Advice You - Business

Here is an interesting case study of a company, which franchised mobile car wash units. It started with the humblest of beginnings indeed. I can say that with complete knowledge because this is a company I started at age 12 years old. It was not until I was nearly 32 years old that we franchised my business. This franchise was great in conc

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ept but franchisees would not follow the system enough, they deviated from the plan in most cases. The franchisees that stayed with the plan did very well, the ones who did not, did okay, but could have done better.

Since this was our first try at franchising, we made the franchise documents too lenient and therefore it was hard to enforc

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

standards. The customers were blown away by the idea of getting their car washed anywhere at anytime by phone call or e-commerce B2C. They love us, it is better than being the Fed Ex or UPS guy. If someone has not played sports or been involved in competitive events sometime in their life; we will not sell them a franchise. We want th

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

Olympic style attitude. Because of this the Competition hates us, but only because I am so competitive since I was involved in sports and politics myself. Also in 1991 a car wash owner tried to run me out of business by lobbying to local politicians and lodging complaints to code enforcement, EPA, and County environmental control boards.

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

This was the new environmental age and I was learning quickly about politics and business the hard way. Most Industry leaders representing our competition are clashing with us due to our drive, electronic Blitz marketing and bright yellow HERE I AM mobile car wash trucks.

At one point I had 53 Independent contractors in 39 cities washing

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ars. Kind of like a mini-franchise system. It was hard work. Soon I realized I was going to have to franchise this business. So we did in 1996-97. Upgraded everything, painted trucks yellow and allowed independent contractors to transfer in. Some did, most did not. Why should they sign anything they were already making money and it was

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

all on a hand shake. I didn't blame them.

As the franchise grew we started allowing those franchisees who bought multiple trucks to have additional areas to expand into, giving us better marketing power to sing up bigger accounts in many areas. It worked. Then came e-commerce, upgrades and we took everything we learned and kept upgradi

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

g, unfortunately soon the original franchisees did not look anything like the newer franchisees; different equipment, training, marketing, CDROMS, business plan, new web site. And we needed to divide and conquer each market sector individually. We were washing golf cart, shopping carts, wheelchairs, ski lifts, silos, buses, trucks, cars

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

nd we got into a situation were there was too much work, and a challenge to hold onto routes and consistency.

We decided to upgrade the system. Since I had always owned the trade name myself we started another company WashGuy.com to divide up the markets and franchised all our ideas to allow maximum use of all my contacts, and the associat

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

s I had gathered and their skills. Then we would franchise each brand name by itself and let all the franchisees of all the systems work together trade leads and operate in harmony washing their specialty niche. The New Car Wash Guys; www.carwashguys.com would be part of WashGuy.com, which was going to acquire the franchise Car Wash Guys

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

nternational, Inc. Unfortunately Car Wash Guys International did not have the royalty stream to service the franchisees properly and grow correctly so it was closed and all the franchisees in good standing were allowed a no franchise fee entry into the new system to be fair. Those that were not near current status on royalties were term

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

inated prior to closing.

WashGuy.com agreed to take on the burden of keeping up those franchisor requirements in the previous Car Wash Guys International agreement even though it would be a loss. It would give the new franchise system a head start with franchisee numbers and make it easier to secure group discounts on products, and entice

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

lending institutions to go with lower rates and better terms and prevent us from ever having to use sleazy leasing companies, with exorbitant rates causing a poor ROI for team members and slower growth rate for new trucks and to add to the franchisees arsenals. I did not charge a royalty, I charge per unit, so the more trucks the more roya

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ties to grow the franchise. The only way for me to make more is if the franchisees have so much business they need more trucks to do the work. I win only if they win. If they lose, I lose worse; indeed a great incentive to work together and communicate. I even co-authored a book in which this was my main theme; “Franchising 101” Dearborne

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

Publications.

This was a great franchise and growing fast. Our customers are anyone one that owns a car. There are on average 1.7 cars for every man woman and child in this country and so my potential exposure to this market is 5 times that of the cable TV Industry and twice that of cellular phones. Average car wash is $10 X 50 weeks a

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ear. So of all my markets this is the most challenging of all. It will take twenty years to conquer. What I need is a 40-60 million dollar financed competitor to go and set up the major markets with mobile car washing so I can take all those customers away with superior service and more efficient operations thus lower prices. I need th

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

s competitor to teach my future customers how to do business with me and then I will slice and dice city by city as Car Wash Guys earn our destiny.

I started washing cars because I ran out of local airports to wash at since I had a 35% market penetration at all the near by airports and needed more to wash. Plus I got my drivers license.

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

This was when I was 16. Boy I will tell you being a franchisor is the toughest business in the World and if you want to do it, you are nuts. I work 17 hours a day 7 days a week, no days off in 15 years. I can remember one three-year period I have skipped every third night of sleep, and follow up with a ten-hour crash. You have to give u

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

everything to be a franchisor. For many Entrepreneurs this is simply part of the game, but for most they cannot deal with it. I understand that, accept it and challenge myself since there are no market leaders of any significance in my markets. We designed and attempted to build an LPG car wash truck to help the environment and worked o

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

an aircushions hover system with electric motor. It did not work, it seems as an entrepreneur you are always doing stuff, some works, some doesn’t but you are always pushing the envelope, God Bless the entrepreneurs, I hope you enjoyed today’s case study as it is a chapter of my life as well as lessons learned in franchising. Think on this

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Learn how to start and succeed with a home based business. There is no easy and rapid solution to the challenges of the MLM and network marketing industry.Five year veteran of the network marketing industry shares his thoughts, tips, information and resources.

Hard as it may be to walk away once you’re aware of it, just because a problem is there doesn’t mean you have to solve it. Find out ways to decide if the problem you face is worth the effort and expense to solve.

As a business coach, I spend a lot of time working with people who want to improve different aspects of their business. Many times these aspects are merely symptoms of a more fundamental, underlying issue.

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