Mike Enos knows exactly what to do with his 15 minutes of fame:
Monetize it.
The phone is ringing off the hook these days at the headquarters of Fast Wrap LLC as potential customers and potential franchisees want to learn more about the company owned by Enos and Ken Cassas.
The company is benefiting from a wave of national publicity CNN Money, Fortune Small Business, the Associated Press after it undertook contracts to shrink-wrap construction projects that either were stalled by the economy or threatened by bad weather.
Launched a little more than a year ago, Fast Wrap LLC originally targeted folks who want to protect boats, patio equipment and the like. Owners of Fast Wrap franchises pull up in a van filled with shrink wrap and installation equipment and work at the customer's home or business.
That's enough of a business that the company launched four franchised locations late last year and expects to have at least four more in operation by the end of next month. It has stepped up its franchise-sales efforts in recent weeks, and Enos says it's generated 200 leads from potential franchise owners nationwide.
All the publicity helps.
The company's work to shrink-wrap buildings got its start locally as its wraps buttoned up The Montage in downtown Reno last year, allowing work to continue through the winter months. Wraps provided protection against weather during construction at Atlantis Casino Resort Spa and the new ballpark in downtown Reno.
But the company's shrink-wrapping skills began to attract national notice after it was called to wrap about 80,000 square feet at a hotel project at Lake Tahoe. An even bigger job arrived with the installation of 400,000 feet of wrap at a stalled Las Vegas project. Apartment developers and others looking to protect stalled projects from the elements now are calling the Reno company.
"We're wrapping a lot of buildings these days," Enos says.
Reno publicist Abbi Holtom Whitaker, the owner of Abbi Public Relations, pitched the story to news outlets far and wide getting bites from most. (Including, in all honesty, NNBW.)
Initially, Whitaker says, she was uncertain whether she could sell the story of a portable shrink-wrapping company to the media. But the Fast Wrap's success with building projects caught editor's interest.
"People are tired of the gloom and doom," Whitaker says. "They want to showcase something positive."
Enos, meanwhile, has a one-word description of the effects of all the publicity: "Unbelievable."
