Work hard, play harder. Drumming up business with PCC

For 15 years Fraser Goodwin struggled to juggle his demanding job and family commitments with playing gigs in the evenings or at weekends with his band, but his decision to invest in a PCC (Professional Car Cleaning) mobile valeting franchise at the beginning of last year proved the perfect solution, enabling him to enjoy working and playing with room to relax too!

'I live out in the country and frankly was fed up with the long commute,' Fraser explains. 'My job as a Claims Manager with an insurance company meant I worked long hours and was forever working to targets dictated by somebody else. Also I play drums in a band, so between practice sessions, travelling and bookings, I never seemed to have enough time to spend with my family. My work/life balance was clearly not right, so after almost 15 years of trying to fit too many hours into every day, I'd had enough and started to look around for an opportunity for change.'

Fraser knew that he wanted to work with cars - he's something of a classic car fan - and initially looked at several different franchise opportunities, all of them automotive related. 'I wanted to find something that didn't require too big an outlay,' he says. 'PCC caught my attention immediately and, although I shopped around, I kept coming back to it. I liked the professionalism and friendliness of the management team and was reassured by their experience and track record. The big test came when I took my wife down to their informal Discovery Day to find out more about the franchise - she tends to be pretty difficult to impress but came away feeling really positive and it was her enthusiasm that finally helped me decide!'

Professional Car Cleaning (PCC) is a sister franchise to the highly successful ChipsAway International business. Operating from a smartly liveried and specially equipped VW van, PCC franchisees provide professional car valeting services to a huge and currently under-serviced marketplace, using a comprehensive range of high quality products that have been developed exclusively for PCC. Potential customers include private individuals as well as corporate clients, creating the opportunity for franchisees to build a regular, repeat order customer base and so enhancing the value of their investment.

Fraser launched his PCC franchise in January 2007 and says the business quickly took off. 'I'm not one to let the grass grow!' he smiles. 'I'm a motivated person and was straight out there promoting my business, contacting potential customers by phone and distributing leaflets. I also organised some advertising in the local paper and had an excellent response.

'These days, apart from an advertisement in Yellow Pages, I don't need to do anything to generate business - I'm always fully booked up and at my busiest times I actually have to turn away work. I could certainly gear the business up and take on an extra vehicle or an employee, but for the moment I'm enjoying independence and freedom through being my own boss and pleasing myself!'

Approximately 50 per cent of Fraser's work is repeat, regular business from customers that are more than satisfied with the quality of his work and are happy to recommend him to their families and friends. He has deliberately targeted professional companies such as estate agents, solicitors and, most recently, his local Bentley dealership where he valets customers' cars as part of the dealership's after sales service. 'There's not a lot of competition to be honest and what there is poses no threat,' he says. 'Most are unshaven guys in jeans and a dirty t-shirt working from a white transit van - it's simply not the image people want! When I turn up smartly dressed in my professionally liveried PCC vehicle and provide a reliable, top quality service, it's a 'no brainer' for customers!'

Fraser confirms that his work diary is full, his business is continuing to grow and his quality of life has improved massively since he took the plunge and became a PCC franchisee. 'I'm really enjoying the work and I'm brown as a berry from being outside in the fresh air every day,' he concludes. 'I can take my children to school every morning and I'm doing more with the band too. PCC has certainly given me the flexibility to work hard and play even harder!'

According to PCC'Chief Executive Lloyd Evans, franchisees can expect to earn money from day one. Many of the original PCC franchisees recruited after the company launched in January 2006 are now regularly earning over £1,000 a week, with rapidly expanding loyal customer bases drawn from a massive marketplace of individual private car owners and businesses with company cars. He concludes: 'The strength of the PCC franchise derives from a market leading mobile service, focused on customer satisfaction, convenience and value for money, underpinned by depth of experience and expertise in the automotive sector. PCC's purpose-designed VW Caddy vehicle has an integrated wash & vacuum system built in, enabling franchisees to take their service directly to their customer, any place, any time.

'The comprehensive training programme focuses on sales and marketing techniques as well as customer service values and includes hands-on one-to-one mentoring during the launch period and ongoing support from a dedicated Franchise Support team. In less than three years PCC has built a solid network of approaching 50 franchisees and we predict continued strong growth as we head into 2009.'

Reported by Megan Dunmore