On today's episode of Eye on Franchising I am joined by John Evans, the Founder & CEO of Everline Coatings and Services. John grew up around franchising, being the son of multi-unit owners. While going to university for business and political science he became a student painting franchisee, where he quickly became a top revenue generator. He discovered the growth potential for the in-line striping & pavement maintenance service category while attending a franchise show, talking with a company that was licensing a new durable product for commercial needs. After he learned that outside of independent contractors who often lacked sophistication and business acumen, there was no true leader within the $29 billion industry. He knew he could build a franchise leveraging his background experience. Knowing what it’s like to write a royalty check, he created an industry disrupter that provides both property owners and franchisees full-service value. Today, EverLine Coatings is America’s fastest growing parking lot line striping and pavement maintenance services franchise with 44 territories in Canada and 66 open and operating in the U.S. with 146 territories currently in development (sold, but not open.) Tune in to learn all about John and his company Everline Coatings and Services. 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
On today's episode of Eye on Franchising I am joined by John Evans, the Founder & CEO of Everline Coatings and Services.
John grew up around franchising, being the son of multi-unit owners. While going to university for business and political science he became a student painting franchisee, where he quickly became a top revenue generator. He discovered the growth potential for the in-line striping & pavement maintenance service category while attending a franchise show, talking with a company that was licensing a new durable product for commercial needs. After he learned that outside of independent contractors who often lacked sophistication and business acumen, there was no true leader within the $29 billion industry. He knew he could build a franchise leveraging his background experience.
Knowing what it’s like to write a royalty check, he created an industry disrupter that provides both property owners and franchisees full-service value. Today, EverLine Coatings is America’s fastest growing parking lot line striping and pavement maintenance services franchise with 44 territories in Canada and 66 open and operating in the U.S. with 146 territories currently in development (sold, but not open.)
Tune in to learn all about John and his company Everline Coatings and Services.
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, franchise, business, started, franchising, grow, people, systems, call, coatings, building, run, pothole, brand, clients, john, line, franchise disclosure document, service, relationships
SPEAKERS
John, Lance Graulich
Lance Graulich00:06
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another fabulous episode of ion franchising. I'm your host, Lance Graulich. And today you know, I always tell everybody, I tell you all what a great episodes coming at you. Well, let me tell you, this is going to be an amazing episode, I'm going to tell you why in a second. So this next guest is the founder and CEO of an amazing brand. His parents were in the franchise world, which is unique because a lot of times in the show, it pops up that we don't know how people end up in franchising, it just kind of happens. It's kind of like a lab accident gone wrong. He went to college for business and political science. And in college, he actually started in franchising, we're going to hear about that. But here's why this particular episode is going to be so wonderful. Typically, I'm talking to a lot of great brands. But there might be another great brand out there doing the same thing, like in the burger segment. For example, when Five Guys Burgers started franchising, people yond, and said, not another burger concept. And yet they were very successful Well, today. Today, I have the founder and CEO of a brand. That is the absolute first of its kind in America, for a business that is so needed, and you're going to hear about it now. Welcome a founder and CEO of Everline coatings. My friend John Evans. Welcome, John.
John 01:40
Hey, Lance, thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Lance Graulich01:45
Well, I am excited to hear all about Everline coatings. And let's start with, let's start with your parents. How did your parents get into franchising? What did they do? Because a lot of people listening, John, as you can imagine, are like, what is franchising? Is it right for me? Do I have to be rich? No, you don't have to be rich to own a franchise, we're gonna hear about this, essentially low investment about you know, with airline and how you do things. So let's start with your parents.
John 02:13
Yeah, certainly. Yeah. So we, my, my father, actually, you know, he dropped out of Queens University out up in Ontario, Canada, because, you know, he was kind of, you know, a lot like me, I guess I inherited that trait, there were, you know, you just you have that itch to, to get out there to go out and make your own claim. And I back, this was in the, the 80s, where he actually met up with a, just a very strong partner, salesperson. And he is he's a very strong back end type, admin type person, kind of that, you know, visionary integrator type relationship, and all of that, coming together. And he actually started up a skincare franchise. So this was back in the 80s, when those home parties were huge things like that. And so he bought out to the Toronto Ontario market there, and was able to launch a degree success. And just so happened that my mother was, you know, their top salesperson, and, you know, the that old fashioned Love Story product, I'm a, I'm a child of product of the 80s.
Lance Graulich03:18
Well, but But you know, what, I come from a very entrepreneurial family, and it's so easy when you as a kid, get to see your parents growing up as entrepreneurs, it makes it easy for you, because you don't want to be your own, you're gonna want to work for anybody else, you want to be your own boss like them
John 03:35
Well, that's it, you know, you're you grew up seeing, you know, not not even seeing that dynamic of them even having a boss, right, you know, just that wasn't a thing. And so now, you know, that's really what I was used to, and then you know, is a bit of a transition for myself, even, you know, going to work, you know, as a teenager, you know, though, you know, flipping burgers, things like that, you know, I've worked in franchises, and, you know, just having that, you know, that entrepreneurial edge of, you know, hey, you know, I feel like I can make some changes here, I can, you know, make do some good here, but now I'm kind of forced into this, this, this really rigid environment here. And that was kind of the very beginning for me, you know, just going down the road of, of entrepreneurship. And then you know, starting to you know, as I developed and grew as a, as a, as a youngster, I guess, in my formative years, that it was really kind of a combination of being able to see you know, myself you know, as an operator as a as an actionable type entrepreneur. And also having that structure you know, that my parents that my, my parents were able to enjoy and and then kind of being able to combine those those elements to be able to make it work there. And yeah, just kind of as the journeys gone on, it's, you know, just been, you know, stuck in that franchising space, which I'm so glad, so glad I am because there's no greater industry. So in car So how did you get into a franchise? It was a painting franchise, it was something. Yeah. So it was one of those student painting franchises that, that yeah, there were, you know, they they trained they one year for one year term franchise agreements, you know, they, you know, taught me kind of the basics of how to start start a business here. But I had a friend back then where we were always competing as to who was going to be that greater, you know, entrepreneurial business success. And she got into it first. And I was like, hey, hey, I need to do that, too. And so I, I went, we competed there. And yeah, we ended up on top. But it was a really great introduction to the world because, I mean, I went into it thinking I knew everything. And it was one of those things where it's just like, you know, I kind of got the reality being put into a 20 year old me, we're, you know, just a running a business requires a lot of soft skills and, and hard skills to. And that was a great opportunity for me to really get a great foundation in running a business and in franchising, all right, so where their everline come from. So I right after I kind of outgrew the program, with the the painting franchise, there was more for students. I've actually I went to a franchise show, I knew I wanted to run my own business, and I went on the hunt for a franchise, actually. And so I was walking through the booths, and I ran into a company that was not selling a franchise, but licensing a durable type of traffic marking product. So coming from a franchise where I was dealing with paints, and then seeing something that was not quite a franchise, but it was still familiar to me. So as a I was 23 years old at the time. Oh, yeah. And so I, you know, and having, you know, had that training, having that background, that high performance nature, to me there, I said, like, I feel like I could do something with this. And so that was the very beginning of it. You know, it was kind of the conversation went to this business is super fractured, super, like no leaders at all. And there's nobody really doing this on a grander scale. And so I originally started it with the idea of this is just gonna be a nice little business for my then girlfriend now wife, you know, for us to, to grow together. But then as the business grew, and doubling and revenue every year doubling, doubling just as it went, then it kind of came down to the point where, hey, I there's no reason why this can't be franchised. So it was able to tap into my previous experience as a franchisee, and, of course, the son of franchisees to be able to get a good start for something like that.
Lance Graulich07:30
It's awesome. So let's, so let's talk about that. So the pivotal moment, seeing this particular brand that wasn't a franchise at the franchise show, which often happens. I mean, there's a lot of brands that are not franchises, dealer models and licensed models. And there's a place for all of them, depending on you know, what's going on. So did you become a dealer and then create the name everline. I mean, where, tell me how this all came about when the first everline officially opened and talk about the services because right now people are on the edge of their seats like, Alright, first of its kind in America, what exactly do they do?
John 08:06
Absolutely. So I mean, to begin with everline coatings and services were a parking lot line painting and pavement maintenance company. So everything that needs to get done on the parking lots and just in pavement, we serve as municipalities there as well, the lines need to be repainted every year, the cracks need to be filled, asphalt potholes need to be filled, all that sort of stuff all needs to be done. For all for commercial property managers, and building asset owners and that sort of thing. And more or less how it got started, I became a dealer for this durable type of product because they said, Okay, I can go and start in this business and have a key differentiator product right out of the gate. And that was kind of my strategic play as we went. And then as that business grew, or as the as everline coatings grew right out of the gate, you know, we're starting to see a lot of common tropes that I was dealing with as a franchisee before where there was really a major demand for professionalized service that focused on that professionalism, communication, credibility, and quality, and all of those things combined. So I started building all the systems for myself to use because I was just used to having them. And then as we were, as we were growing, it was more or less, you know, we were really found out we were solving a major problem locally. And then the cont the idea of what would it look like if we started spreading to other cities? And if we had a single single vendor solution for a lot of national clients, what would that look like? And that's where we're that journey began.
Lance Graulich09:34
So talk about the growth you started in Canada, and you have how many locations in Canada right now?
John 09:40
We have 20 in Canada right now.
Lance Graulich09:42
And right now in the US, you just started in the US not too long ago. So what do you got going in the US as of today?
John 09:48
We've struck a chord. We've been growing very fast. We were at about 55 franchise locations, like actual franchisees, and you know, over 100 Your territory, something like that
Lance Graulich10:01
Amazing. Yeah, cuz the average franchisee for something like this gets excited and probably is investing in more than one territory.
John 10:10
That's it. Yeah, so it's really about a land grab. Because I mean with our location in Calgary, it has a population of about one and a half a million people or so and they just get very excited about those, those item 19 numbers, and they just say, hey, I want that, I want that again. The other thing?
Lance Graulich10:26
And for those of you listening, John just mentioned a very key term, you know, and when you investigate a franchise opportunity, there is going to be an FTD, a Franchise Disclosure Document that will be given to you, either after the very first phone call you have with a brand or potentially second phone call. And there are 23 items in all items, and all fdds. Item 19 is the fun one. And that is the earnings, earnings claim financial representations. And as John just referenced, there's some nice numbers in there. So you'll get you'll get to see that. And what do all your listeners get excited about, you get excited about knowing you have an opportunity to get involved in a very profitable business. So So John, in the US, so who are you looking for? Let's talk about who you're looking for? And what is the typical investment?
John 11:23
Certainly. So for who we're looking for, we've had franchisees from all walks of life, come and join us on our journey. It's really that, you know, there's no experience necessary. Like, you know, if you're saying if you're listening and saying, I've never painted a line of my life, how could I possibly get into this or it filled a pothole or whatever, I guarantee you you've driven on our on our work in some way, shape, or form, that you've experienced it, you've been driving along and you're you know, there's no parking stalls in the lot there and you're like, it becomes chaos or, or you trip over a pothole or what have you. There's all sorts of that sort of stuff.
Lance Graulich12:00
Well, what I think we're all familiar with parking lots, for sure, yeah, I'm going about the only holes I've ever filled in is maybe on the beach with sand, but, you know, the ocean ruins that every day, you know, so I don't know.
John 12:12
That's right. That's right. Well, I mean, it's something that it's just a, it's a constant need. And we're really the first to second claim on just that overall pavement maintenance type program. But anyways, for who we're looking for, it's it's more about the values, we're very value centric, based company. So you know, if you find if you're listening, and you find yourself, you're dedicated, you've demonstrated, you're resourceful, you're integrity focused, you're value based, you're excelling, you're nourishing, we say that we're driven, you know, you're gonna be in great company as a great start. So I think that, you know, just that type of mentalities that greater peace, but then on top of that, there's also you know, just kind of what type of entrepreneur you want to be. And there's some entrepreneurs that you know, that just say, I just want to, you know, just sit back and wait for the phone to ring. That's, I mean, I signed me up for that, that sounds like a great one. But though it we're looking for Hunter type mentalities, those who are very strong and building relationships, because with a lot of these property managers that we service, they are, you know, it's very much a relationship game where you are, you know, throwing your hat into the ring, being able to, to grow a long standing relationship, and you're gonna find that single client, they're gonna grow and grow and grow and need more services, because a lot of these clients have 1020 30 properties that they service and they want you want to have everline service all of them.
Lance Graulich13:34
Yeah, love it. So what do you do investment wise? Well, actually wait, before we get to the investment. So, you know, people listening to this, always are wondering, well, what do you mean, you don't need experience in that industry? So for something like this, what what is the think of a couple of franchisees that when they joined, they probably said the exact same thing. In fact, most of them probably said the exact same thing. Well, what experience I've never been in construction, I've never done any kind of paving. What what walks of life do they come from you probably have people that literally do everything?
John 14:14
Well, that's it right? I mean, it's we've had people from all the all those different walks of life, those who are strong in operations, you know, strong and you know, that they've, you know, in their professional lives, they've managed people got work done, you have others that are strong in sales, and marketing, and just the way that we've set up all of our, I guess, the way we gradually built the everline system is that for people that have any of those skill sets can apply for that can apply to those departments in their in their business, and then they can bring on employees or partners with their systems to fill in their personal gaps that they have for their business there.
Lance Graulich14:51
The overarching theme, like you said already is that you just want somebody that's hungry, that's going to build relationships, because we all know business in the First Year, that's always the hardest time, you know, you're building something brand new, it's like having a baby.
John 15:04
Well, that's it, right. And it's one of those things where, you know, when you're growing that business, and you are, you know, at the ground floor, building up those initial relationships, it all, it's amazing to see how we've just seen it come together, just by applying the system that we've developed, it's just you just follow that. We've seen the results over and over and over again. So I mean, as long as you know, we can follow a recipe in a cookbook, and apply a lot of your, you know, the middle ground, I guess those soft skills and hard skills applied to it, then you're gonna be just fine.
Lance Graulich15:39
Yeah. And you know, what you, you, you alluded to the fact that there, there's obviously a very intricate system, you clearly have different benchmarks along the way, what somebody is supposed to be doing within the first 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, and you know, if they're on track or not, which is the beautiful part about franchising?
John 15:58
Well, the what some feedback we've received to actually, with our recent expansion to the United States, I mean, they said, how on earth is this company, so developed on you're not even here yet. And so we've been developing under the radar in Canada for the past 10 years. And now it's ready to rock. I mean, we just won the top ran in Canada for operational excellence and support. And we're applying that now to our, you know, to our US operations. And it's showing incredible results, because the market is just so much better than it is in Canada. I'm sorry, Canada, but but the US is where it's at.
Lance Graulich16:30
I love it. I love it. Fabulous. Let's talk about investment.
John 16:34
Sure. So I mean, you're looking at, you know, about a sub $150,000 startup costs.
Lance Graulich16:41
So under 150. That's and and what are you, you get a little office walk us through soup to nuts, you know, for
John 16:48
sure, sure. So really, what we like to do is we have to, we'd like to have our franchisees start as lean as possible, while they're building up those relationships and that they're not, you know, creating unnecessary expenses right out of the gate, we don't need anything flashy, it's all about practicality. So you start off, you can start off small in a, like, if you have a garage with a parking spot for a couple of trucks and trailers, you can start off in a storage unit, or just even go straight out to getting a warehouse space, like just a single base, something small, just to be able to get you started out with that there is a home office, everything's digital, we have an extremely strong tech stack that allows our businesses to be to run with a lot of automation behind it, so that the franchisees could focus on what matters and that's making money through through selling in production.
Lance Graulich17:39
What about when it comes to equipment? The some people might be thinking, well, we're going to be painting striping filling holes. What about that equipment? In particular? Is there specific proprietary vendors that you're needing to use to get that equipment?
John 17:55
No, so there's not proprietary vendors of this equipment exists. I mean, everywhere where there's a parking lot, it's being serviced. This is about how it's being serviced. And that's what revolution is revolutionising with the, with the service, or the experience, we're able to provide through our technology and our systems, but it starts off really parking lot, line stripers, those are readily available, we were able to source them from preferred vendors and every Everlane franchisee gets them at a preferred costs. So, you know, we make sure that the franchisees get a direct benefit by being with with the Eberlein system. So the same goes through for line stripers, our infrared asphalt repair systems, our sealcoating equipment, or crack filling equipment, all that sort of stuff, the franchisees get a direct advantage by being with us.
Lance Graulich18:42
Got it? You mentioned property managers, what about like, you know, government offices, county and city, you know, they usually would use I would imagine large, large companies that have a tremendous amount of overhead. And here, you are now bringing it local, so to speak local in a small business fashion. So tell me a little bit about that.
John 19:07
Yeah, well, you know, there's for for work that that we can do, which is more municipal type detail work painting the crosswalks and intersections, painting the arrows, the stop bars, you know, filling in the potholes and those areas, we're actually really primed to be able to do those because we actually have other proprietary products that I initially bought the license to is now exclusive to everline. And now we actually have a durable type of traffic marking system that these municipalities and government contracts need. So this is something that we're actually able to provide a much greater value proposition with something that a lot of our a lot of those larger companies can't even touch. So it's something that that's really been been an exciting element to our tour business model.
Lance Graulich19:55
Awesome. So let's talk a little bit about the selection process or the process in general. So once somebody starts the process with you, it's, it's obviously a first phone call to get to know you, I always call it a coffee date. And as it progresses, you get the Franchise Disclosure Document, kind of take it from there and talk a little bit about your validation process. And is there a Meet the Team day discovery day, whatever you want to call it, and how you do all that?
John 20:23
Absolutely. So our processes be managed here by franchise Fastlane just an incredibly professional group of people that are assisting us with our growth, because there's, you know, there's a lot of experience that they bring to the table. But the really the way where it begins is really just like a no obligation, just introduction call, really where you just get to learn it's a top down view of the business, it's just a slide deck that we go through, takes you through all the elements and and answers, I'm sure a lot of people on this, this call have a lot of questions and answers 90% of those questions right out of the gate, so that you have a really good idea of what you're dealing with, and that there's no smoke and mirrors and you know, you got to unlock the next form of information. It's all just upfront, here's what it is that sort of thing. Then we dive into the next call after that we dive into the unit economics, you know, really, how can I make money with this? How does how does the business model work, then it goes into, you know, learning about the FTD, taking a deeper dive into that. And then at that time that we unlock these really exciting, I guess, pieces here, which is the validation calls. So on every Monday, we have a group call with a franchisee of everline, where you can ask the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever you want, you know, no holds barred for those types of questions.
Lance Graulich21:37
John, one of my favorite questions, would you do it over again?
John 21:41
Absolutely. And I'm proud to say in all of our surveys, we're at 100%. So we were very, very proud of that. But the next stuff on every Tuesday is actually a be a validation call with a member of the leadership team. So either myself or VP of Operations and field support, or our CEO, just for free to be able to answer or ask about, you know, what type of national accounts do we have coming at us? You know, what, what, what's the vision of the company, like all sorts of different types of questions. So you kind of get both the perspectives of the franchisees that are on the front lines. And then you have the leadership team that are managing behind the scenes and driving the whole brand forward. There, then as you move on, and we go down that process, and you get invited to what we call confirmation day, or some would call a discovery day. And that's where we get a chance to, you know, you get a chance to really meet the team in person we hosted in Houston, Texas, so it's usually pretty good. Every year, you know, it gets a little warm in July and August. So, you know, dress down for that one. But there's as we go on, and then after that we get a chance to, you know, break bread to get a chance to paint some lines yourself, use all the equipment, and we go for a nice dinner and then I then we take you through a much deeper dive what's under the hood, so they can feel very confident and excited about so that everything you've heard so far is is true. And here we are ready to rock from here.
Lance Graulich23:05
How many? How many discovery days are you doing these days?
John 23:08
Oh, we're doing one a month?
Lance Graulich23:09
One a month. That's awesome. So you have you have so much interest franchised fast lane is doing a great job for you.
John 23:15
They absolutely are. We're we're very pleased. It's been a really great for not only us, but also the candidates too, because they come so prepared, you know, there's nobody that's going to come in, you know, just really, you know, not knowing what's going to happen next, you know exactly what's going to happen next. They they help prepare for that
Lance Graulich23:32
a John speaking of of knowing what, what's gonna happen next, I have to go back to another question that I know people are interested in. So this is a construction related business, you can obviously say what percentage of your all of your franchisees had any kind of construction experience? Would you say 10% or less, I'd say less than 10% less than 10% had any kind of experience in the business. That kind of that kind of sums up that notion. We got a couple of other questions for you. Let's talk a little bit about how you leverage technology because you know, people always want to value. You know, like, why should I do a franchise? Why should I do this franchise? So in your case, how are you leveraging technology?
John 24:21
Oh, man, our tech stack, by all accounts is extremely advanced because what we do is from start to finish, we developed it with the very busy grow up fast growing franchisee in mind. So the whole purpose of technology is not only to perform functions, but also to have a business, you know, from prospecting to you know, getting the work done and invoicing, all that kind of stuff, but also to be able to do it at scale. So people want to know, I want to grow a business. I want to make a lot of some, you know, a lot of money to do it. It's very difficult to do it without a proper tech stack and we're very proud of what we've built out. So starting from the you know, even the prospect Seeing face or even coming off of our call center or off the website, any lead that comes in gets pumped into their CRM system, which automatically, you know, you barely even have to touch it. Right? You know, as you even perform, you know, just basic things like when you put together a proposal and send that out to the client, this CRM software knows that has occurred. And so it kind of moves out, moves everything out there. So you're able to manage those massive amounts of relationships, utilizing, you know, some industry leading technology, and automation powers it behind us, you barely have to touch it, that once that that client says, hey, yeah, I'm good to go, let's get this work done. The system knows when that happens. And it actually goes and pumps it into our operation software, and here's where it gets really exciting, we're getting so much data out of this, that we're able to analyze these, these KPIs key performance indicators, that we're able to even see, okay, you know, you, you win, you know, 57% of your, your projects that's that you bid, and you are generating, you know, 50% gross margin on on these here. And so it's like, and then you're able to track which clients is or did you price pretty well, or which ones are maybe you know, if you didn't hit that gross margin that you wanted, it lets you manage? Why is that that I priced it too low? Or did we? Or did my crew stop and get a Slurpee or something like that, you know, being able to manage that, it just lets you have so much more control over your business, instead of just sitting and hoping and being able to say, I hope things are gonna go today. Go Well, today, and that was not a strategy we use, right? That's right. And so all these systems did, what didn't just come off the shelf, and just, you know, be plugged in, these were all built specifically for our needs. And in fact, we had to go and develop some of our own software, because we kept breaking some. And so we just, you know, we had to come up with our own solutions to be able to allow our franchisees to grow at the rate, that they're just bursting at the seams. And so we're like, Okay, here's the technology to be able to just grow, grow right out of the gate and to add on to their team, with, with as much assistance as possible.
Lance Graulich27:04
I love that you're not settling, you know, you just, if you know, if you max out the systems, if you will, you need to develop something new, there's nothing wrong with that. And the franchisee is not waking up in the middle of night worrying about that r&d project. That's your that's on your plate, the visionary. I love it, John.
John 27:22
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, having run the original location, and myself, these are all tools that I wanted, I needed for me to be able to grow with the rate. So that's my personality, I'm a high performer, you know, I, you know, everything I've gone into has, you know, been able to get up into the upper percentages of performance, if not the top. And I think that this really translates into really just the demand for operational excellence, not only to our clients that everline provides, but also to our franchisees, and having been a franchisee myself. And having written that royalty check having written that, that check for the franchise fee. I remember very clearly when it was when I knew that I was getting great value. And I remember very clearly as well when I was not getting value. And so that is really my main focus for myself as a leader of the organization, but also to our entire leadership team.
Lance Graulich28:11
I love it, you know, it's all about value. You know, the people out there that are wondering, is a franchise right for me, I pay a franchise fee, I pay royalties. Well guess what it's all about, it's all about that value, you're getting a heck of a lot, and then some in return.
John 28:26
Well, I've had that benefit of being a franchisee myself paying the royalty fees, getting that base experience then going off and starting a standalone business with a license, which is different. But then going back into the franchising space, because it's, you know, because of all these benefits that are there the value that it brings, you know, the whole point is, is people think, hey, there's a royalty fee, that's just a dead cost. Absolutely not, you're getting so much value. And it's a concept that we use internally called royalty return, we make sure that for every dollar that a royalty that franchisee spends on royalty, that they are getting a return for that. It's a KPI that we do that we follow internally. So say for example, you know that everyone's getting a discount on their traffic paint, because we're such a large buyer versus their competitors. They're paying $25 less than our competitors per pale, they use X amount per year, that's 10s of 1000s of dollars, if not more than that, depending on your size, and it grows up from there. So it's one of these things that we track internally to make sure that this is not a dead cost that you're actually making money by paying that royalty.
Lance Graulich29:28
So what does that royalty return? What is that? What does it run in these days? For every dollar they pay in royalty?
John 29:34
Yeah, for every dollar that we're paying in royalty, we're seeing about a buck 30 back.
Lance Graulich29:38
I love it. Fantastic. So let's talk a little bit about this proprietary preventative. Basically preventative pavement maintenance program. That's that's a mouthful, but we'll talk about that.
John 29:52
So in the past in this industry, it's always you know, when a when a property manager has a pothole or needs to get sort of get their lines strikes, you know, they just go outside and they notice, hey, this, I guess this needs to get done, or somebody you know, worse yet somebody trips and falls or there's a safety incidents related a liability related incident, you know, they get a knock on the door for a lawsuit and then they do something about it. So that's what we call a reactive I guess method. And it actually costs way more money to do that. versus, you know, what we call the preventative pavement maintenance program and our tagline at everline is we want our clients to rethink pavement maintenance. So when we say rethinking pavement maintenance, it's looking at their pavement as an asset, versus something that's just sit there and they'll just deal with it as as they go, if they need to be able to it's a massive, you know, it costs millions of dollars to repave, a shopping mall. But if we were to maintain it, you can save like a million bucks a year in capital expense, depending on the size of everything. And so the way it's the way that we present all of our services and more of a gradual, more longer term relationship that we have with our clients to generate more, I guess, more year over year contracts, but also saving the money keeping consistent work with you and and growing your business that way.
Lance Graulich31:06
Yeah, no, you may. This makes perfect sense. Because any asset, whether it's your house, whether it's a nice car, ya have to maintain it properly, otherwise, you lose that value.
John 31:17
That's right. That's right. And that's, that's what we a key element of our marketing materials. And our sales process is saying, Yep, I can come and restripe your lines, or I can come and you know, sealcoat your parking lot make it look great. But have you considered the long term effects of this service? And let's rethink this whole strategy because I think we can save you money in the long term. And all of those things come together and and just, you know, provides a much greater value proposition. We're selling savings.
Lance Graulich31:43
I love it. So basically, you know, let's sum up a little bit you already told us under $150,000 investment, I happen to know that every great brand is on the SBA registry, you'll be able to get SBA financing for this particular brand. an SBA express loan these days for 150 grand, is $17,000 down, and you just have to have 50 grand and reserves in the bank. And you get your 150 with just $17,000 down so I think everyone listening can figure out in the long term, how to figure out how to get $150,000 SBA loan with only a 680 credit score. So you're in the right spot. Is everybody listening in the right spot for this particular franchise? So final words, John, final words of wisdom, final thoughts. everline coatings is obviously an amazing brand, certainly a disrupter smoothing out America, filling in those gaps. I mean, come up with some other goofy things to say in a second. Tell me your final thoughts, final words of wisdom for those listening?
John 32:53
Well, to me, number one, if you're listening and you're on the hunt, for your next opportunity, I'm so thrilled that you're considering franchising are strongly considering or even lukewarm even into it. I mean, my entire life has been built, built around this industry, and the stories of success that I've seen out of our franchisees the exciting milestones our franchisees have been able to hit in their lives, you know, like young people, this is their first business getting started buying a house getting married, having children, franchisees buying their second or third houses, things like that all these exciting things are wind beneath my wings. And it's only really possible by being able to, to be able to grow together. That's it is that we've been able to, you know, utilize the experience that we've been generated having been afraid very franchisee centric culture has been instrumental to that. And, you know, whether it's everline is right for you or another franchise system. There's a lot of phenomenal systems out there. And I'm just so excited for you. So so keep it up,
Lance Graulich33:52
John, you know, that was a great summation, I just realized something rather important that comes up often in my conversations with prospective franchisees that I think you're you're dually set up for is semi absentee ownership. I know you have some owner operators, but you know, which basically run the business full time. And then you have other people that might start off a little more more or more full time. But then hand the keys, so to speak to a manager talk a little bit about that before we sign off today.
John 34:24
That absolutely. So that's what I had to do for the original everline branch in Calgary for me to be able to focus on the franchising side, we've had franchisees do that same thing where they started off owner operator and they were able to grow it and hand hand it off to general manager or a team right after that. Now we have had franchisees even start off with that model there as well. So with all what makes it all possible is that tech system and all the you know, everything in between, they'll be able to make it run. You train them in the systems and they follow the systems. You're gonna have an operating enterprise at that point there. It's just really critical that you know, with the general manager They are one the right the right person in the right seat. That's the really important element. But then, of course, you have, you know, methods of just being able to share the success of the unit with those general managers, because starting and running a business with all the moving parts and strategizing it. And if they're the ones really responsible for it, there they need, they need to share in that in the rewards of that. So I've heard people say, oh, let's have someone else run it, that that is easier said than done. There's a lot of soul searching and connecting with that person, you're going to have run it. And I think that we've had great success with it. It's just a matter of, you know, just really doing your homework on the people that you have. And we're we help with that. So it's just a matter of just making sure you got our ducks in a row, and that everybody's ready to rock because that is a partnership. And we strongly encourage that, of course,
Lance Graulich35:49
like you said, the right people in the right seat, John Evans, founder and CEO of everline coatings. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your story and I'm so happy for your success.
John 36:02
Oh, thank you so much, Lance. And yeah, always a pleasure to to come on and talk franchising. You know, I'm biased. It's my favorite topic. So that's great.
Lance Graulich36:12
Take care. Thanks again, John.
John 36:14
Thanks, Lance.