VANCOUVER – Vancouver’s Doug Burgoyne could barely contain his excitement when the Dragons’ Den reality television show highlighted his company Wednesday night.
While viewers watched investors on the show awarding Frogbox, Burgoyne’s eco-moving box company, $200,000, Burgoyne was smiling to himself in relief – he’d already spent half of it.
Burgoyne, 37, doesn’t do a whole lot conventionally.
Instead of attending a standard open audition for Dragons’ Den, Burgoyne checked out the show’s website, created a 60-second video and emailed it to the producers. Late.
The producers must have liked what they saw because even though they were already filming the season, they called him and said "If you’re in Toronto next week, we can fit you in." Burgoyne jumped all over it.
That was eight months ago.
"How do I keep my mouth shut for eight months?" said Burgoyne who is relieved the secret’s out.
Jim Treliving, co-owner of Boston Pizza, and Brett Wilson of Canoe Financial investment management paid $200,000 for 25 per cent of Frogbox, a company that rents out and delivers plastic moving boxes. Part of the deal was that Burgoyne had to ask Brian Skidamore of 1-800-Got-Junk and Mike Tattersfield of Caribou Coffee if they’d invest. Tattersfield put in $50,000.
"Doug has done a great job of creating a strong brand and a business concept that is perfect for franchising," Treliving said. Wilson said: "Given the size of the market, this business has huge growth potential. That’s why I’m in."
It took almost eight months to work out all the details. Burgoyne wanted the cash for for new trucks and plastic moving boxes, and he wanted to prepare for franchising in Canada and the U.S. Treliving and Wilson were confident enough to give Frogbox a $100,000 line of credit back in July.
"It was kind of scary spending money before you actually do the deal," said Burgoyne whose resume includes an MBA, a physiotherapy degree and high tech sales and marketing in London, England and Columbus, Ohio.
Burgoyne started Frogbox in 2007 with a silent partner with an eye to entering an industry with a "bad" reputation.
Burgoyne immediately sought out 1-800-Got-Junk’s Brian Scudamore for advice – "he’s done an amazing job of building a brand in an industry with a bad reputation. We’re doing exactly the same," – and deliberately courted and hired former Scudamore people for his own venture.
When he wanted to open a Seattle corporate store, he sought out the owner of one of Seattle’s two 1-800-Got-Junk franchises to join his business. "I just picked up the phone and called him," Burgoyne said.
Burgoyne’s taken great care to build a system with detailed policies and procedures.
He’s been writing detailed operations manuals including such minutae as how often a franchisee should post on Twitter, what percentage of dollars should go to social media and how much advertise online, what to say when you deliver boxes and how to follow up with customers.
"We don’t have any patented technology, it’s just the entire system," he said. Burgoyne still owns 40 per cent of Frogbox and now has six partners. He hopes to have franchises across Canada and in four or five U.S. locations by year end, and 20 to 30 U.S. franchises a year later.
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