How Much Do The Maids Franchise Owners Really Make In A Year?

Opening a franchise can be one of the worst ways to start a business if you aren't prepared to invest the starting costs. For example, a Wendy's franchise owner might make a good amount per year, but they'll likely need to spend over $1 million to get the store off the ground. And that's before the various cuts and fees franchiser companies will demand from franchisees' sales revenue, whether that business is making money or not.

But a big financial buy-in and continuous fees hasn't stopped more than 712,000 people from owning a franchise in the United States, according to Zippia — and those aren't all just fast food restaurants. Over 180 entrepreneurs from the U.S. and Canada have opened franchises with The Maids, a home cleaning service with a 22-step cleaning method that started in Omaha in 1979 and has since spread to 90 major metro areas in North America.

The Maids' company website touts its branded cleaning business "as low-risk, high reward" that comes with very low overhead and practically non-existent real estate costs, other than a small office. And there is money to be made from cleaning homes. According to The Maids Franchise Disclosure Agreement, via Franchimp, the median amount of revenue a franchise operation raked in during fiscal year 2023-2024 was $857,290. But just because a cleaning-business franchise has lower overhead than restaurants or gyms, doesn't mean there aren't costs.

The Maids Franchise Disclosure Agreement warns that a prospective franchisee will need to invest between $81,720 and $159,700, of which anywhere from $49,900 to $103,900 is paid to The Maid International LLC. The fees paid to The Maids include $19,900 for a Smart Start Package (cleaning and tech equipment needed to get the franchise going) and an initial territory fee that can span between $30,000 and $84,000. In other words, you can't just clean anywhere under The Maids banner. Franchisers are assigned territories, each of which generally contain 24,000 households, per the franchise agreement.

And that's just the start. Franchisees will also pay between 3.9% and 6.9% of their gross revenue as a "continuing license fee" (the lower the amount made each week, the higher the percentage), 2% for the advertising fund, and 0.25% for the technology innovation fund. Plus, there is a $140 per month software and support fee and an annual The Maids National Convention fee of up to $750 per person — not including travel and lodging expenses — each year. If a franchisee doesn't attend the convention, they could be charged $1,000 to $1,500 for non-attendance.

So, after all these fees and costs, how much can a franchisee from The Maids make each year? Well, The Maids' website claims that its franchisees averaged over $1 million in revenue in 2022, and franchise database Vetted Biz estimates that franchise owners earn between $120,021 and $154,313 per year. Even the lower end of that range is still higher than the $118,000 median annual income of a food and beverage franchisee that Franchisee Business Review estimates.

But before earning that income, or opening a location at all, a restaurant owner must spend a lot of cash. That means that, even if a Chick-fil-A franchise owner can make over $200,000 a year from operating a chain restaurant that sells more chicken than anyone, Chick-fil-A's Franchise Disclosure Documents suggests it's possible that they could invest over 10 times that upfront, only to continuously pay its dues to the company. In comparison, a The Maids franchisee pays under $155,000 in initial costs and around 9% in re-occurring revenue costs at most. So, while opening virtually any kind of franchise can be a challenge, the expenses on the owners' part might be a bit more justifiable to put toward the cleaning service given the potential earnings.