Commercial Cleaning Franchise Complaints
The commercial cleaning gold rush is on, but are franchisees getting the gold mine… or the shaft?
Commercial cleaning is being hyped as the hot, recession-defiant franchise opportunity
The February, 2010 Entrepreneur Magazine states “of the 10 fastest-growing franchises measured by Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500, six were commercial cleaning companies. That’s downright recession-defiant.” In fact, nine of Entrepreneur’s 100 fastest-growing franchises were commercial cleaning companies.
Janitorial franchises have a low cost of entry (Unit level franchises are generally less than $10,000) and don’t require an academic or a professional background, making them attractive to vast numbers of desperate, unemployed or under-employed opportunity seekers. Many allege that some of these companies specifically target recent immigrants or non-English speaking groups.
The complaints behind the hype?
The complaints we’re reading about janitorial and commercial cleaning franchises are remarkably similar from company to company: Franchisees not receiving accounts as promised, franchisees receiving underbid, unprofitable accounts, franchisees having accounts unfairly taken from them and given to other franchisees (to meet the franchisor’s and master franchisee’s obligations), and franchisees being charged excessive fees.
Nearly 10% of Entrepreneur’s “fastest-growing franchises” list are commercial cleaning franchises: #1 Jan-Pro Franchising Int’l Inc., #3 Stratus Building Solutions, #5 Anago Cleaning Systems, #7 CleanNet USA Inc., #8 Bonus Building Care, #10 Vanguard Cleaning Systems, #16 System4, #66 BuildingStars Inc., #91 Mint Condition Franchising Inc.
Janitorial franchises also hyped in the Entrepreneur 500 list include: Jani-King, ServiceMaster Clean, OpenWorks, OctoClean, Office Pride Commercial Cleaning, City Wide Maintenance, Janitize America, and OMEX. (Coverall is conspicuously absent from Entrepreneur’s lists.)
Other commercial cleaning franchises on Entrepreneur.com: BearCom Building Services, Champion Clean, E.P.I.C. Systems Inc., On Target Maintenance, Pro One Janitorial Inc., Service One Janitorial
Please share your experiences and observations – good and bad – with commercial cleaning franchises by leaving a comment below, or on one of the relevant posts.
Commercial Cleaning Franchise Posts & Discussions:
JANI-KING Franchise Complaints
ANAGO CLEANING SYSTEMS Franchise Complaints
OCTOCLEAN Janitorial Services Franchise
JAN-PRO: Janitorial Franchise Warning
CHAMPION CLEAN Using Bogus Franchise Statistics
Commercial Cleaning Franchises: 10 Reasons to NOT Buy One
FTC Guide to Buying a Janitorial Services Franchise
FTC’s Janitorial Franchise Buyer’s Guide
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