FINAL WORD

Imagine buying an existing business and tripling the revenue in two and a half years. That’s the experience of the 2019 Franchisees of the Year at Appliance Tagging Services.

9 things to learn about franchisees Tereza and Kent Pepping.

When the couple bought the business, they were accomplished smallbusiness owners with a car detailing business.

However, with five children aged 13, 12, nine, eight and 18 months, the weekend work was taking its toll and the Peppings were ready for a more family-friendly solution.

Kent is a qualified electrician, Tereza has accounting skills, so they were looking to apply their knowledge and expertise in building up a business.

Appliance Tagging Services is the perfect fit:

a weekday business and the franchisor removes a lot of the admin. Franchisees don’t need to chase money and can focus on converting leads and upselling.

“I’m able to chase a lead within the hour,” says Tereza.

“I ask all the questions, run through what we offer, I can often upsell and get them to take all the services. We follow up within a week; a quick response is important.”

Queensland regulations require licensing for some tasks, and Kent has all the necessary qualifications and the appetite to build on the basics with fire testing and emergency lighting.

The couple recently added to their business with the purchase of a direct marketing area, which gives them clients all over Brisbane.

“We’re just going day by day.

I’d like to get more direct clients, managed clients we pay a higher percentage on those. A lead to us costs us less. So we’ll be building those up. I’m starting to find the time to find clients. I will go and do site visits.”

“We won Franchisee of the Year last year.

The award is based on how we do lead chasing and our conversion rates. It’s a lot to do with the reporting system. They can look at assets, the tests we did, our compliance.”

The Peppings have a high level of conversion, and for financial year 2019 an annual turnover of about $500,000.

“We’re aiming high. We had aimed in the first year to hit $300,000 then we upped our business plan.”