Today's episode we have a very special guest from Storm Guard. He is Lorin Jackman a successful Storm Guard franchisee in Denver Colorado. Lorin tells his story that lead him to being a Storm Guard franchisee and it is not the traditional path. You see Lorin has created his own business and has been very successful at it and yet he choose Storm Guard as the right company to partner with and build. Storm Guard has been a trusted name in the roofing and construction field for over a decade. Their team of experts specialize in exterior projects including roofing, siding, windows, gutters, and emergency tarping services. Want to learn more about Storm Guard check out our other episode with the leaders of Storm Guard. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eye-on-franchising/id1587910359?i=1000547190665 This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. 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's episode we have a very special guest from Storm Guard. He is Lorin Jackman a successful Storm Guard franchisee in Denver Colorado.
Lorin tells his story that lead him to being a Storm Guard franchisee and it is not the traditional path. You see Lorin has created his own business and has been very successful at it and yet he choose Storm Guard as the right company to partner with and build.
Storm Guard has been a trusted name in the roofing and construction field for over a decade. Their team of experts specialize in exterior projects including roofing, siding, windows, gutters, and emergency tarping services.
Want to learn more about Storm Guard check out our other episode with the leaders of Storm Guard.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eye-on-franchising/id1587910359?i=1000547190665
This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future.
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
Lance Graulich00:14
Hello, everyone and welcome back to another great episode of Eye on franchising, the podcast, but also streaming live on Facebook in the finding your perfect business Facebook group. I have a very special guest today. A lot of people have been asking me for more and more successful franchisees, how they have done it, what brand they picked and why and how did they fall into the world of franchising because as we all know, nobody really wakes up or gets born to be in franchising. It's something they gravitate to and get sucked into at some point in their lives. So we're going to hear Lorin's story. So let's welcome to the show today. Mr. Lorin Jackman hailing from Denver, Colorado. Lauren, welcome to the show.
Lorin 01:00
Thank you very much, Lance. It's great to be here. I'm kind of excited and nervous about this
Lance Graulich01:06
nervous because you we haven't rehearsed anything. So Lorin doesn't know what's coming, Adam. We is PR firm or the PR firm for Stormguard. As has definitely said, we have a great story to share here. So Lorin, let's get into it. How did you Well, let's talk about your history, you know, what did you I talk to people as a franchise broker all the time about, you know, how they dreamed when they were in high school, or college of what they wanted to be when they grew up? And whether it matched what they dreamed about and where they are now, etc. So with you, let's, let's go way back, what was your intention to do when you were in high school? What was your initial plan?
Lorin 01:51
No kidding. Well, actually, when I was in high school, I had been working for my best friend's dad, he was a general contractor. And so starting very, very young, I worked on the construction sites picking up trash, and, you know, working my way through and so when I was in high school, I was full on in working for him. And so I started taking a lot of engineering, and those types of classes, thinking that I was going to get into architecture, you know, something like that. And so I graduated high school, and I went to one semester of college, and I realized that I'm not much of a school guy, I just, it just doesn't work for this guy. And, and I was making good money, you know, doing construction type stuff. And, so I left college, one semester under my belt and realize that wasn't for me. And so I spent two years out of the country doing some missionary work for our church. And when I came back from that, I was looking for a job I was working. And, so I kind of fell into a job working for my dad for a little while he owned a home warranty company. And because I knew a lot about construction, he hired me to go and inspect all of the properties that he was going to put a home warranty on, just to make sure that he wasn't getting into something that was going to be trouble for him.
Lance Graulich03:22
Got it. And how old were you around this time?
Lorin 03:24
So I was probably 21. And so while I was doing that, I met an individual who owned a home inspection company. And he asked me if I wanted to come and start doing home inspections for him, again, because I knew construction. And so I started working for him full time, and I could make great money. I wasn't killing myself on you know, hauling all of the materials and doing all the construction stuff that really beat your body up.
Lance Graulich03:57
What was that carry carry a clipboard in the old days.
Lorin 04:01
That's what it was. I mean, we didn't even use cameras or nothing back then. So it was it was pretty low tech, but but it was good. It gave me it gave me exposure to kind of the business world. You know, my my dad had been a real estate agent for all my life growing up. So that's a little bit entrepreneurial, but, getting into the home inspection world kind of got me into the entrepreneurial world of owning a business. And so after looking at what he was doing, making money off of me, I thought, well, I can do this. And so long story short, my wife and I decided we're going to start our own home inspection company. And so that that's, that's where the direction we went.
Lance Graulich04:47
I love what you just said, because you said it so naturally. He's making money off of me. And I don't think I've ever heard anybody just say it just like that. It And that's everybody in America that has a job, and someone is making money off of you.
Lorin 05:06
That's it exactly 100 percent. And he was making good money, because I was working some long hours.
Lance Graulich05:12
I love it. I love it. So what was the next step? So you ended up having your own home inspection business talks about that.
Lorin 05:20
right, So my wife and I did it. And, she, you know, handled all of the books and all of the phone call and all this the office stuff, and I was the face of the company, I would go out and meet with real estate agents and drum up business and, and then I would go and do all of the home inspections. And we started to get quite a following. And so I started hiring inspectors to do what I you know what I could do, but multiplying myself, getting more people to do it.
Lance Graulich05:50
So you were mimicking, I would imagine, I mean, you saw success that you built working for someone else. And you basically did the same thing. But you are the face of the company, you were the face of the company, then now you're the face of your own company.
Lorin 06:05
Right, right. Exactly. Right.
Lance Graulich06:07
So how long did this go on? How many years? Did you have the your own home inspection business?
Lorin 06:11
So we did it. I often on we did it off and on for about 30 years. We Yeah, we built up a couple of inspection companies pretty big and sold them. And in between that time, we took some of those earnings, and we decided to do some real estate investing. And we were we were flipping houses, and we were buying rentals and that that type of thing. And then of course, you know what happened in 2008 2009? Yep. We just had our lunch handed to us, and we bout lost everything. Thankfully, we didn't have to file bankruptcy. But it was really close. I think the only things we actually kept was our house. And my old truck that had 200 and some 1000 miles on it. Gotcha. It was rough. But so after that time, we started up another home inspection company. And and that's where we were and we kept that one pretty small. We were making decent money. And that's when I was approached. I was actually approached about a franchise.
Lance Graulich07:12
I was going to ask you so what did you know about franchising before you were approached?
Lorin 07:17
Honestly, nothing. It had never crossed my mind. I, was an entrepreneur, I was a business owner, I was doing it all. My wife and I figured it out through the hard knocks. And so we were just doing it.
Lance Graulich07:31
I love that you figure you figure it out. It's funny, because so many people that I talked to are very much like you were they they heard of franchising. They might know McDonald's and some other great clips, if they get their hair cut. They're super cuts, but they don't really know about it. So I find that fascinating. So who approached you? And how did they what did they approach you about specifically?
Lorin 07:55
So it was actually an old friend of mine. We had known each other for 20 something years, he was actually selling storm guard franchises. That thing was he wanted to buy one. But he didn't want to run it. He wanted to buy one. And he knew that I had experience in running businesses. And so he approached me and asked if I wanted to partner with him in buying the storm guard franchise. Yeah. And
Lance Graulich08:23
let him by the way, let's why don't you explain to everybody listening what storm guard is, and what they do as what the franchise does?
Lorin 08:31
Oh, you bet. So storm guard it's a construction company that basically focuses on the exterior of the home. So it's roofing, siding, gutters, Windows paint, that's pretty much the core of the business. And most of the business is focused on storm damage, hail storms, wind, tornado, whatever. Most of the of the work is, is that type of work. So we work with insurance companies to get houses put back together. That's the main gist of storm guard.
Lance Graulich09:04
And I definitely love storm guard. I've done storm guard brought franchisees to to storm guard before I've had Shane, the president of storm guard as well as John, on my podcast before and I love the brand. The numbers are great. And obviously it's a needed service business, completely recession proof because when your house is in turmoil, you gotta get it fixed.
Lorin 09:31
Exactly. And even if you don't have the money your insurance company does.
Lance Graulich09:35
Exactly, so share with us. So you get approached and you're like, Alright, sounds interesting. What's a franchise
Lorin 09:43
that and that's really because I had no exposure to franchises before that. And so that was really the interesting part about it. He started showing me the numbers. And by this time, the home inspection company that we had, we had it built up to a point we had a couple more inspectors working for us. We had it built up to a point where I really didn't need to do actual inspections anymore. And my wife could run it. And so, so I talked with my wife, we went back, we went through the numbers, we talked about it. And we decided, You know what, this looks really good. It looks really interesting. It looks like we could make some good money at this. And so we decided to go full steam ahead. So my wife continued to run the home inspection company, and I dove in to franchising.
Lance Graulich10:29
So you did this, I do have a note about this 2016 This was right. So tell me about the process with storm guard you like many people listening had never owned a franchise you had owned your own business, you might have had preconceived notions or, or no preconceived notions if you didn't know much about it. So tell me about that process. And what got you in there to essentially buy somebody else's system for you to jump in it ends and start paying a franchise or you pay a one time franchise fee, and then you start paying royalties, you obviously saw something magical.
Lorin 11:08
Exactly. Well, you know what, I think the kicker for me, the main kicker was, um, I don't think I don't consider myself a real smart guy. Not school smarts. I mean, street smarts. Yeah. And I've been out there, I've done it all, you know, work hard, I can work hard. And I can learn it's not that I'm dumb. I can learn really well. You know, it doesn't take. It's difficult to get your contractor's license. So it's not that I'm stupid. But I'm what you know. And he presented this storm guard to me. And I started looking at the numbers. The kicker was that there's somebody else who has already figured all this out. Yep. And I don't have to rely on myself anymore for everything. Isn't that great? Because that's the way it always been in my life for all of the other businesses that we don't. My wife, and I just had to figure it out.
Lance Graulich12:13
It's like somebody once told me, it's like you being on an island. When you own an independent business, which I have as well. You feel like you're on an island. Sometimes, you don't have an expert to call that's essentially on your payroll. Like in franchising the old Ray Kroc had the expression you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself.
Lorin 12:34
Yes. And really, that was beautiful to me, that alone, I thought this would be great. Because I know something about the construction world. So the storm guard part of it, I could, I could do that part. But it's all of the running the business type stuff, all of the licenses, all of the, the insurances, all of the things
Lance Graulich12:59
dealing with the insurance companies for the reimbursement stormberg helps with
Lorin 13:02
exactly, they they lay it out. And anytime I have a question, I got somebody I can call, who knows. That's the beauty of it, I can run a business. But that is beautiful to have somebody that I can call anytime and say, Hey, I got some, I got some problems here. I need some help figuring this out. And they're there.
Lance Graulich13:23
And Lorin, you know, one of the really interesting things too, is you had background in construction. But a lot of storm guard franchisees don't have any background in construction. And of course, it's like when I was in the restaurant, franchise world, I had restaurant experience at the beginning, I didn't, but many other franchisees didn't. And sometimes there's certainly a learning curve, but they have the support to train people, whether they have the experience or not, which I love.
Lorin 13:53
That is that is a beautiful thing. You know, two of the other franchise owners here in the in the Denver Metro area. One of them was an HR person for a company, and one of them was a rocket scientist, and nothing to do with construction, either one of them, and both of them are more successful than I am. They are doing great. Yeah, that's awesome. You don't need that's the beauty about storm gutters. You don't need to know construction, right? teach you everything you need to know.
Lance Graulich14:20
So tell me a little bit about the process if you can remember six years ago or so, because obviously you were presented with a Franchise Disclosure Document which every franchise presents is a fat book, it looks like the size of your mortgage. What was your first impression when you saw that?
Lorin 14:40
Well see and that's that's again, that's, that's one of my weak areas. It's all of those details that I just just don't always wrap my brain around. And so I started asking questions about it. The guy that you know, the guy that presented it to me, the guy that wanted to go into business with me, I started asking him, all these questions about all this book that the I'm getting handed, you know, what is all of this stuff and, and all of a sudden I got other people to, to answer to and to talk about things and and so it was a bit of a process. The final straw was these were successful, these were making money. And and I could see after looking into it, I could see that this was going to be something that that I could do, you know, the construction side of it I wasn't worried about but the business side of of all of that this was something I could do, because we got all this help to get it rolling.
Lance Graulich15:40
Some people don't understand in the franchise process. The beauty of it is that in the Franchise Disclosure Document, there's 23 items or points, but items. And item number 19 Is the earnings claim and storm guard has a really healthy earnings claim incredibly high return on investment and people. I had a couple that, you know, was extremely excited as soon as they saw the item 19. They're like, holy cow people front and this isn't a projection. This is actual history, what people have made an average franchisee so it's it's pretty incredible. Now, validation is the other piece, it's one thing to see great numbers, then you want to actually talk to a few franchisees to confirm that they're happy that they feel supported, etc. So I'm sure you did a little that as well, even back six years ago, right?
Lorin 16:35
Right. Yeah, we had the opportunity, there was a few of the guys that we were able to call and talk to about their experience with storm guard. And yes, certainly I did that as well. And and the claims were true, you know, the money was there. I will say early on as we were getting started, because of the way that my partner wanted can set things up. It didn't go as well as we had hoped.
Lance Graulich16:59
So let's so let's talk about that. Because that is, you know, a lot of people listening that are thinking about getting into business for themselves for the first time. Yeah, franchise, obviously, you've already laid that out that it's certainly a much better option to be supported by a team. But everything's not rosy, somebody still needs to do the work, and launch this business. So let's talk about some of the pitfalls and things you might have experienced in the early days before all this success.
Lorin 17:30
Right? Well, that was, that was a difficult time. I think he had a great vision of how he wanted things to be, but built the wrong direction. He ended up hiring too many people in the wrong areas. And so the sales side of it was basically me. And, I was doing great, but not for the the overhead, the overhead that we built up, the overhead was just unsustainable. And so it came to a point where I had an opportunity to buy them out. It ended up being, him and his son. And so I ended up buying them out. And I took over ownership of our franchises our territories, 100% by myself, and not that I'm any guru, because I'm clearly not, but we turn things around very quickly. And it has been it has been really good since then.
Lance Graulich18:37
Yeah. Well, obviously, there was a system that you believed in. And I tell people all the time, once you found the right brand, you know, trust the process
Lorin 18:46
that that is it. 100% Yeah, so
Lance Graulich18:49
so so you got back on track. And I think based on what you said, you trim some overhead on the actual construction side and probably hired an extra salesperson as well. Right.
Lorin 18:59
Right. So I did bring on my younger brother, who has a 28 years experience in real estate in selling real estate. I approached him and asked him if he wanted to partner so he came on as my business partner. And and it has been moving since then we have been doing very well.
Lance Graulich19:22
So Lorin, when you first started with with the partner initially, it was how many territories Did you buy then was it?
Lorin 19:29
we had four
Lance Graulich19:31
Oh, you had four
Lorin 19:32
that's what we started out with three initially. And then we purchased one additional territory so we then we ended up with four and and I took over all four of those territories.
Lance Graulich19:43
And you remember back in the day, what four territory with three territories was
Lorin 19:47
It was basically about 50,000 homes per territory. Gotcha residential units per territory
Lance Graulich19:55
and what was that investment? You remember that?
Lorin 19:58
Right I think Roughly we were about all in, I think it was about 250,000 To get started with a three,
Lance Graulich20:06
and you get nice discounts when you buy multiple territories of every franchise. So it's very tempting, especially when you leave yourself room to grow, which obviously you planned that. What did you did you do this all cash or did you? Did you have financing?
Lorin 20:22
It was financing.
Lance Graulich20:24
SBA financing? Yep.
Lorin 20:25
It was SBA.
Lance Graulich20:26
That's always fun, right.
Lorin 20:28
Yeah. Yeah. Because that was something that of course, I took over when we, when I took over the the franchise, the tears that was from him, is I took over that as well. Of course
Lance Graulich20:42
SBA financing for everybody listening is fantastic. Because the SBA loans are quite prevalent. There everything in the franchise world. However, it just takes time. And yes, lots of paperwork.
Lorin 20:56
That's right. That's right. And it you know, the the nice thing is the the actual interest is pretty small, relatively speaking.
Lance Graulich21:04
Yeah. And for the folks playing at home here, 2.75%. Above prime, above the prime rate is what the SBA lending rates always are, and it's adjustable, they're not fixed. But it's, great money to start a business and you can really leverage what you have. I mean, I've had plenty of people with $30,000 that, you know, I know of people with 30,000 Cash, have created empires for themselves, leveraging SBA loans, and franchising, so anybody can do it. So that is a phenomenal story. That's more like the past and the present a little bit. Obviously, you're very successful with storm guard. And I do know that you have other franchises Now besides storm guard.
Lorin 21:55
That is correct. My wife and I are our our partners in four crumble cookie franchises as well. And honestly, I don't think we would have even considered something like this. Had we not started out with storm guard and got into the franchise world. But the franchises they do, they do well, and we have been very, very pleased.
Lance Graulich22:20
Yeah, it's it's something that I owning franchises in the past myself, I have quite a few friends that own multiple franchise brands, just like you guys. And it's very contagious. And once you have one, and you're making money, somebody else is up late at night, figuring out how to add additional revenue streams or whatever it might be new marketing, especially. So that's pretty incredible. So what are the thoughts? So now that you have your brother, it's your brother, right? And your business with you? And the other relatives involved in the business? And your wife?
Lorin 22:57
Of course, yeah. And to be honest with you, my wife doesn't do a whole lot with with the storm guard franchise anymore. She does a whole lot with the crumble cookie franchises. She's She pretty much does that.
Lance Graulich23:11
So with all this growth with storm guard over the years, you started in 2016. And today, you know, it's 2022 What you've you've obviously seen some great growth, how many employees do you have right now.
Lorin 23:22
So right now, we are still keeping it again, if you remember where my my background was with when I first came in to storm guard, and my partner hiring so many, we've kept it pretty streamlined. So there's only five of us. And and we do well. You know, we've kept it fairly lean, which has been good for us because normally I don't know if you know much about Colorado but normally in Colorado, we get hail storms like crazy all the time. Yeah. And the last three years, we have had none and so it's been very, very slow in in colorado and there's been there's been plenty of my competition who has gone out of business because of the lack of hailstorms. And so thankfully we have kept it pretty lean and we have still had even through these lean years the best income years that we've ever had you know I've employees so
Lance Graulich24:22
I love it I love it when a plan comes together because this you know look when you are as experienced as you are with storm guard six years into it you see the the cycles, some business certainly have cycles. If you're in the ice cream business, the summertime is your peak period. I mean, you know your storm seasons and not and I'm sure you get hit with some unexpected turbulence if you will, during you know, that's probably really good for you though, Lauren.
Lorin 24:49
Really, honestly, yeah, I'll take the turbulence.
Lance Graulich24:53
So what advice comes to mind? You know, as you know, there are plenty have people that are quite anxious and fearful about getting into business for themselves, I talk to people every day, many people listening right now have a job. They've never owned a business. And they're scared about their next move. So obviously, you gave us some great points about why a franchise, but give me some additional thoughts on that.
Lorin 25:21
You bet. Well, interesting. So, I'm a father of three, I have two daughters, and a son, they're all married, they're all off doing their thing. But my youngest, my son is still in college. And he is, he's going to school for construction management. And I told you, so we started talking about business, we started talking about, you know, the working world and the direction he's gonna go. And I told him my advice to you, be the boss, be the boss, because you can write your own ticket, you have the control, you can and then when the when the problems come, it's your fault. You know, you're nowhere. But I love it, there is so much more potential, there's so much more potential for money, but there's so much more potential for, for personal growth and, and to reach a goal. It's just when when you go out there and reach for it. There's so much satisfaction in that. And so I hope that he does that, I hope that he is going to go out and start his own business. You know, maybe he'll come and take over storm guard for me when I decide to retire. You know, he could certainly do that. But, but owning the business is definitely the way to go. Definitely.
Lance Graulich26:44
I love it. You know, I was talking to various brands, online on a zoom call like this, we are collaborating on a project. And I can't believe to your point. I can't believe how many young people today, years ago, the average business owner was like 50 years old, or whatever it was many years ago. And I can't believe how many franchise owners are 26,27 28 years old. In some cases, they have saved a little bit of cash, but in most cases, they're leveraging family like in your, in your scenario. You know, when your son's ready, I'm sure hope he's listening right now. Because maybe, yeah, no, but but I'm sure he can get somewhat of a loan from you and leverage that partnership. But that's really what it's all about in life. Everybody that buys a house uses leverage uses debt, to buy a home. Very few people on their first home or buying a cash. And it's the same thing with the business own something, you know, my dad used to say 1% of something is better than 0% of nothing.
Lorin 27:54
That is right. That's beautiful. Yeah. You So
Lance Graulich27:58
Lorin, final thoughts for today. Final words of parting words of wisdom, you are awesome. And I really appreciate you sharing. But any final thoughts from you?
Lorin 28:08
Well, thank you, Lance. I guess my final thoughts would be, you know, kind of read to reiterate, the advice that I gave to my son, I love being in business. I love the entrepreneurial spirit. I love a challenge. And, and I love to see that there's potential out there. And, and I can see that if I'm willing to gut it out and to grind and do the work that I can get it I can go and get it. And if I if I'm content to sit back and relax, then it's going to be okay. It'll it'll be a little bit less. But what it's what I want to put into it. And and that's that's the beauty of owning a business is you it's the potential that you have to go out and get it and enjoy it. And it's great. I'm excited and I love it.
Lance Graulich29:01
Yeah, yeah, that was such a great final point, Lauren, you know, and it's just to remind people working for yourself, you got to work you got to write.
Lorin 29:12
That's that. That's it. It's
Lance Graulich29:15
Lorin Jackman. Thank you so much for being here successful storm guard franchisee as well as crumble cookie. So thanks for being here. Lorin. Have a great day.
Lorin 29:25
Thank you, Lance. Appreciate it.