Sarah Lamb, CEO of SP Screens, joined us for a brief chat at the Sydney Franchising & Business Opportunities Expo, August 2022.

We covered some of the key aspects of the SP Screens franchise business including the type of people that are best suited, any common misconceptions about the brand or industry, as well as what she loves about what she does and more..

What is your business?

“It's SP Screens and we're an Australian owned company owner operator here in Australia and we install and supply security screens, blinds and shutters to Australian homes.” 

Where are you located?

“We actually have 11 locations. We have eight franchises and and three company owned branches brought up from Brisbane north through right down to Canberra.” 

What do you love about the business and what you do?

“I’m one of those people that are very passionate about what we do. 

We spent four years building up to actually franchise our system, so getting all the processes right. 

And yeah, I just love that we know what works and we can offer a solution. It's 20 steps and if we can get everybody to follow those 20 steps, we know people can be successful.” 

What do you look for in the right-fit person to be a franchise owner, can you describe them?

“So we're looking for someone who has an eye for detail because they need to be able to measure to custom make security screen doors and blinds, etc. 

They've got to have some customer service experience and be able to communicate well with their customers and and someone who's willing to follow the process and who's also passionate about what they do.” 

What’s a common misconception you believe people have about your brand or niche?

“It's a good question, actually. I had to think about that one, probably their own capabilities of actually measuring and installing custom made products. So with the training that we provide, they can obviously overcome that quite quickly. 

But I think it's just yeah, the initial misconception that it might be a little bit too out of their skill, I guess you could say. Yes, that's probably the number one thing. Yeah. I would say.”

What would your advice or guidance be to people looking to get into their own business?

“You have to work out what I guess - what's your differentiator? How are you going to be different from, from, from anybody else in your industry? 

Yeah. Understand your market, set your own expectations… Yeah, I think it's just more about understanding what you really want out of it. It might be that you're looking for the dollar value in a return, but is it also something that you're going to love doing every day. So that's probably my bit of advice “

What is your key focus for the next 12-18 months?

“Next 12 to 18 months is we'd still like to to grow our footprint in Australia.

 But I think something that I'm really wanting to ensure that we continue to do is to invest in our existing franchises and actually grow their businesses because that's important to us, because not only do we want to expand our footprint, but the success of our existing franchisees, I guess priority.”