FranchiseCanada September | October 2017 97hen a building developer
embarks on a new project, their
first thought isn’t necessarily about
franchising, but Black Bear Trades is
set to change that.
Fifteen years ago, Director and
Founder of Black Bear Trades, Sean Wark, started out
in construction, working as a site superintendent. Nine
years later, he started his own building renovation com-
pany. From there, he saw the need for something even
more comprehensive in the trades and developing world
- something that could streamline both his customers’
to-do lists and his back-end processes.
Wark saw other industries benefitting from franchise
opportunities, and saw the need for the trades to do
the same. Since Wark wasn’t familiar with the franchise
world, he set out to do his research. He put in the time
to figure out the franchise set-ups that had the most
potential to benefit tradespeople and their clients. Wark
shares, “I worked through what was needed, how agree-
ments would be done up, trademarking” – basically
every aspect of what’s needed to embark on a franchise - and he knew he had hit upon something big.
In November 2016, Black Bear Trades was formed in
Maple Ridge, British Columbia, by Wark and three of his
fellow tradespeople, and became the first company in
the franchise world to bring together all the trades under
one proverbial roof.Black Bear-of-all-trades
Black Bear Trades acts as a hub for professional trades-
people, making the contracting process simpler and
more efficient. “A developer can send us one set of draw-
ings, and we can provide quotes on all aspects of the job
and send them back as a package,” Wark says. Clients
aren’t obligated to contract every trade they’re quoted
for – they can choose the ones they want from the pack-
age, or they can go all in.
Since Black Bear Trades works only with professionally-
certified tradespeople – indeed, it’s a requirement for
any franchisee to be either accredited or on their way
to accreditation – it offers peace of mind to clients,
along with nearly every other service a developer could
need: drywall, electrical, finishing carpentry, framing,
insulation, painting, plumbing, siding, steel stud work,
and tile work.EMERGING SYSTEM
BRINGING FRANCHISING
TO THE TRADES
BLACK BEAR TRADES LAYS THE GROUNDWORK
FOR BECOMING AN INDUSTRY HUB
By Jessica Burgess