134 | BusinessWorld | August-September 2014
ones.
During the first few years of the company's
existence, Tindall entered into a series of
area development agreements – an
arrangement in which an interested party
would purchase the right to develop and
own an exclusive geographic territory with
the option of selling portions of it,
e s s e n t i a l l y s p l i t t i n g b o t h t h e
responsibilities and the royalties of
ownershipwith the franchisor.
Those agreements were converted to
traditional franchise set-ups after the
company completed composition of its
Franchise Disclosure Document (then
known as a Uniform Franchise Offering
Circular), which is a requirement of the
Federal Trade Commission for the purpose
of providing public information about a
franchise company, including fees ,
obligations and financial statements.
The necessary paperwork was finished in
1999 and the first Precision Door Service
franchise was sold soon after in January
2000, kick-starting a climb that, Payor said,
has been “rolling ever since.”
Each territory includes multiple counties,
and the aim has been to establish a presence
in areas with large population densities
before trickling downward to medium- and
smaller-sized locations. The entire roster is
franchisee-owned by design, after a series of
stores were recently opened corporately and
sold to franchisees, or control was taken
fromone franchisee and sold to another.
“We do not typically have an interest in the
long-term operation of corporate-owned
stores,” Payor said. “We prefer to stay on the
franchising side and manage the franchise
system, rather than having a franchise of our
own, so to speak, by owning a corporate
store. What we have done is started new
corporate stores and then grown them and
sold them off, kind of an organic way to
growthe business.”
Because it's a service-centric business and
doesn't rely on foot traffic, the traditional
operation does not have a brick-and-mortar
