SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello, everybody. I believe you may have just turned your cameras and mics off, so feel free to come back on so we can see who's here. Happy 2026. Thanks for attending the first call of the year. It's nice to have so many new people on. So hi David. Hi, John. Yusuf, nice to meet you. I see Bashar and Andrew as well. Thanks all for joining. I'm very, very happy to see everybody and happy new year. We are kicking it off with Housie, who is in Sacramento, California. And she was one of our very first franchisees, Z calls last year, and she's hosting the first one this year. So really appreciate you doing this for us and giving everybody your time and your knowledge. We're really excited to have you on. With all of that being said, I'd love to have you just give everybody a little background on yourself. Tell us about you, how you got started, anything you want to talk about, and then you can open it up to everybody else for them to ask you their questions. Sound good?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Yeah, you got it. Sounds amazing. Hello, everyone. Happy 2026 to all of you. Looking forward to getting to know you all. My name is Housie, like Lucy, but it is Housie, uh K-Car in the Sacramento franchisee. I have been blessed to be with Citywide for, oh my goodness, four years now. I've gone into four years. It feels like forever. But um very blessed to be here. So a little bit about myself personally and professionally. I'm a mother of two. I have a beautiful daughter, Hailey, who's 12 years old, a son who's 10 years old. They are my why. Um and they keep me going every single day. And they watch me, they watched me, you know, from day one with Citywide. I feel like they're kind of part of the team when they start talking like me and repeating the citywide lingo, it's uh they should be in payroll at this point. But uh nonetheless, um, when I'm not as citywide, I'd love to read, I'd love to travel. I heard uh Savannah say we have some representation from Canada. I was there not too long ago. I think it's gorgeous. So uh whoever's out there in Canada, I'm interested in knowing what part of Canada you're in, but uh we'll definitely talk about that. Now, in terms of professionally, I am in Sacramento. Prior to citywide, I was in banking. I spent 20 plus years in uh corporate America. I grew up in banking pretty much, and I've done all kinds of positions. I left as an executive director. I was an executive director for JP Morgan Chase. I managed every single Chase branch from the downtown Sacramento territory all the way up to the Oregon border. When I had that market, it was $2.9 billion. When we when I was done with it, towards the end of my career with them, it was about $3.9 billion, close to 4.1. And we grew it quite immensely. It was a very fruitful career. They asked me to go back to the Bay Area as a managing director. And at the time, I was also being recruited by a fintech company and also Salesforce. Now, this was post-COVID. As I mentioned, I'd like to read and I travel. So I remember reading this article. It was published by a Harvard Business Review, and they talked about senior management, mid-management, and senior management, C-suite executives, the importance of them being agile and how agility is translated in the modern school of thought. And in this article, it talked about taking a skill set from one industry to another industry, because that in itself really shows that you are agile and makes you even more marketable. And it was all these things. And I just remember thinking to myself, it intellectual, you know, intellectual curiosity. I was like, you know, they're absolutely correct about this. I grew up in banking. I knew everything and anything there is to do about banking. Um, it was very fulfilling. I was very blessed, but I'm also an intellectually curious person. I know I have very big goals and aspirations, and I wanted to add to my skill set. And I thought about it, thought about it. Most of my family members are all entrepreneurs, and they're like, Hoosey, you've been in banking for so long. Why are you not venturing out to be an entrepreneur? Why aren't you doing this for yourself? And they were in my ear for about 10 years or so. Well, believe it or not, Citywide was introduced to me by one of my mentors in the banking industry. And so they were like, hey, this is an organization that you are really going to enjoy being with. So when I read that article, I had conversations with my family, something clicked in, and I said, you know what? I don't want to be in banking anymore. I respectfully declined the managing director role, I respectfully declined Salesforce, and I respectfully declined FinTech. And I was like, I'm going to take a chance on myself. I want to become a business owner. And I didn't look back. It was probably one of the best decisions that I've ever made in my life. It's very different when you're working for somebody for a Fortune 500 company and you're operating on a you know million-dollar budget or whatever the case may be. And then to come back and take all of that expertise and actually build something with a phenomenal organization from scratch, it really puts you to a test. So it's very rewarding. The grind is real, it's very fulfilling. The only regret I have now is I wish I would have done it sooner. So that in a in a nutshell, I'm a former banker. Now proud to say I'm in the building maintenance industry space for management sales organization, and I love it. So enough about me. I remember when I was in your shoes, I think I heard Savannah say that uh for some of you guys or many of you guys, this is your first call. I remember going through the diligence process myself. And when it was my first call, I had a hell of a lot of questions. And I also hoped others would ask questions. So to make sure that you guys get what you need from this, because I can sit here and I can talk all day long about Citywide and the wonderful experience that I've had so far, but really it's about you. I figured if we can have a conversation, I'd love to understand what is it that you're wanting to gain from this call, and then let your conversation, your questions kind of lead the way.

SPEAKER_07 6:19

So bring it on and don't be shy.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

I don't mind starting. Hi, my name's Jonathan. Nice to meet you, and thank you for your time today. Um I'm interested in uh some of the struggles with uh scaling uh clients uh and also finding vendors. If you can go back to your first year, what were some of the challenges that you saw? And you know, if you can change how you went about it, what's you know, in your opinion, the best way to handle that first year and scaling?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Excellent. So I will answer, I think you asked a couple of questions in one. One was scaling the business. And it's okay, and the other one was around vendors, right? Yes. And I'll answer the vendor part first because I think the second one will make more sense in terms of what I'm about to say. When I think back to my first year, I will tell you this. I was a former trainer for JP Morgan, okay? Um, and I knew, I know coming from a sales background and knowing that I'm going to a sales organization, Citywide Facility Solutions is a sales organization, a management company in the building maintenance industry specs, and we got to sell, right? And I knew that from day one, and I knew the importance of it. I made a book. So once I uh, you know, have conversations with my peers, well, at that time they were franchisees, but now they're my peers, and I understood the importance of our model and what role a vendor played, I knew that I personally could not wait for the office to open. So I remember making a literally a spiral booklet with a presentation template that's already provided by Citywide. My performance coach at the time had provided that. I customized it and I did not have an office, and I started recruiting vendors. I would go to a Starbucks location and I literally did the presentation right there. And we started onboarding vendors. Um, at the time, I was reluctant to charge the performance deposit and the initial uh orientation fee. Now, four years into it, obviously it was head trash. It was just getting comfortable with it. Absolutely, hands down, I would absolutely continue to charge that. I understand the value of citywide. We are valuable to our vendors. We also need vendors because we don't provide the labor. We need vendors. So the sooner you start onboarding them, and the biggest thing is to sell yourself and understand who we are and explain the model accordingly and get them excited about the ripple, get them excited about our vision and get them excited about working with you. Somebody told me, a respected peer of mine, he said, who's he? The contractors that get you through your first year will not be there the second year or third year. That is now fourth year going into it. That is somewhat true. The very first set of contractors that I had, they actually turned out to be some of my bottom performers in year two and year three. But I'm also proud to say that I still have vendors that I onboarded within the first six months of you know joining Citywide, they're still vendors for us today. And I am proud to say that I have watched their checks grow. They're brought into the citywide culture, they appreciate it, they refer other contractors to us. So, point being, if it's a brand new, if I were to give feedback to my younger self, start building relationships with ICs, independent contractors, sooner than later. Don't wait for an office. Don't, it's the big elephant in the room. It's not gonna go away. So the sooner you tackle it, the better it is. Don't complicate it, understand what our model is and understand how powerful they are, but don't be so. I found myself sometimes um relying too much on vendors. And I felt like they were in the power play, right? In the first few months or whatnot, and they were kind of like managing us versus the other way around. So it's really, really important to understand our model and understand the value of citywide or whatnot, so you can help demonstrate that vision and connect the dots for them up front and then follow through. But also know that as you gain more experience with citywide, you're likely are going to be uh turning some over as you would even with employees as well. Did I answer your question?

SPEAKER_05 10:32

Yeah, thank you very much for that.

SPEAKER_07 10:35

That was perfect.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

And now for the scaling, it's a complicated uh response, but the easiest way, the simplest way you can say sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Sales is a cure for everything in your first three years of grind. I will tell you, I am not impressed with my own performance as an owner in that first year. My own learning curve got in the way. The things that I know now, had I known, I feel like I would have scaled faster. We still grew. We did an okay job, but I felt like I could have done much better had I prioritized sales from the very get-go. Having the right sales executive, if you can and you're able to bring on a sales executive right from the get-go, do it. Citywide advises to sales executive, do it, right? The minute I started um investing more in sales and bring someone else besides myself to be able to sell, that's when my business started to turn around. In that first year, I went through a number of sales executives, okay? Too many for my liking, if I'm gonna be completely honest with you. Stick to the model, those PIs. There's a process that Citywide has in play. The reason why I chose Citywide is because I have very like a corporate mindset. I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel. I'm not looking to, you know, look for out-of-box ideas. What I want to do is I want to take a playbook and I want to go run it and execute. Well, Citywide Facility Solutions has a playbook that has been around for 60 plus years that's working. So trust the process. And in that first year, when I onboarded sales executives, not all of those sales executives went through the PI, which is an assessment that's part of the hiring process that uh we now I absolutely require, we require um executives to complete, and it helps you identify, helps you identify the right people in the right seat from the very get-go. So PI, leverage that resource. And it is an assessment on cognitive as well as behavior. The objective management assessment is another tool and resource that's available. Take advantage of that. When I was struggling with some of these, I partnered with CityWide again and they um with the HR team. There's um we can work with them where they are able to um help promote our ads, right? Help promote our ads so we can have an influx of the right type of candidates to come through. When I did that, that was a game changer for me. It helped identify pipeline not only for that time, but also uh pipeline that I'm working through right now. So, for to answer your question for scalability, how can you position yourself for success the very first year from the very get-go? Know your numbers, sell immediately. You have to be comfortable selling, in my opinion, as an owner, as an owner, I need to know how to sell, and you got to train sales executives and bring on the right people from the get-go, invest into sales so you can start hitting your numbers from the very get-go, and you're not starting from behind.

SPEAKER_05 13:39

Right. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

I have a follow-up question on what uh Jonathan had asked, right, in uh regarding the um onboarding of the vendors. What uh what kind of you know, like you know, jital work, you you have electrical. So do you do we have a list of skill set or kind of you know, licensed contractors that you are looking for, you know, for the basic services that citywide provides?

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Sure, great question. So if I understand it correctly, you I it sounds like you're looking for the qualifications of independent contract independent contractors that qualify to work with citywide. Yes, there are qualifications, and here's some of them. They have to be um have a business license, they have to be insured, they should have workers' compensation. You they should, and you should want that as an owner to mitigate risk, right? There's some accounts that require bond bonding, so they do have to go through background, there's an entire process, so don't feel like that's something that you have to figure it out. All you got to do is follow the process in terms of where to recruit them. I remember I literally just pulled it up on CRM, which is the dynamic 365 customer management tool that we have, system. Uh, we pulled it up and this shows all the contractors that are ready, and we just started dialing and scheduling um uh orientations. Okay, literally scheduled. And I was initially doing it myself, then I had an employee watch me, then they learn, and now I don't do it myself. And honestly, we're at a point now where others are referring. You still want to keep it up because you want to make sure you have enough contractors to keep up with the growth, but all I did was follow the process. Then there's a checklist that's available for you when they come to the orientation. Then there's onboarding that has to be done for it, there's quality assurance measures. Like, for example, we charge 50% of a performance deposit fee on any account that's assigned to them to ensure there's quality assurance and they may lose that performance deposit should they not be performing. There's an account orientation fee, there's an initial orientation fee, and I learned all of this through our playbook, our independent contractor playbook. Now, additionally, I remember um I just went to literally to Google. Um, some of my learnings I had there, you I believe your name is Sunil. Some of the learnings I had initially I would reach out to um independent contractors that were more established, but then what I found is that they were the pre-modernas. They were the ones that were kind of telling us what to do. They were picky on pricing and that kind of thing. And obviously, when you're starting in your first year, the Sacramento market was considered a de novo market. It wasn't a pre-existing market. So you need, you want to partner small to mid-size contractors that are flexible, that are agile, that are not so established, where they expect you to abide by their rules. And the ones that you, the ones that are going to work with you, Sunil, Jonathan, Youssef, are the ones that are gonna have skin in the game. And my first year and a half taught me when you target contractors that are small to mid-sized, they are also invested in growing their business, but they don't have the professionalism that we do, they don't have the resources that we do, they don't have the, they want to do the labor and that's their specialty, but they don't know how to get accounts and that kind of thing. So for them, it's a win-win. But if you when I went to the the two established of a contractors in that first year, they were not performing. And then when they were, they would kind of like quit on us like last minute. So I experienced more challenges with them. In a nutshell, um, if I were to summarize, that's what I would say. Use the independent contractor playbook, stick to the model, don't be afraid to recruit, tackle it sooner than later, and um don't go after the established one, go to the small to mid-sized ones.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

And you had mentioned that you were able to get this catalog of contractors through a CRM, right? So this is a C you know a CRM that's um citywide provides, or you were going through the Google repository to find out.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

I was doing both. I was doing both, but CRM has it. It's a list of prospects, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

That shows the independent contractors, and then obviously I was adding to that as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Okay. I have one more question. Uh um, this is related to the you know, finding how long did it take you to realistically build a stable book of business? You know, like again, from you mentioned, right? It, you know, I think in your response that first three years is, you know, really, you know, you for you to get established in this business. So in this three-year journey, right? When did you realize a realistic, stable business uh book of business for your for your franchise?

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, thank you for asking that. And I think that's open for interpretation because I each year brings a different level of challenges. We did grow in our first year, we absolutely did grow in our second year, and we absolutely did grow last year as well. And so there, when for each person it's different. I'll tell you right now, what I'm comfortable with is getting my recurring book of business to five million or more. So, if you were to ask me, this is my opinion, what will make me feel stable, right? And there's other I I don't know how to necessarily interpret that because it's I have a 10-year plan that I'm trying, I I want to make sure I hit it in a seven-year time period, like very big goals. So my stability is going to adjust, right, based on the stage that I'm going to be in. But I want to get my book of business, the reoccurring business right now. It is imperative for me to get it to five million or more per per year. And where I'm at right now and what I'm trying to achieve in the next year, that for me translates into stability based on where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Got it, thanks.

SPEAKER_05 19:52

Would you say for your recurring book of business, are you talking more to um landlords directly or property management companies, or uh, you know, just an on-site manager who keeps up the facility? What's uh from your recurring book of business, who are you most in communication with? And or do you target a certain group?

SPEAKER_03 20:17

Great question. We have tier tier one, tier two, tier t type of uh prospects and clients. Our T1 customers are auto dealerships, office buildings, medical facilities, private schools, right? You mentioned property management. Property management, I believe, is tier two or tier three, right? And then some of these large organizations, then it goes from there. So in CUI, there's a playbook that it is, it's called a sales playbook, prospecting playbook. It actually defines what a tier one client is, a tier two customer is, and a tier three customer is. Average account size is about 2500 for my market, 2500 to 3,500. And those are the type of prospects that we target: medical facilities, dialysis clinics, churches, faith centers, auto dealerships, and private office buildings. So those are the types of facilities that would benefit from us, right? From what CityWide has to do. They have a budget and they have a business, they want to be represented, they want one point of contact, they want uh want to work with a vendor that can provide multiple services and simplify their billing or whatnot. And more importantly, they have the budget to be able to do that. So when it's too small and they don't have the budget for it, our model might not make sense for them. And when it's too gigantic of you know, uh an organization like the Walmarts of the World think that, then they are um too price driven, and that might not make sense either, right? And so tier one and tier two prospects and clients is what we really strive to to go for. Now, within those facilities for those types of facilities, you can be speaking to the principal, you can be speaking to the maintenance manager, you can be speaking to the CFO. The title doesn't matter. ultimately you want to target who the decision maker is that handles building maintenance including janitorial.

SPEAKER_07 22:11

Did I answer your question? You did, yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Hey Kausi, um I I um I have a follow-up question from my previous question which is you know maybe I I generalized it to stable business book a business. My question is maybe more refined now, which is how much time it took you for you to realize a break-even point, right? Um you know you know worse you know from all the expenses and all the income that is was coming in and you know that you know if you can address this please 18 months.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

18 months okay 18 months I broke even but I like I said to that point that um Jonathan asked earlier if I were to go back to my younger self with citywide if I if I had the right sales executives and I were I met my sales reoccurring sales metrics in that first year it would have been a lot faster. I do believe my own learning curve I came from a complete different industry and I was learning this industry that kind of contributed to it for whatever the reason may be but to answer your question 18 months is what it took.

unknown 23:17

Thanks.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Could you actually uh walk us through that territory that you uh Sacramento as you enter the territory what it was like at the beginning that did it have recurring uh revenue there already did you build it from scratch just kind of walk us through so we can just get an idea of that area so Sacramento Territory is geographically widespread we have about 2.1 million population so one of the larger territories think uh well I don't know how familiar you are from here but anywhere from Placerville down to Woodland down to Roseville and everything else in between um it's one of this territory I have split it into four because of how geographically widespread it is when we initially acquired the territory we also inherited and I chose to accept um accounts from our national business development team um I onboarded I want to say about 10 accounts when I first started so it wasn't zero it was 10 accounts that was transitioned that was already at citywide and I was really grateful to do that because I learned the process I learned how the integration the transition from NBD national business development to you know local or whatnot and then within that first year and a half we staged it in terms of what the transition was going to look like and all of that good stuff. So about 10 accounts got transitioned over from the national team and then we built it from there.

SPEAKER_06 24:45

And currently I have about 245 2450 of monthly recurring revenue and when I first acquired um citywide it was less than 20 and could you um just walk me also through your organizational structure in the beginning yourself and then how did you kind of grow your team from there?

SPEAKER_03 25:13

Yeah no it wasn't just me myself from day one it was me myself I went to NFO with myself an FSM fields um account manager right uh solutions manager and then I also had two sales executives I went to NFO on my way back from NFO at the airport through that process one of the SCs learned that that wasn't going to be for him he wasn't a hunter and so I we landed back in Sacramento and I separated and I went through that sales executive then I onboarded another sales executive and I onboarded another sales executive and I and so within that first year I literally went through like four or five different sales executives.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Currently I have two sales executives with the um I actually just had three at the start of the year one we transitioned into a different role so I'll be hiring a third sales executive so three on the sales executive side I have a BDS I also have three account managers I have one night manager um and then I use this I work with citywide they do my accounting and my um controlling and all of that through uh citywide corporate so three sales executives three account managers one night manager I have one up for a director of ops development plan and then looking to add another sales executive and another night manager uh by mid this mid this year awesome no thanks for answering that and I'll pass the mic after this looking back now what roles would you have filled um or you think were um the most important to fill on day one sales executives I was also playing the role of a sales executive I'm still playing the roles of a sales executive but I would say um for future peers any you're going to get the most bank for your buck by investing in sales up front you you've said you know sell sell sell but it's my understanding that you may not have the contractors to do the services how do you balance selling it having people to do the work great question so um I mentioned earlier that I I chose to onboard an FSM at the same time came from banking having seen but I don't for me there's no point in acquiring business if you're going to be losing it on the back end right I I that net gain is incredibly important and we're a service industry we're not selling a pen where people can assess the quality we're not selling a shirt it's our service it's our ability to retain it's our ability to deepen those relationships that are equally important to acquisition and so how I balance it and everybody's uh approach to the first year might be a little bit different right I chose to have a field solutions manager a sales executive and myself and then in addition to between myself with that field solutions manager watching me I uh did the onboarding of contractors from from day one and to be honest with you I onboarded my first contract from day one I remember being in an NFO and we already had a signed contract right and people say oh well we get the office or we do this and no just jump in and go for it but trust the process the reason why I felt comfortable transitioning out of banking and embarking into a franchise is because I know the playbook exists.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I know the resources are there. I'm so incredibly grateful for my peers I'm so incredibly grateful for the resources that Citywide provided and I'm so incredibly impressed with the playbooks that are provided. So for as long as you're willing and able to follow the playbooks then it'll work out. I chose to have staffing instead of doing a sales executive only or myself I chose to have that up front and then I leveraged the playbooks to do that parallel to each other which actually is one of the things that worked well for my business. Thanks this is uh I had a question uh on the uh national account um I was uh wondering uh today what does that contribute to your uh top revenue and uh uh have you seen uh that business um continue to grow in terms of support from the from the central team uh yes the second part of it absolutely that's one of the benefits of having citywide you know or partnering with citywide facility solutions my team and I have a fantastic relationship with our national sales executives and our national sales you know uh operating um peers or whatnot and uh I would say I have a good 25 to 35000 of recurring revenue that's coming from national accounts there could be top down accounts and they could also be preferred accounts and then the other thing is I love it because Octopharma was the very first account this is confidential right everything stays here as confidential right I'm allowed to specify can I I'm speaking very organically and I forget making sure that I'm not violating anything over here but Octopharma is uh was my very first account that we sold here and I am proud to say we still have it. That is a national account okay it is a plasma center. But the good thing is there's another there's another one that's opening I use that as an example Davida is another one we have over 700 Davida dialysis clinics at citywide when I think back to my first and second year and I was talking you know looking through my strategy in terms of where to prospect it's a the opportunity is all here but where do we start first I found that the national preferred client list understanding who our national um clients were that actually helped it it helped make it easier I did there was no citywide facility solutions here in Sacramento but going into Octapharma or going into Davito dialysis clinic and speaking to them about citywide and that it was established well before I being able to leverage those resources and us using that to our benefit to help enhance the trust and relationships here locally was very very useful it was very very helpful. So I do have um uh not a large percentage of my revenue is from national account it's a small percentage and to be honest putting myself in it I would want more local business right because the point is to grow but uh the good thing is the opportunity comes from every angle thank you so much you're welcome in your 18 month break even did you pay yourself anything during that time no I didn't pay myself in the first year I didn't really pay myself in the second year until the second half and then in the third year I started to um minimally but I am paying myself at the I would say mid next year I mean mid of my third year to now now I'm paying myself but it's not breaking bank I just I'm choosing to reinvest back into the business.

SPEAKER_04 32:35

It's definitely not at a market value rate but I am at a point where I could pay myself yes okay and going back to your sales executives can you tell me a bit about the qualities background experience of the sales executives you're hiring absolutely so one of my sales executives he's actually he was a former business owner himself at a pool company um I met him at the gym he has fantastic relationships he lives and works in the community that we live and work in and I recruited him from there uh another sales executive had a he was a former handyman company owner okay he uh one is a maverick which is a profile PI recommends for sales the other one is a captain uh so they're definitely within the P of PI uh recommended recommended backgrounds so the other one is also he was a former handy uh handyman owner and then uh he just got tired of you know he went through his personal life stages or whatnot and went through he's like we see I don't I don't want to be an owner anymore I want to work with an owner and to be honest with you initially was concerning for me because if somebody's a business owner and they're coming in they could potentially be hard to manage.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

But we kind of addressed that up front through the natural hiring process he wanted to make money he wanted to grow but he didn't want to worry about the cash flow all those other things that come with being a business owner that he just didn't didn't want to be an operator anymore. And it worked out well because his experience helped contribute to the one-time service to sales and it added credibility um with customers from there. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

So so not exactly college kids and not exactly folks that have been trained in a sales methodology or from a pure sales background.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

It sounds like they're more occupational types they're both sales background they have they absolutely have sales background I have another gentleman that I hired who's a captive profile he is he graduated college he's under 30 years old between 20 and 30 very ambitious has a stamina is a hunter does not mind prospecting so what I would say again to my younger Sal I remember in my first year I hired a lady a sales executive who knew how to manage a book of business she had like real estate background right she knew how to manage a book of business she knew how to uh engage she knew how to enhance relationships but after working here you know what I learned she had trouble hunting and she was used to being from real estate background because she's been in the industry for so long she was getting referrals so she forgot how to go hunt and actually book and that's where she struggled. So with prospecting she was very awkward being very honest with you her inability to make phone calls her inability to get out there in the field and make connection to get those initial surveys is what prevented her from being successful. So for a sales executive it is imperative um sometimes if they have too much sales experience that could be not a good thing either right so that's why the process is so so important just because they've done it before but if they haven't recently hunted and they're not willing to put in the the grind and the work to prospect to build a pipeline that absolutely can impact their ability to hit their uh revenue mark sooner than you know sooner or on time for sure.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Right so I I'm also from California from the Bay Area.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

So when when I hear the term sales executive I think $2000 a year is that uh is that in the ballpark of what these guys make working for you yeah great question so initially the first year and I'll speak to in the first year I was offering a base between 60 to 65 and I was uh I had a tiered commission plan okay then from I change kind of changed it in second year and I bumped that up from anywhere from 65 to 7500 is what my current base is. That's what I pay and then what I pay for commission for sales executive is they earn 75% of one month's contract over a three month period. It's very aggressive I am aware and the reason why I did it is because I didn't offer health benefits and helped me attract the right type of sales executives or whatnot. And it also put it in I did not want to be in a position where I'm paying a high base hoping that somebody was going to make a majority of their compensation should come from commission. And the fact that I didn't have a cap on it my sales executives tell me that they like that a lot there the the aggressive compensation plan is what attracted them to citywide right and they were willing to put the grant to be honest with you I even tested during this uh three year period I even tested and offered a commission only so if you want to be commission only I'll give you 100% of one month's revenue over three month period bring it on I I tested with a variety of ones but currently we landed that's where I'm at starting 65 to 75 and sometimes I'm willing to make an exception too but it's based on the candidate but for the most part 65 to 7500 base pay and then 75% of one month's revenue over a three month period after the customer pays that's important and then they also have an opportunity to earn a quarterly bonus for one time sales and that's tiered but they only um qualify for payment on that if they hit 75% of their uh recur revenue goal. So you're you're paying based on revenue not bookings it sounds like yeah revenue is the booking right like with they they have to be able to install it just because they do the site surveys they once they actually close the deal the customer starts that's where their majority of their compensation comes into play.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

Yeah and and realize I don't know everything about countrywide's process but um from prospect to contract what portion of that does your sales executive manage versus what portion of that do you manage?

SPEAKER_03 38:42

For a sales executive button uh they do it themselves once they're passed it I have a you know 90 days right where they shadow they build a but but my expectation is within that 90 days they should be ready to do the entire sales process from start to finish for citywide facility solutions from start to finish um on their own yep so sorry I'm a little ignorant here of citywide but um they're not simply prospecting and then you're coming in and doing the contracting and the final presentation you're you're expecting them to do the whole by the end of the third month yes yeah by the end of the third month absolutely but initially of course I would they would be shadowing us I'd be shadowing then that whole training that's more of like a training thing but my personal expectation is for a sales executive if it's the right person and we're following what you know the the training plan or whatnot by the end of that third month they should be ready to go to be able to prospect and also um uh deliver proposals and follow up from start to finish and and where would you say the most effective source is for the leads that your sales executives are closing? Great question um we have Power BI we have uh on Power BI there's a prospecting sheet a prospecting sheet that can be pulled that a lot each sales executive is able to do and they pull the leads that are in their territory and then they call uh both sales executives I've tested both where they're cutting two days in the field and then they're also calling we call a power hour right when they're doing these sales behaviors but then when they schedule an appointment and they're out on their appointment they actually remain in that area and they prospect the other businesses around them. So the prospecting sheet is a resource that Citywide provides is where they go to to initially identify where should the where they would be spending their prospecting time.

SPEAKER_04 40:44

I see so Citywide provides you with a list of prospects or potential contacts and then you expect them to cold call the surrounding businesses it sounds like okay correct correct we also there's other tools that are available sales tools that are available that helps them increase that but in there's more than enough in the system for somebody to just a basis to go off of would you say the cold calling has been effective i've I've heard that that's kind of a citywide thing and it's a bit old fashioned compared to some of us that have been in sales for a number of years. So um is that has that been effective for your business? Is that really grown the business?

SPEAKER_03 41:24

It's been effective what I would say if you were to ask me the revenue that we've installed what's the source of that lead I think that's what's more of an important question right yeah yeah exactly so it's a combination not all of them come from phone calls not all of them come from email not all of them come from field visits. We've been able to capture success successful comfortable growth from every angle so it's not a one size fits all I have sales executives that are very effective being out there in the field right and they're able to generate quality leads I also have sales executives that don't want to be in the field and have windshield time and they prefer to be on the phone until they get that appointment and have also been effective. Based on my experience here at Citywide and the resources that are available I believe for a sales executive to be successful they absolutely should be comfortable making phone calls. They should absolutely be comfortable technologically confident to send out emails right and they should also be comfortable and confident to engage with prospects in person.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

There isn't one way there's multiple ways to skin a cat but the ones that are more successful within this organization are the ones that have demonstrated they can prospect in all three channels thank you you're very welcome um I have a question as as you're um um going out to the prospects right how competitive is the the are the offerings from Citywide as compared to other franchisees that operate in this um this domain and along with the local um you know smaller business entities that operate here I really want to answer your question but I want to understand it when you say how um uh competitive can you uh rephrase your question for me because I want to make sure I answer but I need to understand your question. So I in terms of the the the length the width of the coverage and the quality of you know like you know the the you know from um you know the the kind of services that citywide provides are they comprehensive enough like are we you know you know uh covering electrical plumbing you know the the width of the service right are is is the coverage enough that we are able to really compete with the other operating entities in that um in this domain?

SPEAKER_03 43:58

Yeah great question So we Citywide Facility Solutions offer 20 plus services. Whether I'll again I'll speak to Sacramento. We have tinted windows for medical facilities to make them HIPAA compliant. We have done restoration work for buildings at office buildings where they were working from home. Now the mandate everybody's coming back and they want to recalibrate and rethink their office space. We have literally installed ADA compliance pathways and bathrooms at uh um vet facilities and vet hospitals. We have done parking lot shriping, we have done stripper waxing, we have done HVAC services, we have done carpet extraction, we've done landscaping, we've done um trash U-Haul, right? That believe it or not, we've even today had a service where uh somebody threw ashes, like ashes in a facility, and the facility uh the owners of the facility didn't know what to do with it. And we're literally transporting that to a coroner's office to properly, and I'm giving you these the variety of services, is because the opportunity is truly endless. And when I say it's very diversified, it's very diversified, right? From supplies from the janitorial. But here, and I say that with pure passion, that's what makes it exciting, right? So, yes, absolutely, it's very competitive. And at the end of the day, electrical, we've done we've put gates, we've done all kinds of stuff. And it's only our fourth year yet, and we still haven't done it all, right? But it's gonna come down to our ability to build relationships with contractors, it's gonna come down to our ability to actually uncover those needs with customers and having the trust. But once the customers trust us, then our ability to cross-sell and keep going back for another service and andor multiple services and following through on it. So tree, emergency services, I mean, it's all there. It's that's why this is a phenomenal industry to get into. Did I answer your question, Sunil?

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Good. Yeah, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Did you start off that way too, by scrolling across a number of products? Or did you focus at the beginning on, you know, just janitorial services or just you know, going after a few specific areas?

SPEAKER_03 46:25

Great question. So from a uh prospecting strategy plan, we targeted reoccurring book of business, and that's still my priority, right? To grow the reoccurring book. One-time transactional, one-time uh transactional services and services are important. They're healthy for the business, but it's not uh something I would rely on growing because it doesn't give me consistency, right? But it's essential if you want to make money. So my approach and my priority as a business owner was to go after recurring book and make sure we prioritize that and build on that. That being stated, when you're having conversations, the sales and the relationship end of it, right? Because we're not transactional, we're looking to build relationships. I believe what I believed in banking. What is the immediate need for the client? When you're having or the prospect, if you're having a conversation with them, we've had we've had conversations where we approached a customer about their janitorial services, they didn't have pain, ask them what is it that we could help with, and like who's see, can you tint our windows? We're about to get a federal audit and we're not hippocatic. And guess what? Yes, of course we can. Never took medical facilities in my life. We stepped out, we figured it out. But you what we make a focus is what's important for the prospect and for the client, and then we leverage that as an opportunity to come back and get other services. But from a of course we should go after janitorial services, of course, we should go after landscaping services, of course, we should have a proactive strategy. But just because a customer doesn't have a need for that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have a need for another service. So it's the sooner we as owners and as a team accept that and know how to navigate those situations, I feel like the healthier the growth will be.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

When you talk about recurring revenue, is is that purely janitorial services or is it something more than janitorial?

SPEAKER_03 48:23

Great question. So reoccurring JS revenue is what we consider reoccurring, but to be honest with you, landscaping is a recurring reoccurring OS revenue, right? It's still a one-time service, but it's reoccurring as well. And you would want to set that up accordingly. But when we refer to reoccurring JS revenue, we're referring to reoccurring janitorial services revenue, which is our bread and butter.

SPEAKER_04 48:47

Yeah. And taking your window tinting example, um, you said you hadn't done that before. So did you actually go buy the film and apply it yourself, or did you go find a subcontractor to do the work? Or oh no, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

Our model is our contractors do the work. No, we I got on the phone. I remember this quite vividly because we actually were successfully able to get other locations. No, we did not perform the work ourselves, right? Because that's the other piece of it. You could, but then first impressions matter, and how clients experience citywide and how they experience us also matters. I would not be the person that would be applying a window tint, although I will tell you I went there and I was very curious and I observed that entire process. It was fascinating. I still wouldn't do it myself, but nonetheless, I uh followed the model. We recruited a contractor, got them onboarded, bought them on site, all within the time frame, and got it done.

SPEAKER_04 49:44

And can you talk about what the negotiation process is with a subcontractor? Are you looking for a particular margin target when you hire these subs? And are you looking for someone that's permanent or is it a one-time trial offer? Um, what's it typically look like?

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Great question. So we um for contractors, we're onboarding them all the time. We're recruiting, always be recruiting, always be selling. That's my philosophy, right? Because you just never know for one time when you're gonna need it. And you it's I will also be very honest with you. One of the challenges, especially then if you don't have established relationships with um contractors, and you're doing that, was one of the challenges in the first year because you're kind of doing both at the same time, and it can't feel rushed and it can't feel sloppy and all of that good stuff, right? That's why you need to be doing it all the time so it's ready to go. Now, the negotiation is where we go through the process, help them understand there's onboarding them for recurring work like janitorial services, and then there's onboarding them for one-time services. Initially, when we didn't have any relationship with contractors, we would walk multiple contractors through, they would submit a bid, we'd collaborate, and then decide who we're going to award the bid to. And I'll be honest with you, I remember initially where I felt like I was being taken advantage of. Um, I remember one uh example we were doing a construction cleanup type of project, and I worked, uh, I walked multiple um contractors through and then they submitted their bid. One came at 90,000, another came at 60,000, another came at 30,000. And you're thinking, I'm like, why is there such a it's the same work, so why is there such a big difference? And then I went in there and I looked at their scope of work, and guess what? The scope of work was not that different either. So that that experience, I will never forget it. Um, I was like, okay, this is gonna be a learning. What can I learn from this? And then I and I went back and I spoke to all of them. And the one and I started with the guy that was the highest, and I said to him, I was like, listen, you came three times higher than other contractors. I really want to set up a can you help me understand how did you come up with these numbers? Walk me through what it entailed. And five minutes, 10 minutes into conversation, it was very clear to me that it was just BS. I called him a professional bullshitter. I didn't say this to him to his face, but in my head, I assessed that. And they were he was just throwing numbers. And what that did for me is it killed his credibility. I'll be on. I was very honest with him. I let him know that I'm not going with him because I couldn't make sense of the numbers. Then the other two, then I didn't go with the cheapest one either. Because that's not always the right thing. So my point is there's a process. You have to be, especially when you're building relationships initially, you cannot just accept what they tell you. Imagine if I would have accepted this guy that gave me 90 that and I went and made my client pricing based on that, we would have never won the project. The customer wouldn't take me seriously. So the when we say we represent the customer, I said we would really mean that. And even initially, even if it's if you're not comfortable and you're learning, you have we, I knew I had to put in the work to make sure that I'm doing due diligence on what's being provided before I go and I present to the client because it could sabotage our the impression of citywide and how they experience us. So with one-time services, you walk multiple contractors through, they give you the quotes, you assess it, and then you make your determination from there.

SPEAKER_04 53:16

And how do you manage um performance? So if you've got 10 painters as part of your portfolio of service providers, how do you how do you compare them in terms of performance over time? Does citywide provide you with those kinds of tools, or is that something you have to do as a franchisee?

SPEAKER_03 53:33

I think it's a combination, right? So, for example, a tool like I mentioned when you're onboarding a contractor for a JS contractor, we require an initial orientation fee. We also acquire um a performance deposit, right? A performance 50% of one month's uh revenue, and then I uh deduct that from the custom uh from the IC over a three-month period. And the reason that performance deposit is not for me, it's literally a bond on the quality assurance. So if they decide to bail, if there are no, if they decide not to show up, the customer, you can't say to custom the crew, you can't pass the buck. We represent the customer, we are the crew in the customer's eyes. In those instances, that has helped me tremendously. One of the experiences that I will never forget, it was a Saturday, February, not 2025, in 2024. Okay, this is one and I see that I onboarded initially. I was getting complaints left and right from a customer, customers, okay, and I had it. I had it when I was addressing it. It was just kind of the guy was giving me lip service, giving my team lip service, but he wasn't taking action. And I just made a decision I was gonna remove him from the accounts. Came in on Saturday, 7 a.m., met him here, and I fired him on the spot from all of the accounts. In that one day, I kid you not, we got rid of a low-performing IC. I recruited other ICs for eight accounts. We placed them, we trained them, we serviced them, the job got done, the customer didn't feel anything. It was one exhausting day, but those performance deposits, thank God for those, because I was able to retain that. Does that make sense? And hell, you know, the guy tried to come back. And but it was that experience where I realized you don't want to give too much of your portfolio to one contractor. If and when you do, and the performance drop, because they'll say, I have resources. Who's the I want to grow, I want to do this, I want to do that. But if they're not investing into their company and they don't have the resources to back it up, they're not gonna be able to provide the service that we expect. And it's either the customer will fire us or we're gonna fire the IC. So if we're gonna properly represent the client and deliver on what we say we're gonna do, then we have to we have to be prepared to be able to do that. So my point is it's also a challenge and a risk if you give too many accounts to one kind and you don't have a diversified portfolio, because then you're uh you could run into a situation in which I certainly did in 2024 was uh when I was between a a hard spot and a rock, and I felt like too much of the the contractor had too much of my uh c uh revenue and too much leverage over us could that could potentially put my customers at risk.

SPEAKER_04 56:22

How transparent is it between yourself and your end customer um the nature of the business? That it's you're acting as a general contractor versus um these people being employed directly by you using subs?

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Very transparent. In fact, you you need to be really transparent. We all have to be very transparent. Um, and I think that's one of the most important parts of that, the value to the customer. So transparency has to be there, otherwise, they're gonna confuse us from as a janitorial company and they're gonna treat us as a janitorial company. We're not a janitorial company, we're a management company. And if the customer, one of the mistakes or one of the learnings we've had with some of the sales executives that were struggling selling, it's because they were creating the perception. To be honest with you, I have termed an account manager for that simple reason because the way they walk, the way they talk, and the way they they acted like building inspectors for a janitor company, and it was creating the perception that we're a janitorial company and not a management company, and it was creating confusion out there and it was messing with our reputation. And so it's very important to be transparent and we should take action. And if there's that confusion, we got to address it right away because then the customers will literally treat you like you're the cleaner versus a professional consultant who's here to help. I'm gonna turn it over to Savannah C.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

Well, I was just gonna add, I mean, that's that's a very perfect response. But Darien, just to add on to that as well, you know, I think that the transparency is part of the value add. You know, like just like Lucy was saying, but we one of the benefits here is that we sit on the same side of the table as the client. And that's a huge value add for them, right? You know, if if they're struggling with that contractor, if they're not happy with the service, we're not the ones necessarily getting fired. We're gonna help them be the extension of their facilities management team to solve that problem for them. And the the value add that it creates for that building manager is why Citywide is wants to be that first choice. So I think transparency ultimately is the value there.

SPEAKER_04 58:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

Yeah, absolutely. I know that we're coming up right on 4 p.m. Central. So I'm gonna wrap things up here just by saying thank you all for an incredible first Z call. I think this is the most questions we've had. Um, just go, go, go. And I I love that. I appreciate you all coming so prepared with questions. It makes for a great power hour and who's a phenomenal feedback and answers and motivation for us all. So, all around, just really grateful to kick off the year like this. And thank you all so much. Thank you, Housie, most importantly, for your time.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

You're most welcome. It was a pleasure. Good luck to all of you if you choose to join Citywide and the stars align and look forward to interacting with you. I know they have my information. If you want to reach out and you have additional questions, I'll be glad to. I will end you with end with like I said from the start, um, the only regret I have is not doing it sooner. I have 100% confidence and I'm so grateful for the experience that I have had so far. Citywide Facility Solutions has the best people you'll ever meet. I sincerely mean that from the bottom of my heart. I know there's a lot of quality people that are out there, but I've never been part of or worked with an organization that had a high quantity of them. The mission, the vision, the values, the culture, the support, it's phenomenal. But that doesn't take away from putting in, we also have to show up and we gotta be willing to put in the work, put in the grind, and we have to be willing to do what we need to do to make it equally successful and the reciprocity have to be there. So I wish you all success. Um, best of luck. And if you end up becoming owners of Citywide, I look forward to meeting you in person. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:13

Thank you, Hoosie.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:14

Bye guys, Hoosie. Happy New Year. See you soon. Thanks all for joining.