[sunshine windows]

A Question for all those that have made the decision to franchise their business.

How much are you guys selling your franchises for and how much work, if any, do you start them off with?

Regards,
Lance

[sunshine windows]

I was thinking of starting them on £1k a month's worth of work. Does this sound about right?

If you'd rather not discuss your business model online, please feel free to email me lance@sunshinewindowcleaning.co.uk

Cheers

[Ian101]

prices range from about £5000 to £8000 ish and supply your own van.

if it were me I would start a newbie on about £2000 to £2400 then build him up by £200 a month from month 3 onwards till he said no more please. .... I think your £1000 is a little low IMHO 

[sunshine windows]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

[David Kent @ KentKleen]

Short term loss for long term gain or keep on cleaning windows till your 70?

[8weekly]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

Who wants a £12,000 a year job? Not even that after your 20% plus overheads. I reckon the absolute minimum is £800 a week pretty quickly. It would only take a few weeks to be able to service that amount of work.

But that's the dilemma with franchising isn't it. In the short term you would take less of a hit by employing.

[Ian101]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

you use the fee from the franchisee to either pay someone like paul dale or go canvassing yourself and pay yourself the 1st clean money as a wage plus another clean from the franchisees fees .. so canvass £100 a day and pay yourself £200  ............. IF you can canvass that amount of work than great if not then as you say you gonna loose a chunk of income ... as someone said short tern loss for long term gain.

[Ian101]

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

I would want to clean freshly canvassed work for at least 3 months before passing onto a franchisee to make sure they were "proper" customers. 

[davids3511]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

It would only take a few weeks to be able to service that amount of work.

No, it doesn't. If most of the cleans are new business it takes more than a few weeks to get to £800.00 a week.

[davids3511]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

Its a bit of both. I guarantee £400 a week minimum for 6 months. After that I should be up to whatever the franchisee wants, usually about £800 a week. I am prepared to take the full £400 a week from my round. In practise, I canvas and leaflet like mad and pull in loads of new work (140 new jobs since 1st march, going at about 50% pace) so I don't have to part with much of my own work. You have to be willing to do so though if you have to.

[davids3511]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

Who wants a £12,000 a year job? Not even that after your 20% plus overheads. I reckon the absolute minimum is £800 a week pretty quickly. It would only take a few weeks to be able to service that amount of work.

But that's the dilemma with franchising isn't it. In the short term you would take less of a hit by employing.

How would you take a less hit by employing? My franchisee pays minimum 5k to get started so I'm already 5k up on you and 20% fees every week on-going. No van to pay for either. Also, lets be honest, employing isn't as easy as you make it out. You need to find a good guy (not easy, I've had 3 wasters so far), payroll needs sorting, training, employers liability, time to get up to speed and so on.

[davids3511]

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

I would want to clean freshly canvassed work for at least 3 months before passing onto a franchisee to make sure they were "proper" customers. 

That's not your problem. You get the work, pass it on. Why put yourself through 100's of first cleans when you don't have to.

Also, its a learning experience for the franchisee, if he can get a house that hasn't been cleaned in years right he can get any house right.

Your putting unnecessary work on yourself and unless you have a large alternative income to support the income you've become used to, its not practical. On top of your existing round, you will be cleaning 1.6-2k of new work as well? About 150 first cleans plus your existing round.

[8weekly]

How can you afford to lose £2k's worth of income though?

Would this be freshly canvassed work or jobs you've been servicing yourself for a while?

Cheers

Who wants a £12,000 a year job? Not even that after your 20% plus overheads. I reckon the absolute minimum is £800 a week pretty quickly. It would only take a few weeks to be able to service that amount of work.

But that's the dilemma with franchising isn't it. In the short term you would take less of a hit by employing.

How would you take a less hit by employing? My franchisee pays minimum 5k to get started so I'm already 5k up on you and 20% fees every week on-going. No van to pay for either. Also, lets be honest, employing isn't as easy as you make it out. You need to find a good guy (not easy, I've had 3 wasters so far), payroll needs sorting, training, employers liability, time to get up to speed and so on.

Because assuming the work you pass on is from your own round, I think it would need to be £1,000 a week fairly quickly. If you employ, your outgoings are likely to be half that if they work with you in the same van. I am only talking about the hit from the first franchise. I think moving forward from there, once the round is full with two from one van (for me that would be £450/£500 a day), then is the time to franchise.

I should add that this is just for me in my situation. My wife is likely to be made redundant and we have decided that she doesn't have to go back to work. My window  cleaning business has made that choice possible. 

[sunshine windows]

Well, I've just submitted the model for my 1st (potential) franchisee to my friend, who's doing a Facebook campaign for me to boost my profile around Swindon. He's also going to do an Ad for me to find somebody.

Lots of new work coming in weekly too without any other expense on advertising.

I was lucky enough to get into 'Checkatrade' for free this year and would highly recommend this form of advertising to anyone (I'll be signing up with them again when the free trial ends).

Really hope I can find somebody quickly to make the most of the 'summer' ha ha.