The Kotfather

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The Kotfather

Repairs,electrician,

installation

Limited Liability Company

Belgium

www.thekotfather.be

Easy, Convenience, flexible, 24/7

Johan Uyttebroeck

Anthony De Clerck

Johan Uyttebroeck

Summary

The Kotfather is a company that's run by Johan Uyttebroeck, a dedicated handyman that transports himself by cargo bike in order to offer all kinds of different services throughout the city of Leuven. The entrepreneur offers an all-around service concerning chores in and around the house. The Kotfather offers these services to students, elderly and people who just don't find the time to work around the house or fix a problem.

Background

Before the foundation of ‘The Kotfather’, Mr. Uyttebroeck worked as an employee for a bank for more than 16 years. However, during this job he also did chores and small projects for his family, neighbors and friends. In this way the creative mind enlarged his skill set and learned about plumbing, electricity, carpentry, gardening. One day, the founder woke up and decided he wanted to change his life and start his own company, working on these projects on a full-time basis. Mr. Uyttebroeck never regretted making this decision, the only question spooking through his mind is why he hadn’t made this decision earlier.

Thanks to the extended working experience in the banking sector, Mr. Uyttebroeck knew he couldn’t be able to get a bank loan. That’s why the decision was made to pay for the initial costs himself. These first costs meant the purchase of the motorized cargo bike and the first tools. After covering this first cost, the idea was to grow organically by keeping the costs of investments and additional workforces low.

Mission

The mission of The Kotfather is to help people and customers in a way that fully satisfies their needs

Vision

The Kotfather was founded because the creative entrepreneur wanted to offer his services to more people than just friends family and neighbors. Mr. Uyttebroeck wanted to help people with their problems by offering a customized solution. The future of the company still withholds countless possibilities according to the founder, he claims that the market for people in need for professional help is bigger than ever before.

Mr. Uyttebroeck often hears that he needs to develop a clear target/ goal for his company countless times. The entrepreneur however doesn’t share this perspective and wants the company to grow steadily and slowly so it doesn’t get too big too soon. At the moment, the company counts three employees and this is more than enough at the moment. The owner of the company fears that if the company grow too big, he might have to change to a managerial function.

Values

The ecological aspect and consequences of the company’s activities are a big concern for The Kotfather. The company tries to translate these concerns on the environment through the usage of sustainable products and by transporting themselves by cargo bike. Next to these actions, the founder also wants to inform his clients about the environmental issues and he tries to convince them to make use of his advice. For instance, he advices the customers on what products they should use and shares some ideas on how they can lower their ecological footprint.

Business Model

The used business model was completely non- existing. In fact, it was so new that some lawyers and jurists were assigned to create a new law concerning the service-contracts The Kotfather offers. Next to determining some new laws, these lawyers had to examine what tax bracket is applicable for this company.

At the moment, we live in a society where broken goods of equipment get replaced and improved by new, upgraded ones. This is not the mission of The Kotfather, before deciding to replace something, they’ll always try to fix the broken part(s) first. In comparison to the competition, The Kotfather thus tries to keep the cost of the used materials as low as possible for the customers.

As a second advantage, The Kotfather offers a ‘full and all-around service’ to their customers. After finishing the job, the workforces always need to clean up the mess they’ve made. The all-around service means that The Kotfather can offer all sorts of help. Even if the situation occurs where the project is too complex or too big for The Kotfather, he won’t let you down. In these rare cases, the entrepreneur can rely on his network of professionals who will help the customers within moments. At last, the good and personal relationship the owner has with his clients might be the biggest unique selling proposition. In this sector, mouth-of-word publicity is very important and it can make or break your reputation.

The company works with a range of fixed rates per hour of labor. The applied rate depends on the type of work and the aspect of loyalty to the company. This means that the one-time-clients will pay more than the regulars. The last variable for the determination of the price is the hour the work is conducted, this because the customers can also make use of Mr. Uyttebroeck’s services during the night.

Like previously mentioned, the creator of The Kotfather had to consult lawyers and jurists to create some new laws and determine what tax bracket is applicable for the company. Next to these sources of information, VOKA, Unizo and SD Worx also were consulted. These specialized organizations were consulted to gain information on required assurances, degrees to legally conduct the business activities, human resources, responsibilities, law and regulations,…

The concept and company initially wasn’t promoted through social media tools like Facebook, Instagram,… Nowadays the company does have different pages on social media but the owner has to admit that these may be outdated from time to time. Instead of using these channels to promote his idea the founder could count on media attention and word- of- mouth publicity.

Growth

The Kotfather mainly targeted students and their landlords in Leuven at the beginning. It wasn’t long after the creation that the owner noticed that there was a bigger demand for his services and that’s why the targeted audience expanded.

After receiving various types of media attention and even hosting his own television show, the response of the customers was enormous. As a consequence, the company received a lot more projects and the owner even got contacted from companies that wanted to sponsor his company. This by providing the necessary clothing in exchange for a mentioning in publicity.

Customers

Like previously stated, The Kotfather initially focused on students and their landlords. After some time, the owner noticed there were a lot more people he could reach with his services. This new group mainly consisted out of elderly and especially widows. These last ones no longer had the help of their husband to maintain the house and do the chores in and around the house. At last, also hard working people that simply don’t find the time to do these chores make use of his services.

Competitors

Theoretically speaking, The Kotfather has both direct and indirect competitors. The indirect competitors are the professional, specialized plumbers, technicians, electricians and carpenters. These professionals offer the same services to potential clients. However, most of them are not able to offer the all-around service Mr. Uyttebroeck can, meaning they mostly specialize in one aspect of the job. These professionals can however also be seen as partners because if project is too big or too complex, The Kotfather will consult these partners to help or replace him.

The direct competition of The Kotfather consist out of the copy cats that try to copy the business model of The Kotfather. Mr. Uyttebroeck however, tries not to focus or worry about these companies as long as they don’t steal his logo or name. According to him, there’s enough work for all working parties

Conclusion

The fact that the services are so extensive comes with the advantage that the future of this company still withholds countless of opportunities. The company can for instance make use of new technologies or equipment, it also can expand its customer base in Leuven or even expand to another city.

The main things, the owner has learned from starting up company with a new business model is that there’s a lot more paper work than he expected. Specialized organizations like Flanders Investment and Trade, Voka,… can turn out to be a useful source of information. Some pieces of advice the inventor of the company has for new starters are as followed:

Make your dreams come true and don’t wait till something happens. Make an effort and go the extra mile, fully commit to your project.
Remain disciplined.
Note that as a starting entrepreneur you won’t be able to enjoy that much free time and that your social life thus might suffer.

At last the owner shared his vision of the future of The Kotfather. Mr. Uyttebroeck would like to expand to another city, preferably Ghent because there it’s also possible to transport yourself by bike. This expansion however doesn’t mean that he desires to grow out to be a big company. The one thing Mr. Uyttebroeck fears is that he will have to change to a managerial function due to extensive growth and that the quality of the company’s services will suffer because of this.

Posted on 11/05/2016