Megasealed is celebrating a quarter of a century fixing Aussies’ leaking showers and balconies. Founder and managing director Jacques Courtin spoke with Inside Franchise Business Executive about business growth, lessons learned and why he’s not yet ready to retire.
“This new financial year is more than just reflecting on our success over a what has been a challenging 12 months, but also our continued achievements over 25 years of operation in the industry,” says Courtin.
He first launched the business back in 1996 to fill an identified market gap for time-saving, cost-effective solutions for common commercial and household leaks. The answer proved to be innovative waterproofing and tiling products.
Growing the business
“The most important part of growing Megasealed was marketing. I did smart marketing, attracted builders, property management, and building inspectors,” explains Courtin.
“The job was quoted on the telephone. I would send a technician to do the service. It worked very well in Sydney so we decided to go to Melbourne and build up there and put management in Sydney.”
After that Courtin developed the Queensland market.
“I already had the formula. The business became stronger and bigger, there was no real competition. One employee decided to copy me but it took him time and by that time I was developing the market in Perth.”
Megasealed franchise launched
Courtin developed state offices and trained technicians in each state to ensure quality before deciding to franchise the business five years ago.
“Franchising is very important. I used to have about 185 people working, five call centres, liability and more competition. I wanted to slow down.
“I took the franchise diploma and decided to franchise and 80 per cent of the business was sold to employees. They knew the clientele and how to run the business. For me it was a low risk option.”
Adaptability and franchisee support
Today the business operates across 33 franchises in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia and undertakes more than 18,000 jobs annually with a 98 per cent satisfaction rate amongst both household and commercial customers.
Despite the challenges posed to the industry by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Megasealed has continued to adapt its service offering and remained focused on enhancing support to franchisees.
This includes the implementation of virtual inspections and quoting to ensure the safety of clients and staff, and an emphasis on growing locally to support business within the community.
The challenges never stop, he says. But he’s still driven see the business succeed.
“The day I’m not passionate or have no vision, I’ll retire,” he says.
4 top business tips from Jacques Courtin
- Every day you learn how to get better and smarter
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes but you should not make them twice
- It’s important to communicate well
- Recruit carefully and spend time with new franchisees
