Yep, all that lovely summer weather has come to an end and the British skies are turning a much more familiar grey – suddenly it’s time to break out the rain coats and umbrellas again.
Anyone working in an outdoor business will already be hardened to this, but it is the sort of change which might give you pause for thought if you’re planning to start one yourself. For a business like Optic-Kleer, one big question comes to mind: can you actually repair a windscreen in the rain?
It’s a fair thing to wonder. The answer is a big “yes”, and the way the business is set up means the weather doesn’t have to stop you working.
Rain doesn’t stop the work
You’ve probably seen photos of an Optic-Kleer franchisee set up in a supermarket car park, working from under a smart branded gazebo. Most people see it purely as marketing – a good way to look professional and make sure customers know how to find you.
It also has a practical purpose, though. It keeps the car and the work area dry, allowing the franchisee to carry out repairs when the weather isn’t playing ball. A rainy forecast doesn’t mean a cancelled job or a lost afternoon – it simply means working under cover.
This isn’t the kind of business where you have to wait for a sunny day in order to earn money.
In fact, the weather actually creates more work
Windscreen damage doesn’t ease off when the skies open. Wet and changeable weather can make already poor road surfaces worse, while potholes, loose stone and debris all create opportunities for something to hit the car behind. That’s bad news for the average driver. For a windscreen repair business, though, it means the need for the service doesn’t disappear when the seasons change.
With more weather extremes predicted in the future, that demand is just going to keep on growing.
A cautionary tale
We were talking to Dan, our copywriter, the other day. He’s been working alongside us with Optic-Kleer for a while now, but it all stopped being just theory for him over the summer when a large piece of tarmac flew up from the road and hit his windscreen. It wasn’t a small chip that could simply be repaired, unfortunately. The impact caused radial cracks to spread almost immediately, leaving him needing a complete replacement.
He went through his insurer hoping for a quick turnaround. Instead, he was told he’d have to wait, simply because they were so busy – demand for windscreen work, they said, had gone through the roof. Three weeks later was the earliest slot they could find, right across every centre near him. Dozens of locations, all fully booked.
Two things stand out. The first is how fast a piece of road debris turns a windscreen into an expensive problem – one moment a barely noticeable mark, the next a full replacement.
The second is the sheer scale of the demand behind that three-week wait. Dozens of fully booked centres tell you just how much of this work is out there, and it’s growing all the time.
Caught early, it’s a much simpler problem
Dan’s windscreen was beyond saving by the time it cracked, but many aren’t. A chip caught early can usually be repaired in around 20 minutes, which is precisely the sort of convenient service an Optic-Kleer franchisee provides. A customer pulls into a supermarket car park, gets the repair done while they do their shopping, and carries on with their day.
The work isn’t dependent on sunshine, windscreens get damaged the whole year round, and the franchise has a practical way of dealing with the weather when it arrives. For an Optic-Kleer franchisee, rain simply means putting up the gazebo and getting on with the job. Where there’s a will – and a customer – there’s always a way.
Territories are still moving quickly this year, and if you’d like to find out whether one is available in your area, or simply talk through how the business works in the real world, we’d be glad to help.