Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: windowwashers on March 28, 2008, 08:39:15 pm
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Thank you for your talk today, it really was a highlight, and some thing I would like to have a chat with you about again some time if thats ok.
Praise where it is due ;)
you did a good job.
best wishes
Ian Wicks
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I'm very interested too. Any chance of a summary Ian (ww)?
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I'm very interested too. Any chance of a summary Ian (ww)?
I am hoping Ian will come on and give that, he has a pc of it, and hopefully he will post it.
Mr S if it is not done in the next couple of days I will do it, coming from Ian would be a lot better. I have so many things going round my head right now, I was there both days and have head and hand written book full of stuff to come out,
had a great marketing day thursday with Craig owner of Ionic, had a good chat after his talk and that was alos a real eye opener and things said that I would not have thought of. But thats another story, this post is for Ian L he did a good job and I give him respect for that.
Ian
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I second that Ian, the main reason i went was to listen to what you said.
Gives food for thought!!
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What I like about Ian L is that he got a second wind late in his career. All those years as a window cleaner, albeit a good one, just plodding on, and then he gets one idea, and then another......
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I second that Ian, the main reason i went was to listen to what you said.
Gives food for thought!!
same as and was well worth the £50 it costs to get there IMO even for 30mins he was talking to me was worth a lot more.
added bonus was meeting a lot of others there and getting my website known more.
did a few deals there aswell with suppliers all in all Fantastic days work for my business.
Ian
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What was the thrust of Craig's message? Was it to do with WC or about what can be achieved with belief etc? Or was it about the direction of the industry?
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Hey Mick hope you enjoyed the day was going to go but had too much catching up to do. I went to the NEC and The Fed Show so can wait till next time.
I think I would have enjoyed listening to Ian as well, hope he post some of his notes.
Wayne
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What was the thrust of Craig's message? Was it to do with WC or about what can be achieved with belief etc? Or was it about the direction of the industry?
all three.
BWCA training (which I have to say and I am not a holly bow down fan of Ionic (but the systems are good(I dont have an Ionics sys) but is IMO a good idea to have this training for paper work more than anything.
things that can be achieved with belief and action (belief and no action = nothing apart from thought, thought and no action equals £0.00
and direction of any industry's
unique selling point (key factor)
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hey pitt monkey are you the one i seen in bolton the other week??
sorry if i was ignorant but had a knightmare and needed to sort it, im in bolton once a month so if see you again we can have a chat!
sory again for not spending time to chat!
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I got duffed up on here when I mentioned unique selling proposition.
One thing most have missed though, the logo of the man, and the phrase that can't be used promote them more than the operator IMO. I have my own version and it promotes me.
It's also the one issue I have with Ian L, I think his biz should be wrapped or packaged more- window washers- just as an example.
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sounded very good but couldnt get in it was packed, i know steve got a seat and said it was brilliant
cheers 8)
Brett
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Hi Ronnie yes it was me, no probs you looked like a man on a mission ;D hope you sorted it.
Did you get to the show?
Wayne
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no i was gutted was supposed to be going to day but my ex changed my contact arrangement for y daughter so i had to get her from nursery!!
ye got sorted ...............in the end, ended up a knightmare job but its led to more work so behind evry dark cloud tgere is a silver lining hey!!haha
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I got duffed up on here when I mentioned unique selling proposition.
One thing most have missed though, the logo of the man, and the phrase that can't be used promote them more than the operator IMO. I have my own version and it promotes me.
It's also the one issue I have with Ian L, I think his biz should be wrapped or packaged more- window washers- just as an example.
I have a few 1 is my site address
Mr Sol, speak in plain english a little more and people will understand you better, your post what you are talking about and I read its title I did not fully understand till you spoke a little more about it by that time the post was dead, and I love marketing, thats not a dig to you by the way, just maybe helpful I read every post you make ;) because most of the time i see where your coming from.
my msn address is wicks1976@hotmail.com chat with me some time or my numbers on my site index page.
Ian
Its difficult to discuss marketing on this forum too many negative posts along the lines of " its only window cleaning, people want their windows cleaning its as easy as that...."
Its as though some of the "old school" feel as though there is no place for such foolish talk on a window cleaning forum.
Mark
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Hi all, and thanks for all the nice comments :)
I don't know if it would be right to post the whole presentation on here, but if anyone wants it I can e-mail the PowerPoint file, which is the on-screen bit without me rabbitting on ::)
If you e-mail "franchising talk" to ianlancaster@blueyonder.co.uk I'll forward the file.
Also if anyone has any specific questions they'd like to ask, how about starting a thread on here? I'll do my best to answer any queries.
A couple of points I forgot to mention at Windex: Customer complaints - when we were employing back in the 90's, a big problem was complaints. If the phone rang or one of our payment envelopes arrived looking fatter than usual, there was always the feeling of "Oh no, what now?" >:(
Since we took on our first franchisee, we haven't had one justifiable complaint :)
That's got to be a big plus when you're expanding ;)
The other point is about the "Jim's Mowing" book. It really does give a huge amount of help and advice, but I can't claim the credit for finding it - that was another window cleaner, Danny Worgan, who moved out to Australia for a while, and brought the book back with him, and very generously made it available to the British window cleaning fraternity. I believe it's available on Paul Smith's "Powerclene" website.
Thanks again,
(especially Ian Wicks ;))
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;D
Click below for the file that Ian would need to send hundreds of time I have made it available for viewing with Ian's permission:
http://www.windowwashers.co.uk/IanLancaster.doc
Ian
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Just read it. Extremely well put together.
Was that, more or less, what the talk was?
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One big advantage of a franchise, you can share resources such as a website, promotions advetising and offers.
Me and a few thousand others would like to do this, but i don't really want to face the obvious research. The question is, how much would Ian let us use a version of his copywrited paper work and documents for?
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interesting reading Ian and thanks to window washers for the easy download.
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Big problem with Franchise! is the legal licence cost 25k +
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interesting reading Ian and thanks to window washers for the easy download.
yes thanks from me as well
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Big problem with Franchise! is the legal licence cost 25k +
???? Don't follow
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Big problem with Franchise! is the legal licence cost 25k +
???? Don't follow
Ian, sorry was a bit vague
Business format franchising is a popular and successful way for companies to expand and for people to start their own business with less risk.
Most, if not all franchisers have to format the business with license, now these licenses costs run into many thousands of pounds, which can then be resold, or have you just signed up franchisee on a signed agreement and saved the many thousands of pounds involved
Also do you franchisee pay percentage of the turn over of revenue or is it a on going fixed fee
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Big problem with Franchise! is the legal licence cost 25k +
???? Don't follow
Ian, sorry was a bit vague
Business format franchising is a popular and successful way for companies to expand and for people to start their own business with less risk.
Most, if not all franchisers have to format the business with license, now these licenses costs run into many thousands of pounds, which can then be resold, or have you just signed up franchisee on a signed agreement and saved the many thousands of pounds involved
Also do you franchisee pay percentage of the turn over of revenue or is it a on going fixed fee
can you tell me if this is fact that they run into thousands or could please.
I would also like to know where you are getting this information from, I am not saying you are right or wrong in any way I am just very interested to hear your feedback.
Ian
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Company local to me, venture into franchising, and spent thousands in licences, then got into financial problems, tried to sell the ltd company, which I was interested at the time, and saw the profit and lost accounts, one figure was the licenses costs, which run into thousands of pounds (don’t remember the exact figure, was 5 years ago), I didn’t buy as I was advice by my accountant not to buy as he was about to go under
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Company local to me, venture into franchising, and spent thousands in licences, then got into financial problems, tried to sell the ltd company, which I was interested at the time, and saw the profit and lost accounts, one figure was the licenses costs, which run into thousands of pounds (don’t remember the exact figure, was 5 years ago), I didn’t buy as I was advice by my accountant not to buy as he was about to go under
is this because the company was new to this and spend to much money without knowing what they was doing ? it does sound that way to me, I would like to know the true cost just to register a franchise business.
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I think we're talking here of Limited Companies. If you are a registered Ltd Company there are all sorts of rules and regulations.
For a sole trader to franchise his business this is a totally different thing, it is a private agreement between the franchisor and the franchisee.
You do not need a licence to sell a part of your business to someone else to trade under your name, which is exactly what I am doing.
I think also there may be some confusion here as to fees to solicitors for the preparation of Business Format Licences (Franchise Agreements). These can be very expensive, but you are not required to use a lawyer to reach an agreement between yourself and another party as to how you are going to set up your business relationship. The only down side is that a DIY agreement could leave you open to problems if things occur which are not covered by the agreement.
I wrote my own agreement and one of my franchisees took it to a solicitor for an opinion. The outcome was that there were several minor points I hadn't worded very well, and were somewhat ambiguous, but on the whole the agreement was fair and workable.
Don't be taken in by unscrupulous legal practitioners. Two (or more) people can reach a mutually acceptable arrangement which they both sign and which is then binding.
A Franchise Agreement is only a more formal way of stating how a business arrangement is to be made, providing none of the elements are illegal, or demonstrably unfair, then the contract is binding. Every time you buy something you enter into a legal contract to pay for the provision of goods or services. Entering into a Franchise Agreement is just the same, in the first instance, the Franchisor agrees to sell the goods/service (the right to trade and any equipment included in the deal) and the Franchisee agrees to pay the Franchise Fee (the price of those goods/services). The ongoing situation is just the same, the Franchise Agreement defines what services the Franchisor has to provide (Admin/advice/support/work etc etc) and the price (the royalty) that the franchisee has to pay for those services.
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Thanks Ian, this has made very interesting reading. Have you made any changes to your franchising agreements over a period of time?
It is so important to get the right agreement from the start, so anything you have learned with the benefit of hind sight would be very helpful. Dai
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Dai,
All I can say is that anyone contemplating going down this route should take some sort of advice. In the first instance, a visit to www.bfa.org would be a good step.
I had the benefit of having owned a franchise, and as Vince Green said on another thread (albeit very one-sidedly) there are unscrupulous franchisors out there. Having been involved with one where the franchisor was not entirely honest in the first place, I view everything from the franchisee's angle to make sure I am as fair and open as possible. My Agreement is based on the one I signed when bought my franchise, but modified to ensure it is as fair as possible to all parties.
I have changed and adapted it as required, and I'm always open to new suggestions.