Essential Businesses Win Big For Small Business Owners and Their Communities
-- April 27th, 2020
Astute businesspeople recognize a “window of opportunity” when it presents itself. Now is one of those times! NOW is the time to be open…because many of your competitors are not. NOW is the time to treat your employees like the valuable assets they are. NOW is the time to put your growth and acquisition plans into place. Those who take advantage of this window of opportunity will come out of these times stronger and better equipped to dominate your local market and grow your business, both by capturing competitor’s customers and by strategically acquiring independents who were not able to weather the storm.
With so many businesses disrupted, open limited hours or even closed, we wanted to share a few highlights of what’s happening in the “essential” Family Financial Centers across the country.
Enjoy the testimonials and our comments!
LOUISIANA
- Renetta Leverett – Renetta feels blessed to be an essential business and run a FFC location. She saw the first of the stimulus checks in our chain last Monday and has been able to support her local town and cash many stimulus checks over the last week. The local Walmart is not cashing checks, so she is the main source for clearing for the local community. She was informed that another round of checks will be out Friday. We are excited! Thank you, Ms. Renetta, for giving us the heads up when you saw your first stimulus check come in. It helped us gear up the remainder of the stores in preparing them for the release of stimulus checks.
ALABAMA
- Roshan Patel stated he had 27 stimulus checks on Tuesday. Some of the checks were dated for Friday. Bad thing is since the check date was Friday, it was tying up his cash. He called the Branch Manager at his bank and they made an exception and let the checks deposit early. He was able to continue supporting his customers in this time of need. His response to the FFC direction when asked “Are you seeing checks? Don’t forget you can load to Nexs Card to save cash flow if needed”, Roshan responded, “Yes we are and I’ll have to try and do that today as we are going to run out of cash. I’m going to scrape up what cash we have available at the bank now, LOL!”
PENNSYLVANIA
- Devin Hamilton was able to take over the West Chester location the week before Covid-19 hit the area and closed all non-essential businesses, so he has been able to stay open. Just last week the previous owner sent him an old contractor that is re-establishing ties that should bring in significant business. He brought in a $6,000 and a $20,000 check last week. Devin also runs three (3) stores in Harrisburg that saw three times the volume on Friday and Saturday. He and his employees have been busy for the last few days and continue to be as they help cash their customer’s stimulus checks.
- Syed Hussain was one of the first stores we have on the East Coast to start receiving checks from the Government made out to his customer base. He did over $70k in one day and his cash got wiped out! He got to the bank at 9 AM the next morning to get cash and told his employees to let our customers know “we will be open for business!”
- Biren Patel – Biren has been driving two hours back and forth to open his FFC location in Reading, PA. “My business has doubled as other retailers have closed their operations. We continue to support our customers and are capturing new business that will be loyal and will continue to use our services. Although tired, I am proud to serve our customers. My partner, Mike Patel, has been with me every step of the way. Our Lansdowne store is also seeing a BIG uptick in WU as the CVS across the street stopped the service and we are open and ready to take on the additional business.”
- Rao Bhandaru – “I have been working 16-hour days and will never let my business fail. My check cashing stores are fully-staffed and we are loaded for bear in anticipation of checks coming into our recently purchased Allentown locations.”
- We have three (3) locations in the Allentown area and on Saturday they did a combined amount of over $500,000 in checks! Awesome job!
- A new Franchisee has recently executed her Franchise Agreement and is now in the licensing and banking process. Expected opening in the next 60 days.
CONNECTICUT
- Bob Abatecola- Bob has been fortunate enough to maintain some of his larger clients. In addition, the financial service center in town closed down so he’s been able to pick up new business to offset slower sales due to the unemployment and coronavirus situation we face. He’s also started seeing stimulus checks come in this week.
NEW JERSEY
- Biren Patel has immediately benefited from the FFC marketing pilot. A potential customer reached out to Biren using the “contact us” section of the new website FFC created for him. Because of the immediate alert Biren received, he was able to contact the customer and arranged to cash a $6,600 check. Biren also noted that he saw a 300+% increase in business in his Vineland and Bridgeton, NJ locations and has prepared his inventory for the next wave of checks he expects to hit in his Philadelphia stores.
NEW FAMILY MEMBERS - PA, NJ, CT, FL
An increased number of businesspeople are interested in joining our “Family”. We have had inquires from several states by individuals, business brokers and especially franchise broker networks. Last week we were invited to do a webinar for one of the largest franchise broker networks in America. Why the interest in the business that YOU are already in? Here are a just few of the reasons I hear when I ask that question:
Award Winning Support & Training – Third party proof:
Franchise Business Review -Top 200 Franchisee Satisfaction Award: 2020 ,2019
FranServe: FranTastic 500 Top Franchises
Entrepreneur Magazine Franchise Edition: Top Franchise in Category 2020, 2019, Best New Franchise 2018 (new option)
Strong Margins - While many widely recognized franchises tout gross sales or some novel product or service, many find out that their margins are significantly lower than those enjoyed by Family Financial Centers Franchisees.
Leveraging Technology - There is appeal in using the latest technology FFC deploys. Businesspeople see how it is a competitive advantage in a local market where competitors are doing business like they did 20 years ago. Prospects also like the ability to enhance customer service, have access to reporting, video and digital access to their businesses, data and funds, minimized risk.
Growth Opportunity - Prospects are intrigued by our franchisees ability to grow by acquiring their competition at buyer friendly multiples.
Minimal Employees Needed - Many are happily surprised to see how much revenue can be generated by so few employees. They can focus on growing their business rather than staffing, training and paying large numbers of short-term employees.
Industry Credibility - Businesspeople understand the power of industry credibility and influence. Family Financial Centers has both and our franchisees benefit. Our CEO sits on the National Board of the Financial Service Centers of America (FiSCA), the national trade association with over 7,000 money service business members. Mr. Eckert also founded and chairs the Pennsylvania Financial Service Centers (PAFSC), which support the more than 400 MSB’s in the state.
Essential Business - As you know, many businesses have had to close. Fortunately, Family Financial Centers has been deemed essential in every state that we operate in.
No doubt you, your families and your employees are all thankful that you had the foresight to invest in a Family Financial Centers business.
We wish all of you safety, good health and continued prosperity!