Hello to all of out there in cyber space,
I'm in a quandry and would like your opinion if you've got the time to spare?
I started a business in the SMART repair industry in 2001, sold that in 2007 and started again. So far so good.
When I started again it was my initial intention to manufacture and supply a patented product from the US called Sprayless Scratch Repair (SSR) for which I have the sole manufacter and marketing rights for the whole of Europe.
Now that sounds great and SSR is a great product, in fact it is a one of a kind from what I know. Sure we have competitors but nothing I have bought, seen or heard of actually does what SSR does which is to repair minor paint damage to any car paintwork in minutes.
The average repairable 100cm scratch can be repaired in 10 minutes with material costs of say 15 pence, the customer would be charged between £30 and £40 so profit margins are huge per repair. Again this all sounds great and of course it is for anyone who is doing the repairs.
But... for me selling the repair systems then the re-order rate for materials is not what I had hoped. In fact some of my more successful technicians who can make anything up to £60,000 pa probably only spend around £1,500 pa with me for materials.
I realise I need to create a repeat income larger than £1,500 pa per technician but how do I do that? My thoughts have recently turned to franchising but I'm not 100% convinced that's the way to go. I have also toyed with the idea of renting the systems out rather than selling outright but I'm sure that will bring in a lot of non payers and I'll end up spending most of my days chasing people.
So my question is, do I franchise or not?
Of course if anyone else has an idea of how I should approach this I'd be delighted to hear from you either on this forum or directly at paul@ssreurope.com
By the way, a video demonstration is also available at http://www.ssreurope.com
Looking forward to any replies coming my way. Take care and bye for now.
Paul