How We Are Helping People Start Their Own Grill Cleaning Business Across 270+ Locations [Update]
This is a follow up story for The BBQ Cleaner. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 4 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Jeffrey Krentzman, founder and owner of The BBQ Cleaner.
In 2009, the BBQ cleaner started offering its world-class cleaning business opportunity and helped its first customer start their own grill cleaning business. Fast forward now 14 years later, and there are over 270 locations across the United States and Canada. Talk about unprecedented growth!
Here’s the link to our original Starter Story interview!
With the national average price of about $250-300 per cleaning, most operators are making well over $1,000 per day. And since they get to control and set their schedule, they can even choose to do more if they would like.
Since The BBQ Cleaner doesn’t charge any ongoing fees at all, each owner gets to keep 100% of what they make, meaning more money in their pockets and bottom line at the end of the day.
We make our money in a variety of revenue streams from the sale of the start-up business to entrepreneurs, and the ongoing supplies to each location, and we still clean hundred and hundreds of grills in the Northern New Jersey/NYC area every year.
Our Northern New Jersey location has run solely on repeats and referrals since 2008 and hasn't spent a single penny on marketing since then.
One of the other vital reasons for all the success is that the overhead in this business is extremely small, so in turn, the margins are very high at the end of the day.
Some locations are making well over $500,000 per year in sales as they elect to expand to multi-unit operations, resulting in increased revenues.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
We’ve been super fortunate to see not only continued start-up growth but consistent success amongst our existing locations!
Marketing certainly helps in the beginning, but so many people pull back on marketing very quickly as they get inundated. We run primarily on word of mouth, referrals, and repeat customers.
On the startup front, the people who are getting started are all looking to be their bosses and start their businesses while taking control of their schedules. The emphasis remains on targeted internet marketing with an integral mix of SEO.
We haven't launched any new products as we have continued to see so much success with what we have. We look at it as if it is not broken, don’t fix it. We continue to see a strong response across the board to people wanting to start their businesses.
Quality lead generation is always a challenge. Everyone of course wants to be their boss and have their own business, but finding people who are serious about it is a different story.
New locations start with identifying a good candidate who wants to live their entrepreneurial dream.
We provide 15-minute consultations all the time with people to determine what is the best next step for them. We look at things together like their background and strength of demographic and this usually gives us a good understanding if they are a good fit to run this business for the foreseeable future.
Surrounding yourself with people that know what they are talking about is a tremendous advantage to solving problems.
Customer satisfaction is always at the top of the chain for us. Many locations don’t even advertise after a few months. They can rely on customers coming back time and time again to use the service because they are so satisfied.
Our 272nd location is slated to open up in a few weeks. We saw a record year for start-ups last year and the trend certainly is continuing into early 2023.
The existing locations across the country continue to do well and many of them are so slammed with a business that they are looking to expand to keep up with the demand they are seeing. It’s a great situation to be in!
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Certainly, the current landscape of the economy has been something we’ve had to look at in terms of seeing whether any adjustments were necessary. It’s odd and surprising that a good amount of people want to take control of the economy in their own hands and start their businesses that they are in control of. Lead generation is always an ongoing challenge because you can never have enough leads.
I think if we continue to drive home the message of having prospects see for themselves the success stories all around the nation people will continue to see the value of what we offer. The success stories certainly speak for themselves, very loud and clear.
Continuing to allow people to live their entrepreneurial dream and doing everything we can to get them to make that dreams successful continues to be the goal.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
I think there is always a lot going on and no two days here are ever the same. So prioritizing is always an important challenge. Our existing operator's nationwide success is always a top priority for us. Work-life balance continues to be on point and that is the most important price tag of them all.
Another daily puzzle to solve is that the needs of two different locations are never the same. It’s critical to understand the goals and vision of every location so we can support them in a way that gets them specifically to where they are trying to go.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
The overall goal remains the same as it has been since day one. Continuing to allow people to live their entrepreneurial dream and doing everything we can to get them to make that dreams successful continues to be the goal. We are always excited to see the next greatest success story.
The future will still actively have us working with our existing locations to make sure they are maximizing their full potential.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
“The Cashflow Quadrant” by Robert Kiyosaki remains the most impactful book in my career. It was this book that triggered my curiosity in entrepreneurship and made it clear that I didn’t want to spend my career trying to climb a corporate ladder.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their businesses?
My advice to any entrepreneur out there who is struggling is to surround yourself with a network of people who have found success previously. Surrounding yourself with people that know what they are talking about is a tremendous advantage to solving problems.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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