The Home Services Franchise You Run Entirely From Your Phone | Gorilla Property Services

One of Gorilla's franchisees runs his entire business from a cruise ship in Greece — nine vans, all from his phone. That's not a gimmick. It's the model. 

This week the team sits down with Andrew Edwards, owner of Gorilla Property Services,  to break down what might be the most overlooked home services franchise in the market: a high-tech, 100% mobile exterior cleaning and maintenance brand built on B2C and B2B recurring revenue. 

Gorilla bundles eight essential services — pressure washing, window and gutter cleaning, roof cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, graffiti and snow removal — into a single "one call" relationship, much of it required by insurance carriers and local bylaws. That's demand that doesn't disappear in a downturn. 

Andrew is the rare franchisor who's actually been a franchisee — he built and sold a business before reshaping Gorilla into a system designed to make owners better operators, not buy them a job. 

In this episode: 

• The proprietary, AI-powered CRM (Gorilla Pro) that runs the whole business from a phone
• Why recurring revenue made Jack & Jill's Pinks exit sell for ~10x net
• The B2B vs. B2C cash-flow balance every home services owner needs to understand
• Why this model is largely insulated from AI disruption
• Realistic numbers: per Gorilla's Item 19, Canadian franchisees averaged $666,233 in revenue and $162,388 in net income (Jan–Dec 2024) at a 49% gross margin. U.S. results may differ — see the FDD.

Low investment, highly scalable, home-based, and VetFran-approved. If you've been waiting on BizBuySell for the "perfect business," this is the conversation that reframes the math.
 
Some markets are already gone — Chicago, Tampa, Boca Raton. Check if yours is still open: 👉 https://www.thefranchiseinsiders.com/gorilla-property-services

The Franchise Insiders works with Franchise FastLane on Gorilla Property Services development. Territory availability and investment details subject to change. This is not an offer to sell a franchise.

The Franchise Insiders

Podcast

Schedule A Call

Text: 305-710-0050

Take our FREE Business Builder Assessment

Transcript

0:22

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the We Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson. I'm Jill Johnson. And we are here today with a franchise that I think all of you are going to be really pumped to learn about. But it's not one, you know, when you first see it, you know, you're you're like, well, what is that? But once you learn about it, you're like, holy smokes, is this like the coolest home services franchise that has ever existed? Yeah.

Meet Gorilla And Andrew’s Story

0:45

Uh so today we have Andrew Edwards from Gorilla Property Services. Is that what we're what we're calling it? Gorilla Property Services. Yeah. Andrew, welcome to the show. We also have Brian Gross and we have Jay Arosa, of course, our well-experienced franchise consultants on the show. I really think this is going to be a great episode. So, Andrew, tell us how this all came to be. Tell us about Gorilla and about yourself, and let's go. Thank you again for having me here and uh happy to share the Gorilla story. It's it's a great one. And my story of how I got here is kind of an interesting one as well. So uh very briefly about me, I am uh a Canadian. I'm up north here in the cold. Um and I was a franchisee in a in a different business. So as we had previously spoken about, I have the franchisee experience. I understand what it's like to have that journey, to take that first step. It's it's nervous but exciting. Um, buying that first ban, having that, you know, first employee, that though those types of nerves. And I was able to build this business. My first six months, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even have liability insurance because I didn't know I needed it. Um, and that's that's how green I was of a business owner. And through a lot of probably stubbornness and a little bit of dumb luck, I was able to successfully grow that uh franchise with the support of my franchise or still a good friend of mine to this day, and had a successful exit 11 years later. I wasn't expecting it. I had a company approach me, a private group that wanted to purchase uh the franchise, and they had other businesses that aligned with it and went through that journey of what a sale and a purchase agreement looks like and what the what that looked like. And took a year and I had a successful exit. And so I was wondering, you know, when I was done, well, what do I do next? I was 39 at the time and I didn't really know. My wife told me I was too young to retire, so I better go do something. So I started to look at different opportunities. And Gorilla was a company that I didn't originally found. It was, it was started, it was just in its infancy. It was a cool concept. Um, it was a little bit of, you know, you buy a truck and a job kind of idea. And I thought, eh, I think there's something more here. I think there's an opportunity to make this a little bit bigger. And being in the restoration world, I could understand the the service-based business and the the need for different services for our facility managers and property managers and such. And so with Gorilla, I kind of looked at it and went, wow, this is what a neat concept. They have property managers already calling. And rather than me in the restoration, I was calling them and chasing them. It was just this different mind shift. And so I had an opportunity um just over five years ago, six years ago, to take over the business and kind of reshape it into a franchise that I thought would be a little bit more of running a company rather than having a job. That was kind of my mindset to work with owners. So that's kind of the start of it. If you don't mind me jumping in, because there's something that jumps at me right away. And you talk about having a successful exit, and so you know how valuable this is. So, what I love about Gorilla and what got Jill to really, you know, tap me on the shoulder and say, we really need to pay attention to this franchise, is you have B2C and B2B recurring revenue. And in our opinion, recurring

Recurring Revenue And Phone-Run Operations

4:14

revenue makes a business so valuable. It's the reason why we were able to sell our Pinks franchise for near 10 times our net because Pinks has recurring revenue. I look at this business and it's the same thing. And is it true that you can actually run this business from your phone? Yes. So we luckily have, and and I love the recurring, like I'm so happy you say that because that's what gets me excited. It's it's getting those big contracts, it's getting that recurring stuff that you know you you have that ability to know what your cash flow is going to look like and you can plan for it and get that next truck and understand those numbers. I'm big, I'm a big numbers guy with my franchisees, and we talk about all those different things in in their training and coaching. And and so for me, it's yeah, the ability to run your whole business on your phone. We do have our proprietary system, it's called Gorilla Pro. It's it's amazing. It can, it's I I I don't even want to call it a CRM because it does so much more than that, but it can manage. I've got one of our franchisees right now, Curtis. He's in Greece. He's uh he loves going on cruises. Um, and he's in from Little Nanaimo, British Columbia, um, for people who know that on the island. And he's got, I think he just told me he just bought two more bands. So I think he's up to nine vans in that one little one territory. Um, he's he'll do about 1.6, 1.7 million in revenue on his own in Greece on a on a cruise ship. Amazing. I love it. Like I get so excited for him. Like it's just now he's built it up, he's put in the time in the years, he's created relationships. And people ask me all the time what business that we're in. And I never say we're in the exterior cleaning and maintenance business. We are in the education and relationship building business. That's what we're all about. That's what Gorilla's about. And he's done an amazing job with it, and it's allowed him to sit on a cruise ship right now. And that's the goal for a lot of franchisees, is they look for that for the right fit. Uh, Andrew, do you mind if we just take a step back and for all of our listeners? Can you just explain um Gorilla Property Management, the services that you're providing? Yeah. Yeah. So we are an exterior cleaning and maintenance service-based business. And so uh really the best way of saying it, we're we're a property manager's best friend. So anything that they need, we try to help support. So we do have our core services. So we do have pressure washing and graffiti removal, uh, window cleaning, park aid cleaning.

Core Services And The One-Call Promise

6:37

Um, we do dryer vent cleaning. There's a there's a little sneak in our industry of why we do that. I can't give all the secrets away. Um, but there's it helps for certain things. Um, but we also will help them with many different things. We do litter pickup for say Home Depots across the country. We do anything that takes away a problem that they may have, mainly on the exterior of their building. So it could be their parking lot, it could be their glass awning, it could be whatever it may be. Our goal is to be their one call for any service to get that headache taken away. That's that's really our our our goal. So, like I said, we have core services, but we do dabble in so much. And as a franchise or especially in our system, we're very open to our franchisees finding different services that can help support that customer. And so we it's in something. I mean, Andrew, each of those services is a franchise in and of itself from dryer bank cleaning to power washing to window washing. Um, and you're kind of bundling them all under one roof. And then the focus on property managers. I mean, again, um one of the top-selling franchises since Jill and I have been franchise consultants, which is now 10 years, um, has been property management, PMI. Um, and now we see multiple players in that in that space. So again, it really makes it very different than than calling on the individual consumers. So, how does it work? It's let's say you work with a Home Depot or something like that. And do they bring you on for regular maintenance? And then, like you said, there's so much upsell because there's so many other things you can do. So, what does that typically look like with uh you know one of your B2B customers? Yeah, I love the question because again, I get excited about these things because we I just had a call with Home Depot last week because they're adding to our our service list. So um, so with Home Depot as an example, it started with litter pickup. So it started with them asking, can we service their building? So we go there, we have a staff member that goes there three times a week. So it's you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or sometimes Saturdays, depending on the holidays. Um, and they just go there for about an hour a day picking up litter in the parking lot in the front area. That that's all it started with. And they realized that, hey, well, what else do you do as my, you know, the franchisees create relationships with their local store managers and things? And it's like, well, we could, you know, pressure wash and clean around your loading vase, because they really look bad, you know, and oh, we can do your sign cleaning. And then they were talking about painting all of their buildings, and we went, well, wait a second, we can softwash all of your buildings and get the longevity out of the building life rather than spending, you know, a huge capital improvement on painting them. Why don't we see if we can extend the life? And so we did one test location. They loved it, so then they roll it out to all of their other locations. And so it just again, it's about education and relationship building. It really is. It's that that's our core, that's our secret. It's we just want to be the person or the company that says yes to their need. That's really what we're uh speaking of like B2B, B2C customers, like what percentage of your or the typical franchisees' business is going to come from business, what from residential? Because my understanding is it's dependent on a mix of both. Because sometimes you'll have businesses that sort of pay you in terms and you're waiting for that cash flow versus the residential where you're able to cash flow right away. CJ, you should be sitting in my chair because uh you sound exactly like what I say to my franchisees when I talk to them. So for me, as the franchise

B2B Contracts Versus Residential Cash Flow

10:10

or if it were my ideal, I would want a 50-50 split. I want a residential division in the company and I want the commercial multifamily industrial division. I want I want the two divisions. When we start and we onboard a franchisee, just the way that marketing works and SEO, PPC, and Meta, and now we're spending a ton into AI marketing and search engines optimization, it lends itself to residential when they start, which is perfect because we train a lot on the smaller jobs, on the residential clients, on that's those types of things. But to your point, it allows for cash flow right away. And so for cash flow management for especially new businesses starting, it's really important to have that cash flow. And so residential, you're you're finishing the job, you're getting paid right away. Whereas, like you said, these larger customers, it could be 30, 60, 90 days, depending on their turns for cash. And so what we normally start is in the first year or two, we're about 70% residential. And then the pendulum swings, and my franchisees drive me crazy sometimes. They love the glory of the bigger jobs. So then the pendulum swings to the other side, where on a revenue basis, right now we're sitting between 65 and 70% is that commercial multifamily industrial on a revenue. I'm trying to get them to recognize the pendulum should swing in the middle because it also helps some when you're growing your business, when you bring in a new technician, you have them training in the residential world. And then it gives them excitement to graduating up to the commercial so that it keeps the longevity of your employees as well. So they see that there's a growth within the business. You can start from a technician to a lead tech into residential, and then from into a technician into the commercial, maybe into a lead tech or a supervisor in the commercial. There's a there's a pathway for even your technicians to grow. And so that allows your company to expand. And so, you know, if you if you're talking to my franchisees, remind them to, if you can, just that residential, and we still love the residential as well for cash flow for sure. So that's awesome. Yep. Yeah, we went through the same thing with our with our Pinks franchise where it's like, hey, awesome, we just landed this, you know, $50,000 contract, but it's gonna take you 30 to 60 days. I mean, Jill and I we also ought to figure out how to get people on the roof and like what types of things we needed. So to your point, yes, the residential training is so important because just throwing them at a really big job is is it sounds great and it's really exciting, but there's so many moving pieces and you want to keep that that recurring cash flow coming in from the from the residential consumer jobs while you do the big jobs because you're you're sending your crew out there and you you're not you may not get paid on it for 30 days. So, you know, you're gonna do it. We've always said make sure. I mean, I think you've got to have at least 50k uh US in in your bank account at all times if you're gonna take on commercial projects because you're gonna have to float that, and that's okay as long as you're prepared for it. But I agree with you. I I do think in home services, better cut your teeth on residential, grow your business, grow the recurring revenue. And then when cash flow permits it, you've got to deepen up bench, then you can really start taking on those commercial projects. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. And I and I do find that even our margins are a little bit better on the residential. It's just the ticket size, obviously, is a little bit smaller, but the margin itself, and so it allows again, I'm a big margin numbers guy, and and part of our training is to really educate because I love franchising for knowing I'm taking potentially people that have never owned a business, have no idea on what it looks like. And I think for me as a franchiser, my role and my responsibility is to teach them how to be business owners. And it doesn't necessarily need to mean that they're gonna stay forever with Gorilla. They may have a successful exit, but I want them when when I'm done with them, that they should be able to run any company. It doesn't matter. They can understand what an income statement and balance sheet is, what you know, what's my break-even number, what is my you know, return on this investment if I advertise here or there. Like these are things that, you know, my business coaches that you know are given to our franchisees, but also myself. It's so vital to know that. And because they don't understand cash flow yet. They don't understand, to your point, of having that retained earning or have that money in the account to be able to fund when you know things go bad. You know, I lived in my restoration world. I had two bad years, and luckily I had enough retained earnings that I didn't close down. But I had four of my competitors go bankrupt that year. And I bought their equipment at an auction. It was great. But I was, you know, it was the having the understanding of my numbers. And so really in our business and our franchise system, and we call it a family, and it really is, it's really about supporting each other to become better business owners. So they don't have that struggle where they're not going to be in a financial issue. And and, you know, it's it's constantly drilled to them of learning that and and really, you know, it's always great when all the money's coming in, but it's like, what happens if the money's not? And how does that how does that work? So you know, you touched on something really important, and this is something that I always, when we're having our clients do what we call validation, where they're speaking to franchise owners in the system. One of my favorite questions is ask that franchisee if the franchise or has made you a better business person. That's a really underrated thing in franchising. Is do you feel like being around your franchise or has made you a better, smarter business person? If the answer is yes, that's a really good thing. You want to be surrounded by smart people, tends to be the most successful franchisees. Um, they they they believe in the system, they follow the system, they don't color outside the lines, they they want to stay within the system and and you know operate the the playbook as it is. Um, and so I think everything you're saying, I'm just sitting here nodding my head because that that just to me just all resonates so much as a as a former franchise owner in terms of things and mistakes that I made personally, um, you know, and and things that I saw top achievers like Jay. Uh Jay was in the same franchise system as me years ago. Uh Jay was one of the top performers, and and you and Carolina did it by, you know, understanding the business and following the playbook. It's a it's a good uh segue, Jack. So, Andrew, can you describe how you support um as a franchise or these new franchisees and building out their business? And I asked this because coming from the senior care franchise, as Jack has referenced, um, you know, we had a lot of competitors, we had a lot of people that even ourselves, when we were starting, we're like,

Onboarding, Coaching, And Franchisee Support

16:46

why don't we start our own brand? Why don't why do we have to pay a franchise fee? Why do we have to pay a royalty? And when we got started, we got a good amount of support from the franchiseur and it catapulted us in a way that we would have never been able to do on our own. So I'm always curious to hear what type of support and how do you get these new franchisees started? Great question. Well, that's and for me as a franchise, that's a hundred percent our job. That's it. Like, that's our only job is to support our franchisees. Like if you go in with that mindset, I've always told everybody like I'm the lowest on the totem pole here, not the top, not the top. It's the opposite. You guys are your business owners. I'm here to help support and guide. I'm not gonna run your business for you. I'm gonna try to make sure you don't make the mistakes that I've made as business, but you're gonna make mistakes, and that's okay. You've got someone to land on. So for me, our support is we have our traditional support. So we have our onboarding training. Um, we actually bring in, they work with existing franchisees, which I love. That's part of our little thing that we do with our training. We they work with guys that are out in the field already and doing this work. Um, we do have our own in-house marketing team. So all the marketing is supported. They can do their own as well, but we have specific, you know, the marketing guidelines. They work with Olia and her team and Madison to then help create content and videos and fun. And and we we we talk about fun a lot. It is it is about creating that environment of fun. We have a smiling, happy gorilla on the side of our band. So, you know, we're not a serious company. Um, so it's it's creating that that involvement. But we do little things like we've got Discord chats and WhatsApp groups between all of our franchisees that they're supporting each other all of the time. If you've got a a question on a job that you're physically looking at the site, you take a picture, it goes into the chat, you're gonna have 10 or 15 people, maybe with different opinions. But I love it that they're then all communicating of what to do. But the initial onboarding, it happens. You, you know, we can we can have a franchise open within six weeks of signing an agreement. And so it's they're immediately getting onboarded. So they'll work with Olia and and that team to set up their social media accounts and do all of that stuff. Then they get introduced to David and his team for the coaching. So they start. We have what's called the pathway to success. It's a 30, 60, 90, 180 day um workbook and and system they have to work through with Dave and his team. Um, and that's ongoing. Then after the 180 doesn't mean they're they're done. It's that coaching is always available, it doesn't cost them anything, it's just part of being a franchise. And they just have professional business coaches that, you know, work through them and the journey that they want to go on. Um, but for me, it's like I love what I like. My job is answering phones and chatting with my guys through text and emails and calls daily. Like that's what I do. And I love it. Like I'm in the in a, you know, luckily in a financial position that I didn't take gorilla on for needing the revenue. I took it on because I I got passionate once I started to talk with new business owners. And it and it's like this, it is a passion project. I get equally as excited. My wife will say, I when a franchisee texts me, like, oh man, I just got my third truck and like here's a picture, and I'm I'm so pumped. Like, for me, that's all I need. So the support that I try to give to the franchisees is just to be there, to try to support and answer, help them with the business things. If they've got a question that they just need someone to talk to, that's my goal is to be there to answer the calls. They all have my cell number, obviously. Everyone in the world has my cell number. It's on everything I do. Um, but people can call and retail and text or whatever, however, they want to communicate. That's the ongoing support I want them to feel is that. And we have support, obviously, our CRN system, it's all in-house. We support with that. We have our call center, all of that support. But the business, the the thing that I find the most that I needed when I was a franchisee was being able to call my franchise or uh John White. I'll give a shout out to him, Whitey. He would answer his call and he would kick me in the butt sometimes because I needed it. He would call me out on you know all the stuff I'm doing wrong, but in a in a supportive way of knowing that he's done this journey himself, very successful. And he's not gonna let he's not gonna let me get off with something. He's gonna call like when did you, what did you do? When was the last time you saw that customer? You know, he's gonna, he's gonna push me, but in such a such a supportive way that I've tried to do the same. I'll call people out on the things, I'll give them a little kick in the butt when they need it, but I'm doing it hopefully in a manner of everything I decide to do, the decisions I make is to try to better their business. That's that's really always my my driving light. Is does this turn the needle for them and make them better business owners? Does it help support? Andrew, if we can talk just for a few minutes about just kind of the ideal franchisee profile. I mean, when you look at this, you know, it looks like a pretty simple business, a lot of straightforward services. But you know, like Jack mentioned earlier, this is really four or five different franchises rolled into one in the service space. So who is the ideal franchisee? Their kind of maybe their background, what it what the

Ideal Owner Mindset And Leading A Team

22:03

day-to-day looks like, uh and the time commitment really needed to run this correctly. Yeah. This one's a funny one for me because I think anybody who's considering being a franchise or or a franchisee, sorry, like a business owner could be. Part of our system because again, I want to educate and train the person, not really the business. The services that we do don't take long to learn. You know, like obviously clean a window. You can teach someone quite quickly how to do that, right? But I need the mindset, is what I need. I need someone that's passionate that wants to learn. I need someone that doesn't think they already have all the answers before they start. I need someone that's open and willing to recognize that they're going to make mistakes and be okay with that. And really, it's just the personality. I want the guy that's really passionate. I want the person that's excited. I want the person that's looking for, you know, to build something. I want the builders. I want those types of people. That's number one for me. They I can always tell I have a gut of being able to sit in an in a conversation with someone and know if they're going to be a good fit or not. And I can tell you that the people that I see that aren't the best fit are the ones that are always going to tell me, well, yeah, I know it worked in that area, but you know, our city's different. It's never going to work this way in our city. Or we're going to have to do this differently. Like I immediately know because I've I've dealt with some franchisees that are like that. And I will hold them accountable. I'll just simply say, okay, guys, if it's not going to work, tell me what you're going to do then. Like, are we just going to sit here and accept that it's just not going to work? Because what's the next step? Like, how about we give that a try first? Because we have 60 plus offices that are open and running with franchise that we kind of do know what works. So why don't we give that a go? Those are the people that I can see like, hey, it's going to be not impossible. I was probably a no at all when I first started with my franchise. If you talk to my franchise or um, but at least I had the passion and I was willing to put the work in. Um, so I I'm I do try to be very open to everyone. My franchise developers that uh like Chris and Corinne always say, they're like, you will say no to nobody. And I'm like, because I think everyone has the ability to be business owners, just some people may need some coaching more than others. You know it's the ideal. Sorry, yeah, go ahead. I was just gonna say what the what you just said. If any of you out there who are considering franchise ownership or who are franchise owners, if you ever hear your GM that you hire say to you, well, it may work there, but that's not gonna work here, immediately you should fire them. Um, because franchising, you know, the the the model has been proven. And for things like home services, whether it's in Austin, Texas, or Boca Raton, Florida, it you don't change the business. You follow that it's like someone opening up a McDonald's and saying, well, we do things differently here in Honolulu than we do them in Columbus. Not when it comes to McDonald's. The burgers are the same wherever we go. And it's the same is true for window washing, power washing, uh, taking care of seniors. A franchise gives you the blueprint. And so, Andrew, I'm so glad you brought that up because it's so important that people follow the blueprint. And I'd like to add something onto that if I could. A mistake I made um with our Pinks franchise in the beginning was I thought it was cute to say, hey, I own a window washing franchise, but I don't know how to wash a window. Um, in retrospect, I think that that was really a bad take. Um, I think for all of you out there, if you're considering owning a home services business or a business of any kind, you should be able to go visit a job site, pull up next to whoever, whatever your your employees are doing, and do the job with them. Um, building a strong team, having great employees that that believe in you and believe that you're not above, you know, doing some work alongside them. I think it's really important. So, again, for all of you thinking about business ownership, it's building the best possible team, having a team that believes in you as a leader. That's one of the best things you can do. You couldn't have said it any better. Like that, like again, you should be on some of my calls. This is great because it's it's exactly right. And in training, so when we do our training, our training is in Indianapolis, one of our equipment suppliers are there. So we actually have them involved in the training as well, which is a lot of fun. But we ask if it's a you know an executive model that's you know wanting to own this franchise, is we they have to come. So they have to be there for the training, as well as they can bring their lead technicians or their supervisors or the whatever, because it comes back to the education and relationship building. Because you're right. You I'm not saying that you need to be on the tools and cleaning a window or doing you know graffiti removal. That's not necessarily what I'm saying. It's the ability to educate that customer as to what you're doing or why you're doing it, because you're creating a relationship. You know, price is secondary. People talk to me about price all the time. Well, how do I price this job? How do I price that job? I said, that that's secondary. I said, yes, that's important, of course, and dollars and cents and you know, people care about that. But if you can educate that customer as to why they need their gutters cleaned twice a year, as an example, and you've created that trust and that relationship with them, does it really matter if you're $20 or $30 more than the guy down the street? It it's meaningless at that point for that customer. Of course, you're not going to be overcharging, but it's it's about education. And the only way you can educate is if you're the professional. And the way you become the professional is you actually learn the business or your site supervisors learn the business. You need to be that professional in this industry. And it goes a long way. So it's I'm happy that you say that. You look at like the closing of Spirit Airlines, the the no-frills, you know, people are paying for better experiences. People are willing to spend more for a better experience. I'm willing to spend $1,000 more to sit in a better seat. Um, I'm willing to spend more for someone that will do a good job. Um, and and so I think the market is very loudly telling all of us that people are willing to pay more for better. I mean, we pay every time we go to Disney, we spend thousands more. So we don't have to sit in line with people. And it's absolutely money very worth it. It's it's funny on this topic too, and I think it's worth repeating or just highlighting that there's a big difference in knowing the business, being able to do it, than buying yourself a job. And a lot of people who are looking at home services, that is a fear. It's hey, I don't want to be in the business the day to day. I don't want to buy myself a stressful job. This is a big difference, right? Of knowing the business that you own, being able to coach a team, being able to do quality control versus actually being out power washing or or you know, cleaning a vent dryer. Yeah, yeah, but it's you're so right in that and saying that. It's it's having again that knowledge and that understanding. But yeah, you don't need to buy yourself a job. Now, I love our owner operators. I've got lots of owner operators in our system. Great. I love it. They're building and and they're working their way off the tools. Most of them already have, but they're still day-to-day living and breathing this business. Amazing. And they do really well because it is their heart and soul and it's their everyday and everything that they do. And that's great. I always tell people that if you're wanting to have more of that executive model, it's doable. It just costs you more. Understand that your expense at the beginning is going to be more. And it's just as simple, if the jobs need to be done. So if it's marketing or scheduling or organizing, all of that work has to be done. And if you're unable to do that because you're only partly, you know, putting some hours into the business every week, someone else has to. So that just means that's a hire to W-2. That's someone that you're hired into your business to do that. So I'm very open with that saying, look, if you can afford that, understand it's going to cost you more. Your return on your investment is going to be longer. You're going to have, you better be good at managing people because you're expecting someone else to manage a business. They're not going to manage it the same way as if you were in it, you know, with your own cash and your own blood, sweat, and tears in it. You're going to manage it a lot differently than someone who's paid to manage it. That's just a reality. So understanding that and setting that expectation at the beginning is very important. But I love working with people that, hey, if you've got the money and you want to invest, great. Let's look at that plan. Let's build up your model. We we call it the skeleton of our business that we build out in training. Well, what does that model look like? You know, are you the executive as you have a supervisor or lead team? What does that model look like? And then let's start filling in the employees that you need to be successful in that model. But let's price it too. How much is it going to cost you? What is this overhead expense going to be? Let's figure out those numbers. We know what our average gross margins are on jobs, 49% on average. And so we know, okay, well, if it's going to be X amount of dollars per month for the carrying cost, well, you need to bill this amount. So you need three trucks to bill this amount. Like, you know, we start working the numbers backwards so that they're very aware of, hey, this is the investment level. This is what it's going to take. And if I'm underperforming, I'm not going to be profitable. So I need to really get that out. Early days is very important to know the uh, they'll hear me all that know your numbers. So you know my franchisees hate me when I say that. They want to put a poster of me up just saying know your numbers because that's all I it's so vital in business. So, but that would be the different thing to think about. So let's talk about those numbers. Your item 19, Canadian franchisees, January 2024 to December 2024, shows average total income of 666,000, average gross profit margin 49%, average gross profit 320,000. So this then says average net income 162,388. Does that

Unit Economics, Margins, And Truck Growth

31:47

sound right? Yeah, yeah, for 2024. It's a little better as we get the next one filed. Our our our filing date for FTD is is actually we're we're weird. We're everyone's filing now. We didn't, we we file in like November, so we have to wait to get through. But yes, yeah, that's our average. Yeah, 49% gross margin on an average. Um, our top franchisees, single territory, again in the US and Canada. Canada, for some reason, is a lot of single territory ownership uh model in in Canada. Uh Jay probably knows being in in Canada, it's a it's a different model. Um is Little Moncton, New Brunswick. So for the people who may try to find that on a map, it's uh on the East Coast, it's only about 120,000 population, single territory. They'll do two million this year out of a hundred thousand population. And they don't even think they're anywhere near the top of their market, which is what I love. So that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long is one? So they've been so it's it's Sean and Kevin, the boys I call them. So if they're listening to this too, Sean and Kevin, shout out to you. Actually, they're they were second for the month, so not shout up to you because you guys lost your first place for this month. Sorry how to say that. Uh, they're gonna hate me for saying that. So um, but they uh so they've been now six years in. I think they're on to their seventh year. Uh when they started, like Kevin was 19 years old, uh, the younger brother. The older brother was 24, 25 when they started and 19. So just kids, little babies. And I'll never forget talking to them. It was about five years ago. They had one truck and they were terrified to buy their second truck. And I mean like sleepless nights, these kids terrified. And I that's what I love about my job. So I talked to them, I said, okay, let's run the numbers. What how much do you need to bill to be able to cover that new overhead expense for this truck? And what does that look like? And do you think there's enough market for you to be able to get that extra, you know, $5,000, whatever it was a month that you need in sales to cover this expense and you know, all these things. So we did all the math and they finally fit the bullet and they did it. Um and he's on Sean, the older one is actually on our national advisory board. So I talk to them a lot and and they're just like, yeah, we just bought our 14th truck. I'm like, well, but you didn't call them. He's like, I don't even see it anymore. It's just a tool. And I'm like, exactly. Like, you've got it now. Like, you know, they just they're like, I didn't even see it. We ordered it from the guy, it got wrapped, it got delivered, it's out in the field with one of our technicians. Like, amazing. And what they bought a building now, they've just actually purchased a building last year and some yard space. The business bought it for them. And, you know, they so we talked about setting up holding companies and all that kind of stuff together, and we walked through that journey together. And but that's again, that's the excitement. But yeah, one little territory, something like that, building up. But their margins, they're a little bit higher. Um, they've been able to really get a niche where they are a premium service, but they have enough customers that really respect their quality. So their margins are a little bit higher than what's in the FDD. Um, but it just shows the the ability to do that. So they they're over 50% gross margin last time I talked to them at a 2 million in sales. So they're they're happy. They're do it, they're doing okay. We're we're talking about a second territory with them. If you're listening, Sonic, Kevin, hurry up, get that second territories. But uh yeah. Just in listening to you describe kind of the relationship you have with the franchisees and also your outlook. I love how flexible you are. It seems like some people are doing a little bit uh, you know, different things, um, like offering premium services. I think that's great because sometimes there's some market nuances and opportunities depending on the competitive landscape, depending on the the, I guess, the client mix that you have there. Um so I mean, I know you talked to some of this already, but a lot of the folks that are buying these businesses, sometimes they're transitioning from corporate or sometimes the first-time business owners. Then every now and then you're gonna have like a you know, empire builder mindset type person. So I was thinking back to what you had mentioned about that one of your franchisees that's like working from from the uh from an island beach somewhere, growing his business. So, how does it lend itself in terms of scalability? You had mentioned purchasing multiple trucks. So, how scalable is this business for that type of uh potential business owner or franchise owner? Yeah, well, Jay, I I always encourage people to get in your car and drive down your street and look left and right. And everything that you pass is a customer of ours. Every single thing you see. Right. And that that again, that's why I get so excited because in the restoration world that I was in, I had to wait for that house fire or that building flood or something to happen on that street to be able to then compete with a whole bunch of other systems to go out and get that job, right? And and that's you know, and I it it's a real competitive market and it and it's hard. Every single property that you see driving down the street, albeit a church, a school, a house, a multi-story building, a city hall, a hospital, it doesn't matter. Every single one of them is our customer. So again, our role is about getting in front of them and educating them and creating relationships. That's it. So the scalability is really every single property that's out there needs cleaning, needs maintenance, needs you know, a different type of service that we can offer, every single one. So the the size of our market, it it's unfathomable. You could you could just keep scaling and keep growing if you want to. It's it's the how long do you want to put your foot on the gas and how big do you want to grow? Right. And the systems are there in place. So the builders, the empire builders, like we've got a number of them in our system right now, obviously, the guys all at the top in sales. We're still a new system. We've been, you know, really in this industry for only 10 years. We've only really truly been, you know, pushing franchising for eight years. And we've already in in Canada, our system, we're the largest in Canada already. We're just getting started. And so that that size and that growth, yeah, it's it's just it's and that was the big shift of the mindset for the original people that were already in the system. I had to change their mindset of you're not looking at buying one or two vans, you're looking at a company that could be really big. You, you know, you can get to 70 trucks. There, there isn't something that's stopping you other than your desire and your willingness to take that risk on and move the capital that you're earning into reinvesting in your business. And so for us, it is just that, Jay. It's it's getting that second truck or that next piece of uh equipment. It's, you know, we have drones and things as well we do for cleaning, you know, and it's it's investing in that drone, it's investing in that new softwash rig. Uh, it's investing in people, you know, it paying our staff well, bringing in um like Curtis, the one we were just talking about, who's on the on the cruise ship in in Greece. He has uh Jordan that works for him, who is a sales rep, is a sales guy that's out there every day pumping sales, getting sales. And they just brought in another guy. I sorry, Curtis, we're listening, I can't remember his name, um, that they brought in too that also is now a sales guy that's in the commercial side and they're pushing and pushing. And so he's built his business now to be able to run it from his phone on a on a on a boat, but he's bought two more vans. He just bought them. Like he's that's that reinvestment. I actually joked with him and said, Are you gonna take any money out of the company this year? I thought you said you were gonna do that because we talk about our numbers. And he's like, Ah, yeah, I was. My accountant told me I should, but I I had this contract come out. He's like, I needed two more vans. So he great. You know, he's building and so yeah. So Jay, that that they it's I don't want to say it's unlimited, but it's it it they can be very substantial companies, especially with looking at an Anaimo and a Moncton, that 100,000 population based and all doing already, you know, a couple million a year. So it's it's big. Hey Andrew, let's let's do a fun exercise. So you know there's a a large group of people out there who have been searching on BizBySell and various sites for years for that perfect business, right? The retiring baby boomers that can't wait to give away their business for free. Um and what a lot of people out there are finding is that it it really doesn't exist and it's really hard to find. And in the case of franchises, franchises like us, we sold our pinks to a fellow Pinx franchise owner. But let's just do a fun exercise. So your guys' total investment range is $100,000 to $271,000. Um, let's take your average net income, $162, uh, $388. So to me, a business like this could probably trade at least four times that net. So here we have a business that'd be worth maybe $600,000 to acquire. Um, but someone buying it new could do it for half. Let's let's just even take the top range of your investment, $271. And so for all of you thinking, man, I just need to sit here and wait for that perfect business, while you waste yours, you could start with a business like this and build it for literally half the price or less. So for all of you thinking about business ownership, these home services businesses, they scale fast. They're super nimble, especially when you can run them from the phone. And and Andrew, in on that note, I'd love to hear how AI is benefiting your business and how you guys are using it to help franchisees. Yeah. Again, you should be selling this thing for me. You ask all the right questions. I love it. So obviously, everybody knows AI. Um, you know, it's all over the news. People are losing their jobs to AI and you know, all of this stuff. Luckily,

AI Marketing, Gorilla Pro, And Click-To-Book

41:40

you know, AI so far hasn't been able to figure out how to clean a gutter or do graffiti yet. Um, so we're we're still hopefully safe there. Um, but we really embrace the technology. But what we've what we're doing, uh, we have an in-house IT team. That's a big thing for us because we can be very quick and nimble to change something. So we don't have a store-bought software, we don't have anything that we've got to try to fit our business. We we built our system to to work for us. This is what we want. And so, because of that, AI, so in little things in our Gorilla Pro, even for the owners to create an estimate or create a uh email drip campaign. We we try to take all of the best things out there, the you know, the the mail chimps and the company cams and all these, and built it within our own system so they don't have to pay for anything and and get that benefit. But it's all AI powered. So if they want to start an email campaign, they just go to our email builder, they just type in, you know, this is what I want. I want 15% off gutter cleaning uh for spring services, whatever. And it just creates it. It's just built, it's uses all of our um because AI, as you know, can manipulate logos and things. So it does actually pull all of our logos and all of our things to be brand uh proper and it creates it within seconds. It does that. We have a searchable section in our CRM system for it. If you're looking for property managers, they just type in Jays in North Vancouver. I would type in North Vancouver, five mile radius, hit the button. You're gonna get every single list of every property manager with their phone numbers, contact information within 30 seconds. It's it's amazing. But our biggest change that we're doing is, and we'll launch our newest site in I think it's three weeks or saying. So end of May, um, is our newest site, is to be AI searchable, meaning everyone uses Google, and we talk about PPC and SEO for Google or you know, Meta, what have you. Well, the trend is switching where people are going to the, you know, the chats or the Gemini or you know, any of these to do their searching, who's the best pressure washer in Texas, you know, whatever it may be, into these chats or into these things. And so we've created our content in our website and and we're we'll have it fully launched by the end of the month to be searchable for those. So there's keywords and metrics and even charts and things that you you add into our system that then it gets picked up by the AI and and and searchable. So now we will become the oh, who's the best window cleaner in this area? Well, Gorilla and why, and then and different charts and everything. And so it's it's a constant, fluid thing. And I think you have to move with those times. So the And you hear something new, great. RIT guys, the guys like the coders that sit in dark closets with no windows, they're working all the time doing this for us. Um, to be able to be ready for that. And and I think for any system, I hope I'm a big supporter of all businesses, all franchise owners and and and franchise systems. I hope all of them are realizing that there is a change coming and they need to get on it. And give me a six-month head start. That's fine for any of my competitors. But for the rest, you know, let's let's really recognize you've got to change the way that you're doing your business. Um, it's also how you'll see our newest click to book that shows up with this new website update and at the end of May, because our next generation of property owners are, you know, my kids or the millennials are these, you know, these younger kids. They grew up on Uber Eats, you know, the the ease of paying more, but having their pizza or their hamburger delivered to their door, and they'll pay that premium to do that. So our click to book now that we've created is that same where it's allows the franchise owner to set their own pricing and set their own thing, but it allows my kids, the millennials, they don't want to call our call center. They have no interest in speaking to anybody. They want to pull it up on their phone, they want to click on the button, they want to say their house is a two-story, 2,000 square foot. They want their roof clean and their windows clean. They want a price to come up and they want the schedule to book it, and they don't want to speak to anybody. And so, you know, we we do run AI backend technology with that. We have mapping software that ties in with it to show the house, to get the square footage, things like that. Um, that all happens on the back end, but it's where technology is going and really leaning into our customers what they need. So you know, we did a similar thing because you're right. I mean, a lot of people they don't they don't want to talk to someone right away. So we we created our own um uh app called the franchise analyst, which uses um AI. And it asks 37 questions and it helps our clients to find you know their their best franchise matches based upon how they answer the questions. And it's unique to our company based upon our you know, hundreds and thousands of franchise conversations over the years. Um, but it really gives us all of our consultants such great data. We we even like our clients who come to us for traditional franchise consultations to take it because it gives us wonderful data that we can immediately input and send to you guys when we make an introduction, but also helps to show us the kinds of franchises where these people are really going to succeed. And you know, I'll always think back to when Jill and I started franchise insiders 10 years ago. We were only working with a handful of franchises and now it's like 815 franchises. Um it's amazing how we've been able to grow, but thanks to technology and AI, we can really handle it and scale it. And and, you know, now because of systems like Claude, within two seconds of getting a new customer that has that requests, let's say, to be introduced to you guys, we can send you over an automated brief that is tailored to you. So, you know, for for us, for you guys, all of this stuff is just making life so much easier, um, which is wonderful. Um, okay, how many franchises have you guys awarded uh in the US this year? Um franchise territories. Um, we have 25 officially signed in the last month and a half. So we just actually started to um go in the last month and a half. Um I have a confirmation day happening actually on Thursday

US Growth Plans And Territory Availability

47:53

um with 24 locations uh on that call. Um 13 candidates uh for that call. And then we have one on in June the 7th, I think it is 6th, 7th, something like that. Um, and it sounds like we'll have another 13 or 14 more candidates on that call. Um, so we expect it's funny that I'm worried the franchise fasting group and stuff, and they they always get mad at it. Like, I always try to talk people down from territory numbers. So I'm gonna be that franchise or um because it's not about dots on the map for me, it's about having really, really successful businesses. And I don't want someone to come back and tell me, like, you know, oh, I I bought three territories, I'm I'm, you know, I realize how busy I am. I I should have bought one or two or something. It's I would rather you I have I have no problem with single territory locations and people like that. It's not about just having multiples all the time. It works for people that can afford it and have a great business setup and system and will help support. And our first franchisee that's opening in the US is David in Scottsdale, Arizona, who's got five territories and he's already got you know three trucks going on the road and and he's you know rocking at day one. I I love it, you know. Whereas our second territory is gonna be Mac in Portland, who has one territory and one truck starting. Great. You know that it it all of it works well, but uh but yeah, I we expect on on territory-wise for the US, we'll probably be at around a hundred and something, if everything's lucky for by the end of the year. And uh, you know, we'll have a really good AGM in September. Working with Fastly, he'll absolutely do it. They're very good at at helping Korean trans to grow. And and for all of you listening, it's a little bit unorthodox. Usually you see Florida, Texas, Nashville, um, Atlanta, you see those markets go like that. So to hear you guys starting in what sounds like the West and the Southwest, because I know you also did a multi-unit deal in Las Vegas, um, it's interesting how you guys have really started in the West. But for all of you listening, if you're in Florida or Texas or Georgia or Tennessee, you better not wait because those states will end the Carolinas, of course. Charlotte will be. Boca Raton's gone in Florida. We do have so are you used to are you a Golka? Okay, yeah. So we did four uh four territory deal in uh Catherine and Louis that we're super excited for them. They go to training next week. Tell them the call us. We just said the um the the Waterloo two turf guys here. We're gonna do a um, they're gonna turf our yard and we'll do a video with them. And so yeah, definitely have them call us and we can do we can do a video together uh here as well. We love working with new parents. Oh, they'll love it. They'll love it. And they're a great team. They're there. I'm really, I'm really excited with them. I'll see them next week at training and and yeah, we're really excited for them. So yeah, we're in Florida. We do have a couple Texas ones already, but lots uh lots available. We do have uh last I heard that there's like 400 candidates in the pipeline. So we do have uh we do have uh, you know, some good momentum, I guess that's a way of saying it. So it's it's good momentum. So but we have lots of opportunity, but uh and in Canada, I I want to show that to our up here on the north. We still we've got um like 60 locations already in Canada. So you know, we are we're quite established, like that's 50 something uh franchisees. So we we do have a number of franchisees in in Canada and more room. We expect to have a hundred actual owners by the end of the year. We'll have we'll have over a hundred owners. So but more to Jess one, more room to grow. I mean, sounds like in the US, lots of you know, lots of people in the pipeline, but still lots of open territories available for people listening. And then in Canada, you obviously are well established, but still more room to grow. Correct. Yeah, yeah, we still have room to grow. So reach out. We're we're happy, reach out to obviously the franchise insiders, and and you know, we we can help work through them and work through what maps are available and all that kind of stuff, and the team will walk you through that process. So perfect. Excellent. Andrew, this has been awesome. Uh Brian, Jay, Jill, about we left anything. Fantastic, Andrew. Uh I think even more excited

How To Reach Out And Next Steps

52:12

about uh Gorilla, the company here, and especially after meeting you, hearing, you know, one of the things you don't see on the slide decks when you just look at the website is the fact that you have a founder who has been a franchisee, has been in the same shoes as you know, everyone that's looking at this brand. Um, you know, and I I think you can't uh overstate that experience. So you know, appreciate you being on today. 100%. Thank you. Well, and I appreciate you guys having me. It's I've I've actually watched your journey, um, you you know, Jill, James, like you guys on you know, even LinkedIn and seeing where you've gone. And and I I'm really uh impressed. I get excited again for all business owners in in any business industry. And so um hats off to you guys. And you you've done an amazing job and continue to build such a great brand, and and we'll hopefully be right beside you, hopefully building our brand with yours. So I think you will, and for all of you listening, recurring revenue, low investment, um, Section 179 uh depreciation opportunities. Um, run the business from a phone, home services, not being impacted by AI. And you guys, this is a business when it comes to exploring franchise ownership. Definitely Gorilla needs to be at the top of your list. Andrew, thank you for joining us. Uh, thank you all for listening and watching another episode of the We Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson. I'm Jill Johnson. And we'll talk to you next time. Thanks again.