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🧹 Running a commercial cleaning company

Offices, medical buildings and government contracts, cleaned on a schedule and billed every month, and the few numbers that say whether the work pays.

What the market is worth

U.S. janitorial services: $112.4B revenue in 2026, up 1.7% on the year and about 2.7% a year over the last five (IBISWorld, 2026)
Janitorial businesses: ≈1 million in the U.S., up about 4.3% a year since 2021 (IBISWorld, 2026)
What a cleaner earns: $17.71/hr median for janitors and cleaners, May 2025; $17.21 at building-services contractors; the lowest tenth under $13.77, the top tenth over $24.17 (BLS)
Jobs: 2.43M janitors and building cleaners in 2025, 35% of them at building-services contractors; about 321,800 openings a year to 2035, mostly replacing people who leave (BLS)
Labor's share of revenue: over half field labor tops 50% of revenue at 72% of contractors, and 60% at 41% of them (ISSA/BSCAI benchmarking survey of 64 firms, 2017)
Staff turnover: 50%+ a year at 41% of contractors; under 10% at only 20% (ISSA/BSCAI, 2017). The 200% often quoted has no traceable source
Office cleaning: $0.09–$0.17 per square foot per month for offices; $0.14–$0.29 for medical offices (ISSA, December 2025)
Floors and carpet: $0.20–$0.60 per square foot: scrub and recoat $0.20–$0.40, strip and refinish $0.30–$0.60; carpet extraction $0.08–$0.25 (ISSA, December 2025)
Accounts kept: 73% of contractors lose fewer than 10% of their accounts a year (BSCAI, 2024, reported by Level)
Workers' comp: ≈$4.54 per $100 of payroll for janitorial work (class 9014), about $3.30–$6.20 depending on the state (NCCI data, reported by Level)
Federal contracts' fringe: $5.92/hr health and welfare on Service Contract Act work in wage determinations from August 10, 2026, up from $5.55; it reaches a contract when the new determination is added, usually at the option year (Department of Labor, reported by PilieroMazza, August 2026)
Federal payment: 30 days after a proper invoice, under the Prompt Payment Act; paying later earns you interest, 4.75% a year for July–December 2026 (Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service)
The federal year-end: 4.9× a normal week's spending, in the last week of the fiscal year, which ends September 30 (Liebman & Mahoney, American Economic Review, 2017)
"Small" for SBA set-asides: $22M average annual receipts, the size standard for janitorial services, NAICS 561720 (13 CFR 121.201)

How it actually grows

Year 0–1 Owner-operator: you are the crew

The first accounts are small offices, cleaned at night by the owner and a helper and won by walking in and asking. The work is showing up every night, doing it the same way every time, and writing it down: a checklist for each building, signed off each night. Bids are priced from the square footage and the minutes each task takes, never from what the last company charged.

Watch out: Pricing to win. A bid that only works if nothing goes wrong loses money the first month someone calls in sick.

Years 1–3 First crews: payroll, insurance and someone who inspects

More buildings means hiring, and hiring means payroll, workers' comp and a janitorial bond before the first night. The owner stops cleaning every building and starts inspecting them. The accounts that last are the ones where someone walks the building every week and fixes what the tenant would have noticed.

Watch out: Paying crews as contractors to save payroll tax. Cleaners who work your schedule, in your buildings, with your supplies are almost always employees.

Years 3–7 Managers, bigger buildings and government work

Area managers run the crews and the owner sells. The contracts grow: multi-tenant office buildings, medical offices, property managers with several buildings, and government buildings, which bring registrations, wage determinations and the certifications that open set-aside contracts. Periodic work (floors, carpets, windows, pressure washing) starts to add a tenth or more to the year.

Watch out: One account more than a fifth of revenue. Government contracts are rebid on a schedule, and a lost rebid is a layoff.

Mature Retention and price: keep the buildings you have

At this size growth comes as much from keeping accounts and pricing them right as from winning new ones. The strongest contractors lose fewer than one account in ten a year, and every contract carries a yearly price adjustment, so wages can rise without the margin falling.

Watch out: Contracts with no price adjustment. Every year one runs unchanged, the same work costs you more to deliver.

What each revenue stream is good for

Revenue stream	Pays	Scales
Nightly janitorial contracts Most of the revenue, invoiced on the first. Priced from square footage and cleaning times; ISSA's December 2025 range for offices is about $0.09–$0.17 a square foot a month.	The same amount every month	The whole business
Day porter A cleaner on site during business hours for restrooms, lobbies and spills. Large, busy buildings want one, and it is steady daytime work for your best people.	Monthly, with the contract	Good in big buildings
Periodic work: floors, carpets, glass Strip and wax, carpet extraction, exterior windows, pressure washing. Scheduled one to four times a year per building and priced by the square foot, so it grows with every contract you add.	By the job, on a schedule	Good
Consumables Paper, soap and liners, restocked and billed with the contract. A small margin, but it keeps you in the building and the tenants supplied.	Monthly, at a markup	Follows the contracts
Post-construction cleanup Cleaning a build-out before the new tenant moves in. Property managers call the company already in the building, and Level puts the rate at 1.5 to 3 times routine cleaning.	By the job	Lumpy
Government contracts Federal, state, county and city buildings. More paperwork: registration, wage determinations, and certified payroll on some. Federal agencies owe interest past 30 days, and year-end budgets bring one-time projects.	Monthly, on time	Large, but rebid

If you're starting this month

Price every bid from the building: square feet, fixtures and the minutes each task takes. Never from what the last company charged.
Write a yearly price adjustment into every contract, a fixed percentage or one tied to wages, and send the notice on the anniversary, every year.
Put a checklist in every building and inspect each one yourself every week. Accounts are lost on small things nobody reported.
Carry general liability, workers' comp and a janitorial bond before the first night, and keep the certificates ready: every property manager asks.
Pay cleaners as employees. People who work your schedule, in your buildings, with your supplies almost always are.
Track labor as a share of each contract's price, building by building. The building that runs over is the one to reprice or re-scope.
For government work, register in SAM.gov, learn the wage determination for your county, and bid small contracts first.

Before you trade on any of this

Misclassifying cleaners as independent contractors is the costliest mistake in this trade: the Department of Labor applies an economic-reality test (a new rule was proposed in 2026), and many states use a stricter ABC test. Cleaning chemicals bring OSHA's Hazard Communication rules: labels, safety data sheets and training. Some states tax janitorial services; Texas does, paper products included. Federal service contracts over $2,500 carry the Service Contract Act's wage and fringe rates; Executive Order 14026's contractor minimum wage was revoked on March 14, 2025, but the Act's wage determinations still apply. A janitorial bond and liability insurance are the price of entry. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

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Figures are sourced from published industry research (IBISWorld, trade associations and regulator data) and are stated with their year. They describe typical conditions, not your situation. This is general information for business owners, not financial, tax, or legal advice.