When Dan Bishop founded The Maids Home Services more than 20
years ago, the typical residential cleaning franchisee was a
part-timer running the business out of his or her home. Bishop was
looking for something different for his franchise. "We took
somewhat of an opposite tact and targeted businesspeople" to
become franchisees.
When he went after this market, though, Bishop encountered some
resistance-this potential batch of franchisees associated running a
residential cleaning business with getting out the mop and broom.
"In the early days, it was very difficult to get a corporate
person excited about [the concept] of cleaning," he says.
Yet thanks to technology initiatives and rising demand for these
services, more corporate employees are getting very excited about
the concept of cleaning. Today a typical franchisee for The Maids,
Molly Maid Inc., Merry Maids or other residential cleaning
franchises runs his or her business from a corporate office, has
dozens of employees and hundreds of clients. Some are running
multiple locations and earning revenues into the millions.
Content Continues Below
"Our society is changing. Over the last 10 years, the
consumer demand for housecleaning has been very high, because both
people in the home work. Basically, nobody has time to clean
anymore," says Vance Mehrens, vice president for Merry Maids.
"Because of that, [corporate types] have seen that the
opportunities are great."
To take advantage of these opportunities, franchisors are
seeking and catering to more business-minded prospects. "We
stopped looking for people seeking a supplemental income, and we
ratcheted up the [initial investment] amount. We also made it much
more of an executive-type franchise," says Greg Longe,
president and CEO of Molly Maid. "We set them up to become a
bigger enterprise, so we needed people who had the goal and
ambition to build a big business."
Management experience is key for prospects. "Probably the
most ideal background is someone who's had experience dealing
with and managing service workers," Mehrens says. "Our
[employees] are the key to our successful business, so experience
in hiring the right people and motivating service-level workers is
beneficial."
The adaptation and implementation of different technology has
also been beneficial to residential cleaning franchises. The Maids
has GPS installed in all its cars. Merry Maids franchisees use the
Web-based Media Builder program to create customized ads, coupons
and flyers. Molly Maid created the Customer Care program to help
franchisees with planning, scheduling and other administrative
tasks. "We recognized the lift [the burden] of some of this
forecasting and scheduling in order to allow the franchisees to
spread their wings," Longe says of Customer Care.
While bigger is better in today's residential cleaning
franchises, there's still room in some systems for smaller
owner/operators. "Smaller towns in particular always have
areas with room for growth. We do have franchisees who are very
happy operating a small business, and are comfortable with the
income the business produces," Longe says. "Obviously,
everybody is looking for the larger franchisees, but given certain
circumstances, we still bring in smaller owners from time to
time."
Overall, though, residential cleaning franchises are going to
continue to think big when looking toward the future. "I see
very aggressive multi-store operators coming on board," Bishop
says. "Franchisees aren't just limited to their own cities
anymore, so multi-city operators and people who have that kind of
experience are the ones we're talking to today."