How to Start a Cleaning Business: What 10 Real Small Business Owners Did (With Revenue Numbers)

Service businesses are some of the cheapest to start and some of the most dependable to grow. Below are real small business success stories — cleaning companies first, then pressure washing, food, and franchises — with what they started with and what they bring in now.

How to start a cleaning business with $100

Amber Starling couldn't get hired for being "overqualified," so she started Good Witch Cleaning with a vacuum and about $100 of supplies. She hired her first employee within a year and grew steadily: $11,000 in 2017, $57,000 in 2018, $119,000 in 2019, $216,000 in 2020, and $467,000 in 2021, settling near $500,000 a year since.

How much does a cleaning business make?

Stephanie Pipkin spent $2,000 on a business course at 22 and launched Black River Falls Cleaning Services in 2019, hiring her first employee two months later. A six-month military-base contract worth just over $1 million helped push the company to $1.4 million a year. Justin Ducharme took the acquisition route: he bought a San Diego cleaning company making $5,000 a month for $140,000, built systems to double capacity, then increased marketing — reaching $100,000 a month within about nine months.

Pressure washing business income

After 22 years in church ministry, Joshua Brown searched for businesses to start with $5,000 and chose pressure washing: a $300 trailer and a $3,500 machine. Revenue went from $225,000 in year one to $445,000, $780,000, and nearly $1 million in year four — and about $2 million a year now.

Starting a business with $5,000 or less

CPA Jamie Trull started Balance CFO with $5,000 in 2017, moved from one-on-one coaching to courses and digital products, and grew revenue from $100,000 in 2019 to over $500,000 in 2021 with margins above 50%. The Kingston Group started with about $500 and reached $3.9 million a year. Door to Door Organics started with around $700 delivering organic produce boxes and grew to $26 million a year.

Food business and franchise success stories

Daphne started an egg roll stand under a pop-up tent for about $1,500 and, with no paid ads, grew into a trailer, a stall, and then a restaurant doing over $150,000 a month. Anthony Armenti used $5,000 in online poker winnings to open the first Fat Shack in 2010; by its 2019 Shark Tank appearance it had 11 locations. SUGARED + BRONZED started in 2008 with $500 from each founder and was on track for over $50 million in 2025 across 35-plus locations.

How much does a small business owner make? Revenue isn't take-home pay, and these are exceptional outcomes. But they show that low-cost service businesses can grow far — usually by hiring early, building systems, and letting word of mouth compound.