Car Storage Franchise:

The Creator knows how to develop a National operation for Car Storage. The franchise model he learned during his early career was by undertaking a consultancy role for a well-known (he says successful but it depends on who was successful? - ask about it when you enquire) retail outlet. At it peak, the franchise held 246 franchisee's in the UK and around 16 franchisee's in the EU.  He was hired for almost to two years to oversea a US Investment Management Buyout to the tune of £18m.

He was involved with the reconciliation of the Franchisee sales ledger's which included monthly management fees, adversity levy and stock purchases as these franchisee's were legally required to purchase through the warehouse at HQ in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

The entailed him communicating extensively will all franchisee owner's, building a repour with them directly to understand their business operations, understand their finances and understand what Head office support was required to make them successful on the basis that HQ, as you can imagine with 246 retail retail outlets, had limited resources.

Head office Business Development managers were deployed to stores that were struggling. Resources were optimized accordingly, and done so in a fair manner. Some store owners welcomed the support and the BDM's helped them develop skills they perhaps lacked, whilst others were perhaps unmotivated, and unable to benefit from these HQ resources. Why?, because even a franchised business is also a business in itself, and as such, is only as successful as the person running it. Sometimes people who had committed to a franchise had the funds to do so initially (therefore were signed up), but perhaps lacked the ability to push forward and run a business for many reasons which are unfair to state here.

The total volume of balance the creator was involved with on a month by month basis was £1.4-£1.8m. This was the monthly turnover of operations for Head Office including the above fee's and stock purchases. 

He oversaw the replacement of two Managing Directors, the initial one left due to the sudden change of business direction. A new Finance Director who actually hired the creator when she first joined the company. A new head of operations who obtained valuable insights from the creator due to his in-depth franchisee knowledge at that time. And finally, a new Marketing director.

The Marketing director was certainly an eye opener for the creator. He learned that sometimes a person has the ability to sell themselves, present themselves in perhaps a superior manner, "they are the best", "they know what they're doing". What happened is - the guy almost put the company bankrupt via lack of cashflow. And he did this by signing up with a Touring Car team with the intention of advertising by coverage on TV. The fees were astronomical.

The company began the Touring car deal (and it was amazing, all this fancy - VIP access to tracks - gosh! I bet the Marketing Director had a few Champaigns!). The deal was signed but there was a fundamental error made. Something deep within the contract that was either hidden of missed. Everything was supposed to be planned out (budget wise for HQ), but one day a huge £50k invoice hit the table, an unexpected one. This was after the season began therefore all the advertising logo's were on the car etc. The company demanded the money immediately something to do with paying for tires.    

The creator sat there wondering why on Earth this type of marketing plan was ever instigated on the basis that the franchise at that point was in decline. The number of franchisee's, therefore the shared funds to actually pay for such activities was hardly there. Especially when an unexpected invoice such as the above landed.

But what did the creator know about Marketing. It was his role to reconcile monies outstanding, resolve disputes, and issues relating to the brand. He was in essence operating the Business from HQ from the very heart and soul of the business. He was not hired to market the business. However, the insights learned by actually being based at the heart of operations and finance truly provided knowledge.

This knowledge is one reason for how and why he created this car storage franchise model. 

He has spent half a decade (since Sept 2019) learning the industry, learning about the business people who are in the trade - and this is not just car storage but Automotive Niche services such as; vehicle repairs, servicing, car preparation (detailing), vehicle recovery and transport - a discreet Franchise that is not a Franchise. He understands the small business arena and that many operations in this Industry have less than 5 employees. Most are 1-2 people operations and based in many cases from private estates. These people who own these estates as a example have moved into vehicle storage as a means to utilize their properties to make a sound income. As a result even the service level agreements are tailored to protect their properties.

They are tailored to allow someone to even end the service when they get full - now this is also a test on them to see if they are honourable.

Honourability is paramount for the success of this operation. We witness a ratio of about 70% of people who'll end the said service after about two years, once full - happily take the money for themselves which is on them (first batch of clients 2-5 years of professional service). Take the shrewd approach without taking into account the bigger picture. 

Those ones who cheated us on the small business during our first half decade won't be getting the medium or large Business over the coming next few years. They run the rick of screwing themselves when competition further increases. They disrespected and took full advantage of our generosity  - not suitable people for the Network. 

We tend to operate at a level of returning investment made almost instantly.

This is what we are proud to do. We want people to come on-board and value what we provide them. We don't want unethical business people who'll happily cheat us on a commission for delivering them a new client. We don't want people that unfairly take advantage. Why, because if they'd cheat us, they'd cheat anyone else including the clients.

We don't want these people. 

Are We Suitable?