Episode 114: Scale Fast: The Low-Cost Franchise with Global Backing

Looking for a recession-proof investment? Kim Woods of Belfor Franchise Group reveals why Clear Pest Pros is the emerging brand that doesn't feel like one, backed by a global restoration giant.

In this episode, Mike Halpern sits down with Kim Woods, Development Director at Belfor Franchise Group, to discuss Clear Pest Pros. Discover how this emerging brand leverages the massive infrastructure of a global restoration leader to provide franchisees with world-class support, training, and a highly scalable recurring revenue model.

Key Takeaways:
The Belfor Advantage: Learn how being part of a 15-brand portfolio provides "big brand" resources to an emerging system.

Recession-Resistance: Why pest control remains a necessity regardless of the economic climate.

High-End Training: A look at the 16,000 sq. ft. training facility and the "flood house" used for real-world simulation.

Investment Clarity: Detailed breakdown of the $121k–$313k startup costs and what is included (Van, Marketing, Working Capital).

Revenue Potential: Insights into the $219k projected revenue per van and how to scale to 

Guest Profile: Kim Woods - Belfor Franchise Group

Free Resource for Franchise QB Listeners:

The Franchise QB Playbook will guide you through the process of finding your perfect franchise fit.  

Free Franchise Doc:  👉https://www.franchiseqb.com/playbook
#franchiseownership  #FranchiseOpportunities #OwnABusiness #FranchiseSuccess #FranchiseQB

Contact me and my team with any questions along the way.  www.calendly.com/franchiseguy
Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

Transcript

0:42

Joining us on the huddle today is Kim Woods, development director at Belfour franchise group. Welcome to the show, Kim. Bye, thanks Mike, nice to be with you. Yeah, it's good to see again. So you and I started our careers around the same time. Um, you worked for franchise solutions for many years, which connects aspiring entrepreneurs with franchise brands, well as franchise consultants. And then you became a development manager working with portfolio franchisers, including Belfort franchise group, where you're currently developing the clear pest pros brand. You're also a vice president and board member. at the New England Franchise Association, which is an affiliate of the IFA, which brings franchisors, franchisees, and suppliers together to share ideas for success. Also, you're a US Navy veteran, so thank you so much for your service to our country. And let's jump right in. um Kim, how did you find the franchise space? So interestingly, in 1999, I knew nothing about franchising and I answered an ad in the newspaper that said I could make a lot of money. And I was living about an hour from the seacoast of New Hampshire and I wanted to move back. So I was like, you know what? I went on the interview and I was like, what's gonna, if I don't like it, I'll find another job. And within two weeks of joining the company, I'm not gonna lie, I knew nothing. Like they had Maggie Moos on their website and stuff like that in New Hampshire. We didn't have a lot of franchises at the time. So I didn't even understand what... what the brands really were, what it meant, but I fell in love with franchising. And here I am since 1991. we have a very similar story. I remember when they had newspapers and I responded to an ad on the paper. it's a little bit different nowadays. But so currently you're developing the clear pest pros brand, which is owned by Belfort franchise group. Before we get into clear pest pros, tell us a little bit about the company's history of Belfort. All right, so Bell4, Sheldon Yellen is the CEO of Bell4 and all of our other brands under there, which I'll tell you about. So Sheldon was with a company that was Bell4 Property Restoration, and he subsequently ended up purchasing it in 2006. At the time, had about 3,300 employees. Today, it has 14,000 employees. It's the largest devastation restoration company in the world. It is a global company. And along the way, he realized he couldn't do all the work under Belfour. So he started buying franchise brands. The first brand that we bought was Ducks. And then we started Belfour Franchise Group at that time. We now have 15 different brands under that umbrella, Claire Pespos being one. That's awesome. And I had ducks at my house last week to do a duck cleaning on our uh HVAC system as well as a dryer van cleaning. So that was a really cool experience. So let's focus on your brand. We're here to discuss clear pest pros. How does being owned by Belfour franchise group allow clear pest pros to be an emerging brand, but not feel like an emerging. So I'm not new to emerging brands, but this brand when I came on, they had no franchisees. They just started franchising when I came on board. So, and the feel is so different than any other emerging brand. The, you know, all the tools and bells and whistles and even our corporate location, when candidates see it, they realize, you know, we're not new to the game. We're just new to the name. Uh, cause we did originally start as a pest control company, or should say we purchased one called safer home services out of Clearwater, Florida in 2023. And they were starting to franchise that brand. And you know, sometimes you need to replace the founder for different reasons. So we did, uh, decide we're going to replace the founder and we brought a new one on, uh, that pest control company did once a year pest control. Now think about Florida. Have you ever been to Florida with cockroaches, the size of kids? usually there in the summer. I have no idea how they do once a year pest control. If you drop a crumb in Florida, you will have cockroaches. So the once a year model. So when we brought in the new guy to be president, he's like, I don't like once your pest control. I know that, you know, if we do quarterly or monthly that franchisees could make warm, recognize revenue faster and scale faster. So we had to make a decision. Were we going to spend a year switching everyone over in Florida to the new name and the new model or start over again with the new name? And that's what we did. So we started ClearPest Pros at 2025, the end of April, beginning of May, started franchising in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That location's going great, already on its second truck. Same time, James Myers, the Grand President and founder of ClearPest Pros, did switch over to Florida. So he spent the whole last year managing that location, switching the services over and rebranding. So that is ClearPest Pros as of the end of 2025 as well. Okay, very cool. Thank you for the, the origin story there. So I know Belfort has a broad portfolio of brands and obviously there's a lot of other franchises out there in home services. So why clear pest pros? What kind of stands out about the brand in terms of revenue, scalability, that type of thing. So it is a it's a leadership. I think it all comes down to leadership and the people behind the brand. James Myers is an amazing brand president, founder, just an amazing person. I dub him the bug guy because I don't think anyone ever woke up and said, hey, I want to be in pest control. At least I don't think so. Every now and then somebody will tell me they did. But it's not the normal trajectory of somebody's life that they wake up and think that's what they want to own. Why clear Pest Pro's when a candidate is evaluating the model? What kind of stands out? is a recession proof business or recession resistant business. It is very scalable. You get sort of one truck and one technician and you can fit at least five in a market. So it's a very scalable model and it's a need. I don't know anyone who's happy with having, you know, insects and mice running around their house. can tell you right now if a mouse moves in, I am moving out. ah I don't think people think of it initially, but once we talk about the logistics of the business and how there is a necessity commercial and residential, they really understand it and fall in love with pest control. People often say to me, I never thought I'd be excited about pest control. And now I am. And I also, I like any exterior services brand in that it's not as intimate as something where you have to go in the house. And I know in your case, you can do both, like you can do exterior treatments and you could do interior treatments, but like our pest control company, I kind of don't have a need for them inside the house too often, but they're usually doing like perimeter work. And it doesn't matter to me when they come, as long as they come on a cadence that I pay for, I'm happy. Whereas if they have to come in the house, then it becomes a little bit more. Intimate and there is more trust and all that kind of stuff. So I think overall like I can see the scalability of that model So let's talk a little bit about like leadership you mentioned kind of the founder Tell us a little bit about the systems the support things like that Yeah, so James Myers, the brand president, is an amazing founder, amazing leader. He loves bugs. I dub him the bug guy. He doesn't love Nick Vance, but he told me he'll put up with it. So I told him I had to make pest control seem fun because, you know, again, no one wakes up and thinks they want to be in pest control. But he is just thoughtful. He is always is never afraid to say, you know. If you have ideas, let's hear them because you never know who's going to have the next best idea. We are a franchise or those. So we have models and systems and tools that are already in place, but anywhere where you can fill it in. One thing that really makes it unique is James wants to make sure that every market we are focusing on pest in your area. Like if you are in Arizona compared to where you are and where I am on the East coast, if you're in Arizona, you're going to have scorpions and snakes that you have to worry about. You and I don't, I've never seen a scorpion. I don't think I'm ever going to see it. one ever. So we're doing pest control by region and by the area and making sure we're targeting what the customer's needs are. Okay, so who are you looking for in a franchise partner? Is there a certain type of candidate that really makes sense for the brand? I would say that somebody that is driven and motivated, I think most people would say that when it comes to franchising, but somebody who's driven and motivated, they don't have to do the pest control themselves. They most certainly can hire a technician to do it. But it seems like right now we're bringing in a lot of people that have been former franchisees or maybe franchisees of another system, not of Belfort yet. And just people that are like chemical engineers and, you know, vice presidents of groups and emerges in acquisitions. Seems like we're bringing in a high end clientele, but if you're driven and motivated and looking to grow a market and grow a business, I always tell people if you're looking for one van in one territory, this probably isn't for you because there's so much more potential in a market that we want to help franchisees really recognize all the potential in the market that they can. Okay. And you touched on the location down in Florida that was the original and you launched one in Ann Arbor near Belfort franchise group HQ. Can you tell us a little bit about kind of the state of the company? know you're emerging, but what's it look like today? So we have four franchisees and 10 territories sold and getting ready to have a little bubble right here that's gonna burst with several more. have several more in the final stages right now of getting their documents together and getting ready to sign. So it's an exciting time. We still have plenty of white space though. And is it like geographically spread out? mean, do you find that the new owners are in different parts of the country or are they kind of in the same geography? So coincidentally, we do have one from Michigan, which was completely by mistake. A broker sent it over and I don't think he even knew that's where the corporate location was for Claire Pass. But either way, we have Michigan, we have Florida, and two in Texas right now. Other ones that getting on are all over the place. Yeah, so let's talk about the future. Like as you guys grow, you mentioned a lot of white space. What does the future look like for CPP? So we are growing thoughtfully. We're not just looking for somebody with a heartbeat like everybody says that. I always say with franchising, if it was so easy as just giving over your money and you'd be successful, everybody would find the money and do it. We're looking to bring on the right owners and just really grow and scale the business. But thoughtfully, we could have had a lot more franchisees signed already, but we're trying to do it the right way. Yeah. I took a trip out to Ann Arbor and visited HQ back in 2022. So four years ago, and it was really impressive, like going into the flood house and going to see like the training facilities for all the brands. Tell us a little bit about the experience that a candidate has when they come out, because I know, you know, obviously they're evaluating clear pest pros, but they kind of get the bigger picture when they see the investment that Belfort franchise group has made. Yeah, that's a that's a perfect point. So that actually lends to what I was saying about not feeling like an emerging brand. So we have a 35,000 square foot facility, which I don't know if you've been there yet, because they just moved in there not that long ago. Yeah, I don't know if I had it was a pretty big space and like I just kind of navigated around and maybe it was I'm not sure. see vans and trucks and stuff in the showroom? Parked in the showroom? Okay, so our main office is 35,000 square feet with a van and truck from 13 different brands parked in the showroom. And then next door, right down the road, we have a 16,000 square foot training facility for all of our brands to train, including a commercial kitchen, which is great. for pest control, because we can show you how to do the pest control in the kitchen. Then we do have that flood house, which we actually use for several different brands, including Clear Pest Pros, where we can show you how to do pest control inside and outside the home. And then we can obviously bring them out in the field. the feel, so everyone that's come to meet the team day, Knock on Wood, wants to move forward with Clear Pest Pros. Because in every comment that we've received is that they felt like what they were walking into is way different than every experience they've had before. Yeah, I mean, you can feel supported. You can see the resources that are there. And I think that's really meaningful, like beyond the widget that you're investing in. So let's talk about the investment. So item seven, what do the startup costs look like in terms of the range for a new owner to join the team? So right now it's 121,000 to 313,000. But really for one territory, one of the states made us put in the high end of 115. So it's really, know, it's the franchise fees 35 right now. So the high end on the franchise fee goes up to 115. But let's just say we were going with 35 for one territory. It would put it at 233,000, but that includes a full cost of a van. It also includes 60,000 of working capital, which is really on the high end. We'd be happy if they had 30. And it includes six months of marketing, both in the low and the high end. So there's a lot built into it. um So there's a little bit of different ways that they could save some money along the way. Yeah, really affordable brand, especially when you introduce things like SBA funding and you're putting in 20 % of that number, it becomes really approachable for a lot of candidates that are evaluating ownership. um How about item 19? Do you give founding location guidance in terms of earnings? So we use a projected number for a van. So we put it in there that a van could do around 219,000 and it includes general pest control at 111 per quarter and then termites at 821 per job. I live in New Hampshire, I pay 136 a quarter for pest control. So every market could be very different. We also do more stuff. So we also do mosquito and Mosquito and tick, bed bug, wildlife control, which are not all built into the item 19 either. So it is a rejected number of 219, but you, you know, I always tell people you're going to buy more than one van. That's the thing when you're busy four days a week, it's time to add another van so you don't have to turn people away. So for the consumer, for the end user, they get to kind of a la carte some of these pieces, which will make that recurring revenue a little more, a little less, depending on where they land. Yeah, so yeah, in every market will be a little different. Like I said, if you're in Arizona, we're going to build in things that we won't for other markets. But every person I've ever spoke to wants to pay the same person for mosquito control and for general pest control. And right now they're not. I say with all of the data breaches going on everywhere, people would really want that to happen now. So then the credit card is only in one place instead of two. Got it. And then generally speaking, when the treatments are being applied, is it one employee per van? Got it. Cool. This is awesome, Kim. Really appreciate it. Anything else you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? No, so the way that we're taking the approach at Bell for two, if somebody came in and they're looking at ClearPest Pros and it's not for them, then we have, you know, 14 other brands we can talk to them about. We're trying to, you know, make sure that we're, we're making sure we're representing the right brand for the right, right candidate and not just about pushing ClearPest Pros. It's about getting them in the fit that's right for them. Yeah. And that's a nice luxury to have when you have Belfort that has such a variety of brands like both B2B and B2C. So that's, that's really cool. Well, if anyone listening would like to connect with Kim and her team to learn more about becoming a franchise owner with clear Pest Pros, contact me at franchiseqv.com and I'll get you connected. Thank you, Kim, so much for taking the time to get in the huddle with us today. Bye, thank you. You got it.