Rent-A-Husband founder Kaile Warren is changing the face of the handyman
industry with his unique approach to home repair.
Tales of successful entrepreneurs are always inspiring, but
few are more compelling than the classic journey from rags-to-riches. Some
concepts are priceless, and Kaile Warren discovered that creating a husband who
will never say "no" to home maintenance is one of them. Indeed, Warren,
founder of Rent-A-Husband, is
changing the face of a fragmented handyman industry with his unique approach to
home repair.
Warren is no stranger to construction. His parents were both
in the business, so his calling came early. Warren, a Maine native, began
working alongside his father when he was just eight years old and would grow up
to operate a successful home-remodeling company of his own. Spending extended
periods of time working in clients' homes, Warren says he noticed how
frequently married couples bickered over doing household chores and began to
consider how he could capitalize on this apparent need.
But before he figured out how to revolutionize the handyman
industry, Warren's life would shift gears dramatically. In 1994, he suffered
serious injuries from an automobile accident that forced him to trade in a
successful career in home building for two years of physical therapy. During
that time, his medical bills bankrupted him, his wife divorced him, and he
found himself living in a Portland, Maine, warehouse with nothing but a sofa, a
stove and a few hundred dollars to his name. Warren was near the end of his
rope, and he says he prayed for a miracle.
Warren's godsend came in the form of a marketing concept
that would garner the attention of consumers and the media alike by
transforming an industry with a reputation for poor customer service back into
a positive experience for homeowners. What started out as a one-man operation
has quickly expanded into a multinational corporation. And while Warren prefers
not to reveal how much of the $9 billion home repair and improvement market he
has captured, it is clear that his cutting-edge concept is gaining ground as
Rent-A-Husband franchises continue to spring up across the nation and around
the globe.
Warren is the epitome of an overnight success; that is to
say, he dreamed up the Rent-A-Husband theme during the night and awoke with the
knowledge that would again change his life - this time for the better.
"I remember so vividly ... I woke up at 3:00 one
morning, and I had this 'rent a husband for those jobs that never get done'
idea." He says he wrote it down on a piece of scrap paper and went back to
sleep. But at sun-up, he began pursuing the notion. "It was such a strong
feeling that I had about it. I looked at my life, and I said, 'I'm broke, I'm
all alone, and I'm almost 40 years old. What do I have to lose?'"
In May 1996, Warren established Rent-A-Husband's
headquarters in Portland and immediately sought trademark protection on the
name, a process he says was both time- and capital-intensive. The company has
since acted as a self-propelled marketing vehicle for his wide range of
home-improvement skills.
"Up until three years ago I had no idea that one of my
major strengths was marketing; I never even thought about marketing," says
Warren.
But Warren says he did think long and hard about the tools
he would need to reconstruct the handyman industry. "So many people in
construction will [target] anybody out there. I think if you can designate a
specific market, you can focus all of your marketing energies on attracting
that one specific market," explains Warren. He decided to target females
between the ages of 20 and 60, and says he's tried to put himself "inside
the heads" of women to determine what their concerns and problems are with
the handyman industry. The result is a system of doing business that puts the
fun back into home improvement - starting with the name and continuing with
professional, affordable service wrapped up in an entertaining theme.
Warren understood his target market when he founded
Rent-A-Husband. "I've found that once you get into a lady's head and win
her heart over, you have an ally there for life," he reveals. His next
task would be building a client base for the fledgling company.
Due to the breakup of his own marriage, Warren was familiar
with a local support group for divorced women. So he paid a visit to the ladies
there with a handmade flier that read, "Need A Husband? Obviously. Why not
rent me?" and included his company name and phone number. "I received
like 50 calls from that. And I think that was the very first time that I really
thought or knew there was something special about this company, just to see the
response that it got," he marvels.
Within two weeks, Warren says Rent-A-Husband was the talk of
the town, and he found himself busy performing a wide range of household
chores, from laundry to home additions, at a rate of $25 an hour. The buzz
quickly caught the attention of a local off-beat reporter and from there, the
media has adopted this company as an inspirational feature story.
A natural-born marketer, Warren recognized the potential of
the media to spread the word about his distinctive business concept. From his
warehouse apartment, he wrote his own press release and began courting the
national television media with incredible success.
"I had no idea what a press release looked like; I just
called it a press release," admits Warren. "I explained the concept
of the company, and I explained what market I thought would be intrigued by the
story and why." He mailed out about 75 releases to every TV show he could
think of. "First, The Maury Povich Show picked it up, then The Tonight
Show picked it up. So I kept sending out press releases, and the thing has just
snowballed."
Since then, Rent-A-Husband has been featured in more than 35
national and international magazines and has received television exposure more
than 20 times. And Warren boasts he hasn't spent one dime on advertising.
"The media has carried this business right to the top of the
industry," he says.
But this is just the beginning for Warren. In 1999 his first how-to book, "The Official
Rent-A-Husband Guide to a Safe and Problem-Free Home," was released by
Doubleday in September with public appearances on The Oprah
Winfrey Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Live with Regis & Kathie Lee and
20/20. Further, Steve Tisch Productions, of Forrest Gump fame, is negotiating a
Rent-A-Husband feature film, recounting Warren's life story on the silver
screen. The film is tentatively scheduled for nationwide distribution in
December, and Warren says Doubleday is already talking about a sequel to his
not-yet-released how-to book. The home-improvement guru has even been
approached by "Tool Time," one of America's most popular sitcoms, to
discuss the possibility of a guest appearance with funny man Tim Allen.
Warren admits he is proud of his company's success in
dealing with the media. "If it was just a catchy gimmick, and it had a
news flash and went away, it would be one thing; but I think it speaks volumes
for how many people out there need a good, dependable, honest service, and that
demand is just not getting met," he explains.
Marketing has proven to be a phenomenal growth strategy for
Rent-A-Husband.
After obtaining a trademark on the company name, Warren was
able to pursue the franchising concept in late 1997. And, like everything else
surrounding Rent-A-Husband, success in franchising came quickly and Warren
reports inquiries have been plentiful from the beginning. "To date, I have
received over 1,500 franchise inquiries nationwide from my exposure with the
national media," says Warren. "I know the media can have a negative
influence on people, but boy when it gets behind you in a positive way it can
really carry you to the top in a hurry."
Rent-A-Husband now boasts 26 franchises in the U.S. and two
in England, with an average of two franchise sales per month. Additionally,
there are Italian and Korean Rent-A-Husbands in the works, demonstrating that
the idea is not strictly limited to the American culture.
Warren sells Rent-A-Husband franchises for $20,000 for every
100,000 in population and also receives 5 percent revenue royalties and 1
percent national advertising royalties. But Warren says it takes money to make
money, and he's now hoping to generate the interest of investors to accelerate
the growth of his young company. Warren's not complaining, but the
do-it-yourselfer says he can't do it all by himself any more. "The biggest
challenge franchising has created for me is getting the funding in place to
have a staff to handle that many inquires," he explains. "It's a good
problem to have, but nevertheless, it's a problem."
Warren says behemoth retailers like Home Depot and Sears usually hire independent contractors to
perform product installations and therefore haven't really done anything to
upgrade the professionalism, communication or marketing of the home-improvement
industry. More than a just a clever sales scheme, Rent-A-Husband is giving a
consistent corporate identity to an industry devoid of a recognizable brand
name. All of Warren's "husbands" wear a uniform with the company logo
above one shirt pocket and a patch that reads, "Hi. I'm your husband"
above the other. But Rent-A-Husband is more than just uniforms.
"We are taking employees who have viable construction
skills and giving them good communications skills, good clean-up skills and
good follow-through skills so that they are different than they were before
they met Rent-A-Husband and when they go to people's houses they meet the
expectations of the homeowners," he explains. "And that is why these
huge retailers fail so miserably, because they haven't changed anything but the
name."
As far as the competition goes, Warren says he'll deal with
it when it comes.
"My primary objective right now is to make this company
operate as great as it can. I'll have to worry about the competition later, but
I'm hoping we will build up such a strong-rooted loyal following that
competition will make a very small dent in our business," he explains.
Warren is a firm believer in the benefits of customer
loyalty and says every client receives a follow-up call to both ensure her
satisfaction and to listen to any suggestions she may have for improving the
service. Warren says customers appreciate this extra attention and reports 14
percent of follow-up calls lead to new work orders. But while women everywhere
are warming up to their Rent-A-Husbands, Warren confesses he has encountered a
few "real" husbands who have a hard time with the concept. However,
he says this obstacle is usually short-lived as men come to appreciate the
service and the contentment it brings their mates. A bigger challenge for
Warren has been nailing down the financing.
Since Warren had previously filed bankruptcy, he has not had
access to conventional lenders, and this has presented him with ongoing
financial obstacles.
"I've basically grown Rent-A-Husband right out of the
checkbook up until this point," he reveals. The $250,000 advance from
Doubleday has helped, but Warren says he will need a major inflow of cash to
bring his concept further into the mainstream American market, and he is
currently negotiating with venture capitalists. Warren has already been
approached by two national corporations to buy out the Rent-A-Husband concept,
but he says he is not inclined to deal away his dream.
Money matters aside, Warren says he has made a great
investment in people and describes constructing a good crew as difficult.
"It's hard to find good husbands," he jokes. "The biggest thing
I've learned is to recognize what strengths people have and then recognize how
they can fit into the team of employment and utilize those specific
strengths," he explains. Warren says he's gone through about 100 husbands
to date. "Until you get the right mix, it's frustrating and it's a
struggle."
However, these are struggles that Warren gladly accepts as
he continues on his mission to reinvent an old industry with new standards.
"I really believe that during the next two to five years, Rent-A-Husband
will be established worldwide, and it will have a good, consistent,
professional image, and people will know who to call," he predicts. Warren
stresses, though, that he is not a traditional businessperson - so while the
expected profits are welcome, it's not the money that motivates him.
"When my life is all said and done, I think the best
thing that I could do for this company … is to have people look back at
Rent-A-Husband someday and say, 'That is a company that changed the image of an
entire industry.' And that is my ultimate goal," says Warren. "It's
not being worth $50 million or $100 million. It's actually making my mark on
history."
Company: Rent-A-Husband
Founders: Kaile Warren
Industry: Home repair and improvement
Location: Portland, Maine
Founded: 1996
Employees: 21
Revenues: undisclosed
Copyright © 2000 by Virtual
Advisor, Inc. All rights reserved.