Why Would Anyone Pay a Franchise Fee to Put Up Fences?

By Tam Goldsmith

76 FENCE is franchising a business anyone can start independently. That makes the value of its system worth examining.

There is no secret product and customers already know what a fence does. As 76 FENCE expands across the US, prospective owners have to decide whether its systems can justify paying for a business they could start themselves.

By Sean Goldsmith

You do not need a franchise to start a fencing company. An independent operator can find suppliers, hire installers, advertise locally and start quoting for work without paying a franchise fee or royalties.

That makes the expansion of 76 FENCE worth examining. The company recently entered Colorado and Wyoming with regional developer and franchise owner Jason Smith, shortly after announcing another deal covering South Carolina’s Lowcountry and the greater Savannah area. These are experienced businesspeople putting their money into a franchise operating in a trade that has supported independent contractors for generations.

For anyone considering the franchise, there is an obvious question. What does 76 FENCE provide that is worth paying for?

You Could Build This Business Without Them

The challenge for 76 FENCE is shared by many home-service franchises. There is no proprietary consumer product at the centre of the business, and customers have plenty of independent contractors to choose from.

Starting alone also has financial advantages. The owner keeps control of the brand, chooses suppliers and sets prices without paying ongoing franchise fees. If the company becomes successful, more of the revenue stays within the business.

The difficulty is getting from a newly registered company to a reliable local operation that makes money.

A fencing business needs a steady supply of enquiries, accurate quotes, materials bought at the right price and installation crews that turn up when expected. Jobs have to be scheduled efficiently, permits may need to be handled and customers need to pay. Poor estimating can wipe out the margin on a job, while bad installation can mean paying a crew to return and fix it.

An independent owner has to build those processes while also trying to find customers. That is the problem a fencing franchise should be solving.

76 FENCE Has to Earn Its Fees

76 FENCE says its franchisees receive training in operating systems, marketing, sales and fulfilment, followed by ongoing operational and local marketing support. The company also provides protected territories and works with franchisees on material pricing and supplier arrangements.

Those services sound useful, but buyers should establish what they produce in practice. Existing franchisees can tell them how quickly they started generating enquiries, what leads cost, whether supplier arrangements improved purchasing and how long it took to establish a dependable installation operation.

The comparison should then be made against starting independently. Building your own website, sales process, customer management system, supplier network and marketing operation also costs money. Mistakes in estimating, hiring or customer acquisition can cost considerably more.

If 76 FENCE helps an inexperienced owner avoid those mistakes and reach a functioning business faster, the fees become easier to justify. The value has to show up in the operation rather than simply in the branding.

You Do Not Need to Be a Fence Installer

The backgrounds of some of the people joining 76 FENCE help explain who the franchise is trying to attract.

Jason Smith brings experience in real estate, sales, marketing and business ownership. Rhett Williamson, who is taking the brand into South Carolina’s Lowcountry and greater Savannah, has an operations background. Founder Patrick Brouillette also came from outside the fencing trade, with experience in digital marketing before starting the company in 2020.

The model therefore opens the business to people who know how to manage sales, staff, cash flow and customers without requiring them to arrive as experienced installers.

That is an important part of the franchise proposition. A tradesperson who already has suppliers, crews, customers and years of fencing experience may see less reason to pay for a system. An experienced manager entering the industry for the first time has a different calculation to make.

For that buyer, learning how to operate a fencing company without first spending years in the trade could have considerable value.

The Customer Will Still Judge the Local Operator

Franchising does not remove the local nature of the business. Customers still expect somebody to answer the phone, arrive when promised, quote accurately and install the fence properly.

A recognised brand and marketing system may help generate enquiries, but the franchisee has to turn those enquiries into satisfied customers. Poor workmanship will damage the local business regardless of how good the franchisor's systems are.

This is also where a strong franchisee can build real value. Reliable installation, sensible communication and good customer service can produce referrals and repeat work for repairs, maintenance and staining. Over time, the operator can establish a local reputation while continuing to use the systems and purchasing relationships provided by the franchisor.

76 FENCE therefore has to do two things well. It needs to give new owners a better starting point, then give them enough freedom and support to build a strong local operation.

So Is the Franchise Worth Paying For?

There is nothing ridiculous about questioning the economics of buying a franchise in a straightforward trade. Anyone considering 76 FENCE should compare the full cost of joining the system with the cost and difficulty of building the same capabilities independently.

That comparison may actually work in the brand's favour. 76 FENCE is attracting businesspeople who do not necessarily have years of fencing experience, and its recent expansion suggests those owners see value in entering the industry with an established operating system behind them.

The next test will happen in the new territories. If these franchisees can find customers, manage crews, control costs and build profitable local businesses faster than they could have done independently, 76 FENCE will have a strong answer to the question posed by its own business model.

Franchisees are not paying somebody to teach them what a fence is. They are paying for a faster route into the business of selling and installing them profitably. If 76 FENCE can consistently deliver that, the simplicity of the service could become one of the brand's strengths.

What We Can Learn From This

Buyers considering a franchise in a traditional trade should compare its total fees with the cost of creating the same capabilities themselves. That means examining customer acquisition, supplier pricing, training, estimating, technology and the time required to build a reliable operation. 76 FENCE has an attractive proposition for capable businesspeople who want to enter fencing without spending years learning the industry first. Strong performance from its new operators would provide the clearest evidence that the system is worth paying for.

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