| 01) |
|
| 02) |
|
| 03) |
|
| 04) |
|
| 05) |
|
| 06) |
|
| 07) |
|
| 08) |
|
| 09) |
Do you
support Mac's or Linux? |
| 10) |
Can I
resell parts or build PC's for
my clients? |
| 11) |
I've never
seen your company at any of the
Franchise Shows or advertised
in Franchise/Business Magazines,
why is that? |
| 12) |
How do
you distribute your territories?
Is it by zip code or by the number
of businesses within a geographic
area? |
| 13) |
I see
that some of your Franchise Owners
are called Computer Paramedics
while others are called Computer
Medics, why is that? Do you own
the Trademarks for each? |
| 14) |
I've looked
at a number of your competitors
sites and it looks like they have
many more Franchises than Computer
Medics® of America, Inc. does.
Why should I join Computer Medics®
when they are larger? |
| 15) |
How many
Computer Medics Franchises have
failed or gone "Out of Business? |
| |
|
| 01) |
Do
you provide Financing? |
| |
We are currently offering financing
with a 25% down payment. We do
not charge interest but do add
on a finance fee of 25% of the
amount being financed. Your payments
are then made over the 5 years
of your initial contract with
us. |
| |
|
| 02) |
Do I need to pay for
my own transportation and hotel
room for training? Is it required
that I train in Alaska? |
| |
We will pay for your air
transportation to/from Alaska.
We also have a nicely furnished
apartment for you to stay in
while you're here.
As far as training in Alaska
goes you can also train at one
of our Training Centers in Georgia
or Ohio. |
| |
|
| 03) |
What type of Training
do you provide? |
| |
We will provide you with
the training necessary to successfully
operate your business. We do
require that all potential franchise
owners have some basic knowledge
of computer repair.
=> Instead of training you
in a lab environment where issues
are controlled most of our training
is out in the real world performing
actual Service Calls.
=> Between Service Calls
we will focus on any weak areas
you may have and answer all
your questions.
=> Teach you how to use our
tools and show you how to perform
data recovery.
=> Effective methods of operating
your business, which includes
proven methods of advertising.
Training is an ongoing process.
We are always studying future
releases of Microsoft Operating
Systems and other new products.
As a Computer Medics of America®,
Inc. Franchise you will have
access to this knowledge. |
| |
|
| 04) |
Do
I need to provide all of the
Services listed? Can I add other
Services not listed? |
| |
We understand that not all
Franchisee's will have the knowledge
or the desire to provide all
of the services Computer Medics
of America®, Inc. offers.
This is where being a member
of a network of technicians
is of great benefit. The Home
Office does provide all of the
Services mentioned. For example,
if you have a client that is
in need of Data Recovery and
you do not have the equipment,
time or knowledge to provide
the Service you can either arrange
for a neighboring Franchise
owner to do the work "through"
you or you can Fed-ex the drive
to the Home Office. Any charges
to the client will be split
50/50 between the originating
Franchise and the Franchise
performing the service.
If you have an expertise in
a service that we currently
do not offer and wish to offer
it at your Franchise, just let
us know. We are always open
to new ideas and the addition
of new services to our customers. |
| |
|
| 05) |
Do
I need to purchase parts from
you? |
| |
No, but we will provide you
with a list of suppliers that
have provided us with excellent
service. At times we will be able
to purchase large quantities of
parts/software at greatly reduced
prices that we will pass on to
the you. |
| |
|
| 06) |
Why
don't you have a Royalty Fee? |
| |
Unlike most Franchise organizations
our overhead is minimal. We are
more of a support system for "your"
business. Most Franchise systems
have strict guidelines which your
Franchise must adhere to and they
must hire staff to watch you carefully.
It is our feeling that this is
a very simple business and that
this monitoring is unnecessary.
We make our money off taking a
small percentage of the service
calls sent to you from our Partners
and Affiliates.
We also only sell Franchises to
people with some sort of previous
IT or technical experience. In
doing so this lowers our support
and training costs.
We will NEVER introduce Royalty
Fee's!! |
| |
|
| 07) |
This
sounds like something I could
do on my own. Why would I want
to join? |
| |
At first glance, this type
of business seems as if it would
be very easy to do on your own.
If you look at a current copy
of your local Yellow Pages and
compare it to one from a few
years ago you will see that
many have tried and failed.
Given enough time any technician
can solve just about any problem.
By using the Knowledge Base,
support from fellow Owners,
and tools that we provide, you
will be able to solve most problems
in a fraction of the time your
competition can. So, instead
of seeing a frustrated tech
spending hours trying to fix
a problem, clients will see
a skilled and efficient tech
which will result in many future
calls.
All Service Calls are charged
for a minimum of 1-hour. Once
you have impressed your client
with your expertise you then
ask the customer if there is
anything else that you can do
for them in the time remaining.
Not only is the customer left
thinking that you are a genius
but they are left feeling that
their money was well spent.
A good first impression will
reward you with repeat business
in the future.
Remember, bad word of mouth
spreads 10 times faster than
good word of mouth. Which kind
of service do you want to provide?
Another benefit of being a
part of a Franchise is the support
you will get from other technicians
in your area. If you want to
take a vacation, you can forward
your calls to a fellow Franchise
Owner near you so they can take
care of your clients while you
are gone and vice versa. If
you are swamped with work or
sick you can also refer them
to another Franchise Owner.
You won't lose the customer
and you will be ready to serve
them next time they call.
Computer Medics of America®,
Inc. also has agreements with
nationwide providers which will
send work to you, this work
is usually not available to
independants. These providers
prefer using companies which
have proven themselves. |
| |
|
| 08) |
Without
a major advertising campaign
(TV and Radio) how will I obtain
enough clients to be successful? |
| |
Our major goal in advertising
is to provide the best response
for dollars spent. We have tried
many forms of advertising and
have found that Yellow Page
advertising provides the best
value. We are not a Company
with a store that needs to draw
dozens of clients in per day
to pay it's high overhead costs.
When someone needs their PC
fixed, they will go to one of
three places.
a) Whoever Serviced their computer
in the past or to a person/company
recommended by a friend.
b) Phone Book.
c) Other Advertising.
Depending upon the publishing
date of the next Yellow Page
Directory it could take up to
a year before this advertising
begins. As part of your training
we will show you other forms
of advertising that have given
us very good results. More importantly,
we will show you what advertising
to avoid.
As soon as your Franchise is
open, you are added to our master
list which our growing list
of National Service Providers
use to locate local technicians
to service their customers.
We cannot guarantee that you
will receive work from them
but we can guarantee that you
will be on their provider lists.
|
| |
|
| 09) |
Do you support the MacIntosh
or Linux/Lindows? |
| |
A independent market research
analysis showed the following
market share by PC manufacturers:
Dell - 27.9%
HP/Compaq -19.8%
Gateway - 5.9%
IBM - 5.5%
Apple - 3.7%
Other PC Makers - 37.2%
If you currently have experience
with Mac's please feel free
to provide support for them.
There are a few exisiting Franchise
Owners that provide this support
which you can share knowledge
with. If you do not want to
support the Mac we recommend
you partner with a local technician
who is a Mac specialist. In
return for passing Mac calls
to them they in turn refer their
callers with PC problems to
you. These arrangement work
out very well for everyone including
the customer.
In most places where you find
Linux you will find that it
has been put in place by an
existing IT staff. Lindows (Linspire)
on the other hand is an OS which
is slowly entering the consumer
market. We will be adding this
to the Knowledge Base as it
becomes more popular. |
| |
|
| 10) |
Can I resell parts or
build PC's for my clients? |
| |
We advise that you do not
resell parts such as Power Supplies,
Motherboards, Memory, etc unless
you are installing the part.
This is because you must support
the parts you are selling. If
a hobbyist buys from you and
installs a $150 motherboard
and a $300 cpu and destroys
both of them you are stuck replacing
the parts. It is not worth the
risk for the small amount of
profit you may receive from
these sales.
We discourage the building
of low cost pc's not only because
it is very hard to compete with
the prices of the large manufacturers
but because you must also provide
a warranty with the computer.
One service call to fix an issue
not related to how the machine
was built or configured will
result in your loss of any profit
you may have made.
If a customer would like a specialized
machine such as a Server, Digital
Video Workstation, or a High
End Gaming Rig, then there may
be enough profit in it for you
to provide the warranty service. |
| |
|
| 11) |
I've never seen your
company at any of the Franchise
Shows or advertised in Franchise/Business
Magazines, why is that? |
| |
The worst thing that can
happen to any Franchise organization
is failures. Most industries
that Franchises sell can be
easily operated by just about
anyone. The Computer Service
and Repair industry is not an
industry that the average person
can just change careers to.
Almost all of our Franchise
Owners have previous experience
within this industry. That experience
can be anything from years of
hands on experience or that
received through schooling.
The fact that we market only
towards people with previous
IT experience is what sets us
apart from our competition.
It is our feeling that in the
long run the failure rate of
our competitors Franchises will
be detrimental to them. If you
are considering purchasing a
Franchise from them be sure
that you recieve thier list
of failures, they are required
by Federal Law to provide this. |
| |
|
| 12) |
How do you distribute
your territories? Is it by zip
code or by the number of businesses
within a geographic area? |
| |
We are very generous in distributing
Franchise areas becasue we want
you to suceed in your business.
Usually we distribute by counties,
if a county is very small in population
we will add-in more counties until
the area is large enough to sustain
a Franchise. If the county is
extremely large we may break it
up into a smaller area, if there
is a large city within the county
we may break the city up into
smaller more serviceable areas.
Larger populated areas have more
competition which always brings
the population to competition
ratio down to about 1 business
per every 10,000 to 20,000 people.
The minimum population we like
to see our Franchise owners service
is 40,000 to 60,000 people. |
| |
|
| 13) |
I see that some of your
Franchise Owners are called Computer
Paramedics while others are called
Computer Medics, why is that?
Do you own the Trademarks for
each? |
| |
Federal Trademarks are very
costly and sometimes take a long
time to receive. We have purchased
the mark "Computer Medics"
and are in the process of receiving
the "Computer Paramedics"
mark.
In some locations around the country
there may already be a company
using the name "Computer
Medics". In that circumstance
our Franchise Owner can choose
to use the name "Computer
Paramedics" instead of waiting
out a long legal battle for the
competiton to change their name.
We are notifying existing businesses
that are illegally using the "Computer
Medics" name as soon as we
locate them and send them a notification
of their violation, asking them
to rename their businesses. If
a simple notice does not suffice,
legal action is taken. |
| |
|
| 14) |
I've looked at a number
of your competitors sites and
it looks like they have many more
Franchises than Computer Medics
of America®, Inc. does. Why
should I join Computer Medics
when they are larger? |
| |
A few of the companies (especially
the larger one's) count each zip
code as a Franchise. If we were
to use that method, we would have
a count of close to a thousand
Franchises. Each of our Franchises
is given a generous area which
usually includes an entire county.
Take a close look at their locations
map to see the number of "real"
Franchises. If they don't have
a locations map then give them
a call and ask them how many Franchises
they have and then ask them how
many actual Franchise Owners they
have. |
| 15) |
How many Computer Medics
Franchises have failed or gone
"Out of Business? |
| |
We have had one Franchise
go "Out of Business".
He was one of our first Franchises.
Computer Medics has created
a set of criteria that a Franchise
Applicant must meet to be allowed
to purchase a Franchise. The
worst thing that can happen
to a company that sells Franchises
is failures.
If you are looking at any other
Franchises we advise you to
insist that the company provide
you with a list of their failures.
They are required by the Federal
Trade Commission to provide
this information.
|
