A surefire way to ruin your chances for finding clients for your house cleaning business is to suggest the person doesn't know how to clean his own home. The alternative is to leverage the reasons why your house cleaning services are ideal – you save the client's time, you're a professional who has expertise in cleaning homes to your clients' satisfaction. There are a number of ways to find new customers looking for a house cleaner. As long as you don’t rely solely on one technique for getting new clients who need cleaning services, your house cleaning business should have more dirty floors than you can mop.

1. Use Digital Media to Market Your Cleaning Business

Use social media to publicize your expertise. Create a website, a Facebook page, log into Twitter and use LinkedIn as a professional networking site. Detail the exact house cleaning services that you offer and provide contact information for people to receive a free quote. Mention your location on the website several times, so that potential clients looking for services in proximity know where you're located.

Also, indicate the radius you serve. For example, list the cities and towns to which you travel or the zip codes where you offer house cleaning services.

2. Place an Ad on Craigslist

Place an ad on your local Craigslist under “Household Services," where people looking for a housecleaner might search. Link to your website or Facebook page and include your email address and telephone number. Mention that first-time customers get a 20 percent discount or some other incentive to entice people to choose your cleaning service over the competition.

3. Carry Business Cards and Offer Referral Incentives

Carry business cards at all times and always give existing customers several of them to give to friends or family who are looking for a reliable person or business to clean their homes and offices. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful strategies you have for gaining new customers who need cleaning services, so always go the extra mile on your existing jobs and give excellent customer service. Offer your existing clients incentives for referrals. For example, give a free cleaning for every three referrals you get from an existing client.

4. Join the Chamber of Commerce

Join the chamber of commerce. For the cost of membership, you will get a great deal of free advertising, as the chamber of commerce recommends member businesses to newcomers and other individuals. You also may be listed on the chamber’s website. Attend networking events hosted by the chamber of commerce, as you will make connections that can increase your house cleaning business.

5. Cultivate Business Relationships

Cultivate relationships with real estate agents, leasing agents and apartment managers in your community. These people often are looking for people to perform "move-out" cleaning services when people move out of an apartment or rental house. Give them your business card and follow up with them in a couple of weeks if they haven't called. Let them know that you are serious about forming a working relationship with them.

6. Place Ads in Local Publications

Place an ad in any local publications that are distributed in your town. These can be more costly than the previous options, so you may want to wait until you gain on foothold. Suggest an alternative to paying for advertising by asking newspaper or magazine editors if they would be interested in a feature story about your new business and how you can help people who need cleaning services.