Starscapes home-based business opportunity

MILLION-$ IDEA

CLEANING UP!

$1 million in one year cleaning garages!

Based on his achievements, Belman is also playing a key role in an innovative corporate ownership program designed to spread GarageTek’s reach beyond the franchises it operates in 49 markets in 27 states. This fall, GarageTek will partner with Belman in the opening of a location in Atlanta. The franchisor will assume all start-up costs, while Belman manages the business, with both parties sharing profits.

GarageTek founder and president Marc A. Shuman foresees opening a number of such locations within the next 24 months. Shuman wants to use the same program to re-enter the Western U.S. market, opening a company-owned location in Southern California and using it as a hub for further expansion. The co-operative efforts are designed to take advantage of the skills of GarageTek’s most successful franchisees, while eliminating the start-up costs they would normally assume. A great concept.

GARAGE TEK AT-A-GLANCE
GarageTek
5 Aerial Way
Suite 200
Syosset, NY 11791
Toll-free: 866-664-2724
Phone: 516-621-4300
www.garagetek.com

Concept:
GarageTek is a revolutionary garage organization and storage system that creates a clean, functional and safe space out of the garage, which is often the most overlooked and under-utilized room in a home. Although often the most humble room in the house, the garage is where Stanford University engineers Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their company and where Sherwood Schwartz and composer George Wyle wrote the famed “Gilligan’s Island” theme song.

Historical Data:
Marc Shuman and Skip Barrett are the originators of GarageTek. Shuman was the president and Barrett the national sales manager for a leading manufacturer of store fixtures and visual merchandising equipment when they began exploring uses for the company’s innovative TekPanel™ product. While Shuman and Barrett were driving through Texas one day on a business trip for their former company, Shuman was hit with the inspiration to use TekPanel™ as the foundation for a garage organization and storage system. After intense market research, careful product development and thorough business planning, the company was incorporated in January 2001. Franchise sales began in March 2001.

Growth Projections/Strategy:
Currently GarageTek operates in 49 markets in 27 states throughout the country. In fall 2004, GarageTek entered the Canadian market and recently reached master license agreement to expand into the United Kingdom. System-wide revenue in 2005 is expected to be approximately $18 million, increasing to an estimated $25 million in 2006.

Franchise Facts:
The estimated initial investment is typically around $250,000, which includes a franchise fee of $50,000 plus build-out of a commercial location. Initial staffing includes the owner/franchisee, who will handle sales and marketing, a lead and assistant installer and administrative assistant. Royalties and contribution to a national marketing fund are on a sliding scale based upon performance and range between two and four percent.

Office/showrooms average 2,500 to 3,000 square feet in size and are generally located in light industrial parks. GarageTek is best suited for major metropolitan markets. A territory consists of a minimum of 250,000 single-family, detached homes.

Training and Support:
A comprehensive, multi-phase training program begins with two weeks at GarageTek University. It encompasses both classroom and valuable field training in both installations and in-home sales, since a GarageTek franchise operates out of corporate headquarters in Syosset, NY, on Long Island.

Belman has been splitting his time between Maryland and Atlanta but will have a full-time manager in Atlanta. His commutes will lessen as the business matures. Belman is relishing the opportunity to help grow the GarageTek network.

“I’ve been able to put together a track record of success with GarageTek,” Belman said. “I think we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work and where the smart investment is. The hope is that what I’ve learned will be transferable and we’ll be successful at quickly getting Atlanta up to scale. We’ll have visibility in all aspects of the business, regardless of whether I’m in Washington D.C. or Georgia,” said Belman.

Said Shuman, GarageTek’s president: “Peter is an awesome manager. He has the skills necessary to be a very strong, local operator. Now what we’re trying to do with Peter is to take those local operating skills and create multiple units under that local umbrella.”

Belman first learned of GarageTek in 2002 when he read a Wall Street Journal article on its innovative garage organization and storage system. He had spent a number of years in corporate marketing for companies including Ralston Purina, Sprint PCS and a division of AT&T Wireless. Tired of the bureaucracy and looking to fulfill a long-held aspiration to become an entrepreneur, Belman left his corporate job behind. A great decision.

What appealed to Belman was the opportunity that GarageTek offered homeowners to tackle the last frontier of the home—the lowly garage. Perhaps no other space in a house gathers more junk, clutter or garbage than the garage. With its patented TekPanel™ product serving as the backbone of its system, GarageTek is like no other storage product on the market.

“Most garages you see are an afterthought. They’re rough and ugly. The space isn’t being used efficiently,” Belman said. “When I saw a picture of the GarageTek garage in the paper, it just jumped off the page at me. I’d never seen anything like it before or thought of anything like it. It was a masterstroke in terms of being able to convert something ugly and negative into something attractive and functional,” said Belman.

GarageTek’s average installation costs about $6,500. Belman’s most expensive installation? It was a $35,000 project for an NBA player that outfitted two three-car garages on two sides of a driveway encompassing 1,600 square feet of space. Of course, it came with all the bells and whistles. At around $22.00 a square foot, it is one of the most economical home improvements he could make.

He has two sales representatives and six installers. But he admits that one hurdle he had to overcome was letting go of some of his former responsibilities. His sales personnel still brief him after every visit they make to a prospective customer’s home. That’s service!

[back]

SBOMAG.com © 2008 by Harris Publications, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.