Why Home Service Franchises Are So Hot Right Now

The home service industry is booming in 2022. The segment covers many business types, including plumbing, painting, roofing, residential cleaning and everything in between. Home service is also rapidly expanding for several reasons. The companies that fall into this category benefit from a few inherent advantages that make the sector particularly attractive for business owners.

The home service industry is valued at $506 billion and is expected to see 53% growth by 2024.

“We are seeing incredible demand and growth across all of our services — organically 30% growth, and some are even higher in the 70th and 80th percentile. I don't see that stopping any time soon,” said Hagan Kappler, CEO of Threshold Brands, a multi-company franchisor with eight home service brands. 

Many factors have contributed to the increasing interest in home services and make the industry such a hot ticket right now.

Size of Industry and Ease of Access

“It’s a really highly fragmented market, with a large market and plenty of sectors of home services within that,” explained Kappler. “That means there is a lot of opportunity to find customers and grow in your specific market.”

With so many niches, there are plenty of opportunities to start up a home service business in your area and have plenty of business. Many residential services also have some cross-over or seasonality, allowing entrepreneurs to easily run multiple service businesses at once and share resources and staff. 

Recession/Pandemic-Proof Industry

Home services are an essential business, and while many other industries really struggled during the pandemic, that was not the case for most service companies. This is because the business model is reliable regardless of what is happening in the economy or the world — people still need things done, repaired and taken care of in their homes. 

The pandemic actually brought a surge of increased demand for some home service businesses like residential cleaning. With the need to be germ-free at a critical level, many decided that housekeepers are necessary. Remodeling also saw a major increase, as people spent more time at home and wanted to improve their time inside. The Better Business Bureau recently published a report showing that 76% of homeowners have completed at least one home improvement project since March 2020.

“Coming out of COVID, people are continuing to spend a lot of time in their home and are realizing updates they want or need to make sure the home is clean, safe and really comfortable,” Kappler said. “Many of Threshold’s services are pretty modest improvements in terms of investment but are an amazing improvement to the look and feel of your house.”

Low Overhead

The business model for many home services allows for low overhead once you are up and running. While there are some initial investments to get a home service franchise started, costs are low due to having a mobile service rather than a brick-and-mortar space. Many of these companies can be run from a home office, saving a huge chunk of change. 

There is also low overhead in terms of employees because most services are something for which you can hire someone with no experience and train them. You do not need to spend time trying to recruit experts because, with the training support of the franchisor, anyone can quickly become a professional. 

“There's no requirement whatsoever,” said Kappler. “You've just got to be willing to be open to learning, to being open to feedback and putting the time in and work. One of the beautiful things about being part of a franchise organization is that you'll never feel like you're on your own.”