Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The Maids Inter-national Inc. recently revved up its residentialcleaning service program by offering multiple-territory "MegaMarkets" to interested franchisees. A single territory isdefined as 10,000 homes with incomes over $50,000; a Mega Marketmultiplies that by four.
In July 1999, Terri Stull-Higgins, 43, and Lee Higgins, 47,decided to not only join the company but to take it a step furtherand start a Mega-5, a group of five markets, north of Dallas. Iftheir franchise stopped taking new clients today, it would stillmake $312,000 per year, but the couple won't be slowing downany time soon. "We just started," Lee points out."This business has the potential to be high-dollar andhigh-volume in a short amount of time."
So why go for the Mega Market instead of starting out small?"The start-up costs aren't really that much more than fora single market," reports Lee. "Either way, you'llstill need a couple cars, an office space and an advertisingprogram. The expenses are generally the same whether you have onemarket or five." Start-up costs for The Maids Internationalrange from $163,000 to $235,000 for a Mega Market franchise;additional markets slightly increase the price.
The Maids Inter-national Inc. recently revved up its residentialcleaning service program by offering multiple-territory "MegaMarkets" to interested franchisees. A single territory isdefined as 10,000 homes with incomes over $50,000; a Mega Marketmultiplies that by four.
In July 1999, Terri Stull-Higgins, 43, and Lee Higgins, 47,decided to not only join the company but to take it a step furtherand start a Mega-5, a group of five markets, north of Dallas. Iftheir franchise stopped taking new clients today, it would stillmake $312,000 per year, but the couple won't be slowing downany time soon. "We just started," Lee points out."This business has the potential to be high-dollar andhigh-volume in a short amount of time."
So why go for the Mega Market instead of starting out small?"The start-up costs aren't really that much more than fora single market," reports Lee. "Either way, you'llstill need a couple cars, an office space and an advertisingprogram. The expenses are generally the same whether you have onemarket or five." Start-up costs for The Maids Internationalrange from $163,000 to $235,000 for a Mega Market franchise;additional markets slightly increase the price.
The rest of this article is locked.
Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.
