The Brake Squad Franchise

The Brake Squad Franchise

The Brake Squad Franchise is a truly unique and industry-changing business model.  Leveraging technology and proprietary vehicles with the necessary equipment and tools to provide brake repair and automotive service work to customers from a mobile operation, The Brake Squad set out to change the automotive industry. 

The Brake Squad was a case of innovation and significant change to a mature and long-standing business segment in automotive.  The Brake Squad was a family-owned and operated business created by business owners who realized a need in the market from a consumer’s standpoint. 

The world is getting busier and people have a greater demand for convenience, so the idea of mobile brake repair work seemed to be an obvious opportunity for growth.  The business started with a single van on the road providing services to the Northern Virginia market and quickly expanded to a second vehicle.

Company-owned growth was managed primarily by the founders of the organization along with the support of several staffed technicians.  The opportunity for growth was evident, but the best vehicle to take the brand to market and create industry-wide change wasn’t quite as obvious.  

The Brake Squad hired FMS to provide a franchise feasibility study and evaluate the franchise potential for The Brake Squad.  This began with a review of the automotive market from a consumer standpoint, then transitioned to a review of the mobile services market segment. 

After revealing data through a comprehensive market study in a franchise strategic plan, The Brake Squad management team agreed with FMS that there was a significant opportunity for growth through franchising the Brake Squad brand. 

The FMS team was then tasked to develop the franchise market plan, franchise operations manuals, and franchise collateral materials and manage the franchise sales campaigns. 

 The Brake Squad franchise model was defined with several key business factors in mind.  For one, it was decided that the best way to grow the brand would be to focus on the east coast and allow the team to better support and be involved in the management of the early adopter franchisees. 

Target markets included Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. In addition, the automotive services model required that the franchisee be willing and able to do the brake repairs. After spending time with The Brake Squad corporate business, FMS recommended an owner-operated franchise model to go to market with dedicated, vested franchisees. 

This required that the model be marketed specifically to candidates who would be interested in the service work while operating the business model. Finally, the territory size was a question as to how far franchisees would be permitted to provide service within a single unit territory and what market size was required for a franchisee to have a successful business model. 

The current customer base of the corporate business was reviewed and polled in order to determine the mileage and population sizes needed for ideal territory planning.

The go-to-market strategy for the franchise consisted of geo-targeted lead generation plans through social media, franchise lead generation portals, franchise public relations work, and utilizing several key franchise broker relationships.

With the business model being new, innovative, and exciting, the lead generation process was simple and effective immediately allowing for a large pool of candidates to evaluate and begin screening. 

Franchise candidates were required to go through an application process and a seven-stage franchise sales process which would effectively introduce the franchise model to candidates while also qualifying only the ideal candidates to get through the franchise review process. 

A Franchise sales CRM was implemented in order to manage the sales process and report on which lead sources were proving to be the most effective channels for development. 

The first year of development was a successful start to the franchise development plan for The Brake Squad, with good management and continued focus on the brand, the franchise model is targeting significant growth in the next 3-5 years.

The organization has opened new territories with franchise expansion in Florida and Pennsylvania, invested in effective territory planning and scheduling software along with developing new and innovative business development models driving more business and more leads to all of the Brake Squad businesses.

 Ultimately, great leadership and consistent focus on the growth of the business and infrastructure to support scaled expansion have allowed The Brake Squad franchise to expand effectively. 

For more information on how to franchise your automotive services business, Contact Us.   

 

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