Founded in 1987 in Seymour, CT, Basement Systems claims to be the leader in the Basement Waterproofing / Crawlspace Encapsulation Industry. I know from personal experience that despite their great products, patents, experience,  etc. that they are just one of the many different companies that sell the exact same products.

I used to be an owner and dealer in the Pacific Northwest Dealer Network of Basement Systems. Getting started in their franchise is certainly not cheap but what killed our business is the ordering of products.

They charge xxxx amount per different product to their dealers and that's where they make their money. In effort to save costs, we decided to do some research online and discovered more than 10 different companies that are selling the exact same products with slight twists.
 
These companies are patenting their products after they add some very small change to the product and because it is technically "different" than the other product, they patent it as their own.

Also, many of the products that Basement Systems offers are replicas of others and you can actually purchase them cheaper online than as an independent dealer of their franchise! Making money is hard in this business but you can do it.

There is money to be made in this industry but my advice would be to become a licensed specialty contractor and purchase products on your own, rather than be part of the dealer network.
 
Rating: