How to start a cleaning business in the UK in 2026

1. Decide who you clean for

Most cleaning businesses that struggle started as “cleaning, for anyone, anywhere”. The ones that grow start narrow: one kind of customer, one area, one clear promise. You can widen later. Here are the five most common starting points.

Whichever you choose, aim for regular work over one-off work. A customer who books every fortnight is 26 bookings a year, and each one costs you almost nothing to win after the first. The first clean is the audition: offer a standing slot before you leave.

2. Choose your business structure

The two usual choices are sole trader and limited company. You can start as a sole trader and move to a limited company later, and many people do exactly that. An accountant can tell you when the switch pays for itself, and a first conversation is usually cheap.

Sole trader

• You and the business are the same legal person: simple to start, and you are personally responsible for its debts.
• You can start trading before you register. You must register for Self Assessment once your gross trading income goes over £1,000 in a tax year, by 5 October in the following tax year.
• The £1,000 trading allowance lets you deduct up to £1,000 instead of your actual expenses. If your real costs are higher, claim them instead.
• Choose your business name early. You can trade under your own name or a trading name.

Limited company

• The company is a separate legal entity, which can protect your personal assets in many situations.
• It costs £100 to incorporate online at Companies House at the time of writing; check the current fee before you apply.
• You take on more admin: annual accounts, a confirmation statement, corporation tax and director duties.
• Commercial clients sometimes prefer to contract with a limited company.

Whichever you pick, open a separate business bank account. It is not a legal requirement for a sole trader, but it makes your records, your tax return and your accountant’s job far simpler.

Cleaning Operator is not accounting software, and it does not replace your accountant’s package. What it does is keep your bookings, charges, invoices and payroll in one record, so there is one place to look when the accounts are due.

3. Insurance: what the law requires and what customers expect

• Employers’ liability insurance is the law once you employ anyone. You need at least £5 million of cover from an authorised insurer, you must display the certificate, and you can be fined £2,500 for every day you are not properly insured. You do not need it if you only employ close family, and a sole trader with no staff does not need it.
• Public liability insurance is not a legal requirement for most businesses, but you should treat it as one. It covers claims if someone is injured or their property is damaged because of your work: a broken vase, a flooded bathroom. Letting agents, offices and many homeowners will ask to see the certificate before they let you in.
• Ask your broker about equipment and keys. Cover for your tools and for the cost of replacing a customer’s locks if you lose their keys is worth a conversation, and so is how the insurer treats cleaners who work for you as self-employed.

4. The small print most guides skip

Data protection

You will hold names, addresses, phone numbers and often access codes. Most organisations that handle personal information must pay the ICO’s data protection fee unless they are exempt. For the smallest organisations it is currently £52 a year, with £5 off if you pay by Direct Debit. The ICO’s free self-assessment tells you in a couple of minutes whether you need to pay.

Chemicals and safety

If you employ people, you have a legal duty under the COSHH regulations to assess and control the risks from hazardous substances. Even working alone it is sensible practice: read the labels and safety data sheets, never mix products, store them safely and train anyone who works for you.

DBS checks

A basic DBS check shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions. It costs £20 from 5 October 2026 (it was £21.50). It is generally not a legal requirement for ordinary domestic or office cleaning, but customers who give you a key will often expect it, so ask every cleaner to provide a basic DBS certificate. Work in places such as schools or care homes can require a higher level of check, and the client will tell you which.

Right to work

Before you employ anyone you must check they are allowed to work in the UK. You can use an online share code, check original documents in person, or use an identity service provider. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so you check original documents or use a provider. Keep a record of every check.

5. Price it properly: what an hour really costs

New owners usually price by looking at what other local cleaners charge. That is a useful check, but it is not a method. The method is to know what an hour of your cleaner’s time costs you, add what the wage does not cover, and then add the margin that keeps you in business.

Here is an illustration for one employed cleaner on the National Living Wage (£12.71 an hour for those aged 21 and over from April 2026), working 20 hours a week.

So a £12.71 wage is closer to £15.91 an hour before you have bought a single bottle of spray. Then add what the wage does not cover: travel between jobs, supplies and equipment, insurance, software and your own admin time. Travel between customers during the working day usually counts as paid working time too, which is the cost new owners most often forget.

A simple way to set an hourly price: (cost per hour + overhead per hour) ÷ (1 − the margin you want). If you assume £2.50 an hour of overhead and a 30% margin, that is (£15.91 + £2.50) ÷ 0.70 = £26.30 an hour. Those two assumptions are placeholders: use your own, then compare the result with what local customers actually pay before you settle on a price.

Pricing choices that protect your margin

• Set a minimum visit length, so a 45-minute clean across town does not cost you the afternoon.
• Price extras separately (inside the oven, the fridge, windows, ironing) with a quantity where it makes sense.
• Give a recurring discount deliberately, instead of haggling at the door.
• Agree a cancellation policy in writing and take card details up front, so a last-minute cancellation does not become your loss.

app.cleaningoperator.com

6. Set up before your first booking

You do not need software to clean your first house. You need it the week you can no longer hold the diary in your head. Either way, get these in place before the first customer so you never have to do them in a hurry:

• A business bank account, and a business email address and phone number.
• Your insurance certificate, ready to send.
• A written price list, minimum visit and cancellation policy.
• A way for customers to book that works while you are cleaning, so you stop playing phone tag.
• A free Google Business Profile for your area, so you appear when people search for cleaners near them.
• A simple, secure way to store keys and alarm codes, and a rule about who can see them.

app.cleaningoperator.com

7. Win your first ten customers

Your first ten customers will mostly come from places you can reach this month. Work through these in roughly this order:

1. Tell everyone you know, and ask each of them to tell one person. The first few cleans are usually friends of friends.
2. Claim your Google Business Profile and ask every happy customer for a review straight after the clean, while it is fresh.
3. Give people somewhere to book. A one-page website with your areas, your prices and a booking link turns interest into a booking while the customer is still interested.
4. Go where your niche is. Local community groups for homes, letting agents and landlords for end-of-tenancy work, hosts for holiday lets, and a short, polite email to small offices.
5. Offer the standing slot. Before you leave the first clean, offer the same time next week or next fortnight.

Reply fast. A customer who messages three cleaners will usually book the first one who answers with a price and a time.

8. Hiring your first cleaner

At some point the diary fills and you have to choose: turn work away, or hire. Before you advertise, decide how the person will work for you, because that decides your legal duties.

Employee, worker or self-employed?

Whether someone is an employee, a worker or genuinely self-employed depends on how the work is really done, not on what the contract calls them. Courts and tribunals make the final decision. If you decide when, where and how they clean, and they cannot send someone else in their place, treat them with caution as self-employed. Take advice from Acas or an employment adviser before you set up a team of self-employed cleaners, because getting this wrong can be expensive.

If you employ people

• Check their right to work before they start.
• Register as an employer with HMRC before your first payday. You can register up to two months before you start paying people, and you will receive an employer PAYE reference.
• Run payroll through PAYE and give payslips.
• Pay at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.
• Give statutory holiday: 5.6 weeks a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week.
• Enrol eligible workers in a workplace pension. The minimum is 3% from you and 5% from them, on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year.
• Take out employers’ liability insurance and display the certificate.

9. Run the week without a whiteboard

Every cleaning business runs the same loop: a customer books, you assign a cleaner, the clean happens, you get paid, you pay your team, and you ask for a review. When it works, it is invisible. When it breaks, it is usually one of these: a double booking, a cleaner who did not know the door code, a card that was never charged, or a payroll built from memory.

Cleaning Operator runs that whole loop in one place, built for cleaning companies and nothing else. Online booking, the team calendar, the mobile app for cleaners and the office, card payments, invoices and payroll from clocked hours all work from the same bookings, customers and cleaners.

app.cleaningoperator.com

Card payments run through your own Stripe account, and SMS and calls on the Business plan and above run through your own Twilio account. Every plan has a 14-day free trial, with no card needed to start, and you can cancel anytime.

10. Your first 90 days

11. Mistakes that sink new cleaning businesses

• Pricing off the wage alone. Holiday, National Insurance, pension, travel and supplies all come out of your margin.
• Chasing one-off jobs. They feel like income, but regulars are where the profit is.
• Skipping the cancellation policy. A free cancellation at 7am costs you the cleaner’s morning.
• Mixing personal and business money. It makes tax time, and any VAT or Making Tax Digital threshold, hard to see coming.
• Hiring before checking. Right to work, a signed contract and the right insurance come before the first shift, not after.
• Letting the diary live in your head. It works until the first sick day, the first double booking, or the first holiday.