IAN and Irene Hughes hadn’t planned on owning their own small business, let alone becoming the largest franchisees in the country of pool and spa care network, PoolWerx.
Starting out with a single pool-care van almost a decade ago, the Hughes now manage 23 staff under six PoolWerx ‘territories’ in Western Australia, have grown their profits by 20 per cent year-on-year, and were named the 2011 Franchise Council of Australia’s Multi-Unit Franchisee of the Year Award for WA.
An aircraft engineer by training, Mr Hughes found it very difficult to secure employment in Perth after the couple migrated from the UK in 2000.
After 18 months of playing ‘Mr Mum’ to the couple’s young children, the idea of buying a pool franchise came to Mr Hughes when he went to his local pool shop to get his pool water tested.
“I was at the shop one day and I thought it would be good as a hobby, so I took on the franchise for Sorrento and started as one man in a van doing mobile pool care,” Mr Hughes told WA Business News.
He bought the Sorrento franchise of Jag Poolcare for $35,000 in 2002, which was acquired by PoolWerx in 2004.
A low buy-in price compared to other franchises was the deciding factor in the couple’s decision.
“We knew that if worst came to the worst we could wear the loss of our initial $35,000 investment if the venture wasn’t a success,” Mrs Hughes said.
With mobile pool care in the Sorrento territory growing quickly, Mr Hughes decided to buy the PoolWerx territories of Perth CBD, South Perth and Como in 2004.
Along with the Perth CBD territory came numerous contracts with the City of Perth and the Health Department, as well as of commercial work with hotels and apartment buildings.
With a growing number of mobile vans operating out of the couple’s driveway, the next step was time to secure a retail premises.
“By the time 2007 came around I knew we were getting too big to operate the vans from our house, so we bought an existing pool shop in Hillarys and rebranded it as PoolWerx,” Mrs Hughes said.
With most of the couple’s work coming from north of the river, they decided to sell their Como and South Perth territories in 2008.
“Because we had the store, that was generating much more work in the northern suburbs for domestic properties and we also started to build our business to business services with real estate and property managers, looking after their list of backyard pools,” Mrs Hughes told WA Business News.
In 2009, Mrs Hughes decided to focus full-time on assisting her husband with the management of the Hillarys store, their Sorrento and Perth territories and their recently acquired Beldon store.
This year, the Hughes continued to expand the business, buying retail stores in Joondalup and Currumbine; these purchases making the Hughes the largest and most successful PoolWerx franchisees in the country, turning over $2.7 million last financial year.
Initially a little skeptical of the franchise model, the couple credits the growth of their franchises to the constant support of their franchisor, an excellent marketing team and a long-term plan for the business.
“I really can’t find many flaws with the model, it’s like starting your own business but with someone holding your hand and you have that safety net behind you as well,” Mr Hughes said.
But, Mrs Hughes said those interested in franchising should not be caught in the trap of thinking that the business will be an automatic ‘money maker’.
“To be successful in a franchising business you need to have a range of management and financial skills in place to help you grow your own business,” she said.
“Franchisees shouldn’t be expecting to rely on the franchise system to nanny them along.”
Mr Hughes agreed with the sentiment, adding: “Don’t go in there thinking someone is going to run your business for you, have a plan of where you want to be in five years’ time and stick to your vision,” he said.
