Home Improvement
Franchises that provide any service or product for home improvements. Including interior, exterior, property, renovations, and repairs.
Types of Home Improvement Businesses
The home improvement industry can be broken down into more sub-categories like indoor and outdoor home repair – and even broken down more within those categories. For the sake of this category, I’ll include anything that would also fall into the sub categories. Some popular businesses in this industry would be surface refinishing – whether that’s tile, grout, flooring, etc, full remodel services for both bathrooms and kitchens, handyman services, insulation, irrigation, blinds, landscaping, painting, pest control, closets, storage, power washing, gutter cleaning, Christmas lights installation, roofing, and more.
Initial Investment
Everything in this category is going to fall under $500K total investment. I would say the vast majority will be in the $150K - $300K range, with a few outliers on both ends. A lot of these businesses don’t require a customer facing store location. A few will require a light industrial office, but some can be run from home as well.
Day In The Life
Almost all of these brands will have crews. You will manage each crew which could be 1 person or up to 3-4 people. You’ll be hiring, scheduling, and managing your employees. You’ll also be responsible for making sure the customer service is up to par. Networking is also involved with a lot of these businesses - especially in the first year. You’ll be making partnerships and relationships with people in similar businesses who will be able to refer you customers. A lot of your customer acquisition will also be done online and the franchisor will be helping to make sure that marketing/advertising is working and bringing you customers.
Ideal Candidate
Typically they are looking for someone with good management skills. You’ll have a handful of employees with all of these businesses, so being able to hire and retain good employees will be very important in this business. You do not need to have industry experience, but some franchisees may be a more DIY type of person who would be comfortable learning the trade and being able to step in if needed. You’ll want to know how your business works, but as the franchise owner they don’t want you necessarily doing the actual labor every day, but instead managing the day to day operations of your business. After your business is established you’ll likely hire a GM to manage the day to day and you will manage the finances, marketing and that GM.
Why We Like This Industry
This industry has grown the most out of any other industry during COVID. So many people were stuck at home and decided to make a lot of changes or upgrades to their homes. Many of these businesses saw their best years ever in 2020 and 2021. There is competition in any of these categories, but the demand is high. A lot of the competition is mom and pop stores who don’t quite have the advertising figured out, so it’s easy to get in and compete with existing businesses. Also, those smaller companies aren’t typically looking to grow their business a ton, so there’s an opportunity to take up a big portion of the market share.