If franchising is like a marriage, then Murray Potts and VIP Home Services is a marriage made in heaven. Murray is this year’s Franchisee of the Year in the Home Services category of the Westpac New Zealand Franchise Awards, and guess which company won the Franchise System of the Year title in the same category? VIP, of course.

‘We are absolutely delighted to have taken both titles this year,’ says Estelle Logan who, with her husband John, is national franchisee for VIP Home Services in New Zealand. ‘Success in franchising comes when you match great people with great systems, and that’s exactly what has happened with Murray. He has grabbed the opportunities offered by VIP with both hands and created a hugely successful business that allows him time for his other interests too.’

Murray’s ‘other interests’ include a strange choice of hobby for a man who spends four days a week behind a lawnmower – mountain running. ‘I love the outdoors and the lawnmowing keeps me fit for running while the running keeps me fit for lawnmowing,’ Murray laughs. ‘I’m a lot healthier than I was when I was a baker and chef, and a lot happier and better-off too. Buying the VIP franchise was the best decision I ever made.’

From the very beginning Murray set himself the discipline of mowing only four days a week, saving the other day partly for bookwork and maintenance but mainly, as he says, for working on growing his franchise. His commitment has paid off and he now has a part-time assistant to help him handle the work as well as giving him time for his business studies. ‘VIP has taught me how to run a business and given me options I never had in the past,’ he says. ‘Buying this franchise has transformed my life.’

Real Business Opportunities

VIP offers two franchises: lawnmowing with gardening (outdoors) and home and office cleaning (indoors). The investment required for each ranges between $11,000 and $17,000 +gst and equipment, depending on the level of income you require. The company also has master franchises available in many parts of the country, and is actively looking for people to join its management team..

Estelle says that it is because VIP creates real business opportunities that the company has been so successful. ‘It’s not about “buying yourself a job” – some of our franchisees now employ up to six staff and are building companies with substantial turnovers,’ she says. ‘Others, like Murray, enjoy being owner/operators themselves, managing their own hours and taking on assistants to give them freedom to do other things when they want to. A VIP franchise can deliver the lifestyle you want.’

Key to this flexibility is the company’s experience and training. ‘VIP was founded in Australia 34 years ago and has been in New Zealand for 13 years now,’ says Estelle. ‘You don’t survive in the service industry for that long unless you have a quality product, and VIP has not only survived – it has thrived. Part of the reason for that is that we are quite incredibly fussy about the people that we appoint as franchisees. They need to have a strong work ethic, high personal integrity, the desire not just to follow a system but to use it for maximum benefit and to be the kind of team player who fits in with our company culture.

‘This last point is very important – that’s why we have our franchisees join us at every expo we participate in. It means that newcomers can talk to people who are genuinely using the system and our franchisees can give us feedback on whether prospective purchasers would fit in. We also use one of the most-respected franchisee profiling tools in the world, which has been carefully-tailored for VIP New Zealand. We only appoint people with the right qualities to succeed. That’s why we may not be the largest home services business around but, as the Awards show, we’re the best. And, more importantly, we probably have the most successful franchisees.’

Meeting the stringent selection criteria is just the start of becoming a VIP franchisee. ‘Every new franchisee in both the lawnmowing and cleaning services spends a full four weeks learning the business,’ says John Logan. ‘Yes, you can learn to mow a lawn or clean a house in less time than that, but we also teach you how to manage and grow a business. We cover bookkeeping, customer relations, quoting, pricing, time management, and all the little things that enable you to be in control of your own business and deliver quality to your customers.

‘Our franchisees buy a business, a real appreciating asset and we teach them to manage it like one. As Home Services Franchisee of the Year Murray Potts has shown, that training can help you create a whole new life.’

This advertorial is taken from Franchise New Zealand magazine volume 15 issue 4

Contact details for VIP Home Services