DailyFranchiseNews.com

Home Sweet Home

Houston’s housing market is booming. With this increase in new homeowners, the presence of home improvement businesses in the area is skyrocketing as well. The Houston Chronicle reported that three national franchises will be moving into town and beautifying its residences within the next year.

Floor Coverings International president Tom Wood said that the upper-end flooring company will open three stores in the Houston area by September. With two-thirds of the nation’s housing being at least 25 years old, about 40 percent of new homeowners get their floors replaced within 8 months, and 80 percent do within four years. Many owners will also replace their floors before putting their home on the market.

Not to be outdone, CertaPro Painters expects to open seven new locations. Ed Waller, vice president of marketing and customer relations, said that the company, which specializes in exterior residential repainting, will benefit from the longer painting season that Houston’s climate allows.

The final company working its way into Houston’s home improvement market is Designs Of The Interior, a franchised network of design stores selling home furnishing and design services. DOTI’s first Houston-area store will open this spring in Katy.

Watch out, Home Depot.

Advice from the Turnaround Master

Nothing is more exciting than watching a company rise from its ashes. In the franchising world, Floor Coverings International is the Phoenix. When Tom Wood took control of Floor Coverings International (FCI), the company was in its eighth straight year of declining revenue. According to an article in the February issue of Smart Business Atlanta called “Vision and Passion,” FCI had gone from a peak of $60 million in 1996 to $22 million in 2004, when Wood took the reins as president and CEO. After a difficult restructuring period, FCI is back on track, with two straight years of double-digit growth and 2006 revenue of $26 million.

Wood was able to turnaround the company by conducting a complete strategic review of the organization, the industry and the customers. He then targeted the company's weaknesses head on. His success inspired Smart Business Atlanta to look to Wood for advice to share with other CEOs.
Wood stresses the importance of a leader’s vision to see where his/her company needs to go and how to get them there. But, he warns a leader cannot gain vision alone. He/she must rely on the input of others. When looking for employees, Wood wants someone with a true desire to make a difference in the organization and relies on word of mouth and referrals to find these individuals. When something does goes awry, Wood feels it’s important to get to the root of the mistake so you can fix it before the ramifications grow too great and prevent the problem from reoccurring  in the future.

BUYER BEWARE-Charlotte Franchisee Getting too Many Consumer Complaints

Charlotte.com, the online site for the Charlotte Observer, has a watchdog section that reports complaints.  In this case from two customers of the local Window Depot USA franchise. It appears the Charlotte area franchisee Chris Robinson has not met delivery promises on windows to at least two customers.  The franchisor, headquartered in Arkansas, terminated his franchise agreement two weeks ago based on excessive complaints.  Robinson’s company, known as Handyman of the Carolinas, has 29 complaints registered with the Better Business Bureau there.  Readers are advised to “always call corporate” when they have a complaint against a local franchisee.  Another reason for franchisors to be very careful who they award franchises to.

Jiffy Lube Implements New Program to Counteract Undercover Investigation Findings

More problems at Jiffy Lube according to a report on Consumeraffairs.com, an online destination for complaints and reports on unsavory incidents and characters.  There’s good advice on the site as well like how to file a complaint correctly to at least get some satisfaction and avoid unnecessary red tape.  The Jiffy Lube incident involved the Los Angeles area stores which were busted by the local NBC affiliate’s undercover investigation.

The good news is that Jiffy Lube’s president, Luis Scoffone, has launched a program that will help stop this sort of thing from happening in the future. The program is called the “Jiffy Lube Pledge” and has three operational initiatives in place to prevent fraud and other problems within the system.
ion Findings

From company-owned to franchised

An article in the Tallahassee Democrat discusses why it is so much better to have a franchisee operating a local operation. TruGreen Chemlawn corporate managed that particular location for a while but sales were dismal.  So the company made an intelligent decision and approached one of their most successful managers, Bill Wert, to take over the Tallahassee operation as his own franchise.  Wert has nothing but good things to say about TruGreen corporate, but agrees that it takes is a local owner/operator to make this a successful venture.

In-home healthcare booming across the U.S.

An article in The Capital Times of Madison, Wisc. talks about BrightStar Healthcare, a Chicago area franchise which is yet another player in the booming in-home healthcare segment. 

Of course it’s booming—we, the Boomers, are getting old and our parents are living longer.  This blogger feels her own aches and pains but still has to worry more about her 85-year-old father than her own ailments.  That’s why we are so happy to see this industry burgeoning. The subject of this article, BrightStar Healthcare, goes one step beyond the popular franchises in the industry which include Home Instead Senior Care, Comfort Keepers and Synergy HomeCare among others.  Those players offer in-home companions, absolutely vital for seniors or disabled living alone.  They will provide a wide array of services which are excellent but BrightStar also staffs registered nurses or therapists, adding the medical element to the picture.  The company says this group only comprises 30% of their staffing however.   The article discusses the opening of a Dane County franchise and says that in Dane County alone there are 40,000 people over the age of 64. 

Looks like the franchisees there Jeff Tews and Susan Rather won’t have to look far for clients.

Service Industry Growing Via Franchising

While cleaning deep fryers, maintaining lawns or cleaning houses might not seem like the job for you, many people are becoming franchisees in such industries and are reaping the benefits. The good news? Becoming a franchisee of Molly Maid or Spring-Green Lawn Care franchisee doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be scrubbing floors or fertilizing lawns. In fact, franchisors in the service industry, often prefer their franchisees to be businesspeople rather than tradespeople.

The Miami Herald recently wrote about the growth of service industry franchises citing a FRANdata study which found that from 2003 to 2005 the service industry franchise sector grew more than 30 percent, while franchise food establishments saw just 5 percent growth. South Florida FiltaFry owner Jim Sargent is a franchisee who recognized the growth within the service industry. He left his job as the director of food services at Broward County Community College and is now his own boss. While cleaning deep fryers may seem like a dirty job to some, Sargent said, "'Sometimes you have to find the thing nobody else wants to do because it's dirty or not glamorous...But the hope is you can sell it and might make a run of it."

Want to Learn Secrets of Successful franchisees? Listen to this Webcast

We admit, we're still pretty green when it comes to webcasts, but today we found something to aspire to.

The Central Valley Business Times features a short story on Floor Coverings International franchisee Bill McConahy. But the real content is in the web cast. This approximately 15 minute interview between McConahy and CVBT Managing Editor Doug Caldwell touches on a variety of subjects ranging from purchasing a franchise versus starting a business from scratch; launching and marketing a small business; competing with big box retailers and more. For those thinking about purchasing a franchise, Mr. McConahy has some great advice to share.