Today on Eye on Franchising we are joined by Aaron Harper. Aaron Harper, Senior Director of Franchise Development for The Patch Boys & Belfor Franchise Group, is an expert in building relationships and developing brands. He learned management skills and how to build strong relationships while working in the film and television industry in Hollywood.Aaron joined Harris Research in 2017 as a Franchise Development Director for Chem-Dry. In the first 3 years of his franchising career, he awarded over 135 franchise territories. When Belfor Franchise Group acquired Harris Research in 2019, Aaron was promoted to the role of Senior Director of Franchise Development. In this role he develops The Patch Boys and manages part of the Chem-Dry sales team. In the past year and a half, he has sold over 200 territories for The Patch Boys. Before Belfor started opening locations for The Patch Boys franchisees, Aaron was integral in building out the infrastructure for training, marketing, and ongoing support.He now resides in Tennessee with his wife and (soon-to-be) 2 kids. When he’s not growing franchises at a record-setting rate, he’s competing in triathlons across the USA and serving his community in Nashville. There are a ton of franchise opportunities out there, but there’s nothing else quite like The Patch Boys. When you join their team, you’ll become part of an energetic, entrepreneurial community that works together to advance the brand. Owned by BELFOR Franchise Group, The Patch Boys is a group of professionals with a proven track record of success. They've built up their reputation over the years so that customers trust The Patch Boys franchise name. The Patch Boys fills a crucial gap in the industry. Homeowners and construction professionals alike are constantly looking for trained experts to perform small drywall, plaster, and sheetrock repair jobs, but most contractors simply won’t take on jobs that small. That’s where The Patch Boys comes in. The Patch Boys works hard to foster an environment of accountability, integrity, professionalism, and total customer satisfaction. Aaron's last comment as the interview concluded was... "If you're interested in franchising, you should definitely, definitely at least do your research and consider it. Then start working with a franchise consultant, the best place to start to find a good franchisor who's going to support you and make sure that you're as successful as you can be is to work with a franchise consultant." So I am here for you. Just book a call today https://eyeonfranchising.com/contact 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
Today on Eye on Franchising we are joined by Aaron Harper.
Aaron Harper, Senior Director of Franchise Development for The Patch Boys & Belfor Franchise Group, is an expert in building relationships and developing brands. He learned management skills and how to build strong relationships while working in the film and television industry in Hollywood.
Aaron joined Harris Research in 2017 as a Franchise Development Director for Chem-Dry. In the first 3 years of his franchising career, he awarded over 135 franchise territories. When Belfor Franchise Group acquired Harris Research in 2019, Aaron was promoted to the role of Senior Director of Franchise Development. In this role he develops The Patch Boys and manages part of the Chem-Dry sales team. In the past year and a half, he has sold over 200 territories for The Patch Boys. Before Belfor started opening locations for The Patch Boys franchisees, Aaron was integral in building out the infrastructure for training, marketing, and ongoing support.
He now resides in Tennessee with his wife and (soon-to-be) 2 kids. When he’s not growing franchises at a record-setting rate, he’s competing in triathlons across the USA and serving his community in Nashville.
There are a ton of franchise opportunities out there, but there’s nothing else quite like The Patch Boys. When you join their team, you’ll become part of an energetic, entrepreneurial community that works together to advance the brand. Owned by BELFOR Franchise Group, The Patch Boys is a group of professionals with a proven track record of success. They've built up their reputation over the years so that customers trust The Patch Boys franchise name.
The Patch Boys fills a crucial gap in the industry. Homeowners and construction professionals alike are constantly looking for trained experts to perform small drywall, plaster, and sheetrock repair jobs, but most contractors simply won’t take on jobs that small. That’s where The Patch Boys comes in.
The Patch Boys works hard to foster an environment of accountability, integrity, professionalism, and total customer satisfaction.
Aaron's last comment as the interview concluded was...
"If you're interested in franchising, you should definitely, definitely at least do your research and consider it. Then start working with a franchise consultant, the best place to start to find a good franchisor who's going to support you and make sure that you're as successful as you can be is to work with a franchise consultant."
So I am here for you. Just book a call today https://eyeonfranchising.com/contact
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
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
franchisees, people, franchising, franchise, franchisor, brand, business, opportunities, patch, award, work, franchises, aaron, process, support, boys, months, talk, years, franchise disclosure document
SPEAKERS
Lance Graulich, Aaron Harper
Lance Graulich00:08
Hello everyone and welcome back to another fabulous episode of ion franchising. Of course, I'm your host Lance Graulich. Today I got a buddy of mine who's a superstar in franchising. He doesn't look that old, but boy, he's done a ton of stuff. He's awarded like 220 franchises. For just one brand last I checked, he'll, he'll tell me if the math is, is correct. So anyway, he hails from Nashville, Tennessee. He's a triathlete. He's got a young daughter, amazing wife and a son, soon to be another daughter, actually. So there you have it. And I'm gonna tell you his name right now, but let's see, do I owe anything? Let me do this. Also, Bill for Bill for Franchise Group is the company he did work for. And 12 brands, 4700 locations and 57 countries. Welcome to the show. My buddy Aaron Harper
Aaron Harper01:06
Thanks, Lance. super glad, super excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me on the show. I'm excited to talk about franchising with you.
Lance Graulich01:16
Awesome. Aaron, thank you so much for being here. So let's start off with the distant past when Aaron Harper was young, what did Aaron Harper want to be when he grew up when he grew up?
Aaron Harper01:27
All right, perfect. I can do that. Grew up in Southern California, went to school, UC Santa Barbara studied film thought I wanted to be a film and television television agent went to to Hollywood afterwards worked in the mailroom, you know, worked my way up was kind of on the agent trainee track. Working for crazy crazy people. In Hollywood. Every every story you've heard about Hollywood, that's exactly how it is. You've seen entourage. I was Lloyd. You know,
Lance Graulich02:05
I know the guy that created entourage.
Aaron Harper02:08
Okay, so that was me for about five years. Yep. kind of realized I wanted something more out of life. It's, it's a grind out there. But I did learn a lot on how to kind of develop relationships, manage really intense personalities, and kind of navigate my way through a very relationship focused industry. Um, I had a friend who worked in franchising in Tennessee, and kind of reached out to him connected with him hadn't talked to him for a while. And he's like, man, you need to get into franchise development. And I'm like, What's franchise development?
Lance Graulich02:46
What the heck is that?
Aaron Harper02:47
What does that even mean? Like I know about McDonald's? Is that what you're talking about? And he's like, No, it's this really cool. You know, you get to kind of walk entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs through like a systemized approach. And then they changed their lives. And I was like, That sounds awesome. So he made the mistake of giving me his boss's email address, there was not a position available at the company that he worked at. So I emailed his boss every three weeks, for about six months until he hired me. So 7 emails in and no response, I see that one of the development directors from his company, went to go work at another company. And I kind of called him and I was like, give me an interview, get me an interview. And he's like, Well, they really want someone with franchising experience. And I'm like, what did they pay you to do with that place? And he's like, Well, what do you mean? What do you mean? I'm like, what do they pay you to do? And he's like, Well, I mean, I'm like, they pay you to close deals. So get me in it. Get me a damn interview. Yeah. And and so anyways, he called me the next day I drove down, I had the interview, and about three months later, I was actually hired. And I worked at a company called Chem Dry doing development for a brand that's been around a long time, carpet cleaning company, biggest carpet cleaning company in the world. And then kind of merged with Belfour over the course of about three and a half years with Chem Dry awarded, you know, over 135 franchise locations with just me and then I hired someone else.
Lance Graulich04:19
So let's talk about that process. So you got it. You got a lot of good stuff here. So let's talk about that process, because a lot of people listen to show of course, are interested in business opportunities. Some people don't know anything about franchising. So when you use the terminology award, and you might want to back it up a couple of steps. What did you like about franchising? Like you said, a lot of people, they hear franchising, the first thing most people think of is McDonald's, McDonald's, and not everybody, and not everybody can afford to be a McDonald's franchise. So you're like, wait, what? There's all these other franchises out there. So Talk a little bit about that.
Aaron Harper05:02
Yeah, so what I learned is basically there's this, this whole kind of like, home service mobile, you know, franchising world where you can, you can basically get into a business for like 200 grand or less in a lot of cases
Lance Graulich05:17
and financing available.
Aaron Harper05:20
And the financing available with the brand I worked on, there was internal financing, both brands that I worked on at Bell four were internal financing options available, but really reasonable costs to get in. I didn't know that existed, franchising was always this thing in my mind of like, you need $1.2 million for, you know, McDonald's, or this or that. And when I really started digging into it, and doing the research, I saw that there's all these franchise opportunities that you can get in at a reasonable cost, whether it's with an SBA loan, or a home equity line of credit, or 401 K rollover, and, you know, people can can kind of get a return on their investment relatively quickly. And, and so it opened up this whole new world for me, and the minute that I like got into franchising and saw what it was about and started kind of getting franchisees into the brand that I was working on. I absolutely did not want to ever leave, like I talked about this with a buddy of mine the other day, I'm like, I'm never gonna be able to do anything else. What am I going to be able to do? I'm not gonna go anywhere. I'm going to be in franchising for the rest of my life. And there's nothing else I would want to do
Lance Graulich06:30
you got sucked into that franchise family.
Aaron Harper06:34
You absolutely do. And what's wild is like, I don't ever meet someone who like graduates College, and they're like, I'm going for a career in franchising, like unless their dad's been in franchising, or mom's been in franchising for like, 20 years, everyone seems to just like, fall into it, which makes it like really interesting, right? Because the people you talk to no one planned to be there. And so that's why I think we're such a tight knit community of people. And we just, we're all here to help entrepreneurs and help other people be successful. Right? So that whole energy is just something I'm very attracted to. And frankly, addicted to at this point, there's I'm never going to do anything else.
Lance Graulich07:16
So when an average person at chem dry and obviously, like you said bell for bought chem dry, and then you got involved with the patch boys, which we're going to talk about, let's just let's just get right into it, because I asked the question, the process of awarding a franchise, right? Would you do? What was your most recent process? And how did it work? Because some people like, did they slide by credit card and pre authorize me on the first phone call? No, it's like a date on the first call is what I say
Aaron Harper07:48
literally we're getting to know each other and making sure that we can talk to each other is literally what it is. So my process is I'm trying to basically understand if what my company is offering with the brand that I that they're offering, is if you're going to make sense for that brand, right? Like, because it makes no sense for someone to just award a franchise to someone who's not going to be successful in it, right. So the things that that I'm looking for that it's contingent upon what the business model is of that brand, right? There are some opportunities that are absentee or semi absentee. There are some opportunities. So my brand specifically was you're going to manage the team, but you are going to run the business full time, but you're not going to be out there doing the labor. That was that was for the most recent brand that I worked on. Right. So it's a multi step process to make sure that we're going to be a good fit for each other because we're getting into a marriage for five or 10 years, or longer, you know, dependent on renewals and everything like that. And we need to make sure that like, through the ups and downs of a marriage, like we're gonna work together on me on getting through that, right. And so a lot of that's about culture and the community and everything that we provide. But it's a multi step process, if someone's like, gets on a first call, and they're like, sell me on your brand. I'm like, hold on, hold on. Like, I need to make sure that like you're right for our brand, right, like, I'm not going to just sell you on my brand, because frankly, I don't know that you're going to be good for our brand. Right?
Lance Graulich09:25
So ultimately, and by the way, isn't that funny? Because there are still so many people today that truly believe I'll decide if I'm going to join that brand or not. Won't that that's not how it works. It is truly a two way street and there are plenty of people that are kicked out of the process that are not allowed to join the brand because of one reason or another but mainly because you're not a good fit. Because they don't want the headache. You don't want we can
Aaron Harper09:57
we can talk a little bit about that. But I was turned with the franchise's that I was awarding, I was turning away pretty much an equal amount every month, because they weren't the right fit, right. So. And I mean, for us for the brand that I was working on, we award a very large territory, right. So some franchisors will say, you get 200,000 people, call me in a year, and maybe you'll be alright. We were awarding franchises so rapidly that it's like, no, we're going to be selective about who comes in, but we're gonna give you between, let's just say six and 900,000 people, right? So you're gonna get a big chunk of land. And we're going to expect you to grow into into it, right? Maybe not immediately, but we're going to expect you to scale your business. Right? So if we're, there's only so much space on a map that you can award. So one year when you're moving at the rate that we moved, and I've done a lot of work with freelancer, which I know you're you're active member in. And pretty much all the work I've done is with freelancer, frankly, and, you know, I'll be the first to tell a consultant, this person's not right for our brand. But I'll tell that consultant that early on in the process, so that they could say, okay, there might be something that's better for them. Whereas a lot of franchisors, I think, Wait till that very end. And now we've gotten ourselves into it. And so I don't do that I know, within five minutes or less, if that person is going to be right for the brand I'm working on.
Lance Graulich11:29
Yep. Great. And then as you proceed, I know the conversations get more serious. Eventually you give them I mean, maybe after the first or second phone call, you give them the Franchise Disclosure Document.
Aaron Harper11:41
Yep, exactly. And that process is set in stone that I do with every candidate. And it's about in my opinion, it's about transparency. So before I send this document out, we're going to actually hop on a screenshare together. And I'm going to walk you through the main points here, so that you know, what your expectations are, and we also know what our expectations of you are and what you're expecting, and so we go through it, then I send it out. Got it. And that's very important, because then with the old brand, with another brand I've worked on in the past, their recommendation was just send it out, get it signed, and moved on, move on, but it's a pretty scary document, you know, I mean, it's it, it's like, it's like a landlord document or a mortgage document, right, like Fargo mortgage,
Lance Graulich12:33
I always describe it like a mortgage. Have you ever read your mortgage? No. Right? Look at this.
Aaron Harper12:41
Exactly. And when you're signing at the end on closing day with the mortgage, and they're just like sign here, sign here, sign here. And it's like, you know, so what I do is say, Hey, before we even get to the signing section, we're going to review this and make sure you understand every single item. And if you have any questions about the document, I'm going to answer them for you right now because I've read this thing 2530 times, right. So
Lance Graulich13:07
I love it. So with with the patch boys, there was a good item 19 That was in there their earnings claim.
Aaron Harper13:17
So when we bought the brand, there was no item 19 At the beginning, but we built it Yes, yeah. Then we built we built it when we got it because we interviewed franchisees we collected the data. But ultimately, when we bought the brand, we added a lot to it. Like from an infrastructure standpoint, we built a management team that was considerably larger than what it had before, there was a lot more infrastructure. So what I did is I had franchisees talk to hey, here are some franchisees who came in before Bell four. And here also some franchisees who have come in since Bell four who or a month or three months into their business, go talk to them, and see about their experience and what they've had. And for me, I maintain very good relationships with the franchisees that sign up because of this transparent, you know, approach that I take. And so I'll call him up and be like, Hey, I think this guy's a really good fit. You're super important. You're a super important part of the growth of this franchise. Like, we need more people like you. So it's super important that you talk to people so that we can kind of replicate you guys. Like ultimately, that's what we need. And so all put someone into those conversations really early on in the process.
Lance Graulich14:36
Yeah, I love that. And I tell people all the time, Aaron, you know, people all the time ask, how do I know which is a good brand? And I said, Well, you know you have the beauty of looking at the Franchise Disclosure Document the item 19 Is the earnings claim within that, which tells you a lot of good information and the best brands have a great validation process. This is where you'll have a chance to talk to quite a few franchisees to essentially validate their experiences. So you're not going into this blindly at all. And in fact, it feels like you're joining a fraternity or sorority type thing where you're going to know whether you mesh with the culture and the people. And you're going to know they're making money and they're happy, what more
Aaron Harper15:25
exactly, and it's a big jump to leave your job that you've been in and talk for 20 years or, you know, spend your, your 401k that you've been holding on to for a long time for a rainy day. But ultimately, like, the best way to control your destiny is to be a business owner. And so, franchising gives you an opportunity to do that, in a way that's less risky than just saying, Oh, well, I'll go buy a truck and some equipment and go start my own business. It's like,
Lance Graulich15:55
you know, three years later, we're still losing money. Yeah, or you're
Aaron Harper15:59
trying to get up to a certain number monthly. Whereas if you were to start a franchise, you might be at that number monthly within three to six months, because we've as franchisors vetted the suppliers, we make sure the marketing companies are going to produce, we're able to negotiate discounts with those suppliers because of volume. I mean, there's just so many advantages to franchising that you just cannot get on your own.
Lance Graulich16:24
So after your whole entire process of the Franchise Disclosure, document review, and at some point, you know, the validation at some point, there's a Meet the Team day or discovery day or, and how does that how does that normally work? And how does the, you know, actual award process work?
Aaron Harper16:41
So this is really important. So I work for the franchisor. Right? So I am essentially the franchisor. Me and the president of the brand, were the first full time employees at patch boys Belfour, right, we were the we were the ones. And so what happened was, is we went out and got to know all the franchisees, hey, what can we help you with? How can we be supportive? If you were a new franchisee? What would you want, you know, all of these things, and then we built systems around that. So essentially, what happened is me and the president of the brand, were talking multiple times a day. And so we continued that relationship, we built it throughout the whole time that I was at Bell four. So when training changed, I was able to reflect that in my communication. So operations and development were 100% aligned throughout the whole process. I mean, we had disagreements, obviously. But we were always working towards the common goal. If operations and development are not talking to each other, or there's an organization that's selling, and then there's a franchisor that's supporting, what ends up happening is when things change, they go in different directions, and what hurts is the franchisees and the support that they get, because all of a sudden, we're not saying the same thing, and it becomes problematic, right? So with that relationship that I established, that we've established together, he had implicit trust in me to find someone and make sure they're 100% qualified. And I had implicit trust in the consultants that I worked with, Hey, here's what I'm looking for. And if you send me someone that's not right, I'm gonna let you know early on, but here's what I'm looking for. And here are the types of qualities we're looking for in a franchisee. So at the end of the process, when we've reviewed the FTD, they've talked to franchisees, they've figured out their financing and everything like that, I would schedule kind of a virtual, like phone call. We called it our kind of final approval call. Got it, and it was with me and the president of the brand, but because we were so aligned, and he knew I was turning away people in droves. It was a pretty seamless process. Yeah. And so So I think it's super important for franchisors to make sure that development and operations continue to communicate through the life of the franchise and for the franchisees sake,
Lance Graulich19:10
absolutely, because without successful franchisees, we have nothing.
Aaron Harper19:14
We have nothing, literally nothing. Yeah
Lance Graulich19:17
So what do you do after that, that virtual discovery day you call and say, congratulations, we'd like to invite you to be a franchisee Exactly.
Aaron Harper19:27
We say, hey, we really liked you know, they know at that point, because, you know, we've developed such a strong relationship with each other through that process. But it is it is, hey, we want you to join our family. And you know, and it's a big deal. And then we send them the agreement, and then they sign and then about eight weeks later, they're going to train.
Lance Graulich19:53
And so here's the thank you for going through that. So there's always one of my favorite questions. And it always is wonderful to hear these answers. So the patch boys, first of all, describe the patch boys, just a couple of lines, what is the patch boys.
Aaron Harper20:10
So it's the biggest drywall repair franchise in the US. So it literally it's small holes in walls, plumbers, electricians come out, whatever they have to install they make a mess, they lead it, they check out, they give you an invoice customers left with a problem. Kids, you know, high school seniors, like, there's just a lot of issues with drywall. And the big drywall companies don't want anything to do with it, because they've got big crews, and they want to hang multiple sheets. And so patch boys basically fills a niche that very few contractors, subcontractors, drywall installation companies will target and they provide a service that's above and beyond anything that that customer is going to get from a handyman who specializes in 100 things and isn't good at any of them, or maybe two of them, right like exactly that concept.
Lance Graulich21:06
Now, here's where I'm going to I'm going to insert a public service announcement for those listening that might want to do a franchise. And I tell people all the time, whether your net worth is 40,000 or 200 million, like a guy that I'm talking to now or a family I'm talking to now, everybody starts to understand you might not get it in the beginning, but they start to understand that a lot of franchise businesses that are successful or not sexy, is not what you thought. But money is sexy to a lot of people, and it allows you a lot of freedom. So yep, regarding the patch boys now that I'm done with that, Aaron, so no. But no, now that I'm done with that your typical franchisee at the patch boys is definitely not what the listeners would think. Because, yeah, that's exactly right. So share that.
Aaron Harper22:00
So that the franchisee we're looking for or that we weren't when I was there that we were looking for is the kind of person who's worked in a white collar profession for a long time or managed other people's businesses. We had a lot of guys come from medical sales, cybersecurity, it just a lot of professions where they're there, frankly, they're very high performing executives.
Lance Graulich22:30
There's always one attorney.
Aaron Harper22:31
Oh, yeah, attorneys CFOs. I mean, high level advertising executives, I mean, other business owners like and that's, that's what we're looking for, really, if someone were to call me at when I was working there and say, Hey, Aaron, like, I'd like to patch holes in walls, not the business for you, we're gonna give someone six or 900,000 people, we want you to scale and grow the business, we don't want you working in the business, we want you working on the business. Basically patch boys make sure that there's a technician hired prior to going to training, we don't actually let people go to training unless they've got someone ready to work full time, they turn leads on while they're at training for franchisees. So they're answering calls and booking estimates live at training. And so it's a lot of people like when you leave $150,000 a year salary to run a business full time, no one's gonna do that if it takes them five years to replace their income, right? Like, we obviously don't make any guarantees or anything like that, we would never do that. But they're talking to other franchisees who are having success after leaving a career and doing this full time. And it then becomes very appealing. So the rate in which people are joining the franchise system, or the one that I had worked, you know, patch boys was quite, quite rapidly.
Lance Graulich23:56
Yeah. You know, what's so good about what you were saying? And it got me smiling. I had a guy not too long ago. He goes, Well, why can't people make guarantees of, of, of the performance? And I said, Well, essentially, there are guarantees, you look in the item 19. And it says the average sales, depending on how it's disclosed. It could be sales, it could be profit margins, it could you know, it could be a lot of different things. So there's your guarantee that the average franchisee does what it says in that section. And then when you talk to franchisees through the validation process, you hear consistencies of what they're loving, and what kind of money and how long it took them to ramp up. The issue is and I tell people all the time, are you going to be average? We don't know. Perfect. You don't know. Here's the same thing. Yeah, and I can tell you, I've owned franchises, and I've been above average, I'm always gonna be above average. It's just me and it's how I grew up. So I'm sure you have Those same conversations,
Aaron Harper25:01
same exact conversations. And if someone wants a promise guarantee, and there's a franchisor, who's gonna say, yeah, no matter what I mean, first of all, that's illegal. And second of all, like, yeah, it's Hey, are you when you work at a job? Are you typically average? Are you low average? Are you above average? Well, every job I've worked out, I've been the top performer. It's like, okay, well, we're giving you a framework. There's an operations manual that literally says exactly what you're supposed to do. If you follow it, and follow the systems like, you'll be fine, right? If you go against the grain, and you do something that you're not supposed to do, that's when the FTD becomes scary, because it protects the people who are doing what they're supposed to be doing, from the people who are acting, you know, in a way that can hurt the brand or the other franchisees?
Lance Graulich25:47
Exactly. So with the patch boys, you left the patch boys, but you sold to how many franchises in the two years since Belfour acquired
Aaron Harper25:57
223. franchise locations in 24 months?
Lance Graulich26:02
Wow. Wow. And we know that's because you're amazing.
Aaron Harper26:06
I appreciate the accolades, but it takes an army if the if the product wasn't good, and people weren't opening their doors, and the support staff wasn't there, and the franchisees weren't singing the praises of the support staff. We wouldn't be opening locations, right? So it takes it takes every piece, right. And that's why franchising is so cool, because if every piece marketing, operations, training, ongoing support development, if they're all saying the same thing and working in harmony with one another, then the franchisee can know that they that he or she has a good business model. And they're joining a real family and a culture of support, which I'm confident that saying we have that at the patch boys or we may have that at the patch was
Lance Graulich26:52
right, right, exactly. So I think I coined the phrase, the the elephant in the room, so to speak is a no you didn't gain any weight is that there's a recession, either we're in a war, it's approaching. And there's a lot of people freaking out and I know of people that have already lost their jobs. And I joke with people but I have to be tread lightly, of course, because this is really serious their livelihoods at stake. And I said, Well, look, if you would like to explore franchise opportunities now. So you never have to deal with this again. I'm happy to help you. Obviously, as a franchise broker myself, I work for free. And you know, I get paid by the brand, some sort of commission and help people find their perfect business. So what I love and I'm calling it recession, depression. So franchising is amazing, during recessionary periods, because there are so many needed businesses, we got to see this, we got a glimpse of this through the pandemic, which we haven't experienced. But we have experienced recessions and franchising does very well. So talk a little bit about your experiences, and understanding, you know, being an essential business.
Aaron Harper28:12
Yeah, so I mean, that's why I think Belfour and myself are so focused on Home Services, and like you've said, these kinds of dirty businesses, like restoration or carpet cleaning, or unsexy businesses. So you know, these are things that are going to happen, regardless of what is going on in the economy, right? Like, you will always have plumbing leaks, it doesn't matter, you know, who's in the White House or whatever, like, and you'll need to get that fixed, right? And, and so we're, I'm really focused on those businesses that no matter what's going on in the economy, this is something that's going to happen no matter what. And when you take a business that you step into, let's just say kind of this blue collar world, right, where people don't respond, you know, that there's a bad reputation, let's be honest, in the blue collar space have low response times or bad customer service. And it's, it's just really fragmented. It gives business owners and people who have never experienced never stepped into business ownership, but know how to treat people correctly. It gives them an opportunity to really stand out and really shine in their community. And oftentimes, our franchisees have one the job just because they showed up on time, they had a wrapped vehicle, they had an iPad, they had a certain thing they said to customers, like everyone else who got called for that literally didn't get an answer, didn't call back or said they were going to show up at a time and they didn't. And so when you when you take kind of this sophisticated approach to a traditionally blue collar industry, you know, you really have an opportunity to you know, really kind of stand out and build a really successful business. And when you have the support of a franchise system that can that's going to tell you, Hey, here's the steps you need to take to get there. And all you got to do is follow the instructions. To me, that's better than any job that you might get. Like, it's almost like these golden handcuffs people say, well, when am I going to have health insurance? Again, it's like, health insurance is like, you know, 1000 $1,200 a month for a family of four for like, pretty good health insurance. Like, you know what I mean? So like, I mean, it depends on them, or I'm just saying,
Lance Graulich30:34
and it's a write off when you're a business owner.
Aaron Harper30:37
Exactly. And so it's like, it's like, I taught I, I've, I've awarded franchises to people that are wanting one years old, and I've awarded franchises to people that are seven years old, and everywhere in between, and the people who are in their, like, later years, they always tell me after 612 18 months into the business, God, I wish I did this 10-20 years ago. And so whenever I talk to like a Gen Z or a millennial, and I'm like, because I'm a millennial, you know, I'm like, Hey, like, I talked to a lot of people, this is an opportunity to not do 20 years behind the desk, you know,
Lance Graulich31:15
and actually have something to show for it when you're done. Have equity,
Aaron Harper31:19
you know, have ownership and equity. And that's what I mean, you mentioned, you know, real estate when we've talked before, it's like, it's like, yeah, the reason people buy into real estate is because they own it, and now they have an income producing asset that they're gonna have, right? Like franchising is no different, you just have to maybe work a little bit harder than then buying a property and keeping your job full time. But the amount that you're gonna get back and the fulfillment and the enrichment that you're gonna get back from doing that is going to be second to none
Lance Graulich31:51
100% And that's, that's a perfect explanation. Earlier in the conversation, I think we alluded to the fact that we're going to get back to, you know, who is not right for franchise, so in all your years doing this, and building relationships and, and rejecting people who's not right for a franchise?
Aaron Harper32:11
So I'll tell you a couple stories. So I talked to this, I talked to this gal, right, she called in and she had looked at a bunch of franchises. And she had even purchased a franchise that she bought and, you know, she does does very well, I mean, high level advertising, like I'm talking three 400 grand a year kind of salary. And she gets on the phone with me. Yeah, I really like your concept. I really like Belfour, you know, but like I'm looking for, for something kind of passive, semi passive. So I could build it up and, you know, eventually replace my income. And I'm like, you know, I'll just for the sake of keeping anonymity, I'll just call her Krista. And Krista, you know, I think you're great. But this isn't the right opportunity for you, you know, we don't have that's not our motto. And this, Krista was not used to being told no.
Lance Graulich33:10
Well, what do you mean I'm not right for your brand?
Aaron Harper33:15
I'm like, listen, I think you're great. But like, we're looking for people who want to build a business full time, and are and have the capacity to do that. And we make sure that our franchisees are busy with the right marketing companies and the right ad spend and the right, you know, recruiting and all that stuff. But we need full time effort. She goes, Well, I have a My husband is you know, making 60 $65,000 a year, and he could leave potentially, to run this full time, would that be okay? And I was like, I would love to talk with him. And if he's the right fit for us. And you know, if he's anything like you, absolutely, let's have that conversation. And so the next call, we brought both of them on, and we kind of talked about the opportunity and what it's going to take to be successful in it. And they were both like 100% in. But you have to know what's required for your brand to be to be successful. Um, another another example. And I get this all the time. And I think there's a lot and maybe this because there's a lot of opportunities that are moving towards this and can I just keep my job and hire a manager full time? And my answer to that is, no one cares about this opportunity more than you. As a manager, you pay maybe 60 $65,000 a year, even $80,000 a year. What if he gets a better job, he goes and gets a six figure job managing this construction site, and he leaves you and you don't know how to run the business and you only have maybe 10 hours a week to allocate towards the franchise unless you have serious capital set aside. And the franchisor themselves are picking up a lot of that slack with maybe call centers or recruiting or other things maybe you know different things that the franchisor provides. This is this is, this is your business, you're going to invest 200 plus $1,000 of your money, you need to make sure that it's been managed properly, right. And so our model wasn't that there are a ton of models out there that do provide that ability. And maybe a manager could help and grow the business. But for us, it was it was too risky. And so I always set the expectation with consultants like yourself, or candidates, that doesn't work for us, we need you to work and grow the business for three to six months. And then you can hire a manager, but you need to learn this from the ground up. And so you know that and then, you know, just kind of different personality traits of, Oh, this guy's definitely not going to follow the right direction. I told people, sometimes Hey, like, this isn't the right fit for you, I promise you, but let me put you back in touch with your consultant, because they're going to find the right fit for you. But we're not yes, we're not in, you know, and I think I treated this brand like it like it's been my own for the last, you know, two and a half years.
Lance Graulich36:02
Yeah, no, that's good stuff. I've had people on a regular basis, say, Hey, can you send me your list of your favorite brands that are the most profitable? And I said, Wait a second, wait a second. Are you going to run it full time? Are you going to be a semi absentee owner and hiring manager and, you know, so it's not different strokes for different folks, you know, you want to own a great clips hair salon, you don't know how to cut? And do you don't need to know how to cut hair, but you have to dedicate your full time to operate that thing, believe it or not. So every brand is different. So Aaron, final thoughts. You've given us a lot of great info tell us what's, what's to come for you. You know what, what's coming soon. And then give me your final thoughts and words of wisdom for those listening.
Aaron Harper36:47
Sure. Yeah. So so since I've been in franchising, I've worked on on brands that have been around a long time, and I've worked on brands that are, you know, only a few years old. And and what I've learned over the, over the last, you know, few years that I've been in this, since I started, I've learned how to run a successful franchise. I've learned the tenants, the core tenants of franchising, support, marketing, you know, everything that goes into running a franchise system. And so I've been working on building basically the backend infrastructure for to plug any any business into. So what I'm in the process of doing is working with an existing business that is a successful business that wants to franchise, but I am going to handle the franchising part. So I have a team of people who will be supporting and coaching franchisees and launching them. And then I'll work with folks like yourself, and Fran serve to make sure that we find qualified candidates. And we're going to basically build a franchise system over the course of the next five, six years, to about 250 to 275 territories and become the biggest organization in that specific vertical industry that we're going into, and more to come on that in the next. In the next couple months. There will be News announced. But that is basically that's what I'm doing
Lance Graulich38:15
of course here.
Aaron Harper38:16
Of course, here you will announce it. I will come back on here, Lance and I will break the news here. Breaking breaking news.
Lance Graulich38:25
We can do it live, we can do it live. All right. So thoughts, final thoughts for people listening, that are interested in business opportunities is a franchise right for me? What would you say to them?
Aaron Harper38:38
I would say franchising is probably one of the safest investments that you can put something into real estate is affected by interest rates and this and that, or inflation or whatever, and the stock market goes up and down. And there's only so much you can count on over a period of time. If you put your full effort into a franchise business, and you follow the instructions of the franchisor and you trust the process. What happens when inflation goes high, you raise prices, what happens when a recession happens? You have a recession resistant model that you know, is going to it's going to attest in time over those two periods of time. So, franchising in general should not be this scary. Oh God, the big bad franchisor is coming in to screw me. It's like no, we're developing a partnership. We can't do this without the franchisee this is as much this is as important to me as a franchisor as it is to the franchisee and sometimes probably even more important because like with the brand I'm going to build, we're going to be starting essentially from scratch. So those first 510 15 franchisees, like they're gonna have to be perfect, right so like me not perfect. No one's perfect, but you know what I mean? Like, I know so, franchising, franchising is not as scary you guys I don't own a McDonald's to be successful. It's like no, there are some really, you know, dirty businesses that you can make, you know, good money on. If you do your research and you make sure that the franchisor is going to going to support you. And people like you and Fran serve and and all of the different folks who, who really care about helping kids excuse me, helping business owners find opportunities is the best place to start. Because otherwise, you go online, you type in franchises under 200 grand, you're gonna get blasted by a bunch of opportunities that you have zero clue which one's good. Whereas like, Lance, how long have you been doing this? 19 years or something like that?
Lance Graulich40:40
Almost, yeah
Aaron Harper40:43
Like 18-19 years? Yeah. Like, why wouldn't you use someone like you, it makes no sense. Like, you know, go, go buy a house on your own, save some money there. But like, that doesn't make any sense. You're the you know, you don't know how to negotiate contracts. You don't know what the best deals are. And so if you're interested in franchising, you should definitely, definitely at least do your research and consider it and working with a franchise consultants the best place to start to find a good franchisor who's going to support you and make sure that you're as successful as you can be.
Lance Graulich41:14
I love it. Great place to leave it and thank you, Mr. Aaron Harper, thank you for being here, my friend.
Aaron Harper41:20
Thank you, Lance. It's been a great pleasure. I've really enjoyed it.
Lance Graulich41:24
pleasures all mine