LA Franchise Prospectus

PROPERTY CARE & REPAIR
FRANCHISE
PROSPECTUS

THE LOCAL ASSIST FRANCHISE
The Service Solutions Group has a long
history of franchising and already operates
2 UK wide franchise networks (Concept
Building Solutions and Surface Medic) and
we are looking to draw on this expertise to
further develop the Local Assist brand and
service delivery.
Local Assist has entered the franchise
arena with the Local Assist business model
not only because it lends itself so well to
doing so but also because as experienced
franchisors we know the benefits that
having an owner/operator network can
bring and it is these benefits that make
Local Assist stand out from the crowd.
WHAT DO FRANCHISEES DO?
Local Assist predominately provides
emergency trade services to the public as
part of an insurance claim however we are
also involved in maintenance work such as
boiler servicing and general property
repairs.
What is home emergency cover?
Home emergency cover typically covers
events such as your boiler breaking down,
blocked drains or electrical failure. An
engineer or electrician will visit and their
work will be paid for by the insurer. It’s
different from a standard home insurance
policy which only covers damage to your
home and belongings.
What does home emergency
insurance cover?
Home emergency policies vary
considerably depending on how much
you pay and the level of cover provided.
Depending on the policy, home
emergency cover will protect you against
some, or all, of the following events:
• Boiler breakdown
• Central heating failure
• Loss of hot water
• Plumbing problems
• Burst pipes
• Blocked drains
• Electrical failure
• Roof damage caused by extreme
weather
• Security issues such as broken doors
and windows
• Lost keys
• Pest infestations
We currently receive thousands of calls
each month from people making a home
insurance claim. Our Contact Centre team
log the call on our bespoke IT system,
ensure the policyholder has insurance
cover in place and then pass the work
onto our franchisees or subcontractors
(where we currently have no franchisees in
the local area).
We provide our franchisees with access to
our IT system via their smart phones which
provides the details of the job including the
date and time of the appointment, the
nature of the work that is required and
amount being paid for the initial site visit.
Once the work is complete the system also
allows the franchisee to obtain the
customer sign off and create an invoice
directly from site meaning our franchisees
get paid very quickly. In the event that
additional work is required that is not
covered by the customer’s home
emergency insurance policy the Local
Assist franchisee can provide a quote to the
customer and charge the customer directly
for any extra work they would like doing.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A
FRANCHISE FOR YOU?
What is franchising?
‘A business relationship where one party
allows another to operate clones of a
proven business system in return for
initial and ongoing fees.’
Simply put, Local Assist operates a
business that works and we would like to
offer you the opportunity to copy it for just
a small share of the likely profit you will
receive operating it as your own business.
You may have come across the concept of
‘franchising’ before; most likely from an
idea of how some fast food or retail chains
operate in the UK.
In fact, franchising is a very mature,
regulated and stable business format that
is perhaps a much larger industry than you
thought:
The popularity of the franchise industry is
simply explained:
Many more new franchisee start-ups
survive than independent new businesses
within the first critical three years.
In fact, according to market information,
most franchisee businesses are still trading
at 10 years.
This is because franchises like
Local Assist offer the following
advantages:
• The way the business operates is
already proven by the Franchisor.
• The Franchisor has already paid
the vast expense of developing the
business through trial and error and
charges the joining Franchisee only a
bare fraction of that cost to copy a
fully developed business.
• Franchisees are fully trained,
supported in the difficult first weeks
of operation and have experienced
Franchisors to provide support/
advice.
• A Franchisee is supported by a
growing network of other
Franchisees and thus more powerful
national advertising campaigns,
support, image and product and
service development.
• Franchisors have the flexibility to
react quickly to market information
from many franchisees across the
country in order that their
Franchisees stay ahead of trends in
the market.
Franchising is also better supported
by investors and banks than new
independent businesses because:
• The Franchisor will most likely be a
respected business with an
established history.
• The franchise will already have
proven to be profitable in the hands
of the Franchisor or another
Franchisee.
• A Franchisee’s business is
underwritten by the systems, training
and support of the Franchisor.
• Even if a Franchisee fails to realise the
full potential of the territory in which
they operate, they will often be able
to sell the territory to a new
Franchisee impressed by the
performance of the network
elsewhere - thus less of the capital in
a franchised business is at risk than in
most independent businesses.

INTRODUCTION TO THE GROUP
We founded Local Assist in 2008 to
provide a 24 hour emergency
service to customers who suffered
an event at their home where they
required emergency assistance
such as a leaking pipe, broken
window or boiler failure.
Local Assist was originally an ‘offshoot’
from its sister company Service Solutions
Direct which provides building and repair
services to the insurance industry and
required a 24/7 emergency service for its
insurance clients.
In the early days we were handling just a
handful of jobs each month on behalf of
Service Solutions Direct but over the last
nine years we have steadily grown the
business in its own right to now be one of
the top home emergency insurance claim
handling and fulfilment providers in the
UK.
Local Assist is part of a wider organisation,
the Service Solutions Group. The Service
Solutions Group provides a multitude of
services to the insurance sector and
includes 5 subsidiary companies many of
which are franchised business models.
The Group consists of Service Solutions
Direct, Lucas Claims Solutions, Concept
Building Solutions and Surface Medic.
SERVICE
SOLUTIONS
DIRECT
LOCAL
ASSIST
LUCAS
CLAIMS
SOLUTIONS
SURFACE
MEDIC
CONCEPT
BUILDING
SOLUTIONS
Insurance surveying
services, claims
validation, project
managed building
repairs
24/7 national
contractor network
Loss Adjusting and
Claims Management
across property,
liability & motor
claims
State of the art repair
and restoration
service for hard
surfaces, fixtures
and fittings
Franchised indirect
insurance claims
management and
building repair
services
We work for many
large insurance
companies, we survey
the property damage
and create a repair
schedule for our
contractors to fulfil
We provide
an emergency
fulfilment offering to
many insurance
companies/brokers.
This involves claims
management and
contractor deployment
Providing an
integrated solution for
the management of
general insurance
claims across the UK
and Ireland for
insurance companies
We offer a convenient
single visit solution
to property repairs
and restoration,
saving time, money
and substantial
environmental benefits
Franchise network &
home improvements
service along with
optional private works

Concept
Building
Solutions was
the first business
established in the
Group back in
2003 and is a
franchise
network of insurance claims managers
providing loss assessing services to the
general public. Concept predominantly
deals with domestic property insurance
claims by negotiating settlements with
insurers and then project managing the
repair work to the properties. Concept has
a national presence across the UK and
now works closely with many insurance
brokers, letting agents and trade networks.
solutions
Lucas Claims Solutions is a traditional
loss adjusting business set up in the mid
1980’s that joined forces with Service
Solutions Group in 2012 to bolster our
existing suite of services to the insurance
market. Lucas Claims Solutions provides
loss adjusting services across a range of
disciplines but predominantly focuses on
the insurance market. Similar to Service
Solutions Direct, Lucas Claims Solutions
often employ the services of Local Assist to
help out with emergency situations they
find on-site.
Concept
Building
Solutions
SURVEYING . VALIDATION . REPAIR NETWORK
Established the same year as Local Assist,
Service Solutions Direct provides a
claims validation and building repair
network to insurers, brokers, MGAs and
even high street retailers utilising directly
employed surveyors, restoration
technicians and a high quality
subcontractor network of tradespeople.
Service Solutions Direct handles
thousands of property claims each year
and often utilise the services provided by
Local Assist.
RESTORE
REPAIR
SOLUTIONS
Surface Medic, another franchise
network, is the newest addition to the
Service Solutions Group and is part of our
goal to offer a unique and complete
solution for our clients. Surface Medic is a
specialist repair and restoration service, its
purpose being to alleviate the cost and
hassle associated with traditional
replacement techniques. Our expertly
trained and highly qualified technicians, a
combination of franchisees and directly
employed staff, use high-tech products
and the latest cutting edge technology to
invisibly repair cracks, chips, scratches,
burns, holes and much more. We restore
wood, laminates, glass, plasterwork, tiles,
ceramics, plastics, UPVC, various colours of
brick and different types of stone
including granite. With common areas
including windows, doors, walls, flooring,
worktops, furniture and sanitary ware.
In the first 18 months of trading we have
put nearly 50 vans on the road providing
the service throughout the UK.
Lucas
Claims
Service
Solutions
Direct
Surface
Medic

WHY DO LOCAL ASSIST
FRANCHISE THE BUSINESS?
We know that people perform best when
they enjoy what they are doing. We know
that the best service is provided by those
people that receive both job satisfaction
from what they do but are also
incentivised to provide a great service and
care about their brand and reputation.
Franchising allows our franchisees to
benefit from our combined success and
because franchisees are not employees or
subcontractors but people wishing to
build and develop a business with a great
reputation we find they provide a much
higher quality service.
We believe that franchising provides us
with all of the above benefits and has
been the foundation upon which the
Service Solutions Group was built. We are
now in the process of creating a best in
class service by recruiting franchisees to
our Local Assist network of quality
tradespeople.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK
FOR IN A FRANCHISE?
Local Assist is tailored to satisfy all your
professional needs as a Franchisee and
provides all of the following tests of a
‘5-star’ franchise that you should look for:
1. A business that is proven to be
successful in an established format,
with a defined system, and a
distinctive name and appearance.
2. A business that is easily duplicated -
which means it can be set up in a
sufficient number of locations to
create a network of manageable and
profitable proportions.
3. A business that is easily learned in a
reasonable period of time by
someone with the required
knowledge, skills and attitude to fit
the desired franchisee profile.
4. A business that creates sufficient
profits to satisfy both the franchisor
and the franchisee.
5. A business that has, or can adapt to, a
culture of mutual support and trust.
In which the franchisor recognises his
or her responsibilities to assist
appropriately qualified people to
create and operate businesses using
a common brand and system.

THE FRANCHISE INDUSTRY
Beginning research on the franchising
industry in 1994, the British Franchise
Association (bfa), and NatWest, has been
building the most detailed long term
franchise survey in the world. The below
graphs support the statement that
franchising is less risky option than ‘going
it alone’ with turnover, profit, employment
and numbers of franchisors all on the rise.
The graphs were correct at the time of
printing and relate to franchise industry
performance up to 2015.

WHO ARE LOCAL ASSIST
LOOKING FOR AS
FRANCHISEES?
We are looking to recruit
experienced/qualified tradespeople across
all trades that would be involved in dealing
with domestic emergency works – this
includes plumbers, gas engineers, glazers,
drainage technicians, electricians, roofers,
plasterers, painters & decorators and handy
men/women. We are also interested in
providing franchise licenses to existing
businesses that can deal with high
volumes of work or multiple trades.
We are looking for people and firms that
put the customer first and are dedicated to
developing or growing their business and
reaping the rewards that this will bring.
Whether you are a tradesperson who
wishes to work alone, earn well and enjoy
your free time or build a multi van
operation and assume a management role
Local Assist could well be the helping hand
you are looking for.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE
FRANCHISE PACKAGE?
1. A Franchise Agreement providing
you with all the benefits of being part
of the Local Assist brand for a 5 year
term with an option to renew at
minimal cost.
2. The Local Assist Brand – Local
Assist is well known as one of the
leading providers of home
emergency and repair services to the
insurance industry working with
some of the biggest names, and you
will have the right to utilise this
valuable branding to promote your
business. A trusted name and brand
is becoming critical to the success of
many trade businesses as can be
demonstrated by the below:
Key findings from the 2014
Homeowner Survey, conducted
by YouGov, include:
• 58% of UK homeowners say they find it
difficult to find a tradesman they trust
to help with either home repairs or
improvements, with one in five (21%)
saying that it is “very difficult”
• Women are more likely than men to
find it “very difficult” to find a
tradesman they trust to help with either
home repairs or improvements. 24% of
female homeowners vs 17% of male
homeowners say they find it very
difficult to find a tradesman they trust

3. An Exclusive Franchise Territory -
for the trade(s) you can, or your firm
can do. This would be subject to you
being able to service the volume of
work available within agreed service
levels to the high standards
associated with Local Assist.
4. Work/Clients – this is the lifeblood
of any business and we are glad to
say that we have plenty of it. We
would provide you with home
emergency call out work at set rates
and dependent upon your trade(s)
we could also furnish you with
property maintenance and repair
work outside of the insurance arena.
5. Follow on Leads – this would be the
opportunity to undertake work for
our customers where they are not
covered by their insurance policy or
they just want other work doing.
6. Marketing Assistance – we will
assist you in crafting a slick and
effective marketing campaign in your
local area to drive more work to your
business.
7. Website – we will provide you with a
Local Assist branded local area
website to assist you in the
promotion of your business. We will
also assist and guide you in the use
of pay per click advertising (if you
require) and advice on making your
website rank highly in search engine
results. (via a 3rd party)
8. Training – although we expect you
to be competent in your chosen
trade(s) will provide you full training
and support on our systems and the
business model.
9. Quoting System – we have
developed a bespoke IT system that
allows our franchisees to manage
their diaries, jobs and invoicing
processes directly from your mobile
phone (smart phones only).
10. Van Livery – We mentioned
previously in this prospectus the
value of the Local Assist brand and
the importance we place on it. We
will provide you with the facility to
brand your vehicle(s) with the Local
Assist logo either as a stand-alone
brand or in conjunction with your
existing business branding.
11. Uniforms – similar to the van
branding we will also provide you
with an initial set of uniforms
displaying the Local Assist logo.
12. Diary System – our IT system boasts
a host of features to make your life
easier by reducing the amount of
administration you need to do
allowing you to focus on providing
the services that earn you money.
One of the most useful elements of
the system is the diary facility which
when coupled with our secretarial
service means you can have all of
your appointment and job details in
a simple to navigate and access App
on your phone.
13. Secretarial Service – we appreciate
that you may spend much of your
time ‘on jobs’ and are therefore
unavailable to take calls. We can
provide a call answering and
message service for you utilising our
Contact Centre in Preston.
14. Ongoing Support – we provide
ongoing support for all aspects of
operating your business from sales
and marketing through to systems
and finance, all at the end of a phone.
We also have field based support
resource who will be able to meet
with you in your local area for more
in depth support provision.
15. H&S Support – the safety of our
franchisees, staff and customers are
of the utmost importance and we
will ensure that you are provided
with the support you need to run a
safe and compliant business.

WHERE DO FRANCHISEES GET
THEIR WORK – WHAT IS THE
SIZE OF THE MARKET?
Our primary market is in home emergency
insurance claims where the number of
incidents that occur number in their
thousands per day. As one of the top
providers of home emergency claims
handling and fulfilment providers in the
UK we deal with a high volume of claims
that require repair works which our Local
Assist franchisees have the opportunity to
undertake. Once onsite dealing with the
initial emergency, additional work
opportunities present themselves with the
homeowner often requiring more work
doing than is covered by their home
emergency insurer.
A recent survey published in ‘The Voice’
magazine found that it typically costs 1%
of a property’s value to maintain and repair
it each year – see the below:
If an unexpected disaster happens in our
home, that usually means the solution will
involve money - and probably lots of it - to
fix what’s gone wrong. In an ideal world,
we’d have a little pot of cash stored away
for exactly these kinds of problems.
Housing experts agree that sensible
homeowners should allocate 1% of the
value of their property every year to
maintenance and property repair. With the
average house price in the UK being
£215,847, that means we should have a
home improvement and repair account to
the tune of £2,158.47 per year
Many people struggle to find a
tradesperson that they trust to do a good
quality job at a reasonable price. The Local
Assist brand provides the reassurance to
customers that they are dealing with an
organisation that puts their requirements
first and gives the peace of mind that they
are going to receive a first class service.
Below are more results of the survey
published by the ‘The Voice’:
100%
90% 11
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
5
26
38
20
Don’t know/NA
Not difficult at all
Not too difficult
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
% of UK homeowners
(sample size:1606)
WHAT CAN
FRANCHISEES EARN?
The earning potential for the Local Assist
franchise really depends on the effort you
are willing to invest into your new business
and the volume of work you are able to
undertake. Firms that are looking to
purchase a franchise license that have an
existing infrastructure with multiple
tradespeople able to undertake work are
obviously able to generate more turnover
than an individual working on their own.
We have prepared some prudent financial
forecasts based on a single individual who
can undertake emergency repair work for
Local Assist and promotes the business in
their local area in-line with our marketing
recommendations. The headline revenue
and gross profit are below:
Turnover: circa £40,000
for a single new territory
Gross Profit (after materials):
circa £35,000
These numbers have been prepared
assuming that a standard emergency call
out will provide you with a revenue of
£130 for each job and ‘follow on’ and
private works for customers driven
through either our leads or local area
marketing will generate £400 revenue per
job. The reality is that in many cases job
values are significantly higher than we
have quoted however we would prefer to
under promise and over deliver rather than
the other way around.
As well as the emergency insurance repair
work available through Local Assist’s clients
there is also an opportunity to undertake
work for other parts of the Service
Solutions Group which cover a wide range
of works from boiler services, building
repair work on commercial property, cavity
wall insulation installation and removal,
damp proofing, basement tanking and
property drying and restoration.

HOW DO I FIND
OUT MORE?
What are the next steps?
CONTACT US
If you find Local Assist interesting from what you
have read so far and believe that you are the sort of
dynamic franchisee we are looking for, simply:
Call the Franchise
Development Manager on:
0800 037 3752
Or write to us at:
inq@local-assist.co.uk
What happens then?
There’s no cost or obligation to find out more
about us.
We know this is an important decision for you, so
will help you in any way we can until you’re sure
Local Assist is right for you.
You can call us as often as you like, have as many
meetings as you want and come and see us as
many times as you need to help you make your
mind up, at no cost to you.

tel: 0800 037 3752 | email: inq@local-assist.co.uk
Solutions House, Fairways Office Park, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire PR2 9LF
www.local-assist.com