We Bought A Franchise: Balancing Business in Paradise and Storms - Our Resilient Journey

What happens when a tropical paradise meets the unpredictable world of franchise ownership? 

On our vacation in Hawaii, we faced unexpected weather challenges in South Florida that tested our patience and resilience. In this episode, we share the reality of navigating a significant drop in business due to heavy rains, while also celebrating our early milestones and the exciting endorsement from Cody Sanchez's investment in Resi Brands.

Ever wondered how to balance work and life as a business owner? We reveal the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, discussing personal anecdotes and the flexibility we now enjoy compared to our previous corporate jobs. Our conversation highlights the crucial need to bounce back from setbacks quickly and continuously seek out talented individuals to ensure smooth operations and business continuity.

Curious about the financial potential of different franchise models? We dive into the the realities of franchise ownership, exploring how difficult times can inspire creative solutions and emphasize the importance of customer retention and recurring revenue. 

From leading a team to making strategic investments, we provide a candid look at the realities of franchise ownership, including opportunities for growth through buying resales. 

Visit www.weboughtafranchise.com to subscribe.
Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hi everyone.

Speaker 2: 0:11

I'm Jack and I'm Jill and welcome to the we Bought a Franchise podcast. We've been gone a couple of weeks. Did you miss us?

Speaker 1: 0:18

I'm sure, I'm sure they were missing us.

Speaker 2: 0:21

You know they were missing us. I know because I read your messages. We are so excited, you guys, over all the positive feedback about the we Bought a Franchise podcast, and the overwhelming feedback we've received is that, one, you guys love our guests and how can you not? But two, you still want us to sprinkle in what our experiences are running a franchise, running our Pinks franchise. So that's what we're here to do today. We do have many more exciting guests planned for you guys down the road, but for today, jill and I are just going to talk about where we are in our Pinks franchise business, what's been happening over the past few weeks, and Jill where to begin.

Speaker 1: 1:06

It's been the quickest two, three-week period I feel like we've ever gone through. It went by so fast, but we got so much in and so much happened, so we have a lot to share with you guys. Hopefully you're cool with just us today.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Yeah, and so we were. We took a vacation. We went soon as Trey was finished with school. We went to um, to Hawaii and um we were there for, I think, about a week and a half and then we were also on the West coast. But you know, just to kind of dive right in um leading up to going on vacation, our Pinks business was really just kicking ass, getting to where you know the whole plan with a window and for all of you listening if this is your first time or you're a longtime listener we're not here to try and sell you a Pinks franchise, but we're here to share with you our experiences running a Pink's franchise here to give you our perspective as franchise owners. So here's kind of the deal on window washing franchises and power washing. You want to get your van, your window washing, power washing van, to about a thousand dollars per day, $5,000 a week, and then you order a second van. So uh, on the easy math easy math, simple numbers.

Speaker 2: 2:17

I like simple numbers, simple KPIs. Uh. So on the eighth week of our business we achieved that, and then the next week we did 6,000 and the business was going like crazy. Then, all of a sudden, everybody in South Florida school school got out. Massive storm came in and our business went down while we were sitting on a beach in Hawaii.

Speaker 1: 2:39

To be fair, if it's pouring rain, do you want your windows washed? Absolutely not. And do we want our guys out there in the rain? Absolutely not. So it makes sense. Um, and it was like. Florida gets rain almost every single day, but this was like a serious two weeks. Now fortunately we missed the whole thing because we were in Hawaii on the beach, but here obviously it was disgusting and it was rainy and so all of the jobs that we had canceled or postponed.

Speaker 2: 3:07

We had a few that we got on Monday, but then Tuesday through Friday we're pretty lean.

Speaker 1: 3:12

So it's one of those unexpected things where, even if you have it on the books or things are looking good, anything can happen.

Speaker 2: 3:18

Especially during the first 18 months of business. You're going to see some ups and downs. You're going to see some big highs and you're going to see some lows, and a business needs time to stabilize. And for any of you out there who are thinking about becoming business owners, no matter what franchise you're looking at, you really need to plan during the first 18 months of business. Your business just needs time, and that's what we've seen now. What's interesting is, well, there's a couple of things. So obviously we're going ahead of schedule. We love that. And for any of you out there following our franchise, following Pinks you know that it's been featured on the show Hitman. The guy actually wears he becomes a pink sky in his role as a hitman.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Well, to be fair, we haven't even finished the movie. I don't know if he does it again or not, but we made it through, like the first 10 minutes.

Speaker 2: 4:03

Yeah, we try to watch shows and we last about 10 minutes. We're party animals. We're those people.

Speaker 1: 4:09

We just cannot stay awake past 10 o'clock. But anyway, it was very cool to see. So maybe there's more in the movie, I have no idea, but just to see it, even for like a few seconds, was super cool.

Speaker 2: 4:19

Yeah Well, and then today comes the news. And today is what? What is this Jill? The 26th of June, cody Sanchez renowned Cody Sanchez business investor, really sort of changing people's perspective on being able to buy businesses boring main street businesses. She just became an investor in Rezzy Brands. She's wearing a Pink's hat in her announcement, so we're really excited about that. Just you know, proof positive that a lot of people see what we see as Pink's investors. And, by the way, if you are interested in becoming Pink's franchise owner, please come to us first, because we can get you a better deal than if you go to them direct. So text us 305-710-0050. Okay, let's get off the pinks commercial and back to running a business. So here we are. We're in Hawaii. By the way, the minute we land in Hawaii, one of our former employees starts texting me, you know, trying to stage a coup to take over for our current GM.

Speaker 1: 5:14

Let's just say fun drama.

Speaker 2: 5:18

It certainly made that first Mai Tai that much more rewarding.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Yeah, it was you know what. But I'm watching Jack and he's, like you know, dealing with this, talking to our GM, you know unnecessary drama, which is fine. You know it's an employee, so we don't have to worry about you know customers at this point and um, but I'm watching him and he's like on the beach in Hawaii doing it you know, I mean it's.

Speaker 1: 5:40

This is like again, this is where we look at like business ownership and how cool this is to be able to do this. It's you're not sitting in an office, we didn't have to cancel anything. Um, yeah, those, like you know, few minutes you're on the phone. But like, even just watching them on the phone with this like amazing background was just like this, is it, you know? Like this is what we've always dreamed of.

Speaker 2: 6:01

I mean, it's proof positive that you can run a business from your phone. Yeah, if you put the right infrastructure in place, yeah. So let's talk about what else happened this week while we're off in Hawaii. Um, so, with the, the storm, we we lost a lot of business, but but incomes a new client who is a um uh property manager who says, hey, I've got a need for um 11 properties um to be window washed, uh, every two weeks and pressure washed every month, every two weeks and pressure washed every month. And so, while, yes, we had a bad week of business, our GM was able to close a huge deal that is worth $50,000 a year to us. So, again, folks, this is business ownership.

Speaker 1: 6:50

highs and lows, ups and downs, you never know what's around the corner, right, and so you can be like wallowing in something that's going wrong and weather's bad and we're losing all these jobs, and then you know, 10 minutes later you sign a massive you know deal, um, and so you just got to keep going. I mean, we keep saying that you know, move on really quickly from the bad things, problem solve as fast as you can, but also know that anything's around the corner. So you know, you do, you do get the highs and lows, but that makes it, you know, interesting. I think so Keeps you going, yeah, and you have to remind yourself in the lows that there will be something coming up. So I mean, that's one of those things.

Speaker 1: 7:27

It's so hard to get discouraged, especially in your first 18 months, because you want to see everything. And you know we, we always, we always try to tell everyone listen, don't expect anything. Your first 18 months it's going to be up and down, you're not necessarily going to be profitable, it's going to be hard. So you know, make sure when you're in those moments to really just like, take a breath and know that this is temporary and that you've got to keep building. So easy to want to quit during those times and you just you absolutely can't like and that you've got to keep building. It's so easy to want to quit during those times.

Speaker 2: 7:57

And you, just you absolutely can't Like it's not a question, absolutely not. So I mean again it's. You know, why do we do it? Then? If it's hard in the beginning? And the answer is once the business grows and provides stability, and essentially what you want to do as a franchise owner is make it so the business can run without you. So that's why Jill and I feel completely comfortable, you know, traveling, taking care of business with our other company, the Franchise Insiders, because we know we've got the infrastructure in place. No-transcript. Always be looking for talent, always be looking for talent. You want to be prepared. You know, I was talking to someone the other day about, uh, uh, a senior care business, a business that caregivers to provide companionship to seniors who might be struggling with dementia or mobility, and I said, ideally, with a business like that, you want to have two caregivers available to every one client.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Yeah, because someone will call in sick or something happens and as the employer, you want to be, like you know, sensitive that these things come up, because we know they've come up with us too. Um so you always have to be then same, even with our texts. We can have the best tech in the world, so wonderful. Never want to replace someone, but they have a tragedy in the family or something happens or they get injured or something, so always having sort of a backup.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Um well, I mean, even going back to our trip, we were, uh, when we went between Oahu and Maui, we were supposed to be on an airplane. Airplanes broken, they send us across the hall. There's another airplane waiting. We got right on that plane. Um so, yeah, they had a backup. Kudos to you, Southwest airlines.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Good comparison.

Speaker 2: 10:14

And that's, you know, that's another thing. You guys just sort of speaking as business owners. And that's you know, that's another thing. You guys just sort of speaking as business owners. We so, for our businesses, we use. So you might say, well, why'd you fly Southwest Airlines? Well, we have a Southwest Airlines credit card and for our business and certain things we spend on that credit card and we have a ton of points so we can book flights that don't cost us money. And one of the one of my favorite things about being a business owner and I was talking to someone about this while we were there is that generally the thing that Jill and I struggle with on vacation. Well, one is where are we going to eat that night? Right, that's a big decision.

Speaker 1: 10:49

That's the hardest decision.

Speaker 2: 10:51

What are we going to do? Um, but the other one, typically, especially in Hawaii, is can we spend one more week?

Speaker 1: 10:57

Every time you guys, especially in Hawaii, is, can we spend one?

Speaker 2: 10:59

more week Every time. You guys, I never want to come.

Speaker 1: 11:00

We're in Hawaii. This one says let's stay longer, let's extend our trip. I mean every, and not this trip, but the past two trips that we went on.

Speaker 2: 11:09

we did we did.

Speaker 1: 11:10

We were one of those crazy people that were like, let's just stay Now. We were fortunate because we run our own business from home, so we could do that. Trey was younger so we didn't have to worry about, you know, school absences and that kind of thing. But we can if we want.

Speaker 2: 11:25

Yep, we have multiple times and as business owners we always can do it. We want to stay. Our businesses will run without us when we worked in corporate America, no way, I mean. I remember our first time we went to Hawaii. I had three days off. Three days off and it was just like it was such a rush. So again, just giving you guys a little glimpse into our world as business owners. These are things that are important to Jill and I. It doesn't mean that you know, you may listen to that and say I don't care about that, that doesn't matter and that's, that's totally cool, but to us, having the freedom to travel, to still make money while we work, that was my biggest pain point as an employee was every penny I made, every penny we made was from our nine to five, and that just fundamentally didn't make sense to me, um to us.

Speaker 2: 12:11

And we both said you know, we, we want to make money even when we're not working, and that's why we own two businesses, and that's why we find that sometimes, the little bumps in the road that we get, um, they're worth it Ultimately.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Oh, they make it entertaining.

Speaker 2: 12:24

I do. We got a lot of a lot of entertainment.

Speaker 1: 12:26

You, you I'm going to. Something I know about Jack is that when things get difficult is when you're at your best. So when things start to slow down, that's when the ideas come how do we make this better? What could we do? And we have some really cool things coming up that we'll share with you guys. That came from that, some issues that we came across with Pinks, of challenges, of certain jobs we couldn't do because there were certain limitations. And then it allows us to come up with ideas and new things.

Speaker 1: 12:56

You need that for your growth and at the time it may feel really frustrating because something's not going the right way or sales are low or employees are turning over, but it really puts you in that position to really think outside the box and think of like, okay, what can we do next? And I think, for instance, for us, that rainy week, we're going to be more prepared when we know this. We're going to look at the weather. If we can, we're going to make backup plans. I think our guys could even call and be proactive and say, hey, it's going to rain next week, can I get you on the schedule for two weeks, or something to that effect, and then also knowing now, once we go through it for a year, what is seasonality like.

Speaker 1: 13:37

So these are all things that within those first 18 months that you learn, but also you, if you learn from them and you grow from them, you can only be better. So if we know that June is kind of a dead period and we're looking at a lot of storms, we need to come up with plan for next June, to book things in advance or do some kind of maintenance plan and, you know, just be able to kind of think on our feet, um, to do that next year. So that's what's really cool. But I will tell you that I feel like the hard times are really when some of the best ideas come about.

Speaker 2: 14:07

I mean, I think, I agree, I mean, I think the, the, the best entrepreneurs, thrive on pressure. Um, yeah, you need it. Um, I think, look, look, it's not for everyone. Um, I don't know if I'm the first person to say this, but I think you have to be a people person. I think you have to be willing to lead a team. I think you have to be urgent about getting sales. You really need to be thinking about three, six, nine, like jill said, 12 months down the road. By the way, we already have a hundred thousand dollars worth of business book for next year. So we're you know, that's a cool thing. That's what I like about our franchise. Is we have that kind of subscription?

Speaker 1: 14:46

Um, it's not, I mean window washing isn't like a one and done it's, it's. You want to get people on a maintenance plan? You want to get people to. You know, first of all, love what you do, but also, hey, we're going to come back every four months. We're going to make it easy, you don't have to think about it. Um, we've got you on the calendar. I mean, I, we do that with our dryer guy.

Speaker 1: 15:05

I love the dryer guy, because it's something I never think of is cleaning my dryer vents and he has me on a schedule and he calls me when it's six months and he needs to come in that's a and he needs. It's amazing and I it's helpful for me because I don't have to think about it. He's there, he's put us on the schedule, he's got us on a good maintenance plan. Hopefully our dryer won't catch on fire because you know we're on top of it.

Speaker 2: 15:29

I mean, you know, again, it's. It's there's different types of businesses, right? So our franchise pinks, is from a company called Resi Brands. They have another brand called that One Painter and that One Painter's average sale is $5,000. Our average sale is $350.

Speaker 2: 15:44

But a painting job probably only happens once every couple of years. They've got the death on that. But we can, you know, we'll probably get on at least a quarterly plan with someone. So you know again, all these businesses, businesses it tends to be. You know, if you look at that one painter, their average revenue per you know territory is probably a million bucks. Pink's average low uh revenue per territory is about 900 000. Um, our net profit margin is a little higher than that one painter because we don't have as much materials, but they kind of it's kind of six or half dozen.

Speaker 2: 16:16

Most of these businesses, most good franchises, can get you to a net of $100,000 to $200,000 and a gross of somewhere between, let's say, well, really, $600,000 and a million. And you can pretty much, if you really want to be smart, you can find a franchise that can net you $200,000 a year. Eventually give it patience during the first 18 months, folks, for an investment as low as $150,000 a year. Eventually the patients are in the first 18 months. Folks um for an investment as low as 150 K, including the franchise fee. So it for those of you listening you don't have to own a McDonald's, you don't have to own a brick and mortar. I mean we pay $85 a month in rent because, frankly, we don't want our guys in the office.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Right, and our vans are like our offices and they're running around, so they're marketing, they're, they're, you know, in itself, you see, the van, and the van always attracts people, so that's great.

Speaker 2: 17:06

And we're about to order our second van which works.

Speaker 1: 17:07

I was going to surprise them with that.

Speaker 2: 17:14

Well, there's some, there's some top secret stuff about that, but it's that's.

Speaker 1: 17:16

That's what you do, right, you get to that first thing and I think that's a good point, since you did say that, um and we'll talk about it more, I think, maybe next time but, um, you know, we just said we just came off a couple of hard weeks, but we're still going to get our next band. We're still probably going to get that next band. So that's a really hard thing, um, to even digest where you're saying wait a second, but we're not. You know, we just came off these hard weeks. We're not necessarily hitting our numbers, but we're going to put more money into this. I mean, that is something that you'll see happen often and it's hard. It's hard at the time to agree to that and look at it, but in the end that's what's better for the company. We need to be forward-facing.

Speaker 2: 17:53

I mean. So Jill and I are originally from the West Coast. This is kind of new to us. In California and Washington, summer's the best time Right.

Speaker 1: 18:02

That's like when you need your windows cleaned because it's beautiful yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:05

You want to be there? Yeah, south Florida, as soon as school's out, all these families bail, yeah, like we just talked to an owner of a local ice cream establishment, yeah, and she said, yeah, for the first month after after school's out, it's ghost town and we've experienced that. And you know what? I'm going to give kudos to Pinks because I was able to get on with one of the founders and talk to him and just say, look, when you guys first started, what was it like? Did you experience up and downs? And he said, of course it did. And he actually was able to go in to his P&L and say here's exactly what happened and I'll tell you guys again if they're.

Speaker 2: 18:39

You know it's like I'll always think about when Jill and I bought our first house and I was so scared. I was so scared. I was like I'm not going to do it. And I called my dad and my dad's like listen, it's no big deal, you're fine, you can do it. And you know he steadied me, right? He? He helped me gain the confidence. And I feel like I had the same thing with with Brandon from pinks. I was able to call him and say is this okay? Do I keep pushing forward and he's like yes, keep pushing forward. When you own a franchise, you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself. And for those of you like us who need a little extra emotional support as we grow I mean we're human beings just like you guys I mean we were. We love doing this, but we love the support we love the business in a box aspect of franchising brings.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Yeah, I mean, we've experienced both sides. We own our own business, franchise Insiders, so we're kind of the only ones there, yeah. And then we have this, and it's nice to have this too. It's nice to have someone to kind of reassure you and run ideas by. And you know, I think for many people who are looking to buy segue into being an entrepreneur and a business owner.

Speaker 1: 19:46

This is why you do it, because you have the support. You have the people. People are there cheering you on. Your franchisor wants you to succeed. It's not a competition. They your success is their success. So they're going to do everything that they can to help you. And yeah, some are better than others and we're very fortunate with Hinks and Rezzy, but you know they don't want their franchisees to do poorly, so they're really going to be there to support you.

Speaker 1: 20:14

So that's key and if you're nervous about starting a business or being a business owner. You have a team behind you, but you also get the recognition of being a business owner.

Speaker 2: 20:23

Yeah, you know. But just to bring, to give you guys a hard dose of reality not every franchisee is going to succeed. Right, you know, 10% of them not going to succeed. They're going to want to sell. That's okay. We, when we mentor people as franchise consultants, we say that's your opportunity being a student, and when that neighbor wants to sell, you can buy them.

Speaker 2: 20:44

Yeah, most people that buy franchises withinises I mean again people who are buying franchise resales are other franchisees. That tells you guys something. It's not people saying, oh damn, this sucked buying a franchise. Again, look at it. Jill and I were 4,000 miles away running a business from our smart home, two businesses that kept churning. That's great because you have all these layers of infrastructure. So to all of you out there wanting to keep your job as you run a business or you have another business, or you just want more personal freedom, you can do it. But invest in your infrastructure and get the franchise that knows how to do it.

Speaker 2: 21:21

But that's a whole other I never see anyone talk about this a whole other plan for growth. Even if you're going into a territory that's mainly sold out, I guarantee you, like dallas, for example, we have a client right now looking at a franchise, a different brand in dallas, and 90 of dallas is sold out, and they're saying, man, we just feel like we have scraps. And I'm saying, look, get in, it's a good, proven brand, put your head down, grow the business to profitability. Someone in it's a good, proven brand, put your head down, grow the business to profitability. Someone in that market is going to need to sell.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yeah. Or they're going to want to sell or they want to buy you.

Speaker 2: 21:53

Yeah, or maybe they buy you Right, maybe you can flip, yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:56

So I mean, you can look at it that way too. Yeah, that's a good point.

Speaker 2: 22:10

It's a good, but it ultimately I'll bet the amount of people in the country that make seven figures are not working for someone else. Would you agree? Probably, I don't think you. Most people were those of you out there. If you make seven figures and you work for for a company, please text me 305-710-0050. I'd love to hear what you do, um, but most of the millionaires are business owners. Yeah, it's a much faster way. Yeah, I mean love to hear what you do, um, but most of the millionaires are business owners. Yeah, it's a much faster way.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:31

I mean Jill and I know we I mean we were worth like 10,000 bucks when we started as entrepreneurs, maybe less, maybe it was minus 10,000, but, it's true. Um, that's, that's what it is. So, you know, you guys were we're trying to bring you the the kind of the realness here of of what owning a business is yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:53

This is what you asked for, Um, but you know again I think it's proof positive that running a franchise one is not very it's it's not hard. There are things that are going to pop up, Like, as soon as you land in Hawaii, you're going to get a text message You're going to need to put a fire out. That's okay, you do it. You still make your dinner reservation, Um um it was.

Speaker 1: 23:13

We were able to get it all.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Yeah, and then, um, what I would say is is that, uh, you know, again it's all this stuff. Then you have a bad week of sales, but here now this. Okay. So what did we lose that week? Maybe $3,500. But then we gained an account that's going to make us $55,000 over the next 12 months.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Balance is out, so look long-term.

Speaker 2: 23:35

Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 23:36

Don't sweat the small stuff, move on, get better.

Speaker 2: 23:39

That's the fun of business ownership. We've got some exciting guests coming up for you guys. In a couple of weeks we are going to have one of the founders of go glow, which is it is a tanning franchise, jill, that I'm telling you guys sunless tanning. Thank you, jill. Do people, even in sunny communities, use sunless well?

Speaker 1: 23:57

no one wants to actually be in the sun because of the sun damage and the wrinkles and all of that. So, yeah, you almost need it more in sunny. You need it more everywhere, but even in um hot, sunny places like florida um, you need it more in sunny, you need it more everywhere, but even in um hot, sunny places like florida um, you need it because you need to look like you're from florida.

Speaker 1: 24:14

But you really don't want to go out in the sun. I mean, I would say majority of the people I know that are out at pool are covered head to toe, but they have a beautiful tan. Why is that?

Speaker 2: 24:22

from sunless tan sunless. So july 10th we are going to have um, one of the founders of goglo, and it's a franchise. Despite it being brick and mortar, it's selling at a pretty good pace. So be sure to tune in um, but that's all I have for this week. For the uh, we bought a franchise podcast. What about you, jill?

Speaker 1: 24:39

I mean same, I think. Uh, thank you guys for your feedback, and we're going to do a mixture of having guests on and then just us, but anytime there's anything you want us to talk about, email us, text us, call us, whatever, let us know in the comments, whatever you feel comfortable doing, but we want to know what you guys want to see too, so any feedback you can give us is great.

Speaker 2: 25:01

So just go to WeBoughtAFranchisecom. You can subscribe there. Text us at 305-710 0. Um, those are the two places where you can find us. This podcast, of course, is in all the places that you might watch or listen to a podcast, and we appreciate you guys and um I. We don't really have a guest this week.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Normally we sign up with no, so we'll just have to say it.

Speaker 2: 25:23

Okay, I'm Jack.

Speaker 1: 25:24

I'm Jill.

Speaker 2: 25:24

And we bought a franchise. See you next time.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Bye.