People searching for franchises under $100,000 are usually comparing home service categories: cleaning, lawn care, handyman, pest control and junk removal compete for the same investment dollars. This page compares those categories honestly on what they take to run, and is straight about the number in the question: some categories fit under $100,000 at the low end of their ranges, and VETS's Item 7 range spans above it.
The number first
Every franchise's cost to open is Item 7 of its Franchise Disclosure Document, and it is a range. "Under $100K" is true of a brand only if the end of the range that applies to your market is under it, and franchisors will tell you which end that is if you ask. VETS's range is on the investment page, every line a reviewed figure, and it spans above $100,000. If your ceiling is firm, that is a fact to have before reading further.
The categories, by what they take
Residential cleaning is a headcount business. Low equipment, high staffing, recurring weekly and fortnightly customers. The work is hiring, scheduling and quality control across many small jobs a day.
Lawn care and mosquito or pest control are route businesses with equipment and, for pest, licensing. Strongly seasonal in most of the country, with a customer base built on recurring treatment schedules.
Handyman and repair sells skilled labor by the hour. Equipment is light; the constraint is finding and keeping tradespeople and pricing jobs that are each different.
Junk removal and dumpsters is crews and trucks, and for dumpsters, containers. Fewer jobs a day than cleaning, each one larger; a mix of one-off residential calls and recurring commercial and multifamily accounts. The junk removal versus dumpster rental page goes into the two halves.
None of these is easier than another. They are different jobs, and the person who thrives running cleaning crews is not always the person who thrives dispatching trucks.
Comparing brands within a category
Once the category is chosen, compare brands on Items 5, 6, 7, 12 and 20 of their FDDs, the way the junk removal franchises page does for that category. We name a brand on this site only when we have verified it is currently franchising and can cite its FDD; cleaning, lawn and pest brands are not on that list yet, so this page compares them as categories. Their documents are on file in the same public databases linked from every comparison page.
Why owners choose VETS
Whatever else you compare, these are the reasons owners chose VETS.
- One owner, the whole metro. A VETS franchise is an entire metro area as defined in Item 12, with no carved-up sub-territories and no second VETS branch competing for the same jobs.
- Three service lines from one fleet. Junk removal, dumpster rental, and commercial and multifamily waste services: more ways to put the same trucks and crews to work, across different customers and seasons.
- National accounts you do not have to win yourself. VETS holds relationships with multi-site property management groups, and the work in your metro is assigned as set out in the FDD.
- CentCom behind you. The corporate support team runs national accounts, receivables, the technology platform and training, and stays on the line after opening. Item 11 of the FDD sets out exactly what VETS provides.
- Veteran-founded, led from the front. Built by an Army Engineer Officer from a single Charlotte truck, and the Charlotte corporate store is still the template every territory runs from.
- Every cost in the open. Every figure on the investment page comes from Item 7 of the FDD, and nobody at VETS will sell you on an earnings number.
Questions to ask in any category
- Which end of the Item 7 range applies to my market, and why?
- What is the recurring fee total in Item 6, and what does it buy in Item 11?
- What does the day look like: how many jobs, how many people, what equipment?
- How seasonal is it here, and what does a slow month look like?
- How many owners left in the last three years (Item 20), and may I call them?