You Got Your LLC and Business Bank Account — Now What?

Congrats! Here's exactly what to do next so that bank account actually works for you.

First off — congratulations. Seriously. Most people who say "I'm going to start a cleaning business" never make it past the daydream stage. You filed your LLC. You opened a business bank account. That's not small stuff. That's the boring, unglamorous groundwork that separates hobbyists from real business owners.

Now comes the part nobody explains clearly: what do you actually do with that account? Let's break it down.

Rule #1: Everything Business Goes Through That Account

This is the single most important habit to build right now, in your first week. Every dollar that comes in from cleaning jobs, and every dollar that goes out for supplies, gas, insurance, or software — it all runs through the business account. Nothing personal touches it.

Why does this matter so much? Two reasons:

• It protects your LLC. The whole point of an LLC is that your personal assets (your house, your car, your savings) are separate from your business liabilities. If you mix personal and business money — called "commingling funds" — a court can decide your LLC isn't a real separate entity. That's called "piercing the corporate veil," and it means your personal stuff is suddenly exposed if your business ever gets sued.
• It makes taxes 10x easier. Come tax season, you want to look at one account and know exactly what your business made and spent. Not dig through your personal Target and grocery runs trying to remember which purchases were "kind of for work."

Rule #2: Pay Yourself on Purpose

You're not an employee of your own LLC (unless you've elected S-Corp status, which is a different conversation). So you don't "get a paycheck" in the traditional sense. Instead, you take what's called an owner's draw — you transfer money from the business account to your personal account whenever you decide to pay yourself.

Don't just drain the account whenever cash is sitting there. Set a rhythm — weekly or biweekly — and only draw an amount that still leaves the business enough to cover upcoming expenses (supplies, insurance premiums, taxes you'll owe). A simple starting rule: keep at least one month of average expenses sitting in the account as a buffer before you draw anything extra.

Rule #3: Set Aside Taxes As You Go

Nobody is withholding taxes for you anymore. A good default is to move 25–30% of every payment you receive into a separate savings account (some banks let you open a free sub-account just for this) the moment it lands. Treat it like it's already gone. You'll thank yourself in April.

Your Next 5 Moves, In Order

1. Get an EIN if you haven't already. It's free directly from the IRS website and takes about 10 minutes. You'll need it for hiring, business credit, and some banking needs.
2. Apply for a business credit card. Even a small-limit one tied to your LLC starts building business credit separate from your personal credit — helpful down the road for equipment financing or a vehicle.
3. Set up simple bookkeeping now, not later. A basic spreadsheet or a tool like Wave or QuickBooks. Track income and expenses weekly so it never piles up into a nightmare.
4. Get your contracts locked in. Before you take on your next client, you want a signed agreement protecting you — scope of work, payment terms, liability language. Don't wing this one.
5. Look into business insurance if you haven't yet — general liability at minimum, especially once you're in clients' homes or offices. Get a free quote from Hiscox →

Don't have contracts sorted yet? We built ready-to-use residential and commercial cleaning contract templates so you're not starting from a blank page or copy-pasting something from a forum.

→ Get the Residential Cleaning Contract Template

→ Get the Commercial Cleaning Contract Template

The Bottom Line

You don't need to have it all figured out today. You just need one clean habit to start: business money stays in the business account, period. Everything else — bookkeeping, taxes, credit — gets easier once that one rule is locked in.

You're official now. Run it like it.

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