New for 2009:   OPTIONS  1 – 4

If I may, I’ll give you a bit of background first, which I hope will help you come to an informed decision.

About 2 years ago I paid a company called "the franchise doctors" to help me launch the Ultimate Tinting franchise. I love my training and I love setting decent people up in the tinting business, but I needed help and expertise to build on the franchise idea. As it happened, they turned out to be a bunch of shysters providing nothing that they promised, They’ve just gone into receivership. I lost a small fortune and almost went bust because of the money I ploughed into the franchise. Yes call me naïve but you have to understand how much I believe in this industry and how passionate i am about creating a UK wide chain of professional tinters. The guy that was supposed to help me, who I helped set up Ultimate Tinting in Cannock, started off very well, so well in fact that he stopped helping me set up the franchise and concentrated on his own tinting business. He never paid me a penny that was promised and ended up not speaking to me. I noticed a few months ago that he had set up www.train-to-tint.co.uk  which was the last straw. I removed him from the web-site and instructed him to remove any livery or signs relating to my business. So here is a guy who has also lost his installer by now, who can’t tint himself (he went along the management route to franchising, he was a manager employing an installer. Hey  No installer = No business,  it’s not rocket science! This is why you MUST do it yourself) offering to train people to tint. He has a new site now, which has plagiarised/copied my site even more. Ok, so anyone can open a building and hire in a person to do some teaching for them, but be up front about it, don’t pretend to be what your not.

This is why it is essential to really quiz these people when you ring up, don’t feel embarrassed,  after all your spending A LOT of YOUR hard earned money. These are essential questions for you to ask, if they’re proper guys they’ll be able to answer you instantly not fob you off, trying to justify themselves:- just ask

1. Is it YOU who does the training, or do you just hire in help?
2. How long have YOU been tinting for?
3. How did YOU learn to do it?
4. What experience do YOU have in setting up tint businesses other than your own?
5. Which manufacturer backs you? ( ideally none, that way they’re truly independent)
6. How many cars have YOU personally tinted? (if it’s less than about 1000-1500 what makes them think they have the relevant experience to teach you?)
7. What ongoing support can they provide?
8. How many, if any, testimonials can they provide, not just written but you should speak to someone who has done their course recently.
9. Ask to see their web-sites and promotional leaflets, that will give you a fair idea how serious they are.

I hope this will help you come to an informed decision, take your time and don’t be pressured or bullied into any ones courses. It’s your money, spend it wisely.

To carry on. While we were setting up the franchise we approached one of the main film suppliers, to be our supplier, and low and behold a few months later up pops the master tinting franchise and training school. Now this may have been in the pipeline before but it does seem to be a rather BIG coincidence. Hey they’ve plagiarised this site before now. People do seem to assume that instructing in this industry is easy. Well I would never call it easy but it does come naturally to me now, now that I’ve refined my teaching technique over the last 5 YEARS and I’ve been tinting for over 5 years before that!

I’m also a "Commercially Endorsed Off-Shore Yachtmaster Crusing  Instructor". That was a 5 month course, 7 days a week and at times 24hrs a day. The hardest thing I’ve ever done, but invaluable experience and I apply a lot of what I learnt on my instructor training to my tint training.  I’ve also set myself up successfully in business and then sold these businesses on, 4 times now, as I’ve moved locations around the country. I’ve also helped probably well in excess of 20 other people set up their own tinting businesses. Then there’s the guys who took on the franchises, if they followed the procedures, they are now doing well, it’s still early days but it is slowly starting to build again now.

What I’m trying to say is, I’ve worked hard, I’ve travelled, I’ve trained and I’ve gathered years and years of experience before even attempting what I do now.  I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, I’ve done it. Over and over again, which I consider gives me the authority and more importantly, the experience to help YOU. I’m in no way the best tinter out there, there are some truly brilliant guys, but what I am is consistently good. How some of these people who set up tint training businesses after only being in the industry probably less than 2 years, and only ever setting themselves up, they just see it as an easy, quick earner. The chap who started Train-to-Tint (Ex Ultimate Tinting Cannock) couldn’t even tint himself!!! I see one of my former pupils, David, who started out in the middle of 2006 seems to have done very well. He is giving the training a go now too. His testimonial in my “testimonials”  page makes interesting reading. Good luck to you David. Also you’ll probably have seen by now that the 2 other players in this tint training business have web-sites and content suspiciously like my site.

Look, I don’t mind genuine competition at all, but what does bug me is where people can just see pound signs in front of their eyes, think it’s easy. Then there are the ones that blatantly plagiarise my ideas and sections from my site, David, & Martin! There’s nothing I can do to stop them but I want you to realise what is happening.

ANYWAY, I don’t really regret getting involved with franchise people for a minute, life is full of challenges and opportunities and I learnt an awful lot over the last few years, basically how not to do it and because now I no longer have a contract with these people I can do it all myself, properly. I use none of their material, as in reality it was totally useless, "put balloons on your A board" was their best marketing ploy, cheers Martin! Money well spent there! I use all the materials and systems that I have developed over the last few years.

We’ve got some great guys working with Ultimate Tinting now and our chap Martin Pearson in Bradford should be the role model everyone moulds themselves on. This guy is a trier, always looking for work opportunities; he just sticks at it, knuckles down and gets on with it. An inspiration to us all. He’ll say it’s quiet but he always seems to have work booked in. Good on you Martin, keep it up. Just to show you how hard work pays off Martin has managed to provide to solar control film for amongst others Leeds Bradford airport and for several schools. He’s just been asked to go back to do more work at the school because they were so pleased with his work , even though he was more expensive than other quotes, it was the service he provided and the quality of his work. Brilliant. This is what I try to drum home, if you make an effort and provide an honest, professional, personal, quality service and you portray a professional image, in this game you’ll go far as there are so many out there who don’t.

Our guy Barry and his installer Graham, in Reading are really starting to hit the Flat Glass market with some clever promotional ideas, and this seems to be taking off, good luck Barry, nice £7k job on a nursing home recently, with a few more in the pipeline I hear. Again due to their quality of work and professionalism. Fantastic.

Duncan, who is part of our support network, who has my old Manchester business and trades as "Solar Guard Tinting"  has done so well he now has an installer concentrating on cars while he concentrates on Flat Glass. At the moment he’s half way through a £40k office job in Manchester, a nice couple of months work there. Well done Duncan, just goes to show what you can achieve if you set your mind to it.

Not everyone is cut out to do this business. Over and above everything else you need to be a sales person and a good communicator. That’s the part I can’t teach. I can teach anyone to tint as I’ve shown over the years and help them set up in business but without the ability to sell yourself and communicate well with the customers your doomed to failure. Unlike others out there I don’t teach just anyone. I have turned people away before now who wanted training and people who wanted to buy a franchise because I didn’t think they were suitable. I’m not just totally interested in the money, I’m more interested in building up a national chain of professional tinters and lifting the industry out of the "pimps and drug dealers" image it still seems to have.

There are some very very wealthy tinting people and companies out there, so think hard and be honest with yourself, and if you think you can do it, brilliant, call me now on 07919891011, my phones usually on till about 10pm. Just do it!

This brings me onto the options you now have. I have created these various options because over the last few years I’ve dealt with people with a range of budgets and at all different levels of experience in working for themselves. We have the guys who are already self employed and want an extra business to tack onto their own successful business. Then we have the complete opposite end where someone has been employed for the last 20 years and just been made redundant and want to work for themselves now. Then there are the guys who just want to do it as a hobby, and the guys who want a complete "life change" and it’s my job to help them/you. To give you an idea who have joined the industry, amongst others, I’ve taught:-  RAF winchman, computer programmers, students, lots of valetors, deputy headmasters, musicians, (1 ex Eurovision, 1 ex chart topping), taxi drivers, builders, bouncers, loads of windscreen fitters, ICE installers, pensioners, retired people, policemen, soldiers, ex forces and glaziers, to name but a few….

Without fail the most common question everyone asks is "how do I get work?". I could spend a whole day on this subject alone , and do for the franchisees. The most cost effective way is the website which is where my "OPTION 2" comes in, then there’s the placing or optimisation of the web-site which is where "OPTION 3" comes in . Hopefully there is an option to suit everybody who wants to get involved in the industry. Over the last 5 years I’ve developed an exceptionally informative, class leading web-site and range of marketing materials which I’m now able to offer you.

From just learn to tint courses, up to full on franchise type business, hopefully with all the benefits and none of the pitfalls, I’d like to think I’ve covered all options but don’t hesitate to call if you think there is something different I can help you with.

Option 1

Learn to tint automotive or architectural or both. 1,2,3 or 4 day residential courses as mentioned in the previous page.

Option 2

As above, you set up in business, you trade under your own name but use our website in your marketing material with your own listing on the ULTIMATE TINTING website (so you don’t have to go to the trouble and expense of sorting out a web-site. The Ultimate Tinting site receives in excess of 6000+ hits a month). A decent web-site can cost you easily in excess of £4000+ and remember, your web-site is your shop window, you only get one chance to make a first impression. So use ours, it works. The yearly cost to you will be about the same as the profit you’ll make doing one days work tinting a conservatory, or 2 largish 4X4 tints A YEAR !!!!!! Or about a quarter of a decent car tint a month. You’ll also be able to put your own work on the gallery.

Option 3

As 1 & 2 above but I’ll also do your web marketing/optimisation for you. I’ll get the Ultimate Tinting site to the top of the first page of Google in your chosen area , if people do a search for window tinting in your area, our site will pop up top and there you’ll be, listed on it as their nearest tinter. If you go to a company to do this for you, I’ve known people who’ve paid in excess of £1000  A MONTH for this service, and they still don’t come near the top. I can do all this for you for a fraction of that.  The yearly cost of this to you  will be about the same as the profit from a medium sized conservatory job, A YEAR !!!!!! Or the profit from half a decent car job per month.

Unless your at the top of the first page, your wasting your time and money.

"Hi Tim

Would just like to say a BIG thank you, your website has proved to be very benefitial. I usually get about 6 quotes and 3 confirmed bookings a week. With this additional work we have been able to move into our own unit.

Thanks again, Mark, HB Tinting, JULY 2009"

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"I had 7 calls just on Saturday all got our number from the web"

90% of our work is coming from the website. Done six last week, the most we have ever done and have never done less than 3 a week. As u know it's a part time thing for us after work, so we're very happy with that amount but always welcome more. Just finished a Focus RS  about half hour ago. I had 7 calls just on Saturday all got our number from the web. Well worth the monthly cost mate. Honest

P&L Tints  Wigan
March 2010

Option 4

Our option 4 is our full franchise option, but dont be put off by the word 'franchise' because of our previous franchise experience we know what our customers want!

Click here to find out more about our franchise option

This is such an interesting business to be in, everyday is different and you get to see some wonderful and interesting things.

For more information on any of the above , just call me for a chat or even come and visit me which would be better. As I’ve said before all my testimonials are up to date and TRUE!!! Please do speak to some of the guys who’ve done my courses, for your own piece of mind.