Dan I'm curious as to what other franchises you investigated for this line of work. Obviously Yellow and Green are spoken for in SCruz but I imagine there must be ten more Flood 911's, Puroclean, 1-800-SuknBlw,STOP, Dry Patrols etc..
What made PDE the most appealing and what all was involved training wise before you hit the streets?
I looked at several industries based on my experience, background and interests. Narrowed it down to this and car care. Decided the ROI and huge initial investment on car care didn't pencil out (plus I was certain I would hate working on my own stuff once I did it for a living). Of the remediation companies, I talked to a lot of owners of various franchises. Several made the short list of 5, the short short list was two. I don't want to say who the other ones were in case someone takes offense to my decision reasons. I will say that I felt I could be successful with at least 2 others, but there was always something that did not seem to feel right about them during the process. PDI seemed to fit my personal core values better. They emphasized integrity and compassion. I was most impressed when I asked questions they did not know the answers too, they didn't make stuff up, they went and found the answer. Several of the other companies made stuff up and I ended up calling them on just blatant lies. Seriously, if you don't know .... it is okay to say you don't know. Honesty and a more down to earth team atmosphere and not a lot of corporate slick hype and sales pitches. That was the environment I was leaving - for a reason. And while I did a lot of vetting by calling existing franchises, PD franchises were the only ones that someone didn't berate the parent company. Every other company, every single franchise owner would complain about them in one or more ways. One guy made me wonder why he was still in the business. I know nothing is perfect and there will be things that are not optimal no matter who the company is, but it was a very interesting series of calls and how the owners presented themselves and their relationship with the parent company. Also every single PD owner gave me their personal phone numbers and encouraged me to call any time day or night if I needed help. None of the other companies franchise owners did that. Oh, and like I mentioned to you the other day ... PD does not make you buy anything from them. In fact, they do not sell equipment or supplies. They set up national pricing contracts but you are free to do as you deem best suits your situation. There are branded items here and there, but they are sold through normal distribution channels. Several of the other companies, it was very clear the equipment and supplies were profit centers for them. Finally, the support and knowledge resources stood out as
superior to me. Several have strong resources, I just felt PD had a better arrangement. Just an all around better package from my perspective.
Training was 3 weeks of training for certifications in the basic core disciplines. WRT, ASD, FSRT from the
IICRC and CRMR from ACAC. Also a few other minor certs and RRP. There was also some business practices and process training. 6 days a week for 3 weeks ... seemed like a lot, they taught a lot, let's see how much I retained. I also stayed and extra week for trauma and biohazard training which was a great class. A frighteningly poorly regulated activity. I do have TSWMP certification for my company as well. So after 4 weeks of turning my brain to mush ... I rode my bike home form Florida and got stuck in that freak Texas ice storm just before Thanksgiving. I also spent some time with active franchises doing some jobs to get a more hands on feel as well.
Probably more than you were expecting, but I do feel that for me, I made a pretty good choice ... now it is up to me to make a living at it.
A couple of images proving how smart I am not.
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