Marcus Richards
Fantastic Services is the only company that provides real-time availability and prices to appointments for over 100 domestic and business services.
The company’s history starts way back in 2009 when Fantastic Services was just a London based small business and has now grown to be the biggest domestic franchise in the UK.
It now operates across three continents and covers major UK counties, but also a number of smaller and mid-size cities.
Tell us about yourself?
My childhood dream was always to run my own business. It all started when I was about 8 years old, and my parents got me my first desk. I remember spending hours organising my pens and stapler, practising and pretending to run my own company, and this brought me so much joy as a child.
Little did I know that when that day comes, I would be using mobile phones and laptops and never actually sit at a desk! Later on, through my adult life, I have always been looking for the perfect opportunity.
And I had the pleasure of working for various companies, where I gained the sort of skills which proved useful in the future.
My entrepreneurial journey started way back in 2009, when I met my business partner Anton Skarlatov, and we decided to launch Fantastic Services. And this journey wasn’t easy at all- it took us a lot of effort to get Fantastic Services to where it is now.
From day one, we decided to be a self-funded business in order to have greater control and flexibility over the direction we wanted the company to go.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Do not be scared of what the future holds. Be prepared and expect both ups and downs. Failure only indicated that you need to work harder, try again, improve, try different approaches and strategies, and never give up.
What problem does your business solve?
People nowadays often do not get the chance to get some free time to themselves or family. Most of our weekends are spent cleaning and organising, when we could spend more time doing more interesting things.
We take care of those annoying chores, allowing people to focus on other more important tasks, or simply – rest.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The company story started when I met my business partner Anton Skarlatov at a party. I needed a cleaner, and Anton was running a cleaning business at the time.
We started having a conversation and soon found we share a common vision about how to revolutionise the way people booked domestic services.
Shortly after, we found Fantastic Services. The aim was to deliver the best possible service for all clients and cleaning crews involved. We now call that philosophy the 360 degrees of happiness.
What is your magic sauce?
Fantastic Services’ customers are given the opportunity to benefit from booking domestic services with priority and exclusive rates, through their amazing Fantastic Club membership.
The main idea behind the membership is to maintain a deeper and continuous relationship between the company and its customers. Today, more than 30,000 active members get to enjoy the advantages of preferential deals, real-time arrival tracking, and exceptional service management.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
- Become even more eco-friendly
- Expand even further
- Optimise time of travelling and performing services
- Introduce a new list of domestic services
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The unexpected growth that we saw years ago was the biggest challenge we had to face. At first, we had way too many professionals, but not enough clients. Then, within a short span of time, we saw a shocking increase in the number of clients.
That is when we found ourselves struggling to supply the demand. This, however, only motivated us to become better at managing the available resources and made us more creative and inventive.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We are always looking for great people with great ideas to join our fantastic family. Fantastic Services operates as a franchise model.
Both the franchise and master franchise programmes provide great opportunities, along with dedicated support and coaching. The most recent master franchises expanded into Ireland and Hungary, while this year’s goal is to expand in the USA.
We paved the way for your business with a perfect work/life balance. Go ahead and check our amazing franchise opportunities on our website – https://www.fantasticservices.com/franchise-opportunities/
Finally, Rune is now an author and has recently published Fantastic Business: Start, scale and succeed, learning from masters in franchising. Here is a link to the book – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantastic-Business-succeed-learning-franchising-ebook/dp/B0B5PJ7C19/
