Franchise Frequently Asked Questions

As a System4 franchise owner, you own and operate your own commercial cleaning business with our help. In short, it is a partnership you enter into with System4, where each party has specific responsibilities. Your local System4 office provides you with local customers, handles all of the billing and collecting for your customers and provides training and on-going support to your business. Your main role is to perform the cleaning service. For more details, please schedule a franchise presentation with your local System4 office.

The first step is to set an appointment with your local System4 office for a franchise presentation. This typically takes about half-an-hour. This is an informative meeting . . . no pressure. In fact, even if you wanted to invest in a System4 franchise, you have to wait 2 weeks before we are allowed to sell you a franchise.

The franchise presentation reviews all of the information you need to make an informed decision. You will also receive a copy of our Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD); this presents in writing everything you will need to know about the System4 franchise.

Once you have received our FDD, there is a mandatory 2 week waiting period before you can become a System4 franchisee. This waiting period is mandated by the Federal Trade Commission.

The investment levels vary based upon the amount of customers we provide you. The minimum investment is $1,400 down, which gives you all the training, the equipment, and customers generating $500 per month in revenue. We also have larger packages in which the monthly revenue can be from $1,000 to $10,000 per month to get started. However, the investment levels on those are somewhat higher.

Because we are a franchise, as all franchises do, we have a royalty fee. Our fee is only 5% of whatever your billings are each month. In addition to that, we provide other services, such as billings and collections, customer service support, and numerous other services. For all these management services, our fee is 10% of what the billings are for each month. The total royalty and management fee is 15% of your monthly revenue.

We provide all of the items to get you started with your first customers. We include a commercial backpack vacuum, microfiber mop system, microfiber cleaning cloths, a mop bucket and various other tools you will need to successfully service customers; we also give you the necessary chemicals to get started. This is not intended to be all the equipment or supplies that you will ever need. However, it will be plenty to get you started on the first accounts. You can see the full Starter Kit list inside our FDD.

We have local suppliers you will deal directly with. We have negotiated some national pricing, so you get a volume discount without having to purchase in large quantities. You are also free to purchase equipment and supplies on your own. We do not require you to purchase any supplies directly from us.

We provide commercial businesses, which can vary from standard offices to medical facilities, schools, restaurants, and auto dealerships. Just about any type of business you might drive by is a potential customer.

This is really up to you. Because you are a business owner, we cannot tell you how far you should go to service customers. On average, we try to keep your customer base within a 20 minute drive from your home.

Our company has been in business since 2004; however, the management team has over 50 years in the franchising and commercial cleaning business. We have over 1500 franchises currently operating in the United States.

Yes commercial customers require it. By grouping all our franchises together we can provide discounted coverage. The policy provides two million dollars of liability insurance and fifty thousand dollars in bonding. You can get your own insurance as long as you get the minimum coverages required. The cost for this insurance is a very small percentage of the revenue your company generates each month.

Yes, we provide a 24 month guarantee on all the accounts we initially provide you. This means, that if the account is lost for any reason other than your workmanship, we will replace the account on a “no-charge basis.” As an example, if the account is lost because they went out of business, moved out of the area or they got lower price, we would then replace the account.

On average, each account is about $500 per month. So in this package, you would most likely get a few accounts. We do have accounts that range in size from $150 to over $10,000 a month

The initial training program is anywhere from 12 to 15 hours, that is done both in your local office, and on the job sites that we provide you. This generally takes, depending on your schedule, a few days. So we have both classroom and field training.

The nice thing about our program is we provide the customers so you can grow your business to a very large size; it just will depend how big you want it to be and your ability to manage your employees.

Generally we have seen people start out doing some of the work themselves, and then slowly add employees as they have a better understanding of the business. There are various ways to recruit employees and we go over this in our training programs.

This is your business, therefore you pay the employees.

There are payroll services we can direct you too. These are now very inexpensive.

We will provide you the initial training, and then you will have all the information needed to train your employees. However, we would be glad to assist you or have your employees attend any of our training classes. There is no charge for this.

No, this is your business. You can choose to service accounts yourself or, if you can manage people, you can service many accounts. System4 is your sales, billing, collection, accounting and customer relations department. You provide the labor and/or management of personnel to service accounts…we do the rest! You are also free to sell the business at any time.

The accounts are priced with the following factors in mind: Frequency, complexity and size.

Yes. That is not a problem because we do the financing here and will deduct any of the payments prior to forwarding your funds each month.

As in any service business, the level of quality is the final determination of customer satisfaction. Therefore, if you are providing the services that the customer is expecting there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to keep the accounts for many years. Very seldom do customers change cleaning services due to price, it is generally service issues.

Great question! First of all, our founding management team were pioneers in this industry 25 years ago. But beyond the experience, we have 4 distinct differences.

(1): Account Guarantee; we guarantee all the initial accounts for 24 months, as opposed to our competitors who only have a 6 or 12 month guarantee.

(2); Larger Accounts / Lower Price; we have designed a program that when you expand your business you purchase larger accounts at a lower multiple. We do this to increase your profitability as opposed to our competitors who charge the same fee regardless of the account size. We want our most successful franchisees to have an incentive to grow.

(3): Account Lease Program; we are the first and only company to offer this program. This program is designed to increase your monthly cash flow. This is very similar to auto leasing, as you only pay for what you use. So therefore, you end up with more cash at the end of the month.

(4): Initial Franchise Package Pricing; you will find our prices are lower than some of our competitors. If not, then you are not getting comparable equipment or supplies. Recap: System4 offers 4 distinct differences and advantages that improve your profitability and long term success.

The training takes about 1 week and then within 2-3 weeks after that we are starting to provide you with your customers.