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Franchise ??

nothing wrong with a good franchise if it suits you circumstance, personally I’d try looking for work or volunteer with an experienced window cleaner in your area to see if it Suits you before laying out any money.
Btw, I’ve never heard of them ( South Wales area)
 
Anybody heard of Tidal
Window cleaning franchise .
New to the game and wondering if this is the best way in
Cheers
A couple of things would worry me. First off try using their website! Their menu items don't actually go anywhere and the links don't seem to do anything! Also their copyright at the bottom says 2021! The domain was registered on 18-Jan-2021.

Is there a reason why you are considering a franchise?
 
Thanks for your reply,
First of all I wont be parting with my money easily.
Im thinking of franchise as I have been in buisiness before for 20 years .Getting the work in is the hardest thing .( of course it wasnt window cleaning)
I like the idea of them getting the work in dealing with payments arranging van and van fit out ,training and a tried and tested method
 
Not all franchises get work for you! In my opinion, franchises of household names are good like McDonald's or kfc as the public know what to expect. Ask most people and I would be shocked it anyone can name a window cleaning company.
I get where you are coming from having a franchise gives you a turn key package but you will be paying for that as long as you work!
I believe you can gleen most of what you need on this forum. OK so you still need to learn how to do the job but there are some good vids on YouTube that can help.
As for vans and systems there are a good few companies that will gladly fit out a van. Streamline sell ready fitted out vans. I have one of theirs but I bought it from a van dealer and paid same as an empty van!
For gaining customers I would say door knocking is quite successful although a little slow, plus you chose the area so you can try and keep things compact.
Payment are fairly easy, I use squeegee app and give customers my bank details, stripe (online credit card payments), gocardless (direct debit).

I am sure there are some good franchises out there but you are then not completely your own boss and have to abide by their rules and systems which, once you gain experience you may find benefit them more than you!
 
Not all franchises get work for you! In my opinion, franchises of household names are good like McDonald's or kfc as the public know what to expect. Ask most people and I would be shocked it anyone can name a window cleaning company.
I get where you are coming from having a franchise gives you a turn key package but you will be paying for that as long as you work!
I believe you can gleen most of what you need on this forum. OK so you still need to learn how to do the job but there are some good vids on YouTube that can help.
As for vans and systems there are a good few companies that will gladly fit out a van. Streamline sell ready fitted out vans. I have one of theirs but I bought it from a van dealer and paid same as an empty van!
For gaining customers I would say door knocking is quite successful although a little slow, plus you chose the area so you can try and keep things compact.
Payment are fairly easy, I use squeegee app and give customers my bank details, stripe (online credit card payments), gocardless (direct debit).

I am sure there are some good franchises out there but you are then not completely your own boss and have to abide by their rules and systems which, once you gain experience you may find benefit them more than you!
As far as I know @Damo gets his Franchisees work to begin with and continues to do so.
 
You make a lot of sense and I may go for it on my own,but I have run my own business and certain parts I dont like doing ,so some franchises sound attractive to me and take away them bits of course you pay for the privilege ,but in the end Im just looking and trying to do due diligence
 
I've heard of them because they clean windows about 20 minutes from where I live also a member on here looked into them a while back and things didn't seem too favourable for the franchisee, I remember he was from Grimsby but can't recall his name
 
IMO most franchisors are franchising their business out because they are too lazy to do the work themselves. This is 99% of the case with all of them in our industry, you will have to still market and bring in the work, you will still be responsible for the growth/van/equipment. It is likely to be quite a high cut from your takings (i have seen figures of 25% and personally know of someone being screwed over for that amount) for little to no reward for you other than handing some lazy, bone-idle chancer your hard earned cash.

Franchising only makes sense when the brand is established, where millions of pounds are invested in the brand in marketing etc. This just does not happen in window cleaning. My advice is to go out there and get yourself some customers, you will have to do that anyway so you might as well keep all the money you make, and not have some oily chancer take your hard earned money,
 
Ralf Hodgson is the guys name
I don’t personally know him but I know he covers most areas I’m sure they are from Darlington
I seen one of his vans working in a street close to me

I know he only accepts go careless as a form of payment

What Iknow of the company it seems to work well as for the franchise part no my cup of tea much rather put the money in to building my own rounds.
 
Anybody heard of Tidal
Window cleaning franchise .
New to the game and wondering if this is the best way in
Cheers
Tidal Cleaning services are the biggest franchise network in the window cleaning sector in the UK i believe, the owner is a very smart lad and also very intelligent, when u meet him u will know this for yourself , and he clearly knows what hes doing, hes not even 30 years old yet either... and hes achieved more in a short space of time than most would in 20 years...so hes clearly doing something right, if you are unsure about buying in to the franchise then ask him if you can speak to any of his current franchisees and ask them how its been for them ETC ? That way it will give u an insight of the franchise more.
 
Yeah I looked into franchising with Tidal when first starting out because I lacked the confidence to take the plunge without realising you still have to take the same plunge, only you've invested loads of money and will have royalties to pay on top of that but still ultimately have the same responsibility as starting up on your own - it is up to you to get the customers.

Some franchises out there are better than others for sure, I looked into a few that seemed great - but ultimately again, I don't think a franchise can offer you anything that you can't get yourself in the window cleaning industry.

Tidal for example charge whatever they charge, it was £12000 at the time I enquired I think, this included some uniforms, a basic (in my opinion) DIY wfp set up, a marketing budget etc, but you had to find all of your own customers - the caveat to this being they only charged their royalties (which I think were around 500 a month from memory, though I could be wrong) when you reached £1500 worth of monthly work.

I also find their approach very unethical as they advertise and encourage people to take out loans to fund their franchise, so ontop of royalties you'll also have to pay that back.

Just do it yourself and take the plunge

Edit: also be wary that some of, or at least the one I spoke to, of tidal franchisees are actually personal friends with the owner outside of the business, so they're very bias.
 
I spoke to these a while ago as i was just trying to gleam some info to start my own franchise. They wanted about 17k i believe this didnt include any customer base just uniform, cards, traning and a wfp setup. Absoloutely crazy way to start when you consider what handing over 17k to a canvasser could do for example, but the guy who runs it clearly is very successful so fair play to him.

The way they have been able to sell so many is because they offer finance via the princes trust, very clever ploy.

If i was a complete noob rather than going this route id look for a part time job with a window cleaner, learn all you can about the job and business, that along with studying forums and marketting etc. To be honest this business is so easy to build and run theres really no need to tae on a franchise, its as simple as knocking on doors and posting on facebook.
 
Thanks for your reply Adamangler
Its nowhere near 17k now and to include all wfp equipment ,supposedly they find customers for you and dont charge any fees on the first 1k a month.
 

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