Cleaning Lady or Franchise? - Part I

You are probably busier than ever and if you are like most individuals, your house is a little worse for wear. 

House cleaning often times is the last thing on the agenda and a good cleaning service can take the stress and mess out of your life. The question is what kind of service should you choose?

Professional Franchise Type Service Or Your Basic Cleaning Lady
You have two basic choices for getting your house cleaning done, a professional franchise type service or your basic cleaning lady. 

Businesses like Merry Maids and others have cropped up all over the country and they do make it easy to find someone to do the house cleaning. 

Cleaning ladies on the other hand may be a bit harder to find, depending on where you live. Generally speaking your best resource will be your local newspaper, Craigslist, Google or even better, word of mouth (referral). But still which is the best one for you to choose?

Franchise
With a franchise, you have the benefit of an easy to locate service that is backed by great insurance in case of accidents.

However, there are other things to consider; for starters, you will likely never negotiate with the people actually doing the house cleaning.

Most likely, your contact person will be a manager or other individual from the home office. 

- You will not be able to garner a personal relationship with your cleaning staff because the crews will rotate and you have no little contact on a personal level with them.