Chips away, anyone made money from the franchise?
Discussion
retrorider said:
I did very well out of the smart repair industry but 2 big pitfalls got to me in the end.The smell of the stuff and the British weather...
I have been panel beating/painting all my working life,i got fed up with being stuck in a booth so went mobile smart repairs for a while, the very best week i had in the summer was a turnover of £1500.00 that was a flipin hard week aswell.I am now back in a workshop and much prefer it, the weather is not a problem, think of those guys in jan this year, no way are they doing 2k turnover in the middle of winter.
As for the final finish !!! yes it does depend on the guy doing the job, but a proper booth will always win hands down, tol is a good ambassador for chips away and i am sure works hard at it.
I also spent some time as a training officer (bull title i know) i really enjoyed the teaching part , but i could tell on day one of the training weather or not the guy was going to be a success.
Some guys will do ok at it some will fail, like all walks of life really.
accuired an info pack on these recently as interested in a mobile franchise.
I spoke to an advisor on the phone who said can easily achieve turnover of 85k from doing 15 jobs a week for 45 weeks a year with a net profit of 55k.
Does this sound optimisitic and what advise can people give and these franchises?
I spoke to an advisor on the phone who said can easily achieve turnover of 85k from doing 15 jobs a week for 45 weeks a year with a net profit of 55k.
Does this sound optimisitic and what advise can people give and these franchises?
steebo888 said:
accuired an info pack on these recently as interested in a mobile franchise.
I spoke to an advisor on the phone who said can easily achieve turnover of 85k from doing 15 jobs a week for 45 weeks a year with a net profit of 55k.
Does this sound optimisitic and what advise can people give and these franchises?
15 x 45 = 675I spoke to an advisor on the phone who said can easily achieve turnover of 85k from doing 15 jobs a week for 45 weeks a year with a net profit of 55k.
Does this sound optimisitic and what advise can people give and these franchises?
85000 / 675 = £126
Spose thats not far off, if you get the jobs in.
I've used a couple of chipsaway guys previously and the cost of service was usually 100 - 200 pound. However the 100 pound job took half a day and the 200 pound job the full day.
I'd say your realistically looking at 1.5 jobs a day @ 150 a job = 225 a day.
225 x 5 days a week = 1125
Your other 2 days a week will be spent in supermarket car parks etc drumming up trade and dispensing quotes or catching up on days lost to bad weather or lost due to cancellations.
1125 x 48 weeks a year = 54000 Revenue
Obviously you may be a very quick painter, excellent salesman and marketeer and be in a densely populated location with minimal travel times between jobs. If so then you could possibly do 3 jobs a day and double my above forecast. Only you know your capabilities in those areas and therefore the likelihood of achieving the numbers.
When looking at Franchises I always ask myself if the brand name and the product is truly worth the fee's I'm being asked to pay and the additional costs I'll incur. Ask yourself - If I spent the franchise fee on marketing an independent service and sold my independent services at the level I'd receive after the franchise had taken its % could I be as or more successful?
I'd say your realistically looking at 1.5 jobs a day @ 150 a job = 225 a day.
225 x 5 days a week = 1125
Your other 2 days a week will be spent in supermarket car parks etc drumming up trade and dispensing quotes or catching up on days lost to bad weather or lost due to cancellations.
1125 x 48 weeks a year = 54000 Revenue
Obviously you may be a very quick painter, excellent salesman and marketeer and be in a densely populated location with minimal travel times between jobs. If so then you could possibly do 3 jobs a day and double my above forecast. Only you know your capabilities in those areas and therefore the likelihood of achieving the numbers.
When looking at Franchises I always ask myself if the brand name and the product is truly worth the fee's I'm being asked to pay and the additional costs I'll incur. Ask yourself - If I spent the franchise fee on marketing an independent service and sold my independent services at the level I'd receive after the franchise had taken its % could I be as or more successful?
i seriously looked into becoming a holder - however in the end i guess the pieces werent fitting properly and i backed out.
the whole you HAVE to hire the van through this and pay that meant straight away you were on the back foot. not saying they cant make money but you got a big chunk going straight out.
i ended up on another smart repair independant board who were really honest and blunt. i tagged along with one for a few days just to see it (he wasnt going to profit from my decision either way so i really appriciated that)
there's other places and companies who can give the same training for ALOT cheaper and your not tied to them.
if you can market yourself to the same standard as CA do (which is where CA do have an edge) then your on a winner
go to an open day see the score yourself. but if they are recruiting 6-10 a month and area's are limited number it makes you think why so many fail (though CA dont say fail - they put it on the franchisee who didnt give 101% commitment)
the whole you HAVE to hire the van through this and pay that meant straight away you were on the back foot. not saying they cant make money but you got a big chunk going straight out.
i ended up on another smart repair independant board who were really honest and blunt. i tagged along with one for a few days just to see it (he wasnt going to profit from my decision either way so i really appriciated that)
there's other places and companies who can give the same training for ALOT cheaper and your not tied to them.
if you can market yourself to the same standard as CA do (which is where CA do have an edge) then your on a winner
go to an open day see the score yourself. but if they are recruiting 6-10 a month and area's are limited number it makes you think why so many fail (though CA dont say fail - they put it on the franchisee who didnt give 101% commitment)
I own a SMART repair business myself.....as the chap I was setting up with is very well known in the industry.
My view on CA would be
1. large turn over of staff in general - partly the 'arent good enough and dont get called back', part 'painting outside in all weathers isnt fun' and part just 'drop out'
2. The name can help or hinder depending on the previous franchisee
3. Being tied into their paint system is an expensive way of getting paint and its not much good (in our experience in the SE)
4. the training is fine if you 'get it', but really not comprehensive otherwise.
My guy spends about 20% of his time being called in to re-repair their work. I am sure this isnt an issue in 'Tols area - but there's the very issue of this sort of franchise.
A MaccyDs guarantees a level of customer expectation wherever it is in the country. SMART repairs is all about the painter. (and my chap is a GOD
)
I set the entire thing up, including van, insurances, paint system for a year, compressor, tools etc etc for about 7k. One van turns over abt 80K quite easily. If you're interested feel free to PM.
My view on CA would be
1. large turn over of staff in general - partly the 'arent good enough and dont get called back', part 'painting outside in all weathers isnt fun' and part just 'drop out'
2. The name can help or hinder depending on the previous franchisee
3. Being tied into their paint system is an expensive way of getting paint and its not much good (in our experience in the SE)
4. the training is fine if you 'get it', but really not comprehensive otherwise.
My guy spends about 20% of his time being called in to re-repair their work. I am sure this isnt an issue in 'Tols area - but there's the very issue of this sort of franchise.
A MaccyDs guarantees a level of customer expectation wherever it is in the country. SMART repairs is all about the painter. (and my chap is a GOD
)I set the entire thing up, including van, insurances, paint system for a year, compressor, tools etc etc for about 7k. One van turns over abt 80K quite easily. If you're interested feel free to PM.
Nightmare said:
3. Being tied into their paint system is an expensive way of getting paint and its not much good (in our experience in the SE)
That is very surprising. In March we recruited a painter who was a former trainer for Standox with over 30 years painting, and he was blown away by the system. Could not believe that he was getting better-than-many-iso performance from a non-iso system. We run a bodyshop in addition to our franchise, so we are in the rare position of being able to compare the franchise brand paint to open-market products and it is hands-down a top-tier performer among paint systems. If you're using it for genuine SMART-sized repairs, you're using maybe 20ml of paint and the same of mixed clear, so the premium for the branded product is very small, and the suitability for the sort of repair the franchise is about is unparallelled.
Nightmare said:
My guy spends about 20% of his time being called in to re-repair their work. I am sure this isnt an issue in 'Tols area - but there's the very issue of this sort of franchise.
You're right, it's not - we spend a fair bit of time reworking jobs from other (mobile and bodyshop!) repairers . Like anything, you build a local brand, around your own work. Most customers don't do deep internet searches for reviews and worry about ones that aren't positive but are from elsewhere in the country. They go on recommendation from local people by word of mouth.
The general perception (outside of automotive enthusiasts - who are both a very small part of a typical customer base, and also don't necessarily make for the most sensible and reasonable customers, no offence to the PH'er intended) of the brand is very strong - CA are reporting 85% "would definitely recommend to friends and family" rates, which many, many brands across all walks would be envious of. Add to that the fact that both the prompted and unprompted brand awareness is much higher than any other brand out there in the same marketplace, and it's still a very strong asset to licence for your business.
This (PH) is both an online community, and an automotive enthusiast community, so it's not very reflective of a real-world customer base. If you go one step further to a specialist vehicle finish community, like detailing world, the opinions get even more extreme and less kind, but again, even less reflective.
Even the more intense communities are waking up to the fact that, in a skilled trade, the skill of the individual is the most important factor. Before I first joined PH, the cry was "They're rubbish!" - but now it's "Get local recommendations - skill levels vary with the individual". I stick my oar in all over the place, and our particular branch gets grudging respect in even some of the most opinionated places, even from some of the competition at times
But to Mr & Mrs Joe Public, who don't spend hours on automotive forums each day, and have no idea who we are personally, they're more likely to know and trust the CA brand than any other.Just checked my phone, and since 27.10.10 we've had 149 enquiries passed to us by our Head Office that came from general brand awareness to the national call centre, rather than enquiring to us locally. With a real-world conversion rate and cost-of-sale, those far more than cover the costs of licensing the brand.
Franchising would not be a good choice of business model and brand if you want to target those potential customers who only buy on price, I agree - particularly the more cut-throat end of the motor trade, but that's a precarious segment of the market to choose as your core customer for any business. Our experience is certainly that there is sufficient demand for the brand and its positioning along the value/premium axes enough for us to have been able to grow our business far faster and further than we hoped for before getting into this trade.
Tol
something else i should say to support Tols post.
We don't want much private work. We have a set of 'Prestige clients' who we will always continue to service, but in honesty private customers are often a complete PITA.
If you're looking to build a mostly private customer business (depending on area getting into trade can be easy or hard) then their franchise would definitely be of great assistance as has been clearly demonstrated by him above.
We don't want much private work. We have a set of 'Prestige clients' who we will always continue to service, but in honesty private customers are often a complete PITA.
If you're looking to build a mostly private customer business (depending on area getting into trade can be easy or hard) then their franchise would definitely be of great assistance as has been clearly demonstrated by him above.
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