January 25, 2025 • 43 mins
Ever wondered what it takes to transition from a high-end personal finance career to franchise ownership in the cleaning service industry? Top performing Rolling Suds franchisee Nick Heye takes us on his personal journey, sharing the key moments that led him to become a successful franchise owner of Rolling Suds in Northern Virginia. You'll learn how careful research, strategic networking, and choosing a franchise with strong leadership—like the influence of Aaron Harper—played pivotal roles in his decision-making process. Nick's story is a testament to the power of thorough preparation and realistic expectations in the franchise world.
Nick isn't shy about addressing the challenges and strategies necessary for thriving in the cleaning service industry, particularly in those daunting first 18 months. By focusing on balancing commercial and residential revenue and building a network through relationship-focused tactics, Nick emphasizes the importance of cash flow stability and excellent service as foundations for growth. His journey is filled with lessons on the significance of implementing established systems while adding your unique touch, all aimed at fostering long-term success and eventual expansion.
This episode isn't just about the franchise business; it's a broader look into the entrepreneurial spirit. From navigating risks and preventing burnout to making strategic investments, Nick offers invaluable insights for both aspiring and seasoned entrepreneurs. The conversation highlights the importance of aligning past professional experiences with current endeavors, establishing systems that prevent burnout, and the personal involvement required in owning a franchise. Nick's reflections underscore the perseverance and adaptability needed to overcome challenges and achieve sustained success in the franchising world.
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Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, Welcome back to the we Bought a
Franchise podcast.
I'm here with my lovely co-host, Jill Johnson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hi everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And I'm Jack Johnson, and we have a really powerful
guest for you guys today.
We have Nick High.
He is the franchise owner ofRolling Suds in Northern
Virginia.
Nick, welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Great Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Great Thanks for having me.
So the whole sort of premise ofour show is to share our
experiences as franchise owners,growing a franchise and we've
(00:35):
been talking to franchisors in alot of the last few episodes
and then we'll kind of mix in anepisode where we share our
experiences and people are likedude, I'm already talking to a
bunch of franchise salespeople.
I don't want to talk to more ofthem.
I don't want to talk tofranchise owners.
So, nick, let's dive in.
Let's hear your story.
Why franchising?
What led you down this path?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, so my formal education is in personal,
high-end personal finance.
As much as I love the industry,didn't love how I was getting
paid in my case.
So I left, got into productdistribution and the setup
worked a lot like a franchise.
I had a overarching managerthat I really never talked to
and then kind of just had salesand a separate company.
(01:12):
So I had autonomy and wasbasically left alone and go try
to survive Kind of a deal Tookthat from just under a million
dollars to about three by thetime I left.
So I kind of had to figure outwhat I wanted to do.
Looked at buying a business Iwas 32 at the time I left.
So I kind of had to figure outwhat I wanted to do.
Looked at buying a business Iwas 32 at the time, definitely
barely looked 32.
So buying a business seemedlike a different type of risk
(01:36):
and if a deal falls apart youcould easily be out a couple
hundred grand.
So it didn't seem like the bestidea.
But I was open to it.
So franchising kind of cameabout.
Probably looked at 40 brands,maybe 10 discovery days
somewhere around there, made abunch of friends who bought
different stuff.
So I have a decent littlenetwork out there with that and
ended up settling on RollingSuds.
(01:58):
I'm from Northern Virginia, soone of the first territories
gone is exactly where Ipurchased, regardless of the
brand.
So I had to take a little bitmore risk.
I knew that and I like theconcepts, I like the downside as
well and one of the thingsthat's most important for me is
(02:19):
kind of trying to figure out whothe leader is and kind of if
he's going to make good choiceswhen things go wrong because
they are going to go wrong.
Is he going to kind of get outof the way when he needs to get
out of the way?
He'll make the right choicewhen it's required for the brand
and the business to besuccessful, and I think Aaron
Harper is that.
So that's kind of how I gotinto Rolling Suds, how I found
(02:41):
it Just a lot of discovery, tookmy time.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Also knew I just kind of had to go for it so I think
you you said two things therethat really resonate with me and
I'm do you remember when we hadthe conversation?
So Jill and I had been lookingfor a franchise.
As franchise consultants wekind of get a front row seat to
everything, um, and there werelots of brands over the years,
right, right, there's brandsJill liked, brands that I liked,
(03:06):
but we couldn't agree onanything.
And then Pinks came along.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We really, really took us a long time to agree on.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and that's you know.
Listen, everybody has adifferent process.
But we kind of said a similarthing to you in that we, first
of all, we bought a lot ofterritories and I don't
recommend, if it's your firstfranchise, don't go buying like
five territories, becauseultimately what will happen in
any franchise system is thatyou'll have neighbors and not
all your neighbors will besuccessful.
It's just a shocking statement.
Not everyone succeeds as afranchise owner, so your best
(03:34):
bet is to buy a couple, one totwo territories and then wait
for your neighbor to want tosell and buy for pennies on the
dollar.
But the one thing both Jill andI agreed on was that we know
we're going to spend X amount ofdollars on this business and if
it doesn't work, we're going tosurvive.
We wouldn't do anything thatwould stretch us to a point
where pinks could affect ourother business or our life.
(03:58):
If it works, awesome, but if itdoesn't, it's okay.
We can accept the risk and Ithink that's something every
franchise owner needs to sort ofbe prepared for is that, yes,
we're going to work our assesoff and we're going to hustle
and we're going to do everythingin our power to build a great
business, but not every businessis successful, and so you have
to weigh that risk.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, and the brand can be wrong If you're in
boutique fitness, which at thetime I was an orange theory
addict, so boutique fitness kindof was just like right up my
alley.
And then I realized that therewas a large portion of that risk
was nothing to do with me.
It had everything to do withthe brand and you know, fitness
people are a different type.
So I was like I don't knowabout this one and outside of
(04:37):
Orange Theory.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I'm sorry to jump in, but outside of Orange Theory,
so many of those franchises,their numbers suck their numbers
suck or they're up for a yearor so.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That's one of those games where you have to
continually be selling.
It looks like you have all thisreoccurring revenue but your
average is like 10% loss andchurn rate.
So you're really havingsomebody on the phones all the
time and those margins are goingto get squeezed at some point.
So, yeah, it's an interestingspace, so I moved away from that
.
But it is true Like every oncein a while they ask, or someone
(05:11):
wants to talk to me or whatever,and I'll tell them.
I'm not sure if this is yourthing, man, and it has nothing
to do with how smart you are orwhatever.
It has everything to do withhow you're going to attack this.
You have this type of need tobe suddenly successful your
first year, whatever it might be, and it's just not the case
(05:34):
more often than not.
Like there's a.
I was the highest, I had themost revenue in rolling suds
last year by a decent margin.
I don't expect to do that again.
We've quadrupled in size.
There are people that arebigger than me.
My joke is continuously thatit's just a 34-year-old self and
(05:55):
a dog.
These guys have partners andhuge teams, and that's the fun
part of franchising right isyou're going to see somebody
execute the model better thanyou.
You can steal their ideas andkind of move forward.
But it's a very specific typeof person who can handle a lot
of.
Everything's going wrong allthe time and this is fine and
tomorrow's another day and we'lllive.
(06:16):
And if you can't do that, it'sjust going to eat you mentally
like it's nothing to do with youpersonally, it's just
everything to do with.
Can you keep getting your buttkicked and just feeling all
right?
Well, that's fine, we move on.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, and you obviously did really well last
year and you're still sayingthose things.
So I think that's reallyimportant.
Jack and I always talk about.
You know the first like year 18months is really hard and you
know, coming from you, one ofthe reasons we're talking to you
(06:48):
is you're a top performer and Iknow with pinks, you know we're
typically in the top two butit's still hard.
You know, and it'sunderstanding that reality that
it's not all butterflies andyou're just going to.
You know, jump in and be thebest and make all the money.
You know you can and you willif you keep doing it.
But, like you said, there'shurdles.
There's other people that comein that do a little better and
you have to be a person that cantake that.
I think that is the number onething it's understanding that
(07:11):
and not letting it get you down.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, it's interesting.
So the franchise.
When I joined I was the fourthperson in the systems.
Nothing that exists now existedthen.
It was a joke comparatively,and my first month, think, I
made six thousand dollars.
The hell, am I supposed to dowith that?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
you know, like what did?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
that pay for absolutely nothing.
So we now have franchisees thatare you know doing 80 uh, their
first month, and that's great.
We also have people doing sixagain, just like me.
But a year later, everyonewants to know what systems I'm
using and it was consistent thewhole time.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, that's a great point.
Let's stop there because Ithink that's for franchise
owners.
What systems?
What are you doing different,you know?
To me, I think the answer hasalways been that implementing
the systems that the franchisorhas.
What did the pilot location do?
Following those systems hasbeen the key to success, while
also putting your own stamp onit.
(08:05):
So, as the top performer withRolling Studs last year, what is
your answer to that questionwhen those franchisees ask yeah,
so obviously I'm like decentlyoutgoing, so that helps.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I've been in B2B sales, which is basically what
this model is.
I think I'm very honest withwhat I want when I'm talking to
my leads and also my personnel.
I'm not the best communicatorover certain aspects and I've
hired to try and solve thatissue for me to a certain extent
, but what I really do is justtell people I'm under market
(08:43):
price and I'm doing that so thatyou and I can be friends.
I don't want to really do stuffonce.
I prefer that you could justcall me when you need me and
we'll move on.
I don't view our business allthat different from the
lawnmower.
People only care about you whenthey see you.
Other than that, just go do thejob and go home and kind of
stay out of our way Kind of adeal.
We perform a service that'scleaning stuff.
(09:03):
Stay out of our way Kind of adeal.
We perform a service that'scleaning stuff.
It's not at the front of mindall the time, so I'm not out
there hounding people like crazy.
We have franchisees that dothat.
I'm very anxious to see theresults.
I hope they're awesome, but I'mmore of along the lines of like
here's what it is.
I think we're awesome at this.
This is our price.
It's below market.
(09:24):
If you want to come, awesome.
If not, that's great.
My sales techniques are very oldschool.
I kind of mentioned things thatI think make sure this is done
really well and, other than that, I'm here if you need me and
I'm happy to answer anyquestions that you guys might
have.
We have people that havesystemized cold calling and all
(09:45):
that and are just hammering themaway sales-wise and I'm very,
very relationship-focused.
So my reoccurring work is heavy.
I think we're about 300,000reoccurring a year now, with one
true season through, and we'restarting to get in with the
metro, the hospital systemaround here.
It's a whole bunch of coolprojects.
It's just I'm more obsessedwith doing a million jobs than
(10:08):
making a million dollars rightnow, so that I can build a
foundation of this and I cansell it one day, and I'm very
much a foundation builder asopposed to shiny object chaser.
So that's my method.
That's what I'm doing just toslow, try to make friends, try
to make a network and see whatwe can get out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean I it sounds like you're.
You're doing it right.
It's really mission-based, it'swanting to do a great job.
I should also mention for anyof you all of you listening out
there that any numbers wediscuss on this podcast, if
you're interested in rollingsuds, you will need to refer to
their franchise disclosuredocument, their item six or item
19.
Nick's results are they arevery good, but it doesn't mean
(10:47):
that that's what you're going toachieve.
If you're going to be a RollingStones franchise owner, okay,
now that that's out of the way.
No, you're exactly right.
It's like, as we, we've noticedwith our pinks franchise and I
think we've got a similarrecurring jobs on the books for
for the next, for the next year,as you do.
(11:07):
So many of our jobs arerecurring.
I would say like we've got.
We've got a as I, as I look atour revenue, we're right now
about 60% commercial to 40%residential.
You guys do bigger jobs than us.
What's your, what's your split?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
In terms of revenue it's going to be similar to that
.
It's more of a 60, 40commercial to a residential the
residential part of our businessand I will hammer this to death
and people will argue with meforever and that's fine.
But from a model standpoint andfrom a cashflow standpoint,
residential is king in thisbusiness and what I mean by that
(11:38):
is until this business is quoteunquote stable, meaning I'm not
worried about that reoccurringrevenue going to someone else,
I'm not worried about what'scoming in because our SEO we've
been around the block Untilthat's stable, I need that cash
flow every week to pay payrollquicker, to pay sudden bills,
whatever we broke, all thethings that go wrong owning
(11:59):
these things.
I need that cash flow to payfor.
The reason I said that it takestime is when you're in a service
business, especially a largeticket one, and you're dealing
with multiple vendors ormultiple general contractors.
Getting in their AR system andgetting that bad boy to execute
in any reasonable amount of timeis tough.
I've got bills outstanding from120 days ago and they're like
(12:21):
oh well, you haven't signed upfor X, y and Z AR system.
I'm like dude, you're killingme, man.
And that's how Nate got termsand conditions in his contracts.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
We just had the same thing with our.
We're about to close a big HOAdeal to go clean every house in
the neighborhood and big deal.
We're a money but and of course, our gm's really excited.
But the trouble is this is thatit's going to take a truck of
ours, a van of ours, off thestreet, put it in this
neighborhood, put a full team ofguys and I'm like what's the
(12:55):
accounts receivable?
Because I got a full crew nowthat's working.
That costs me.
You know, at least you, I wantto be, I want outside I don't
know where you sit on this, butput my GM aside, outside of him.
I really want the crew toaccount for about 25% of our
revenue.
We're still a growing franchise.
We're not there yet.
So let's say we're 50 right now.
So I'm like dude, this is goingto crush our cashflow.
(13:18):
So we have to make sure, withthese terms, that we're getting
at least half up front, becausethey have to know they're going
to take a full crew of ours outof commission.
So for all of you out there,nick brings up a great point as
new franchisees, the residentialjobs they pay you with credit
card.
Sometimes they pay you withcash and I hate that.
The check's easy we can do thatwith the app but the cash we
(13:40):
have to go to the fricking bankand deposit it.
Anyways, we love the creditcard payments because they
happen instantly, whereas the ARon the bigger commercial jobs
takes forever, and then we'vegot to float the payroll.
So all things you guys need tothink about, and this is why
when we're guiding someone andI'm sure Nick, your consultant,
said the same thing this is whyyou want to have more cash
(14:00):
available, whatever their highnumber is on the investment,
have that in your pocket becauseyou're going to need every
penny of it.
Even if you got profitable bymonth 12, you're going to have a
month setback and you're goingto need to have the cash to help
your business survive.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, and what's interesting about that is so
Rolling Suds switched how theywere asking for capital.
Obviously, it increased a gooddeal, and I think that's a great
idea.
It is necessary.
It really depends on when youstart too.
If you're starting in the slowseason, you're going to burn
more, you know.
And, by the way, you're alittle bit more mentally beat up
(14:34):
if you start in the fast season, because everyone else is going
to be rolling and you're goingto be taken forever, and so
prepare yourself for that too.
But yeah, the AR is a nightmareto a certain extent.
I had $150,000 outstanding inNovember and I'm like, all right
, well, I would love this money,I don't need it, you guys.
So luckily, it's pretty muchall come through, but it takes a
(14:57):
lot of time, and not havingthose deposits, like you said,
was a rookie mistake.
I was just excited to keep, youknow, keep it rolling.
But I absolutely have thatpolicy now going into the spring
.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, you got to have it.
You know again, it's like andyou know what else is
interesting too is we're onthese.
You know Pinks Weeklyconference calls.
So our slow season in SouthFlorida is the summer, because
like half our population goes upto New York and so, while
everyone else is like crushing,like you know, it seemed like
every other market was havingtheir best months.
We were just getting hammeredand Jill and I are just sitting
(15:31):
there saying, screw this, wewant to win, Because we had come
out of the gates as the highestperforming franchise and then
all of a sudden, we fell wayback down to earth.
Well, now our weather for themost part, is good.
We've been crushing it sinceOctober and some of the Eastern
States, you know, like you guys,are getting hammered with snow
and right, yeah, they're notenjoying the sun today.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
The cold front coming through here is very different
than what you guys are sayingbut yeah, it's, the seasonality
is really interesting and it'snot always the same for all
businesses, so you know it'sit's also keeping that in mind
too, businesses.
So you know it's also keepingthat in mind too, and just you
know, understanding that, likeour peak season is everyone
else's off season and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I actually will find too I'm really sure of this that
my quote unquote off seasonwill not be so off as we
continue.
A lot of what I'm being askedto do is just kind of emergency
work or like trash cans in themorning and if it's 40 degrees,
we can do that.
People want their random things, people call for that, they
have issues with that.
We can fulfill because we carrya lot of water, a little market
advantage for now.
So it's one of those things.
And it is also when we weretalking about a runway for the
love of God, cut your expenses.
(16:47):
You probably don't need that VA, I promise, especially in your
first year.
It's one of those things whereyou see a lot of people who are
from private equity or somewherewhere they were working in
operations and they burn thatmoney that I think they're going
to need for AR withmiscellaneous expenses, because
they had this huge bank accountto start with, you know, and
(17:08):
you're just buying frivolousthings and I'm like, oh my God,
I barely have any furniture inour warehouse.
And like the whiteboard's likea little rough, everything is so
meat and bones still, and likethe whiteboard's like a little
rough, everything is so meat andbones still, and it's just kind
of how I prefer it until we'restable, and stable is a lot less
of meat.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That's a great question.
And I would also say this Imean, jill and I keep a.
We keep a sort of running P&Lyears.
We look weeks, years into thefuture and so every every
decision we make financially forour businesses, we see now, but
we also see how it affects usthree months from now, and
that's something all of youprospective business owners it
isn't just living in the now.
(17:48):
Every decision you make.
So you've got to build a good,you've got to be focused on how
you're spending your cash, notonly now, but in the future.
It's very important.
So let's talk about your timein the business.
I made a comment on LinkedIn theother day that some people
misunderstood.
I said I spend about an hour aday in my business, in my pinks
(18:08):
business.
That's because we have a reallygood GM.
We are big believers indelegating and he does a very
good job of delegating to ourlead tech and the team.
So we right now and as businessowners, look the shit can hit
the fan and it can change at anytime, but right now we have a
nice system of delegation.
But also, it is how much?
(18:29):
When we say, an hour.
Let's think about what goesinto that.
That is the morning check-incall with the GM, that is the
monitoring of the CRM, that islooking at cashflow, that is
making sure that we're lookingat the first resumes that come
in.
So there's a lot that you cansqueeze into a short period of
time.
Tell us what your experience isand how you're sort of leading
the team.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Well.
So this was my first timescaling while we were working,
so it was interesting.
I ended up harshly burning outin August and the reason for
that is I was also actuallyworking in the business not very
many hours working on it, abajillion hours, a lot, a lot, a
lot of getting my sales andstuff and marketing figured out,
(19:12):
but actually working in powerwashing and working on the
trucks and stuff like that veryminimal amount of time.
And then a small businesshappened and my second driver I
had two trucks at the time brokehis arm.
I was thinking back to lastyear and I said, okay, well,
august, october, september, theywere okay, we can just handle
(19:34):
it with one team.
No, we had a record month inOctober.
Of course, we did like 135,000and I worked another at least 80
hours a day because I wasworking in and on, because I
made a novice mistake and I alsohired a sales guy and did not
have a process in place, so Ialso burnt too much capital on
my wages.
(19:54):
So I wanted to fix that and soI worked.
Could I have hired another teamand trained them and did the
whole thing?
Sure, but the other answer tothis is I was cleaning a
building.
That I call the best propagandaI'm ever going to have, because
man is the before and aftergood.
So I also wanted to make surethat was absolutely excellent.
So there are differentobjectives involved, but, yeah,
(20:17):
I think exactly this year is alot of what I'm game planning
around and I have a wholewhiteboard next to me on stuff
that needs to be done and a lotof work in progress, um, but a
lot of it is designing thesystems now to make sure that
that doesn't happen.
I don't get sucked back in likethat needlessly, um, and we can
continue to push.
That's very important.
If we're actually going to getwhere we want to get, I need to
(20:37):
stay out as much as possible.
I'll still probably fix thepumps and stuff like that, but
honestly, I'd like doing thatand I might just go late at
night.
So you know, it's a huge thingand it's one of those things
that you start to get as youstart to form a base of the
business.
But, man, please don't try toscale too early, for the love of
(20:57):
God.
You're just going to burn cashand you need to know what's
going on.
I fundamentally believe that,but no, you guys are on a
similar trajectory as I am.
It's time to start to pushourselves up a little bit.
And that's every process in thebusiness.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That's a really good point.
It's an excellent point becausewhen you add more layers of
infrastructure, you are going tospend a lot more money on the
business.
So when we talk to prospectivefranchise owners for pinks,
they're like are you profitableyet?
And my answer is no.
But I didn't build the businessto be profitable and you're
you're one.
We built it to have to do right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
As you were saying, like we knew that going into it,
we knew that it wasn't going tobe that we made the choice to
hire a gm.
You know, knowing that, thatwas going to affect our overall
numbers, but for what we couldcontribute and the time that you
know we had available.
It made the most sense, um, butyeah, you have to build that in
and have the right expectationsand we bought the second truck
(21:57):
before we needed.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I mean, we, we made, we made these decisions.
Um, I've never looked at youknow, I haven't.
We didn't look at it withfranchise insiders that way
either.
When we started franchiseinsiders we didn't make a penny
for the first six months but weadvertised, we, um, we were in
Southwest airlines magazinespending eight grand a month on
a on a print ad that nobodycalled us for the first few
months.
So we sort of have a playbookwhere we're always, we
(22:20):
understand, investing early onin a business but we could do it
.
If someone's coming to us andsaying, hey, I want to own
Rolling Suns and I've got 250grand, we're going to say one
territory you better be workingon and in the business yourself,
you better GM that thingyourself.
And I think we're seeing nowpeople kind of coming back to
earth in terms of, okay, I don'tneed to own 10 territories to
(22:46):
start.
Why don't I start with one ortwo and get good at this and get
profitable and then use thatmoney?
And here's the thing, and maybeyou can share what you think of
this.
I think part of good franchiseconsulting and what Jill and I
do with helping clients.
I always say this to people it'snot just about the investment
in the business.
It's about introducing you topeople that can teach you to be
(23:06):
a great entrepreneur.
Right, because so many peoplecome from corporate America.
You might come from the mostfabulous private equity firm on
earth and have a Harvard degree,but running a business is a
very different thing, and so ifwe compare you with a franchise,
that actually will teach you tobe a good entrepreneur, it
opens up your future toeverything, whether that be
buying other franchises or nowyou've got the confidence to go
(23:27):
buy that mom and pop for pennieson the dollar.
It's beyond just the dollarsand cents of the unit.
It's about turning you into anentrepreneur that can build a
much bigger portfolio.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, I 100% agree, and I don't know if it's legal
or not or whatever it might be,but I think that a consultant
should try to kind of map whatyou were doing prior and trying
to find that in some version ofit entrepreneur-wise.
So what I mean by that isRolling Suds is, at the end of
the day, a sales and marketingcompany and it's focused on b2b
sales.
I'm here because that's what Iwas doing.
I was selling maintenance stuffto car dealers, making friends
(24:08):
and increasing my penetration onwhatever you know.
So what do I really do now?
I make friends and then try tosell them as much as possible
and I'm pretty dang good atselling them on more once
they've already done it all.
I got it all gets so excited andthen try to sell them as much
as possible and I'm pretty danggood at selling them on more
once they've already done it.
All I got is, oh, I'll get soexcited, and then you just bam
right, and I think that that'strue for the consultant is like
if they were doing somethingthat has a direct application in
(24:31):
some type of QSR, for example,or fitness or whatever it might
be, if there's some type ofskill set that is very obvious
about them trying to match.
That will give them the highestprobability of success, because
they'll feel like they'reslotted like a railroad, as
opposed to just trying to goover every bump and being lost.
I think that's very important.
(24:53):
You can teach sales skills, butman is it easier if you
understand where you're going.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, you can teach sales skills, but, man, is it
easier if you kind of understandwhere you're going.
Yeah, I mean, that's it.
So we partnered with a companythat does franchisee profiling,
namely on top franchisees.
We're big believers in when youbecome a franchisee, go find
the most successful franchiseeand make friends with that
person.
Underperforming franchisees cankind of you know, they glom
together and they complain andit's actually killing their
businesses.
But anyways, this companyprofiles top performing
(25:24):
franchisees and builds profileson them.
So we have our clients takethis assessment and then it
comes back and it says, hey,they compare to franchisees in
these.
You know 10 differentfranchises and then here's where
they best match.
And so we're able to say, okay,here's where your strengths are
in a business, here's theindustries where you compare to
top performers.
And now we're going to show youfranchises based upon that.
And it's not just that, youknow again, you've got to have
human conversations too, right,but it's, it's, you're right.
(25:46):
We want to take a real holisticlook at all this.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Right.
And I think, like what you weresaying before, like with orange
theory, right, a lot of peoplecome in and they I love fitness.
You know I'm a fitness junkie.
I go to Orange Theory every day.
I do this, I do that, I want to, that's what I want to do.
And then they take this and itcomes back that, yeah, they're
like more like you, they're verysales oriented.
That's not a good fit forsomeone like that, you know, and
(26:09):
so sometimes it can feel alittle bit like a letdown, like
wait a second, I really wantedyou know whether it's like you
know food and beverage orfitness or something like that.
But no, you're better suitedfor something like you said.
And then, looking at rollingsets, you wouldn't think sales,
right, your first thought isI've got to be good at you know
(26:30):
blue collar and cleaning and youknow.
But it's that's not what.
It is right to run thatbusiness.
Like we've always said, we'renot going to wash windows, so it
has.
No, there's no differencewhether or not we have any
experience with cleaning windows.
Pinks is more of a branding andsales and marketing as well too
, so it was a better fit for us.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Okay, but that brings up.
You bring up a really goodpoint.
Nick, I have a question for you.
How has it been for youmanaging blue collar workers?
How has it been for you?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
managing blue collar workers.
So I had been around bluecollar folks before, hark really
hard Because I'm mad at themfor not doing something right or
just not caring enough ormaking a mistake.
And in reality, that's an issuewith my training, right, it's
an issue with my policy.
It's an issue with all thesethings.
(27:17):
I didn't tell them and Iassumed that they would know,
and that's just badcommunication.
At the end of the day, it'sbeing a novice, right.
So we're building those systemsnow, but it's it's.
It's not easy.
I'm paying a general manager inthe winter right now I think
it's 12 degrees outside and butI'm paying him because I'm going
(27:41):
to need him to manage all thesepeople.
He was a restaurant manager ina nightclub so he can handle the
stress and he can also speakthese people's languages in a
way that I can't.
When they're upset, I'm notgoing to understand all the time
or I'm not going to understandtheir stuff from home.
So having that interface andmaking sure that that's
(28:04):
fulfilled is extremely important.
It wasn't that I wasn't able todo it.
I just am sure I'm not going tobe able to do it at scale and
I'm also sure that it will eatall of my time because we did
have employees that were awesomeuntil they had to work with a
team and then, all of a sudden,they were a nightmare and I had
to let them go and they were.
The guy I'm talking about wasthe best power washer I had by
(28:26):
far.
He was awesome, customers lovedhim, couldn't work on a team to
save his life.
It just is what it is and so,yeah, it's not easy.
A lot of the times I justwouldn't say anything because I
know where this is all going.
I'm in my first year.
You won't be here in threemonths.
It's not a dangerous activity.
(28:46):
You just did.
You're just being a goose andthat's I'm.
I'm prepared to move on.
We just get through the end ofthis season and and go forward.
That is why I do love ourseasonality.
Man, did I need the break?
And also it's it's.
It's nice to have the clarityto rethink all these things.
I have a whiteboard and goforward.
That is why I do love ourseasonality.
Man, did I need the break?
And also it's nice to have theclarity to rethink all these
things.
I have a whiteboard of stuffI'm knocking out.
I'm excited again to go backafter this and I can tell you,
(29:08):
at the beginning of December Iwas not, but I am now and I'm
ready to go.
I'm working on all of our stuff.
I'm excited to see if it worksand I'm terrified to see if I
can at least repeat last year'snumbers.
It's welcome to doing this.
You know, like that's what thisis.
At the end of the day, you'relike yeah, I can do it.
I don't know where I'm going toget it from, but we'll find out
.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's.
That is entrepreneurship.
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I don't know how the hell I'm going to do it.
I'm going to try like hell.
I bought a third truck with awhole bunch of bells and
whistles on it.
So you know I pay for that andit's early.
Just like you did it early, Ibought the second one early, the
third one's early.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
You know, we'll see, we'll make it work.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You learn by doing.
I mean it's like with us ourfirst GM we hired.
We hired him two months beforewe opened.
We thought we'd found thisgreat guy.
I'm sure he's a lovely guy, butfor us it wasn't the right fit.
We get him to training andfortunately we had sent him to
training with our lead tech.
So at least we did that.
And it becomes apparent intraining that the lead tech
(30:12):
should be our GM.
So here we are.
We paid a guy, probably 12grand by then, maybe 18.
Too much.
So here we are.
We paid a guy, probably 12grand by then, maybe 18.
Too much, yeah.
And we make the decision beforewe even hit the field that we
need.
We're replacing our startingquarterback and we're cutting
him.
And look, that's part of this.
I mean, it's you have to makethese decisions and we're glad
we.
As it turns out, our GM has been.
You know he's been a great fitthat, the one that we elevated
(30:35):
from lead tech.
So you know this is it, guys.
I mean this is part of the funof being a business owner is
that we get to make these reallife decisions.
We get to to to live and die bythe decisions that we make, and
I just think there's so manypeople that call on Nick.
You said something before westarted the call that when you
were exploring franchises, somepeople made it sound easy.
(30:55):
Some people talked about a wordthat has now become taboo in
our industry, which is absentee.
Look, I say to people who askme about absentee and investor
model, I say don't you want tobe the reason why your business
is successful?
Don't you want to be the leaderof that business?
Of course you want to empowerother people, but the franchise
owner makes the business special.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, you run into people who think they just like
the idea.
They, yeah.
You run into people who thinkit's a, they just like the idea.
You know, they just like theidea.
And they have a bunch of moneyand they're like, yeah, and then
they're always the one.
By the way, who's the maddest?
I serve as president on our, onour advisory council.
To the actual brand and thestuff that these guys tell me.
I'm like, dude, you're not evenhere.
Yeah.
I know you haven't called yourleads.
(31:35):
Why are you mad at me, man?
We're doing the best we can.
This is it's still a startup.
I think we're now on like smallbusiness realm as opposed to
startup, but still.
But yeah, you have to figure outwho these people are.
To a certain extent, with thesebrands, I found the majority of
them to be full of it and Icannot stand the concept of
(31:56):
being in one of those bigconglomerate kind of whatever.
When they own the roofing, theyown the gutters, they own the
power washing, they own thepainting man, does that sound
miserable?
Why are you ever going to careabout me?
I am the definition ofsomething that hopefully it fits
in the item 19.
You know that stinks.
You're not going to help me.
I know you're not going to helpme.
You're going to sell it andyou're going to do this weird
(32:17):
churn and burn thing that is inthe industry and you know it's
interesting.
Every time I'm on a podcast inthis and I always share the same
.
You know, please make sure thatyou know what you're doing.
Speech and like people will benegative or they think you know
you just don't want me to scaleand beat me and I don't care if
(32:38):
you beat me, man, I just want tosurvive.
And the second part is is it isso easy to blow this.
Choose the wrong guy that youknow, choose the wrong team that
didn't match up with yourpersonality, choose the wrong
franchise that doesn't match upwith your skills.
You really have to be verycareful and then go for it.
That's really what it is.
It's some type ofdecision-making process and then
you just got to go and that iswhat it is.
But, like you're saying, yougot to try and figure out and
(33:01):
ask great questions, go allaround the different parts of
the franchise, the worst guyswho are going to give you the
worst opinion ever, the middle,which is you know and then then
you're up right here and seewhat these guys are like, see if
you fit their personalities.
Are you somewhere around whatthis guy is?
Yeah, and then you can probablyfigure out where you should be,
yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, you quickly realize, look, I think there's a
lot of franchise salespeopleout there.
I don't think they're out thereto do harm, but it's just that
if you haven't run a businessbefore, if you haven't run a
franchise, you just don't know.
And I do think that's where youknow working with.
And again, it's a shamelessplug, but there's more franchise
consultants than me and Jill,full disclaimer, nick.
(33:43):
Nick worked with anotherfranchise consultant.
That was not Jill and I, butthat franchise consultant also
is a business owner.
And I do think as you pick yourfranchise consultant, the
question you should ask is areyou a franchise owner?
Were you a franchise owner?
And I think, because they canreally help you understand the
road that's ahead for you.
And look, this is really, thisis America and this you can.
(34:06):
I mean, look, I didn't go toHarvard, I didn't go to Stanford
, I didn't work at a fancyprivate equity firm.
You know, jill has a greatresume, she's much smarter than
I am.
But we were probably each whatwere we making in corporate
America?
Like 150 grand, something likethat.
And we got so fed up that Jilland I quit.
We both quit our jobs.
(34:27):
Summer of excuse me new year2000.
We sold our house because wehad no money.
Literally, we had like 30grants.
We had to sell our house, butwe were so desperate for change
we had to do it.
We had it.
We needed to do this because wewere just sick of working for
somebody else.
So for us there was no otherway.
And again it it's the samething.
Like you said, we didn't have adirect path, we just knew we
(34:48):
were going to do it well, thething is too is.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I know I have a weird personality, I'm a little
bombastic.
I'm out there, uh, I don't knowhow well I fit in corporate
america.
I don't know if it's for me,man, uh, I could try, but you
know, yeah sure, I'd get rapped,reprimanded daily we're talking
to a guy who is selling hiswho's selling his company.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yesterday it's not a franchise and he was talking to
the buyers and the buyers askedabout his transition plan right,
would you stay around?
And he said I would be theworst employee ever had.
You don't want me as anemployee?
Yeah, no way, no way.
So it's interesting.
So, nick, okay, two lastquestions for you.
Thank you for being so generouswith your time.
(35:31):
I know how busy you are.
Okay, what haven't we asked?
That's important, that wehaven't asked that you think
it's important for people whoare thinking about becoming
franchise owners to know, basedupon your experience, I think
that the biggest thing is youjust need to make sure you can
put the time into this.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
I I mean that in the best way possible.
You really especially if you'remarried and you have kids make
sure that conversation happensabout.
You know, I'm going to have toleave sometimes to go fix this,
and when I think about a lot ofbusiness it's not so much as
like, can you do it?
Yeah, anyone can do it, but canyou mentally handle this?
Like the extremedisappointments, the lowest of
(36:10):
lows, the highest of highs.
I'm only prepared for thisbecause I got my butt kicked in
my knees in selling insurance,cold calling, when I was just
outside of school.
I remember thinking I had thesepolicies sold and then they'd
pay me and then it gets strippedaway from me like a week later
because someone didn't make apayment or whatever.
The most pain I think I hadfelt emotionally.
(36:31):
You know you thought you weredoing well and then it's taken
away.
And that is what this is.
For a long time you thinkyou're doing well and it's taken
away.
So what I was getting at with,like, do you have kids?
What's your deal?
Have you guys talked about this?
It puts such a strain on allyour relationships that are
within the inner circle of this,just because they're going to
(36:51):
have to live some of yourcomplaints.
They're going to have to hearabout this, they're going to
have to miss you when you haveto go fix something or whatever
it might be, and it's just awhole team effort and you just
kind of have to make sure thatwhoever's on your team is also
ready for that.
And I think that's probably thebiggest thing that we haven't
kind of discussed is just makesure everyone's aware of what's
(37:13):
going on, Because it's such abig deal.
I was working till 12 o'clock atnight and woke up at 7 in the
spring last year and it was 100%necessary.
It wasn't like I was messingaround on my computer, it was
just, you know, doing the quotes, send it out.
Do the quotes send it out.
Was I thinking about it toomuch Cause I was new?
(37:34):
Yeah, Would I do it in 10seconds now?
But it's, you know it's.
It's part of the progress, partof the part of the deal.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point there.
I mean, look, there's going tobe times.
There's going to be timesthere's going to be times where
you feel alone, where it can bescary, and that's where I think
you know, if you're becoming afranchise owner in a system,
seek out you know, people likeNick who've been in the system.
Learn from franchise owners whowere persevering, who are
succeeding.
Not because we want tosugarcoat it for you, but it's
(38:03):
the same guidance we give to ourson, which is you'll learn a
lot more from the A studentsthan you do from the D students.
It's not hard to figure out whata D student did and
underperforming franchise owners.
Let's face it.
They make every excuse in thebook as to why they're not
succeeding and in my mind, whenwe buy that business, it's on us
.
And ultimately, yes, are thereways that a franchisor could
(38:24):
better?
I'm sure all of us couldcritique the franchisor who's
doing the best they can and say,well, they could do this better
.
Well, we all could do thingsbetter.
So to that end, last questionNick, would you do it again?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Oh yeah, yeah, Specifically this one too.
Yeah, I would.
To be fair, I've had a lot ofinfluence over Rolling Suds.
A lot of the systems are mine,or they are some version of mine
, but I was also the fourthperson in the system, or they
are some version of mine, but Iwas also the fourth person in
the system.
I'm also the president of ouradvisory committee.
Like, we're about to get customsprings made out of for our
(38:55):
pumps that were costing us ahundred dollars and I think I
got them down to like three.
Yeah, I know I'm pumped.
Look at you, we'll see you know.
But yeah, this fits my skillset.
I think power washing is a painin the butt it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I'm.
The stuff that's broken is alot of work.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I also think, yeah, it's a.
It's obnoxious how often thesepumps break and you're just like
why, man, I just fixed you andyou're such a pain in the butt
to get back out god, anyways.
And then your parts are rustedand you're like I'll kill all of
you.
But yeah, no, I would do itagain, 100%.
I think I have something here.
I really do.
I think we're fulfilling a needin the market that is there,
(39:37):
and I have the same anxious,worried we'll see what happens
feeling butterflies like I didthis time last year and it went
okay.
We'll see.
It's exciting and scary and myexpectations are high and we'll
see how I do, but it's thechallenge that I'm excited for
(39:58):
more than anything else.
The people that are in ourbrands are very good people and
the people that work at RollingSuds are very good people.
I don't really have anadversary or anything like that.
I don't think there's anythingnecessarily wrong.
Could things have been set upbetter?
Yeah, they can always be set upbetter.
Could we fill some gaps withsome of the stuff that doesn't
(40:21):
work on their side?
Sure, will we figure that outin time?
Yeah, so it's one of thosethings where my bet was that
these people would be who Ithought they would be right.
It's my gut and that's turnedout to be true so far, and we'll
see what that looks like in thefuture.
But for now, you know, myassumptions have been decently
well on and that was the most Icould really ask yeah, well, I
(40:44):
mean kudos to you and andcongratulations on your success
and, you know, enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And and I think you have such a good perspective
because Jill and I have beenwhere you are, in both Pinks and
with our.
We're affiliated with I don'tknow 700 other franchise
consultants and you'll be a topperformer and then there will be
another top performer and myadvice is don't hate on the
(41:09):
other top performer, learn fromthem.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Let them challenge you.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, it makes you better.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, I just you guys .
I don't really need anyone toknow my name, I just want to be
the rich dude that like no onereally understands what he does
and he has two houses.
And, again, no one bothers me.
That sounds amazing.
Being the top dog in thesesystems is so difficult and
varying.
For example, you could win acontract in this industry and
(41:36):
all of a sudden, you're the topperson.
Are you building the bestbusiness?
Probably not.
That's why what I was statingis I don't really care whether
I'm the top person next year.
I want to do a lot of jobs andmake a lot of friends.
This is a long-term game.
I'm pumped that I was the topperson.
Next year, I want to do a lotof jobs and make a lot of
friends.
This is a long-term game.
I'm pumped that I was, you know, the first year.
Everyone's off the races and II had the most revenue.
(41:57):
I'm more obsessed with settingthis foundation and getting
ready.
I want to buy another location,a physical location in the
Western part of my territory.
I want to turn this whole badboy on and make some money.
There we go, wins, wins, great.
What kind of ideas do you havethat I can steal my dude.
I love that Great.
There are people who are goingto kick my butt at this and I'm
(42:17):
well aware of it.
I can see it Awesome.
You guys have differentexperience than I do and I'm
going to win in different areas.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
I love it.
Well, it's been great talkingto you today.
Thank you for sharing your time.
We know you're very busy andfor all of you out there who
want more information on rollingsides or on just exploring
franchises in general, easiestway text Jill and I 305-710-0050
, or visitthefranchiseinsiderscom.
Nick, thank you so much forbeing our guest today.
(42:48):
We really appreciated your time.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yeah, it was a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Thank you, sir, take care.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
All right, bye.
Hi everyone, Welcome back to the we Bought a
Franchise podcast.
I'm here with my lovely co-host, Jill Johnson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hi everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And I'm Jack Johnson, and we have a really powerful
guest for you guys today.
We have Nick High.
He is the franchise owner ofRolling Suds in Northern
Virginia.
Nick, welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Great Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the show.
How are you today?
Great Thanks for having me.
So the whole sort of premise ofour show is to share our
experiences as franchise owners,growing a franchise and we've
(00:35):
been talking to franchisors in alot of the last few episodes
and then we'll kind of mix in anepisode where we share our
experiences and people are likedude, I'm already talking to a
bunch of franchise salespeople.
I don't want to talk to more ofthem.
I don't want to talk tofranchise owners.
So, nick, let's dive in.
Let's hear your story.
Why franchising?
What led you down this path?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, so my formal education is in personal,
high-end personal finance.
As much as I love the industry,didn't love how I was getting
paid in my case.
So I left, got into productdistribution and the setup
worked a lot like a franchise.
I had a overarching managerthat I really never talked to
and then kind of just had salesand a separate company.
(01:12):
So I had autonomy and wasbasically left alone and go try
to survive Kind of a deal Tookthat from just under a million
dollars to about three by thetime I left.
So I kind of had to figure outwhat I wanted to do.
Looked at buying a business Iwas 32 at the time I left.
So I kind of had to figure outwhat I wanted to do.
Looked at buying a business Iwas 32 at the time, definitely
barely looked 32.
So buying a business seemedlike a different type of risk
(01:36):
and if a deal falls apart youcould easily be out a couple
hundred grand.
So it didn't seem like the bestidea.
But I was open to it.
So franchising kind of cameabout.
Probably looked at 40 brands,maybe 10 discovery days
somewhere around there, made abunch of friends who bought
different stuff.
So I have a decent littlenetwork out there with that and
ended up settling on RollingSuds.
(01:58):
I'm from Northern Virginia, soone of the first territories
gone is exactly where Ipurchased, regardless of the
brand.
So I had to take a little bitmore risk.
I knew that and I like theconcepts, I like the downside as
well and one of the thingsthat's most important for me is
(02:19):
kind of trying to figure out whothe leader is and kind of if
he's going to make good choiceswhen things go wrong because
they are going to go wrong.
Is he going to kind of get outof the way when he needs to get
out of the way?
He'll make the right choicewhen it's required for the brand
and the business to besuccessful, and I think Aaron
Harper is that.
So that's kind of how I gotinto Rolling Suds, how I found
(02:41):
it Just a lot of discovery, tookmy time.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Also knew I just kind of had to go for it so I think
you you said two things therethat really resonate with me and
I'm do you remember when we hadthe conversation?
So Jill and I had been lookingfor a franchise.
As franchise consultants wekind of get a front row seat to
everything, um, and there werelots of brands over the years,
right, right, there's brandsJill liked, brands that I liked,
(03:06):
but we couldn't agree onanything.
And then Pinks came along.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We really, really took us a long time to agree on.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and that's you know.
Listen, everybody has adifferent process.
But we kind of said a similarthing to you in that we, first
of all, we bought a lot ofterritories and I don't
recommend, if it's your firstfranchise, don't go buying like
five territories, becauseultimately what will happen in
any franchise system is thatyou'll have neighbors and not
all your neighbors will besuccessful.
It's just a shocking statement.
Not everyone succeeds as afranchise owner, so your best
(03:34):
bet is to buy a couple, one totwo territories and then wait
for your neighbor to want tosell and buy for pennies on the
dollar.
But the one thing both Jill andI agreed on was that we know
we're going to spend X amount ofdollars on this business and if
it doesn't work, we're going tosurvive.
We wouldn't do anything thatwould stretch us to a point
where pinks could affect ourother business or our life.
(03:58):
If it works, awesome, but if itdoesn't, it's okay.
We can accept the risk and Ithink that's something every
franchise owner needs to sort ofbe prepared for is that, yes,
we're going to work our assesoff and we're going to hustle
and we're going to do everythingin our power to build a great
business, but not every businessis successful, and so you have
to weigh that risk.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, and the brand can be wrong If you're in
boutique fitness, which at thetime I was an orange theory
addict, so boutique fitness kindof was just like right up my
alley.
And then I realized that therewas a large portion of that risk
was nothing to do with me.
It had everything to do withthe brand and you know, fitness
people are a different type.
So I was like I don't knowabout this one and outside of
(04:37):
Orange Theory.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I'm sorry to jump in, but outside of Orange Theory,
so many of those franchises,their numbers suck their numbers
suck or they're up for a yearor so.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That's one of those games where you have to
continually be selling.
It looks like you have all thisreoccurring revenue but your
average is like 10% loss andchurn rate.
So you're really havingsomebody on the phones all the
time and those margins are goingto get squeezed at some point.
So, yeah, it's an interestingspace, so I moved away from that
.
But it is true Like every oncein a while they ask, or someone
(05:11):
wants to talk to me or whatever,and I'll tell them.
I'm not sure if this is yourthing, man, and it has nothing
to do with how smart you are orwhatever.
It has everything to do withhow you're going to attack this.
You have this type of need tobe suddenly successful your
first year, whatever it might be, and it's just not the case
(05:34):
more often than not.
Like there's a.
I was the highest, I had themost revenue in rolling suds
last year by a decent margin.
I don't expect to do that again.
We've quadrupled in size.
There are people that arebigger than me.
My joke is continuously thatit's just a 34-year-old self and
(05:55):
a dog.
These guys have partners andhuge teams, and that's the fun
part of franchising right isyou're going to see somebody
execute the model better thanyou.
You can steal their ideas andkind of move forward.
But it's a very specific typeof person who can handle a lot
of.
Everything's going wrong allthe time and this is fine and
tomorrow's another day and we'lllive.
(06:16):
And if you can't do that, it'sjust going to eat you mentally
like it's nothing to do with youpersonally, it's just
everything to do with.
Can you keep getting your buttkicked and just feeling all
right?
Well, that's fine, we move on.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, and you obviously did really well last
year and you're still sayingthose things.
So I think that's reallyimportant.
Jack and I always talk about.
You know the first like year 18months is really hard and you
know, coming from you, one ofthe reasons we're talking to you
(06:48):
is you're a top performer and Iknow with pinks, you know we're
typically in the top two butit's still hard.
You know, and it'sunderstanding that reality that
it's not all butterflies andyou're just going to.
You know, jump in and be thebest and make all the money.
You know you can and you willif you keep doing it.
But, like you said, there'shurdles.
There's other people that comein that do a little better and
you have to be a person that cantake that.
I think that is the number onething it's understanding that
(07:11):
and not letting it get you down.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Well, it's interesting.
So the franchise.
When I joined I was the fourthperson in the systems.
Nothing that exists now existedthen.
It was a joke comparatively,and my first month, think, I
made six thousand dollars.
The hell, am I supposed to dowith that?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
you know, like what did?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
that pay for absolutely nothing.
So we now have franchisees thatare you know doing 80 uh, their
first month, and that's great.
We also have people doing sixagain, just like me.
But a year later, everyonewants to know what systems I'm
using and it was consistent thewhole time.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, that's a great point.
Let's stop there because Ithink that's for franchise
owners.
What systems?
What are you doing different,you know?
To me, I think the answer hasalways been that implementing
the systems that the franchisorhas.
What did the pilot location do?
Following those systems hasbeen the key to success, while
also putting your own stamp onit.
(08:05):
So, as the top performer withRolling Studs last year, what is
your answer to that questionwhen those franchisees ask yeah,
so obviously I'm like decentlyoutgoing, so that helps.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I've been in B2B sales, which is basically what
this model is.
I think I'm very honest withwhat I want when I'm talking to
my leads and also my personnel.
I'm not the best communicatorover certain aspects and I've
hired to try and solve thatissue for me to a certain extent
, but what I really do is justtell people I'm under market
(08:43):
price and I'm doing that so thatyou and I can be friends.
I don't want to really do stuffonce.
I prefer that you could justcall me when you need me and
we'll move on.
I don't view our business allthat different from the
lawnmower.
People only care about you whenthey see you.
Other than that, just go do thejob and go home and kind of
stay out of our way Kind of adeal.
We perform a service that'scleaning stuff.
(09:03):
Stay out of our way Kind of adeal.
We perform a service that'scleaning stuff.
It's not at the front of mindall the time, so I'm not out
there hounding people like crazy.
We have franchisees that dothat.
I'm very anxious to see theresults.
I hope they're awesome, but I'mmore of along the lines of like
here's what it is.
I think we're awesome at this.
This is our price.
It's below market.
(09:24):
If you want to come, awesome.
If not, that's great.
My sales techniques are very oldschool.
I kind of mentioned things thatI think make sure this is done
really well and, other than that, I'm here if you need me and
I'm happy to answer anyquestions that you guys might
have.
We have people that havesystemized cold calling and all
(09:45):
that and are just hammering themaway sales-wise and I'm very,
very relationship-focused.
So my reoccurring work is heavy.
I think we're about 300,000reoccurring a year now, with one
true season through, and we'restarting to get in with the
metro, the hospital systemaround here.
It's a whole bunch of coolprojects.
It's just I'm more obsessedwith doing a million jobs than
(10:08):
making a million dollars rightnow, so that I can build a
foundation of this and I cansell it one day, and I'm very
much a foundation builder asopposed to shiny object chaser.
So that's my method.
That's what I'm doing just toslow, try to make friends, try
to make a network and see whatwe can get out of it.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, I mean I it sounds like you're.
You're doing it right.
It's really mission-based, it'swanting to do a great job.
I should also mention for anyof you all of you listening out
there that any numbers wediscuss on this podcast, if
you're interested in rollingsuds, you will need to refer to
their franchise disclosuredocument, their item six or item
19.
Nick's results are they arevery good, but it doesn't mean
(10:47):
that that's what you're going toachieve.
If you're going to be a RollingStones franchise owner, okay,
now that that's out of the way.
No, you're exactly right.
It's like, as we, we've noticedwith our pinks franchise and I
think we've got a similarrecurring jobs on the books for
for the next, for the next year,as you do.
(11:07):
So many of our jobs arerecurring.
I would say like we've got.
We've got a as I, as I look atour revenue, we're right now
about 60% commercial to 40%residential.
You guys do bigger jobs than us.
What's your, what's your split?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
In terms of revenue it's going to be similar to that
.
It's more of a 60, 40commercial to a residential the
residential part of our businessand I will hammer this to death
and people will argue with meforever and that's fine.
But from a model standpoint andfrom a cashflow standpoint,
residential is king in thisbusiness and what I mean by that
(11:38):
is until this business is quoteunquote stable, meaning I'm not
worried about that reoccurringrevenue going to someone else,
I'm not worried about what'scoming in because our SEO we've
been around the block Untilthat's stable, I need that cash
flow every week to pay payrollquicker, to pay sudden bills,
whatever we broke, all thethings that go wrong owning
(11:59):
these things.
I need that cash flow to payfor.
The reason I said that it takestime is when you're in a service
business, especially a largeticket one, and you're dealing
with multiple vendors ormultiple general contractors.
Getting in their AR system andgetting that bad boy to execute
in any reasonable amount of timeis tough.
I've got bills outstanding from120 days ago and they're like
(12:21):
oh well, you haven't signed upfor X, y and Z AR system.
I'm like dude, you're killingme, man.
And that's how Nate got termsand conditions in his contracts.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
We just had the same thing with our.
We're about to close a big HOAdeal to go clean every house in
the neighborhood and big deal.
We're a money but and of course, our gm's really excited.
But the trouble is this is thatit's going to take a truck of
ours, a van of ours, off thestreet, put it in this
neighborhood, put a full team ofguys and I'm like what's the
(12:55):
accounts receivable?
Because I got a full crew nowthat's working.
That costs me.
You know, at least you, I wantto be, I want outside I don't
know where you sit on this, butput my GM aside, outside of him.
I really want the crew toaccount for about 25% of our
revenue.
We're still a growing franchise.
We're not there yet.
So let's say we're 50 right now.
So I'm like dude, this is goingto crush our cashflow.
(13:18):
So we have to make sure, withthese terms, that we're getting
at least half up front, becausethey have to know they're going
to take a full crew of ours outof commission.
So for all of you out there,nick brings up a great point as
new franchisees, the residentialjobs they pay you with credit
card.
Sometimes they pay you withcash and I hate that.
The check's easy we can do thatwith the app but the cash we
(13:40):
have to go to the fricking bankand deposit it.
Anyways, we love the creditcard payments because they
happen instantly, whereas the ARon the bigger commercial jobs
takes forever, and then we'vegot to float the payroll.
So all things you guys need tothink about, and this is why
when we're guiding someone andI'm sure Nick, your consultant,
said the same thing this is whyyou want to have more cash
(14:00):
available, whatever their highnumber is on the investment,
have that in your pocket becauseyou're going to need every
penny of it.
Even if you got profitable bymonth 12, you're going to have a
month setback and you're goingto need to have the cash to help
your business survive.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, and what's interesting about that is so
Rolling Suds switched how theywere asking for capital.
Obviously, it increased a gooddeal, and I think that's a great
idea.
It is necessary.
It really depends on when youstart too.
If you're starting in the slowseason, you're going to burn
more, you know.
And, by the way, you're alittle bit more mentally beat up
(14:34):
if you start in the fast season, because everyone else is going
to be rolling and you're goingto be taken forever, and so
prepare yourself for that too.
But yeah, the AR is a nightmareto a certain extent.
I had $150,000 outstanding inNovember and I'm like, all right
, well, I would love this money,I don't need it, you guys.
So luckily, it's pretty muchall come through, but it takes a
(14:57):
lot of time, and not havingthose deposits, like you said,
was a rookie mistake.
I was just excited to keep, youknow, keep it rolling.
But I absolutely have thatpolicy now going into the spring
.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, you got to have it.
You know again, it's like andyou know what else is
interesting too is we're onthese.
You know Pinks Weeklyconference calls.
So our slow season in SouthFlorida is the summer, because
like half our population goes upto New York and so, while
everyone else is like crushing,like you know, it seemed like
every other market was havingtheir best months.
We were just getting hammeredand Jill and I are just sitting
(15:31):
there saying, screw this, wewant to win, Because we had come
out of the gates as the highestperforming franchise and then
all of a sudden, we fell wayback down to earth.
Well, now our weather for themost part, is good.
We've been crushing it sinceOctober and some of the Eastern
States, you know, like you guys,are getting hammered with snow
and right, yeah, they're notenjoying the sun today.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
The cold front coming through here is very different
than what you guys are sayingbut yeah, it's, the seasonality
is really interesting and it'snot always the same for all
businesses, so you know it'sit's also keeping that in mind
too, businesses.
So you know it's also keepingthat in mind too, and just you
know, understanding that, likeour peak season is everyone
else's off season and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I actually will find too I'm really sure of this that
my quote unquote off seasonwill not be so off as we
continue.
A lot of what I'm being askedto do is just kind of emergency
work or like trash cans in themorning and if it's 40 degrees,
we can do that.
People want their random things, people call for that, they
have issues with that.
We can fulfill because we carrya lot of water, a little market
advantage for now.
So it's one of those things.
And it is also when we weretalking about a runway for the
love of God, cut your expenses.
(16:47):
You probably don't need that VA, I promise, especially in your
first year.
It's one of those things whereyou see a lot of people who are
from private equity or somewherewhere they were working in
operations and they burn thatmoney that I think they're going
to need for AR withmiscellaneous expenses, because
they had this huge bank accountto start with, you know, and
(17:08):
you're just buying frivolousthings and I'm like, oh my God,
I barely have any furniture inour warehouse.
And like the whiteboard's likea little rough, everything is so
meat and bones still, and likethe whiteboard's like a little
rough, everything is so meat andbones still, and it's just kind
of how I prefer it until we'restable, and stable is a lot less
of meat.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
That's a great question.
And I would also say this Imean, jill and I keep a.
We keep a sort of running P&Lyears.
We look weeks, years into thefuture and so every every
decision we make financially forour businesses, we see now, but
we also see how it affects usthree months from now, and
that's something all of youprospective business owners it
isn't just living in the now.
(17:48):
Every decision you make.
So you've got to build a good,you've got to be focused on how
you're spending your cash, notonly now, but in the future.
It's very important.
So let's talk about your timein the business.
I made a comment on LinkedIn theother day that some people
misunderstood.
I said I spend about an hour aday in my business, in my pinks
(18:08):
business.
That's because we have a reallygood GM.
We are big believers indelegating and he does a very
good job of delegating to ourlead tech and the team.
So we right now and as businessowners, look the shit can hit
the fan and it can change at anytime, but right now we have a
nice system of delegation.
But also, it is how much?
(18:29):
When we say, an hour.
Let's think about what goesinto that.
That is the morning check-incall with the GM, that is the
monitoring of the CRM, that islooking at cashflow, that is
making sure that we're lookingat the first resumes that come
in.
So there's a lot that you cansqueeze into a short period of
time.
Tell us what your experience isand how you're sort of leading
the team.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Well.
So this was my first timescaling while we were working,
so it was interesting.
I ended up harshly burning outin August and the reason for
that is I was also actuallyworking in the business not very
many hours working on it, abajillion hours, a lot, a lot, a
lot of getting my sales andstuff and marketing figured out,
(19:12):
but actually working in powerwashing and working on the
trucks and stuff like that veryminimal amount of time.
And then a small businesshappened and my second driver I
had two trucks at the time brokehis arm.
I was thinking back to lastyear and I said, okay, well,
august, october, september, theywere okay, we can just handle
(19:34):
it with one team.
No, we had a record month inOctober.
Of course, we did like 135,000and I worked another at least 80
hours a day because I wasworking in and on, because I
made a novice mistake and I alsohired a sales guy and did not
have a process in place, so Ialso burnt too much capital on
my wages.
(19:54):
So I wanted to fix that and soI worked.
Could I have hired another teamand trained them and did the
whole thing?
Sure, but the other answer tothis is I was cleaning a
building.
That I call the best propagandaI'm ever going to have, because
man is the before and aftergood.
So I also wanted to make surethat was absolutely excellent.
So there are differentobjectives involved, but, yeah,
(20:17):
I think exactly this year is alot of what I'm game planning
around and I have a wholewhiteboard next to me on stuff
that needs to be done and a lotof work in progress, um, but a
lot of it is designing thesystems now to make sure that
that doesn't happen.
I don't get sucked back in likethat needlessly, um, and we can
continue to push.
That's very important.
If we're actually going to getwhere we want to get, I need to
(20:37):
stay out as much as possible.
I'll still probably fix thepumps and stuff like that, but
honestly, I'd like doing thatand I might just go late at
night.
So you know, it's a huge thingand it's one of those things
that you start to get as youstart to form a base of the
business.
But, man, please don't try toscale too early, for the love of
(20:57):
God.
You're just going to burn cashand you need to know what's
going on.
I fundamentally believe that,but no, you guys are on a
similar trajectory as I am.
It's time to start to pushourselves up a little bit.
And that's every process in thebusiness.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
That's a really good point.
It's an excellent point becausewhen you add more layers of
infrastructure, you are going tospend a lot more money on the
business.
So when we talk to prospectivefranchise owners for pinks,
they're like are you profitableyet?
And my answer is no.
But I didn't build the businessto be profitable and you're
you're one.
We built it to have to do right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
As you were saying, like we knew that going into it,
we knew that it wasn't going tobe that we made the choice to
hire a gm.
You know, knowing that, thatwas going to affect our overall
numbers, but for what we couldcontribute and the time that you
know we had available.
It made the most sense, um, butyeah, you have to build that in
and have the right expectationsand we bought the second truck
(21:57):
before we needed.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
I mean, we, we made, we made these decisions.
Um, I've never looked at youknow, I haven't.
We didn't look at it withfranchise insiders that way
either.
When we started franchiseinsiders we didn't make a penny
for the first six months but weadvertised, we, um, we were in
Southwest airlines magazinespending eight grand a month on
a on a print ad that nobodycalled us for the first few
months.
So we sort of have a playbookwhere we're always, we
(22:20):
understand, investing early onin a business but we could do it
.
If someone's coming to us andsaying, hey, I want to own
Rolling Suns and I've got 250grand, we're going to say one
territory you better be workingon and in the business yourself,
you better GM that thingyourself.
And I think we're seeing nowpeople kind of coming back to
earth in terms of, okay, I don'tneed to own 10 territories to
(22:46):
start.
Why don't I start with one ortwo and get good at this and get
profitable and then use thatmoney?
And here's the thing, and maybeyou can share what you think of
this.
I think part of good franchiseconsulting and what Jill and I
do with helping clients.
I always say this to people it'snot just about the investment
in the business.
It's about introducing you topeople that can teach you to be
(23:06):
a great entrepreneur.
Right, because so many peoplecome from corporate America.
You might come from the mostfabulous private equity firm on
earth and have a Harvard degree,but running a business is a
very different thing, and so ifwe compare you with a franchise,
that actually will teach you tobe a good entrepreneur, it
opens up your future toeverything, whether that be
buying other franchises or nowyou've got the confidence to go
(23:27):
buy that mom and pop for pennieson the dollar.
It's beyond just the dollarsand cents of the unit.
It's about turning you into anentrepreneur that can build a
much bigger portfolio.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, I 100% agree, and I don't know if it's legal
or not or whatever it might be,but I think that a consultant
should try to kind of map whatyou were doing prior and trying
to find that in some version ofit entrepreneur-wise.
So what I mean by that isRolling Suds is, at the end of
the day, a sales and marketingcompany and it's focused on b2b
sales.
I'm here because that's what Iwas doing.
I was selling maintenance stuffto car dealers, making friends
(24:08):
and increasing my penetration onwhatever you know.
So what do I really do now?
I make friends and then try tosell them as much as possible
and I'm pretty dang good atselling them on more once
they've already done it all.
I got it all gets so excited andthen try to sell them as much
as possible and I'm pretty danggood at selling them on more
once they've already done it.
All I got is, oh, I'll get soexcited, and then you just bam
right, and I think that that'strue for the consultant is like
if they were doing somethingthat has a direct application in
(24:31):
some type of QSR, for example,or fitness or whatever it might
be, if there's some type ofskill set that is very obvious
about them trying to match.
That will give them the highestprobability of success, because
they'll feel like they'reslotted like a railroad, as
opposed to just trying to goover every bump and being lost.
I think that's very important.
(24:53):
You can teach sales skills, butman is it easier if you
understand where you're going.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, you can teach sales skills, but, man, is it
easier if you kind of understandwhere you're going.
Yeah, I mean, that's it.
So we partnered with a companythat does franchisee profiling,
namely on top franchisees.
We're big believers in when youbecome a franchisee, go find
the most successful franchiseeand make friends with that
person.
Underperforming franchisees cankind of you know, they glom
together and they complain andit's actually killing their
businesses.
But anyways, this companyprofiles top performing
(25:24):
franchisees and builds profileson them.
So we have our clients takethis assessment and then it
comes back and it says, hey,they compare to franchisees in
these.
You know 10 differentfranchises and then here's where
they best match.
And so we're able to say, okay,here's where your strengths are
in a business, here's theindustries where you compare to
top performers.
And now we're going to show youfranchises based upon that.
And it's not just that, youknow again, you've got to have
human conversations too, right,but it's, it's, you're right.
(25:46):
We want to take a real holisticlook at all this.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Right.
And I think, like what you weresaying before, like with orange
theory, right, a lot of peoplecome in and they I love fitness.
You know I'm a fitness junkie.
I go to Orange Theory every day.
I do this, I do that, I want to, that's what I want to do.
And then they take this and itcomes back that, yeah, they're
like more like you, they're verysales oriented.
That's not a good fit forsomeone like that, you know, and
(26:09):
so sometimes it can feel alittle bit like a letdown, like
wait a second, I really wantedyou know whether it's like you
know food and beverage orfitness or something like that.
But no, you're better suitedfor something like you said.
And then, looking at rollingsets, you wouldn't think sales,
right, your first thought isI've got to be good at you know
(26:30):
blue collar and cleaning and youknow.
But it's that's not what.
It is right to run thatbusiness.
Like we've always said, we'renot going to wash windows, so it
has.
No, there's no differencewhether or not we have any
experience with cleaning windows.
Pinks is more of a branding andsales and marketing as well too
, so it was a better fit for us.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Okay, but that brings up.
You bring up a really goodpoint.
Nick, I have a question for you.
How has it been for youmanaging blue collar workers?
How has it been for you?
Speaker 3 (26:57):
managing blue collar workers.
So I had been around bluecollar folks before, hark really
hard Because I'm mad at themfor not doing something right or
just not caring enough ormaking a mistake.
And in reality, that's an issuewith my training, right, it's
an issue with my policy.
It's an issue with all thesethings.
(27:17):
I didn't tell them and Iassumed that they would know,
and that's just badcommunication.
At the end of the day, it'sbeing a novice, right.
So we're building those systemsnow, but it's it's.
It's not easy.
I'm paying a general manager inthe winter right now I think
it's 12 degrees outside and butI'm paying him because I'm going
(27:41):
to need him to manage all thesepeople.
He was a restaurant manager ina nightclub so he can handle the
stress and he can also speakthese people's languages in a
way that I can't.
When they're upset, I'm notgoing to understand all the time
or I'm not going to understandtheir stuff from home.
So having that interface andmaking sure that that's
(28:04):
fulfilled is extremely important.
It wasn't that I wasn't able todo it.
I just am sure I'm not going tobe able to do it at scale and
I'm also sure that it will eatall of my time because we did
have employees that were awesomeuntil they had to work with a
team and then, all of a sudden,they were a nightmare and I had
to let them go and they were.
The guy I'm talking about wasthe best power washer I had by
(28:26):
far.
He was awesome, customers lovedhim, couldn't work on a team to
save his life.
It just is what it is and so,yeah, it's not easy.
A lot of the times I justwouldn't say anything because I
know where this is all going.
I'm in my first year.
You won't be here in threemonths.
It's not a dangerous activity.
(28:46):
You just did.
You're just being a goose andthat's I'm.
I'm prepared to move on.
We just get through the end ofthis season and and go forward.
That is why I do love ourseasonality.
Man, did I need the break?
And also it's it's.
It's nice to have the clarityto rethink all these things.
I have a whiteboard and goforward.
That is why I do love ourseasonality.
Man, did I need the break?
And also it's nice to have theclarity to rethink all these
things.
I have a whiteboard of stuffI'm knocking out.
I'm excited again to go backafter this and I can tell you,
(29:08):
at the beginning of December Iwas not, but I am now and I'm
ready to go.
I'm working on all of our stuff.
I'm excited to see if it worksand I'm terrified to see if I
can at least repeat last year'snumbers.
It's welcome to doing this.
You know, like that's what thisis.
At the end of the day, you'relike yeah, I can do it.
I don't know where I'm going toget it from, but we'll find out
.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's.
That is entrepreneurship.
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I don't know how the hell I'm going to do it.
I'm going to try like hell.
I bought a third truck with awhole bunch of bells and
whistles on it.
So you know I pay for that andit's early.
Just like you did it early, Ibought the second one early, the
third one's early.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
You know, we'll see, we'll make it work.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
You learn by doing.
I mean it's like with us ourfirst GM we hired.
We hired him two months beforewe opened.
We thought we'd found thisgreat guy.
I'm sure he's a lovely guy, butfor us it wasn't the right fit.
We get him to training andfortunately we had sent him to
training with our lead tech.
So at least we did that.
And it becomes apparent intraining that the lead tech
(30:12):
should be our GM.
So here we are.
We paid a guy, probably 12grand by then, maybe 18.
Too much.
So here we are.
We paid a guy, probably 12grand by then, maybe 18.
Too much, yeah.
And we make the decision beforewe even hit the field that we
need.
We're replacing our startingquarterback and we're cutting
him.
And look, that's part of this.
I mean, it's you have to makethese decisions and we're glad
we.
As it turns out, our GM has been.
You know he's been a great fitthat, the one that we elevated
(30:35):
from lead tech.
So you know this is it, guys.
I mean this is part of the funof being a business owner is
that we get to make these reallife decisions.
We get to to to live and die bythe decisions that we make, and
I just think there's so manypeople that call on Nick.
You said something before westarted the call that when you
were exploring franchises, somepeople made it sound easy.
(30:55):
Some people talked about a wordthat has now become taboo in
our industry, which is absentee.
Look, I say to people who askme about absentee and investor
model, I say don't you want tobe the reason why your business
is successful?
Don't you want to be the leaderof that business?
Of course you want to empowerother people, but the franchise
owner makes the business special.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, you run into people who think they just like
the idea.
They, yeah.
You run into people who thinkit's a, they just like the idea.
You know, they just like theidea.
And they have a bunch of moneyand they're like, yeah, and then
they're always the one.
By the way, who's the maddest?
I serve as president on our, onour advisory council.
To the actual brand and thestuff that these guys tell me.
I'm like, dude, you're not evenhere.
Yeah.
I know you haven't called yourleads.
(31:35):
Why are you mad at me, man?
We're doing the best we can.
This is it's still a startup.
I think we're now on like smallbusiness realm as opposed to
startup, but still.
But yeah, you have to figure outwho these people are.
To a certain extent, with thesebrands, I found the majority of
them to be full of it and Icannot stand the concept of
(31:56):
being in one of those bigconglomerate kind of whatever.
When they own the roofing, theyown the gutters, they own the
power washing, they own thepainting man, does that sound
miserable?
Why are you ever going to careabout me?
I am the definition ofsomething that hopefully it fits
in the item 19.
You know that stinks.
You're not going to help me.
I know you're not going to helpme.
You're going to sell it andyou're going to do this weird
(32:17):
churn and burn thing that is inthe industry and you know it's
interesting.
Every time I'm on a podcast inthis and I always share the same
.
You know, please make sure thatyou know what you're doing.
Speech and like people will benegative or they think you know
you just don't want me to scaleand beat me and I don't care if
(32:38):
you beat me, man, I just want tosurvive.
And the second part is is it isso easy to blow this.
Choose the wrong guy that youknow, choose the wrong team that
didn't match up with yourpersonality, choose the wrong
franchise that doesn't match upwith your skills.
You really have to be verycareful and then go for it.
That's really what it is.
It's some type ofdecision-making process and then
you just got to go and that iswhat it is.
But, like you're saying, yougot to try and figure out and
(33:01):
ask great questions, go allaround the different parts of
the franchise, the worst guyswho are going to give you the
worst opinion ever, the middle,which is you know and then then
you're up right here and seewhat these guys are like, see if
you fit their personalities.
Are you somewhere around whatthis guy is?
Yeah, and then you can probablyfigure out where you should be,
yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, you quickly realize, look, I think there's a
lot of franchise salespeopleout there.
I don't think they're out thereto do harm, but it's just that
if you haven't run a businessbefore, if you haven't run a
franchise, you just don't know.
And I do think that's where youknow working with.
And again, it's a shamelessplug, but there's more franchise
consultants than me and Jill,full disclaimer, nick.
(33:43):
Nick worked with anotherfranchise consultant.
That was not Jill and I, butthat franchise consultant also
is a business owner.
And I do think as you pick yourfranchise consultant, the
question you should ask is areyou a franchise owner?
Were you a franchise owner?
And I think, because they canreally help you understand the
road that's ahead for you.
And look, this is really, thisis America and this you can.
(34:06):
I mean, look, I didn't go toHarvard, I didn't go to Stanford
, I didn't work at a fancyprivate equity firm.
You know, jill has a greatresume, she's much smarter than
I am.
But we were probably each whatwere we making in corporate
America?
Like 150 grand, something likethat.
And we got so fed up that Jilland I quit.
We both quit our jobs.
(34:27):
Summer of excuse me new year2000.
We sold our house because wehad no money.
Literally, we had like 30grants.
We had to sell our house, butwe were so desperate for change
we had to do it.
We had it.
We needed to do this because wewere just sick of working for
somebody else.
So for us there was no otherway.
And again it it's the samething.
Like you said, we didn't have adirect path, we just knew we
(34:48):
were going to do it well, thething is too is.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I know I have a weird personality, I'm a little
bombastic.
I'm out there, uh, I don't knowhow well I fit in corporate
america.
I don't know if it's for me,man, uh, I could try, but you
know, yeah sure, I'd get rapped,reprimanded daily we're talking
to a guy who is selling hiswho's selling his company.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yesterday it's not a franchise and he was talking to
the buyers and the buyers askedabout his transition plan right,
would you stay around?
And he said I would be theworst employee ever had.
You don't want me as anemployee?
Yeah, no way, no way.
So it's interesting.
So, nick, okay, two lastquestions for you.
Thank you for being so generouswith your time.
(35:31):
I know how busy you are.
Okay, what haven't we asked?
That's important, that wehaven't asked that you think
it's important for people whoare thinking about becoming
franchise owners to know, basedupon your experience, I think
that the biggest thing is youjust need to make sure you can
put the time into this.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
I I mean that in the best way possible.
You really especially if you'remarried and you have kids make
sure that conversation happensabout.
You know, I'm going to have toleave sometimes to go fix this,
and when I think about a lot ofbusiness it's not so much as
like, can you do it?
Yeah, anyone can do it, but canyou mentally handle this?
Like the extremedisappointments, the lowest of
(36:10):
lows, the highest of highs.
I'm only prepared for thisbecause I got my butt kicked in
my knees in selling insurance,cold calling, when I was just
outside of school.
I remember thinking I had thesepolicies sold and then they'd
pay me and then it gets strippedaway from me like a week later
because someone didn't make apayment or whatever.
The most pain I think I hadfelt emotionally.
(36:31):
You know you thought you weredoing well and then it's taken
away.
And that is what this is.
For a long time you thinkyou're doing well and it's taken
away.
So what I was getting at with,like, do you have kids?
What's your deal?
Have you guys talked about this?
It puts such a strain on allyour relationships that are
within the inner circle of this,just because they're going to
(36:51):
have to live some of yourcomplaints.
They're going to have to hearabout this, they're going to
have to miss you when you haveto go fix something or whatever
it might be, and it's just awhole team effort and you just
kind of have to make sure thatwhoever's on your team is also
ready for that.
And I think that's probably thebiggest thing that we haven't
kind of discussed is just makesure everyone's aware of what's
(37:13):
going on, Because it's such abig deal.
I was working till 12 o'clock atnight and woke up at 7 in the
spring last year and it was 100%necessary.
It wasn't like I was messingaround on my computer, it was
just, you know, doing the quotes, send it out.
Do the quotes send it out.
Was I thinking about it toomuch Cause I was new?
(37:34):
Yeah, Would I do it in 10seconds now?
But it's, you know it's.
It's part of the progress, partof the part of the deal.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point there.
I mean, look, there's going tobe times.
There's going to be timesthere's going to be times where
you feel alone, where it can bescary, and that's where I think
you know, if you're becoming afranchise owner in a system,
seek out you know, people likeNick who've been in the system.
Learn from franchise owners whowere persevering, who are
succeeding.
Not because we want tosugarcoat it for you, but it's
(38:03):
the same guidance we give to ourson, which is you'll learn a
lot more from the A studentsthan you do from the D students.
It's not hard to figure out whata D student did and
underperforming franchise owners.
Let's face it.
They make every excuse in thebook as to why they're not
succeeding and in my mind, whenwe buy that business, it's on us
.
And ultimately, yes, are thereways that a franchisor could
(38:24):
better?
I'm sure all of us couldcritique the franchisor who's
doing the best they can and say,well, they could do this better
.
Well, we all could do thingsbetter.
So to that end, last questionNick, would you do it again?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Oh yeah, yeah, Specifically this one too.
Yeah, I would.
To be fair, I've had a lot ofinfluence over Rolling Suds.
A lot of the systems are mine,or they are some version of mine
, but I was also the fourthperson in the system, or they
are some version of mine, but Iwas also the fourth person in
the system.
I'm also the president of ouradvisory committee.
Like, we're about to get customsprings made out of for our
(38:55):
pumps that were costing us ahundred dollars and I think I
got them down to like three.
Yeah, I know I'm pumped.
Look at you, we'll see you know.
But yeah, this fits my skillset.
I think power washing is a painin the butt it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I'm.
The stuff that's broken is alot of work.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
I also think, yeah, it's a.
It's obnoxious how often thesepumps break and you're just like
why, man, I just fixed you andyou're such a pain in the butt
to get back out god, anyways.
And then your parts are rustedand you're like I'll kill all of
you.
But yeah, no, I would do itagain, 100%.
I think I have something here.
I really do.
I think we're fulfilling a needin the market that is there,
(39:37):
and I have the same anxious,worried we'll see what happens
feeling butterflies like I didthis time last year and it went
okay.
We'll see.
It's exciting and scary and myexpectations are high and we'll
see how I do, but it's thechallenge that I'm excited for
(39:58):
more than anything else.
The people that are in ourbrands are very good people and
the people that work at RollingSuds are very good people.
I don't really have anadversary or anything like that.
I don't think there's anythingnecessarily wrong.
Could things have been set upbetter?
Yeah, they can always be set upbetter.
Could we fill some gaps withsome of the stuff that doesn't
(40:21):
work on their side?
Sure, will we figure that outin time?
Yeah, so it's one of thosethings where my bet was that
these people would be who Ithought they would be right.
It's my gut and that's turnedout to be true so far, and we'll
see what that looks like in thefuture.
But for now, you know, myassumptions have been decently
well on and that was the most Icould really ask yeah, well, I
(40:44):
mean kudos to you and andcongratulations on your success
and, you know, enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And and I think you have such a good perspective
because Jill and I have beenwhere you are, in both Pinks and
with our.
We're affiliated with I don'tknow 700 other franchise
consultants and you'll be a topperformer and then there will be
another top performer and myadvice is don't hate on the
(41:09):
other top performer, learn fromthem.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Let them challenge you.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, it makes you better.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, I just you guys .
I don't really need anyone toknow my name, I just want to be
the rich dude that like no onereally understands what he does
and he has two houses.
And, again, no one bothers me.
That sounds amazing.
Being the top dog in thesesystems is so difficult and
varying.
For example, you could win acontract in this industry and
(41:36):
all of a sudden, you're the topperson.
Are you building the bestbusiness?
Probably not.
That's why what I was statingis I don't really care whether
I'm the top person next year.
I want to do a lot of jobs andmake a lot of friends.
This is a long-term game.
I'm pumped that I was the topperson.
Next year, I want to do a lotof jobs and make a lot of
friends.
This is a long-term game.
I'm pumped that I was, you know, the first year.
Everyone's off the races and II had the most revenue.
(41:57):
I'm more obsessed with settingthis foundation and getting
ready.
I want to buy another location,a physical location in the
Western part of my territory.
I want to turn this whole badboy on and make some money.
There we go, wins, wins, great.
What kind of ideas do you havethat I can steal my dude.
I love that Great.
There are people who are goingto kick my butt at this and I'm
(42:17):
well aware of it.
I can see it Awesome.
You guys have differentexperience than I do and I'm
going to win in different areas.
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
I love it.
Well, it's been great talkingto you today.
Thank you for sharing your time.
We know you're very busy andfor all of you out there who
want more information on rollingsides or on just exploring
franchises in general, easiestway text Jill and I 305-710-0050
, or visitthefranchiseinsiderscom.
Nick, thank you so much forbeing our guest today.
(42:48):
We really appreciated your time.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yeah, it was a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Thank you, sir, take care.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
All right, bye.
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