# Remote Cleaning School

> Free, straight answers about starting and running a cleaning business from home, from Bryan Griffin. Short videos, written answers and a free community.

Answers are written by Bryan Griffin. Bryan Griffin founded Patriot Maids in 2017 and has run it from home for almost 10 years. Today it operates in 26 states and 40 major cities. He cleaned houses himself at the start, while working as a software engineer, and is now building a second company, Blank Canvas Cleaning, from scratch.
Legal, classification and tax topics are education only, not legal advice.

## Answers
- [Can I just have cleaners sign a contractor agreement?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/answers/can-i-just-have-cleaners-sign-a-contractor-agreement/): No. The agreement matters, but classification is decided by how you actually work with people.
- [What does it actually cost to start a cleaning business?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/answers/what-does-it-actually-cost-to-start-a-cleaning-business/): Entity formation and an EIN, roughly $300 in most states, plus insurance at around $60 a month.
- [Should I charge hourly or a flat fee for house cleaning?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/answers/should-i-charge-hourly-or-a-flat-fee-for-house-cleaning/): Flat fee, for residential. Customers can predict the bill, and you can quote online without a phone call.
- [How many cleaners do I need before advertising?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/answers/how-many-cleaners-do-i-need-before-advertising/): Five to eight, registered and available, before you spend a dollar on ads.
- [Do I need experience to start a cleaning business?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/answers/do-i-need-experience-to-start-a-cleaning-business/): No. What you need is the ability to screen people well, price a job correctly and answer the phone.

## Topics
- [Getting started](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/getting-started/): The first questions everyone asks: do you need experience, what it costs to start, and what you can leave for later.
- [Pricing](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/pricing/): How to price house cleaning so the customer can predict the bill and the cleaner is paid fairly.
- [Finding cleaners](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/finding-cleaners/): Good cleaners decide whether a cleaning business works. Where to find them, and why they come before customers.
- [Getting customers](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/getting-customers/): How to get the first customers in the door and turn them into regular cleanings.
- [Running it from home](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/running-it-from-home/): Running a cleaning business from home doesn't mean passive. Here's what the work actually looks like.
- [Legal basics](https://remotecleaningschool.com/topics/legal-basics/): Contractors, insurance and taxes, explained in plain words. This is education only, not legal advice.

## Blog
- [When A Cleaner Does Not Show Up](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaner-no-show/): The hour-by-hour response, what to say to the client, and the structural fix that stops it becoming a pattern.
- [How To Fire A Cleaning Client](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-fire-a-cleaning-client/): The four client types worth ending, how to do it without a review problem, and the exact wording that keeps it clean.
- [Arrival Windows: The Small Decision That Drives Your Support Volume](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/arrival-windows-scheduling/): Why exact times cause complaints, how wide a window should be, and the routing rules that keep cleaners on schedule.
- [Cancellation, Lockout And Late Fees That Actually Hold Up](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cancellation-lockout-fees/): How to set a cancellation policy clients accept, why lockout fees exist, and who the money should go to.
- [Client Onboarding: The First Clean Decides Everything](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-client-onboarding/): What to collect before the first visit, what to send, and the two messages that prevent most first-clean complaints.
- [What Belongs In A Cleaning Service Agreement](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-service-agreement/): The clauses that prevent disputes, the ones that protect your contractor classification, and what to put in the schedule of fees.
- [Cleaning Business Profit Margins, Honestly](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-profit-margins/): What actually remains after contractor pay, processing, software and acquisition cost, and why revenue is the least useful number in this business.
- [What Professional Cleaners Actually Carry](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-supplies-list/): The supply list a working residential cleaner brings to a job, what it costs, and why the agency should not be buying any of it.
- [How To Bid An Office Cleaning Contract](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-bid-office-cleaning-contract/): The walkthrough questions, the pricing math, and the proposal structure that wins small commercial accounts without racing to the bottom.
- [Post-Construction Cleaning: The Three Phases And How To Price Them](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/post-construction-cleaning/): Why post-construction cleaning is priced per square foot, the three phases contractors expect, and the costs that turn a profitable bid into a loss.
- [Deep Cleaning Vs Standard Cleaning: What To Include And What To Charge](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/deep-cleaning-vs-standard-cleaning/): The line between a standard clean and a deep clean, what belongs in each, and how to price the difference without arguments.
- [Airbnb Turnover Cleaning: How To Win Hosts And Keep Them](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/airbnb-turnover-cleaning/): Short-term rental turnovers are the highest-frequency work in cleaning and the least forgiving. What hosts actually buy, and how to price it.
- [Choosing Software For A Cleaning Business](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/best-software-for-cleaning-business/): What a booking platform has to do, the three tests to run before you buy, and why most cleaning software fails contractor-based businesses.
- [Independent Contractor Or Employee? The Question That Ends Cleaning Businesses](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-independent-contractor-vs-employee/): How worker classification works for cleaning companies and referral agencies, which behaviors create exposure, and what to do before you sign anyone.
- [Cleaning Business Insurance, Explained Without The Jargon](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-insurance-explained/): What general liability, professional liability, bonding and workers compensation actually cover, and which ones a contractor-based agency needs.
- [Do You Need A License And Insurance To Start A Cleaning Business?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-license-and-insurance/): What registration, licensing and insurance a cleaning business actually needs, what varies by state, and what the words bonded and insured really mean.
- [Cleaning Business Marketing: The Free Channels That Actually Work](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-marketing-free-channels/): Six channels that cost time instead of money, ranked by what they return for a new cleaning business, and the two that compound for years.
- [Naming A Cleaning Business Without Painting Yourself Into A Corner](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-names-branding/): How to pick a name that clears trademark, gets a domain, and does not limit you to one city or one service in three years.
- [The Only Parts Of A Cleaning Business Plan That Matter](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-plan/): Skip the forty-page template. Six questions decide whether the business works, and you can answer them in an afternoon.
- [Taxes And 1099s For A Cleaning Business](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-taxes-1099/): What you file, what you collect from contractors, what you withhold, and the sales tax question most cleaning owners never ask.
- [What A Cleaning Business Website Actually Needs](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-business-website/): The handful of things that decide whether a cleaning website books jobs or just sits there, and the one feature most competitors still do not have.
- [Cleaning Franchise Or Start Your Own?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-franchise-vs-independent/): What a cleaning franchise actually gives you, what it costs in fees and control, and who each option genuinely suits.
- [How To Write A Cleaning Job Post That Attracts Professionals](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-job-post-that-works/): Why most cleaning job ads attract the wrong applicants, and the paragraph that saves you from month-two resignations.
- [Cleaning Website SEO: The Pages That Actually Rank](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/cleaning-website-seo/): Which pages a cleaning company website needs to rank locally, how city pages should be built, and the mistake that gets them ignored.
- [Google Business Profile For Cleaning Companies](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/google-business-profile-cleaning/): How to set up and actually maintain the free listing that drives most local cleaning bookings, including the service area question people get wrong.
- [How Much Does It Cost To Start A Cleaning Business?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-start-a-cleaning-business/): Real startup numbers for a cleaning company versus a referral agency, including the costs nobody lists and the ones you can skip entirely.
- [How Much To Charge For House Cleaning](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-much-to-charge-for-house-cleaning/): How to build flat-fee pricing from labor hours, why you should price to the top of the range, and what to do when the house is worse than quoted.
- [How To Find And Screen House Cleaners](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-find-and-screen-house-cleaners/): The four-stage recruiting funnel, the screening criteria that predict performance, and the interview question that matters most.
- [How To Get Your First Ten Cleaning Clients](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-get-cleaning-clients/): The channels that produce clients in week one, the ones that compound over a year, and the order to do them in when you have no budget.
- [How To Handle A Cleaning Complaint Without Losing Money Or The Cleaner](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-handle-a-cleaning-complaint/): The redo-first policy, why refunds should be the last resort, and how to run service recovery when you do not employ the cleaner.
- [How To Start A Cleaning Referral Agency](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/how-to-start-a-cleaning-referral-agency/): What a cleaning referral agency actually is, how it differs from a cleaning company, and the four things that must be true before your first booking.
- [Move Out Cleaning Pricing, Done Properly](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/move-out-cleaning-pricing/): Why move-out jobs price differently, how to quote them without losing money, and the expectation problem that causes most disputes.
- [Turning One-Time Cleans Into Recurring Clients](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/recurring-cleaning-clients/): Why recurring clients are the baseline of a cleaning business, and the four levers that decide whether someone books again.
- [Residential Or Commercial Cleaning: Which To Start With](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/residential-vs-commercial-cleaning/): The real differences in startup cost, sales cycle, cash flow and margins, and why commercial is the wrong first move for most people.
- [Can You Run A Cleaning Business Remotely?](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/run-a-cleaning-business-remotely/): What is actually location-dependent in a cleaning business, what is not, and the four places geography still touches the work.
- [Expanding A Cleaning Business Into A Second City](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/scaling-cleaning-business-second-city/): What actually has to be rebuilt in a new market, what carries over, and the sequence that keeps the first city from suffering.
- [What To Pay House Cleaners](https://remotecleaningschool.com/blog/what-to-pay-house-cleaners/): Percentage splits versus hourly, what the number has to beat to retain people, and how discounts and fees are shared with the cleaner.

## About
- [About Bryan Griffin](https://remotecleaningschool.com/about/)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@remotecleaningschool)
- [Free Facebook community](https://www.facebook.com/groups/remotecleaningschool/)