I have a story that I hope helps any current franchisee caught up in the Lifecote saga headed by the egotistical Mr Graham Steele.
I know a couple of guys who set up their own joinery firm in the house building industry. All their work was for one of the biggest house builders. In a short space of time these two guys went from the tools to turning over nearly £2million. We were talking in the golf club and I commented on the dangerousness of having all their eggs in one basket i.e. having essentially only one customer. I commented that if they fell out of favour or if a new director came in and didn’t like their faces their revenue could stop virtually overnight. They felt comfortable that this would not happen and continued as they were.
I also have another couple of guys who had a few years earlier set up their own plastering business and had in the region of 40-50 men. They had started in much the same way but their customer base included a few house builders, small builders, private work etc. I used these guys as an example when I was speaking to the joinery lads as they knew them also.
Within 24 months the recession hit and the main house builders more or less closed down and many shut up shop in the North West. The company that used the joinery firm was one of these and the joiners saw their business spiral downwards too much the same place as when they had started albeit they had a few more quid saved and had paid their mortgages off.
The plastering guys laid a few off but escaped relatively unscathed.
The moral is that you never put all your eggs in one basket.
How does this relate to Lifecote? Mr Graham Steele has sold franchises to people who were looking for an investment. Some of these people had no experience prior to the franchise and so relied solely on Lifecote’s leads. Others already had a damp proofing businesses and supplemented their business with Lifecote’s leads.
If you fall foul of Mr Graham Steele he can, and has, stopped the leads overnight and thus unless you have promoted your business to find another income stream you will find that overnight your investment is down the pan.
You may well have bought a franchise for £10k and paid ‘royalties’ of 9% on every sale and built it up to turnover £150k, but it is now worthless.
So whats my advice?
Mr Graham Steele has taken his Lifecote brand into the gutter with his antics on dampproofingblog.com @dampproofinblog on twitter and by the cowardly cyber attacks on people and businesses.
Lifecote Ltd has unpaid court judgements against it and unhappy customers. What is his reply to this
go fot it areashole…………not one penny will you get lol i could not care less
As each day goes by and more and more people are directed to this blog, Lifecote will lose customers and revenue because of his antics. Surely no one will sign on the dotted line if they undertake the basic due diligence of Googling ‘Graham Steele Lifecote’.
Franchisees will end up with nothing if they sit back and wait. This is only going one way. Downwards for Lifecote and Mr Graham Steele. I cannot say too much at this time but believe me when I say that bad times are only round the corner.
If you a franchisee and are reading this I would suggest that you immediately start to explore new avenues for self promotion and leads. If you are relying solely on Lifecote leads then you might be in trouble. I have no axe to grind with the people and businesses under the ‘Lifecote umbrella’ and in fact I feel for them. Everyone that I have spoken to seem honest, likeable people. But your leader has started the demise of your business.
If you are turning over £150k you could immediately save 9% of that which equates to £13.5k. This should go towards advertising and promotion.
You will no doubt be able to save probably 30% on your chemical costs buying direct from the supplier.
The loss of initial turnover should be cushioned by the increase in profit due to the savings. In other words you will be doing less work but making more profit. For example if your turnover dropped by 50% to £75k you would make an extra £6750.00 (9%) profit on the remaining £75k. Couple this with your chemical savings and it’s not all bad.
The downside is you will have no more Lifecote leads but these are going to dry up eventually and if you dare upset Mr Graham Steele like others have done your business will go from hero to zero overnight anyway.
dampproofingscams 