Start a Successful Cleaning Services Company in Kenya

Starting a Cleaning Services Company in Kenya

220 Comments / Cleaning Services / By

Tips of How to Start a Successful Cleaning Services Company in Kenya

Did you know you can start a cleaning services company in Kenya with only Ksh. 5000 and develop it to a successful business? Let me teach you how.

Just like any other business, starting a successful cleaning services company in Kenya can be a very challenging task. Kindly note, we are talking about success here. Many people start businesses daily. In fact hundreds of businesses are started every month in Kenya alone. But very few of them survive. That should not be the case. As a result we are experiencing very high rate of youth unemployment in this country. The number of the youth graduating from universities in Kenya continues to grow year by year. Though it’s an argued that most are half baked, we don’t have opportunities even for the fully baked graduates. Many of them are frustrated with job searching, and the idea of being an entrepreneur is the only savior at the moment.

Or maybe your situation is different. You are just tired of being an employee. You want to manage yourself and create employment opportunities for many young people in our nation. Or maybe you already have a cleaning company that has really not grown after many years. Then you are the person we had in mind. In this article we share knowledge that will help you start and run your own cleaning services company in Kenya successfully. But it doesn’t have to be limited to cleaning companies. Some tips can be borrowed and applied in whatever industry you are venturing into.

In fact we have applied these same tips we are sharing here and experienced tremendous growth just in period of less than 3 years. And it’s not like we have arrived and achieved whatever we want but we are still striving towards that goal. But we thought? Why not share the little we know, the market is still big, and it can go a long way to help and empower one young man who is still looking for a job years after graduating.

Start a Successful Cleaning Services Company in Kenya

 

So let’s dive right in.

#1. Create social media accounts.

This is the very first step to starting a successful business in Kenya, leave alone a cleaning services company. We are living in an age where everything is on the internet. Today everyone has at least a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account. What does this mean? All your potential customers are online. So if you don’t have a social media account for your business, you are losing it big. Having a social media account for your business does not require any registration documents, does it? No, bundles za shilingi kumi tu (only ten Kenya shillings)

How do you get your first cleaning services client?

Social media is going to give you your first client within a very short period of time. That is where we got our first clients. That is what gave us confidence that this business can actually work. Search this online. How to get the first client for my business? And you will find this answer. Talk to family members and friends.

Social media does it better. On Facebook for instance, you can invite your friends to like your business page. Don’t be surprised to hear a friend ask you the cost of your services. It’s the perfect word of mouth to all your friends about your new business and a very cheap way of doing it.

Start posting. Post at least once every day. Keep your business page active. Don’t abandon your page. Normally I will never send a message to a page whose last post is more than a week. They are not in position to handle their own business. I doubt they will be able to handle a client consistently. Sorry but I am out. On this, we are still a working progress. We are looking for someone affordable to help us handle social media posting.

Social media posting tips

  1. Use general terms and keywords you think people use when searching for your services. This will make your page to appear on top of other pages on the search results. Like we now people will search for cleaning companies in Kenya, cleaning services in Nairobi, cleaning services in Kenya, cleaning companies in Nairobi or whatever town you are operating in.
  2. Use the services you offer as keywords in your posting. Office cleaning services in Nairobi, Sofa set cleaning services in Nairobi, Carpet cleaning services in Kenya
  3. Post using questions. What is the cost of cleaning services in Kenya? What are the prices of cleaning services in Kenya?
  4. Be creative and be fun in your post. On a weekend, wish people a good weekend and ask them to leave the cleaning work to be done by your company. This breaks the boredom of being so much commercial. Which leads us to the next point
  5. Use images as much as possible. Images reach a bigger audience than paragraphs of texts. If you can be able to design, the better. But design should be your focus share more images. And as you get your first client, take photos and share them on your page. Let people see you in action. Nothing works magic better than this when it comes to images.
  6. Lastly, be social. Its social media. You can just share a funny video on your business page once in a while.

#2. Don’t Buy Cleaning Machines.

First you don’t have so many clients. Second, hiring can be cheaper for a startup. Unless you have enough capital, don’t spend the little you have on cleaning machines. Instead, invest that in marketing to help you grow your brand visibility and improve awareness and get more clients.

#3. Buy Uniforms. Never work without uniforms.

I have just advised you not to buy cleaning machines. Therefore here is what you should buy, cleaning company uniforms. Here is what you should not do. Never go to a client site without a uniform. You are only a startup. Probably a Facebook page is all you got online. So you don’t have a strong online presence. This is your biggest stage to market your cleaning company as cleaning professionals. Not only to your client, but also to surrounding neighbors. And if you do a good job you have very high chances of earning a referral. You will never get a better client than a referral.

Get good descent polo t-shirts for yourself and a few extra ones just in case need arise. This can cost you something in the area of between Ksh. 750 – Ksh. 1000. Less than Ksh. 5000 will give you four good uniforms.

#4. Narrow Down your scope of service.

When you are starting, be humble. You don’t have the capacity, money and manpower to handle several clients with different cleaning needs at the same time. Like office cleaning has totally different requirements as compared to carpet cleaning.

Narrow down specific related services. This will really improve your client and business management skills. This will be very handy when you grow and start expanding your scope of service. This will help you spend the little capital well.

#5. Do the cleaning yourself.

Why hire someone to do the work you can be able to do yourself? Get to work my friend. Serve your first clients yourself. This provides you an opportunity to provide the best services and get referrals. Nobody can be the best ambassador of your business than yourself. As you start getting more work, find one person to work with. Train them. Let them learn from you that you value quality service provision than money. You will be developing company culture and values that will be passed down to other employees as your grow.

#6. Register your Cleaning company.

Do you know that you can plough back your profits and use them to register your cleaning company? Start with Business name registration at just Ksh. 950 on ecitizen portal. Later on you can fully register your company as a limited company. Company registration will cost you around Ksh. 15, 000 – Ksh. 30, 000. Though you can work without a license as you start, getting a registration certificate be top of your priority list just after buying company uniforms. I will emphasize on my earlier point. If you don’t have enough cash don’t start by buying the cleaning machines. Buy uniforms, register a company then hire machines before you buy your own.

#7. Create a business website.

How do you grow your cleaning company to compete with established brands? Here is the answer.

As you can see, I am still revolving around the idea of being online. I am not sure of a better way to put it. Hire a reliable web design company or an individual to develop you a website. Do it with caution though. We have so many people out there who can give you a website. But again, you don’t need a website. What? I know you are starting to wonder. You need an online tool help you grow your online brand popularity and bring in more potential clients.

This is what I mean. There is no need of having a website that nobody is visiting. This is where most starter businesses go wrong. At the end of one year, you are renewing the domain and paying for hosting that never earned you a single coin.

Tips for hiring a website and SEO service provider

Here is what you should do. Look for someone who can both develop the website and do search engine optimization (SEO).

  1. Ask for previous work website samples. Ask if they did SEO on them. Where are they ranking on Google? First page or second page or fifth page or on page ten.
  2. Check the ranking for the provided work samples. Ask for the keywords they are using and verify on check them yourself. If you don’t know what a keyword is, it’s just a search term that people use to find your business. Like cleaning companies in Kenya.
  3. Will they provide support and website maintenance? Our resourceful web developer helped us understand that if a website is not updated and maintained, it will loses its authority with time and recently created sites that are updated will eventually be ranked on top of them.

This might be one of the costly things you will have to invest in. So talk to them well. Let them help you grow your brand online and make your website visible for the services you offer. Agree on the support and maintenance fee you will be paying. But you can negotiate to start paying the fee after you start getting phone calls and email inquiries from the website.

From an individual you may get a good website at cost not exceeding Ksh. 50, 000 plus SEO services included for at least 6 months. But companies charge differently.

A website is going to be one of the greatest factors that will determine whether your cleaning business succeeds or fails. So don’t rash do your homework well.

NOTE:  You don’t need a website at the very beginning. Start with free social media and once you start getting a few clients you can now go for a website. But if you are in position go for both at the very beginning, it is well.

If you are not sure where to get a reliable web developer and SEO expert, try our provider below

GET A WEBSITE AND SEO

 

#8. Required cleaning equipment

What is needed for a Cleaning Services Company in Kenya? Here are the basic items you need:

  1. Vacuum cleaner
  2. Cleaning agents
  3. Spray bottles and Buckets
  4. Toilet brushes

#9. How do you charge for cleaning services?

Don’t charge cheap. Make reasonable profits. But don’t be too expensive as well. If you are too expensive, you may never get subsequent cleaning jobs from the same client if they can find another company offering affordable services. Cheap may even cause you to lose some clients. I am talking about clients who associate quality with money value. Cheap will also make you incur losses. Your business will be forgotten within a short time or you may never be able to grow.

Therefore work around striking a balance. Don’t operate under losses. But don’t be so expensive as well. Once you have grown and your brand is fully established. Charge as you find fit. You have invested so much to grow that brand name anywhere. But this is not for startups.

 

Summary

  1. Start by creating a social media account and keep posting.
  2. Start with hiring cleaning machines. Don’t rush to buying.
  3. Buy company uniforms and never work any cleaning job without being in uniforms.
  4. Narrow down on a few cleaning services to offer.
  5. Don’t start with employees, do the cleaning yourself.
  6. Register your company.
  7. Invest heavily in marketing by hiring someone to develop you a website and offer you SEO services.

Here is a summary of required item description and their cost to fully start a cleaning company. But you don’t need all of them at once if you don’t have enough capital. You may follow my priority list.

Item Description Price/Cost
Uniforms Ksh. 5000
Registration Ksh. 30, 000
Vacuum cleaner Ksh. 10, 000
Cleaning detergents Ksh. 10, 000
Buckets and brushes Ksh. 10, 000
Spray bottles Ksh. 2, 000
Website and SEO Ksh. 50, 000

 

Bonus Tip

If you want to just make quick money, use Google ads. But in the long run, the cost of running ads may be way much higher than hiring a brilliant website developer and SEO expert. Here is the advantage. With SEO, once it starts working, you keep getting traffic of potential clients to your website without having to spend extra cash. And once your company is established and your brand has gained noticeable online presence, you can go back create ads just to increase conversion. But you are not relying on ads to get clients. You can still thrive without them.

 

Kindly share with a friend and spread the love. Drop us a comment. Let\’s here what you think.[

220 thoughts on “Starting a Cleaning Services Company in Kenya”

          2. Musa lemayian

            I am very impressed and I like the way you explain it we are going to make it we follow those tips

          4. jackline natembeya

            Great advice,have worked as a cleaner for 5years bt ,ifeel like am tired of being employed.

      8. PRISCILLAH

        Its such a pleasure having learnt from you . Just started mine and would be glad 8f get adviced on cost of cleaning a two flows mansion, office, 3,4,5 bedroomed house and so forth please .

        Reply
    2. Simon peter

      Thanks for much for the advise.
      I have worked in hotel as a housekeeping supervisor and now I want to start my own housekeeping company.

      Reply
    3. Bonface Ouma

      Thank you so much for the great advice at least am having hope now to strengthen my company be blessed

      Reply
          1. Allan

            Great advice….on the process of starting my own cleaning company and I really appreciate….like minded people we can link on WhatsApp 0111667919. We share more and exchange ideas. Thank you once more.

    4. PATRICK AHADI

      Thank you so much for enlightening us am one of the those whi was conducting reaserch on how to start a cleaning company .

      i have learned alot
      i wanted to start with office cleaning and garbage collection but can i get help on how to charge here kinldy.

      Reply
      1. bett

        I am also in the process of doing research and probably start my own company in January. perhaps we can have a discussion on patnering?

        Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      You may never have enough capital. Start with what you have. Choose a specific service that you can offer and focus on it. Then you can expand gradually as you plough back some of the profits you get.
      Good Luck.

      Reply
  5. Sharon

    Great piece am looking forward to start a cleaning business the rate to charge for those who live in small towns can range from?

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Thanks Sharon.
      It all depends with the amount of work, cost and the profit you want to make.
      It will also depend with your evaluation of the client, you may charge less or more.
      But you can have standard prices and be adjusting upwards depending on the client.

      Reply
    3. GM Cleaning Services

      Sharon!Good question but it all depends on your expenses and how much profit you want to make plus the barginin power of the client

      Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Hello Emmanuel
      Yes you can but won’t get “big” contracts. But you can start offering one off services.
      But you have to plan and register if you want to grow. Clients won’t trust you if you don’t have the right docs

      Reply
        2. Dalmas Bwire

          Thanks very much .am in hotel industry….and I love house keeping section.i would like to start my own cleaning company in near future

          Reply
  9. Adiedo

    Wow, great information here, I am fully employed but I want to start a side hustle, can this be a good idea or what can you advice?

    Reply
    2. Mercy juma

      Thanks for the advice.l really want to start it .from your advice first is to start by creating a social media account.is it right before assembling the materials.kindily do clarify.

      Reply
      1. GM Cleaning

        Social media is just helpng you in getting started with marketing. Getting clients takes time. So you be working on materials while pushing your brand to people, for them to know that a business with your name exists. They may contact you later when in need of the service

        Reply
    2. Wyclife magara

      Hello brother.hope you are doing well.found your statement engaging and touching on the same issue am interested in.kindly I would like to have a conversation with you concerning the same.
      If possible we can share contacts and talk via WhatsApp

      Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Not sure about this. But just do some market research. Understand your niche then you can make the decision. But we always have a gap.

      Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Yes. Since you have a special interest in this. Kindy do more research on it. Find where you will get the bins, who will be collecting them and where they will be disposing them after collection.

      Reply
  19. Peterson

    Thank you so much. It’s not easy for someone to write this great article to guide others. In Kenya getting the right information is an uphill task. I have a question I did some research and found out that steam cleaning is preferred by many for cleaning sofas, carpets, interior cars etc. Is there an alternative machine for that work? How much are the machines going for if one decides to hire. Thanks

    Reply
  20. edwin

    i just liked how you have clearly illustrated the process of establishing a cleaning company… just for clarification, can i establish a brand name fro my business before registering? is there any effects… please help.

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Yes… that is ok. But you won’t get some jobs from clients who want to verify you are registered.
      You can start with just registering a business name to avoid someone else “hacking” your efforts.

      Reply
      1. Miriam

        I am in nairobi and I want someone who got the interest as me we join together and start one. If any kindly reach out : 0714071332

        Reply
        1. Richard

          Hi Miriam

          Good afternoon.
          Was going through some interesting story and got you to be interested in it too.
          just writing to inform you am interested . can we meet to discuss how to team up and work. 0720995494

          Reply
  24. Justus

    Hi I’m Justus thank you for the great information you have given to me ,I have had a dream to start a cleaning company for over 8 years now, I. Very much great full for your tips I hope it will go well with me as I look yo start my own company soon thank you and Hod bless you.

    Reply
  26. Festus Kamanja

    Do we Have a cleaning regulatory body or any other registration required after you register a company?

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Yes Festus we have bodies that have been formed like house keeping professional accociation among
      others.It is not a must you join bodies but of recent there has been a push for cleaners to join the bodies
      since we felt that most cleaners have been neglected and paid poorly and also we felt that we need to
      armonize the pricing of our services so that we speak in one voice.

      Reply
  27. Jacob

    Thanks for sharing this and giving the procedure on how to do it in a detailed way, am so grateful. I can say this is the best I have read in my research.

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Yophes welcome to the cleaning business.You can find more information on that when you search for
      cleaning machine for hire and supply. We also provide the machines for hire and supply the cleaning requirements.
      Kindly contact us for more info.

      Reply
  29. Geoff

    I am interested in provision of cleaning services. In fact I’ve already registered a company and engaged someone to create a logo for me. I was thinking of doing fliers for marketing for my first job but thank God you came in handy with the advice of social media. I am going Facebook and hope it works for me. I may also need to hire cleaning equipment from you if I happen to get a job that requires such.
    Thank you very much.

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Most welcome Geoff.
      The journery is never smooth but you to keep trusting the process.
      You’ve started off well. Keep at it. It will surely pay off in the long run.
      We will be glad to hire you the cleaning machines as you hit the ground going.
      Just give us a call.
      Good luck.

      Reply
  30. Rachel

    Thanks for the info I want to start on and needs your help especially with.hiring of machines can u help with whatsup no so we can connect

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Hey Judy!
      Yees. Just I think we mentioned it in the above article. But you can create one later on to adapt with the dynamic technonology we are experiencing right now.
      Many people are online and do some research on the goods and services online before they do the purchasing.
      So start but you will need one in the lon run.

      Reply
  32. Musa Thaim

    Just wanted to ask does this cleaning company need vat bcoz if you are not earning more than 5million

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Hey Musa
      VAT has nothing to do with the amounts involved. It will always depend with the clients you get. Some will demand the ETR when you serve them with the invoices. But this mostly happens when offering the services to companies, in most cases they will only work with another company that is tax compliant.
      But when starting you can work without it just make sure to indicate “Without VAT” on all your quotations so that from the very beginning the client knows they will not demand an ETR for the same.
      Hope this is helpful!

      Reply
  33. Barack Ogana

    encouraging plan great but I realized Facebook have some charges for you to post photos on a company pages like if you open a page specifically for the company. for you not to incur charges what are the possible ways of posting photos

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Hey Barack!
      Facebook don’t charge posting of images. It’s totally free unless you are trying to boost the post.

      Reply
  34. Bonface

    Very informative piece. Thanks so much. I intend to start a cleaning company and I find this very helpful. Can I link up for more advice incase I need to.

    Reply
  37. Malasen Hamida

    Very informative piece, I have been cleaning on volunteer basis on prayer institutions but will want to start my cleaning company.i am posting all my cleaning on my page and organisation page too thanks for the helpful tips would want to upgrade

    Reply
  38. IRERI

    wow…… very informative ,detailed and encouraging at the same time.
    Equips a starter with that psyche … am not going back anymore…
    Asante.

    Reply
  41. Duke Maranga

    What an awesome piece of advice you’ve here, congratulations fellows. I already had the idea of starting up a professional cleaning company but been in a wonder on how set my feet on the ladder. On my case study online I just came across you and decided to take a sneak off and see what you had over the concerned project I have. Thumps up guys.

    Reply
  45. Hemphstone Okoyo

    Great piece…this has really inspired me….i am in the process of registration i m soon starting a cleaning business

    Reply
  46. Kevin omondi

    Thanks for the advice… I am working as a housekeeper but really need to start my own cleaning business.. This is a great push

    Reply
  50. Christine Wanjiru

    I have been thinking about starting one, i was actually thinking of offering household services . my motivation was to create emproyment by seeking for customers who need their houses cleaned and allocating the job to trusted and vetted people who can offer the services and probably paying them on commission. may end up buying machines later. what advice would you offer me, keeping in mind i may not have enough capital for company registrations and all that

    Reply
  53. Julius Njenga

    Am from Meru thank you for the advice.I followed those steps even before I knew they were online where I went wrong was buying uniform before registering haha 🤣 I did vice verse.But my company is doing well.

    If there is a person who may need an incorporation contact me we can work together julliejentie1919@gmail.com

    Reply
  55. Annie

    Wow, good insight, am planning 2 start one bt still wondering where 2 get agents who already kno the job to work with me. Advice

    Reply
  56. Moses Kioko

    This article came in handy to give me an insight on how to start a cleaning company, thanks alot for the information

    Reply
  59. Hellen muchiri

    Thank you for your help through this article it has given me lots of ideas because am so much interested in cleaning but din’t know how to or where to start…. But if you offer trainings I can be interested. May God bless you for that

    Reply
  61. Mercy Kiama

    This is so inspiring, as a young goal oriented lady was having an idea of opening a dry cleaner business how do I go about it please, where do I start,

    Reply
  65. Stanley Saina

    I am in Eldoret town and I have a registered company and social media pages and good SEO skills, I lack partners, to begin with, we can hire equipment in the meantime. 2 or people required. Call +254758302245

    Reply
  66. emmanuel kairuki

    AM SOO EMPOWERED . BY THE WAY YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS AND THE ADVISES .SOON WILL BE COMMING FOR TRAINING.DO YOU OFFER CERTS.NICE TIME

    Reply
  67. Margaret Mohere

    Great work and thanks for the insightful advice. Still researching, planning to start one in the new future.

    Reply
  68. Lilian Auma

    So much encouraged by your advice.Am interested in starting cleaning services but did not know how to go about it.This is what i wanted.

    Reply
      1. George

        Hello Grace,. I’m kinda new here. The takeaway on this website gave me a true north. Looking forward to venture into this right away, how about you link me up and share probable commonalities.Kindly Call/text 0714327605.

        Reply
  70. Marion

    Thank you so much for generously giving this piece of advice for free. I have wanted to start a cleaning business and didn’t know how but now I know. Will surely do.

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      Martha it’s not that tricky you just calculate your expenses while offering the services then you add your small margins then there is always room to negotiate.

      Reply
  74. Angelica

    I am Angelica
    Great advice I am planning to start a cleaning company but I didn’t know how to go about it but now I know thanks Soo much

    Reply
  75. Richard

    Hi Miriam

    Good afternoon.
    Was going through some interesting story and got you to be interested in it too.
    just writing to inform you am interested . can we meet to discuss how to team up and work. 0720995494

    Reply
    1. GM Cleaning

      You are most welcome. The charges are flexible it depends on the location of the client.Plus the cost you will incur while offering the services then you add your margins.

      Reply
  79. Bryan Lunani

    You are the best,, how I wish I could hv seen this earlier,,, God bless you for answering many of my questions that I couldn’t ask anyone,, you hv really opened my eyes. You are soo experienced

    Reply
  81. Samuel Kaptum

    Great piece of content. From the read, I can say that the business is viable. I will consider exploring it soon. Thanks for the wonderful insights.

    Reply
  84. Samuel

    Great information,thankyou.I shall be contacting you for more since i am in the process of starting a cleaning company .

    Reply
  85. John Mboya

    Thanks alot I have been having the same dream but I lucked the advice, now I’m going to start my cleaning company God willing thank you urbandantly

    Reply
  86. Musela J

    In my research to start a cleaning company, I Bumped on these article full of good tips and hope, and it has really boosted my morale and am ready to start. Thank you once more

    Reply
  87. Chelangat cynthia

    Thanks alot for the info, am a beginner, and I have a company but am stuck because of financial constraints, thanks alot for the advice am in nakuru and I believe I can make it.not easy though. Thanks alot

    Reply
  90. Joan

    I have a group of 35people we want to start our group project.. we thinking of a cleaning services company…. Though we need help on how to start it

    Reply
  91. GM Cleaning Services

    Joan ,With such number you are purposed to succeed. The best way is to have like two or three members trained so as to pass the knowledge and experience to the rest of the group. We have training courses

    Reply

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