Before you sign a franchise agreement
The man who ran the largest cleaning franchise network in the country will show you what you’re actually paying for
Corey Landrie spent his career as President under the ownership group of the largest cleaning franchise network in America — 350+ franchisees, four states, ~$30M in system-wide revenue. He’s seen exactly what a franchise fee and royalty actually buy a new owner, and exactly where that money could have built something they kept 100% of instead.
Before you commit $30K–$100K+ and 6–10% of your revenue forever, spend 10 minutes seeing the real math.
Free calculator. No franchise pitch. No cleaning-program pitch either — just the numbers, from someone who’s actually run both sides of this.
Why listen to us about franchises specifically
I’m not a franchise consultant trying to talk you out of buying one so I can sell you something else. For years, my actual job was running the operational and financial side of franchise ownership — training and onboarding every new franchisee into the system, building the revenue projections they were held to, and reconciling those projections against what they actually earned, location by location, across 350+ franchisees in four states.
I know exactly what a franchise fee pays for. I know exactly what the ongoing royalty actually costs an owner over five years once their revenue grows — because I watched it happen, over and over, from the inside. I’m not guessing at this from an article. I ran it.
— Corey Landrie, 7 Figure Cleaning
350+
Franchise locations overseen
4
States
~$30M
System-wide annual revenue
Years
Training and onboarding new franchise owners into the financial side of the business
The real cost comparison
What a cleaning franchise actually costs over 5 years
Franchise costs vary widely by brand — this is built from publicly available 2025–2026 Franchise Disclosure Document ranges across commercial cleaning franchises, not any single company. Run your own numbers with the calculator below; this is the shape of the math, not a guarantee for any specific brand.
| Typical cleaning franchise | Building independently (7 Figure Cleaning method) | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront franchise fee | $2,000 – $99,000+ (many mid-market brands land $30K–$60K) | $0 |
| Total initial investment (equipment, training, working capital, territory) | Often $60,000 – $200,000+ depending on brand and territory | Your actual startup costs — typically a small fraction of this, no territory fee |
| Ongoing royalty | 5% – 10% of gross revenue, often plus a 1–2% ad/brand fund (some brands run higher) | 0% — you keep 100% of every contract you win |
| Territory restrictions | Usually locked to an assigned territory | None — you go wherever you can win contracts |
| What you own at the end | A license to operate under someone else's brand, on someone else's terms, cancelable by the franchisor | A company you own outright — the brand, the client relationships, the equity |
| Exit value | Often limited by franchise transfer restrictions and franchisor approval | Full company sale, on your terms, at a real multiple of earnings |
The math that matters
On $500,000 in annual revenue, an 8% royalty is $40,000 a year, every year, for as long as you operate — plus the ad fund. Over five years, that’s often more than the entire cost of the franchise fee itself, paid on top of it. That’s money that never stops going out the door, no matter how good you get at running the business.
A franchise sells you a system and a brand. We teach you to build your own — a real six-pillar operating system (Revenue, Operations, Numbers, People, Systems, Technology) installed into a company you actually own, for a fraction of a typical franchise fee, with no royalty ever.
Run your numbers
The 5-year franchise cost calculator
Plug in the fee, royalty, and growth assumptions for the franchise you're considering. The defaults are typical mid-market commercial cleaning figures — adjust them to match the FDD you're reviewing.
Total royalties paid over 5 years
$96,079
Total 5-year cost of ownership
$131,079
| Year | Revenue | Royalty + ad fund paid |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $150,000 | $14,250 |
| Year 2 | $172,500 | $16,388 |
| Year 3 | $198,375 | $18,846 |
| Year 4 | $228,131 | $21,672 |
| Year 5 | $262,351 | $24,923 |
That’s capital that never has to leave your business if you build independently.
This calculator uses illustrative figures based on publicly available industry Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) data and does not represent any specific franchise brand’s actual terms. Franchise fees and royalty structures vary significantly by brand — always review a franchisor’s official FDD before making a purchase decision.
Fair questions
The honest trade-offs
That's a fair question, and franchises earn that reputation for a reason — you get a playbook and a support line. Here's the honest trade: with us, you get the same category of support — real operators who've built and run this, teaching you the exact systems (pricing, bidding, operations, hiring, technology) that a franchise would hand you — but you keep the brand, the equity, and every dollar of margin a royalty would have taken. You're trading a rented playbook for an owned one, with people who've actually run both a company and a 350-location franchise network standing behind you either way.
This isn't a course you watch alone. It's operators working directly in your business until systems are actually installed — the same reason people pay for a franchise's support, without the fee attached forever.
Run the numbers before you sign anything.
No pitch, no pressure — just the real cost of a franchise against building it yourself, from someone who’s actually run the franchise side. If it still makes sense for you to buy a franchise after seeing the math, we’ll tell you that honestly too.
7 Figure Cleaning is an education and coaching company, not a franchise seller. Nothing on this page is a guarantee of business results — see our earnings disclaimer.