Actually, I myself do not groom. I own 2 vans, hired professional groomers and am getting ready to roll out van 3 in the spring. I never groomed in my life which is what attracted me to APM. Yet, I work 12 hours a day, six days a week because that is what it takes to run this business. I will hire a full time dispatcher in the fall which will off-load some of my work since I take calls and manage everthing else. I will say that there are several customer calls who want to know if we are "That Franchise". These are primarily people who have moved from another area where APM was in business since we do not have APM's anywhere where I do business. This comment directly applies to the recruitment and 80 hours training issue. (Talk to the current Franchisee in Houston).
I use the same Van technology as APM, which is great. In six months we have only had minor operational issues. This is APM's strength but now the technology is available to private business owners. The only proprietary technology is the tub.
The repeat cycle does matter. In this business, you are trying to get your van up to capacity as soon as possible. With the APM 70% repeat model of 6 to 8 weeks, this should take 4 months. When I spoke with Franchisees, less than 30% came even close to this. More than 50% were repeating every 12 weeks which meant that the van does not reach capacity until month 8 or 9. The 70% will likely repeat but many will only use the service once or twice a year. This effects the income level you might expect to achieve based upon the number of vans to have in operation within 24 to 36 months. In addition, the majority of Platinum Franchisees have hit a stumbling block at 4 vans an cannot get past that point. Talk to existing Franchisees in NC, MI, TX and Northern CA. There are some exceptions but those are the guys working long days or have a partner. The guy in AZ is pretty good. But keep in mind he got as big as he is by buying out someone in Pheonix.
Regarding the Van Asset disposition. This was not about vans holding their value. Have your legal council and accountant review the UFOC. You are missing a very big point on this. That $65k+ van you buy (not inclusing sales tax), will have an asset value of much less. Now if your business succeeds, then this really is not an issue because you will depreciate it after 5 years anyway. However, if you do not, you have to give back (not sell back) all of the non-van equipment to APM. You only have the van, which is worth well below $30,000 the day you place it into operation. At their option they may resell the van and give you a portion of the proceeds. I know someone in Georgia who purchased APM trailers after the APM Franchisee went backrupt. He paid a fraction of the cost after the trailers were only a couple of years old. Which means the APM Franchisee did not get much. Be cautious about the tax laws on this. You cannot depreciate assets you do not own.
Also as far as other APM Franchisees buying the vans, forget it. It doesn't happen and here is why. First, APM makes money selling new their franchise and your license to use their customization of your van. They have no incentive of reselling vans to other franchisees. Now most of this pertains to trailers since their vans have only been in place for a couple of years. They don't mind de-identifying their vans/trailers and selling them to private grooming operations.
Regarding your point about not talking with Franchisees that left the business. Honestly, you are leaving yourself wide open on this. The truth is that there are some bad Franchisees out there. I would ask for the 5 year exit list so that you can see the real numbers of those who left the business. What I found refreshing in talking to some of these is that there are those who openly admit they did not do what APM told them to do. Then there are those who followed the model and the region did not support the cost of service and then there are those who simply could not find or retain groomers. Keep in mind one thing. That big list of current franchisees you are looking at are single unit Bronze owners. Some are 3 unit Gold and very few are 6 unit Platinum. Most 6 unit Platinums cannot get past 4. The one thing you will need to do is find an alternative way of contacting them vs. the number APM gives you. What APM does, which I was very uncomfortable with, is that they give you the Franchisees old Business # and not thier home number. Since they were no longer in business it was difficult to find them. However, I did find them. The effort was worth it.
Again good luck with this and hope some of what I have written will help you and others considering this.
