What does a low cost cleaning franchise actually include?
A low cost cleaning franchise is a commercial janitorial unit franchise. You buy a package from a regional master franchisor, and the package is a promised volume of monthly billing from office, medical, retail or industrial accounts that the master franchisor sells and bills. You clean those accounts, usually after hours, and the master franchisor pays you the billing minus royalties, fees and sometimes an accounts-receivable charge.
That is a very different product from the residential maid franchises that cost $93,000 or more. With Molly Maid or Merry Maids you buy a territory and build a company with crews. With a janitorial unit franchise you buy accounts and, at the cheapest level, a job. Three of the biggest unit-franchise brands say so in their own way:
- Coverall describes packages that come with customer accounts, a minimum cash requirement of $4,000, and in-house financing for the rest of the fee (Coverall: franchise cost).
- Jan-Pro sells through local Regional Development offices, which set the packages and pricing available in each market, and says many owners begin servicing their first customer accounts within weeks of training (Jan-Pro: franchise cost).
- Stratus Building Solutions offers a Janitorial Unit Franchise for people who want to start small with a low initial investment, and a separate Master Franchise for experienced business executives (Stratus: franchise opportunities).
The fee you pay scales with the billing you are promised. A $3,000 package might come with a few hundred dollars a month of accounts. A $40,000 package comes with enough billing to hire a crew. “Under $5,000” means the smallest package, so read every number below as the price of a starter, not a company.
How much do Jan-Pro, Coverall and Stratus unit franchises cost?
Initial investments start at $4,725 (Stratus), $4,830 (Jan-Pro) and $17,917 (Coverall, with a $4,000 cash minimum and financing for the rest), and run to $58,070, $62,908 and $79,750 at the top of each range. Coverall posts its figures on its own site; Jan-Pro and Stratus do not post dollar ranges, so theirs come from their Entrepreneur Franchise 500 directory listings, which draw on each brand’s disclosure document.
| Brand | Initial franchise fee | Initial investment | Royalty and ad fee | Other posted terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverall | $15,570 to $40,320, by package | $17,917 to $62,908 | Not posted on the cost page | $4,000 minimum cash; in-house financing |
| Jan-Pro Cleaning & Disinfecting | $2,520 to $44,000 | $4,830 to $58,070 | 10% royalty, 1% ad royalty, technology fee up to $60 a month | 10-year term, renewable; in-house financing; 12,455 units |
| Stratus Building Solutions | $3,600 to $69,000 | $4,725 to $79,750 | 5% royalty, ad royalty up to 1% | 12-year term, renewable; $2,000 cash requirement; 5,176 units |
How to read the table:
- The low end is the starter package. Jan-Pro’s $2,520 fee and Stratus’ $3,600 fee buy the smallest volume of accounts each brand sells.
- The royalty is a share of billing, not profit. Jan-Pro’s 10% plus 1% comes off the top of every invoice the master franchisor collects for you. Any management, accounting or insurance charges in Item 6 come off next.
- Financing the fee is common. Coverall and Jan-Pro post in-house financing. A financed fee is a loan you repay from the same billing the royalty comes out of.
- Unit counts are huge. Jan-Pro’s 12,455 units and Stratus’ 5,176 are counts of unit franchisees, many of them individuals cleaning a few accounts. That is the scale of the model, and it is why support per owner is thin.
What is left after royalties on a small package?
On a hypothetical $4,000 a month of accounts, Jan-Pro’s posted 10% royalty and 1% ad fee take $440 a month, and Stratus’ posted 5% plus 1% take $240, before any other Item 6 charges, before supplies, and before your own labor. The example below uses round numbers and the posted rates; your disclosure document is the only source for the real deductions.
| Hypothetical month | At Jan-Pro’s posted 10% + 1% | At Stratus’ posted 5% + 1% |
|---|---|---|
| Billing on your accounts | $4,000 | $4,000 |
| Royalty and ad fee | $440 | $240 |
| Supplies and equipment (assumed 6%) | $240 | $240 |
| Insurance, fuel, phone (assumed $250) | $250 | $250 |
| Left for your labor and loan payment | $3,070 | $3,270 |
Cleaning $4,000 of small commercial accounts is roughly 80 to 120 hours a month of night work. Divide what is left by those hours and compare it with the hourly wage a local janitorial employer pays. Then subtract the monthly payment on a financed fee. If the result is below the wage, the franchise is paying you less than a job would, for the privilege of owning the accounts. Ask the master franchisor what happens to your billing when an account cancels, and whether you are guaranteed replacement accounts or only offered them.
For a view of what independent commercial cleaners charge for the same work, see our guide to starting a commercial cleaning business.
Is there a cleaning franchise under $1,000?
No legitimate cleaning franchise opens for under $1,000, and the law explains why an offer at that price should worry you. The FTC Franchise Rule at 16 CFR 436.8 exempts a relationship from the disclosure requirements when the total of the required payments to the franchisor within the first six months is less than $735 (16 CFR Part 436). An “under $1,000 franchise” structured to stay below that line owes you no disclosure document, no Item 19, no Item 20 list of owners to call, and no 14-day waiting period.
Low-dollar offers you will see, and what each one usually is:
- A “down payment” on a unit franchise. Coverall’s $4,000 minimum cash is the entry to a $15,570 to $40,320 fee; the rest is financed. The down payment is not the price.
- A business opportunity, not a franchise. Cleaning “systems” sold with supplies and a manual but no brand or ongoing control may be covered by the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule instead, with a different, thinner disclosure.
- A subcontract dressed as ownership. Some sellers call a cleaning route a franchise. If you cannot sell it, cannot set prices and cannot refuse accounts, it is a job with a fee.
Anything under $5,000 that calls itself a franchise and operates in the United States should hand you a disclosure document at least 14 calendar days before you pay or sign. If it does not, walk away. This is general information, not legal advice; a franchise lawyer can tell you which rule a given offer falls under.
What have courts said about janitorial unit franchises?
The question that follows these franchises into court is whether the cheapest unit franchisees are owners or employees. In Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, the Ninth Circuit considered Jan-Pro’s three-tier structure (franchisor, regional master franchisees, unit franchisees), held that California’s Dynamex ABC test applies retroactively, and sent the case back to the district court to apply all three prongs of that test to the unit franchisees’ claims, including whether unit franchisees are necessary to Jan-Pro’s business and whether Jan-Pro holds itself out as a cleaning business (Ninth Circuit opinion, No. 17-16096, February 2, 2021).
That case does not decide what you are in your state, and employment tests differ by state. It does tell you what to look at before you buy a small package:
- Who finds and bills the customers? If the master franchisor does both and you only clean, your “business” is the labor.
- Can you grow outside the system? Ask whether you may sell your own accounts, keep them if you leave, and hire your own staff.
- What does Item 3 list? Item 3 of every FDD discloses material litigation involving the franchisor. Read it for cases brought by unit franchisees.
- What do former owners say? Item 20 lists franchisees who left in the last year. Call several.
What are the affordable alternatives to a janitorial unit franchise?
You have three: a home-based franchise in a different niche for about $50,000, a residential franchise with financing for about $93,000, or an independent cleaning business for a few thousand dollars with no royalty. The third is where most people searching for a cheap cleaning franchise end up, because the thing they wanted was low risk, not a brand.
Home-based franchises around $50,000
Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning posts a $47,900 franchise fee that includes a protected territory of up to 110,000 households and the carpet and upholstery equipment, with a flat royalty of $475 a month and a national advertising and technology fee of 3% of sales, minimum $150 a month (Oxi Fresh: investment). Entrepreneur lists its total initial investment at $50,700 to $87,304 (Entrepreneur Franchise 500: Oxi Fresh). That is ten times a starter janitorial package, but it is a territory and a daytime business, not a night route.
Residential franchises with financing
Two Maids posts a total investment of $93,440 to $149,890 with in-house financing of up to $32,000 for qualified candidates (Two Maids: investment). Our cleaning business franchise guide compares the maid brands and their royalties.
Independent, under $5,000
An LLC filing, general liability insurance, a janitorial bond, a starter kit of supplies and booking software usually come in under $5,000, and nothing comes off the top of each invoice. The step-by-step is in how to start a cleaning business, and the cost lines are in cleaning business insurance.
| Path | Cash to start (posted or typical) | Ongoing fees to a franchisor | Who finds the clients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janitorial unit franchise, starter package | $2,000 to $5,000 down, fee financed | 5% to 11% of billing plus Item 6 charges | The master franchisor |
| Home-based niche franchise (Oxi Fresh) | $50,700 to $87,304 | $475 a month plus 3% of sales | You, with the brand’s call center and marketing |
| Residential franchise (Two Maids) | $93,440 to $149,890, up to $32,000 financed | Set in the FDD | You, with the brand’s marketing |
| Independent cleaning business | Usually under $5,000 | None | You |
Can you get the franchisor’s systems without the franchise?
Mostly yes. What a unit franchisor does for its cheapest owners is sell the accounts, bill them, schedule the work and collect the money. The selling you have to do yourself. The billing, scheduling and collecting are software, and software does not take 11% of every invoice.
Broombook is one option for an independent owner: online booking, recurring scheduling, a reminder the day before each visit, card payments and a receipt after each charge. It is free for an owner with up to 2 cleaners, or $39 a month on Pro for a bigger crew, with no credit card to start. We make it, so the honest scope is that it fits residential and small commercial cleaning companies; it does not bring you accounts, and it has no QuickBooks sync, no native app-store app and no invoices with net terms. If you need those, start with the cleaning business software comparison.
The selling is the part people buy a cheap franchise to avoid, and it is learnable. Our guide on getting commercial cleaning contracts walks through the walk-through, the bid and the follow-up that a master franchisor’s sales rep does for a cut of your billing.
If you still want a franchise after reading the FDD, buy the biggest package you can afford rather than the smallest. The starter packages exist to get you in the door; the economics only work at the volume where you can hire. And whatever you buy, read Items 3, 5, 6, 17 and 20 with a lawyer before the 14 days run out.