How to Manage a Successful Commercial Cleaning Franchise
If you want to own a business without starting from scratch, then joining a franchise is an amazing idea.
Or, if you have big plans for the future, becoming a franchise owner might be on your radar. No matter
which one you choose, it’s important to know that cleaning has shown to be much in demand in recent
years, so this can be your industry of choice.
When choosing a cleaning franchise to join or one to create on your own, you should keep in mind their
brand recognition, reliability, support and opportunities. If all of this listed above sounds very attractive
to you, here’s how to manage a successful commercial cleaning franchise and start racking profit right
away:
Create a business plan
If you want to join an already existing franchise, then creating a business plan is much easier. But when
starting from scratch, you need to begin with startup expenses, business name, partnering up, recruiting
staff, business contacts, business office space, etc.—all of this needs to be in your business plan.
And business planning is not a one-and-done activity. In the future, your strategies might change and
your priorities might shift. As your company expands at its own pace, you will have to change your
business plan. But, one is for sure—you’ll not rely on your business plan throughout your company’s
development.
Choose a niche
Professional commercial cleaning has different market sizes. In the beginning, try to focus on a smaller
market like small office buildings. Focusing on your niche allows you to be thorough and careful while
also being profitable.
Work with reliable suppliers
In your line of work, you’ll help offices and companies stay clean, healthy and safe for all users. This is a
crucial service that involves a lot of experience and knowledge of products and equipment. If you join an
existing franchise, you’ll go through extensive training to learn about cleaning techniques, products and
tools.
You might also be tied to certain cleaning necessities suppliers. On the other hand, if you want to be an
independent cleaner, it’s crucial to work with reliable suppliers. It’s also necessary to learn how to stock
properly.
Consider expansion
Before you even start working on your first franchise, it’s smart to include future expansions into your
business plan. For international hiring, you will require collaboration with an international hiring
company to offer you different contractor payroll solutions and ensure easy contingent workforce
payments and invoicing.
This is great for all managers who love some parts of the work but don’t want to mess with the law and
risk any compliance issues. You’ll get all the necessary reminders from your hiring company concerning
timesheet access and payment confirmations as well.
Be flexible
In the cleaning business, you need to be flexible. First of all, you never know what kind of mess you will
run into, so time planning can be tricky. In many parts of the world, offices still work part-time or use
hybrid work hours, meaning you might be able to sneak in some cleaning time during the day.
However, after the pandemic is officially over and businesses start working full-time like before, your
team will need to be cleaning in the evenings or on the weekends. If you’re a night owl, this can be
perfect for you, but otherwise, working nights and weekends can be tricky for many people who are not
flexible.
You can also expect your clients to be quite demanding today, since their employees and customers
expect only the highest levels of cleanliness after the pandemic. This is quite beneficial actually because
it means more business for you, but also more work. You’ll need to practice flexibility in case stay-at-
home orders come up again, but even with these limits in place, expect your business to grow and be
quite secure.
Create good customer service
You or your staff will be cleaning, most likely when there’s no one around. However, every business in
the world is people-oriented, even those that do not require you to communicate with clients face to
face. Every client will have specific demands concerning cleanliness levels, scheduling and services, so
your business needs to listen and make every demand heard.
Today, people are quite anxious about proper hygiene, so it’s important to offer insight into your work,
explain your processes and talk about techniques and concerns. In most cases, this level of customer
service is quite enough for clients to stay loyal customers.
Learn about accounting
In most cases, commercial cleaning franchise owners are required to track their business standings,
including earnings and spending. Accounting is not something everyone knows or loves to do, but when
you’re a part of an established franchise, the process is much easier than with your own firm. For
instance, your franchise might be in charge of pricing, services and billing. The latter one is especially
good to hear because billing directly to customers means much less burden for you.
Conclusion
Today, cleaning is one of the best industries to join as a beginner because there’s much work to go
around and many successful franchises to join. No matter if you want to be independent or a part of a
franchise, expect great success in the near future.
