Fish Window Cleaning Blog

Within every industry of franchising, there are often competing brands. When you’re evaluating which brand to invest in as a franchisee, it is important to know the differences as much as the similarities when making the comparison.

Location Requirements

FISH requires a commercial location for the business while Window Gang allows for a home-based or mobile operation. For FISH, there are a few key reasons why a commercial location works for our business model:

• Zoning: many towns and counties will not permit commercial activity in a residential area, but all towns permit commercial activities in commercial areas.
• Marketing: having a storefront location is a marketing advantage and pays for itself as part of the FISH marketing strategy for franchise owners.
• Efficiency: when running a business, the efficient use of people and resources is paramount. It is much easier to have all inventory, supplies, vehicles, and people at one location than to have everything spread about.
• Financial support: the FISH franchise model financially supports a storefront location.

Ownership Options

When you start a business, you may want to be a hands-on owner-operator, however, as you grow the business, you may wish to step away from the daily operation. FISH permits absentee ownership, which means the owner of the business is not working in the business as a regular employee. However, Window Gang appears not to allow this.

Many of our franchisees have grown their businesses with additional FISH locations, and in other cases, the owner is an investor in the business with the plan to eventually transfer ownership (i.e. to a family member). Absentee ownership makes these business growth options possible.

While you might not be thinking along these lines today, it is something that can change in your 10-year franchise term.

The Biggest Difference: Services

The most significant difference between these two franchises comes in the services that are offered.

Fish Window Cleaning is a residential and commercial window franchise with services that include cleaning interior and exterior windows, skylights, storm windows, screens, mirrors, chandeliers, and ceiling fans. Our additional outdoor cleaning services include gutters and awning cleaning. Our services are offered for commercial buildings up to three stories.

Window Gang’s residential and commercial services include window cleaning, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, sealing and restoration for concrete and wood surfaces, dryer vent cleaning, chimney sweeping, oil remediation, and blind cleaning. In some locations, they also offer carpet and upholstery cleaning, dustless hardwood floor refinishing, and emergency water extraction. Window Gang also services high-rise buildings.

Something to Think About

When there are multiple and varied service options in a business, it is more difficult to deliver those services in an exceptional way for the customer. Your reputation hinges on every interaction, and you can more easily meet customer expectations when your services are focused and consistent.

Consistency also helps with recruiting. At FISH, employees are cross-trained on all the cleaning jobs, and when we onboard new employees, their job tasks are clear. With broad services (i.e. chimney sweeping or emergency water extraction), you are less likely to onboard a single employee who would be able to do all those jobs well, which gives you less flexibility in offering services.

Explore Franchising with FISH

Finally, don’t forget about the culture of the franchise. We’re very proud of the values we live by at FISH, and our longevity in the industry tells us we are living those values every day.

You can request more information about franchising with us by completing our online form. One of our team members will reach out and we can have a conversation about our franchise model and your goals as an entrepreneur.