Founder playbook · AU cleaning · 2026
Your first 10 clients in 90 days.
The honest channel-by-channel playbook for new Australian cleaners. Real costs, real scripts, real lead-times, no MLM fluff, no “you just need to want it bad enough”. Walk in with a rate card, leave with a calendar.
The short version
- Walk in to 10 to 15 real estate agencies in week 1. Rate card in hand, no email.
- Get Google Business Profile live in week 1. Ask every client for a review after the 3rd clean.
- Pay-per-lead (Airtasker / hipages) is your fastest volume channel for the first 90 days. $50 to $200/month budget.
- Drop A5 flyers in 500 to 1,000 letterboxes per wave. Run 3 waves 2 weeks apart in the same area.
- Once you have 5+ happy clients, offer $50/$50 referral credit. Cheapest CAC in services.
Channel ranking, ordered by ROI
Each channel below includes the real script, real cost, and the realistic time-to-first-booking. Work the top 3 hard before touching anything below it.
Real-estate agents (bond cleans)
Days · Free + timeThe single best entry channel for residential cleaners. Walk into 10 to 15 local agency offices on a weekday morning with a 1-page rate card. Ask for the property manager. Their tenants need a bond clean every 30 to 45 days, if your card is in their hand the day they need one, you get the booking.
Script
“Hi, I'm starting a cleaning business in {suburb}. I do end-of-lease bond cleans, and I wanted to give you my rate card in case any of your tenants need a recommendation. Here's what I include and my price, call or text me anytime.”
Don’t: Don't email. Walk in. Property managers ignore emails and bookmark business cards stuck under their monitor.
Google Business Profile
1 to 2 weeks for ranking · FreeFree, high-intent. Set up a Google Business Profile for your service area, addressless service-area business is fine. Get verified, add photos of your work, ask early clients for reviews. After 5 to 10 reviews you start ranking for 'cleaners near me' in your suburb.
Script
“After every job: 'Hey {first_name}, really appreciated you booking us today. If the place came up well, would you mind leaving a quick Google review? It helps us a lot.' Followed by the direct review link.”
Don’t: Don't pay for fake reviews. Google's spam filter catches them and tanks your ranking. One real review per job, asked at the right moment, beats 50 paid.
Letterbox drops (high-conversion suburbs)
Weeks · $0.15 to $0.30 per flyerDesigned-right A5 flyer through 500 to 1,000 letterboxes in a 2 to 3 suburb radius. Conversion 0.5% to 1.5%, so 500 flyers ≈ 3 to 7 first calls. Target suburbs with median household income $90k+, recent turnover (newly-sold homes), or high rental density (bond clean leads).
Script
“Headline: '{Suburb} cleaning, first clean $40 off when you book a fortnightly clean'. Below: 3 bullets (insured, police-checked, AUD pricing). Phone + website. That's it. No paragraphs.”
Don’t: Don't drop one wave, drop 3 waves to the same area 2 weeks apart. The 3rd flyer is the one that converts; the first two build name recognition.
hipages / Airtasker / Service Seeking
Hours to first lead · $5 to $25 per leadPay-per-lead platforms. Fastest way to get the phone ringing but lead quality varies and you compete on price. Use for the first 90 days to fill calendar, then graduate to direct channels. hipages skews to home-services, Airtasker is broader but cheaper.
Script
“Within 5 minutes of a new lead alert: phone call (not message). 'Hi {first_name}, I just saw your job listing for {service} in {suburb}. I'm available {next_available}. Can I quote it now?' Speed wins.”
Don’t: Don't auto-quote without reading. Customers post a 1-bed flat marked '5 bedrooms' all the time. The 30-second job read saves the $20 lead spend.
Local Facebook groups
Days · FreeSearch 'suburb_name buy swap sell' / 'suburb_name community'. Join 10. Don't post, comment helpfully when someone asks for cleaner recommendations (and they do, multiple times a week). One genuine comment per week per group, no spam links.
Script
“When someone asks 'can anyone recommend a cleaner in {suburb}?': 'I'm a cleaner based in {suburb}, happy to help if you'd like to PM me. Recently did a 4-bed bond clean in {neighbouring_suburb} for $XXX.' Specific, brief, no website link in the public comment.”
Don’t: Don't post 'I'm a cleaner!' as a top-level post. Mods delete those. Be useful in comments and let the PMs come.
Referral loop (existing clients)
Weeks (after first 5 clients) · 10% commissionOnce you have 5 to 10 happy clients, offer them $50 credit for any friend who books a clean. Cleaners are referrable: people who've found a good cleaner protect that resource and share it. The 10% referral commission is one of the cheapest customer-acquisition costs in services.
Script
“After the 3rd successful clean: 'Hey {first_name}, if you know anyone in {area} who could use a regular cleaner, send them my way, I'll give you $50 off your next clean and them $50 off their first. No pressure either way, thanks for trusting us!'”
Don’t: Don't ask after the first clean. Wait until they've used you 3 times, that signals real satisfaction, not novelty.
Strata / body corporate cold-call
Weeks to months · Free + timeCommercial-cleaning rates with recurring contracts. Cold-call 20 to 30 strata managers in your city with a written proposal, fortnightly common-area clean, fixed monthly fee. Higher-value contracts but longer sales cycle (3 to 6 months from first call).
Script
“Email subject: 'Common-area cleaning quote, {building_name}'. Body: 'Hi {strata_manager}, I noticed {building_name} is managed by {agency}. I'd like to quote for the common-area cleaning. Attached is my proposal and insurance certificate. Can we arrange a 15-min walkthrough?'”
Don’t: Don't undercut by more than 10% to 15% to win the contract. Strata price-shoppers churn the moment a cheaper option appears. Compete on responsiveness and reporting, not price.
The 90-day setup checklist
From ABN to 10 paying clients. Each step is concrete and dated so you can run the calendar against it.
- 1Day 0: ABN registered, GST flagged (you'll need it once revenue > $75k)
- 2Day 1: Public liability insurance arranged ($20m min), get the COI emailed
- 3Day 2: Bank account opened with the ABN
- 4Day 3: Google Business Profile created and verified
- 5Day 7: 1-page rate card designed (Canva, free template)
- 6Day 14: Walk-in to 10 to 15 real-estate agencies with rate cards
- 7Day 21: First 500-flyer letterbox drop in your top 2 target suburbs
- 8Day 30: First Airtasker / hipages profile live, $50 starting bid budget
- 9Day 45: First 5 reviews on Google Business Profile
- 10Day 60: Referral program in place for existing clients
- 11Day 90: 10+ paying clients, $5k+ monthly recurring revenue mix
The 5 things that waste time in month 1
Building a fancy website
A Google Business Profile + phone number beats a 3-week custom site. Use Cargo / Carrd / Squarespace for a 1-page site in week 2 if you must.
Designing a logo
$15 on Fiverr is the right spend. Founders who spend a month on a logo have spent that month not earning. Logo polish is a year-2 problem.
Buying branded merchandise
A polo + cap is $80. Pens, magnets, sticker packs, total waste before you have 10 clients. Save the money for fuel and Airtasker leads.
Going wide on social media
TikTok / Instagram / YouTube + LinkedIn at once = 4 abandoned accounts. Pick one (Facebook for local), be useful in 10 groups, ignore the rest until year 2.
Cold-emailing 500 businesses
Open rate < 5%, reply rate near zero. The same 4 hours walked into 10 real-estate agencies in person produces 3+ confirmed handshakes. Email is for following up walk-ins, not opening doors.
Pair this with
Founder
Start a cleaning business
8-step ABN-to-first-client guide for AU cleaning founders.
Pricing
Residential pricing calculator
Anchor your first quotes against 2026 AU market rates.
Insurance
Cleaning insurance guide
Day-1 insurance set-up, what to buy before quoting your first job.
Award
Cleaning Services Award guide
When you hire, get MA000022 classification right from day one.
Frequently asked questions
How fast can I realistically get my first 10 clients?
60 to 90 days at a sustainable pace, or 30 days if you go hard. The fastest channels are pay-per-lead (Airtasker / hipages), you can get your first call within 24 hours of going live. Real estate agent walk-ins typically convert their first booking in week 2 or 3. Google Business Profile is slower, you need 5+ reviews before you rank, so plan 6 weeks minimum.
Should I undercut competitors to get started?
Slightly, briefly, only for the first 5 clients. A $10 to $20 discount on the first booking is a reasonable 'first-time customer' incentive. Beyond that, you train clients to expect cheap rates that don't pay your award-compliant labour cost. Re-pricing up later is harder than starting at market rate.
Is a website essential before I start marketing?
Not on day one. A Google Business Profile with phone number and a few photos beats a half-built website. You can launch a 1-page website in week 2 (Cargo, Carrd, or a Squarespace template, under 2 hours of work). Don't spend 3 weeks on a custom site before you have any clients.
What's the right pricing for a first-time client?
Match the going market rate for your area. Use the residential pricing calculator or per-sqm calculator on this site to anchor. Quote $20 below mid-market only on first-time bookings, and only as a written 'introductory rate' so the client knows the recurring rate is higher.
Do I need a uniform or branded gear?
Polo + cap with your business name printed: $80 from any local printer. It looks professional, costs nothing to maintain, and converts neighbourhood walk-bys ('saw your van') into calls. A wrapped van is the next step but not a Day-1 cost.
How do I handle quoting before I see the place?
Quote a range over the phone using property type as the anchor ('a 3-bed townhouse bond clean is $380 to $480 depending on condition'), then confirm exact pricing after a 5-minute walkthrough on arrival. Customers respect operators who'll commit to a range and then refine, not the ones who say 'depends'.
What's the highest-ROI single investment I can make in week 1?
Public liability insurance + a Canva-designed rate card. The $40/month insurance is the legal floor, but the rate card is what unlocks the real-estate-agent walk-ins. Without one, you're chatting; with one, you're being remembered. Print 100, hand-deliver 30 in week one.
When should I hire my first cleaner?
When you're consistently turning down work because you're full. Typically month 4 to 6 for residential, sooner for commercial contracts. Hire under the Cleaning Services Award (MA000022), get the classification right from day one. Start them as casual, convert to part-time once they prove reliable.
Reviewed by Bishal Shrestha
Ready to take the first booking?
The first ten clients are the hard part. Keeping them is the part software helps with: recurring rounds, reminders that go out on their own, quotes that turn into GST-ready invoices, and a client list you own. Free to start, AUD billing.
Rather look before you sign up? Open a live demo account with real data in it, or compare the AUD plans on the pricing page.
About the author
Bishal Shrestha
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal spent a decade running digital projects for Australian small businesses before founding OneBookPlus. He writes and maintains these pages, and publishes what OneBookPlus does not do alongside what it does.
Read the founder bioHow this page was researched
Every figure above is either linked to the body that published it or recomputable from the numbers shown on the page. Plan prices come from the OneBookPlus price registry, so the page and the checkout cannot disagree. Everything said about OneBookPlus describes what the product does today, and the page says so where it does not do something.
From the blog
Related reading for cleaners
Practical guides and explainers from the OneBookPlus blog, grouped by topic.
The 91-Cent Gap
The ATO will pay you 91 cents a business kilometre in 2026-27, capped at 5,000 km. That is $4,550. One car in a typical Australian household costs $11,651 a year to run, and $13,666 in Sydney. A research report on the gap, with per-city data for 15 locations.
19 min readRead articleBest Booking Software in Australia
Two identical six-chair salons, one paying $29 a month for booking software and the other $252. Calendly, Acuity, Square, Setmore, Fresha, Timely and SimplyBook.me compared on what they actually cost an Australian business, with prices read from each vendor in August 2026.
15 min readRead articleWhat to Charge Per Hour
A qualified plumber on the award costs $31.63 an hour. Once leave, super, workers comp and the hours you cannot invoice are counted, one billable hour costs about $67 before a dollar of overhead. The full build-up, with 2026-27 figures.
13 min readRead articleAustralia's Payroll Tax Cliff
Pay $1.5 million in wages and you owe $31,731 in payroll tax in Western Australia and nothing in South Australia, the NT or the ACT. Every threshold, rate and trap across all eight Australian jurisdictions for 2026-27.
13 min readRead article
More in this guide
Related resources
Start a Cleaning Business
8-step founder guide, ABN, GST, insurance, kit, pricing, finding first clients.
Read Start a Cleaning BusinessInteractiveCleaning Price Calculator
Interactive estimator for standard, deep, and bond cleans across AU property types.
Read Cleaning Price CalculatorReferenceBond Clean Checklist by State
Universal inclusions plus state-by-state authority guide for end-of-lease cleans.
Read Bond Clean Checklist by State