There are many commercial cleaning business that offer franchises to people. There are advantages to this system, primarily the cutting out or marketing and insurance costs. However, the end results may not be to your, the franchisee, benefit and liking. In the end, you may find yourself short-changed.

A typical franchise deal goes like this. A normal commercial cleaning business franchiser takes care of the bidding process, which means the franchisee will not have a hand in the negotiations. As typical bidding goes, the customer wants whichever is cheapest, and the franchiser gladly accommodates this need.

The franchiser then gets to sell the cleaning contract to any of its franchisees for a bigger amount, usually double or triple the per month cleaning fee. In order to pay for this account then, the franchisee has to clean the space and honor the contract fro about two or three months. After the account is paid up, the franchiser proceeds to make profits still by getting about 15%-20% franchise fee charge from the franchisee. If for example, you get a cleaning franchise, after you pay for the contract fee, you will have to pay the franchise fee every month, plus you will need to pay for insurance. As long as you keep the account, the franchisee earns this much from you without lifting a finger.

As the franchisee, you start realizing that you are not getting enough profits from your business. You will most likely realize that you are getting about 50% less than what a non-franchised cleaning business could earn. Since you have already paid for the contract, you would not be able to stop the cleaning job right then and there.

Now, instead of turning out quality cleaning work, you start your own cost-cutting measures so you could get a margin for your profits. With the cost of cleaning products alone, you might as well be working for free at this rate. Some of the cost cutting measures you can take are to lessen the time you clean, and lessen the hired help you have. You could also switch to sub standard cleaning agents and equipment.

Once the customer starts noticing the changes in the quality of your cleaning work, and they will, they will be complaining first to the head franchiser who does not take notice of the grievance. Afterwards, the client complains directly to you but you cannot do anything about it anymore, knowing how much money you will be losing if you switch back to quality cleaning.

In eventualities like these, the client is normally locked in a long contract with the franchiser and has to honor that contract or pay the rest and get rid of it. However, the franchiser would decide on taking action by putting you out the door and reselling the contract to a different franchisee. Thus the franchiser gets another big profit from the resale and the customer would be happy, for a bit. And you are out of a cleaning gig.

for more info: How to start a commercial cleaning business