Franchise QB

Episode 82: Chad Wright, Director of Franchise Development- HomeFront Brands

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 82

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In this episode of the Franchise QB Podcast, host Mike Halpern speaks with Chad Wright, Director of Franchise Development at HomeFront Brands. 

They discuss Chad's journey into franchising, the business model of Window Hero, and the advantages of franchise ownership. The conversation covers the importance of customer experience, the various ownership models available, and the current landscape of franchise opportunities. Chad shares insights into the financial performance of Window Hero and the support provided by HomeFront Brands to its franchisees.

Takeaways

Chad Wright has 18 years of experience in franchising.
HomeFront Brands supports local business owners with enterprise-level resources.
Window Hero focuses on customer experience in the cleaning industry.
The business model includes multiple service lines for diverse revenue.
Franchisees can choose between owner-operator and executive models.
Window Hero is recession-resistant and essential service-oriented.
There are significant opportunities for new franchisees in various markets.
Financial performance metrics show strong growth potential for franchisees.
HomeFront Brands provides extensive support and resources for franchise owners.

https://homefrontbrands.com/brands/window-hero/

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Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created. Franchise it! Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20-year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us in the huddle today is Chad Wright, Director of Franchise Development at HomeFront Brands. Welcome to the show, Chad. Thanks, Mike. Happy to be here, man. It is great to have you. And I see that you're a UK grad, a Go Big Blue. I have my son Jackson with me, who's going to be a freshman at UK in the fall. And he's interning with Franchise Freeway over the next three weeks. So I know he's eager to know how your UK experience was. Tell us about being a Wildcat. Yeah. Go Cats for sure, as you can see behind me, was a huge Wildcat fan going in, but it was a great experience. I would assume things have changed a little bit since when I went and you walked into campus, but just the atmosphere, not only from the friendships that I developed that I still have today, but to me, especially to get a Wildcat fan, going into Rupp Arena, there is not a better venue with more history to go watch a basketball game. Football is okay too, but uh it's just a great place to be and I hope you enjoy your time there. Thank you so much. I think it's going to be a really fun four years for me. Let's just make sure it's not five or six. That's why I said time there. I didn't say four years. said time. Awesome. Well, I'm going to just move the camera a little bit. Jackson's going to listen in as part of his internship. You, Chad, you joined the franchise industry back in 2007, which is kind of like me. I'm an old dog in this industry and you've been on several franchises prior to joining HomeFront Brands. So tell us a little bit about how you discovered franchising in your journey over the past couple of years. Sure. uh Actually, franchising kind of found me 18 years ago, July 18 years was doing, was in the mortgage industry. And if you kind of remember the math behind that, it was not the best time to be in the mortgage industry. But I had seen some of the writing on the wall. I was working 10, 12 hour days and just not able to help people. That's really what I like to do. For whatever reasons, know, rate was different, no value, no equity in the home. But was contacted actually by a family friend that was leading a consulting network. They were rebuilding the corporate staff and was looking for not only consultants, to work some open markets, but also to do the franchise development for them as well. So got in very similar to what you do and how you operate as a consultant and did that for about eight years to go to responsibilities for actually recruiting franchises into that system as well. Then the last 10 years have focused more predominantly on the franchisor side, you know, making sure they have processes, procedures, and that experience that a candidate will go through. uh is professional and educational. So my background on the franchise development side has been predominantly in the service space, the dirty, grimy, unsexy businesses that people can't do, don't want to do, don't have the time, skill set or equipment to do. Because being a homeowner, I get it, know, working long hours and uh getting a little bit of time with the family, that's the last thing that you want to do with the limited amount of time you get with your family over the weekend. oh My professional development has leaned more on the service side, needed essential services like here at Wendel Bureau. Yeah, no, it's really interesting because our career paths have kind of crossed because I started off in 2001 on the franchise development side and I did that. I lived through the 2007-2008 mortgage crisis and that obviously impacted everyone in the US economy. Obviously COVID happened and that was like a challenging time for anybody in business development. And that's kind of when I pivoted over to the franchise consulting side. So you and I both come from development backgrounds, consulting backgrounds. It's just, you started off on consulting and kind of moved to development. I did it the other way. So very, I appreciate the context there. So you're with HomeFront Brands, which is a portfolio franchise or um out of Charlotte. uh I had the privilege of meeting with Jeff Duden. A couple of years back, we both were speakers at the Franserve Convention. Really interesting guy. I got to read his book on my flight home. So let's start there. Tell us a little bit about HomeFront Brands. Yeah. And you mentioned some of it. HomeFront Brands is a parent company that has a portfolio of multiple brands. And kind of the goal here at HomeFront is to deliver that enterprise level business to local business owners. Big company technology, big company marketing. support, call center, those types of activities really down to that local business owner. We do have multiple property or property service related brands under the portfolio with kind of that goal in mind to build best in class support from the top down from the franchise, the parent company level, and then push that down to the individual brand level as well. But we own all of our own brands and are able to set the table, if you will, from that support to make sure Yeah, kind of start well, go well type of mentality. Yeah, that's interesting that you guys own all the brands because a lot of the brands that are in a multi-platform are also kind of an FSO. So you guys own the brands, you develop the brands. So that's great. So specifically, we're here today to talk about the brand that you're developing, which is called Window Hero. So for anyone that's joining us that's unfamiliar with Window Hero, give us a basic overview of the business model. Sure, you know, our model really focuses on that customer experience and customer service in a blue collar space, adding that professionalism to what is traditionally an unprofessional space. And it really all starts with us on the front end of that experience with the sales and scheduling center that we have. So, you know, that call center is speaking with those customers, that front line of attack, being able to book appointments, quote, when work. System-wide in our item 19, you'll see we have a 60 % win rate on our proposals. And then that franchisee in their business is going to show up, show up on time, deliver that second to none customer experience, get that job done. And, by the way, Mr. and Mrs. customers, we do multiple services that we'll get into in just a little bit. So being that one stop shop and that ease of working with someone. So we turn them into a repeat customer as well, which last year in our Item 19, it shows about 40 % repeat business work. for last year so strong likelihood when we're sitting down with that customer and we create a proposal we're going to them and then when we win them we're going keep our arms around them because of the experience in multiple services that we do. We also wrote out the utilization of drones to clean elevated commercial properties and that's allowing us to do taller properties without the need of any equipment, no boom lifts, no scissor lifts, no repel work lowers the insurance costs for our franchisees but m our positioning behind that, we can do those exact same projects with less people and less time for less cost to that customer. it's really no pun intended, really been taken off for our franchisees. Yeah, no, that drone, it sounds really interesting. And I love the fact that you've already referenced your item 19 twice, because that's what a lot of candidates that are exploring ownership, they're like, okay, I do want to eventually talk to the owners and validate. What's the basic metrics I can expect as an owner? And we will get into that a little bit more as we move on in the conversation. But so the main service lines, like you think exterior window washing is probably the primary, but tell us a little bit about the service lines, because I know there's multiple within the model. So tell us a little bit about what you can expect to offer as a window hero franchise owner. Yes, sir. Like you mentioned, we do specialize in those exterior cleaning services to both the residential and commercial customers. We've got the interior exterior window cleaning like you mentioned. We do pressure washing, soft wash, roof wash, gutter cleaning, gutter guards. oh Two services that we've rolled out somewhat recently. We've launched window film intent installation. And then mentioned the utilizing drones to clean elevated commercial properties. And those two services alone are not only helping us kind of modernize our business and not just be that chuck in a truck, ban in a van window. Windows we interview you know unprofessional that shows up, but it is also allowing us to grow and scale up that commercial side of the business as well, but you know Mike would I tell people at the end of the day what we provide our customer with is time. Time back in their day to do things they they want to do instead of clean windows or pressure washing driveway pressure washing deck Yeah, yeah the drone thing I saw some images and I mean how big are these things are they like, you know? enormous or are they small? Like, I mean, it's got to have some the ability to kind of elevate, you know, whatever the hoses that's bringing the water to to the drone. how big are these things? Yeah, it's not sure small little toy drones that that you pick up at Best Buy or the electronics store. Blade to blade, I believe they're about three and a half feet from tip to tip. So they are they're relatively large, but they do accordion down. So very easy to transport, go into that job site. You don't have to find a four foot space to put it in the truck. does go into a case, but it accordions down as well. you can literally, I've seen one of our franchisees have it right in the passenger side, seat belted in, driving on the way to a project. So is the idea that this eventually can potentially replace the need for like heavy scaffolding and guys that are hanging off of these large commercial buildings? mean, does it have that potential? It does have the potential. The sweet spot for us right now is kind of that five to 15 stories. Okay. You know, some of it is the oh battery capacity and battery life when you start getting the pressurization of that water up into higher type of opportunities. So eventually it could, but right now we're staying right in that sweet spot of that five to 15 stories. But ah I do think eventually, you know, technology will catch up where longer battery life being able to stay up there a little bit longer to do those taller projects. But that stuff our providers constantly working on to make sure they're, on the leading edge of that type of technology. Yeah, it's really cool. I mean, I've heard about, you know, drones being able to replace human beings that go up to like wind turbines that are hundreds of feet tall to do inspections and make sure everything looks great. I just like the fact that you guys are innovating and trying something different and new to complement kind of a stable of like really mature services that you guys offer your your your your customer. So like why would a candidate? I'm obviously there's a lot out there in franchising. What in your opinion, why would a candidate select Window Hero as their franchise? What are kind of the key differentiators that make this an interesting opportunity? Yeah, great, great question. First and foremost, it's a very simple, straightforward type business, not a lot of complexity behind it. Relatively quick to open as well, multiple services, so multiple ways to get into that customer. We do both play in the B2B and B2C residential and commercial space. uh Where one Model really makes sense and focuses on is that repeat recurring revenue. It's not one-off transactional. You want to be able to service that customer multiple times throughout the year. recession resistant as well, essential services, so it's not going to get AI'd out, Amazon resistant, Amazon proof as well. We'll get into it a little bit later, but variants of ownership models as well. Order operator, executive model, whether that's from the start or as you grow and scale into those types of opportunities. Few employees, traditionally unskilled labor as well. And then we were just talking about the drone. We're embracing technology in a lot of ways, not only with rolling out ways to do cleanings more efficiently, but also testing some things on the AI front, webpages, real-time sales feedback. uh We strive to be best in class all around. Love it. Yeah, that's really cool. So it sounds like you have the capability to do residential work, commercial work, maybe some government or municipal work. What guidance are we giving our owners when they launch? mean, is it like, hey, this is the digital platform to connect? residential customers, let's join the Chamber of Commerce and really get ingrained in the community and get commercial jobs. Maybe there's not a perfect split of 60, 30, 10 or something, but what does it look like? What should a franchise owner expect when they get into the window hero model between those three different offerings? Sure. ah We have a developed playbook, sales playbook, residential, Marketing is different than commercial marketing as well. Commercial is more relationship driven, the networking, relationship building. And Mike, you mentioned some B &I groups, Chamber of Commerce, realtors, contractors, builders, HLA groups, property management companies. You're going to be focused on the digital footprint as well, the SEO, the pay-per-click, direct mail send out. So we help franchisees develop what we call a 90-day plan, 90-day sprint coming out of the gate. And it is a mix of of both avenues. And then we also, you mentioned government work, we do have a relationship and a resource where we're to pull government contracts that are out for proposal, push that right down to franchisee level as well, and can make sure, you know, take a second look at that proposal before they fire it out to make sure they're putting that competitive foot forward in hopes to land that work. So it is a good blend. We will probably end up this year somewhere 70/30, 60/40 residential to commercial. And that is a big swing from when we took over the brand in 2021, when it was 90/10 residential to commercial. was the commercial work was more just low hanging fruit stuff that was falling right into their lap. So we've added those known assumptions, the playbooks, the titles to seek out and be able to hit the ground running and grow commercial from day one. Very cool. So you touched on the fact that you do allow different ownership types. You allow that owner operator that's going to be in the business, work in the business day to day. They've left their W2. This is their full-time thing. You also have an executive model. Can you kind of explain what that looks like in those two different scenarios within the kind of, you know, window hero franchise model? Yeah, absolutely. Owner operator is thrown around very fast and loose in franchising. So I do always try to hit that with candidates, but... Whether it's owner/operator, executive model, at the end of the day, we want that franchisee to be involved in their business, know their business, know their numbers so they can make those quick decisions, quick pivots as needed. uh In the owner-operator model, owner is not on the equipment, not hands-on tools, but taking more of a sales role, networking role, sitting with those customers, whether it's B2B, B2C, creating those proposals, landing work, they would hire a technician to handle production to produce the work that's been laid. So franchisee and owner-operator, they're doing business management, business development, hiring up the production side. And the executive model, the franchisee's gonna be handling more of that business management side, making sure they know their numbers, KPS, trends, win rates, margins, payroll, those type of activities. And then they would start with two people in that model. One for the sales, and then one for the production side. Yeah, so they're gonna have to invest a little bit more heavily in labor. to get the business going if they're not putting in their own full-time effort into the business. Yep. Yeah, makes sense. Very cool. So who would be an ideal candidate for window here? Who do you look for? Who's the avatar? Yeah, for sure. uh Sales ability or the ability to manage a salesperson depending on which operational model they're going to start with. We do look for individuals, probably a common theme that you hear on your show here, well-capitalized individuals, make sure they have have the money for their business plan. uh General business acumen as well. They know what P &L stands for. They've at least seen one. So they know how to read that ah relationship builder, that networker, operations, customer service focused as well, being able to dealing with customers. And then the ability to recruit and uh grow and scale a team. And that's going to lead into as the business grows and scales. being able to kind of perform that role, learn the role so they can hire and manage that role better as they move up and get to work more on the business than directly in the business and offloading what they don't want to do or what they may not be strong at doing. Yeah, very cool. um So let's kind of look at the state of the union. How many franchise locations are currently operating? How many have joined the system or in various stages of launching their business? What's that look like today? Yeah, currently, um All that have been awarded are open and operating. We have close to 40 franchisees in the system that equate to about 80 plus territories. So most franchisees coming in are doing somewhere between two to three territories on average from the start. Okay, very cool. So there is a significant amount of white space for people to come in and develop new territories that are like really good markets still. Yeah, absolutely. Lots of availability. We still have 700 plus open territories, really outside of, know, kind of typical where it was found in North Carolina, South Carolina. We've got some pockets still available in those areas, but wide open space throughout the rest of the U.S. Some of the hot markets we're looking for, Florida, New Jersey, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, uh Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, just a couple. Couple markets to name a few. Yeah. All those places have windows so I can see how it's a good fit. Yes, sir, they do. The item seven, how much does it cost to launch a window here or franchise? I'm guessing that, you know, it's a relatively lower cost compared to some other things that require, you know, really heavy equipment, a brick and mortar construction project. What's kind of our range there in Item 7? Yeah, it is lower compared to some, but higher compared to others. Which you'll find that item seven, $198k to $360k on the high end, $198k on the low, $360 uh on the high. uh Three things that move that needle, Mike, the equipment. are, franchisees, are starting with that drone and that drone, as we were talking earlier, uh it's not inexpensive because it is, it's built to last and it's got a lot of sensors and technology built into that. But it's equipment, vehicle. and then working capital. Those are kind of the three things that are gonna move that needle on which end of that investment spectrum a candidate may land on. Got it, thank you. And then you did mention a few things about client acquisition and conversion as it relates to Item 19. What else can you share with us about the financial performance of the kind of base unit? Yeah, our Item 19 is about eight pages, so lots of information in there and a couple different subsections as well. So one of the sections that we have are franchisees that have been in operation at least 12 months or more. And the average growth sales on that section, about 660,000 top line, 67% average gross profit, about 18 % to the bottom line on that franchisee subset. Our model really focuses on growth, scalability, letting that repeat side of the business kick in. So we have another subset of franchise owners that have been in operation at least three years or 36 months. Those average numbers jump up to about $840,000 on the top, 59% average gross profit, and then 25% to the bottom line averages. So all about that growth and scalability, we also list average commercial ticket, about$2,200, average residential ticket, close to $500. And then the two things I mentioned earlier with the average proposal win rate of 60% and total repeat customer last year, 40%. As I mentioned earlier, when we're creating proposals, we're winning them and then we're keeping those customers that are not leaving us. Yes, stellar economics. mean, $600k to $800k between one and three plus years and you don't have a tremendous cost of goods. So that is a healthy bottom line that you show. And I like that you have detailed kind of financials. mean, eight page for a system of your size is what you want to see. as someone in the development side as well as a candidate. So that's awesome. Well, Chad, this has been great and I really enjoyed learning lot about you and the business. Anything else you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? Yeah. Being part of Window Hero, I always like to tell people you're not part of just one brand. It's HomeFront Brands and part of that strong executive leadership team. You mentioned Jeff Duden, the founder, no stranger to growing franchise systems in the property service space. President Michael O'Driscoll has been at the helm of some multi-billion dollar organizations as well, both in Australia and the US. really, with Jeff's vision when he was creating HomeFront and started acquiring brands is building best-in-class, executive-level leadership, best-in-class brand presidents, directors of marketing that each brand has as well. joining Window Hero or any of the brands underneath HomeFront, it's not just a standalone brand when it comes to support. you're part of that parent company home front that is all property or property service related. So a lot of things are shared cross-platform. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I definitely think that, you know, Jeff and the team he's put together on the leadership side are great. And it kind of shows across all the portfolio concepts that I've interacted with. So I appreciate your time, Chad. And if anyone listening would like to connect with Chad to learn more about becoming a franchise owner with Window Hero. contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on X @QBFranchiseQB. I'll get you guys connected. Thank you, Chad, so much for taking the time to get in the huddle and discuss Window Hero with us today. Thank you, Mike. My pleasure. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit FranchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter. and for an actionable playbook to go from walk-on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter at @QBFranchiseQB, and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. Visit FranchiseQB.com to take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence, and franchise ownership. And remember, when working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.