The indoor air-treatment brand offers owners a number of advantages over other service brands.
For investors looking to the franchise industry to escape the confines of the corporate world, service brands, particularly home-based service brands, offer some significant advantages over other sectors of the industry, such as foodservice and retail. On-site visitation models allow owners and service staff to work outside of the office and eschew the rigid 9–5 hours most businesses require in favor of a more flexible and varied schedule, and home offices let them work close to their families and avoid the costs of maintaining an office or store.
Still, some home-based franchises are even more lucrative than others, and Green Home Solutions is one of the best around. Here are 5 reasons why Green Home Solutions is one of the best home-based franchises in the industry.
A service that helps people
“If it wasn’t for Green Home Solutions, I wouldn’t be here,” said Lynne Parrault, a Green Home Solutions customer in Connecticut. “Working with them saved my life.”
Parrault discovered mold growing in her home only after she became ill. Even after her homeowner’s association covered the mold with painter’s plastic, Parrault’s symptoms grew worse until she was eventually hospitalized. Parrault contacted Green Home Solutions on the recommendation of a friend who had heard of the brand’s unique ability to completely remove mold from homes, and a technician arrived at her house the same day. Since then, Parrault has recovered, and she thanks Green Home Solutions for her good health and even her life.
Parrault’s story is not an uncommon one. Green Home Solutions owners quickly discover that their work is not only improving homes, it is saving lives. Not many other business owners can make that claim.
Universal demand
In 2017, Green Home Solutions added 65 new units to its already booming franchise system. The growth of the brand has been hastened in recent years by an increased awareness of the effects that mold and poor air quality can have on a person’s health, and those effects are not exclusive to certain markets, seasons, or types of homes.
“There’s a cultural shift taking place across the country, and people are waking up to the fact that they need to be aware of what they’re breathing in every single day,” said Glen Snyder, Green Homes Solutions’ chief development officer. “Because Green Home Solutions provides an environmentally friendly way to enhance their indoor air quality, customers are going to continue lining up.”
Extensive service offerings
In addition to the brand’s impressive growth last year, Green Home Solutions underwent another, even more significant evolution in 2017, expanding their purview to include an array of indoor air-quality treatments. Those new offerings allow Green Home Solutions owners to tackle virtually any indoor air-quality issue a customer may face, vastly expanding each franchisee’s potential client base.
“We started out as a green solution to mold problems, but [in 2017] we emerged as an indoor air quality company,” said Russ Weldon, Green Home Solution’s founder and chief cultural officer. “We aren’t just eliminating mold problems, we’re providing people with a one-of-a-kind service that gets at the biological and bacterial root of the issue. We’re eliminating all types of odors, allergens and toxins from people’s homes, not just covering them up. That’s allowed us to create a business that people can feel good about. Franchisees are joining our system because they want to be able to make a difference while making a living. And we’re the only brand that’s able to provide that type of proven business ownership opportunity in the indoor air quality space.
A strong network of support
The Green Home Solutions franchise system now boasts more than 164 units across the country, and because each of those units operates in their own territory, there is no competition between owners and there is an unmitigated incentive for owners to support each other. By helping out neighboring owners, Green Home Solutions franchisees work together to increase name recognition and strengthen the brand, which in turn improves the reputation of each individual operation.
In addition to working with each other, franchisees also enjoy a close, two-way relationship with Green Home Solutions corporate team, who pride themselves on taking feedback from franchisees and refining their operations accordingly. That relationship is perhaps best exemplified in the franchise’s annual conference, which brings together franchisees and the corporate team to review the year’s successes and workshop improvements for the future.
“Our franchisees and corporate team have gelled together to create a cohesive business model, and our conference demonstrated that perfectly,” said Weldon. “We’re in a great position for growth right now. We know where we are and what we’re looking for when it comes to franchisees and our business model. And it’s clear that our transition to becoming an indoor air quality company is working.”
A low investment
Perhaps the most immediately eye-catching of all of Green Home Solutions’ many advantages over other home-based franchises is the brand’s modest startup costs. Ranging from to $56,100 to $124,100, the initial investment costs are far below the capital requirements of most franchise brands, many of which far exceed the $100,000 mark.
According to Snyder, the brand’s low startup costs reflect Green Home Solutions’ commitment to keeping money where it can do the most work, with the owners.
“It doesn’t cost a lot to get a Green Home Solutions up and running,” said Snyder. “You don’t have to lease an office, you don’t have to buy a ton of specialized equipment or hire an enormous staff, the overhead is quite low. Our startup costs are designed to take advantage of that low overhead by letting owners leverage their savings to invest back into their own business. With the money our owners save compared to other franchise brands, they can do really great marketing campaigns and immediately start thinking about opening up their second and third territory and beyond, which is where the value of our model really starts to take off.”