Merry Maids Franchise Business Review
12 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
Merry Maids Franchise is part of the Servicemaster family of franchises and is supported by the servicemaster brand, which has been around since 1947. Merry maids has over thirty years of experience and is a world leader in the residential cleaning business. The company establishes an individual cleaning plan for each of their clients allowing them to focus exactly on the needs of each customers.
The price to clean is based on what the customer needs as well as the budget.
As a Franchise owner you have the benefits of the brand as well as the support from the company. Some of the benefits include, protected territories, marketing and advertising programs, home office support, ongoing support and the merry maid intranet.
The marketing support by the company is facilitated on several levels. First, you receive access to brand marketing materials and items to grow locally. You will benefit from the franchise national targeted ad campaigns as well as a customized web site for your business.
The company offers regional and national conventions to continue your training and support as well as specialized field trainings and advanced seminars.
The price for a merry maids franchise includes several components. As with most franchises you have the initial franchise fee, the ongoing fee and the overhead required to start and maintain your business. The initial Merry Maids Franchise fee is $31,000 – $41,000 and the ongoing royalty is 5% to 7% of your top line sales.
The total estimated cost to start a merry maids franchise is estimated to be $52,000 – $71,000. In addition, you will have the monthly expenses to grow and maintain your business. As with any business there is a high risk in today’s economic climate.
Did you know that more than 80% of ALL franchises fail and those who start their franchise end up in debt working for years to pay it off. Learn how you can avoid the high risk and start up costs of a traditional franchise business.
Merry Maids Franchise Review
11 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
Merry Maids is home cleaning and maintenance company that began its journey in 1979 in Omaha, Nebraska. The company has demonstrated the home owners a dependable way of leaving the burden of home cleaning to get free time for other important works. Popularity of Merry Maids has helped the company to grow as a Pan American service company as well the one operating internationally. The company has its presence in the UK, Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan through franchisees.
Merry Maids services are efficient and affordable to a large number of homeowners who hate to see dirty homes, but have no time to clean. The company has concentrated its activities more in home cleaning segment. Dusting, vacuum cleaning, scrubbing and washing sound simple, but not as simple for the amount of labor and time required. If you have to do it all on a routine basis, you will have to sacrifice much of your activities scheduled for weekly off days and holidays. It is an experience to walk into the homes after Merry Maids has done the cleaning service, whether for sparkling bathrooms or the glittering washboard, sink and tiles in the kitchen without stubborn stains, also don’t miss seeing the clean floor edges and the corners.
Franchise Locations And Territorial Divisions
The Company has gone into tie up with ServiceMaster Quality Service Network. This network has other service companies operating on the franchise system for expanded market coverage. Merry Maids is offering franchisee business nationwide to cover a large number of areas that are still not represented. Of course, the company is always enthusiastic about expansion in the international markets.
Consideration of prospective customer base in every location is important to assess the scope of business. They have 3 types of market territories. Full-sized exclusive territories have a minimum number of 10,000 households. The medium size territories go for a minimum of 5,000 homes and small size territories are those having 5,000 or fewer number of homes.
Merry Maids’ Support To The Franchisees
The Company has successfully worked its way to create a brand image. Merry Maids is now a dependable and sought after name for the home cleaning job. For business promotion, the company has been exercising particular care to maintain a very strong public relation. The ad supports come from ads in national media like TV and radio to generate demand and enquiries. The company also releases ads on the internet.
The franchisees get direct support from the company through toll-free phone, meetings, newsletters and operational evaluation programs.
Merry Maids offers initial training to the franchisee at the headquarters for 8 days. Also, they provide on the spot training at franchise locations whenever necessary. They work out a lot of innovative ways to execute an effective job within the shortest possible time.
The Investment
It is a primarily a low investment business calling for total investment of $24, 750 to $59, 450 depending upon the size of a territory. Merry Maids offer a 5 year renewable contract with a franchise fees in the range of $21,000 – $31,000. They charge 5 to 7% royalty fees.
The Life of Filipino Maids in Hong Kong
07 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
Among the average 7 million inhabitants of Hong Kong, Filipino workers comprise at least 140,000 of the population. Majority of these workers, mostly women, are Filipino maids or referred to by the locals as feiyungs. Life in the Philippines is hard but for these helpers, life in Hong Kong is perceived to be harder but the chance to harbor income is higher, but might as well take the risk. But how does life go on in Hong Kong?
Continued Practice of Faith
Once Filipinos step in Hong Kong to work as domestic helpers, life seems to shift course and transform, one thing remains continuous and constant-faith in God. Religion is a big part of the Filipinos Lifestyle that wherever they go, they take it with them. Roman Catholics dominate the religion. In fact there is a sizeable count of Filipinos frequently visiting Catholic Parishes especially on Sunday mornings and masses are even held in local tagalog to accommodate the language of the Filipinos.
Sunday Lifestyle
It’s a 6-day work and one day off for all Filipino Maids in Hong kong. That day off is usually held on Sundays. During this day, thousands of them are seen flocking in Central, Victoria Park or the Hong Kong Cultural Centre to hang out and entertain one another. Most of the time, loud rendezvous can be heard blocks away, there are singings, concerts and picnics.
The local Hong Kong government recognizes this weekly practice of socializing and relaxation that the main central’s roads are often closed for at least 10 hours as Filipinos enliven their street party. Concerts are sometimes held to make their day more energizing while “no littering” signs are flashed in tagalog aside from English and Cantonese, proof that Filipinos indeed rule this side of the city.
For Filipino maids, life is what you make of it. While it can be daunting to work in a foreign land, these Filipinos know they have more chance for a brighter future. With higher income, decent living, continued practice of faith and at least a day of merry making, life is not at all that bad.
Merry Maids Franchise
04 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
Dallen W. Peterson founded Merry Maids in 1979 in Omaha, Nebraska, and began franchising the Merry Maids business in 1980. Merry Maids joined the ServiceMaster family of home service companies in 1988. Now based in Memphis, Tennessee, the Merry Maids Franchisor is a publicly held company with 60 employees. There are over 900 Merry Maids franchises in the U.S. and Canada, as well as franchises in the United Kingdom, Japan and Denmark and other countries worldwide, with more opening each year.
Merry Maids employs a unique system, combining 2-person cleaning teams and efficient management procedures, and effective marketing strategies. Anyone who wishes to open a Merry Maids franchise will have access to myriad tools for success, including highly effective training in all aspects of the residential cleaning industry, superior office management techniques, and strategies for increasing the customer base. In addition to these tools, the Merry Maids name, backed by 25 years of experience, offers other industry leading benefits, such as:
o franchisor support
o protected territories
o marketing and advertising resources
To fully understand the benefits of maintaining a Merry Maids franchise, a closer look at these tools for success is needed:
Franchisor Support
A strategically placed network of Regional Coordinators and Home Office personnel are constantly available, online, by phone or in person. In addition, regional meetings, specialized seminars, and an annual national convention provide franchise owners with countless opportunities to learn, ask questions, and build a successful Merry Maids franchise.
Protected Territories
With the Merry Maids Protected Territory System, franchise owners rarely have to compete with each other for a valuable customer base. Detailed market studies, performed on each newly proposed territory, determine size, and franchise fees.
Marketing and Advertising Resources
Merry Maids leads the home cleaning industry in brand awareness. Created to provide maximum return, Merry Maids employs a wide array of marketing, advertising and public relations programs. Designed to attract the best potential clients, national advertising campaigns generate thousands of leads per week. Along with television and radio marketing, Merry Maids also provides a state of the art web presence. Franchisees can create customized home pages which are fully SEO-optimized and hosted on the Merry Maids main server.
Merry Maids provides not only exceptional support of its franchisees, but also motivational elements that are constantly moving owners towards increasing success. Programs such as the annual Dallen Peterson Awards honor franchisees for overall excellence. The President’s Achievement and Merit Achievement awards reward franchise owners with free trips to conferences at popular travel destinations. In addition to these rewards, the Merry Maids Mentoring Program allows franchise owners to interact with other owners close to them to gain personal perspective and hand-on learning opportunities from those who have gone before.
Start Your Own House Cleaning Business
01 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
Had you visited in our home when my children were young, you would have thought a tornado had passed through their bedrooms during the night. They were a disaster. And the worst part was, no amount of reasoning, threatening, and punishment ever cured the problem. All three of my girls, I feared, were destined to be old maids. After all, what man in his right senses would ever propose to a young lady who chose to live in a pig sty?
The funny part about it was that when my children went to visit their grandparents or to stay overnight with a friend, I got all kinds of compliments on what wonderful little helpers they were. Why to hear my Mother tell it, they cleaned her kitchen for her until it shone. If they were asked to dust the living room, they argued with each other over who got to do the job for grandma.
Isn’t that just like a kid? And it’s a bit like grown-ups, too. I notice that I’m not too keen on scrubbing my own sinks or windows, but when I baby sit for a friend or relative, I usually tackle any housework that needs doing there without giving it a thought. Why is that, I wonder? I guess it doesn’t seem like real “work” when it is in somebody else’s house. Anyway, that brings me to my subject for this article, “Starting your own house cleaning business.”
My neighbor cleaned houses for extra money for years. She once raved to me about how much she enjoyed her job, and often had far more business than she wanted. Finally, she decided to stick to just three or four regular customers, and set up a time convenient to her for each of her clients, spreading them out during the week so that she didn’t feel overworked. Her fee was $15 an hour. At that time, I thought, “Wow! I would never pay $15 an hour for someone to do something I could do for myself.” But, after giving it some thought, I decided that paying that amount just once during the week and knowing that my vacuuming, bed changing, window washing, laundry etc. was taken care of would be well worth it. Apparently her clients thought so, too, because she kept most of them until she decided to retire.
If you decide to try the house cleaning business yourself, here are a few things you need to consider.
1. Set the limits for how far you will travel.
Decide at the beginning if you want to limit your business to your immediate neighborhood or whether you are willing to drive across town to work. If you plan to include sites some distance from your home, your price should include a mileage allowance or your profit will be considerably diminished, especially with today’s high gas prices.
2. Supplies you will need.
For most housecleaning jobs, you will probably just need to come with an apron for yourself and some gloves if your hands are sensitive. Most likely, your client will have mops, brooms, vacuums, soap, etc. If you have a tool of your own that you prefer to use rather than what the client has, bring it along.
3. Finding the jobs.
Did you know that it is estimated that over 60% of all jobs are found through networking? That means letting people you know-friends, relatives, associates-that you are looking for work and what kind of work you are looking for. The chances are that the first few people you mention your new business to will not be in the market for a housekeeper, but they may know someone who is-or they may mention your business to a few friends, who may mention it to a few more friends, etc. Eventually, someone who is looking for your services will hear about you and give you a call. Especially if you print up a flyer, or a business card on your computer that you can hand out to people you meet.
You may end up with more clients than you can handle. If so, you might consider branching out and hiring a couple of helpers. A business in our town did this and incorporated, calling themselves the Merry Maids. They even have a van now with their name painted on it-the perfect advertisement for even more business, which will make it necessary to hire more Merry Maids. There is no limit to what you can do with your small one-person housekeeping business if you really work at it.
4. Services you will (or will not) perform.
Unfortunately, some people take advantage of their hired help. Make it clear at the beginning what your job will cover. If your weekly visit is supposed to cover light housecleaning, you want to make sure they don’t suddenly decide that they want you to shampoo their carpets using a rented machine that you can hardly budge when you lean against it with all your strength; or to prepare all the fixings for a dinner party some evening.
The best way to avoid add-ons is to have a written contract to begin with. You don’t need to call it a contract-that sounds pretty formal. Just have your employers give you a written list of your duties before you make a final commitment to them. Let them know if you would consider doing additional tasks for additional compensation.
If there are some chores you absolutely will not do, let your client know that from the beginning. For example, if you dislike caring for children, you don’t want to have your client expect you to care for their grandchildren who show up after school. Or, if you don’t want to run errands (although that could be a profitable sideline for you), let them know ahead of time.
If, at any time, you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or taken advantage of, don’t hesitate to quit. You found this job. You can find another.
Those are the main things you need to know to get started in your own, part-time housecleaning business. Even though the very word, “housecleaning,” sometimes conjures up the thought of drudgery, remember how much more fun it was to polish the furniture at Grandma’s house than at home. The same thing will happen when you start your own housecleaning business, along with the added reward of getting paid for your services.
Trendy Bracelets For Your Merry Maids
30 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Bridesmaid bracelets are a nice jewelry gift accessory because they are that extra special piece that’s not necessary, but gorgeous! Giving the gift of jewelry is a nice thank you idea for being a part of your special day and it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Your maids can wear their bridesmaids bracelets again after the big day.
When selecting your bridesmaids bracelets first consider your color palate and bridesmaid gown colors. You will want to find bridesmaid bracelets that coordinate with your color scheme and bridesmaid gowns. Whether you have shades of pinks, reds or blacks or a solid color scheme, find jewelry that either matches perfectly or that coordinates in color. Finding a jewelry designer that uses the Swarovski brand pearls and crystals is a great way to accomplish this task. This is because Swarovski offers a huge variety of crystal colors in different shapes and sizes, as well as a full collection of over thirty different pearl colors to choose from.
After you’ve decided upon a color scheme that will work with your bridesmaids gowns, you can then focus on the style of bracelet you will give. A new and great idea that many brides are choosing is selecting a different bridesmaid bracelet for each bridesmaid, but within the same color scheme. This is a great way to add a unique and personal touch to your gift giving idea.
There are a wide variety of bridesmaid bracelet styles out there. From a chunky bracelet to a full cuff style bracelet for a bold splash of color and sparkle. Single strand and double strand bracelets are both simple but elegant and are perfect to wear again after the big day. There are illusion bracelets which are becoming more popular because there are pearls and crystals that are strung on illusion cord, making the gems look like they are floating.
Whatever styles you decide for your bridesmaids bracelets, pick a color scheme that both coordinates with your wedding colors and bridesmaid gown color. Your bridesmaids will love their new jewelry gifts and when they wear them again after the big day, they will remember what special role they played on your most special day.
Hello world!
21 Mar 2011 1 Comment
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