Hocoa - ' New Franchise Concept ' Develops Franchises With No Hard Assets

New business model develops franchises with no hard assets that thumbs their nose at the status quo and offers unique AAA-type services for homeowners. Like most other businesses, franchises are often saddled with short- and long-term costs. Capital investments, rents, employee compensation, inventory, maintenance and other overhead are normally a fact of life. Unless, that is, the franchise is a new style of business that requires no capital investments, no full-time employees, relatively low startup costs and minor overhead.

That franchise is an emerging business concept that is a nationwide system of franchises that provides homeowners and small business with highly qualified, certified and reliable service contractors ranging from maintenance, repair and emergency services to select professions such as architectural design, landscaping and even services such as voice training, pet sitting or fitness training. Our franchise business is like the "AAA auto club for homeowners," says Sam Goodwin of San Diego. "The auto club not only provides roadside services, but also discounted rates at hotels and other travel-related sites that provide extra value for its members. Our home services franchise does that and a lot more." For the past couple of years Goodwin has been a franchisee of HOCOA ("ho-CO-a"), a Charlotte, NC-based organization that offers franchise packages to provide contractor services to members who subscribe for a low annual fee (normally about $48 per year with discounts for multi-year subscriptions). Contractor services include a plethora of trades, including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, air conditioning & heating specialists, roofers and handymen "" virtually any type of maintenance, repair or construction service that are needed by homeowners, rental home owners or small businesses today. All these services are thoroughly checked out and verified as reliable by HOCOA continually, so members know they are getting reliable, trustworthy professionals to deal with.

Membership in the network provides ancillary services as well that range from music lessons to piano moving, maid services and RV rentals, in addition to discounts on purchases of items such as appliances from quality suppliers like Sears. This unique approach is reinventing the way people think about home services. For the franchisee, it allows one the freedom to be their own boss, to achieve financial success and community involvement to whatever extent is desired while not locking one in to fixed assets such as facilities, inventories and full-time employees. Goodwin, a former corporate executive, says he was looking to own his own business, either a pure start-up or a franchise that offered him the control of a system that he could build on.

"The HOCOA concept made a lot of sense to me," Goodwin explains. "It fulfills a real need, gives me a strong business platform to build on, and also allows me the latitude to develop the business in my own way." Fast ROI This franchise does not require the capital investments, staff, facilities, inventory or other ongoing expenses of many franchises. Most franchisees work from home, using only a computer, telephone and professional answering service. The low overhead and a growing market contribute to the unusually fast return on the initial franchise investment. Most franchisees experience a complete ROI within one to three years. In the case of Goodwin, it took about 18 months. The fact that monthly franchise fees are low and flat rate also enhances profitability. The rate would remain the same regardless of whether the franchise did $500 or $50 thousand a month in business. Goodwin adds that the franchise training program is comprehensive and personal, providing a "template" that is customizable to each franchisee's "comfort zone," making it easy for them to hit the ground running.

A Burgeoning Market For most homeowners, including those with rental units, finding contractors for home maintenance, repair or improvements is a difficult task. Jim Williams, a retired Air Force mechanic who is now the Oklahoma City HOCOA franchisee, says he experienced ongoing frustration when hiring contractors to maintain or repair several rental homes he owns.

"When I was calling contractors for maintenance or any type of work they were never available to answer the phone, and it was usually about three days later when they returned my call," says Williams. "That simply was not acceptable to me." Williams adds that there were several instances when the contractors he called did not do a quality job, or were late in completing the work, which was frustrating to him and his tenants. In some cases when he asked the prospective contractor for a copy of their insurance, they wouldn"�t have any. His frustrations led Williams to look for a better solution to finding qualified contractors for residential services. While he was looking online for contractors, he discovered the HOCOA web site. He decided to explore this franchise concept, so he contacted the headquarters organization, and three months later he was a franchise owner.

Much More than a "List" "The HOCOA franchise provides much more meaningful services than the "�list"� type of organization," says Jim Williams. "The "�list"� company is often like the Yellow Pages, fine for locating contractors who offer services, but not as useful as we are in providing qualified contractors who have been certified by us as reliable, capable and insured." Williams adds that, unlike other referral services, HOCOA franchises are "live" 24/7. That is, when homeowners call with a need, they talk to a person rather than an answering machine. After the service need is discussed, a qualified contractor-associate will normally call the homeowner within an hour to discuss the situation and arrange a service call.

"Even if the homeowner calls at 3 AM they will talk to someone," Williams says. "If I am unavailable, a trained answering service will take the call, and arrange for a contractor to respond with a call-back first.

Bath and Meyers were looking at possibilities when they were introduced to the HOCOA franchise concept at a seminar. They became interested in this organization partly because they could appreciate the need for a referral service for homeowner repairs. After visiting the franchiser's headquarters and discussing the program everything sort of fell into place, Bath says. The franchise not only helped Bath and Meyers weather the storm in the new construction industry, it enhanced their ability to find qualified contractors for their own building activities as well as develop a new and profitable business.

"The franchise owner can grow this business as fast as they want, devoting as much time and energy as they want," Bath says. "Plus, the HOCOA franchise business complements our other business. We are able to reach many more homeowners than we could with just our construction business. Itis also helping us find more contractors for the construction business." Bath points out that this nationwide network of franchises also provides a valuable exchange of information. "If we want to try a new approach to finding new members or contractors, we can contact other franchises to get the benefit of their experiences," she says. All of which has helped Bath and Meyers succeed much more quickly. The return on their initial investment took less than three years.

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