Responsible Franchising for Entrepreneurs with Aaron Harper

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Business Made Simple. Today, we'll be breaking down responsible franchising for entrepreneurs. To drop these value bombs, I brought Aaron Harper into EO Fire Studios. Aaron transitioned from film and television to franchising, driven by a passion for empowerment and simplifying business ownership. After success with Patch Boys, he ventured to transform Rolling Suds into a franchise, emphasizing responsible franchising principles in transparent communication.

0:36And today, Hey, FarNation, we'll talk about exploring, franchising, transitioning into it, what you need to know, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Aaron and our sponsors. Hustle & Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must-listen. Listen to Hustle & Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts.

1:10Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Aaron, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, John, thanks for having me on. As you become successful, I'm not sure if most people disagree with this, but as you become successful, you're just going to make more and more people angry.

1:49And I don't think that that means you should slow down. In fact, I think that means that you're doing the right thing and you should speed up. And that's just, those are some thoughts I have. Fire Nation, we're talking about responsible franchising for entrepreneurs. And what's pretty interesting, Aaron, is looking in your past, you made quite the leap from Hollywood to franchising, which is a pretty interesting path, a pretty unique path. I want to hear more about that. Tell us that story. I was working in Hollywood. I thought I wanted to be a Hollywood agent. So I graduated college, started working with Academy Award winning actors and writers and directors or Academy Award nominated kind of on the highest levels of the Hollywood industry on my path to become, you know, a bigger agent in the space.

2:51started partying, lost everything and was like, okay, well, what am I going to do now? And, and, you know, when you, when you, when you lose everything, you, you start to really look inward and say, okay, what, what, what's going to make me happy? And, and, and how can I, what, what am I going to seek joy from? And, and so, reached out to a buddy of mine and he was like, you should get into franchise development. And I was like, what's franchise development? And, um, I like many thought that franchising was just McDonald's, um, or Chick-fil-A. I didn't know that there was this whole space in the franchise world where, you know, you could buy a, you know, a, a, a service brand for less than, you know, get in for all in less than a half a million dollars and build considerable wealth.

3:40And so I got involved, um, uh, got involved with a company he worked for which was a carpet cleaning brand and helped lead growth for that. That business was purchased and then they bought a drywall repair brand and then they put me in charge of that and in two years I grew that by 223 locations across the country and became the biggest drywall repair company in the world and eventually I was like, wait a minute, I can do this on my own. I could find a business that I believe in and I could franchise that business and went out and searched for it, met the founders of Rolling Suds in the end of 2022, best business I evaluated.

4:27And I acquired the franchise rights to the business and raised capital and we've been franchising now since 2023. Now that was a good overview, but I want to now kind of go back and dive a little deeper into some of the key moments within that. So I think a lot of our listeners, Fire Nation, you know, they're entrepreneurs or small business owners. They're looking for opportunities to take control of their life, to have success in both business and life. So what were some of the key moments specifically that prompted you to even explore franchising in the first place? I was in a pretty chaotic lifestyle when I was in Hollywood.

5:04It was just like that, that industry is very like doggy dog. It's, it's who, you know, it's everyone's trying to kind of like one up the next person. It's very kind of egotistical and very, uh, you know, and, and I wanted something that had more meaning. Um, and, and the idea of being able to kind of walk someone through becoming a business owner and changing their lives, um, in a really in a way that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to have without franchising was really exciting to me. So kind of just going from something that was more or less unpleasant to being able to guide people into franchise ownership was really exciting.

5:52So we heard about your first foray into legitimate franchising, but if you could really take us there and paint the picture around that, what did that look like? What were some lessons you learned? What were some mistakes you made? Let's really give our listeners some value, some key takeaways that they can apply to their journey. What I learned through making mistakes is that you always want to pre-invest in the growth of the business, which I think is scary for a lot of entrepreneurs. It's like, all right, where are we going to be six to 12 months from now? And who do I need to hire to make sure we get there?

6:31with a lot of the, a couple of the brands I was involved in, I was a W2 employee at those companies, but it was very reactive rather than proactive. So the first would just be, all right, like if you need a coach for, you know, franchisees and you need, you're going to need a coach every 20 franchisees, let's just say like we have 36 franchisees now and we have five business coaches, but I'm doing that because I know where we're going to be a year from now, a year and a half from now. And so pre-investing in the business in terms of human capital is something that I learned kind of the hard way.

7:07The other thing is, is like making sure that the business model allows someone to own a business. Now I'm specifically, for those who are listening, I'm creating, my business is basically creating businesses for other people to buy. And so I have to think about all of the different layers. I have to think about marketing. I have to think about bookkeeping. I have to think about call center. I have to think about insurance. I have to think about supply chain. I have to think about vehicles. And all of that needs to basically be identified before you start selling franchises or bringing in customers, which in my case would be franchisees.

7:48And so kind of having that fully sussed out before kind of bringing the brand to market was something I did really well with and I'm really proud of with the company that I own now. Now, Fire Nation, it's worth spending time evaluating, testing, talking to people, really understanding what it is you're getting into because this is the big step for a lot of the franchises that you're going to be interested in. There's an upfront investment. You're going to have to spend, of course, time, not to mention how you spend your days is how you spend your life. I mean, what do you want to be involved in for your life?

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9:24That's the power of HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more. Do you have a message inside that you know is meant to be shared with the world? Giving a TEDx talk is one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world and Thought Leader can help you get there. Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx talks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest.

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10:35I mean, time flies, especially when you're head down trying to grow your business. But one thing I've done consistently for the past 12 years is check in on where I'm at with my goals. Now is a perfect time to do that. And therapy can be a huge help when it comes to taking stock of progress and making adjustments for the remainder of the year. That's right. Therapy isn't just for those who have experienced trauma. It can be incredibly helpful when it comes to learning how to set boundaries, leveraging your time most effectively, and getting back on track with your goals. Not sure where to start?

11:06Give BetterHelp a try. It's not only super convenient and flexible, it's also easy to dive right in. Just fill out a brief questionnaire online and get matched with a licensed therapist, take a moment, visit betterhelp.com slash fire today to get 10 % off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash fire. Aaron, we're back. And I want to talk specifically about your choice, your decision, your transition into rolling suds. I mean, you learned a lot. You made some mistakes. You had some successes. You inquired, you had some mentorship. Why did you decide to go all in with rolling sides? Talk to us about that transition process and really what painted your picture and what was really definitively important in your decision.

11:56Yeah. So I had a checklist of things I was looking for. And I, I advise anyone who's interested in buying a business as to have, or starting businesses to have a checklist. What are the things that are non-negotiables? And then what are some things that would be kind of like nice to have. And so I had both things. My non-negotiables list was unskilled labor, something that I could teach anyone to do. Total addressable market being massive. So a good mixture between residential and commercial business. Something that was scalable. So easily adding locations and trucks and all that kind of stuff.

12:34High margins, because who doesn't want a high margin business? Something that was niche. I like niche service businesses because it's very easy to identify from a customer's perspective what the business does. It's also kind of easier to scale. I needed something that was a needed service. So, you know, buildings have to be cleaned. And then incredible people behind the brand was first and foremost. And, you know, the founders of Rolling Suds, the Wendling family, like they're just wonderful people. um they uh regularly refer to me now as their third son and it's just an amazing you know family business it's been around for over over three decades and and so those were things that were like non-negotiables there were two things that i was looking for that were hard to find when i was analyzing and i looked at about two dozen different businesses one was um a difference in product offering so a product that no one else in the industry had um that was superior.

13:33And so, you know, they have a proprietary, you know, cleaning process that cleans more effectively and efficiently. We can power wash five stories from the ground. The second, the second piece that I was looking for was little to no competition in the franchise space. When I was looking at different brands, there were, you know, multiple local service providers in every market. And then there were five to 10 franchise brands effectively doing the same thing with a different logo. And when I looked into kind of the power washing industry in general, that didn't exist. There was no national leader.

14:13There wasn't even a regional leader. So I saw an opportunity to basically come to market with a different product that's superior while also being kind of the first national professionalized service provider of the service. I mean, Fire Nation, there's a lot to take away from here. And I hope that you understand now what it takes and why it's important to have a list, to have a checklist, like Aaron was talking about, that are non-negotiables for you, that are nice to haves. And that's really going to make sure that you're checking the boxes. And so that when you're getting into something, like you're getting into the right thing for the right reasons.

14:47I mean, I love that unique superior product idea. I mean, something that really stands out. So you can kind of have your chest puffed out and say like, we offer this. It's the best in the world because of this reason. You can say that with confidence, with truth, with sincerity. I mean, that's massive. And then the low to no competition. I mean, looking around and just saying, you know, nobody's really doing this well. Nobody's really doing this at all. Or people are really missing this opportunity. There's a void. There's a niche in the marketplace that I can fill. And I think right now, Aaron, like a lot of people are probably listening to this and are fired up about franchising because they understand that there's some benefits to it that just your own individual startup's not going to have.

15:30There's pros and cons, like everything in life. But in your opinion, what are some of the biggest pros about franchising specifically? I think there's a lot of misconceptions about franchising. I think that, A, look at me coming into it. I thought it was just McDonald's and Chick-fil-A. So people think about that or they kind of think it's there's, you know, there's going to be too many rules and they're not business owners or they have a job. Like every franchisee that we've signed up, it's very much a franchisee's business. There's structure around it, but that's because it takes a lot of time for someone to create that structure themselves.

16:09So, you know, one of the biggest benefits of becoming a franchisee is all that time it would take to figure out what kind of marketing strategies and what kind of insurance and creating a website and a logo and a name and a tagline and, you know, everything that goes into it, like that would take a lot of time. And when you're, when you're buying a franchise, you're, you're, you're using one form of leverage, which is money to get another form of leverage, which is time. And, um, and, and so some of the major kind of key benefits would be there's a community of people all doing the same thing in different markets that you can share and bounce ideas off of that.

16:49That right there has a tremendous amount of value. We have marketing structures, so like generating leads for franchisees. We have a call center. We have obviously training. I've taken 34 years of knowledge in the power washing space, and I've condensed it down into a nine-week virtual and in-person training program. And so you effectively, when buying a franchise, get to skip all of the heartache and capital and time that goes into figuring out what works and really just kind of get to step into that right away. And I think that's just one of the overall benefits of buying the right brand, but that's where it comes down to.

17:35You have to find the right franchise brand that has the skill sets and the knowledge necessary to support franchisees. And Fire Nation, on that topic, I really want to move into responsible franchising because I think this is a word and just a theme that you've really bought into, Aaron. So tell us why. So I started writing about responsible franchising like about a year and a half ago. And it's really picked up a lot of steam in the franchise industry. In fact, it's now kind of the key talking point. And I think it's because just people in kind of my generation who are, you know, mid 30s and going to be want the franchise industry to be in a good spot 20, 30 years from now are looking at some of these bad practices that some people have heard about or whatever in the franchise space and saying, hey, this isn't okay.

18:32This isn't right. And so it's really kind of become somewhat of a movement in the franchise industry on just how can we, as an industry, shine a light on some bad actors and highlight positive practices of being more transparent, making sure that people come to franchising with the right expectations, whether they are a franchisee or a franchisor, you know, and making sure that everyone has the capital necessary to be successful, both franchisees and franchisors. So I proposed, you know, about I proposed four core tenants of responsible franchising. And now those have kind of become the key talking points.

19:17So that's kind of setting clear expectations is the first one. The second one is capital adequacy. The third is choosing the right franchisees. We turn away more franchisees than we bring in. We've actually turned away a little over$10 million in revenue from 59 prospective franchisees because I just know who's going to be successful and who's not. And then the fourth is sustainable growth. So making sure that the franchisors are signing up the right amount of franchisees that they can actually support to open and also support to profitability. And so kind of changing a lot of these behaviors that have been around too long, frankly, and acknowledging that and saying, okay, this is what we're going to do differently now.

20:02And so it's a really exciting time in the franchise industry. This is a topic that everyone's talking about. So Aaron, you've dropped a lot of value bombs around this topic of franchising. If you wanted to step back and really help Fire Nation understand what you think is the key takeaway of this entire conversation, what would that be? Buying a franchise is an incredible opportunity to build wealth. And it seems crazy to say that as if it's like some big truth bomb. But I would say that a large part of the external population doesn't think that. but like I you know finding the right brand I don't think there's a quicker way to wealth generation than finding the right brand you think about people who bought into orange theory fitness in like 2013 2014 first of all people probably thought they were insane like what do you mean you're just gonna buy this gym that's all orange inside but they probably got in got 13 studios that are each spitting out two to four five million dollars a year in cash flow and they're good.

21:08But like if they didn't find the right brand and get in on that, it would have been a real big challenge. And so I think the key takeaway for people that are listening is like franchising is a great mechanism for either growing your existing business that you own or or saying, hey, I want to start a business. And, you know, entrepreneurship through acquisition is really big right now. ETA, it's big in the SMB Twitter space where I'm really active. But really, a lot of those people who have been searching for a business to buy for 12 months are like, well, wait a minute, what's the opportunity cost of me searching for another 12 months?

21:44What if I just buy a brand and start it? And that's my first business. And maybe the second one is acquiring the$7 million HVAC business or whatever it is. And so that's the key takeaway I think your listeners should take with them. And Aaron, if Fire Nation wanted to connect with you, wanted to learn more about things that you share. What is your call to action for Fire Nation today? Yeah, I put a ton of content out every day on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So my Instagram is Aaron T. Harper. I put out at least one video per day of a full content team. My Twitter is Aaron Harper CEO. And then if you just type in Aaron Harper, rolling suds on LinkedIn, I'll be the first thing that comes up.

22:33and very active in the small business Twitter space, very active on LinkedIn. And I just try to add as much value as possible for those who are thinking about becoming a franchisee or a franchisor. Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with AH and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Aaron, A-A-R-O-N, in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop right up. And Aaron, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side.

23:11Thanks so much, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Aaron for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs are great at three things, productivity, discipline, focus. That is why I created the Mastery Journal so that you can master productivity, discipline, and focus in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. visit themasteryjournal.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side.

23:59giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training, where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.