Thought about doing this as a start up for my son. Is it a good investment on starting a small business owner and scam?

I bought a Coverall Cleaning Concepts franchise in the late 90s/early 00s. Basically the same deal, I shopped the two and flipped a coin (not literally, but it was a toss-up and I went with CCC based on a slight personal preference).

It's POSSIBLE to make good money, but I think that's the exception. Most people wind up buying themselves a job.

There are ways to make it work, but you'll have to do your own marketing. If you "buy additional business" from them, the cost of the new business is about exactly two years of profit (at least it was under my model). Well, guess what the industry average contract lifespan is? Just under 2 years.

So, if you do WAY above average work and keep your customers happy, you can eventually make a profit on accounts you keep 2 years-plus. Sometimes you lose business for reasons other than dissatisfaction... the account goes out of business. the account decides to give an employee "extra work" for whatever reason. the account has a family member go into competition with you. OR, maybe your employee screws up and through no fault of your own (first time mistake but a biggie) the account drops you. (I have stories)

The cost of the franchise fee is HUGE when it comes to long-term profitability. If I was to do it again, i'd go it solo. The "proprietary" knowledge they have is not that great (cleaning buildings ain't rocket science). It's not worth it, imo. Go it solo and keep ALL your receivables.

Another big problem is employees. The bottom line is you're offering people a job driving around, going into empty buildings at night (usually) and cleaning toilets, dusting, and vacuuming, etc. It's a rare individual who is willing to take that job that hasn't already tried just about everything else, and apparently got fired from it... You don't get the highest caliber of person answering your ads or willing to consider your job offer. That makes it tough to build a lasting/successful enterprise.

I'll try to remember to come back here and check to see if you have specific questions...

for example, re employees. An employee I had didn't have a bank/checking account. I tried giving her a company check and she looked at me like I just jumped down from the moon. I wasn't going to pay cash, so I wound up having to buy postal money orders for her.

I know a guy that owns a few and he does really, really well. But he came up through their corporate side...so he might have a different deal somehow... And/or maybe he has an ownership interest in the corporation itself.

different cities/regions? that's the only reason I can think of having more than one?

Hell I don't know. Maybe it's just one. Dude very obviously makes a ton of money and doesn't work much though, for whatever that's worth.