How can I get clients for a cleaning service?

I have decided to break away and atain my own accounts.What whould be a good strategy for contacting potential clients. I was thinking to go into the chamber of commerice and start calling banks.offices,ect?How would any of you guys go about that. And who do you ask for the manager or H.R.? Any help would be great much thanks Dray M.

You should take out an ad in your local paper, also try going around to local business and ask them if you can put up your business card....if they say no and you really want to you could offer the potential new client a gift certificate at the place of advertisement if they buy so many cleaning sessions (or however you charge) with you. It helps you out and then it helps out the business you are advertising in. But be sure that you won't go in the red with needing to buy gift certificates. Don't make the gift certificate more than 10% of your cost!

try apartment complexes, they always need cleaning service, the best ones are furnished short term lease apartments, because there's always people moving and the apartments need to be turned over, that's what I do right now

Advertise to get one or two and then do a great job and you will be recommended....

Go online!
There are tens of millions of small local businesses not yet online. Those who are online? They die deaths of quiet, no-traffic desperation.

Build a Web site that WORKS... one that delivers 100 times the benefits of a Yellow Pages ad, at one tenth of the cost.

do you have a web site?
If you do sign up with yahoo VIA overture.com (same organization)

and google ad words

here are the total searches for cleaning and janitorial for Aug 2006 on yahoo

4959 janitorial services
77097 carpet cleaning
37998 house cleaning
29529 cleaning services
6890 home cleaning service
4319 cleaning company

Im not a fan of the yellow pages for your industry because you will get a TON of price shoppers STRICTLY going by the price ONLY and thats it

kneel down and beg