Diversified Cleaning Empire

When I first arrived in Australia I soon realized that it was hard to get a job if you do not have local experience. This was what my other companions who were all newly arrived immigrants experienced.

So, my companions and I took on cleaning jobs in whatever company that would employ us. I cleaned cars, buildings and hotel rooms. All the while I and my companions wondered if this would be our fate.

But just like many newly arrived immigrants in many developed countries, our experience was just a rite of passage. Soon, I and my companions were able to get better jobs which did not involve cleaning.

Come to think of it now, I realized that I didn’t have it so bad. Coming from a developing country where most backbreaking labor jobs were lowly paid and demeaning, my experience in Australia was different.

I worked in Australia for several years in an office. I did all sorts of administrative jobs and from time to time I would reminiscence on my first few jobs which involve cleaning. One of the things I tend to compare with my cleaning and office job is the pay as compared to the work.

Sure, cleaning is a physically taxing job if you’re not fit but compared to the mental stress I experience on a daily basis doing my office tasks I would have gone back to cleaning. This was because there wasn’t much difference to the pay between an office job and cleaning.

Another thing you have to consider about cleaning is that you don’t need a high degree of education to do the job. So you won’t be saddled with student loans which would be deducted from your salary.

Also, depending on the cleaning you have to do, you may have the salary of an office manager in no time at all. There are cleaning jobs that pay double the minimum wage which doesn’t involve being a cleaning supervisor or manager.

Just like all jobs, unless you get to the very top of management you won’t get rich. The same is true for cleaning. During my cleaning job days, I was able to hobnob with cleaners who have gotten old but have not overgrown their cleaning jobs.

They didn’t even make it to supervisory positions. Although most of the old cleaners I spoke to have no regrets doing cleaning jobs, you can see that their old bodies are markedly surrendering to the demands of a cleaning job.

Then there are the smart ones. I’ve met cleaners who have given up cleaning and are doing less physically demanding jobs. But they haven’t completely given up on the cleaning business.

They became cleaning contractors. They solicit cleaning jobs from companies and employ cleaners to do the cleaning for them. They earn by taking a cut from the salary of the cleaner. Not bad eh?

The global cleaning industry is estimated to be around $60 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow to around $120 billion by 2030. This figure is much bigger than many industries like for example industrial machine manufacturing.

And why did I compare it to industrial machine manufacturing? The reason is because I want to emphasize that cleaning as a business does not involve a lot of capital while industrial machine manufacturing is capital intensive.

Another thing we need to consider is that home owner, company owners, factory owners, the government and just about anyone can be solicited for cleaning jobs. Everything around us becomes dirty. There is a never ending demand for cleaning.

Compare this again with the demand for industrial machine manufacturing or graphic design services. Both of these businesses have specific customers and limited demand unlike cleaning which is always needed 365 days a year, 24/7.

I have already stated that some former cleaners become cleaning contractors and use other cleaners to work for them. In hindsight, this is how almost all service businesses grow. A single service provider becomes a contractor and hires other service providers to work for them.

Then, they just take a cut from the earnings of the service provider which they hired. Of course, the more a cleaning contractor is able to contract, the bigger are their earnings. Pretty simple right?

But this is not the only way a cleaning business makes money. The second method is by Franchising. Once a cleaning contractor has made a name or becomes famous, they franchise their name and system to franchisees.

Another way cleaning companies make money is by selling cleaning supplies. A cleaning company may be a franchisor while also selling cleaning supplies to their franchisees. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.

1.OFFICES/BUILDINGS/FACTORIES: Although there are businesses that employ their own cleaners. A lot of businesses today now use cleaning agencies to supply them with cleaners. Industrial cleaners or cleaners who clean factories are usually paid higher than other cleaners.

2. PUBLIC AREAS: Both businesses and governments use cleaners to clean their public areas. Everyone knows this. As has been said, everyone needs a cleaner and this is one service where you can also get the government as a client.

3. HOMES: The demand for home cleaners have been growing as more and more families find it hard to find time to clean their own homes. There are even boutique cleaning agencies who only specialize in providing cleaning services for rich families.

4. VEHICLES: The growth of carwash cleaning services even in underdeveloped countries like Africa is a proof that as the global car industry grows, so do is the demand for cleaning them. There are even cleaning contractors who specialize in vehicle car, bus, truck and plane fleet cleaning.

5. OBJECTS: There would always be demand for kitchen hands to clean plates and other cooking tools. There would always be a demand for clothes washers and dry cleaners. As you can see, dirt and grime can be a very profitable business. Do I still need to mention the garbage business?

At least in my experiences, most of the cleaning contractors I know tended to stick only to one type of cleaning job. If they contracted cleaning jobs for offices, then they stick to this. If they contracted cleaning jobs for factories, then they stick to this.

Of course, others have diversified to both cleaning homes as well as business offices and factories. But few if rarely would further diversify to cleaning the vehicles of their clients or collecting their garbage.

Imagine if you were a cleaning contractor for an airport and you did not include cleaning the cars, trucks and even the airplanes of the airport. You could be missing a lot of money in lost cleaning revenue.

Let’s take another example. What’s to be cleaned in a restaurant? The dishes and other cooking tools, the linen, the staff clothes need to be washed and laundered, the dining room and kitchen itself needs to be cleaned. Don’t forget that the garbage needs to be disposed.

As you can see, if you are able to offer all these types of cleaning services to restaurants you stand to corner a major part of all these restaurants’ cleaning needs. Don’t forget that you can also clean the restaurant’s vehicles and you might just be lucky to clean their client’s vehicles.

Honestly, I don’t know who is the biggest cleaning company in the world. When I Googled: “biggest cleaning agency in the world” it stated that Jani-King from the USA is “one of the biggest commercial cleaning companies out there.”

According to quicksprout.com on their article: “Compare The Best Commercial Cleaning Services” Jani-King operates 120 support offices in 10 countries and maintains a global network of 9,000 franchisees.

I’m not able to get the updated net worth of the company in 2022, but according to Wikipedia the net worth of the company as of 2018 was $727 million. But I could imagine that their net worth have grown since. And why do I think so?

The pandemic have been a curse for many but a blessing to some including those involved in the cleaning industry as the demand for cleaning services have exponentially grown. This trend is likely to continue even after the pandemic have subsided.

As you can see, with just a brush and mop you could take your company international and almost grow up to a net worth of $1 billion dollars. To those interested in starting a cleaning business, it is noteworthy to study this company.

Anyone can start a cleaning business. It can be started even though you are not highly educated or have a lot of capital. There would always be a demand for cleaning services. Homes, companies, the government are just some institutions in constant need of this service.

Do not think that a cleaning job is a dead end job. Just like most service jobs, the cleaner can end up as an agent who subcontracts their cleaning jobs to other less wise cleaners. A former cleaner can even take their company global and earn hundreds of millions of dollars.

You might also like to read the article:

Making Money With Trash Valet Services

The Trash Valet Services had existed for sometime already. When I researched about this type of business involved with garbage collection, most of the information I got was from America. So my point of reference for this article would be the industry in America...