Billions of dollars are spent in the building industry every year. While construction cleaning is just a sliver of the budget, millions are spent hiring the crews that make a building salable. Construction cleaning doesn't require years of higher education or even thousands of dollars. It is the easiest way to break into the building industry and get in on the action.

There's a difference between construction cleaning and construction clean-up. Janitorial companies that offer construction cleaning as one of their many services often call it construction clean-up. However, the proper term is "construction cleaning." When a clean-up company is called in they clean up the lumber, trash, etc. When a cleaning crew is called in, they do just that. Clean. For me personallly, when I hear someone say that they offer construction clean-up services I have to laugh. Obviously they don't know the difference.

The best part about this business is how little it takes to get started. You can clean with your family or a friend, or even by yourself. I've met business owners who did it all themselves and others (like us) who run cleaning crews. You can start with houses or apartment complexes. It's entirely up to you and what your initial investment of time and money can be. We stumbled on our first contact on accident and landed a hotel contract worth $7200. We used a credit card to buy $600 worth of equipment and supplies and off we went. We really didn't know what we were doing but made it through and even made some good money! More than we had cleaning houses in an entire month. We were out of housekeeping forever!

Since 1997 when we first started construction cleaning we have learned a lot! One thing we have seen is how easy it is for individuals to launch their own construction cleaning company. We even built a website to help people do exactly that. Home builders are the easiest to get started with. They often don't require the same insurance coverages the large commercial contractors do, they can pay sooner,and may even pay cash. It may only take you 2 - 3 days to clean a house by yourself and it's not uncommon to make $100 day, especially if you don't have a lot of overhead expenses. Even a lot of families will clean new construction homes in the evenings or on weekends for extra money. It's a great business and anyone can learn how to do it!

Now, if you're like us, you love to conquer the huge buildings. We've cleaned apartment complexes with hundreds of units, buildings with thousands of square feet, and entire neighborhoods with new houses. For some reason, conquering the massive buildings has always been a thrill for me. The bigger, the better. And I love to beat my competition. That's a given in any business.

Cleaning up for cash is within your reach. Getting your "foot in the door" is pretty easy because every building project will have to be cleaned by someone. Will it be you?

So, here's the very basic tips for getting started:

1. Pick up the phone and call some local builders.

2. Ask what they budget for their final clean (there's a rough, final and touch-up clean that can be negotiated).

3. After they give you that number, ask them if they are in need of your cleaning services.

4. Get their contact information and send them some information about your company.

Another way to round up jobs:

1. Post a flyer on the local builder's supply bulletin board

2. Stop by job trailers and talk to the superintendent

3. Send out letters to builders

There are many ways to rake in the dough in the building industry. But if you're ready to start making money now, construction cleaning can't be beat!