Cleaning Franchise - What do you think? | FerrariChat

Cleaning Franchise - What do you think?

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Furby, Apr 25, 2004.

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  1. Furby

    Furby Rookie

    Feb 10, 2004
    48
    Rome, Italy
    Hi guys!

    Me and my family are coming to the uk next year (from Italy), and I was thinking of starting some new franchises over there, with my dad, for example cleaning services. However I also realise that franchises require substantial amounts of investment.

    I researched, and I mainly came up with to franchises: Ecocleen, and Chemdry.

    Im sure that a lot of you know about chemdry, since it seems to be quite famous in the uk. Ecocleen is fairly new, no more than 5 years old, but seems to be growing fast. Chemdry is famous, and I suppose that there are more chemdry franchises than ecocleen franchises, and this may actually favour ecocleen, since with less franchises, and with areas for expansion/growth, ecocleen may offer more rewards than chemdry.

    Did you guys ever think of starting with cleaning franchises? I thought that cleaning franchises were especially good investments, since they do not require particular large amounts of investments (I figured out that with 25k pounds, you can start well off with ecocleen). But the thing is that there is a lot of demand for them.

    Can you guys suggest me some other types of franchises? I also wanted to get into real estate, but I have my doubts (well not really, im just too lazy to buy a book which explains facts about investing in realestate :D )

    The main problem is getting the funds necessary, inorder to invest into those businesses. We are not that well off...
     
  2. wax

    wax Five Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Jul 20, 2003
    52,419
    SFPD
    Full Name:
    Dirty Harry
  3. Furby

    Furby Rookie

    Feb 10, 2004
    48
    Rome, Italy
    I looked at Merry Maids... Hmmm it's interesting...
    It's a bit confusing, chemdry and merry maid both claim to be the #1 in the uk. Advertisment and marketing I guess :)

    I was pretty sold out with ecocleen, since it's actually new. That means that it is in constant development, and there are not so many franchises in ecocleen than in chemdry or merry maid. That should mean that it actually is a golden opportunity?

    Guys if any of you have some opinions, tell me :)
    Thank you
     
  4. 456mgt

    456mgt Formula Junior

    Mar 24, 2002
    628
    Cambridge UK
    Full Name:
    Kevin
    Furby,
    I know these companies, as a customer, and I suspect that running one will prove a MAJOR PITA for you. It's a commodity play, high staff turnover business. In fact the gap in the market that I see is for rental & holiday lets. These are on the increase here, and I can tell you from experience that finding a company that will do changeovers for this type of property is ridiculously difficult. It's not a business model that interests me if you want to know why I'm not already doing it.

    Kevin
     
  5. Furby

    Furby Rookie

    Feb 10, 2004
    48
    Rome, Italy
    Thanks for the reply!

    I actually liked the idea of cleaning franchises because of the relatively low start up costs (15k-30k pounds to buy the franchise, and 10k pounds for the capital), and because there always is a demand for cleaning! I actually know that because my parents clean some offices, and there is always demand for cost effective quality cleaning (good offices, owned especially by aesthetic practicians and rich lawyers, encourage quality at the expense of price, although these types of offices are somewhat hard to find). However I acknowledge what you are try to say, I think I deduced that this type of business required a lot of staff. Ecocleen gives an example of a franchise which earns a profit of 100k pounds per year, but has a turnover of 400k pounds. I calculated that there seems to be a profit of 20-30% from the turnover. Therefore a cleaning franchise which has a turnover of 1 million pounds, makes a profit of just around 250k pounds (which is still not bad! :p ).

    Kevin, you seem very knowledgeful about these types of businesses. Can you suggest me some types of franchises with which to start? Im interested at the lowstart up costs ones, because we don't have a lot of funds to spend on. Are there some golden opportunities? :D

    Thanks!
     
  6. 456mgt

    456mgt Formula Junior

    Mar 24, 2002
    628
    Cambridge UK
    Full Name:
    Kevin
    Furby- you have pm.

    Kevin
     
  7. Furby

    Furby Rookie

    Feb 10, 2004
    48
    Rome, Italy
    if anyone has more opinions id be happy to hear them :D
     
  8. Furby

    Furby Rookie

    Feb 10, 2004
    48
    Rome, Italy
    tiny bump :p
     

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