Franchise Anonymous #0007+8: Commercial kitchen cleaning, holiday lights

Happy Sunday, folks. 

As a franchise consultant, I hear pitches from hundreds of different franchise concepts every year. 

I’m taking the most interesting ones, and telling you: 

• What sets them apart

• One potential weakness

• Who the ideal buyer is

My promise: you’ll learn something about franchising every time. 

Today’s mystery franchises: a niche commercial kitchen cleaning operation, and a streamlined holiday lighting business.

The business: Commercial kitchen cleaning

This one plays in the gritty, unglamorous world of commercial hood cleaning—a service restaurants are legally required to get done, but rarely think about until something catches fire. Most operators in this space are mom-and-pop crews with a pressure washer and a truck. This franchise is more structured. And smarter.

What they do differently

• It’s mandatory, not optional. Restaurant exhaust systems must be cleaned regularly to comply with fire code. There’s no selling someone on the idea of cleaning—they already know they need it. Your job is just convincing them you're the more reliable option.
  

• Low competition, high mess. Most service businesses chase residential jobs. This one focuses strictly on commercial accounts. Fewer customers, but they pay more and stick around longer. Plus, most people don’t want to do this work, which means less competition.
  

• They do inspections too. Most competitors just clean. This brand trains franchisees to inspect and certify systems, which builds trust with fire marshals and wins you repeat business.
  

• 🚩Potential weakness: Nights and weekends. Restaurants don’t want you working during open hours. That means your crews are working off-hours—something you’ll need to manage (and incentivize) carefully.

The takeaway:

If you’re operationally minded and not squeamish about grease, this is a sneaky-smart play. No marketing gimmicks. No shiny storefront. Just a recurring need and not many folks willing to deal with it. You don’t need experience in restaurants or cleaning—just comfort with managing blue-collar teams and building local B2B relationships.

Interested? Let’s talk commercial kitchen cleaning.

The business: Holiday lighting installs

The first franchise I owned offered window cleaning, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, and holiday lighting services. To be candid, I hated the first three. I LOVED the holiday lighting business and wished I could stick with that. 

This franchise would’ve been the answer to my prayers. It’s all lighting with no cleaning. 

The lighting niche is mostly a mess of local one-man bands with ladders, janky websites, and a love of being “fully booked” by mid-November. What sets this one apart: a polished, franchise-first approach that adds structure to a seasonal chaos machine.

What they do differently

• Optional year-round play. Most holiday lighting outfits do one thing: cram all their work into Q4, disappear in January, and maybe reemerge next fall. This model adds permanent lighting installs into the mix—adjustable-color lights that stay up year-round. It turns what’s usually a 3-month side hustle into a potential full-time gig.
  

• Centralized marketing and recruiting support. Most small ops rely on Facebook posts and whoever responds to a Craigslist ad. Here, you get agency-grade marketing run by the franchisor, plus real systems to help you hire seasonal installers without losing your mind.
  

• Launch from home. You don’t need a storefront or warehouse to get started. One manager (usually you), a few seasonal installers, and you’re in business. That keeps startup costs and complexity way down.
  

• 🚩Potential weakness: It’s still seasonal-heavy. Yes, they pitch a year-round model, but let’s not kid ourselves—the core of the business revolves around November and December. Expect an intense peak season with lots of prep, weather delays, and managing stressed-out clients who want it “just like last year.”

The takeaway:

If you're organized, decent with customers, and fine working like crazy for a few months, this could be a low-risk entry into business ownership. You don’t need a trades background. But you do need to be okay with managing logistics, a crew, and a seasonal rollercoaster. The back-end support is real, and the permanent lighting adds a nice growth lever.

Interested? Let's talk holiday lighting.

If these aren’t doing it for you, I work with hundreds of other brands. Get in touch and we can find something that scratches the itch.

Thanks for reading!

Connor

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