Step by step. Official links included.
This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Choose recurring houses or move-outs for the first month, not both at full volume. Recurring work fills a week. Move-outs fill gaps and then collide with the week. Decide which one pays the account, and say so on the page. In Texas the first customers are in Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Austin cleaning demand tracks pollen, construction dust, and houses that went up faster than the owners' free time. Houston cleaning is humidity, hard-water spots, and the occasional house that took on water and now needs a different kind of clean than a Friday recurring. Dallas–Fort Worth cleaning is construction dust, pollen, and a long list of new residents in Frisco, Plano, and Arlington who have no cleaner yet. San Antonio cleaning includes ordinary recurring work and a PCS calendar of move-outs that do not care about your usual Tuesday. Valley cleaning is dust, hard water, and houses that are lived in through a long hot season with the AC running.
Texas is several markets: Gulf humidity, north-Texas hail, a short freeze that still breaks pipes, and a Valley that almost never freezes. The license depends on the trade. City permits sit on top. Do not use one city page for the whole state.
File an LLC with the Texas Secretary of State business filings. The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
Some boxes are labeled Partner. ServiceBase has not joined those programs. The links go to each company's own homepage, not a tracking link. If a program later approves us, the address will change and we may earn a commission. You can file, insure, and bank anywhere. Official government links are not partner links. Nothing on this page is a discount code.
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The guide stays public. An account saves your state, city, and trade, and lets you mark each filing as you go. The advertising credit is reserved when you register. It can be spent after the free website is live.
Create a free account to track your progressPick a name that sounds like a person will show up, not a national franchise. Search the state records and the city. If customers will text you, the name has to be easy to spell in that text. Use it on the invoice and the voicemail the same way.
Search that name at the Texas Secretary of State business filings before you print shirts. Use the same spelling on the truck and on a quote in Austin.
Many cleaning companies start as a sole proprietorship and form an LLC when they hire the first employee or want the company name on the bank account. Either way, keep the money separate. An LLC does not decide whether you charge sales tax. That is a state revenue question. Read it. If you are the only person cleaning, say so. If a crew is coming, the structure and the insurance both change.
The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
An employer identification number is the business tax ID. The IRS issues it online at no charge and says you never have to pay a company to get one. If you form an LLC, file with the state first. The IRS says an EIN application can stall when the state filing is not done. A sole proprietor can often start with a Social Security number and get an EIN when a bank or a hire requires it.
Apply on the IRS page if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner beside this step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero either way.
The Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell.
TDLR licenses some trades, including electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Its program list does not include a general landscaper license. Irrigation and pesticide work have their own offices below. Cities can still require a registration.
Read the contractor board far enough to see whether ordinary house cleaning is on it. Then get the city business license and the state tax permit the revenue department describes. Post-construction cleaning can be a different rule from a recurring house clean.
Nothing in the TDLR note we verified creates a house-cleaning license. Confirm cleaning is absent from the current program list, then ask the city about a business license. The Comptroller's landscaping publication is about lawn and plant care. Do not use it as the rule for house cleaning. Ask the Comptroller if you are unsure whether your service is taxable.
A city or county can require its own registration even when the state page is quiet. The city guides name the local permit counter. Call that office and write down what they say. Do not pay a third party that promises a license until you have read the official page.
General liability covers damage inside a house and an injury on site. Ask the insurer about key custody and about employees before you send anyone else into a home. A personal auto policy is the wrong place to hide a car full of chemicals and vacuums if that car is how you work. Workers' compensation is a state question the moment someone is on payroll or, in some states, the moment someone is helping. Ask. Do not copy a headcount from another state.
Workers' compensation is a state program. Before anyone works with you, including a friend, ask an insurer and the state labor office whether you must carry it. This guide does not quote a headcount, because those rules differ and the state page is the source. The SBA page describes the common policies. It does not sell them. Buy the policy before you work in a house in Texas.
Deposit cleaning payments into a business account the same week. Recurring clients pay small amounts, and those amounts disappear into a personal account. A simple note of which visit was paid is enough bookkeeping at the start. Set aside tax money every Friday.
The bank will usually ask for your ID, the EIN or your Social Security number, and the formation papers if you filed an LLC. A checking account and a habit of setting tax money aside are enough at the start.
Price by the visit, from bedrooms, bathrooms, condition, and extras. Ovens, fridges, and interior glass are where quotes go wrong, so name them as extras before you are standing in the kitchen. A recurring clean and a move-out are different prices. Write both down.
Humidity, hard water, pets, and stairs change the time. A price that assumes an empty suburban house will lose money in a walk-up. Raise the number after you have timed ten real visits, and tell recurring clients when the price changes.
Austin: long summers that sit above 100°F, flash floods on dry ground, and a short cold snap that still breaks pipes Recurring home cleans, move-outs, and construction dust, with a named Austin service area. Houston: Gulf humidity, hurricane season, and street flooding that reaches houses the maps called safe Recurring cleans, move-outs, and a clear line between household cleaning and anything that needs a remediator. Dallas–Fort Worth: hail season, tornado warnings, 100°F summers, and the occasional ice storm Recurring routes, move-outs, and post-repair dust cleans inside a metro you can actually cross. San Antonio: long heat, limestone and clay, sudden rain, and watering rules tied to the Edwards Aquifer Recurring cleans, PCS and civilian move-outs, and a map that treats Helotes as optional. McAllen–Edinburg: extreme heat, a mild winter, irrigation culture, and tropical wind and rain Recurring cleans, move-outs, and a town list a new Valley resident can recognize.
Google Business Profile, with photos of kitchens and baths you have finished. Reviews should mention the neighborhood and whether it was a recurring clean or a move-out. The website splits those services and the form asks for beds, baths, pets, and a date. ServiceBase publishes that page and keeps the requests. It will not book the calendar for you.
In Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg, the profile, the reviews, and the site should name the neighborhoods you actually drive. ServiceBase publishes the page and keeps quote requests in a list on your account. No card. It does not file the LLC, get the EIN, or buy the insurance.
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Signup asks for an email and a password. No card. This guide opens the next step with the trade filled in. You can change every line after.
Nothing in the TDLR note we verified creates a house-cleaning license. Confirm cleaning is absent from the current program list, then ask the city clerk about a business license. Post-construction cleaning can be a different rule. The Comptroller's landscaping publication is about lawn and plant care. Do not use it as the rule for house cleaning. Ask the Comptroller if you are unsure whether your service is taxable.
You can start with supplies that fit in the car you already drive: a vacuum that survives a route, a mop, microfiber, and chemicals you will use in a house with pets. Insurance is a quote, and it belongs before the first paid clean, especially if you will hold a key. The Form 205 instructions listed a $300 LLC filing fee when we read them. Confirm the number. A sole proprietor does not have to pay it. The first month is ten houses you can reach, not a statewide ad.
Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Austin are different dirt and different drives. Price recurring cleans and move-outs separately, with beds, baths, and extras written down. The first-month plan and the cost breakdown live on the cleaning notes. This state page is the filing office and the license read. Use both. Then publish a page that names the towns and the kind of clean, so the request is not a text you lose.
The Form 205 instructions linked from the Texas Secretary of State list the certificate-of-formation filing fee. When those instructions were read for this site, the fee was $300. The same office says it cannot tell you which entity to choose. Open the instructions and confirm the number before you pay. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
The Texas licensing page we could verify is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Open it and read the part that names the work you will sell. TDLR licenses some trades, including electricians and air-conditioning contractors. Its program list does not include a general landscaper license. Irrigation and pesticide work have their own offices below. Cities can still require a registration.
Start where you can reach the stops in a day. The city guides cover Austin, Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, McAllen–Edinburg. Owners compare a local page with a Google profile and a marketplace lead. A statewide claim is a weak service area.
Yes. Use the IRS link in the steps if you want the number yourself. LegalZoom, the partner on the EIN step, can request it while they form the company. That service is optional. The IRS fee is still zero.
The TDLR programs we verified do not create a house-cleaning license. Confirm that absence on the current list, then ask the city about a business license. Post-construction work can fall under a different rule. Read it before you advertise that service.
There is no single total. The EIN is free. An LLC filing fee applies only if you form one, and the Form 205 instructions listed $300 when we read them. Insurance, supplies, and a city license are separate. The cost note walks through what not to invent.
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