How Chad Brown Learned to Lead by Almost Losing His Business

[00:00:03] Hector: Hello and welcome to another episode of the how to scale a business podcast. My name is Hector Santia Esteban and I am your host today. Our special guest is Mr. Chad Harrison. He is in charge of franchise development at duty calls. And, we're going to talk about, all sorts of scaling.

[00:00:20] Hector: So Chad. Welcome, and thanks for joining us.

[00:00:22] Chad: Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me and, yeah, the opportunity to be on the show.

[00:00:27] Hector: I would love for you to share a little bit about what you guys do at duty calls. And then also, a little bit about your background and how you got into the role that you are, in because now you're sort of. in charge of leading the leaders, if you will. And so I would love to know, you know, how that journey began.

[00:00:44] Chad: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll start with that. So myself, you know, when you first think of franchising, you see what you see out on the road when you're driving around town and you're doing your. day to day activities and so forth. And you see, you know, some big name franchises, but it goes so much bigger and deeper than that.

[00:01:01] Chad: And that's something that I've learned as I began to get into this side of it. You know, the pet waste management or authority brands, which is our parent company, began to realize what a big industry it is and what a big opportunity is for a lot of people. In the corporate world, whether they keep, you know, their corporate job and start a business, what we call semi absentee on the side, or where they completely, had somebody do this in Long Island, completely leave.

[00:01:29] Chad: their business and industry of 30 years and get into business ownership. So I mean, you've got franchises again for of course, all the home services, insurance recruitment. So it's a big world. And so I began to learn about that and, the group that I'm in with authority brands. Has some, some stellar people.

[00:01:48] Chad: I mean, you've got, you know, individuals in here that have been in franchising for 20 plus years or just simply, great professionals, solid people. So I got the opportunity to not only learn about the business, from them, but then also learning that side of, that professionalism and just that leadership quality that they possess.

[00:02:07] Chad: So, you know, they always say, you know, you're the, average, right? Of what tends to be like five individuals closest to you. And I think for me, it could be a number of 20, possibly plus. So we've just got a solid group with the 40 brands. And then I worked with a couple of different brands.

[00:02:23] Chad: Getting into Duty Calls, Duty Calls Pet Waste Management is a fun brand. I mean, it's, one of those that someone will be, they'll ask again the second time. They're like, what, what's the name of the company? You know, so it's, fun that we can have, a lot of fun we can have with this brand. Number one, the number two business, all sorts of things that we can pull out.

[00:02:39] Chad: It doesn't stop there too. But getting into Pet Waste Management, I'm in charge of the growth. Across the U. S. I work somebody in Nebraska, California, Florida on the same day as we go through the process of what we call discovery process as they these individuals do their due diligence and brand.

[00:02:57] Hector: Yeah, it's really, I got my start in sort of a franchise like environment. It was direct sales, but one thing that they did is they had, playbooks and manuals for everything. And technically we weren't, you know, legally we were not franchisees. And so there was. Sort of limitations and what, you know, they could do, but, but for the most part, they tried to get us to follow the playbook, follow the book.

[00:03:18] Hector: And what I learned in that environment was that it was really, you know, if you could work this, if you could, turn this machine, this machine works and usually. The best franchises have, you know, figured out that and so that way all someone needs to come in is, is come in and, you know, apply the model to, you know, a different geography or location or whatever it is to market.

[00:03:40] Hector: And so curious when you look at. all of the brands sort of do well, or what, may be the commonality, are there things that you guys have figured out that is sort of like, you know, are there certain elements or themes that you guys sort of lean on in that regard?

[00:03:57] Chad: that's a great, great question. You know, at the day, it's and I get that a lot of times from our candidates or, you know, potential entrepreneurs. Yeah. Is, you know, what does it take for me to be successful or to do well in this environment? And at the end of the day, the simplest answer is just follow the system, follow the system.

[00:04:18] Chad: Like you were saying before, you know, all of these systems processes that are in place to follow them. And it's as simple as that. It's like a GPS, simply following that GPS and the systems and processes as it takes you to scaling up and growing the business.

[00:04:32] Hector: Yeah, I think that nice thing about that is that so many of the questions that an entrepreneur needs to answer hopefully have been figured out, you know, by that. franchise, they've sort of

[00:04:43] Hector: figured out the sales process or the marketing process, or, you know, they have something that works.

[00:04:49] Hector: And so now they just need someone to come in and work it with that being the case. What do you think holds back a lot of individuals who are looking at this business model or maybe entrepreneurship in general? what are some of the common themes that, you know, you have the playbook, you have everything you need to succeed.

[00:05:04] Hector: And yet I'm sure that, you know, it's not a hundred percent success rate. So are there any, pitfalls or blind spots that you see that, some of the less successful individuals sort of possess?

[00:05:17] Chad: Yeah, again, it's going back to following the system. I would think that any times and, speaking of maybe other types of franchises out there with any kind of challenge, they meet, not following that system, not. Openly engaging with the team to for that support, there's the potential and I haven't seen it on my end, but I've heard of the potential where they can shut down and they don't, work with that support and system and tools that are there to, if there's a challenge that comes up to help them with that, because there's always gonna be something that definitely, a roadblock that comes up and that's where you then you take advantage of the network and the team who have probably dealt with that already.

[00:05:58] Chad: Right. Being that like for duty calls, we're 25 years in business. So one of our, operations manager, Paul Delaney will say, if there's something you're having a challenge with, and I don't know about it, someone in the network does. So, you know, again, following the system and when you do have a roadblock, getting with the team engagement.

[00:06:18] Chad: Engagement is a big part of success.

[00:06:20] Hector: Yeah, I think that's really valuable part of being part of a, I think you call it a network is that there's a, way to source those answers or to shorten that feedback loop, you know, to get the answers quicker.

[00:06:33] Hector: Because you have a larger sample size, a larger things to sort of run this experiment on, I'm curious about adjustments or changes.

[00:06:42] Hector: Because I think what's really interesting about being in a sort of position that you're in is that, you know, small little adjustments. At your level, it can sort of make a large impact across the whole organization because you're doing it across locations or multiple franchises and they're doing it at a, you know, accelerated sort of rate.

[00:07:02] Hector: . Is there something either integrated or a duty calls that is that small hinge? And you, think about, here's the, 20 percent that makes up the 80%, you know, that like, these are the things that have an outsized return and focusing here, you know, will actually prove more worthwhile than.

[00:07:21] Hector: Is there something that sort of comes to mind when I talk about something like that?

[00:07:25] Chad: Yeah, that's a good question. Differentiators, right? I think would be the first thing that comes to mind and differentiators being, we. For instance, what we use in our systems and process, the call center. Our call center operates seven days a week and they're covering phones completely for the franchisees franchise.

[00:07:41] Chad: I had a franchisee that came into Austin, was like. Asked me, you know, do you need my, phone number chat for, you know, the team and such as like, nope, don't need it. I mean, otherwise in communication with your technicians, that's it. We don't need your phone. So differentiators like that are definitely some of those hinges,

[00:07:57] Hector: Yeah, You know, when I was working in an environment like that, it was nice to be able to just Utilize and leverage some resources. And then, you know, if you needed a, an assistant or a receptionist, or you can sort of tap into those sort of resources that were already operating at scale and, you know, again, so many of the answers had already been figured out that it's like, just slam this hammer,

[00:08:19] Hector: you know, and, and you get electricity.

[00:08:21] Chad: yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that like, again, to the call center, that's our sales team. So I'll talk to a lot of individuals that have come in and say, you know, different types of personalities that are wanting to be entrepreneurs. And they'll say, Hey, I'm just not quite the salesperson.

[00:08:37] Chad: You know, I'm not the one that will get out there and kind of talk in crowds and stuff. So that's where we have a lot of our systems and process to assist with that. There'll be some success with grassroots and just getting the name out there. But, we have these processes too, that, if a candidate doesn't come in and interested, you know, potential entrepreneur.

[00:08:55] Chad: and that's, it's always the case, you know, it just depends on what it is, but if there's somewhere in their skill level that they're needing support, that's where we have all of these systems and processes that will fill that gap, such as sales, like with the call center. So, again, you know, advantages and opportunities that I see, and I try to identify on the front end just to be able to support them as we go through our conversation and make sure they know, hey, this is here to support you.

[00:09:20] Chad: You can start to build the confidence in the systems and the processes.

[00:09:24] Hector: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the fact that some people might, you know, they think that they don't have these skills or they're not a salesperson or whatever sort of thing they have going on in their head. Are there any like great success stories or people that, you know, sort of buck the stereotype or is there a stereotype of what a, you know, a traditional franchise owner is?

[00:09:46] Hector: And do you, think that that stereotype has married or,

[00:09:49] Chad: yeah, yeah, you know, that's a good question too. And, to your point, you know, a story related to one of our, I mean, actually our highest grossing franchisee. Was a technician. So with pet waste management, you know, our owners will have technicians that generally just they'll empty bags on commercial pet waste stations.

[00:10:09] Chad: They run, they go through the yard for picking up the pet waste and then drive to the location, location, the next one, so on. And so he actually started as a technician. In San Antonio, Texas, started as a technician and bought his first franchise in San Antonio, got another one in Austin, Maryland, bought corporate stores.

[00:10:30] Chad: He's our, highest grossing franchisee now and started out as that technician. So, I mean, I think to, again, to your, second point there. there really isn't that stigma. I think really that the opportunity with the right kind of passion, open the door for a lot of anybody at the end of the day.

[00:10:49] Hector: Yeah. One of the big, discussions that's going on in the business sphere is this idea of main street being sold off and I wish he was a better friend than I would like to believe. But Cody Sanchez, wrote a called Main Street Millionaires. And, essentially talking about that and how there is an opportunity for people who want to be entrepreneurs or want to own a business to take over something and not have to figure out all the answers, right?

[00:11:21] Hector: Or not have to really start from scratch. And I think in a similar, you know, a lot of people have looked to franchises in a similar sort of way in the sense that they get the playbook or they get the manual or they get, the brand or whatever is, you know, value that they're getting.

[00:11:38] Hector: do you look at that as something of like, Yeah. Yeah. Not necessarily competition, but is that something that you guys are thinking about in terms of, you know, acquiring new franchise ease or is the, the market's totally separate in your hands and not really interrelated there?

[00:11:56] Chad: Yeah, I would say it's probably more likely, separated for sure. Yeah, I would say that would be the answer to that question.

[00:12:01] Hector: part of the draw for that, crowd is that a lot of those people have. You know, some money saved up it from their, their retirement, or they've got some equity or, you know, something, they're not in the traditional entrepreneur space and that it's kind of presented as this way of getting into the entrepreneurship space is that, how you look at franchising in that sort of way where it's, this gateway drug to entrepreneurship, or is this sort of in between, or do you think that it's, kind of something different.

[00:12:35] Chad: that's a good question. I mean, there are some cases where I think, some don't have the idea of entrepreneurship. They're, you know, working day to day and they're in their employment. And we've actually, you know, connected. With individuals in these cases where the response is, is interesting because the response is like, never thought about this opportunity before, never thought about franchising this way again, the way I mentioned how I came across franchising for the first time was just what you see around you on the streets and as you're driving.

[00:13:06] Chad: And then we go through that discovery process. They begin to learn about the processes and systems, what's out there. They see what, do I have available from a financial side? Is it something that I'm capable of funding? So a very practical way of, approaching it. But, in this cases, I mean, completely not a thought at all of entrepreneurship or even getting away from their W 2.

[00:13:28] Chad: And I started that conversation from zero like that. And. They're franchisees and operating, and it really is a game changer. And some of the feedback I've gotten is from, you know, sometimes we'll have the husband and wife, team, married couple team, and they'll kind of double up, they'll both go in together.

[00:13:50] Chad: And the comment was that we're sitting here on the breakfast table and we're looking at each other and like, Oh my God, we did it. We jumped into this business for the first time and we're doing it. And it's still, you know, as it's settling in and it's a shock to them, but it's just, you know, from zero, you can start like that.

[00:14:07] Chad: And so there's definitely some, different scenarios like that, as opposed to someone that comes in, just always had passion for entrepreneurship.

[00:14:14] Hector: This is great stuff when we get back from break. I'm curious I want to get a little more into the secret sauce and have you open up the kimono You know if you will as as much as possible because I think that there's no matter whether someone is in currently running a business within a franchise sort of system or, or not, there's a ton of applicable, lessons here.

[00:14:32] Hector: And so we're going to get into that, right after this quick break.

[00:14:36] Hector: Hey y'all. Today's episode is brought to you by Amplify Media and we are a podcast and content production company.

[00:14:41] Hector: Well, we'd like to think of ourselves as thought leadership accelerators because chances are, if you're listening to this, you probably have a product, a passion, a mission, a message, some sort of service that you're trying to get out to the world, but you might not have the time, the team, or the tech skills to tell them about it.

[00:14:53] Hector: Well, if that's the case, we can help go to amplify media. com. That's A M P L A F Y media. com. You can also check the show notes for the link. Let's get back to the episode. So We talked about at the beginning, you know, going back to the system, follow the playbook, follow the playbook, follow the playbook. And then even in that, I learned that there were once again, this 80 20 principle going on where even if within that playbook, if you could only focus on this man that, you know, you'd have outsized returns or, you know, we found that there were once again, small levers within our system, you know, I was in the direct sales world.

[00:15:32] Hector: And so we knew that the more someone sold over their first weekend or basically their first 10 days, We knew the more that they would sell. Right. And we, it was a, basically people would on average sell about double what they sold in their first 10 days, as a salesperson. And so we would kind of really drive that before there would be churn and all, all those sorts of things.

[00:15:52] Hector: And once again, you're working on, on averages, but we knew that if we could really focus on that first weekend, we call it first weekend pop. If We could drag that sort of downstream a lot of these other things, would end up, you know, not necessarily working themselves, but all these other things would improve as well, in your conversations from people to, you know, you mentioned California and the Midwest even within that, are there certain reminders that you go back to?

[00:16:18] Hector: Are there certain elements of your system that you emphasize? More than others, regardless of geography or,

[00:16:26] Hector: individual or personality,

[00:16:28] Chad: yeah, that's a very, very good question. You know, for this brand. You know, whether you're in Boston, Massachusetts, and you get a heavy snowfall or whether you're in, you know, Phoenix, Arizona, and you've got a, you know, mild cold weather and mild temperature, this is not a seasonal brand by any means.

[00:16:45] Chad: So some of those items like that. It being an essential service, people love their pets. It's a big driver behind it. I mean, all of us, I have pets. I have a, dog, a pit bull that we adopted from the shelter. So those are drivers too, but, we're just well positioned as an essential service. It's a niche industry.

[00:17:01] Chad: There's not a lot of competition. You tend to have maybe a few mom and pops that are operating in your area. There's some other franchises out there, but not to our size and scope. And so those, factors remain, consistent throughout the U. S. And at the end of the day, you know, for this model, executing, is just, you know, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

[00:17:23] Chad: And that's where we dial in, just keep it simple. You know, we keep the model simple, the services are very basic and simple.

[00:17:30] Hector: is there like a, rollout sort of process in the sense of, you know, generally when someone comes on their, their first stage is to sort of establish this or think through this or figure out this, you know, I was, I have a friend who I'm not sure how familiar you are with, like the in and out fast food chain.

[00:17:45] Hector: But similar to a lot of franchises and companies and McDonald's, you know, McDonald's and Starbucks and a lot of the great franchises, they put so much time into finding the location, right? That like so much is put into the location, right? Because once again, that's the 80 percent and everything sort of goes downstream there.

[00:18:05] Hector: So I would imagine in that sort of regard, Location research or however they do that would sort of be the first step and then you got to figure out, you know, building like that sort of stuff, you know, when you're sort of walking these, franchises and are there any big sort of pillars that you're sort of helping them stay focused on as they're doing things that I would imagine are probably Absolutely.

[00:18:25] Hector: Newer or you know their first time doing it.

[00:18:28] Chad: Yeah. Excellent question. So we actually have what we call as a franchise business consultant. So franchise business consultants are actually franchisees themselves, or they've been in the industry and working with duty calls, you know, 15, 20 years plus. And you know, with the franchise model, you're just consistently applying the same Formula over and over again.

[00:18:48] Chad: And so big part of that franchise business consultant is coming in, engaging that first year, which is always a big question on business ownership. What does that first year look like? How do I, you know, what are my goals? What are achievable goals? And then how do I get those goals month to month? You know, every other month, whatever that the metrics are to meet that.

[00:19:09] Chad: And then, The follow up to making sure you're on track. And so that French franchise business consultant does that with on the front. And eventually our franchisees become more autonomous because they learn the system, the process, they learn that the good habits to write, keeping in line with those goals and everything is always goal driven.

[00:19:29] Chad: And so those franchise business consultants are definitely probably a good part of that. Like, as you're mentioning that 80 20, you know, really. Puts our franchisees in good positions to succeed,

[00:19:41] Hector: Yeah, I would imagine such a big value prop from a franchise oars perspective in the sense of When I, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner or service, but, you know, especially in the digital services space, I have to go out and find that support, pay for that support, consulting, mastermind groups, coaching, training, all these sorts of things and not that that support is necessarily free.

[00:20:04] Hector: but what's nice is that that support is, curated and provided and accessible and easily accessible and, perhaps even, personalized in a way that a lot of entrepreneurs, they're just going out there trying to, to find answers, read books, take courses, they're just out there hoping that they find the answer.

[00:20:20] Hector: Whereas in a, franchise model, the answer is there, or someone is working on finding the answer. And so that the questions that the individual has to, to solve on their own, just really comes down to, you know, can they get out of their own way, you know, it becomes really on this own, you know, personal, development sort of thing

[00:20:39] Chad: It's as I was referring to before right as following the system I mean that's usually would be a challenge is when somebody comes in and they try to change it. They want to let's add services. Let's do it this way and it's like no no, no We've been doing it this way for 25 years and that's part of the investment right and the commitment to a franchise is saying, okay, here's some guys that got, it figured out.

[00:21:03] Chad: I'll be a part of this. And, someone had mentioned to me one time, the most important commodity is time. So the time that we apply, you know, and give to a franchisee could be anywhere between five to eight years potentially of building something like this up. So yeah, it's just the advantages, when you look at the whole system.

[00:21:21] Chad: You know, you're talking a team that works with you on the front end, let's get your truck, let's get licensing. You may need, let's get you your first technician. If you're going to be running it, what we call semi absentee, you're going to have a technician do it for you and you manage it. Let's get you insurance, everything.

[00:21:37] Chad: Let's get your goals in line as we talked about before. So, that's even a month before you're up and running and just all those systems that come into play. Brand president, Larry Amos, is fantastic, you know, strategically looking for the direction of the company and the goal and the growth too.

[00:21:53] Chad: How are we going to grow in the next five years? We're thinking about that as well. Staying ahead of competition. one particular component of franchising and just business ownership in general is marketing. A lot of times when I worked with, we have a brand called One Hour Heating and Air is HVAC.

[00:22:08] Chad: When I worked on that side, we would have a lot of. Business owners, they have one truck and they're going around. They know the trade and the technician, the technical side of it. And so they're thinking I can start a business. I know this part of it, but they realize marketing. Where do I spend my dollars?

[00:22:24] Chad: How do I spend it? Do I spend it evenly throughout the year? And then six months into it, when you realize something isn't working, you've spent that money. So that's a big part that I've seen. Unfortunately, with a lot of challenges for people is the marketing side for us. We know what works, what doesn't work.

[00:22:40] Chad: You know, that 25 years of business.

[00:22:43] Hector: such great insights here, Chad, I've got two questions for you. One of them is if people want to get more info on duty calls, more info about brand or even you, where is the best place for people to go?

[00:22:57] Chad: Yeah, absolutely. So www. com. You can go right to that website and begin to look into the brand, and the potential of becoming a franchisee or give me a call directly at 412. Uh, 910 9387.

[00:23:11] Hector: and for people who are just listening, it is duty spelled like the stuff that your dog does in the front yards, but we'll always link that up in the show notes so you can just click that directly. Chad, my last question for you is, in your opinion, what is the secret to scaling a business?

[00:23:27] Chad: Secret to scaling success again is, following the system. that is the GPS of the franchise model. Following the system and engagement. Engagement with the team, staying consistent, communication. That's definitely the key.

[00:23:42] Hector: Great stuff. We'll see you on the next one, y'all.