"£1 million turnover, making anywhere from £120,000 to £200,000 net profit is now being achieved at Jani-King," reports Director Paul Haworth. "While the average margins are over 12 per cent, a number of franchisees are averaging over 15 per cent net and top performers are earning nearer 20 per cent net. When you consider Jani-King guarantees to get your turnover up to £1 million between year three and five, and you'll be earning net margins between 12 and 20 per cent, that represents a significant income."

Jani-King's group of high margin achieving franchisees are leading the growth of the commercial cleaning franchise's business as they seek to become 'Janillionaires' - generating seven-figure annualised turnovers. Alan Barker, Anita & Raj Rauli, Naz Hosany, Ket Patel & Sandip Chauhan, and Ian Fick (see individual profiles) have all charted margins for their businesses in excess of the standard 10 per cent, with some jobs reportedly earning as high as 22 per cent profit.

"Our commitment to providing a high quality and reliable service has enabled our franchisees to develop very strong relationships with their customers," comments Director Paul Haworth. "We are now introducing a significant number of new cleaning services, such as carpet care and window cleaning, which our franchisees can compete for to increase their customers' spends. These are high margin jobs which are also serving to improve our franchisees' bottom lines."

INDUSTRY

The commercial cleaning industry is a traditionally fragmented mix of one-man-bands and networks of variable quality and reliability. However, every office and commercial property needs regular cleaning, which leads to a large number of unsatisfied customers regularly switching their cleaning providers.

By applying a management approach to its commercial cleaning franchise, Jani-King has put a commitment to customer satisfaction at the forefront of its priorities. Combining cleaning methods, products and technologies which have been proven and improved for 38 years and certified by the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc), Jani King is winning major national contracts with blue chip customers, including hotel chains, retailers and cinemas. The company reports that over 80 per cent of its business is now blue chip national chains.

BRAND

Jani-King is a world-renowned brand, originating in the USA over 38 years ago and established in 19 countries including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Spain, Russia, UAE, Singapore and Australia. With more than 11,000 franchisees worldwide, Jani-King was ranked as the eighth largest franchised company in the world in 2004 by the International Franchise Association. In addition, in 2005 the US franchisor was ranked number one in its category, number one in the 'Top 101 Homebased Franchises', number nine in 'America's Top Global Franchises' and number seven in the 'Franchise 500' rankings by Entrepreneur magazine.

In Great Britain the Master Franchise for Jani-King was taken on by former PepsiCo executives Paul Haworth and Ian Thomas in 1992, who have built the reputation of the brand by combining BICSc certified training to ensure quality of service with a management franchise opportunity which attracts professional individuals with a commitment to building customer relationships.

Paul says: "Our 38 year pedigree in commercial cleaning and franchising, combined with the fact that our management franchise systems have been applied thousands of times over by franchise owners worldwide, have led to the development of a commercial cleaning franchise that has been ranked number one in its category by the top US business magazine an amazing 10 times since 1987."

SYSTEM

The strength in the Jani-King business concept is its commitment to providing sales support to its franchisees, enabling them to concentrate on building a professional team of cleaning staff and focus upon developing relationships with their customers. "Our sales team will win all the contracts for franchisees to get their businesses off the ground, meaning you don't have to worry about where the work will come from and the risk is dramatically reduced," comments Paul. "So confident are we in our ability to secure contracts for new franchisees, we offer a margin guarantee that enables the franchisee to buy a specified level of turnover for their business. For example, should Jani-King have offered a franchise owner £22,000 worth of business by a certain month but been unable to offer them any business, then Jani-King's guarantee is that they will pay the franchisee £2,200 per month (equivalent to margins of 10 per cent). That's an extremely powerful safety net. The plan is that once you reach that initial guaranteed £264,000 of annualised turnover, we will help you to move on to the £500,000 mark, and then the magic £1 million mark. Our largest franchise owner now turns over in excess of £2 million.

TRAINING

With the importance of following the Jani-King system paramount to the success of its franchisees, the head office support team has implemented a new, vastly extended, initial training programme to invest all new franchisees with a comprehensive knowledge and hands-on experience in operating the business. Training Manager Andrew Lawson is overseeing the new approach, which has been expanded from four weeks to 13 weeks.

"Our training is designed to provide the franchisee with a level of expertise beyond the rest of the market," says Andrew. "Our training centre is a BICSc Centre of Excellence. As well as the practical cleaning training, this covers our 'Trainer Training' which enables franchisees to train every member of their staff. Furthermore, all Jani-King training is covered by the initial investment, including refresher courses which franchisees can register for at any time.

"The additional services we've introduced will provide over 75 extra avenues of income generation for our franchisees. For franchisees we expect this to transform the economics of their businesses, increasing their earnings and margins. It's capitalising upon the excellent relationships we build with our clients to take over more of their cleaning requirements."

DESTINY

The £1 million annualised turnover has already been achieved by former franchisees Keith and Gill Burgess, whose franchise had reached a turnover of £1.5 million when they sold it to go into early retirement. Says Keith: "At its peak we were making in excess of £200,000 profit, which was a great return on our initial franchise investment."

Adds Gill: "When we felt the time was right to retire, we accepted an offer on the business for a very substantial sum, and while it doesn't quite make us millionaires, it's not far off!"

With the introduction of Jani-King's additional, high margin services such as carpet and hard floor care and window cleaning, more franchisees will be looking to join the '15 percenters' club, earning increased profits as their reputations allow them to upsell their existing customers and maximise their margins. "Management and customer relationship skills are key for potential franchisees, but above all what really matters is that you have a positive attitude and desire to implement a proven system," says Paul. "We have shaped an infrastructure, package and system which corresponds to what people actually want from a management franchise - and what customers want from a commercial cleaning service. I'm really looking forward to my team of franchise owners making some proper money."

Jani-King franchisees: Stories of Success

Alan Barker Former occupation: Sales & marketing
Territory: Nottingham & Derby
Started: July 2004
Current monthly turnover: £23,000
Annualised turnover: £276,000

"My margins have been very good, through careful planning, structuring the business and winning extra work from existing customers. In this respect it is essential to follow the system. "A £500,000 turnover is very realistic and I would say I'll reach £1 million within two to three years."

Anita & Raj Rauli Former occupations: Retail Manager and Property Developer
Territory: London North
Started: April 2004
Current monthly turnover: £27,000
Annualised turnover: £324,000

"The reason we chose Jani-King was the proven system and guaranteed turnover. Jani-King provides you with a system which we've managed to run with good margins from the early days. The systems are there, all you've got to do is put them in place. "The last 12 months have been fantastic - we are getting more and more accounts from existing customers who are recommending us to other companies, and we are winning a lot of extra work with the additional services we provide, such as window and carpet cleaning. "In fact, we recently signed up £1,300 worth of extra work in a day, and you can potentially earn over 50 per cent margins on this type of work! We're looking to continue to grow, and are about to double our annualised turnover by the end of 2006."

Naz Hosany Former occupation: Care Home owner
Territory: Kent
Started: January 2003
Current monthly turnover: £28,000
Annualised turnover: £336,000

"Most of our clients are national chains, and with the sales support from Jani-King and our own sales efforts we plan to reach a £1 million annualised turnover by mid-2007."

Sandip Chauhan & Ket Patel Former occupations: Accountant & Software Engineering Graduate
Territory: Leicester
Started: July 2004
Current monthly turnover: £42,000
Annualised turnover: £504,000

"What's required is to follow the system - if you build trust and relationships with your customers, when you can demonstrate that you can do a good job and provide value for money to that customer, they are willing to trust you and pay premium prices for additional services. "The new services are impacting P&L massively - we're earning between 18 and 22 per cent on them. That's when you start to to think you are making some money."

Ian Fick Former occupation: Cleaning Operative
Territory: London
Started: November 1999
Current monthly turnover: £190,000
Annualised turnover: £2 million+

"I've been operating my Jani-King franchise for almost six years. My turnover is now in excess of £2 million, my profit margins are in line with Jani-King's 10-15 per cent net range, so as you can imagine I'm starting to make some fairly decent money. "My vision is to be the first Jani-King franchise owner to make £1 million net profit in a year, and I really believe that will be achievable for me in the next few years."