POTENTIAL FULFILLED

V.I.P. Home Services franchisees build small investment into long-term success

Back in December 2008, Colin and Serena Davids appeared in Franchise New Zealand magazine under the headline So Much Potential. At the time, the newly-crowned Home Services Franchisees of the Year were just three years into their V.I.P. cleaning business.

Fifteen years later, it’s fair to say that their business has lived up to their expectations. Having started with almost nothing, the then-new South African immigrants bought their own home and raised their family on the back of a thriving business – and are still enjoying it to this day. We asked them to tell us about their journey.

How can we make this work?

‘We emigrated from South Africa because we wanted to give our young children a good start in life,’ Colin says. ‘We both found jobs here for a couple of years, but what we really wanted was a business that we could work around our children. One day we saw an advertisement for a cleaning franchise, and that’s how we met Estelle Logan who, with her husband John, is national franchisor for V.I.P.’

The couple went to meet Estelle, and very much liked what they heard. V.I.P. Home Services offers two different types of franchise: Outdoor (lawnmowing, gardening and outside jobs) or Indoor (all types of cleaning, including commercial), and includes a paid training period so you can earn while you learn the business.

‘We asked Estelle at the time, “How can we make this work with bringing up two children and paying our bills?” She replied, “It’s a flexible business which means you can control your own destiny.” All these years later, we can confirm that she was right!’

The Davids bought a small Indoor business in Howick with the intention of growing it as quickly as they could. ‘Although the expected income wouldn’t be enough in the early months for both of us to leave our jobs, we did anyway! It was like making the decision to emigrate, we just eliminated all other options and concentrated on our goal.’

It really paid off

‘We had bought into one of the essentials in life – every house has to be cleaned, the only question is whether you do it yourself or pay someone. For us, the key to making it work was to offer the best service consistently. We set out to get to know our clients, their children, their animals then we could always ask them about their lives. In the early days, Serena even babysat for some of the smaller children.

‘Our first clients happily gave us referrals and we went door-to-door in our area offering a free clean to any household. Everyone who took us up then wanted to pay, but we stuck to our arrangement and built our reputation. It put our business on a solid foundation.

‘More growth came as several clients who operated businesses in the city asked if we’d clean their offices too. By working smarter we grew the business, and the office cleaning was lucrative evening work. As teenagers, our boys started joining us in the evenings which was a great way to introduce them to the work ethic and keep money in the family without employing extra staff. The boys understood our focus, and we saved enough for a deposit to buy our first home. Buying the franchise really had paid off.’

Great business, good people

Today, Colin and Serena are on their second home and the boys have left the nest, but the couple are still deeply committed to their clients. ‘We’ve built some superb relationships and we still have many clients that we started with 18 years ago. We may choose to slow down a bit now and not take on additional customers, but we are certainly not stopping.

‘During Covid, we had clients offering to go on paying us even when we couldn’t enter their homes, but we refused, because V.I.P. handled the lockdown so brilliantly. I think that showed us just how good a franchise system we are part of – they did so much to support all their franchisees in all sorts of ways, and it really emphasised that this is a great business run by good people. The V.I.P. franchise has served us very well – what we did wasn’t genius, it was just that we worked hard to make the most of the opportunity.’

Use the system

Estelle is proud of the way Serena and Colin have taken advantage of all the benefits the V.I.P. system offers. ‘From a very small investment 18 years ago, they have built a thriving business which has enabled them and their family to achieve all their immediate goals.

‘We still have both Indoor and Outdoor opportunities available in most parts of the country at all sorts of investment levels, and demand is higher than ever. If you want a proven, long-term business opportunity that will reward the effort you put in while being flexible enough to work around your family, contact me – I’d love to hear from you.’

Advertiser Info

V.I.P. Home Services

www.viphomeservices.co.nz

Contact P 0800 84 74 96

estelle@viphomeservices.nz

The early days: Serena and Colin joined V.I.P. in 2005 and...

... the couple were national award-winners just three years later