Two emerging franchises offering new and exciting opportunities for business ownership
By Hannah Foulger
While emerging franchise brands may feel like more of a risk, fresh franchises can also come with exponential benefits. These systems can leverage an extensive corporate history of success and offer unique franchise opportunities in new and exciting markets. From a Canadian-founded growing system to an international brand breaking into the Canadian market, here are two hot-off-the-grill, emerging franchises with great potential to explore.
Hellamaid
Founded in Guelph in 2017 by engineers Ahmed Mezil and Abdul-Rahman El-Sayed, Hellamaid is a tech-enabled cleaning company that lets clients book their cleanings online and customize their cleaning packages.
The residential cleaning industry was “overdue” for a “more thoughtful, human approach,” says El-Sayed, the brand’s COO. “By combining engineering discipline with a hospitality mindset, [we created] a company that delivers a better experience for both homeowners and cleaners.”
State-of-the-art booking technology isn’t the only thing that retains both clients and skilled staff.
“We wanted to empower cleaners to say, ‘This is a profession, and you can make good money being a cleaner.’ We don’t just want to meet living wage rates. We want to exceed them,” El-Sayed says. “We realized that many cleaners are busy moms, with kids. They have a life. They have commitments, doctor’s appointments, etc. We wanted them to have the flexibility, so we built Hellamaid.”
The brand now serves families in more than 60 cities across Canada. The company makes booking and managing cleanings simple through a streamlined digital platform, allowing customers to customize their services while ensuring reliable, high-quality results.
It’s the combination of flexibility, pay scale, and ease of access that keeps skilled staff on their roster, a benefit for potential franchisees.
“Hellamaid cleaners make on average $500-$600 per week, and they can work less than 20 hours a week, and set their own schedule. If they need time off, they can book off via the app that they are unavailable,” explains El-Sayed. “Cleaners are the front face of our business, so making sure that the cleaners are happy is going to lead to the clients being happy.”
The startup cost for investing in a Hellamaid franchise is low, with the opportunity for growth. Two different franchise business models are available, based on the population size of the target market and whether franchisees want to act as owner-operators with a small staff, or hire cleaners and scale to a larger market. For populations under 40,000, franchise fees start at $10,000, while the larger market model starts at $40,000. So, although Hellamaid might be new to the franchise scene, this proven system has strong growth potential for clients and franchisees.
The brand is not “relying on a purely transactional model,” El-Sayed says. “Hellamaid emphasizes long-term relationships—with both customers and cleaning professionals.”
House of Colour
True confidence comes from celebrating who we authentically are, according to House of Colour. Founded in London, U.K. in 1985, today House of Colour is a leading personal styling franchise with locations around the world. With colour analysis and style analysis services, it has broken into the Canadian market after successful expansions to Ireland, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. With Helen Venables and Jackie Perkins (two former, long-term House of Colour franchisees) as owners, the team is expanding into Canada to help empower entrepreneurs and clients to embrace wellbeing through their individual style using personalized analysis.
“We’re niche in the industry. We’re not just personal stylists, we’re not just selling cosmetics. We are genuinely helping people change the way that they approach themselves and the way that they actually put themselves out into the world,” Emma Higgins, director of sales, says. “Our clients come to us for different reasons. We look after these people in these big, transitional times of our lives. And so we’re empowering people to kind of move into that next stage, whatever that might be for them.”
Based on their unique system of seasonal colour palettes, stylists are the owner and operator of their own franchises and make their own schedules. Using this tried and tested system, stylists offer in-person appointments where they identify each client’s tone and seasonal colour palette—making them appear brighter, fresher, and healthier—and guide the client in choosing what cuts and silhouettes flatter their particular shape. After the colour and style assessment, clients are also given colour fans to help them apply this knowledge at home.
“There’s very low overhead that you need for this business, because you can run it in a home studio. There is also a high profit margin on this because it’s mainly a service model, so there isn’t a lot of equipment or tools needed,” Higgins says. “It’s for anyone who wants a flexible business lifestyle, so people can scale at their own pace. It’s an ongoing, collaborative model, and it’s very supportive.”
House of Colour offers cosmetics as well, also organised by seasonal colour palettes. Cosmetics are initially offered through the personal stylists themselves, and then made available for clients to purchase online, with a portion of the purchase going back to the original stylist.
New franchisees begin with an online training model before going to the U.K. to finish their training in-person with experienced stylists and franchisees. From there, they return home to establish themselves in their own territories with the continually evolving support of the brand and its network. Canadian franchisees benefit from being part of their own regional group as well as the U.K. regional groups, giving them access to the expertise of stylists from across the world, including those who’ve been working with the brand for up to 40 years.
House of Colour continues to adapt the foundations of the company, considering what their stylists need to grow, and what the biggest challenges in the personal styling industry are. Part of this innovation is a bespoke CRM (customer relations management) system with a dashboard for clients to access their style analysis and past purchases, plus House of Colour’s latest blog posts. It’s this individual and in-person approach combined with a larger system of support that makes House of Colour unique.
“For us, it’s about leaning into that personal experience and making sure that we innovate for our clients in ways that make sense for them,” Higgins says.
