Personal Finances for Cleaners

It’s crazy to think, but if you’re charging $25/hr for your time, you’re probably only bringing home a percentage of that. Unfortunately, there are many things that eat away at your hard-earned work and leave you with less.

Supplies

Let’s first talk supplies. If you’re bringing your own chemicals to the job site, that’s money leaving your pocket each clean. Depending on what supplies you use and how frequently you’re on the job, that could be a decent chunk of change.

Be sure to factor in supply costs when you go out to quote your next job. If you haven’t already, do the math to see how much you spend on supplies for each job.

A simple way to do this:

total spent on supplies for 1 month /

total number of jobs completed in 1 month.  

If you want to save some money on a disinfectant, we recommend OdoBan Disinfectant - Lavender Scent. Leaves the house smelling great and can save you some cash as well.

Gas

Believe it or not, yes, you are driving to each of these properties using your own gas. If a property is 30+ minutes away, you should absolutely consider including transportation when calculating your fee. Although you might not think about it, spending money on gas can really decrease the earning potential you have on each property. This is especially true if you have a large, bulky vehicle to transport your cleaning supplies 🛻 

Mileage, wear & tear

In addition to what you are spending on gas, keep in mind that each mile driven adds up. Eventually you’ll need to get an oil change, buy new tires, etc. These are not insignificant costs associated with doing business as a cleaner. AAA estimates that each mile of driving costs you $0.0968 in repairs and maintenance. So if a property is 25 miles away (50 miles total driving) expect to spend $4.84 in repairs.

If you’re doing this trip weekly, that could be ~$250 in needed repairs and maintenance just for that one job!

Taxes

Ahh yes, Uncle Sam. You forgot about him, didn’t you? The self-employment tax rate here in the U.S. is 15.3%. There is truly nothing worse than seeing a paycheck with taxes taken out. The worst 💸 

But, if you’re looking for a way to up your tax return at the end of the year, start tracking all your expenses (gas, mileage, supplies, phone, etc.). All of these expenses could potentially get you some of your hard-earned money back (p.s. seek professional tax advice).

One of the best ways I’ve learned to track expenses is by using Copilot. Copilot allows me to see my expenses and track my business and personal budgets. Use this link and code ADAAJX to get 2 months free.

Other expenses

Some other expenses that you might not even think about but do impact your earnings: phone bill, wi-fi, utilities, rent, mortgage interest, etc. All of these are required for you to operate your business and might be bringing your total earnings down. Since you really can’t live without some of these expenses, get professional tax advice on how to maximize your earning potential by including some of these costs when you file your year-end taxes.

Wrapping up

Hopefully this didn’t put you to sleep. And if you’re still with me, that means you’re serious about growing your Airbnb cleaning business. I launched a course last week that’s been proven to help folks get their cleaning business up and running and on a trajectory to $15K per month in 6 weeks. Check it out!

Until next time,

Logan