In February, I started a post looking for a franchisee in the Southampton area:
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=165222.0 . The discussion was interesting (IMHO) and wide-ranging and even involved my own personal internet stalker.
Well, as a result of that thread, someone was interested enough to get in touch. Step forward the delightful Jake.
We met today for a half day of training (though it ended up with the two of us mulling over ideas and Jake coming up with some ideas for being more effective with franchisee number two) and Jake thought it might be time to post a follow-up on here.
Jake started on June 3rd with what we thought was a fully-kitted-out van with a 650L Pure Freedom setup. Then we started noticing the 101 items that
weren't on it (a double male hozelock adapter wasn't top of my list but it was one of those things where when it was needed, it was needed). A leisure battery on the van turned out to be a must - the Hiace has two batteries as standard, so I didn't give it a great deal of thought until Jake ran out of electricity one morning.
As for the business side, Jake now has a 2/3 full round, all gained from leafletting (plus a starter bundle of customers that had pushed me over-full). He's worked tirelessly through the heatwave and (I think) has now completed around 130 first cleans, one involving what I suspect might be the biggest house in Southampton and the highest-priced job on the round. He's also had the joy, thanks to our menu pricing system, of doing some seriously underpriced work along with some that's seriously overpriced.
Jake's on target to be full to the brim by the middle of September, then franchisee number 2 starts at the end of that month. Biggest question there is going to be our ability to fill a round over the winter.
However, opne thing that isn't in doubt is that our first franchisee is cracking on well, earning cash, and not having to do 70-hour weeks any more...
Vin