For most people who are thinking about opening their own businesses, they usually get faced with the small dilemma of “to franchise or not to franchise”. Well, you may or may not have encountered this problem during your cleaning business startup period, but then this is something that might come up sooner or later.
The Advantages of Franchising
For one, the advantage of going for a franchise is that your cleaning business’ marketing is what you can say “have already won half the battle”. When you go for a cleaning business franchise, you are bringing with you a name that has already developed and established a reputation in the market. So your marketing can take it a notch lower and be a bit more relaxed in that aspect.
The house cleaning business is basically about effective and efficient cleaning. So if the franchise you bought does have that reputation, then people most likely will be coming to you before you know it.
Aside from a good name and easy cleaning business marketing and advertising, franchising offers quite a number of benefits for the small business owner such as you. When you go for a franchise, you buy a business, packaged deal. So along with the name, you are licensed to carry the logo, the mission and vision, and whatever rights the business has. Also it provides you with guidelines and an outline on how things are done to maintain the standard of the franchise. In other words, it is like a do-it-yourself kit wherein you put something together yourself, but it comes with an instruction manual and all the parts and tools needed. Definitely it is a packaged deal.
The Disadvantages of Franchising
Now, if there are advantages, there are also some disadvantages. First of all, you have to abide by all the conditions and standards of the company that you are franchising. Second, you buy the franchise and this will cost you more as compared to if you just put up your own from scratch. You also have to consider that the bigger the name of the business, the higher the cost. The more established the business, the more expensive it will be. That is because you are basically buying the franchise, not for the tools, equipment and such, but for the name. Just like signature items, you are basically paying for the name, and second come the other things. So if your cleaning business startup capital is only so much, this can be quite heavy for you. And lastly, if your business violates their terms and conditions, they can take the franchise from you and assume management. So think about these before deciding for your house cleaning business.