Former Accountant Buys His Own Business: Fibrenew Guelph-Cambridge

When Mark Huizinga first considered purchasing a franchise, one of his main considerations was lifestyle flexibility. He wanted to ensure that making such a transition would still allow him the ability to enjoy his family, keep volunteering as a basketball coach, and take an extra day off in the summer for a round of golf. After researching Fibrenew he realized the company was a great fit. “It’s hard work, but it’s also more of a nine-to-five opportunity rather than a 24-hours a day,” he says, adding that “Loyalty is also important to me. I didn’t see that in my old job, but I do with with Fibrenew.”

Huizinga’s “old job” he refers to was as a financial analyst with the country’s largest grocery store. In that role, he learned how to manage people, a bit about the franchise industry, and even sales strategies. But his most memorable work experience goes back to when he was a young man assisting his dad, who was a bricklayer, with his projects. “Working with him gave me the knowledge to just figure things out. He taught me work ethic — I don’t like half-assed, or ‘good enough.’” Purchasing Fibrenew Guelph-Cambridge means Huizinga can work with his hands and solve problems for his customers as the leader in leather, plastic and vinyl repair and restoration for the area. Read more!

Finding the Right Franchise Fit

How Fibrenew Has Grown to 240+ Global Locations

We recently caught up with Fibrenew’s Director of Franchise Development, Bob Johnston. Bob joined the Fibrenew family in 2012, and he knows which qualities make a great prospective franchisee. As he tells it, finding the right fit has a lot do to with aligned values–namely honesty, and integrity. Fibrenew’s transparency is a big part of why we’re in the top 15% of Franchise Business Review’s 2017 Top 50 Franchise list. Of course, there’s a bit more to the story. Here’s how we help would-be owners decide to invest in a lifestyle franchise like Fibrenew.

 Getting Started
Finding the right fit starts with scheduling a phone call with Bob or a member of the development team to learn a bit more about each other, including why you’re considering a franchise. We hear from people with a variety of motivations, from a recent layoff, to a desire to be more self-reliant, i.e. ready to be your own boss. Once you’ve had a chance to ask questions, and you’re interested in continuing the conversation, Bob and the team will dig a little deeper to confirm you possess, what he refers to as “5 Essential Qualities”.

5 Essential Qualities of a Fibrenew Franchise Owner

Trait #1: A Tetrachromat
“Tetra-who?” – don’t let the term throw you off, it’s just the technical term for having complete color vision. A significant part of our mobile repair business involves working with color and color-matching, so being color-blind is one of the few things that might stand in your way of being a successful Fibrenew franchise owner.

Trait #2: Handy
Do you enjoy working with your hands? This is a great role if you like rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty on the occasional DIY project or light repair job. Keep in mind you don’t need technical knowhow to do our repairs just yet – that’s what we’re here to teach you about.

Trait #3: Trainable & Coachable
Be open to training and certified coaching. We’ve been fine tuning our processes since 1987. So while you will certainly bring your own personality and strengths to franchise ownership, please respect that we have a proven business model – reinvention of the wheel is not necessary.

Trait #4: In Shape
Doing repair work is going to require some bending and lifting. You don’t need to be a top athlete, but you do need to be in reasonable physical condition, as opposed to having chronic arthritis in your hands, or nagging knee or back issues.

Trait #5: People Person
According to Bob, the most important quality is being a people-person. As he explains, you need to be somebody who “isn’t afraid to introduce yourself, shake hands and go right to showing [before & after] pictures. When people see these pictures, their first words usually are ‘You can do that?’ ” Yes, we certainly can! continue reading!

It’s Earth Day, Everyday at Fibrenew

On the 47th Anniversary of Earth Day, we want to take a moment to mention how happy we are to provide our repair services to a variety of private consumers and professionals. In doing so, we’re helping divert a huge amount furniture from landfills. Today’s society tends to encourage disposing of goods almost as fast as we can buy them; continually upgrading to the latest and greatest gadgets, so it’s easy to lose sight of how this mentality can impact the health of our planet. At Fibrenew, we’re proud to prove, that yes, it’s still possible to repair our valued possessions, rather than discard them at the first hint of wear and tear.

Okay, How Much Waste Are We Talking About?
 
According to the United States EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), households are filling up the landfills with discarded furniture at an astonishing rate. In a 2009 report, it was found that furniture is last on the list of household goods to be recycled – making up a total of 9.8 million tons (yes, tons!) of waste. We don’t have accurate global reports at the moment, but if the U.S. is any indication, a major change is clearly necessary. Similarly, reports indicate that office furniture is discarded at an equally staggering rate. These numbers bring to light that economic fluctuations in businesses like relocation, closures, and upgrades all have an environmental impact that should be managed carefully. At minimum, we need to make sure we’re pursuing recycling and repair options, at home, and in our businesses. After all, technology has given us everything we need to make more sustainable choices such as restoring damaged goods – and all it takes is sending an email or making a quick phone call.

Going Green Since 1987
 
Three decades ago, when Fibrenew was getting started, “going green” was a less commonly used phrase. Looking back, you could say that we were one of the original green companies. We impact everyone from individual consumers, to large enterprises; offering an alternative to replacing their damaged leather, plastic, and vinyl. Restoration is not only great for reducing environmental impact, it’s a measurable time and money-saver. In the time it takes to shop for a new piece of furniture and schedule its delivery, we can readily get one of our technicians out to your home or business for a repair job.

“Leather, plastic and vinyl everywhere becomes damaged at some point in its life-cycle. It’s in homes, offices, clinics, hospitals, boats, planes, trains and automobiles–you name it. Fibrenew helps customers save money, time, and the environment by restoring damaged items…Everybody wins.”- Michael Wilson, CEO, Fibrenew. Read more of the article here!

Fibrenew Latest Franchisees!

Congratulations to our latest Franchisees! Back home today from training in Calgary. Wishing you all the best with your new business. We're here to support you all the way! For more information on how you can join our Fibrenew Franchise visit us at http://www.fibrenew-franchising.com/about-fibrenew/

Pictured left to right from top row:
Jim Eng - Fibrenew Firelands (Ohio)
Brian Kagebein - Fibrenew Woodstock-Kenosha (Illinois)
Sy Santos - Fibrenew Layton (Utah)
Evan Friemel - Fibrenew Amarillo (Texas)
Steve Bugg - Fibrenew Clear Lake (Texas)
Patricia Kagebein - Fibrenew Woodstock-Kenosha (Illinois)
Anne Friemel - Fibrenew Amarillo (Texas)
Dean Carroll - Fibrenew Australia
Randy Fuller - Fibrenew Central San Diego (California)
Luis Moraga - Fibrenew Australia

How to clean and repair your leather furniture

When it comes to repairing and caring for leather furniture, there are hundreds of options.  Furniture stores and online retailers offer up products that do everything from cleaning to dying leather.  However, you should proceed with extreme caution when you use these DIY products on your furniture.  I’ve heard and seen the effects of horror stories where these products ruined people’s leather furniture, so here are a few pointers on what to look out for.

1. Don’t use any products that contain alcohol or acetone.  Alcohol seeps into and damages the protective surface of furniture leather.  Acetone will remove the dye and color from leather.

2. Be sure to use products designed for upholstery.  Leather used for shoes, jackets and clothing is very different than that used in furniture.

3. Only use products designed for the type of leather you have.  Most furniture is made of aniline, semi-aniline or fully-finished leather.  Because of the differences in finish, it is very important to use only products designed for the leather you have.

4. Dying leather is a highly specialized art.  Professionals receive extensive training on color matching and dying, and it’s not at all likely that any DIY dye kit will produce very good dying results.  So, be very careful with these products – test them on a part of the furniture that no one will ever see before you use it on the visible part of the piece.

5. Stay away from products that say they are for multiple surfaces, even if one of those surfaces is leather.  Most of the time these products contain elements that will damage leather.  It is best to stick with products made specifically for leather.

Also, there are lots of people out there who have heard old wives’ tales about household products to use on leather.  Some of these can be helpful, but there are many that do not work and will ruin your leather furniture.  One example is using olive oil to fix minor dings and scratches on leather.  People also try using finger nail polish remover, shoe polish and window cleaner, among other things, to work on damaged leather.  All of these options can cause major damage to your leather down the road.

Any questions?  Have any experiences with leather products to share?  Post them in the comments!