Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to American wealth in Franchising and Kim Daly tv.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: I am your host, Kim Daly.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: I want to educate, motivate and inspire your business ownership journey by interviewing business leaders, coaches and exceptional franchisees to learn their valuable insights and strategies that we can apply to our own business ownership dreams.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Now onto the show.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Welcome back to Create wealth through Franchising podcast and Kim Daily tv. In my studio today, another lifer in franchising. He's done the time and he's here to tell the story. His name is Trey Powell. He is from Lexington, South Carolina and currently he is a Mosquito Joe and Wonderly Lights franchisee. Trey, welcome to the studio of Kim Daly tv.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: I am so excited that you're here today and I'm very excited because before we hit record, I said, oh, how long have you been a franchisee? And he said, well, 25 years. I said, oh, well then, so take me all the way back to the beginning. So Trey, let's start the conversation back. What was happening in your life when you first answered the call to franchising?
[00:01:10] Speaker C: So originally, I don't know. Back before that when I was in college, I was selling Cutco knives and was pretty successful with that. Probably the best thing that ever happened to me at the time when I was in college and really gave me direction and pointed out what I really needed to do in my life and that was be self employed. Eventually ended. I did that after college for a few years and then when I finally left I, I went and worked at Dale Carnegie training as an area manager, selling the training and then conducting the courses and all that and originally wanted to buy the business from the guy that that had it. And then I was recruited at my 10 year high school reunion by an old friend from high school and he was working for this little startup company, Liberty Tax Service. A really great story with John Hewitt at the time. And they were looking for people to come and sell franchises at the corporate headquarters. And I said, well, I have zero interest in income tax returns, but I might be able to sell franchises. That seems like a pretty cool opportunity. And so I went to work there with the understanding that would never do a tax return and started selling franchises. And after working with new franchisees for a couple of months, I said, you know, I think I could do this myself. And so the next season, in less than a year, I bought an existing franchisee and became a franchisee while I was still working at corporate. That went really, really well.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: That's always a good story because you're drinking the Kool Aid, right? So then you probably sell more franchises, because people were like, well, if he's selling it and doing it, I should do it too, right?
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Without a doubt. I sold a lot more franchises the next year after that. And we ended up expanding. Then we ended up selling all of our franchises in Virginia and moved to South Carolina to become area developers. In South Carolina, we expanded to Kansas City, Wichita, and Topeka. We ended up opening a little over 200 locations.
Somewhere between 175 and 200, you know, just kind of managed that for 20 years, and eventually they bought us out. I knew they were going to buy us out. And so I spent about a year kind of looking at different franchises and couldn't find anything I really got excited about. And it was an old friend that I used to sell franchises with at Liberty Tax years ago, and she was working for another little startup company, Mosquito Joe. And she found out that I was looking at franchises. So she immediately called me. She's like, trey, you got to try Mosquito Joe. And I'd actually heard of it because I knew a couple other Liberty franchisees that had started doing it. But I told her, thanks, but no thanks. I said, I don't think I get excited about pest control. I said, but if you can kill bugs. I was like, come on over, because I got a million of them. And she said, well, I just sold a franchise in Columbia, where you are. Let me see if I can help you. And I was like, come on over. And so I was one of that new franchisee's first customers. They came and treated our yard, and I just couldn't believe how well it worked. And I was so excited about it. I was like, man, I got four of my neighbors to treat later on that week. You just by having. You got to come over and see this. This is amazing. So then I called her back. I said, all right, you got me. I said, tell me about this franchise. I was like, why do I not know about this? And she said, you know, well, it's. It's new. You know, 10 years ago, I mean, nobody was spraying yards for flying insects. The industry really just didn't exist. And I said, well, what's available?
And I looked all over, you know, Charlotte, Atlanta, D.C. i wanted to get where I could get, like, five territories altogether. A month later, literally, by the time I got to Virginia beach, they were all sold out in all of those major markets. And so but Lexington, South Carolina, which was the other side of town, was available. And I said, well, I've been in franchising long enough to know if you wait around, opportunity will present itself.
And so let's just do that and we'll get started. And so we actually sold our house, moved to the other side of town, and we opened Mosquito Joe. And so that was back in 2015.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: I'm just curious, what do you like about franchising? So you got in. You've moved your life a couple of times now to build these franchises. So obviously you're pretty sold in, you know, to the franchising model. Because the first thing that got me, I think maybe the listener too, was, wait, you sold franchises, moved to another area, paid another franchise fee. Why not just go do it on your own?
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Well, yeah, that was really just not an option. I didn't know anything about income tax returns for sure. And even after running a business for a year, I would never have tried to duplicate what we had and what we were building. I mean, when I came to Liberty Tax, there was less than 300 locations. You know, that now they're at like 4,000 locations. You. You know, I really want to be a part of something that's bigger than myself. I've been in franchising so long that I can say this now. I don't know. It's hard to say this. I think when you're new, you just focus on the fee and the amount. But, you know, the network of franchisees that you have other franchises to call on is worth every penny. I pay in royalties, and that's a lot. And that's difficult to say when you're doing millions of dollars and you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in royalties. But the fact is, is if you're all on your own, who are you going to call? You want to bounce an idea off somebody. You know, businesses is complicated, and it's difficult to find the right answers. And research and development is very, very expensive.
And the reason that the majority of small businesses fail is they run out of money before they figure it out. And that's. I think, what a franchise gives you, is that system of doing business that's pretty proven. You don't have to create a website, you don't have to create a brand. You don't have to create logos. You don't have to figure out phone numbers and whether you're going to use a call center. All of that is figured out. All you got to do is execute. And I can execute. Can I do all that stuff on my own? Maybe, maybe not. But you're going to Spend a lot more than what you think, trying to start something on your own. And the chances of you scaling as fast, having it all figured out from the beginning is close to zero.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Amazing.
And, Trey, why is the scale so important?
[00:07:07] Speaker C: It's all about the numbers. I mean, the more you produce, the more income you have.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Wealth is created through scale, people. It's not about one team, it's not about one truck, and it's not about one location. If you want to build real wealth and abundance, it's got to be through scale. Whether you're out there as a real estate investor or a franchisee, it's all the same. How do I leverage my time and do more. Right. With less. And that is what franchising was built for.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if I were to say, like, am I 10% more? Because that's what I'm paying in royalties, I'm 10% bigger than I would be without a franchise. I would be even. I mean, it's so many more times. It's probably hundreds of times bigger and more successful than I ever would have been. Trying to figure it out, especially in industries that you're unfamiliar with. Like, I didn't know anything about pest control, didn't know anything about tax returns, and I didn't know anything about outdoor lighting, you know, when we got started with that one.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: And you've been with some amazing people in franchising. I mean, starting with John Hewitt at, you know, Liberty Tax, and then partnering up with Kevin Wilson, the founder of Mosquito Joe. I mean, these men are legends now in our industry. Right. And so you were blessed to be mentored not just by a community of franchisees. And I love that you bring that out, because a lot of people don't think about the camaraderie. But, you know, when you're exploring a franchise, especially, you know, you come to me, you're like, I want to change my life. You're not thinking about the bigger picture. No one really is, because no one really gets it, I think, until you're in. Like, you go to the first convention, right? And then you have this awakening of, like, oh, my gosh, all these other people. And now they're your friends and your colleagues, and they're the ones that you really go to when you have a question right past the initial training and, you know, all of that, the corporate.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: Headquarters kind of get you off the ground.
And then, you know, once you have the system down, your best investment is to get a good network with the top people in the country. And there's Not a week goes by that I don't call somebody in Nashville or New York or Miami or Arkansas or Texas. I mean, I've got so many people to call on and they all have different streaks. Some of them are really strong in operations and I'll call them for operational questions. People are really strong in marketing or sales.
And so that network of other really successful top franchisees is very, very valuable.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: It's gold. I love that. Okay, so now I interrupted you because you're not only a Mosquito Joe franchisee, you're also a. What's the last brand?
[00:09:33] Speaker C: Wonderly Lights.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Wonderly Lights. So now you're involved in outdoor lighting.
[00:09:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: You've been in the brick and mortar thing. Now you've got two non brick and mortar. So let's just talk a little bit about that. And the attraction strategy from one to the other. Was that conscientious or I think, I mean, I guess you've kind of already told us you didn't really wake up and go, oh yeah, I want to be in pest control. It was more that once you saw how good the product was.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I knew I didn't want to be in food service. I have a background in sales and marketing and so for me it's very important that I am doing something that I feel strongly about, that I believe in. And so, you know, that is what attracted me to Mosquito Joe. The Wonderly Lights thing kind of came about because by accident we had gotten so big and had so many employees.
Sixteen at the time, now 22, 25 employees. And I was trying to figure out how to keep them employed year round because you drop that many people, you're not going to get many of them back in come springtime. And so we started doing Christmas lights originally just to kind of bridge that gap. I had no other franchisees that had done it, but, but I just didn't realize how well that would work. And that completely bridged the gap. And I was able to just from then on hire. Every single person I hired was full time, year round employee, from the office to our technicians in the field. And then when Christmas light season comes, we start pulling them one at a time over to the Wonderly Light side until mid November. And then they're all in the lighting company all the way till Christmas, you know, January we're taking the lights down, storing everything, cleaning up, getting ready. In mid February, we're off and going with our mosquito control business again.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: It's a beautiful addition to your business.
So any comments learning strategies you have around the Hiring part, you've now built a team of like, 20, 24 people. So I think a lot of people out there, I know when they come to me, they think, well, I don't really want to hire people. And I'm like, well, how do you want to leverage your time if you don't want to hire people?
So there's a lot of head trash around. You know, people today don't want to work hard. And I'm like, well, maybe you could become the boss that they want to work hard for. Like, I'm kind of like the smart one, like, always sort of turning the conversation back on them. Because as the owner of the business, the only way to get control is to get control of the story that you're telling and tell a different story that serves your purpose. So as you've grown and you've taken on this team of people and advice you have around hiring, leading, is that, like, you take pride in that, or is it just a necessary evil for you to build the business that you want?
[00:12:06] Speaker C: I have a very fortunate experience right back to where I started in the beginning, which was working with Cutco. After selling Cutco, I became a manager, and then my job was recruiting and training a salesforce. And so that taught me how to interview, how it taught me how to recruit, and an invaluable skill that I will take with me for the rest of my life. And so we're very intentional about our recruiting policy. I mean, people want to be a part of something, and so you've got to have an exciting culture to attract the right people. And we are very intentional about our recruiting and who we have and who we have on our team. We've got our core values in place, and we want to attract the people that. That want to work and they want to have fun and they're okay with being accountable.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Hey, Daily Coach fans, if you're ready to begin your own journey to find the perfect franchise, please, please email me right now at InquireimDaily TV. My services are totally free for you. That's InquireimDaily TV.
Now back to the show.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Okay, so you've been in now for 25 years. You've got these two businesses. What do you see in your future?
[00:13:23] Speaker C: We have built this mosquito business to two and a half million, and in ten years, and we really kind of thought we had hit the ceiling with that business because, you know, growth started to slow down. We really created a whole new industry. I mean, now there's a lot more competitors in the Market, you know, we really weren't sure what direction we wanted to go. Now we have become a complete full service pest control company. And so now we are cross selling other services like general pest control, termite rodent control, and becoming that one stop shop for pest control.
And we could double our business just by adding one additional service, much less two or three. And customers, I think, tend to like that. They like to deal with one company, and we put them all on autopay and monthly billing and just try and be as easy as possible to do business with. And so this has really opened up the coffers per se to man. We could get this thing to 5 million or 10 million without even expanding our locations. I mean, I have two territories, Lexington, South Carolina, which is actually half of Columbia, South Carolina, and then Augusta, Georgia, which is a completely different market.
And so, you know, the opportunity just right where we are is significant. And personally, in the service business, I would much rather be narrow and deep than be spread out all over the state of South Carolina, because I could easily start acquiring other franchisees all over the state.
But I'm not sure that I could do more business than what I can do right here in Lexington and Augusta.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: And so by that do you mean, Trey, that because you can keep your routes so tight, you can be so efficient? Because I'm imagining that in a smaller area, it just would feel more competitive. Like I'm thinking from the listener outside who. Who may be not. You know, I'm a very big believer in that. We create our own reality that we don't have to compete. There's enough market share for everybody. But for that listener who may be listening, thinking, really you wouldn't just go wider. That doesn't give you more opportunity. You feel you can go deeper. Is it because of that tighter routes?
[00:15:29] Speaker C: The bottom line is that even in Mosquito Joe, the franchisees with 1 and 2 territories, pound for pound, they outperform the franchisees with 4 and 5 and 10 because their resources are spread out over a much larger area. They never fully take advantage of what's right underneath their feet. I mean, and if you look at what you actually have as far as market share, it's not that. I mean, I can tell you in Lexington, we dominate this market. I mean, in mosquito control and in lighting and in outdoor lighting, we dominate that, the market. And the reason that we do is because we're narrow and deep. I am the current chair of the Chamber of Commerce in Lexington, and I can't be the chair of the Chamber in West Columbia and Columbia and Northeast Columbia and over in Kershaw county and on the other side of the lake in Irmo and Chapin. I mean, there's so many chambers. I could never be this involved in that. And so I would much rather have ownership of something very small. The bigger that I am, the harder that is to compete with for other businesses.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Very interesting philosophy. It doesn't work that way for every franchise, but I totally love and respect what you just said. I think that's a very astute, like, way to build your business. So for the listener, like lean into that. And that's something that if you were working with me, we'd have to massage based on the business we're looking at and what the franchisees in that system would validate. Because there certainly are home services where franchisees would validate the complete opposite. Right. Where going wide is better than going deep. So it's all comes back to the business you're looking at and the validation from that family of franchisees who have nothing to sell you but. But who are out there working their own business and will tell you what they're finding in terms of success in their market. It's awesome you've been a part of Mosquito Joe through the sale. Any advice you have on riding that emerging wave to off to the new owner.
[00:17:21] Speaker C: You know, we were well with our feet under us and I literally see not a whole lot of impact involved with that. I mean, I have franchisees friends in other industries that have been acquired and where it was an amazing thing. The company brought new funds, they brought innovation, they brought all this new, better stuff and helped the franchisees in our acquisition. It really wasn't a whole lot of that. It's just kind of a new corporate headquarters to call and so forth. And you know, I don't know that it has a whole lot to do with really how successful a franchisee is going to be.
At the end of the day, they're not going to do it for you. I mean, they can vary in levels of support, but at the end of the day, it's up to you to execute.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: And did neighborly come with the idea to add pest control or is that something that you're doing locally that's a.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: Neighborly, across the board, big initiative that they are pushing.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: It really makes a lot of sense. I love that. And so you said something earlier too, and this will tie in double. So you said, I know how franchising works, so I'm going to go buy that Lexington territory and like wait for the Opportunity, like, things are going to shift. Like, what you see on a map is not in stone people, right? Like I tell people that I'm working with somebody in Las Vegas right now. I'm like, well, just take the open territory and get in there and get going. Because things will shift. You may be able to buy, hey, you may build something better and they may buy you. Come back to Kim Daly, we'll find you another business. Like, it's that nimble, adaptable mentality that will thrive.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: You're absolutely right. And I think that every industry is going to vary a little bit. I would say that opportunity didn't present itself with Mosquito Joe nearly as fast as it did. When I was with Liberty Tax Service. Liberty had thousands of franchisees, thousands of locations. I mean, in Columbia alone, we had 25 locations. There's two locations with mosquito Joe. So there's not as many territories. And when Mosquito Joe just went like this, there was just, there weren't people anxious to sell and get out. And now there's more opportunity than there was five years ago.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Because systems age, like for the listener, because people don't buy businesses to do it forever, right? You build a business to sell it, you know, in a lot of cases. And so you, you kind of get to that 10 year agreement and you're like, yeah, you know what, I'm going to sell my business. I'm not going to re up. It's not a bad thing. It doesn't mean the business isn't great, doesn't mean it's not thriving. It means the owner is ready to check out. Right? Like, you can't judge the resale process.
So where I was going to connect that to is you bought this business, you're like, okay, I know how this is going to work. So we're going to move to Lexington because things are going to shake up. Then you think you're buying a mosquito spraying business, that here you are all these years later is now becoming a full service pest control. I love this because it just, again, it shows, like, business isn't a dynamic environment. It's ever changing. It has to always be growing. And so for the listener out there who's thinking that, like, I'm going to invest in a business and it's a one and done and I'm going to put my time in and then I'm going to back up and I'm never going to have to like work the business. And it's like I try to help shake that tree a little bit. Like, you may be Able to build and scale a team so you don't have to be hands on in the clay every day. But the business always needs you as the leader and the visionary. Because as times change, economies change, franchisors change, everything changes. You got to keep adapting to the change, right, Trey?
[00:20:39] Speaker C: No doubt. I mean, honestly, I, I had kind of stepped back from the business and I had a team kind of running it for the last couple of years and, you know, life was great. But with this new opportunity, I've stepped back in, getting a little more hands on. You know, I have an EOS implementer in place. We're hiring a leadership team. You know, we have a, a hard set vision to get us from 2 1/2 million to 5 million and then even possibly to 10 million, which I never dreamed that was possible. I thought these territories would do maybe four or five hundred thousand a piece, and if I wanted to do those kind of numbers, I'd have to own 10 of them. But that's just not the case. I don't know that when we started this, anybody had any idea how big of a mosquito business you could build. Nobody knew where the ceiling was because we kind of created the industry.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: It's an amazing, amazing comment for the listener out there that when you get in, what it looks like today is not what it's going to look like. If you're partnered with people that are growing and you have a growth mindset, everything is going to get better. Don't invest in the franchise for the earnings claim, for God's sake. The earnings claim is going to change if the business is growing and adapting. Right? Use your own imagination, use the validation, talk to people and decide for yourself what you want to do and have the vision to grow and be adaptable and nimble, because look what can happen. It started as one thing and look what it's turned into. But that's because of you, Trey. It's because you're willing to be on the balls of your feet and grow with it. And you stepped back and enjoyed the good life and the profits and you reaped sort of the harvest. But now there's another growing season coming. And so it's like, roll your sleeves up, get back in, because there's more money on the table and I got another job to do and there's another level of growth. But you're doing that and attacking that from a different level of mind than you attacked the first 2 million, right? Because now you're coming in with EOS, you're coming in with Systems and team and people. So, like, where you go in your business, it's different at every level. Right? The client is different, the view is different because your skills are different, your ability to finance things is different. And so you start where you start. But it has to have this vision of continuing to grow for as long as you want to be a business owner. It's so inspiring. I mean, from Cutco knives to Liberty tags to now, you know, to buzz franchise brands and now to Underly Lights world, which is still buzz franchise brands. It's awesome. So believe that you are totally unemployable and financially free because of franchising.
[00:23:09] Speaker C: Yeah. I've only had two jobs in my entire life, and neither of them lasted more than they were less than two years each of them. I am not a great employee. Franchising has been the tool. It shows you what freedom can look like and you reap what you sow.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: That's what franchising can do. That's the power of being connected to the right franchise and to find that right franchise. That's why I have this podcast and my YouTube channel, because I want to work with you. There's too many unknowns in trying to select the right franchise. There's so many franchisors out there that are not worth your hard earned life savings. They're just not ready or they just don't have enough money to build the franchise that they're claiming they're going to build. Like you don't know what you don't know. But I've been doing this for 23 years. I've ushered the thousands of people to create 1,000 franchisees here in the U.S. think of the thousands of other people that came down the path and didn't buy a franchise through Kim Daly. I have your back. I know what you don't know, and I know that I can help you. And my services are totally free. So it's no risk, no obligation. So this is your call to action. Trey, thank you so much for being our very special guest here today. And I am so happy to meet somebody else who's unemployable and financially free because of franchising. Good for you.
[00:24:23] Speaker C: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: God bless you. What an awesome, awesome story. Thank you for inspiring my day and our listening audience. So for those who are ready to begin your own journey, if you feel the call, it's your time. So follow the link in the description below because you know that my name is Kim Daly and I want to be your franchise consultant and your daily coach.
[00:24:51] 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 email me right now@inquireimdaily tv. That's inquireimdaily tv.
