The Martins are perennial achievers. The pair earned the award for Number One Store Growth in the entire ColorTyme system in 2004.

left to right - Bob Bloom, ColorTyme President, Mark Martin and John Martin, ColorTyme Franchisees, Tim Hogan, ColorTyme Vice President of Operations. The Martins were presented the ColorTyme Eagle Award and named Franchisee of the Year for 2005 during the general session of ColorTyme's annual Convention and Tradeshow in Memphis, Tennessee Thursday. See a complete photo gallery of the award ceremony and general session here.

John Martin and John “Mark” Martin, the father and son team of JJ Rents, LLC, were presented the ColorTyme Eagle Award and named Franchisee of the Year for 2005 by company President Bob Bloom at a ceremony in Memphis, Tennessee Thursday. The Eagle Award is earned based on year over year growth as well as other intangibles.

The Martins are perennial achievers. Among their many achievements, the pair earned the award for Number One Store Growth in the entire ColorTyme system in 2004. Bloom said the Martin's, already record producing stores, increased volume over 10% in 2005.

See a complete photo gallery of the award ceremony and general session here.

RTO Excellence Profile of Mark Martin, ColorTyme Franchisee
From the September, 2005 issue of RTO MAGAZINE.

To think it all started with a Help Wanted ad. Back in 1990, twenty year-old Mark Martin, bored with his job selling automobiles, answered an ad placed by Robert Fishman, owner of Rentown, which was then based in Connecticut. Fishman was searching for a Manager Trainee and Martin jumped at the chance to work closely with a real entrepreneur in an industry that fascinated him right from the start. “I’ve learned in this business that from the very beginning you’re either in or you’re out. I was definitely in.”

Martin says that although his first four months were spent on the road delivering furniture, his relationship-building skills served him well. He was quickly given his first store in Torrington, Connecticut. “Truthfully, I think it was more out of desperation than a real reflection on me at that point,” said Martin. “But I took that store and made a success out of it and eventually - 8 years later - was promoted to a District Manager position where I visited troubled stores throughout the company.”

left to right - Morganna Harwood, Mike Harwood, ColorTyme President Bob Bloom. Mike and Morganna Harwood were awarded the ColorTyme Circle of Excellence Award Thursday by company President Bob Bloom. The Circle of Excellence is new to the ColorTyme system. Bloom explained that the Circle of Excellence is a lifetime award and membership benefits are ongoing. "Everyone in the ColorTyme organization, including vendors and staff, are eligible. This award represents organizational excellence. The franchise owner is the key to that success, but true excellence only happens when all levels of the organization excel." Accordingly, all the managing members of the winning organizations will be given special awards and recognized at ColorTyme events. Mr. Bloom said the inaugural honorees set a high standard for the award. The Harwood's have been in the top five producing franchises for more than five consecutive years. The couple also initiated ColorTyme's relationship with Kids Across America. Mike Harwood, a private pilot, spent 16 weeks at his own expense flying relief supplies to victims of 2004's tsunami in Indonesia. "It is a measure of [the Harwood's] organization, that they were able to continue to show excellence while their leader was overseas for a third of the year," said Bloom.

Martin was content with his District Manager status with Rentown. But during an APRO trade show in 1999, a chance meeting with Pat Sumner from ColorTyme started him thinking about what it might be like to own his own RTO store. “I actually walked away from that conversation with a real warm and fuzzy feeling about ColorTyme and their mission to create a team-oriented, family atmosphere. At the time, John Martin, my father and now my partner, was living in southwest Florida. He knew what an up-and-coming area of the country it was. After thinking about it for another two years, I moved to Florida in July of 2001 to research the area for myself and see if we could make a go of it as ColorTyme franchisees.”

By March of 2002, functioning as the business entity JJ Rents, Martin’s first ColorTyme store in Lehigh Acres was open. “I have to say it was not as difficult as I thought it would be to get it up and running. Of course, you have to have good credit and a certain amount of collateral, but ColorTyme helped us secure working capital and gave us 100% inventory financing. They also had a lease negotiator to help us find the right spot. It can be a pretty big thing to negotiate a commercial lease, but there was even ColorTyme’s legal counsel helping us to make sure we did nothing wrong and everything right.”

According to Martin, one of those “right” things was selecting Lehigh Acres as the site of JJ Rents’ first ColorTyme. “At the time we opened, this was a relatively small, rural community of about 30,000 people. ColorTyme really questioned our thought process. However, this is now one of the top 10 fastest-growing counties in the country and it wasn’t long before RAC followed our lead with a store of their own in the same town.”

After the success of Lehigh Acres, Martin chose Labelle, FL as JJ Rents’ site number two. Labelle opened its doors in January of 2004. By the end of that year it was the fastest-growing ColorTyme franchise in the country with 700 AOR (950 BOR). (In fact, it is ColorTyme’s 2005 leading franchise in year-over-year top line sales growth!)

So how does Martin do it? He says one of the keys is to identify the things you want to measure, and then do it daily, weekly and monthly. Martin works with his managers to set up goals for cash, growth, deliveries and collections. He says among the specific items he watches are APU (Average Price per Unit), APA (Average Price per Agreement), ADP (Average Down Payment) and APC (Average Price per Customer). Martin sets collection goals at a 21% weekly open, with a 7% close by the week’s end. He’s quick to admit the results are not always in line with the goals, but stresses the fact that keeping them so closely monitored helps the numbers stay within reason.

One of the best measurement tools Martin has at his disposal is an informal sharing of numbers by a handful of ColorTyme franchisees. “One of the franchisees started it and we jumped at the chance to participate. Each week, we fax him our worksheet filled in with our numbers and he collects and then publishes a chart for several key performance indicators. There are 16 stores on the report, but it should be a national thing. I just don’t understand why some people are so unwilling to share their numbers.”

According to Martin, Lehigh is number one overall on that chart, and Labelle often ranks as high as number three. “My store managers really follow those charts and it becomes a source of pride for them to keep their stores in the top slots. It’s friendly competition, but it’s definitely competition.’

Which, truth be told, is similar to the relationship between ColorTyme and parent company, Rent-A-Center. That is why Martin still sounds a bit surprised at his good fortune when a recent offer he made to purchase a struggling RAC in nearby Clewiston, FL was accepted. “It was kind of nerve-wracking for a little guy like me. I mean, usually RAC is the one buying everybody else.”

Clewiston is JJ Rents’ third location, and has been operating under their umbrella since the start of this August. “Frankly, I prefer opening stores. I really think that will be the key to our success. There is just so much to overcome in an acquisition situation. That’s why our next location in Cape Coral, FL will be a brand-new ColorTyme.”

Cape Coral is set to open within the next 90 days, putting Martin ahead of what he once thought was an aggressive 5-year plan. “When we sat down in 2002 and decided to really do this, our goal was to open 4 stores in 5 years. It seemed aggressive at the time, and now we’re early!”

Perhaps it’s because Martin truly does have ColorTyme on his side.

So what specifically has made Mark Martin a successful RTO operator?

HE LEARNS FROM HIS MISTAKES
“Initially, our hiring process was pretty shoddy. In the beginning I frankly didn’t have the interviewing skills that I have today. As a result, we made some poor hires. Now I know to focus on training from the very beginning.”

HE TRAINS HIS EMPLOYEES
“ColorTyme has an awesome online training program, EXCEL that every employee participates in. It goes through the entire rental process and gives you everything you need to know to succeed. We also have taken the next step and sent a few of our employees through CTU - ColorTyme University. We’d love to send as many of our employees there as we can so they pick up as much knowledge as possible.”

HE PICKS THE RIGHT PRODUCT
“I let my managers choose their merchandise, based on the customers around each individual store. And, I also allow customers to order things they like from our catalogs. I know many operators don’t encourage catalog orders because they think it’ll train customers to avoid looking on the showroom floor, but for us it’s worked out very well and the customers appreciate us helping them find exactly what they want.”

HE TAKES CHANCES
“I’ve just started carrying riding lawnmowers. I’ve already got 25 on rent in the Lehigh store. These are Sears Craftsman 18 horsepower riding mowers and they have just flown out the door. I haven’t seen product that hot in a long time, but I never would have believed it before I brought them in.”

HE PROMOTES HIS STORE YEAR-ROUND
“I’m not a believer that you should only market during busy times of the year, or that you should market more when things are slow. I pretty much think that you should just pound your message home year-round, even in the summer. We did a $50 gift card recently that pulled great results, and in July we participated in a scratch-and-win national ColorTyme program that helped us generate 255 deliveries for that month in the Lehigh store.”

“Because the market here is so diversified, I have to make sure all mailings are bilingual. And, we recently tried something new - advertising on the local Fox and WB television affiliates. I always thought that would be too expensive, but ColorTyme produces the spot that we tag at the local level and so far it seems to have done well for us.”

“Also, doorhanging is something we try to do, although I’ll be the first to admit we might not always do it as much as we should. Two up, two down for every delivery has been our policy since we started.”

HE LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
“Technology has made our customers more sophisticated than ever before. Most of our customers have computers and I’d estimate that 30% of them already have High-Definition TV sets. They’re more educated than ever before and they’re very specific when they ask for certain products, especially electronic items. I don’t know exactly where they’re getting the knowledge, but we have made sure to stock a broad array of big screen TV’s including HD, HD-ready, DLP and LCD sets. Up until now, we stayed away from plasma sets because of their high cost, but consumer demand coupled with declining prices means we’ll probably carry them by this Christmas.”

HE RESPECTS HIS CUSTOMERS
“Our customers have learned the difference between a computer with a CD burner and a computer with a DVD burner. We don’t try to rent them something that is not exactly what they want and need. And while we stopped carrying VCR’s awhile ago, we do still carry 20” TV sets. Although they’re typically merchandised as part of a PS2 bundle, you never know when you’ll rent one as an add-on item because you’ve got them in stock.”

HE LEARNED FROM HIS SUPERVISORS
“I have to admit that had I not started working with such a great person like Robert Fishman from Rentown , I would not be nearly as successful as I have been. I was fortunate to have someone who was a teacher in business as well as in life. I learned so much from him and I’m very thankful.”