One thing is for sure, opening a new business is full of question marks and it's safe to say you can always expect the unexpected. But that's not how a franchisee business should work! That's exactly how we thought when we started our journey in franchising Dulles Glass.
We built an amazing model that took over the local market and spread very fast. But just because we had a nice working model with multiple showrooms, would the same concept be replicable in other local markets?
Premier Franchise Consultants for Glass Franchisee Business Investment
To answer this, we connected with Ifranchise as an advisor and renowned consulting firm to teach us the details of how a successful model can be replicated through franchising. Mark Seibert and his team did an amazing job of explaining the process and creating a road map for us to franchise Dulles Glass. Equipped with this knowledge we set out to complete the necessary steps!
Once we reviewed the FDDs, so many questions came up in the process, while it fit most commonly franchised businesses out there, glass franchising business was different!
In the world of business one must take risks to gain rewards but in offering franchising business we could not have a franchisee prospect to take that burden with us.
A model for glass franchising business
To remedy this, we decided to launch our own “first unit” with an interested prospect. With doing this we could see exactly what any potential franchisee would experience and answer all the questions along the way. This way, we could update our FDDs to match exactly how a glass business should operate!
We learned a lot in this journey that took one year to complete and solved many unforeseen issues to make sure all our future franchised units have the most comprehensive tools to succeed.
First Glass franchised business
Our first unit went operational in July of 2024, with the aim of becoming a completely independent unit that thrives and overcomes all the challenges! Most of these challenges have been solved but we will never think we are done! We will work hard to improve things everyday! Our first unit achieved the goal of becoming completely independent and despite all the challenges to overcome communications produced a revenue well exceeding our expectations in its first 3 quarters of operation!
Glass business is unique, A glass franchised business is more unique
Here are some of the basic changes we made to a “standard” FDD:
- Territories: The most common way of dividing a franchised business territory is to assign a certain population number or give a certain geographic area. But that's not how the glass business works! What if you have a contractor who normally refers jobs to your business and he refers business to you in another territory?
- Marketing: who runs the ads? Teaching this to our first prospect was hard to say the least. We decided to create an internal team that runs all the marketing and shares the pertinent numbers with our franchisees to control. This also remedied the fact that modern digital advertising does not support population counts and franchisee borders!
- Ordering and receiving: Creating a tech stack where our franchisees see our stock levels, see their prices and suggested retail price, sell, place an order with the franchisor and receive with ease was a challenge that we solved.
We made many changes to our process, creating a workflow for maximum efficiency and communication. But we don't stop there, we will still work hard for better results everyday.
Dulles Glass franchising in 2025
It's our belief that the path to success is a slow, methodical process. The idea of crawl, walk then run is most present in our minds as we are introducing something new that we are hoping will change the glass industry forever!
We have crawled so far, created the process, replicated it in a first unit and created a successful model!
We are ready to walk now! For the first year, we are only looking to launch 2-3 franchised units within 250 miles of our headquarters for easy reach. Preferably, in Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Virginia beach, Richmond and surrounding areas. For this purpose, not only will we extend discounts to our first units but we will also work one on one to ensure your success!
We are not ready to run yet, help us get there, join a winning team that will treat you like family!
