Hey folks, I'm new here but not new to cleaning. I've been cleaning in both the commercial and residential space since I was a kid, going on 30 years now, starting out working for my dad's janitorial company. My oldest brother took the business over and I've continued working for him off and on while also pursuing my own contracts. Oddly enough I've never gone after janitorial jobs! My wife and I have done lots of one-time and regular residential cleaning, move in/out, construction, as well as residential and commercial window cleaning.

As I'm closing in on 40 I'm thinking I really don't want to continue doing the physical labor myself for too many more years. So I'm leaning toward focusing on landing my own janitorial contracts and then...not sure if I want to hire employees, sub it out to other companies, or sell the contracts and just make money from the sales side of the business. But that's my current thought process.

Glad to find this place with all it's experienced contributors!

Hi there, my business is also from Ontario (in Oshawa). We have been cleaning commercial and residential spaces like yourself but not for as long as you have! I had the same concern that you do so the way we operate is by having 2 licensed professional cleaners that we insure who do the majority of our cleaning jobs.

Seems like a solid way to do it. You have the greatest control over quality that way. I'm hesitant to do sub contracting because you have much less say over quality without being reclassified by CRA as an employer. Selling contracts appeals to me but I haven't found much information about doing this successfully on an ongoing basis. Most of the time when a cleaning contract is up for sale it's a long-standing contract from a company that's scaling their business back. Not from someone who is a professional contract seller. So that pretty much leaves employees

Welcome, Mess Effect. I am also new here.

Hi Ana, welcome to you to!

hello