A Fastlane to Success for Aspiring Franchisees with Zoom Drain founder Ellen Rohr and Grace Donnelly from Fastlane If you're looking for an opportunity to be your own boss and run a successful business, Zoom Drain may be the perfect fit for you. With a proven business model and support from experienced franchisees, you can be on your way to success.In this podcast, Lance interviews Ellen Rohr the founder of Zoom Drain and Grace Donnelly Franchise Development from Fastlane. The interviewees discuss the company's training program, their experience as franchisees, and the opportunities that are still available.-How to get into the franchising industry-The benefits of franchising-How to find the right people to train to be drain technicians-How to market the business-The challenges and opportunities that come with working in franchising-How the pandemic was a chance to regroup and find an investor-How to exit your company Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA --- Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising
A Fastlane to Success for Aspiring Franchisees with Zoom Drain founder Ellen Rohr and Grace Donnelly from Fastlane
If you're looking for an opportunity to be your own boss and run a successful business, Zoom Drain may be the perfect fit for you. With a proven business model and support from experienced franchisees, you can be on your way to success.
In this podcast, Lance interviews Ellen Rohr the founder of Zoom Drain and Grace Donnelly Franchise Development from Fastlane. The interviewees discuss the company's training program, their experience as franchisees, and the opportunities that are still available.
-How to get into the franchising industry
-The benefits of franchising
-How to find the right people to train to be drain technicians
-How to market the business
-The challenges and opportunities that come with working in franchising
-How the pandemic was a chance to regroup and find an investor
-How to exit your company
Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA
---
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
Key Points:
Approximately mentioned @ 00:15:32
Zoom Drain is a drain cleaning company that offers an affordable and convenient service for customers. The company has a strong focus on customer service and offers a wide range of services to its customers. Zoom Drain is a franchise opportunity that is perfect for those who are looking for a career in the drain cleaning industry. The company offers a wide range of services, including drain cleaning, sewer cleaning, and drain repair.
Approximately mentioned @ 00:24:18
We added 23 new franchisees in 2022. There were many commonalities between them, but some key differences as well.
"I really took all of these home services for granted until I married Hot Rod, and he turned me on to tradespeople. And what I love about my husband is what I love about the trades. It's, um, as Tyler from Lexington says, it's past fail. It works or it doesn't work. It's a no nonsense industry." Ellen Rohr
Lance Graulich 00:00:02 Welcome to Eye on Franchising. Are you looking for business opportunities? Well, you are in the right place. We represent over 650 franchises and business opportunities. We will help you find your perfect franchise for free. We even have a free assessment on our website that will help us determine what the best businesses is for you based on your investment level mindset, skill set, and life experiences. This is Ion Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. I'm your host, Lance Graulic. Each week we will speak to fascinating folks from the world of franchising, franchisors and founders, franchise funders, and franchisees. Are you looking to find your perfect franchise? Or perhaps you are an independent business owner looking to grow and scale your business by setting up a franchise. Either way, our team can help you, Ion Franchising, where you will learn the A to Z's of franchise.
Lance Graulich 00:01:07 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another fabulous episode of Eye on Franchising. Guess who I am. I'm, um, your host, Lance Graulich, and holy cow, look at them. Look at them. For those of you watching on video right now, you got to see what's going on. So let's play a little guessing game. It's going to feel like a little fun, uh, game show. One of these ladies was a plumber's wife. How's that for an introduction? But this particular episode is all about not letting your hopes or dreams go down the drain. So my first guest is Grace Donnelly, director of franchise development for today's special brand, Zoom Drain. Grace, welcome.
Grace 00:01:50 Thank you. Thank you for having us Lan.
Lance Graulich 00:01:53 you're welcome. I need a laugh track, for sure. And the founder and president thank you, Ellen, for that. The founder and president of Zoom Drain, ms. Ellen Rohr.
Ellen 00:02:05 Yeah.
Lance Graulich 00:02:06 Welcome, Ellen.
Ellen 00:02:07 I'm the plumber's wife.
Lance Graulich 00:02:09 All right.
Ellen 00:02:10 I'm still the plumber's wife. I'm still the plumber's wife. It sounded like I better clarify that. I'm still married at least today.
Lance Graulich 00:02:17 All right, well, Ellen, you kick it off then. You were the plumber's wife. Give us your little bit of history. You have a heck of a history. Uh, let's hear.
Ellen 00:02:29 Yes. I was telling Lance, when you live to be old like me, you've done a lot of things. So I really got, uh, introduced to the trades when I married my husband, the plumber. You know what my husband's name is? Lance. Jack hot rod. Yeah, I met a guy. I said, what's your name, baby? And he said, hot rod. So I married him. It turned out that Hot Rod was a plumber. And that was, uh, really appealing to me because I didn't know anything about tradespeople. My dad wasn't handy. I didn't grow up in a house where we worked on our own things. We called people. And I really took all of these home services for granted until I married Hot Rod, and he turned me on to tradespeople. And what I love about my husband is what I love about the trades. It's, um, as Tyler from Lexington says, it's past fail. It works or it doesn't work. It's a no nonsense industry. It's simple lower clogged drain called Zoom Drain. I got introduced to all of these cool people and systems and businesses through my husband, the plumber, 39 years ago. I've been married 39 years, and I've had a lot of, um, experience as the mom and a mom pop shop. I worked at Benjamin Franklin, the punctual plumber, when we first started. I was the first and only team member when that company started, once upon a time, 20 years ago. Since then, before then, I've just had all kinds of jobs. I've been an employee and an employer and a business owner. And, uh, right now, all my dreams are coming true with Zoom Drain. So one of my clients along the way, Jim CroninI, uh, the other founder and senior, uh, to me, he's the CEO. And I couldn't love him more. He's such a great leader. And we got together, and, um, I wanted to do franchising again. Uh, he thought he had a franchiseable concept, and I thought he was right. And so we partnered with a friend of ours. Uh, Al Levy was our initial investor. And, um, we started to grow. And I've told this to Grace, and it's good for you to know about our culture. We didn't set out to be the fastest growing franchise. It was to be the best. We want to be the best. We want to do right by our franchisees and our customers and do this really, really well. So it took us a couple of years to really codify and, uh, demonstrate these systems. We have two company owned stores, the largest of which is going to do 14 million in 2022. That's going to be out.
Lance Graulich 00:05:07 I'm sorry. It sounded like you said 14 million.
Ellen 00:05:10 I did. In, 2022. We're just getting started. We're just getting started. We grew to about 1514 franchises. And then we decided now, um, it's time to put the gas on, grow a little bit faster, rev up this niche business. So we're like drain cleaning is to plumbing, like, ah, a plastic surgeon or a brain surgeon is to general practitioner of a doctor. Drain cleaning is no less of a plumbing niche. It's just a specialty. And so we are the drain in sewer specialists. And there is an opportunity in the marketplace to become the name. Our vision is to have a truck in every neighborhood and be the first choice for service for drainage sewer slow drain clogged drain called Zoom, um, drain. It's a very simple, elegant, dirty job, and there's lots of money to be made in it. So thanks for asking. I mean, I'm always happy to brag on Zoom Drain, but I would like to turn it over to Grace, because as I was growing, the pandemic hit. I, uh, wasn't going to visit people. It was a chance to regroup in many ways. The pandemic, I'm knocking on wood. I mean, we were fortunate. I know it was hard on a lot of people, and I don't mean to discount any hardship for Zoom Drain. The pandemic was really great. People were flushing anything down the toilet. I'll tell you what, we were busier than ever. Paper towels, washcloth. You got it down the drain. So we were busy. It also gave us a time to regroup. We ended up finding an investor. We love our investors. They're just valued business partners. Super cool, respectful, smart, great in every way. We transitioned the company. Our initial investor did well and said goodbye. And now we're working with this sophisticated, uh, investing team, and we're ready to take on the next phase of quantum growth here. And I had my site set on working with the very best consultants, and I knew one of the ways to do that would be to align with, uh, what I think is the best franchise sales organization on the planet, and that's Fast Lane. And so that's how I met, uh, Grace and Carrie and Ryan and Jen and Jesse. Our whole franchise fast Lane team has been just an awesome partnership for us. So I'm glad to have Grace here, too.
Lance Graulich 00:07:37 I love it. Well, Grace, as it's tossed over to you, how the heck did you get in a franchise? Tell me your story.
Grace 00:07:45 Yeah, absolutely. So my background is nowhere near as impressive as Ellen just putting that out there.
Ellen 00:07:51 But you're younger. You're younger. That's all.
Grace 00:07:54 Fairly younger. What are you talking about? Um, I've been with franchise Fast Lane for over a year and a half now, and it has been a very exciting, eventful. Year and a half, definitely at the happiest and most fulfilling part of my career, uh, in anything I've ever experienced, uh, job wise. So definitely feels more like a passion than a job. And that's a very interesting thing for me to say, because I never imagined that I would be spending 50 hours a week talking about drains. And I love it. I really hadn't ever given much thought to drains before, and I think a lot of people don't. Right, Alan?
Ellen 00:08:32 Well, and you have cleared, and located some drains now at this point.
Grace 00:08:38 That's right. Earlier this week, Lance, I went out on the job with the technician.
Lance Graulich 00:08:43 I reached out to you that day, remember?
Grace 00:08:45 That's right.
Ellen 00:08:48 And you picked up your phone. You're supposed to be working. What's happening here? You're just making calls on the job?
Grace 00:08:54 Uit's on the toilet. I have to reach down and get it.
Lance Graulich 00:09:00 I had a candidate that asked, hey, does Zoom Drain replace, , sewer laterals? And I don't know enough. So I had to reach out to Grace. And sure enough, he's exploring Zoom Drain now. He says, that's a big business in my area. Okay.
Ellen 00:09:19 Oh, that's so cool. Good. And you're like, let me find out what a sewer lateral is, and I'll get right back to you.
Grace 00:09:26 Yeah, I got back to you as soon as I could, but, uh, we were on the call, so trying to be professional with the customer there. But I have to say did get a few second glances. The customer did not trust that I was the dream technician. So I had to explain, yes, I'm the ride along, but I'm here to learn. And that whole experience really amazing. I told Ellen a few times, I want to go back on a ride along in the warmer weather, preferably.
Ellen 00:09:55 Yes, she did say weather. Warmer weather. It was cold in Philadelphia that day.
Grace 00:09:59 That day. But, uh, a lot of that was just reaffirming everything that I had learned and I spoke about on our calls with candidates and being able to put some experience behind that and know from personal experience. Um, just even give you a simple example. We show up to the first call, first call of the day with, um, amazing technician, Mark. Such a gentleman, so sweet. And it's, uh, at this Philadelphia music hall city ah, Music Hall, I think it was called. And there's a plumber already there. And there's confusion. He's not sure what's going on and having to work with the plumber to solve the issue. And because the plumber did not have a locating system, they called us for help. And it turned out they were way off in their estimate of where the drain was. So we saved them a lot of time. And that was just really cool experience him. Because, Ellen, this is probably just one of many scenarios where you see situations like that time and time again, but very quickly, very funny. When I first started connecting with the plumber, talking to him and asking about his day, where he's from, and how long has been working for that plumbing company, he's at least given me kind of like a side eye the whole time. And he paused. Like, I asked him a question about his life, and he just said he responded, you're the ride along, aren't you?
Ellen 00:11:27 You didn't pass for a drain cleaner Grace.
Grace 00:11:29 what didn't pass?
Lance Graulich 00:11:32 Love it. So, Grace, while we're talking about, uh, a little bit about your background, how did you end up in franchise? Because most people don't go to high school, college, whatever, and go, I'm going to be in the franchise world when I'm, you know, when I'm working.
Grace 00:11:50 Right.
Ellen 00:11:50 Yeah.
Grace 00:11:50 It really wasn't something that I knew much about. I think nowadays there's a lot more education and not more opportunities with it. So maybe we'll start to see it popping up in more universities. But definitely, uh, not the case for me. And I thought it was really funny the other day when you asked about background and you wrote, a laboratory accident gone wrong. Well, in my opinion, it's a laboratory accident gone right, because, I went to school for food marketing. Had a job, uh, loosely related to food marketing, as Ellen knows. I told a story the other day about working for a South African pepper company selling their sweet and tangy peppers with a little bit of heat, also known as Peppa Dew. I'm sure you've seen them at your local grocery store, Jelly's. And, uh, did Cold call sales in New Jersey, which is where I'm from. New Jersey and Staten Island. So I had a number of, uh, very entertaining experiences, and most of the time was turned away door signs my face, but it builds up that resiliency. And was there for a little while and had, um, a job in sales down in DC for a while. Sales territory down there. And then the franchising opportunity really was just it was an accident. I had an interview at what I thought was a recruiting company. I wanted to go into recruiting. I thought it could be a good fit. And when I showed up, the recruiters said, no, this isn't a job for posting for here, uh, it's for one of our clients. And I said, okay, tell me a little bit about it. And ultimately, it's where I ended up for four years working for a sunglasses franchise on the development side and customer service. So worked in New Jersey for four years doing that and really enjoyed it. Got my feet wet, really just dove in the deep end, and was handling a lot of different things at once. And then the opportunity presented itself with franchise fast lane, with folks that I had known in the industry and just the rest of history from that point.
Lance Graulich 00:13:47 I love it.
Grace 00:13:47 Still writing it.
Lance Graulich 00:13:48 So, Ellen, let's talk about the secret sauce of,, Zoom Drain. From what I understand about Zoom Drain, this isn't just, oh, the chain of my toilet broke. This isn't a regular plumbing company. This is a lot more than that. So describe what Zoom drain really is.
Ellen 00:14:10 Well, Grace gave a good indication of how we fit into this world. She went on a call where a plumber was already on the job. So what we do is our number one lead source are plumbers who don't really want to do the drain portion, or say they do drains, but they aren't equipped like we are. The guys don't maybe really like it, aren't trained to do it. So it is this specialty niche. So our number one lead source are plumbers, like the fellow that Mark and Grace had the opportunity to help out, who call us. Right. So the lead referral comes from them. We don't do plumbing, so we call it north of the Drain. And that's where you're going to find water heaters and faucet repairs and those kinds of jobs, remodeling jobs. Plumbers love that stuff. But now it's a drain call. They might have one maybe seldom used drain machine on a very busy truck. Our whole truck is devoted to drains. We have a jetter, the locator, the cameras, a, uh, string of cables, all the connections. The whole truck has drained equipment in it so we don't run out of firepower when our service tech shows up. If it's a Drain call, we've got option ABCD, and I've got an army of people behind us. If we need more help than that, we're going to take it from here. Now, when they get started, one of the things you mentioned was, uh, the sewer laterals as they get started, if you come, if you're thinking about Zoom Drain or one of your candidates is there's a lot of money to be made with four simple tools the jetter, the cables, locator, and the camera. And Grace used all of them yesterday. I think they were all on the job yesterday. But those four main tools can do a lot of work, and our trucks are all tricked out with those tools and all the supporting equipment. As you develop your Zoom Drain franchise, you could expand into other niches south of the Drain, like we call it install work, which is where you would replace the sewer lateral. Now, that's more complicated. There's more equipment necessary, and there's no rush to get there. As you develop your Zoom, um, Drain franchise, you're going to develop referral partners north of the Drain, and those are going to be plumbers, HVAC guys, uh, other, uh, trades people, realtors influencers in your market area. We love referral marketing cost effective. If you're a friendly person or you have good connections, this is a great niche for you. And then beyond what we do, you might also have in your contact list some excavators, some mechanical contractors.
Ellen 00:17:00 You're going to do this piece whether the flow or clogged drain called Zoom Drain. And we're going to jet or clear that drain for homeowners, uh, for businesses. A lot of referral, uh, uh, business is what ultimately happens. But the cool thing about it there's so many cool things about it, but one cool thing about it is race. With a little training, could be a Drain tech. You don't need experience. The scalability of Zoom Drain is connected to the fact that you can take Never ever and make Drain texts out of them. Find someone who's willing and capable of learning these skills, and they can create a career, not just a job. So, uh, many of our Drain techs didn't want to go to college. They're mechanically inclined. They like the action of doing something with their hands and something new every day. And, uh, these guys can make over $100,000 a year and no college debt, and we pay to train them. These are really great careers, not just jobs. So I was like, I'm absolutely a champion. M starting with my husband, the plumber. I love tradespeople. I am their champion. So we want to do right by the team. Members who work for us.
Lance Graulich 00:18:16 So Grace, what is the initial investment for a zoom drain and how big are the territories?
Grace 00:18:24 The estimated initial investment is $208,000 to $251,000. And the territories are zip code based territories in populations of 300,000 per territory.
Lance Graulich 00:18:37 Got you.
Lance Graulich 00:18:38 Wonderful.
Lance Graulich 00:18:39 Now if you were going to say how many franchisees are open, or how many franchisees do you have now?
Grace 00:18:44 I was going to say we have 37 franchisees and open half, uh, of the new folks. Right, Alan? So you have the 23 and 2022. You say about ten are open right now. That's the last that I had heard, yes.
Lance Graulich 00:18:58 And you have corporate stores that have been open for quite a while, corporate territories, I should say yes.
Ellen 00:19:05 In fact, I think that's one of the I mean, we keep it real. Every day. We are calls, text, trucks, juggling that the company owned stores, uh, that keep us from being in the ivory tower. We've got our primary, uh, location, and this is what caused us to franchise doomed. And I'll tell you, when we started, when I started with Jim, the conversation about franchising, he was at three and a half million. And now they're skirting 14 million for 2022. So this is a growing company with problems and headaches and team members coming and going. We keep it real. And then we have a startup location in Charlotte, North Carolina, that also has given us some really good insight as to what it takes to get a franchise off the ground. So that's by design, we want to test these things out, talk real to our franchisees. We're living and breathing this every day, and it gives us a lot of credibility.
Lance Graulich 00:20:08 Franchising, a lot of people don't realize, most common question I get is how is a franchise worth it? And I talk to people about collaboration. You're not just getting trained to become essentially an expert in something and build a team and build wealth for your family and build an empire. These numbers are crazy. I mean, people that go on their own to do this type of stuff are lucky to get to crack a million dollars or something, being an owner operator. So the collaboration, though, is key that most people don't think of. You have an opportunity to tap into not only you, but the best franchisees. Right.
Ellen 00:20:48 I know a lot about trades and operations. I've not only been an owner, I've been a consultant, I've been a franchise, or I've owned businesses. I mean, I've been doing it. I'm an operator. I know a lot about home services. I've worked for every group for many franchises along the way. But the last couple of years, working with franchise, fast lane, working with our investors, and really, like, right now, I'm at, ah, a, ah, franchising event at the Titus Foundation. It's a boot camp for franchise sales. I really spent some time learning about how to be the best franchiser. If I were to ever start again, I would 100% start with a franchise. I would never start this from scratch again. Uh, if you want to grow an empire, you got to put manuals in. Do you know how hard it is to write the manual? I've done it. It's brutal work. There's a book I've been recommending to all my franchisees. I'm going to recommend it to your listeners today. It's called finish big. And it's about selling your company. And the intention of this book is that on the day you start your company or even consider your company, be aware that someday you're going to exit your company. You could die. I'm an older person. I think of these things. Or at some point things are going to change. Debt disaster. My, uh, friend Al Levi calls it the Dees debt disaster. Divorce, disability, disease, debt, all these things change your life. Drains. Drains is another drains will change your life. So, you know, going into a business and looking at this business as a vehicle to drive you in the direction of your dreams, so often people get this idea that this business is them. And so I'm not going to play with others. I couldn't give up anything. Why would I give them this much money when I'm working so hard? It isn't you. It's just a car. It's like having a lease on the car, right? You're going to pay the company for the rights to use the car. And there's some advantage to that. You didn't have to build the car, and now you're going to drive that car in the direction of your dreams. And Franchising is really a vehicle like that. Our, uh, friend Howard Hartrus gave me that analogy, and it's really good. So you're going to look at what vehicles you have in your life that will help you move you in the direction of what you really want and why do you want it. Those questions come up in this book, Finish Big. And I think, uh, it's a good tip. I'm kind of obsessed with the book currently. That's why I'm sharing
Ellen 00:23:16 that.
Lance Graulich 00:23:17 I love it. No, that's fantastic. So if you were going to look at all of your franchisees, where do they come from? Because people listening to this episode are going to go, drains. EW. That's not a sexy business.
Ellen 00:23:35 I say that a lot.
Lance Graulich 00:23:36 I don't know anything about drains.
Ellen 00:23:40 This is what I say to people. You can use this to Grace. Do I look like a drain cleaner to you? Like, it's not the image that they would have even if they have one. Uh, so it gets a conversation started. But why don't you kick this this answer off, Grace? And then I'll jump in. Absolutely.
Grace 00:23:56 Andthis has been so cool. 2022. That was the beginning of our partnership. And we added 23 new franchisees. And it's very natural when you onboard new folks to try to draw some conclusions between them.
Ellen 00:24:09 Right?
Grace 00:24:10 Like, what do they have in common? Who are we looking for? Which folks would we want to copy and paste, maybe? Are there any qualities that we wouldn't want to copy and paste? And at the end of the day, everybody comes from all different backgrounds, so many different personalities. Some have owned businesses before, some haven't owned businesses before. All worked in corporate. Haven't worked in corporate. But at the end of the day, they all have one common characteristic, and that is that they have grits. Okay. That's a big work for us. And it's actually grit. Exactly.
Ellen 00:24:45 Grit.
Grace 00:24:46 It's one of our values. We love that word so much. We have so much, uh, respect for that word. That that's one of our values, our core values in the company. And, um, they're entrepreneurial minded. They are hungry. They're go getters they're competitive.
Ellen 00:25:04 Can I play on this too, a little bit, Lance? Okay. So our core values are energy. That means we show up grit, we get it done. Responsibility, we own it. You own it. I own it. We're in. There's no blame, no shame. We're just in it. Performance. We keep scoring. We get better and community, we're better together. So this is really who we are. We spent some time this year in our strategic session really defining that. And, uh, the idea was that as Grace and you bring candidates to the table, that these values resonate with you. Because if they do, you might like drains. Drains just happens to be what we do. It's also, I think, people from, uh, businesses that feel fragile are looking at drains and going, you know what? How bad does it have to be before you don't call a drain cleaner. It's not recession resistant. It's an essential service. I mean, there's a lot of people who say they're essential. If your drains clogged, you're going to be moving today to address that now. And I think that's very appealing to people. Right. Um, Grace kind of expected to come home dipped and poop the other day, and I said it shouldn't go like that.
Grace 00:26:20 I would have been ready for it.
Ellen 00:26:23 All right. Do you think I'm like, really? You should come back looking very much like you look today. I can get dirty. I mean, there are some gross things. We have Google,, chat that we call Catch of the Day where we post gross pictures. And I got to tell you, it's my favorite thing. Oh, yeah. It's like Doctor Pimple popper. There's some fascination with what we find, uh, in the drains, that's for sure. But that just happens to be what we do. It's the nature of the work. I think people realize how important it is, how, uh, honorable it is. 70% of the world has inadequate sanitation. 30% of the world poops on the ground. And as a result, there's a lot of preventable disease out there and in the United States. God bless the plumbers who have done such a great job. Most people have adequate sanitation in the United States, but it's why we don't die from cholera and E. Coli and all of these, uh, hepatitis, all of these, uh, diseases that could flourish in poor sanitation areas. You can see I am very proud of what we do. And it just so happens that when you do it, you deserve to make a lot of money. We go in instead of out in disasters. We are the heroes. We royal. We I don't do a lot of drain cleaning, I'll tell you that. But I have gone on a lot of ride, a lot.
Lance Graulich 00:27:49 Now that the Poop word is already out, let's move on to let's talk about training and support. So when somebody becomes a franchisee, we know they can come from all walks of life. We just heard that part. What do you do with them? How are they getting trained? Do you have a lot of, uh, absentee or semi absentee owners or a lot of owner operators? What do you see?
Ellen 00:28:14 Do you want me to start? Okay, you start.
Grace 00:28:18 If there weren't one thing, one key takeaway for anybody listening to this, it would be, uh, the heavy emphasis on the level of support that Zoom Drain provides headquarters. They provide tons of support for new franchisees, and not just at the beginning when they're onboarding, but throughout their life cycles, franchisees. So actually, I would say two takeaways. It would be the support and the culture. The emphasis on the culture. So Zoomdrain, they're looking for folks that fit that company culture. They're not afraid to say, maybe it's not the best fit, and, uh, they're ready to say, I'll support you along the way. Heavy hitting items. We have our corporate call center. So making sure that we have folks that can pick up the phone when the franchisees customers call and get them scheduled on the calendar, that's a big part of the job. So taking that off their plate. We have a corporate recruiting team that will help source employees and pass them along for interview and hire, turnkey, marketing or extensive training programs. Zoomdrain is even helping source the trucks and get them fully equipped. Outfitted and wrecked.
Ellen 00:29:34 See that truck right here?
Lance Graulich 00:29:37 I see.
Ellen 00:29:38 Yeah.
Grace 00:29:39 Those are our superheroes right there, myself.
Lance Graulich 00:29:44 The truck looks great. For those that can see the truck and aren't listening on the audio portion.
Grace 00:29:50 It'S a vibrant truck. Great color is very noticeable. As Ellen always says, it is a moving billboard.
Ellen 00:29:56 Mhm just to support. That what we've learned over the last few years. It used to be we have awesome manuals. We've spent many, many years there's probably 100 person years in our manuals. That's how much time and energy was spent on the manuals. There's information for every position, for every situation. There's very little that we don't. Cover in our manuals. But the codification, the dissemination of those manuals is now our obsession. How do we make it easy to find the information you need? The manuals are going to be your training curriculum, your resources, so you don't have to call your boss every five minutes. And that to which we hold team members accountable. So the manuals are so important and ours are as good as any I've ever seen in my long career. So the manuals now become the basis of this training and it's really our focus. In fact. Um, she was previously a, ah, trainer for the Navy Seals. She's one of our franchisees in Orange County with her husband who's also a Navy vet. And she's come on board with us as our training and knowledge manager. Grace mentioned we hired. We uh, expanded 22 franchisees. 23. Our total is 37. So we more than doubled this year and we added 22 team members this year. So like this commitment to making sure we've learned from the early, we call them the OGS, the original gangsters Ease and then the New Zealand and now we've got the Cohort of 2023. And as we look at what we're doing that works. We're just always changing. We're low ego, big mission. How do we help you succeed? So we're going to bring it, that's what we expect from you. You bring it to the semi absentee. Business, uh, is not going to run itself. Somebody has to look your team in the eyeball. Do they show up clean, sober, on time, dress right, using a checklist? We got to handle calls, techs and trucks every day. It's not complicated but the there is important. So if it's not you, it could be a uh, technician who's skilled technically and has a bit of a put me in coach approach to life. I uh, don't want to be sexist or ageist or any of this, but someone young at heart who has maybe been bypassed in a bigger company, who's ready to take off, could be a great second in command for you. And if you have that person then you can manage the manager. Right? If that person disappears, I expect you to show up. Let's go. It's like if you have a sandwich shop and nobody shows up, you're making sandwiches. There's business to be done here. I think if you've never
Ellen 00:32:48 run a business before, certainly in our empire there are some moments where it hits you between the eyes, oh, I am the HR department, I'm the guy. There's nobody else to call. You can always call us. We're not going to leave you high and dry. I think that we do that maybe as well as can be done. And we're always improving. We love our franchisees and we're there to support them. But I think that's where the grid comes in. You got to show up. Uh, the hard stuff is the good stuff. You'll tell the stories of these early days. You know how this is. You'll wear the badge of those early days, won't you, Lamp?
Lance Graulich 00:33:26 Absolutely. Well, I'm sure you have plenty of happy franchisees. Tell me a little bit about your validation process.
Ellen 00:33:34 UGrace puts on our validation calls. Maybe you could share that with Lance today.
Grace 00:33:40 Yeah. So, part of our discovery process, we have validation calls open to candidates who have, uh, attended an Intro call and also attended the Unit economics call. So they've had a copy of the SDD to come through the franchise disclosure document. They've started budgeting their own numbers, and they have the opportunity to speak with a different franchisee and get that perspective every week. Fresh voice each week. And we have happy franchisees. They're, uh, all different backgrounds. Again, all different backgrounds, all different perspectives. But, um, they're honest, and they're probably just taking a note from the franchise. Or zoom drain. You see Ellen, she's very straightforward and personable and real. And the franchisees are too. So they're not afraid to just be direct and share their perspectives. Uh, but always very much high, uh, praise for the franchise or for a Zoom drink.
Lance Graulich 00:34:37 Perfect.
Ellen 00:34:37 We love each other, ladies.
Lance Graulich 00:34:40 We know that the riches are in the niches, and you've given everybody a great history and story as to why they should look at Zoom Drain. And I absolutely love Zoom drain. Final thoughts from both of you. We got about a minute, so give me final thoughts for both of you. Final words of wisdom.
Grace 00:34:58 I'll go first and just leave you that Zoom Drain is an excellent partner to have. So, just like in life, you would be selective about a life partner or friends having a business partner, which is really what a franchise or is the franchise or franchisee relationship. At the end of the day, you'd have that in Zoom Drain. And then also, just speaking about opportunity, we are still emerging, in a sense, and we have a lot of opportunity in most major markets across the United States. So, although we have a good number of franchisees, we're continuing to grow at a pretty consistent, steady pace. Still lots of opportunity out there. So, wishing everybody the best, and thank, uh, you so much for having us, Lance.
Lance Graulich 00:35:39 Awesome. Grace, ellen.
Ellen 00:35:41 in other words, it's calls text trucks every day. That's the juggling act. Why? Because that's how you make money.
Grace 00:35:52 Love it.
Lance Graulich 00:35:53 Love, love it. It love it. Ladies, thank you so much for being here. This is awesome.
Ellen 00:35:59 Thank, uh, you, Lance. It's a joy. Thanks, Grace. Love, love.
Lance Graulich 00:36:02 Thanks, everyone, for listening. Talk to everybody soon. Bye bye.
Lance Graulich 00:36:08 Uthank you very much for listening today. Please, like, follow and subscribe. This is Lance Grallick. Until next time.