Top 5 Cleaning Franchises

With UK households becoming increasingly time poor and money rich, you can be sure that if something can get dirty, people will be willing to pay to have it cleaned. This is why few franchise industries can claim to have the diversity and amount of opportunities that a cleaning franchise can offer.

The cleaning industry has predominately split into two markets: domestic and commercial. The domestic sector involves your traditional homeowner regularly paying for their house to be cleaned whilst they’re busy at work. The commercial market tends to be more varied and consists of cleaning business premises such as offices, restaurants or factories. Specialising in a niche market, such as window or carpet cleaning, means that franchisees can focus their efforts and build a profitable business that will serve its chosen market. However, it's completely realistic to be able to target several markets successfully.

Why start a cleaning franchise?

The bottom line is that you can create a very lucrative business that will generate profit quickly when you start a cleaning franchise. It can provide flexibility too. You can choose to operate as a part time franchise or run your business on a full-time basis. You can be based from home or a commercial location. For this reason, the cleaning industry appeals to a wide range of entrepreneurs who are seeking low cost franchise opportunities.

There are many avenues that can be explored allowing you to build a franchise business that suits your individual circumstances, interests and talents. If you like taking a hands-on approach, you can keep your franchise small and be actively involved in the workload. If your interests are more managerial in nature, you can oversee a team that completes the work. If you’re after more of a part time franchise then a domestic opportunity may suit your needs better than a commercial type of restoration or clean up business that may be called on 24/7.

Few franchise opportunities offer such a huge range of choices and flexibility; and to top it all off, the industry is growing at a fast pace.

Cleaning franchise opportunities

So, if you want to become your own boss, have a desire to please the customer and the commitment to offer a first-class cleaning service, here are our top five franchise opportunities for you to consider.

Molly Maid

The Molly Maid brand is instantly recognisable, and with 30 years’ experience in the UK, it’s hardly surprising that this is a domestic cleaning franchise that customers know and trust. Over 75 franchisees and their teams service households all over the country. And with 12,000 prospective customers per franchise area, there’s plenty of work to keep them busy and profitable.

To become a Molly Maid franchisee, a minimum investment of £8,000 and a maximum investment of £26,795 is required. This gives you access to the franchise start-up package including cleaning equipment and supplies, as well as advice and support as and when you need it.

Autosmart

If you want the benefits of a cleaning franchise without getting your hands dirty, then Autosmart may be for you. The Autosmart franchising concept is a van franchise opportunity which involves selling award-winning cleaning products to a wide-ranging trade customer base within your own exclusive franchise territory.

The cost of investing in an Autosmart franchise varies depending on the territory chosen, but can start from as low as £20,000. In return for the franchise fee, the earning potential is impressive. Autosmart has been successfully franchising for over 35 years and have experienced continued growth and profit year on year. Now franchising in countries all over the world, and around 120 franchisees in the UK alone, this is an opportunity definitely worth considering.

Nationwide Cleaners

As far as low cost franchise opportunities go, you don’t get much lower than a Nationwide Cleaners franchise. The minimum investment is £4000 and the total investment is only £8,000, and for this generously low investment you can own and operate a team of domestic and commercial cleaners.

No previous sales, marketing or cleaning experience is needed and you can choose to commit full-time or run a part time franchise; as long as you’re passionate and dedicated to running your own business, Nationwide Cleaners will give you all the training you need.

Daily Poppins

Daily Poppins was first established as a home cleaning service in 1997, and since then has continued to grow in both size and profitability. To reach more customers, the first franchise was opened in 2004 providing domestic and commercial cleaning services 365 days of the year. The services that Daily Poppins now offer include intensive carpet and floor cleaning, as well as window and oven cleaning.

From as little as £7,000, you can invest in a Daily Poppins franchise. In return for the franchise fee you’ll receive an iPad with tailored software, a custom-made webpage, and a cloud based management system. As well as an extensive training and mentoring programme, the package also comes with a minimum of 30,000 marketing flyers to help you advertise in your local area.

Merry Maids

This established cleaning franchise has been based in the UK for over 35 years, with more than 100 franchisees operating across the country. Merry Maids prides itself on providing customers with an exceptional domestic cleaning service by ensuring that each franchisee has all the support, guidance and training they need to build a successful and profitable business.

The total investment is £20,000 plus VAT which covers the cost of a comprehensive franchise package. When you become a Molly Maids franchisee you’ll receive training and ongoing support, marketing material (both digital and physical), branded uniforms, products and equipment for cleaning teams as well as financial management support.

So, if you fancy being part of a domestic cleaning service that is consistently ranked as the number one cleaning franchise, Molly Maids may be the opportunity for you.

More Cleaning Franchise Opportunities

We have a large number of cleaning franchise opportunities in our network at the moment. Why not take a look at even more fantastic opportunities that might be better suited to you budget, passions or expertise?

JAN-PRO

This company launched in the US in 1991 and has since developed into a market leading commercial cleaning franchise. JAN-PRO has received numerous awards, including being the number one Commercial Cleaning Franchise in 2018, and taking the number one commercial cleaning spot for an incredible 10 years in the widely respected Entrepreneur magazine rankings.

The established brand provides top notch cleaning services to offices, medical centres and commercial premises in over 11 countries, and to over 40,000 customers a year. The company is hoping to further its coverage in the UK through the franchise model.

There’re two types of franchise opportunity: the Regional Franchise Opportunity and the Single Unit Franchise Opportunity. In the former, franchisees will own a large, exclusive territory with unlimited potential for growth, where they will support Unit Franchise Partners who provide the cleaning service. The latter involves operating under the guidance of the Regional Franchise Partner.

There is lots of support provided to franchisees, and we recommend checking out its client page here to get more details. However, one of the most exciting elements of the Regional Franchise Training opportunity is the chance to take a two-week paid-for trip to Atlanta for training.

There is a minimum investment of £9,000 and a total investment of £15,000 required.

Ovenclean

Ovenclean is a UK-based oven cleaning specialist and subsidiary of Franchise Brands plc. You may have already seen the brand advertised on TV. There are number perks to starting an Oven Clean franchise but let’s explore some of the biggest in more detail…

The marketplace is pretty much untapped, so you don’t need to worry about your services not being in demand. Also, there are unlimited earnings, with scope to earn over £1,000 a week! The working hours are flexible, which should promote a healthier work life balance, where you can fit work around other commitments. And, there is an intensive training course and personalised business mentor that will help get you up to speed with the brand’s high standards.

The investment cost for this unique franchise opportunity is around £15,000.

Safeclean

This is another more specialist cleaning franchise, this time tackling carpet and upholstery cleaning. Safeclean has over half a decade of experience under its belt so it clearly has heaps of industry-specific expertise that it can transfer to its franchisees.

There are plenty of options when it comes to running your own Safeclean franchise. You could act as a sole trader or take more of a managerial role and hire a team of employees to operate from numerous vans.

The franchise was one of the original members of the bfa, and ever since has been dedicated to providing continual support to its franchisees. This is realised through an intense initial training programme which will educate franchisees on all aspects of the business, including finance, technical skills and more. It doesn’t stop there either, as there are more courses that franchisees can attend even after they’ve been up and running for a while.

The minimum investment required by Safeclean is £15,000 and the total investment is around £30,000.

Becky Martin, Point Franchise ©