How TruBlue Franchisees Can Start Making Money From the Jump and Quickly Exceed Their Revenue Expectations

TruBlue Total House Care, the franchise that provides subscription-based home maintenance and handyman services for seniors and families, is growing rapidly as the senior population increases and the demand for home services skyrockets post-COVID. The brand doubled its year-over-year revenue for the second straight year in 2021 and, as a result, TruBlue Total House Care franchisees are increasingly exceeding their revenue expectations. Now, as the brand aims to continue franchise growth across the country, TruBlue shows no signs of slowing down.

Matthew Neelan, franchise owner of TruBlue Cranberry in Pennsylvania, is one such franchise owner exceeding his original expectations for the business. 

Neelan first discovered the need for senior home modifications while making deliveries as part of his former job with a bulk supply company. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Neelan decided to finally follow his entrepreneurial dreams and signed on with TruBlue in April 2020. Despite the challenges that many other businesses faced during the pandemic, Neelan says his TruBlue business took off immediately in his community of Pittsburgh.

“When I first entered this business, I thought I would have trouble fulfilling the demand for house repair work because I thought it would take me a while to be able to afford hiring one person full-time,” said Neelan. “My goal was to have two employees by the end of the first year. We achieved that within 10 days! We hired a third within the first month, and I still need six more technicians — I’m not even close to covering the amount of leads I get. I know that if we had the right people in place, we could easily be a million-dollar operation.”

According to the National Council on Aging, a whopping 90% of seniors say they plan to remain in their homes for the next 5–10 years. TruBlue services help seniors remain at home by performing safety assessments before modifying the space accordingly. The modifications made to the home make a safer and more comfortable space for seniors, reducing the risk of falls and other health hazards. TruBlue offers a range of customizable, subscription-based services that customers — whether they are seniors or just busy families — can bundle, depending on their unique needs and their unique home. 

“The consumer offering in place is fantastic,” said Neelan. “Customer service is king for us. You can get a handyman anywhere, but not someone insured that you trust. We call ourselves house technicians. We provide a skill. We aren’t just doing this on the weekend — this is what we do full-time. We are also skilled over a multiple of disciplines and can service every part of the house. That saves people from having to call several different providers. We provide customer service above and beyond what our competitors do, and that has caught on in our area.” 

Additionally, Neelan says TruBlue appeals to a broad range of demographics, not just seniors. With the opportunity to help service busy families as well, TruBlue franchisees have a larger pool of potential clientele. 

“Baby Boomers are now getting to the point where they would have to enter into a nursing home, but they don’t want to,” Neelan said. “At the same time, the younger generation coming up, Millennials and Gen Z, have much less of an interest in performing housework on their own. They’d rather write a check. That allows us to really hit both ends of the spectrum with this business.”

TruBlue owners can tap into a lucrative, recurring-revenue model, offering homeowners industry-leading maintenance services and reminders about routine maintenance that are scheduled regularly throughout the year.

TruBlue’s low startup costs — ranging from $65,000 to $91,000 — and low-overhead operational model, which requires no brick-and-mortar location, have also been refined to support a quick ramp-up time and scalability. Franchisees have the unique opportunity to cut down on those costs even more and see their franchise fee returned in full through the brand’s innovative Winner’s Circle Program.

With this potential for fast returns and easy scalability, TruBlue is continuing to catch the eye of business-savvy investors across the country. Since the start of 2022, the brand has added 14 new franchise locations, which equates to an 18% growth of the entire system, keeping pace to reach its goal of 100-plus locations by year’s end. 

“We’re really excited about the growth we’ve seen, but even more excited about what we’re able to provide for seniors and busy families,” said Sean Fitzgerald, TruBlue’s president. “We want to make sure the home environment is not only as safe as it can be but also well-maintained. We believe that if we focus on our customers and provide them with the best service possible, growth will organically follow. So far, that’s exactly what we’ve seen.”

TruBlue is actively seeking new franchise owners in markets across the country and has identified Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville and Naples, Florida, as well as Dallas and Austin, Texas, as key development markets.

The total investment estimate for a TruBlue Total House Care franchise ranges from $65,050–$91,400. To learn more about franchising with TruBlue, please visit https://trubluefranchise.com/.