Brace yourself, this is a long one!
I will be looking for a new career in the coming months, as I will be medically discharged from the Navy in the not too distant future. Whist having a flick through a resetlement mag in work, I came across an ad for chips away franchises. There were a couple of case studies and messages from ex forces chaps who have taken the plunge with them, and they are singing their praises.
I will have a bit of a pay out from work that I could put towards setting myself up for this. For a basic 'man in van' type operation, including training, set up, advertising etc it is going to cost in the region of 38-40k. There are different plans available, but this seems to be the ball park figure. As a full member of the British Franchise Association, they are thought of quite highly by lenders, therefore High Street Banks are willing to fund up to 70% of the initial cost by means of an unsecured Business Loan. I will therefore need 12-15k of my own money. I have set up a meeting for a preliminary chat with the Business advisor at my bank, to see if this is viable as my current finances are not in the best of shape. (Hugely expensive wedding and honeymoon!), so will see what I can do once I know the outcome. The figures quoted by them for earnings though, based on 3 jobs per day, is on average 80k. I know this is probably extreme cases and wishfull thinking on my part as well though!
I am actually quite excited and enthusiatic about the prospect of setting this up. I only saw it last week, but I think I may need to strike whilst the Iron is still hot - so to speak.
They deal mostly with scratches and scuffs, minor dents, windscreen chips, and interior trims etc. so mothing major really.
Having looked at their website, and scoped out any franchises local to me, it seems the closest one is about 40 miles away. The franchisees are assigned "Territories", therefore the city and surrounding areas are currently not being served. With Cornwall literally 5 minutes away, there is a whole county also without an active franchise, thus creating massive scope for expansion into added territories.
Note I said none active, as I am not sure if there has been in the past, and they have failed. This is something else I will research also. There are a lot of franchisees who seem to make a very good living with this company, and have 5 or more territories that they serve with x number of employees, and care care centres also. This is obviously encouraging. I have found one website though (canyoutrustthem.com) that have a lot of members who have failed in this franchise, and have particular beef with chips away for not providing the support they promised before they signed the dotted line. There are a few replies from current franchisees though, that are basically calling them lazy, and expecting jobs to fall into their laps. Still, I am keen to find out more.
Another thing is that I have absolutely no experience in the work that I will be expected to carry out. Now they do provide training, but it is only a week long! Surely people could only be expected to carry out a repair to a pretty novice standard. I am therefore thinking of offering my services for free to a local body shop as a tea b!tch/ tool passer type person, to gain some insight and possibly a little experience on old panels etc, as most days I finish work by 12. Along with the start up package, they will kit out your van, but I have read that the equipment is very very basic, and sub-standard for a lot of jobs. Again with a little knowledge, I will know what is best to purchase as an addition to ensure decent repairs, and happy clients!
Alot of jobs are for company vehicles, and a number of big clients already use them. (BT, More Than etc etc) but still most jobs are retail based, and these are the ones that really need to be impressed by a repair, as word of mouth counts alot in this line of work.
So here are my questions if you could be bothered to read that lot!
1. Do you think this is a viable option for me with regard to my circumstances as mentioned above, and do you think there is actually a decent market for this type of work, or do you think most people just dont do anything about a scratch, they just get a bit pissed off about it!?
2. Would you, or have you ever considered using the company?
3. Would you be tempted to use them, knowing their price are actually far cheeper than a body shop would be due to the smal repair, rather than total panel re-spray. Bearing in mind some have not alot of experience. - however with it being a franchise, if you are not happy, you do have alot of comeback for it to be redone, or if still not happy, the franchisee will be forced to pay for a bodyshop repair out of their own pocket!
Obviously without advertising, (as I'm am not sure on forum/franchisers rules regarding this) I could be tempted to offer fantastic 'Mates Rates' for forum members in my area should this get off the ground!
All replies very welcome, no matter how brutally honest they may be.
