We Bought A Franchise!
Join Jack and Jill Johnson on their rollercoaster ride as the fresh faced new franchise owners of Pink's Window services in sunny Palm Beach, Florida! Peek behind the curtain at the real deal of launching and expanding a franchise – the good, the bad, and the downright chaotic!
The Johnsons are set to reveal the highs and lows, the freedom, and the fortune that come with being your own boss. Tune in to the "We bought a franchise" podcast today! 🎙️🏝️
We Bought A Franchise!
We Bought a Franchise: Unleashing Franchise Potential with Horsepower Brands' Tony Holbert and Turp Ricketts
Ready to discover the secrets behind successful franchising?
In this episode, we chat with Tony Holbert, CEO of Horsepower Brands, and Turp Ricketts, President of Franchise Development at Horsepower Brands.
They walk us through their journey from the early days to growing a dynamic growing franchise portfolio including Mighty Dog Roofing, Blingle!, iFOAM, Heroes Lawn Care, Gatsby Glass, Groovy Hues Painting, Bumble Bee Blinds, Stand Strong Fencing, and Varsity Zone.
We explore what it truly takes to thrive as a business owner, focusing on the significance of active involvement, leadership, and cultivating a strong team culture. Tony and Turp discuss common misconceptions about semi-absentee ownership and emphasize the importance of intellectual capital and timely decision-making. Their insights into managing team dynamics and leadership challenges offer valuable lessons for aspiring franchise owners.
Lastly, we uncover lucrative opportunities in various sectors like holiday lighting, home services, and installation businesses. From the residual revenue potential of brands like Blingle and Heroes to the strategic partnerships that open doors into homeowners' associations, there's something for everyone. Plus, learn about the innovative customer acquisition strategies driven by platforms like Howie, setting the stage for a seamless customer experience. Tune in for a wealth of knowledge that will guide you through the franchising landscape and beyond!
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Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.
Hi everyone, welcome back to the we Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson and I'm here with my beautiful co-host, jill Johnson. Hi everybody, and we are thrilled today to be here with some legendary franchise I don't want to say players, but people in the franchising space. We have Tony Holbert, the CEO of Horsepower Brands, and we have Terp Ricketts. Terp, you are the president of franchise development at Horsepower Brands. Guys, welcome to the show, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks, brother, appreciate it.
Speaker 3:We're excited. We appreciate joining you.
Speaker 1:We have been so excited to bring you guys on. I'll never forget Jill in the middle of COVID when Mighty Dog Roofing comes out and you know roofing was one of. By the way guys, roofing has to be one of the best businesses in franchising. We're not going to talk any numbers, but some of our clients that own roofing businesses, holy smokes what a great business.
Speaker 4:Like he needs a new roof too. And we were like, should we only just own Mighty Dog?
Speaker 1:Right, someone beat us to it. Guys, let's start off with that. What started all this? And maybe let's talk, tell us how Horsepower started and let's take it from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can kick it off and Terp can help fill in. But as you look at Horsepower Brands, it is a portfolio company but it did start with Mighty Dog Roofing that you two have mentioned and it was our first brand and our most successful to date. A lot of that is because the industry it covers the exterior side of your home, so you think about the roof, but it expands all around the exterior side of the home and there's a lot of demand in the space. We currently have over 100 franchisees, over 400 territories, but there's still space available. We're going into states that we haven't started into initially, and so we're expanding into New York, washington, maryland and looking at California potentially, and so we still see a lot of white space and opportunities.
Speaker 3:With Mighty Dog Roofing we're well over. We're seeing a ton of success in the-wide sales and we've even expanded further into solar and so we've partnered with somebody in that space that will help with the installation and take some of that off the hands of the franchisee but really expand into the full offering of what's on that roof. And there's an adage or a feeling about with solar is you should really have the same person that's replacing your roof take care of your solar installation so that you don't have finger pointing of two different contractors back and forth. You have one contractor that was responsible for the entire installation and we've been able to find a solution with under Mighty Dog Roofing to bring that into our total offering.
Speaker 2:It's a really fun brand. We're seeing a lot of success there and I think, as you look at it, the growth of Mighty Dog and us adding different layers of support from where we were with Mighty Dog to our most recent brand, varsity Zone that we launched, it's night and day because we know, hey, what are correct, those take that course correction and make that action. And it's been beautiful. And Mighty Dog has a special place in my heart, not because I love roofing I do know what a shingle is now, which I didn't prior but just being on that brand, working with all those owners on the very front end on the development side. It's been so cool and seeing that success of not just that industry but those people executing on things and being able to make those dreams and their goals come true has been super cool and fun to see.
Speaker 3:And a fun fact to end with Mighty Dog is Terp was employee number one and I was employee number five, and so both Terp and I have been with each other since the inception of Mighty Dog and Horsepower, and I have a picture of our first Discovery Day, terp, where I'm holding you like a baby, and I always look back every January. That pops up on my Facebook feed of just remembering where we started together as a team. So it's exciting even more that both Terp and I continue to work together and expand and grow Horsepower.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he couldn't do that anymore, couldn't hold me like a baby anymore, but again seriously we'll stand versus the photo.
Speaker 3:That would be fun.
Speaker 1:That would be fun.
Speaker 2:That's a good idea. Actually, I'm writing that down, Tony. You better start lifting some weights, buddy Deal.
Speaker 1:Deal. Yeah, that is hilarious. I mean, you guys I feel like, and there's a lot to get to for everyone out there. I mean, horsepower has many, many brands and we want to talk a little bit about all of them if we can. But I feel like Mighty Dog and Horsepower sort of changed home service franchising. You know you look at what was out there before and not at all talking negatively about any other brand, but you guys were kind of the first to try and put sort of a brand onto home services to make it more sort of user-friendly. You know it's like we have our pinks windows and, by the way, terp, I don't know how to wash a window or pressure wash it.
Speaker 4:We're learning some terminology, you know.
Speaker 1:We know terminology, but if you had us go to the house to no no, no, you wouldn't want us doing that, but it speaks to and this is something I'd love to talk to you guys about, because this is something that people ask us every single day. The million-dollar question is can you run a business semi-absentee, can you run a business absentee? And you know, my answer these days is look, it really depends upon the kind of working capital that you have, because to run a business semi-absentee, absentee, you've got to have a team. In our case it's a GM, it's techs, but even then, we're still involved. We're still helping to hire and helping to to make sure our revenue is doing what it needs to do and we're getting those. So it does. It takes a village, but I think with the right capital and the right infrastructure and the help of a strong franchisor yeah, absolutely, but it's also making sure that people have patience during the first six to 18 months of growing a business. I'd love your guys' thoughts on that, tony you want to go?
Speaker 2:first no, I said your name first, so you have to go.
Speaker 3:There we go. Yeah, semi-absentee is an interesting word in our space and you guys see it each time you're working with a candidate. We talk about semi-involved in our business, and a big piece that I speak to with any candidate coming through is, first and foremost, I don't want you joining horsepower brands with an absentee mindset. I want to make sure that you're joining with an involved mindset To the degree in which that looks like we can have further discussions. But I don't want your employees, your vendors, your suppliers, your customers or anyone in your community thinking that you're absent, this business model. That's not good for our portfolio, it's not going to be good for you. So we even try to just change the mindset so that people understand that you still have to be involved and I do follow you guys online with your business that you own and I would commend to the fact that it's not just capital but it's also the culture and I can see that you guys are not just active owners but you're active in that team and so you're setting a culture, you're setting expectations and there's going to be time, even with capital, that you're going to have a wrong member on that team and you got to be able to make a quick decision and recognize when it's time to replace or develop. And that's like leadership and, depending on the resume of the candidate and how many times they've had to in their life prior to owning a business, they've had to make decisions to replace the wrong member on the team or to develop, and you got to be able to make those decisions at the right time. And you really don't know until hindsight is 2020, whether or not you should have replaced that person as opposed to developing it.
Speaker 3:But that's the battle of owning a business. It's going to come down to people, your involvement, your ability to lead from afar and then just the people that's on your team. And I can just recognize, even following you guys online, that you guys do that well and you're building the team out there to run the business. If you're not able to do that, you don't have a business to run. So I think it does always come back to not just capital financial but the intellectual capital of the team that you're going to put into place, that you're going to trust running your business. But that's how I don't subscribe to semi-absentee. It's semi-involved and I just make sure we go into it with the right mindset from the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's developing people, developing that culture. It takes the right person to do that. I always make really bad analogies, but I make it the analogy of like well, I have my home. It's usually somebody's biggest investment. I'm going to give somebody the keys to my house. Do I expect them to take care of the house exactly like I do? No, but if I'm just paying them a base salary and let's say it's a little above average, they'll lock the door when they leave my house. They're not going to make sure the windows are locked, they're not going to maybe clean up after themselves Again, bad analogy but they're not going to do that.
Speaker 2:So you want to be able to develop the people as well, especially in that leadership position, to make sure that they're doing those extra things. That allows you to then focus on building the team, the culture, injecting more capital. What's the next lever we have to pull to scale as opposed to like, oh my gosh, I can't get this right on the front end, because if you don't have the right people, the business is not going to develop. The people develop the business. It's not necessarily the model and things like that, if you really break it down. So I think we have a good idea and understanding of what that takes to, but people don't know how hard owning a business is until they get into it and the beauties of it until they get into it. So there's a lot that goes on there.
Speaker 1:You know it used to be when we started as franchise consultants, and I think all of us can agree it's come a long way, but the mantra used to be we help people find the perfect franchise match.
Speaker 1:Right, that seemed to be everybody's kind of line.
Speaker 1:Right, let's find your perfect franchise match, which we all know doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:Um, I Jill and I really we've been talking a lot about this recently and and we believe our job as franchise consultants is, yes, we want to show people great franchises that are available, that they can scale, that are right for them, but we also want to help prepare people to be successful business owners, and I and I think that's where kind of allowing people to kind of ride shotgun with us through this podcast, um, and, and we want this podcast is about you guys but just to kind of share with you guys what we're doing. We want it. When we bring someone to you guys, we want them to be prepared that, hey, six months in it, you know it, you may you're going to face some challenges and be prepared that that's going to happen, but I'll always tell you anytime a client calls us for like a six month check in, or we check in with them. The easy test for me let me look up their their Google reviews, let me see where they are. Help everyone to not just find the right franchise, but be ready.
Speaker 4:You know, understand what's ahead of them and us going through it now is making it so much easier to do that, because we know those pain points, we're living through them and just preparing everyone. It's, you know, not all rainbows. You don't just open your doors and you know, next, know you're, you know swimming in a money pit, it doesn't happen, and so I think that new mindset is different.
Speaker 4:It helps us when we're having the initial conversations and then when we hand everyone over to you guys, they're a bit more prepared. So you're not getting someone that with these like starry eyes you, you know with unrealistic expectations. So it's making the process a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 2:And I think working with consultants like you guys in the industry that are really good, they're excellent at what they do, it helps us on the development side too, knowing like, okay, this person is prepared. Maybe they're coming in not saying unicorns are real, they're qualified. You understand? Hey, what's that skill set that I can take and apply to a roofing company? Okay, well, they don't need to know. We don't want them to know anything about roofing, but they have to have certain skill sets and we know we're working with individuals like yourselves and there's some other. There's good ones all over, but there's a lot more, I'd say, mediocre and bad than anything. And it's like knowing that really helps us from our position in the leadership team and the brand team as we work through this.
Speaker 2:It truly is really a big partnership and I think we all have to take a step back too and look at this and this is one of the biggest decisions a person will ever make. It's not. It's. This isn't a transaction. It's not. Hey, there's a 98 used Corolla that I'm getting my 16 year old. If it breaks down, it was only $500. Who cares Like? This is a big thing and having a key players and, I think, people doing the right thing throughout that process is huge and I'd commend you guys for that and I think we do a great job on. I'm biased, but I think we do a great job on our side as well in doing that with candidates.
Speaker 1:You guys do. I mean, look, I mean how many, how many horsepower brands, franchises could I have for the price of an of a single family home today? Um, that's right now, as we look at where the world is. I mean you look at where, where you're investing. I mean, this is it's. It's unlike. It was 20 years ago, when the only people who owned franchises was, you know, your friend's uncle, who owned 50 subways. You had to be rich to own a franchise, and now it's really so much more accessible to all of us. But, guys, I'd be remiss if I didn't just say let's talk about more of your brands. I'd love to kind of just turn it over to you in terms of which of the brands you think are sort of coming up and what you'd like to share, and maybe we can take it from there.
Speaker 3:Dirk, if I could start and go through the categories and then have you kind of talk about each one of the brands within a category, that I could tee it up what we've set out, terp and I and the team at the beginning of this year, we've actually started to look at our brands and our portfolio and looked at it through the lens of the candidate and the style of the candidate liquidity, net worth and what they're searching for in the end. And so we have three key categories within horsepower today and this does help frame up for anyone that you would work through on your guys' size. But the first category is we call our advantage brands and we had the opportunity with two of the brands within the advantage system to provide more opportunity. You talked about the Segal Family Home. This really is the starting point, level one, of entering into horsepower, where it's going to be the lowest net worth, the lowest liquidity requirement, and you could start with one vehicle and really just get your feet wet into owning a business. And so this is for the person that is a little bit more hesitant but still wants to own a business or a franchise but is not willing to or able to commit fully on capital or just even also just taking that risk.
Speaker 3:So our two advantage brands is Blingle and Heroes, and I'll let Turk talk about what they do. But the key part that makes them similar is the first two years within those two brands. It's actually a flat royalty and it's a very low royalty to control the overhead that that franchisee incurs. That pays to us, the franchisor, and we also are willing to finance a portion of the franchise fee. Even so, the entry point for many candidates this actually expands our offering compared to the first three years that we're operating. We're actually willing and able to talk to way more candidates than we ever did before because of the way we're going about it. I'll come back to the end of why we at Horsepower, from a portfolio view, are willing to invest in these two brands. Because it takes a longer view from our perspective as a franchisor when we look at it from a business model. But we're willing to do that because it brings more franchisees, gives more opportunities. But, terp, you want to talk about Blingles and Heroes and what they offer as a business model.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it was an awesome move by leadership. When you look at the investments that we make in all the brands, it's not like we didn't staff up Heroes and Blingle the way that it needs to be. But when you look at it too, you have to understand well what's the business model look like. And they're both residual revenue types of businesses. They do have opportunity for a larger ticket, kind of a one-time type of deal, but with Blingle it's holiday lighting, which is residual revenue and a residual model. Then you also have like permanent lighting, landscape lighting, some things like that, where, hey, it's a larger, larger ticket, still nice margin, all that good stuff, but it's one and done. That side of the business takes a little bit to build up and understand where those opportunities are coming from and what you're doing. And then on the holiday side the retention rate's really high. You know you look at something. You're basically leasing these lights to somebody. Why do dealerships lease cars? Because you make a lot of money. When you lease something to somebody, it makes a lot of sense. You could be that simple with it and we've seen a lot of good momentum there.
Speaker 2:As far as the blingle side, and then on heroes. We mainly at first and we focus on fertilization and irrigation and then there are some add-ons there too and if you think irrigation on the more like commercial side, even residential side, those are huge opportunities to do those installs. But then when we're looking at that, hey, it's a residual revenue type of business. We have a really high retention rate again and this business model also allows you to tack things on that are kind of easy add-ons, where it's that same consumer base that we can go and sell into again for, let's say, mosquitoes, hey, we'll come and spray a couple times a year for mosquitoes. In certain markets you can add snow removal. So there's other things where we already have it branded out too, like the mosquito site. It's Mosquito Marshals, you know it ties to that heroes piece. So super cool brands where you have that opportunity to build that residual revenue. But it also takes time to build.
Speaker 1:So, seeing that people like Tony and Josh Skolnick and the rest of the leadership team saw that and decided that, hey, these are perfect from an advantage brand perspective. So, like I know, with our HOA here in Florida and our in our neighborhood, we have like I don't know two. What do we have? And every year it's a big deal. Who who gets our contract for the, the maintenance of our, of our lawns and our trees and things like that? Is that something? If I were a heroes franchise owner, Is that the kind of job that I could bid on, those types of bigger sort of, you know, recurring jobs?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we encourage that, and we have a playbook around how to approach HOAs. But even on top of that, we actually have a national partnership with a company called Associa and your HOA may utilize them. They're a technology platform that over 7 million homes that are managed through communities or HOAs they're actually using Associa's platform and software tool to help manage that process and actually helps connect and bring us in, and so we have a little bit of a stepped up, especially on the communities that they manage directly, but then even a step up within some of the HOAs that are using their software and their technology platform called Town Square. So it even steps us into a lot of HOAs across the nation with that national partnership that we have with them and that benefits all of our brands, but specifically Hero is seeing even more of a benefit compared to some of the other brands because of what you just mentioned.
Speaker 1:And I gotta tell you I mean I think Blingle and, by the way, what brought this about I was having you on the podcast is we have a client that just added two new Blingle units here in Florida and they're very happy and growing, which we love, like we we've had it where we've added, like, lights to our to our driveway and it just changed the home but like, look at all the different types of events that blingle franchise owners can do, bling was a really cool brand, super cool brand yeah, yeah, yeah, we have outdoor lighting in my house and, uh, my son is a fan of the ravens, so sunday, uh, football is the ravens colors.
Speaker 3:uh, we just change the lights and I I mean, you can just do so much with the outdoor lighting and landscape lighting that can really change your whole landscape of your home, and Florida is a great market where they do that well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And also the events like if you had a bling on your, you can do like weddings and things like that too, right?
Speaker 2:Yep, graduations, and like with weddings, it makes sense too, because it's like, okay, well, you could spend a billion dollars on flowers or still get your flowers, but we could also make the event space look really cool, really fun, especially at night when you can't see those things as well.
Speaker 2:So being able to have that design component as well. And we have somebody there. His name's Nels, he's on the Blingle leadership team and he is like, I love him, you should have him on sometime. He's like the most fun dude. He understands everything about lighting. He you know designs for the stars Like it's. It's so great. But some of these things and our owners are coming up with it's it's so cool to see and it is. It is a fun brand.
Speaker 4:It's a little more fun than you know. I'd say, roofing or putting up a fence it's more fun, but that's again that's why we love this, and I love that you guys have the variety, because you have, you know, one that's more fun, one that's more necessary. You know, roofing is more, lighting is is, you know, a fun thing to have, but it also it has a.
Speaker 1:And sorry to jump in on you, jill, but this is the thing I keep this we have so many clients that will come to us from corporate America and they'll say, hey, any B2B opportunities. I'm like dude, all these businesses are B2B. I mean our business. We wash windows and do pressure washing, and 50% of our business is easily commercial and it should probably be more. And so that's the cool thing about businesses like this. You look at Blingle, you look at heroes. I mean you have B2B opportunities as much as you do B2C 100% Everything under the horsepower umbrella.
Speaker 2:It's hey, let's focus on that residential at first, but it's in on around the home and everything has a commercial component to it. As you look at these businesses and it's, we're able to coach to that and work to that across all the brands A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Yeah, all right, guys, what's next?
Speaker 3:So the second category. So then you think about like the next step up uh, if you had more capital or if you have an opportunity, you want to maybe scale something a little bit faster. Larger ticket is what we call our subcontractor brands, and there's four brands within the subcontractor category. This really becomes like our bread and butter. What we've seen within horsepower Mighty Dog Roofing is one of the four where we are able to be a sales and marketing engine and the installation of the services provided. There's subcontractors well across the nation that you can find to do the installation, and so the type of candidate obviously has the necessary net worth and liquidity but is able to lead from afar, has been able to show in their past, can lead sales teams or create a culture and a winning team and really build a business at scale. Or a franchisee or candidate that's able to manage projects and operationally think about how to manage logistics, all the moving pieces of the subcontractors and materials, but then hire that salesperson. So this does become oftentimes an ideal fit for a lot of the candidates that come through our process. They fall in this category too, and we love it here at Horsepower Brands. It includes Mighty Dog Roofing, stan Strong Fencing, bumblebee Blinds.
Speaker 3:And what am I missing? Terp Groovy, hughes Painting. So I'll let Terp talk about those specific brands.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with Mighty Dog Roofing, we've hit on that quite a bit already. Yeah, I was roofing repair, replacement, siding, gutters, windows, solar. With Groovy Hughes, it's professional paint and power wash as well interior, exterior. And again all these B2B, b2c there's a commercial component to all of these as well. Bumblebee blinds it's customized window treatments, homes, businesses I want to come back to that too, tony.
Speaker 2:And have you talk a little bit about the new lines that we're launching within Bumblebee, because I think that's pretty cool. And then Stan Strong Fencing, residential commercial installation, install services, offenses as well as repairs on that side as well. And with with Stan Strong and Bumblebee, they were our last two brand launches that we've had, aside from then Varsity Zone being the newest one, which we'll get to in a second. But we've seen I mean it's been awesome with those and you just see it, it's sharpening the sword, refining the process so that owners are able to get launched faster, started on a quicker note and foot. But with Bumblebee, tony, if you don't mind talking about this a little bit, because I don't know if a lot of people know about what we're doing there, but it's pretty sweet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll even start With all of our brands. I sit on top to top with all key suppliers that affect the franchisees and so what we've been able to do within Horsepower really well is build partnerships with key suppliers across the nation and make sure that we can reach good supplier agreements. Obviously, buying in a franchise, you're looking for the power of purchase and see discounts and service levels and what that partnership has to offer. So we were able to do that with Supply Fence Group within the fencing model, Owens Corning, SRS within Mighty Dog Roofing, Sherman Williams within Groovy Hughes. I sit on all top-to-top meetings at least twice a year with all those key suppliers.
Speaker 3:But within the blind space Bumblebee Blinds we've actually been able to with one of the suppliers there. They're manufacturing the blinds and the shutters, but it's one of our products called Bucks Hives, and so our franchisee now can go into a home, consult with the homeowner on the design and what that looks like for what they're searching for, but offer one of our custom blinds. That's part of our brand. That does help that franchisee for future business, whether that's around repair or service or just callbacks. A lot of homeowners have the money to put blinds, maybe in their front of their home initially, and then we come back on, maybe look at the upstairs or look at the back of the home, and so by having our custom blinds and shutters offerings under the Luxhide brand, it really just sets us apart within that brand, specifically that Terp's mentioning.
Speaker 1:I mean the subcontractor model is one that I look at and envy sometimes. It's a neat thing. I think it definitely you're right for those people that just want to get out there and drive sales and marketing. It's a great model. You know, and I think you know we've got a client down here that recently invested in a bumblebee and I know they're getting things going and they're really starting to grow. We love it. We've got. It's neat to watch them grow and guys. Another thing that I really wasn't aware of until the last year or so was how good a business fencing is. I mean fencing does some pretty good numbers, um, on low employees, I mean, or or some contract. I mean it's pretty incredible what a good business fencing is.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and painting too. I mean they all, they're all great.
Speaker 1:Well, groovy hues. It's interesting, you guys. Quick, quick little nugget for you. So a lot of people that watch our podcast clearly come to us because they're looking at pinks and they like pinks. Pinks people who like pinks tend to like groovy hues. It's that funky kind of creative brand and I got to tell you something when you can do painting, which has huge potential for big commercial jobs, and you can do the power washing which has become for us, you like how Jill's, jill's- I was waiting.
Speaker 1:We love the power washing jobs for pinks there. I mean they're so lucrative for us. So anyways, guys, it's very exciting.
Speaker 3:If we have, people will ask what's the next brand at horsepower and we've been a lot better in the last four brands we've launched to be targeted in which industries we go into and so, like in fencing. You mentioned that home services in general across the US is over $600 billion in revenue and sales in 2023. And as we look at where we want to go next, we're trying to capture that wallet share at the home with the play out into Howie and to really capture that lifetime value of the customer across all these brands. So fencing was strategic. It's a great industry. It's over $40 billion in system and sales in 2023 alone.
Speaker 3:But I'll even tell you I go to industry conferences. I try to attend one industry conference for each one of the industries we service and I can just tell quickly roofing is probably 10 football fields of a conference in terms of size and scope. Fencing is about six like and so you could just tell, like when you go to these industry conferences, like there is a huge demand or else there wouldn't be this many contractors, vendors and suppliers all in one room and fencing's a great opportunity. We we love that. We're in it, um, and we're happy with the results that we've been seeing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's. It's very exciting. All right, guys, what's?
Speaker 3:So the last category is is still a absolute great opportunity to build a business, and home services. It's much more of a longer term view, because now it's our installation brands, and so you talked about pinks and we have three brands that fall under this. You're a sales and marketing engine and you're also managing the installation side of that business model. Now, all three of these brand offerings the industries are large. They're large in scope. They're fragmented. They're able to create a sizable business within your community. There are Gatsby Glass, which is in the glass Varsity Zone, our most recent one, heating and air, and then we also have iPhone, our insulation business. I'll let Terp talk to it. But the type of candidate is a person that does have that skill set. One. It's going to be more net worth, more liquidity, but that skill set to manage a team, like your ability to be able to manage a team, not just from a sales side, but now the installation side. We've been a lot better as an organization on these installation brands and putting it into categories has helped us internally as a company to say, hey, that franchisee. More than ever on installation brands, we have to find team members that's joining their team with experience in that industry. So in the glass space, more than ever, we're finding people that have the ability to install the project and the work. The same thing with Varsity Zone we have some things that we're rolling out specifically to find technicians in that industry. And the same thing with installation. The more we can find that talent that knows how to install that work it doesn't make it easy for that franchisee, but it helps them just launch that business better. Especially. It doesn't make it easy for that franchisee, but it helps them just launch that business better, especially in that first six to nine months.
Speaker 3:When I talk about long-term view and then I'll let Terp go, it's just again. People oftentimes and this comes back to the semi-absentee. I think another thing that has to be reminded in franchising is you sign a 10-year agreement and you do that with intention. Everyone gets into something with the idea that I could build something and potentially sell it one day in the future. But I don't think there should be this rush to shorten that 10-year agreement down to three years. And so, definitely with the installation brands, these are the type of candidates that do have a long-term view, are looking to invest in a team. Tons of tax benefits because of the investment and the type of equipment necessary. So there's a ton of tax benefits with write-offs in section 179 and bonus depreciation, but, turb, I'll let you kind of hit on each one of those brands and anything I'm missing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you did a good job of just high level explaining each brand and what they do. One thing that I would add to what Tony said is that I think is really critical and pivotal is on the commercial side, or like more of even like new home builds, those types of things is we have blueprint reading teams for each of those, or like a takeoff team, and that's huge because, again, we're not asking you to have experience in that space. So how do you know how to read blueprints or how do I know how to read it and then tie it with HVAC or with the installation piece or from a Gatsby perspective, to do those quotes and those bids on? Hey, I want to do all the staircases and the glass cylinders and all these different types of things with offices, whatever. So the team's been very purposeful in making sure that we have those individuals that are there from day one, from the launch.
Speaker 2:Now for Varsity Zone. We didn't necessarily with iPhone and Gatsby. We learned that very quickly after and then have been hiring for that and that team continues to build. But you talk about getting better with Varsity Zone. We're like, hey, that's a no-brainer, we need this from the jump. And it's really nice because it just takes a lot of that, I'd say, pressure unknown off of the franchise owner where they can focus and really drive revenue generating activity. Just say let's install that job, let's sell those jobs and continue to do that. Not, hey, I got to work through these specs and I don't really know what I'm doing. We're right there for them to be able to work with them and work them through that.
Speaker 1:Really cool. You know, we have good friends here here in Boca Raton that own Gatsby Glass franchise. Jill does a lot of networking with them and we've referred business back and forth, haven't we?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a couple that we've done, and we do this fun thing where, whenever we see each other's vans, we snap pictures and post it and we both get so excited. But, yeah, we've done a lot of networking opportunities together introduce people because there's there's a tie in, you know there's. We clean the glass, they install the glass. So, um, you know, we found ways to kind of work together and you know it's so much fun seeing the jobs that they're doing. It's like beautiful, like you know when are they coming?
Speaker 4:here. We just need them to actually do it. They've actually given us some really great recommendations. Yeah, we need to do it, but yeah, so no, it's really fun watching that. It's a fun, fun company, I think it's, it's everywhere.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, Tony, sorry, it's everywhere. One of our team members who's been in the glass industry forever. He's like you're going to change how you look at glass, tony, because you spend all your life looking through glass and now you're going to start looking at glass and then I mean, even in Omaha, you walk around you. Just, I mean, glass is everywhere. So that brand itself has evolved, at the credit of the team that is running the brand and the franchisees. I mean that brand is evolving across all these different service lines and types of projects, really more than any other brand within our portfolio, service lines and types of projects, really more than any other brand within our portfolio, and the credit goes to the franchisees and the brand team that's really just supporting wine rooms, to railings, to commercial opportunities.
Speaker 3:I mean it's the whole gamut, and Corey can talk at length about all the different types of projects that are being done every single week, and so it's a fun brand to be a part of, yeah.
Speaker 4:It's funny you say that about the glass, because we're the same way too. So now we glass everywhere.
Speaker 4:I've never looked at glass that way before, but now I can tell you if your windows are dirty or if you need someone to come in and do something or if there's streaks. So, um, yeah, but it's, it's definitely. It's very cool to see everything with all those brands. It's very cool to see everything with all those brands, but with Gatsby in particular just the amounts of projects that you can do. It's not just shower doors, you know, it's very cool.
Speaker 1:Like super cool wine walls. I mean, guys, you know, for us, what we tend to tell our clients is this to be, I think, a successful owner of any of these brands, you've got to have urgency to drive sales. And I know you guys help to an extent with the marketing and I'd love for you to just chat about that briefly. But I know, for us with with pinks, um, google and Facebook's only going to get us so far. Um, we have to go out there and we have to knock on doors. We have to walk into the car dealership or go make friends with the property manager so we can get halfway there with the help of our franchisor, but we have to go do the rest. So we have to have urgency around driving sales. We've got to be looking at not only today, tomorrow, next week, but we have to. Where are we next month? Where are we next year? I think the other thing is obviously making sure that we are delivering upon the brand promise that the franchise has. I mean, we've got to get those five-star Google reviews and we need as many as possible, and so that's another thing we hammer with our clients is that if you're going to do this, you need to be just focused on racking up those Google reviews. And then the third thing I would say for all this is just be a great leader. You know, if you own a business that does lighting or it does roofing or it makes cheeseburgers, you likely should not be doing any of that. You should be leading the team, working on the business, not in it. And so that's what we if anyone can take anything away from these podcasts that we do.
Speaker 1:Successful franchise owners know how to lead a team, because it's not always going to be easy. You know, people ask me all the time hey, are you profitable yet? And my answer is we didn't invest in this franchise to be profitable in year one. That wasn't, I suppose. If I was owner operator, yeah, sure I could, I could and I really wanted to do that but our aim was five years from now. We want a business that does not need us for the day. Today, that can replace our salary. What we make is franchise consultants. That was always the goal. So for now, as we're investing and we're building the business it's about in year one we're just nurturing this thing and we're not looking at that. If we have to throw capital at it, if we have to throw whatever we have to do. We have sort of an end goal in mind and I wonder what your guys thought is sort of just that perspective of franchise owners having a long-term goal in mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think Tony can speak really well to this. One thing I'll kick off with, though, and also on the client acquisition side, tony speaks really well too, but I always look at it like this, and I do like you know the hang loose symbol. If you just want to point a finger at somebody, you're never going to point it at yourself. It's not going to be your issue.
Speaker 2:I drove, I did everything I could, but really understanding, okay, what are those activities that you need to do each day in order to be successful, and we've seen this. You have all the tools you need to execute. You got to go do it, though, and it's not a one-way street. It's hey, how can we help too if we're pointing the hang loose symbol back at ourselves and saying, okay, well, how can we make it better then? But also, you need to be able to execute and follow that playbook, use the tools that are there for you, and beautiful things happen, and then making sure that expectations are level set, et cetera. And then, tony, I'll throw it over to you. I just wanted to kind of start with that. Again, I really have it's great analogies that I use, and everything. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean leadership and customer acquisition. I mean leadership 100% is the most important aspect of building a business and when we think about even at Horsepower, we've made a lot of changes over the last three years, but it's really came at the perspective of our leadership team, including our majority founder that's invested the funds is. We've established what that 10-year target for our business looks like and so we know where we want to be in 10 years and we started to establish that three years ago and we think we're going to actually get there within seven years. But we started with a 10-year target and then we said, okay, what does that look like when we get there? What would that even look like? And we started to realize what that would look like. We didn't have to do certain things that we're doing in the past, so we consolidated some things and limited some things and we started focusing on what's going to get us to that point in 10 years. We then established a three-year plan and when you start to actually put it down to three years, where do you want to be in three years? That's going to get me to 10 years. You now can actually put business plans in place on a one year and down to four financial quarters, down to 13 weeks that's within a quarter and you can start to drive a team From a leadership perspective, it's being able to.
Speaker 3:You got to know what that looks like as the business owner first, and you got to know that that's what you want. And you got to be firm in that, because now you got to have the ability to explain that to your team and you got to make it relevant to them, because if you want to make $5 million in 10 years, that means nothing to the employee that's helping you wash windows or install roofs, like at the end of the day, how are you going to explain what your vision is? And if it's financial, related, down to something to make it relevant to your employees and the team that you're trying to lead. And that's a skill and that's something with leadership that I truly believe that you're always learning. And if you want to be a good leader, you have to be willing to understand that. You have to be willing to look in the mirror and say how can I improve as a leader? And that's something that I'm always looking at myself of how can I be a better leader tomorrow for the team, for the franchisees, for anyone that's around me. So I 100% we could talk for a full hour on leadership, because it's so important and there's not enough. You could talk about where it's going to resonate with people and they're going to start to understand it when they open their doors. I mean, that's the moment where they're really going to understand it. But on the customer acquisition side, every one of our brands has a brand president and team and we do focus.
Speaker 3:If you look anything within Google and AI. Google Gemini is their product tool. Search is going to become more and more less relevant into the future. You know how that impacts home services is unknown at this point, but search will become less relevant. I know my daughter. She uses Snapchat AI, which I don't know how she does that, but when she's looking for answers to questions that she has, she's using the AI feature within Snapchat. I'm using Google Gemini. So I'm not even going to googlecom to search something, I'm going to Gemini. So even the way consumers behave three years from now, it's going to change dramatically. So I agree 100%.
Speaker 3:One of the art we put it on our board in front of all employees every single week, where we are on reviews per week by brand and we are at least searching for an average of one per week for every brand. 52 reviews a year. If I owned a business, that would not be my goal. It'd be three, four, depending on how many jobs I perform. It'd be a much bigger goal, but that's our minimal target of are we trying to reach that point from a review generation standpoint, because I think it's going to be crucial. Now we're getting a niche of home services. I can't speak to other franchise industries that you guys work within, but within home services, reviews is going to be probably the most important component.
Speaker 3:But then within every brand we challenge our teams. You have to lay out three organic strategies that are your primary strategies. You could have 12 within your brand and fencing, but you have to lay out three organic strategies that you know drive appointments each week to the franchisees that you can hand over, train and become better upon every single week as a franchisee to drive business for yourself rather than relying on the paid side. And that's also a learning that we've seen as Horsepower. We've been open.
Speaker 3:We're going into our fourth year, but this training this week actually is our 45th training that we're having for Academy across all horsepower to date and every training we get better. But the trainings that are occurring now franchisees before they open, they're coming to this system and they're and onboarding that got them to this point in Omaha at Academy and now they're actually scheduling appointments. It's a much better feeling for those franchisees when they open next week and they actually have appointments now to go to, but they're doing it on their own. Those are all appointments that they generated based on their activities. That related to the three organic strategies uh, what specific with the brand and it's not the same across our portfolio. Each brand has their three key primary organic strategies, uh, that we believe work across the system and also across the nation.
Speaker 1:I mean any one of our clients that has come out to see you guys, that has come to the, the mothership there, um has come away just blown away With your personnel, your headquarters, your team. People always come back so impressed and you guys have done such a phenomenal job of building a great suite of franchises. And, yeah, it's very exciting and we love working with you guys because we know you take such great care of our clients.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's definitely not easy and nothing that you know we can have all these things in place is still going to require that person to own and operate their local business. And we just do a lot better job, to Terp's credit and the team that he works with. We're just doing a lot better job. More than ever, setting expectations on the front of that business ownership still hard, like we're not solving the fact that it's going to be hard and you're going to have an employee that's the wrong employee and that you're going to have to move on and terminate that person. We can't solve every problem within your business. We hope just to assist and be alongside you while you own that business and put the tools in place to help you. If we could, I'd love to be all share a little bit about Howie, one of our initiatives Jack or Jill I don't know if that's another thing. That kind of wraps it all together.
Speaker 1:I think so. There's one more point that I want to bring up before I forget, and then let's dive into, howie, the thing you mentioned about how the world of marketing and advertising is changing. You know, when Jill and I started Franchise Insiders, we took out a full page ad in Southwest Airlines. That's how we found clients, and then COVID came and Southwest discontinued the magazine, and then we had to find other ways and, like you said, it's changing now, like it used to be. You could get at least for us, we could get a really reliable, you know, multiple on whatever we spent on Google, and over the last year it's really changed. And so you're right, I think AI is playing a role in this. I think we have a lot of different mediums, and so, to all of you out there that are asking yourselves the question should I just start my own business or should I go with horsepower brands? Guys, the beauty of working with a franchisor like horsepower is that they've got their eye on this stuff for you.
Speaker 4:You don't have to figure it out yourself.
Speaker 1:Right, because I'll tell you, as business owners, franchise insiders is our business and we have to figure all that stuff out, whereas we know with a franchise, you guys figure that stuff out and help us to find leads. So I just wanted to point that out. Let's, let's, let's pop into into Howie.
Speaker 3:I love it, I love it. So Howie, really the intention of Howie, I love it, I love it. So Howie, really the intention of Howie is a continuation of customer acquisition and so the easiest for your listeners or for people that ask me, you know what's Howie. You know we are a portfolio of horsepower brands. Horsepower brands customer is the franchisee and we're looking to start businesses in home service and support franchisees in operating it. Howie the customer is the homeowner and really the most important consumer and the entire formula of what we're working within is the homeowner. And how do we get repeat business from that homeowner within this portfolio? So we never looked at that homeowner would be able to see Howie or Horsepower as the platform. Like Horsepower is supporting the franchisees. We build all of our content, seo and marketing to find entrepreneurs that want to start a business through our franchise system under Horsepower. We want to do all the marketing under Howie to target the needs of the homeowner and so Howie can be a comparison to like the Marriott. If you become a Bonvoy member and you're used to staying within Marriott, you just stay within that system and you never really look at the Hilton. You just pick the Marriott. That's in the market that you're traveling to, and so we hope that Howie becomes that, and this is our long-term 10-year target. What we're working towards and we're crawling before we walk with Howie, from a perspective of what we want to accomplish this year alone, is first to get the brand out there, get it out in the digital world the website and all those good things but then get it built into the software tools, because we have multiple CRNs within the brands. But at the end of the day, the easiest thing to bring, invite customers into Howie is once your project's been completed. Now you're being invited into a software tool where you can pay your invoice through Howie and hopefully discover more services across the spectrum. So there's a lot of things that make sense that if you have the ability as a homeowner to afford a project with Gatsby Glass, you're probably on a higher demographic as a homeowner and you might be able now to afford custom blinds for your home, and so you can discover new services across the board within Howie.
Speaker 3:Our early focus for targeting consumers will be consumers. We already work within within our current system. But then long term, you know people always ask is this like an Angie or a Thumbtack? And it could be. You know that comes with heavy marketing dollars and initiatives and investment from a corporate level and we want to first just make sure we have the systems and tools in place to make sure it's a good customer experience for the people we're currently working with, and so we're excited with Howie.
Speaker 3:It's been something that, from a branding perspective, we've known since the early 2022 year, but it doesn't become relevant until we were over 400 franchisees. It doesn't become relevant until we reach a certain size and scope within certain metro markets, and so we're testing it within seven metro markets where we have enough brands and enough franchisees open, where it makes sense to introduce Howie. So we'll even play into as candidates. Look at at horsepower and they might be in Maryland and we only have a Mighty Dog Roofing. Howie won't be introduced initially in certain areas, but where we have density across brands, across franchisees, we can start to introduce Howie to discover more services. Where I think about what it could look like 10 years from now, I get extremely excited, but we are just taking it one financial quarter at a time and taking baby steps to get.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting and I think it, for anyone that's considering, you know, investing and becoming a franchise owner to be able to partner with you guys in whatever brand they choose. It's nice to know that there's such infrastructure, such forward thinking and there's such potential for diversification down the line. That's really what it's what it's all about and I think that's the value you guys bring. If people want to learn more about Horsepower Brands and the different brands you guys have, where should they go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Horsepowerbrandscom, they could do that. They could visit you know you guys and reach out and you give them a much better rundown than a website could. But yeah, just visiting the site directly. We have all the brands, all the different Z services on there.
Speaker 3:We have found that the majority of our clients and franchisees work with people like yourself, Jack and Jill, and, given the complexity, size and scope of what Horsepower Brands looks like, it always does help having someone else on their side just looking at it from a perspective of is it a good opportunity for them or not. We've found that the majority of our candidates that come to Horsepower Brands starts with somebody that's in a position like yourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and that's where I think the perfect solution is. Take a look at Horsepower Brands online and then text us at 305-710-0050 and let's have a conversation. The nice thing about working with franchise consultants like Jill and I is we can go and have conversations with you guys and figure out which of your brands is still available in their market, which ones might make sense for them, and so it's really a nice sort of team effort of working together and helping people explore franchise ownership. But, guys, this has been amazing. Any last thoughts that you want to add?
Speaker 3:I just want to say thank you for taking the time. We appreciate your guys' time here and allowing us to join your podcast and share a little bit about us. We want to empower entrepreneurs to achieve their why, and if that's with Horsepower Brands, we'd love to see that happen, but if it's also with another business somewhere else, we'd love to see that happen too, because we believe in entrepreneurship. We want people to take that step forward, and if it's with Horsepower, even better. But we appreciate just being on this with the two of you and what you guys are doing. Yeah, love it.
Speaker 2:No, I'd second that. Thank you guys very much. You're awesome at what you do and we definitely do love working with these candidates as we work it through. I look as it's more of an educational piece and process and even if horsepower isn't a fit for them, that's totally okay. But I guarantee when they leave our process they're more educated, they have a better idea maybe what they're looking for than they did prior and I really, really appreciate you guys having us on again to be able to talk about horsepower and always a pleasure talking with you guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Terp. You know it was just a few weeks ago, Maybe it was a month ago. We were in San Diego and Terp and I had been working with a client and I think most people we work with together end up being excited and wanting to become business owners but this particular client, he decided that business ownership wasn't for him and and you know, terp and I were talking and just saying you know what, we're glad we were able to see this process through to fruition and and and be able to help him really understand if business ownership is right. And that's what I would say to anyone that's listening who's sitting out there. You know, gosh is it? Can I? Am I wasting people's time? You're never wasting our time.
Speaker 1:We love helping people to explore business ownership and, as you guys said, this is, it's not a small purchase. So that's why we're all here is to help people understand a franchise ownership's right for them and, if so, which brand is right. And you guys thank you for all you do for franchising and for this episode of the we Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack.
Speaker 4:I'm Jill.
Speaker 1:And you're Horsepower Brands. All right, thank you guys. Thank you, guys, for joining us. Take care Peace.