Seriously thinking about franchising your cleaning business? Want to know what steps to take to get a cleaning business franchise up and running? Episode 177 Matteo Spadafora of Maids Los Angeles & Maids Santa Monica In today’s podcast/blog Mike coaches Matteo Spadafora, owner of Maids Los Angeles and Maids Santa Monica on how to set up a cleaning business franchise. Matteo came to the US from Italy 3 years ago. He then applied for an investor visa to get his green card. Two years ago ended up buying the cleaning company that was cleaning their own apartment. Matteo worked part time with another company while running his own company but then a year ago left the other company and went full time in his own. Since then Matteo’s cleaning company grew 200% in 2016 and is projected to grow another 200% in 2017! Curious how Matteo did it?…..So glad you asked! Matteo tested everything! He researched which marketing company had the highest success rate and worked with them. He also used Yelp, HomeAdvisor , Google Adwords, Yellow Pages, BOMA and ARCSI. RESOURCE ALERT: Check out our episode with special guest Steffanie Finkiewicz from HomeAdvisor Not only did he join BOMA and ARCSI but Matteo got certified through them. He also tried fliers, magnets, referral programs, review incentives, created videos and now is even going into joint ventures. Mike gives Matteo lots of love on his hard work and encourages cleaning nation on finding another company that serves your exact customer and offer each other’s services to each of your customer bases! RESOURCE ALERT: For an awesome episode on getting the ball rolling on Join Ventures CLICK HERE. In short, Matteo tried multiple marketing avenues and kept working at them until they started clicking! So many people say “Oh I tried yelp (or any other venue) once and it didn’t work” – but, many marketing efforts won’t work like gangbusters the first time out. You put in a dollar and get nothing back so you give up and assume all “marketing” doesn’t work. You have to test and test, improve and keep improving. It’s all about getting your message and method perfected for your customer. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time around. Once perfected, you will be able to put money in and expect a multiplier of that to come back out. Now that we know how Matteo did so well, Matteo would like to know how to set up his cleaning business franchise and give other entrepreneurs the opportunity to share in his success. Before you start down that path, you need to know what type of cleaning business franchise you want to be. There are two main ways to franchise a cleaning business, the dominant way is where you go get the clients and then instead of hiring W2 employee you would “hire” your franchisees and give them 80% of the money you collect. So you would be responsible for the marketing, build the client base and billing the clients. You would and handle everything except servicing the contracts and managing cleaning equipment etc. RESOURCE ALERT: We recently had guest expert Stephen Coade, founder of AMC Commercial Cleaning on the show who’s franchise does exactly that. Click HERE to check that episode out. The second way is to get an upfront investment to get started and then receive 6-10% of everything they make after that. With that initial investment you would provide your franchisee with training, your logos, website, and systems and processes to running the business, hiring and firing, uniforms, marketing etc.. RESOURCE ALERT: Check out this episode HERE with guest expert David Luke, founder of the Two Maids and a Mop who’s franchise model is more like this. First, you will need to decide which of these models you want to do. Second, if your cleaning company does both commercial and residential, Mike recommends you choose one. Don’t try to sell a cleaning business franchise that serves both. In general, Mike recommends clearly defining your target market, knowing them better than anyone else and pursuing only those ideal customers. With franchising it almost becomes a requirement. In order for your business to be successful you must know your customer inside and out. Dividing your focus between residential and commercial clients is going to make it tough for you be the expert in either field. Third, creating a cleaning business franchise is a huge undertaking. It is going to require a lot of focus and money. You don’t want to have too many things spinning. If you want to create a franchise you should make it your only goal for the next 2-3 years. KEY POINT: Owning a franchise is very different than owning a cleaning company. In the cleaning business you are in the business of client attraction, day to day operations and employee management. With a cleaning business franchise you are in the franchisee selling business, once you sell a franchise you have to have systems and processes that are foolproof so that your franchisees are getting their money’s worth. You should spend the next 2-3 years documenting and perfecting your systems and processes so that they are bulletproof. Fourth, open up 2-4 locations that are company owned and getting results. You want to know you can open up a location and within 12 months, are profitable. Mike suggested up to 200k with a net profit of 40k etc. and are confident it’s repeatable. Fifth and finally, once you’re at about 70% of the way there and know your system will work for a franchisee as long as they follow the system, work with a consultant who knows the legal system well. They will ensure all of the legalities and contracts are done correctly to protect both you and your franchisees. Now that you know how to get started on creating your cleaning business franchise Matteo shares the love and genius in the…