If you’re considering a change in career and exploring franchise opportunities, you might have come across the Dryer Vent Squad franchise. This low-cost home services concept focuses on dryer vent cleaning – a niche but important service. In this comprehensive review, we’ll break down what the Dryer Vent Squad franchise offers (costs, support, and potential) and then compare its dryer vent cleaning business with the broader cleaning business franchise model offered by Assett Franchise. By the end, you’ll understand how Dryer Vent Squad works and why a commercial cleaning franchise like Assett might deliver greater long-term stability and income.
What Is the Dryer Vent Squad Franchise Opportunity?
Company Overview and Industry
Dryer Vent Squad is a home services franchise specializing in professional dryer vent cleaning. Founded in 2019 by Leo Goldberger, it quickly expanded and now has around 46 franchise locations across the U.S. according to sharpsheets.io. The company focuses on a critical niche: helping homeowners prevent dryer fires and improve dryer efficiency by keeping dryer exhaust vents clean. Clogged dryer vents are a serious fire hazard in homes.
More than 17,000 home dryer-vent fires occur in the U.S. each year, causing dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. Dryer Vent Squad’s service directly addresses this hazard by removing the lint buildup that poses a fire risk. Franchisees help keep families safe while also improving dryer energy efficiency for their customers.
With over 80% of American households owning a clothes dryer, virtually every home in a franchise territory is a potential customer. Dryer Vent Squad is one of the few national brands in this space, aiming to turn what was once an overlooked maintenance task into a thriving business opportunity.
What Franchisees Get
Services: Franchisees provide thorough dryer vent cleanings and related services (inspections, minor repairs, replacing vent components, etc.) to homeowners. A typical service call involves clearing out the lint and debris from a dryer’s vent line and lint trap, improving the dryer’s safety and performance. Jobs are usually completed in under an hour, and owners can charge about $149–$300 per vent cleaning. There are also upsell opportunities – for example, selling and installing better vent materials or booster fans that improve dryer efficiency. Once a customer uses the service and sees the benefits, they often become repeat clients on an annual basis.
Training & Support: You don’t need prior experience to join Dryer Vent Squad. New franchisees undergo a combination of online training and a hands-on workshop (about a week in duration) to learn the technical and business aspects. The franchisor provides ongoing support in operations and marketing as you grow. This includes guidance on using the specialized equipment, advice on local advertising to educate homeowners, and continuous coaching. The corporate team, led by the founder and experienced franchise executives, has developed a proven playbook to help franchisees ramp up quickly.
Customer Base: Dryer Vent Squad serves primarily residential homeowners. Each franchise owner is granted an exclusive territory of roughly 150,000–350,000 people (covering tens of thousands of households) to develop. Most revenue comes from cleaning single-family home dryer vents, though franchisees can also service apartment complexes, condos, and other properties with laundry facilities. Many owners form referral partnerships with appliance repair companies, HVAC businesses, or property managers to capture more customers. Still, this is largely a B2C (business-to-consumer) model – you are marketing to homeowners and relying on them to schedule a service, typically about once a year per household.
Startup Costs and Ongoing Fees
Initial Investment: Dryer Vent Squad is a relatively low-cost franchise. The franchisor even touts it as “one of the most affordable franchises to own” in the essential services category. The initial franchise fee is around $35,000. Including equipment, training, a service vehicle, and initial marketing, the total investment ranges roughly from $47,000 up to $68,000 to get the business started. Because it’s a home-based business (no office or retail space needed) and requires minimal staff, your overhead can stay very low.
Ongoing Fees: Franchisees pay a royalty of 7% of gross sales to the franchisor. There is also a marketing fund contribution of about 2% of gross sales to support brand advertising. Other ongoing costs are typical for a mobile service business – fuel, insurance, equipment upkeep, and any wages if you hire technicians (many owners start as owner-operators with no employees).
Earnings Potential: While the franchisor does not publish an earnings claim in its FDD (no Item 19), third-party analyses provide some insight. On average, a Dryer Vent Squad franchise is estimated to generate around $154,000 in annual revenue. Given the low expenses, a busy owner-operator could see solid profit margins; however, in absolute terms this translates to an estimated $20,000–$30,000 a year in profit after typical costs. In short, the business can produce a comfortable income for a single-van operation, but it’s limited by the one-time nature of its services (each customer typically pays for one cleaning per year).
How the Industry Itself Compares
When evaluating Dryer Vent Squad, it’s useful to compare its dryer vent cleaning industry with the broader commercial cleaning industry (where Assett Franchise operates). Both involve cleaning services, but they differ in scale and business model. Below, we highlight the advantages of the commercial cleaning industry and how it contrasts with a niche home-service like dryer vent cleaning.
Dryer Vent Cleaning Industry Advantages
Despite its narrow focus, the dryer vent cleaning niche offers some clear benefits:
- Essential Safety Service: It addresses a real danger (dryer fires), so homeowner demand is driven by safety needs, not just luxury. This makes it a largely recession-resistant service – people prioritize fire prevention even in tough times.
- Huge Residential Market: Every home with a dryer needs this service periodically. With tens of millions of potential customers (80% of U.S. households), there’s plenty of untapped market. As public awareness grows, demand is expected to rise further.
- Low Startup and Overhead: The business is simple to launch and run. You don’t need a storefront or expensive machinery – just training, basic equipment, and a vehicle. Ongoing overhead (rent, utilities, inventory) is minimal, which helps keep the operation profitable even at modest scale.
- Flexible, Owner-Operated Model: Scheduling is by appointment (no 2 A.M. emergency calls), and jobs happen during normal hours. An owner can handle the work themselves or with a small team, and maintain a good work-life balance.
Compared to Commercial Cleaning Industry
By contrast, commercial cleaning (janitorial services for businesses) provides a different growth trajectory and revenue model:
- Massive B2B Market: The U.S. commercial cleaning industry is roughly $100 billion in size, serving offices, schools, medical facilities, retail stores, and more. Cleaning is an essential, non-negotiable expense for businesses (needed for health, safety, and professionalism), which means demand stays steady in any economy.
- Recurring Revenue Contracts: Unlike one-off homeowner jobs, commercial cleaning works on recurring contracts. Businesses typically hire cleaners on a nightly, weekly, or monthly schedule. This creates predictable, recurring income for the franchisee – you might secure dozens of clients each paying a monthly fee, rather than starting from scratch each day.
- Higher Income Potential: Serving commercial clients can scale up dramatically. It’s common for established cleaning franchises to reach high six or seven figures in annual revenue per territory. (For example, one leading cleaning franchise reports franchisees average about $1.1 million in yearly sales.) The ceiling is much higher because you can keep adding new contracts and even hire multiple crews to expand service.
- Semi-Absentee Scalability: Commercial cleaning is easier to run as a manager or executive. You can train crews to do the cleaning, while you handle client relationships and business growth. Many commercial cleaning franchise owners eventually work only a few hours a week overseeing operations – a true semi-absentee business. (In a home-service like dryer vent cleaning, it’s harder to step back; the model tends to rely on the owner doing or closely supervising the specialized work.)
- Consistency and Growth: Commercial accounts provide stable, year-round work (an office needs cleaning 52 weeks a year, not just once annually). This consistency means cash flow is more even and planning is easier. Additionally, you can grow by expanding into new sectors or neighboring territories without changing your core service, since virtually every business location is a potential client.
In short, commercial cleaning franchises offer greater long-term stability and scale. Dryer vent cleaning is a profitable niche with lower entry cost, but it inherently runs on a smaller, more one-time revenue model. Entrepreneurs focused on building a larger enterprise with recurring income may find the commercial cleaning industry to be a more robust vehicle.
How the Assett Franchise Compares
Assett Franchise operates in the commercial cleaning arena and is specifically designed to maximize the advantages mentioned above. Here’s how Assett stands out and why it can be a “cleaner” alternative for investors:
Simpler Systems, Bigger Potential
Assett Franchise leverages the huge commercial cleaning market while keeping operations streamlined for franchisees. From day one, Assett is built for owners to work on the business, not in it. You’re not spending your nights mopping floors; instead, you’re managing a team and growing a client base. Assett provides a complete business system and playbook, so even first-time entrepreneurs can hit the ground running. The model emphasizes securing long-term contracts with commercial clients, building up stable recurring revenue. With Assett’s approach, a franchisee can realistically aim for a $1M+ annual revenue business over time (something that would be very difficult in a small residential niche). All the standard operating procedures – from service delivery to billing – are refined to be as simple as possible, letting you focus on scaling up.
Automated Hiring = Time and Money Saved
A standout feature of Assett is its automated hiring system. Finding and retaining good cleaning staff is often the hardest part of running a service business, but Assett has developed technology and processes to automate much of the recruitment and onboarding. This system continuously sources and pre-screens potential employees, helping franchisees maintain a reliable workforce without spending countless hours on hiring. The result is a huge time and cost savings – owners can save an estimated 20–30 hours per week of managerial work by letting the automated system handle recruiting and scheduling. It also means when you land new cleaning contracts, you can quickly scale up your crew without a hiring crisis. By ensuring a steady pipeline of qualified cleaners, Assett frees the owner to concentrate on customer service and business growth, rather than HR headaches.
Personalized and Founder-Led
Assett Franchise is a family-owned company led by its founder, Matt Pencarinha. This means when you join, you’re getting a personal touch that’s increasingly rare in franchising. Assett is not owned by private equity – the founder and his team remain directly involved in day-to-day operations and franchisee support. As a franchisee, you have direct access to leadership for mentorship and guidance. The culture is very much one of partnership and community; the corporate team knows franchise owners by name and works closely with them to succeed. This founder-led, personalized approach contrasts with many franchise systems where support can feel impersonal. Assett’s leadership is invested in helping each franchisee build a sustainable, profitable business. In short, you’re joining a franchise where the people at the top genuinely care about your success (and have the experience to help you achieve it).
Final Thoughts
For the right buyer, Dryer Vent Squad offers a simple, affordable entry into small business ownership – it’s hands-on, niche-focused, and provides a valuable safety service to homeowners. But if you’re looking for a franchise that can grow into a larger, more systematized enterprise, a cleaning business franchise like Assett Franchise has clear advantages. Assett taps into a bigger market, delivers recurring revenue, and is structured for scalability and semi-absentee ownership. It’s ideal for someone seeking:
- A scalable, stable business (serving commercial clients with ongoing needs)
- Low operational complexity (thanks to refined systems and support)
- Predictable recurring revenue (long-term cleaning contracts vs. one-off jobs)
- Minimal risk and faster ROI (essential services with low overhead)
- An executive-style model built for growth (you can run the business, not just be the business)
In summary, Dryer Vent Squad is a solid niche concept, but Assett Franchise offers a broader platform for long-term income, flexibility, and growth.
“If you’re exploring franchise opportunities and want a model that can deliver long-term income, flexibility, and control — we’d love to show you how Assett Franchise can help you build a business that works for your life. Visit https://assettfranchise.com to connect with our team and learn more.”
