Sheri Decker's Path to Owning a House Doctors Franchise

Written by on October 14, 2015

The FBA is proud to announce House Doctors as one of our recent members to our association.  To help you better understand exactly who this concept is we'll be looking at them from the eyes and experiences of one of their North Carolina franchisees, Sheri Decker and her path to from corporate executive to franchise owner.
The House Doctors brand has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1995 (franchised in 1997). In its early days many of the initial franchisees were indeed handymen who did the work themselves. However, that model became challenged with the downturn in the economy and has evolved and changed ever since. Today the concept has positioned itself for fast growth as one of the premiere home improvement franchises available. Franchisees no longer swing the hammer. Instead, they are managers who are comfortable building and overseeing teams of technicians while seizing the many opportunities within their markets. At its core, the House Doctors brand has continually strived to bring professionalism to the handyman industry.

The Path to Becoming a Franchisee with House Doctors

Sheri's story is one that many franchisees have in common. She had worked very had and seen success at her corporate job within the hotel industry for 27 years. However, as time moved on she always found herself thinking that she wanted more out of life. Her career no longer gave her the challenge she craved and she found herself becoming complacent and bored.
In speaking with her I could tell how sharp she is and could really hear the passion in her voice when she spoke of having a strong desire to feel those challenges and what it meant to her to be excited to get up and go to work each day. Through her career she had considered a possible future in franchising, but thought that perhaps something like a change of scenery would be enough to shake her up again. So, she left her current position and moved to a completely new hotel property and to a whole new state to start again.
This move did not have the desired effect. Ultimately, she was still doing the same duties and realized that she was simply tired of dealing with the trappings of corporate life. She had to get out and knew that a franchise would be her solution.
This led Sheri on her search to find the best franchise for her. The search can be a difficult one but in her case she was already friends with a franchise broker!  They kept her on track and ultimately Sheri was able understand that what she really wanted. For her the perfect business was one that allowed her to get out into the world and to be able to use her charisma and management skills to do something completely different.

I really enjoyed the process. I never felt pressured to make a decision on one franchise or another - or with a franchise in general. They helped to educate me the process and help with the skills fit process. What stood out most to me was what I thought were my biggest skills - were not my biggest skills. It was an awakening . Just because you’ve been doing something for so long, maybe you were a square peg painted into a round hole.

Meeting the Franchisor

When Sheri was introduced to House Doctors she worked closely with Donna Davidson, the Director of Franchise Development. Immediately she really liked her and mentions that she felt she was very down to earth and shared a lot of her own qualities. Sheri understood that it was Donna's job to recruit new franchisees, but says "I didn't feel the pitch. I could tell that they have a methodology to bring the client to the decision that was seamless. She was informative, educational, and very clearly differentiated House Doctors from the competition."
From my experience, it's always important to know that the franchisor has their process down. It's one of the most important things to a franchise consultant. You don't want to spend weeks preparing a candidate for a concept only to have the franchisor ruin the deal by not being prepared. I then asked how the validations with the other franchisees went. "They all went very well! I was happy that I spoke to as many satisfied franchisees as I did. They brought in a lot of different perspectives which helped me to round out my approach to making a decision."

What is a Day in the Life of a House Doctors Franchise?

"Very diverse. I got what I asked for there! I enjoy the interaction that I have with my small number of technicians and my customer service rep. Every day it's exciting to be a part of making the daily business wheel turn.
In the morning I'm tracking our team's schedule and seeing how everything is going. Then it's working with the overall project volume, leads, business, and finances. But overall I'm doing a bit of this here and a bit of that there. Just the other day I went to go pick up materials at customer's homes, did an estimate, checked in on a job in process.
To help build my clients I'm out networking at least 2-3 events a week. I think it's so important to keep that up. You need a presence in the community. I feel like it helps that I'm so motivated and excited about what I'm doing. There is a lot of opportunity in this business for people who can provide great customer service. If that isn't your thing, you'd probably better hire an expert to help in that regard."

House Doctors Hosts FBA Franchise Consultants for Exclusive Discovery Day

Here are some comments from some brokers who attended the House Doctors Exclusive Discovery Day for FBA Franchise Consultants:

Thanks so much for hosting the broker discovery day for us yesterday.  We are now much better prepared to confidently present House Doctors to our candidates.
-Nan

Thank you for hosting the broker discovery day.  Especially liked meeting your CEO, Jim Hunter and understanding all that he is involved in with the House Doctors brand.
-Diane

Thanks again for having me on Wednesday.  I enjoyed learning about House Doctors Franchise and the progress you have made in the past few years. I have a potential candidate in Ohio.  Let me know your availability in this area.
-Trish

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