Start With A Win - A CEO's Franchise Success Blueprint | Mark Amery, CEO of Puddle Pools

Starting point is 00:00:00 What does an experienced franchise CEO have to say about growing your business? Today we find out with Mark Amory. Welcome to Start With A Win, where we unpack franchising, leadership, and business growth. Let's go. And coming to you from Start With A Win headquarters at Area 15 Ventures, it's Adam Kantos with Start With A Win. Today we have a remarkable guest with us, Mark Amory, a true Vancouver boy hailing from the beautiful west coast of British Columbia, is a devoted husband and proud father of five girls. I have two girls. I don't know how he does it. He has an impressive 15-year career in the franchise industry. Mark's entrepreneurial journey includes founding and leading several

Starting point is 00:00:43 successful companies, not just one. Things such as Gorilla Property Services, Toodaloo Pest Control, Eenie Meenie Miney Moe Landscaping, and Puddle Pool Services. Those are some pretty catchy names. Mark's expertise in franchising and his strategic vision have allowed him to exit Gorilla and Eenie Meenie to focus on propelling puddle pool services to new heights in both Canada and the U.S. Stay tuned as Mark shares his valuable insights and experiences in the world of business and franchise growth on today's episode. Mark, welcome to Start With A Win. Great. Thanks, Adam. Thanks for having me. You bet. Hey, take us through a little bit of your background in franchising. This is fascinating because, I mean, you've been in franchising 15 years

Starting point is 00:01:28 and the litany of brands you've been with, you know, Gorilla Property Services, Toodaloo Pest Control, Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe, which Moe as in landscaping, and Puddle Pool Services. First of all, did you come up with these names? Because these are pretty catchy. I did. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Take us through your franchising history. Sure. Yeah. So I started, I've always been in the service industry and, and, um, took a real liking to franchising, just the model being able to grow. You couldn't organically grow that quick, you know, you just wouldn't happen. Right. franchise model really um really did it for me i really uh really appreciated that space so i got into it um i i had a pest control company not

Starting point is 00:02:11 franchise based it was just uh you know service based and sold that exited and really got into the franchise and started gorilla um and that was built more owner operator model right which was and that was my first go, and it went great. We got it up to, in five years, there was close to 50 units, right? So 50 territories, only in Canada. And it was fun. It was great. And, yeah, so I started, I found it from, you know, I always call it zero to hero, just from scratch, the name, the number, you know, the first one hiring the first tech and yada, yada,

Starting point is 00:02:45 right up to 50 territories. So 50 locations. And that was great. And moved on to, to Lupez control at the same time, moved into that space again, franchise as well. And then into the landscape space, it's all kind of this, I would say it's same, same, but different, like service is service, right? There's all, it's the, the trucks do usually the same equivalent for, for revenue and the models the same. But I really, really wanted to go being from Canada was take it to the U S and I learned with my first brand there that that model really like, to be honest, it

Starting point is 00:03:20 really didn't work in the U S didn't that owner operator model is it's Chuck and truck. It's, it's challenging, right? I hate saying Chuck and Truck, but you know what I mean. It can be challenging, right? So the puddle was designed from day one to grow as an executive model or a semi-absentee model, which has allowed us to skip. Like we have just blown through the roof. The first year, we have 17 new territories

Starting point is 00:03:45 year one right so that's a wreck i think it's a wreck we've got a record somewhere right so so are you are you doing a region developer where somebody opens franchises or sells franchises in their territory or do they buy a region and they open multiple servicing components in their territory? No, so as far as, like, Puddle will stay with Puddle's Puddle, right? The others are separate. So each one of those, there's 17 individual operators. Okay. They're running the territories across Canada and now into the U.S. and California, Nevada, and Florida.

Starting point is 00:04:20 So we just started the push there about three months ago. It takes about a year to get all the documents, everything, switch over Canadian to U.S. Right. So we've been able to open 17 locations year one for Puddle and planning on hitting 50 in the next year. That's awesome. Take me through the business model of Puddle. You talked about an executive model. We've got owner-operator and then we have executive model of franchising where you are supervising people.

Starting point is 00:04:47 You're not out there, or maybe you are, I don't know, cleaning the pool or doing what have you. Take us through that business model. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. And I think it's like every, in franchising, I think it's, you know, it's either owner-operator or exec model or semi-absentee, right? You're either on the tools or not on the tools, right? Right. I think what differs Puddle is it's more of a hybrid. It's, we base it on, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:11 whenever you're first from startup to launch is part of the process is hiring and employees, technicians. It's very, I'd say that's probably 20% is the actual pool cleaning in that world. The other 80% is business development, growth, marketing, all of those items that really structure the business. So it's more of a you're buying a business that is allowed to ramp up revenue.

Starting point is 00:05:37 But again, I think it's more off the tool. So that would be the difference with Puddle compared to the competitors where they're not really. And I say it's i say it's hybrid because everybody once they go through train they all want to be i want to go in the truck for the first three four months because it's a nice day the guys are in flip-flops or in t you know what i mean and there's nobody that's ever pissed off around the pool everybody's happy right so it makes a really nice like but it's not a we try to veer away from that lifestyle model it's

Starting point is 00:06:02 more of the the business model which allows to you know and none of our of our owners have any pool experience they all have you know business experience admin growth team building that along those lines so that's awesome everybody likes the pool person you know it's they're they're like the lifeguard or whatever i mean they show up with their little their scooper net and their chemicals and their cleaner you're like hey welcome exactly you should bring beer they bring beers with them or something like that they do you know i'm sure the friday afternoon calls but yeah it's it's very uh it's a nice lifestyle so it's we try to really um even whenever we do have a lot of our owners want to go on the truck your first three months to really get their hands on you You know, that's great. They can do that. But make sure they're they're working on the business and not in it.

Starting point is 00:06:48 So let's talk about that. Let's talk about working on the business instead of in the business, because it's always easier to work in the business because, you know, you're out there doing it. You feel the sense of accomplishment during the day. I cleaned, you know, five pools today or whatever it might be. Or let's say you're a painter. Oh, I got my painting job done this week. And you check the box. But working on the business means you have to generate business. You have to be part of the community. You have to manage the people in it and lead them. Take me through, how do you get people to make that transition to become the business operator instead of the person on the tools as you were talking about it? For sure. Yeah. And that's a, that's a good question. A great point is how do you find that

Starting point is 00:07:29 person or how do you find that? I think from the franchisor side is you have to be very structured and very, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Disciplined. You can't, um, you know, I learned back in my early days too, you can't just award a franchise because somebody has a dollar. You know what I mean? It's you got these are awarded. They're not they're not purchased. So I think from day one, finding that right person and, you know, through the through the onboarding process or through the initial, if they're really looking to if they want to keep their day job, you know, and they always think that's a problem. That's actually a stronger point for on our side because we know they're going to be,

Starting point is 00:08:07 they're not going to be diving into the tools. The problem, not the problem, the pain point with owner operator model, I think anyways, is you max out. You can only do a certain dollar figure, right? You have, it's almost like a glorified mom and pop, right? You have the one, you have the next technician and then three, they're managing, you know, managing two or three, but they're still in the game. They don't have the next technician, and then three, and they're managing two or three, but they're still in the game. They don't have the time. They don't have that 30, 40-hour work week to actually work on the business.

Starting point is 00:08:31 So with our model, it's very, very support-driven. We have weekly GS&Rs, which is a goal set review, where it's an hour each week where we meet with the franchise partner, and they're tied in with their coach where they're setting points of accomplishments for the week following. And they're setting these like next week I want to onboard, you know, five commercial accounts. I want to talk to seven property managers. I want to, you know, do whatever we have 20, 30 points of marketing that we hit. We use those.

Starting point is 00:08:59 So there allows us to get to our end game. If they would say year one, I want to do 300 K great allows us, you know us 52 weekly touch points to make sure we're getting there. And that's what really, really, really, I think the franchise part appreciates that. I know that for sure as far as the executive model mindset appreciates that a little more than the owner-operator. You're not taking time away from their day because I got to get things done, right? It's more how do I drive business? How do I drive revenue to my team to grow my team? So, and you scale a lot quicker that way too.

Starting point is 00:09:30 Totally. So what do you call that accountability program again? We call it a GSNR, just a goal set and review. Goal set and review. And that's a weekly review that you guys do with your franchisees? We do a weekly. Yeah. And then we do it, we call it the huddle, right? That on our internal, it's a just, so it's a weekly huddle where we're meeting

Starting point is 00:09:48 with them once a week. That would be you and I, Adam, let's get what is shaken and what are we doing this week? What, what, what, and you'll, you actually run that. You say, you know what, I have, here's my goals from last week. We go through them. Okay. How did you, how did that work? Well, I wanted to do, I wanted to meet with three property managers. Okay. How did that work? Well, I wanted to do, I wanted to meet with three property managers. Okay. How did that work? I met with five. Boom. So we have another chart that takes the, it will analyze how that is performing. You say, great. So that's an above and beyond, right? The next one, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to make sure the team was meeting with 15 homeowners each. Great. How did that work? Well, they only met with three, four. Okay. Let's talk about that. about that why was that well I don't think they had enough training or you

Starting point is 00:10:26 know what they didn't have time but whatever that pain point is then we work on that pain point make sure it's all hunky-dory that we move on right and then the third pit would be you know I want there's always a a goal and we have to fit a number like a dollar figure or an X you know I want to do I want this truck to do you know 2,000 revenue this week, whatever it is, 5,000. How did it do? We killed it. We made 10 or we did zero. Like, why?

Starting point is 00:10:48 So it allows these to work through all those pain points. What it's doing is actually creating this marketing world for that franchise partner in that territory. Because not everything works. Like, we take an older community. Maybe they don't use social. Like, they're TikTok. They're LinkedIn. Maybe not, right?

Starting point is 00:11:04 Maybe, but maybe not. So that world is going to be a little different than, you know, somewhere, you know what I mean? Somewhere that, that would use that thing. So even like the social world. Yeah. Well, I think this is a really valuable point here though, because most small businesses fail because they don't get customers. Okay. I mean, if you're out getting customers, you will likely start expanding your business. And it's not about the customers you've had. It's about the customers. I mean, two things here. First of all, repeat customers, referral customers.

Starting point is 00:11:40 You know, so those kind of go together, repeat and referral, because they all come from the repeat customers. And then the third one is that organic growth. And I love this GS&R because this drives organic growth, which feeds the repeat and referral business. So, I mean, this is, folks listening, this is how you scale your business. I don't care if you're in real estate or if you're cleaning pools. I mean, business is business is business. And this is the framework

Starting point is 00:12:05 that Mark is talking about here that helps build your business. Now, let me ask you this. You really took me through a very, it was a very conversational form of accountability. And that's really what franchisees and small business owners need the most, but want the least a lot of times. They get defensive, they avoided something like that, but you specifically laid it out and it was, it was, I mean, I didn't feel threatened or overwhelmed by it. You're like, okay, what were your goals? How did that go? How did you establish that process? And what have you seen come from that when it comes to growth? Yeah, that's a really, really good area. How do we go from, and that's where I found anyways, in my experience, it's hard with the

Starting point is 00:12:54 owner-operator model. It's just that mindset is, and there's nothing wrong with the owner-operator model. It's just certain fields, it's just different, right? It's, I think, how, sorry, what was the question? And how do we? So you, you, you established this kind of soft accountability. Yes. And accountability can cause conflict or it can cause growth. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, you, you pushed it towards growth very, very well. And I mean, is, do you guys do this, is this all in person or is this accountability something

Starting point is 00:13:26 that they record their data and and upload it or how does that work yeah it's um with ours you know i don't want to give away too much right or i'd have to kill you but you know no as far as ours is we use a lot of working documents where it's um it's you know it's your google share you can use whatever you like but it's it's a live document and as they're updating it's, you know, it's your Google share, you can use whatever you like, but it's a live document. And as they're updating, it's whenever we talk about accountability, it's, you're right, it can go either way. There's a line there and you don't want to, we don't want to make it like, we're the boss. Why aren't you doing this? And here's what you have. We don't want to make a list, right? I learned very early, we never use that word list, right? It's a, you know, this is success panel. It's a working, whatever you want to use, but you're actually like, Adam, you would be creating that list,

Starting point is 00:14:09 right? Because at the end of it, you're going, you know what? And it's, I'm really having a problem with, I really want to grow the Instagram portion of the TikTok, but I really, I just, you know what? It's not my space or whatever. And you would be trained in these initially. We'd say, okay, great. Let's bring in Stephanie or let's bring in Paige or from our, like our in-house support. We have our social team, marketing team. They would become part of that call. So the calls are all done through Zoom or it's like this. It's very personal. We have a lot of locals too. They'll meet at the local Starbucks every Friday morning at seven, some of them like that, right? So the franchisor's job is to make sure the franchisee is happy. I learned that day one. Totally.

Starting point is 00:14:46 I work for you. I am here to support you, our teams that we have. Even if it's something in the field, right? You know, the guys are really having a problem. Great, let's get one of the field ops guys to come on that call, work out the kinks. So you're actually creating that list. And then at the end of the call, we say, okay, what are your goals next week? What do you want to do?

Starting point is 00:15:06 You say, I'd really like to work on this, this, this. Perfect. Great. You work them out. And then that gives you that week to work. And as the business owner, and that takes you out of that owner-operator model, right? That executive model where you have more of the, my time's more valuable out of the field than in it. Because you're driving this monster, right?

Starting point is 00:15:24 You're really, really fueling the fire so but you're right there is a fine line there where you don't want to you know you don't want to be offensive at the same time you want it's just support man that's that's all it is it's just i'm here for you and if you gotta make time for that that's why they joined the family that's why they signed on they need help without support or marketing whatever whatever it is so totally have you are you familiar with Stephen R. Covey's the four disciplines of execution I don't think so I may okay so you you gotta look this up I mean the the book the four disciplines of execution um discipline three is keep a compelling scoreboard okay and and it's interesting because the person who has to put the points on the board is the one who establishes the scoreboard. And it sounds like, I mean, this is exactly what you

Starting point is 00:16:11 guys are doing and it's fantastic. It's, it's tested and proven as being a way, you know, if you want employees to accomplish a goal, you don't give them that goal. You ask them what goal they want to accomplish and then you help them get there. And I, I just, I think this is magic in your leadership here and the accountability that you create, because really all you're doing is cheering them on to hit their own goals and helping them uncover those challenges. And they know, oh, all right, Mark is alongside me as my partner to get there. And as a, you know, a kind of a, an executive role in, in running that, that business, instead of being an owner operator, an owner operator, you're like setting the goals, chasing the goals, trying to problem

Starting point is 00:16:57 solve things like that, where, you know, your, your sole focus is to help this business grow by helping these people be better. And that's the number one thing people want in a culture of a business. And I want to get into that word with you. The number one thing they want in a culture of a business is a business that helps them get better. So help me understand, how do you build this culture? Because you've done a fantastic job of it and you're growing and your

Starting point is 00:17:25 franchisees are happy so yeah where did you come from with this culture and help us understand that yeah and that's um i think as far as culture you know you see it a lot on on um tiktok and i think gary v is a really good somebody who, and there's a lot of the, those influence. I think it just comes from just being on, and maybe it's the way it was raised or maybe, you know what I mean? It's like, it's being honest and being real. And like, I'm a, I have five little girls, so I.

Starting point is 00:17:58 God love you, man. It's a whole different podcast, but that's, I don't have time to, you know, it's a whole different podcast that's a whole different but that's um i don't have time to um you know it's just being it's just being how do you build you got to know the person you have to understand like i like through the whole onboarding this thing is by the end of adam we're yes it's business is it but we're gonna be married for 10 years like it's a 10-year term the franchise right so i gotta make sure I love you, man. And you got to love me.

Starting point is 00:18:26 So we'll have a lot of these conversations. We get nothing done. You know, we'll grab a coffee. We'll just talk, right? So it's getting to know them. What are your goals?

Starting point is 00:18:32 What do you want? What's your background? What's your family? Like what's, you know, what's a pain point in your life. And even what part of our onboarding process, our business ramp up,

Starting point is 00:18:40 you know, it's one, it's the personal pages. What is good for Adam? What do you want? What do you want what do you want to get out of this well I want to make a 200k a year and I want a boat I want a vacation I want this awesome so let's talk so I think that builds culture just organically is I don't think you can

Starting point is 00:18:55 I don't think you can just say I'm gonna have a business gonna have a great culture because everyone's gonna be wearing bright clothes and we're gonna drive funky car like that's you know I mean it's like I gotta. And sometimes it's just saying, if somebody's having a bad month or, you know, the numbers are down, it's just saying, hey man, what's shaking? Like what's going, you know, it's like, oh, I mean, it's a little copper.

Starting point is 00:19:14 And so I think that just builds, I think just being real, man. It's just, you know, there's no, and that helps if you look on the flip side, that's what allows us to grow. So like 17 is, we were shooting for year one was five to seven right so we crushed that but i think it's when they talk to our franchise partners they ask them those questions yes everybody's happy everybody's making money but it's that culture

Starting point is 00:19:35 it's like you know you can these guys develop their own pocket there's own pools of of teams you could say right which is i love that part that's my favorite is when you start to see it grow and it's like your baby's growing, right. And they start to, they start to develop these, Oh, we're going to hit a game or, Oh, we're going to go watch this. Or, you know, the Ontario guys or the Florida, they all kind of hook up together. So I think that that's kind of what builds culture. And I think that just comes from not the franchise or it's,

Starting point is 00:19:59 it's the system. As long as everybody's, you know, we do these weekly huddles, but we also do a monthly round table, which is once a month. And it's more general, right? So when you get in these and you see when you have 10 or 15 minutes of the thing is, it's not even talking business. It's them talking about, oh, our ball team beat you, our hockey team, and bugging, you know, kind of teasing each other. But that's culture. So that's what I think.

Starting point is 00:20:19 Yeah, you want to have some good talk with our Canadian friends. Talk about hockey. I mean, that's right. Yeah. That can also go either way. You could piss them off. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, it's such a great culture and so much fun.

Starting point is 00:20:37 But let's kind of flip the paradigm here a little bit. We've heard you're a fan of tough love and grabbing life by the cannonballs. Yes. Tell me about that. What does that mean? Because I mean, you know, life is not always just fantastic and everybody's doing what they need to do. How do you address that? So grab, I would say, you know, grab life by the cannonballs. This just comes into a puddle, you know, obviously that worked out well. Tough is i get i guess that's the way i was raised to or just my outlook on life is nobody's going to give you anything if you want it you have to work for it you got to go get it this is not there's no hand nobody owes you jack nobody owes you nothing if you want to get it you get it right

Starting point is 00:21:18 so i'm also a firm believer in if you think of it will happen or you want to get that goal write it down work towards that goal it will happen you will get there it will happen or you want to get that goal, write it down, work towards that goal. It will happen. You will get there. It's just how you get. And there'll be ups and downs. And, you know, it's not all hunky-dory. You've got to have the cannonballs to work through those because there will be.

Starting point is 00:21:39 And business is, this isn't always, it's not always up, up, up, up, right? If it was, everybody would do it, right? There's ups and downs. This is probably the biggest space with franchising, ups and downs and ups and downs. So I would say the tough love is, yeah, it's, yes, cry about it. You get one day to soak it. Something didn't work. This is your day.

Starting point is 00:21:55 Soak it in. Move on. That's it. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic. Give me a key tip for small business leaders. A lot of people sit there and they're like, all right, I don't want to work for corporate anymore. I want to go out on my own.

Starting point is 00:22:11 Obviously, franchising is designs where you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself. You have somebody like yourself who's built a system and is guiding them through that, but they get, they get to be their own business owner. Um, give me a key tip that helps small business owners succeed. Oh, I don't know. That's a good one. Um, I would say my tip for is number one, this is a two, I'll give you a two tipper. Okay. Okay. Perfect. A dual tip. Um, so number one is go try it just because you don't want to be, what is the, somebody said it to me when I was, it was actually my father-in-law when I first started going business, Ronnie, super smart guy. He said, and I might've had like two or three kids at the time. And my wife is like, oh my gosh,

Starting point is 00:23:00 what are we doing? You're going to go on your own, is just do it. What's the worst that could happen? The worst thing that could happen is it fails, you lose some money, and then you're back to square one. But you don't want to be 95 kicking yourself. And I think everybody knows the saying, oh, shoulda, coulda, woulda. Just do it. If it's in you, if people watching this are already, they have that drive in them, right?

Starting point is 00:23:20 Not just, the puddle might not be their gig, right? But whatever that gig is just try it you know and second is do not listen to the naysayers don't listen there's a lot of people that tell you not what not to do right listen to people that are in the space where you want to be so if i want to be like if i want to know anything about remax or real estate i'm going to listen to adam you know i'm going to listen to i'm not going to listen to bob. You know, I'm going to listen to, I'm not going to listen to Bob, the mechanic that hates real estate. He doesn't know anything, you know? And so I'm going to listen to the pros and listen to really, really take the time and listen to them because they've been through it. And if you can get that five minutes with them, shut your mouth and open

Starting point is 00:23:56 your ears. So that would be my tip. I love that. I love that. Mark Emery, Puddle Pool Services. Where can we find you guys online? Where can we find information about your franchise opportunities? Sure. Yes. Our website's a puddle pools.com and there's a franchise section in there. Lots of movies, clips, and somebody can take you through it. If you're just interested at all, you know, the first call is nothing. You just see if it floats your boat. It might be your thing. You don't have to like pools. You got to like business. That's the thing. So I love that. You don't have to like pools. You got to like business. You know, it's fascinating. Um, you, you say that I have a

Starting point is 00:24:28 friend who he was a business school professor and now he has a company that cleans trash cans. And I'm like, you like cleaning trash cans? You know, he pulls a trailer around and it cleans the trash in front of your house. Great business. He goes, it's a business. It's not trash cans i'm like oh that's fantastic he goes totally yeah so um you know fascinating concept it's uh it's another totally yeah i mean i yesterday all the trash bins were out in my neighborhood and he's out cleaning them so it was it was great great way to make business so um mark amory ceo of Puddle Pool Services. You've run so many different companies. You have got to hit the ground running every day or at least be super focused and directed towards creating results. I have a question that I ask all of our amazing guests

Starting point is 00:25:18 on this show, and we'd love to hear your answer also. How do you start your day with a win? Make your bed. Ooh, I like that. Make your bed. That's a routine. Get up, make your bed, put some mindset, clean, fresh. Everything's that. That's just my way. I get up, make the, even a hotel room, get up, make the bed, move on, have a coffee, enjoy. Don't touch your phone for an hour. Make your bed. That's, that would be my one tip. Make your bed folks. I mean, that's fantastic. I get up and I do that every single morning. And you look at it. You just take this moment and you look at it and you go, all right, check. Win for the day already. That's it. I'm going to kill it. That's it. Momentum. Momentum, baby. Right mindset. Mark Emery, multiple company CEO, founder. I mean, this guy is killing it. He's not

Starting point is 00:26:07 stopping. He's continuing to grow these businesses. Make sure you check out his website. And Mark, thank you again for being on Star for the Win. Wow. That was great. Thanks for having me on.

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Start With A Win - A CEO's Franchise Success Blueprint | Mark Amery, CEO of Puddle Pools

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