Unfiltered Founders
Unfiltered Founders is a raw, real, and refreshing podcast for anyone ready to break free from the corporate grind and embrace the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship. Hosted by Darren Penquite and Andy Baker—two former corporate professionals turned business owners—this show dives deep into the highs, lows, and everything in between of starting and scaling a business.
Each episode features candid conversations about the unfiltered realities of entrepreneurship: the wins, the losses, the sleepless nights, and the lessons learned along the way. Whether you're just considering taking the leap or you're a seasoned business owner looking for perspective, encouragement, or the next big idea, Unfiltered Founders delivers honest insights and practical advice—with a dash of humor and a whole lot of heart.
Tune in for stories that inspire, advice you can actually use, and the kind of support every founder needs but rarely finds.
Unfiltered Founders
Corporate Tears to Business Cheers: Ryan's Escape Plan
The psychological toll of corporate work became unbearable for Ryan, who found himself in tears at his HR director's office—a breaking point that would ultimately transform his life. After years in manufacturing management positions at companies like General Mills, working second shift and missing precious family time, Ryan made a decision that would reshape his future and lead to unexpected entrepreneurial success.
When COVID hit and his employer slashed salaries by 50% while still requiring full-time office presence, Ryan reached his limit. With his wife's unexpected support, he invested in a PuroClean franchise, writing that nerve-wracking $55,000 check that marked his commitment to a new path. The timing proved fortuitous—just as he'd received a promotion at his corporate job, making the decision even more difficult.
What makes Ryan's story particularly fascinating is how one business decision snowballed into multiple ventures. Today, Ryan and his wife operate five separate business entities between them. His wife transformed from schoolteacher to running both a daycare for teachers' children (with all school holidays off) and a seasonal food truck. Meanwhile, Ryan expanded from restoration services into real estate, purchasing buildings with issues his restoration business could fix, creating a brilliant synergy between his ventures.
The mindset shift has been profound. "There's this part of you that kind of dies inside when all your efforts are for somebody else," Ryan explains. While he still works similar hours, the psychological difference is night and day. Even his relationship with money has completely transformed—from thinking $3-4K was significant to running $25K biweekly payrolls without blinking. His first million in sales left him "dumbfounded" as he adjusted to his new reality.
For entrepreneurs contemplating their own leap, Ryan's parting advice resonates with hard-earned wisdom: "Take the leap, hold on, and keep your head on a swivel—it's a wild ride." His journey proves that sometimes the scariest decisions lead to the most rewarding outcomes.
Welcome to another episode of the Unfiltered Founders. I'm Darren, I'm Andy. Welcome to another week of raw, unfiltered business talk'm darren, I'm andy. Welcome to another week of raw, unfiltered business talk. How's your week been?
Speaker 2:it's been good man, high energy. We've got a lot of things going on. I've got, uh, we've got an event, uh, coming up in the healthcare space another venture that I've got and we're just gearing up for it, getting ready to roll, and so all putting all the loose ends together and dotting all the i's crossed, all the t's, and then, uh, yeah, rolling and you just had to drop your wife off at the airport, so you did.
Speaker 1:For how long?
Speaker 2:well, I'm actually more excited, uh, about the fact that I got out of a wedding, you know oh, they can be rough, yeah, you know what and when you have to drive 14 hours to it or travel a day to get there, it's like, unless it's bar, oh yeah, for sure, I'm there then. No complaints, so anyway how about you?
Speaker 1:How was your week? Just got back on Sunday from Santa Barbara, california. Been gone for a little week, so trying to get back in the swing of seeing where my business is at, seeing what I forgot about, what needs to be done, what needs to be addressed. What needs to be done, what needs to be addressed, what needs to be caught up and what I can push off and pretend I don't have to do it's always tough to take that vacation.
Speaker 1:But, man, if you can do it, do it absolutely man it was worth it good worth it so good, nice, 74, 75 degrees in Santa Barbara every day, sweet, clean ocean air, lots Ugh yeah, lots of golf All right All right, it's rough to come back to 105, man, the day I got back it was rough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt. All right. Well, today we have Ryan back. Ryan is a franchise owner of Puro Clean out in Waconia and that is, I believe, in Minnesota, if my geography is correct.
Speaker 3:So, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong, but welcome to the show and thanks for being here today. Yeah, thanks, Darren and Andy. I appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah, it is in Minnesota, the southwestern side of Minnesota, here kind of in the suburbs area.
Speaker 2:Right on, right on. Well, tell us about your entrepreneurial journey, just kind of. You know where you started when you decided you wanted to go out on your own, and you know, let's just, I guess, start from the beginning, if you wouldn't mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I guess the beginning. Yeah, well, I've been with Purell Clean now in the franchise for like four and a half years, half years. But when I, when Andy and I met, you know, four and a half years ago, I was looking for something different and he brought lots of options in my way. But my journey actually started before that and I used to work in a general mills and I was in their maintenance department and as a leader there and I had about 50 technicians that worked for me and, due to you know, unforeseen circumstances, yeah, you know, got laid off and then went over to, you know, cereal industry is a pretty small industry. So, yeah, went over to Michael Foods, which is a post holdings company and they're competitive. Yeah, yeah, they are competitors, but they're all in the same area and everybody knows everybody right, like it's um, but I had a lead there and I I got in with them in the maintenance department as a supervisor at night and, um, within about a year or so, I worked my way up to uh, plant superintendents.
Speaker 3:So by the time I was done there, I was managing all of second shift for production and maintenance and I'll just be honest, I hated it, I absolutely hated it and I work in second shift and at the time I think I was, I think I had two days off a month and working 12 to 13 hour days and it's a union plant, so it was stressful and, yeah, yeah it was, it was nuts, but I had to take a vacation and I went to Cabo with some friends of mine, from General Mills actually and while I was down there this is the crazy part, this is how I knew like something big was going to happen I actually, at the resort that we booked, there was a Pure O'Clean convention Sorry, not a convention, it was actually their president's circle uh, reward, so they do an annual like free vacation for their top salespeople or their top sales franchises.
Speaker 3:And it was weird because I was sitting at the bar next to all these people with hero clean t-shirts on and gear and and, uh, I think I think, andy, I think you and I had already started- oh, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, we did. You crashed the party, didn't you? I remember, I remember the conversation, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so yeah, we were talking about it and I was like this is way too much of a coincidence, and, and so that was when it kind of first started and I was like, well, I mean, andy and I talked about Puro Clean, I knew a little bit about it, I was able to talk to some of the owners while I was there on vacation. Long story short, I get back from vacation and this is the last vacation before COVID hit. Literally the last restaurant that I ate at, before I could go to a restaurant, was the airport leaving Cabo, and it was no joke. It was an airport called Corona I and it was, um, no joke, it was an airport, um, called Corona. I can't make, I can't even make this up. I was literally. It was uh, for the, the, the beer, um, it was a Corona light or whatever. There was a restaurant theme that way. So it was interesting, um, but uh, so we get back and I, I'm, I'm sitting at, uh, my um, at my desk, second shift, running the plant, and you know, I'm back from being gone for a week and I mean, I was working like a dog and I just couldn't, I just couldn't handle it anymore and I was brought to tears.
Speaker 3:I was brought to tears and I'm like I I don't want to be here anymore. And then next morning, um, I went into the HR's office. I started crying. I did. I was like I can't handle this anymore. There's too much stress, too much, um, too much sacrifice for, for a paycheck that I didn't even. I felt like I was underpaid. I felt like for what I was giving up and it wasn't to benefit me.
Speaker 3:And then all this stuff turmoil, stuff was going on in the world and, long story short, I put my two weeks in. I didn't even make it that far. I made it four days and I was done, didn't have a plan, andy, and I did talk, but at the same time I had been going back to school because I was trying to climb the ladder at General Mills and I was two years into a four year degree for operations management and project management, and so I was like I got to finish my degree. I hated my job at the time and I was like I need to get to Days because I couldn't see my family. And so I got to Days. I got a job at IWCO Direct, which is another business that was down the street and I was managing their maintenance department for one of their buildings. They had three buildings there and I had about 12 technicians over two shifts that worked for me.
Speaker 3:But, I got to days and then COVID started ramping up pretty heavily and like work from home stuff was kind of happening and I was working at IWCO and actually to back up just a little bit here, I had put everything on pause with Andy. I was like you know, great opportunities. We looked at a whole bunch of different options. But I was like I got a lot of stuff. I got to figure out, um, and so I had I was in school and then I had just made the decision to quit my job. Uh and yeah, started at IWCO and then I worked there for a little bit. I just took whatever I could do to get on days.
Speaker 3:At the same time I was getting kind of nervous because IWCO started making cuts because of COVID and then they did a salary cut across the board for all leadership by 50%. Ouch, yeah. And then I was still required to come in every day Unbelievable. And so I went from making over a hundred grand a year to making like 60 grand a year and I'm like you know, and I'm still coming in every day. I still have a team I have to lead. I can't just leave them hanging. Um, and so then I I I called up Andy and I was like all right, let's, let's see where this goes well, I'll never forget that conversation either.
Speaker 2:You're like because? Because what you had said to me was I don't want to work anywhere where my effort isn't rewarded directly. Was was basically just a bit of. I don't want to work somewhere where somebody else gets to determine my value.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that that was exactly right. And and here's the the crazy thing is is that I I had I'd gotten promoted, um, right before I actually quit. I only worked in my promotion. I accepted the job cause I I hadn't gotten my loan to go through, my spa loan, um, and so I was still on the fence. I was like man, it's taking forever and my loan application was like sitting on, probably in somebody's desk and I think it was the. The franchise, pure clean franchise, couldn't sell a franchise in minnesota. I think that was the story. That was. That was what was holding us all up. And then it had to be reviewed by somebody at the state level. Well, you know what was going on during COVID, like, well, I'm sure it was sitting on a desk somewhere, yeah, no, what had happened, was it was, it was wild is because of COVID.
Speaker 2:It had been going on for, I think, about six, eight months at this point. And so what the government said they're like hey, you know what, every franchise now needs to redo their franchise disclosure documents so the franchisees can now see how they've been doing it during COVID. And so that meant that and there's 13 registration states out there of the 50. And that means that those states require the state to actually read through the FDD and then reissue it, give their stamp of approval. Other states are like you're selling franchises here, that's fine, pay your fee and you're good to go right. Other ones are like no, our attorneys are gonna go over and go back and forth with yours. And so, unfortunately, minnesota's a registration state and had to go through that. But I remembered it took. It took, I want to say, six months just to get this whole thing done.
Speaker 3:It took a while and at the same time my loan was being held up for very similar reasons. Just it would. Nobody was in the office and things weren't going well, and so I'm continuing to work at IWCO, knowing that I'm going to leave, and, anyways, I do my best there. I ended up getting promoted, I got the management position for the entire department and got the raise. They actually gave us our payback because the cut was only temporary, and so then I was at a crossroads, got my loan finally came in, approved. I'm a week into my new role, at a salary I can handle, in in a job which had a way better culture than anything I had I had been at, even in, even at general mills um, I was. I was actually like man, I'm happy. Um, I could really just sit here and, and you know, do my thing and milk the corporate world.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, I could easily milk the corporate world, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can easily milk the corporate world and I was just like, oh man, what do I do? Uh, and for me it was more of a spiritual journey, Like I prayed on it and and this is what, what came about I, I felt led to, um, do my own thing and then so then I put my notice in at iwco and got called up, andy and started the whole process and signed the loan documents and how big of a surprise was that to your boss when he walked in.
Speaker 3:Oh, well actually, so I won't give him his full name. His name is brian. I shared my story with him and it's funny how things work out, because within four or five months of me leaving, he left as well and he went down to Florida, bought a restaurant right in the middle of COVID, and now that's what he's doing he literally is running his restaurant on the beach in Florida.
Speaker 1:Good time to buy one. Wouldn't it have been my choice to start a restaurant business?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, but hey, that's a good time. You buy low, right Right?
Speaker 3:Right, and that's what he did. And he bought low and then, like I follow him on on social media and he ended up going through a hurricane and he ended up getting the whole thing remodeled because it this, the hurricane came through, he had his own struggles, but uh, but it was interesting because when I left he told me he's like dude, I'm so jealous man, this is exactly what I wanted. I want to be my own business owner and my own boss. And and then I remember he's like I don't think I'm going to be here that long. That was my last conversation with him and I said well, what a welcome conversation.
Speaker 1:I I mean that probably didn't go how you expected it to go.
Speaker 2:It's the best notice conversation ever right.
Speaker 3:No, but I do remember the look on his face when I told him that I was putting my notice in. I laughed because he immediately thought it was something like that they had done or that he had done. And I'm like no man. And then I told him the whole story and he was like, okay, I would lead to, I would, I'd go follow your dream, Cause you know, hindsight's always 2020. I didn't know, that's what he was thinking too.
Speaker 2:You know that's crazy. That is, yeah, absolutely Supportive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then you know, you know, he even said I kind of inspired him to just take the leap, because so many people they get caught in the corporate world or they get caught in a dead-end job and they're sacrificing every minute of their time but for no real gain. You're trading your time for a paycheck, but are you going to be set long-term? You know there's a lot of questions there.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of entrepreneurs that work in the corporate world. They've got an entrepreneurial mindset, They've got the drive. They just don't have the guts or the confidence to do anything about it. And it's funny because COVID changed people. It forced every single one of us into a lot of change in our lives and there's people who drug their feet through the change. And there's people who said I'm going to take full advantage of this change and do something big. And there was a lot of very successful businesses. If you there was the opportunity to make a lot of money in COVID by switching careers, starting a business, and if you didn't capitalize on that, I don't know what could drive you to do it.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and I right, I, you know people go through that to try to avoid what they they perceive as risk. But you know, ryan, maybe if you could talk about your story, because I know that before we met you had you had a couple of ventures prior to that and um, and then even when you decided to take the leap, that was still a big, like gut wrenching thing, Like, would you talk about those two things?
Speaker 3:yeah, it was a pretty I mean. So I've owned several businesses and they were all self-startups. And there was they were on my own. Back right I had a decal business. I was making decals for airlines because I had a regular job doing maintenance work on airline equipment and I had a handyman service. So to go back far enough, I had a partner in a business called Honest Bid and it was a lot like Angie's List, but it was way before the internet had really taken over and we were advertising in phone books and we had the old yellow pages.
Speaker 3:Phone books? Yeah, we were, and it was. It was. It was crazy and you know, it wasn't my idea, it was my partner's idea. He started it and he, you know, but he wasn't the greatest with money. So, um, he got, you know, we got a loan and started the business and we had like 60 or 70 contractors paying us a monthly fee to bring in work for them. Um, and this was in Fargo, fargo, north Dakota, and long story short, uh, expansion didn't have. The capital just kind of fizzled out and I got out of it.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so I had lots of dealings with trying to start my own business and there was always a piece missing, whether it was I didn't know any better in a certain field. Or, like, I got into a handyman service and I was pretty much doing work for free because I didn't know how to estimate. But then my wife and I had kids and that's when I got into the corporate world and doing different things and in maintenance and whatnot. But yeah, I mean that's if you go back far enough. That's kind of where, where I, where I started with my own stuff.
Speaker 3:And then, you know, having so much passion, I was happy when I was doing my own thing. You know, I really was. Even though I wasn't making any money, I was really happy. I really enjoyed that part and it was always my dream to be a business owner or do something big with my life. I remember when I was like I don't know I think I was like 12 or something and I told my dad that I was never. I was going to retire by the time I was 30 because I was going to own my own business someday, and and and be rich.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we aspire to.
Speaker 1:Maybe 30 years after you're 30.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there we go there we go 30 years after, yeah, yeah, and then, and then reality I it was funny because I had that conversation with my dad later on and I was like 30, I'm 30 now, uh, and he's like you're retiring. I'm like no, 30. I'm 30 now, uh, and he's like you retiring. I'm like no, I ain't close, I'm broke, I'm broke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm working for corporate America and broke is a joke, oh man. Well, so you, you decided to take the leap. Like I remember the, the, the progression that you went through. I mean it was it was kind of a struggle, because I want to say that you visited family and like the Pacific Northwest or something, and then you and I were kind of a struggle because I I want to say that you visited family in like the pacific northwest or something, and then you and I were kind of texting and we were like and I wasn't going to push anything on you, but I had I just read a book from uh, I want to say it was richard branson or something where he basically said if you're not going to take the leap when you have the opportunity, you're never going to take the leap. So just do it right. And I think that's that's his motto and his company is screw it.
Speaker 2:Just do it Right and I think that's, that's his motto and his company is screw it, just do it. Right, yeah, right. But I know, richard Branson, one of the things they say a virgin all the time is screw it, let's do it. You know it's like, yeah, forget it, let's try it, let's give it a shot. Um, and and I think that was really that trip that you took was, I think, your reason for kind of getting away.
Speaker 3:Just, I mean, I think, the hardest part for or I guess maybe the turning point for me to take the risk um was largely my wife actually uh yeah.
Speaker 3:so in the past I had so many businesses that had started and failed and I saw it as a failure and I felt like I was letting my wife down and my family. And here I got three girls and I've got a nice house and everything's going well, and I'm looking at my wife saying I'm miserable, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to start and go back to something that I was not successful at and try again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so for her. We actually just talked about this the other night. We were just reminiscing on how we got to where we're at, and she never wanted to be a business owner. She is as well. She owns two businesses.
Speaker 3:I love it, it's contagious, yeah, and now I have I have three actually, and I'll and I'll get into that because there's spinoffs of what I'm doing now and it just makes sense um, but, uh, she never wanted to do it and she was a school teacher, um, and she got laid off and then we started a daycare because we had kids and stuff. But so she runs a daycare now, um, and then, uh, she only does teachers kids actually, so she only works during the school season, has the best of both worlds, like art. She gets paid way more than a teacher would doing daycare. She's got a license for more kids because she's got an educator's license. Um, she takes 10 kids. Our basement is a daycare center. Um, has a tuition, it's pretty cool and then in the summer, when she her summer's off, she runs a food truck nice wow nice I love that I love that.
Speaker 1:If you, that's genius if you can couple your business with teachers, you have the best schedule in the world, right, oh, every holiday off, you get every.
Speaker 2:summer, you get every holiday off.
Speaker 1:You get every summer off. You get every weekend off.
Speaker 3:Yep, and even when she follows a school schedule. So when they're two hours late, she's two hours late. Yes that's right, snow day.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Right, snow day is, yeah, everything. She just follows a schedule and it turns out during COVID a daycare center did pretty well. They had a lot of grant money out there and they were just begging for her to stay open, you know, and so we were able to take advantage of some of that. But yeah, that's my wife's story. Yeah, I kind of forgot where we were at. No, it's all good, dude.
Speaker 2:We were talking about the leap and taking the leap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, it's all good, dude, we were talking about the leap and taking the leap. Um, yeah, oh, yeah, okay. So my, my wife, um, it was her like realization that I wasn't happy. And and then, when she saw my first paycheck, and it was half, and I had to uh, not my first paycheck, my first paycheck during COVID, when they cut our salary and I had to borrow money from her to make the house payment. And at that point she was like, okay, we need to do something different, because I can't, I can't do both and you're making half the money you used to and you're working crazy hours still. So it's like I, I'm all on board, let's, let's do it. Um, what's the worst that could happen? Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, I mean, I'm already and I even told her. I was like, you know, when I was doing my handyman service, I would do anything. I said I can go out and I can mow lawns making more money than I'm making right now at at a job that just cut my salary in half. And that was like, in my mind, that was the opener. I was like, wow, okay, uh, I need to move and, um, you know, just throw a costume into the wind, right, and just do it. And that's what. That's what I did. I just started signing papers and writing checks and it was uh, it was gut wrenching to write out a $55,000 check for my franchise fee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you know that's not refundable and that's like okay, I'm not seeing that again, right yeah?
Speaker 1:yep, and today you look back at that and go that was the best 50,000, $55,000 I've ever spent.
Speaker 3:You're right. Yeah, and my whole like world, when it came to money changed. I used to think three or $4,000 is is a lot, Um, and I think to most people it is, it is but when you're running a business, that's funny.
Speaker 1:when you own a business, how that changes it does. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, my payroll is 25 grand at minimum every two weeks and that's not my leadership team, that's just my production team. So, like the mindset change is completely different, especially so my current business. When we hit our first million in sales, I didn't know what to do. I was just dumbfounded. I had looked, know what to do. I was just dumbfounded. I had looked at my bank account and I was like this is really true. Like am I actually controlling this amount of money that goes through my account? Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Right. No, it's a good feeling too. I mean, it's a lot of responsibility, and so now that you have that responsibility for that payroll, contrast that with the stress you had. You know, was it post? I think that you said where you went into HR and you were like struggling. Is that what it kind of?
Speaker 3:talk about the difference in stress that you're dealing with now. It is very different. So there's this like part of you, that kind of dies inside. When you're when all of your efforts are for somebody else, it is there, is Right. You get done with a.
Speaker 3:You know a six day week and you work 12 hours, 13 hours, every single day and you get a paycheck that never changes because you're on salary and you know that you have coworkers that are working eight and getting away from it right there. They're in there forever and that's just not who I am as a person. So I I couldn't justifiably just leave when I had a team that I was supporting so I'd end up staying later. Um, and they get the same paycheck or more because they were there longer, right for me. Now I work all the time. I work about the same paycheck or more because they were there longer For me.
Speaker 3:Now I work all the time. I work about the same amount of hours. I mean, I do try to take my Sundays off, where I pretty much isolate myself from my phone, because my phone is my enemy right now. But it's different. I don't have a problem jumping on my computer. I don't even think about it in that way that I used to. I don't have that anxiety that that that would come with working the nine to five or working 12 to 12.
Speaker 1:Cause it's yours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is mine. Yeah, it is, it is purely mine, and I know that. You know I'm making a lot less salary than I was working those jobs, you know. But I only take what I need to survive to pay my house payment and to pay my insurance little things. And then my business now pays for like everything. They pay for my cell phone. They actually pay for my car insurance. They pay for my cell phone. They actually they actually pay for my car insurance. They pay for all my fuel. They pay for really any repairs or anything that I want to do, any tools I need because it's all part of what I do so, like supplies and I mean there's so many benefits to owning a business that you don't even think about that come in the form of well, that would normally come out of your salary, right, you'd have to pay for that out of your checking account. Well, now it's a write-off. It's a different mindset.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, a hundred percent. No, that's uh, that's awesome and so all right. So you've done private business of your own, starting it on your own, and you bought a franchise. So pros and cons, yeah, tell us the difference.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, pros. So pros for a franchise I literally just got done explaining this earlier today you have a support network and you know, in the beginning you're looking at like the Puro Clean franchise, the corporate office Puro Clean was great because they had a, they have a great, they have a servant leadership model. They don't have any competing corporate centers that do the same thing. Their whole purpose is to serve the franchisees and they have a whole flood house and whatnot. So they do a really good job. They do a really good job, but that, the network that you're a part of, is really what is important.
Speaker 3:In the beginning I looked at the corporate part of Bureau Clean as my support network and they did a great job with their training Right out of what they call NFT, which is new franchise training. I graduated like, I think, 11 other franchise owners and so we started a monthly call where we were networking together because we were all brand new and I think there's like out of the class that I was in, I started a group. There's only like four or five of them that have really been successful. The rest of them, a couple of them, closed right away. It just wasn't for them for various reasons or whatever. But then after about a year I actually stopped attending that group because I was invited to an impact group that PuroClean was hosting, which the regional directors within PuroClean host.
Speaker 3:Those calls, and then I was joined up with seven other franchise locations that were in similar situations, and right now our group is called the Young Guns and they're the best part of what I do. Now I don't even look at PuroClean Corporation or the entity as my go-to for resources. I'm looking at other franchise owners, and so the best part about being a part of a franchise system is that you get other people that are going through the same things that you are, yet still be a business owner. So part of the corporate world that I liked was having coworkers that were going through the same thing. You could talk to them and share the experiences and whatever, and learn from each other. Well, that's what I'm doing. I'm still doing it, but everything that I'm doing is for myself.
Speaker 1:You know there's a lot of different business models out there. But buying into a franchise, you get a turnkey business that's tried, true and tested and the systems are in place. Because a lot of business owners fail not because they have a bad model, it's because they don't understand processes and systems and best practices. Correct and a franchise solves all of that for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they give it to you on a silver platter and I think the franchises that don't work out and I've seen several of them, even pyro cleans it's because they don't want to follow the system and right, that was just is what it is and I and I hate to say that I mean no, say it, we preach it.
Speaker 3:You have to have systems Once the wheel is created, like, don't screw with it because it has its function and you do it and on top of that, it's better for your business. You bought into a franchise to follow the franchise system. Now let's fast forward and let's say that I was looking to sell and I had created all my own process. I didn't follow anything Puro Clean related. Do you think my franchise is going to be worth anything? Because the next person that's going to buy it is going to look at Puro Clean as a corporation as a whole and looking at their model. And then they go look at the one that they're going to buy and it looks nothing like it. That's not plus. You're probably going to breach a contract, but we won't go down that route.
Speaker 3:But you get what I'm saying, right right, right and a lot of pure cleans that uh, get into it that don't have the mindset of following the system. They, they don't last and I, um, you know I don't wish that on anybody. That's a lot of money to spend. Remember that 55 000 check I talked about earlier. Yeah, you lose that. You don't get that back. In fact, yeah, probably come comes with way more money that you've spent and lost.
Speaker 2:Sure, um, you know, if you decide to close your franchise, that's not good for their business either and I think, a mistake that people make too, when they think franchise is um insured success. And it's not necessarily insured success. But, to your point, you're you're in a network with people that have done it, they've proven it time and time again, and so you increase your chances when you do that. And even even you know we've talked about this before Darren's going to roll his eyes, but it's like the neuroscience behind it is when you connect with people, you actually ensure your own success, and so sometimes it's not even about the business as much as it is the network.
Speaker 2:It's not what you do, it's who you're with and having fellow entrepreneurs going through it and, you know, bounce ideas off each other. It it works and there's there's scientific proof that it does. So you know you saying that just further backs up, you know things that we've said before on this, this podcast. So love it, love it. Well, that's great. So, ryan, go ahead.
Speaker 1:What has been your biggest struggle? Ryan what has been your biggest struggle, what's been the hardest thing for you to overcome since you bought into this franchise? Quality people, that's a sentiment that is being spoken loudly across the whole country.
Speaker 2:Finding people yeah.
Speaker 1:In fact, that was a big factor going into business, doing what I'm doing is so I didn't have to employ people for that reason yeah yep, and I mean we could talk about the, the future and where I see things going.
Speaker 3:But, like the journey that I went through was is um. In the beginning I hired anybody and I went through COVID where nobody was working.
Speaker 1:And we got paid more money to stay at home.
Speaker 3:Right, and when I first got my Pure Clean franchise and they gave me the model and what I should be hiring people at and like it didn't even make sense, I was like I'm like there are franchises out there still paying like 12 bucks an hour for a laborer Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Like now.
Speaker 3:Now, I mean my guys. Like the lowest guy in the total poll starts at 18 and that's all he does is carry trash bags out of basements. Wow, do you have?
Speaker 1:the freedom within a franchise, if you want to pay higher wages to your staff, one to do that and two to adjust your rates of services. Enough to compensate for that.
Speaker 3:Yes, yep, you have a lot of options and you're very it's pretty flexible actually, um. So there are some franchises out there that are not so flexible, uh, but in the one I'm in, um, I have a territory, but it only restricts the franchise from selling another territory on top of me, and then so my territory is to protect another pure clean from coming in and being territory on top of me, and then so my territory is to protect another Pyrroclean from coming in and being right on top of me. I can go, do work anywhere. I can take my team and I can go to, you know, the coast and do hurricane work. My team just got back from Wisconsin and they went to Milwaukee and helped with the flood cleanup out there.
Speaker 3:That's cool, yeah, very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so it. Plus, I had a. There's other PuroClean's in that area and I just called them up and I said, hey, you got, you got any work for us? Um, we're in town and um, we heard there's a flood system here and they gave us like nine jobs. It was.
Speaker 1:It was great, and I'm guessing, it was something along these lines that led you to start two additional businesses.
Speaker 3:Um, well, so I started my first business after I started. Pure clean was actually a referral business, uh, and consulting business, and so, um, in the industry that I'm in, there's how would I say this A lot of handshake agreements behind the scenes to get things done. Unfortunately and I'd probably get, you know, criticized for saying some of this but on some of its industry norms too, like, um, if I had a large loss at a house and there was a bunch of contents, well, let's say my franchise doesn't do contents, I would sub it out to a contents processing franchise which is a different brand, but they typically give us, you know, 10 or 15% back.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And so I would just run it through that.
Speaker 1:So are your other business ventures, franchises as well.
Speaker 3:No, so my, my third one is now I'm getting into real estate, which was, if Andy remembers, the original thought process I had was to get into security self-storage and I even had a design layout of a building I wanted to build and property picked out and I went to the bank and I tried to get money for it and they said I didn't have enough cash flow because I was a nine to five working my regular job and I didn't have enough cashflow and I cause I was a nine to five working my regular job and I didn't have enough capital or assets. And the bank said we could do it, but we'd end up leveraging everything. You'd take all of your 401k and we take all of your savings and we leverage your house and you probably could get one storage complex that we could probably build, wow, and that and so that was. That was my like, realistic, like, okay, I need cashflow and I need something that is an asset and I need volume. Right, I need money.
Speaker 3:And that's when I got into franchising, that's like how I got into that side of it. How do I get to a point where my financial outlook for a bank is favorable, where I can get a loan for property, right, um, I bought my first building two years ago. Um, yeah, and it was a building that was kind of abandoned and had a bunch of mold issues in it and, um, I own a mold company, so it was like a no-brainer for me to buy it and get rid of the mold and clean it up.
Speaker 1:That rabbit hole can go deep. Any service you need let's build a company to service that. Yes, right, I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3:Smart, so it worked out great there. You know, it's in a small town. Pure Clean actually rents the building for storage, so my franchise rents from me and that's where we're at right now. Yeah, and so that is going. You know, we don't need that space as much anymore because we moved into a 6,000 square foot warehouse which in St Bonifacius, which is not too far from Laconia, and so I'm in the process right now. When I signed the lease here, the original owner wanted to sell the building that I'm in right now. It's a 20,000 square foot building and I'm in the process of working out a purchase agreement with them to buy the building and I operate 6,000 square feet of it. But I'm leveraging my original building I bought, plus my business, to buy the second building.
Speaker 1:So your real estate venture, you're doing that, so you can buy and sell buildings without having to pay real estate commissions. You can just do it yourself now.
Speaker 3:Correct, yep. That's my third Wonderful.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 3:So it has spiraled into between my wife and I. We've got five different entities that we're trying to manage and I think we're going to roll into. What do they call it Like when you start a trust and you start putting everything in a trust and manage your money very differently? You know it's all a I would say, not a loophole, but it's how the rich keep getting richer. Um right, I'm learning it.
Speaker 1:This is inspiring and it's. It's so funny you bring this up how you just keep building businesses to service your other businesses, right To keep all the money you know under the same umbrella, so to speak. It's funny because Andy and I were just talking about a business model. We're not going to go into details on that, but it's kind of that same type of thing and it's genius.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you can do it in-house or have another business do it. So within PuroClean, I think eventually I'll probably pull my reconstruction out of it because we do the rebuild, and so I have learned I've got my contractor's license now and I'm starting a small team here that are just project managers, and at some point I'll probably pull it out of PuroClean. Puroclean will still get their royalties because the work will still be under PuroClean's name. But if I want to go to the open market and start doing other construction projects not tied to PuroClean, then why wouldn't I do it? I already have the team, the knowledge, the know-how, and so that'll be probably another business at some point.
Speaker 1:That's inspiring.
Speaker 2:I love it. No, you're you like. I remember we met four and a half years ago and where you are now is in a completely not even different world, different universe, and I love hearing your story. Let's thanks for sharing with us. Dude, this was, this has been awesome If you could give one bit of advice to an entrepreneur that was in your shoes in corporate America.
Speaker 1:Still in corporate.
Speaker 2:America Still in corporate America Wanting you know feeling that entrepreneurial pull saying I want to do this. What's the advice you give in closing?
Speaker 3:Oh, I would say, take the leap man and hold on and keep your head on a swivel it's a wild ride. Awesome Ryan thanks so much, dude.
Speaker 2:This has been an awesome time. Really appreciate your story.
Speaker 3:All right, well, thank you guys. Thanks Darren, thanks Andy, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1:Thanks, ryan, it's been my pleasure Take care until next week.