Sell a business · Cleaning services
Sell your cleaning business, on your terms.
Commercial janitorial contracts and residential maid services are two different businesses that happen to share a name. Commercial books built on multi-year contracts with offices, medical facilities, and property managers are underwritten like recurring revenue. Residential services are valued on customer retention, crew stability, and the systems that keep schedules full.
In both segments, buyers are buying the contracts and the labor system - hiring, training, quality control - far more than the equipment. Owners who can show low customer churn and a supervisor layer that handles complaints and walkthroughs sell at the top of the range.
What buyers pay for
What moves your cleaning business toward the top of the band.
Contract revenue and terms
Commercial contracts with stated terms, renewal history, and escalation clauses are the most bankable revenue in this trade. Buyers read the actual agreements, not summaries.
Labor systems that survive turnover
Cleaning has structurally high staff turnover. What buyers want is the system - recruiting pipeline, training checklists, supervisor coverage - that keeps service stable anyway.
Customer churn rate
Annual revenue retention is the quality score of a cleaning book. Know it by segment before a buyer computes it for you.
Prepare before you list
Diligence starts long before the buyer shows up.
Put every contract in one folder
Signed agreements, start dates, renewal terms, and pricing for every commercial account. Missing paperwork on your biggest account is the classic late-stage deal problem.
Document wage compliance
Classification (employee vs contractor), overtime practice, and payroll records get close scrutiny in labor-heavy deals. Clean compliance protects both price and terms.
Show account-level profitability
A simple margin view per major account proves you price work properly and flags any loss-leader contracts before the buyer finds them.
Free valuation calculator
What is your cleaning business actually worth?
Two minutes, no signup. We start from the typical cleaning services band of 2.0x to 2.8x owner profit, then adjust for your growth and track record. The math runs entirely in your browser - we never store what you type.
Estimate my business valueThe Slyced Exchange
Sell without telling the world.
When you are ready to ask the market, the Exchange is a private way to do it. Your listing is anonymous by default: built from ranges and categories, screened word by word for anything that could identify you, and reviewed by a person before it goes live.
Buyers verify their identity before they can request access, you approve every request, and a real NDA is signed before your name is revealed. Listing is a flat subscription - never a percentage of your sale.
The Exchange opens soon. Join the owners preparing to list.
Talk to us about sellingAnonymous by default
The public profile is built from ranges and categories. Your name and exact numbers have no field to live in.
Verified buyers only
Anyone can browse, but requesting access requires identity verification first. No anonymous tire-kickers.
NDA before any reveal
You see who a buyer is before they learn who you are, and a real NDA is signed before the reveal.
0% commission, ever
A flat software subscription. We never take a percentage of your sale - not at listing, not at closing.
Plain answers
Questions cleaning services owners ask.
- What is a cleaning business worth?
- Typical small-business transactions put cleaning companies at roughly 2.0x to 2.8x SDE. Commercial books with multi-year contracts and low churn price at the top; owner-operated residential routes price lower. Treat it as a typical starting range - your contracts and retention set the real number.
- Are commercial or residential cleaning businesses worth more?
- Commercial books generally support higher multiples because contracted, scheduled revenue is more predictable. A strong residential business with documented retention can still price well - the key in both cases is proof that revenue repeats.
- Will buyers care that my staff turns over?
- They expect turnover - it is structural in this industry. What they price is whether the business keeps running through it. Documented hiring, training, and supervision systems are your answer.