Case Study - Tom Frame
Before I bought the franchise. I worked in the Electronics Industry for 20 years in the Central Belt of Scotland. With the demise of the once booming electronic industry I found myself redundant along with a large proportion of the industry sector in this area. I decided as age was not not exactly on my side, nor were opportunities in this sector, it was time for a new direction and perhaps even to strike out on my own in some capacity.
After a lot of research on the web and by talking to Business Gateway I concluded that Franchising was the safest route to go when starting up on your own. Statistics tell us that 90% of small business start-ups fail in the first 12 months, whilst 90% of franchisees are successful in the same period.
After deciding on the cleaning sector, as it was pretty much recession proof and safe from advancing technologies, I looked at several companies who had opportunities in my area. ServiceMaster were able to meet the criteria that I had decided on whist the start up costs were within my range. The criteria I set out were:
A business that was recession proof
A business that was technology proof
A business that did not need premises, at the start at least
A business that could grow organically year on year
A business that would continue to run whilst I was on holiday
A business that one-day, hopefully, will run without me.
As well as start up costs being a major consideration, the comparatively modest Royalty fees that ServiceMaster charge on a monthly basis attracted me.
This franchise has done what it set out to do regarding the criteria I set out at the beginning. It has not been easy, but there again no one said that it would be. It is quite satisfying to see the business grow quite significantly over the last 4 years. Year 4 saw a 40% increase in turnover from year 3, not many businesses’s could boast this. Being your own boss is quite satisfying, but as they say the buck stops here, but also the credit for building a successful business is also attributed to your self.
With the right team around you, days off to attend to leisure pursuits or personal matters are fairly easy to organise.
Securing contracts on a National basis with Blue Chip clients. This is work that would not be available to a small local company. Ongoing support from a dedicated Operations Team proves to be invaluable. This support comes in many forms from employment law advice, technical support, training and also support and guidance on best practice in running a business.
My wife helps me with the administration of the business, this has been invaluable as it was one of the first duties I was able to delegate and allow me more time to concentrate on growing the business.
When I first discussed moving into the cleaning sector my wife enquired, with some mirth, what I thought I knew about cleaning. My answer was absolutely nothing, but I am sure I could learn. I have since discovered that this business is not about cleaning, you can hire people who have these skills, it is instead a peoples business. I quickly realised that the peoples skills that I picked up in my previous career would be more beneficial to me to help deal with staff and customers.
Learning from my own experience I would urge anyone who is thinking of buying any franchise to do some research on other franchisors in their sector and benchmark them against each other. One mistake I nearly made was jumping into a “ Golden Opportunity” with out making the comparisons and almost made the biggest mistake of my life. This particular franchisor makes most of his money selling licences. If you fail they just sell your license on. Instead you should be looking for franchisors that make most of their money from Royalties. If you are successful so is the franchisor. Win – Win situation. Finally ask the franchisor for a list of all their franchisees and you select which ones to speak to. If the franchisor selects them then you can be guaranteed that you will only get the successful ones.
