The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?

If your company is part of a cleaning franchise system, you may be envious of the independent cleaning company owner’s royalty-free structure and “freedom” from the corporate office.

If you’re an independent cleaning company owner, you may be envious of the franchise owner who commands superior market recognition, group marketing expertise and advertising dollars as well as big company support and training.

So which of the two groups is better off?

I think it depends on the individual and recommend using a short list of questions to assist in an interesting exercise. Here are a few sample questions and solutions to help—

“I can’t find enough good people.”

The system solution to this is in your recruiting. A franchisee should be able to reach into her bag of systems and fine-tune her recruiting system to consistently find the right people when needed. An independent cleaning company owner will have to learn, test and polish a system that works best to consistently recruit the right people for their operation. But once learned, won’t have to “pay” for the system development costs or any recurring “royalty” costs.

“My people never do what I want them to do.”

The system solution to this is in your management systems. A franchisee should receive the proper training, systems and processes to be the competent manager that many of us have complained of not having in the corporate world. While the independent cleaning company owner has the opportunity to create, develop and execute the high-performing working environment she’s always dreamed of.

“Why does my business feel like complete chaos so much of the time?”

The system solution depends on the specific frustration you’re having. And can simply be solved with a system that works to make that part of your business smooth. Lack of an effective system is really the only reason to having any business frustration at all.

So whether you’re part of a cleaning franchise or an independent owner, remember to look to the system for the solution—for the better of the two is the owner with the better system.