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Window Blind Cleaning Business
If you are looking for a business to start from home, a blind cleaning business can be both flexible and profitable with jsut a small investment.
After hanging for a year or more window blinds become dirty, coated with dust, and many people hate to clean them. As a result, they stay dusty, dirty, even grimy, which is not only unsightly, but can also exacerbate allergies or asthma. Every time they are adjusted dust can be released causing someone to sneeze or cough. Your blind cleaning business makes it easy for people to keep them clean so they look their best, and in many cases extend their usefulness.
How do You Clean Window Blinds?
The majority of blinds today are vinyl, with a few aluminum ones. The hard way to clean them is to hand spray them with a cleaner, then wipe by hand. Or you can take down the blinds and hose them off, which is only slightly better. Then there’s using a pressure washer (not recommended). After taking down the blinds, you can soak them in a bath with a cleaner, wipe them down by hand, rinse and then dry the blinds. Some people will even take the blinds to a car wash, using an empty stall as their cleaning area.
While these methods work, they take time and are messy – in the case of pressure washing them, they could be damaged. As a business owner, you need a quicker, and much easier solution. Consider ultrasound.
Using Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a high frequency sound wave that has been used to remove dirt from items which are immersed in a cleaning solution. Doctors use it to sterilize their surgical instruments in a sterilizing solution with ultrasound acting as the cleaner. Jewelers will often clean jewelry in a ultrasonic bath, just like doctors.
With an ultrasonic blind cleaning machine, blinds are placed into enclosure and the sound waves gently but thoroughly remove dirt from crevices. In addition, the process is quick, around 30 seconds or so for a set of blinds. A drying agent is applied to finish the process, and you are done.
Ultrasonic blind cleaning machines can be purchased or leased. Depending on the setup of your business, you can even attach one to the back of your car as a trailer, and your business is mobile. Or, you can keep it in a stationary place, such as in a garage or small storefront, so clients can drop off their blinds and pick them up later.
How much can you expect to make?
It varies, but if you charged between $8 to $15 per blind, you cleaned 25 to 35 blinds each day you worked, you could expect to make about $360 each day for about 5 or 6 hours of work, before expenses. Your hourly rate would be $65. An extra $300 to $400 each month, working part-time outside your regular job, you would be able to pay off your debt that much fast, build wealth through investing and most importantly you can spend more time with your family.
With a home business, like a window blind cleaning business makes use of the same technology and equipment as a larger company whether you are cleaning a home, hotel, motel, hospital, restaurant or office. Depending on where you live, your potential client base can be huge, but the way you work can remain the same.
Finding Customers
As mentioned earlier, you have several options in how you set up your business.
- You can go to your clients and clean at their location.
- Pick up blinds from your customers for cleaning at your shop and bring them back the same day.
- Or, have a storefront location, like a dry cleaner, where customers drop off and pick up their blinds.
Your marketing techniques will depend on the type of business you choose. However, determine which location has the possibility of bringing you the most business. If you can find clusters of customers (an office park or a large neighborhood), it may make sense to go to them. If, on the other hand, your business comes from all around you, and your analysis shows customers are willing to take down their blinds and come to you, a permanent location may be the answer.
With good market analyses, good equipment and a willingness to work, you can find success in the blind cleaning business.
Helpful Resources
The 2009-2014 Outlook for Window Blinds in the United States
How to Succeed as a Small Business Owner ... and Still Have a Life
Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide
Maximum Marketing, Minimum Dollars: The Top 50 Ways to Grow Your Small Business
Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success
Guerrilla Advertising: Cost-Effective Techniques for Small-Business Success
HOME BUSINESS TAX DEDUCTIONS: Keep What You Earn
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