Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: dandandan on February 13, 2009, 11:44:05 am
-
Is Rainbow International a good franchise investment?
-
It can be good for fire & flood restoration.
-
Hi dan
good to see your out of hibernation ;D
-
From an X rainbow Franchisee.
Its all right if you don't mind being dictated on how to run your business and where you spend your money within the business, what hours to operate the business are prepared to employ a number of staff to administer the business, change your vans when they tell you, have a work shop unit not less than 1200 sq ft, produce monthly statistics at the drop of a hat when you work it out you get around 18-19% at the end of the year. You can then work out if you have a crap franchise area you are stuffed. I could go on and on if you drop me a contact number I will give you a call.
PSG.
-
But apart from that they're a good company then ?! :D ;)
Les
-
;D
-
if you wanna be a manager then go franchise, if you wanna be the boss go it alone.
derek
-
you can't ignore the fact that the majority of multi-van companies are Franchisess, for some if does work
-
What about servicemaster they do ok :)
A good franchise to get is green thumb a lawn care set up,the guy who i know does a good turn over and profitt is exellent :)
-
I hear their franchises are not so easy to come by as the likes of service master chem dry etc.
Must be somthing in that???
-
chem dry are cramming them in, we got 2 round here and i'm forever hearing bad things about them. rainbow and service master are really hard to get into, the latest one thats easy is hydro dynamix, they have the contract for the odeon at the trafford centre, £12000 contract.
derek
-
Chem dry are now owned by Homeserve , are they not?
are homeserve a franchise c/cleaning in thier own right ? not sure on that one.
of course their are a number of smaller franchises , safe clean been one that spring to mind.
Derick , dont worry about having 2 on your door I have about 5 , I think its good for business.
geoff
-
Derek
Your right about them cleaning the trafford cemter as they were there last week when i was doing some cleaning there :)
-
Hi i have a Servicemaster franchise when i joined two years ago alot of people were putting me off after meeting rainbow and chemdry i went for the servicemaster as it was a cheaper option and within 2 months i had got my money back.
Not all franchises are the same although i dont hear that many good things about rainbow in the areas that i cover.
Jamie.
-
2 months!
£30,000
looks like i made the wrong choice in going it alone.
awww bugger.
derek
-
Have u got a franchise derek?
-
no jamie. i took the long road. and fck me is it long. :(
derek
-
I do honestly feel for guys like you. If i was reliant just on carpet cleaing i would be screwed. To be honest i dont do any carpet cleaning now i pass it all to a guy who is truck mounted in my area.
I bought a capret clenaing business that had been established for 5 years last year for 10k it has een a complete waste of money and time i have since cut the phones off. I sm in the process of taking over another area next to mine with servicemaster.
-
so how much was your sm franchise if ya don't mind me asking, and how did you generate it back in 2 months?
derek
ps... dont worry bout me, i like a challenge, makes it more interesting. :)
-
It cost me 20 k it would have been 25 but i had a rotary and ninja. Within the first 2 weeks of starting i had 2 fires in and around 10 escape of waters within the first 5 weeks. I joined at the time of the hull floods and worked for servicemaster within the floods. I thought i had made the bigest mistake of my life the day i paid my money becasue i had spoken to the guy who had the area before me just as i paid. He put me on a downer. It was the way he run the franchise hence why he lost everything and he had 3 areas ive only got one. We may not get the number of jobs in that rainbow get and chem dry but what we get is of high value.
-
Hello Clint,yes been doing sweet f.a all winter,just looking after my shops,just started my advertising to start in March so hopefully i`ll be as busy as last year,you`ve got to be hopeful mate,speak to you soon mate,Dan
-
nice one, good luck to ya.
derek
-
Jamie
What part of their network did you join, noted four opportunities? Totalling £98750 ex
As I understand it SM are minnows in the ff side lost a lot of work.
Len
-
Hi i joined disastor restoration for clwyd north wales.
The yhave lost some work since i have bee with them but at the same time we have gained small amounts on others.
Most of my work comes from loss adjusters that i have doen work for through servicemaster it has taken time to get in with them.
-
When I started 21 years ago SM were the biggest then Mansfield Brewery brought over Rainbow from the states and some of the top guys left from Sm to go to Rainbow and pressumably took some work but I was told by an ex franchisee that Rainbow have to have 'expected' sales forcasts and if you don't reach them......
Most of the good areas with Rainbow and SM are taken up I believe but as Derek has said you have to be more of a manager to have a franchise as you will be getting workers to work not do it yourself, me thinks a job made for a woman telling people what to do all day :o
Perhaps Jim Neal may tell us more as he's a ServiceMaster franchisee.
Shaun
-
Hi dan
Was going to ask how the shops are going ???
Not long now till the season for you to start :)
-
I know a guy that has been with Service Master for nearlt 18 years. He has more than made his money in that time. He says now though Service Master play secong fiddle to Rainbow & Chem-Dry. He said the amount of work & quality PRICE WISE has gone. He only stays with them now as he is not bothered as he has made his £££. He just wants to keep his lads in work. Rainbow went downhill the day that ISS took them over. They were in reality the leeaders & got good prices. Now in typical ISS fasion....the prices are rock bottom.
Richie.
-
Poss a silly question but why do new clients that Ive work for , have had CD or Rainbow in the past and only every say bad things about the both of them ?
-
I'd have thought 2 reasons
1/ cleaner not building up a relationship
2/ cleaner not being conciencious in his/her work
They chareg top prices but don't always deliver it, that's one of the reasons that CD do quite well as the system is fool proof but alot of customers don't buy cleaning they buy the cleaner.
Shaun
PS one other thing is that if a customer pays top money the only thing that they do after is pick spots because they know that they have paid top money and get buyers remorse.
-
Some of the prices Ive been getting lately , ive been over checking my work , so they cant pull faults , but they CP so most be doing ok
-
Fire & flood is the main stay of most of the franchises so the carpet cleaning isn't their main concern. They are being pushed to carry out more carpet cleaning to make up shortfalls in the fire & flood work.
Lot of builders now doing drying out works and fire cleans. Some do it for free to guarantee getting the re-instatement works.
-
Jamie,
Be honest Servicemaster are crap as is their headoffice support. Lets face it the only real Insurance contract work they had was Halifax & they screwed it up by OVERCHARGING & POOR SERVICE STANDARDS. I have been a franchisee of both SM & RI and as derek says buy a franchise if you want to be a manager or go it alone as a business man. I can asure you if you can think for yourself most franchisors don't like it as they like to brain wash you the "AMERICAN WAY".
PSG
-
Jamie,
Be honest Servicemaster are crap as is their headoffice support. Lets face it the only real Insurance contract work they had was Halifax & they screwed it up by OVERCHARGING & POOR SERVICE STANDARDS. I have been a franchisee of both SM & RI and as derek says buy a franchise if you want to be a manager or go it alone as a business man. I can asure you if you can think for yourself most franchisors don't like it as they like to brain wash you the "AMERICAN WAY". The only reason franchising is surviving in the present climate is because of flash flooding and even then their are only a few of the guys geared up to deal with the work. I hope we have a drought this summer and see where all the franchise companies go beacause no money at AD and not as many fires as 10-15 years ago " ban the pan " thumbs up on Monday" blah blah.
psg
PSG
-
funny how alot of custys in the Hull area, were not at all happy with c/d, rainbow, service master the majority os people i have talked to said basicly, not bothered , no respect for their homes, arrogant and ignorant, harsh words I know but when a home as been flooded they at least like a little syphathy or info as to whats going on, even now I have customers wouldnt dream of having then because of their attitudes doing the flood work.
Geoff
-
Shops are up and down clint,profits down expenses up,ha ha.Can`t wait for phone to start ringing,bored off my cake.Like i say ads start March 1st so i`ll let you know.dan
-
Hi dan
Well not long now then mate to go,hope you keeping of the ale ;)
-
Interesting discussion! I'd just like to add my tuppence worth. (As if I wouldn't :D )
Firstly, when I read posts that say "I heard..." or "people say....." it always sets the old BullS**t alarm ringing. It's easy to make up stories and type them on forums. It's tempting to fall into line and peddle the same old crap that others spout, just to blend in with the pack. To conform out of fear of social rejection is one of mankind's greatest weaknesses, I feel. But that's a bit deep for a carpet cleaning forum :)
Hands up who actually knows anything about what it's like to actually own a franchise? Probably only a small handful who are posting here! The independent guys always seem to have this natural knee-jerk reaction to slate franchises, I think this is partly because they feel threatened (or maybe inferior in some way?!) and partly because everyone else is doing it.
The fact is that a franchise is as individual as any other independent business! You've got guys like me who work on their own just the same as most of you lot do, and then you can go right up to one of our office cleaning franchises who employ scores of people and turn over millions of pounds a year.
I run my business on a day to day basis without any pressure or dictation from head office. I'm my own boss, I do what I want and buy whatever equipment and products I like. I even make my own marketing material when I get around to it. The only thing I can't change is the colour of the shirt I'm wearing or my company logo. Big deal, I quite like turquoise and yellow, I've even painted my lounge to match (you can decide for yourselves if that was a joke or not :) ).
Once every blue moon I have to do something I'd rather not, like regional meetings or spend a few hours with my area manager etc. Every month I pay a percentage of my reported turnover back to head office, but also now and again I get sent a couple of nice jobs to do and all I have to do is go out and do them and collect the money. Anyone fancy a 10 minute spotting job with a terry towel for 60 quid?
I don't do insurance work now. I used to, before I owned my franchise, because I worked for the previous owners who did both the cleaning and the restoration. In SM it's split up into separate licences now, I'm not sure how it works with the other franchise groups.
We have exclusive territories. ChemDry chuck as many into an area as they think it can handle. Last time I counted, there were 5 or 6 round here. Makes for very confusing reading in the YP! Not sure about the others.
R.E. The Hull floods.... I think at that particular time there were probably more flooded houses in the UK than there were dehumidifiers available to hire. Do the maths, there's going to be a bit of a problem delivering 5-star service to each and every 10,000 homes all under water at the same time.. I know several people who didn't sleep for days and didn't see their families for a week during that time. Because they were pumping out flood water and drying buildings. The percentage of complaints to jobs done probably dropped to an all time low during those times, but because of the sheer volume yes there will have been quite a few complainers kicking up stink. Happens.
In the grand scheme of things, you get out of franchising what you put in - which of course applies to most things in life ;)
-
Every month I pay a percentage of my reported turnover back to head office
Obviously, the smart people would have read this carefully ;)
-
Nicely put Jim ;)
-
reported turnover!
like ya style jim
derek
-
Jim
Good post mate and from someone who runs a franchise.
Think if i was starting off i would maybe go down this route :)
Was trying to get a green thumb lawn care in the cheshire area but the sale fell through :(
-
Hi Guys
Interesting topic.
I like the franchises, although I wouldn't want to be one myself, well only as the head ;).
They have good marketing skills, charge decent pices and generally give a good impression.
If the actaul quality on the ground is not so good, then there are obviously training issues, buts lets face it what percentage of CC jobs could be classed as good or better.
Cheers
Doug
-
Jim,
Regarding my post re. Hull floods.
I can assure you I was actually in a pub one night talking to young men who had beent taken on specificly to deal with the Hull floods, they were from manchester, were working for a franchise , getting paid cash in hand and bragging how they were all but ripping people off.
They did not have a clue what they were doing or supposed to be doing and were not in the slightest bit bothered. In their words the boss said just fill them with bullpoop.
Now the ironic thing about this , they had not got a clue who I was or what I did, they was staying in a b&b in my village , but of course I was pumping them for info with great interest.
Having said that, I have nothing against franchises , i infact would welcome them to quote every job I
quote, infact I would go so far to say I reckon I could baffle most so called technitians with c/c science :)
We are talking about the actual operatore here , not the owners.
Now I can understand your reply, and yes I have read it right through and may I say good luck with your business and hope you continue to do well , However , of course your going to say all of the things you have said, arn,t you ? Just like I am saying these things.
Geoff
-
Yes V good post
-
Who does Jim work for?
Thought he was independent.
John
-
Hi Jim,
Fantastic post mate especially the paragraph below.
R.E. The Hull floods.... I think at that particular time there were probably more flooded houses in the UK than there were dehumidifiers available to hire. Do the maths, there's going to be a bit of a problem delivering 5-star service to each and every 10,000 homes all under water at the same time.. I know several people who didn't sleep for days and didn't see their families for a week during that time. Because they were pumping out flood water and drying buildings. The percentage of complaints to jobs done probably dropped to an all time low during those times, but because of the sheer volume yes there will have been quite a few complainers kicking up stink.
I used to work for a franchisee, over the past few years when some of the major flooding happened we were drafted in to help out in various parts of the country. Getting hold of drying equipment was getting to be a nightmare. We tried our very best to explain to customers the situation regarding so little equipment been available. The franchise i worked for purchased 100s of paddle fans to install into homes. Most of the customers that we dealt with understood the problem & were very understanding. To my knowledge we had 2 customers that complained saying that we were not doing the job as they expected. Both of these were informed by the insurance company & the loss adjusters that the whole country was in demand for drying equipment & were assured that as soon as it was available that we would install. One of these customers continued to moan each & every time we visited the other changed & was very helpful & nice to us all.
As with any trade there are some that give the rest a bad name. When the whole country is in demand for drying equipment you will for sure get people complaining although it is not be the fault of the comapny dealing.
Richie.
Richie.
-
Jim
Does Servicemaster actually source you work, carpet cleaning that is.
In my mind a franchise is only beneficial if it gets you some work ie. national contracts. This is fine for flood work but what about those who just want to clean carpets. is there any point in a franchise then??
Mark
-
Yes they do Mark, albeit sporadic at best.
Our national accounts are not limited simply to insurance/restoration work - we also serve large well-respected companies such as John Lewis, Laura Ashley, Next, Victoria Carpets, etc etc...
A lot of the work I get sent is problem-solving. This can vary quite a bit in prestige and profitability though! Clearing up oily footprints across a hall carpet left by an Argos delivery man is quite common - we get a flat rate for that, so on one job you'll earn way less than if you'd quoted it privately, but on another you'll only need to spend 10 minutes with a terry towel to earn the same money. It all evens out in the end.
Much of the work we do for John Lewis is to sort rogue tufts/fibres in newly installed carpets. This sort of work is brilliant, you can spend 2 hours in a customer's house fixing half a dozen rogue tufts, talk to them whilst enjoying a cuppa, play with the dog, really make friends with them and then provide a quote for £200 worth of work that they'll take you up on in the near future.
And you get rewarded handsomely for doing so - the cost of you going there and sorting the problem is significantly lower than the cost of them having to do the carpet installation all over again.
It's all about maximising on the opportunities involved. There's both the potential up-selling from getting your foot in the door with the right sort of customer, and the fact that you're trading with a name that carries some weight.
How many jobs do you think you'd get if your own company name and phone number was printed on the cleaning instructions of a certain brand of upholstery? I must clean a huge proportion of the Marks & Spencer suites in my area because they recommend us to clean them.
Mind you, I clean a fair amount of G-Plan suites and they recommend ChemDry :D
Funny old world :)
-
Jim
Your right on the label part :)
I cleaned a suite the other day and the cleints bought if rom next and if it was not for a recomondation from there friend with my name she would have had one of the franchises ???
-
I'm not sure if we're mentioned on Next furniture, I haven't seen a brand new one for a while. The shop staff normally recommend us though if they're asked.
-
Hi jim
It was a two teater no chairs in like a gold two tone suite,never seen one before amd sure it was your company on the label ???
Maybe not chem dry maybe ???
-
Just shows the system isn't 100% infallible! :D
-
Jim ;D
-
When I first started out I was all against the traditional franchise route, large initial outlay and high percentage of turnover had to be paid to the franchisor in monthly commisions.
Saying that, I've just taken out a franchise!! We've just bought into FURNITURE CLINIC Leather Care & Repair Franchise and have been given a large territory, all of Northumberland.
The initial outlay was quite reasonable and myself and one of my technicians (Harvey) have spent two weeks fully hands on training at head office, the confidence it gives you is amazing. Monthly fees are only £200/month regardless of turnover. I've been trading now for 2 weeks and I expect to be break even and turning a profit by the end of March.
As many of you know of me, I don't dive into things quickly, I researched this venture rigorously before making the plunge. We already have 16 people working for us under the Lionheart Cleaning logo but were getting very little leather work, even though I did the LTT course in 2005 and advertise we do leather cleaning and restoration.
The Furniture Clinic franchise is still very much in it's growth stage, I can see the potential of it and wanted to be in from the start to guarantee getting the territory I wanted.
Ben has had a lot of enquiries in the last month from people wanting more information about the franchise. The guy who started just before me is based down in Essex and I know he is getting jobs every day from the Furniture clinic website.
If you are interested give me a call on 07790596782, or email me ian@lionheartcleaning.co.uk to discuss it more. I get a small incentive for introducing new franchisees, but this is not why I'm telling you about it, my main reason is because I want to see Furniture Clinic with National coverage so that in the eyes of the insurance companies, if they have a leather repair to be done, they call Furniture Clinic.
If you, like us, already do leather cleaning, then you'll know the amount of work that is out there for leather repairs and recolours. Furniture Clinic are top of search engines for leather repairs in most areas, we are starting to get work coming in all the time.
So far our jobs done have included, two car bolsters to repair and recolour, 3 wing back chairs to re-antique, a full suite to basically overhaul and recolour, a chair that has required repaneling work, holes, tears and wear restoration, a leather suite that was recoloured last year by someone in Durham but the colour was delaminating and needed cleaning off and reapplying (she couldn't get in touch with man from Durham)
We've got 6 jobs booked in for next week so far and a man coming down in his X5 from Glasgow (180 miles) to get the drivers seat repaired!
-
i don't know if it was a wind-up or not, i don't think it was, but i was stopped the other day by a service master guy who said he wanted someone, me, to pass work onto as he was so busy he was embarrassed at the amount of work he was turning away!! he seemed a really nice bloke so i won't be complaining if the phone keeps ringing!!
colin
-
Colin, thats not unusual. local guy up here was offering suites out at 75 quid.
-
Jamie,
To be honest you only got your money back because of the floods, right?
No floods, no money, right?
Murky
-
No when i joined i was working on the floods for servicemaster. Within the first month of being on my own area i had got my money back. I have had quiet times with servicemaster but still making money when you have got your drying equipment out. Since january this year i have had 27 burst pipes 5 fires 1 gloss spill and two red wine stains. Not bad going so far.
-
The problem with SM is that the amount of Dickheads they have at head office.
How can someone, who`s job it is, to forget to put in the contract forward to the biggest insurance company in the UK??????? and they lost it and because of this they lose the revinue off the franchises and then put their royalties up to couteract this.
Most of the area managers are failed SM franchises. :o
How do i know this???? i worked for one for over 18yrs
Daryl
-
Sounds like a case of too many cooks etc ::)
-
wow eh
-
its all well and good going down the fran. route until you fall out with the right people
when there extra thick xmas card doesnt turn up your not going to last long trust me ! aks the guy who just sold me his truck mount because hes gone skint ???
-
Susan
You have bought another set up :) ???
-
Been there Jim, had the agro.
I can still smell fires and floods.
My son wouldnt relax when I came in the door until I took my SM uniform off as he thought I was going to go out to a call out.
I've got a life now, and all the money is mine, and I can go anywhere I want when I want. The thing about franchises is that if you get the business owner doing the actual job, then generaly its ok. Its when the business grows and you send in a team that dont really care and only go through the motion then it gets them a bad name.
Business owners care, its operators that let you down.
Murky
-
Never a truer word said!
And in a lot of cases, those very few and far between employees who DO give a monkeys end up going out on their own anyway. Or in my case buying the business off their employer :)
-
Jim
Your right, i did give a monkeys thats why i left and set up on my own (i know it took me a while but it was never the right time......but then it never is!!!)
I also left because i was ( supposed to be) the manager but i was, only when the s~#t hit the fan or there was a problem.
Also my boss hadn`t got a clue how to run the business or man manage.As long as the work came in from floods and fires thats all he was interested in.
There are 2 operators there who have been there for 12 and 14 yrs and i would`t let them clean our dog`s blanket
Regards
Daryl