Franchisee Case Study

Colin Fulton  - Quickie Franchisee for Ayr

My name is Colin Fulton I live in Ayr in Scotland, spending the last 3 years building up a property portfolio and a small beauty business in May 2007 I started looking at franchise opportunities in the UK, having taken a serious look at several I couldn't believe my eyes when I seen an advertising business linked with the biggest retail phenomenon - mobile phones! I was a top selling advertising executive for 12 years and knew the moment I saw Quickie that this would be the next big thing.

Eager to get started I was the first of 5 franchisees to invest in Quickie in November 2007. The business model provided by Quickie expected you to take at least 3 months to place your first 50 machines, having placed my first 47 in 4 weeks I knew I was off to a flyer and that I had chosen the right business for me. Having placed all my machines I then decided to concentrate on selling advertising, within 4 months I had over 10k in advertising sold on my smaller machines.

Seeing that I had a system that worked on my smaller machines I then decided to sell the advertising in my biggest venue to date the Prestwick International Airport. 3 weeks into this 2 adverts sold for £2k each and things are looking good. I am now working on securing bigger venues and to date have 6 huge venues and 62 smaller venues with Quickie machines. Looking forward now we are now concentrating on selling advertising on all our machines, I have taken on 3 full time staff and 1 part timer to accelerate the growth of the business - we are looking at a very profitable future.

Julian Tutt  – Quickie Franchisee for Bath

My name is Julian Tutt. I am 57 and spend about 25 weeks of the year commentating on European Tour golf for The Golf Channel in America.

I have previously worked for BBC TV and Radio Sport and Outside Broadcasts, covering a wide variety of sports and events. Prior to that I was a helicopter pilot in the Army Air Corps.

I wanted to get involved in my own business because I have a wife and two young children and will need a good income for many years to come.

When I saw the Quickie Franchise on the internet, I was immediately struck by the simplicity of the idea, and the potential for rapid growth, as it obviously satisfies a consumer need.

I like the fact that host venues are getting “something for nothing”, and the fact that there are two income streams, with the takings from the machines, and the significant potential advertising revenues.

I was very keen to position a Quickie Charger in the Bath City Hilton, as one of the main business and tourist hotels in Bath. The General Manager was reluctant as he did not really see the need, until he was away on business in London without his charger and his phone ran out of power! He has now agreed to put one into his Hotel.

It is theoretically possible to run this as a part-time business, but to realise its enormous potential I think it requires full-time application. I will be disappointed if I am not turning over £30,000 within one year of starting up, and that could well triple in years two to three.

 

Liz Jackson  - Quickie Franchisee for Bristol

I originally trained as a Chartered Management Accountant and spent my corporate career working in the Financial Services and Food Retail industries, providing business performance information and analysis.

When I left in 2000 it was to start a family and I spent the next 7 years at home officially being a Mum, but also helping out with a couple of business projects in which my husband got involved. I thoroughly enjoyed the change of role and it helped me to identify some of the aspects of corporate life that I had tolerated for a long while, but was very glad to leave behind.

In 2007 I was feeling that the time was right for me to return to working, but was very reluctant to go back to the restrictions and pressures of corporate life, so suddenly overcome by a wave of entrepreneurial spirit I started to look for other opportunities.

I came across the Quickie website and was immediately taken with the product. In all the time that I had had a mobile phone I had never relied upon it heavily and I was absolutely useless at charging it. My husband, by contrast, lives and dies by his and would often say things like “I have been trying to call you all afternoon” and “what’s the point in having a mobile if it’s not charged?” I had also been cut off mid-call on numerous occasions as my battery died. When I read about the Quickie machines I thought of the countless occasions that I would have benefited from having one available and immediately thought there must be a huge potential market.

As I looked into it further it seemed that there was a sound model around the charging coinage which effectively covered the costs within the business, but there was a huge potential secondary income stream associated with the advertising sales. I felt that it offered the opportunity to set up a small business that I could operate from home and according to my own commitments, but that also had a massive potential to expand to a much larger business as things developed.

Over the 9 months or so that I have been working on my business I have really enjoyed the freedom of being my own boss – both from the point of view of managing my own time to suit my own needs and having the ability to be the decision-maker.

I have also loved getting out and meeting people, and have found that the Quickie machine is a fantastic talking point. I much prefer the face to face approach and love the reaction that you get when you walk into a potential venue and put the machine on the counter – most people are really intrigued and even when I haven’t managed to place a machine I have had some interesting discussions.

The evidence from talking to people on my travels has been that there are loads of people who do run out of charge. Some are more cheeky than others and feel happy to ask for a charger from the venue or just plug in their own chargers in bars and cafes etc. I even spoke to a lady at a gym who told me that one of her members had unplugged one of the running machines to free up a socket to charge his mobile.

The business is really still in its infancy, and I look forward to a time – hopefully in the not too distant future – where charging services are recognised by the general public and even expected in certain types of venues. I’d like to think that we are in the process of building a nationally recognised brand and that as the national network grows we will be part of something big - and reap the rewards.