Pilot changes career path, taking up franchising
Bill Stocks spent a big part of his life with his head in the clouds.
Long trips to exotic locales such as India and Japan were common for the American Airlines pilot. While the overseas routes were exciting and lucrative, they also required Stocks to spend time away from his family.
With retirement looming and pension plans at competing airlines being jeopardized or lost altogether, the 53-year-old pilot began looking at business opportunities that would provide financial security, just in case.
He also wanted something that his wife, Jackie, and their six kids could be a part of.
A friend suggested he look into franchise opportunities with Rug Decor, a national chain with 40 stores and plans to add about 20 more by the end of 2008.
Stocks admits he didn’t know much about the rug business and was more than a little wary.
“When you spend your life as a pilot, you’re used to being the one in control,” Stock said.
The idea of following a very structured franchise plan in a business that relied on the whims of consumers was new territory for him
Despite his reservations, Stocks soon found himself at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis meeting with Mark Jameson, Rug Decor’s vice president of franchise development. By the end of the visit he was convinced.
“It was the corporate connections and the business plan that sold me,” Stocks said.
Rug Decor is a subsidiary of CCA Global Partners, the largest flooring cooperative in the country, with $9 billion in sales worldwide and more than 3,600 participating stores.
The company’s hands-on business model for franchisees also appealed to Stocks.
“The operation is very much turn-key,” Jameson said. “The goal is to make it as easy as possible for people with an entrepreneurial spirit to be successful.”
This was one time Stocks had no problem turning over the controls.
“Me trying to set up a rug store would be like a rug guy trying to fly a plane to India,” Stocks said. “Good luck.”
Stocks and his wife have lived in Illinois for most of his aviation career, but Jackie is a native of the Las Vegas area (they met while he was serving in the military at Nellis Air Force Base). The fact that Jackie would be able to return to Las Vegas was an added bonus.
Stocks also liked the idea that not only would his franchise on Eastern Avenue in Henderson be the first in the area, he would also have first option on additional franchises in the region.
Jameson said the company prefers to let a franchisee establish one store, then open other stores in that market.
The concept rewards successful franchisees, prevents the company from competing against itself in the same market and saves on advertising.
He said the company has targeted the Southwest because it is a strong hard-surface market, meaning many people prefer wood and tile to carpet. Hard surfaces, he explains, are naturally accentuated by rugs.
The strong population growth in several Southwestern markets, including Las Vegas, is also a factor and Jameson said the region should eventually be able to support two or three more stores.
Franchise costs vary, but an investment of between $350,000 and $450,000 is about average, Jameson said, and that includes inventory and fixtures. The company royalties are less than 3 percent and are largely offset by rebates from manufacturers, which are based on sales.
The business is primarily retail but the company also encourages franchisees to cultivate relationships with home designers and uses its corporate resources to assist in this.
“We have a business-to-business designer program where we customize rugs and work very well with designers who buy from us and customize rugs to create their own look,” Jameson said.
It is not just designers, however, that can create a customized, unique look.
Each Rug Decor store has a color palette that allows customers to take any rug in stock and choose their own color scheme. Customers can even submit their own design for a rug and if it is approved, can have a one-of-a-kind rug.
Customized rugs, of course, cost a little more and can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to complete, depending on how much specialized work is involved.
“Many of these customers are designing a rug to go with a home they are building, so they don’t mind waiting,” Stocks said.
Rug Decor stocks rugs in just about every size and price range, in a variety of fabrics. Small rugs, about the size of a welcome mat, are less than $100, while fine, room-size rugs can cost thousands of dollars.
“Primarily, it is female customers making the buying decisions on higher-end rugs,” Jameson said. “But we have a broad range of rugs and customers.”
The store on Eastern Avenue, just south of I-215, has been open for about a month.
Since Stocks is still traveling around the world, Jackie and the children, who are all grown up now and live in the area, are helping run things.
He now envisions a time, however, when his career path could shift full time from the skies to the floors.
Source: In Business Las Vegas
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