When you start a business in Canada, you may be building a new network. You know what you will offer in your cleaning business. You know what the service includes and what you need to prepare a quote. Now comes a question that can shape how much work you have: how will people who might hire you find out you exist?
To look for your first customers, learn the ways to get the word out, choose one to three channels where you can be strong, and focus your effort there. Watch the conversations and sales they bring so you can decide what to improve.
You can apply this approach to other service businesses. Let’s use a residential cleaning business in Surrey, BC as an example.
Distribution: take your offer to the right people
Distribution means getting your offer in front of people who may need it. This can happen through referrals, Google searches, social media, partnerships, service platforms, or advertising.
Each option takes different work and may reach people at different moments. Someone looking for a cleaning tomorrow has a different need from someone who sees a post while browsing social media.
Your job is to choose where you can reach the right customer and earn their attention and trust.
Common distribution channels
Here are some options for a local service:
| Channel | When it may fit | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Referrals | People who know your work can introduce you to others | Deliver a good experience, make it easy to share your details, and consider referral rewards you can support with your margin |
| Google searches: SEO | Your customer is actively looking for a provider nearby | Have a website that helps turn visits into inquiries and sales, with local SEO and clear services, service area, and contact details |
| Social media and communities | Potential customers discover services through organic content or Facebook and WhatsApp groups | Create useful, trust-building content, participate where allowed, and respond to inquiries |
| Paid advertising | You can invest to put your offer in front of potential customers and measure the response | Prepare the offer, budget, and follow-up; choose Meta Ads, Google Ads, or traditional media. Ads can use user-generated content, often called UGC |
| Business partnerships | Another business serves the same kind of customer with a complementary service | Find those businesses, identify a mutual benefit, and agree on how to work together |
| Service platforms | Potential customers use a platform to find and compare providers | Prepare your profile, respond to requests, and review each platform’s fees, costs, and terms |
Choose one to three channels where you think you can be strongest. You can start with one. If you choose three, each needs enough attention for you to learn something from it.
To choose, compare where your customer is, what contacts or experience you already have, how much time you can give, and what it costs to work that channel. You do not need to divide your effort equally.
- Referrals
- Partnerships
- Local search
Residential cleaning
in your area
request a quote
An example of a choice. Consider where your customer is and what you can sustain.
Turn your choice into specific work
For the cleaning example, you could try referrals and partnerships with moving companies that serve your area. This is an option to evaluate, not a combination that guarantees customers.
For referrals, you could prepare a short description of your service, an easy way to request a quote, and, if it makes sense, a referral reward. For partnerships, you could approach moving companies that serve the same kind of customer and find a mutual benefit: they can recommend your cleaning service, and you can recommend their moving service when someone needs it.
Decide what you will do repeatedly and set aside enough time to do it well. “I’ll work on social media” is too broad. “I’ll post three times a week in a community where participation is allowed: answer questions about move-out cleaning, explain how to get a quote, or show before-and-after images of my work” describes an action.
Time spent reaching potential customers deserves attention in your business. To see whether it is working, look at what it produces; hours spent alone do not prove a return.
Give each interested person a clear next step
Remember the journey: marketing → sales → onboarding → delivery → retention.
A post or referral may create interest. You still need to turn that into a conversation and, when there is a fit, a purchase.
To quote a cleaning job, for example, you may need the area, home size, type of cleaning, and preferred date. Ask for what you need, explain scope and conditions, and make it clear how to confirm.
Once you understand your business equation, you can look for a bottleneck: are you short on inquiries, losing sales, or running into problems delivering the service? Novastart can help you identify what is slowing progress and find a solution.
Keep at it and learn from the response
- Work the channelTime, actions, and spending
- ObserveInquiries, sales, and referrals
- AdjustMessage, offer, or process
Try again with what you learned.
Changing channels after a few attempts can keep you from learning. Repeating the same effort for months without reviewing it does not help you decide either.
Keep a simple record:
- What actions you took and on which channel.
- How much time and money you invested.
- How many inquiries you received and what people wanted.
- How many became paying customers.
- How many people hired you again or referred you.
If no inquiries come in, review reach, audience, and message. If people want something different, review whom you are attracting. If they ask but do not buy, listen to their questions and review your offer and sales process.
The goal is to find a way to get customers that you can sustain and improve. One sale is a signal to investigate, not proof that a channel will always work.
Your next step: choose and prepare a test
Write down the channels you will work on, why they fit your customer, and what you will do in each one. Decide how much time and money you can invest and when you will review what you learned, based on your service’s buying cycle.
Start recording from the first conversation. That way, you can improve with information instead of relying on the impression that “something is working.”
Want help getting customers and growing your business?
Tell us what you offer, where you work, and how you are trying to reach customers. Novastart can help you decide where to focus, improve your offer, and find solutions for your business: a website that helps you receive requests and make sales, local SEO to build your presence in search, and processes for handling inquiries and follow-up.
More from this series
- Part 1: Understanding the business equation
- Find what is slowing sales in a business that is already operating
- What to automate to get time back
About the author
Rick Jaramillo · Founder of Novastart
Looking to buy or finance a vehicle in British Columbia? Review your options with Novastart. Approval and conditions depend on the lender, vehicle, and applicant file.