On A Roll!
January 5, 2010
How a Georgia electrician used the Mister Sparky® brand and the right tools to build a residential service business – and create a life outside the office.
John Rogers was frustrated.
And embarrassed.
Here he was, the owner of a commercial electrical business, working like crazy, and making less than he could if he worked for someone else.
“There was a time, seven or eight years ago, when I did contracting, bidtype jobs, and worked a lot of hours,” he said. “I was constantly in the office trying to bid and manage projects.
“When I went back and looked at my pay and calculated my hours, I remember thinking, ‘Huh. I’m making $8 or $9 an hour!’
“I thought, ‘Good grief. I have to do something different. I can’t work 60 hours a week and not even make time-and-ahalf.’”
It made absolutely no sense. As a business owner, he took on all the risk, not to mention all the debt he accumulated for materials and vehicles.
“I realized it was just dumb. I decided I should back up, run as fast as I can and run my head into a brick wall if I’m going to continue to do this.”
But Rogers was no quitter. Instead of giving up, he joined Electricians’ Success International®, then became a Mister Sparky America’s On-Time Electrician® franchise. ESI is an affinity group of Success Group International®, while Mister Sparky® is a Clockwork Home Services® franchise.
Rogers implemented a proven business plan provided by ESI and Mister Sparky, took advantage of their training and counsel, and turned his business around.
“Last year, I paid myself about $70,000, was profitable, and worked 35 to 40 hours a week,” Rogers said. “And I had never made that much money before.
“It was nice to have some money and say, ‘I wonder what I should do with this? Maybe I’ll buy a $4,500 mountain bike.’” Which he did, and which he enjoys immensely.
Turning The Business Around
Rogers started Red Electric in 1993 in Athens, a college town in northeast Georgia. He was mechanically inclined and quickly learned his trade.
He handled some residential and commercial service, but mainly focused on light commercial construction.
“It was hard to get paid by contractors, and you’re always the low bidder,” he said. “You start out in the hole. We borrowed money to make payroll if we didn’t get paid.
“We didn’t even have enough money to chase after the contractors that didn’t pay us,” he said.
“I was running a business without any business experience, business knowledge or schooling, and without any management experience,” he said. “I needed a mentor.”
Rogers first joined ESI to learn how to run a successful residential service business and transition away from commercial work. Based upon his success, he joined the franchise because he saw it as the next step in building his business.
“I knew branding would be really important to my success,” he said. “Red Electric was a family-owned business and would always be that. I felt like a franchise would be a more valuable company in the future.
“It’s a well-known brand across the country that is very easy for customers to remember,” he said. “It created a powerful name and more memorable image than I had ever had before.”
Becoming part of a larger, nationwide organization brought other benefits, too. The culture at Clockwork generated success by introducing a great attitude to his company, Rogers said.
“If you’re going to have a high performance company, you must have a high performance workplace,” he said. Employees feel like they’re part of something bigger and better, which translates to a place where employees can learn, advance their careers and have fun while they’re doing it.
His team has performed so well, the company was named Mister Sparky Franchisee of the Year in 2008, out of 81 Mister Sparky franchises nationwide, for best demonstrating the ability to run his business at an exceptionally high level and for significant growth in annual sales.
In 2006, the year he became a franchise, his revenue was $574,000. His revenue rose to $648,000 in 2008. This year, while many companies expect a decrease in revenue, he expects to maintain the same revenue.
If this year progresses the same as the first two months of 2009, he could be pleasantly surprised. He was $22,000 ahead of budget through the end of February.
Steps He Took
Besides becoming part of a wellknown brand and developing a culture of performance, Rogers pointed out other key reasons his company is succeeding:
- Training improved performance. Technicians train every morning with role playing or in sales or technical skills. They use materials provided by the franchise, and employees attend The Success Academy®, which offers classes at all levels.
- Their hard work is paying off. The company’s average ticket was $768 in February, even though Rogers budgeted for $506. Technicians also converted 97 percent of their customer visits to paying jobs, compared to a goal of 92.6 percent.
- Simplified bookkeeping and better dispatching with Successware® 21. This operations and management software helps contractors with dispatching, job costing, inventory, wireless communications, accounts receivable and payable, sales management and marketing.
“I can’t imagine running a business without it,” Rogers said. “We used to keep all our calls on a whiteboard. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to figure out where our trucks were.”
Better budgeting tools provided by Mister Sparky. Mister Sparky’s budgeting module paints a very clear picture of the past and future, which allows Rogers to run his business by the numbers.
“Our budgeting is one of the most powerful tools I’ve ever seen,” he said. “There is no way a small business can develop that kind of complex budgeting tool.”
Implemented a proven system to make buying decisions easier for customers and guarantee that they cannot lose. Straight-Forward Pricing® takes the guesswork out of costs to customers. They know exactly what something will cost before work begins and there are no surprises.
Second, under Mister Sparky’s guarantees, if a customer isn’t happy, he or she doesn’t have to pay.
“That’s really empowering to the customer,” Rogers said. “They’re not used it. A lot of times it helps them make the decision to use our company, because no one else in our area is willing to provide a written guarantee.”
Building a successful business and building a brand is also important to Rogers’ exit strategy.
“The ability to exit your company is really hard for a mom and pop electric company,” he said. “It’s tough to sell a small business, and I wanted to have options.”
His financial success has already given him the opportunity to become a real estate entrepreneur. He owns three rental homes, which he rents to college students.
He also enjoys his extra free time, which allows him to ride his mountain bike and spend time with his teenage son, Jeffrey.
“I have a lot more free time than I used to,” he said. “Before, I used to run around and put out fires. That’s not the case anymore.
“There’s a real peace of mind seeing us thrive during an economic downturn. Last year was our best year ever, and 2009 looks like it will be, too.”
If you would like to know more about Mister Sparky and how to create a residential service electrical business, call toll free at 1-866-669-0094.
