Discover the secrets to successful franchise management in the latest episode of Eye on Franchising. Join the conversation as the host interviews Scott Marr, founder and CEO of Koala Insulation and Wallaby Windows, who shares his inspiring journey from a young entrepreneur to a successful franchise owner. Learn about the benefits and strategies of franchising, including the importance of developing support and technology systems, selecting the right franchise partners, and investing in digital marketing to generate valuable customer leads. Don't miss the opportunity to gain insights from industry leaders and successful franchise brands. Tune in now to Eye on Franchising and take the first step towards achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. - Introduction to Ion Franchising - Interview with Scott Marr, founder of Koala Insulation and Wallaby Windows - Story of Fleet Clean USA's journey to franchising - Challenges and rewards of starting a franchise business - Building Koala Insulation franchise system - Types of insulation and success of Koala franchisees - Home service franchise brands: Koala and Wallaby - Wallaby Windows: a new franchise spin-off of Koala - Selecting competitive and problem-solving franchise partners - Steps to becoming a franchise partner with Koala and Wallaby - Benefits of owning a franchise, using Koala as an example - Importance of training and mentorship in franchising - Strategies for successful franchise management - Importance of vetting and investing in sustainable services KEY POINTS [0:0:16] Discover the perfect business for you with Ion Franchising's free assessment, unlocking over 650 opportunities for you to create financial freedom and successful life experiences! [0:11:59] In November 2018, a private equity firm acquired Fleet Clean, demonstrating its commitment to investing in innovative businesses. [0:19:15] Our Koala franchise provides superior insulation solutions, utilizing the latest in blown-in, bat, and spray foam technology to ensure your home is energy-efficient and comfortable year-round. [0:21:5] With their unique backgrounds, savvy franchisees rely on their keen intuition and gut instincts to make the best franchise selection decisions, proving that success in franchising comes from more than just raw business acumen. [0:23:0] Wallaby's innovative approach to home services has revolutionized the industry, allowing them to offer a diverse range of services and products – from windows to insulation – in a single customer's home. [0:23:33] The Koala franchise system has experienced remarkable success, with 3.3 territories per partner on average - a testament to its substantial value and rewarding investment range. [0:27:43] Wallaby Windows is revolutionizing the window industry with its unique, catchy name and mascot – setting a new standard in style and sophistication. [0:38:54] Franchises offer powerful benefits like national deals and purchasing relationships - enabling prospective franchise partners to unlock their entrepreneurial dream with proof of funds and eligibility to start a business and participate in a confirmation day to choose their team. [0:40:27] Our structured, organized franchise process ensures that you experience only the highest level of success, featuring introductory phone calls, financial performance representations, unit economics, and validation calls. [0:47:3] Experience true success with our complimentary franchise training, featuring in-field training with real customers – absolutely no cost to you! [0:49:3] Daringly abandoning a stable career, [Name] took a leap of faith that would lead to the success of two thriving franchises: Fleet Clean USA and Koala. [0:54:45] At just 15 years old, Scott Mar developed the determination and ambition to launch his first franchise, proving that with focus and dedication, entrepreneurship can be cultivated - just like a muscle! --- 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
Discover the secrets to successful franchise management in the latest episode of Eye on Franchising. Join the conversation as the host interviews Scott Marr, founder and CEO of Koala Insulation and Wallaby Windows, who shares his inspiring journey from a young entrepreneur to a successful franchise owner. Learn about the benefits and strategies of franchising, including the importance of developing support and technology systems, selecting the right franchise partners, and investing in digital marketing to generate valuable customer leads. Don't miss the opportunity to gain insights from industry leaders and successful franchise brands.
Tune in now to Eye on Franchising and take the first step towards achieving your entrepreneurial dreams.
- Introduction to Ion Franchising
- Interview with Scott Marr, founder of Koala Insulation and Wallaby Windows
- Story of Fleet Clean USA's journey to franchising
- Challenges and rewards of starting a franchise business
- Building Koala Insulation franchise system
- Types of insulation and success of Koala franchisees
- Home service franchise brands: Koala and Wallaby
- Wallaby Windows: a new franchise spin-off of Koala
- Selecting competitive and problem-solving franchise partners
- Steps to becoming a franchise partner with Koala and Wallaby
- Benefits of owning a franchise, using Koala as an example
- Importance of training and mentorship in franchising
- Strategies for successful franchise management
- Importance of vetting and investing in sustainable services
KEY POINTS
[0:0:16] Discover the perfect business for you with Ion Franchising's free assessment, unlocking over 650 opportunities for you to create financial freedom and successful life experiences!
[0:11:59] In November 2018, a private equity firm acquired Fleet Clean, demonstrating its commitment to investing in innovative businesses.
[0:19:15] Our Koala franchise provides superior insulation solutions, utilizing the latest in blown-in, bat, and spray foam technology to ensure your home is energy-efficient and comfortable year-round.
[0:21:5] With their unique backgrounds, savvy franchisees rely on their keen intuition and gut instincts to make the best franchise selection decisions, proving that success in franchising comes from more than just raw business acumen.
[0:23:0] Wallaby's innovative approach to home services has revolutionized the industry, allowing them to offer a diverse range of services and products – from windows to insulation – in a single customer's home.
[0:23:33] The Koala franchise system has experienced remarkable success, with 3.3 territories per partner on average - a testament to its substantial value and rewarding investment range.
[0:27:43] Wallaby Windows is revolutionizing the window industry with its unique, catchy name and mascot – setting a new standard in style and sophistication.
[0:38:54] Franchises offer powerful benefits like national deals and purchasing relationships - enabling prospective franchise partners to unlock their entrepreneurial dream with proof of funds and eligibility to start a business and participate in a confirmation day to choose their team.
[0:40:27] Our structured, organized franchise process ensures that you experience only the highest level of success, featuring introductory phone calls, financial performance representations, unit economics, and validation calls.
[0:47:3] Experience true success with our complimentary franchise training, featuring in-field training with real customers – absolutely no cost to you!
[0:49:3] Daringly abandoning a stable career, [Name] took a leap of faith that would lead to the success of two thriving franchises: Fleet Clean USA and Koala.
[0:54:45] At just 15 years old, Scott Mar developed the determination and ambition to launch his first franchise, proving that with focus and dedication, entrepreneurship can be cultivated - just like a muscle!
---
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
franchise, koala, insulation, franchising, wallaby, business, people, brands, work, franchisees, partner, talk, territory, learn, great, scott, service, build, fleet, franchisors
SPEAKERS
Lance Graulich, Scott Marr
Lance Graulich00:02
Welcome to Eye on franchising. Are you looking for business opportunities? Well, you are in the right place. We represent over 650 franchises and business opportunities. We will help you find your perfect franchise for free. We even have a free assessment on our website that will help us to determine what the best businesses for you based on your investment level, mindset, skill set and life experiences. This is ion franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. I'm your host Lance Graulich. Each week, we will speak to fascinating folks from the world of franchising, franchisors and founders, franchise funders and franchisees, are you looking to find your perfect franchise? Or perhaps you are an independent business owner looking to grow and scale your business by setting up a franchise? Either way, our team can help you. Eye on franchising where you will learn the A to Z's of franchise. Hello, everyone and welcome back to another fabulous episode of ion franchising. I'm your host, Lance Graulich. So today we today we got an amazing, amazing episode. And I always talk about how people get started in entrepreneurship. Is this some sort of lab accident gone wrong, environmental or otherwise? Well, this guy that we're going to talk to you as a founder and CEO of multiple successful franchise brands. And, you know, I think entrepreneurship is a muscle. Some of us are born with a lot of it. Some of us are born with none of it. But it can be developed, that is the great news. It can be developed. This guy founded his first branded 15 years old, which eventually became a franchise system. The last I checked is still going strong today. So welcome to the show, my friend, founder and CEO of koala insulation, and Wallaby windows. Scott Marr. Awesome. Thanks, Lance for having me on today. Thanks for being here, Scott. All right, well, you gotta we gotta go way back, way back. How are you? You're 15 years old? How did this happen? You might even want to go back to your parents, because I suspect that there's some influence there that pushed you in that direction?
Scott Marr02:26
Yeah, so I shoot, I've been a business owner, I, since I was super young, I, family friend of ours had a motorcycle dealership. And that was when I was I think he was opening that when I was 12 or 13 years old. And, and I got to, you know, get to work with him at a at a young age. And, you know, I was always detailing cars, I was always around cars. And he said, Why don't you come detail motorcycles at the, at the at the Harley dealership. And I said, that sounds like awesome, you know, it sounds great. If I can make some money doing it, let's, let's do it. So I had that opportunity in the, in the summers, and on the weekends. And then that evolved and I started to build a loyal following and a loyal customer base. And then that evolved into doing general pressure washing and detailing of vehicles mobile, I was doing that Mobley. And and, you know, I just I learned that this niche of mobile fleet washing and had a customer which was a family friend at the time that I detail their personally owned vehicles, they had a fleet of produce trucks and and I ended up earning their business and I became their their fleet washing vendor for their for their company ended up picking up several additional customers. About that time, I thought I wanted to be in banking. So I got a job at a local bank. I was graduating high school about that time, didn't want to be in college kind of knew I did not want to go to college, although my parents really wished that I that I had at the time they were they were pretty convincing, but but not quite convincing enough. And I got a job at this local bank. And it was a lot of fun. I started to see how money moves through businesses and how loans were approved and issued. And it was just a lot of fun. And I ended up investing at 18 years old, I invested in a in a community bank. And and so so that was a lot of fun. I ended up staying there for a couple of years, ultimately, you know, running my business on the side and just hit the point where I said you know, I'm never gonna hit, you know, my personal financial goals. If I don't leave this job and I just bought a house at 18 and five months. My parents were I came home one day. And I remember saying, I got the mortgage. And they were like flabbergasted. You did what? I was like, Yeah, I got approved. And I put the deposit on this house and closing in like 45 days. And they were just like, Okay, great. This is exciting. And so anywho, I decided to leave the bank. And my last day was December 31 2009. People thought I was nuts. They were like you, you just bought a house a year ago, you have a relatively new business wasn't wasn't new to me. I've been doing it since I was 15 years old. And they're like, and you're gonna leave a full time job that's stable. With a mortgage at I think that point I was 19, at 19 years old. And I was like, Yep, it's gonna be great. I'm gonna I'm gonna give it all I've got and you know what? My back's I'm in a corner. And failure is not really an option for me. So I'll just go forward. And so that, that kind of launched the brand fleet clean USA, which is still around today and thriving, and franchisees of that business are still doing, still doing well. And I still keep in contact with several of them. And so it was a I guess, you call it the the American success story.
Lance Graulich06:33
Well, and with that, you then built koala. So talk a little bit about that. And within this story on koala, just, you know, mentioned where did franchising enter your life? How did you find out about it? As opposed to, you know, going back to the bank, so to speak, and getting money and expanding this thing yourself in the first place?
06:56
Yeah, great question. So, so fleet clean, was an all corporate company to begin with, basically, it was started out as myself and a friend. And we were the, you know, we were the guys that would come around and actually do the work. So you know, we were the the truck in a truck, so to speak. And then we started to hire additional people. And then we kind of parted ways. And, and then I started building out the team. It was an all corporate company. So then we scaled by 2012, we were in five different states or so. We had 100, a little over 100 employees at that time. And it was an all corporate business. We had bootstrapped it all so you know, we were we were just reinvesting very heavily in the business. We were using bank financing for assets and equipment. And and then that's when we started having customers contact us. So we had national customers, right. So the the, the Ryder truck Reynolds of the world and the Penske Truck, Reynolds of the world, Cisco food service, so on and so forth. We had those customers start to contact us and say, Hey, can you serve us, us and Phoenix? Can you provide service to us and Mobile, Alabama, Miami, Florida, Dallas, Texas, and then it just kept expanding. And, you know, we kind of, you know, the team and I, we looked at each other and we were like, we can't afford to grow much like we were already growing it like 50 and 100% year over year growth. So it was it was pretty insane. And we look to each other, we just, we just can't grow any faster than what we're doing. It would be it would be reckless. And so that's when we we started to explore the idea of franchising. And we said, at first I was against it. At first I said, No, I don't want to lose control. Yeah. And that was that was the naive me, right that I didn't understand franchising. And so we did what was known as a reef franchise in the industry. And we took our corporate flagship location, which was a very successful branch for us. We ultimately ended up selling that to our first franchise partner. And we did a minority recap, so to speak of the business, we paid off all the debt, and we put the business on very solid footing. And we push the accelerator and said, Let's, you know, we're gonna we're gonna learn franchising. And so that's what we did, it took the next 12 months, and, and really started to understand the franchise model started to build out our support and technology systems. And, you know, we were definitely putting the wheels on, you know, while the car was going down the road. You know, even though we knew the underlying business really well. We didn't know franchising very well. And and I think that that story is fairly reminiscent to most franchisors in their first system.
Scott Marr09:59
If they hadn't been around franchising, you know, in a prior world, so it was a lot of fun. We learned so many lessons. And ultimately, it was a very successful system, you know, franchise partners. You know, were successful and still are very successful in that business today.
Lance Graulich10:16
Yeah, and at the end of the day, you know, new franchisors quickly learn that, number one, the franchise agreements definitely give the franchise owner the ultimate control, as opposed to what everybody seems to think in the beginning is, oh, my gosh, I'm going to lose control. And look, the best part about it. You know, myself being in franchising almost my entire life, is it's always better to have people with skin in the game in the local communities. Because if if they obviously buy into your, your, your dream, so to speak, or in your case, your success, it's even better. So tell us about koala had koala get launched?
10:55
Yes, so I was in the truck washing business pressure washing business for a while, and I was really ready to change gears. So I had been approached numerous times, excuse me, been approached numerous times because of the success of fleet clean, and from different private equity firms and different buyout firms and whatnot. And so when was it? June of 2018 or so, I had, I gotten contacted by by a gentleman, super nice fella from a private equity firm that we had met with we kind of had bumped into each other a couple of years prior. And, and, you know, he literally had calendered it because there was a conflict where we weren't able to work together. He literally countered it almost to the day, and contacted me back and just said, Hey, you know, I remember meeting with you, I remember talking to you. And I'd love to, I'd love to work with you, I'd love to get a transaction done. So we ended up doing a transaction on fleet clean in November of 2018. And, and I remember, you know, saying, Okay, I'm not done. I'm just changing gears. And I knew I wanted to be in home services. And so a family relative of mine had came to me, I'm not probably over, you know, just bypass this in my in my intro, but I'm really one of the only folks in my immediate family. That's a business owner. The rest of my family has worked for Coca Cola and other such, you know, companies and other corporations. And so this family relative came to me, and this was in late 2017. And he said, I really want to start a business. I don't have the money to start a business. Would you be interested in being a business partner with me? And I said, you know, I'm open, because I knew I was going to be doing something with fleet clean at that point. I said, Yeah, I'm open, let's, you know, let's have a conversation and let's look at options. And so we started looking at different things and ultimately landed on landed on insulation as the service category. It was a it was a it was a space that was very ripe for for disruption. It was it was a sluggish category, in my opinion, you know, prior to koala coming along
13:22
now like sandwich shops and pizza.
13:25
Yeah, or painting companies or painting. So not there's anything wrong with that. But But any rate, so decided to start koala. So that's what we did. We started it in Atlanta, under a predecessor name, and we it was our flagship location there and worked, you know, worked on it, we didn't know anything about installation prior to getting into the business didn't really know anything about construction for that matter. And so we, we learned it through, you know, through trial and error and, and, and things like that, and within just a few months, we were we were profitable. And we said it's pretty interesting. So then I had another family friend reach out and say, you know, you know, they heard about the deal with fleet clean and they said Oh, congratulations and I hear you're doing this installation business and I'm really interested in doing something and I said okay, and so we started talking and then we ended up opening a second installation business and another in another city. So it was it was like the perfect the perfect scenario because we got to test out the business in a completely different you know, completely different area you know, different city different different market all that good stuff. And and then we were successful there within just a few months and we said okay, we're on to something here. Like we're doing something. So then we did it one more time we opened a third market and another in another city. And and then that's when I realized the intent going into it was not to franchise In the business, the intent was just to have a local installation business in Atlanta, we were hoping to do several million dollars a year and installation work plan was to just build it up, you know, make, you know, make good money off of it, and then eventually sell it for, you know, a multiple of its earnings. And, and then ultimately, you know, we after the third location, and it was successful, we said,
Scott Marr15:23
this is, that's pretty interesting. So then that's when we decided to franchise so we started laying the groundwork for that in 2019. And then started to build out a small corporate team. And then we, we started to really accelerate that by the end of 2019. We had no no franchisees yet, we were already up to 12 or 13, staff members at headquarters. And then we officially launched the the franchise development effort in January of 2020.
Lance Graulich15:51
And then we all know what happened in March of 2020.
Scott Marr15:53
Which was, which was exciting, the, the pandemic, so right at the beginning of, of our efforts. So it's been it's been a long, it's been a long journey, but it's been a lot of fun. And we've had, obviously, we've had great success, and we've got wonderful franchise partners, and a wonderful team that we've built at headquarters and and so we're really like, I like to say we're really just getting started with koala.
Lance Graulich16:20
I love it. So you know, you you obviously had that proof of concept now that you're in three different cities too good not to grow. Let's set up a franchise system. And let's already do do what you know, one thing can you describe koala? You mentioned insulation, but all the different types of insulation that you do? And obviously the the benefits some people don't know.
Scott Marr16:44
Sure. Yeah. So what? At first, so when I thought of insulation, I thought he addicts don't want anything to do with that. Right? That was that was in 2017. I was like, oh, no, about it's like, and you know, I wasn't sure I was like, is that really even a market because what I didn't want because I was in banking right through 2000 789. And what I didn't want was a business that only catered to new construction to cyclical for me, I needed something that was really squarely in the home services space, not in construction, right. And insulation definitely straddles that line. There's a huge retrofit market for insulation that I was not aware of. And so I'm an efficiency guy. I like to say I'm an efficiency guy, I like efficiency, everything doesn't matter what it is efficiency and processes, efficiency in vehicles, like fuel efficiency, whatever it is, and so whenever I started to think about insulation, it really at first I turned my nose up to it. But then I was like, you know, I get this I understand this insulation is not a fad it's an every it's an every house and if it's not in every house, it should be in every house. And so so that's whenever the light bulb moment really happened for me. So we do all types of insulation. So we do traditional insulation which is like bloemen and bats which is the most common blown is a is just what it's called it's a you can have it's a fibrous material either made from fiberglass or cellulose groundup newspaper and you know whatever phone books are left and cardboard and and then basically that's blown into you know, the the attic and or you know, and or walls and then or could be fiberglass same thing that's a traditional insulation type in commercial settings and or in Wall Settings, even in residential applications. You can do a batt insulation, you know, basically like insulation, if you're in a if you're not cold weather market. You know, it keeps the warm air in, right. So it just slows the, the rate of transfer. So if not, right, you'd have a situation, think of it as a, like you take a soda or anything that's cool out of your refrigerator and just leave it sitting on a counter. It's going to sweat because the temperature difference is so great. So insulation basically does the same thing. You could take that same soda or a glass of ice water and and wrap it with a you know, a couple paper towels and the equity the furthest most paper towel may not get wet. Right. So that's essentially what insulation does. Obviously, it it does a lot more than that as well. So we also do spray foam insulation, which is a newer type of insulation. It's although it's been around for a really long time. It's really the more high performance type insulation. And so spray foam is used in walls. It's used in attics. It's used in commercial applications. It's used in many different types of applications. In fact,
20:00
And so we do all types of insulation, residential commercial retrofit, as well as new construction.
20:09
So right now, Scott, you've grown this, I mean, you have like 400 territories open, I mean, this thing just took off. You have people, you have multi unit franchisees, these aren't, you know, it seems like somebody goes to buy one, they come back for more, they're getting two and three and three or more, I mean, to the average franchisee has how many territories now?
Scott Marr20:32
Yes, our average franchise partner has 3.3 territories last I counted. And, and yeah, a lot of those folks started with one or two territories. And then after being in operations for three or six months, came back and bought in additional territory, or to some folks have came back and bought, you know, half a dozen or more territories after being in in operation for some time. So that's, that's always the best validation that you can ask for. Right?
Lance Graulich21:05
Yes, for and for those listening, I talk frequently about validation, the opportunity in a in a great franchise process to talk to existing franchisees about their experience, and it doesn't get any better than coming back for more and grabbing more territory before somebody else does. So I applaud you for that. So why don't we just move on to Wallaby and then maybe we can talk about, you know, the franchise selection process? Or actually, koala, let's talk about investment. Let's talk about the investment range for dickwella Before we move on to Wallaby
21:38
Yeah, so the the cash investment range that's in our item seven with koala is going to be around, just say, for easy numbers 150 to $200,000. And that's assuming that you're using some sort of financing for you know, for the the heavy assets, the truck in the in the rigs, and that's for that's for a single territory operation. Got it. And,
Lance Graulich22:08
and that includes some working capital, the franchise fee, obviously refer to their item seven, which I'm sure is being updated right now. That's, that's a very, very reasonable investment. Let's move on to Wallaby. Okay. And then we'll kind of talk about marketing and training in general, because I know you're you love mentoring you love training. And several of these items might be there might be some similarities across the brands. Is that fair to say?
22:36
Absolutely.
Lance Graulich22:37
So let's talk about Wallaby. How did Wallaby come about? And let's get to the what I call the obvious that staring me in the face? How did you get to Australian fee names for these brands? Or animals specifically? Yeah, great question. So
Scott Marr26:10
What's a deeper these is than that. And that was, and what we ultimately came to was, you know, improving comfort, energy conservation, you know, so on and so forth. And so, not saying that we wouldn't stray away from that in the future with other brands. and we're insulating someone's home, we'll have the neighbor or you know, someone from the neighborhood pop in and say, Hey, what are you guys doing? Can you can, can you come look at our house and give us an estimate. And then we ended up picking up another another job as a referral. That happens very frequently. So we just continued on with that theme with Wallaby windows, it just rolls off the tongue. You know, there's not while bass don't have much to do with Windows, but the name The name felt it felt catchy. We were able to also use a mascot all although we use the mascot for for Wallaby a lot, you know a lot more sparingly than we do with koala. And because we want that brand to feel elevated, to be able to compete with, you know, the very reputable, you know, and well known brands in the space such as the pillows and the Andersons and so on so forth. And so I feel like we've done a good job of of making it, you know, sufficiently sufficiently fun, but also, you know, very classy as well.
Lance Graulich28:32
Love it. So when did the first one opened? I know you started franchising Wallaby in 2022. When did the first location actually open?
28:42
Yes, so we the idea of the window business came about in 2001, we started working on licensing and whatnot in in hiring a team building a team and mid 21. We opened our first flagship location in Brevard County, Florida, in I believe our official open date was December of 2021. And then we just we really just learned the business during 2022. Because we knew nothing about the window, indoor business. And then our so that was our first location. And then we started offering franchises as of January one of 2023. And so we're very much in the early stages of, you know, Wallaby franchise development, and we we have our first franchise partner, and we're really appreciative of them, believing in and being an early adopter of what it is that we're doing, and that's the Beckham's, and they're in in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. So, so we're really excited with that. And, and we've already we've already signed, we've brought on several other franchise partners and many more that are very interested in the concept. So we're really excited about about the prospects of growth here.
Lance Graulich30:00
Congrats on all that success, I would imagine some koala franchisees might end up being Wallaby window franchisees is that, is that a good guess? Yeah, very possibly, we've had several people reach out and, and you know, want to have that conversation and, you know, it's certainly it's certainly an opportunity for growth, I'm a big fan of rather than going wide go deep in a in a certain location.
Scott Marr30:28
The interesting thing is, is, you know, our average franchise partner with koala is still, you know, pretty, pretty young in their business. Yeah, and, you know, it comes with the territory of, you know, franchising that you're going to work with first time business owners a lot of times, and, and so, you know, that takes time, it takes time to learn, and get good at business ownership, and you're learning a brand new trade all at once. So you're learning, you know, leadership, and you're learning business management, and all the things that come along with, you know, the administrative side of running a business well, and in your learning the the underlying service. And so with that, we're very, you know, we're very cautious selective with, with with franchise partners as it relates to crossover.
Lance Graulich31:17
perfect segue right there. Scott, I want to hear about your selection process. You've been so successful with quality, you'll obviously be successful with Wallaby. What is that secret? i We know franchising is a two way street, you have to like them, they have to like you, but who you're looking for and who you're not looking for?
Scott Marr31:36
Yeah, that's a really good question. You know, that's one of the things that that we really, you know, just throughout the process with Koala and, you know, we've done, shoot probably 35 or 36 conformation days now with koala. And I feel like we just get better and better at it over time. But, you know, what we really look for in people is, we want folks that are competitive. And we, you know, that's a big part of, I think that's a huge part of, of being successful in business is, is wanting to do, you know, more wanting to do something that's, that's like, bigger than yourself. And so we don't want someone who, you know, is going to, you know, want to stop at a certain point and say, That's enough, right? We want people that want to just keep going. Because if you think about it, you know, as a business owner, franchised or not franchise business owner, you should really think about your business as infinite.
Lance Graulich32:41
Yes. And really, you know, go into that. And, you know, when you're in a space, like a home service space, like Windows, or doors, or insulation, the opportunity is really massive.
Scott Marr32:54
And just when you think, you know, I've grown as much as I can grown, or I've grown as much as I can, there's still more opportunity out there to continue to grow. And so anyway, we look for folks that are competitive. And, and that's probably the single thing, the single biggest thing that we do, the other thing is, is we look for folks who can really follow a process, look, we don't know everything, and our franchise partners, you know, have to, you know, they have to have detours daily in their business, and we understand that. So we're not necessarily looking for people who are just going to, you know, be, you know, be rule followers and, and not, you know, know how to detour, problem solvers. Bingo, we need people who can solve problems, we need people who can take that detour, and then get back on track, right? The person that you know, that sees a pebble in the road or an obstacle in the road, and then it just throws their whole day off. That's not, that's not a great business owner, because that happens very, very regularly, especially in the first three to six months, you know, of being in business, until you really get in there get confident and comfortable in what it is you're doing. So. So those are just a couple of the things that we that we look for. And you know, what I would say, also, Lance is that we really follow our intuition and our gut instincts. Because, you know, sometimes they might be a great person. And, you know, they might have the money, and they might have an awesome history or background. And, but we just don't get a great feeling from them. And sometimes we just have to pass. And so, you know, we try to we try, yeah, yeah, we try to, you know, be you know, we try to be selective, but we, you know, we try to be fair as well. So, it's an it's definitely a two way street. We've had a lot of folks come to confirmation day and say, Hey, you guys are awesome. We think that you're great people. We think you have a great business model. It's just not for me. And that's that's great too. I've read
35:00
Know that prior to getting into an arrangement, then after the fact. Yeah,
35:05
absolutely. So when you think of your quality, top 10 franchisees of a young brand, performing incredibly well, for nothing but amazing things. Your top 10 franchisees, where did they come from?
Lance Graulich35:23
All walks of life, different careers?
Scott Marr35:27
Absolutely, we don't have Well, I went back, I was gonna say we don't have anyone with installation experience. But that's actually wrong. As of about three months ago, we, we do have a franchise partner that actually had experience in the installation world in a slightly prior life. But other than that one person, we, no one had a background and installation before, you know, before joining forces with koala. So, you know, our our most successful folks, you know, have backgrounds in all different walks of life. So, vehicle dealership, you know, management, project management, software, construction, project management, it's probably in your head engineer, sales executives, we even have a gentleman that's a franchise partner, who was a was was an ex major league baseball player, lover. So all different walks of life, for sure.
Lance Graulich36:29
So Scott described the process you mentioned confirmation day with, which comes kind of further along. But you know, a broker, like myself, or somebody finds you on Google, who knows looking at franchise opportunities. And, you know, there's a first call and how does it progress talk a little bit about your validation process, and all that.
36:51
Yeah, so we have a really good process, we work with franchise Fastlane. And, and so they're, they're, essentially, they're a vendor, right. So they're an outsourced outsource service, they work very closely with us. And and they have a really wonderful process. And so basically, you know, if someone's interested in koala, they get registered for an introductory phone call, that phone call can last 30 minutes to an hour, depending on, you know, how many questions and the level of interest, of course, and then after that, they're going to go through and look at the Franchise Disclosure Document. And that's the big, you know, 200 Plus page, you know, legalese to get introduced, because that's the document that really governs the franchise e franchisor. Relationship.
Scott Marr37:43
From there, we're going to go through a, what's called a UE call, which is unit economics. So we're going to talk about, you know, the the item 19, which is the financial performance representations section of the of the FTD. That's what basically, you know, how much money can I make in this business phone call. And then, you know, as as that progresses, you know, they do territory mapping, so make sure that they get the territories and the areas that they want. And, and then throughout that process running in parallel, they're joining leadership phone calls, so they're hearing from from the leadership team, at at koala, we actually do joint phone calls with Koala and Wallaby leadership because the brands run, you know, they run as a sister brother brand, so to speak. So they'll go through the leadership calls, also join validation calls to that process, normally, they jump on, you know, two or three validation calls, some people want to do maybe for validation calls, some people, you know, stop it at one or two, and they got an I got enough I'm in I need to be in now, please. That's it. And then once once you get through that process, you know, there is some some information that we're going to ask for from the prospective franchise partner, you know, like, like, proof of funds, and just eligibility to you know, to be able to, you know, to buy a business and start a business. But then once once we get to that point, and there's a desire to move forward, and you feel like you've gotten enough and you're ready, and this is the team that I want to partner with. Really, one of the last steps in the process as it relates to discovery is to come to confirmation day. And basically, you're gonna come down, spend about 36 hours with us and, and just basically, check the box. This is the team I want to work with. This is the marriage outside of my my normal marriage that I want to be a part of my business and that's it. And, and, you know, we want to we want to, you know, we want to do this, we want to get started. So, it's a really good process. It's very structured, I'd say it probably takes most people that Interestingly, just happened today, actually, we had another franchise partner, our prospective franchise partner, who, who really went through the full process was ready to come to a confirmation day said, I need to put the brakes on, got to take care of some things. And now they're, they're back reengaged in the process, and fortunately, their territory was still available, that probably won't happen forever. That is correct.
Lance Graulich40:59
So Scott, Scott, you know, people ask me all the time, you know, why do I need a franchise? Can I do it on my own? Save myself, the franchise fee and the ongoing royalties? And I tell people, you know what, I tell them Scott, of course, you can create it on your own. But I mean, imagine Scott, what you did creating koala trading Wallaby, and all that work you put into it till you know till now. I mean, let's talk about all the wonderful things and the benefits that franchisees today have. Let's talk about koala, for example, national deals. Do you have a huge deal with Lowe's? I think that's right.
Scott Marr41:42
Yeah. So benefits and purchasing relationships? Sure. Yeah. So could a person go out and start an independent installation business, of course they could, they're gonna go through trial and error. And, essentially, you know, when, when you're paying a franchise fee, and you're getting a lot of benefits, what I like to say is, it's really the fast track to profitability, like, we're our goal is to help you, you know, not make those stumbles, the reality is, you're gonna make some stumbles with or without a franchise, that's just part of it, you're learning a brand new trade, and you're probably, you know, we're probably working with a first time business owner. So, you know, it goes back to that, but the benefits, I mean, there's a whole, you know, there's a whole roster of benefits that you get, especially with, you know, a brand, like koala that, you know, is is, you know, has grown, continues to grow, and now has really a national footprint with national relationships and national buying power, you know, we do every relationship, you know, with with Lowe's, and we do have a relationship with several other, you know, very large companies that most people would, would know. And so, you know, and that's, you know, obviously, that's not for everyone.
Lance Graulich44:43
So, love it. How about your national call center? What about that kind of a major advantage?
44:51
Yeah, so contact center is something that is somewhat new for us. It is it's providing a lot of
Lance Graulich44:59
For us, you know, I talk about it a lot, right? You're learning a brand new business, you're probably a first time business owner. And there's a lot of things to do. And sometimes the most important thing to do is not necessarily answering the phone, right there. And one of my favorite sayings is answered the damn phone. Because I attribute so much of my success, you know, in business to just being generally available.
Scott Marr45:28
When someone needs me, you know, I'm reading a book right now called Impact players. And this is this is very relative to this conversation, you know, it says, you know, do the job that needs to be done when it needs to be done. You could do that same job a month, too, later a month too early, and it's irrelevant. So, the context center is essentially that it's, it's doing what needs to be done at that moment, because that person, you know, look, the most important thing at the moment might be to ensure that, you know, Susie is Susie's home is getting insulated, because she was on the schedule, and she took off work to be there. And so I appreciate that you got to prioritize and get Susie's Susie's job done. But what about tomorrow's schedule? What about next week's schedule? How is that getting filled? Right? And so, you know, it's, it's prioritization, but that's really where the context center comes in. And, and that is, you know, we can, you know, essentially acting as a, as a back office of sorts to, you know, to our franchise, you know, franchise partners, local operations,
Lance Graulich46:36
love it. So, training, training and mentorship, big thing very important to you, and every great franchise brand, talk a little bit about what you do it while it be in it quality. Awesome. And what do you do? I'm gonna, I'm assuming you have leaders in your franchise community. Do you do any kind of franchise Advisory Council? Well, how is the collaboration work within the organization when you have top performers out there? Because I'm hearing some numbers and, boy, there's obviously some leaders going on your organization's
Scott Marr48:57
Sure. Yeah, so we kind of take a slightly different approach to a to a franchise Advisory Council. What we
50:00
helps people to really get them jazz. So we give them a new tip and a new trick, you know, every single week of it to just to just give them that extra bump to push forward in the week. So, and we do several other things as well. So that that way, there's a community, you know, and there's, there's a good feel, you know, because we can't get out to every single location, you know, very often, that's just the reality, we try to, we try to get out as much as we can. And that's actually part of our plan this year is we're doing more regional meetings and get togethers, which is, which is really exciting. So we're actually finalizing that schedule now. And the first one will kick off here in the next month or so. But, you know, we want to try to, you know, get people connected, you know, with each other, so that, that way, they can learn from their peers. And, you know, sometimes people deal with certain things, they might have a, you know, they might have a competitor, or they might, you know, they might have a problem, you know, employee or whatever the case may be, and so they want to they want to hear from others. Hey, how do you deal with this? How have you dealt with this in the past? How did you overcome this objection? How did you get that new builders signed up as a customer?
Lance Graulich51:14
That's fantastic. Yeah, I love it. Love it. A lot of fun. Last subject, let's touch on marketing. So what's what's so special when you become a franchisee? You know, how do you get the phone's ringing? I know, you know the answer. Share that. Yeah. Share your knowledge.
51:31
Yeah, so we, we've spent a lot of time and, and we've deployed a lot of resources to, you know, to be a top contender. You know, on Google, of course, on service businesses rely on Google. And so there's a whole strategy around, you know, how to rank better how to rank higher, and basically how to get the phone to ring. And so we built some proprietary software, that that assist with that in a large way, we also have a relatively large marketing team that supports our franchise partners, and getting set up. So we, you know, we set up all of our franchise partners websites, and localize those, we assist them in all of their digital lead generation efforts, so that we can make the phone ring. And, and also, you know, not just make the phone ring with, you know, with with just any call, we want them to have good phone calls, you know, valuable customers that you know, are willing to pay a, you know, a market rate price, so that they can have a good, you know, a good healthy margin, you know, digital is, is really for home service businesses, digital marketing is really what it's about, and focusing on, you know, being there when the, you know, when the customer is looking for that service. So, we've got, we've got so many tools in our tool bag, as it relates to marketing and lead generation that we deploy. Scott, there's,
53:02
there's a lot of great information that you shared today, and I really appreciate it. So what are your final thoughts, final words of wisdom for those who may be interested in koala or Wallaby windows? Yeah, or any franchise franchise for that matter?
53:19
What I would say is, when you're looking at, when you're looking at a business, and this is the way I view it for new services, or ancillary businesses, you know, because I have other businesses that I that I run outside of Koala and while being, you know, given enough time, you know, businesses do work. That's, that's what I would say, right? So as long as it's not a fad, right, we and we've all seen those, those those franchises kind of come in, blow up real big and then go away. As long as it's not a fad, as long as it's a service that's been around, that's going to be around that, you know, Amazon is not going to take over, given enough time, it'll probably work if you give it the effort. So just make sure that you know, whatever business it is you go into, make sure you vet it, well make sure that you're properly capitalized. Because if it probably will take a little more time for it to ramp or be at the scale that that you want it to be at than what you you know, than what you project for. And so, you know, to that end, always project a you know, a best case scenario, middle ground scenario and a worst case scenario. And make sure that you're comfortable with every one of those scenarios, because if you're not, then you probably scratch your head and think about that before you know before jumping into any business or or any franchise.
Lance Graulich54:45
Awesome. Scott Marr, founder and CEO of koala insulation, and while Wallabe Windows Scott, thank you so much for being here today.
Scott Marr54:54
Thanks for having me on.
Lance Graulich54:55
It's my pleasure. Thank you very much for listening today. Please Like follow and subscribe this is Lance Graulich until next time