House Doctors Professional Handyman Recognizes 2010 Awards Winners

Although most Americans aren’t buying new houses these days, they’re working harder than ever to preserve the homes they live in. They are looking for smaller, more cost-efficient home improvements to tide them over until the housing market recovers. As a result, homeowners need quality handymen to do these jobs right. House Doctors Professional Handyman Services, a national franchise with over 12 years of experience and 90-plus units across the country, is pleased to recognize the winners of the 2010 House Doctors Awards.


Rookie of the Year
Jim & Melanie Cox - Columbus, OH

Commitment to Excellence
Doug Coyle - Andover, MA

Top Sales
Rich Gapin - Mount Laurel, NJ
Dan Landon - Cincinnati, OH
Steven Cranford - Greensboro, NC
Jim & Melanie Cox - Columbus, OH
Ron Galipeau - Downington, PA
Erik & Christina Reichelt - Dover, DE
Hugh Sutherland - Alexandria, VA
Doug Coyle - Andover, MA
Todd Hall - Warren, OH
Joe & Pam Palko - Pottsville, PA

Customer Retention Award
Erik & Christina Reichelt - Dover, DE

Customer Service Award
Steve Boriss - St. Louis, MO

Franchise of the Year
Joe & Pam Palko - Pottsville, PA

House Doctors' Fast Start Program: What You Need to Know Before Opening

You buy into the concept, you go through the discover process, then you sign a franchise agreement, what’s next?

Many new franchisees can be intimidated about exactly how to get the ball rolling. They’ve bought the rights to their very own franchise and now it’s up to them to open up shop and be successful doing it.House Doctors understands this can be an overwhelming process and has spent many years perfecting the system, processes and procedures required for getting franchisees up and running without missing a beat.

Through their Fast Start program, House Doctors provides as much of a turnkey operation as possible and partners with each new franchisee through opening their new location and throughout the first year (The Academy to be discussed in a later post). With the support of their Franchise Support Manager, and everyone at the House Doctors home office, franchisees complete a 125-point checklist of items necessary to accomplish to ensure success, but not only complete the checklist, complete it in the right order. This support includes Business Planning, Budgeting, Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Securing Business Licenses and more. House Doctors takes a vested interest in each one of its franchisees careers.

House Doctors also provides new franchisees what’s called an “Initial Package.” As part of a franchisee’s investment into House Doctors, they receive an initial package which includes everything they need to have a complete, professional brand image right off the bat including uniforms, the appropriate technology and software, marketing materials, website development and maintenance.

So although you may be off to the races, the benefit of working with House Doctors is that you won’t be alone. You’ll benefit from House Doctors’ 15+ years of experience operating 175+ locations nationwide to back you.

The Academy: Support through Your First Year

By Jarid Kossen, Manager of Franchise Development

It’s been proven by our business model that the first year of proper operation should set up your business to double in size. That’s great growth potential if you do things right! House Doctors has been in business for 12 years so we are confident that our processes and procedures will help franchisees grow to their fullest potential. We’ve established benchmarks and best practices that will lead new franchisees to success.

Because operation in the first year of business sets the mold for everything thereafter, House Doctors takes this first year extremely seriously and partners with franchisees to guide them through in a program called “The Academy."

The House Doctors home office ensures all checks and balances are in place by doing monthly financial reviews with new franchisees, comparisons of budgets, reviews customer comments, etc. The They use system-wide benchmarks from top performing franchisees to ensure that new franchisees ramp up quickly and generate the highest return on investment. The Academy Program is designed to ensure that new franchisees lay a strong foundation in their first 12-18 months so that can build a solid profitable business from the start and ultimately yield the highest return when they wish to sell the business.

House Doctors Brand Manager Wins National Creative Award for Talents

Just this month we have the pleasure of celebrating not only our growth (signing three new franchisees within two weeks), but we also get to celebrate the accomplishments of our Brand Manager, Michelle Southworth.

Michelle has just won a national award for her creative talents in a competition to seek out the next design for Marshall’s 2010 football t-shirt. That’s not the only place that Michelle’s graphic design talents are utilized. Michelle is the creative brains behind all marketing and advertising collateral for House Doctors.

In a Q&A with Michelle she gives an inside glimpse into the insights behind the creative.

When did you start with House Doctors?

I started in July 2007.

What is the strategy behind House Doctors creative?

The strategy behind all of our creative is to appeal to our target audience. All of the House Doctors creative is very much focused toward the woman of the household. We like to use imagery that is appealing to women, and also portrays a feeling of trust. People are ultimately calling House Doctors and inviting them into their homes; this in itself requires a certain amount of trust. We want someone to be able to look at a House Doctors advertisement or website and feel comfortable with our brand and service before they even pick up the phone to call.

Have you ever given the House Doctors brand a creative refresh? If so, when and why?

When I started with House Doctors, we were in the process of launching a new logo. During this transition, my main responsibility was to re-create all of the marketing collateral with the new logo, and create a new brand image. In the past 3 years, that image has evolved, and will continue to evolve in efforts to keep our brand image relevant and appealing to our target audience.

What messages do you want to convey in the creative?

The most important message that we want to convey in our marketing pieces for House Doctors is creating a professional brand image that our customers will trust. In the professional handyman industry, there are a lot of people who will operate the business on their own who are not certified and do not provide professional service. Our franchisees for House Doctors provide licensed and insured employees. Creating a professional image really helps set us apart from our competition who cannot provide the same quality service as we can.