In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew welcome special guest Nick Heye. Nick talks about his experience entering the franchise world with Rolling Suds, a power washing and exterior cleaning company. Nick was the fourth franchisee in a new system that has now grown to nearly one hundred, and shares his insights on the challenges and rewards of building a business from the ground up.
We discussed the importance of a good franchisor, lessons learned, and the pros and cons of franchising, as well as Nick’s personal journey from finance to entrepreneurship. This is one of the only discussions that we had surrounding a franchise, and it is interested to hear the pros and cons compared to other entrepreneurship routes. Nick gives good insight to making the proper decisions, how to treat others, and tips into running a quality business set to grow and succeed.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- Transition from Finance to Franchising
- How to Franchise
- Marketing Strategies to Grow
You can connect with Nick by Twitter (X): @hokieheye
Additional Resources:
- Work with a Trusted Quality of Earnings and Financial Diligence Partner who focuses solely on Business Acquisitions: Schedule a discovery call with Patrick of O’Connell Advisory Group—Your Dynamic Quality of Earnings Partner
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SrLKmqQbwWHMMVCix4IIo?si=a52bd92eb1854e01
Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/buying-growing-a-power-washing-franchise-with-nick-heye/id1740382586?i=1000683370874
Attend Upcoming M&A Launchpad Conference: http://malaunchpad.com/
Transcript
00:00 all right on today’s episode we
00:01 interviewed Nick High where we talked a
00:03 lot about what it looks like to you know
00:06 hop straight into a franchise right not
00:08 only did he hop straight into it it was
00:09 really an early franchise where the
00:11 franchisor you know was really just
00:13 getting started and he was franchisee
00:15 number four and we kind of talked about
00:17 the ups and downs and specifically right
00:19 he was in the pressure washing and
00:21 commercial cleaning business so Casey
00:23 what were some of your takeways yeah you
00:24 know uh when you meet somebody that
00:26 seems like they’re having fun even
00:28 though they they’re mixed with a ton of
00:29 challenges I mean Nick is having fun
00:32 he’s he’s a competitor tell he wants to
00:34 compete he wants to be great he wants to
00:36 go to work he does not mind putting in
00:38 the hard work and he’s pretty damn
00:40 honest so I I’ll tell you man I I I
00:42 think that’s a pretty cool franchise I
00:44 think it’s a pretty cool concept and
00:45 what a great way to build something buy
00:47 territories and and and hopefully make a
00:49 lot of money no he kind of talks about
00:51 it right I mean he enjoys the thrill of
00:52 the competition he doesn’t want to waste
00:54 his time picking a logo getting a
00:56 website up right all the stuff that the
00:57 franchisor handles for them and so again
00:59 I mean you know we kind of talked about
01:01 it during The Rocker round I mean he
01:02 spends his Thursdays playing competitive
01:04 games and kind of shows in in the
01:06 business that he’s building right and
01:08 and this is a competitive game we are
01:09 playing a competitive game it’s a
01:10 perfect place and uh so man I think this
01:13 podcast was great all right perfect
01:15 let’s get
01:19 started all right guys just take one
01:21 second here real quick when you’re
01:23 buying a business ensuring the financial
01:24 health of the company is critical and
01:26 that’s where a quality of earnings
01:27 partner comes in quality of earnings
01:29 gives you confidence and the financials
01:30 of the company that you’re purchasing it
01:32 aims to protect your investment and
01:34 ensure that you’re stepping into a
01:35 profitable business on Daya Patrick of
01:38 okal Advisory Group is your Dynamic
01:39 quality earnings partner he’s here to
01:41 help you buy the right business on your
01:43 timeline Patrick’s entire practice is
01:45 focused on business Acquisitions your
01:47 Niche is his niche in over the past
01:49 decade Patrick’s helped more than 200
01:51 buyers like yourself successfully
01:52 purchase and operate enduring profitable
01:55 businesses in fact Patrick’s helped some
01:56 listeners of this show so if you’re
01:58 buying looking for help with a qu of
02:00 earnings Financial due diligence Network
02:02 capital and more head to oconnell
02:04 advisory group.com or just click the
02:06 link in the show notes hey Nick welcome
02:08 to the show hey thanks for having me
02:10 guys you bet man so go ahead and tell us
02:13 a little bit about you uh yeah so I’m 34
02:17 living in Oldtown in Alexandria just
02:19 outside of DC I’ve owned a couple of
02:22 businesses started in high high-end
02:25 personal finance but my first job ever
02:28 was cold calling and then I later went
02:30 and got into product distribution and
02:33 had a business setup that was very
02:35 similar to franchise and then I ended up
02:38 doing a search looking for a business to
02:40 buy or a franchise to start and I
02:43 settled on a company called rolling Suds
02:47 and I’m about 17 months in or so all
02:50 right exciting so so really quick let’s
02:52 unpack that a little bit so you
02:54 mentioned product distribution was that
02:55 a business you just worked at a business
02:57 that you you know co-owned or what’s the
02:59 what was the background there and what
03:00 led you to go off and do the search yeah
03:03 so it under it operated under it was
03:05 called jobber was the part of the law
03:07 but it it basically made a segment of
03:10 their business yours and you got
03:12 basically $10.99 into it but basically
03:15 what it meant is that I had a
03:17 overarching brand in front of me and
03:19 then I had a territory that was my own
03:22 with expectations and if I was to be
03:25 bought out or had to get out I would get
03:28 what what I everything I put in and the
03:30 equipment and whatever Reserve revenues
03:32 were coming back so operated a little
03:34 bit like myself in my own but it was not
03:37 completely my own but had an exit from
03:39 that got it I mean it sounds almost like
03:42 a franchise right so and that’s how I
03:44 end up in franch yeah and so I guess
03:47 what didn’t you like about that model
03:49 and what what led you to want to start
03:50 searching for something else I the time
03:53 had come with between the between me and
03:56 the um overarching large larger Network
03:59 it was in indry I didn’t love never
04:01 really wanted to be in it that long was
04:03 one of those situations where you’re
04:05 just making a decent amount of money and
04:07 you’re not really sure when you should
04:09 leave and it just became time it it was
04:11 time to go I was mentally hooked I I
04:15 didn’t have much left uh it exhausted me
04:17 to an extent just waking up and going so
04:20 I wanted to try something different but
04:22 I I honestly feel that way about almost
04:24 everything I probably have about 10
04:26 years in me before I have an itch to
04:28 like just start something break
04:30 something new whatever it is there you
04:32 go well that’s the entrepreneur in you
04:34 right it’s the it’s we a lot of us have
04:36 a short attention span decided for a
04:38 period of time we we have the discipline
04:40 to sustain through and then once it’s
04:44 stabilized and it’s rolling it’s like
04:45 hey what’s next you know and that’s
04:47 that’s kind of how we start to think
04:48 about life yeah and there’s something
04:51 exciting about meeting new people all
04:53 the time and and getting out of an old
04:55 regiment that I I really enjoy and then
04:57 also just tackling something that I have
04:59 no understanding of
05:00 just getting it wrong until I get it
05:02 right is kind of the con I love that so
05:04 so you decided to leave that business
05:06 and go do something really easy right go
05:07 to a search or franchise so you know I
05:11 think that’s going to be part of the
05:12 themes of this this podcast but you know
05:13 walk us through the surge we have that
05:16 unfold then ultimately how’ you end up
05:17 landing on the franchise yeah I so I
05:20 started off I was like all right cool
05:22 let’s take some time to like mentally
05:24 come back down to earth and find out
05:26 where I am emotionally so I don’t make a
05:28 rash decision um so kind of took a month
05:32 or so off walked my dog a lot and then
05:36 um started talking to Brokers found a
05:38 lot of them off of Twitter and started
05:40 to figure out how buy and sell worked of
05:43 older businesses everyone talks about
05:45 the silver tsunami all the time and so
05:47 we’re we’re starting to get to the edge
05:49 of that if it doesn’t indeed exist so I
05:52 started talking and I started to figure
05:54 out the downside risk of it was
05:56 outrageous without a lot of capital so
05:58 you could go through do diligence and
06:01 spend half a million dollars and it and
06:03 and you know it might not even work out
06:04 past that so that’s slightly out of the
06:06 risk tolerance that I I wanted to go
06:09 after I also younger and I look younger
06:12 and so I I think that me going into
06:15 someone else’s business would have been
06:17 a significant challenge there’s a
06:19 reality that exists in life and how you
06:22 present yourself and what you look like
06:23 still unfortunately matters so I think
06:25 that would have been a challenge and I
06:28 also realized that I thrive under a
06:30 certain type of system um and one of
06:32 them was very limited support where I
06:35 don’t have to do the little nitty-gritty
06:36 things that I’m not obsessed with like I
06:39 don’t really want to pick out a logo um
06:41 I don’t really want to find out what the
06:42 car WP looks like I don’t particularly
06:44 care about those points but I do love
06:46 like the buy and sell and finding new
06:48 customers and doing all that kind of
06:50 stuff so went through a lot of franchise
06:52 Brands my heart was set on Boutique
06:55 Finance or uh excuse me Boutique Fitness
06:58 I was a big orange the for about 5 years
07:01 oh yeah yeah man and then I ended up
07:03 just meeting Aaron Harper with rolling
07:05 Suds and and kind of liked how the model
07:07 worked and felt like that was time to go
07:10 there’s a lot of good stuff there I I I
07:12 will tell you that you know I also went
07:14 through the franchise experience
07:17 multiple times my wife ended up doing a
07:20 franchise uh for about four years before
07:22 she took it she did what she was doing
07:24 was there so the a lure of a franchise
07:28 right it has it has the system already
07:30 built right it has hopefully some market
07:33 share where it tells you where to do
07:34 your business at gives you some of a lot
07:36 of that and some brand recognition right
07:39 but then there’s also some other sides
07:40 to it which you know you you give up a
07:42 royalty right so there’s a there’s a
07:45 royalty off the top of your Revenue
07:47 there is some say with things that you
07:48 do so there are some tradeoffs in that
07:50 franchise so what have you liked about
07:52 the franchise and what do you not like
07:54 about the franchise and and and you said
07:56 nothing’s off limit so no yeah go I had
07:58 to ask yeah hit me man I’ll tell you the
08:01 truth so I think franchising is very
08:03 interesting I met a bunch of friends
08:05 flying around to different Discovery
08:07 days I still talk to almost all of them
08:10 about three of them have sued their
08:12 franchise or and have gotten out of what
08:14 they were doing and then the other two
08:16 are are thriving and doing very well in
08:18 their system I think it’s such an
08:20 interesting choice getting into it and
08:22 how these franchise ores Act is so
08:25 interesting because almost all of them
08:27 will have something wrong if it’s brand
08:30 new and how they react and how they fix
08:33 it is what is most important in my mind
08:36 I’ve had a huge influence over our
08:38 franchise if we’re being very Frank I
08:40 was the fourth franchisee in the system
08:43 I’m currently president of our advisory
08:45 committee so I represent all of our
08:47 franchisees to the board and kind of
08:49 argue our stance for them the best that
08:52 I can and the interesting part about
08:54 that is since I’m the first one I have
08:57 to play this weird Middle Ground all the
08:59 time not to rock the boat but still get
09:01 things done and so it’s interesting
09:03 watching how franchise ores work and
09:05 where they’re good and they’re bad and
09:06 and so the positive of what ours has
09:08 been is we’ve been extremely flexible
09:11 when things have gone wrong and we’ve
09:12 grown a little too fast we have a great
09:14 sales funnel at the front rolling suds
09:16 but we we broke fundamentally in the
09:19 spring we just did and I had to kind of
09:22 I held it all hands on meeting and kind
09:25 of we we kind of cleared the air got
09:27 everything fixed up and and now we’re
09:29 back in into full growth mode but it is
09:32 interesting watching something grow so
09:34 dang fast and then just watch it
09:36 break dealing with that it sounds like
09:39 you’re so in your experience not only
09:41 are you a franchisee you really are a
09:43 part of the the early stage of a
09:46 franchise right so you’re kind of
09:49 playing dual roles right I not only am I
09:51 a part of the system but I also want to
09:53 help guide the system so I have a
09:55 business flourishing five 10 years down
09:57 the road right yeah and so that’s what
09:60 I’m really looking at is like I’m
10:01 thinking about it as my long-term
10:03 investment how can I slightly push us
10:06 into the correct direction I do not work
10:09 for the franchise or I need them to
10:11 succeed at the end of the day they are
10:14 all great people who work very very hard
10:16 we just had some people in it who you
10:18 know either needed more power less power
10:20 more resources less resources some
10:22 systems that we had working in the
10:24 beginning that worked for me absolutely
10:27 did not work once we scaled like not at
10:30 all it looked terrible and we cleaned it
10:32 up and to the franchise or’s credit they
10:35 accepted that and they didn’t have to
10:37 they could have told you you’re out of
10:39 luck but we made some awesome hires
10:41 cleaned stuff up that just didn’t work
10:43 for the new franchisees and we’re
10:45 constantly doing that we’re even looking
10:47 at a new CRM even though we changed last
10:50 year we’re just part of growth you know
10:52 is it it’s really really hard I don’t
10:55 mind them leaning on me and and and the
10:58 other people on our board or advisory
11:01 committee to do that it’s great that
11:02 they ask that but that’s part of the fun
11:04 of being you know the fourth person in
11:06 something that you don’t really know
11:07 what it’s going to be you know so
11:09 question just so for our listeners right
11:11 what does rolling Suds do right as a
11:13 company right because I think people you
11:15 know Suds is very loose interpretation
11:17 and then um in addition for that right
11:20 what you know what is the franchisor
11:22 actually giving you right you know what
11:24 are the valuable things that they’re
11:25 adding for you right especially whenever
11:27 you’re number four what made you decide
11:29 hey I’m latch my wagon with them versus
11:31 trying to start my own you know from
11:32 scratch totally fair so rolling Suds is
11:36 is a power washing and exterior cleaning
11:39 company and our primary focus is the mid
11:41 and mid and upper Market of cleaning
11:44 things so think about the condominium
11:47 that has 10 buildings in it like four
11:50 sets of apartments and then there’s 10
11:51 of those or like a a seven story tall
11:55 building we our expertise is is is
11:58 cleaning those things and really what
11:59 rolling Suds is bringing to the game is
12:02 capacity and a brand we’re entering in a
12:05 space where there are a lot of comp
12:07 competitors but more often than not
12:09 they’re not using soap or they’re not
12:12 they don’t quite have the equipment to
12:13 tackle very large jobs it’s one of those
12:15 spaces where people do not invest their
12:17 money to an extent that you might think
12:19 for for what is required um and that’s
12:22 really what rolling Suds is is bringing
12:24 the best equipment we can think of and a
12:26 lot of capacity so all my trucks are big
12:29 giant f 550 box trucks 900 gallons of
12:32 water at a time and and so that we’re
12:34 able to do that and at the same time we
12:36 still service the lower end businesses
12:38 and in fact I view them as vital to our
12:40 company and I kind of tell everybody as
12:42 such but yeah that’s our primary focus
12:44 is is is that is that upper to Middle
12:47 tier Market Commercial side and is there
12:49 a style that you guys are cleaning in a
12:50 different way instead of like just the
12:52 guy that did like for instance person we
12:54 always have somebody come out pressure
12:55 wash our driveway and our house and do
12:57 all stuff once a year and it’s that you
12:59 know you know usually have like a little
13:01 like there’s equipment but it seems like
13:03 when you start getting commercial
13:05 there’s even some serious equipment
13:06 right so you guys rolling out like
13:08 things that can knock it out real quick
13:11 you know driveways are like done in you
13:13 know in half the time is some because we
13:15 think pressure washing right you think
13:16 of somebody with a pressure washer
13:18 spraying and I imagine yes that still
13:20 exists but then there’s true so like a
13:23 lot of what the difference is is I tell
13:25 people my job is not all that different
13:26 than mowing your lawn you can do it if
13:29 you want still takes a lot of time and
13:31 you got to do it when it’s 90 degrees
13:32 out what we really have is equipment
13:35 that can both soft wash and power wash
13:37 so that means our equipment can
13:38 chemically spray and it can also power
13:40 wash and yet we can do a driveway that
13:43 would probably take you all of Sunday
13:45 and you’d still be a little disappointed
13:46 in it yep in about 30 minutes oh wow
13:50 yeah it’s cheating it really is and so I
13:53 am rapidly gaining Market chair and
13:55 cleaning parking garages and I’ve been
13:57 asked to kind of slow down like how good
13:59 we’re doing because the drains can’t
14:02 quite keep up and so I’ve like came up
14:04 with new ideas on how to pull up S and
14:06 stuff that was been sitting in those
14:07 garages for 30 years but it really is
14:09 one of those businesses that all of a
14:12 sudden everyone knows you and they’re
14:13 like wait you can do that are you
14:14 serious and you’ll do it for how much
14:17 and I’m below market pricing I’m here to
14:19 gain market share and friends and
14:21 nothing else the margins will come
14:23 there’s a day for that so is it does are
14:25 you going to get into like uh inter like
14:27 so for instance we have a we have a
14:29 chrome plate facility okay so feris and
14:31 I acquired that last year 170,000 square
14:34 ft and the floors are awful like we have
14:37 always walked around going man it would
14:38 be awesome to clean this stuff now
14:40 that’s commercial stuff right but but is
14:42 that not commercial but that’s
14:44 industrial cleaning internally is that
14:46 something you see yourself venturing
14:48 into yeah yeah that stuff’s great
14:52 especially if we can figure out and and
14:54 that’s the so we were talking about I
14:56 don’t think I quite answered but we were
14:57 talking about like what the value of a
14:59 franch es right is you guys I have been
15:02 going since the middle of March until
15:04 about a week ago at least 10 hours a day
15:08 most of them are 15 hours a day it’s a
15:10 lot I did not have time to think about a
15:13 lot of things and now that it’s finally
15:16 slowed down like it’s 45 out in DC today
15:19 it is wild how much thought and and time
15:23 needs to go into doing exactly kind of
15:25 what you guys are doing we are quite
15:27 literally producing right now as company
15:30 a new type of truck that’ll just reclaim
15:32 water right as it goes down so it’ll
15:34 clean get sucked back up through filters
15:36 back through constantly cleaning the
15:38 same surfaces but retaining water so in
15:41 that type of situation you’re good to go
15:43 we’re not going to have any flooding
15:45 we’re not going to any issues a huge
15:47 Advantage again but here’s the deal that
15:49 equipment is like 40 Grand right so like
15:52 not everybody has the capital to pursue
15:54 that and because we’re in a franchise
15:56 we’re able to negotiate better leasing
15:58 terms purchasing power and and that kind
16:01 of a thing that really gives us a huge
16:03 Advantage also I did not have to sit
16:05 there and figure out how the heck all
16:07 that tubing and piping is going to work
16:09 whatever weird vacuums water creates so
16:12 there’s this huge Advantage where I
16:13 don’t have to spend my time on that and
16:14 I’m constantly working on the business
16:16 as opposed to trying and figure out how
16:17 the heck that pump works yeah and and so
16:20 what was a startup cost for that
16:22 business whenever you first got in and
16:24 what is that today so it’s
16:26 $39,900 of territory I started with four
16:29 ter territories and then I
16:31 put you didn’t Syndicate or borrow
16:34 anything that was all your money right
16:35 so you have no
16:38 investors see how it goes do a search
16:41 search you like at all yeah you’re more
16:44 of an independent sponsor you did
16:45 yourself so yeah wasn’t terrifying uh I
16:48 remember I actually told the CEO I was
16:51 like you better be the same dude after I
16:53 signed this check than uh you as you
16:55 were before no surprises please I think
16:57 it was about so I had before four
16:59 teritories at $399 and then I had um
17:02 $20,000 down payment and then we used to
17:05 have this thing called a new business
17:07 set part of the thing that broke as we
17:09 expanded but the concept was is it was a
17:11 pool of money that would try to help you
17:14 not think about your advertising and all
17:16 this type of stuff to try and just give
17:17 you a nice Runway just it didn’t work at
17:20 scale that’s what royalties are for
17:21 that’s shouldn’t all that be going
17:23 towards that yeah I got it yeah yeah so
17:27 what we ended up having is I I think
17:28 it’s
17:30 what was I in like 250 somewhere in
17:32 there and what about the equipment yeah
17:34 so it was part of the lease so we leased
17:35 it all through the truck so the truck
17:38 was leased through the equipment there
17:39 was I think like 30 or 40 Grand where I
17:42 I bought stuff for the warehouse I got
17:44 these 2,000 gallon water tank couple um
17:48 chemical tanks got it so you had kind of
17:50 your own knicknacks that you had to take
17:51 care of but the franchisor helped
17:54 obviously find the trucks get you on a
17:56 lease for those trucks and kind of run
17:58 from there okay and and has that changed
18:00 much 17 months later as the kind of the
18:03 the franchise kind of got got its
18:05 footing it has the shirts you guys the
18:07 shirts look like you were Count Dracula
18:08 they were terrible it’s the first thing
18:10 I made fun of the first yard sign that I
18:13 got you guys was half the size of my
18:14 couch it was outrageously big I was like
18:16 dude he was like we didn’t know um yeah
18:21 our manufacturing capacity is actually
18:23 quite literally the opposite of what it
18:24 was now the founders of the original
18:27 company um have taken over manufacturing
18:29 so they started their own company that
18:32 coincides with ours it’s called rolling
18:34 studs products but they now manufacture
18:35 all of our trucks they copy their setup
18:39 that they’ve done for 20 years or 30
18:41 years and then um they’re working on
18:43 Innovations so this company that
18:45 coincides with ours it gives us special
18:47 pricing access to Specialty Chemicals
18:50 access the parts that are really hard to
18:52 source and then you know Replacements
18:54 advice on when something’s going wrong
18:56 all those little nitty-gritty things
18:58 that you don’t really want to worry
18:59 about so honestly when you’re in a panic
19:01 equipment wise there’s always somebody
19:03 who knows how to make this work again
19:05 got it but in terms of startup and
19:07 everything else so if I’m a new I want
19:09 to be a brand new franchisee it’s
19:11 roughly the same priceing it hasn’t
19:12 changed significantly so I think it yeah
19:14 it has it’s gone up it’s like
19:16 54,000 territory I think and how they do
19:20 the new business set that whole thing is
19:22 gone and we’ve also found a much better
19:25 way to get people started so when you
19:27 start with us now we’ve got got cold
19:29 callers for you we’ve got cold emailing
19:32 we have all these different vendors that
19:33 we’ve set up and and have really started
19:36 to get people to 20 and $40,000 their
19:39 first month my first month I think I
19:41 made Seven Grand six that was actually a
19:43 good segue because I want to understand
19:45 like you know what’s kind of been
19:46 revenues and what are margins so you
19:48 know kind of where have your grown it to
19:49 today and how many employees are we
19:50 talking about right now sure so I burned
19:53 money I just did in the first part of it
19:55 I was not familiar I had never been in
19:57 Home Services didn’t know how I
19:59 advertising worked I also kept on
20:02 employees and guaranteed them 40 hours a
20:04 week for about 6 months and we my break
20:08 even at the time was about 20 grand and
20:11 I got there in my second month second
20:14 and third month so I started to break
20:16 even fairly quickly which I was very
20:17 proud of and that had that’s actually
20:19 what got me excited is it power washing
20:21 slows down and the late October and is
20:24 kind of dead on the residential side
20:26 past November so past um excuse me past
20:28 Thanksgiving I was breaking even so the
20:30 commercial model was working which I
20:32 thought was very exciting so I ended up
20:34 buying more territory in January so I
20:37 could keep people out of Northern
20:38 Virginia well the spots that I wanted
20:41 and then um did one more where I was
20:43 getting a lot of commercial business
20:44 that I wanted to protect so I have six
20:46 territories um but in terms of how it
20:48 goes for everyone else they’re much
20:50 faster to profit and break even they
20:53 still kind of hover in the 20s and 40s
20:55 at the time if we’re talking about
20:57 actual profit margins
20:59 and and where I am now versus then I was
21:02 breaking even and kind of just pushing
21:04 everything back in the business nowadays
21:06 I would tell you that my I actually just
21:08 had my highest month at 138,000 in
21:11 October and ended up working on a
21:13 military base which is my new claim to
21:15 fame before and after photo because it’s
21:17 outrageous how good it is but I was on
21:19 an 80 foot manlift so you know
21:22 apparently I’m not afraid of heights uh
21:24 but yeah awesome awesome we did an
21:26 awesome job and we just kind of it wild
21:29 how the longer you’re in this the amount
21:31 of people are like hey I heard you did
21:33 this thing can you do that here and
21:35 what’s that cost word of mouth is
21:37 valuable and you’re not limited right
21:39 the franchise doesn’t say hey these are
21:40 the only things you can do so it sounds
21:42 like you’re able to just expand your
21:44 Horizon and focus on that part of the
21:46 business finding new business yeah I
21:49 mean the only thing that we really don’t
21:51 want to get into is window cleaning I
21:53 think I’m going to have some type of
21:54 solution where instead of window
21:57 cleaning and window washing I’m I’d like
21:59 to have like an osmosis machine attached
22:01 to the side of my truck I want to offer
22:03 it as an add-on people it’s very
22:05 interesting in this space how often
22:07 people want good and not great um or
22:09 they’re okay with good and not great on
22:11 some things so for example I probably
22:13 could have added $5,000 to that last big
22:16 job that I talked about the military
22:18 base was 72,000 or so I probably could
22:21 have added five grand onto it if I could
22:23 have just been like hey I’ll make your
22:24 windows a little bit better cuz we left
22:25 them a little dirty but hey I told you
22:27 they were going to be dirty so uhhuh
22:30 yeah so I mean so you’re on track
22:31 roughly you know maybe 1.3 to 1.5
22:34 million of Revenue right annualize that
22:36 sound about right kind of where it is
22:38 starting from zero to that yeah if we’re
22:40 keeping months not too bad impressive
22:43 finish here about 800 or the calendar
22:46 year but you can the fun part about this
22:49 is you can feel it you can feel it
22:51 growing I found it there’s this one
22:53 competitor that I know is just going to
22:55 beat me up one day because I keep doing
22:57 a way better job at about half the price
22:60 you’re having fun with us I can tell
23:01 just from your from energy it’s just one
23:03 of those things where we’re not friends
23:05 my dude and I’m coming for you and it is
23:08 what it is I hope you come for me too
23:09 spend the money and see if you can do
23:12 it
23:13 you yeah so you basically closing out
23:16 roughly 800 you’re projecting you know,
23:18 1500 or sorry 1.5 over the next year so
23:21 you’re really you know you’re doubling
23:22 each year right that’s kind of the
23:24 growth right right now I and I I think
23:26 that’s very possible what I’ve done so I
23:29 wasted a lot of money in 2024 things
23:32 that were broken that I didn’t know how
23:33 to fix I now know how to fix them oh boy
23:35 did we make some mistakes we killed an
23:37 elevator in on July 3rd great day to
23:40 kill an elevator one of my newest
23:42 employee pushed some water into a garage
23:44 and you know it’s what we have insurance
23:46 for and we’ve also marketing I have
23:49 tried literally everything I could find
23:51 on the internet X Twitter anything and
23:54 everything that everybody said was good
23:56 or bad I wanted to try so I’ve had cold
23:58 C I’ve got guys posting in Facebook
24:00 groups for me I’m in magazines I wanted
24:04 the idea of how I like to build things
24:06 is a very strong Foundation I need my
24:09 name out there I need rolling suds out
24:11 there um and I want these trucks running
24:13 as much as possible got it so yeah I
24:16 mean so then maybe and then what’s the
24:17 margin
24:18 typically around
24:20 50% and honestly it’s it’s a good deal
24:23 higher on a bunch of stuff I I say all
24:26 the time I love parking garages cuz my
24:28 my margins being around 90% or yeah know
24:31 those kind of business
24:33 that’s that’s the beautiful thing of
24:35 those kind of businesses right they are
24:36 high margin now you do have to work hard
24:38 to get the contracts you have to manage
24:40 a lot more people but I mean it’s it’s a
24:42 nice high margin business right so Casey
24:44 and I we’re in the wrong business I mean
24:45 you know plating business not so high
24:46 margin well it can be it can be it’s
24:49 just got a lot of other cost to it Nick
24:51 one of the things when we were getting
24:52 kicked off here you started talking
24:53 about um that I thought was great kind
24:55 of as we’re getting into wrapping it up
24:57 so part of the Reas Reon why you’re here
24:60 is to mention that it’s just not easy
25:02 right this this this process you make it
25:04 sound fun you’re smiling all this good
25:07 stuff right but uh yeah what’s the truth
25:10 there the truth is that man isn’t mind
25:14 numbing sometimes there were there was a
25:17 two and a half week period where I was
25:19 doing about 20 20 hours a day 21 hours a
25:22 day stuff happened somebody hired away
25:26 employees right before a major contract
25:27 hit and I’m not going to lose the
25:29 contract so here we are I’m out at 4:00
25:32 in the morning and I’m back at 12:00
25:34 11:30 say hi to the dog go to bed um and
25:38 then I did it until I got sick and was
25:39 able to hire somebody to replace me but
25:42 I’ve taken up a part our pumps my hands
25:44 finally are not scabbed from you know
25:46 figuring out how all that type of stuff
25:49 works had employees that were amazing
25:52 turn into an absolute nightmare of a
25:53 human overnight sometimes which is a
25:56 little jarring you know people not show
25:59 up customers not understanding anything
26:02 everything go wrong how do you deal with
26:04 it how do you deal with it this isn’t my
26:06 first rodeo but I have this cycle where
26:09 I I’m even and this is trueth the older
26:12 I get the more even I am I try to stay
26:14 even on everything but I dip I dip down
26:16 get upset and then I quickly come back
26:19 up and I’m like all right cool we’re
26:21 done with the pity party how do we fix
26:23 this what’s the next move cool I call
26:25 the franchise support whatever it is how
26:27 do I do this let’s fix let’s move on um
26:30 and then try to do the right thing by
26:32 everybody and I think the difference
26:34 between a
26:35 successful I think the difference
26:37 between a successful entrepreneur and a
26:38 non-successful one is a person that you
26:40 adversity happens all the freaking time
26:43 I mean you know day in day out it’s
26:46 about recognizing it not slumping in it
26:49 right and and just quickly moving on and
26:51 say okay yours where we are whatever it
26:54 is right and now here are my options and
26:56 evaluate them and make a decision and
26:58 keep moving forward right like it’s
26:59 about constantly moving forward versus
27:01 letting yourself stall out because the
27:03 stall out is really where you know the
27:05 thing that ends up killing you and in a
27:06 business and so you have to be quick to
27:09 address adversity and solve it and move
27:11 forward and not you know stew on it too
27:14 long I think that’s life I think
27:16 anything you do right it I mean it’s I
27:19 have my daughter she plays golf right
27:21 golf is the game that teaches you about
27:22 all those things right if you’re if
27:24 you’re frustrated and upset trust me
27:26 that Ball’s gonna find the out- of
27:27 bounds marker quick and I always called
27:29 the golf Gods right now and she’s like
27:31 there is no golf God and then I’m like
27:33 what that that was the golf
27:35 God but the point is it’s like these
27:37 saying things that apply to
27:38 entrepreneurship apply to life and it’s
27:41 finding that that acceptance It’s
27:43 stoicism right it’s it’s just being
27:46 understanding that that anything and
27:47 everything that’s going to happen to you
27:48 is GNA happen and the only things we can
27:50 control is our attitude actions and
27:52 emotions those are the things we can
27:53 control yep I I think that that’s
27:57 obviously true and the golf thing is
27:58 1,00%
28:00 true but the hard part is is and the
28:03 reality is is you’re not going to do
28:04 this well all the time you’re going to
28:06 fail yourself at some point um at some
28:09 point this becomes a little bit too much
28:13 I can tell you the day it became too
28:14 much it was like August 2nd of this year
28:16 we switched how some stuff work I had a
28:18 huge credit card bill I’m waiting on
28:20 money to come in my AR is outrageous
28:23 employees are bucking me and they’re
28:25 they’re mad and it’s hot I just I was
28:28 burnt I kind of took a half week in rovi
28:31 Delaware came back and kind of we just
28:34 pushed through it and and now we’re kind
28:36 of at the end we’re like okay thank God
28:38 it’s it’s slowing down because we all
28:40 need a break I have so many things I
28:43 need to fix for how we move forward I
28:45 need rules the road I need standard
28:47 operating procedures I need to learn and
28:50 figure out how to carry employees
28:51 through this part of the year better um
28:54 because I relied on myself a little bit
28:56 too much there’s so many mistakes that I
28:58 made made and and and I don’t even view
29:01 them as mistakes it’s just learning you
29:03 know like if you’re going to be
29:04 successful at this you just have to be
29:05 cool being wrong and and I think that
29:08 speed beats being right sometimes
29:10 because you could be wrong twice and
29:12 then right by the time somebody else
29:13 makes a choice and you’ve learned a lot
29:15 of wisdom from that and that’s what I
29:18 get upset about and what we were talking
29:19 about prior is the nett has taught
29:22 everyone that you should have everything
29:24 now or that there’s some class that you
29:26 can take that’ll make you great and the
29:29 only thing that’s going to make you
29:30 great is hanging in there with your
29:32 emotions making some solid choices and
29:35 you know kind of powering through the
29:37 Stu and and just kind of keep going well
29:40 said man that is well said
29:43 congratulations on your journey man this
29:45 is it’s exciting we’re gonna have to
29:47 come bring you back on here another year
29:48 and just see how it’s progressing see if
29:49 you hit that 1.5 so yeah I’m excited I’m
29:53 adding capacity I’m fascinated to how
29:56 I’m going to handle so the amount of
29:57 employees I had at my Peak was about 10:
29:60 so we do overnight services for shopping
30:02 centers I’m going to have another four
30:05 or five and I have the guy in place that
30:07 I want to manage everybody but oh
30:12 boy you never know what it looks like
30:14 till you turn that bad boy back on in
30:16 the spring and so I’m going to go you
30:19 know to the beach over new years’s I’m
30:21 going to go ski with my friends for a
30:24 month and then I’ll be back into full
30:26 Battleship mode getting ready for
30:28 preparing our processes and and making
30:30 sure that we tighten up all the things
30:32 that I wish we had tightened up or had
30:34 tightened up as we were going through
30:36 those
30:37 problems great story man I’m Journey all
30:41 right so this is H the part where we
30:43 move on to our rocket round we’re gonna
30:45 ask our guest three questions so let’s
30:48 jump into it all right first question
30:51 what do you like to do in your free time
30:52 oh uh I am I’m huge into working out and
30:55 I’m also really big into golf and uh I
30:58 play a lot of cak sports so Thursday
31:01 nights you’ll see my schedule pretty
31:03 clear play softball on the National Mall
31:06 and
31:07 DC um and uh kickball flag football
31:11 feach volleyball I’m just super
31:13 competitive and then uh golf of course
31:15 Golf and you’re the most perfect answer
31:19 uh if if you are upset at all that bad
31:21 boy is showing up when you golf there’s
31:23 no chance
31:25 uh just accept that you’re not going to
31:28 be good that day and um have a beer or
31:31 two uh is probably what we’re looking at
31:33 one of these days I’ll learn Golf and uh
31:35 now I know if I’m gonna go hang out with
31:36 you in DC not to come out on a Thursday
31:38 so all right your most your most
31:41 memorable moment in your business
31:43 Journey yeah it
31:45 they’re in April of this year I had been
31:49 pitching Somebody almost all winner to
31:52 do 19 shopping centers overnight guy is
31:55 not the most communicative guy in the
31:57 world and then he to tell me I got it
32:00 and that was
32:01 $120,000 a year worth we signed for two
32:04 years so I’ll still have it next year
32:06 that’s a foundation yeah um that’s a
32:10 that’s a that’s a labor stabilizer that
32:13 allowed me to make mistakes at a much
32:15 higher rate than other people can make
32:17 them without burning an insane amount of
32:20 capital right so I have
32:22 167,000 coming in every month if I layer
32:25 it correctly with payroll and other jobs
32:28 I’ve got a nice little margin there um
32:31 where I can mess with marketing I can
32:33 mess with my employee account I can do a
32:35 whole bunch of cool things that I would
32:38 have been afraid to do is is the honest
32:40 answer I I wouldn’t have pulled the
32:42 trigger on everything that I did then
32:44 last question what’s your favorite tool
32:46 or
32:47 resource my favorite tool or
32:50 resource it I I’m going to go with what
32:52 we talk I’m it is Twitter and X but not
32:55 for necessarily the reasons that I think
32:58 I see a lot of people on there who love
32:60 to talk these huge games my favorite
33:02 thing about business owners is that the
33:04 ones that are successful suddenly have
33:06 gained knowledge in 19 different areas
33:08 and they’re always right and the
33:10 smartest people that I’ve ever met have
33:12 always said they don’t know um and they
33:15 would get back to me or they give me a
33:17 book on the subject or whatever and the
33:20 people who didn’t know or very honest on
33:23 there have become invaluable
33:24 resources and I ignore the rest yeah um
33:28 but that’s been able to build up my
33:30 network in the real life and and and use
33:32 that as a tool to kind of reference back
33:36 I think it’s just a great networking um
33:39 opportunity and the way I look at a lot
33:41 of times too is you know I’m just as
33:42 guilty of this is the people that are
33:44 actually out there getting done
33:46 typically you know don’t have the time
33:47 to be so hyperactive on Twitter X right
33:51 and so you kind of have to depending on
33:53 the person there’s some grain of salt to
33:55 some of that so Nick Pary words for our
33:57 guest you know a lot of people are
33:59 looking to make the leap in their life
34:00 they’re searching thinking about a
34:03 franchise what’s your word
34:05 advice yeah uh my word of advice is do
34:10 what feels right but ask a lot of
34:11 questions I think you should go with
34:13 your gut more often than not when you’re
34:15 making big decisions but the financial
34:18 models that you can make whatever it
34:21 it’s not all that important I think you
34:23 have to ask people hard questions on why
34:26 they’re doing well or why people aren’t
34:27 doing well especially in a franchise
34:29 type situation the people who tend to
34:31 follow the models do decently well and
34:33 the people who try to bucket don’t and
34:36 so I I think my general advice would be
34:39 is just make sure you understand who
34:41 you’re getting into a partnership with
34:43 whether that’s a franchise or
34:45 franchisee and like would you let them
34:47 watch your kids would you let them run
34:50 your business would you let them handle
34:51 your bank account like because that’s at
34:53 the end of the day they have a lot of
34:54 control over those things um and just
34:56 remember that everything
34:58 everything everything everything that is
35:00 worthwhile takes a lot of time to get
35:03 right and run and be at the place that
35:06 he wanted to absolutely nothing
35:08 worthwhile happens overnight unless you
35:10 won the lottery and God bless you it’s
35:12 like good getting good at golf right
35:14 you’re going to try you’re going to try
35:16 you’ll have your bad days you’ll have
35:18 your good days but you still want to go
35:19 out and do it and you just kind of have
35:21 to make sure that that’s where you’re at
35:23 with what you want to do do you still
35:25 want to do this when everything goes
35:27 wrong make sure that you understand your
35:29 downside risk and always hire an
35:33 attorney great advice man yeah and maybe
35:35 last question how can people get a hold
35:36 of you yes you can find me on I’m not
35:39 going to call it X Twitter at hokey High
35:42 h k i he ye or search Nick high and then
35:46 I’m on Instagram and you may shoot me an
35:48 email if you’d like ni
35:50 i.h ye rings.com happy to talk about
35:54 rolling Suds franchising
35:56 entrepreneurship whatever it might be
35:58 can ever have enough friends just give
36:00 me some time to respond perfect nick man
36:03 great story thank you so much for
36:05 sharing everything with us man I’m
36:07 excited about your journey and we’re
36:08 looking forward to getting you back and
36:10 hearing an update you know how awesome
36:12 going perfect a pleasure apprciate it
36:15 pleasure thank you very much for having
36:16 me thank you for listening to the m&a
36:19 Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
36:21 today’s podcast and would like to
36:22 support us please leave us a rating and
36:24 a review after you listen I’m Casey mchu
36:26 and I look forward to talking with you
36:27 next week
