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Pool Service Franchise Deep Dive: Puddle Pools' Recurring Revenue Model | Franchise Investment Review

• Jack Johnson • Season 2 • Episode 22

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Pool service franchise meets tech-driven recurring revenue. Discover how Puddle Pools built a scalable pool cleaning franchise across the U.S. and Canada with predictable cash flow, lean overhead, and margins that attract both operators and private equity.

The Pool Maintenance Franchise Business Model

We sit down with Puddle Pools founder Mark Amery and our full franchise consulting team to break down a home service franchise opportunity built on weekly residential routes, mandated commercial contracts, and ancillary revenue from repairs, liners, openings, closings, and cold plunge installations. Learn why B2C pool cleaning generates fast cash flow while B2B commercial accounts lock in long-term stability—even with 30-60 day payment terms.

Technology That Solves Industry Pain Points

Mark reveals how Puddle Power (their proprietary CRM and mobile app) automates scheduling, routing, e-reporting, job costing, photo documentation, and smart gate access—eliminating the three biggest challenges in pool service: labor management, pricing consistency, and customer communication.

What Franchise Owners Need to Win

Not every entrepreneur fits this franchise model. We discuss the ideal owner profile (playbook-followers, not cowboys), how weekly GSNR coaching sessions drive growth, region-specific "Puddle Huddles" for peer learning, and why this business runs lean enough to operate from your phone—or scale into brick-and-mortar when territory expansion demands it.

Franchise Investment & Growth Potential

With single-unit investments around $100K, territories closing in pool-dense markets, and expansion plans including AI-powered marketing, VR technician training, and international growth, this recurring service franchise model checks the boxes for both first-time franchise buyers and portfolio investors.

Keywords: pool franchise, pool cleaning franchise, service franchise opportunities, recurring revenue business, home service franchise, franchise investment, pool maintenance business, Puddle Pools franchise review

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From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.

SPEAKER_03:

Hi everyone, welcome back to the We Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson of the Franchise Insiders, and today we have an incredible guest with a franchise that I gotta tell you guys, when I first learned about this franchise, I had no idea of the rocket ship ride that this thing would have this year. But it has just been an incredible growth season for puddle pools. And of course, I'm speaking about its founder, Mark Amory. Mark, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_05:

Hey, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03:

Of course. And we're joined by our all-star team of franchise consultants, Catherine Allen, Brian Gross, Jay, and Carolina Arrosa, two of our newest consultants. And then, of course, Mr. Chill here, David San Juan with his stogie sitting out in the Florida sun. So, Mark, let's get right to it. Here's my first question for you.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Mark, can you really run puddle pools from your phone?

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm just kidding. Of course you can. Yeah. No, it's all a scan. Yeah, of course you can. It's uh that's the biggest game change. You can run it remotely from anywhere. Phone, tablet, or that's kind of the one of the bonuses of puddle.

SPEAKER_03:

That's so cool. I need to ask you, what is puddle pools and what do you guys do?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah, great question. What do we do? We do residential and commercial pool, hot tub, spa, and water feature maintenance. So I think the the kicker is we do the residential side, which is homeowners, apartments, townhomes, multi-unit, uh, and then the commercial side, which is your HOAs, um, your hotels, it's HOAs, that kind of thing. So it's your regular recurring service as well as everything in on and around the pool, like liners, repairs, weekly maintenance, right up to pool installs, fireclouds pool installs. So everything around everything in the backyard, pretty much.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow. And I know the team, the team has got a lot of great questions for you. I have one more before we we we throw it out to the group here. How much of that business, as I was sitting at a dinner the other night with a large automotive franchise and a private equity group. And uh, what got the private equity group so excited about doing a roll-up with this franchise, which means for those of you listening out there, a roll-up is where a PE firm will come in. They will recapitalize a franchisee or two, um, and then roll up more locations within. So this particular deal is 20 to 50 franchises. And the reason why they're excited is that this franchise does commercial, but that it has recurring revenue. Mark, recurring revenue seems to be just one of the most important things when we look at franchises achieving high valuations. So, Mark, how much of your business would you say percentage-wise is recurring revenue?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, like 90, 95. It's every um the beauty with pools is they have to be maintained once a week. I'm not sure if anybody on the call here has a pool, but they know once a week you have to, and some some parts of the year it's like twice a week. It's that hot. The kicker is when you go over to the commercial side, it's once a day, it has to be tested. And in some zip codes, it's twice a day. So taking that regular recurring ticket value from one to right up to maybe even 14x.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and it's mandated, it has to be done. It's not like, oh, we might get the pool done or not. In the commercial world, it has to be done and they shut it down.

SPEAKER_02:

Mark, one of the things I'm really curious about with this business, you know, I think about myself. I moved from Tampa, Florida this year, where I look at this business, it feels like a home run to Washington, D.C., where now it's it's freezing outside, right? And so I have a shorter season. Not everyone has a pool in their backyard, like in the south. So what is the opportunity? You know, I guess what's this business look like for the more Midwest, the northern climates?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, good question, man. This is probably one of the biggest questions is what happens with with the colder climates, right? And I'm based in Vancouver. We were born in Canada, so we have 25 locations here, three plus years. That usually ends that right there. Like our highest producing um Canadian location would be Ottawa. And you know, when they have six feet of snow in the middle of winter, they're able to go year-round. It's that commercial ticket that really brings it, you know, through the winter. As far as having your seasons, um, you know, Florida or you know, the ones in the south, they have that annual once a month, maybe a lower ticket value. With when you get somebody that's experienced all four seasons, you have the openings, the closings, and all the fun stuff in between. So the revenue actually is a little bit more if you look at the at the annual at the annual spread. So but usually if you want to talk to any of the Canadian locations, that usually you know ends that worry right there. Yeah. Because it's pretty in Ottawa, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Did that answer that, Brad? Is that right? It does. That's that's great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

That's terrific.

SPEAKER_07:

My question for you is how did you spot opportunity in an industry that others ignored?

SPEAKER_05:

That's a good one. So a bit of background on my I say myself and the team, like our leadership team has been together for 13 plus years. Uh, we had this is our fourth home service brand. So this is in our first rodeo. Um, you know, we started a home service care, like window cleaning and that kind of thing. Um, then went on to pest control landscaping. And we always had pool as one of the other kind of just sidebared there. It was actually when we always wanted to bring it to the US. But it's hard for Canadians to go to the US because you want a docks. It takes about a year for all that, uh all those goodies to get put together. But I actually bought a house, we moved in and it had a pool, and I had no idea what I was doing. And I have I have five kids, five little girls, and I'm like, I am not gonna burn one of them with chlorine and all that. So I tried to get a pool person to come, and it was like impossible, it was impossible. Nobody was answering the phone. It was just like the typical thing you hear, right? And then finally, there's one guy who says, He says, Yeah, dude, I'll be there on Sunday. I'm like, okay, cool. You can come do your thing. And he showed up and he was camping, and he gets out of the car, he had one flip-flop on, like, nice guy, like like how you look like when you come back from camping, his dog's up front, he reeked like marijuana. I'm like, oh my gosh. And then he but he was fine. He did whatever he did, and then that was the like, okay, guys, we're turning on puddle yesterday. So that's kind of how it came. So I just saw that happen, and then that was we started that in in Canada. Then that was the one we wanted to bring to the US because the opportunity, obviously, the US 10 times bigger, 10 times just more attractive. And then uh there was no real national, there's national presence, but not in that B2B and B2C world. It was, you know, our competitors have B2C, which is great. Um, but the the commercial side is where there's a little more hoops to jump through. There's certifications, licensing, uh making sure. So from a franchise or level, it's easier just to say, hey, we're doing residential, but that's kind of how it was born. A guy with a flip-flop and a and a dog coming back from camping.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh my gosh. And just talk to us a little bit about you talked about the B2C and the B2B side.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

Kind of across the board, what percentage would you say is B2B versus B2C?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, great question. It's yeah, across the board, it's B2B is right, or B to B2C is right out of the gate. It's just low-hanging fruit. There's it's just easier. It's a total digital play for us. It's a like we're not a pool cleaning company that's started and then went, oh, this is great. Let's try franchising. We're kind of the opposite. We're franchising and went into the pool space. So we knew that that B2C side was more of that low-hanging fruit. We want to make sure our placement's great on you know, on PPC campaigns, SEO, Meta, Google's on all of that, all of those. Um, but that I would say you're probably out of the gate first year, maybe like 95-5, 90-10. Just because in the commercial world it takes it's a really it's not a digital plague. It is to a degree, but it's more relationship building with your realtors, your property manager. I'm sure we all I don't know how to tell you guys that that space takes a little longer to get to, and what avenues do we use? Cookie drops, lunch and learns. It just takes time. So, but once you're in, you're then you're in. So we make it really clear to all of our franchise partners, once you're once you turn it, you can't turn it off. Right. So you know what I mean? It's not an answer saying we're full. That's not an answer.

SPEAKER_03:

So and and and Mark, I know that your neighbors here, Jay and Carolina, who are also based in Vancouver, uh have a couple of questions for you. But before they they go to their questions, I'll never forget with our Pinks franchise, um, Brandon Downer, who will be on our podcast next week, Shameless Plug, um, saying to me, you know, if you're gonna start taking commercial business, make sure you have at least 50 grand in your business account. Um, and he told me, he's like, Look, the reason I'm making this recommendation to you is that, you know, you're you guys are gonna go take a job. It's gonna take you a couple of weeks to get it done. You're gonna have to front the payroll. So he's like, that's getting commercial business is great. And it's true, you can land big contracts, but you have to carry um the the payroll for a few weeks because sometimes collecting from some of those commercial accounts can take 30, 60, 90 days. Um, would you say that that's that's pretty fair guidance for home services franchisees getting into commercial?

SPEAKER_05:

That's bang on. As far as as far as a dollar figure, I'm not whatever that is, I'm sure it varies, but you're right. It does in that commercial world, it's not just homeowner pay the bill, online done. It goes, it's got a bigger wheel, it's got to go through, right? It's got to go to accounts payable, it's got to get signed off. So, yeah, you're right. It does take that 30 days. That's like 30 days sometimes is a luxury if it's 60. And if they say it's a 60-day payout, then it is what it is. You're not gonna say I'd like you done in 30 days. So great, we're gonna pay you at 60. So it's but yeah, you're you're you're you're betting on.

SPEAKER_03:

So I've found gentle nudges every single week to their uh accounts payable department works.

SPEAKER_05:

Small visits to the accounts payable with two big guys with bats.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, there you go. Bring them a box of donuts with a baseball bat in hand.

SPEAKER_05:

If you don't pay, I'm kidding, but not kidding. Yeah. But no, you're right. You're you're bang on.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey Mark, uh great to connect with you. Um I've been really looking forward to hearing more about puddle pools. Um Carolina and I have been in the senior home care franchise business for many, many years. I know that uh we had a lot of misconceptions when we were starting, one of which was we didn't have any experience when we in in senior care when we got started. So I'm curious, what are the biggest misconceptions uh that people have about owning a pool business? Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05:

It's um, well, I don't know anything about pools. And then we're really clear I think there's probably two. We have maybe two of our owners came from the pool world. And we jokingly said, like, most of our owners can't even swim, so don't worry about it. You're there to run the business, right? Like we don't ever want our owners putting their hands in the pool, is pretty much how it is. That should be the partners are running the business. Um, I think that's that's probably the biggest misconception. Is I don't know anything about pools. It's like, great, neither do we. You know, so there you go.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

To piggyback on that, actually, so you know, again, as a business owner, as a former uh franchise owner, it's we know it's important to look for a business that fits, right? That aligns with your lifestyle, your strengths, your values. So for someone who's looking into business ownership and they want to look outside of the usual fast food and gym concepts, what about public pools do you think makes it an exciting and like meaningful option?

SPEAKER_05:

I think that the number one is that recurring revenue. That's very attractive in the home service phase. And I think it's the frequency of the recurring revenue. And then on top of that, that it's mandated. So a public pool commercial, it has to be done. I think that's probably the number one. Second is the scalability. When definitely when they look like we want obviously, we want big picture thinking. And you know, our team is always um really clear that this is not I'm retiring, I want to clean some pools in the backyard, have a route. Nothing wrong with that at all, but that is not this. This that's not what you're looking for here. So being able to scale, not afraid to scale. You know, we have when they do the math, they say 10,000 pools per territory, and on an average, each track or vehicle does roughly 60 to 70 pools a month. When you bang that out, when you look at like 5% market share, you know, I don't know if obviously those numbers or not, but you know when you do the math and you see what that there is no end. So there is that's that's probably the most attractive part. And then obviously the team building and I think just through um I don't know if I'm going with this, but just like validation too, like making sure they talk with like we're not gonna pepper you with superstars. That's like what do you get from you get nothing from that, right? You want to talk to high, middle, and low performers. And we even the low performers aren't low, they're just like starting, zero to six months. Well, good, what sucked? Are these guys great? Are they crazy? Like, ask all those questions and make sure it aligns with you, and then um it usually just as soon as their happens, I think.

SPEAKER_03:

We had a franchiseur text us earlier this week saying, Hey, I just spoke to your client, we just introduced them, and uh he said, they told me they're not gonna buy a franchise unless they can talk to 10 franchisees. He said, You better rein them in. I said, No, actually, that's my guidance. And I said, You absolutely need to call five to ten franchisees like you said, good, bad, and ugly, because at the end of the day, the item 19 might say the average franchisee is making a million bucks, but you need to talk to the franchisee and you need to hear it from them. Um, and it's amazing how many, and and transitioning into our next section about scaling. And David, I know you you've got a burning question here. Um, but to me, as I look at a business like this, I look at puddle pools, I look at especially even in markets where it's not like Florida, you know, here everybody has a pool. Literally, everyone in my neighborhood has a pool. And you're right, I would love it if the if the if someone could come two times a week. So I look at this in and I I love this boring, scalable, recurring revenue, commercial, residential. So many times clients will call us, Mark, and they'll say, Man, it's my dream to own a Chick-fil-A. It's my dream to own a burger franchise. And I'm like, dude, by the time you clean your your fifth grease trap, it won't be a dream anymore. And by the time you burn through your fifth manager to manage a pack of teenagers for 45 grand a year, it won't be your dream anymore. And when you're managing razor thin margins and you you've got a million dollar note invested in this business, that's a nightmare.

SPEAKER_01:

Mark, you nailed it. I I think with uh reoccurring revenue. Uh, you know, right now with my franchise, that's what's putting me at the top. Is that reoccurring with my GM, what he's what he's building for us? But uh on that note, thanks. Uh, what kind of franchisees thrive in your system? Oh, good question.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, who thrives are not the cow, not the cowboys. I don't know if that's the right answer, but play stick to the program. You know what I mean? Like everyone's a cowboy, that's fine. But like you invest in it for a reason. Don't try and come in and change everything, right? And I'm sure everybody's seen that. I think that's who the people that follow the playbook and know that this is a marathon and not a sprint, because a lot of it is a mental game, right? Especially if they come from employee to now you're like employer. It's a different mindset, right? So don't um stay in. I think the people that stay in their lane, they have the goal, they follow the program, and it that's that's it. It's like it's proven, it's a model, it works. So of course we're all gonna dance outside and do this and do that, but just try and stay um stay focused. I think that's the number one is those people that are not cowboys or cow gals.

SPEAKER_07:

And for the cow for the cowboys and the cowgals, well, we don't we don't have the cowboys or the cowgals, but for for those following the playbook, how do you maintain that consistency across the US and Canada?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's um that's probably the biggest kicker, even with all the brands in all the years. It's it's support. Like, and it's just not, oh, we have support. Like, great, what kind of support you have? So there's weekly GSNRs, the goal set and reviews, like everybody has a puddle coach, right? So every week they work on the business, not in it, setting three goals, making sure they're hitting the goals, working out those pain points. So they're they're really gradually scaling without even knowing it and fixing any um any kinks in the system or in what they're finding problems with. We have four puddle huddles a month on different topics, right? We keep a uh a regional, like everybody from Florida's on a puddle huddle, Texas on a puddle, because they all experience different climates, right? To your point. Um, and then we have uh a general once over just about the industry and you know, maybe about commercial or about employees or whatever. And then we have a growth uh startup in Excel. So zero to six months, six to twelve months, twelve months plus, because everybody's in a different stage of their business. So I think that support is huge for not only the franchise partner, but we bring it in to the technician level as well. So the technicians have help, one-on-one support. There's help me buttons, WhatsApp chats, and all that, but they also get paired with the puddle coach. And that puddle coach has a weekly GSNR. Different goals, like they're not setting financial goals, it's more so you know, we have huge incentive boases and programs. Like it's not so much how do I clean the pool, it's how do I do that door knocking and how do what does that look like again with that one-on-one with the homeowner? Or I'm having problems doing XYZ. So having them having some letting them know that we care and because the homeowner and the they don't know us, like they may know us, but they know the the person the person in the field, they know the tech. That's our you know, we all have these hundred thousand dollar, two hundred thousand dollar visits, and then we're gonna put it in the hands of a teenager that doesn't know what they're doing, not a chance. So making sure the support, I think, is um and then of course your QA and audits and visits and all that stuff. But that's been the big one. I think it's that one-on-one. I don't know how you guys are, but I'm I need to talk to I need to touch it, feel it, talk to someone, or else I'm just I don't want any part of it.

SPEAKER_03:

So it just means it's a great hey Mark, looking at the data I have from your item 19, um, I see that the village's location that was listed uh grossed$700,000 and had a net of$200,000. Is that is do I have the is that is that right?

unknown:

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's terrific. That's a really that's an incredible margin. Um you know, so many times, again, going back to the example I gave before, some of these retail food franchises can show some pretty impressive grosses or gross revenues, but when you really talk to their owners and and see what kind of net they're achieving, sometimes it's not as impressive. So to know that there are lean businesses like this that you can run from your phone, that you can scale up, um, and that you can enjoy really terrific margins, um, that's that's pretty powerful.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it's it's um I think the beauty like I've always I we have always been in home service, so we're just that's a real comfortable space for us. I I would probably not do well in brick and mortar, Brett. That's just not our game. But I think the beauty with home service to anybody that has a home service is that is yeah, keeping it lean, making sure there's we want zero overhead. We want no overhead because the franchise partners two concerns I think naturally gonna be when is my ROI and how much money can I make? Those are gonna be the two questions they want. So we work for them, making sure they get that. And the quicker they get that, the happier they're gonna be, and then everybody's happy. So, but yeah, I think the the home service world in general, just lower overhead, not even having a storage facility, being able to keep all of our supplies, everything at the supplier. So that's uh what to be able to hit those margins. We gotta keep it lean.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, that's that's why you see when we looked at the fran when we did our franchise sales report in September, 50% of the sales were home services.

SPEAKER_05:

For sure. Yeah, it's attractive, but it's not for everybody, right? Some people want that brick and mortar and want that, which is okay, right?

SPEAKER_03:

But that's absolutely there's huge there's benefits to that too. If you can have a freestanding, like if you're looking at an automotive franchise, you can buy a freestanding building, have the real estate, take the depreciation. Um but Mark, to be fair, if someone had a puddle franchise and let's say they had a big enough territory and they ultimately have four trucks, you can still go get a building and buy it, or get a mixed-use building, and and now you have a place to put your trucks and you can sublease. And so you can always bring in the real estate.

SPEAKER_05:

That's the that's the beauty. Like, take Rick in the villagers in the FDD, where you know he has nine, ten technicians now. He's in year at the end of year two, right? So he has a lot of moving parts and he still has no office. He still runs it from Starbucks. Everybody takes the trucks home, they pick up the equipment and that's just how he likes it. That's his gig, right? But we have another John Simon in London who wants to open a storefront. Great. So we're trying to design it like the Apple store, you know. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but trying to make it nice and fresh as opposed to your typical uh you know pool shop. But yeah, it gives you that either way, whatever I think everybody's different, right? So whatever kind of floats your boat and makes you happy, you want to make sure that's that's your that's your gig.

SPEAKER_00:

So hey Mark, you mentioned earlier one of the exciting things about this business is building teams. So for new owners, like how do you mentor or support them to build teams and not just like clean pools?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, they don't um they don't really have the option to go clean pools because out of the gate they hire a technician. Um I think the differentiator here is and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't maybe maybe it is, maybe it's not. So instead of like an exec model, is you would hire a manager to run it and then hire a technician, and then you that's the typical. So we eliminate that hire the manager portion. The franchise partner is somewhat the manager, but puddle power or CRM or app is I don't want to say it's so powerful, it is it's meant to take all of that heavy lifting off. So from them, like even through training, the technicians are coming to training the app, like Puddle Power almost trains your technician for you in some to a degree. So they really don't have the chance. However, there are a handful of folks, and me included, that I need to I need to do it for at least a month. And that's probably going against what we say, but I that's the way my brain works. I can't tell somebody to go change a tire if I've never done it. Right. So I just so for those they last maybe a month, and then it just pushes them into exact model. You just you can't keep out the call flow coming in, the the ground and pound relationship. It doesn't really happen. So out of the gate, we want to make sure it's as they grow in scale, they're and their coach weekly wouldn't let that happen either.

SPEAKER_06:

So can we talk about culture? Um, so again, we owned a home care business, senior home care business. And for me, establishing the culture at the very start was so important, right? Like it infused every aspect of our operations, and I really think that's what helped us weather all our storms and really set ourselves apart from the competition. So for you guys, what is the culture at Pebble Fools and how has it impacted your business?

SPEAKER_05:

I like to think it's killer. That's a good question about culture. That's huge, right? Like you can't buy culture. You can't just come in and buy it or say, hey, we're putting a ping pong table in the lunchroom and we have free pizza on Fridays. Look at our culture, right? It's that's not it. It's I think it all comes from when you first start, like when you first and everybody has to know. Like, I know every single franchise partners, I know my how many I don't know all the kids need it, but I know how many kids they have. I know what like you need that. I think it's just being real. Um, and we always hire, I think and I was hiring from within. So every position in puddle coaches, even our call center, all of the guys and gals on our calls all are related to or know or referred to by somebody. That I think builds culture because everybody has they just kind of know each other and keeping everybody informed, like monthly puddle huddles, regionals, annuals, everybody comes. It's not like, oh, you're on the call center, you're not coming. It's everybody's coming. So I think it's just a how you treat people, maybe, and making sure you're you know, not sending out a memo once a month saying good work, everybody just calling them saying, Hey man, you're kicking ass, way to go. Oh, pardon my French, but you know what I mean. Like just given that like reason, just being normal, I think, just builds culture. And yeah, yeah, and that's that's I don't know if there's yeah, I don't know if that's the right answer, but I that's what I think is just wonderful. Be normal, yeah. Just yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_07:

Well it starts at the top, Mark, and you're at the top. So I don't you know you're a great guy. Super you know, you are, but you're so warm and engaging and friendly and kind like that comes through. And so I think you are a big part of building that culture there at the top.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you. I'm just hey, I think it's important to um I I want to bring Brian in on this. And Brian, this is a little bit unscripted, but as I'm listening to all of this, Brian does a lot of work with people who are looking at existing businesses. Um, a lot of people these days are looking for existing businesses on BizByCell. And and Brian, you work with a lot of them. You know, Mark, as we think about businesses and starting a new franchise versus buying existing, maybe Brian, what what do you think would be interesting for the for the folks that are looking purely at existing businesses to consider um with a new franchise like Puddle?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's a great question, Jack. And it's interesting, you know, Mark, some of the things that you shared, you know, just the way you've set this business up is what a lot of people that are looking for an existing business is what they're asking for. Right. It's you know, it's not the SDE or maybe the financials that are have been out there for a couple of years, but it's I want something that I can run that adds to my portfolio or adds to you know what other things I have going on that doesn't require my full-time attention. Right. So you know it sounds like from just an investment mindset, you've really set this company up for a lot of different types of investors.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we've tried to um, yeah, we're trying. You know, it's it's we're just it business is lonely, right? It's it's lonely if you don't. I think that's the and we can all agree here, that's the beauty of franchise, is it takes that loneliness out of it because that sucks, right? Nobody wants to be start day drinking, but everybody wants to have that somebody they can bounce off of or that team that can, and they're not rent, it's like in business, not you know, by yourself or for yourself or whatever that it's it's more of that yes, this is going to be the equivalent, or this is gonna give you more value than something that you're buying that you're not really too sure. And I think the beauty with franchises because it's so heavily governed and so which is fantastic, it's not like buying a used car. We oh, you didn't look at this or this, you know, nothing to the used car people out there, but it's just you don't have that that worry, right? So yeah, we try to make it as give them give the franchise partner value, is what it is. And this is for us, this isn't about money. We're we're I don't know, we're like nine ninety-five or I'd say 100K in like we want you to get that 100k back yesterday. So then you're happy. So that's that's kind of what we try to try to strive towards.

SPEAKER_03:

So I think this is a great business for someone who's looking to completely throw themselves into a business full time. I think it's a great business for someone to bolt onto an existing portfolio if they want to diversify. Um, and and again, it's so crazy. Like we I've been in franchising a long time. Mark, no one's really owned this space. Uh, and I think so much of why you guys have been so successful, one, you've got a great brand, great support, great culture, but also the technology. And let's let's maybe transition into tech systems and and and the transparency of those tech systems. And you know, David, I know you and I were talking offline about this before. Maybe I know you had a question. Maybe we'll start with you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, speaking about the app, your your app and your e-reporting systems are game changers. What impact do they have on the clients and the franchisees?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, thanks for that. That's a great point. As far as the for the homeowner, the the client, it that's the problem in this industry is people, price, and communication. It's one of those three that it it's either the people or just a little different in this industry, nicely. Uh the the price, sometimes they get a price for this is the to clean the pool, plus this is your chemical price, plus you needed this. And if I was a homeowner, I had I had no idea what pH tablets are. And it I don't know, like that that sucks. Nobody wants that. And the next one is the communication. They don't know when they were there, how many times they come a week. They don't know their name, they don't know the name of the company sometimes. So um on the client side, it's it's beautiful. They can even log in on their app and see when everything was done. It has pictures, videos. The biggest one is showing the technician locking the gate, like just those little things. Um, I think for the client goes a long way. More so for the franchise partner is that is definitely the game changer. Is like we have five people on our leadership team that are just marketing, tech-driven, SEO, app development. That's what they do all day, every day. So um for the franchise partner, it has everything from scheduling. You can you send agreements, invoicing, those are all your basics, but everything to like dispatch tool. You can watch where your texts are at all times, if they've gone five miles over the over the speed limit, where they are, the weather, that's just all things you may never use, um, all from your phone and all from them logging in using their IP address on their phone. It can clock everything, right? I think Ryan on our team he said yesterday we had a confirmation and he said it best. He goes, This is like a micromanager's dream. Like if you would some of the things you would use and some you wouldn't, but it it kind of it has absolute yeah, it has absolutely some things on there like, hey Ryan, like enough, nobody's thinking stuff. But it's there for you if you want it. So it's it's got everything down to job cost. The tech is at the job for like 18 minutes compared to 28. That's a different job cost, so you can see your march. So it's really important for the franchise partners to know those numbers. So I think that's um again, without me rambling, that's probably the two biggest ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_07:

So it sounds like it sounds like you have, you know, I mean, thought through the technology piece, you have a dedicated team. So thoroughly, what is next, Mark, for from a technology standpoint? Can you give us a little peek of what's coming?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, so we have there's a lot of tech coming. So I think the biggest thing right now is you know, everybody talks AI and like obviously I don't think that the robots are going to take out pool cleaning unless Elon develops a robot that pool cleans, but that you know, robots and water don't go together. I think number one is um and her Tim might kill me for. Saying this is chat GPT is that is the biggest push. So we have one team member like myself. I don't use Google anymore. I have I don't know you guys, I just have chat just sitting on my that's what I searched. So the kicker is you can't pay to play there. It's not like Google to hire the rank, the PPC. It has to be strategically placed, even in all of your content, how we're searching on chat. That's pool cleaners near me. So that's kind of the next push. Using AI in our Huddle Power, which is our app or serum, to develop marketing programs and tools for them on the hop, the way they go. And the last one here is I'll give this away here because this is coming out. Is these guys here? Um I don't know if you can see these Oculus or Oculus app or yeah, so which are I don't, I'm not a tech guy, but these are so cool. Is the training for technicians in the field when they put these on, additional training, it's like they're there doing they can go cocktail change, and it's like they're changing. So all of that technology, we have to be 20 steps ahead of the competition, and we gotta be right up there with with uh Elon's team. So that's kind of what we're trying to do. Pool cleaning, yes, but being once there's so much coming down the pipe. And again, I'm not the uh I'm not the tech team, but uh Tyler and Ryan and and those folks that are developing all that. There's a lot of cool stuff. So making it and and just fun, right? Like making sure like that's that's fun, you know?

SPEAKER_07:

That's fun. Yeah, that's fun.

SPEAKER_06:

So, Mark, when you're meeting with, you know, you're trying to develop those B2B relationships and they see your technology. Is that what sets you apart from the competition? Is that what all things being equal with all the other pool businesses, that's what they say, oh, that's a game changer. I want to go with them.

SPEAKER_05:

Good question. That's not so much. It plays a piece of the pie. It's more so um, you know, getting that foot in the door without stepping on toes and not being pushy. Right. I think that's that's different programs like you know, cookie drops, lunch and lunch, but how do we get to that? You know, for um in the home service base, which I've learned anyways, or our team has learned over the time is property managers, realtors, um, they have time and money. Everybody works with time and money. We can't give them more money or save them money. You can save them money, but time is what they really want to save them time. So being able to give them everything up front, what they need, not having to ask to go hope for this, not have so when our teams come to approach them, they already have those in hand. They know what sites they do, they already have those quotes to send them out. So the other stuff is just like the gravy. When they see that wow, when they get to have that experience, then that's usually the the game changer.

SPEAKER_03:

Very cool, Brian. I thought I think you had a question.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you know, so we're uh you talked a lot about the about technology, um, you know, really it seems like what separates puddle pools apart from the competition right now. But when you think about you know, in the future, you know, how are you future-proofing this brand? Especially when you think about a long-term scalability.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, good question. Again, I think it's it's it's staying ahead of the uh the competitors and the industry. Like right now, I don't want to frag or anything, but like we're really, really far ahead, and you you're not gonna catch us. There's you're you're not, right? So we want to start setting that path. Um, opening up we've got our finalized docs and FTD and everything is ready to go for Australia, which is plans for 2028. So that's that's another large space for us there. So making sure um that's ready to go, you know, the and bringing other services into the puddle, which will be coming soon. Um add-on and complementary services, which again additional revenue streams for franchise partners, that's a huge one. Um kind of already have everything laid out. I I don't I don't want to give it away too much, but just being 10 steps ahead of everybody is is the character.

SPEAKER_03:

And Mark, is it is it true that I think your investment says the investment is is for a single unit franchise is somewhere between say 90, I think 90, is it 92,150 for a single unit? Does that sound right?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, for single, it's like 90 to 1 and it's like around 100k. And then for two, it's like 150-ish, 140 or something.

SPEAKER_03:

That's pretty great. I mean, for those of you listening, recurring revenue, B2B, B2C, um, the ability to enjoy great margins, to run a business from the phone. Um, these are pretty incredible things. That's why we're seeing this business. I don't even know how much white space is left in Florida. Um, I know we had a client that just took a good chunk out of Phoenix, which is we were so excited that it was still there. Because I know you guys have been like Vegas is gone. Um I'm like, dude, you're so lucky you're getting this territory. Um so for those of you listening, this is one I would guess, Mark, that you guys will have most of the most of the states, the key markets in the United States will be gone next year. Um, especially now that you're open in California, right?

SPEAKER_05:

We just opened, yeah. So yeah, we just closed on two, I believe. And then one coming down the down the line. So yeah, we we just opened, so yeah, that's the next and that's much like for everybody. It's probably easier to count the homes that don't have pools, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, yeah. So all right, Mark, let's do a little rapid fire session here. Um, is it true that your your motto is grab life by the cannonballs, or did Chat GPT make that up?

SPEAKER_04:

I made that up. Yeah, that's I made that up. And after I said my wife's like, can't say that. Like I'm saying you can't say that. So anyway, that's it. That was not chat.

SPEAKER_03:

What was the first job that that truly shaped who you are, that shaped your grit?

SPEAKER_05:

Tim Hortons. I worked there. I started working when I was 13, and I started doing night shift just before my 15th birthday. So my parents were really hard into working early. So Tim Hortons will look at a coffee shop if you kind of like Dunkin' Donuts eat kind of thing. It's like hunch you get like Dunkin' Donuts.

SPEAKER_03:

Is it has it gone consistently downhill churning out mediocre day old donuts like like Dunkin' Donuts?

SPEAKER_02:

That's a hard yes. We just offended the whole Northeast. That's fine.

SPEAKER_03:

I'll tell you, it's what uh this is gonna sound crazy, but one of the one of the things when Jill and I moved from San Diego to Boca Raton, Florida in 2020, we had so many great donuts in San Diego, so many great places, and maybe it's because it's a it's a big surfer community. There is no donuts here. They all say, oh, you gotta go to Duncan. That's not a donut. That's not a donut. Not a donut.

SPEAKER_05:

Not a donut.

SPEAKER_07:

We have Johnny's donuts. Johnny's donuts. Nothing can be Johnny's donuts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know. Have you had sidecar in Del Mar?

SPEAKER_07:

I have not.

SPEAKER_03:

Get Sidecar. And I'll try Johnny's next time I'm in the Bay area.

SPEAKER_07:

Yes. Next time you're here, I'll buy you a dozen.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you guys have Lee's down there? Lee's donuts? No?

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

No. Is that in Vancouver?

SPEAKER_05:

It is, yeah. It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Jay, Carolina, can you vouch for Lee's?

SPEAKER_06:

Well, we don't have a sweet tooth.

SPEAKER_00:

We're not really donut people, but we've heard of Lee's time.

SPEAKER_06:

We're more salted fat people. So yeah, no sweet, no.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm sending you some Lee's. Lee's is being door-dashed to the Arosis house right now.

SPEAKER_04:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. So this here's my question, and I'll I'll throw it at you, Mark, but it's really open. As you know, all of our consultants are current or former franchise owners, just to kind of go around the room. You've got Catherine up here, who was the MVP of her system last year, uh, leading revenue producer. Are you going to do it again this year, Catherine? You're going to be number one again this year?

SPEAKER_07:

Yes. Love it. Yes, I am. Although, although, so they send out a rocket stack every week. And for the first time ever, McKinney, Texas is up by$1,000. But don't worry, I have a lot of money coming. Don't you worry. Yeah. I mean, clinch it. But whoa. Whoa.

SPEAKER_03:

Let's go, Catherine. Come on. And then, of course, we have Brian Gross, who successfully exited his franchise this year, but he also was number one in his system in his first year. Um, Jay and Carolina were franchise owners in a home healthcare franchise system who were very, very successful. In fact, one of my favorite stories about Jay and Carolina is when uh we were, and Catherine and I both worked at this franchise. Um, they had gone, you guys had gone to the Philippines, I think, for a month, and Jay called me and said, you know, it's so cool. When we came back, revenue was up. Our GM didn't call us, and the business ran smoothly and even grew. That is successful franchise ownership when you can empower others. And then, of course, we have David Sam Juan, who is firmly entrenched at number four uh in the Pink's Windows franchise system, and he just had his most successful month. So, Mark, the reason why I throw all this out there, and of course, you're a franchise or of a very successful, fast-growing, great franchise or that supports its franchisees. I say this because I'm gonna throw this question out to the group. The hottest segment in home services in five years will be what?

SPEAKER_01:

Window cleaning.

SPEAKER_05:

Ooh, hottest one in home services in five years?

SPEAKER_03:

In five years. In five years, what will be? Let's think about this now. How the world is changing. The world is changing and AI is changing things. Now, you're right. I don't think we're gonna have robotic window or pool cleaners or window cleaners. I think we will have robots making our burritos at Chipotle and our our you know meals at Kaba. I know they're gonna have robots. Um, from my perspective, when I look at home services and I look at what's happened this year, you see HVAC continuing to sell very consistently. You see pool maintenance because of you guys selling consistently, of course, window cleaning with pinks. Um what I would say is this. I don't know if I can call out the specific category, but what I will say is what I think it will be, which is recurring revenue, B2B, B2C, um, and the ability to be very lean and be able to be run from a phone. I think it's a lot of the same pieces you already have in puddle right now. So the future is now, Mark.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's that's a good question. I don't know the answer that one. I haven't.

SPEAKER_07:

I have a very important question. I have a very important question, Mark. How many people what is that fish have a name? Does your fish have a name? Yeah, flip-flop. How many people have a flip-flop tattoo? That's what I want to know.

SPEAKER_05:

Three. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. When we went to the three, like two about we have husband and wife, um, Mary and Simon. They came to our our annual last year and they had them on their arm. And because I said it as a joke. I said, Oh, if you get that, I'll give you a chance.

SPEAKER_07:

On the arm, on the bicep? On the bicep?

SPEAKER_05:

And then Mary has her on her wrist on her wrist, right? And then uh I said it's a joke. They said, We're getting tattoos. I said, I'll give you$500. I thought it was a joke. And then they said, Oh, yeah, yeah. And I said, if you do your kids, I'll give you$200. And then they said, Oh, okay. And then they showed up and they had their tattoos. I'm like, oh my god, please tell me you didn't tattoo the kids. Because they got five little ones, right?

SPEAKER_07:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, another Jen Dan. He just signed on and he said, as he was, as he was going through the process and he was he signed, he goes, He goes, I've just signed. I really need to make sure this is it, right? Like, there's no going back. I'm like, dude, you're in. You're what are you talking about? He goes, Okay, great, I'll see you later. But he was at the tattoo shop there getting it done to make sure that we wouldn't say, Oh no, you're out. So, but yeah, we have three.

SPEAKER_07:

Oh my gosh. So all an opposite are full. So they've even tattooed it. I don't know any other brand that has has that like type of cult following. That's amazing. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, they're yeah, they're all I'm gonna bring it to. That's what I said at our reason or at our annual this year in Cancun. I'm gonna hire a tattoo artist in a trailer to come by and once those My Ties start flowing, we'll start inking everybody up. So that's it. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03:

And is it named, is it named after the one flip-flop pool person that uh that you that you hired uh to start this whole thing off?

SPEAKER_05:

I wish it was. No, it's actually Mike. Our he he heads our our um our training camps. He it was actually his daughter. We had a little contest with everybody and everybody's kids guessed the name or name it, and his daughter named it flip-flop, and it kind of stuck.

SPEAKER_03:

So the trucks, the hats, the branding looks terrific. And and I think, again, my street is full of mom and pop pull route guys. Um, and that's where I think Puddle has such a chance to become the context leader nationwide. Um, because there's no other brand out there that is anywhere near what you guys have, and it all looks great, which is really half the battle.

SPEAKER_05:

Thank you. Yeah, can't uh be in your neighborhood soon enough.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I understand someone was interested at Discovery Day, yeah, for Boca and Del Rey.

SPEAKER_05:

We'll make it really clear that discounts will be applied, right?

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know. You know, my cart, uh yeah, no, that's I that's so cool. Guys, any last questions for the group?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I was just gonna say I'm I'm super impressed, uh Mark. You know, we probably represent a small segment of what a customer of yours would look like, but we have a hot tub and we got someone coming in every two weeks to service it. And I've gone through two or three different uh mom and pop services. Uh not not to say that mom and pop services can't be great, but it's been frustrating because I don't, it's that communication piece that is lacking. And also a lot of the technology that you mentioned, you won't really think like pooled services and technology, but that really um empowers you know the the the owners or the franchisees to communicate better with uh someone like me. And so that frustration level goes down. So I'm quite excited to be able to get you know on pool services for our tub, right? So yeah, there are you right in Vancouver?

SPEAKER_05:

Uh North Van, North Vancouver. North Van, yeah. Well, that's Mike. That's his territory that with his daughter name it. Yeah, so but yeah, it's I'm calling him right away. Again, discounts applied, right? Tell him Mark's.

SPEAKER_03:

Mark, can you guys add cold plunges? Because me having to figure out the chlorine in my cold plunge is such a pain in the neck, and my pool guy won't touch it.

SPEAKER_05:

We do, we do cold plunges, and we start doing those as well as um physios. I think they do cold plunge. I've never done it, but the cold plunge, hot one, or in the physio, we do those as well now, too. Yeah, it's just it's uh another one of those things. Cool.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely very cool. Mark, we're so glad we're so glad you could join us today. This is such great information for those of you listening. Again, this is the perfect definition of where the franchise market is right now. This is a franchise that people are very bullish on. Uh, so if you'd like to find out more about puddle pools and learn if it's available in your territory, the best thing you can go do is go to thefranchiseinsiders.com. From there, you can go to our team page. Feel free to read the bios on all of our consultants. Um, we'd all be delighted to help you with your franchise search and to find out if your territory is available. If you feel like you need to just get in touch with us right now, though, you can text 305 710 0050, and we'd be happy to connect you to Puddle Pools. For this episode of We Bought a Franchise, I'm Jack Johnson. Mark, franchise consulting team. Thanks for joining. We'll see you on the next episode with Brandon Carter of Pink's Windows, and uh, we'll talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_05:

Thanks for having me.