Patric Fransko on Business and the State of the Industry

Patric Fransko and WFCT 2024 Keynote Speaker Gary Veynerchuck

There are few people who can talk about the industry issues of the day like Eye Magnet Management founder Patric Fransko. With economic fears growing, a recent merger under his belt and the industry’s largest event coming in a month, Window Film magazine caught up with him to get his take on the state of play in tint.

What have you been up to lately?

I merged with two other agencies earlier this year. That’s allowed us to continue to grow and take on a role that I enjoy more—more business development instead of being in the actual weeds which is good. They had a lot of capacity, and the company is still Eye Magnet Management, but now my role is interacting with our clients and business development which is the part I like the most. That’s also allowed me to invest more in Window Film Pros, which is the consumer-awareness site, which is also something I enjoy. Any time you merge companies, there’s a transition phase but it’s been great. We’re all basically three equal owners of Eye Magnet Management.

This was part of a legacy play, right?

I really wasn’t considering it, but a couple of years ago when I had a health scare, I said, “Thank God I did get better but what if I didn’t?” There was really no plan B for the agency so now if something were to happen to any one of the three of us, the business is going to live on. If something happens, the family of the person gets bought out and the person’s family gets taken care of.

Tell me a bit about your health scare and how you’re feeling now.

On August 9, 2022 I got a call from my doctor for regular tests, he said to head to the emergency room. The scan they took showed a bunch of cancer. It was prostate cancer but had spread to my whole pelvic area. That was the start of me going to the hospital for nine days and having a lot of tests. Two days after leaving I started chemo. I started in August and finished in December,and as of today, thank God, my body has zero signs of cancer. It’s as if I never even had it. 

You’re a busy guy – how do you stay focused and driven?

The drive is doing something I like, so having motivation is never an issue. Some of the aspects of running an agency were burning me out. Now other people are taking a part in those aspects. To me, having the drive has been more of a matter of focusing my time on the things I enjoy doing. 

What do you think of all the production expansion we’re seeing globally?

I think it’s a good thing. There’s a decentralization happening in the industry. When I started 25 years ago, there were a couple main players in the industry and a couple outliers, but there was a hierarchy. Most reputable window film companies weren’t using the bottom-tier products, and some weren’t able to get the top-tier products. That’s been disrupted. Now, there are a lot of companies making good quality film and dealers don’t have the allegiance they once did to legacy manufactures. There are a lot of smaller brands that are growing, and it’s given the installers more leverage. Shops are no longer married to a brand and can do what’s in the best interest of their company. Even the supply chain hiccups we’ve had, if one company goes down, they can shift to a comparable product from another company. As long as the companies in the industry are servicing their customers well and producing a quality product, the more suppliers in the industry, the better. Everyone works to get better when there’s more competition.

Do you think the industry is at a risk of oversupply if there’s an economic downturn and what can tinters and manufacturers do if this happens?

There are multiple levels.

On Installation Companies: The people on the front line—the installers, if there are fewer people getting their windows tinted, the companies that have a solid business plan and have put away money, they’ll weather the storm. As business shakes out and some companies go under, the solid companies will do fine because there will be less competition. When there was a lot of money in the economy, I hope they set up a capital reserve because we may have some rocky months or quarters where business isn’t as good. It will make the companies that survive even stronger as they come out of that downturn.

On Manufacturers: You have more competition and more supply now. It’s not that different from installation companies. When the stimulus money was out there, that was like Disneyland and no one should’ve taken that as the new norm. Hopefully, they planned for what things would look like on the other side of that. I do think there’ll be an oversupply, and basic economics says if there’s an oversupply, prices will be pushed down. Companies would get more competitive with each other and come up with different pricing structures. I think there will be opportunities for acquisitions and I do think you’ll see some. I’m not an apocalyptic kind of guy but I do think we lived in la la land for a couple of years and now a lot of people thought that was the new norm and now people are waking up. Things are getting a little bit tighter and while things aren’t bad, they’re going back to the normal that was pre-covid.

You’ve been a longtime mentee of Gary Vaynerchuck. What do you think about him keynoting the WFCT?

I was super excited when I heard he was coming. I didn’t think he was doing talks anymore like what we’re going to have him do so I didn’t entertain the idea of him speaking. So , I’m super excited. I’m actually going to VeeCon in LA. He usually speaks to massive, 10,000+ audiences so even though there’ll be a lot of people at WFCT, it’ll be cool to have him in a smaller setting.

He influenced me to leave my corporate job and to start my own agency. Prior to doing this merger, Gary told me to do it five years ago. He told me I needed to focus on spending time with clients and business development and it took me three years and a health scare to put it into motion. So, I think Gary has a lot of insight on business and where the economy is going. To say that he’s been influential on my career and the direction of my career would be an understatement. I’m all in on Gary.