Franchising is a great fit for driven individuals who value independence yet understand the value of franchise support. It’s a way to remove the guesswork of owning a business. Many franchise opportunities are lower-risk paths to success in competitive industries. Franchising provides structure, national resources, and unique learning opportunities.
This is a personal question that depends on your current financial scenario and lifestyle goals. Many franchise owners find it worth investing in the advantages, including individual and financial freedom. Investing in a franchise leads to networking opportunities, built-in brand awareness, and various support that sole proprietors cannot access.
New owners should expect a hands-on role in the business, including employee management, hiring, sales, community networking, and reporting profits and losses (P&L). In the long term, owners in some franchise systems may be able to take a step back and enjoy executive ownership.
About Kitchen Guard
Kitchen Guard was founded in 2009 and became an EverSmith brand in 2023. We’ve become well-known and respected in the regions where we have a significant presence, especially to those in the food service industry, and we’re growing fast in new regions. Our brand awareness is strengthened nationwide through the national accounts we service and our association with EverSmith.
Kitchen Guard is a premier kitchen exhaust cleaning and maintenance franchise that helps restaurants and commercial kitchen operators stay fire-safe, compliant, and fully operational. Our services are exhaust cleaning, filter exchanges, exhaust system maintenance, and Green Steam cleaning for kitchens and outdoor areas like garages and dumpsters.
Kitchen Guard is disrupting the industry by simply doing it better. We are experts in fire safety regulations, and our technology makes it easy to book and communicate with us for routine, essential services. We’re known for professional customer service, modern equipment, and flawless cleaning and maintenance results. One key to our success has been the comprehensive support we offer to franchise owners and their employees, which reinforces the entire franchise system.
Yes, the outlook is good! Growth in the commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning industry is tied directly to the development of restaurants and other establishments with commercial kitchens. Projections (below) of restaurant industry growth are strong, and advancement is also anticipated in other relevant areas like healthcare construction, sports infrastructure, and hotel restaurant guest spending.
Absolutely. Restaurant industry growth has been strong in recent years and historically, with encouraging tailwinds ahead. In 2025, the National Restaurant Association reported:
- Industry revenue is forecast to reach $1.5 trillion within the year.
- 80% of restaurant operators believe their sales will increase year-over-year.
- 29% of restaurant operators plan to open new locations.
Kitchen Guard provides comprehensive franchisee training and support to every owner and their teams throughout the business’s lifecycle. We help with onboarding, training, sales, marketing, technology, continued education, business operations, and more.
For marketing support, we provide customer leads from third-party data sources and access to strategic marketing partners who can help you develop a plan for dominating your market. The home office team also builds a location-specific web page with user-friendly booking capabilities, engages in SEO, and continually builds a library of marketing and sales materials to help you generate and close leads.
Learn more about our commitment to franchisee support and our one-of-a-kind franchise opportunity.
Territories and Real Estate
Territories do not overlap, so they are almost fully protected from direct competition with others in the franchise system. However, territories cannot be defined as exclusive because we may solicit or accept orders in a territory for Regional Accounts or instances where the territory franchise owner is unable or unwilling to meet the service needs of customers. Feel free to ask us for the most up-to-date information about this, which is also documented in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
Visit our Available Territories page to learn how territories are determined based on the number of commercial kitchens in the market and other factors.
To name a franchise territory, the internal support team collaborates with the franchisee to select a name based on the brand plus the city, state, county, or other geo-modifier.
The building is the home base for your team and your equipment. It’s also where your filter management services will take place.
Kitchen Guard provides a list of requirements for a suitable warehouse space. A local commercial real estate broker or company can use this list to improve their search. After a site option is identified, Kitchen Guard evaluates and approves the site.
Terms & Costs
The term is 10 years.
No, we don’t offer financing plans. However, we provide some financing guidance during the discovery and onboarding process.
The startup costs are considered part of the initial investment, as defined in Item 7 of the current FDD. This establishes potential franchisees’ expectations about the investment range for getting started. The P&L is a financial report that summarizes the operational profits and losses over a given period, and the initial investment occurs before operations are active.
The ongoing fees for Kitchen Guard owners are all paid monthly: royalty, promotional fund, and tech fee. Visit our Investment page to see percentages and other details, and please reference the current FDD for further information.
Royalties are paid on a per-territory basis as a percentage of gross receipts. They are paid on the 15th of every month. Please read the current and full FDD for details.
Yes, you can resell your business anytime. Please read the current and full FDD for details.
Staffing and Employees
Each franchise owner is paired with a dedicated field-based franchise business manager who helps with recruitment. However, we do not hire employees for franchise owners, as we are a joint employer.
As a joint employer, we do not offer health insurance for local franchise owners’ employees.
Each franchise owner must hire an FLSC. This person typically has 2 to 5 years of B2B sales experience to succeed in a dual role as a sales representative and business consultant. The Kitchen Guard home office team will train them to become an expert in NFPA 96 guidelines.
