Cleaning Business Startup Cost Calculator
Cleaning is one of the cheapest businesses in the UK to start and one of the easiest to under-capitalise. This calculator totals your setup costs and shows how many clients you need before the business pays for itself.
Cleaning Business Startup Cost Calculator
What it really costs to start a UK cleaning business.
£5,332 of setup costs plus £883 of working capital
- Insurance & compliance
- £242
- Equipment & vehicle
- £3,390
- Branding & marketing
- £1,700
- Total setup cost
- £5,332
- Monthly overheads
- £430
- Monthly revenue
- £3,250
- Monthly net profit
- £1,358
The £883 of working capital is the cost most people miss. It funds wages and materials while you wait 14 days to be paid.
What it costs to start, by business type
The single biggest variable is the vehicle. A solo domestic cleaner working a tight local round can genuinely start for a few hundred pounds. Add a van and you have added several thousand pounds and a monthly finance payment before you have a single client.
| Setup | Realistic startup cost | Monthly overhead |
|---|---|---|
| Solo domestic, using client supplies | £300–£800 | £80–£180 |
| Solo domestic, own kit and van | £2,000–£5,000 | £350–£650 |
| Small team (2–4 cleaners) | £4,000–£9,000 | £700–£1,400 |
| Commercial contract cleaning | £8,000–£20,000 | £1,200–£3,000 |
| Specialist (carpet / jet wash) | £5,000–£15,000 | £500–£1,100 |
The non-negotiables
- Public liability insurance: typically £60–£200 a year for a solo cleaner. Most commercial clients and letting agents will not engage you without it, and many require £2m or £5m cover.
- Employers' liability insurance: legally required in the UK as soon as you employ anyone, with substantial daily penalties for not having it. Budget £150–£400 a year.
- Treatment risk / key cover, covers damage you cause while cleaning and loss of client keys. Standard public liability often excludes both.
- DBS check: not legally mandatory for general cleaning, but a basic DBS is effectively expected for domestic work and lettings, and costs very little.
- ICO registration: if you hold client names, addresses and access details, you are processing personal data. Registration is an annual fee and is frequently overlooked.
What you can safely delay
A van. Most solo domestic cleaners start with a car and a boot organiser and it is genuinely fine. You are carrying a vacuum, a caddy and cloths, not scaffolding.
Branded uniforms and vehicle wraps. Worth doing, but at month six when you know the business works, not week one.
A commercial-grade scrubber-drier or truck-mounted carpet system. Hire before you buy. If you are hiring the same machine more than twice a month, then buy it.
An office. Cleaning businesses do not need premises until they need storage for stock and machinery, which is usually around six to eight staff.
The cost most people forget: working capital
Commercial clients pay on 30 or 60 day terms. Your cleaners are paid weekly or monthly regardless. That gap is real money you have to fund.
A cleaning business with £4,000 a month of commercial wages and 45-day average payment terms needs roughly £6,000 of working capital just to exist: separate from every setup cost above. This is the most common reason profitable young cleaning businesses run into trouble.
Plan for it before you take the contract, not in the month the wages are due.