Houseproud Cleaning is a cleaning franchise business with work in cleaning homes, offices, strata, aged care, NDIS, insurance work, and more.

We spoke with Paul Mitchell who started the company in Sydney, which has now also expanded into Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

Houseproud cleaning.

So we're a cleaning franchise business.

We do homes, offices, strata aged care, NDIS, insurance work, you name it.

Located

I started the company in Sydney, but we're also in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

What Paul loves about the business

The franchise network, essentially, we've got such a diverse group of people, and they all have different goals and wants and needs and working that out and working with them over time, it's been really rewarding.

Many children have been born into the group over that time, and some of them now are into university.

And, you know, because we've got franchisees that have been with us for over 20 years.

And that's what I love, is catching up with them, asking them about their families and their business and trying to help them.

And then, you know, supporting new Australians in a new business, in a new country, I think that sometimes they can be a little bit vulnerable.

So in most of our franchise sales are referrals.

So just looking after those new businesses and watching them grow and then watching their personalities and their confidence develop over time as well.

Often they're very timid when they first come to us, and within two or three years, they own it.

Best-fit person for a franchise

Honesty, integrity, you know, drive for success, ambition.

A certain personal standard.

We can teach anybody how to clean, you know, often.

And as I said, we've got such a diverse group, so we really look at the individuals in terms of, you know, what their needs are and we go down that path with them.

And it might be a different path for somebody else. 

Good to know

Well, strangely, one of the things that's popped up in the last five, six years or so is actually the notion of franchising.

There were a few bad examples, you know, five, six years ago.

And I think people remember those and they're a little bit nervous about franchises.

Cause they've heard, you know, not great stories all the time.

However, the fact is it's a wonderful business model.

I mean, it's still to this day the case that 80% of franchises are still in business after 2 years, whereas 80% of new businesses fail within the first two years that are outside of a franchise network.

So they have an opportunity to have the ownership and the control that they want in their lives.

But they've got a big brother, you know, behind the scenes who is always there to help them.

If they ever need, if they ever stumble or need a hand, they've got somebody there that gives them confidence.

Tells people who are interested to buy in

It comes down to, well, the first thing I do is say to them, it depends on the person who owns the business, the franchisor.

Two things.

The second thing I say is talk to our franchisees. Many of them have been with us for decades now.

I think that that's indication of strong leadership and commitment to the brand and to the franchise owners.

But don't take it, my word for it.

Here's a list of numbers people I think you can speak to in your own native language.

And most of the time they do do that, and when they do, we generally get a sale.

Key future focus

Well, we've come out of a pretty tough time with COVID so it's really a time to rebuild.

And especially in terms of our marketing.

My main focus over the next 12 months is marketing.

Really the marketing landscape has changed quite a bit and can be quite challenging at times.

And we really need to be across that and have our best people on it, you know, and have the money available to spend.

So it's all about growth really.

I love growing businesses.

I love growing the individual businesses and the brand and I love the success stories and meeting the franchisees of the different social functions and so forth, and hearing how well they're going.

And because many of them are very nervous, a little bit unsure when they first start, and then it doesn't take long for their confidence to grow.

And often, you know, within years you can just see everything in their life changing as that confidence grows.

Not only their relationship with the customers, but also their relationship with their children and their own network and so forth.

Yeah, it's wonderful to see.