National Cleaning Companies Explained

A national cleaning company is a firm or business that renders commercial janitorial services for establishments or institutions that have several facilities across the country.

Local office cleaning companies offer their services to industries, institutions or offices within their local coverage, while a nationwide cleaning company serves establishments with facilities all over the country. The list goes on but what’s common is that both function to accomplish the same thing—cleaning and tidying business premises in and out.

Irrespective of the locations, you’ll want all clean the same way. A nationwide company is a big company with a national presence. You give instructions on what your needs are, and the information is passed across multiple workers to locations which you need to tidy up. Keep in mind national companies subcontract their projects to local companies. They are simply managing your project. Consider that the saving you are getting because of the volume of work will furthermore be diluted by the national janitorial company when paying their subcontractors. Usually the client charges a square footage price and the subcontractors gets paid an amount calculated by man hours and industrial equipment. The local subcontractor will get a very small portion of your contract amount and with that will be forced to save time and materials at cost of quality. I have seen cases where a subcontractors is paid 3 to 8 cents for a project that pays 35 to 50 cents per square foot.

Even if you have multiple locations across the country, to save you headaches it would be best to allow each location hire their own local commercial cleaning company. It’s easier to track and manage a vendor’s performance when each location has their own  service provider and are free to replace that provider as needed.

What is a janitorial service franchise?

Although this type of company is part of the janitorial service industry, they work very different to national and independent companies.

A key difference is that they make their money selling intangible assets such as cleaning contracts and the use of their exclusive cleaning methods to their franchisees. The reality is that janitorial service is not rocket science.

The franchisees are usually new entrepreneurs chasing an expensive dream sold by the franchise company. Allow me to explain,

The franchise companies make their money only by selling to their franchisees and charging fees such as account, insurance and royalty fees on top of overcharging for their equipment and materials. To start, they sell their franchises for thousand of dollars.

Franchise companies underbid every contract as the value for them is not in servicing the account, but selling the contract. Those contracts are sold for about three times the monthly pay amount of the account. Per say if a client is paying 1000 per month for janitorial service, the franchisee will have to pay 3000 for that account. In addition franchisee will have to pay additional franchise fees such as royalty fees and the cost of the franchise. Also consider, that franchise companies underbid to earn every the contract. Many times underbidding so much that the end franchisee won’t see any profits.

National Cleaning Companies Explained

This business model has many complains throughout the country. Just google “commercial cleaning franchise complaints” and you’ll see more info on this type of scam.

Many clients just don’t care as long as they have a contract for cheap service. But, you should care as that service is performed in your facilities. Those franchisees soon or later will be hit with the reality of the scam and will have no choice but to cut corners or loose their investment. The quality of work and materials will decay, they will start to hire undocumented workers and call them subcontractors to save employer taxes. The workers won’t have any idea they are subcontractors. The insurance company won’t cover the subcontractor of the franchisee and that will leave your company exposed to a lawsuits while all is sorted. Seen it happened many times. The client claims to have a contract with the franchise company. The franchise company will blame it on the franchisee who will them blame the undocumented and unensured subcontractor.

Now you know the franchise business model and their revenue sources. If you still support them as a client or franchisee, shame on you.

If you are currently a franchisee, gather data, hire an attorney and gather others franchisees in the same situation to file a class action suit. Share your experiences so that others won’t fall for it.

Independent janitorial service companies ?

There are thousands of small independent companies throughout the nation. This business structure is the most appropriate to work with. Even national companies and franchise companies seek this type of companies to subcontract their work to.

This type of service providers make their profits by providing a service. Most times these companies have their own employees and understand that providing an awesome service will keep you as a customer. If you come across a company that wants to hire subcontractors just skip it as it would dilute the value of your office cleaning purchasing budget. Why would you want to pay for a middle man for this type of work.

To compare office cleaning business, consider the following:

National, Franchise or Independent?

Licensed business?

Does it have liability insurance, workers comp insurance, bond?

How are their review and references?

Consider pricing?

Read their contract terms?

Check their other services that may be useful to your business.

Consider the tools and materials they propose to use.

How long have they worked in the industry.

Spend a bit of time researching the prospect vendors, It will save you time and money in the long run.

Opinions expressed in this blog are only that, opinions and our own experience. In no way should be considered legal advice.

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