# Starting a business



## stevengeelan (May 10, 2009)

Been thinking of starting up an office cleaning business for a while now. Basically because I feel I could start without help from the bank(savings), I could work in the evenings, outwith my current job, (when most offices want cleaning) 
However, I'm not a cleaner and have never worked in that area (I'm an electrician) may be a little naive of me but I think I could do it with even my limited knowledge of the business.

Looking for you to either tell me I'm crazy or any advice you feel would be helpful.


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## VW Golf-Fan (Aug 3, 2010)

No advice really mate, I'd just say go for it! :thumb:


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## Derek Mc (Jun 27, 2006)

To be honest as an electrician I would have thought you had the earnings potential to out-earn anything done in commercial cleaning
You have a CIS card and UTR number?


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## stevengeelan (May 10, 2009)

Derek Mc said:


> To be honest as an electrician I would have thought you had the earnings potential to out-earn anything done in commercial cleaning
> You have a CIS card and UTR number?


I don't enjoy working as an electrician as can see the cleaning business being far easier to franchise in the future.


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## kordun (Sep 4, 2010)

Electricians charge £30 -£50 per hour. Cleaners £12-£15. Why would you do cleaning?


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Cleaning is an unskilled minimum wage job at best (imo)...

Seems like a strange path to take from a skilled electrician....

Anyway....

You need to get yourself some tools, hoover, mop, gloves, cleaner etc...

Get some flyers made up, and do some advertising!

I would think that most places already have a cleaner in place, so you are going to find it really hard and will most probably have to undercut the other people by some way...

We have a cleaner that comes in twice a week, and as far as I can see, she does a good job, at a decent price, but it is so low that I could not see myself moving over to anyone else - just to save a few quid - and let's be real, that's all it is really going to be....it's not the dearest thing in the world to begin with!

Have you thought about IT (cables, data points etc), maybe that would go hand in hand better with your skills than cleaning...

:thumb:


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## stevengeelan (May 10, 2009)

May seem a bit strange but I'm looking at the bigger picture, I don't want to be a cleaner, I'd eventually like to have people working for me all over the country, obviously I would go out and clean to get the business started. 

I also look at it with the view that a cleaner has more repeat work than an electrician, rarely would you get an electrician getting repeat work in the same places month after month. 

I also thought it would be easier to employ cleaners than skilled workers.


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