Business models / Pressure Washing Company / Own a franchise

A pressure washing company franchise, or your own?

Three franchise brands run a pressure washing company. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a pressure washing company: $80k to $1M in sales, and the owner keeps 25% to 40% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

Work each brand out at

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 10% of sales here. The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own pressure washing company and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own pressure washing company

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$71k to $252k
Annual sales
$280ktypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$92,400
The owner keeps in a year, after about $28k of marketing
Taking new owners

Window Gang

Window and exterior cleaning

Total investment
$131k to $242k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$65k
Royalty + ad fund
6% + 2% of sales
$76k
The owner keeps in a year at $280k in sales (your sales), after $22k to the brand
$17k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Window Genie

Window cleaning

Total investment
$136k to $306k
Avg. annual sales
$387k to $485k
Franchise fee
$40k
Royalty + ad fund
7% of sales
$113k
The owner keeps in a year at $436k in sales (what it reports), after $31k to the brand
$21k more a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Rolling Suds

Pressure washing and exterior cleaning

Total investment
$211k to $299k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$55k
Royalty + ad fund
8% + 2% of sales
$70k
The owner keeps in a year at $280k in sales (your sales), after $28k to the brand
$22k less a year than on your own

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.