Life at home is good for Mr. Handyman. Garnering Entrepreneur magazine’s top honors for the home improvement category four years running, adding 50 territories in each of those years to reach the 300 unit mark, and embarking on a national television advertising campaign signing celebrity spokesman Richard Karn,
best known as Al Borland, of ABC’s Home Improvement show has created domestic bliss. So, is the timing right to begin looking abroad? Wasn’t it Aesop who warned against killing your golden-egg-laying goose? Had Aesop considered how to duplicate the goose for the international markets? The decision to launch franchise sales overseas requires careful considerations of time, value and economics. What does the franchise offer to international prospects? What are the best methods to use in terms of being in country vs. using a master franchisor? How will domestic growth be affected? How will qualified candidates be identified? What regulatory mazes need navigation? And why did I get off on the goose tangent?
Making the move to take Mr. Handyman international was a watershed decision. If you have a franchise like Mr. Handyman, or one of the many of the other fast growing brands involved with IFA who see growth domestically, the prospect of initial growth internationally can potentially add a lot of cost for a small incremental return. Taking on this type of venture requires investment and capital, but more importantly can take up your time. If you try to expand overseas and oversee it yourself, your domestic momentum could suffer.
Mr. Handyman has had a lot of interest to bring its successful brand into markets around the world, but wanted to ensure it was a thoughtful decision, done the right way. In order to go into a new market, the Mr. Handyman brand needed to fit the market and a great local partner needed to be found. Mr. Handyman has had many potential partners approach to carry the brand international, so it demanded an international assessment of the situation.
Logo from Mr. Handyman.
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