How to Start a Cleaning Business in BC (2026 Step-by-Step Guide)

Starting a cleaning business in British Columbia takes five moves: get your business name approved with a Name Request, register the business, get a Business Number from the CRA, set up insurance, and put up a bookable website. The path is short, and the startup cost is low. My sister Jen and I built Oak Bay Clean right here in BC, in Victoria, to $2.8M in sales over four years, so this guide comes from running the model in our own province, with the actual costs, the name-approval steps, and where your first clients come from in Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, and Kelowna. For the country-wide picture, start with our how to start a cleaning business in Canada guide.

The model Jen and I use does not require you to buy supplies, a van, or equipment. You hire independent contractors who bring their own supplies, clients book online and leave a card on file, and you pay your cleaners out of money the client has already paid. Yaletown Clean runs this exact setup in Vancouver, which I will come back to.

The short answer: how to start a cleaning business in BC

Here is the whole path in order. The rest of this post backs up each step with BC numbers.

• Cleaning the houses yourself, lowest cost: get a Name Request approved and register as a sole proprietor for about $70 in total.
• Building a company that runs without you: register the business, get your Business Number, set up insurance, and put up a bookable website. Incorporate when the income makes it worth it.
• The BC detail to know: you charge only the 5% GST on a clean, because BC's PST does not apply to cleaning services.
• Fastest to your first paying client: email Realtors and property managers about move-out cleans while your Google ranking builds.

For most people who want a business rather than a job, the company path is the one Jen and I teach, and it is what the rest of this guide walks through.

How much does it cost to start a cleaning business in BC?

You can start a cleaning business in BC for under $100 to register, plus your insurance and software. A Name Request costs $30, registering as a sole proprietor costs $40, and your Business Number from the CRA is free. Incorporating costs more and adds liability protection as you grow.

Here are the line items for the company path. All figures are in Canadian dollars.

Most owners start as a sole proprietor for about $70 in total, a $30 Name Request plus the $40 registration, and incorporate later once the revenue makes the extra cost worth it. The reason this is so much lower than the $2,000 to $10,000 most BC guides quote: those numbers assume you buy supplies, equipment, and a vehicle. Your contractors bring all of that, so it never lands on your books.

Do you need a licence to start a cleaning business in BC?

British Columbia has no provincial licence for house cleaning. What you do need is to register your business and, in most cities, a municipal business licence to operate. This is general information and not legal advice, so confirm your own city before you start.

A few things to know in BC:

• Municipal business licence. Cities set their own rules and fees, so check whether Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, or your municipality requires a business licence, including for a home-based business.
• WorkSafeBC. Once you hire workers, you register with WorkSafeBC for coverage. As a solo sole proprietor it is optional, so confirm your situation as your team grows.
• WHMIS. If your team handles cleaning chemicals, the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System sets out labelling and safety rules.

For the general version of this question, read do I need a licence to start a cleaning business.

How do you register your cleaning business name in BC?

British Columbia gives your business name its own approval step called a Name Request. You submit your proposed name to BC Registries for $30, and once it is approved, you use that approved name to register your sole proprietorship for $40 or to incorporate. The Name Request is the step people miss, so do it first.

Pick a name built on your city plus the word clean or cleaning, like Kelowna Clean or Surrey Cleaning Services, so it clears the Name Request and gets found on Google and AI search. Our own company, Oak Bay Clean, is named for the neighbourhood it serves in Victoria. We walk through naming in how to name a cleaning business.

Do you charge GST or PST on cleaning services in BC?

In British Columbia you charge only the 5% GST on a clean, because BC's PST does not apply to cleaning services. You also only register for and charge GST once your revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Until then you are a small supplier and can run without charging tax. This is general information and not tax advice, so confirm your situation with the Canada Revenue Agency and an accountant.

This makes BC one of the simpler provinces for tax. There is no separate provincial sales tax to collect on a residential or commercial clean, so once you pass $30,000 you add 5% GST and nothing else. If you ever start selling physical products, PST can come into play, so check it then. Our Canada guide has the full GST and HST table by province.

Where do you find your first cleaning clients in BC's cities?

Your first clients in BC come from two places: Realtors and property managers who need move-out cleans, and Google once your business name and profile are set up. The paid social following you think you need is not where the money is.

Move-out cleans are the fastest opening, because most cleaners avoid them. Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, and Kelowna all move a steady volume of homes, so Realtors and property managers are booking these constantly. This is how our own business started in Victoria. One email to a Realtor named Danielle turned into 47 cleans over the following years, which is $16,718.34 in revenue from a single email.

Three things to get right before you spend a dollar on ads:

• Answer the phone. About 70% of cleaning companies do not answer on the first try, and only 30% call back after a voicemail. Answering puts you ahead of most of your competition in any BC city.
• Put your prices online. About 95% of cleaning companies have no transparent pricing on their site. Flat-rate prices a client can see are the biggest thing standing between a lead and a booking.
• Let people book at 10pm. A live booking widget that takes the card means you capture clients while they are interested, without a phone call.

The tool Jen and I use for both of these is ConvertLabs, and Oak Bay Clean and Yaletown Clean both run on it. It puts an instant-quote form on your site, so a client picks their options, sees a flat-rate price on the spot, and books with a card in about 60 seconds. Our own widget turns about 33% of the people who fill it out into paying clients. You can get 30 days free at convertlabs.io/blueprint. That is an affiliate link, so Jen and I earn a fee if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

For the full playbook, read how to get clients for a cleaning business.

Where do you find cleaners in BC?

You find cleaners in BC the same way you find clients, by posting where people already look for work and screening for reliability over experience. You are screening for dependable people who will represent your brand well.

Indeed, Facebook groups, and Craigslist still work across BC cities, and there are people looking in every market. One thing to get right: the CRA has its own test for who counts as an independent contractor rather than an employee, based on control, who owns the tools, and who carries the risk, and WorkSafeBC looks at similar factors. The contractor model fits that test well when you set it up properly, so structure your agreements with it in mind. This is general information and not legal advice. Hire for reliability and communication, pay your cleaners well, which on our model is 60% of the job, and treat the relationship as a partnership. We cover the full process in how to find cleaners for a cleaning business.

New owners worry about three things with contractors. Here is how the model answers each.

• Quality control. You bring on cleaners who already know how to clean, so quality comes from feedback rather than training. Clients rate every clean, you pass that straight to the cleaner, and anyone who slips stops getting offered work. Your standard travels through the feedback loop.
• Will a cleaner take my clients? The client books, pays, and keeps a card on file through your system, so the relationship and the billing stay with your brand. Your contractors get a steady stream of pre-sold jobs they never had to find or quote, which is what they would give up by going around you. A non-solicitation clause in your contractor agreement backs it up.
• Could I get in trouble for treating employees like contractors? You keep them genuine independent contractors through how the work runs. You offer gigs through ConvertLabs and they accept or decline, they wear their own clothes, drive their own cars, and bring their own supplies, and you set what a finished home should look like while they choose how to get there. Put that in a written contractor agreement and it holds up to the control test above.

Is a cleaning business profitable in BC?

A cleaning business is profitable in BC, and this is the province where Jen and I built ours. Oak Bay Clean has done about $2.8M in sales since July 2021 at roughly a 28% margin, running with 18 cleaners, all from Victoria. The same model is running in Vancouver as Yaletown Clean, residential-first with cleaners who bring their own supplies. You can see how ours runs at Oak Bay Clean.

The way we set prices is to charge flat-rate packages by square footage and number of bathrooms, landing around 75 to 80% of the most expensive cleaner in your market. Vancouver and Victoria carry some of the highest cost of living in the country, so the prices a clean supports there are strong, and demand is steady year-round. Clients pay at the time of the clean, your contractors are paid out of that same money, and you keep the spread.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to start a cleaning business in BC? Under $100 to register on the contractor model: a $30 Name Request plus a $40 sole-proprietor registration, with a free Business Number from the CRA. Incorporating costs $350 plus the Name Request. Your other costs are insurance and booking software.

Do I need a licence to start a cleaning business in BC? There is no provincial cleaning licence. You register your business, get a municipal business licence in most cities, and register with WorkSafeBC once you hire workers. This is general information, not legal advice.

How do I register my cleaning business name in BC? Submit a Name Request to BC Registries for $30. Once your name is approved, register a sole proprietorship for $40 or incorporate for $350 using that approved name.

Do I charge GST or PST on cleaning in BC? You charge only the 5% GST, and only once you pass $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive quarters. BC's PST does not apply to cleaning services, so there is no PST to collect on a clean.

How do I get my first cleaning clients in BC? Email Realtors and property managers about move-out cleans, set up your Google Business Profile, and put transparent prices and a booking widget on your site. One Realtor relationship was worth $16,718.34 to our business over time.

Do I need to buy supplies to start a cleaning business in BC? No. On the contractor model, your cleaners bring their own supplies and equipment, which is the main reason BC startup costs stay low.

How much can a cleaning business make in BC? There is no structural cap once you have a team. Our own BC business has done about $2.8M since July 2021 at a 28% margin. Vancouver and Victoria support strong prices, so a well-run cleaning business there can carry healthy margins.

Should I start with residential or commercial cleaning in BC? Residential. Clients pay at the time of the clean, so the money funds the business. Commercial pays slower, so add it later, once your cash flow can carry it.

Where to start

The steps are the easy part. Getting your first clients and keeping good cleaners is the work, and that is exactly what Jen and I walk through in the free 22-Day Cleaning Business Master Checklist and the 22-Day Blueprint ebook. A few guides that pair well with this one:

• How to start a cleaning business in Canada
• How to start a cleaning business in 2026 (step-by-step guide)
• How to name a cleaning business
• How to get clients for a cleaning business