Secret Academy Episode - Justin WetherillLike many entrepreneurs, Justin Wetherill was unsatisfied with the limited options he found when he was faced with a problem: his brand-new iPhone fell out of his hand and needed to be fixed – ASAP. Justin noticed a prime industry market just begging to be serviced. Partnering up with his college friend, David Reiff, the two launched themselves into learning everything they could to provide a more logical solution to a common problem for consumers. After some initial trial and error, and help from mutual friend Eddie Trujillo, the guys opened the doors to the first uBreakiFix storefront. The explosive growth that followed was something Justin had not foreseen. Initially, Justin was biased against the idea of franchising, but after learning more about how he could customize the agreements to ensure a consistent experience, he decided it would be the best option. Today, over 4 years into franchising, uBreakiFix has nearly 300 open stores averaging around $677,000 a year in unit sales and 800 new stores committed to open over the next 36 months. With a solid performance monitoring infrastructure, thorough training of franchisees, it’s no wonder why uBreakiFix continues to raise the expectations and standards in the tech repair industry.
- How Justin came up with the idea for uBreakiFix
- Justin’s obstacles trying to learn a service with no prior experience
- How the decision was made to go from eCommerce to retail
- Validating a business idea
- The importance of finding a consistent and reliable parts source
- How uBreakiFix opened 6 stores within 9 months after launching
- Why Justin decided to franchise
- Even if you have a proven successful business model, that won’t
- What makes uBreakiFix different
- How to stand out from large competitors like Amazon
- Justin’s plan to expand a business vertical for a mobile service
- Keys to adapting in an ever-changing industry
- The most common causes for failure when growing a business
- What Justin contributes his success to
- With competitors and copy-cats, why other companies haven’t produced the same results
- How electronic manufacturers are also competitors to uBreakiFix
- Justin’s view on how the industry will change in the future
