Case Study: Ecowash Goes Global

The bright orange shirts do come with another advantage. When wearing them, each employee is compliant with occupational health and safety guidelines. This ensures they are easily visible and safer in garages and carparks.

Image is important to the business, but so is demonstrating the quality and convenience of their service, and the partners have a simple approach to marketing. “We think the best way of getting out there and showing people what it is that Ecowash does, is actually getting out there and showing them,” says Nicholls. “We know what our targets are, and the sorts of companies, fleets, government departments, and consumers that are likely to use our service. The marketing overseas has really been no different to here.”

Somewhat unexpectedly, using this marketing approach to convince customers of the quality of the clean has actually been easier overseas. The benefits of the Ecowash clean weren’t questioned in the Middle East, and the offering was accepted in the US and Europe soon after being demonstrated. It was not nearly this easy in Australia. “Most people don’t understand or realise these sorts of things are possible. Once they see it, and experience it, then obviously they enjoy the service. Not only from a cleaning perspective, but also from a convenience perspective,” explains Nicholls. “We’re now in a position where we have a lot of credibility in Australia, and that’s taken quite a while.”

Export Hurdles

“Setting up companies in another country can be difficult. You need to gain the right advice,” says Nicholls, adding that everything takes longer to do, especially when you don’t speak the language.

Naturally, the pair work with export partners who can speak English as well as the official language of the country they are exporting to. “From that perspective it actually is quite easy to deal with them, but when it gets down to showing them how to train staff, and things like that, there still can be a language barrier. But when you’re involved with good people those sorts of things can be sorted out quite easily.”

Nicholls and Cornish have also had to deal with copycat businesses. “Some people have tried to start a similar business to ours, but they usually fall by the wayside,” says Nicholls. “We were the first of our kind in Australia, and when someone’s trying to look at your model and replicate that, there are some key fundamentals they don’t start with.”

Ecowash’s greatest barrier when exporting is the differences in each country’s legal system, especially in the US. “Here we have the Franchising Council of Australia. We also have the Franchising Code of Conduct, which is the ACCC’s trade practices act for franchising. That gives everyone a balanced approach, everyone knows where they stand, everyone knows what format they’ve got to go through in terms of disclosure.” Having been accustomed to this system, the difficulties in setting up a master franchise in the US came as a shock. “In America every state has their own set of rules, so it’s been quite difficult to actually find out what all the different state regulations are.” But this wasn’t the only difficulty Nicholls and Cornish faced in the US. They were also surprised when finding themselves unable to open a bank account. “You can’t actually open a bank account unless you’re a US citizen,” explains Nicholls. “Something as simple as that, if that proves to be difficult, then a lot of people throw their hands up in the air and just walk away. You’ve got to have the resolve to get to the bottom of those issues.” So how did they solve this and other problems? By hiring a good US attorney who was familiar with franchising legislation. Now with their own in-house attorney as well, the duo believe they have their bases covered in the US, as well as in other export markets. “It’s got to be handled by someone who knows the legal issues of operating in a country. You’ve got to actually go through the proper channels,” says Nicholls.

Their persistent approach has paid off, and Ecowash is gaining increasing acknowledgement for its achievements. “Last year was easily the biggest in terms of recognition,” says Cornish. “In September we received the 2007 Australian Business Award for the enterprise in our industry category and were named the 2007 Franchise Council of Australia Emerging Franchise System of the Year (NSW/ACT).”