Australians just can’t seem to have enough swimming pools. There are more than one million pools in Australia and demand for spas is also skyrocketing.
Poolwerx franchise founder, John O’Brien, is strategically putting the frameworks in place to support a 10 year plan to become the single service provider to this forever-burgeoning market.
For the pool franchise founder, choosing an “unorganised industry” and “organising it” is the first secret to smart franchising.
“We chose the pool and spa market because it was a growing, unorganised and there was need to service and maintain pools and spas. This was our opportunity – to design a business model that gave the market structure and at the same develop a robust marketing tool that attracted franchisees,” he says, in regards to the pool maintenance franchise.
Following this formula, the PoolWerx franchise has captured a 30 per cent market share over 10 years and its franchisees are reaping the returns.
Looking after pool franchisees’ interests and business development is a key component of the PoolWerx strategy. According to O’Brien, setting pool maintenance franchisees up with a career path from the outset helps them see a future for their business.
“When franchisees join PoolWerx they become part of our ‘three tiers in five years’ plan. They start with a single mobile van and graduate to a fleet, then finally to a retail store with three to four vans. This enables the ‘man with the van’ to grow his business and command over $1 million-plus in turnover,” O Brien says about the Poolwerx franchise.
Pool franchise partners are embracing the model so rapidly that O’Brien expects to have 300 franchisees from Cairns to Perth by 2010.
With more than 23 years experience in franchising under his belt, O’Brien says a franchisor needs a lot of energy and focus to make a pool maintenance franchise system really successful.
He hones in on the point that to stay on top and maintain a winning franchise, franchisors must possess two qualities: to be articulate and to lead.
29-Nov-2006