TX72

Hello everyone. I am the new owner of Massachusetts and I am extremely proud to be a state owner for Heaven’s Best! Some of you know this but before I got involved with HB I was a Papa John’s Pizza Franchisee. Papa John’s has a fantastic product like WE do. I really believe that this thing is still on the ground floor like my early days with John when he only had 80 stores. Our product is the BEST thing out there and our customers know this. The question is how do we let EVERYONE know this. Once our customers try us – they love us – they tell friends and family about us. (No other carpet cleaning company has this following) Everyone out there has been screwed over by the carpet cleaner. I’m sure you all have heard the horror stories about previous companies from your customers. WE ARE THE BEST. Obviously we need to train and keep good operators but I believe you can still grow sales even with a sub par HB operator – Our product can make up for a few mistakes a long the way. The big guys advertise advertise advertise to turn over customers. We have a unique opportunity to take over the carpet cleaning market place by the way we keep customers.

With all that being said I do not agree with a raise in Royalty Fees BUT I do believe in creating an Advertising Fund that will help us let people know who we are.(I just think that a Royalty fee raise just sounds negative and will not be an easy sell.) We should have a lot easier time once our name gets out there. Kind of like how Papa John’s got started. Once people tasted the pizza it sold itself and still does. We need to create a new franchisee marketing plan that can be easily implemented when they get back to their area. Operators should offer to clean 10-20 places(or more) the first 4 weeks for free. I offered to clean an entire nursing home for free my first week and have received over $120k in business from that company since. I got 7 buildings that get cleaned quarterly out of that one free cleaning. At a good price .25psf because they LOVED it! This also gives them the opportunity to get to know their equipment and product as well as build a name in their new community. We have many good operators with small areas doing huge sales. We need to get their ideas and use them to help sell more franchises with smaller areas. Put these ideas into the plan.

I also feel that we should raise the price of 101 and give all the raise to Cody to get this thing going. Anything you can buy for $60 – $100 and make up to $2000 is a dag on good deal! I just think a raise on 101 will be easier to absorb. All of our operators could do a better job of selling the spotter and protector to make up the difference. Some of you might be concerned if we raise the 101 people will start using another janitorial product to clean with. I say we track everyones yields and Inspect what we Expect. If a franchisee is caught using another company’s product they should be terminated on the spot and used as an example. It sounds harsh but we need to protect the integrity of HB! Thats like a Papa John’s guy using Domino’s cheese because its cheaper. Its cheaper because its made with fatty milk and thats not good enough for Papa John’s. Papa John’s cheese is made with fat free milk. Yeah its more expensive but its better. John would cut out the cancer quicker then you could say cheese. We should apply this same thinking to our 101 and no would ever think to use an inferior product from anywhere else. You know its the best – do your operators?

Yeah its tough out there trying to sell franchises and get sales but when things are down you have to advertise more then ever. I have hit a slower than usual first quarter and money is tight in my area too. I do agree with many of you that this needs to be a gradual escalation in these fees over the next few years instead of all at once and I think Cody heard all of you quite well judging from the newsletter. Lets look at the big picture and the bottom line is that we are growing and will only continue to grow faster if we can staff that corporate office with folks who can help us get there. Cody and his very small team can only take us so far. That is not a shot at anyone in the office – you all are great. If we really want to grow this the office needs the tools and the extra help to do so.

Jim and Barry made some good suggestions about creating an advertising advisory board. How does everyone feel about that? Through this we can pull information and get ideas that work for us all.

Our biggest obstacle is how to get everyone to know how great we are and the ability to handle the business when they do! (Most companies wish they had our problem) Marketing can be your worst nightmare if you are not ready for the business. “Where’s the beef” campaign put Wendy’s on the map but their poor service almost buried them under the map. Our operations need to be as superior as our product is. Are we one GREAT commercial, print piece, or billboard away from a boom?? I don’t know but if we don’t fund the company we will never know.

Just remember WE ARE THE BEST and that if we fail to plan then plan to fail.

Not a sermon just a thought!

Where did you order your pads with the green strip from?