Many people never consider entering the cleaning business because of the images it has.

"Be a janitor (or cleaning lady or maid)? Me? That's too demeaning!" is a common reaction.

In the past, these jobs had very low status. Nobody with a college degree would be caught dead doing them. These ideas are slowing changing, but since the business of cleaning only has about 6% self-employed entrepreneurs, it's still true that a lot of the jobs where you work for other people are dead-end and low-paying.

If you are thinking of starting a cleaning business, you may have felt a little uncertain about how you would explain your new activity to family and friends. What would your sometimes-too-blunt friends say? How much teasing would you have to endure?

It's been said that every negative has the seeds of a positive in it, and that's certainly true here. Fear of what other people will think means that a lot of people never will never consider the opportunities here... and you can laugh all the way to the bank!

Today's self-employed cleaning business owners are entrepreneurs. That's just a fancy way of saying that they have a lot of freedom to create a business that makes an excellent profit, working hours they set. They can choose their clients.