Case Study: Rent A Bod

Representing the North-West of England and meeting HRH Prince Charles and the Chancellor of the Exchequer at West Minister on 15th May 2008, Rent a Bod has achieved a remarkable degree of success as a property and small animal hotel business. The main prominent features for the business are customer care and growth.

Background to Rent A Bod : Inception & Set Up

The owner-managers of Rent A Bod, Craig and Victoria are both graduates who were unable to find employment, despite their academic achievements. They in turn, used their creativity and energy to establish a successful small venture which enabled them to use self-employment as a route to work. The business was established in 2005, shortly after the couple graduated from Liverpool John Moores University. Craig’s degree was in Sport Science, while Victoria studied Criminology. The couple always wanted to work together but could not combine their distinct degrees to achieve that goal. Inspired by a soap star from Emmerdale, one evening, the idea of establishing a small venture was conceived.

“One of the soap stars in Emmerdale was running a business involved with jobs such as painting, gardening and pet care. She was earning a lot of money just sitting behind a desk all day, coordinating work contracts and employing staff to carry out the work - we thought we could do that”

The business provides bespoke property maintenance services as well as running a small animal hotel. With a start-up loan from Princess Trust and a grant from Fresh Start, Craig and Victoria managed to pay for equipment, a vehicle and advertising costs. Rent A Bod has become a reliable family run business, which takes the hassle out of everyday living by satisfying customer needs, be it domestic or commercial clients. The property maintenance aspect of business includes interior and exterior refurbishment as well as general cleaning. This is complemented by gardening services which involve managing a complete makeover, from designing to completion of the work. For clients whose gardens are already established, Rent A Bod can offer regular maintenance services.

Furthermore, Rent A Bod runs a small animal hotel and is expanding to include a cattery. Animal boarding is popular with pet owners and is regarded as an alternative to kennels. Craig and Victoria give special attention to individual pets and thus leaving owners to go on holiday without any worries regarding the welfare of their pets. The proprietors are proud of the service they offer, and the business is growing at a faster rate with the animal hotel forming part of the expansion plan.

Company Set Up: Sole traders (Owner-Managers, Craig and Victoria). Description: Rent A Bod provides bespoke property maintenance and pet care services. The property side of business involves both interior and exterior maintenance, while the pet care is involved with providing boarding facilities for small animals and birds. Products: currently – bespoke property maintenance services and a pet hotel. Future: in the process of establishing a cattery. Trading: Since Test trading – 2005. Full establishment –2006. Turnover: £36,000. Contact www.rentabod.co.uk

The Marketing Approach

The proprietors are quite aware of their market, from their simple marketing technique of dropping leaflets to newspaper advertisements and high profile promotional events. The preliminary research that Craig and Victoria conducted as a pilot supported the fact that the demand for the service is continuing to grow. The research confirmed that shifts in lifestyle are having a positive effect on the domestic market as consumers are increasingly leading hectic lives due to professional commitments and thus resent spending their leisure time on household chores. As a result, it was noted that consumers often become dependent on these services while regarding them as essential rather than luxury.

Increasing customer satisfaction is a top priority according to Rent A Bod. Focusing on acquiring and retaining customers has improved profitability and helped the business to achieve a faster rate of growth. The proprietors have applied different marketing techniques to promote the service including, advertising in newspapers, website and leaflets. However, quite a substantial number of contracts are generated through word of mouth and promotional events as the company recognises that it can use its flexible and quality service as an opportunity to set itself apart from competitors. In addition, Rent A Bod benefits more from the testimonials of repeat customers.

“Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and it’s also the cheapest because it doesn’t cost a penny. We make sure that our customers are more than happy, for instance we have more than 300 customers and they all receive Christmas cards from us. That way our clients feel appreciated and that’s how they are keen to refer people to us.”

In order to grow the property maintenance arm of the business faster, Rent A Bod actively promoted this aspect of the business in the commercial sector, negotiating sub-contracts with larger property maintenance companies, particularly those involved in new build properties and letting units. In addition, Housing Associations have been targeted and are also major clients, with contracts involving cleaning and maintaining communal areas around the properties. This approach has proved to be phenomenally successful.

The business previously reached a position where it could turn away clients because the increased demand could not be met by existing capacity at that point. The business has grown at a faster rate than initially anticipated and the proprietors are strategically focusing on hiring staff on apprenticeship basis as a long term plan. In the meantime, the company has to counteract the problem by hiring more casual labourers to alleviate the pressure. However, the company faces the challenge of staff turn over as some of its permanent employees have already moved on to start their own businesses after learning the skills of running a successful business.

Customer Responsiveness

Rent A Bod’s customer care approach is designed to ensure that the company provides excellence by putting the customer first. It is at the heart of what Craig and Victoria do.

“Care is a theme that runs through everything that the company does. A service cannot be seen or touched, only experienced. We provide the personal touch that makes the customer comfortable. It is essential that we never regard our customers as ‘people we have to deal with’ but as valuable clients. We must define our customers as our strategic priority. To achieve this we feel concern for, and interest in our customers.”

Being more responsive to customers began with a shift in attitude of the owner-managers, as they now regard spending on customer service on small things such as Christmas Cards can pay dividends in the end.

"We are not suggesting that companies spend without regard for their usual investment rules, but investing to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty is just good business."

Growth

Craig and Victoria believe that they have got their business off to a flying start, more so with the pet aspect of business. The couple is now getting more work than they can handle despite increasing the staff complement. Most of their customers are ‘regulars’ and a faster rate of growth is being achieved through pet care hence the plans to expand the animal hotel to include a cattery. The couple are pleased with their decision to expand the business despite the usual financial constraints anticipated with a project of that magnitude. However Craig and Victoria believe that:

“The worst possible decision you can make as an entrepreneur is no decision at all. Problems can be fixed, mistakes can be corrected, but no ‘excellence’ can come out of inertia.”

Success Stories

Rent A Bod had been featured in the Small Business Guide Magazine in the summer edition 2007. The success of the company has been recognised on the Radio City - ‘Citytalk programme at 105’ with Simon O’Brien on 19th April 2008 as winner of the Business Link Best Entrepreneur award. But most all Rent A Bod’s greatest moment came when the entrepreneurs represented the North West of England at the Princes Trust business show case at Westminster in London. Craig and Victoria had the opportunity to meet Prince Charles and the Chancellor of Exchequer.

“His Royal Highness and the chancellor were most impressed with our business and thought it was a great idea, they congratulated us on all our hard work and dedication to the business. It is amazing to note how that high profile event has helped us to promote the business soon after the photos were published on our web site".

Summary

Craig and Victoria are managing directors of Rent A Bod, which started from humble beginnings but now has steady turnover through providing quality property maintenance and running a successful small animal hotel. The family business has achieved incredible success through implementing well thought through strategies. Rent A Bod’s success is down to its customer responsiveness approaches and forward thinking. The effort and commitment has been well recognised as the client base for the business is expanding rapidly. However, the proprietors understand the challenges involved with self employment.

“Working for yourself is extremely hard work, but don’t put off something that you enjoy doing. The idea has to be something that one can get teeth into. We are now working full time with all the profits from the business in our pockets and not somebody else’s. This truly makes self-employment satisfying. To get ahead, don’t be afraid of making mistakes”.

Intervention: Establishing Bigger premises. Issues Faced: Funding. Resolutions: Loans and Grants. Future Plans: Expansion. Potential Issues: Limited Financial Resources, Staff Turn Over and dealing with rapid expansion.