If you want to start a window cleaning business, just like many other businesses, we have two options: joining a window cleaning franchise or starting your own from the get-go. Both options have their own benefits and disadvantages, and to help you make the right choice with licensing a window cleaning business franchise, below we will thoroughly discuss both options.
If you plan to join a window cleaning business franchise, the franchisor offers an established (at least, developed) method to run the business. Typically you’ll get ongoing guidance and regular staff training, an established system, and various other types of assistance.
The catch? Typically we’ll need to pay either one-off or periodic franchise fees, and thus it will increase your investment costs. Buying a franchise can be a viable alternative since you’ll get some clear advantages over starting your own window cleaning business from scratch, including:
- If the franchise is already well-established, you can leverage the established brand reputation and image. You can also gain access to the advertising/promotion provided by the franchisor, and other ongoing support so it’s easier to build our client base
- You don’t need any business experience to run a franchise. Typically the franchisor will provide the training you need to operate the business model.
- It’s typically easier to secure financing for purchasing a franchise since the bank/investor can recognize the established brand.
Starting Your Own Window Cleaning Business: Why It’s Better
While the franchising option may seem more appealing at first, based on the pros we’ve discussed above, in most cases franchising isn’t really a good idea in starting a window cleaning business, and here are a few key reasons why:
1. Most Window Cleaning Franchises Aren’t (Yet) Established
A key advantage of franchising any business is to leverage its established reputation and brand. For example, if you want to open a restaurant, by franchising through established brands like Chick-Fil-A, Domino’s, or other established restaurant brands, you can jumpstart your business and get customers the right way since customers are already familiar with these names.
Unfortunately, that isn’t (at least, yet) the case in the window cleaning niche. At the moment there are very few window cleaning franchise opportunities, and most of them can’t yet be considered well-known. So, you don’t really get the benefit of leveraging a recognizable brand via a window cleaning business franchise.
2. Window Cleaning Has a Low Entry Barrier
Another key reason in purchasing a franchise rather than starting your own business from scratch is to gain an advantage from an established system and/or training. However, the window cleaning business by itself is a fairly easy and affordable industry to get into.
Purchasing a franchise can cost you thousands of dollars, and typically you’ll need to pay ongoing fees like purchasing supplies from your franchisor, and more. However, you can actually start a window cleaning business right away for less than $500, and you can even do it part-time as a weekend warrior if you don’t want to quit your full-time job just yet.
What about training? You don’t really need a specialized skill set to perform a window cleaning business, except if you want to tackle niche services like high-rise window cleaning or construction deep cleaning. However, even those can be learned DIY.
Probably the biggest benefit you’ll get from buying a window cleaning business franchise is an established system. However, nowadays there are various tools and software that can help you create an established service business system with ease.
Field service app by fieldd, for example, can be an affordable solution in implementing advanced scheduling to help you ensure timely delivery for each of your window cleaning services. Features like enabling online booking and accepting electronic payments can also help in improving your efficiency.
3. Owning Your Own Profits
As discussed, a typical agreement when buying a window cleaning business franchise will require you to pay a certain amount of money to the franchisor every month or year. In turn, this will increase your cost of starting and running your window cleaning business and may drastically decrease your profits after considering overhead costs, labor expenses, taxes, and other costs. In short, paying this extra money in the window cleaning industry outweighs the benefits you’ll get (if any).
4. You Can Market Your Own Window Cleaning Business Effectively
Another reason for purchasing a franchise is to leverage national advertising and other marketing support you’ll get from your franchisor. However, you can actually market your own window cleaning business just as effectively with these fairly affordable tactics:
- Build a professional-looking and functional website. Online presence is obviously important in this digital age.
- List your business in online business directories and relevant online marketplaces
- Create and optimize your Google My Business/Google Maps listing
- Ask existing customers to leave positive reviews for your business on Google Maps and other relevant sites
- Network with other contractors and local businesses (i.e. realtors, landscapers). You can help them get clients, and they can recommend your service to theirs.
- Cold-calling and going door-to-door to offer your business to commercial buildings and homes remain the quickest and most effective way to get more clients. Even today in 2024, it still works. While it may be quite scary to do at first, it will be worth it.
Conclusion
At the moment, it’s better to start your own window cleaning business from scratch rather than purchasing an existing franchise, mainly because the benefits you’ll get typically won’t justify the extra costs you’ll need to spend on franchising fees and other ongoing costs like purchasing supplies. However, when considering a franchise you may also wish to examine the various marketplaces since there are many great opportunities so make sure to find the best franchises to buy under 10k.
With tools like one we mentioned before, now it’s also much easier to create a streamlined, automated window cleaning business process to help you consistently deliver excellent service and grow your customer base.
