Franchise Your Business

How To Grow Your Franchise Without The Heavy Lifting With Dan Claps

• Big Sky Franchise Team | Tom DuFore

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0:00 | 28:15

This week on the Franchise Your Business webinar series, we are joined by Dan Claps for a live session exploring a different path to franchising.

Instead of taking the do-it-yourself route or hiring piecemeal support, Dan shares how his team invests capital and takes over the heavy lifting. They handle operations, franchise development, infrastructure, and long-term growth strategy — offering an integrated approach designed to help brands scale efficiently and sustainably.

In this webinar, Dan walks through how this model works, who it’s best suited for, and what founders should consider when evaluating alternatives to the traditional franchise development path.

This was a live recording on February 27, 2026 at approximately 1:00 PM Eastern USA.

This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team.
Big Sky Franchise Team is consistently recognized as one of the best franchise consulting firms in the United States, helping business owners franchise their businesses through a proven 3-Step franchise process rooted in ethical principles, hands-on guidance, and customized deliverables.  If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/. 

The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.  References to external data sources, studies, statistics, or other third-party content are not claimed as our own unless explicitly stated. We do our best to provide proper credit and citation where due. If we unintentionally fail to cite or credit a source, please let us know, and we’ll gladl...

Welcome & Guest Background

Tom DuFore

All right, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us here on another edition of our franchise your business and uh podcast and webinar series. My name is Tom Dufour. I'm the founder and CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. And our session today, I'm very excited to have our guest with us, uh Dan Clapps. And he's uh the CEO of Franchise Playbook and their flagship brand, Voto Cleaning and Restoration, one of the fastest growing home services franchise in the market. Now, since Dan uh since he launched the franchise development for the brand in 2023, he's led their growth to nearly a hundred owners and over 230 locations nationwide. With over a decade in franchising and a successful exit from a franchise lead generation company back in 2022, which by the way, that's where Dan and I met uh when our worlds collided back then and did work together. Uh he's recognized as an industry leader in franchise growth and lead generation. And I absolutely echo that sentiment. And that's part of the reason uh we've asked Dan to join us here on the session today, is really to talk about your business, what you're doing, and what you're looking for for the next opportunity down the line. So, Dan, I'd love to uh turn things over to you.

Dan Claps

Excellent. Well, Tom, thank you for having me. Uh, for those that are on the you know the screen watching, welcome to uh this this series. I'm really excited to speak with everyone and those that are listening to the recording uh as well. Um, you know, being a franchiser is by far in business one of the most rewarding things that you can do. And it is also the by far hardest thing that you can do. And so if I can give anyone just lessons I've learned, uh that's what I'd love to do. So you can avoid some of the mistakes I made. I know I've made a lot of mistakes, and so that's my that's my goal today. So thanks again for for having me.

Owners Over Units Philosophy

Tom DuFore

Well, well, thank you so much, uh Dan. And I know um, you know, one of the things that um we we had talked about, we had you on our uh uh Multiply Your Success podcast. It went live and it was an awesome session that you talked about some of your story and the growth you've had as a franchise or and getting to this point. Um one thing I I'd love for you just even to talk about uh here and and maybe elaborate on a little bit is what you talked about having successful owners and focusing on number of owners in your system as opposed to total number of units in your system and what why that why why does that even matter to you? What what made you focus on that?

Dan Claps

Yeah, it's a great question because what I've learned in the franchise world is often you'll be so franchising is a playbook just like anything else. Um when you become a franchisee, you're supposed to follow the playbook, right? What people don't realize is building a franchise or there is a playbook, as you know. And what I believe in is after you build the playbook, then you can go and try to change things. But I really focus on operating following the playbook. What I have found is that when I'm at franchise events and in the community, everyone talks about units, the number of units, how many units. This is the question people ask the second that they need you because they want to identify, you know, kind of what you've built. And people will talk about units. And as the leader, the more that you talk and think about units, that translates down to your team. And what I believe is when you're focused on units, you're not focused on people as much. And so to me, we say we have 110 franchise owners in our system. We have AUVs, average unit volumes of X, but a metric we've started to work with is called AOV, average owner volume. How many people gave us potentially their life savings that believed in us, that trusted us to be a steward of a brand that we're accountable to? This is the a mindset shift that really has allowed us to grow the way that we are.

Tom DuFore

Well, I I love that mindset and approach. It's one of the reasons I I've just really enjoyed um uh watching you grow and build your system and just kind of watching for observing from the sidelines, really, you know, just following you on LinkedIn and and social and various things that you've shared over the years. Um, and I think for someone tuning in uh that's watching here live as an example, I I know that we had talked about it's it as you've built Voda, uh now with with the the enterprise or with your system as a whole, you're kind of at this juncture saying, we're maybe looking for that next potential partner, that next potential brand to help take and grow. And it sounds like there's a uh some values or philosophy or culture that is also important to you as part of this process. So I'd love just to start talking into that. What is it that you're kind of looking for that you think is gonna be a cultural fit and then uh the types of brands you might be looking to get behind?

Origin Of Franchise Playbook

Dan Claps

Yeah. Well, I'll start gonna tell you the story of how we got here because I think it'll make sense to where we're heading and what we're looking for. So I've been franchising since 2014. Um, I had built a lead generation company prior for most of uh from 2016 until 2022. That business was acquired by Private Equity in the spring of 2022. I took that capital to then go out and start our company, Franchise Playbook, which is now the really the platform that owns Voda and in the future other brands. So how we did that is I knew that I'm a franchise expert. I've got a tremendous, we have a tremendous engine for finding franchise owners. And then there's people out there that have thought about franchising, maybe or maybe you know that want to work with you and build it and put the capital and take the risk. And that's a great way to do it. What we do is we focus on founders that perhaps want to see their franchise, their business become a household name, become something that's larger than themselves, but have come to realize maybe I don't want to take my focus away from my main business. And so how we did it was I assembled a team of really smart people from the franchise industry, a great leadership team, and we started looking at opportunities in the home services space. I met the founder of Oda in 2022. What had happened was he had said to me, I've been building my business in the restoration space for 15 years. I've thought about franchising, I tried it for the past couple of years. Every time I went down the path, it felt like a distraction from my goals in my current my business and where I want to be. But I believe that this could be something amazing as a franchise. And so what we did was we partnered uh my team, we put in all the capital, we take all the financial risk and really rerun the business. And it's allowed Dragon, the founder of Oda, to be able to do what he's great at, which is two things continue to grow his business, and more importantly, he's an incredible trainer, visionary, leader, and he's the heart of the business. And so my team's able to focus on all the other many things you have to do to run a franchise. And he's able to be a partner and help grow that business with us.

Tom DuFore

Well, um, thank you for that, Dan. And talk a little bit about uh you shared that there was a good connection and with uh your operating partners uh really uh ability to train, teach, run great operations, be the heart of it. Uh talk about the I think some of these cultural things that are important to you. Uh I I think it's it's evident in how you run and operate your business that uh your company values or principles, things that you run by, it's not just lip service, you know, it's it's things that you're actually doing day to day and trying to bring in folks that uh fit in with with those types of values or or company culture. I'd love for you to maybe talk a little bit about what that looks like for you all.

Dan Claps

Yeah. And just for clarity, uh, question related to bringing in franchise owners, the founders that we partner with, or the team, or maybe all of it.

Cultural Fit And Core Values

Tom DuFore

I I in my opinion or my point of view, I think for the sake of this session, is really all of it kind of from a high level. What are some of these big core drivers? There might be specifics for a specific brand or internal or external, but I'm really starting to think of as you're looking to add new uh brands into your system, into the franchise playbook and bring that next one to market. Um, you know, I think that's part of uh uh I think that'd be important to share for for folks that tune into this.

Dan Claps

Yeah. So our thesis as we look at launching our next brand in the foreseeable future, not it's funny, I just uh posted something online about we're starting to look for our next brand. I perhaps did not clarify look is a lot different than start. Um, we're we have a pretty clear plan on when we will be launching our next partner. Um, it's in the future, but not the immediate future. Uh what we're doing now is just starting to really look at opportunities that could be a great partner uh when we're ready and start building that with that, that potential partner. Uh what we look for in brands is pretty straightforward, uh pretty straightforward. Uh one, we're in the home services space. Uh, we're not in food and fitness, we're only in one space. Um, this is the level of expertise that my team has is in home services. Uh we look for businesses that are a need, not want, something recession resistant. I actually have these five kind of items that we think about. And so number one is is the business a need, not a want? We want to be in a space where um, you know, the economy is not going to change the business. Two, we like to be in a business that typically a third party pays the bills, insurance or big clients or you know, commercial clients. You want to be in a business where you can have um third-party pay. I'll give you some examples of this too. But three, we look for businesses where we can generate leads in a predictable, scalable, sustainable, and automated way around the country. So often I'll ask a founder, you're doing well in Texas for lead generation, but if you had to open in New Jersey tomorrow, let's say you had to move your family for whatever reason, and you had to open, how would you get leads? And if the answer is only people like me, I'm, you know, John the plumber, that's not really a scalable system. And so we need we need to see that there's some lead generation capabilities. Four, obviously, numbers, uh, you know, at a certain number. And then five is uh, is the owners the future franchise owners' day in the life something that matches the type of franchise owners that we're able to attract.

What Brands They Seek

Tom DuFore

Very, very good. And uh thank you for sharing for sharing and going through some of those details. I think that's important to share. And um recognizing you're at uh and you know, just the beginning phases of starting to find the right um partner. And I and I know when you uh from our past conversations, when you uh uh decided to move forward with Voda, it this was not a just uh a one-off, just kind of said, Oh, fly by the seat of your pants, let's just make uh a deal and get this done. There was a lot of thought and consideration and time that went into this. Um so as you uh start thinking about this, do you uh you know, is there a general process you see some of these potential partners going through or a flow, uh cadence of some type, just to kind of give just an expectation for those that are end up tuning in? Yeah.

Dan Claps

So how we structure our process is we meet with a founder, uh, first, typically with with me, and it's always a casual type of conversation, uh, really just getting to know one another. Uh, I'm a big believer, and I know you have the same mindset. We've known each other for a long time. Um, I like to just try to give as much value to people as I can. And I know that that will always lead to serving my goals as well. And so it's funny, someone recently said, you know, I really appreciate all the content you're putting out there. And I truly enjoy doing it and I like to give back, but of course there's a business reason to it, right? The more that I give, the more that we get opportunities too. And so what I typically like to do is meet a founder, get to know them, and see if their goals align with what we do. It's only a small percentage that will, because I tell people all the time, you may not need someone like us. Like if you want to work with us, you're gonna obviously give up some of your, you know, kind of upside, right? You're partnering with us, which nothing wrong with that. But many founders, I'm telling them, I don't, I don't know if you need us. Um, and so we try to first figure that out. Is is it could it be a fit for them? Or can I give them one or two pieces of advice that sets them in the right direction to do it on their own and we could always talk in the future when they're bigger? So, really that first call is all about learning, trying to give some guidance and see if there's any uh remnants of a fit. If that's materializes from there, we'll typically bring in our operations team, much smarter than me. They'll get into the the you know nuts and bolts of the business and just continue to identify if that brand fits our criteria, and then if we fit that that uh founder's financial and personal goals and that we fit culturally. Um, what I know is driving us to succeed, and then from there we spend time in person and we go toward putting together um a deal. But what I know is probably one of the most important reasons why Voda is succeeding is that Dragon knows that without us we would never be where we are. And I know, we know that without him, we would never be where we are. And there's this mutual respect, and that is really what's built the company the way that it is. And so I know that I'm not an expert in plumbing or roofing or painting, and we're not going to try to be. What we know is we're an expert in franchising. And so we're gonna do the franchise side, but we're really just gonna listen to the founder on they know how to build their business better than we ever could.

Partnership Process & Diligence

Tom DuFore

Well, I I think uh that symbiotic relationship, this mutual, mutually beneficial, it's it's working in tandem together. You know, it's kind of this cycle or circle where you're both supporting each other, you're supporting on the franchise side and uh and uh filling that need, and your uh partner is filling the other need, right? Of operational excellence of the day-to-day, of how the the nuts and bolts of actually running that type of a type of a business. Um what when you when you think about working with uh Dragon and Voda and and the operational side and thinking of just even uh you know, one thing I I'm I'd be thinking of is just general communication in general and how uh what a typical flow might look like that uh someone someone that's tuning in might say, well, this this I'm I think I'm checking some boxes, right? Um, but then how do uh once things start get going get once things start moving together, Dan? Uh what's some of the uh uh uh communication look like or expectations? Uh uh I found it just in life in general, uh most problems tend to be driven from communication issues, uh a lack of communication, misunderstanding of communication, misinterpretation, uh white noise, you know, noise in the background causing distortion along the way, right? So uh what is successful or effective communication generally kind of look like in in your ecosystem?

Dan Claps

Well, I would find that that is as I get older, I'm learning that that is probably uh 98% of uh the challenges in uh in life. I'm uh I'm getting married in August, and I've learned um there too, right? It's the same thing. What I tell people is the relationship with a founder and with us as a partner, the relationship with franchise owners and us, your relationship with anyone in your life, they're all the same. It does not matter that it's a business relationship, it's still rooted in how do I seek to understand your perspective. I've come to realize in any disagreement that we have with our franchise owners or with a partner, teammate, centers around, I either disagree or I don't understand. And so trying really hard to listen first to people's perspective and then find a way to communicate, you know, the win-win that we're trying to accomplish and how ultimately the decisions we're making are for the greater good. I just had it actually happen where some of our franchise owners had some concerns about uh initiative we're taking. And you can say, well, that doesn't matter. We're doing it anyway. You know, we know what we're doing. Or you can say, well, they could be right. Let's listen to them, let's let's understand the perspective. And or maybe just there was a miscommunication on our intentions of where we want to go. I just recently said to a franchise owner, um, I you know, I hope you know that I don't want to hurt the brand. I know you're concerned that uh this move could hurt the brand. I get that, but I also don't want to hurt the brand. Here's why we're doing it. Definitely not to hurt the brand. Here's the the the kind of the intention behind it, the goal. Um, let's talk through how we can accomplish that outcome together.

Communication That Scales

Tom DuFore

Yeah, that that's really uh really great. Um and as you um as you start to uh again pursue this potential next uh brand, uh I think if if if it were me uh having these conversations to you, I might be thinking, I don't know if I'd ask it, but I'd at least be thinking, okay, well, you've got the one that's going. Um how does this fit in? How do you have the resources and the capability to support another brand? Or, you know, is it going to be spinning too many plates at once, you know, or are you do you have the capacity to handle this?

Dan Claps

Yeah. So that's that's a really valid question. And it's it's something that I think about pretty much every every day. Uh uh if you're not thinking about that, then you don't belong in the seat that I'm in. You know, the vision that we have, it's a couple things. So, one, we've had this vision to build a platform since the beginning. Funny story, I just got back from the IFA uh from Sunday to late last night. And perhaps if you're listening, my voice sounds a little hoarse. It's a lot of talking. International Franchise Association, it's four days of learning from the best. And three years ago, when we had zero franchise owners, I went to the IFA with my team and we said, we're gonna build a platform. And people would laugh at us. They'd say, a platform, you don't even have a franchise owner yet. But from the first ever Discovery Day till last week's Discovery Day, every franchise owner has been educated on that vision since the beginning. It's not like a vision we pivoted to, it's always been the vision. The way that you create cohesiveness is a couple things. One, there's no point in building another brand if it doesn't benefit the ecosystem, you're already growing. And so the way that we intend to do it is utilizing branding that works within the system that we've created. We're creating playbooks around if you're a franchise owner in a market with Voda, let's say, and there's another franchise owner in a different space that we go into, maybe it's plumbing. We're creating automatic reciprocity or automatic referrals back and forth. So all of a sudden, you have a neighbor in your territory who's a partner. They're all part of the same system working together for the ultimate goal of winning together. Whereas a lot of the platforms or all of the platforms that are out there now are more so kind of a hash pashic brands, they're all in different silos. I think the short answer is we intend to create a one kind of operating system, one communication track, one technology, one goal, one culture, um, and really build a system where everyone's working together, even if they're in different brands.

Platform Vision Across Brands

Tom DuFore

I see. So uh well, and that that that's very interesting and it makes sense too, especially if you're coming in at I I think it's a lot easier to do that as you're starting with brands from the onset, very early on in their franchise growth, either right from the beginning or very, very early, where everyone's able to kind of be be rowing in the the same way, so in sync together and heading in the same direction. Uh, versus uh where you we've seen some of these other groups out there where they acquire brands over time. It's kind of a patchwork quilt of folks coming in, which there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a different approach or different style. Uh, so I I see where where you're headed there.

Dan Claps

Yeah, and it's you know, it's it's something we're developing together, but ultimately the goal is this platform works together. If you're a franchise owner of today or three years from now, this direction of the larger company benefits everyone. What I find is explaining that vision and getting buy in and on it is is is is paramount. Um but what's what's interesting is again, we built the platform with my leadership team from day one set up to run a platform of brands, not to run one location or one one one franchise. Um and so I think that the last thing I'll say if you're talking to Voda about buying a Voda franchise in anywhere in America, I can tell you we haven't figured out because of time and experience. My candid answer is as we build our platform, it will be new for myself and my team, and we will have some growing pains and we will have some learning lessons. But I know that through that we're gonna get to the outcome that really benefits everyone in the company.

Tom DuFore

Yeah. Well, and uh Dan, for for someone that's here tuning in, watching, how uh and they say, okay, I I think I check some boxes here that uh I could be a good fit for for the franchise playbook. And I also think that you know there there could be this mutual uh uh relationship that could work here. Uh what would be the first step or way for them to either uh get in contact with you or your team or the the kind of that first step for them to take here?

Dan Claps

Yeah. Uh best way would be to reach out via email. I'm available for a first call. If I do ask that the criteria, the home services, uh, you know, and some of the the some of the industries we're looking at are plumbing, roofing, HVAC, garage, fencing, you know, these kind of higher average ticket businesses. If someone reaches out and is not in those but is just looking for advice, I can I can give a little little time. Just know that it might need to get scheduled out in a couple weeks just because of a pretty demanding uh schedule, but just an email and I can either do a call or point them in in a different direction.

Capacity, Cohesion & Ecosystem

Tom DuFore

Perfect. Perfect. Well, I think that sounds great. And you know, uh, I know we're at a live session. I'd just be curious for anyone that's on live here, if there happen to be any questions, might as well take a question or two. Feel free to type into the chat box um or in into the QR QA. If anything in particular comes up, we'll make sure we we try to ask uh Dan that here. Um but uh uh Dan, uh while while we're waiting for that to maybe come in or waiting for any someone to possibly fill in a question, uh will you uh just bullet list some of the criteria again that you were looking for, just to make sure for someone, I know you mentioned it uh you know earlier in the in the interview here, but just to talk through that again.

Dan Claps

Yeah. So for us, home services, uh typically a need not want type of industry. So like plumbing, roofing, um, you know, something where the economy is not gonna change the business. We typically look for the economics to be over a million dollars in revenue or a really large profit margin. So maybe someone's doing a half million, but there's a tremendous profit margin. But more likely than not, on our end, it's gonna be that million plus you know, top line revenue. And then another thing to think about is that the profit margin after royalties is you know 20% or or somewhere in that environment, right? If you're not a franchise yet and your net margin is 10% and a royalty is seven, that wouldn't be a very you know feasible business for a franchise owner, right? And so we want to be able to see can we assume we can eventually obtain a 20 uh 20% profit margin after royalties for the franchise owner? Because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters as a franchise or is obsessing over your franchise owners having great unit economics. And so we need to start an industry in a you know a place where that is even possible.

Tom DuFore

Yeah, very, very good. Well, I don't see any questions coming through. So in the meantime, Dan, what what's a website people can uh go to even just to check out Voda, um, the franchise playbook and uh the and that that email again to uh reach out and schedule some time. Yeah, thanks, Tom.

Dan Claps

It's just my email is just dan at franchiseplaybook.com. And I'm also on LinkedIn a lot. You just type in Dan Clapps on LinkedIn, you'll see me, and I'd be happy to connect.

Criteria Recap & Unit Economics

How To Connect & Next Steps

Tom DuFore

Well, perfect. Well, this is a great, great interview as always. Thank you for sharing this and for sharing this opportunity with our audience. I'm grateful for that. And uh, well, and for those of you that are tuning in, this will be rebroadcast again on our uh and available. So if you listened or missed part of it or want to listen to it again, uh just check that out at the franchise your business podcast. Uh, or you can check that out on our YouTube channel, the Big Sky Franchise Team. Just search for us there. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the weekend. And uh, Dan, thanks again for being here.

Dan Claps

Thanks, Tom.

Head Shot

Tom DuFore

Host