Jani-King offers prospective franchisees the opportunity to build a business around cleaning residential and commercial properties for profit. The reality is commercial buildings, malls, schools, offices, and other public spaces need to be sanitized regularly. It’s easier for many of these locations to contract out their cleaning services since they don’t need to deal with hiring, paying for employee benefits, and creating a new silo of employees within the company.

Jani-King is one cleaning business that’s well known in the United States and abroad. They boast a network of 9,000 franchisees and offer cleaning / disinfecting services.

How much does it cost to open a Jani-King? Jani-King has not disclosed their financial requirements to anyone. Rather, they encourage you to inquire first about the opportunity so they can draft up a franchise plan for you. An estimate of their financial requirements starts with an investment of $13,000 to $218,000.

If this opportunity caught your attention, read my full franchise review below or take our quiz to be matched with a custom opportunity based on interest and financial resources. This is a company with a history of bad franchise reviews online and even lawsuits that you must understand about before signing an agreement. Let’s dive in.

Financial Requirements and Fees

Jani-King does not disclose their financial requirements to franchise their business on their website since they offer a range of franchise plans. If you’re interested, you can send them an inquiry by completing the form here. The fees here are estimates based on research.

Jani-King also requires a royalty fee that is 10% of the monthly gross revenue. There is also a marketing fee of 1.5% added to this number.

The term of agreement to run a unit franchise for Jani-King is 10 years while master franchises have an exclusive 20 year agreement.

A master franchise’s initial investment is also different than unit franchises. Master franchises start with a minimum investment of $100,000 in the United States and $250,000 in international locations. Meanwhile, an International Master Franchise starts at $200,000 but can change depending on the population, territory, and other factors.

Average Sales / Revenue per Year

Jani-King’s system-wide revenue has reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Total sales from franchisees all over the world reached $774 million in 2020. The company has enjoyed annual revenue increases since 2015.

As for their average revenue per country, Jani-King has not disclosed this information.

Jani-King Franchise Facts

Jani-King was founded by Jim Cavanaugh in 1968. Working as a night auditor at a hotel made him conceptualize doing janitorial services for offices. A year later, he was able to launch Jani-King and by 1974, he was able to franchise the business.

The service that Jani-King offered as well as their credibility has led them to be recognized by Entrepreneur magazine in the 1980s as the number 1 Commercial Cleaning Franchisor. Entrepreneur magazine also ranked them in 1998 as the number 1 Maintenance Franchise. Jani-King has also been ranked number 1 in its Top 200 International Franchise list.

Jani-King offers a comprehensive list of cleaning services:

• Office and Building Cleaning
• Hotel/Resort Housekeeping
• Hospital and Healthcare Services
• Manufacturing Facility Cleaning
• Bank Cleaning
• Stadium and Event Cleaning
• Government Building Cleaning
• Retail Cleaning
• Restaurant Cleaning
• School and University Cleaning
• Casino Cleaning Services

Jani-King operates in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Hong Kong, Australia, Great Britain, France, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Turkey, and Taiwan.

Jani-King is known to have different franchise plans to cater to interested franchisees. They have a Unit Franchise Plan, a Master Franchise Plan, and an International Master Franchise Plan.

Unit Franchises are for individual business owners who want a basic franchise package. Think of it as a single unit franchise opportunity.

A Master Franchise Plan is for professionals with business management experience and is granted exclusive rights to a location as well as being able to sell unit franchises to individuals. An International Master Franchise Plan will have a regional office and can sell Unit Franchises in that location. Veteran owned business opportunities are also available.

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Once you’ve applied with Jani-King, they’ll schedule with you a meeting where they’ll present to you with an updated Franchise Disclosure Document. Be sure to read this document and consider hiring an outside consultant to explain the information included in this document.

Next, you’re required register a new small business with the state before signing the franchise agreement. When all is settled, you will be undergoing training with Jani-King, acquire cleaning supplies, equipment, and begin servicing accounts.

Jani-King has been in the cleaning service business for over 50 years so you’ll jump into a business system proven, tested, and optimized over time. The company partners with leading cleaning suppliers so you have everything you need to get started.

The Jani-King headquarters are in Addison, Texas.

How Much Does Jani-King Make in Profit?

We don’t know what the typical Jani-King makes in profit. But according to reports, the average residential cleaning businesses in the United States makes between $36,000 to $100,000 annually.

If you’re on the bottom end of this range as a franchise operators, you’ll be better off working as an employee or starting an independent cleaning business. Why? Independent cleaning companies won’t need to pay the marketing fees or share revenue with corporate.

At the end of the day, how much you receive will depend on so many factors such as competition and level of service. You will get a leg-up by having business referred to you by joining this franchise.

Advantages of a Jani-King Franchise

There are advantages to franchising a commercial cleaning program in your area, especially if it’s Jani-King. Here are some of the advantages.

Global Brand

Jani-King isn’t just an American brand. It’s a global brand. They’re known to offer their service in several countries. With a brand name that has a global presence, prospective customers may already recognize the brand name and be more likely to trust the brand to care for and clean a property.

Credible Partners

When you franchise with Jani-King, they equip you with the proper tools and supplies to use when you clean and disinfect homes, offices, and other establishments. Jani-King has partnered up with credible brands like 3M, CONTEC, Brulin, Rubbermaid, and Nilfisk to use their products when offering services to clients.

Having a solid partnership with these top brands makes Jani-King a dependable business to franchise with. This also saves you time from finding your own products to clean and sanitize a property.

Different Franchise Plans

As mentioned above, you get to have different franchise plans to choose from. This helps franchisees pick the plan best suits their financial situation and interests. Whether you are looking simple franchise plan or a more challenging handling multiple units and wider location, Jani-King has options.

Services

The services that Jani-King offers isn’t just confined to cleaning and disinfecting residential homes but office spaces, restaurants, venues, and even hospital and healthcare establishments. To have a franchise that caters to so many audiences means you’ll have no shortage of potential customers.

Green Cleaning

Jani-King is known to use environmentally friendly products. This is of big help to the community and also plays a part in making sure nothing adds in polluting the Earth. As a franchisee, you’ll be trained in green cleaning and best practices in using their products and equipment that support the environment.

Increased Demand and Awareness

A larger portion of the population actively thinks about the cleanliness of public spaces for personal health and safety. Jani-King was quick to include disinfecting services to their offerings at the start of the pandemic. Increased demand for these disinfectant services will likely continue as long as the health crisis continues.

Challenges of a Jani-King Franchise

There are important challenges you need to be aware of before jumping onboard with this franchise.

Lawsuits

Jani-King has had numerous lawsuits filed against them through the years. One example was with employees fighting for misclassification of their designations that Jani-King referred to them as independent contractors. A total of 110 parties filed settlement claim forms for this se. The

This lawsuit was called Juarez v. Jani-King of California, Inc. This case resulted in a $3.7 million dollar settlement, although Jani-King denies any liability or wrongdoing.

So if you franchise with Jani-King (or any other company), be sure to carefully read and understand details of the contract. Don’t take a franchise reps promises as any type of legal agreement. You need to get any agreement put down in writing.

Bad Reviews

Though Jani-King is praised by franchisees for accommodating the flexibility of their schedule, most reviews found online have a lot of bad experiences. One claims that the company underbids you and does not provide support. One even says that it feels “impossible” to make a profit.

Here’s one of the most common complaints of current franchise operators. Jani-King corporate promises to deliver a certain amount of business value each month. For example, many franchisees have been promised $4,000 in business sent their way per month. The problem with this?

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Many franchise operators say the projects sent their way are underbid. Some operators claim they are hardly able to break even on contracts sent to them by Jani-King when you consider the cost of transportation, labor, and cleaning supplies for a project. This is a common complain among franchise operators.

Another issue is that some Jani-King franchisees have had their accounts taken away from them by corporate and reassigned to a new franchisee. As you can imagine this would be extremely frustrating as an owner.

Coupled with the lawsuits, Jani-King seems to have a bad reputation among franchisees.

No Corporate Units

Some franchises operate a lot of corporate owned units. Corporate owned units can be a sign of a successful franchise since ownership is actively running the business model profitably and not simply generating fees from franchise owners.

Is the Jani-King Franchise Right For You?

Jani-King is classified as a low-cost franchise business which is why they’re quite popular. But considering that they have a lot of mixed reviews, it’s best for you to have a lawyer and financial consultant check them out before you sign anything with them. Make sure to read through their updated FDD as well to get a sense of recent performance.

At the very least, be very careful before signing on the dotted line with this company. The history of lawsuits and online complaints should at the very least raise red flags. Personally, I’d be more than a little concerned about the companies track record.

What is an alternative Jani-King franchise?

One cleaning service program you can check out is Steamatic. This company offers cleaning services and restoration services for homes and offices. They’ve also been in the business for 50 years and are available in more than 10 countries. The investment to franchise Steamatic starts at $120,000.

Commercial cleaning programs are rising due to the need for a cleaner home and work space especially in this time of pandemic. With this guide, I hope you are able to make a more informed decision about this franchise.