Business Spotlight: Franchise Fix

For Frank Elston, dressing up his staff in full period costume – complete with wig, stockings and bifocals – to promote his company’s plumbing repair services is just another day at the office.

With a tag line of “the punctual plumber,” the Benjamin Franklin Plumbing franchise shop promises to pay $5 for every minute a plumbing technician is tardy, up to $300.

“No one’s perfect in the service business,” says Elston, owner and general manager of the Benjamin Franklin’s Springfield franchise. “I give back quite a bit of money from the mistakes we make through the year. When we say we’ll do something, we do it. We take our 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee very seriously.”

A retired U.S. Coast Guardsman, Elston pursued entrepreneurship with his father and brother-in-law in 1992 when the trio opened One Hour Heating & Air, one of three franchises offered through Clockwork Home Services Inc. After operating One Hour Heating & Air in Springfield for nearly 20 years, Elston decided to buy into Benjamin Franklin – another franchise under the Sarasota, Fla.-based parent company, which also sells Mister Sparky electrician franchises.

“There’s a lot of security in owning a franchise model for me,” Elston says. “This franchise still has my morals, beliefs, character and integrity in it. If a franchise goes bad, it’s not the franchisor, it’s the owner running it. I like that they have it all set up for me.”

Elston bought the Benjamin Franklin franchise rights from John Nicholson in December 2010. The location is No. 25 of 247 franchises nationally, says Sarah Murphy, a spokeswoman of Clockwork Home Services.

“When this franchise started, all the fees and buy-ins were relatively low,” Elston says, declining to disclose his franchise fees. “If someone were to buy a franchise today, they wouldn’t be paying anything near what John paid.”

The franchise company currently seeks to convert plumbing contractors, with minimum annual sales of $800,000, to Benjamin Franklin franchisees. According to corporate materials, the minimum franchise territory investment is $43,000, and franchisees receive operating systems, procedures, software and training to run the business.

Through Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and One Hour Heating & Air, which operate under the same roof at 3378 S. Scenic Ave., Elston serves Greene and Christian counties for such jobs as unclogging a drain or installing a high efficiency water heater. Other services include leak detection, repair and installation on sinks, toilets, garbage disposals, and water pump and filtration systems, as well as a plumbing maintenance program.

Kemp Nichol, a recent customer of Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, says the coexistence of the two companies increases the value to him as a consumer.

“I called them for plumbing, but while they were in my home, they were able to clean my furnace filters as well,” says Nichol, a self-employed marketer who lives in east Springfield. “It’s nice that they can address both issues under the same roof.”

Although Elston declined to disclose revenues, he says the plumbing shop’s sales have grown 40 percent in the two years he’s run the franchise, with emergency repairs being his biggest moneymaker. “We replaced a lot of staff,” says Elston, who now employs 20 under Benjamin Franklin – some of whom dress up in 1700s garb for special events and promotions. “We had a significant turnover the first 12 months. It is very difficult to find a plumber who is drug-free, criminal background-checked, (with a) clean and neat appearance.”

Although owning and operating the two cooperating businesses may be handy to customers, Elston admits it’s also his greatest challenge.

“Heating and air technicians and plumbing technicians are completely different,” says Elston, who projects 20 percent revenue growth this year. “They have different personalities and different skills. Heating and air technicians are more technically capable, but there is so much that can go wrong with plumbing that (the plumbing technician) has to know so much more. Understanding how to manage their differences has been a huge learning curve for me.”[[In-content Ad]]