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One Hour Air Conditioning Interview
 March 3rd, 2006Interview of James Abrams, President - CEO of One Hour Air Conditioning < International > Interviewer : Franchise Times Interviewees : James Abrams (President/CEO) One Hour Air Conditioning is a subsidiary of Clockwork Home Services, which is a division of VenVest Inc. Clockwork has both the One Hour brand franchise under its umbrella, as well as Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, another concept that made the Fast 55 this year. According to the company, contractors who wish to keep their own business identity can join Clockwork’s Affinity Group—which, according to President and CEO James Abrams, is a school that offers the same technical and business process training franchisees have access to. In addition to plumbing and HVAC, the school offers training for electricians and roofing contractors. VenVest was founded in 1998; Benjamin Franklin and One Hour began franchising in 2001 and 2003, respectively. How have you ramped up franchisee support over time?
Our support team is growing rapidly. When we started we had two people in franchise support; today we have 42. We are adamant that if we take their money, the franchisee won’t fail on our part. We’ve made it easy for them; we even give them a disk that tells them exactly what to do each day, such as when to update their sales staff training. How have you changed your franchise agreement over time? We haven’t changed the model since inception. What are your thoughts on being a smaller franchise? It is one of our biggest challenges. We are in the interim period before we begin national advertising. We need to become a $1 billion company before we can do that. As the franchise grows rapidly, the franchisees could wonder what they are paying for. But we continue to offer services and other forms of brand awareness. |
