Franchising Franchise discussions

Absolutely making the right decision to go your own way.

On that list...

ABN and business registration shouldn't cost more than about $100. The ABN is free and very simple. The business name varies from state to state but is pretty easy. If you want anything more complex like a company setup to operate from you should see an accountant, advice like that shouldn't set you back much at all.

You can go to the library and grab a couple of books on business management, the ATO website is pretty good on your responsibilities as well and there are a ton of resources, heck this place is a pretty good start.

Computer and phone you seemingly already have, if your computer is within about 10 years of age you should be fine (I'd say to use Xero or similar when starting out, really simplifies the record keeping).

Sign writing is pretty cheap as well if you want to do it. Uniforms can be had a hell of a lot cheaper as well!

The territory sounds like a negative to me, you are only "protected" from that franchise that you're in, everyone else will still be competing with you and you're not allowed to go elsewhere for business. This way you can go wherever, you'll find that people recommend a gardener/handyman type to work colleagues a lot and you don't want to not be able to pick up that work because they live in the wrong suburb.

Find a mate or an accountant who can set you up a ball park cash flow and budget for the business and then stick to it and build from there. You'll make a few mistakes here and there but those are the real learning tools, you'll be surprised how easy running a business is, especially if you're passionate about it and really want it to be successful.

If nothing else, that 65k staying with you is going to buy you a year to fail completely trying to do it on your own!

 

Good decision to not lock yourself into a franchise agreement, they would own you and limit your potential growth.
Now you can use the funds to market your own biz instead of theirs.
Once you get up and running, you should not have to pay for much marketing at all, if any.
That's 20k/annum better off already, not to mention an annualised portion of the 65k buy in price.

To be sneaky, you could name your biz as a slight variation of Hire a Hubby, (within legal limits), to catch some lurking potential clients.
Could try the same with a website address, although seek a little bit of legal advise on IP.

 

Something like - www.husbandforhire.com.au is available.
They are generic words and could highly likely be protected if trademarked as a slogan for a business name, (still seek some legal advice).
You could submit an application and try, but this may not be the target market you are seeking anyway.
However, it could get you some interesting call outs

 

Years ago I knew a middle aged guy with one of those jims antenna franchises,

he was about a year or two into it, he said business was awesome and he felt like superman

fast fwd another year or two, things went from awesome to disastrous

obviously other franchises might be different but a few things he was complaining about really turned me off

- you had to pay for leads, $30 if I recall
- you couldnt reject any jobs, you essentially had to pay a penalty if you reject a job
- you were at the mercy of the franchisor
- if they sent you heaps of good leads simulatenously, you had to schedule it your own expense ,and fit them in or youd lose the job

 

Being a handyman is not exactly an industry with high barriers to entry, would have to be one of the more pointless franchises imo

 

Of course but people generally buy these types of franchises because they want their hand held as they have never been in business before. They think writing an invoice and lodging a BAS is some dark magic.

 

Can go even lower skill requirement than that, how about cleaning and lawn mowing franchises.....

Franchisors will sell the dream to anybody, usually targeting disgruntled wage slaves.

 

My business activities stoop even lower than these lowly regarded jobs! No grows up with aspirations to be an abrasive blaster, industrial spray painter or tiler! My business is niche.

You don't generally see a franchise that is niche. They are generic every day glorified jobs with a price tag to sell you the idea of freedom.

I started my business from scratch when I saw an industry shortfall in these skills. I've grown from a one man band to running shutdowns of 34 men. It can definitely be said that starting from scratch can be done without the hand holding and holding back by a franchise.

I started my business at age 22 and I'm in my 10th year. I looked in my book from when I started and there is only one goal that has always eluded me: $1,000,000 single invoice. I got close with $880k, and have quoted 4x jobs over the $1mil but always not been able to secure the job. One day!

Dream big I say!

pinkboy

 

Outstanding. Would love to catch over lunch and pick your brain if you come to Brisbane. Used to head up your way a couple of years back for town planning work but Mackay dried up for us.

 

Lunch would only be 2 sushi rolls and a piccolo. Wouldn't take long to pick my brain........

pinkboy

 

just buying a job really, no point to it

 

Most franchisers are in the business of making money from selling franchises, not making money for the franchisee.

 

Also, have you noticed how many franchises end up shutting shop.... ouch for those who purchased.

 

Yes, it was these types of possibilities that were making me anxious about jumping straight in. I'm now very confident I'm taking the right path doing it myself.

Much appreciate your input.

Cheers,
Clint.

 

I was considering it as a stepping stone.

My loose plan with the franchise was to operate for approx 2-3 years and then re-sell hopefully for more than I purchased. (But I found it difficult to find any sales of existing hire a hubby franchises)

Anyhow, my end goal is to become a residential builder. After a SWOT analysis on starting a building company some of my weaknesses were:

*never ran a business before
*never dealt with clients before
*have a small potential client pool

Considering a build may take up to 6 months, I felt its vital for me to gain experience is dealing with clients on smaller scale projects. If there are any issues / clashes they will be more manageable on a smaller jobs with shorter time frames.

I felt as though a 2 year stint running a hire a hubby franchise would give me experience running a business. And the franchisor and fellow franchisees would act as a support network to essentially hold my hand and walk me through the process.

After 2 or so years I would've gained the experience of running my own business and built up a very large group of clients which would then use me in the future for more extensive building works.

So I feel there would be a point in my circumstance to the buying myself a job situation. But I do agree most franchisees are more than likely purchasing with a longer term outlook and just buying themselves a job.

Anyhow that's a little run down on my thought process for it. I'm very content with the fact I'll be doing it alone rather than purchasing into the hire a hubby brand. I'm not trying to argue your point MTR, I very much appreciate yours and everyone's feedback I'm purely just explaining my situation.

Cheers,
Clint.

 

Hey Clint,

To get experience, why not do some work for another Handy Man business?
That way there is no financial or other contract commitment and you can learn all the tricks of the trade, with no risk.

 

Plenty of experience doing the work Ace, I've mean no experience in dealing directly with clients. Aka, this is how much it's going to cost, this is when you'll be paying me, that's not including in our contract and will be a variation etc etc.

If I just got a job with a handyman I'd be just doing the work and the business owner would be still taking care of all of that stuff.

Cheers,
Clint.

 

Ive done a few businesses , some good some bad, id like to think myself as fairly ok at it,

however, the franchise system (provided its a good one) does still appeal to me

As for Clint, he says he has worked for a handyman and knows how it works, and how to invoice etc. etc.
which is great, however there are some things a multi national has more power , eg media exposure, reputation, branding etc.

if I were to become a handyman and there was a genuine, honest system where they would feed me leads at no cost or obligation, whilst they took their 8% or so in royalties, it would be quite an attractive proposition.

 

I can definitely see the attraction. I think their main target market is the bloke that wants to go out and do it himself but lacks the confidence to do it.