Business View - August 2015 115
Bill Helton is its new Director of Franchise Develop-
ment. The two executives explain how the company
has lately begun to re-focus its energy on franchise
growth after a period of dormancy. According to Willis,
Steamatic was “not aggressively in a growth mode.”
Willis was with the company for 13 years but left it
some time ago. He came back about three years ago
to re-invigorate Steamatic and kick start its expansion
and growth.
Helton talks about Willis’ mandate: “Steve has been
putting in the infrastructure and the processes – every-
thing that Steamatic has needed to be truly ‘replicat-
able,’ which is what you need for a franchise system.
We did not want to start awarding franchises again
until we had all those systems in place. It’s taken a
couple of years, but now that we’ve got the processes
and the system in place, we’re focused on recruiting
franchise owners.”
Currently, Steamatic has about 65 franchises in the
U.S., totaling over 250 territories. Many of these fran-
chisees are multiple-territory owners. This year, Willis
and Helton would like to bring in five or six new owners
and another 10 to 15 in 2016.
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Steamatic Inc.
WHAT:
International carpet, air duct, grout clean-
ing, and fire and water damage restoration com-
pany
WHERE:
Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas
WEBSITE
:
FRANCHISE
