I negotiated a lease yesterday for a new franchisee opening our house cleaning franchise in Raleigh, North Carolina. The franchisee had seen realtors, scoured Craigslist, and drove the area before finding his top three commercial properties.

He told me which of the three would be his favorite North Raleigh house cleaning office, and what his dream rent would be. I asked our new North Raleigh franchisee if I could negotiate for him. With our new franchisee’s permission I contacted the Landlord and negotiate a $1140 discounted rent for the first year, and a $840 discount on the second year option, and a $540 discount on the third year option. It was a good deal for the Landlord who has 20% vacancy in this Raleigh office park, and it was a good deal for our new You’ve Got MAIDS franchise partner in North Raleigh.

Starting a new house cleaning business is tough work, and my goal is to help our franchisee’s cut expenses as much as possible, so they can invest more money in marketing.