We’re Here, And We’re Wacky: A Retrospective on the Success of We Do Lines

I think we can all agree that those who attempted to launch their small business during the recession took an extra risk – some might even say an uncalculated risk. Sure, the concept may be viable, but even the most viable small businesses have had problems surviving over the past two years.

Perhaps the key to success is eccentricity. Perhaps it’s those recession-launched companies that are just a little funkier than the others that did the best job of sticking out, raising eyebrows, and creating a foundation for success, gaining market share once the economy starts picking back up.

At We Do Lines, that’s exactly what we did.

It all started one day in 2008, when three business partners had a rather strange problem. We needed to accomplish a simple task: get lines painted in our business parking lot, yet we could find no one to do it. We called a slew of companies who did parking lot line striping on the side, but most never even called back. That’s when we discovered that there was a very specific void to be filled, and decided to come together and revolutionize an industry.

What we saw was a need for a more professional, reliable and efficient business to paint all those much-needed lines in parking lots across the nation. For two years, the three of us striped parking lot lines from Maine to Florida, putting a face to the parking lot line striping industry. Who couldn’t remember a name like We Do Lines? Then, late last year, we decided to turn our new small business into a national franchise. Within four months of launching, we had already signed 6 territories with a pipeline full of future prospects from all over the country. We Do Lines is the first and only company to tap into this estimated $1 billion industry segment. The reason for our success? A wacky yet simple concept that would capture people’s attention and fill a need in an untapped market.

Now, the risk has more than paid off. When other industries are failing due to the recession, at We Do Lines we’ve doubled our growth and are planning on expanding our business nationwide using a new franchise model that’s currently being implemented quite successfully in Cleveland. We Do Lines is now in the process of signing on a whole new slew of franchisees across the country—anyone could be next!

The fact is, parking lots need lines. And that’s what we do.

How franchising has changed in the new economy: Q&A with Chris Couri of We Do Lines

Q: How have you adjusted your growth strategy in this economy?
We made a decision to seek Area Developers rather than single unit operators. In addition we targeted synergistic industries like painting, parking, paving and property management. Our model is a great “Bolt On” concept for most commercial service companies mainly because of the rapid scalability and low cost of entry. We have formed a National Supply and Support agreement with Sherwin Williams (click for link to press release) and strong relationships with national brands to inject additional value to our model and to support our franchisees. We utilize PR to drive business to our franchisees as well as to further promote the brand on a National level.

Q: Are franchisees more qualified now than ever before? Why or why not?
There is a large pool of potential franchisees available due to the economy, but only a small portion of these will be right for franchising. By focusing on pre-existing business owners we tend to get a more qualified candidate as they are already running small businesses. At WDL we insist that our candidates are well educated about the franchise industry. I feel that “An educated consumer is my best candidate.”

Q: Do you predict that franchising has changed from this point on? If so, how?
I absolutely believe that franchising has changed and will continue to morph due to the lack of financial liquidity in the marketplace. It is now much more difficult to get candidates funded. As a result, qualified franchise candidates with organic funding have the luxury to negotiate much stronger deals and have vast choices. There is more of a focus on promoting your brand and maximizing the leverage of all the avenues, both traditional, non-traditional, and digital.

Q: Anything else you think is interesting or important to know about franchising and/or We Do Lines in particular?
When considering whether to invest in a franchise, a candidate has to answer some common sense questions: Is there a marketplace for the franchised product or service in the area I intend to operate? Is the timing right for the product or service in that marketplace? Is it “on the economy?”

The second thing in the timing fork is the “man in the mirror” calculation. Is this the right time in my life to take on this challenge? Do I have the necessary equities to succeed in the business model? To be successful, each candidate must possess four personal equities:

1. Intellectual. You have to be smart enough to be able to run a small business.

2. Sweat. You have to work harder for yourself that you ever worked for someone else.
3. Intestinal. You have to have the guts to invest in yourself.
4. Actual. You have to be able to afford to capitalize the business.

These equities back up on each other. You need the actual funds to start the business, the guts to invest the funds, the sweat to make sure every dime works for you, and the intellectual smarts to choose wisely where to invest your funds. A responsible franchisor must assist the candidate to discover whether he is the right fit for the model and in possession for the necessary equities. At We Do Lines, we take seriously the notion that the franchise is ‘awarded rather then sold.’ This presumes a large degree of ‘want to’ by the franchisee and willingness to judge the opportunity realistically.

We Do Lines highlighted in the Hartford Business Journal

The Hartford Business Journal recently published an article on everything We Do Lines including how the concept was developed, why it was developed, the growth of the franchise, and how to become a franchise owner. The story was built from interviews with the executive team: Chris Couri (CEO), Dan Rella (CFO) and Tom Darrow (COO). Currently, We Do Lines has six franchises in Connecticut, the Cleveland area and west and central Florida. The goal is to open 200 franchises over the next three years. Check out a portion of the article below or click here to read the full article.

Idle Thought Yields Plan For Painting Franchise

Three years ago, Chris Couri, Tom Darrow and Dan Rella were commercial landscapers with too much time on their hands. One workless day in the winter, an idea occurred to the longtime Ridgefield residents. They were staring at the faded lines of a parking lot when they started thinking, who’s out there repainting all these stripes?

That thought led them to start a business they named We Do Lines, which has gone from “zero to six franchises” in the past six months, said Darrow, noting line stripping is a $700 million industry in the U.S.

The We Do Lines franchises are in Connecticut, Ohio and west and central Florida. Over the next three years, the owners plan to have nearly 200 franchises across the country.

“Tom came up with line striping. We knew nothing about it, so we started researching. We called a dozen line strippers in the area and no one really got backTom Darrow, one of the co-founders of We Do Lines, works the line striping equipment to update a parking lot. to me. I got the feeling that it was fragmented, that no one treated it like a business,” said Rella.

With a $20,000 investment, the three partners were able to start a business by reaching out to their landscaping customers, many of whom hired them immediately to paint the lines of their businesses’ parking lots. The team also developed an unusual marketing plan. They began painting customer’s parking lot lines during daytime hours as a way to stir up interest in their business.

“Immediately, we started getting interest from people who have never seen a line stripper. Not too many people know line strippers because they’re done at night. What we started to do is create a buzz with our logo, name on the truck,” said Rella. “As a part-time business, we hit solid numbers, validating why it could be full-time. That’s when we decided to start a franchise model. We started hard selling those in October.” (Read More)

We Do Lines Enters Into Strategic Partnership with Sherwin-Williams

Parking Lot Striping Start-Up Teams Up with Leading Coatings Manufacturer

RIDGEFIELD, CONN. – We Do Lines USA, Inc., the nation’s first parking lot striping franchise, and Sherwin-Williams, a leading supplier of paints and coatings, have formed a strategic partnership. Through the partnership, Sherwin-Williams will be the primary paint supplier to We Do Lines franchisees, providing training, supplies and expert knowledge of the markets where both companies do business.

According to Chris Couri, President of We Do Lines, the parking lot line striping market is vast and virtually untapped. In fact, in the United States, there are an estimated 50 million parking spaces representing a $1 billion parking lot striping segment of a $29 billion parking lot industry.

“For a service with such high demand, we have created a concept that is efficient, reliable and socially responsible through our Lines for Charity program,” said Couri.

“Sherwin-Williams offers a broad range of pavement marking solutions for any demanding application or ambient condition,” said Richard May, Sherwin-Williams national account manager. “Sherwin-Williams products and We Do Lines’ franchise concept are ideally suited to provide solutions to organizations in need of fast-drying, durable and environmentally responsible parking lot striping services.”

The partnership will position We Do Lines for further growth and development. Working with North America’s largest single-source paint and coatings supplier lends tremendous quality recognition and brand power to the company.

We Do Lines Growth

We Do Lines has sold six territories since its launch as a franchise only nine months ago and they continue to have a pipeline full of qualified prospects.

In February 2008, Couri, Tom Darrow, and Dan Rella, noticed that while their collective 50 years of business experience came in different industries, their match culturally paved their idea to redefine a broken and rough industry with top-tier customer service and a meticulous attention to detail. With efficient systems in place, and a very strong first location, We Do Lines plans to expand nationally with a goal of reaching the 100-unit mark within the next three years.

We Do Lines Revolutionizes Parking Lot Striping Industry; Selects Cleveland for Newest Opening

After Successfully Proving its Methodology with Service from Maine to Florida, Connecticut Company Expands to Cleveland

With over 500 million parking spaces across America, it makes one wonder exactly who is responsible for painting all of the lines in parking lots. We Do Lines, USA Inc. is the first national parking lot line striping company and Cleveland entrepreneur Tim Janasek has launched a We Do Lines franchise servicing the Greater Cleveland area.

Northeast Ohio, like all major metropolitan markets, has a significant quantity of parking lots that require annual line striping to maintain safety and functionality. The We Do Lines brand and business model provides Janasek, a 25-year sales and marketing management professional, with the perfect independent business opportunity to provide a valuable service to an industry that requires professionalism, reliability, quality work and a customer first mentality.

“A business owner knows that the parking lot is their welcome mat. It is the first and last impression of their business to visitors, customers and employees,” said Janasek. “Business owners also realize their parking lot is a high insurance liability risk. Worn or faded pavement markings reduce the safety of their lot and increase their liability risk. Line striping on an annual basis is a economical way to maintain a clean, safe and functional parking lot that yields a high return on their investment.”

We Do Lines is known for their professionalism, reliability and quality of parking lot striping and seeks franchisees who are able to operate the machinery, and additionally a businessperson who understands scalability, networking, and growing a business for themselves.

“Tim Janasek exemplifies all of these characteristics,” said Chris Couri, co-founder of We Do Lines. “Janasek is a perfect fit for We Do Lines and we are confident that he will prove to be an asset to We Do Lines. Janasek will become completely ingrained in the community, while playing a significant role in the continuous development and growth of the We Do Lines brand.”

Franchisee Profile: Tim Janasek

Franchisee Since: March 2010
Franchise Location/s: Cleveland, OH

How Tim Janasek Got Started With We Do Lines…

A 25-year veteran of the sales and marketing industry, Tim found himself without a job because of cutbacks and layoff’s his company was making. Tim’s brother, David, lives in Ridgefield, CT, where We Do Lines is based, and noticed several newspaper articles about the We Do Lines concept in local newspapers. David knew a few of the We Do Lines founders from another business in the area and was really interested in their most recent business concept, We Do Lines. David had mentioned the idea to Tim as an alternative business opportunity as a result of being laid off. Tim’s interest was piqued immediately and he reached out to We Do Lines.

After several months of research on We Do Lines and the demand for parking lot striping services in Cleveland, Tim realized the We Do Lines proposition of an untapped market held true in northeastern Ohio. With the sheer volume of parking lots throughout Cleveland and the surrounding communities, Tim knew that sometime or another, all parking lots need to be striped, and he jumped on the opportunity to bring We Do Lines to the Cleveland market for the very first time.

What Intrigued Tim Janasek about We Do Lines…

Because of the infrastructure put into place for entrepreneurs to buy into the We Do Lines franchise concept, Tim immediately saw the growth potential of We Do Lines throughout Cleveland. We Do Lines has taken the line striping segment of the parking industry to a national level, and with We Do Lines’ national presence, Tim is able to grow as a business owner.

As a franchisee of We Do Lines, Tim has become part of a family where he is able to solely concentrate on running the business and interacting with customers, while the We Do Lines corporate team handles all of the billing from a centralized command center.

Something Interesting About Tim Janasek’s Story…

Tim has three brothers and a sister, all of whom have come together to invest in the We Do Lines franchise. Together they have created an infrastructure within their franchise to help them grow as business owners. Tim will be the Managing Director and run the business from Cleveland. David, in Ridgefield, CT, is the Vice President of Sales; Robert in Brentwood, TN is the Director of Marketing; Mark in Cleveland, OH is the Treasurer and Nancy in Lindhurst, OH is the President. Together, Tim and his siblings have created Janasek Family Partnership.

Tim has three children, Timmy, a 20-year old sophomore at Miami University of Ohio, Joey, an 18-year old freshman at the University of Dayton and Annie Rose, a seventh grader.

Where Specifically Did Tim Janasek Learn About We Do Lines?

Tim learned about We Do Lines through his brother, David, who lives in Ridgefield, CT. David knows a few of the We Do Lines founders and began speaking to them about the franchise concept, before introducing Tim to the idea. Tim had been looking for an alternative business opportunity after being laid off from corporate America and We Do Lines was the perfect solution.

We Do Lines Revolutionizes Parking Lot Striping Industry; Selects Cleveland for Newest Opening

After Successfully Proving its Methodology with Service from Maine to Florida, Connecticut Company Expands to Cleveland

With over 500 million parking spaces across America, it makes one wonder exactly who is responsible for painting all of the lines in parking lots. We Do Lines, USA Inc. is the first national parking lot line striping company and Cleveland entrepreneur Tim Janasek has launched a We Do Lines franchise servicing the Greater Cleveland area.

Northeast Ohio, like all major metropolitan markets, has a significant quantity of parking lots that require annual line striping to maintain safety and functionality. The We Do Lines brand and business model provides Janasek, a 25-year sales and marketing management professional, with the perfect independent business opportunity to provide a valuable service to an industry that requires professionalism, reliability, quality work and a customer first mentality.

“A business owner knows that the parking lot is their welcome mat. It is the first and last impression of their business to visitors, customers and employees,” said Janasek. “Business owners also realize their parking lot is a high insurance liability risk. Worn or faded pavement markings reduce the safety of their lot and increase their liability risk. Line striping on an annual basis is a economical way to maintain a clean, safe and functional parking lot that yields a high return on their investment.”

We Do Lines is known for their professionalism, reliability and quality of parking lot striping and seeks franchisees who are able to operate the machinery, and additionally a businessperson who understands scalability, networking, and growing a business for themselves.

“Tim Janasek exemplifies all of these characteristics,” said Chris Couri, co-founder of We Do Lines. “Janasek is a perfect fit for We Do Lines and we are confident that he will prove to be an asset to We Do Lines. Janasek will become completely ingrained in the community, while playing a significant role in the continuous development and growth of the We Do Lines brand.”