Most cleaning businesses started out as small home-based enterprises. With a defined niche, a vision and a plan on how to deliver to the clients, these startups are motivated by a simple desire: to survive. This is one business which depends a lot on trust and quality. Building on these attributes, it is easy to keep old clients and find new ones.

There are a lot of different companies which are out there to be started. Studying successful companies there are only a few things which differentiate them from unsuccessful endeavors. One of the secrets of a successful company is that the founder likes the work. When the owner likes working the business, then it doesn't feel like work for him.

Ultimately, this last trait might be more important in the long run, than any other motivation to work. Running a cleaning service business is sometimes a round-the-clock job. Companies contract out janitorial jobs for work after office hours. Home cleaning services, on the other hand, are done during office hours while the home owners are out. Carpet cleaning services can be on-site or brought to the shop.

There are a lot of services which a cleaning business can offer. At some point specialization offers more benefits to the business owner and to the regular customers. Specializing on a service means that you would need to be training on less things. Additionally, you would need less equipment because of the limited number of service offerings.

The confidence to start a cleaning service shouldn't fizzle out after a few months just because you're not making the numbers you forecasted. Any and all start ups go through an organizational phase and very rarely do companies get blessed with a running start. All the planning and organizational work that you do will have to be cleaned up and refined during the first year of operations. Although you may have created as good and as realistic a budget as possibly can, conventional wisdom from successful start-ups show that your planned budget for the first year will be underestimated. A rule of thumb for start-up businesses is to calculate a budget, and when that has been refined, to double the value. The resulting amount will be closer to the actual expenditures for the first year of operations.

For most first time entrepreneurs, the first year of a company's operations are a whirlwind of new experiences. Most of these will be catch up jobs, trying to get the feel and rhythm of the business. Taking notes would be great. But paying close attention to the journal detailing every penny would be even better. You should do an internal audit and study of the company expenses and operations. It is never too early to keep a close watch of your finances. This is specially true if you have a small starting capital.

At some point, the work will seem to be more than what it's worth. The business is not expected to be earning money immediately. Another rule of thumb for start-ups is to expect to start earning after three years. It is expected that the first three years of operations will show losses. During this period the finances will be tight. It might be necessary to scrounge up additional capitalization. For an entrepreneur, this means that after starting the business, it might be necessary to do some independent contracting work outside of the cleaning business. Keeping a second job on top of the business is a common experience. Alternatively, the business owner can try to get more jobs than he had planned for. This is one motivation which gives unexpected results. Surviving the first three years of operation is a great learning experience for a first time cleaning business owner.