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If your weekend plans almost always include cleaning your home, you’re not alone. On average, American parents who live with a partner spend 5 hours and 54 minutes per week on cleaning and house work each month—much of which is done on the weekends.
But wait! Aren’t weekends supposed to be relaxing? Or fun? Or both? Of course they are.
But the thing is, there’s always a clock running in the background. In other words, there’s only so much time. How are you supposed to squeeze in everything you want to do in a 48-hour weekend, including the much-needed cleaning that needs to take place?
<blockquote>“Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them.” ~ John Shirley
Now that I’ve thoroughly bummed you out, do you think it’s possible that others in your city feel the same way?
If so, I have a solution. For you and your neighbors.
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Look at Owning a Franchise in the Cleaning Space
In my experience as a franchise broker, this is the point in which most people looking into buying a franchise ask to see other franchise ideas. But why?
When I was a franchise broker, I’d occasionally present cleaning franchises to my candidates. And 90% of the time, here’s what I heard:
“I’m not going to clean houses.”
“I don’t want to clean up after other people. Gross!”
“I can’t see myself being in a business like that. I’d like to own something more upscale.”
Be that as it may, I never took their reactions personally. That’s because I knew things about the business of cleaning that they didn’t.
3 Preconceived Notions About Owning a Cleaning Franchise That are Just Plain Wrong
Let’s see if I can remove some of your possible preconceived notions about cleaning businesses (Full disclosure: I once had them too).
Preconceived Notion #1
“If I buy a cleaning franchise, I’m going to have to do a lot of the cleaning myself, especially if my employees call in sick or don’t show up for work.”
Fact: I’ve worked with several people who ended up buying a cleaning franchise. Not once did they tell me that they had to do the actual cleaning. Consider the following.
When you buy a franchise, you receive a complete, proven business system. In many cases, you will be doing the physical day-to-day work...but not always.
In the case of a service business, like residential cleaning, that system probably includes scheduling software and route software. Both enable you to input changes to account for things like employees calling in sick or vehicle breakdowns.
That said, depending on the franchise, you shouldn’t have to worry about stepping in to do the actual cleaning. Your job is to manage things and build your business. That’s precisely what a franchisor helps you do.
Preconceived Notion #2
“My background and experience as an executive doesn’t seem like it would be a fit for a cleaning franchise.”
Fact: The first time I saw the list of people who owned cleaning franchises, and their previous backgrounds, I couldn’t believe it. Here are some of their former titles:
- CEO
- Senior VP of Marketing
- Director of IT
- Comptroller
- Airline Executive
And why did people with executive and/or upper management experience invest in cleaning businesses?
Because they determined that there was a market for the services and that it would continue to grow. Some of them even used cleaning services themselves. And going back to preconceived notion #1, the main job of a cleaning franchisee is to manage and grow their business, not do the physical work in many cases.
Preconceived Notion #3
“I’m never going to be able to find and keep good employees.”
Never? How do you know?
While it’s true that it may be difficult to find good employees who will stay when you first open your cleaning franchise business, you may find that your employees will stay. You just need to pay them well, treat them well, and provide incentives—just like with any other business.
Experienced franchisees say that to be successful, you need to get to a point where you have a good core group of employees. Because once you have that, you’ll find that if needed, they’ll cover for each other and even help you screen potential new hires. It’s a win-win.
Are You Open to the Idea of Owning a Cleaning Franchise?
Now that you’ve learned a few things about cleaning franchises, are you willing to request information from a few different cleaning franchises?
Suggestions:
Be open to the possibilities!
The Franchise King®, Joel Libava, is a top franchise expert. He’s written over 2,000 different articles on franchise ownership and personally consults with people who are looking to buy a profitable franchise. Go here to find out how The Franchise King® can help you become your own boss.