So you want to be a business owner. If you have ever researched franchising, you’ll know there’s a dizzying array of options available, each with different pros and cons. Here we offer eight great reasons to consider the humble, yet high-growth potential and a very low-risk option of buying into a home cleaning franchise.

No. 1: Everyone does it! Every household in the world requires regular cleaning to hold its value. New household formation, which has been stagnant in the U.S. due to underemployed millennials living at home with their parents for longer than usual, is now expected to rebound big time, meaning the potential market for home cleaning services is poised for big expansion as well.

No. 2: It’s non-cyclical. People need to clean their homes regardless of seasons, business cycles, and shifts in popular wisdom and tastes – all big vulnerabilities for retail and restaurant franchises. Imagine investing your life savings in a popular food franchise only to have a big media outlet come out with a viral documentary on how unhealthy it is?

No. 3: Low up-front costs. Speaking of life savings, the right home cleaning franchise won’t typically require you to put everything on the line. You can get started for just tens vs. hundreds of thousands that you might need to invest in a well-branded restaurant or retail franchise. What’s more, a cleaning franchise does not require big up-front investments in high-cost, long-term leases for prime commercial space, equipment, décor, and inventory.

No. 4: Recurring revenue. While some people have one-time or infrequent home cleaning needs (move in/move out, for example) the majority of cleaning franchise clientele will be regular, recurring business. As long as you hire wisely, train, and control the quality of your service, your cleaning franchise will grow steadily over time.

No. 5: Regular hours. If you prefer to take weekends and holidays off, plus the occasional extended vacation, a cleaning franchise might be just the option for you.

No. 6: Cash flow, baby! The standard accepted practice is for cleaning franchise customers is to pay in cash or by credit card at time of service, meaning you never wait to be paid, rarely need to chase collections, and have predictable cash flow around which you can plan hiring, marketing, and other investments to grow your business.

No. 7: A highly trainable skill. While cleaning safely, effectively, and efficiently takes considerable knowledge, the capabilities are easily created via training and quality control processes.

No. 8: Be a business owner (not a cleaner). Up to here, we’ve focused on key benefits of owning a cleaning business, but you might be wondering: Why franchise at all? Why not just start a cleaning business on your own? Plenty of people do this, but they often end up working much harder than they expected and growing only slowly or not at all. This happens because they either get bogged down in cleaning versus running and expanding their business.

Buying into the right cleaning franchise gives you instant access to important business building blocks such as telesales; marketing strategy and materials; tools for employee training; technology; and, most important, a community of like-minded business owners who face all the same challenges, collaborate and share information, and support one another.