How to start a window cleaning business in Miami, FL
This is not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Read the official pages linked here. Partner offers are optional and labeled.
Miami glass takes salt, humidity, and a mildew line that people mistake for a bad squeegee. Coral Gables houses, Hialeah homes, Doral subdivisions, Kendall, and Miami Beach condos have different parking, elevators, and languages. Say whether you do condos and whether the person booking can handle Spanish and English. Hurricane shutters are a separate visit from a quarterly clean. Do not call salt film a mold job.
CBS block, stucco, slabs, condos with association rules, and houses that depend on impact openings and a sound roof to stay insured hurricane season, salt air, daily humidity, and rain that finds balconies and flat roofs House exteriors, condo glass where you have access, and a clear line between a wash and anything that needs another trade.
Start the route in Coral Gables, Hialeah, and Doral. Add Miami Beach and Kendall when you can reach them the same day. Many customers will call in Spanish or English and expect the person who answers to already know insurance inspections and condo rules.
The Florida guide has the filing office and the LLC fee we could verify ($125 required). This page is the local version: what the first jobs are, which permit counter to call, and how to price a day here.
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.
$500 in free advertising when you launch
Keep the checklist on your account
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.
window cleaner names that work here are plain. Use one you can spell from a driveway in Coral Gables.
Search it at the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) before you order magnets. The voicemail, the invoice, and the Google profile should use that spelling.
A lot of window routes start as a sole proprietorship because the owner is the person on the pole. That can be you, under your own name, with no formation filing. An LLC is a state filing and a separate company on paper. It does not license you, and it does not replace insurance. Form the LLC when you hire, when a storefront wants the company on a certificate, or when you want the bank account in the business name. If you are unsure, ask an accountant before you pay a filing fee. This page is not that advice.
The Florida Division of Corporations fee schedule lists a $100 articles-of-organization fee and a $25 registered-agent designation fee as required for a new Florida LLC. A certified copy ($30) and a certificate of status ($5) are optional. The schedule's $160 line includes those optional items. Annual report fees are listed separately. A sole proprietorship can still be you, under your own name, without this filing. The fee is not a suggestion to form an LLC.
If your customers are in Miami, the registered-agent address still has to satisfy Florida. Read the filing office's rule. A neighbor's kitchen table is not always an acceptable address.
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.
Read the contractor board far enough to see whether window cleaning is on it, including any project-cost threshold printed there. Then get the city business license and the tax permit the revenue department describes. Adding pressure washing or building repairs is a second read, not a free extra.
State page: Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board. Read this page for your trade. A city or county can require its own registration even when the state does not.
Miami-Dade permits is the local counter for work in Miami. We are naming that office, not linking a fee schedule we have not read. Call them or open the city's own site and ask what a new window cleaner has to register before the first job in Hialeah.
The Florida guide has the longer license note for this trade, including the official pages we could verify.
General liability before the pole goes onto someone else's glass. Tell the insurer you do ladders and, if it is true, that you step inside for interior panes. A broken pane and a soaked sill are the claims. Commercial auto if the car or van is how you move between stops, because a personal policy often excludes business use. If anyone else is on a ladder or carrying water, ask about workers' compensation before they start. Do not copy a headcount from another state. Keep a certificate you can send the same day a property manager asks.
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 Miami.
Deposit route money into a business checking account the same week. Window stops pay small amounts, and those amounts vanish in a personal account. Note which address paid. Set tax money aside every Friday, before a good week feels like spending money.
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.
07Price a day in Miami
Price the visit from stories, panes or a simple house size, interior versus exterior, and screens. Hard-water removal is its own line if you offer it. A ground-floor exterior and a second-story interior are different jobs. Write both numbers down before you need them in a driveway.
Pollen, salt, construction dust, and stairs change the time. A price copied from an empty suburban photo will lose money in a walk-up. Adjust the numbers after you have timed ten real stops, and tell recurring customers when the price changes.
hurricane season, salt air, daily humidity, and rain that finds balconies and flat roofs CBS block, stucco, slabs, condos with association rules, and houses that depend on impact openings and a sound roof to stay insured That is why a price copied from another metro will miss. House exteriors, condo glass where you have access, and a clear line between a wash and anything that needs another trade.
Write the price you want for the common job in Coral Gables and the price you want for a far stop in Kendall. If the second number is not worth the drive, leave Kendall off the service area.
08Open the profile, the reviews, and the site
Claim the Google Business Profile for Miami, FL. Set hours you answer. The service area should list Coral Gables, Hialeah, and Doral if those are real stops, and it should leave off towns you will not drive.
Ask for a review after a clean job, and ask them to mention the neighborhood and the task. A review that says the work and Miami Beach helps the next search. A review that says 'great service' does not.
Claim the Google Business Profile in the business name, with hours you actually answer and a service area made of towns you drive. Ask for a review after a clean visit, and ask the customer to name the neighborhood and whether it was exterior, interior, or a storefront. Publish a one-page site that splits those services, and put a form on it that asks for stories, interior or exterior, screens, and a date. ServiceBase does that page and files the requests. It does not get the city license or the insurance.
When the name and the phone are real, create the free window cleaning site with Miami already filled in. Quote requests land in your list. The site does not replace Miami-Dade permits.
How do I start a window cleaning business in Miami?
Pick the service you can finish, search the name at the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz), get the free EIN from the IRS, read the license page (Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board), call Miami-Dade permits, insure the work, open a business account, and publish a page that names Coral Gables and the jobs you want. House exteriors, condo glass where you have access, and a clear line between a wash and anything that needs another trade.
What does a window cleaner license look like for Miami, FL?
Read the contractor board far enough to see whether window cleaning is on it, including any project-cost threshold printed there. Then get the city business license and the tax permit the revenue department describes. Adding pressure washing or building repairs is a second read, not a free extra. Start at the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board. Then ask Miami-Dade permits what the city adds.
How should I price window cleaner work in Miami?
Price the visit from stories, panes or a simple house size, interior versus exterior, and screens. Hard-water removal is its own line if you offer it. A ground-floor exterior and a second-story interior are different jobs. Write both numbers down before you need them in a driveway. hurricane season, salt air, daily humidity, and rain that finds balconies and flat roofs Time the first ten jobs in Coral Gables and Doral before you copy a price from another city.
Can I publish a window cleaning site before the LLC is approved?
You can draft it. Put it in public under the name you will actually use, with the phone you answer. If the state requires the license before you advertise the work, wait. The free ServiceBase site does not file the company. Signup can open with window cleaner and Miami filled in so you are not retyping them.
