JAN-PRO: Is Jan-Pro a Great Franchise Opportunity?
Jan-Pro Franchising International offer two distinct franchise opportunities: the Jan-Pro master franchise and the Jan-Pro unit franchise.
The Jan-Pro master franchise opportunity is marketed to sales/marketing and management executives.
The Jan-Pro unit franchise opportunity is marketing to individuals willing to perform cleaning and janitorial duties.
Are you familiar with the Jan-Pro franchise opportunity? Please share a comment below.
The Jan-Pro Master Franchise Opportunity
According to the Jan-Pro website, “each Jan-Pro Master Franchise owner acts as the Regional Franchisor in their exclusive market. Our Master Franchise owners operate in a professional business environment during regular business hours, while their Unit franchisees service the commercial cleaning needs of our clients.”
In short, Jan-Pro Master franchisees market and sell commercial cleaning services to businesses within their territories, and sell unit franchises to the individuals who will perform the janitorial services for those accounts.
According to Franchise.org, the Jan-Pro master franchise has a Start-up Cost of $100,000 to $500,000, and requires a total investment ranging from $125,000 to $1,500,000.
The Jan-Pro Unit Franchise Opportunity
Jan-Pro unit franchisees are promised a guaranteed volume of commercial cleaning work, provided by the master franchisee they are under. The amount of revenue they are promised is determined by the amount they invest upfront, as they are, in essence, paying for a certain volume of commercial cleaning contracts it will be their obligation to fulfill. However, it is important to note that it’s our understanding that neither Jan-Pro not its master franchisees guarantee that those accounts provided will be profitable. Furthermore, we believe that if unit franchisees turn down accounts, the dollar amount of those refused accounts will be deducted from what Jan-Pro is obligated to provide.
According to Franchise.org, the Jan-Pro unit franchise requires a start-up cost of $950 to $36,500, and a total investment ranging between $2,800 to $44,000.
Is the Jan-Pro Master Franchise a Good Opportunity? What About the Jan-Pro Unit Franchise?
Many Jan-Pro unit franchisees have complained that they were deceived and defrauded by Jan-Pro International and/or a JanPro master franchisee. Most of the unit franchise allegations involve franchisees who claim they never received the promised accounts, or that the accounts they received were bid so low they could not profitably perform the work. Many Jan-Pro franchisees allege that they had janitorial accounts wrongfully taken away from them by master franchisees who then assigned them to new franchisees, thereby fulfilling the obligations of multiple franchisees with a single account.
Read or comment about these and other Jan-Pro complaints here:
JAN-PRO: Is JAN-PRO Franchise a Scam?
JAN-PRO: Janitorial Franchise Warning
Most of the complaints have been made by Jan-Pro unit franchisees. Recently, however, we received an unverified report that Jan-Pro some master franchisees are in revolt. On the post STRATUS Franchise: Are Stratus Master Franchisees Jumping Ship?, Reasoned Source wrote:
Jan-Pro is very interested in what is going on at Stratus… So much so, they have had at least two executive level meetings to discuss what to do about the “Stratus Issues”. Also, A group of approx. 30 Masters have decided to Stop Selling Unit Franchises for the time being and quite possibly forever.
Stratus Building Solutions is a similarly structured franchise competitor whose master franchisees have openly stated that the unsavory tactics used by master franchisees have been made necessary by the janitorial franchisor who sold them an otherwise unviable franchise. Reasoned Source and others have said that while master franchisees share blame, they too are victims.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE JAN-PRO MASTER FRANCHISE AND/OR UNIT FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY? WHAT DO YOU THINK? PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT – POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE – BELOW.
I started with Jan-Pro of Raleigh (North Carolina) as a Unit Franchise Owner, and it was fine, in the beginning. The company was owned by Moe Hassan, but the day to day operations was controlled by his son, Sean Hassan, who had to be one of the most slippery people I’ve ever met.
One thing that Sean thrived on was improperly training the new franchise owners about the Policies and Procedures, which he very quickly skimmed over during the training period. Because of this practice, franchisees didn’t really have a full grasp of what their full responsibilities were, which left Sean often threatening them with falsehoods concerning their franchises.
Case in point: A franchisee wanted a specific person to work for them, but Sean had a problem with that person and threatened the franchisee with the termination of their franchise if they were to hire this person. Essentially, this franchisee came to me and I was able to clarify the Policy concerning the hiring and Sean didn’t have a leg to stand on, which led to that person being hired by the franchisee.
Another problem was the fact that they “forced” work upon franchisees that was way above what the franchisee could actually handle, or that the franchisee might have found unsuitable because of the job being underbid. I was so overworked that I literally had no personal life.
Eventually, I sold my business back to Jan-Pro of Raleigh and started working for them as an Operations Manager. In that capacity, I observed Sean Hassan doing many unscrupulous acts that I found very disturbing including the alteration of client contracts to ensure that a client could not get out of a contract, hiding portions of a contract that gave the client the option to opt out of a contract, and bullying franchisees to perform duties and take contracts that were very underbid.
There was also the fact that none of the franchisees and very few clients trusted Sean in his capacity as Regional Director. As an Operations Manager, I met with well over 200 clients and well over 50 franchisees and a very large percentage of these people felt that Sean was only out for himself and couldn’t trust anything that he told them.
The concept of Jan-Pro is absolutely awesome, but there are some master franchisors that just shouldn’t be in business. I believe that a lot of research is necessary before making a decision to team up with the regional office of Jan-Pro.
Read these articles of one of their top three competitors and make your own decision – the janitorial franchise world is under massive attack and clamoring to try and save their businesses:
http://www.wikidfranchise.org/search:site/q/coverall
Do not invest a penny in Jan-Pro because you will regret it. Here in Raleigh NC is going from bad to worse. The master is about selling as many franchises as possible just to keep the revenue flowing. Underbid, underhanded, lack of morals, lack of integrity, just to name a few of what you are going to face if you decide to invest your money in Jan-Pro Raleigh. The way they are running the business model is like a bad cancer, you can’t win.
The person who posted their dismay with Jan-Pro of Raleigh only supports my argument that this particular Jan-Pro franchisor is absolutely unscrupulous.