What running it remotely means in practice

The business is already remote in the sense that matters. You are not cleaning. Your cleaners are independent contractors who bring their own supplies and drive their own cars. There is no office, no warehouse, no van.

What is left is a phone, a booking system, a schedule, and a payment run. All of it fits on a laptop.

Stephan spends about two hours a week on his business. Not two hours a day. Two hours a week, answering, texting and scheduling. Thomas in Wyoming runs his full time from a computer and goes to soccer. I run Oak Bay Clean and go to yoga in the middle of every workday.

The stack that makes it work

• A booking website that takes the card. Prices published, client books, card charged, cleaner assigned. We use Convertlabs.io (our affiliate link, 30 days free). About 80% of our clients are recurring, and they book online.
• A business phone number. Not your personal mobile. It needs to work from wherever you are, and it needs to record and summarise calls so anyone covering for you can pick up the thread.
• Automated reviews. NiceJob asks after every clean so your reputation grows without you chasing it.
• A local human. More on this below, because it is the part people skip.

You need someone on the ground

Stephan's cousin is a student in Tennessee. He helps with cleans sometimes, and he helped with Google.

That last part matters more than it sounds, because Google's verification process for Local Services Ads is not built for a foreigner to complete. Stephan had to have a local person do it, and he says that if he did it again he would still choose a city where he knows someone, or he would pay someone local to help.

If you have nobody, get somebody. A business partner, a manager, a relative, or a paid local contact. Cleaning is a physical business in a physical place, and eventually something requires a body.

Google is the hard part

Google knows where you are. It knows from your phone, your laptop, your IP address. A brand new Google account, created yesterday, trying to claim a business in a town you have never visited, is exactly the pattern their systems are built to catch.

Stephan got suspended twice. Both times with no reason given, just a generic community guidelines message. Both times his Local Services Ads went down two weeks later, and his phone number was stripped from the listing.

What he does instead, and it is the most useful thing in this whole post:

• Build trust in your Google account first. Stephan had years of reviews on his personal Google account from travelling. High local guide levels. That history is authority, and a fresh account has none.
• Add the business as a missing business, not as your business. Go to the map, add it, add the website. Do not immediately claim ownership.
• Let it mature. Get reviews on the unverified listing. Get the website indexed in Search Console first. Get listed in a few directories, get a Yelp page. Build a record that this business exists.
• Then claim it. Stephan's first verification went through by email on the first try, because there was a business there to verify.

And when it does get suspended, and it might, the business survives on recurring clients and organic search while you sort it out.

Do not build on rented land

When Google took Stephan's ads away, his business kept going. Not because he had a clever backup, but because he had recurring clients and a website people could find.

"You feel like the Local Services Ads is a crutch eventually. You feel like you can't breathe without it. Letting go of it and continuing by myself was a relief." Stephan

He put his money into SEO and backlinks instead. Those keep paying. Ads stop the day you stop paying for them. That is the same conclusion Jen and I reached at Oak Bay Clean, where we now spend about $300 a month and get nearly all our leads organically.

Pick a small city

Stephan chose a market of 200,000 people. Jake and Emmy chose Dubuque, Iowa, population 60,000. Thomas chose Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the least populated state in America.

All three are doing well, and none of them are fighting a national franchise for a keyword in New York.

The model needs about 100 recurring clients to produce roughly half a million a year. A city of 200,000 has plenty of households. You need a hundred customers, not millions of people.

The limits

Being local helps.

Wealthy clients booking a recurring service often want to meet the person who is sending someone into their home. Stephan does not hide that he is South African, and he says people appreciate the straight answer. He also keeps Google Maps and Zillow open so he can talk about the local area, because knowing where things are matters when a client mentions a street name.

Meanwhile, cleaner recruitment is the part that surprised him most. People apply, pass the background check, and then do not show up for their first job. That happens whether you are an ocean away or eight minutes away, and it is the part Stephan finds most frustrating, and Thomas calls his number one pain point.

So run it remotely if that is what your life requires. Just do it with a local presence, a phone you answer, and an income that does not depend on Google's mood.

Frequently asked questions

Can you run a cleaning business remotely?

Yes. One of our members runs a cleaning company in Tennessee from South Africa, and spends about two hours a week on it. The business is already remote in the sense that matters: your cleaners are independent contractors with their own supplies and cars, so there is no office and no van. What is left is a phone, a booking system, a schedule, and a payment run.

Can you start a cleaning business in another country?

Yes, and it is harder than doing it at home. Expect a longer setup, difficulty with Google verification, and a genuine need for someone on the ground. Stephan registered a US company from South Africa, but he needed a local person to complete Google's Local Services Ads verification, which is not built for a foreigner to complete.

How do you get a Google Business Profile for a remote cleaning business?

Build trust in your Google account first, because a brand new account claiming a business in a town you have never visited is the exact pattern Google's systems flag. Add the business to the map as a missing business, let it gather reviews and get indexed, then claim it. Stephan was suspended twice before he refined this approach.

How many hours a week does a remote cleaning business take?

Stephan spends about two hours a week answering, texting and scheduling. Owners running it as their full-time job work more, but the work is admin and phone calls, not cleaning. The one thing you cannot outsource is answering the phone.

Do you need someone local to run a cleaning business remotely?

Yes. Cleaning is a physical business in a physical place, and eventually something needs a body. Stephan has a cousin studying nearby who helps with cleans and helped with Google verification. If you have nobody, hire someone, or pick a city where you know somebody.

What city should I choose for a remote cleaning business?

A small one. Members are succeeding in the Tri-Cities of Tennessee (200,000 people), Dubuque, Iowa (60,000), and Cheyenne, Wyoming. You need about 100 recurring clients to bill roughly half a million a year, and a city of 200,000 has plenty of households. Fighting a national franchise for a keyword in New York is the common beginner mistake.

Should I tell clients I am not local?

Stephan does, and says people appreciate the straight answer. He keeps Google Maps open so he can talk about the local area when a client mentions a street name. What clients care about is that someone reliable shows up and someone answers the phone when they call.