Franchisee Profile and Responsibilities

A Blazes Renewables franchisee will have an interest and passion for reducing energy consumption, carbon reduction, and saving their customers significant sums on their energy bills. He or she will enjoy working from a home office with flexible working hours. Our franchisees need to be well organised and able to adapt to our systems, and be willing to take advice and act upon it.

It is widely accepted that a new start franchised business will have a much greater chance of success than a non franchised business. This doesn’t mean that there is any guarantee of success; it still takes hard work and an ability to adhere to our systems and disciplines.

To build a successful Blazes Renewable business our franchisees have to be competent in a number of processes, all of which are covered in the initial training and ongoing support package.

Our potential clients can come from many sources including our website, recommendations and networking opportunities. The majority though will come as a result of individual marketing activity. For example with a little time and effort spent on internet search engines a Blazes Renewables Franchisee will identify many potential clients. Local councils are an easy opportunity to research. Trading Estates also are easy opportunities to target potential clients. Businesses on these sites can be targeted as 24 hour a day operators by simply driving by at night to see which buildings have the lights on.

Once potential clients have been identified the next step is to find out who will be the appropriate contact and secure an appointment. We do this by making a phone call and offering a no obligation completely free of charge lighting audit. We explain that the process involves a site survey where existing lighting is identified and then by factoring in the cost of electricity, the lamp-on times and maintenance costs we produce for them a comprehensive report detailing what the existing lighting consists of and what it costs to operate. Alongside this we will provide the client with a proposal to convert to LED which will include lifetime costs savings, carbon savings, investment required and payback times. We can also provide a number of payment options including Energy Efficient Finance from the Carbon Trust. What business owner wouldn’t want all of this information? And all for free.

Whilst we are keen to promote both LED and Solar PV to our clients experience has taught us that potential clients are more responsive to the offer of a free Lighting Audit than a free survey to identify suitability for Solar PV. During this process our franchisees are able to find out more about the client and their businesses. With this knowledge they are able to decide if it would be appropriate to bring Solar PV into the conversation.

Experience shows us that responses vary from client to client. We have to accept that in most instances it is us who have planted the seeds of an idea to convert to LED or to invest into LED. It will only be in a few instances where we have responded to enquiries from clients who have already made a decision to consider conversion to LED and in consequence lead time to a final order and in consequence, there can often be a long lead time to sale.

Our franchisees do not need to be electricians or be qualified in physics. We can teach the fundamentals which will give them all that is required to carry out accurate site surveys and to be able to speak to clients with an air of professional competence.

One of our unique selling points is that for both Solar PV and LED lighting we offer a complete turnkey solution. This includes site survey, system design, installation and project management throughout.

All of this process, lead monitoring, report preparation, product specification, ordering and invoicing are managed by our sophisticated in house bespoke CRM system.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

Want to be part of our success? call Blazes on 01282 831176