Ventura County Star

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Franchise Focus: PRstore

Ken Higgins, right, owner of PRstore talks with Brad Lipman of Table Pay Solutions in Simi Valley about promoting his business at Higgins’ Thousand Oaks public relations business.

Owner: Ken Higgins.

Product or service: Marketing product and services from logos, brochures and Web sites to TV, radio, and print advertising, trade show exhibits, newsletters, consulting and promotional items.

Address: 2220 N. Moorpark Road, Suite 103, Thousand Oaks.

Date established: December 2006.

Hours open: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Telephone: 449-9933.

E-mail: khiggins@prstore.com.

Web site: http://www.prstore.com/thousandoaks

Employees: 3.

Franchise fee: $59,500.

Estimated annual gross revenues: $1.5 million.

Questions to Ken Higgins:
What prompted you to start your own business?

I like the independence of creating my own destiny. I like the challenge of making my own decisions and doing things the way I believe they need to be done. Working in a large corporate environment, I was required to adhere to policies that didn’t always fit my beliefs or way of thinking, and that was compromising for me.

What is your educational and career background?

I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a marketing major and a master of social work degree. I worked in sales and marketing positions for 18 years for companies that included: Eastman Kodak, Baxter Healthcare and UNUM. I started a marketing consulting business four years ago.

How much research did you do before starting your business?

I did quite a bit of research. First I had to take inventory of myself to assess my skills, my strengths and what I was passionate about. Then I sought out companies that were the best fit for me. When I found the PRstore opportunity, the most important questions I had to answer were: Is this product/service offering good for the customer? If so, how and to what extent? How does it compare to what other companies are offering in the marketplace? The answers to these questions were quite favorable so the PRstore in Thousand Oaks was born.

What were the most helpful sources, including Web sites?

Feedback from friends and trusting and believing in my own beliefs and intuition were most important to me. Marketplace data from chambers of commerce and due diligence with existing franchisees was quite beneficial as well. It also helped to seek legal counsel to sort through the franchise agreement and understand important details.

When were you the most discouraged?

I was most discouraged when a lease deal fell through for our store location after working hard to find the right location for six months. Thousand Oaks has one of the lowest retail vacancy rates in the country and there was not much available. So when a location came up that fit our needs, I was really invested in the outcome. It was a challenge to regroup after a month of negotiating the lease and it not coming together.

What company or individual do you admire?

I admire many companies and individuals. I admire those companies that are truly focused on customer service and work hard to get things right they are honest and have integrity. When they say they are going to do something, they do it. If they miss the mark, they apologize and make it up to you. They treat everyone with respect and are highly organized. The same is true for individuals I admire.

What will make your business stand out from competitors?

When people first come into our store they say something like, “Wow, this is cool. I can get everything I need for marketing in one place.” Clients love the fact that they can walk into a convenient retail location and get a breadth of high-quality marketing products and services at an affordable price. It saves them time and money and gives them an understanding of marketing they have not experienced before. Later it dawns on them and they say something like, “We can have you be our marketing department and take the pressure off us to do it all and figure it all out on our own.”

Who is your target client/customer base?

Our target market is small businesses, which we define as companies with one to 100 employees. We are not limited to the small business niche though and have many nonprofits as clients, from churches to transportation services for the handicapped, along with Fortune 500 companies as well.