October 2014 |

Top Handyman Franchises

We live in a different era. This era is characterized by fast paced and busy lifestyle, long commute time to work and less time available for getting acquainted with the family and for taking care of personal and family matters. The pressure is getting higher and higher and the limited time we have during the weekends and vacations for getting relaxed and rejuvenate ourselves for the upcoming week has become more and more precious. In this condition a “Honey Do” list is like a pain in the back when it comes to doing the mundane tasks of repairing a leaking facet or changing a hard to reach light bulb and maybe that’s why such a list doesn’t exist anymore in many families. Nevertheless, still things break in homes and someone needs to do the fix-up work.

For many families also age is catching up especially with the Boomers who made Do-It-Yourself so successful. Instead of getting up on a ladder to install that new ceiling fan, they’d now rather pay someone to do it. This shift has created the skyrocketing Do-It-For-Me market-and it’s huge. Over 80-million Boomers have turned 60. Add dual income families with time constraints and upwardly mobile young professionals, and you have a North American market that will spend over $150-billion annually on home repair services.

Home repair and maintenance franchises have been among the most popular franchise concepts in the U.S. in the past 10 years. These franchises are mostly designed to address a list of common problems that need to be fixed around the home. They do not usually do projects or anything that requires a general contractor’s license, but rather focus on fairly common repair tasks that still require experience and takes a lot of effort and time from the property owner to get fixed.

Here on the bottom of this page you can find our list of handyman franchise businesses. It is very important to note that as with any franchise, the secret to success is to do your research before deciding to enter into the franchise agreement. We have explained in detail six different steps that you should take when investigating a franchise. You need to talk to franchisor to discover how effective the franchise system is in helping you succeed in your business. Does the system have a great marketing program to attract customers and employees? Does it have an automated scheduling program (perhaps with a national call center) to make sure the employees are busy generating revenue for the franchisee all day every day? Make sure to contact a number of their franchisees and ask them all about the business. What’s good and what’s not? What kind of numbers are they producing, and what are their major difficult issues with the business? Finally, if they had to do it all over again, what would they change and would they get this franchise again?

franchise opportunity for sale mr. Handyman

As a part of ServiceMaster family of brands, Mr. Handyman is the recognized industry leader in home repairs and maintenance with more franchises units than another handyman service. The business requires minimal inventory and few employees. Mr. Handyman provides maintenance and repair services to residential and commercial markets. Prompt, safe and reliable technicians focus on completing their customers “to do” list including caulking bathtubs, carpentry work, assembling furniture, hanging pictures, installing shelves and closet organizers, putting up trim or molding, installing window treatments, baby proofing and painting. Request more information →

Handyman Matters is a high energy handyman business that cares for peoples’ homes and commercial properties. Their customers are seniors, busy working professionals, single male and female home owners, and all commercial properties. The tasks they perform are plumbing, electrical, drywall, tile, carpentry and any miscellaneous task around a property in a Time Plus Material contract with the client. The typical day in the life of an owner operator is 7:30 – 5:30 Monday through Friday. They have a strong proprietary database that integrates with an accounting package. Advantages include low overhead and quick ramp-up time. Request more information →

House Doctors can help clients with all home repair and improvement needs. There’s no need to call several craftsmen to complete various projects around the house. With House Doctors, one call does it all! House Doctors provides handyman services such as Drywall repairs and installation, flooring installation and repair, bathroom repairs and remodeling, kitchen remodeling and repairs, door installation and repair, window repair, ceiling fan installation, painting, independent living and aging-in-place modifications, home energy efficiency upgrades, deck repair and installation, and many other home interior and exterior remodeling and repair services. Request more information →

Handyman Connection is a home repair company that specializes in small to medium home improvements, remodeling jobs and total home renovations. Whether it’s paint to plaster, drywall to decks, fences to faucets, our handymen get the things you want done. Handyman Connection works with a number of affiliates such as CertaPro Painters, Floors Covering International, and California Closets to ensure only the highest quality for your home improvement projects. Request more information →

Handy Pro is unlike any other program in the country. The Other side of Senior care, providing Home modifications for the dissabled. At Handy Pro, the difference is that they are committed to providing franchisees with the highest level of personalized service and systems. You will always have the benefit of dealing directly with the people who have made a success in the handyman business. Handy Pro’s concept is a comprehensive management system which provides ongoing training, support and guidance to all franchisees. The staff will work directly with you to insure your business will be up and running successfully within the first 60 day’s of training. Request more information →

Please call us at (949) 228-6639 or simply fill out the form on this page to get more information or schedule your free consultation for buying a handyman franchise.

October 14, 2014/by Franchise Elites

Educational, Franchise Consulting

Six Steps to Buying a Franchise

Investing in a new business always is full of stress and needs you to investigate various aspect of the business and to ponder a lot. When it comes to investing in a franchise business, part of your concerns can be taken care of by following a standard route for investigating the opportunity. Also there are a lot of information available to you as the franchise industry is a highly regulated market by federal government. Also some States add more regulations to the ones required by Federal Government and as a result of that if you intend to buy a franchise you should be given access to a lot of information that might not be available to you in case of starting a new business on your own.

For buying a franchise you really should start with evaluating yourself and your current condition. Factors such as goals, interests, passion, skills, desired lifestyle, family members, etc. can affects you being a successful business owner in the future. Also your financial situation including available liquid capital that can be comfortably utilized for the purpose of your new investment plays a huge role in selecting a franchise for consideration. Sometimes it is hard to come up with some good franchise options because of some uncovered requirements or because there are many franchises in the industry. At this point use of a franchise expert can be a great help in finding some good options for you.

Upon finding one or two options to consider you normally enter a standard process for investigating that franchise. Here is six step process that you should take when consider investing in a franchise business:

Initial Interview
Qualification
Reviewing the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and Franchise Agreement
Validating the Franchise
Visiting the Franchisor’s Home Office
Taking the final Yes or No Decision

Step 1: The Initial Interview

In this step you will be contacted by a franchise sales representative (or a franchise consultant) and will have an initial interview and presentation of the franchise concept. Keep in mind that investing in a franchise is a two sided way: both you and the franchisor need to know about one another. This initial contact will be made by telephone and you might be asked questions about your background, your skills, the reasons for considering the franchise, what makes you successful and what you are looking to accomplish. In turn, you will have a chance to ask questions and get to know the franchise better including what makes the franchise unique and if it is the opportunity you are looking for or not. Normally for moving to the next step you need to confirm to the franchise representative or consultant that you have enough amount of liquid capital to invest in the franchise and that your networth amount also meets the franchisor’s requirement.

Step 2: Qualification

In this stage the franchise development manager in your area will contact you either by phone or in person to gather more information and offer more specific details. The overall objective of this step is to determine if there is a fit from franchisor’s perspective and to develop a kind of rapport with the candidate. Please note that you are not obligating yourself to buying a franchise by answering the questions or filling out the application forms. Franchisors use these forms to determine whether from their prospective you match their profile of a successful franchisee or not. Some franchisors ask you to disclose information such as social security numbers, banking account numbers, and other detailed information. At this stage they really don’t need this information and generallt it is OK if you leave this information blank for now. Typically they don’t run credit reports or validate banking account balances until they are ready to either invite you into their office or offer you a franchise.

Step 3: Reviewing the Franchise Disclosure Document and Franchise Agreement

Normally franchisors require you to fill out an application form to get to this step. The purpose of this application is to get more information about you and for you to show that you are serious in considering the franchise. in this step you will be handed over a document called Franchise Disclosure Document or FDD and you will conduct a thorough study of the document to make sure you and the franchisor are in material agreement on major points. From a business perspective, you might want to know if the disclosure makes sense or can you live with the terms and commitments of the agreement?

Also you can bring the FDD to an attorney who will review it from legal perspective. At this stage however, conducting a legal review may be premature and an unnecessary expense, according to some experts. They recommend postponing this to a latter stage until you gather more information and evidence about the franchise and make sure that is a perfect match for you investment. Nevertheless, it is important to know about the legal issues of the agreement and it is completely up to you to use legal expert advice at any point in the process. If there are any commitment and obligation that you can’t live with, it is better for you to end the process here.

Step 4: Validating the Franchise

Validation of a franchise is the process of calling or meeting with exiting franchisees and the ones who left the system to discover more details about the franchise and to see if they validate the franchise for you. In this step you will interview franchisees, gather data, compare the information you receive from franchisees with what you received from franchisor, and determine whether the franchise system will produce your desired result with high degree of probability. Here is where you test the veracity of the franchior’s systems and determine whether the franchisor provides you with enough support and training and whether the business model helps you to develop your own business with the profitability you expect to have in the short and long run. If the franchise appear to produce you desired lifestyle with a high degree of probability, it’s time to invest in professional advice from a franchise attorney and an accountant.

Step 5: Visiting Franchisor’s Home Office

Many franchisors set aside one or two days a month to host prospect franchisees in their headquarter. Go to their corporate office and meet with their decision makers. Shake their hands and look them in the eyes and ask them tough questions that you might have. It is not logical to do business with people you have not met yet. You need to know the franchisor’s leadership team and see how much effort they have put into developing a system for the franchise.You must have already evaluated the business model against its ability to produce your desired results. Now it’s time to evaluate your trust level of the franchisor’s leadership and key management.

Step 6: Taking the final Yes/No Decision

If you have gone through the previous 5 steps diligently, you have done an outstanding job of taking close look at what takes to win as a franchisee. As you get closer to the end of the process you will experience intense emotions such as fear and anxiety. This is normal and they will be disappeared as soon as you make a decision. Now it is time to put everything together and to use the information you have gathered so far to make the final decision. Notwithstanding what your final decision is, it is more important to have a defendable decision. That’s why it is important to base your decision on facts and data you have gathered so far.

Please call us at (949) 228-6639 or simply fill out the form on this page to schedule you free consultation for buying a franchise.

Reference: Street Smart Franchising

October 6, 2014/by Sara Vaziri

Educational, Franchise Consulting

Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): What You See!

Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) provides prospective franchisees like you the information you will need to make informed decisions. In the United States, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires every franchisor to disclose information about its past including any history of litigation or bankruptcy and franchisees who left the system. Also franchisors should disclose information about many other factors including costs, territory, the franchise program, and the franchise agreement you will have to sign. The FDD has to meet federal regulatory reporting standards in order to protect you from fraud. Misrepresenting material information in the FDD is a crime, so franchisors are very careful to be complete and truthful.

There are 23 items in FDD that disclose various information you need as a basis for further investigation and taking the final decision. Fortunately FDDs are uniformly organized to be the same in every state for every franchise opportunity. In this article we outline different items within a typical FDD and give you a general overview about them.

THE SUMMARY PAGE
This page tells you how much your total investment in the franchise should be and the services or products the franchise offers. A typical franchise fee for a unit franchise is between $35,000 and $50,000, but could be much more for some
high-value franchises or for some prime territories. The summary also includes and estimated range for start-up fees, which might include build-out and operating capital needed to start the operation.

Item 1 – THE FRANCHISOR AND ANY PARENTS, PREDECESSORS, AND AFFILIATES
This section of the FDD should tell you if the franchisor owners or executives are qualified by personal experience to teach, train and advise you on the business. Do the executives of the company actually operate the same kind of business or location they are franchising? Do any of them own franchised locations in the same company? Or is the franchise a new concept with short track record? Look to understand who the franchisor operators really are, as individuals. You also want to know specifically what key individuals would be responsible and available to help you if something goes wrong.

Item 2 – BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
This section will also tell you if the franchisor owners have an active location to test products, services and developments. It’s also an indicator of the commitment level those individuals, because if they own their own stores they probably believe strongly in value of the investment. How long have the executives been with the franchise? Are there corporate stores, or do the president and key members own stores as separate franchises? That could be a good sign.

Item 3 – LITIGATION
This section is an indicator of how the franchisor might handle conflicts. How many lawsuits, if any, have they had? They should not have had many. Is there a paAern to the types of lawsuits? Are there any open lawsuits? If so, this section can give you some idea of future financial pressure on the franchisor if they lose the litigation. Also look for any cases of fraud or felonies. You may want to conduct Internet research on the franchisor as well as key principals to determine if there any legal issues that might interfere with your potential for success.

Item 4 – BANKRUPTCY
A bankruptcy in the distant past is not necessarily a drawback if the company ended up coming out of it stronger with provisions for curing what caused the bankruptcy in the first place. If there was a bankruptcy in the past has the company reorganized and revitalized since? Has ownership and management changed since the bankruptcy? The financial reports will tell you the story.

Item 5 – INITIAL FEES
The franchise fee is supposed to cover the cost to get a franchisee signed and then trained. Franchise Fee is used to help cover training, legal fees, and other costs to adding a franchisee.

Item 6 – OTHER FEES
The other fees section outlines any other fees involved. You need to check if these other fees are reasonable compared to similar franchises. You need to consider these as you prepare your own business plan.

Item 7 – YOUR ESTIMATED INITIAL INVESTMENT
This section should include three months of estimated operating expenses as it often takes this long to start building your business and start making enough revenue to cover monthly overhead. Look at this chart carefully.

Item 8 – RESTRICTIONS ON SOURCES OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Check to see if there are restrictions on sourcing. There may be a good reason for this if the franchisor has a proprietary formula or recipe, or special quality requirements, or if the franchisor has negotiated volume discounts that they pass on to the franchisees. Determine if what you must pay the franchisor for supplies or inventory is high for identical items you could buy for less somewhere else. Does the franchisor overcharge you for products you are required to purchase through them or their designated vendors? Are you allowed to purchase from outside vendors? You should consider if the franchisor getting rebates for making you use certain vendors. If so, are volume purchase savings being shared with franchisees?

Item 9 – FRANCHISEE’S OBLIGATIONS
This is a directory of where to find your various obligaSons throughout the FDD. You need to know these clearly before you accept a franchise award.

Item 10 – FINANCING
This section describes whether the franchisor offers financing and what kind. If you need financing you should take time to be sure you can qualify before you invest too much time.

Item 11 – FRANCHISOR’S ASSISTANCE, ADVERTISING, COMPUTER SYSTEMS, AND TRAINING
This is a very important part of the disclosure. These are the obligations the franchisor agrees to prior to your location opening. Look for a well-developed training program. There is a training chart that shows the training program and type of training you will receive. More support is always better.

Item 12 – TERRITORY
What is the protection for the territory you are buying? The territory should be clearly mapped, defined and agreed upon before you sign the franchise agreement. You want a protected territory for most retail and service franchises because it is common that as the brand gets larger, a franchisor may allow for more units in each territory. You want to make sure the territory is not over-saturated.

Item 13 – TRADEMARKS
Check to see if the company has any registered trademarks. A good resource for information and checking the trademark is www.uspto.gov. Who actually owns the trademark? If the franchisor has a license for the trademark owned by someone else, will you be able to use it if the franchisor’s license is terminated? Look at this carefully. You must have federal protections of the trademark to ensure brand value.

Item 14 – PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
Are there patents? If so, how important are they for the success of the franchise? Are they critical? A patent only lasts for 17 years. Check to see how many years are led on the important patents. Consider the impact to your franchise when the patent expires.

Item 15 – OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ACTUAL OPERATION OF THE FRANCHISE BUSINESS
This section is important if you would like to run your franchise as an absentee owner using hired management. The obligations about your degree of involvement in the day-to-day activities should be listed in this section.

Item 16 – RESTRICTIONS ON WHAT THE FRANCHISEE MAY SELL
Are there any restrictions on what you can sell at your franchise location? What restrictions will you have on advertising, soliciting and selling? Can you add products for retail sale or is it restricted to only what is offered by the franchisor? This is an important consideration which could impact your financial projections.

Item 17 – RENEWAL, TERMINATION, TRANSFER AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Renewals should be available so the franchise can operate for 20 years or more. Renewals in perpetuity are ideal. Check for renewal fees. Are they predictable and reasonable? The franchisor does not incur much expense when you renew, so the fees should be minimal.

Item 18 – PUBLIC FIGURES
This section lists any public figures involved in the promotion of the franchise. Are they owners, spokesmen, or actual franchisees? You will want to consider the length of contract and whether they are critical in having a successful business. What will be the impact if they stop promoSng the franchise? What happens if this high-profile person is involved in a scandal or lawsuit? What if their poliScal or religious views are controversial? Make sure you consider the ramifications of this agreement.

Item 19 – FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE REPRESENTATIONS
This section contains the past earnings of individual franchise locations. You and your accountant should study these carefully so you can judge:

What can you reasonably expect to earn from operating the franchise, both in salary and in profit?
Is it in line with your goals?
Is it worth the investment?

Be sure to look at the footnotes. Some of the most enlightening information is there. Also look at the individual location information to see if any of the units are struggling or showing losses. A failing franchise locaSon might be the caused by
the franchisee, the franchisor, by some extraneous factor that has nothing to do with the actual business, or a combination of things. It’s not always easy to tell in an FDD, however, you can ask questions about this in validation interviews.

Item 20 – OUTLETS AND FRANCHISEE INFORMATION
This is the list with all of the franchise units. Look to see if the location you are seeking is still available and to assess the health of the franchise. How many new franchisees are they selling? How many franchisees have left the program? How or why did they leave? Are there terminations initiated by the franchisor?

Item 21 – FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
These are the franchisor’s financial statements. This secSon helps you estimate the solvency of this franchisor’s system. If you like the other aspects then have an accountant review these statements with you, especially if you’re not expert at financial statements.

Item 22 – CONTRACTS
This shows all of the contracts you will need to sign to acquire this franchise. If you are serious about pursuing the franchise, you will need to read these contracts yourself, and also have your franchise attorney advise you. If you intend to operate this business with your spouse or a partner, both of you need to do this.

Item 23 – RECEIPTS
The government requires a cooling off period of 14 calendar days after receiving the FDD before any transaction is allowed to take place. You must sign, date and return a receipt acknowledge for the FDD to the franchisor. Franchisors need this document from all candidates in order to stay compliant with Federal Trade Commission regulations. You should return the FDD receipt to the franchisor at least two weeks before the discovery day.