Unit Franchise in Focus: Carlos Farfan

Carlos Farfan and and How Joining the Stratus Family Lead to More Quality Time with His Immediate Family

Carlos Farfan was a family man without a family. That is, before he bought a Stratus Building Solutions franchise and became a business owner.  He was constantly traveling for work and leaving behind his wife, Celia, and his then three young sons (he now has four boys).

“We would travel to a lot of different states,” says Farfan, who is based out of Nashville, Tennessee. “I would see my family every two or three weeks, depending on where we traveled.”

Farfan worked in construction, building concrete water tanks.

Increasingly desperate for a better life, one in which he would see his wife and children every day, Farfan ended up quitting his job. For a time, he toiled in a series of odd jobs, starting with installing granite countertops, painting and cleaning. It was good, solid work, but it didn’t pay enough. And it was around then that Farfan learned about Stratus Building Solutions and its lost-cost investment and affordable financing.

“I started part-time,” Farfan says. “I was still painting for a living, but fortunately, my cleaning business started to become better and better, and soon, I quit painting and started dedicating all of my work time to cleaning.”

That was nine years ago.

Many Stratus unit franchise owners eventually stop cleaning and focus on running and scaling their business, letting their employees handle day to day cleaning, but Farfan isn’t there yet. He cleans and works on all aspects of the business, from paying the bills to finding clients and hiring employees. He has one employee but also several contractors he turns to when he is buried in work and projects.

And the best thing about being his own business owner?

“I manage my time, and I can manage the amount of money that I make,” Farfan says. “It really all depends on how much I want to work, so there’s never a limit. As long as I can handle the work, I can have all the work that I want.”

In other words, business has been booming, especially in recent years as the economy has picked up. Farfan says that his Stratus franchise cleans “almost everything. I have a car dealership, churches, mall offices… We’re never out of work,” he adds.

Most of the commercial cleaning work is straightforward, though sometimes, Farfan says, he’ll be called to do something particularly interesting and unexpected, like cleaning out a hoarder’s home. Farfan doesn’t sound bothered, however.

“It’s just part of the job,” he says.

He says that one nice thing about having a Stratus franchise is that for some business owners, you can work alongside your spouse or have other family members, like a brother and sister, helping you out. Farfan says that his oldest son has helped him out with a few big carpet cleaning and waxing jobs, though generally his family members haven’t worked with him. His kids are either too young to work or too busy with school, and his wife is occupied with their kids. But Farfan says that some franchise owners may like that flexibility.

So, does Farfan have any advice for other Stratus franchise owners, especially new ones – or people thinking of buying into the franchise?

“The main thing is to do your research and be 100 percent sure that you want to do this job,” Farfan says. Because if you’re starting out cleaning, obviously, this isn’t easy work. But the good news, he says, “is that if you want to do this job, as long as you do it right, you’re on time, and you’re professional, the jobs will always be there. I worked about nine and a half years in construction, and I wish I had found this business nine and a half years earlier.”

Are you interested in joining a franchise family that affords you more time with your own, like Carlos Farfan?   Does a unit franchise opportunity with Stratus Building Solutions sound like it could be right for you?   Learn more at Stratus Unit Franchise.