Do you need an LLC to clean houses? What this directory shows
By Josi L.Published
Search “how to start a cleaning business” and see where those guides put you first.
Step 1: Form your LLC.
Look at what is actually here. 17 of the 27 businesses published in this directory have no registered company at all. They are working, they are getting paid, and their page is up.
That does not mean an LLC is useless. It means step one in those guides is nobody’s real step one, and it is worth knowing what each of these words means before you pay for something you may not need yet.
One thing before we go on, and it matters: this is not going to tell you what to do. I am not your accountant and I am not your attorney, and the right answer depends on your state and on how your work is set up. What this can do is explain what each word means, what costs money, what is free, and point you at the people who can actually answer it for you. If other business questions are still open, there is a page with the ones that come up most.
Four words that get used as if they were one
They are not even filed in the same building.
| What it is | Where it is filed | What it costs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole proprietor | You, working under your own name | Nowhere. You already are one | Nothing |
| LLC | A company on paper, separate from you | Your state | A filing fee, and it swings a lot from one state to the next |
| EIN | A number that identifies a business | The IRS, federal | Free |
| ITIN | A number for filing taxes without a Social Security number | The IRS, federal | A question for an accountant, not for an article |
Each one on its own, starting with the LLC.
What an LLC is, in plain words
It is a company that exists on paper, separate from you, registered with your state. You give it a name, you pay the filing fee, and from that day there are two things where there used to be one: you, and the business.
That is the problem it is built to solve. Keeping your side and the business side apart, so that if something goes wrong on a job, what answers for it is the business and not your everyday account. That is the idea. How far that separation goes in your particular case is a question for someone licensed in your state, not for an article.
And here is what an LLC is not. It is not a diploma. Nothing in that filing says a word about how you leave a kitchen, or about why somebody books you again next month. Nobody here asks you for one before you publish your page.
It costs money, and how much depends on your state
Registering a company costs. How much, I am not going to make up: it swings a lot from one state to the next, and the only number that counts is the one on your own state’s Secretary of State page. The filing is there, the fee is there, and it is written in plain sight.
While you are in there, ask two more things instead of just today’s price:
- Whether there is something to pay every year to keep the company alive.
- Whether your city or your county wants a permit of its own.
The state filing and the city permit are two different offices. Having the first does not cover you for the second, so ask about both before you pay for either.
The EIN is free, and some sites charge for it anyway
An EIN is a number the IRS gives out to identify a business. You request it on their site, online, and it costs nothing.
The IRS says so itself, in writing, on its own page: it warns you about the sites that charge to get you an EIN. They wrote that because those pages exist, with a tidy little form and a charge for filling in something that was free. This is the real one, on IRS.gov.
The LLC and the EIN are two separate filings in two separate places. One is your state, the other is federal, and having one of them does not hand you the other.
The ITIN, in two lines
An ITIN is a number the IRS issues so that someone without a Social Security number can file taxes.
That is all this is going to say about it, on purpose. Anything to do with taxes has to be answered by an accountant looking at your own paperwork. Not an article, not a friend, not a video.
Working on your own is also a real business
If you clean houses under your own name and you get paid for it, you already have a business. In English that is a sole proprietor, and there is nowhere you have to go to become one. You have been one since the first house you charged for.
It is worth saying out loud, because those guides do not. They open at step one with a filing fee, as if what you have been doing for years did not count until a clerk stamped it.
Now the part I can actually show you. Some of the businesses here put their price right on their page, in writing, where anybody can read it.
Line those prices up against which of them has a registered company, and the two do not travel together. I am not going to turn that into a rule. What moves a price is the house, the work and how far you drive, and that is a longer conversation than this one.
When it starts to matter for real
There are three moments where this stops being talk and turns into an appointment with somebody.
The day you stop going alone. The moment somebody works for you and you pay them, this stops being about the name on the paperwork: payroll and taxes come with it. That is when you sit down with an accountant, and before the first week is out. Even if it is your sister. Even if it is only Saturdays.
The day a company writes to you. An office, a property manager, somebody with six Airbnb units. Sometimes they want a company name, an EIN and insurance before they hand over a key, and if you do not have it, the whole thing sits there until you do. That is the clearest signal there is: when someone asks you for it in writing, you finally know what you would be getting it for.
The day you go to buy insurance. When you ask for the quote, ask whose name the policy is issued in and what changes depending on how your business is set up. Have them walk you through it, slowly, before you sign anything.
Outside those three, there is no rush. Inside those three, the rush is not coming from an article. It is coming from the person asking you for it.
Who to ask, and in what order
An accountant or an attorney licensed in your state. It is the only answer that counts for your situation, because it is the only one looking at your numbers. Ask what the consultation costs before you sit down and there is no surprise later.
Your state’s Small Business Development Center. This is the one I would send you to first. It is a network that covers the whole country, the advising is no cost and the training is low cost, and you find yours by state or by ZIP code. The locator is here. Nobody charges you to sit down and ask.
Your state’s Secretary of State page, for the filing itself and the real fee.
And one that does not count: the Facebook group. Ten answers, every one of them certain, and no way to tell which one was written for your state.
While you decide
Nothing here holds you up today. Nobody asks you for a document before you publish your page: no LLC, no insurance, no license, no years in the trade. You fill it in yourself, in your own words, and there is nothing to hand in at any point. There are four steps and they are here.
What people actually see of you is the other stuff:
- Your price, in writing, where it can be read without asking for it.
- Your before and after photos.
- The towns you really drive to.
- Whether you open on Saturday. 21 of the 27 businesses here do, and it is on their page from day one.
None of it asks about your LLC.
And if you do file one someday, you do not start your page over: you type the new name in your panel and everything else stays exactly how you left it. Your page starts here.