By Glen Korstrom
Brian Scudamore aims to use his 1-888-Wow-1Day! business model to transform the house painting industry in the same way as his 1-800-Got-Junk? revolutionized junk removal.
House painting in North America is dominated by small companies staffed with casual employees who don’t wear uniforms.
Scudamore faced the same situation in the early 1990s when he created 1-800-Got-Junk? The brand is built on shiny trucks, uniformed workers, on-time service and an upfront price list – something the junk removal business had lacked.
Scudamore is applying a similar business model to 1-888-Wow-1Day! He started marketing the venture 120 days ago and has lined up franchisees in:
- Metro Vancouver;
- the Fraser Valley;
- Austin, Texas;
- San Jose, California; and
- Seattle, Washington.
1-888-Wow-1Day! offers a standardized approach to house painting and promises to paint as much of a home as a customer wants within a 24-hour period.
“The painting market is much larger than the junk removal market, and it is highly fragmented,” Scudamore told Business in Vancouver.
“We’re bringing our systems and infrastructure from 1-800-Got-Junk? – our call centre, our marketing systems, our public relations systems, our training systems.
“We will be able to leverage that and get the business growing quickly.”
The move comes in the wake of shrinking revenue growth at 1-800-Got-Junk?, which generated about $87 million in 2009 and $90 million in 2010.
The number of 1-800-Got-Junk? franchisees has also dropped considerably – from about 300 five years ago to 187 today.
But Scudamore stressed that 1-800-Got-Junk?’s footprint is as large as ever and that successful franchisees have been buying the franchises of their less successful counterparts.
He learned about 1-888-Wow-1Day! when he needed to hire someone to paint his own house.
Company founder Jim Bodden convinced Scudamore that if it’s feasible for two people to paint one room in a day, it’s just as feasible for 18 people to paint nine rooms in a day.
Scudamore hired Bodden but remained skeptical until he was “blown away” by a high-quality job.
“I was so impressed that I bought the company,” said Scudamore, stealing a signature advertising line from Victor Kiam, the former owner of Remington Products Co.
Scudamore spent no cash in the deal. Instead, he traded a promise to increase the company’s size by using his 1-800-Got-Junk? infrastructure in exchange for a majority stake in the venture.
Because both 1-800-Got-Junk? and 1-888-Wow-1Day! target customers that are doing spring cleaning and improving their home’s appearance, the combination could pay dividends.
“I can take what I know with 1-800-Got-Junk? and apply it to how I run 1-888-Wow-1Day! I already deal with a lot of customer service issues. We use a lot of vehicles right now and we’ll be able to use them with the painting, too,” said longtime 1-800-Got-Junk? franchisee Bronic Gold, who operates in California’s Bay Area and recently bought a 1-888-Wow-1Day! franchise.
Scudamore is not the only Vancouver franchisor to launch a new franchise in the same sector where he was originally successful.
Gary Charlwood brought real estate seller Century 21 to Canada in the early 1970s. He now also sells franchises for Centum Financial Group Inc. (Canada) and Real Property Management (RPM).
Centum, which Charlwood founded, is a mortgage brokerage with 240 franchises.
Charlwood owns the Canadian rights to RPM, which manages properties for clients who own small real estate portfolios.
Charlwood expects to have 22 RPM franchises within the year.