A house cleaning franchise is an excellent way to get started with a business without having to develop everything from the ground up. Franchises give you the opportunity to get started with an already successful formula -- at a price. Even better for a house cleaning business, there are only a few large expenses that will need to be considered. 

Employee Expenses

The vast majority of a house cleaning company's expenses will be in their employee's labor. In addition to the raw employee costs, there will also be benefits, taxes, worker's compensation, and unemployment insurance. These expenses will scale up with the company, which makes it easier for the company to start small and then slowly expand.

Insurance Expenses

House cleaning franchises need a significant amount of insurance. Not only do they need to protect their own employees and physical property -- such as equipment -- but they'll also need to protect their client's property as well. The right liability insurance will protect the business in the event that a client's home becomes damaged. There are also umbrella insurance policies that will extend multiple policies at once. 

Equipment Expenses

House cleaners don't necessarily need to sink a large amount of money into their equipment. Many general house cleaners simply need vacuums and carpet cleaners. Those who do deep cleaning may need professional-grade equipment, but others can operate with consumer-grade equipment without any issues. Some house cleaning franchises only use their client's equipment.

Bonding Expenses

A house cleaning franchise generally needs to be both licensed and bonded. Bonding simply provides additional insurance for the business; a bond is a certain amount of money that the business puts up against potential issues. Bonding requirements will depend on the state and occasionally the size of the business. 

Franchise Expenses

Franchises themselves will usually charge a certain amount to buy in. This amount really depends on the franchise -- it can range from a few thousand dollar to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on how well-established the franchise is. In exchange, however, the franchise will guide the busines owner and provide support.

House cleaning franchises, such as Purple Forte, generally have very low overhead. Many of the projected expenses of the franchise -- such as cleaning supplies -- are mostly subsidized by the cost of the cleaning service itself. As long as the right employees are available and the franchise expenses have been paid, the expenses will be extremely limited.