Sparkle wash

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

Any body feelings about it , open talk .

[sthom21 14]

I spoke to Tom Yuhas several months ago. He is one of the Executives at Sparkle Wash, in charge of recruiting new franchisees. Very nice guy. I seriously considered the opportunity, but I decided not go with Sparkle Wash for financial reasons. After all was said and done, to get my local market as an exclusive territory, and buy their equipment, I would have been more than $108,000 in debt. And THEN I would have had to start building my client base. That is just too scary for me. If for any reason at all I had failed, I would have lost everything and been in debt for years with nothing to show for it.

I am sure the opportunity is right for alot of people, but after long and careful consideration, and several conversations with my wife, I decided it was not for me. I am "going it alone" with alot of help from the pro's here. One of the biggest selling points Sparkle Wash mentions is the tight knit family atmosphere and the fact that if you have a question they will find you an answer. Awesome benefit, but I believe most, if not all of my questions can be answered by the professionals here. And I plan to be able to answer some questions in the future for new guys as well. Good luck with your decission.

[PressurePros 248]

For $108,000 I will fly to you. Negotiate a brand new truck at the dealership. Have delivered a 10 gpm dual gun setup with all the goodies on a custom trailer. Train you in sales for three weeks. Have everything from logos to postcards designed and printed, do a $10,000 marketing campaign and stay on as your employee/salesman for two months.

What in God's name were they offering at that price?

[CoastalHydro 14]

$108k? I haven't had any experience with SparkleWash but I did see one of their trucks the other day. I was leaving a job and saw the truck parked at a house. It looked like it hadn't moved in a long time. It was a big bread van type truck that looked well over 15 years old.

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

We have talk toTom a couple of time , he email me almost every day great guy , we have talk to him about prices, he told me for the area i want it would $35,000 for pop of 500,000 people one county one of the biggist in maryland . Also since i have trailer and truck tom said in could use that so there is about $20,000 we would save also he said we could use are power washer to start out another 6,000 saved, we would have to buy are supplies and go threw thier traning. I think it is not right for every one if i was not in business already we would beable to aford it . just think

$35,000 fran van 20,000 , supplies and training also ads about $15,000 around 70,000 to 100,000 is alot of money

[COOPER 14]

For $108,000 I will fly to you. Negotiate a brand new truck at the dealership. Have delivered a 10 gpm dual gun setup with all the goodies on a custom trailer. Train you in sales for three weeks. Have everything from logos to postcards designed and printed, do a $10,000 marketing campaign and stay on as your employee/salesman for two months.

What in God's name were they offering at that price?

Me too for that price. There is another company call The Wash Guys (Truck Wash Guys, Car Wash Guys, etc.) They are about the same way. Not sure on their prices, but unless they come with quite a few profitable customers; I don't think a franchise would be the way to go with a pressure cleaning business.

[Scott Stone 604]

Wash guys is out of business. Seems that they had some FTC fraud problems. The owner of them was a piece of work, as well. They did build nice trucks, though, and I think that they have no more than one or two franchisees that are still operating. There are a lot of other stories that go with them, but it no longer matters.

Sparklewash, They used to have a franchisee in my area, but it went under about 7 or 8 years ago. The owner tried to go it without the franchise, but ended up folding that business and landed in the adult entertainment industry owning his own strip joint. I do not know how that is working out for him, but my guess is that he is getting the rewards he was looking for.

[Paul Kassander 26]

Franchises are ok for some but the cost is always high. Name recognition is about the only real benefit I can see. The informaton available here and other places will provide you more than enough information to run your business effectively.

As far as training goes you can ask around on the board and see if anyone is willing to do labor for learning. I know I have done it in the past and will do it in the future as well.

[anthony szabo 14]

These stories that I'm reading about Sparkle Wash seem to be the same in my area. Their is a Sparkle Wash in my prime area but they are part time and I get work from their customers because they have screwed something up. I even think it was sold to another person and they are having tough times?

[John Orr 206]

I am often asked if my company is a franchise - its not - but for $108K, I could make it happen! Hmm...

[PowerWashofVa 14]

I use to own a Spring-Green Lawn Care franchise in the 1990's. Never again, they got royality on my gross (sliding scale). I found with Power Washing you can learn from the professionals on the BBS and work for free to gain experience.

We also have many suppliers that help with questions.

Some of the benefits to a franchise is the name (only if is well known)

trainning and material purchase.

[PressurePros 248]

The keys to a succesful franchise are

1) It's branding

2) Its marketing

3) Its operational systems

4) Its support

One can do all the research they want on a business but you still take you chance of success from maybe 5% up to 10%. Most well run franchises have a 60%-80% success ratio. Is that worth anything? I'd say it is.

I do not agree that this is a business that does not lend itself well to successful franchising.

Lets say I offered turnkey equipment, marketing training, sales training (with accredited instructors), national as well as local advertising support, software to track customers easily and to keep your books, a set and efficient methodology for anything you want to clean, ongoing support, HR training as you needed it, and the ability to tap into advanced resources to grow your business very quickly.. in addition, you get top of-the-line detergents, inventory management systems, and all you need to make a one man show look like part of some bigger, well percieved company?

Now let's say you are a guy making $22 an hour that hates his job and by cashing in your pension or IRA I can have you making four times that and you can have winters off to do whatever you want. No rent. No employees unless you want them. Minimal headache. Would you place a decent value on all of that?

How about as a closer, I tell you..

-The moment you leave our school as a PressurePros franchisee, a marketing campaign will have been launched in your area that guarantees your phone will be ringing when you arrive home.

Yes, suggestions for all of the above are available somewhere in here (TGS) but what isn't here is a systematic approach to implementing technique. The fact is, most guys are going to be spinning their wheels until they drop out of business ownership. Franchises take the guess work out and eliminate excessive learning curves.

[anthony szabo 14]

Well put Ken,

Franchises does offers protection and takes all the guess work out. You will get a great start, but you must keep you Franchise moving foward.

If I had tons of $$ and wanted to start a Fast Food restraunt I would go with a Franchise, because I know nothing about that type of business.

YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW! (somewhere)(somehow) I have.

[sthom21 14]

For $108K they offered exclusive rights to an area with a population just over 800K. I could have opted for the non-exclusive option for about $20K less. The price included the initial franchise fee, the exclusive rights to my area, equipment, training, initial supplies, initial marketing materials, uniforms and access to their support line and other Sparkle Wash franchisees.

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

800,000 People Is A Lot Of People Say There Is 50 Power Washing Companies In That Are But Only 300,000 Houses To Wash. And Every Company Get 6000 House That Is Good . This Is All A Guesses . Also You Are The Only Person Who Could Own A Sparkle In That Area .

[John T 744]

Nice post Ken.

I agree that franchising can work in this industry if it is done right where you do get the continuing support from the "Franchiser".

The only foreseeable problem that I could see with franchising in this industry has to do with Residential wood restoration. Most commercial work and residential Power washing I could see Franchises working but in the wood restoration market its such an expertise thing to do this type of work that unless you have it and your employees have it the franchising won't be to successful. I'm probably being a little bias here since I do wood restoration along with many other types of cleaning and from my experiences no matter who I hire nobody as of yet has came close to me in doing this type of work and doing it well and doing it pretty fast. Its like an art. I'm sure there are some here that can do this type of work better and faster then I do but to find workers that care as much as you do and are passionate enough as you are to do this type of work is slim to none.

As for house washing, concrete cleaning etc..washing in general I had past guys that did that well because its so much easier. I'd be most impress if there was ever a franchise that was out there that has a rock solid reputation in the wood restoration business.

[reed 500]

There is a Sparkle Wash in my area. Way underbids anyone else here. That's all I can say in an open forum about this.

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

same here they do good work ,they have everything down pat, products, eqiupment, units , hard to compete with but we try

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

we are think about moving and they called me last year so a gave them call . good info but still think about open a business under are old name

[A and J POWERWASHING 64]

reed pm me your feelings