Cleaning Up: From Homes To Clothes, Franchising Has Got The Goods

Franchising.com:

Franchising can provide an opportunity for you to clean up. Whether it’s inside your home or the clothes on your body, there are many choices.

Busy Americans are driving explosive growth in the cleaning industry. With little time of their own to clean, U.S. consumers are spending more than $9 billion a year on residential cleaning-a figure expected to grow at a rate of more than 20% a year.

Consider these stats from Merry Maids:

* Currently, there are 22,000 U.S. cleaning service providers, with the category projected to grow by 20% within the next 10 to 15 years.

* Keeping a clean home is more and more difficult for today’s homeowners because families are overscheduled and homes are much larger:

- Americans work 9 weeks more than their European peers.

- Women spend less than 7 hours per week cleaning their homes (vs. women in the 1960s who cleaned an average of 27 hours a week).

- Homes built in 2004 averaged 2,400 sq. ft. while 1973 new homes averaged 1,660 sq. ft.

- 19% of homes built in 2003 had more than 3,000 sq. ft. compared with 7% in 1986.

* Home cleaning industry sales are near $24 billion.

Full article.