{"id":1115,"date":"2021-03-16T14:18:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T18:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2023-11-27T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T20:17:21","slug":"franchise-plan-is-giving-a-new-shine-to-spiffys-growth-profile-says-ceo-wingo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/franchise-plan-is-giving-a-new-shine-to-spiffys-growth-profile-says-ceo-wingo\/","title":{"rendered":"Franchise plan is giving a new shine to Spiffy\u2019s growth profile, says CEO Wingo<\/a>"},"content":{"rendered":"

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Get Spiffy<\/a>, the on-demand vehicle maintenance startup run by serial investor and entrepreneur Scot Wingo, is entering a new phase of growth with the help of a quick-starting franchise program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefit is it allows us to expand faster and reach\u00a0 customers (both fleet and consumer) in areas that would take us years to get to, if ever,\u201d Wingo tells The Skinny.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk is that franchisees don\u2019t deliver the same high quality service that we do \u2013 that could hurt the brand.\u00a0 We\u2019ve tried to put 5-6 levels of checks and balances in there to avoid this one \u2013 we\u2019re watching it very very closely.\u00a0 All that being said, we think the rewards outweigh the risks which is why we\u2019re excited to announce this first group of franchisees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiffy\u00a0announced its franchise plan last July.<\/a><\/p>\n

The franchise locations include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Wilmington, DE
\n\u2022 San Jose, CA
\n\u2022 Cincinnati, OH
\n\u2022 Greenville, SC
\n\u2022 Columbia, SC
\n\u2022 Charleston, SC
\n\u2022 Greensboro\/Winston-Salem, NC<\/p>\n

Wingo and company have continued to expand aggressively \u2013 from new locations to more services \u2013 once the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic passed and businesses began to reopen. And Spiffy has plans for its own non-franchise growth.<\/p>\n

The company says it \u201cwill continue to add non-franchise markets in the top fifty largest US cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

ONE-ON-ONE<\/h4>\n

Our Q&A about the program:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • According to your map at your website, it appears there are some 40 markets remaining for franchise opps \u2013 correct? Might you add more later?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u201cThat map is our suggestions for areas we\u2019d like to see developed, it\u2019s not meant to be comprehensive.\u00a0 Our quick math is that there are 250-400 markets that we think would be great across the US for possible Spiffy franchises.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n
    • What is the fee for obtaining a franchise? What is the length of agreement? Do you split profits\/fees?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Like any franchise, we have a mix of up-front fees (for exclusivity in a market, training, etc.) and revenue share.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • An owner of two restaurant franchises told me one he didn\u2019t make any real money due to fees, charges, costs of supplies, labor, etc. Do you offer your franchise partners any guarantees on margins\/profits? what guidance do you offer to help make them successful?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Since the franchisee is running the business and make a lot of decisions that impact the profitability, we\u2019re not able to guarantee margins or profits.\u00a0 That being said, as part of the process, we\u2019ve shared the results from our operations which gave them confidence this model will work.<\/p>\n

        As part of franchising we reviewed a lot of models and have done our best to settle on a model that\u2019s fair \u2013 that aligns us for success.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, there may not seem to be a lot of similarity between ChannelAdvisor [where Wingo was cofounder and CEO for years] and Spiffy franchising, but a lot of what I learned from our pricing there and e-commerce marketplaces has fed into this.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident we have a model that works for everyone and if we do get feedback from our partners, we\u2019re open to considering changes.<\/p>\n

          \n
        • I see you offer trucks to franchises \u2013 how many? is number based on business\/growth assumptions?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Part of our franchise offering is not only the software platform we\u2019ve developed, the business model, the marketing, brand, etc. it\u2019s also the hardware, or the van platform we have built and optimized.\u00a0 Because we want to have a consistent experience, franchisees have to use vans that Spiffy has built.\u00a0 They have flexibility where they buy the vans and if they lease vs. buy, but we need to outfit it with our equipment.<\/p>\n

          The number of vans each franchisee is up to them.\u00a0 We recommend to at least start with two, but then to have a plan to scale up from there.<\/p>\n

            \n
          • Training, support, marketing all from spiffy \u2013 is the cost to you\/company recovered through franchise fee? Is there a recurring charge to franchise buyers for these services?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            The up-front fee covers all the training and launch support, the ongoing revenue share covers marketing and ongoing support.<\/p>\n

              \n
            • Who hires and trains workers for field operations? Are they Spiffy employees?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              They are hired and managed by the franchisee.\u00a0 As part of our launch training, we\u2019ve been training the manager and a couple of employees.\u00a0 Going forward, they can either train future employees, or send them through \u201cSpiffy U\u201d \u2013 we have provided franchisees with copious amounts of training materials that can be delivered in-person or virtually that teach \u2018the Spiffy way\u2019.<\/p>\n

                \n
              • You are expanding to 7 markets with 5 franchises \u2013 who got 2 markets?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                A group in SC took all three SC markets (Greenville, Columbia, Charleston) \u2013 that was our first \u2018regional franchisee\u2019 group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK \u2013\u00a0Get Spiffy, the on-demand vehicle maintenance startup run by serial investor and entrepreneur Scot Wingo, is entering a new phase of growth with the help of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1119,"featured_media":118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[150,80,81,83],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.ncsu.edu\/win\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}