FAQ

Our franchisees have a wide range of former backgrounds from working on a farm to doing corporate accounting to selling liquor to owning a book store.  Some have sales experience and some don’t, but they all have several factors in common that make them successful. They enjoy interacting face-to-face with their customers, figuring out how to turn a “no” into a “yes” opportunity, and achieving sales success. And our tried and true training program focuses on the sales process including prospecting, presentation, negotiations, closing and follow-up.

The modest investment amount is one of many things that entrepreneurs find appealing about Postcard Portables. The initial cost varies between $86,500 and $144,000 CAD, depending on whether or not you want to purchase your own printer and what the inventory requirements are in your market. Based on ROI and efficiencies, we suggest franchisees do their own printing once they have a certain volume of signs on the street (we’ll cover that when we speak to you about your specific market).  We recommend you have a net worth of at least $500,000 CAD to make sure you have working capital and sufficient capital for expansion.

The royalty fee is based on a floating scale over the term of the agreement, starting at 5% of sales or $250 CAD/month, whichever is greater. The advertising fee is 2% of sales.

As a Postcard Portables franchisee, you control pricing and have the liberty to adjust pricing whenever you need to do so. Many times, you will use a Postcard Portables rate card, established with the aid of our corporate team, and other times you will negotiate with your customers based on a variety of factors such as the number of signs, location of sign placement, terms, frequency of changes, permit costs, on-site versus off-site locations, etc.

Postcard Portables is a highly recognized and highly respected brand with tremendous customer loyalty that can provide you with reoccurring revenue. We are happy to discuss profitability forecasts with you during our phone interview (once it is established that you meet financial qualifications and we have entered into confidentiality). We will also encourage you to speak with our existing franchise owners on their experiences. While profitability relies on many factors, we pride ourselves on being a brand that is laser-focused on the ROI for its franchise owners.

On average, our franchisees are up and running their business within 60 to 90 days of signing their franchise agreement.

All of our agreements are for a period of 10 years. You have the option at any time to sell or transfer the franchise to another individual whom we both feel will represent the brand properly, someone who will maintain the reputation we have already established in the marketplace, and someone who has the financial capacity to fund the growth as well.

This is another great perk of Postcard Portables. Our franchisees typically work 8 hours per day during the week, adjusting their schedule as necessary to accommodate family commitments and other personal activities. Working on weekends is not required.

The morning is the best time for what we call “sacred selling” where you spend the first three hours of your day going out and talking to businesses in your community, letting them know who you are, what you do, and how you are able to help them advertise and promote. Face-to-face sales and cold calling are daily musts for at least the first few years until you have enough signs on the street to establish yourself as the go-to company in your market. A typical afternoon is spent working on additional sales calls by arranging meetings with people who weren’t in when you stopped by the first time or emailing prospects, posting decals, delivering and installing signs, picking up signs, writing contracts for sold customers, emailing graphic design work-orders to our design team, and performing customer follow-up. There is always plenty to do- especially if you are working alone initially.

We love multi-taskers! Many of our franchisees have been involved with other businesses at the same time they operate their Postcard Portables franchise. To be most successful however, we ask and require that at least one person is always working full-time in the business (40 hours per week).

One of the reasons we are a sought after franchise opportunity is because our business model is simple and easy to operate with a small staff. We recommend starting with one full-time salesperson, who is usually the franchise owner. To keep your costs down, we suggest hiring a full-time maintenance person once you have 20 to 30 signs on the street. Additional staff can be hired on an as needed basis.

Most of our franchisees work from home, meeting customers at their location. You will need a storage facility to store inventory and perform maintenance, as well as a vehicle, trailer, computer and mobile phone.

We have a two-pronged approach to set you up for success on your road to financial freedom. First, we provide you with extensive training customized to your level of experience at our corporate office in Regina, Saskatchewan. You are trained on all aspects of our business for 4 to 5 days. Once the initial inventory and materials you ordered arrives, our President and Operations Manager personally visit you to provide additional training and help with your grand opening launch. Then, you are ready to go.

Our corporate staff has your back 24/7 to assist you with design, production, collections, bylaws, permits, training, inventory management, and any other requests. Our stellar graphic design team exclusively supports you with a quick turnaround time and professionalism that is second to none. Our production staff assists you when you are first learning the business, and is always happy to help you understand the benefits of the various products we offer.

Yes! In order to effectively manage your home-based business and provide your clients with Postcard Portables’s unmatched customer service, you must reside within a distance we determine to be satisfactory – generally 30 minutes or less of a commute is acceptable.

We try and structure operations so that you have territory exclusivity. Only in markets greater than 200,000 people can there be an additional franchisee sharing the same territory.

We have found the owner/operator model to work best within Postcard Portables. Our franchisees have achieved sales success because they are hands-on in their exclusive markets. It is important for you to be involved in your home-based business, typically full time at the beginning. The beauty of our simple and easy business model is that you control your hours and as you build your base of reoccurring customers, you have more and more flexibility.