Cleaning & Janitorial Franchises

Janitorial and custodial services are one industry ideally suited to franchising. Got a van? You’re in. Immigrants fresh off the boat can do this. By buying a franchise, you immediately inherit the good name and standing of the company, and you should find many potential customers right away, even in a medium-sized city.

Your biggest problem will be staffing. Like fast food, expect a high turnover and lots of young faces. You will always be looking to expand, so expect to outgrow your home-based business quickly. Getting a small office, especially an industrial space, will be adequate. In the mean time, you can always pick up staff through a temp agency, which is a good way to find prospective laborers.

Make no mistake, cleaning is labor. That’s why everybody’s willing to pay somebody else to do it. Expect long hours, morning, day, and especially night, because offices want cleaning to happen overnight, and you want office contracts. If you even have five businesses that buy your services monthly, you’re pretty well set up. Once you’ve gotten that far, very little can happen to shut you down.

Because you work in a service-oriented industry, you will have to make a name for yourself as a company providing excellent service. That means you will need a close working relationship with your employees. Don’t expect that you’ll eventually be able to just sit in an office all day dispatching maids; that may happen, but before it does, you’ll have to spend some time in those trenches yourself. Especially in the labor industry, employee morale gets a big boost when the boss is right there laboring with them.

Also, while the barriers to entry are ridiculously low, don’t forget about larger scale equipment and services. One way to compete is to offer increased services. Think vacuums, then think carpet steam cleaners, then think floor buffers. And beyond that, think scaffolding and harnesses for cleaning three-story-high windows! Think of having an electrician for changing light bulbs and replacing switches. How about retaining a groundskeeper to mow the grass and trim the hedges? Maybe even consider having a carpenter on hand, so you can say to your clients, “Don’t worry about that door that fell off the hinges or those ceiling tiles that broke; our team will get that for you!” Throw it on the bill.

The better and more comprehensive your services, the more your clients will keep your contract renewed. Best of all, even one happy client will spread your good name through word of mouth.

Virtually any maid, janitorial service, or handyman/maintenance service you’ve ever heard of has franchises available, and they’re all very competitive. A five-figure sum is as high as set-up costs get, and many companies offer financial assistance as well. All of them offer extensive training packages and assistance with equipment and location. One name brand, which you’re sure to recognize, is ServiceMaster Clean, which even offers a $5,000 signing bonus! The core services include landscape maintenance, pest control, disaster response, home and office cleaning, furniture repair, and home inspection. They’re even a Fortune 500 company! That gives you some idea of how far this industry can take you.