Episode 35: The Window Treatment Franchise Business Opportunity Most Entrepreneurs Miss

Pam Currie (00:02.568)
Thanks for tuning into another episode of the Franchise Sisters Business Radio Show, a platform to bring business professionals together to connect and educate, to serve aspiring entrepreneurs looking to invest and operate a franchise. I’m your co-host, Pam Curry.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:20.479)
And I’m your other co-host, Sheri Curry Skulldigger. And on today’s show, we have Braden. I don’t want to mess up your last name. Say it for me, Braden. What is your last name?

Brayden Stefka (00:29.92)
It’s Steph guy, I’ve been called much worse, so don’t worry about it.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:34.171)
I meant to ask you before this show started. So it’s Braden Stefka. Thank you. He’s with Five Star Franchising to discuss Got You Covered, which is a window treatment franchise with style and substance for someone who is looking to own a high margin, low overhead business in a growing industry.

Pam Currie (00:56.766)
That’s right, Sheri. I’m great. really looking forward to hearing from you about got you covered. And first, I’d like to share a little bit about you. Great. I know is deeply motivated by people. You’re motivated by their goals, their stories and what they want their future to look like. Braden’s faith is central to who he is and it shapes how it shows up in his work, incorporating integrity, humility and a genuine desire to serve others.

Braden cares greatly about helping individuals gain clarity around what success truly means to them and guiding them toward a path that aligns with both their goals and values. Braden, I have to share with you, we share the same motivation and we are happy to have you on the show. Welcome.

Brayden Stefka (01:45.962)
And thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Pam Currie (01:50.556)
Awesome.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (01:50.752)
It is great to have you on the show. think how we like to start things off is could you just tell us the story behind Gotcha! Covered.

Brayden Stefka (02:01.23)
Yeah, absolutely. Gotcha Covered actually started in 2001 under a different name. A gentleman out of Denver, Colorado had developed a business and then after several years of developing a full service product, realized that they had something worth franchising. And so in 2009, they rebranded as to what we know as Gotcha Covered today. And fast forward, we have 170, 180 open and operating territories.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (02:30.763)
I honestly, I have to say I love the name that you came up with. It’s so clever. know, window treatments got you covered. So covering of windows. That’s a clever name. Okay, so thank you for sharing a little bit about the business model because it’s kind of unique and everybody knows we have windows, but I don’t think everybody understands that there’s a great business in window covering. and just trying to educate people on that. Can you share a little bit about how

How do you find your customers? What’s the customer acquisition process for GachaCup?

Brayden Stefka (03:05.132)
Yeah, and I’ll tell you, right. Window treatments are a win, not an if. Every market has windows, whether it’s homes or businesses, and they all need covering. So you’re exactly right. What I will tell you, though, we see that in our fully custom realm of fully custom treatments, it’s very relational. It’s who you know. Doesn’t mean you have to know them today, but through our training and processes, we teach you on how to build effective partnerships with home builders, remodeling companies,

the painters in your community, we actually see that 65 % of our business is coming from this type of referral partner. So in large, it’s owners who are active and willing and have the drive to go build meaningful professional relationships with other business owners. Again, 65%. Of course, there’s gonna be the 35 % that falls under the digital advertising and marketing piece. And we actually do all of that for you through a third party vendor.

But again, I always stress this is a business for someone who likes to be on their feet. They want to go out and make an impact in their community and do it with the best opportunity they’ve never thought of.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (04:14.839)
Very good. And with that, don’t know if I got, I did not give you a chance to really explain the business model and along with getting those customers, what exactly is the business model? Is it B2B? Is it B2C? How does it work?

Brayden Stefka (04:32.566)
Yeah, so I would say in large we’re b2b in terms of the lead generation. So going back to that, although 80 % of our customers are residential, so we’re outfitting homes with anything to do with window treatment, Blinds, shades, shutters, etc. But we see that a lot of that business is coming from the home builder who built the house. Well, when their client shows up to the house with naked windows, they go, who do we use? Because home builders don’t typically outfit that.

Pam Currie (04:54.483)
Hmm.

Brayden Stefka (05:01.038)
Or even in my case, I just painted my house and you know what? My white blinds don’t really look white anymore. And so I’m asking the painter, hey, who do you use for blinds? I’ve never even thought about that. And so again, we’re vastly, like I said, the majority of our business is coming from the B2B networking. So again, you’re going to Chamber of Commerce, B &I groups and building out those referral partners. A lot of people assume when they hear

sales that we’re a door knocking model. You you’re knocking neighborhoods asking people if they need blinds. That’s not the case. Being a high end white glove service, we strive and make efforts that it’s the relationships that we build that are driving the leads for us.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (05:47.47)
So customer acquisition is a lot of referral base. It’s vendor partner relationships. Is that fair to say? OK. That’s interesting. And then for the revenue streams, what are the revenue streams as an owner of a gotcha cupboard? Is it blinds or are there other avenues to get money?

Brayden Stefka (05:50.615)
Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Brayden Stefka (06:08.94)
Yeah, know, window treatments, although many people don’t realize it’s a pretty deep hole, meaning there’s tons of different options for window treatments. Whether it’s normal blinds, it could be roller shades. We actually do a lot with motorization and automation. So to give you an example, if you walk into a home and say, Alexa, raise the blinds in the living room.

Not only is this becoming standard just the way that technology continues to progress, but we’re actually seeing it to be a need in aging populations. So if you have a couple who’s getting older, they’re deciding, hey, do I stay in my home or is it time to go to assisted living? I can tell you coming from a world of healthcare, people want to stay in their home as long as possible. And if we can provide a solution, even as simple as being able to say, Alexa, raise the blinds. It truly is a way to impact people’s lives. But you’re right. In large, is when the

Pam Currie (06:39.708)
Yeah.

Brayden Stefka (06:59.952)
treatments, we try to be very specific on our craft and not have too many revenue streams. We do outdoor work as well. So if you’ve got a pool patio outdoor living, you may want, you know, fabric awnings or

Maybe you want the motorized sun shades that come down when the sun is setting. And then as we said earlier, the commercial work is certainly low hanging fruit. Businesses have Windows 2. And we do have some national accounts with names like Verizon, Chipotle. So if they are in the area, that could be a business stream as well.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (07:33.503)
those are some big names. That’s a great business dream potentially. So how does this work in regards to employees? Am I doing all the work? Am I hiring people to do the work? How does that work?

Brayden Stefka (07:48.322)
I would say a lot of people come to us because they’re tired of corporate America and they’re tired of leading big teams. This is a model where there are three main hats that an owner wears in a given day. It’s the networking piece, it’s the in-home consultation, and it’s typically managing a third-party installer, a subcontractor.

So long story short, you can do this by yourself. You don’t need employees. Again, you subcontract the install. I will say I do have some owners who they’re pretty handymen and they want to do the install themselves. You can.

depends on the state regulation and guidelines. But yeah, it’s a business where you get to start from home. You don’t need the showrooms or a bunch of employees. And I think that that’s really appealing to that new entrepreneur who’s ready to make the jump, but maybe they don’t want to make that big of an investment or that big of an overhead while they’re trying to figure things out.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (08:43.681)
That’s nice. Okay, so I go in, can, and I’m selling the window treatments. Do I have, what are the products that I get to work with? Are these products that you guys preset up for me? Or how does that work? And the technology for me to show it.

Pam Currie (08:59.294)
works.

Brayden Stefka (09:01.038)
So we have about 20, yeah, yeah, great question. We have about 27 suppliers that create custom product for us. And this is anything from basic roller shades to high-end custom drapery. You as the business owner are gonna figure out in your market what seems to work, what’s the demand, what sells, and you get to decide which ones you work with.

And from there, you’re going to take in sample books. So you don’t have to know all things fashion or design. You don’t have to have a bunch of product. These are briefcase size sample books that we take in. But what’s actually unique about Gotcha Cupboard is we have our own proprietary app called Gotcha Inspired. It operates like a visionary tool. So as an example, let’s say I’m coming to your house. I’m the business owner. I get to send you access to our app.

and you’re going to look at hundreds of photos of window treatments in every room of a house in any style that you want. Well, what’s going to happen is you’re going to find things that you really like and you’re going to save them to your profile. I, as a business owner, actually get access to that on the back end.

So when I’m coming to your house next Wednesday, I know that you like Roman shades and I really know that you like this color. And so it allows me to tailor the experience. Again, if our value proposition is to be a high end white glove service, part of that is being in tune with what you’re liking and understanding what is that bespoke process that we have. And those are ways that we do that.

And then of course, we have our CRM where we’re building out quotes right in the home, presenting it to clients. We have over a 51 % closing ratio. And part of that is being able to give them the experience with the technology as well as being quick. If you’re in the home, it’s because they have a need. So let’s make sure that we can get that need fulfilled as soon as possible.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (10:50.807)
Very nice. So I was going to ask what are some key differentiators. You may have tapped into a lot of them with your app as well as your national accounts, but do you want to develop that a little bit more or share anything else?

Brayden Stefka (11:03.766)
Yeah, you know, I actually really enjoy the question of what are key differentiators because the first question that I ask back is, well, do you mean between the franchisor and the franchisee or what the end consumer sees? Meaning, what is your differentiator between the other competitors in the market? Because these are very important. I mean, if I was a new entrepreneur looking at a business, yes, I want to know what the end consumer sees, but I want to know what the benefits are to me as the owner. And so for us, when we think about the first part of that relationship,

First and foremost, we’re a part of five star franchising. So we’re a part of a home service platform company that not only gives us the buying power and the leverage to go out and get secured rates through our buying group. They’re getting us things like access to affordable healthcare for our owners and their families. They’re also leveraging price costs on all of our product that we’re selling. You just don’t really get that with standalone companies.

But then on top of that, we have a flat fee royalty structure. This is incredibly unique in the franchising industry, meaning most people, as you know, charge a percent of your revenue. With ours, we start at $350 a month. And then over the course of four years, this will ramp up in cap. Currently today, it’s $2,250 a month.

So this allows owners to have fixed costs that they can plan for and also maybe not feel as penalized if you have a crazy month, you don’t have to write a big check to corporate. And so it allows them to think through that, but also keep more money in their pocket. I have a quick sort of stat for you. Our current average revenue is about $580,000.

$22.50 a month is about 4.6 % if you wanted to compare it as a royalty in terms of a percentage. Our top person doing 3.7, excuse me, 3.4 million, if you were to compare that as a percentage of royalty, they’re paying about 0.7 of a percent. And so it’s really hard to argue with that, especially if you have someone who’s a go-getter but doesn’t want to feel penalized, if you will, in terms of the big royalty checks.

Brayden Stefka (13:12.546)
But secondly, to your question of the end consumer, you are exactly right. Our technologies stand out. Our product options stand out. Also, it’s little things like we don’t require the wrapped van.

Pam Currie (13:14.814)
Mm-hmm.

Brayden Stefka (13:24.758)
As you can imagine, if we’re targeting a higher end consumer, we’re going into really nice areas, they probably really appreciate having a nice, clean, professional vehicle pull up to their house. It feels very consultative versus a Chevy 3500 wrap vehicle. Nothing wrong with that. But again, those are a few things that really seem to tie into that white glove service. So yes, long-winded way to say, but there’s tons of things I’m happy to talk through in terms of the differentiators.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (13:53.837)
I like it.

Pam Currie (13:56.188)
Gosh, yeah, I was just jotting that down. Having the being part of five-star franchising. That’s definitely been part of the, call it the evolution of Gotcha Covered as a system. When did Gotcha Cover actually start franchising?

Brayden Stefka (14:14.542)
So, formally franchising in 2009.

Pam Currie (14:18.75)
2009 and kind of take us on the journey and the evolution of Gotcha Covered as a franchise system.

Brayden Stefka (14:28.3)
You know, again, this was a brand that started from its original founders. And honestly, I think some of the original employees, Paul being the president up until 2024 when he retired. But things really changed in terms of the resources and direction of where we’re headed. When Five Star acquired got you covered in 2021.

And really what I would say to that, don’t fix what’s not broken, right? But the whole purpose of Five Star is to make things better, provide more resources, and we’re seeing that. We’re seeing more resources, more professionals in the home service industry helping us understand how do we do things better? And if we need other things, how do we leverage our resources and the buying power of a large platform company to do so? So I would say that’s been the most exciting piece for us.

Pam Currie (15:19.954)
Well, I will say the fact that you’re up to 170, 180 franchisees, that puts you, I guess, beyond what I call the 15 to 18 % club of franchise systems that are out there. So that’s a positive. Any particular goal or vision for the franchise system as a whole?

Brayden Stefka (15:42.562)
You know what I would say is we still have probably 300, maybe a little less in terms of open territories. Anytime you want to expand, you have to first make sure that you’re doing things right. You’ve got the foundation set. In the last several years, we’ve really been doing that. It’s making sure that we’re ready for that continued growth. Although we’re a tenured brand, right? We’ve been around for 25 years franchising a little less than that. We know that it works, but we want to make sure that the support is there. So Wanda, our president,

amazing leader certainly has the vision that we all need and continuing to build out the rest of the team under her and we’re pretty much there at full capacity ready to go. And so I would say that the year of 2026 has been a year of how do we continue growth and continue to finish building out the market. So that’s where we’re headed and we’re certainly excited about that.

Pam Currie (16:33.95)
That’s great. So when you think about the recruitment of future franchisees, what qualities and characteristics are you looking for in that operator?

Brayden Stefka (16:43.49)
You know, I’ll tell you, I don’t ever talk to anyone who says, Braden, I got referred to you from Pam because I just love window treatments. I woke up one morning and thought, man, I need to own a window treatment business. It just doesn’t happen. However, I would say the attributes that we see that work really well are people who are very relational. They love their communities and friends. They’re just, they can befriend anyone, right? They have great communities around them. They also understand the reason of

of why business ownership works. I mean, I’ll be very candid and say, not everyone’s right for business ownership, but when you know it’s time, you know it’s time. And there’s a certain type of drive that you see, and man, it’s so refreshing. And so I would say, anyone who understands the value of being in their community, building those relationships, this is not a business where you can sit behind your computer and things just grow. It’s not really the model.

But yeah, and again, people typically get to us because of the, hey, I don’t want employees. I don’t want the big investment. I want something that I can really focus on myself. There’s three boxes that we typically cover is what are your goals for your time, your money, your finances and fulfillment. And someone who’s looking for that very flexible, structured, autonomous role, but still hitting their financial goals is a great person for us.

Pam Currie (18:09.474)
Fair enough. You mentioned that a franchisee kind of has three roles that they focus on. Walk us through what is a day in life or a week for franchisee.

Brayden Stefka (18:22.7)
Yeah. So again, we talked about the B2B networking. So it’s doing things like going to your local B &I chapters, Chamber of Commerce. Maybe you have a home show that comes through town. Anything that you can do to build the value of your brand and your community. People who have kids, you’re sponsoring the local T-ball or whatever it is at Booster Club at school, whatever you can do to drive the value. These are great ways to build your business.

Again, then we have the in-home consultation. So we’re being invited into people’s homes to fulfill a need. I can tell you, nobody likes the salesperson who’s just looking for a transaction. And so we train extensively around how do we go into someone’s home, their safe space, and make them feel comfortable and also just build rapport, build trust. I mean, the reality is if you’re going to buy something, you typically buy from the person that you like the most, that you’ve connected well with.

And so that’s the main goal is go in to build connection with someone. And honestly, you know the people, if they’re truly authentic, they truly are there to care and serve for people. They’ll be successful in whatever they’re doing because it wasn’t about the sale, right? It was about the person and how can I make your day better? And that is absolutely our approach in every consultation. From there, again, they build out the quotes. They’re ordering it through our CRM.

Product can take a while, depends on its complexity, but from there they’re just coordinating. So they’ve partnered with that local installer and say, hey, product’s here on a Tuesday, client, can we be there on a Thursday to install? Once we do that install, we do a final walkthrough, make sure the client loves it. This is where we collect final payment, because again, we got a deposit upfront, which covered all the costs, by the way.

Final payment, we oftentimes see the Google reviews and also organic referrals. We are a project-based business when people think reoccurring revenue or project, certainly more the project, but we oftentimes see in this final walkthrough.

Brayden Stefka (20:28.364)
our client saying, hey, my mom came over and is in love. She would love for you guys to come talk to her and see what she can do. So we see that pretty often and that’s certainly a win in our book. So that’s really it. It’s a simple model. It’s a lean business and it allows people to get their time back, but still strive and hit their financial goals that they’re looking for.

Pam Currie (20:49.96)
Excellent. Thank you for that overview. Excellent. You touched on training. I want to circle back around on that topic. But before we do, a common, common question that Sherry and I receive is, do you permit your franchisees to be semi-involved or semi-absentee? What is your philosophy on that?

Brayden Stefka (21:13.25)
You know, we certainly are of the mindset that part-time effort breeds part-time results. And specifically, if we think that this is such a heavy relationship-driven business,

Pam Currie (21:20.264)
Mm.

Brayden Stefka (21:25.132)
The reality is our business owners that are the home builders and painters, if we’re going to network with them, they don’t want to meet after hours. Our ideal client doesn’t want to meet after hours. And so it’s always tricky. So in short, we say, look, this is the owner operator model. We want you to be invested with both feet. Also because we think you’re going to get that ramp up time much quicker. You’re to see ROI much quicker.

So, yeah, in short, we certainly appreciate and believe in the owner-operating model for this space.

Pam Currie (21:58.17)
sense. So a prospective franchisee signs their franchise agreement. What’s next? What does the training look like?

Brayden Stefka (22:09.73)
Yeah, so we actually launched our new training platform early 2025. It’s called Launch in Six. Launch in Six is a six week training to teach people not only all things business ownership, but subject matter expert in window treatments. It’s five weeks virtual, one week in person. I’ll also say this is where the owner operator model comes into play as well.

Pam Currie (22:18.568)
Hi.

Brayden Stefka (22:35.45)
We’ve got some amazing training, but it’s very involved. It’s really hard to devote four plus hours a day into training if you have a full-time job. But with that being said, we’re going through all things. How do we run an efficient business? Understanding bookkeeping 101, accounting, tracking marketing, but we’re also developing out their personal marketing strategies. Where are they going to go? Who to talk with?

working with their budget to figure out how do we spend the dollars most effectively. But also we’re a firm believer in pre-selling, meaning by week two, they’re joining B &I groups. They’re joining networking groups with basic business cards to essentially say, I opened a new business, I’m not taking appointments yet, but we will be soon. We’re seeing that not only does it get them out of their shell of the fear of, I got to go to a B &I group.

But a lot of times people are finishing training and they’ve got booked appointments already because they’ve been working those relationships for weeks now and training. And so it also is helping to significantly cut down ramp up times because they’re getting started quicker.

Pam Currie (23:46.194)
Any ongoing support? mean, after they’ve gotten through that initial training, do you guys have an annual conference or any other support services you offer?

Pam Currie (25:26.352)
I like that. That’s excellent. Thank you.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (25:27.927)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. That’s some thorough training and I love the ramp up that you guys put into place to hopefully have clients right when training is done. That’s that’s superb. The lifelong coach love it. Alright, Braden, let’s get into the really important stuff that everybody wants to hear about, which is money, because money matters, right? Let’s start out with cost of entry. What is the estimated initial investment range for someone to become a franchise operator with you?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (26:20.417)
Not bad at all, especially when that includes working capital, like you said, the budgets. You already tapped into item 19, which is potential revenues. Do you want to share a little bit more? You’ve shared some, but they were really good numbers.

Pam Currie (27:20.638)
Mm-hmm.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (28:24.855)
Yeah. Do you find that people tend to stick with one territory or do you have franchisees that have more than one?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (29:29.825)
And do you all offer a small discount when they do more than one territory up front or is it the same price for the second territory? Franchise fee.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (30:26.851)
Very nice. Okay, and so with that, I would say you are a very affordable, especially if you’re doing a single territory franchise. We’re at 160 for an entire business. So what’s some common funding strategies? Do a lot of people self-fund or are they getting some other ways to fund the business?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (31:42.339)
That makes sense. Right around the same talk truck we have when it comes to helping people find wise funding strategies. I agree with you and with everything you said there. All right. Good help.

Pam Currie (32:05.148)
Awesome. Thank you.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (32:06.281)
Agreed agreed. We just kind of sprinkle it on there and we get them in front of funding specialists who really know the details and can identify the funding strategy that works best for them. So I love the ones that you laid out. They’re all very good. Braden, it has been great having you on the show and you’ve shared some really great information, some great details about Gotcha covered. I feel like I understand it a lot better too. Any additional anything else that maybe we didn’t ask you that you’d like to share before we wrap up?

Pam Currie (33:06.286)
Yeah, great, great. Thank you for all of the great insight and thank you for that shameless plug. We appreciate that. Work with the franchise consultant. Thank you. We do like to wrap up this podcast with one final closing question. And the question is this. In closing, what tips would you give

Shari Currie Skjoldager (33:16.483)
Thank

Pam Currie (33:35.346)
to budding entrepreneurs.

Pam Currie (34:35.998)
Excellent advice and just to further piggyback that we do provide tools and resources that help someone identify their why along with helping them identify what is their buy box? What’s that look like? What’s that criteria that they’re looking for in a business? So those are some of the resources and tools we provide. I like to say we’re we’re your rudder on the boat. Don’t just be hanging out in this vast sea.

with no understanding of what direction to go. Let us be your rudder. So thank you for that. We appreciate you being at Gas Freedon. Pleasure. To our… Yeah. Appreciate it. Thank you. And to our listeners, if you are considering franchise ownership, let us be your rudder. Reach out and request a free franchise sisters discovery call.

We also would like to provide you with an ebook, top 10 questions to consider before investing in a franchise.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (35:40.139)
Yep, our mission is to help you navigate the franchise selection process through our client-centric, align-wise methodology and to put you in a position to make an informed decision with the help of our Investigate Before You Invest Toolkit.

Pam Currie (35:55.196)
Yeah, thanks so much for tuning in.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (35:57.507)
Good stuff.