Despite the pandemic and many other challenges that 2021 presented, emerging franchise Runningboards Marketing® (RBM) has found a way to help businesses grow. How? The franchise drives clients’ messages to people using the brand’s digital-advertising vehicle, DAV®, pronounced Dave. By Nancy E. Williams
Despite the pandemic and many other challenges that 2021 presented, emerging franchise Runningboards Marketing® (RBM) has found a way to help businesses grow. How? The franchise drives clients’ messages to people using the brand’s digital-advertising vehicle, DAV®, pronounced Dave.
But RBM’s journey to success wasn’t easy.
Between the pandemic, vehicle chip shortages and supply chain issues, 2021 was a challenging year for RBM. “Our transits are custom-ordered from Ford, and for the last half of 2021, Ford wasn’t even taking orders for them. This really slowed down our ability to open new locations,” said RBM Chief Operating Officer Chris Mooney.
Even so, RBM was able to open 11 new locations in markets like Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Sarasota, and Baton Rouge. They’ve also started to deliver second DAVs to growing franchises.
Though experts expect the chip shortage to affect vehicle production across the board through 2023, RBM has developed relationships and has confirmed orders from Ford for enough chassis to reach its growth goals for 2022. CEO Calvin McNeely said, “Those wanting a Runningboards franchise will want to move quickly. It will be a great year, but eventually, we will run out of Fords.” Prospective franchise owners will be happy to learn that RBM is available in 47 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Additionally, RBM has purchased many of the hard-to-find components for building DAV and brought all of the upfitting in-house to help control quality and the brand’s timeline.
It takes more than chassis to grow a franchise, however. Franchisees also need a first-class support system for your franchisees. In addition to securing a fleet of 2022 Ford Transits, RBM is relaunching the RBM Garage, an online franchise support portal.
The RBM garage has everything franchisees need in it (except DAV). The Garage provides franchisees with training videos for the sales process, courses for RBM Velocity (the brand’s proprietary software), step-by-step procedures for troubleshooting DAV if it’s having a rough day, and administrative support for day-to-day operations.
Together, these elements put RBM in a strong position to make 2022 its best year yet.
Nancy E. Williams
Contact: rbm-franchise.com