CertaPro Franchise

Incorporated in the United States in 1991 in the category of residential and commercial property painting, CertaPro has become the largest nationwide painting company with over 340 franchises in the US and Canada. The company's market potential is built upon the aging of the housing stock of North America and the need to paint it every three to seven years. CertaPro is a subsidiary of The Franchise Company, Inc, which also owns other home service brands such as California Closets, Paul Davis Restoration, Pillar to Post, Floor Coverings International, and Handyman Connection.

Why Painting?

• It's an $80 Billion industry that is very much segmented, and it's extremely recession resistant. Can you name a national painting company? Probably not, and that represents a big opportunity for market share. We are easily the largest nationwide painting company, and if you've had an experience with a contractor, then you know that there's a gap in what homeowners expect and what they receive in the contracting experience. Our opportunity is simply to bring certainty to an industry that has very little of it. By bringing in professional operators that know what a customer experience should be like, and training them on our systems, we've been able to transform the customer's painting experience.

Why CertaPro?

• National Accounts are an additional way CertaPro supports its franchisees. Our National Accounts team negotiates contracts with major accounts to do their commercial painting, and this work is performed by our franchisees. We've done work for Best Buy, Crate and Barrel, Macys, Men's Wearhouse, Nike, Blockbuster----among many others
• Scale a business with low overhead. Our franchisees do not have store fronts and don't carry inventory, so the investment level is low, but the growth opportunities are tremendous as seen in our FDD.
• Our franchisees get to run a business that's geared towards both residential and commercial customers. This way an owner of ours can scale by way of B2C or B2B, and commercial is growing in a big way.
• We offer comprehensive marketing, production, and technology systems that are changing the way customers view the contracting industry. Whether it's our national call center or our state-of-the-art estimating software, our franchisees are able to run their business with major competitive advantages. Because of our systems and support, franchisees with CertaPro become formidable players in their marketplace immediately.

What's the profile of a CertaPro franchisee?

• Our franchise owners do not paint. In fact, over most of our franchisees have zero painting or contracting experience prior to joining CertaPro. We are looking for assertive leaders to run our businesses. We have franchisees in our system that came from companies such as Boston Scientific, Siemens, DuPont, etc. In addition to corporate backgrounds, many of our franchisees owned businesses in different industries, and are looking for something different. A candidate interested in owning a CertaPro must have experience with managing others, and should be an influencer that is comfortable networking.

What about labor?

• Most of our franchisees are choosing to work with subcontractors to do the painting rather than using hourly employees. It reduces management time, lowers overhead costs dramatically, and protects profit margin. Initially, the franchisee will typically handle the sales/estimating in the business, and then hire salespeople to do this as the business grows. In addition, a franchisee will typically hire a person to handle the administrative duties in the business within the 3-6 months of operation.