Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Create wealth through Franchising. I'm your host, Kim Daly.
Whether you're a CEO, a military vet, a real estate investor, or simply in career transition and ready to take ownership of your future, with each episode you're gonna learn valuable insights and hear inspiring stories from within the franchise industry.
On that note, my guest stories are their own. And as a franchise consultant, I do not make personal brand endorsements or earnings claims, but I do educate, motivate and inspire dreams.
Now onto the show.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Welcome back to Create wealth through Franchising podcast and Kim Daily TV and my studio today, two gentlemen from Jacksonville, Florida who are franchisees of Rolling Stone Suds. Their names are Dave Passo and Mike Gray. Dave and Mike, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Thank you. Pleasure being here.
[00:01:07] Speaker D: Thank you very much for having us.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: We're gonna have so much fun because I am very intrigued with Rolling Suds. When I saw the video of the guys cleaning the Superdome, the roof of the Superdome before the Super Bowl, I was like, what is going on? This power washing franchise. I need to meet some of these amaz franchisees. Now I know that wasn't you because that was in New Orleans, but let's start at the beginning of your story because you are a father in law and son in law team, which is kind of interesting and I'm very curious how that came about. So one of you start us at the beginning of your story and tell us how you ended up as franchisees of Rolling Suns.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: I'll try to keep it as short as possible, but I worked for a, for a family owned business, professional services business for 38 years and it grew from a 30 or 40 person company to 200 plus with nine offices. I felt it was time to leave after 38 years and I was the largest stockholder when I left and I sold it and or the people in the company bought me out and I thought, I'm young enough to do something, but what is it? So I spent about a year looking at different franchises, looking at different opportunities and Rolling Suds came across and I ended up talking to them for a bit. I actually talked to the CEO and after a couple of meetings I talked to the CEO and I turned him down.
And I, and he said, why? He goes, you're so interested. I said, I am interested in it, but the problem is I feel like it's a younger person's game and I need, I need somebody younger to come in with me. And at the time I didn't have anybody. I was planning on doing it myself.
And then our daughter and Mike and the kids at the time was one kid came to Florida for. For the holiday.
And we started talking about it, and I was showing Mike I was excited. I wanted to share with Mike all the different opportunities that I come across my desk. A different franchise.
We came across this one.
And I know Mike was looking to. And Mag and his wife were looking to move back to the East Coast.
And Mike said, if you get into this rolling sods, I'll go in with you.
And that's how it started for me.
[00:03:32] Speaker D: Same thing, obviously, for me. I was in Colorado running a branch of a roofing company as one of the regional sales managers. And long story short, my wife did not like it out there. Wanted to give back all of our families on the East Coast. We're figuring out a plan. But this plan with Dave came a little quicker than we thought. So we decided to go in together and get this started.
And we moved back in December of last year, so Dave started it without me here, and then I joined him here in December. And it's been going great ever since.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: It's great. When you've been franchisees now for how long?
[00:04:09] Speaker C: We're a part of the year.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Amazing. Okay, so you got a year under your belt. So I want to go back to. It took you a year to explore franchises. Okay. Because that's a franchise consultant. You're making me want to crawl under my desk right now. Dave, I'm assuming you were doing this on your own. Please tell me you weren't working with an experienced franchise consultant, because that would really make me crawl under my desk.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: I was doing both, and I wasn't really happy with the person I had. He was giving me leads that I just wasn't something I was there. I shifted gears and thought maybe I should buy an existing company, try to get a good price, and then take that company and make it better. That was my thought. And then I get introduced to another franchise person, and she led me into this.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Okay, so you worked with the first consultant. Didn't really help you too much, but the second consultant had a better feel and maybe some better relationships and was able to offer you rolling suds. And you made this connection. So when you first said no to rolling suds. Talk a little bit about that compared to other options, you were looking at what was lacking other than that you felt you was a young man's game. Was there anything else in there?
[00:05:21] Speaker C: Yes, there was. Because I came from a professional services Company, essentially a white collar business joined into a blue collar business.
We had sales, but our sales were different in terms of landing large projects that would last two years type of, versus some of the things we do here.
And I think what scared me the most is I'm not very handy.
And the trucks and the maintenance part of that business was not something that I really thought I could do and I would have to hire it all out. And I thought, you know what? I want to get into something that would I do well.
And that's what really turned me off in terms. And then it was starting over.
I thought with a company, if I buy an existing company, I'm not starting over versus a franchise where you start from zero.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: So you overcame a lot of different hurdles. Let's pick on that last one because I do hear that a lot. People think, oh, if I buy an existing business for sale, that I'm not going to be like starting over. And I'm like, who says?
Who says you're not starting over? It's still your first time in that business. And so then you go and pay a multiple of that business only to figure out that to take it where you want to go. You have your own learning curve and you need more money. That's usually the case, right? So oftentimes when you start to really think through what you're doing, when you're comparing buying an existing business and starting from scratch, starting from scratch in the right franchise with the right mentorship and systems can be the faster and cheaper way to do it. And then you get to control every aspect of how that brand is brought into the market and the reputation that business has versus not knowing what reputation the company has in the consumer's mind and then maybe having to correct for that. So that's just my $0.02 of 20. 20, 23 years of being a franchise, consulting and coming up against that. But. And it does make sense, though, in some cases for people to buy established business for sales. And I always tell my franchisees, I want you to build this, to sell it. So I do talk out of both sides of my mouth a little bit, but it's all unique to the individual. And that's the whole point of this interview. This podcast is to help those of you who are listening, who are on the sideline and not in the game, to know that you don't have to figure all of these things out on your own. You have a resource in Kim Daly. I have 23 years. There's a relationship and experience to offer to you. And I'm not pushy. This isn't about me doing it my way. It's about me helping you understand all of the options so you can feel good about the decision that you're making. So just a little side note right there. So Dave. So that was one objection. So go back to. So the resale and then the not being handy thing and going from a white collar to a blue collar. This is very.
A very astute thought and something that I think a lot of people may dismiss a business like this for the exact same reason.
So how did you overcome those. Those thoughts?
[00:08:31] Speaker C: I'm somewhat of a risk taker and I thought the being handy part of it, Mike, alleviated some of that. Why not jump right in and know I was successful in a different life and I believe I could be successful in this life.
And to quite honest, it's different, but I love it. It's quite different than we're not used to, but I do, I enjoy it.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: So, Mike, so you come in as the young guy, the young man answering the young man's call. So I'm guessing you're doing a lot of the heavy lifting and you're also a handy guy.
[00:09:05] Speaker D: Yes, I have construction and I owned a flooring company with my dad. I. And then also in roofing. So I have been in that home services construction realm since I was fresh out of high school and even in high school your whole life. Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Working for your dad?
[00:09:22] Speaker D: Yeah. Yep. So that's where the mixture of him being.
Not necessarily cor. You know, it was a family business, that kind of business. The back end, the higher. The higher decisions and all that. He. That's his expertise. And I'm. I know how to word of the home services, work with the crews, work with.
I'm. I wouldn't say I'm a mechanic. I'm handy though. I can.
[00:09:44] Speaker C: Much handier than me.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Yeah, you can get the job done. Okay, so what advice would you have if there is somebody listening to this who loves the idea of the power washing and we'll get to what the business actually does, but in general, it's power washing. So if there is somebody listening to this and they're like stuck in that kind of. I'm not that guy. What advice would the two of you have then? Do you think that you absolutely need that general manager you're hiring to be that person that you're not or now that you're in it, do you realize it wasn't. You were overthinking it.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: I think that you need Somebody in that role for sure. In fact, I don't know if you're going to get into it, so maybe I'm jumping ahead. But if there's one thing that we could use some help with from corporate is the maintenance part of it where Mike is good at it. But it's like the first time you do it. And unfortunately in this business that I find nothing breaks unless you're going a million miles an hour and you got 10, 15 jobs and you gotta get it done. It just doesn't break on a Sunday when you have nothing going on. For someone like me, I needed that. I would have had to have hired that out.
[00:10:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Your first few hires are definitely important. If you're not a handy person or hire your weaknesses, a good GM or even just the first lead technician that you're gonna work into, a GM or a salesperson, whatever you're lacking. A lot of people in our thing are don't come from sales backgrounds. So that's where they're lacking. Or like Dave said, the handy part or learning how the actual home services side of the works, you can hire somebody. There's a ton of good people out there to help you out, to get you started on that.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: That was a big clear mind too, was finding people with. Especially in Florida where we are, there were no jobs available.
But corporate put us at ease and we put ads out there and we were able to find people for sure.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. So for those, for somebody who's listening to this right now, what I would say is as your franchise consultant, I would much rather you be the salesperson because that's what drives the revenue of the company. I'd rather you trip over the I need a handyman person who you can hire than to come into business ownership being the handyman, being the tinkerer, being the I can do the job, but I am lacking the skill and actually or the confidence in being able to grow the business. Because you won't have the business to grow if you don't have the sales and leadership and business ownership skills. So that's probably why if rolling suds is giving the characteristics of the franchisee or any blue collar franchise you're looking at lists the characteristics and says no experience is necessary, I'm guaranteeing you. That's why what's more important is that you can be the leader of the people. The tendency sometimes for people that are handy is to get in there and pitch, hit and do the work. And then if you're doing the work, you can't be growing the business at the same time.
So it's way more important that your time is spent on building and scaling the business than knowing the how to. And if you don't know how to do it, then you won't be like, at the risk of stepping in and trying to do it. That's. That would be my 2 cents on that ideal. If you have some. If you grew up on a farm or you play with your cars and you have some handyman skills or your wife says, yeah, my husband is handy in the home and you can do enough to be dangerous, but you also have that business skill. That's where that would be the perfect combination for a business like this. Dave, you said this is different, but you're really enjoying it. So let's go back to that one. What is it different from and why are you really, really enjoying ownership in rolling suds?
[00:13:24] Speaker C: I like being out. I like interacting with people.
And I hate saying this, but it seems easier than I thought sales and I think it's just connecting with people.
Finding the right people is a little bit harder, but once you find. And if someone gives you 30 seconds or five minutes, it's pretty easy.
[00:13:47] Speaker D: Yeah, he was nervous. More nervous about the sales aspect as a personal guy. And that's what it comes down to, is just talking to people and building the relationships. Once I learned that, once you learn the rolling suds way and the mri, the back end of the business of how it works, then the sales part comes.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Easy. It was a lot easier than I expected.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So the training fully prepared you for to hit the ground running.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: It did.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: And you went in a little nervous.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: Yeah. From the time we started to the time we ended, it was night and day.
[00:14:17] Speaker D: And there's a wealth of knowledge in this franchise. The founding family, the Wendlings, have been around for 34 years. They have seen every good thing, every mistake. Yes, you're going to make for the most part. And then helping that with all the other training that they give you is extremely helpful to get this thing going.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: I love that because I think that again, a lot of people feel insecure about having never done it before and they use that as a mountain in the way instead of just a pebble that can be stepped over. Especially once you're partnered with the right franchisor that has good training and good validation from their existing owners that is all in place. You don't have to make that a reason. You can't look at a business that's totally out of your scope in Fact, most of the businesses that I show to people are totally from left field. People are like, wait, I don't know anything about this. But that's the whole process of being open and exploring franchising. I wanted one of you to really explain, like, so we understand that it's power washing, but tell us a little more about just so for context, not that we're. I'm not promoting any specific brand. This episode is not about promoting rolling sides. But for context of the conversation, let's tell the viewers, the listeners, a little bit about what you do and who your customers are.
[00:15:32] Speaker D: Do power washing. Pretty much anything exterior of a building, a house, any. Anything that you can clean on the outside. Especially here in Florida, things get dirty very quickly with the humidity and all the rain and the water everywhere. So it's a very busy business here. We definitely are built more for commercial. The way that our machines are set up, the way our trucks are set up, we're built for speed and efficiency. So we can do a job typically faster than most companies, especially commercial. We can reach higher. We can do four or five stories from the ground without requiring lifts and everything like that. And then for residential wise, we can do them very quickly. We can do a residential house in about 30, 45 minutes, cleaning the whole house.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: And people from the residential side, they don't want someone sitting there outside of your house for five hours. They want you in and out and do a good job.
[00:16:25] Speaker D: Yeah, they want a good job.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a good point to bring up. Just because I think a lot of people may think, wait, why did you even buy a franchise for power washing? I could just go buy my own equipment, put a magnetic sign on my truck and be in business.
So you're speaking a little bit to that value proposition that even in the seemingly simple business, again, when you're partnered with the right franchisor, there is a. Why. There is a value proposition to why you go into business for yourself, but not by yourself by partnering yourself with a franchisor.
[00:16:56] Speaker D: People don't realize that when you think you can just go buy the power washer from Home Depot and stuff, when you get into this, the bigger stuff, and now they can go do some residential. You're not going to have their equipment to get the stuff done that we can. Man, you don't understand all the expenses that come about. You know, a lot of times those companies are tend to be a little cheaper and stuff like that on their price. And then it gets a little slower, equipment breaks and gets tough.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: Plus they ruin things.
[00:17:22] Speaker D: Yeah. Damage things with their own equipment too. They're all not using the right chemicals and stuff like that on different situations or stings will cause some serious damage if you don't know what you're doing. So that's where it's rolling. Said just bringing the professionalism and a soft wash there.
[00:17:39] Speaker C: People say it's a misnomer about power washing. The only thing you're power washing is flat work concrete and sidewalks and curves. Everything else has some power to it but it's more of a soft.
[00:17:51] Speaker D: So you don't ruin anything just to feed off of what he said to people. Don't want you there. The speed at which we can do commercial as well. You know what might take another company a month to do an apartment complex or whatever we might be able to do in two or three. The amount of time that we can. How fast we can get it done with the way that we are set up is very enticing. Is which is why we're getting large commercial things large national scale national accounts and stuff like that.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: So I'm guessing that those larger jobs come with larger price tags as well.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Not only your price tags but also reoccurring revenue year after year, month after month, which is a big deal.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: Do you mind sharing the discrepancy maybe between a large commercial job. The ticket on that just compared to a residential job?
[00:18:36] Speaker D: Yeah. You do an apartment complex, you're cleaning anywhere 10 to 10 to 20 grand, up to 30 grand or more. And then a residential job might be 300. 300 to 350.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: Yeah. Sometimes a thousand depending on if they want to know everything.
[00:18:52] Speaker D: Just a regular housewash. You're looking 300 bucks or so in our area.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: So does it almost make it not worth your time to do residential work or does residential work pay faster and it gives you quick, quicker cash flow?
[00:19:03] Speaker D: Yep. Residential is definitely important. You got to have a balance. And for at least from our experience, commercial takes longer to get paid. It takes longer to get approved. Sometimes you may give a bid and not do the job for six months or a year. Sometimes from what we've seen. Residential is definitely important because we can do so many so quickly. And then you get it locked in and you do these people every year. And now you have residential residual income coming in every year and they pay that same day. So people.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: So Dave, are you investing your time on the sales side? Are you going out and networking in the community to find these big commercial jobs?
[00:19:42] Speaker C: Both. We're actually both doing it. The franchise has some pretty good lead generation that we brought in. You get a lead, you get even a warm lead and we turn that warm lead into a job. That's our roles right now. If someone were to call in sick or something and we needed a job done, Mike might jump on it more so than me. Or if a truck breaks or something happens, Mike will jump on that. But yeah, that's our. It's both of our roles really. And to me, going back to what you said earlier, sales is number one. You've got to have the sale. Everything else will take care of itself, but you've got to have the sales. And that's where it came in my professional services company.
There was sales and this is sales. And it's not that difficult. It can be difficult. Where we've seen some franchisees that tend to work in their business instead of on the business and they're spinning the wheels.
[00:20:40] Speaker D: All that in the beginning you do need. You're going to be doing more to make sure the daily operations are going. But.
[00:20:46] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:47] Speaker D: You have to work on the business and the sales.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Is it that.
[00:20:51] Speaker D: So that matters. None of the other maintenance and all that matters if you don't have the sales to the jobs like you mentioned earlier.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:57] Speaker D: All comes down to 100.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Owning a business is always about customer acquisition. Right. So if you're out there listening and you hear the word sales, because that's a misnomer. People that I'm buying a franchise, I don't have to go sell anything. And then they make you feel it. I'm like, wait a minute.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: Furthest from the truth. If someone thinks that they should not buy.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You're always in the customer acquisition game. That's what owning a business is all about. I always toss it back and just say, hey, if the franchisor could generate all the leads they need for you for your business, why would they even need you?
It would just grow corporate territory. So they're always. The franchisors are building a brand using other people's money and other people's time to build those customers around the country. That's the whole reason that this is a franchise. So customer acquisition is a thing. But I love what you said, Dave. You said, it's easier than I thought it was going to be. You said that a little bit ago.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Talk to Mike. I hate saying it. Oh, wow.
This is easier than I thought. But I think especially in the. Not so much residential, but in the commercial, there is such a big demand.
And I don't think that the competition is large and the competition, some of them don't do a really good job.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: The competitive factors sometimes are so low, the barrier is so low. It's if we just show up when we say we're going to show up and we do the job to the bid and we're professional in how we look and how we treat people when we're on their property, like it's come on. That can't be the reason you can build a multimillion dollar business. I'm like no, yeah it is the reason.
[00:22:30] Speaker D: That's the competitive advantage that we have. Residential may have people just focus solely on price and that's when it gets highly competitive. But there's not as many people out there than the commercial space.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: I see that little fish window cleaning cup behind you. And fish window cleaning is another franchise that I've been blessed to be a part of for over 20 years. We took that little mom and pop started by a husband and wife team in St. Louis, Missouri in 1990s and then all their kids have grown up in that business. Speaking of taking it becoming a family business and now one of their oldest sons is the president of the franchise. It's such a great American wealth generating franchise story. Not to mention that all of the franchisees that we've created and actually the current not the president of the franchise, the sun is like the CEO of the franchise. The president of the franchise was actually a franchoice placement as a franchisee. When he was in career transition he worked with a Franch Choice consultant. They showed him fish window cleaning. He became a standout franchisee and then he was elevated to the president of the franchise. It's such a great story but the whole point is not to talk about fish window cleaning, but in the fish window cleaning business, right? People think oh my gosh, I'm looking at a window cleaning franchise, Kim. I'm like yeah, but it's the competitive advantages are the same things we're talking about here that you show up, that your your cars and your are marked, your employees wear the red jersey or you have that professionalism about you. You can take your credit card as a form of payment. Like simple things like that are what makes sometimes these mom and pop highly fragmented industries more sophisticated. When we wrap it in a franchise brand and a system, really awesome. So, so to wrap this up. So what are you guys looking forward to? Dave, Are you one day looking to retire and leave this to your daughter and son in law?
[00:24:18] Speaker C: Mike and I talked in five to seven years. We'll take a look at it and see where we're at. And we'll have to make a decision if we, we want to scale it and we have scaled it and we want to continue to scale it, but at some point we can say, hey, we could sell it, split it and move on. Michael move on.
Or Mike keeps it and buys me out and I maybe work as a consultant here and there. There's. There are so many different avenues to take that it's hard to know I'm still having fun and my health is still there and. Yeah.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: Have you ever regretted investing this money, Dave? Moving on after 38 years in a corporate scenario. Has there ever been a day, like a hard day when you have 15 jobs and your equipment breaks where you're like, why did I do this to myself? Or do you mostly just be. Feel that blessed and abundant and this is just great?
[00:25:14] Speaker C: No, it's blessed. You know why? Because the higher days in, in franchising, the hard days in, in my other company, we had good days, we had bad days, we had ups and Downs in 38 years. Imagine where the economy was 38 years ago and where we are today or last couple years. You work hard, keep your nose to the grindstone and, and stay steady, you'll make money. And I'm enjoying that. So. No, a few, there are a few days where we, maybe we'll get frustrated with things, you know, once in a while with some of our employees, why they don't think the way we think. But then Mike has to bring me back to it's not the white collar employees that I'm used to. So I had a little bit of that to get used to.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: And at least it's your kind of hard. That's what I wanted to say to you. Right. So it's hard either way, but at least it's your hard. And when you get out, it's your learning curve and it's your revenue and it's your reward and it's your time. And so there's something magical about the word your right when you get to own it versus doing it for somebody else's bottom line.
[00:26:19] Speaker C: I remember with fond memories of our company, my old company, when it was smaller, a little more family oriented. And this is nice because it's a little more family oriented now versus more of a corporate. When you grow to a certain level, you have no choice but to become corporate. And this kind of brings me back to my roots when I first started. And I'm actually enjoying that a lot as well.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Yeah, so, Mike, is your father a little bit perturbed that you moved on from his family business and now you're working with your in laws. Is there like a little competition here?
[00:26:52] Speaker D: I went out and branched out in Colorado and he's just happy that we're closer back again, us and the grandkids.
[00:26:58] Speaker C: When you were talking about wanting to come back and mentioning me because I would, he knew I was looking. He mentioned to Mike, maybe you should talk to Dave because he's one out. He should buy something.
[00:27:07] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. He did recommend talking to him.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: So it was his idea.
[00:27:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:12] Speaker D: And they get along.
[00:27:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:13] Speaker D: We go lala. I'm great. It's all fun there. They support us big time. And it's a great family thing.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: It's really good. It's an American dream. Get your whole family involved in it. Everybody benefits, everybody gets to grow. You get to work, work together. Hopefully you all like each other, which it sounds like you do. So it doesn't get much better than that. I love this story. I love it for so many people who are out there listening, because I know that many people who are listening to this right now have the exact same dream. So let's go ahead and end it on that note, because if you are ready to begin your own journey to find your own American dream story through franchising, Kim Daly wants to be your franchise consultant and your daily mindset coach. So please follow the link in the description right now and I will reach out to you right away. Mike and Dave, thank you so much for blessing us sharing your story, and good luck to you in the next second year of your business.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:28:05] Speaker D: Thank you so much for having us.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: A pleasure to meet you.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please please email me right now at InquireimDaily TV. That's InquireimDaily TV.
