How to Start a Painting Business in Canada
Start a painting business in Canada: licensing reality, registration, insurance, WCB coverage, safety training, and how painters price residential and commercial jobs.
Starting a Cleaning Business in Canada Checklist
Starting a cleaning business in Canada: pick one type of cleaning, register the name, watch the $30,000 GST/HST line, and sort insurance before the first job.
Applies in: CA
The short answer
A cleaning business in Canada has no trade licence to pass and no national permit to buy. The work is a sequence of ordinary business steps, and the national cleaning guide lays them out in nine steps: pick one type of cleaning, register the name, set up the tax accounts, check the municipal rules, sort insurance, prepare for payroll, buy the kit, price the work, and find the first clients. Items 1 to 8 below follow that sequence for a general cleaning business. Items 9 and 10 branch to the carpet and window specialties, and item 11 covers Quebec. Each item names the live guide it rests on. Nothing here adds a new rule, and the only figure stated is the $30,000 GST/HST small-supplier threshold, which comes from the Canada Revenue Agency's own page.
1. Pick one type of cleaning to sell first
Done when: one starting niche is chosen — residential, commercial, or a specialty — and the rest are parked.
The national guide's first step is to pick one type of cleaning to sell first, and its opening section sets out why cleaning works as a first business. The carpet guide and the window guide each make the same call for their niche: start with one market. The niche decides the kit, the pricing unit, and where the first clients come from, so it comes before every purchase.
2. Register the business name in your province
Done when: the business name is registered in the province where the business operates, or you have confirmed you are trading under your own legal name.
The national guide's step 2 covers registering the business name in your province. A sole proprietor who trades under a name other than their own legal name registers that name provincially; the registration is what lets the business open accounts and invoice under the trading name.
3. Get a CRA business number and watch the $30,000 line
Done when: the business number is in hand, and the business knows which side of the $30,000 small-supplier threshold its sales sit on.
The national guide's step 3 is to get a Canada Revenue Agency business number and watch the $30,000 line. The Canada Revenue Agency's page on when to register for and start charging the GST/HST states the test: a person who does not exceed the $30,000 threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters is a small supplier and does not have to register; a person who exceeds $30,000 in a single calendar quarter is no longer a small supplier and has to charge GST/HST on the supply that made them exceed it; and a person who exceeds it over four quarters becomes a non-small-supplier at the end of the month following that quarter. Registration below the threshold is voluntary.
4. Check the municipal licence and home-base rules
Done when: the municipality's business licence requirement is known, and the rules for running the business from home are confirmed.
The national guide's step 4 covers the municipal licence and the home-base rules. The carpet and window guides state the same licensing reality from their side: there is no trade licence for cleaning, but the municipality's business licence and zoning rules for a home-based business are real, and they are the operator's own city's rules, not a provincial standard.
5. Sort insurance before the first job
Done when: liability insurance is in place before the first client job.
The national guide's step 5 is to sort insurance before you need it — before the kit is bought and before the first clients are signed. The window guide pairs insurance with workers' compensation in its step 4, because height work raises the stakes on both. Do not let the first job be the event that prompts the insurance call.
6. If you hire, payroll and workers' compensation start right away
Done when: the payroll account and the provincial workers' compensation registration are set up before the first employee's first shift.
The national guide's step 6 states the rule plainly: if you hire, payroll and workers' compensation start right away. The window guide covers the same ground for its niche in its insurance and workers' compensation step. Hiring is not a later-stage problem; the accounts precede the work.
7. Buy a starter kit that matches the niche, and price from time and travel
Done when: the starter kit matches the chosen niche, and prices are built from time, travel, and supplies.
The national guide's step 7 covers buying a starter kit that matches the niche, with a starter budget sketch, and its step 8 covers pricing from time, travel, and supplies — not from a guess. In the specialties the unit changes: the carpet guide prices per room at homes and per square foot on contract, and the window guide prices per window at homes and per route at shops. Buy for the niche chosen in item 1, and price in that niche's unit.
8. Get the first clients without spending on ads
Done when: the first-client method from the national guide is worked — one street, then one contract.
The national guide's step 9 covers getting the first clients without spending on ads, and its step on seasons covers the Canadian winter's effect on demand. The carpet guide's client step runs one street, then one contract; the window guide runs one street, then one route. The pattern is the same: a dense patch of nearby work first, a recurring contract or route second.
9. If you clean carpets: certification and the waste tank
Done when: the IICRC credential question is answered, the machine class (truck-mount or portable) is chosen, and the chemical, lifting, and waste-tank safety steps are worked.
This item applies only to carpet cleaning. The carpet guide covers picking the starting market, the licensing reality, business and tax set-up, the IICRC certification that buyers recognise, the truck-mount and portable kit decision, per-room and per-square-foot pricing, safety — chemicals, lifting, and the waste tank — and the winter season.
10. If you clean windows: safety training for heights comes before the route
Done when: insurance and workers' compensation are in place, and safety training for heights, ladders, and chemicals is done before the first route is sold.
This item applies only to window cleaning. The window guide covers picking the starting market, the licensing reality, business and tax set-up, insurance and workers' compensation, safety training for heights, ladders, and chemicals, the squeegee and water-fed pole kit, per-window and per-route pricing, and the seasons and water rules, including the Canadian winter.
11. If you clean in Quebec: GST plus QST, through Revenu Québec
Done when: the business's GST and QST registrations are with Revenu Québec, not the Canada Revenue Agency.
This item applies only in Quebec. The national guide's closing section covers the Quebec difference: GST plus QST, through Revenu Québec. A cleaning business located in Quebec files and remits both taxes through Revenu Québec, so the business-number step in item 3 has a Quebec counterpart that the guide sets out.
What the opened pages do not state
This checklist states no licence fees, insurance premiums, or kit prices. The national guide carries a starter budget sketch for its own sequence, and municipal licence fees are set by each city and change on municipal schedules, so they are left to the linked guides and the cities' own pages. The Canada Revenue Agency page states the $30,000 threshold and when registration takes effect; it does not set a cleaning-specific rule, because there is none — cleaning is taxed as an ordinary taxable service.
Related guides:
- How to Start a Cleaning Business in Canada — the nine-step national sequence behind items 1 to 8 and 11.
- How to Start a Carpet Cleaning Business in Canada — the carpet specialty, behind item 9.
- How to Start a Window Cleaning Business in Canada — the window specialty, behind item 10.
- Hiring Your First Employee in Canada Checklist — the hiring set-up behind item 6.
- New Business Federal Accounts Checklist — the federal accounts behind item 3.
- Starting a Food Truck in Canada Checklist — a worked example of the same checklist pattern in another trade.
Starting a cleaning business in Canada, in order
- Pick one type of cleaning to sell firstResidential, commercial, or a specialty such as carpet or windows — one niche first, not all of them
- Register the business name in your provinceA sole proprietor trading under a name other than their own registers that name provincially
- Get a CRA business number and watch the $30,000 lineA small supplier at $30,000 or less in taxable sales over four calendar quarters does not have to register for GST/HST
- Check the municipal licence and home-base rulesThe city licences the business and sets the rules for running it from home
- Sort insurance, then payroll if you hireLiability insurance before the first job; payroll and workers' compensation start with the first employee
- Price from time, travel, and suppliesPer job at homes, per room or per square foot in the specialty niches — the guides carry the pricing steps
Questions people ask
Do I need a licence to start a cleaning business in Canada?
There is no Canadian cleaning trade licence. What exists is a stack of ordinary business requirements: registering the business name in your province, the municipal business licence and home-base rules where you operate, and the tax accounts. The carpet and window cleaning guides on this site both open their licensing step with the same point — no trade licence, real municipal rules.
When does a cleaning business have to register for GST/HST?
When it stops being a small supplier. The Canada Revenue Agency's page on when to register states that you have to register for a GST/HST account if you make taxable sales in Canada and you have exceeded the small supplier threshold of $30,000 in taxable sales: in a single calendar quarter, you stop being a small supplier with the supply that took you over $30,000 and must charge GST/HST on that supply; over four consecutive calendar quarters without passing it in one quarter, you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after the quarter in which you passed it. Below the threshold, registration is voluntary.
Should I start with residential or commercial cleaning?
One of them, not both. The national guide's first step is to pick one type of cleaning to sell first, and the carpet guide makes the same point for its niche: pick residential, commercial, or both — and start with one. The equipment, the pricing unit, and the sales motion differ between homes and contracts, so the checklist order in the guides assumes a single starting niche.
What insurance does a cleaning business need before the first job?
The national guide puts insurance at step 5, before the starter kit and the first clients: sort insurance before you need it. The window cleaning guide gives insurance and workers' compensation their own step, alongside the safety training for heights and ladders. This checklist states no policy limits or premium figures, because those depend on the niche and the insurer; the linked guides carry the detail for each niche.
What changes when a cleaning business hires its first employee?
Payroll and workers' compensation start right away — that is the national guide's step 6, stated as a hiring rule, not a growth-stage rule. The first hire also needs a payroll program account under the business number. Work the national guide's step 6 before the first shift, not after the first pay run.
How is cleaning in Quebec different?
The tax collection runs through Revenu Québec. The national guide closes with a Quebec section: GST plus QST, administered through Revenu Québec rather than the Canada Revenue Agency route the rest of the country uses for GST/HST. If the business is physically located in Quebec, registration and returns for both taxes go to Revenu Québec.
Sources
- Canada Revenue Agency, When to register for and start charging the GST/HST — the $30,000 small-supplier threshold, the single-quarter and four-quarter tests for when a business stops being a small supplier, and the voluntary registration option, behind item 3 and the second FAQ answer.