What the sector pays in cleaning, security and support services
An employee in support services earned around 670 euro gross a month at the end of 2025 — roughly 150 euro below the national average. For you, on the employer side of the table, that is good news: the payroll of a cleaning or security crew starts from a level a young company can carry out of its first contracts.
The direction matters more than the level, though. Wages in the sector rose by about 12% in a year, which is the mark of a market that accepts higher prices: buyers of cleaning and security have grown used to seeing rates go up and approve them year after year. A company entering now negotiates at today’s prices.
The figure is for the whole statistical section, not for one occupation: the same category gathers cleaning, guarding, secretarial work, recruitment and landscaping. Do not read 670 euro as a security guard’s wage. Read it as the level the negotiation happens around.
Why open a cleaning or security company in Moldova now
In all three branches, wages are not the largest cost — they are very nearly the only one. Consumables, equipment and rent matter, but they disappear next to the payroll. The good news is that a cost made of people grows exactly as fast as the business does: there is no investment to recover from before your first client.
That is also where the low entry threshold comes from. You start with the crew the first contract requires and grow it on the second. There is no expensive machinery to depreciate, no warehouse, no stock — and a site larger than what you cover today is solved by hiring rather than buying.
Contracts in this field are written with an indexation clause, and that works in your favour: the price rises with wages, without an annual renegotiation. Large clients accept it because they see it from every serious supplier — it is the mark of a company that knows its own costs.
The advantage that lasts longest, though, is the team. Firms that keep their people win long contracts and extend them: a client whose site has had the same faces on it for two years does not change supplier over a few per cent.
What it costs to open a cleaning or security company
Registration is cheap and fast. An SRL has no mandatory minimum share capital, the file goes to the Public Services Agency, and the company is normally registered within a few working days. There is no licensing fee to pay, unless you go into security.
The tax regime is chosen according to turnover and headcount. For a small company, the tax on income from operational activity can work out better than the ordinary regime; for a company with many employees the calculation changes, because the weight of taxation moves onto wages. The VAT registration threshold arrives sooner than most founders expect, especially if you work with institutions.
The first-year budget looks different from a consulting firm’s. You need no expensive office and no investment in heavy equipment — you need money to pay people through the months when the invoices have not yet been collected. With that sum set aside from the start, the first large contract is an opportunity rather than a strain.
What to know before you register
Public procurement is a channel, not an exception
A significant share of the demand for cleaning and security in Moldova runs through public procurement. That means selling happens through files rather than meetings: registration on the tender platform, certificates showing you owe nothing to the budget, capacity demonstrated by previous contracts, sometimes a participation guarantee.
The firms that win are the ones whose documents are ready before the notice appears, because the deadlines are short. It is worth preparing the file before you need it — and the paperwork, the certificates and the platform registration are ours to handle, so you can bid on the first day the right tender appears.
Cleaning and back office go together, security is set up separately
Cleaning and administrative services sit comfortably in the same company: you declare the codes from divisions 81 and 82 at registration, they are free, they do not expire, and you sell them to the same clients, often in the same contract.
Security is built differently. The authorisation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs is issued to a legal person, and the law sets conditions on the people who actually work as guards. If you want to sell both security and cleaning — as facility management contracts require — the structure is decided before registration, not after. We will show you what can be held in one company and what needs a separate one, based on what you intend to sell in the first two years.
You collect at 30–60 days, you pay wages monthly
Corporate clients pay against an invoice, due in thirty or sixty days. Public institutions pay properly, but rarely quickly. Wages are paid at least once a month for employees on a monthly salary, and at least twice a month for those paid by unit of time or by piece — you choose the pay system, and the payment calendar follows from it.
That gap is planned for, not endured. Companies that enter with the first quarter budgeted take on large contracts without nerves. Payroll, the contribution calculations and the collection calendar are ours to keep, so that you can look after sites and clients.
For most companies in this field the answer is an SRL. Liability stays limited to the share capital, there is no minimum capital threshold, the form admits foreign founders, and it is generally what corporate clients and public institutions ask for.
The individual enterprise (ÎI) is not what it appears to be. The law says plainly that it is not a legal person and appears in legal relations as a natural person acting as an individual entrepreneur, and that its holder is liable without limit, with their entire personal estate. For security it is not even on the table: the authorisation is issued to a legal person. For cleaning or back office you can start that way while you work alone — but from the moment you send people into a client’s premises, with machinery and keys, the SRL is the form that keeps your personal money outside the risk.
A joint-stock company (SA) has no place here at the start. It is a form designed for capital brought by several investors, not for a business built out of contracts and crews.
