It can be difficult to enter the world of commercial cleaning as a new business. The bigger companies have already established their brand and marketing and built up a loyal customer base, making the prospect of competing against them daunting.
With a commercial cleaning franchise, you will be able to skip a lot of the stress of getting started as you will be able to take full advantage of the franchisor’s reputation and business model to get started.
We’ve put together a few tips below on how to get started with your cleaning franchise business, helping you to get from inception to a place where you feel settled enough to start thinking about growth and expansion.
1. Choosing the Right Cleaning Franchise
The first thing you’ll notice as you start carrying out research into the various cleaning franchises available to you is that there are a lot of them. Each franchise will have its own tried-and-tested business model, company values and business goals.
There will be plenty of cleaning franchises that don’t share your own values or goals for the future so take your time, sifting through each potential franchisor, making note of their services, the cost of investment and what type of franchise they are.
If you’re looking to go into business as a commercial cleaner, you’re probably going to want to avoid housekeeping franchises, domestic cleaning franchises and industrial cleaning franchises. It’s highly likely, they won’t share your business goals and you wouldn’t be able to get much – if anything – out of a partnership with them.
Try to also consider the brand of the commercial cleaning franchise. Ask yourself:
- How widespread is their brand?
- What kind of marketing do they do?
- What is their reputation within the industry?
- What do their customers think of their services?
If their marketing is successful and their reputation positive, they will prove to be a strong choice for partnership as you will be able to have more trust and faith in how they will help you and your business to grow.
It’s also worth considering what you can bring to the table in order to sweeten the deal. Perhaps you specialise in a specific cleaning service that will expand the services offered by the potential franchisor.
Perhaps, you find yourself in a location not currently served by the franchise, whether it be their head office or their secondary offices. This will give them an opportunity to expand to a new region or city while you get the benefits of their experience and industry knowledge.
2. The Investment and Finances of a Commercial Cleaning Franchise
Before selecting the perfect commercial cleaning franchise for you though, it’s important to consider the investment cost.
Total Clean Franchise’s investment costs start at £20,000 but during your research, you will find other franchises have different costs, whether that be more or less expensive. The cleaning franchise you choose will need to fit into your personal business budget.
After investing, you will need to select the type of business plan you want which will affect the monthly turnover you receive from our franchise. This initial turnover will be guaranteed and will lead to the appropriate profit for the size of the business you’re running for the franchisor.
Cleaning franchises will also have contracts. This will take the form of an ongoing fee that you, the franchisee, will pay to the franchisor. Take the time to research or communicate with the company what this price might look like for you.
Remember, you may leave the franchise at any point if you feel like it’s not working out for you or if you’re ready to take your commercial cleaning business independent. A cleaning franchise with a clear and organised financial plan will make this an easier process for you.
3. Commercial Cleaning Training and Support
As we mentioned earlier, starting out with your first business in the commercial cleaning industry can be daunting, even if you choose the franchising route.
Luckily, when you become a part of a franchise, you will have full access to a wide range of training and support services, designed to help you get to grips with the franchisor’s business model and get you on top of your administrative and financial duties and responsibilities.
Take full advantage of these services when you’re starting out with your business. The process will be easier if you have prior management experience but it will still be useful in learning to adapt those skills to a commercial cleaning model to ensure you can work with the franchisor to grow both your business and their brand and reap the benefits of their industry knowledge.
These training resources will also help you to get to grips with workforce management, staff training and getting up to scratch with specialist skills and health and safety. This will help you to provide the best quality services to your customers without any of the stress that comes with it.
4. Building a Loyal Customer Base
As part of the support that franchisors offer their franchisees, they bring a number of set customers to the business to help you get started, saving you time on finding your own customers and building a rapport.
These customers will come to you with a pre-established trust in your services due to your business bearing the brand of the franchisor. This reputation will be a great help in getting your business off the ground but after receiving your customers, it’s going to be up to you to maintain that public perception in order to retain customers and win them on your own merits as well.
When you’re starting out with your commercial cleaning franchise business, you’re going to be relying on a combination of the franchisor’s image and the quality of the services you provide.
Customer retention is how your business will eventually grow and expand in the future. You will have less control over who these customers are in the beginning so it’s important to think about your various skills and expertise and how you can adapt them to a wide range of industries.
For example, you may have customers within the:
- Healthcare industry
- Education industry
- Retail industry
- Hospitality industry
While your services can benefit every industry, each one will have specific needs and goals that your cleaning expertise will help them to reach.
Hospitals and dental practices will need specialist deep cleaning services to avoid cross-contamination of medical tools and protect vulnerable patients while shops and hotels in retail and hospitality will have a focus on exterior window cleaning and pressure washing to ensure they always look appealing and satisfy their customers.
Head into your cleaning franchise business with an understanding of how each business you’ll be cleaning for works so that you can tailor your services accordingly and help them reach their own business goals.
5. Commercial Cleaning Resources
While carrying out your cleaning work, the cleaning franchise will get you started with a set of brand cleaning products used by the company, allowing you to save money while you get settled.
As a professional and established company, the franchisor will have specialist and high-quality cleaning supplies. Total Clean Franchise, for example, will be able to provide you with their own custom brand of cleaning products known as Total Defence.
The support of the franchise is everything to a business just starting out under the brand so make full use of the products to give your customers a cleaning service they’re both familiar with and have faith in.
You will eventually be expected to purchase and stock your own cleaning supplies so make sure to take some time to research the various brands and equipment used by specialist cleaning companies so that when you are operating under your own steam, you can still provide the high quality service your customers are used to.
Budgeting will be an important part of this so consider the costs of the individual products as well. If you’re choosing sustainable cleaning products similar to Total Clean’s signature Total Defence range, you may be looking at a bigger expense. However, green products often last longer than chemical cleaners, making them more cost-effective in the long run.
Other resources you can take advantage of when starting your business include:
- Marketing resources – take advantage of the image and brand of the franchisor to get more publicity and draw in customers.
- Software and management tools – these will help you to run your business more efficiently with trusted applications and programs that have seen use and success in the professional industry.
Don’t forget that when starting out with your cleaning business, you should start small. Take time to build your skills, customer base and management experience and don’t forget that the franchise will be there to support you with whatever you need.
After that, you can turn to focusing on growing and expanding your business, taking advantage of new advancements in the field and using innovative technology to enhance your cleaning processes. You will be able to start attracting customers independently of the franchise’s support and your business will start to feel like your own in no time.
For more information, check out our articles on how cleaning franchises work and what the benefits of investing with a franchise are. For more information or to find out more about how our franchising opportunities can help you, get in touch today.
