For franchised operators
Leave your franchise. Keep your business.
If you're paying a cleaning franchise a percentage of every job for a logo on the truck and a vendor login — there's a way out. Same tools. Lower cost. Your brand back.
The franchise stack
5–10%
Royalty
of gross revenue. Every job. Forever. Whether the franchise referred the customer or not.
1–3%
Brand fund
of gross revenue. Pays for ads you don't see and a national website that doesn't list your phone number.
$30K–$80K
Initial fee
upfront. Then $20K–$50K to renew every 5–10 years. Not refundable.
Ranges reflect mid-tier figures from publicly disclosed Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs) for the largest US/Canadian commercial cleaning networks. Your specific franchise contract may charge more or less — and almost certainly includes software, training, and technology fees on top.
Run your numbers
Two clicks. A number you can verify.
Pick your monthly revenue and team size. We'll show what you'd pay on Zulma vs. a typical cleaning franchise. Math is shown — no asterisks.
Your monthly revenue
Current: $10,000
Revenue from Zulma leads
Current: 25% Zulma-sourced
Admins & dispatchers
Current: 1 admin/dispatcher
Cleaners (pros)
Current: 3 cleaners
You'd save
$15,216/year
on Plan A, vs. a typical cleaning franchise stack (7% royalty + 2% brand fund + software + amortized franchise fee).
Franchise (typical)
$17,796/year
Royalty + brand fund + software + initial-fee amortization
Zulma · Plan A
$2,580/year
3 free · 1 × $15 pro · 8% on $2,500 lead revenue · $215/mo
Zulma · Plan B
$3,600/year
12% on $2,500 lead revenue · 0% on your own · $300/mo
Numbers are illustrative. Franchise assumptions reflect the mid-tier of publicly disclosed FDDs from the largest US/Canadian commercial cleaning networks (ServiceMaster Clean, SERVPRO, JAN-PRO, Coverall, Vanguard) — your specific franchise contract may charge more or less. Zulma figures use locked v3 pricing (see lib/operator-billing/*) and the same free-seat algorithm as your real bill: 3 free seats applied to admin seats first, the rest cascading to pros. Owner is always free and isn't counted above. Both plans pass payment processing through at cost + 0.4% — with bank debit (the default) the processing fee caps at $5 per payment, so a $1,000 invoice costs about $9 total. Identical on A and B, so it's excluded from the comparison.
Side by side
Eleven lines. No surprises.
| Franchise | Zulma · Plan A | Zulma · Plan B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront fee | $30K–$80K | $0 | $0 |
| Royalty on revenue | 5–10% on EVERY invoice | 0% your customers · 8% Zulma leads | 0% your customers · 12% Zulma leads |
| Brand / ad fund | 1–3% of gross | $0 | $0 |
| Software fees | $100–$500 / mo | $49 admin + $15 / pro | $0 |
| Free seats | None | 3 (any role mix) | Unlimited |
| Territory lock-in | Yes — exclusive zones | No | No |
| Brand on the truck | Theirs | Yours | Yours |
| Customer book ownership | Disputed at exit | Yours | Yours |
| Re-up / renewal fee | $20K–$50K every 5–10 years | None | None |
| Contract term lock | 10–20 years typical | Month-to-month | Month-to-month |
| Switch plans / leave | Negotiated buyout | Anytime, pro-rated | Anytime |
Upfront fee
Franchise
$30K–$80K
Plan A
$0
Plan B
$0
Royalty on revenue
Franchise
5–10% on EVERY invoice
Plan A
0% your customers · 8% Zulma leads
Plan B
0% your customers · 12% Zulma leads
Brand / ad fund
Franchise
1–3% of gross
Plan A
$0
Plan B
$0
Software fees
Franchise
$100–$500 / mo
Plan A
$49 admin + $15 / pro
Plan B
$0
Free seats
Franchise
None
Plan A
3 (any role mix)
Plan B
Unlimited
Territory lock-in
Franchise
Yes — exclusive zones
Plan A
No
Plan B
No
Brand on the truck
Franchise
Theirs
Plan A
Yours
Plan B
Yours
Customer book ownership
Franchise
Disputed at exit
Plan A
Yours
Plan B
Yours
Re-up / renewal fee
Franchise
$20K–$50K every 5–10 years
Plan A
None
Plan B
None
Contract term lock
Franchise
10–20 years typical
Plan A
Month-to-month
Plan B
Month-to-month
Switch plans / leave
Franchise
Negotiated buyout
Plan A
Anytime, pro-rated
Plan B
Anytime
White-glove migration
Thirty days. No charge.
Leaving a franchise is paperwork-heavy and emotionally loud. We handle the paperwork. You handle the conversations with your customers — we'll give you the script.
Week 1
We catalog your book.
We import every contract, every customer, every visit history, every cleaner. You hand us a CSV (or your existing software's export). We do the rest.
Week 2–3
We re-paper your contracts.
Service agreements are re-issued under your brand on Zulma's templates. Customers e-sign. Same terms, same prices, same service.
Week 4
You go live.
Dispatch, payments, payouts, brand profile — all yours. We stay on call for 30 days post-launch to catch anything we missed.
What this doesn't do
- Break your franchise contract for you. That's your lawyer's job — we can recommend ones who've done it before.
- Refund your franchise fees. Those are sunk. The math works going forward — the calculator above doesn't pretend otherwise.
- Transfer your Apex / quality certifications. You earn those on the Zulma side the same way every operator does — but we fast-track the application for migrating operators with clean franchise records.
Why operators switch
The math stopped working.
“Doing $30K a month means $3,300 a year just in royalty, before software fees. That's an entire month of payroll going to a logo.”
I built this book myself.
“Every customer I have came from my own outreach. Paying a percentage on revenue the franchise didn't generate stopped feeling fair around year three.”
The software was the worst part.
“I was using Excel on the side because the franchise's system couldn't do recurring contracts properly. Zulma already does what I was building in Excel.”
Composite quotes drawn from conversations with cleaning operators considering Zulma. We'll publish real named testimonials once our first cohort of franchise migrations completes.
Ready to leave
Bring the book. Keep the upside.
Apply in five minutes. If you're a fit for migration, we'll schedule a call within two business days and we'll handle the paperwork from there.