There are two main classifications in the cleaning service industry; that is the commercial cleaning service and the residential cleaning service. Although both are of course involved in cleaning and organizing spaces, the main difference lies in the clientele to be served. A commercial cleaning service, also known as janitorial services, looks for customers in the business end of the spectrum such as office spaces, apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, and schools. A residential cleaning service or a maid service on the other hand services individual home owners. Although, cleaning services also include other more specialized fields such as window washing and carpet cleaning.

If you are a person who has a knack for cleaning, and you want to start a business of your own, then choosing between the two main cleaning ventures would also have other factors to look into.

1. How big do you want to be?
A maid service is definitely the smaller venture. You could keep to clients around your neighborhood and run your business on your own. It would be a rare occurrence that you would need to hire extra help since you will be handling just the scheduling and the cleaning and nothing else. However, if you are considering having a bigger business, you may choose to start a commercial cleaning service. Although you can still keep a janitorial business small and run it by yourself, bigger cleaning contracts might force you to hire at least one extra help to accommodate all your cleaning schedules and to provide a sustainable service to your customers.

2. How much are you willing to put up as capital?
Every business would need a capital, whether it is a few dollars or hundreds of thousands. A cleaning business would figure in the lower end but still, you have to check how much you can allocate for things such as advertisements and tools and equipment. If you have a bit to spend, for a maid service, you can start printing out brochures and flyers and give them out to neighbors. For a commercial cleaning business, you can start printing out proposals and sending them out to possible clients. Both types of cleaning service should also stock up on things such as rags and cleaning solutions and some cleaning equipment like a vacuum just in case your client does not have one of their own.

3. What type of hours do you plan to have?
A maid service will only require you to work normal hours, meaning in the mornings and afternoons. A commercial cleaning service however might mean that you need to work after office hours. Although if you plan to keep your day job and work for extra money then this might be good opportunity. You can work in your office from eight till five then scout for clients to service afterwards. A cleaning job takes about two to four hours which means you would not be too exhausted since you will have time to rest. If you plan on quitting your day job, then you can start with a maid services company and expand from there.

For more: How to start a cleaning service