Many people never consider entering the cleaning business because of the images it has.

"Be a janitor (or cleaning lady or maid)? Me? That's too demeaning!" is a common reaction.

In the past, these jobs had very low status. Nobody with a college degree would be caught dead doing them. These ideas are slowing changing, but since the business of cleaning only has about 6% self-employed entrepreneurs, it's still true that a lot of the jobs where you work for other people are dead-end and low-paying.

If you are thinking of starting a cleaning business, you may have felt a little uncertain about how you would explain your new activity to family and friends. What would your sometimes-too-blunt friends say? How much teasing would you have to endure?

It's been said that every negative has the seeds of a positive in it, and that's certainly true here. Fear of what other people will think means that a lot of people never will never consider the opportunities here... and you can laugh all the way to the bank!

Today's self-employed cleaning business owners are entrepreneurs. That's just a fancy way of saying that they have a lot of freedom to create a business that makes an excellent profit, working hours they set. They can choose their clients.

Rosana Hart

Rosana Hart writes about things she knows: living in Mexico, training dogs, ecological living, raising llamas, the science fiction of her father Cordwainer Smith, how to start a small business on a shoestring, photography, and more.

She also writes about things she gets interested in: starting a cleaning business, how beginners can get started with effective websites, popular wall posters, how and why to convert your old VHS tapes to DVD, and more.

As a librarian turned writer, publisher, and webmaster, she loves the power of the internet to bring people together.

She lives in Mexico and Colorado, with her husband, natural building expert Kelly Hart.