All Successful Business Owners Started Somewhere with Steven Montgomery

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the ideal destination for business professionals with great shows like Latinx in Power. Today, we'll be breaking down how all successful business owners started somewhere. To drop these value bombs, I brought Stephen Montgomery into EO Fire Studios. Stephen is the founder and CEO of Resi Brands, transforming the boring businesses into powerhouses from college dropout to leading the nation's fastest growing home service franchises. He's revolutionizing entrepreneurship with Resi Brands.

0:36And today, we'll talk about We'll talk about the hardest step to take as an entrepreneur. We'll talk about the myths about franchising and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Stephen and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented.

1:09The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Steven, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, what's up everybody, Steven here. Most people don't agree that it is as simple as starting. They think it's more complicated and it's not. Fire Nation, action. Take action. And guess what? Sometimes you're going to stumble, fall on your face, encounter obstacles, challenges, struggles. That's part of it because you learn, you pivot, you adjust, and then you win.

1:54Now, that's why we're talking about how all successful business owners started somewhere. And usually that is step zero. So what is the hardest step for an entrepreneur to take? Talk to us about that. Yeah, I think the hardest step to take for most entrepreneurs is going from zero to one. As I've, you know, I work with a lot of franchise owners. So a lot of our franchisees are first time entrepreneurs. And that first step going zero to one is incredibly difficult. and franchising makes it a lot easier. What I do is I help people get into franchise brands in the home service space. But there's like a thousand decisions that have to be made when you're starting a business and it can be really overwhelming.

2:41And that's why we love franchising because it gets rid of a lot of those decisions. A lot of things have been tried and tested already for you. And so you can kind of jump in more at one rather than at zero. Fire Nation, we want to be there at one, not at zero, which is actually one reason we'll be talking a lot about franchising today, because in my opinion, that kind of allows you to start ahead of the game because you have a proven system. You have a proven product. You have a proven service. You have what the most important thing is, which is a real solution to a real problem. But I want to first talk about the home service revolution.

3:21Tell us more. So the home service revolution is the change that's happening in home services right now. So homes are more expensive than they've ever been. They are also a larger percentage of our income than they ever have been. So whether you're talking about rent, but more importantly, even just a mortgage payment is a larger percentage of a person's income than it ever has been. And then home services, so all the trades people out there, have also raised their prices. So it's just simply more expensive to own a home and maintain a home than it's ever been. And with that, the expectations from customers has skyrocketed.

4:04Where it used to be like a normal thing where you could hire a tradesman or a home service professional, and they could show up late and they could, you know, reek of cigarettes and do sloppy work or not even, sometimes they don't even send the estimate after they come to your home for a quote. You know, it's just like this, they don't call, they don't let you know when they're coming by. There's just all of these issues that people have experienced with home services. And I think the new generation of homeowners is fed up and they're demanding better. and with the rise of technology, there's no excuse to not communicate with your customers.

4:42There's no excuse to not have good systems and processes in place. And it's unacceptable to leave sloppy work and think, well, you know, we're busy, so customers have no choice. I think they have choices and I think because it's so expensive and such a large portion of their income, I think that they want better and they're starting to demand it. And that's kind of where I think that that's the home service revolution. I think things are changing and I think the companies that offer better communication, better services and treat customers well are going to absolutely take over. And that's what we're doing here at Resi.

5:15And let's actually talk about a specific example of that in action. I mean, I know that we talked about the home service revolution as kind of a broad, vague term. What does that actually mean on the ground floor? Like, what does that mean about providing better experiences for customers? Like, give us a real world example. If you today were to, let's say, look for a handyman brand. So I'm about to launch a handyman concept. So this is one that I'm passionate about and that I have been researching a ton on. So if you were going to try to call a handyman to come give you a quote on a few items around your house and you got onto Google or somewhere and you just started dialing, you're going to have a hard time even getting hold of a lot of the companies.

5:58And then if you get a hold of the companies and they agree to come out for a specific time for an estimate, there's a good – let's say you get five that you actually get a hold of. You schedule an appointment. There's a good chance two or three of them don't even show up to the appointment or show up late. Then you now actually have a few that showed up. They look at what you need done, and then they're supposed to send the quote. And then another small percentage of them actually even send the quote. Like some of them will send a quote. I've seen it to where customers have to literally remind the contractor whether that's a painting company.

6:31I'm always like, isn't this how you make your living? I don't get it. Please sell to me. You have to ask them to sell to you. And listen, whatever you're experiencing in the continental United States, multiply that by 135 in Puerto Rico. I mean, if anybody listening right now wants to start a legitimate franchise and any home service revolution down here in Puerto Rico, you will absolutely destroy it because man, Puerto Ricans, they're the nicest culture. They're kind, they're warm, they're welcoming, they're great people, but man, do they hate money. Man, do they really hate service. They just do.

7:09I've had so many people in the past eight years show up, like they're even dressed nicely with a clipboard. We walk around my house. They spend a lot of time with me and then I never hear from them again, ever. It's like, why did we even do the estimate? What was the point of all that time? I don't know. Nobody knows. I think they now think that they've done something positive in their life, although it doesn't do anything for them financially or banks or money in the bank. So let's dive deep on franchising 101. Let's talk about that. Break it down for us from that really great level. I think franchising is kind of misunderstood.

7:48So it has this idea of being kind of lame. I think sometimes people think, oh, those aren't real entrepreneurs. Or sometimes people even think, oh, if you're a franchise owner, you work for the company. It's not even your company. That's not true. In a franchise system, you are the owner of that local business. Like you are 100 % the owner of it. You're just in a licensing agreement using the systems and trademarks of the franchisor. But it is your business. And so that's one of the things that I think a lot of people don't understand. But franchising is much, much bigger than what people realize.

8:26And so the – like I mean literally the NFL and the NBA are franchisors. Right. And people don't even – like that's why we say this franchisor, the franchise when we're talking about sports. because they're literally franchise brands. And so the Dallas Mavericks are a franchisee of the NBA. And I think people don't realize how big it is. And it's more than just the NBA and McDonald's and Burger King. It's also a lot of the local restaurant chain. So you might have like a local favorite restaurant chain. And you're like, ah, these guys started here and there's now 20 or 30 locations in my metropolitan, there's a really good chance the way they got to 20 or 30 was by franchising.

9:13They don't own all of them. And so people don't realize just the large scale that franchising has on the American economy and how great it really is. And so like even a lot of gyms, like, you know, you've got like Anytime Fitness or Orange Theory. Those are franchise brands. And so that's also true in home services. now. Home services are a little bit late to the party. Franchising grew in restaurant and retail first, and now it's growing in home services. And what franchising allows for is a lot of consistency and people to build businesses a lot faster than they would be able to do it on their own.

9:56Fire Nation, a lot of powerful things here. I mean, what I always go back to is when I talk to entrepreneurs about their struggles or obstacles or their challenges, so often it's on processes, on systems. The fact that they just didn't really do a real solution to a real problem. They didn't embark on that journey. So they're just maybe providing a really good solution to a problem that's not that painful or kind of a good solution to a really bad problem. and nobody wants a kind of good solution. Everybody wants the number one solution and that's where franchises come in. Proven systems, proven processes, hiring, supplies, fill in the blank.

10:37That is why it works. I've interviewed the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK like four times now because that person, he just figured it out that people actually want people that are dressed up nicely, that are on time, that don't just stomp into your house with their boots on, but they actually have booties. I mean, it's just these things. they all add up and they all really matter. And we're gonna be talking about the myths of franchising and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Being a small business owner comes with a lot of challenges, especially now. It seems like everyone is working with smaller budgets, shorter timelines, and sky high expectations.

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11:55and you've got HubSpot's all-on-one customer platform. Get ready for growth without the growing pains. Visit hubspot.com slash spotlight to see all the updates. Steven, we're back. And listen, we've talked a lot about franchising because it's very powerful. You've even maybe shared at a high level a couple myths about it where people really mistake about it. People make the mistake of not thinking that NBA teams and professional teams are franchises. they are. They're the franchise. Let's really run down some of the major myths about franchises and then bust those myths. The first major myth is that people have this misconception that you'll be an employee of the brand.

12:39And I kind of touched on that already. It's really, really important one that people understand that as a franchise owner, you are an entrepreneur. Like it is a legit entrepreneurial endeavor. And there are franchisees who've actually become billionaires through franchising. There's a guy who he actually owned 1 ,000 Burger Kings, and he died, but he left it to his family, and his family sold it for a billion dollars. They sold their 1 ,000 Burger Kings, it was like 1 ,100 or something, for a billion dollars. So it's a legit entrepreneurial endeavor to become a franchisee, and in some ways it's easier to scale because you have this partner, the franchisor, who's working with you to help you scale and helping scale that brand across the nation.

13:31And so it's a really, really great opportunity. It's not for everybody. Some people, I think, are better off doing their own thing, especially people who are more creative. Maybe they want their own logo. They want to build something from scratch themselves. They kind of want to do things their own way. Those people would be better off building something of their own completely, including the brand. But for a lot of people, going from zero to one, that 1 ,000 decisions that they have to make to get there is really difficult. And franchising is a legit way for them to become an entrepreneur with basically a business partner.

14:06And so that's kind of the second part of the myth. There's this myth that the franchisee is an employee of the brand, and that's not true. And another part of the myth is that they feel like the franchisee is a customer of the franchisor. And it's really the best way to think about it isn't that way. It's to think of it as their business partners. And so you come into the brand and build it locally. And the franchisor is your partner in the brand to help you do that. And by the way, there are a lot of franchises that do give you quite a bit of flexibility to kind of let that entrepreneur roar within.

14:40I mean, I was just listening the other day to a podcast and they were talking about how a lot of times in McDonald's, and you would think that's kind of one of the most buttoned up franchises where they're like super strict by the book to the rules. They actually thrive when they have like regional McDonald's and the owners there come up with ideas that then work so well, then they spread it out to the rest of the franchises. So a lot of the right franchises actually encourage entrepreneurship. They actually encourage innovation and trying and testing things. So you can still fit within that even if you feel like, hey, I don't want to just jump into to an assembly line, well, a lot of them give you freedom and some opportunities there.

15:20So anything else you want to talk about, Stephen, when it comes to myths about franchising? Yeah, I think the thing that people should know about getting into franchising is that sometimes they think there's not a lot of options. So they will think like, they know these big brands and they're like, I don't really want to own a McDonald's or a Chick-fil-A or an Anytime Fitness. And the other myth is that they're limited on options. And And there's actually 4 ,000 franchise brands in North America. And so there's actually a lot of options. And there's way more types of business that they could franchise than they probably realize.

15:56And so for us, it's home services. That's what we specialize at Resi Brands. We've got three brands with two more about to come out. So we have that one painter, a painting franchise, Garage Up, which is a garage door, epoxy floor and storage. So it's like a garage renovation franchise. And then we have Pink's Window Service, which is window cleaning and pressure washing. And so those are our three main brands right now. We're about to release a handyman brand and a roofing brand as well. And so we're in the home service space. But it's like even if you're not interested in home services, like there's dog grooming.

16:26There's marketing franchises. There's so many different types of franchise brands where somebody else has already written all the SOPs. You don't have to define all the processes and training programs and all that kind of stuff for employees. It's already all ready to go and you get to jump in and start working hard and building something for yourself. Talk to us about Cody Sanchez helping entrepreneurs on a whole new level. So if any of the listeners are familiar with Cody Sanchez, and I would imagine a lot of them are, she's known as kind of the boring business person, right? So she's talked a lot about how the trades and other blue-collar jobs are really underrated and undervalued, and people are making way more money and having really steady income and solid businesses in these more boring places.

17:19It's not the next app. It's not some cool marketing or design job, but it's really steady and proven and tested and really important parts of our economy. And she had historically been really hard on franchises and instead had encouraged people to just buy local businesses that maybe from, you know, a boomer who's trying to retire. However, that's not always the easiest thing. And so her and I got the chance to meet. She reached out to us and saw some of our brands and really liked it. So she did a video about our brand, Pinks and that one painter. And as her and I were just getting to know each other and talking, we just kind of really connected.

17:58and I think had a lot of the same vision for what we wanted to see in the American economy and helping people become entrepreneurs. And so she reached out to me after we had done some of the videos and said, let's talk partnership. And so after a few months of chatting and kind of going through due diligence on both sides, we became business partners. And now Cody Sanchez is co-owner of Resi Brands. Fire Nation, exciting times. This is just the evolution of the world that we live in. People are always testing limits. They're trying new things. They're breaking new grounds. And Steven, if you could give Fire Nation one piece of advice that you would really want to make sure that we walk away with based on this entire conversation we've had today, what would that one piece of advice be?

18:42Go for it. Like a lot of people are not comfortable in, you know, taking that challenge and actually stepping out and taking the leap and starting a business. franchising will help you but it's still going to ultimately be your decision to step out and do it and I think a lot of people are limited by imaginary conversations that they think other people will have about them if they take that bold leap and set bigger goals for themselves and you really have to free yourself of that I've talked to so many entrepreneurs and conversations or thoughts they think other people will have about them is like a huge hugely limiting factor in them stepping out and doing things and you just gotta let go of it stop caring what they think, if they're going to think ill of you for doing more and bettering yourself, then they're not the people you want to impress anyways.

19:30Stephen, if Fire Nation wanted to connect with you, wanted to learn more from you, what would be your call to action for our listeners today? Yeah, I would go to resibrands.com and you can kind of learn a little bit more there and you can also get links to our socials and everything from there. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SM and JLD today, So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Steven in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Steven, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation.

20:05For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Awesome, thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Steven for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? how about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment. My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com.

20:42I will catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.