September 27, 2022 • 40 mins
In this Franchise Friday: Episode 204 with Colette Bell of Ace Handyman Services, I understand the hard work, dedication and challenges that one must overcome to build a successful franchise.
I have been a franchisor for nearly 20 years and have been involved in starting up and operating formerly Handyman Matters and now Ace Handyman Services. The acquisition of Ace Hardware on September 4, 2019, will be a tremendous improvement to not only our franchise system but the handyman industry.
Ace Handyman Services provides value, serves people & solves problems.
It didn’t take long in 1998 to see that the home improvement industry desperately needed to change – it lacked ethics and integrity. This is a business that provides honest value, serves people, and solves problems to make customers’ lives better.
This is a values-driven business that’s based in dignity and respect for your teammates and our customers. If that speaks to your desire to get past flowery mission statements and undelivered promises at your work, this might be just the business for you.
When you buy an Ace Handyman Services franchise, you get everything you need – the power of 24 years of experience – to quickly tap into this rapidly expanding home improvement segment.
In the two decades since, The Ace Handyman Services Franchise Organization has expanded from coast to coast while continuing to embrace the same values and concepts. Business should never come at the expense of family life, or of allowing personal time for either owners or their employees. Success is measured not just in financial gain, but also in quality of life.
According to Colette
“I’ll be honest, Andy, and I started this when we were young, we were just two young married kids with a baby on the way trying to figure out what we were going to do next. We were super fortunate to find the business model of franchising, because really, it is perfect for a lot of business concepts. But for handyman services. handyman service is very local, people who are having somebody come into their house, which is a very intimate place, make a repair to the biggest investment that they own, which is their home. People don’t want to call New York, California, you know, if they live in if they live in Kentucky, and schedule, that kind of work. They want to know that who owns this and who’s responsible for this is right there in their own community. So franchising was. That’s the whole idea that you take a business idea, and then you apply it on a local basis with local customizations are super important. That’s what I love about franchising. It’s the same business. But you know, you do things a little bit differently depending upon the part of the country that you’re in. Just the culture around franchising is very inclusive, everybody’s pulling together to help each other be better. We make each other better, which is what franchising is all about.”
According to Melissa
I am now even more excited about franchising after hearing you! When you look at all the different things that are going on and have occurred in the past few years. And a lot of people can have the sky’s falling mentality. But I really truly believe in franchising, you know, in our little corner of the world, there is an abundance mindset, there’s a lot of opportunity. There’s so muc
Franchise Friday, where you can watch or listen as we explore franchising, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership, speaking with the franchise industry thought leaders and subject matter experts that shape the Future Of Franchising. #FranchiseFriday – For more about our podcast, visit our website: https://futureoffranchising.com/ Produced by Franchise Source Brands International and The Entrepreneur’s Sou
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:13):
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the
franchise Friday podcast withthe entrepreneur source. I am
Melissa Pang lovely to be herewith Colette bell of ACE
handyman services. Hi, Colette,welcome.
I'm Melissa. I'm so happy to behere.
I am excited about today'sconversation. So let's dive
(00:35):
right in. So as handymanservices is a member with the
entrepreneur resource part ofour T s community. And before we
start, could you just give alittle bit of background on how
you got to where you are todaysome of your experience and what
that looks like?
Sure, I'd love to. So we havebeen a part of the TTS world and
(00:57):
partnership for a really longtime. My history is sort of long
and meandering, but the shortversion of it is back in 1998,
in Denver, Colorado, my husbandand I started a handyman
business. And we really startedit because we were starting our
family, I was pregnant with ourfirst child. And my husband had
(01:19):
been in restaurant management,which was great, but it was a
lot of hours. And we wanted tobe different parents than what
we had, you know, you're alwaystrying to further the ball a
little bit. So he Whap wrappedup his work with restaurants and
decided to start his owncompany. And the concept that he
started was a handyman business.
And really all we were trying todo honestly was pay the
(01:40):
mortgage, and take care of thebaby. And it became very clear
really quickly to my husband,Andy that the handyman industry
was sorely in need of customerservice and professionalism. And
I think we can probably allagree to that. Here we are 24
years later. So the businesstook off really quickly. In
Denver, we did a lot of tweakingwith the business model, like
(02:03):
you always do when you start anew business, something's
worked, lots of them didn't, westopped doing all the things
that didn't work, because wewere losing money. And finally
fell upon a model where we hiredcraftsmen, we call them
craftsmen, as w two employees,so that we could do background
checks, that was reallyimportant to me, as a woman. It
also allowed us to carry theright insurance, both for our
(02:25):
company, but also for thecraftsmen and the homeowners to
make sure they were carefullytaking care of where that was
concerned. And we could teachour craftsmen a little bit more
about customer service, becausethey turned out they weren't the
best at that to begin with. Sowe started that way. And then we
stopped doing estimates, wereally found it was kind of a
waste of time, and everybodywanted it for free, which it's
(02:47):
really hard to make businesssense if something is free. And
so we started transitioning towhat's called time plus
materials. So we send craftsmenout, we work for a period of
time in hourly increments, andwe build a customers per hour.
Pretty easy, prettystraightforward. Try not to make
it too complicated. businesstook off in 1999. It was just
(03:09):
crazy. Everybody needed ahandyman, everybody was super
excited about the handymanbusiness, we grew to three
locations in Denver, we feltlike we were onto something as a
business idea. But you know,Denver might just have been a
weird sort of place. So wewanted to try it somewhere else.
So we opened up three corporatelocations in California. You
(03:29):
know, if you can make somethingwork in California, you could
probably make just aboutanywhere. Lo and behold, three
locations worked in California,same way. So we knew we were
onto something. But we wanted togrow nationally, we just didn't
have a lot of financing. We'dmade good money. And we'd
certainly taken salaries outbecause we were paying the
(03:50):
mortgage and by that time takingcare of two babies. But we
didn't have a ton of resourceswhen it came to money. So we
weren't totally sure how to growuntil we were really fortunate
that we had a customer call usand he was so excited. He's
like, Oh, I love your handymanbusiness. This is great. If
you've ever thought aboutfranchising, please let me know
I'm a franchise attorney. So wewere off and running at that
(04:13):
point. So started franchising in2001. Join the T as coaches
group in 2004. That's, you know,took us three years to sort of
figure out what we were doing.
Saw some great growth, hadwonderful franchisees join us
from coaches that learn moreabout us and brought the right
(04:33):
people to us. And thencompletely out of the blue in
2017. We got a phone call fromAce Hardware. And they had been
investigating services, they'dcome across what was called
handyman matters. That was ourbrand name. They liked what they
had seen. They were wondering ifwe might be interested in a
potential partnership. And myhusband said yes, and I'll fly
(04:57):
to Chicago on Monday. If you'reright, yeah, always taking that
opportunity, right. And so. Soyou know, when we've been
approached by private equityover the years, there's lots of
mergers and acquisitions infranchising, just like other
industries. But we were reallyloving what we were doing. And
we were loving who we were doingit with our franchisees are
(05:18):
amazing people, some of themhave been with us since 2004. So
we've got folks that have beenwith us a long time, we really
didn't want to get out of it.
But ace was interesting, it's amuch bigger, you know, platform
to stand on, they had a lot ofthe same cultures and values
that we have. They're an $8billion business, but the use of
(05:40):
the word love in their cultures,which I thought was really
endearing. So we had theconversation in late 17, they
reached back out to us in 2018.
And we went into due diligence,and it took a year and a half.
You know, they wanted everypiece of paper, and we started
in the basement. So it took me awhile to find every piece of
paper that they were lookingfor, to be honest. But the
(06:01):
summer of 2019, they offered tobuy everything outright. And
that was the entire franchisesystem, which we had 119
territories at that time. And itwas our local handyman business,
which we've always operated.
It's really our only nonfranchise handyman is is here in
Denver. So they bought all ofthat, but they didn't keep just
(06:24):
my husband and I they actuallykept the entire corporate staff
intact in Denver. So they didn'trelocate us to Chicago, which is
where their headquarters are.
And there's nobody from Acehere. So basically, what they
said was keep going, just here'sa better brand name. Here's a
lot more resources for you seewhat you can do with this. And
(06:46):
they've continued to invest.
They've you know, we've doubledour corporate staff in the last
three years, we've actuallydoubled the franchise in the
last three years. So we startedwith 119 territories when they
acquired us, as of this morning,we're at 327. So it's it's been
a wild ride during COVID. Butquite an amazing experience. So
(07:06):
I know that's history about thecompany, but it's kind of, you
know, personally, it's myhistory kind of caught up and
all that too. So it isdefinitely intertwined. And
you've been there since thebeginning, the beginning the
birth of this company all theway through to like toddler
years, the teenage years andinto adulthood, you've really
been there the whole time, whichis amazing. Like you've seen so
(07:26):
many stages of growth.
Yeah, I tell people all thetime. You're exactly right.
Melissa, people will ask, youknow, when you first meet them,
oh, what do you do? And myanswer was always my husband and
I raised two boys and abusiness. And I feel like
everybody went to college in2019. I've got you know, my boys
(07:47):
are in college, the business wassold to Ace Hardware. Everybody
sort of went up the ladder alittle bit.
Yeah, all components kind ofwent to the next stage. I just
think that's so interesting.
Because you you have a lot ofperspective on a lot of
different things out a lot ofdifferent points in time, you
know. And so I guess one of myquestions is, what is it? First
of all? Did you ever seeyourself in franchising? And
(08:10):
what's kept you doing this forso many years?
Yeah, that's a great question.
I'll be honest, I, you know,Andy, and I started this when we
were pretty young, in our reallyin our early 30s. And so
business savvy, we did not haveto be honest with you. I mean,
we're just, we were really justtwo young married kids with a
(08:32):
baby on the way trying to figureout what we were going to do
next. We were super fortunate tofind the business model of
franchising, because really, itis absolutely perfect for a lot
of business concepts. Butdefinitely for handyman
services. handyman service isvery local, people who are
(08:53):
having somebody come into theirhouse, which is a very intimate
place, make a repair to thebiggest investment that they
own, which is their home. Peopledon't want to call New York,
California, you know, if theylive in if they live in
Kentucky, and schedule, thatkind of work. They want to know
(09:14):
that who owns this and who'sresponsible for this is right
there in their own community. Sofranchising was perfect because
of that, right? That's the wholeidea that you take a business
idea, and then you apply it on alocal basis with local
customizations are superimportant. That's what I love
about franchising. It's the samebusiness. But you know, you do
things a little bit differentlydepending upon the part of the
(09:37):
country that you're in.
Handyman. We can do 1162different things. But that
doesn't mean we do all of themeverywhere. You know, we all
learned in Texas when they hadthat Big Freeze, you have to
have a plumbing license to eventouch anything plumbing in
Texas. We don't do plumbing inTexas, but we do plumbing in
(09:57):
other states where you don'tneed a license for it. So
franchising was a great modelfor that. Plus the just the
culture around franchising isvery inclusive, right you and I
both know that we're a part ofthe IFA being a part of the
coaches groups like T EAS,everybody's pulling together to
help each other be better. It'snot competitive. And I think
(10:20):
that's really unique in theworld of business and has been
so instrumental in helping usget better. I can remember
sitting down at the table at anIV meeting with, you know, the,
the guy who started Mr.
Handyman. And Jeff, who ownshandyman connection, and we're
still really good friends withthose guys, because we're not
competing with each other. Weall have the same business a
little bit differently. Andthere's plenty of opportunity
(10:41):
out there for everybody. Butboy, can we make each other
better, which is really whatfranchising is all about.
Amen? Like, I need to get theIFA to give you the
spokesperson. See, because,well, I just think it's so
exactly what you're saying. Youknow, I think there are a lot of
myths around franchising, and Ialways comes up in every
(11:02):
conversation, because onceyou're in franchising, you're
like, wow, it is it's community,people are helping each other
people are very open. I wouldsay that's the norm, as opposed
to the exception is people areso open to help and especially
younger brands are at yourdifferent stages of growth.
There's people who have beenthere before, and they are so
(11:23):
willing to offer that up becausethat was one of my other
questions. Like, why do youthink that you were successful?
And I don't know if you want tospeak a little bit to that. But
um, I think that's a big part ofit.
It's a huge part of it. I mean,we we, you know, again, really
had no idea what we were doingin franchising. The IFA has a
mentorship program, which Istrongly recommend. I had the
(11:44):
opportunity to work directlywith Barb Moran from Miranda
industries. So another woman ina male dominated industry but
running a franchise. And we'rereally fortunate. Denver's a
hotbed of franchisors last time,I'd look, I think there's like
110 of us headquartered. So,very active franchise, business
(12:05):
networking groups that are here,other franchisors that are here,
and I can remember franchisorscalling us and saying come on
over, you know, come attend oneof our franchise advisory
council. So you can see whatthat is. And here's what we wish
we'd done differently. And Imean, it's just, you talk and
again, that's what franchisingis supposed to be, right?
somebody buys a business fromme, and I teach them everything
(12:26):
I did wrong, and everything todo, right. And that's what it
turns out what the wholeindustry of franchising is,
like, it's, it's interesting howit stairsteps up that direction.
It just blows my mind.
I know, it's just on all levels.
You see that level of I talkedabout collaboration all the time
when you see it in franchisingas well. And that is something I
want to talk to you a little bitabout, you know, we're talking
about high level, okay, infranchising, there is this level
(12:49):
of, again, community network.
Collaboration, I want to talk alittle bit more about your
experience and handyman mattersnow as handyman services
experience with the entrepreneursource. Because I know that for
(13:10):
us client experience is massivethe clients that we work with,
we want them to have a greatexperience, regardless of who
they're talking to, whether it'sa coach, or a franchisor, or
funding member. And then theother part is that collaboration
between you and the coach. And Iknow that a lot of your success
with our with our network hasbeen because you have been so
(13:33):
collaborative, I hear that fromcoaches. And so what would kind
of on that topic of working withthe TTS coaches, how why is
collaboration so important? AndI guess we can start there? Why
is collaboration so important?
Yeah, I think it's the same ideaof a lot of coaches that we've
(13:54):
worked with over the years knewway more than we knew in the
beginning. And they would takethe time to learn about our
business model and actually askgreat questions like, Well, why
are you doing that? Have youever thought about doing this,
and that led us down some roadsthat I don't know that we would
have ever even investigated ifit weren't for the coaches
taking a true interest, not justin the name of the brand, not
(14:17):
just in the category of theindustry that we're at, but
literally taking time to comelearn about then handyman
matters now as handymanservices, how our business
operates, and help us translatethat idea into what would be a
great candidate. And I tellpeople all the time, the key to
working with groups, like the Tas coaches is to take the time
(14:40):
to develop relationships andunderstand that two things are
true in life. Not every coach isgoing to is this business model
going to make sense for there'ssome coaches who just you know,
that makes better sense for thembecause of maybe their own
backgrounds or things to work ina retail concept or a few You'd
concept or some, you know,service is very different than
(15:02):
that. So it's important that youtake the time to at least have a
conversation with each coach toto figure out whether or not
this is a business model thatmakes logical sense to them.
Because we all know you can'tdescribe something, if in the
back of your mind, you're like,I don't even understand what,
oh, here you go, go look atthis. The second thing to
understand is not every clientthat a coach works for is going
(15:26):
to be a great fit for our model.
Again, their business skills,their backgrounds, what makes
logical sense for them. So ifyou can help the coaches
understand better, they willbring more specific clients that
are going to have a goodopportunity of clicking with the
business model. And that's justbasic business model stuff,
right, Melissa, then the T. Scoaches are great about taking
that to the next level withtheir profiling, that they do
(15:49):
have their clients to understandbehaviors and skill sets, and
how to apply that and wheresomebody is going to spend most
of their time, whether it'sbeing a social person or being a
directive person, and how doesthat match with a particular
model of the business that'sbeing run by a franchise system?
Really, really important to getthat deep into it? And it's not
(16:12):
going to happen with a twominute drill? Right? I mean, it
just, you can't put it all downon a piece of paper like, yeah,
you know, and it's person byperson, you know, which is why
so great to have in person.
Conferences, again, where we canspend time, both informal
(16:32):
setting, sharing informationabout our business, but then
sitting at lunch and sitting forcoffee and sitting for a
beverage, you know, an adultbeverage after the evenings and
talking about the businessmodel. That's really what makes
a true connection. So I thinkif, if, as a franchisor, we can
make a better connection withthe coaches, they can help us
make a better connection withthe right clients. And you have
(16:53):
to have communication andcollaboration to make any of
that happen, right. It's justnot going to happen otherwise,
amen. Couldn't couldn't havesaid it better myself. And I
know you've had real lifeexperience working with the
coaches and seeing that kind ofcome to fruition over the years.
As well as I think it's reallyimportant, you said the time
piece of it. Because I know inour world, it's very easy to get
(17:18):
caught up in that, okay, I needmore franchisees, I need more
franchisees, it's a numbersgame, I really have to, you
know, I only have so many hoursin the day to talk to X number
of people. And I think it's onthe coach side, the mentality of
I don't have enough time. Andalso on the franchisor side, I
don't have enough time, but it'slike, you know, what, and also
(17:38):
to your point of looking at eachperson as an individual, whether
it's the coaches an individual,the client is an individual, and
taking the time looking at it asan investment of time, because
in the long run, I mean, youknow, this it, it does, it does
pan out, maybe not unlike mytimeline that I originally had
in mind. But like, listen, wow,that four weeks really stretched
(18:02):
into the, you know, four months.
But then you get a greatfranchisee at the end of it. And
you know, isn't that worth it?
That's right. That's right. Andpeople who, you know, the the
game, the game of franchising isa long game. Yeah, right.
There's a lot of concepts outthere that are trying to play a
short game. And we've all seenthat, you know, fizzle out and,
(18:22):
and sometimes explode inpeople's faces. The idea is that
you find the right people, youtake the time, like you were
saying, and it is a lot of timeyou take the time and energy on
the front end, to make sure thatthe person has a right fit a
good cultural fit financiallyprepared for the business,
they're going into the rightmarket, they're going to have
the right training and supportand then they're going to be
there for a really long time.
And I'll never forget, you know,in the beginning, when we were
(18:45):
talking to clients and talkingabout, you know, it's a 10 year
term, and then you can signanother 10 year term, I can
remember the back of my headthinking, this is the wackiest
idea in the world, like, who isever going to sign a second?
Like I just, I don't, but youknow what I've got franchisees
that are going to be signingthird 10 year terms coming up in
2024. I mean, that blows mymind. And so it really is that
(19:08):
long game that you're lookingforwards. It's not the short
game and time is so valuable,which is why I think that's why
you have to be selected. And byselective, I mean, work with the
coaches where it clicks. It'snot not to say there's anything
wrong with people when itdoesn't click, it's just not a
good connection for you. Andalso work with the clients that
(19:30):
click. It is a numbers game. ButI also think, you know, if
you're fortunate enough to be inthe scenario we find ourselves
in, we have plenty of peopleinterested. We just need to make
sure there's only eight hours inevery day. And so you got to
spend that time with the rightpeople, not everybody, right and
you can't I tell people this allthe time. You know, you can't be
a steak restaurant and have acustomer come in and say Gosh, I
(19:53):
really want sushi and then runaround town trying to find fish.
I mean, that's just not itdoesn't work. that way, right
your steak just be the beststeak restaurant that you can
be. So you have to kind of bethe best business, whatever you
are that you can be and thenmake sure the client is a good
fit for100%. And I think it comes back
to the collaboration with thecoach. So they understand, okay,
(20:13):
Who Who are you looking for? Andyou're understanding Hey, the
person you're bringing me, okay,maybe it's not the person I
thought right away. But aftertalking with the coach, and
understanding better thatperson, maybe they are going to
be the, you know, the rightperson. And then also, you know,
it's okay, if someone if someonesays, You know what this
(20:36):
actually isn't, for me, at leastnow, they've taken time learned
about the business on, you know,different levels of that kind of
education piece of it. But nowyou have someone else who's been
educated about your brand, knowsabout it, and has kind of made
an informed decision. Like, no,this isn't the right one for me.
And that's good for bothparties, as opposed to that's,
you know, you doing all thequalify now, or the client doing
(20:56):
all the qualifying out beforethey even know it's what it is?
That's exactly right. And when aclient says to me, You know
what, I just don't think I wantto hire employees, right? We're
an employee base, my model,there's nothing I could do. It
was what we are, when somebodycomes to that determination, I
am absolutely thrilled for them.
Because now what they know is animportant piece of information
(21:19):
to go back to the coach and say,okay, hey, maybe there's other
concepts out there that aren'temployee base that I should be
looking at. Because I thinkeverybody's goal, at the end of
the day, and absolutely in theentrepreneur sources is true.
Everybody's goal is to findsomeone the right fit, not
ending fit, but the right fit.
(21:40):
That's that long term game infranchising, and the sooner they
can look at my concept and say,No, I'm just, this isn't a good
fit for me. To me, that's greatnews, because that's more time
for them to spend looking at theright fit. And that's that
everybody wins. At the end ofthe day, I want, I'm always
thrilled when somebody says I'mgoing to I'm going to buy
something else, for example, I'mgonna invest in something else,
(22:00):
because I'm like, Yay, we haveanother business owner in the
world, I don't care that it'snot with us, I'm just excited
that they're going to have thiswonderful experience that my
husband and I have had and allof our franchisees have had and
everybody in franchising hashad, which is control your own
destiny through businessownership. That's my goal for
everybody.
I feel like it ended right here,but that everyone is called an
(22:21):
abundance mindset. So thank you,Colette Val. Know, it's so true,
like, when you take thatapproach, it's, um, it just
opens up a lot more thingsbecause I think to some people
can say, you know, the rightfit, and they're looking for
very specific, maybe it's likefinancials, like there's these
very, very specific parameters.
But right fit could mean, youknow, we talk a lot, a lot about
(22:45):
income, lifestyle, wealth andequity. So it's not always like,
hey, it's gonna be the right fitin terms of the like, what it is
that we do, like, someone lovespizza, the right fit for them as
a pizza restaurant, it could bethe right fit for them is your
business because they want to bea part of their community, and
they love that customer servicepiece. And they did that in
their past. So it's kind of thatright fit there. And so being
(23:08):
okay, you know, kind of saying,hey, these certain things
weren't right for that client.
But to your point, so excitedthat they could find the, you
know, what is the right fit forthem?
That is so true. And I thinkwhat I love about working with
(23:29):
coaches is their ability toshare with a potential client.
Hey, I want you to take a lookat this concept. It's a handyman
business. Now, listen, listen,you and I both know, there is
nothing sexy about a handyman,but I've been doing this for 24
years, right? We fix toilets. Imean, I don't there's, but the
franchisee doesn't fix thetoilets. You know what I mean?
So the industry itself isn'tsuper sexy. COVID helped,
(23:51):
because essential businessescertainly started ticking up a
little bit. So that was, washelpful. But what coaches are
great about doing is saying,hey, I want you to take a look
at this handyman business. Butlet me tell you a little bit
more about it. Because ourfranchisees are not doing the
work. They don't need to behandyman. They don't need to
know the construction industry.
And what people really learn andwhat I think draws them to our
(24:13):
concept is this is oddly enough,this handyman business is an
ability to make people's livesbetter. Now, that's something a
lot of people can get behind. Itmay not be what the first thing
they think of when they hear ahandyman through the coach is
helping them say, you know, keepan open mind, just have a
conversation, learn a little bitmore about it. Boy, we get some
people who, you know, if theywere just scrolling through a
(24:36):
website, looking at brand names,you just wouldn't be able to
capture them, you wouldn't ableto capture their interest. Oh,
great. Another great point, aswell. And I think again, it goes
it goes both ways. I thinkthat's really what I find in my
conversations is it's not, Ithink sometimes maybe coaches or
(24:58):
people think okay, it's all Inthe franchisor, you know, you
have to really accept the clientand do all these things, but
also for coaches to alsounderstand, you know that having
the open mind and being open topresenting things that's a
massive part of our of theentrepreneur source is actually
introducing our clients to, toyour, to your point to business
(25:19):
models and concepts that theywould never have looked at, they
would have scrolled right past,you know, and that sort of that,
but then you take that deeperdive and the coach says, Hey,
take some time to talk toColette and learn this, there's
more to it than just the, youknow, fixing the pipes. And you
know, what's right, fixing thedoor handles or whatever it is,
(25:40):
there's so much more to it, andbeing able to connect with the
client on the things that areimportant to them.
Right? That's exactly.
So you bring up a phenomenalpoint there. Um, I also wanted
to i Oh, yeah, we've covered alot of things here. I want to
ask you now, like, if you werespeaking to an emerging brand,
(26:03):
in any industry, what would yousay are some key points, maybe
two or three points that arereally they're kind of maybe
game changing for you, or?
Really, I will say, I will saygame changing for you either
something that you didn't do orsomething that you did do that
(26:25):
you would say, Hey, this is agreat, great little piece of
advice.
Yeah, I got a million things Iwouldn't do again. You know, we
were all emerging at one time.
And it doesn't seem like it wasthat awfully long ago, to be
honest with you. One thing Ilearned, and I see a lot of
emerging brands do this. And itwas something we did that I wish
(26:49):
I would have changed in thebeginning. And that is spending
more time when you'reformulating the particular
details of your franchise model.
And in specific that item 12territory. I would say that most
you know, mature franchisesystems would tell you boy, we
(27:11):
gave away too much territory inthe beginning. And I know for
sure we did. We we just we didwhat we thought the competition
was doing. My husband who hadstarted it was an entrepreneur
who was out to, you know,basically rule the world. So the
more territory the better, or ashe was concerned. And I think
we, we were a little bit shortsighted in that particular setup
(27:31):
of our model, we had to adjustit as we went forward. And
that's hard on everybody.
Luckily, we were able to do itin a very positive way. So that
franchisees who had, you know,really gone along with us and
made the mistake of investing intoo much. And that was our
fault, were able to keep it allbut then resell some of that
off. So they could recapitalizetheir their main business, which
is a great way to go aboutadjusting territories that way.
(27:53):
But I wish I wish I had spent alittle bit more time on
territory I didn't. Second thingis one thing that we did, right
that I would definitelyrecommend is I know a lot of
franchise thought for emergingfranchisors focuses around
growing in concentric circlesaround your headquarters. And
there's a lot of positives tothat, right you can drive for
(28:14):
support, the demographics aregoing to be pretty similar to
your own business. Lots of goodreasons to do that. We of
course, had blown that clean outof the water. When we started
the California locations. Wewere like, Oh, I kind of blew
that nevermind. But what weended up doing instead was not
so much worrying about where wewere growing, but who we were
growing with. And, and it's kindof off the cuff statement that
(28:40):
we have here at AC handymanservices. But the truth of the
matter is Melissa, we don't workwith me and people seems pretty
kindergarten one on one lessons,but there's just not enough
hours in the day for me andpeople. And what I mean by that
is we spent a lot of time in thebeginning, making sure people
were a great vision missionvalue fit with us. We're very
community centered, we asked ourfranchisees to donate time, once
(29:05):
a quarter to their community, dononprofit work, do volunteer
work, that was really, reallyimportant to us, because we felt
like if you were lucky enough tohave a profitable business
model, you need to give back tothe community. And we wanted
everybody who joined us to havethat same mindset. And quite
honestly, not everybody does.
And that's okay. But those werethe people that were really
(29:27):
important to us. And the reasonwhy I say that was so important
is two things. One, those arethe people still in the system.
So it maintained a really longtime with us. And really, that's
the folks who got us to thetable with Ace Hardware. They
opened up the bigger door wasn'tus. You know, it was nice that
they looked at our businessmodel, but you and I both know,
they called every franchisee inthe system and said how's it
(29:48):
going? Would you do it again? Doyou like it? Are they
supportive? Is this a goodbusiness model? And if we'd had
mean or unhappy people, you canimagine how that that might have
gone. We were really fortunatethat that that's what really
took us to the table with acewas our existing franchisees.
So, I think thinking about thosetwo factors, what's your
territory format? Because that'simportant. And what kind of a
(30:12):
person are you going to bringin? Yes, it's important where
they are in the United States.
Heck, we even went to Ireland atone point, crazy, long story,
really the right person,it was a great person, and you
asked it all the way through themiddle of the recession, but
then it was just too hard inIreland, and they were going
through the Euro change, it wasjust a big mess over there. But
what really, really nice, Istill talk to him, by the way,
(30:35):
we still are in communicationwith Oh, and from Ireland. So
very nice guy. But I would sayfocus more on the people that
you're bringing into yoursystem, they're going to be your
shoulder to shoulder partners,they're going to help your
system get better get moresophisticated, respond quicker.
They're in the field, you know,whatever business model you
have, they have a closerrelationship to the customer
than you do, as the franchisor.
(30:57):
And the feedback they bring backcan really make the difference
between moving fast enough,especially in our world, you
know, all these crazy thingsthat we face every day, you've
got to be able to shift yourselfas quickly as possible. And if
you have good communication withyour franchisees who care, they
are going to call corporate andsay, Hey, this is going on, I
think you should research it.
I'm not sure my area, the restof the United States, I don't
(31:18):
know what's going on. Soand the correlation I see
between those two, first of allgreat points that I actually
don't hear come up very oftenlike those two specific things,
especially, you know, you dohear a lot of times the
concentric circles just want tostay more regional, and then
grow out. But kind of flippingthat into find the right people,
the rest will kind of fall intoplace is Yeah, is a great point
(31:40):
there. And the correlation I seebetween the two is it's looking
at your long term, you know,like, you will get your
territory at the beginning.
Okay, what's that going to looklike when I have not just 10
franchisees, but 100franchisees? What does that look
like? And of course, you couldtake that concept, not just
(32:00):
apply to territory, but reallyanything. And then also long,
exactly, to your point long termfranchisees, these people, I
want them around. And yeah, Iwant happy people who really
become like brand ambassadors,almost your concept, they love
the brand, as much as you do.
And so they care to, you know,call you, this isn't going
(32:22):
right, I have feedback, allthese things, you want that long
term, not just the person who'slike, Yep, I've got 100 grand,
here's my check.
Right? That's right. And thoseare the folks who, when you do
hit a, you know, a road bump orspeed bump or a wall in the
economy, those are the ones whocome with come to you and say
(32:43):
how can we collectively worktogether and figure this out?
You know, we live through therecession, we, we were in
business in the heyday, whenlife was great in 2004, or five
and six, where people could getmoney if they could sneeze, and
you know, life was wonderful.
And then we turn around and payfor that starting in 2008. And
it hit construction really hard.
But I credit our franchisees tocalling us and saying, Okay,
(33:05):
let's relook at our businessmodel, what do we need to
change? What do we need to stopdoing? What do we need to do
more of so that togethercollectively, we can all still
be in business in 2012. And alot of the great ideas that came
out of that came fromfranchisees.
And I feel like that's anotherbeautiful part of franchising
is, you know, you, you know, youdo have the responsibility as
(33:28):
the franchisor. But you have agreat team, not just your own
corporate team, but all yourfranchisees in all different
parts of the world differentbackgrounds, it just Are there
parts of the country withdifferent backgrounds. And yeah,
you can take it to a level youprobably couldn't just, you
know, withyourself, right, we would have
never had the business that youknow if it had just been us in
in Denver. Yeah. Yeah.
(33:51):
I love this. The whole the wholestory. Also the fact that you
guys like started when when wasit back? You started
franchising? 2004 2001 Wejoined? Yes. Okay. Okay, so
we're organized enough and noone all right,
there was a franchise there wasa franchise. So I want to again,
(34:14):
love this conversation. And Icould talk about franchising for
hours. But when you look at, youknow, over the horizon, what
does the future of franchisingmean to you? What does that look
like to you like what can youenvision or see?
Ya I clearly always been a hugefan and proponent of of
(34:35):
franchising as a business model.
Love the fact that I think thelast statistic I heard was there
was over 4000 active franchiseconcepts in the United States.
When I think about the future offranchising, I think about my
boys generation. So I've got a24 and a 22 year old, they're
not millennials, right? They'rethe Gen X or they're young,
younger than the millennials butbut close enough See that I kind
(34:58):
of pay attention to both both ofthose generations. And one thing
that I learned that I thinkbodes very, very well, for the
franchise industry going forwardis in my generation. So I'm not
baby boomer, but I don't eventhink they called us anything.
They just, we were just thegeneration after the baby. In my
generation, about 4% of usstarted our own businesses.
(35:25):
Right. So you know, we, myhusband, and I were part of that
part of a very what I wouldconsider a small tight community
of people who said, Nope, notgonna play the corporate America
game like my parents, I'm goingto start my own business. And
trust me, my dad thought we wereabsolutely bananas. I mean, it
probably took 10 years before hestopped asking, When are you
going to go get a job? I mean,it was he just could not get it
through his head that we werestarting a business. But I heard
(35:46):
a statistic the other day thatfor the millennial and the Gen X
generation, that percentage ofpeople when they were asked, Are
you going to someday start yourown business was 26%. Six times
as many people in thosegenerations are standing up and
saying, I can do this. Now, youand I both know. And again, I've
(36:11):
been franchising for twodecades, not everybody is cut
out for starting a business in abasement and making a bunch of
mistakes and losing a bunch ofmoney and still having the
wherewithal to get up every dayand say, Nope, we're gonna make
this work. I mean, that's,that's a resilient sort of
thing. But a lot of those folksare going to be amazing
franchisees, they're going totake a business concept, and
(36:32):
especially the youngergeneration, they're going to
figure out how to add moretechnology, how to streamline
things, how to make it morevideo adaptable, no matter the
industry, right? It could be anyindustry at all that we're
talking about. But they're goingto bring all that technology
that they lived with, that wekindly gave to them, and they
were like six years old, andthey're going to integrate it
(36:53):
into our business models. So Ithink more and more people are
going to be joining the ranks offranchising and all kinds of
different models. And I thinkwhat they're going to bring to
it skill set wise, withtechnology and a new way of
looking at business is justgoing to it, I think it bodes so
well for the industry offranchising going
forward. I am now even moreexcited about franchising after
(37:17):
hearing your cola like, okay,things are going well. But I
know I feel exactly the sameway. When you look at even when
you look at all the differentthings that maybe are going on
have occurred in the past fewyears. And a lot of people can
have the sky's fallingmentality. But I really truly
believe in in franchising, youknow, in our little corner of
(37:39):
the world, that it's a lot of,again, it's that abundance
mindset, but there's a lot ofopportunity. There's so much
room for growth and innovationand all these things that I am
actually hearing you talk about,you know, the generations coming
up and looking at businessownership, but through
franchising, there's just somuch potential.
(38:03):
Yeah, yeah, I would saydefinitely there's the the world
is our oyster, it's just amatter of how quickly you can,
you know, take advantage ofthose new opportunities, embrace
those new opportunities and,and, you know, for some of us
who've been around for twodecades, that's harder than
others. You know, bringingtechnology into a handyman
business we've been fortunatewe've had a lot of technology
(38:23):
from the beginning, but boy,there's a lot out there that
that you can take advantage ofso oh color are you on tick tock
funny story. You know, I joinedall that. This is terrible. The
same illicit people are gonna,like, think for me poorly of me,
but I'm gonna admit this. I'venever had a Facebook page. Okay.
(38:46):
I'm like one of the 300 peoplein the United States. I just, I
don't know it. It hit at a timewhen I was raising kids and I
was super busy and I was doingthe business. Honestly, I just
missed the boat. I'm not totallysure what happened, but I missed
it. When my kids went tocollege, which would have been,
you know, five and six years agonow, a really good way to stay
in touch with them was throughInstagram and Snapchat and then
(39:08):
Tik Tok. And so I'm like, okay,I can do this. I don't post on
those mediums. But I I'm atleast on it so that they can
send me something and I get analert on my phone. So I know
when it's happening. My youngestis actually finding quite a bit
of success on Tik Tok. So he'san influencer status. So we try
and follow Him and do all thosekinds of things. But our
(39:29):
franchisees are doing someamazing things. We've got some
millennial franchisees in the inI swear they're not even 30 and
they're doing amazing things intheir markets with tick tock
videos and Instagram posts andall that great stuff. So So
you're already seeingit like the start of this kind
of takeover of the nextgeneration. So and you're part
of it, you know, can you missthe Facebook train, whatever.
(39:54):
I won't go back. No,we're seeing what we got. So I
Love us so I'm going to wrap itup here. Thank you so much
Colette, for having taking sometime to talk with me today. I
absolutely enjoyed this.
Thanks for this. I love talkingabout franchising. I'm really
honored to be a part of thispodcast with you guys. And we
(40:16):
are absolutely thrilled to be apart of the entrepreneur source.
It's been a great relationshipfor almost 20 years now.
Hard to believe. Thank you somuch.
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the
franchise Friday podcast withthe entrepreneur source. I am
Melissa Pang lovely to be herewith Colette bell of ACE
handyman services. Hi, Colette,welcome.
I'm Melissa. I'm so happy to behere.
I am excited about today'sconversation. So let's dive
(00:35):
right in. So as handymanservices is a member with the
entrepreneur resource part ofour T s community. And before we
start, could you just give alittle bit of background on how
you got to where you are todaysome of your experience and what
that looks like?
Sure, I'd love to. So we havebeen a part of the TTS world and
(00:57):
partnership for a really longtime. My history is sort of long
and meandering, but the shortversion of it is back in 1998,
in Denver, Colorado, my husbandand I started a handyman
business. And we really startedit because we were starting our
family, I was pregnant with ourfirst child. And my husband had
(01:19):
been in restaurant management,which was great, but it was a
lot of hours. And we wanted tobe different parents than what
we had, you know, you're alwaystrying to further the ball a
little bit. So he Whap wrappedup his work with restaurants and
decided to start his owncompany. And the concept that he
started was a handyman business.
And really all we were trying todo honestly was pay the
(01:40):
mortgage, and take care of thebaby. And it became very clear
really quickly to my husband,Andy that the handyman industry
was sorely in need of customerservice and professionalism. And
I think we can probably allagree to that. Here we are 24
years later. So the businesstook off really quickly. In
Denver, we did a lot of tweakingwith the business model, like
(02:03):
you always do when you start anew business, something's
worked, lots of them didn't, westopped doing all the things
that didn't work, because wewere losing money. And finally
fell upon a model where we hiredcraftsmen, we call them
craftsmen, as w two employees,so that we could do background
checks, that was reallyimportant to me, as a woman. It
also allowed us to carry theright insurance, both for our
(02:25):
company, but also for thecraftsmen and the homeowners to
make sure they were carefullytaking care of where that was
concerned. And we could teachour craftsmen a little bit more
about customer service, becausethey turned out they weren't the
best at that to begin with. Sowe started that way. And then we
stopped doing estimates, wereally found it was kind of a
waste of time, and everybodywanted it for free, which it's
(02:47):
really hard to make businesssense if something is free. And
so we started transitioning towhat's called time plus
materials. So we send craftsmenout, we work for a period of
time in hourly increments, andwe build a customers per hour.
Pretty easy, prettystraightforward. Try not to make
it too complicated. businesstook off in 1999. It was just
(03:09):
crazy. Everybody needed ahandyman, everybody was super
excited about the handymanbusiness, we grew to three
locations in Denver, we feltlike we were onto something as a
business idea. But you know,Denver might just have been a
weird sort of place. So wewanted to try it somewhere else.
So we opened up three corporatelocations in California. You
(03:29):
know, if you can make somethingwork in California, you could
probably make just aboutanywhere. Lo and behold, three
locations worked in California,same way. So we knew we were
onto something. But we wanted togrow nationally, we just didn't
have a lot of financing. We'dmade good money. And we'd
certainly taken salaries outbecause we were paying the
(03:50):
mortgage and by that time takingcare of two babies. But we
didn't have a ton of resourceswhen it came to money. So we
weren't totally sure how to growuntil we were really fortunate
that we had a customer call usand he was so excited. He's
like, Oh, I love your handymanbusiness. This is great. If
you've ever thought aboutfranchising, please let me know
I'm a franchise attorney. So wewere off and running at that
(04:13):
point. So started franchising in2001. Join the T as coaches
group in 2004. That's, you know,took us three years to sort of
figure out what we were doing.
Saw some great growth, hadwonderful franchisees join us
from coaches that learn moreabout us and brought the right
(04:33):
people to us. And thencompletely out of the blue in
2017. We got a phone call fromAce Hardware. And they had been
investigating services, they'dcome across what was called
handyman matters. That was ourbrand name. They liked what they
had seen. They were wondering ifwe might be interested in a
potential partnership. And myhusband said yes, and I'll fly
(04:57):
to Chicago on Monday. If you'reright, yeah, always taking that
opportunity, right. And so. Soyou know, when we've been
approached by private equityover the years, there's lots of
mergers and acquisitions infranchising, just like other
industries. But we were reallyloving what we were doing. And
we were loving who we were doingit with our franchisees are
(05:18):
amazing people, some of themhave been with us since 2004. So
we've got folks that have beenwith us a long time, we really
didn't want to get out of it.
But ace was interesting, it's amuch bigger, you know, platform
to stand on, they had a lot ofthe same cultures and values
that we have. They're an $8billion business, but the use of
(05:40):
the word love in their cultures,which I thought was really
endearing. So we had theconversation in late 17, they
reached back out to us in 2018.
And we went into due diligence,and it took a year and a half.
You know, they wanted everypiece of paper, and we started
in the basement. So it took me awhile to find every piece of
paper that they were lookingfor, to be honest. But the
(06:01):
summer of 2019, they offered tobuy everything outright. And
that was the entire franchisesystem, which we had 119
territories at that time. And itwas our local handyman business,
which we've always operated.
It's really our only nonfranchise handyman is is here in
Denver. So they bought all ofthat, but they didn't keep just
(06:24):
my husband and I they actuallykept the entire corporate staff
intact in Denver. So they didn'trelocate us to Chicago, which is
where their headquarters are.
And there's nobody from Acehere. So basically, what they
said was keep going, just here'sa better brand name. Here's a
lot more resources for you seewhat you can do with this. And
(06:46):
they've continued to invest.
They've you know, we've doubledour corporate staff in the last
three years, we've actuallydoubled the franchise in the
last three years. So we startedwith 119 territories when they
acquired us, as of this morning,we're at 327. So it's it's been
a wild ride during COVID. Butquite an amazing experience. So
(07:06):
I know that's history about thecompany, but it's kind of, you
know, personally, it's myhistory kind of caught up and
all that too. So it isdefinitely intertwined. And
you've been there since thebeginning, the beginning the
birth of this company all theway through to like toddler
years, the teenage years andinto adulthood, you've really
been there the whole time, whichis amazing. Like you've seen so
(07:26):
many stages of growth.
Yeah, I tell people all thetime. You're exactly right.
Melissa, people will ask, youknow, when you first meet them,
oh, what do you do? And myanswer was always my husband and
I raised two boys and abusiness. And I feel like
everybody went to college in2019. I've got you know, my boys
(07:47):
are in college, the business wassold to Ace Hardware. Everybody
sort of went up the ladder alittle bit.
Yeah, all components kind ofwent to the next stage. I just
think that's so interesting.
Because you you have a lot ofperspective on a lot of
different things out a lot ofdifferent points in time, you
know. And so I guess one of myquestions is, what is it? First
of all? Did you ever seeyourself in franchising? And
(08:10):
what's kept you doing this forso many years?
Yeah, that's a great question.
I'll be honest, I, you know,Andy, and I started this when we
were pretty young, in our reallyin our early 30s. And so
business savvy, we did not haveto be honest with you. I mean,
we're just, we were really justtwo young married kids with a
(08:32):
baby on the way trying to figureout what we were going to do
next. We were super fortunate tofind the business model of
franchising, because really, itis absolutely perfect for a lot
of business concepts. Butdefinitely for handyman
services. handyman service isvery local, people who are
(08:53):
having somebody come into theirhouse, which is a very intimate
place, make a repair to thebiggest investment that they
own, which is their home. Peopledon't want to call New York,
California, you know, if theylive in if they live in
Kentucky, and schedule, thatkind of work. They want to know
(09:14):
that who owns this and who'sresponsible for this is right
there in their own community. Sofranchising was perfect because
of that, right? That's the wholeidea that you take a business
idea, and then you apply it on alocal basis with local
customizations are superimportant. That's what I love
about franchising. It's the samebusiness. But you know, you do
things a little bit differentlydepending upon the part of the
(09:37):
country that you're in.
Handyman. We can do 1162different things. But that
doesn't mean we do all of themeverywhere. You know, we all
learned in Texas when they hadthat Big Freeze, you have to
have a plumbing license to eventouch anything plumbing in
Texas. We don't do plumbing inTexas, but we do plumbing in
(09:57):
other states where you don'tneed a license for it. So
franchising was a great modelfor that. Plus the just the
culture around franchising isvery inclusive, right you and I
both know that we're a part ofthe IFA being a part of the
coaches groups like T EAS,everybody's pulling together to
help each other be better. It'snot competitive. And I think
(10:20):
that's really unique in theworld of business and has been
so instrumental in helping usget better. I can remember
sitting down at the table at anIV meeting with, you know, the,
the guy who started Mr.
Handyman. And Jeff, who ownshandyman connection, and we're
still really good friends withthose guys, because we're not
competing with each other. Weall have the same business a
little bit differently. Andthere's plenty of opportunity
(10:41):
out there for everybody. Butboy, can we make each other
better, which is really whatfranchising is all about.
Amen? Like, I need to get theIFA to give you the
spokesperson. See, because,well, I just think it's so
exactly what you're saying. Youknow, I think there are a lot of
myths around franchising, and Ialways comes up in every
(11:02):
conversation, because onceyou're in franchising, you're
like, wow, it is it's community,people are helping each other
people are very open. I wouldsay that's the norm, as opposed
to the exception is people areso open to help and especially
younger brands are at yourdifferent stages of growth.
There's people who have beenthere before, and they are so
(11:23):
willing to offer that up becausethat was one of my other
questions. Like, why do youthink that you were successful?
And I don't know if you want tospeak a little bit to that. But
um, I think that's a big part ofit.
It's a huge part of it. I mean,we we, you know, again, really
had no idea what we were doingin franchising. The IFA has a
mentorship program, which Istrongly recommend. I had the
(11:44):
opportunity to work directlywith Barb Moran from Miranda
industries. So another woman ina male dominated industry but
running a franchise. And we'rereally fortunate. Denver's a
hotbed of franchisors last time,I'd look, I think there's like
110 of us headquartered. So,very active franchise, business
(12:05):
networking groups that are here,other franchisors that are here,
and I can remember franchisorscalling us and saying come on
over, you know, come attend oneof our franchise advisory
council. So you can see whatthat is. And here's what we wish
we'd done differently. And Imean, it's just, you talk and
again, that's what franchisingis supposed to be, right?
somebody buys a business fromme, and I teach them everything
(12:26):
I did wrong, and everything todo, right. And that's what it
turns out what the wholeindustry of franchising is,
like, it's, it's interesting howit stairsteps up that direction.
It just blows my mind.
I know, it's just on all levels.
You see that level of I talkedabout collaboration all the time
when you see it in franchisingas well. And that is something I
want to talk to you a little bitabout, you know, we're talking
about high level, okay, infranchising, there is this level
(12:49):
of, again, community network.
Collaboration, I want to talk alittle bit more about your
experience and handyman mattersnow as handyman services
experience with the entrepreneursource. Because I know that for
(13:10):
us client experience is massivethe clients that we work with,
we want them to have a greatexperience, regardless of who
they're talking to, whether it'sa coach, or a franchisor, or
funding member. And then theother part is that collaboration
between you and the coach. And Iknow that a lot of your success
with our with our network hasbeen because you have been so
(13:33):
collaborative, I hear that fromcoaches. And so what would kind
of on that topic of working withthe TTS coaches, how why is
collaboration so important? AndI guess we can start there? Why
is collaboration so important?
Yeah, I think it's the same ideaof a lot of coaches that we've
(13:54):
worked with over the years knewway more than we knew in the
beginning. And they would takethe time to learn about our
business model and actually askgreat questions like, Well, why
are you doing that? Have youever thought about doing this,
and that led us down some roadsthat I don't know that we would
have ever even investigated ifit weren't for the coaches
taking a true interest, not justin the name of the brand, not
(14:17):
just in the category of theindustry that we're at, but
literally taking time to comelearn about then handyman
matters now as handymanservices, how our business
operates, and help us translatethat idea into what would be a
great candidate. And I tellpeople all the time, the key to
working with groups, like the Tas coaches is to take the time
(14:40):
to develop relationships andunderstand that two things are
true in life. Not every coach isgoing to is this business model
going to make sense for there'ssome coaches who just you know,
that makes better sense for thembecause of maybe their own
backgrounds or things to work ina retail concept or a few You'd
concept or some, you know,service is very different than
(15:02):
that. So it's important that youtake the time to at least have a
conversation with each coach toto figure out whether or not
this is a business model thatmakes logical sense to them.
Because we all know you can'tdescribe something, if in the
back of your mind, you're like,I don't even understand what,
oh, here you go, go look atthis. The second thing to
understand is not every clientthat a coach works for is going
(15:26):
to be a great fit for our model.
Again, their business skills,their backgrounds, what makes
logical sense for them. So ifyou can help the coaches
understand better, they willbring more specific clients that
are going to have a goodopportunity of clicking with the
business model. And that's justbasic business model stuff,
right, Melissa, then the T. Scoaches are great about taking
that to the next level withtheir profiling, that they do
(15:49):
have their clients to understandbehaviors and skill sets, and
how to apply that and wheresomebody is going to spend most
of their time, whether it'sbeing a social person or being a
directive person, and how doesthat match with a particular
model of the business that'sbeing run by a franchise system?
Really, really important to getthat deep into it? And it's not
(16:12):
going to happen with a twominute drill? Right? I mean, it
just, you can't put it all downon a piece of paper like, yeah,
you know, and it's person byperson, you know, which is why
so great to have in person.
Conferences, again, where we canspend time, both informal
(16:32):
setting, sharing informationabout our business, but then
sitting at lunch and sitting forcoffee and sitting for a
beverage, you know, an adultbeverage after the evenings and
talking about the businessmodel. That's really what makes
a true connection. So I thinkif, if, as a franchisor, we can
make a better connection withthe coaches, they can help us
make a better connection withthe right clients. And you have
(16:53):
to have communication andcollaboration to make any of
that happen, right. It's justnot going to happen otherwise,
amen. Couldn't couldn't havesaid it better myself. And I
know you've had real lifeexperience working with the
coaches and seeing that kind ofcome to fruition over the years.
As well as I think it's reallyimportant, you said the time
piece of it. Because I know inour world, it's very easy to get
(17:18):
caught up in that, okay, I needmore franchisees, I need more
franchisees, it's a numbersgame, I really have to, you
know, I only have so many hoursin the day to talk to X number
of people. And I think it's onthe coach side, the mentality of
I don't have enough time. Andalso on the franchisor side, I
don't have enough time, but it'slike, you know, what, and also
(17:38):
to your point of looking at eachperson as an individual, whether
it's the coaches an individual,the client is an individual, and
taking the time looking at it asan investment of time, because
in the long run, I mean, youknow, this it, it does, it does
pan out, maybe not unlike mytimeline that I originally had
in mind. But like, listen, wow,that four weeks really stretched
(18:02):
into the, you know, four months.
But then you get a greatfranchisee at the end of it. And
you know, isn't that worth it?
That's right. That's right. Andpeople who, you know, the the
game, the game of franchising isa long game. Yeah, right.
There's a lot of concepts outthere that are trying to play a
short game. And we've all seenthat, you know, fizzle out and,
(18:22):
and sometimes explode inpeople's faces. The idea is that
you find the right people, youtake the time, like you were
saying, and it is a lot of timeyou take the time and energy on
the front end, to make sure thatthe person has a right fit a
good cultural fit financiallyprepared for the business,
they're going into the rightmarket, they're going to have
the right training and supportand then they're going to be
there for a really long time.
And I'll never forget, you know,in the beginning, when we were
(18:45):
talking to clients and talkingabout, you know, it's a 10 year
term, and then you can signanother 10 year term, I can
remember the back of my headthinking, this is the wackiest
idea in the world, like, who isever going to sign a second?
Like I just, I don't, but youknow what I've got franchisees
that are going to be signingthird 10 year terms coming up in
2024. I mean, that blows mymind. And so it really is that
(19:08):
long game that you're lookingforwards. It's not the short
game and time is so valuable,which is why I think that's why
you have to be selected. And byselective, I mean, work with the
coaches where it clicks. It'snot not to say there's anything
wrong with people when itdoesn't click, it's just not a
good connection for you. Andalso work with the clients that
(19:30):
click. It is a numbers game. ButI also think, you know, if
you're fortunate enough to be inthe scenario we find ourselves
in, we have plenty of peopleinterested. We just need to make
sure there's only eight hours inevery day. And so you got to
spend that time with the rightpeople, not everybody, right and
you can't I tell people this allthe time. You know, you can't be
a steak restaurant and have acustomer come in and say Gosh, I
(19:53):
really want sushi and then runaround town trying to find fish.
I mean, that's just not itdoesn't work. that way, right
your steak just be the beststeak restaurant that you can
be. So you have to kind of bethe best business, whatever you
are that you can be and thenmake sure the client is a good
fit for100%. And I think it comes back
to the collaboration with thecoach. So they understand, okay,
(20:13):
Who Who are you looking for? Andyou're understanding Hey, the
person you're bringing me, okay,maybe it's not the person I
thought right away. But aftertalking with the coach, and
understanding better thatperson, maybe they are going to
be the, you know, the rightperson. And then also, you know,
it's okay, if someone if someonesays, You know what this
(20:36):
actually isn't, for me, at leastnow, they've taken time learned
about the business on, you know,different levels of that kind of
education piece of it. But nowyou have someone else who's been
educated about your brand, knowsabout it, and has kind of made
an informed decision. Like, no,this isn't the right one for me.
And that's good for bothparties, as opposed to that's,
you know, you doing all thequalify now, or the client doing
(20:56):
all the qualifying out beforethey even know it's what it is?
That's exactly right. And when aclient says to me, You know
what, I just don't think I wantto hire employees, right? We're
an employee base, my model,there's nothing I could do. It
was what we are, when somebodycomes to that determination, I
am absolutely thrilled for them.
Because now what they know is animportant piece of information
(21:19):
to go back to the coach and say,okay, hey, maybe there's other
concepts out there that aren'temployee base that I should be
looking at. Because I thinkeverybody's goal, at the end of
the day, and absolutely in theentrepreneur sources is true.
Everybody's goal is to findsomeone the right fit, not
ending fit, but the right fit.
(21:40):
That's that long term game infranchising, and the sooner they
can look at my concept and say,No, I'm just, this isn't a good
fit for me. To me, that's greatnews, because that's more time
for them to spend looking at theright fit. And that's that
everybody wins. At the end ofthe day, I want, I'm always
thrilled when somebody says I'mgoing to I'm going to buy
something else, for example, I'mgonna invest in something else,
(22:00):
because I'm like, Yay, we haveanother business owner in the
world, I don't care that it'snot with us, I'm just excited
that they're going to have thiswonderful experience that my
husband and I have had and allof our franchisees have had and
everybody in franchising hashad, which is control your own
destiny through businessownership. That's my goal for
everybody.
I feel like it ended right here,but that everyone is called an
(22:21):
abundance mindset. So thank you,Colette Val. Know, it's so true,
like, when you take thatapproach, it's, um, it just
opens up a lot more thingsbecause I think to some people
can say, you know, the rightfit, and they're looking for
very specific, maybe it's likefinancials, like there's these
very, very specific parameters.
But right fit could mean, youknow, we talk a lot, a lot about
(22:45):
income, lifestyle, wealth andequity. So it's not always like,
hey, it's gonna be the right fitin terms of the like, what it is
that we do, like, someone lovespizza, the right fit for them as
a pizza restaurant, it could bethe right fit for them is your
business because they want to bea part of their community, and
they love that customer servicepiece. And they did that in
their past. So it's kind of thatright fit there. And so being
(23:08):
okay, you know, kind of saying,hey, these certain things
weren't right for that client.
But to your point, so excitedthat they could find the, you
know, what is the right fit forthem?
That is so true. And I thinkwhat I love about working with
(23:29):
coaches is their ability toshare with a potential client.
Hey, I want you to take a lookat this concept. It's a handyman
business. Now, listen, listen,you and I both know, there is
nothing sexy about a handyman,but I've been doing this for 24
years, right? We fix toilets. Imean, I don't there's, but the
franchisee doesn't fix thetoilets. You know what I mean?
So the industry itself isn'tsuper sexy. COVID helped,
(23:51):
because essential businessescertainly started ticking up a
little bit. So that was, washelpful. But what coaches are
great about doing is saying,hey, I want you to take a look
at this handyman business. Butlet me tell you a little bit
more about it. Because ourfranchisees are not doing the
work. They don't need to behandyman. They don't need to
know the construction industry.
And what people really learn andwhat I think draws them to our
(24:13):
concept is this is oddly enough,this handyman business is an
ability to make people's livesbetter. Now, that's something a
lot of people can get behind. Itmay not be what the first thing
they think of when they hear ahandyman through the coach is
helping them say, you know, keepan open mind, just have a
conversation, learn a little bitmore about it. Boy, we get some
people who, you know, if theywere just scrolling through a
(24:36):
website, looking at brand names,you just wouldn't be able to
capture them, you wouldn't ableto capture their interest. Oh,
great. Another great point, aswell. And I think again, it goes
it goes both ways. I thinkthat's really what I find in my
conversations is it's not, Ithink sometimes maybe coaches or
(24:58):
people think okay, it's all Inthe franchisor, you know, you
have to really accept the clientand do all these things, but
also for coaches to alsounderstand, you know that having
the open mind and being open topresenting things that's a
massive part of our of theentrepreneur source is actually
introducing our clients to, toyour, to your point to business
(25:19):
models and concepts that theywould never have looked at, they
would have scrolled right past,you know, and that sort of that,
but then you take that deeperdive and the coach says, Hey,
take some time to talk toColette and learn this, there's
more to it than just the, youknow, fixing the pipes. And you
know, what's right, fixing thedoor handles or whatever it is,
(25:40):
there's so much more to it, andbeing able to connect with the
client on the things that areimportant to them.
Right? That's exactly.
So you bring up a phenomenalpoint there. Um, I also wanted
to i Oh, yeah, we've covered alot of things here. I want to
ask you now, like, if you werespeaking to an emerging brand,
(26:03):
in any industry, what would yousay are some key points, maybe
two or three points that arereally they're kind of maybe
game changing for you, or?
Really, I will say, I will saygame changing for you either
something that you didn't do orsomething that you did do that
(26:25):
you would say, Hey, this is agreat, great little piece of
advice.
Yeah, I got a million things Iwouldn't do again. You know, we
were all emerging at one time.
And it doesn't seem like it wasthat awfully long ago, to be
honest with you. One thing Ilearned, and I see a lot of
emerging brands do this. And itwas something we did that I wish
(26:49):
I would have changed in thebeginning. And that is spending
more time when you'reformulating the particular
details of your franchise model.
And in specific that item 12territory. I would say that most
you know, mature franchisesystems would tell you boy, we
(27:11):
gave away too much territory inthe beginning. And I know for
sure we did. We we just we didwhat we thought the competition
was doing. My husband who hadstarted it was an entrepreneur
who was out to, you know,basically rule the world. So the
more territory the better, or ashe was concerned. And I think
we, we were a little bit shortsighted in that particular setup
(27:31):
of our model, we had to adjustit as we went forward. And
that's hard on everybody.
Luckily, we were able to do itin a very positive way. So that
franchisees who had, you know,really gone along with us and
made the mistake of investing intoo much. And that was our
fault, were able to keep it allbut then resell some of that
off. So they could recapitalizetheir their main business, which
is a great way to go aboutadjusting territories that way.
(27:53):
But I wish I wish I had spent alittle bit more time on
territory I didn't. Second thingis one thing that we did, right
that I would definitelyrecommend is I know a lot of
franchise thought for emergingfranchisors focuses around
growing in concentric circlesaround your headquarters. And
there's a lot of positives tothat, right you can drive for
(28:14):
support, the demographics aregoing to be pretty similar to
your own business. Lots of goodreasons to do that. We of
course, had blown that clean outof the water. When we started
the California locations. Wewere like, Oh, I kind of blew
that nevermind. But what weended up doing instead was not
so much worrying about where wewere growing, but who we were
growing with. And, and it's kindof off the cuff statement that
(28:40):
we have here at AC handymanservices. But the truth of the
matter is Melissa, we don't workwith me and people seems pretty
kindergarten one on one lessons,but there's just not enough
hours in the day for me andpeople. And what I mean by that
is we spent a lot of time in thebeginning, making sure people
were a great vision missionvalue fit with us. We're very
community centered, we asked ourfranchisees to donate time, once
(29:05):
a quarter to their community, dononprofit work, do volunteer
work, that was really, reallyimportant to us, because we felt
like if you were lucky enough tohave a profitable business
model, you need to give back tothe community. And we wanted
everybody who joined us to havethat same mindset. And quite
honestly, not everybody does.
And that's okay. But those werethe people that were really
(29:27):
important to us. And the reasonwhy I say that was so important
is two things. One, those arethe people still in the system.
So it maintained a really longtime with us. And really, that's
the folks who got us to thetable with Ace Hardware. They
opened up the bigger door wasn'tus. You know, it was nice that
they looked at our businessmodel, but you and I both know,
they called every franchisee inthe system and said how's it
(29:48):
going? Would you do it again? Doyou like it? Are they
supportive? Is this a goodbusiness model? And if we'd had
mean or unhappy people, you canimagine how that that might have
gone. We were really fortunatethat that that's what really
took us to the table with acewas our existing franchisees.
So, I think thinking about thosetwo factors, what's your
territory format? Because that'simportant. And what kind of a
(30:12):
person are you going to bringin? Yes, it's important where
they are in the United States.
Heck, we even went to Ireland atone point, crazy, long story,
really the right person,it was a great person, and you
asked it all the way through themiddle of the recession, but
then it was just too hard inIreland, and they were going
through the Euro change, it wasjust a big mess over there. But
what really, really nice, Istill talk to him, by the way,
(30:35):
we still are in communicationwith Oh, and from Ireland. So
very nice guy. But I would sayfocus more on the people that
you're bringing into yoursystem, they're going to be your
shoulder to shoulder partners,they're going to help your
system get better get moresophisticated, respond quicker.
They're in the field, you know,whatever business model you
have, they have a closerrelationship to the customer
than you do, as the franchisor.
(30:57):
And the feedback they bring backcan really make the difference
between moving fast enough,especially in our world, you
know, all these crazy thingsthat we face every day, you've
got to be able to shift yourselfas quickly as possible. And if
you have good communication withyour franchisees who care, they
are going to call corporate andsay, Hey, this is going on, I
think you should research it.
I'm not sure my area, the restof the United States, I don't
(31:18):
know what's going on. Soand the correlation I see
between those two, first of allgreat points that I actually
don't hear come up very oftenlike those two specific things,
especially, you know, you dohear a lot of times the
concentric circles just want tostay more regional, and then
grow out. But kind of flippingthat into find the right people,
the rest will kind of fall intoplace is Yeah, is a great point
(31:40):
there. And the correlation I seebetween the two is it's looking
at your long term, you know,like, you will get your
territory at the beginning.
Okay, what's that going to looklike when I have not just 10
franchisees, but 100franchisees? What does that look
like? And of course, you couldtake that concept, not just
(32:00):
apply to territory, but reallyanything. And then also long,
exactly, to your point long termfranchisees, these people, I
want them around. And yeah, Iwant happy people who really
become like brand ambassadors,almost your concept, they love
the brand, as much as you do.
And so they care to, you know,call you, this isn't going
(32:22):
right, I have feedback, allthese things, you want that long
term, not just the person who'slike, Yep, I've got 100 grand,
here's my check.
Right? That's right. And thoseare the folks who, when you do
hit a, you know, a road bump orspeed bump or a wall in the
economy, those are the ones whocome with come to you and say
(32:43):
how can we collectively worktogether and figure this out?
You know, we live through therecession, we, we were in
business in the heyday, whenlife was great in 2004, or five
and six, where people could getmoney if they could sneeze, and
you know, life was wonderful.
And then we turn around and payfor that starting in 2008. And
it hit construction really hard.
But I credit our franchisees tocalling us and saying, Okay,
(33:05):
let's relook at our businessmodel, what do we need to
change? What do we need to stopdoing? What do we need to do
more of so that togethercollectively, we can all still
be in business in 2012. And alot of the great ideas that came
out of that came fromfranchisees.
And I feel like that's anotherbeautiful part of franchising
is, you know, you, you know, youdo have the responsibility as
(33:28):
the franchisor. But you have agreat team, not just your own
corporate team, but all yourfranchisees in all different
parts of the world differentbackgrounds, it just Are there
parts of the country withdifferent backgrounds. And yeah,
you can take it to a level youprobably couldn't just, you
know, withyourself, right, we would have
never had the business that youknow if it had just been us in
in Denver. Yeah. Yeah.
(33:51):
I love this. The whole the wholestory. Also the fact that you
guys like started when when wasit back? You started
franchising? 2004 2001 Wejoined? Yes. Okay. Okay, so
we're organized enough and noone all right,
there was a franchise there wasa franchise. So I want to again,
(34:14):
love this conversation. And Icould talk about franchising for
hours. But when you look at, youknow, over the horizon, what
does the future of franchisingmean to you? What does that look
like to you like what can youenvision or see?
Ya I clearly always been a hugefan and proponent of of
(34:35):
franchising as a business model.
Love the fact that I think thelast statistic I heard was there
was over 4000 active franchiseconcepts in the United States.
When I think about the future offranchising, I think about my
boys generation. So I've got a24 and a 22 year old, they're
not millennials, right? They'rethe Gen X or they're young,
younger than the millennials butbut close enough See that I kind
(34:58):
of pay attention to both both ofthose generations. And one thing
that I learned that I thinkbodes very, very well, for the
franchise industry going forwardis in my generation. So I'm not
baby boomer, but I don't eventhink they called us anything.
They just, we were just thegeneration after the baby. In my
generation, about 4% of usstarted our own businesses.
(35:25):
Right. So you know, we, myhusband, and I were part of that
part of a very what I wouldconsider a small tight community
of people who said, Nope, notgonna play the corporate America
game like my parents, I'm goingto start my own business. And
trust me, my dad thought we wereabsolutely bananas. I mean, it
probably took 10 years before hestopped asking, When are you
going to go get a job? I mean,it was he just could not get it
through his head that we werestarting a business. But I heard
(35:46):
a statistic the other day thatfor the millennial and the Gen X
generation, that percentage ofpeople when they were asked, Are
you going to someday start yourown business was 26%. Six times
as many people in thosegenerations are standing up and
saying, I can do this. Now, youand I both know. And again, I've
(36:11):
been franchising for twodecades, not everybody is cut
out for starting a business in abasement and making a bunch of
mistakes and losing a bunch ofmoney and still having the
wherewithal to get up every dayand say, Nope, we're gonna make
this work. I mean, that's,that's a resilient sort of
thing. But a lot of those folksare going to be amazing
franchisees, they're going totake a business concept, and
(36:32):
especially the youngergeneration, they're going to
figure out how to add moretechnology, how to streamline
things, how to make it morevideo adaptable, no matter the
industry, right? It could be anyindustry at all that we're
talking about. But they're goingto bring all that technology
that they lived with, that wekindly gave to them, and they
were like six years old, andthey're going to integrate it
(36:53):
into our business models. So Ithink more and more people are
going to be joining the ranks offranchising and all kinds of
different models. And I thinkwhat they're going to bring to
it skill set wise, withtechnology and a new way of
looking at business is justgoing to it, I think it bodes so
well for the industry offranchising going
forward. I am now even moreexcited about franchising after
(37:17):
hearing your cola like, okay,things are going well. But I
know I feel exactly the sameway. When you look at even when
you look at all the differentthings that maybe are going on
have occurred in the past fewyears. And a lot of people can
have the sky's fallingmentality. But I really truly
believe in in franchising, youknow, in our little corner of
(37:39):
the world, that it's a lot of,again, it's that abundance
mindset, but there's a lot ofopportunity. There's so much
room for growth and innovationand all these things that I am
actually hearing you talk about,you know, the generations coming
up and looking at businessownership, but through
franchising, there's just somuch potential.
(38:03):
Yeah, yeah, I would saydefinitely there's the the world
is our oyster, it's just amatter of how quickly you can,
you know, take advantage ofthose new opportunities, embrace
those new opportunities and,and, you know, for some of us
who've been around for twodecades, that's harder than
others. You know, bringingtechnology into a handyman
business we've been fortunatewe've had a lot of technology
(38:23):
from the beginning, but boy,there's a lot out there that
that you can take advantage ofso oh color are you on tick tock
funny story. You know, I joinedall that. This is terrible. The
same illicit people are gonna,like, think for me poorly of me,
but I'm gonna admit this. I'venever had a Facebook page. Okay.
(38:46):
I'm like one of the 300 peoplein the United States. I just, I
don't know it. It hit at a timewhen I was raising kids and I
was super busy and I was doingthe business. Honestly, I just
missed the boat. I'm not totallysure what happened, but I missed
it. When my kids went tocollege, which would have been,
you know, five and six years agonow, a really good way to stay
in touch with them was throughInstagram and Snapchat and then
(39:08):
Tik Tok. And so I'm like, okay,I can do this. I don't post on
those mediums. But I I'm atleast on it so that they can
send me something and I get analert on my phone. So I know
when it's happening. My youngestis actually finding quite a bit
of success on Tik Tok. So he'san influencer status. So we try
and follow Him and do all thosekinds of things. But our
(39:29):
franchisees are doing someamazing things. We've got some
millennial franchisees in the inI swear they're not even 30 and
they're doing amazing things intheir markets with tick tock
videos and Instagram posts andall that great stuff. So So
you're already seeingit like the start of this kind
of takeover of the nextgeneration. So and you're part
of it, you know, can you missthe Facebook train, whatever.
(39:54):
I won't go back. No,we're seeing what we got. So I
Love us so I'm going to wrap itup here. Thank you so much
Colette, for having taking sometime to talk with me today. I
absolutely enjoyed this.
Thanks for this. I love talkingabout franchising. I'm really
honored to be a part of thispodcast with you guys. And we
(40:16):
are absolutely thrilled to be apart of the entrepreneur source.
It's been a great relationshipfor almost 20 years now.
Hard to believe. Thank you somuch.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.