I am the owner of a small cleaning business. I started it last August, just myself cleaning, and I now have 63 clients, two property management companies, and 3 employees. I do really enjoy it, despite how stressful it has been lately. I wasn't expecting this sort of growth, and sometimes I feel like I'm stretching myself too thin to keep everything running smoothly. I like how I've created jobs, and I want to treat my employees well. Right now, I have a temp worker for the summer. She's moving to another state, and I'm teaching her the trade so she can start her own business. I can't imagine not being an entrepreneur of some sort. I like the independence, and I like how I earn what I work for. I also pay my employees on a commission basis, so they earn what they work for, too. The harder/more efficient they work, the more they earn.
It's mostly word of mouth. The only "advertising" I've done is donating gift certificates to local charities' silent auctions and I used Thumbtack at first. Everyone needs a cleaner, but not everyone trusts random cleaning businesses, so word-of-mouth is key to building this sort of business. That and doing an extremely professional job.