How to Scale Your Rental Cleaning Business
Cleaning and servicing rentals is a lucrative side hustle and the number of short-to-medium-term rental units is still growing. This has led many to take on freelance work offering cleaning services to the owners of these units in their spare time.
While cleaning rental units can serve as a reliable side hustle, it can also be scaled up to a full-time job very effectively. As gig work becomes a larger part of many individuals’ working hours, learning how to grow these activities into a career is more useful than ever.
Tips for scaling your cleaning business
When it comes to rental maintenance, there are a lot of creative ways to expand the role you play in supporting the owners of these rentals. So many ways, in fact, that it’s not unreasonable to turn part-time cleaning work into your sole source of income.
While you should understand what transitioning away from traditional employment looks like for your unique situation, there are some solid tips you can employ to grow your side hustle, no matter what stage you’re in.
Increase the number of units you clean
One approach to expansion that can immediately and measurably boost your income is by increasing the number of units you clean. You can do this in a few ways:
- Speak to the rental hosts you work with currently and ask if they have additional units you can service
- Connect with other local landlords in your community and build relationships with them
- Consider expanding to different unit types. RVs, tiny homes, and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) all have different needs. Learn what each one requires and network with individual owners and the managers of multi-unit lots.
Expanding to multiple units, especially if they’re located on the same lot or property, is a great way to make your time more worthwhile.
Offer other services beyond cleaning rentals
Cleaning rental units is a great start, but eventually, the owners of these units may have additional needs arise. This represents a great opportunity to leverage the relationships you’ve already built. Hosts and landlords will likely prefer to hire someone they’re familiar with to handle things like:
- Plumbing and electrical issues
- Cosmetic upgrades
- Landscaping and land maintenance
- Appliance repair.
Rental RV units are an especially needy unit type, and specialized maintenance courses exist through sites like National RV Training Academy to learn how to maintain and repair them when these needs arise.
Invest some time and money into earning certifications and the technical skills necessary to diagnose issues or perform upgrades that hosts need, and you’ll be able to earn additional income while providing more value to rental owners.
Other ways to grow as a business owner
Maxing out your own capabilities and free time will eventually lead you to consider scaling your small business to an all-out empire. While big steps can be a bit intimidating, especially for first-time business owners, they’re a natural growing pain that can pay off heavily.
- Hire employees – At a certain point, you run out of hours in the day. Hiring employees that are trustworthy enough to represent your company can expand the area you cover and increase your business’s income.
- Purchase your own rental units – Rental units are as profitable as they are valuable to tenants. Platforms like Airbnb and VRBO simplify the management process of short-term rentals, and open the door for new hosts like you. Consider the initial investment and ongoing costs of acquiring your own rental units, and this could be the next big step in your business’s growth.
- Document your journey – Use platforms like YouTube to document your journey and provide others a glance into the world of rental unit cleaning and maintenance. This can help grow a brand identity, as well as inspire others to join the same industry in their own communities.
Growing an empire and hiring employees requires registering your business with the state and applying for an EIN. Thankfully, Northwest is on your side, and we’re experts in both. When you’re ready to elevate your business, let us handle the legal stuff while you focus on what matters: running your business.
