Like any other business, your maid or janitorial cleaning service will not survive without advertisement and a marketing strategy no matter how simple they are. You need not to spend a big amount of money for starting up your cleaning service, your propensity to cleaning plus a few cleaning tools are all you need to have. But, you will need to put in a little extra for your advertisements, and a little extra time to think out a marketing strategy.
Do you have a computer and a printer at home? This could very well be the tools to start your ad campaign. You can design your own flyers and start distributing as soon as you get them photocopied in bulk. Your designs need not be complicated; a simple picture of a vacuum or a broom and a dustbin would get your message loud and clear. Then create an interest by having a really catchy name and a really catchy introductory promo. For example :
Sparkle Cleaning Services – put back that sparkle in your home!
Introductory Promo: 2 Cleaning Schedules for the Price of 1!
or something similar to that.
Aside from letting the whole neighborhood know of your new business, you will probably get a lot of calls from potential clients who are looking for a cleaning service near their home. You can also get clients who were previously not looking for a cleaning service but got enticed by your promo. Make sue to highlight the aspect of convenience in hiring a maid service.
Aside from flyers, you can also use your personal computer and printer to design your own business cards. Business calling cards are very important because you might get a chance to talk to someone out on the street or on the bus who could be interested in your service.
You can also begin printing out your price list, a menu of the services you offer with quotations on how much these would cost. Having these handy would mean lesser time for you verbally delineating what you can offer and the fees you will charge. Listing down your services before hand would also allow you to streamline the services and costs you are offering.
If you have enough cash, you can look into advertising in the papers. Although this should be considered later on, when you are already planning your expansion. Advertising on paper means your business will reach a lot of areas and you might have a hard time entertaining clients that live too far away from your cleaning service location. That would present too much expense on gas or transportation.
Another idea for advertising is getting your business phone listed on the yellow pages.
To make your marketing more efficient, you can carry a mobile phone anywhere you go. This would give you the advantage of not missing out on important client calls. If you are in the middle of cleaning different house though, or talking to a new client, make sure that you free some space in your voice mail so you can return the call afterwards.
For more info:
How to start a cleaning service
