Meet The President: Family man and Servant Leader
by Tom Watts
April 26, 2010
Jamie Wilkie has found more family time now that his Mister Sparky franchise is booming.
“We actually take vacations now whereas before we never had time and I never had the money to go on vacation,” Wilkie said. “That’s really sad, but it’s the truth.”
Times have changed.
Wilkie, who was recently elected president of the Mister Sparky brand, was recently invited to attend the Phoenix Open. “I’ve wanted to go experience the 16th hole for many years but never had the opportunity,” he said. “But when the phone rang with the invite I had flights, hotel, and rental car booked in no time. What’s funny is I didn’t even think, look, or worry about the checking account.”
Wilkie is owner of Mister Sparky #32, in Greenville, S.C., which employs three fulltime electricians, and currently performs about 95 percent residential and 5 percent commercial service.
“My personal mission is the same as Clockwork Home Services — to help build the largest, most profitable brand in the electrical services category,” said Wilkie, who is also booking a family vacation week in Edisto, S.C., in late August for “some relaxation,” and making arrangements to spend 10 days in Singapore visiting friends later this year.
“We’re going to Las Vegas in April for our conference, but we’ll be taking an additional three to four days to hike around while we’re out there,” Wilkie said. “All of that is truly nice to be able to do, but it’s not really the good stuff.”
OPENING A MISTER SPARKY
Jamie Wilkie, owner of Mister Sparky #32, in Greenville, S.C., says his personal mission is the same as Clockwork Home Services, which is to help build the largest, most profitable brand in the electrical services category.
“I never really consciously thought about it or made that decision,” he said. “It’s like I just woke up one day to the realization that I worked all the time with no real reward and I never spent time with my wife. I always had to work.”
Wilkie now works for national franchise Mister Sparky because he’s passionate about what his family is doing each day.
Wilkie enjoys his work every day, but said, “It’s a whole lot different kind of work now. When I’m off, I’m off. I can have leisurely afternoons and weekends now. Matter of fact, I just finished a Sunday afternoon nap earlier. Vacation is starting to be year round.”
Wilkie treasures time with his family, and Mister Sparky has given that time back to him after years of struggling. But he purchased a Mister Sparky franchise for other reasons, too.
“Mainly I needed help,” he confessed. “I needed support and training. I needed an exit strategy. I needed to know how to run a service business. I wanted to have a business, not just a job that ultimately led to bankruptcy and divorce.”
Opening a Mister Sparky franchise was the right decision for Wilkie.
“Every facet of my business is better,” he said. “My employees are happier. I actually have long-term, motivated, goal-oriented employees now. One of my service techs has been with me for three years now, and my customer service representative has been with me for two. I previously couldn’t retain talent like that previous to being a franchise because I didn’t know what or how to offer them the right opportunities. And I didn’t even realize how devastating a high turnover rate could be.
“I also now track my employees on their effectiveness of their responsibilities, have a training plan for each of them, and all the training in place to assist with that,” he continued. “I network with other business owners just like myself running the same systems. I attend industry conferences throughout the year for new products and systems being delivered to us. I have an annual budget based off four years of historical data matched against key performance indicators for my business. And I review our results against that plan daily.”
HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED
Running a successful electrical business and learning to relax more is how Wilkie and his wife, Sonya, are looking at life these days. This year, the Wilkies booked a vacation in Edisto, S.C. and have a planned trip to visit friends in Singapore.
“Could I have done it without the Mister Sparky franchise? I’d like to say I could have, but I could also have gone out of business like many others,” he said. “Even worse, it could have dragged on for many, many miserable years.”
Wilkie noted there are several other Mister Sparky franchisees around his territory. “This allows us to share many things including rent, utilities, call center, dispatch, paperwork, training, technical and/or work assistance, networking, and co-op marketing expenses,” Wilkie said. “I currently have several TV ads that I’m running and I share some of that expense with two other Mister Sparkys because the ads penetrate their markets as well. Do my competitors enjoy that luxury?”
Wilkie routinely learns effective techniques and strategies that other Mister Sparky franchises have found to be successful in other markets. “I don’t have to test a direct mail piece to learn of its effectiveness or ROI,” he said. “I simply use a direct mail piece that another Mister Sparky has already found success with.”
Wilkie now conducts several weekly conference calls with his service technicians with other offices across the United States.
“This allows my techs to share with their techs how they run their service truck effectively, and at the same time learn from other technicians’ little success tidbits that they have learned,” he said. “I’ve learned to manage and delegate office responsibilities. I can’t be all things everywhere throughout the day like I used to try to do. I need my employees, and I’ve learned that they not only want responsibility, but that they truly begin to shine when you give them the opportunity.”
BUSINESS BACKGROUND
Wilkie’s business education got off to an early start since his grandfather was a master electrician. “I was introduced to the trade early in life,” he said. “My earliest memories with him were in the shop attached to the garage tinkering on electrical motors.”
Wilkie toyed in the electrical trade through high school by working part-time jobs pulling wire in new construction. When he went to college he spent more time working in the trade.
A few years after college, Wilkie’s then-girlfriend, now his wife, Sonya, helped him find some direction in life.
“I remember she said something like, ‘You need to grow up and have a steady job and a career.’ I bet I’m not the only one that’s had that speech,” Wilkie recalled. “So the quickest steady career I could latch onto at that time was to become an electrician.”
Wilkie went to work for a new construction company, which began his documented work experience. He then passed his journeyman’s exam and set upon an electrical career path.
“I had to travel for a few years in order to gain my required commercial experience, and soon thereafter passed my master electrician’s exam,” he said. “At that point I was working for a contractor that did both commercial and residential new construction and service. I was a foreman, and I thought that was awesome. I got to drive around and look for ‘good builders,’ woo them to use our company, and then add them to the long list of contractors that yelled and screamed at me all day as I supervised eight to 10 two-man crews wiring new homes. Best of all I was now making $12 an hour which they had convinced me was top pay for a master electrician in that area.”
GETTING STARTED
Wilkie married Sonya and the couple moved back to Greenville, where he worked for a contractor. The company provided a performance-based compensation plan. “The owner told me if I wanted a raise to go get one. I did extremely well,” said Wilkie.
So well, a year later Wilkie demanded the owner give him half ownership of his $5 million service company. “Or I’d be forced to start my own business and run him out of business,” Wilkie said. “You can’t make this kind of stuff up, I know. Once he stopped laughing hysterically at me, he escorted me off the company property and was nice enough to have someone drive me home. If you think I was shocked, imagine my wife’s reaction as I explained to her how I was now self-employed and I needed to borrow her Jeep for a week until I could go purchase a new work van. Let me assure you guys out there that your wife may be different, but my wife was less than ecstatic about my decision-making ability.” Either way, Express Electric was now in business.
EXPRESS ELECTRIC LEARNING CURVE
With Express Electric now up and running, this turned out to be a period in Wilkie’s life that changed his path to success, a road that led to Clockwork Home Services Inc. and Mister Sparky.
“I struggled for a little over two years at Express Electric,” he said. “About the only good decision I made was to stay mostly a residential service business. I did pick up some remodeling contractors that I thought provided some stability, but in reality only provided a good way to throw money out the window. But occasionally I could pick up a check from them.
“I placed double truck ads in the phone books when I was just a one-man band, which dang near bankrupted me,” he recalled. “I hired and trained technicians the best I could. None of them were ‘service champions’ and one of them robbed me blind. I actually got the pleasure of providing lots of warranty work on jobs for which he had convinced the customer he was the owner and he’d give them a big discount if they paid him in cash. Good times.”
When Wilkie did make a little money, he wasted it trying something new. “When we lost money, it went out fast and in large volumes,” he said. “I hired my wife away from her lucrative software job only for her to learn I was a terrible boss, and she actually got to see how bad a business I ran. She went back to work somewhere else.
“It was bad, but I was scrappy enough and toughed it out. Nobody was having any fun, except maybe my old boss. We’d play golf from time to time, and let me tell you, he really enjoyed hearing about the ride I was on.”
But for Wilkie, Mister Sparky was just around the corner.
MISTER SPARKY TO THE RESCUE
“I decided I needed help,” Wilkie said.
And soon began a great affiliation with Mister Sparky where he learned one of the greatest lessons of all: If you don’t track it, you can’t manage it.
Wilkie said the training he received through Mister Sparky was a key to his continued success.
“Training, training, training,” he said. “However, practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.”
Wilkie said one Mister Sparky tip he lives by is to make certain you are properly priced.
GROUP PRESIDENT FOR A UNIQUE COMPANY
Wilkie said his Mister Sparky franchise and his role as president of the Mister Sparky Group is unique because of underlying core values.
“I was fortunate to work for Larry Sinn, who has now recently become our newest One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning franchise, who introduced me to service,” Wilkie said. “He taught me a lot over the years, but he really instilled in me a valuable nugget years ago. He taught me that I was a servant and that I needed to apply a servant’s heart to my responsibilities. I bought into that years ago and it has made an enormous impact on me, my customers, my employees, and my life.
“I truly believe we are servant to the community and I take great pride in being their servant. You see, it is through this service that we are ultimately successful.”
As for his duties as the newly elected president of Mister Sparky by his fellow franchisees, Wilkie said he is excited about what the future holds.
“We have already come a long way in establishing our brand across the United States,” Wilkie said, “but it is extremely exciting to see it becoming a household name. I believe that is where we all define success around here. It is through this new position that I am looking forward to providing service and support to my fellow franchisees in order to facilitate our mutual growth and profitability.”
Tom Watts
