Episode 16: From Backyard Pools to Big Profits – Roger Ewart on America’s Swimming Pool Franchise Success

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hello

welcome to another episode of the Franchise Business

Radio show powered by the Franchise Sisters

this is Pam Curry your co host

and this is Sherry Curry your other co host

and of course we’ve got

we got another little guy in here

trying to be part of the show

and that’s my little dog cause he sees my ball hahaha

my America’s Swimming Pool Company

ball really wants to be a part of the fun

there you go buddy

go get it hahaha

go Andy

go Andy

for our listeners the Franchise Business Radio Show

is designed to be a platform to educate

and bring business professionals together

to serve aspiring entrepreneurs

looking to invest and operate a franchise

today’s guest is powerhouse Roger Ewer

global operations for 800 units

survived the 2020 business shake up

and now he’s helping people dive into the industry

the pool industry literally

as a franchise development manager

at America’s Swimming Pool company

uh

we have Roger on the podcast to tell us a little about

about this franchise opportunity

welcome Roger

thank you Pam and Siri

I appreciate you guys having me on

Andy is walking right

yeah Andy

is that Andy OK

that’s Andy

that’s Andy in the background

the most important question of the entire thing is

does Andy like to jump and swim in the pool

yes he does

he is a pool dog very much so

and right now he is devouring that beach ball

I can’t hear him if you hear it pop

I’m gonna have to take I’ll send you another one okay

thank you

Roger

America’s Swimming Pool is a franchise opportunity

as part of the Authority Brands family

and um I just want to tell our listeners

we’ve had some other guests

I want to tell our listeners about Authority Brands

before we dive into

America’s swimming pool franchise opportunity okay

Authority Brands was founded in 2017

as a network of 15

leading home service franchise owners

with more than 1,000 franchise owners across the US

and Canada

Authority Brands is recognized for having home service

franchise brands that are leaders in their industry

we have to focus on providing homeowner services

from property line to the roof line

uh great to have you on the show Roger

thank you it’s great to be here

I had to show as Pam is

you were talking about Authority Brands

I had to pull my dog in

I was jealous that indie got a cameo and

and Maverick didn’t get to join in

so I went ahead Maverick I love it Maverick

I’m gonna

see if he wants to play with this ball over here too

but um yeah

so Authority Brands like Pam said

you guys have 15 great brands

and several that stand out

so uh Roger

you’re actually not the first guest

from Authority Brands that has been

that have been on our show

but we’re super excited to have you on

so thanks for joining us on this podcast today

you bet you bet

thanks for having me yeah

I think before we get started

to understanding more about American uh

swim pools uh

do you mind sharing with our listeners

a little bit about you

and just your background and franchising

sure thing well my

my history in franchising started years ago

as a director of franchise support

there you go MAV

I heard that

and with that

was

the guy who had to literally onboard the franchisee

I would train the franchisee

launch the franchisee

get them to break even profitability stride

super stride award at convention

and even exiting with Grace out of the system uh

and and selling off the business

I mean

this is a business in which we’re making an investment

to get a return on investment right

so that was the where I started in franchising

I uh

then ended up uh

going into an uh a higher level

executive operations role

where I oversaw 800 franchises in the retail sector

in 32 different countries

and that was quite a challenge

but it taught me a whole lot about what a great

franchisee looks like

um moved in from there into the

the uh

youth sports uh

position of a VP of operations

and then development

and found Authority Brands in 2020

when the pandemic hit and uh

I was looking for an essential brand

one that had recurring revenue

that was recession resistant right

so those three buckets lined up for me in this brand

and here I am almost five years later

proudly representing the

that’s awesome that’s a

that is a great background

I love your deep industry experience

and I know you are

just as getting to know you as a person

you are truly a Jack of all trades

you are it’s fun to hear

all things that you’re capable of doing

so it’s pretty impressive

um

let’s go ahead and jump into Americans

America’s Swimming Pool company

sure do you want to go ahead and provide us uh

just an overview of this franchise

guys opportunity and kind of yeah

explain the business model to us

sure sure

well the founding roots started in 2001

Stuart Bernard was the founder incredible guy

he’s now at the Authority Brands level

overseeing multiple emerging groups

he’s that good of a leader that he’s now guiding

other brand leaders

is still under his purview

cause it was his baby and he still has an office in

in Macon Georgia where it was founded

um and it started on a shoestring budget

and he grew it into the the nation’s largest uh

pool service franchise in the country

about 2018 Authority Brands uh

we partnered with them uh

and it’s exploded ever since

so

we’re currently now sitting around almost 150 owners

with about 392 active

units as we call them throughout the country

that gives you a little background on it

what do we do is probably what you were

mostly wanted to hear is um

the essential side of the business

of course we’re out there and cleaning pools

so it’s weekly cleans with a monthly payment

and that’s a recurring revenue model uh

differs in different areas

which we can get into more detail later on

and then there’s also the service side of the business

there’s going to be the repair side of the business

and those are about a 40

40 ratio on revenue between those two categories

and we also have the renovation side

uh which is about uh

and construction which is about 20% of the business

that is changing radically

and I’ll give you

a big update as to where we are on pool installation

and that new program that we’ve launched in a bit

which will bring massive changes to the revenue

performance of our owners

and their profitability

okay so

so you kind of touched on 3

did I hear three different revenue streams

what where do you typically start as a franchisee

and then where’s where’s the goal to grow into

for those different revenue streams

some franchisees um

are comfortable doing all of these things coming in

and often I have people who are

either licensed contractors or

people who have uh

the ability to get their license here very quickly

to build

uh story that I always tell everybody is my 23 year old

young lady who is in North Carolina

who built a pool in her year one

and that’s cause her family grew up and kind of had

little bit of industry experience with

with construction with landscaping

so little bit of an exception to the rule but uh

and and she’s exceptional as as a young lady too

she’s just brilliant and smart and motivated

and if a 23 year old can do it

pretty much anybody can license your aside

of course

there’s some restrictions throughout the country

in which I

I always let all of my consultants as well as uh

partners and

and candidates know when there’s a licensure problem

we just won’t even go down that road

but they don’t start there

they normally start with the cleaning aspect

and then they uh

may need certifications

but oftentimes not throughout the country

to just do a pool

pump replacement or a heater installation etcetera

you may need to hire some licensed contractors

to do plumbing or electrical

we teach all of that regardless of whether you need a

you know those things we know how to teach it

because we’ve done everything

from cradle to grave with these pools

from cleaning and maintenance to building

okay that that’s great so so so it doesn’t

sound like you tell me that you

as somebody who’s maybe interested in this space

I don’t have to come in with any experience

because you’re going to teach it all to me

is that what I heard goose egg

I prefer they come in with zero experience

now there’s some benefits to people who are handy right

uh if

if they’re a tinkerer they have

you know like I do

I have a a laboratory or workshop right

and I love to play with my tools

I don’t necessarily do it for a living

but I’m comfortable with any tool in my hand

you can possibly hand me

those people are generally pretty fearless right

and we love when they’ve got some business acumen right

and they can fly through the training

it’s really not overly complex work and especially the

cleaning it’s not exactly high stress to clean a pool

haha maybe a little bit therapeutic actually

haha yeah

that makes sense so so um

when it comes to pools and a pool business

uh what if I live in the north

I mean is this a business for me

or are you looking

more for people who live in the south and

and have a long summer so it’s a

I get that question all the time

it’s the No. 1 question does this work in a cooler

cold climate and the answer is absolutely yes

if there are pools

they need to be maintained

service repaired and renovated and installed right

it doesn’t matter there are tons of pools in the north

we’ve got example after example

of various successful franchise owners in the area

the reason the business model works so well

is that you all pay a whole lot more up north

than we do down in the south right

our our rates are so much lower

the the revenue ratio is almost identical

but you get a little bit of a break during the winter

whereas we don’t and they will also in the wintertime

be doing indoor commercial work

so those are very big jobs that we can do

and we don’t stop maintaining that

we do a lot of marketing in the wintertime

for spring launches up there okay

so so you definitely do both residential and commercial

it sounds like huge yes

we’ve got some massive commercial jobs that we’re doing

you know close to a half million dollar jobs

big jobs in renovations and construction

yes absolutely

uh we are

we are

we’ve been doing commercial now for probably 15 years

yeah and I can see how

yeah I can see how in the north

that would be very helpful

with the indoor pool situation and hmm

uh just kind of

having that recurring revenue happen

throughout the entire year

absolutely and

you know what we do with these pools

during the earlier spring and later fall

just cause they’re not swimming them

doesn’t mean that we’re not repairing

renovating or working on them

you know if it’s bitter cold

obviously we’re not doing that

but if they’re outside um

but I’ve seen vinyl liners in New York go in

in November right before Thanksgiving

right just because it took

this is during Covid

and the vinyl liner was back ordered

and it took forever and the fellas called me up

new owner first year out

he said

I can’t believe I’m actually still busy in November

with this huge job I’m like

what are you doing in November with a pool in New York

you know he said

this liner just came in it’s a big job

and I’m doing it I’m like

you go man

and you know

those guys they grew up in that environment

they’re not afraid of a little coolness

obviously there’s certain temperatures

we need things to be at in order to make that

that liner flex and we we can work it out and they

and then for them to stand out

do you guys have any differentiators that can make a

franchising get the business

cause they’re providing something different

from somebody else maybe

without a doubt um

probably the No. 1 thing that we

we are complimented on not just the professionalism

you know everybody shows up in a uniform

we’re not wearing flip

cops on the job

we’re not throwing cigarette butts in the backyard

or drinking I mean the

the pool

pool guys don’t have the best reputation in the world

unfortunately they kind of created

an interesting reputation for themselves

we are here to professionalize that industry

it was Stuart’s mission back in the day to make it a

a legitimate business to be a part of

so going in fully clothed

branded shiny trucks licensed

bonded insured

and oh by the way

background checked why is that important nowadays

I’m not sure

if you would want to leave your kids in the backyard

with you know

Fred the

the pool cleaner with no license on his truck rap

I mean he’s not a professional right

I mean he may be able to clean a pool

we don’t know much about Fred

right and so we guarantee that they’re gonna be uh

safer in your backyard

we generally don’t have to have anybody back there

when we’re doing these jobs

but uh

no one will be allowed to

to be on your premises

that doesn’t pass a background check

owners employees allowed

right great

that’s great information Roger

I know that you guys have a really sophisticated

training facility

down in Macon Georgia

would you mind sharing with our listeners

about your training program

what you provide there the virtual

the in person

absolutely so start with virtual

they’re pre training and ongoing

um there’s a learning management system in place

in which they themselves as owners

can do pre school checklist

and go through all sorts of training

I mean you name it Bam

it’s got anything from Quickbooks to marketing

to the CRM all the way to pool cleaning and filtration

everything is in there and

20 years worth of information

uh very well detailed

they can actually they the

the owners can actually assign

courses to their employees

and they take a quick quiz at the end

most are videos so it’s real simple stuff right

we’re not talking overly complex stuff

and then they can of course

you know look at that and be like

okay you know Sherry

you got a 64 on water chemistry

let’s talk through what what what we missed here and

you’re the coach right we’re teaching the teacher here

and until they get that hundred percent

or whatever they need to get

and then in the in person training

the campus is phenomenal and two and a/2 acres

13 pools indoor training of about 8,000 square feet

on the one end of the campus

there’s an actual office at the top of the campus

on the south side

there’s gonna be a marketing wing if you will

as well as the the training in class training

40 hours of training in classroom on all things

technical aspects marketing systems

operations in field

60 hours of OJT on the job training

physically doing things right

I don’t care

if you haven’t picked up a power drill in your life

we will teach you how to do this

and it won’t be a problem

nothing in our training is live

meaning no live electricity

no you’re not gonna flood the place

cause there’s no water but

we teach you how to do all the assembly

of all the different pool pumps

filtration timing

you name it

we teach you how to do that and never had anybody fail

that’s great what about ongoing support

I mean you’re getting a launch

you got some great training programs

talk to us a little bit about

maybe some back office infrastructure

or support that you provide to your franchisees

tons being the largest

we have about 17 full time people on staff

the first thing I think

most importantly to anybody starting

any kind of businesses is the support

after training and the person that does the

support is a certified pool contractor

which is their head trainer in year 1

to ensure the continuity of that education

ongoing guidance and when they’re in the field

it’s multi tiered the support

there’s also a technical uh hotline at any time

if Sherry’s out there and doesn’t know what

she’s looking at this Frankenstein setup

she can dial the phone and Bam’s the expert

she picks up and uh answers the technical question

if she doesn’t understand what she’s asking

put me on Facetime we see what we got

we solve the problem put it in the iPad

give it to the customer

spits out the price for the customer

here’s price for your part

labor install total

sign here order the part

install that level of um support there

on the customer phone side

the service side we got a full blown call center

which will actually take those calls professionally 24

7 3

65 uh we beta tested this and rolled it out recently

our owners our top owners said it

they could not distinguish

the difference between their top trained employees

and our new call center

so that’s in place to book people on your calendar

so we can maximize revenues

and the call answer rate now is about 96%

it’s outstanding nice

very nice very nice

and marketing also there’s four full time ladies

in marketing operations there’s about

oh gosh for my support

uh

you know some franchise support advisors

there’s probably about uh

nine or 10 at this point

each of them has about 20 franchisees that they coach

guide and train and mentor

well I know that you are a former operations expert

so I have a little bit of a tough question to ask

uh okay alright

I don’t know I like tough questions

fire away right

or dive in

but this is right for the risk of right

this for the risk adverse in the audience okay

can you discuss the failure rate common challenges

maybe how ASP support helps reduce the risk

for their franchisees

I love that question actually

being ex ops

I was the guy that had to deal with the challenges

right and most developers don’t have that background

and they have never had to be exposed to

oh my God Pam is flailing

how do I get her to lift her up supporters

I’ll talk to you about that in a minute

I think uh

well first of all

to address the failure rate this

the failure rate of this franchise is less than 5%

it’s a pretty good sign uh

we are on the registry for the spa

which also means that the creditors the lenders back

you know the folks that are looking at providing loans

see us as a good risk

because our default rate is so low

why is that we’re staying in business right

that’s a very

so when underwriters look at it and they go

oh ASP

it’s on the list right

that’s always a good thing

I hope that answers that question

it does no

it it definitely does

and you brought

you actually brought up a really good topic

and that is is

you know if you’re on the as s SBA Registry right

uh but it does allow for the funding process

or the lending process to go a lot smoother

if you have a lower default rate

as a franchisee or a lot of uh

a lot of people looking at franchises

aren’t even aware of thinking about well

what is their default rate when it comes to SBA’s

and that could be a really nice qualifier

it is and it and it should tell

any candidate that’s looking at the franchise

that

tells you a lot about what your potential looks like

for risk right

so going back to risk and why people fail

that’s almost more

important than the failure rate itself

and thank god that we’ve got such a low failure rate

right anything over 10%

and there’s something wrong with the franchise

I can tell you right now

I’ve never been a part of a franchise like that

so but if they do get over that level

that’s where alarm bells should be going off in my mind

so we’re at half of that rate

so we’re feeling pretty comfortable about that

the mitigation is the most important thing

so if a franchise is struggling

we are on them like like what on rice

we are communicating communicating

communicating uh

over the top

and even in person and flying into the area and saying

hey where are you struggling

how can I personally come in and pitch in and help out

I am uh unique in the development side

because of the operations background well

I will literally reinsert myself into their lives

I have one I’m doing that for this Friday

and it’s just launching

and he’s stressed out cause it’s his first year

this is no walk in the park the first year out

let’s be honest you’re opening a business here right

it’s like having a child

you don’t know what to do the first year

you have to be able to uh

work with people done

make them understand it’s gonna be okay

we’re here to help what do you need

let me fulfill that need right

and yes I think that’s a part of the ongoing

responsibility that every developer should have

honestly

in my opinion from the ops side of my brain right

hey you

you shared a little bit about what you look for

in a franchisee you know

they don’t have to have experience in

in this industry helps to

I think you said

tinkering was a good word that you used

which I which I really uh

appreciated a degree of business

admin was another word that I captured

I mean what what are you looking for in a franchise

did I just cover it or is there more

that’s a lot of it Pam I think the most

the things that we cannot teach are work ethic

being on time

positive and regular and consistent communication

and physical responsibility

managing the finances that business well

we can help with all of those things

except for work ethic right

we can’t help you with communication

we can’t help you with how to spend your weekends

show you how to spend the money

but you do what you do with your

with your funds right

and we have we have

we have you know

gate checks on those kind of things

for the franchise business advisor

who’s watching things and seeing the spend

and the income and Alex and things out

we’re very much into the numbers

numbers are critical

and I’ve got one heck of an item 19

and I can show you all of the numbers

until I’m blue in the face

I’ve got them in my brain

I helped to create this item 19

and that’ll be

proof positive or proof of concept

right that you can actually put pen to paper on

hey um

why why is it that uh

ASP attracts so many veterans and first responders

uh I don’t know

maybe it’s got to do with the flag on all the trucks

something like that no uh

it is America’s swimming pool company

uh there’s a little bit of

pride that we got in our first responders

and our

and our military men and women that served our country

that’s No. 1 I think No. 2

they like the operational structure

most folks that are exiting the military

still want structure

but they don’t want to be told what to do

they want to just follow the recipe

rinse rinse and repeat

execute flawlessly rinse and repeat

and that equals this cake is baked this way

and we’re very buttoned up as a franchise

or even when people come to our Meet Your Team day

and make into meet the team

everybody leaves there and goes

this is the best one I’ve ever seen

it’s very structured and it’s like

well that’s kind of how we run the franchise

so if you’re good with that

you know but they have a lot of autonomy as well

right and that’s a question I always get

it’s like you know

I just came from micromanaged

you know corporate USA or whatever right

and I don’t want to be you got a lot of flexibility to

to run the model you want within our model right

not straying from what we do

no frog ponds or bird baths

we don’t really want to get into those things right

we do bodies of water

which one has to be sterilized to keep clean

algae free right

but in that same regard

they have complete control over pricing right

we have recommended margins and so forth

we’ll coach them to that but

I have a lot of owners

who get more than our recommended

and god bless them right

let them go get it without gouging the customer

but there’s a supply and demand thing and when we offer

the level of service that we offer

and we help them to understand the widget well

enough that they build the value

that customer it’s pretty rare

we get a no when we go and present what we wanna do

because they know that they’re gonna get a quality

service that’s reliable

dependable and once we get that customer by the way

Sherry this is the best part

is that that customer will laugh

last an average of seven years oh

then for some reason they don’t take care of that

hundred thousand dollar pool

what do you think’s gonna happen

uh they go bankrupt right

the bank gets it back

they call the realtor realtor calls us

we come and flip the pool again

and then we have the account for another 7 years

and

Sherry’s gonna be getting into some numbers with you

Roger but before we dive into the the numbers and I

my guess is

you probably have some incentives for veterans

but I’ll let you and Sherry talk about that

could you give us the day in the life

day in the life of a franchisee

um depends on where you are in the country

I’m gonna go through a general idea here

which you know

7 or 8:00am to 3 or four PM Monday through Friday

often when our owners are more seasoned

Friday afternoons were an early off

and I can explain that further

during the development process

on how you get to that level right

um our owners uh

do start off right often times in their truck

they’re not ashamed to be in a truck

and representing the brand

right there the face of the brand initially

and they’re bringing people around with them

and hopefully you know

replacing that work that’s being done

but the day in the life is uh

meeting with the team first thing in the morning

giving out the you know

what does the work order look like for who

you know during the day

and then at the very end of the day

closing up the books right

answering quotes customer

demands as we call them

not in a bad way

there’s no emergency in the pool business

by the way there’s never a pool emergency

and that’s the greatest thing about this franchise

there’s never an emergency

but it’s still essential

it’s essential right right

yeah but it’s not

it is yeah

I follow what you’re saying

it’s the second largest investment people make

other than their home

hmm

all right that might lead us into I

I might have to put right

that leads us into money I’m heading to

I love it I’m

I’m heading to see if we got our ASP

oh I gotta do a

put them both on and do a side shot for me

you guys there you go

which one has it

we’re heading to Wall Street here guys

let’s let’s talk money

cause money does matter right

I love numbers before I know you do

so before we get into the

into the returns let’s get into the expenses

do you want to share a little bit about the invest the

the estimated initial investment cost

absolutely yeah

and I’ll let you define what it all includes etcetera

so the initial investment estimated

and this is for six months

I’m gonna expand it out for a year uh

you’d be looking at 84 to 2 0 7

add about another 16,000

for an entire year of working capital

for that six months is what’s included in that

um that includes your initial

investment in the franchise and outfit

outfit for your first truck

does not include your truck

or truck wrap right

or insurance for that truck uh

it will also include all of your marketing materials

that you need

hats shirts

wearables etcetera your systems

your marketing your sunglasses yeah

you’ll probably get a few of those right

big balls right

and stuff like that customer swag right

that’s what it is and so forth

we have a whole store you can go to and buy all this

I mean there’s a whole lot more than the sunglasses

and the beach balls out there towels

you name it

and they’re good to give customers that are significant

and you know

when you’re going by and you see a nice kid

you can pop a pair of sunglasses on them

and they just look fun

take a photo for you right with the with the dog right

maybe MAV will be jumping in with Bobby with the pool

it’s a fun stuff it’s a fun business backyards

family fun right

splashing diving in the pools

it’s not not overly difficult

so with that I hope that

covers the vast majority of what you’re looking for

there

no that’s

that’s great yeah

it just gives people an idea of

you know what

what they’re gonna be looking at

in the first three months of

of cash outlay um

you know

when people go through a discovery process and what

we’re running into a fair amount right now is

you know those empire builders

and they wanna step in with multiple territories

would you share with our listeners

the advantage of maybe just starting out with one

versus going multiple

or the advantage of going multiple

yeah and we

we are very unique in the way

way in which we structure our territories

it’s based upon pool count

not human beings right not houses

it’s on the actual customer potential customer right

um the first thing I’ll tell you is that we

we actually limit it to two franchise licenses

period when you’re coming in

and it’s extraordinarily rare I’ll even do that however

units are different than licenses okay

so a unit is a certain number of pools in an area

uh it takes a certain amount of marketing dollars to

to get to all those customers

and we’ll actually cater that to what their

their um um

net worth is right and where they’re at

to make sure it’s a financial fit for them

uh the last thing I wanna do uh

in the responsible

when I came up with responsible franchising

five years ago

there was a whole different meaning behind

what that meant

but it was not over awarding territories

uh

and it it’s just not gonna gonna work well for people

and in that vein

we’ll limit it to three units worth of pools

and that’s for the very well healed

and the initial investment range that you had

in there ladies that we

we that was 84 to 2 something’s a big range right

that’s six months not three by the way Pam

and then add 16 for the other working capital

for the next six months

just so you know with that range

it’s based upon how many pools are in the area right

cause that impacts dramatically

what the initial investment is and the

you know the grand opening marketing

and then the ongoing marketing

and if you if you you know

generally speaking

we’ll have everybody’s at about a 2.2 right

right around there on average um

and people who are coming in thin on capital say

hey look I just want to get this up and running

I will absolutely dial that territory back

that to me is responsible franchising

I won’t expose your candidate or or

or you all to

just for the sake of making it a bigger piece of land

right it just doesn’t make any sense uh

often times people will uh debate that and say you know

I wanna own the world

the empire builder like you’re talking about right

who said that banner Sherry

one of the two of you uh

and those empire builders

I have a really rational conversation with them

and say let’s talk about that empire

and how are you gonna fund that empire

and if they do have the funding and the

and the risk tolerance for that

we’ll talk a bigger territory yeah

now I think that’s great Roger

I know you take that very seriously

and want to guide them in a way that they will be

successful which is a gift uh

to them whether they know it or not

it is and we we want to keep that 5% failure rate

exactly or less than that’s the goal and

and and

and it doesn’t mean they can’t expand

it’s just wisdom and how you expand right

where do you start and then there’s room to grow

but we want to make sure you can

start on that right foot and be successful 100%

and I will tell you that usually

the minimum territory offer is two to three times

the size of the original founding location

so there’s no excuses not to become highly successful

if you

follow the model and uh the market penetration rate

I’ve had one franchisee get to 5%

in their entire careers as an owner

think about that for a minute

I’m

you’re only getting 5% market share and that’s in your

and they’re highly successful

so good for them you know

and the the running joke

and

I’ll make a promise to every one of your candidates

right now if they ever get to 5%

I will ship them a box of Omaha steaks to their family

to video grill in front of me

because I’ll be that proud of them

I love it when people bring up that percentage of

penetration because I think that there’s some

I don’t think people always come in

thinking of it from that perspective

they’re thinking they have to get yo

how how can I compete we’re just trying to get 5%

there’s enough out there for everybody and

and we are gonna

stand out in all the different ways that you said

but yeah it’s nice to know that

you’re getting a strong population

and yes and and they they people when they come in

they just don’t know what they don’t know

and that’s operations mind talking

and it’s that

they don’t know how much opportunity is in that current

and uh

and and how incredibly busy if they can get to 3.5%

how busy they’re gonna be then right

if they get to 5% they are gonna be king of the world

ha ha ha that’s pretty great um

this might be a good time to mention your incentive

for veterans what is that

absolutely yeah

so uh

this is not just some Home Depot or Lowe’s discount 10%

we give 30% uh

off for our veterans to honor their service

what I tell every service member out there is

to pretend like you never got the discount

go buy yourself another truck

and ramp your revenue faster

that’s not so just so I’m clear

it’s 30% off of the franchise fee

okay and

and any additional pool fees that may apply

if they have a bigger territory

we discount that as well wow

okay it is America’s swimming pool company

it is America’s and we’re one of our veterans

and it’s not just as veterans

first responders any diversity

you know that we have involved uh

we have more military men and women in our in our uh

and first responders all the way to SWAT EMTs

Navy Seals if you don’t know who that is

that’s the guy who pulls the Navy seal out of trouble

all the way up to colonels and generals in our system

very very very uh

flawless execution kind of people right

yeah it’s the safest convention you’ll ever go to

that’s an impressive group um

alright let’s get to the other side the revenue

so that item 19 I’m pretty sure you mentioned

you have an item 19 in your FDD

you want to share a little bit about that

sure thanks

well what would you like me to start with

there’s so much in there you start where you like how

what how are your top performers doing

let’s go with top so top performers in this system

top performer does 3.9 million average 1.9

that’s the top 25% this is all broken out by quarter

performance all the way down to my newbies right

that are just starting out uh

in in uh those buckets so we want to show the good

bad and not so much the ugly

we can’t call new people ugly right

it’s just not fair uh

it’s when you’re just starting something out

you’re not gonna pull out those numbers in year one

that took

years for those people to generate that customer base

right this is a portfolio business

which by the way when it goes to resell

there’s a valuation that can be clearly placed on the

lifetime value of that customer

when you’re gonna resell it

so

it’s a really fascinating way to look at the business

but the net profit on the top owner

uh who can’t disclose who or where

but 892,000 was the net average in the top quartile

uh you’re looking at 352 uh

my B students if you will

are 140 on average and I’ve got people ranging from

40,000 in net profit in category B

all the way to two forty three

and what’s the difference between those two

fellas out there or ladies

one’s already bought all their infrastructure

they’re ready to go right

and they’re just happy doing

and the other person made massive

infrastructure investments

and wants to go to that next level

so it’s always a push and pull like everybody says

well when can I get to break even

well I can’t answer that I don’t have a crystal ball

number one number two

the FDC would shut us all down

if we had that conversation right uh

you can’t make earnings swings

but what the you know

I’ve had owners that start very young

very thin just coming in and say look

I’ve got limited capital I want a puny territory

and they got one truck to start

calls me up not too long after start

hey I’m in the black

I broke even I said

great Chris

what is break even

cause now you gotta get another truck

grab that truck pull that truck

hire the guy train the guy

there’s things you have to do to constantly invest

until you get to a point in which

I don’t know what you know our

my goal for everybody is seven to 10 trucks

I got a guy with 32 I don’t know

that’s an empire builder right

you can imagine that’s 32 on the road every day

and so you know

when you get when you get to a

a when you have a problem with my tax liability issue

at the end of the year

will probably make you buy a bunch of new trucks

to your fleet

that’s a good way to manage that expectation

those numbers honestly

those numbers sound really great

um and my apologies if you guys are hearing the

any noise in the background

my apologies my door’s open

um

okay so I know you said there’s a

lot of ways that people get into this

some people are doing it on a shoestring budget

some people are coming in with a little bit

more cushion

and then

some people are taking the money and running with it

you know and they’re keeping it in their backpack

and other people are saying you know what

reinvest reinvest reinvest

let’s spell so do you have a clear differentiator of

of how your top performers are standing out

versus maybe the average or the below average

or is it kind of all over the place

I do I do

um and the indicator is simple

that they are still actively involved

full time in the business

number one

and they have become experts in the financials

on their business side

and they work incredibly closely

we have a we have a

you know a finance guy

he’s got a degree in finance and Quickbooks

expert as our VP of operations

he’s extraordinarily talented

and he’s the kind of guy who wants to eke

every red cent out of this business

whether it be for your family

or reinvesting in the business

whatever

and they work very closely with that individual

to make sure that they’re

they’re doing so so there’s that other element

and they are not just the best communicators right

they’re friendly franchisees

there’s no uh

you know darts being thrown at the

the support team right

and they are

they are beloved amongst the franchise network

they never asked for popularity

they’re not that person right

they just become that person

uh and what we do with those people at this point

which is perhaps rare and unique

is when they get to a certain level

they’ve got like a C 0

o in place and they really have their business down

they just they’re

they’re at mastery at this point

um we’ll then hire them to coach newbies

so hey

let me show you how I struggled

I went through this and I Learned this

avoid that do this

do that and maybe one day you’ll get to where I’m at

and these are some more senior folks in

in the system uh

we don’t mind that in our system at all

that’s great I like

I’m incredible there’s there

I mean our

my franchisees have taught me

more about the operations of this business

uh uh

over their their

I have continued conversations with all of them

they told me exactly what to

tell these people to expect

as well and so that’s how I present it to your family

well that says a lot about the leadership

that they want to reinvest in the leadership

and even join the leadership

so that says a lot at that level too

it’s incredible and it’s our brand leader

by the way a very unique story about him

we’re up out of time here gotta go

one more minute

the Grand Leader is actually the very first franchisee

and his wife was there

cleaning pools when they first launched the franchise

this is 18 years ago and now

they’re the president and the director of marketing

they’re phenomenal well

let’s

this has been great thank you so much Roger

for sharing all the details

you’re clearly very informed

and I love how you’re willing to share everything

that you know with us um

do we miss anything

is there anything that we didn’t ask

that you’d like to share before we wrap this up

I don’t know when when are we gonna go for a deep dive

right

at the next conference

we have to make sure we do cannonballs together right

I wanna know when I get a snorkel from you so I can

oh snorkel

yeah we don’t do snorkels

but you know maybe nose plugs or something

we do we do leak detection

that would be good

okay thank you so much for having me on ladies

Sherry do you wanna

I think Roger

I think Sherry has one more closing question for you

because we’d like to close out our podcast uh

with this question and we are uh Sherry

do you wanna ask a question

would you like me to go ahead

I’ll go for it alright

um we’ve been built Roger

we I think um

we’ve been building out a library

of answers to this question

and the question is this in closing

what tips would you give to budding entrepreneurs

loaded question man

I could go on for hours

I’m gonna try to keep this to 30 seconds

I think the first thing I would say is that

um I used to teach a course in this

you are coming into a franchise as an intra

not intrapreneur

you’re not reinventing and creating the wheel

making all the mistakes

an entrepreneur did 20 years ago

to help you not make those mistakes

an intrapreneur is one that comes in

with their creativity and their talent and their wit

and their wisdom works the plan augments

and contributes positively back to the network

that’s probably the first thing I would say

um

the second thing is be prepared to work hard in year 1

2 and three don’t be afraid to put in the work

uh sweat equity is what we call it

uh

you know in

in my world uh

it’s just a part of what operations looks like

and I promise you that if you put in that sweat equity

in the first three years

unless you do something horribly wrong

in managing your business

you’ll come out of it

feeling pretty good about what you

great advice

very good great advice

Roger can’t stand enough

thanks again

for being a guest on the Franchise Business Radio show

and sharing about the franchise opportunity

with America’s swimming pools

thanks for having me ladies

and I want to say something to our listeners as well

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