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John Wilson and Jack Carr sit down with Rick Vazza as he shares his experience acquiring a second Zoom Drain franchise location. Rick sheds light on his journey, tackling challenges from leases to managing operations remotely. Discover the details of franchise growth, learning about the strategies and lessons alongside Rick. Tune in for a clear exploration of the ups and downs in expanding a franchise!
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John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Companies
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Jack Carr, CEO of Rapid HVAC
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Owned and Operated Episode #66 Transcript
Hey, this episode is sponsored by Service Scalers. So Service Scalers is actually a brand that I've used personally with our companies for a little bit over a year now they've helped us manage our digital advertising. Frankly, they did a lot better than our last agency. Leads went through the roof and cost per click went way down.
Check out Service Scalers. If you're a plumbing, HVAC or electrical home service company, that's what they knock out of the park and they did a great job for me.
We're back. What's up? We've got Rick Vazza. We have Jack Carr here with me and I'm John Wilson and we're talking a little bit more with Rick. So we just had a great episode with him and now we're going to be talking about he dropped a nugget and he's like, yeah, by the way like 10 States away, I bought a new zoom franchise location. So hold up. , we got to talk about that.
So walk me through it. You're nine, 10 months in to your first zoom franchise, which is blowing up. You guys are killing it. You're two and a half years into your plumbing company and you're like, it'd be slick.
Rick Vazza: Yeah. My wife was like, Oh, okay. That makes sense. It was definitely unexpected. Like I think when I got into the franchise world in general, I started listening to a lot of the franchise podcasts and all that type of stuff. And like. one of the people who I have really liked is this guy, Jamie Weeks, from Orange Theory, maybe I relate to him because he's like a finance background guy and wealth management, and then like went in front, so that's my story too.
And what I thought was really cool was he talks about this like point of when he went and expanded out. And yeah, it's hard, but like, you got to focus on culture and build on it. And I was just finally like, you know what I want to be, you know, multi state. Eventually. like, opportunity presented itself.
I probably wasn't necessarily 100 percent ready for it, but at the same time, you're like, hey, if you got an opportunity like this, you got to take it. I know the model works. So I was just like, let's put on the big boy pants and figure it out. But the nice thing that I'm excited about is I've been blessed to have a really strong partner who's come on board.
So that is going to be also a new experience. I've never worked with a partner. We're really good. It's even how I have with my general manager in San Diego. Like I'm very much like the set the direction okay, I got a thousand ideas going at once. And then he can okay, let's execute them and keep you on track.
So you're not like going off the rails all the time. I get the sense she's going to be really like that as well. She's like super dialed in operationally and she's also on the East coast time zone. So I think that's going to help. Even when I was talking to guys, they're like, so you're waking up like when we're pretty kind of decently into our day.
And I'm like, yeah, this is how it's going to play out. And once they kind of understood that, like I'm really excited about them. It's a small team right now. It's only two guys. And they're really strong. I think that also is going to make it work because I have to rely on them to be like really self sufficient and we're taking pretty much all the back office stuff off their plate.
And I'm going to do a lot of this biz dev stuff for them too, from San Diego. So one of the cool things about it is I think we can really cut overhead significantly. So it can operate, honestly, a much leaner level which I think is going to also help like the ramp up period. And I just told him flat out Hey, I went on ride alongs.
I can see how good they are. Like they got all the ability, period. They just need more calls. So I got to give them calls.
John Wilson: So, your insight and we talked about this, but this is obviously one of the strengths of being inside a franchise system. Is you have a captive pool of potential sellers, as well as a captive pool of potential opportunities if you want to greenfield it.
So this was somebody that launched a location, decided it wasn't for them, and like, how'd this all float up to you?
Rick Vazza: So, um, they were like a little over a year ago I think it was August was at the year mark. I think what's, hard, as I said, like the franchise was started to grow so fast.
I think there's a lot of excitement and buzz around it. Look I launched a financial planning company back in 2018. And it's freaking hard starting your own company. But I went into it, literally, I told my wife I don't plan to have an income for three years.
So that's the game plan. Like I need three years of runway, we're outflowing and you know, you gotta, you gotta support me and do all that. And thankfully she's like, all right, let's do this. And so like,
I think with what's we're finding is probably like for people who maybe didn't have that same timeline of expectations and like a year went by and if it's still not cash flowing, it's just hey, what am I doing here? Okay. So in my view, there's going to be an interesting opportunity. And I know this trade date is out and John, you're not getting impacted by it because your leads are going off the rocker right now. And I know Jack, you're killing it too, but a lot of people aren't, let's be honest, like in the trades, like you have, the data, it's a tough time.
John Wilson: Yeah. It's a bloodbath right now.
Rick Vazza: It's pretty ugly. People joke is when we're texting till 11 o'clock at night about our SEO strategies and plumbing text and I'm telling people of like, where did you come up with these ideas and stuff like, Oh, my, my buddies and they're like talking about their sporting events over the week.
I'm like no, this is what we talk about. They're like , I wouldn't want to compete against you guys.
Jack Carr: For anyone listening, let's clear that up real quick. It's Friday night at like 9 PM and all of us are talking business. That's the sport. I don't watch football.
I don't watch anything else. I talk business with you guys.
John Wilson: Yeah. I think we need to like I guess for more flavor, there's a group text with a bunch of plumbing and HVC owners all over the country. It's invite only. Yeah, but it's really good. And I think the only thing that I like, and I also don't like. What I like is that it's all shapes and sizes. And I think that's interesting and it provides a really interesting perspective. Like Wayne is in plumbing and he's like six or 7 million, I think, but it's like mostly commercial and that's really interesting that adds a totally different flavor.
And then we've got Rick, like part of a franchise. I think you're the only one with part of a franchise. And then like Kylons huge, I think Kylons like bigger than me and it's not close, I don't think. But it's mostly new construction. And so it's interesting group. And the only thing that I wish could happen is like, you have the main chat and then you have like sub chats and , I've been thinking about splitting it up onto Slack or like disc or something that way we could drive, hey, here's the uh, don't even know. Here's the recruitment specific or marketing specific. I feel like it adds a lot of value and I feel like, man, other people should be on here just because it's interesting. And I know I get so much out of everybody that's on there.
Rick Vazza: Yeah. I'm particularly grateful. You're always very generous with what you share. But yeah, I think with that, just kind of circling back on how that goes even when you guys are sharing that stuff, it's like, it's super helpful because , I'm one of the smaller ones in the group too.
sometimes it's a blessing and a curse, cause I see what you guys do and I'm like, I gotta go do all of that. I'm like, all right, remember, we're not quite there yet. But some of the ideas that come out of there have been huge.
And I think that's like also a big part of the confidence of like, kind of go in this direction. Cause now that I'm spreading out, I'm like, look, I love this. I'm obsessed with it. To me, those conversations are fun. I don't want to be doing something else at that time.
Anyways actually I was just on the Rinnai trip the last three days. I just got back last night. We're in Atlanta for the tankless water heater thing that they did. And we're up till like one 30 in the morning, just like talking, plumbing. And I'm like, if someone told me I was gonna be doing this five years ago even, I'd be like, what the hell?
John Wilson: You live in the dream. Yeah. I love it. This is the life. .
Rick Vazza: But yeah, I think like when we went that direction, I was like, all right I love this. I wanna be doing it, if these opportunities are gonna present themselves.
I'm just going to go for it and then, we'll figure it out from there. But interestingly now, it's still early, but I think we have kind of a, general thesis of what we want to do. And it's the opposite, honestly, of what I did with John Padilla. Whereas so. Earlier I was talking about how like John Padilla was like the kind of initial crown jewel where we then started doing the leads over to Zoom.
And now that these other franchises have like already a footing in there, obviously we need to continue to grow them and get them going. There's, like I said, they're small, but it's going to be interesting as we do make that happen. There may be an opportunity to then plug out, maybe it's acquire another plumbing company in that area or go Greenfield one.
I'm not really sure yet what that will look like, but I think that opportunity could probably. Be a pretty practical one.
John Wilson: Yeah I think I'm back to this developing a muscle thing on BizDev, and so a couple years ago, the thought and strategy has changed, but I'm sure I've talked to you guys about this, that a few years ago, our plan was basically to green field new locations across Ohio.
So we were gonna go in, and we were gonna seed it with I don't even know, 100 grand or something, or 50 grand each location, and basically just like slow scale it up. And the idea at the time was it's easier to run a, I think it's the wrong idea for how I was thinking about it. I think in zoom it could work, but like the way I was thinking about it was it's easier , to have 10, two to 3 million shops than one 20 to 30 million shop.
Rick Vazza: I remember you talking about that.
John Wilson: I've changed my mind a lot on that, but I think most of the reason I've changed my mind is we have so many, like scale does solve a lot of problems, but we're also multi trade and that makes things really complicated. Whereas if all you do is drains and that's the main thing, like that's sick and you could do that in any state, you could do that wherever you want.
And the only thing that matters is the biz dev, like how do you drive new leads in a new market? And that's the only like nuance that you're going to experience besides that like you're hiring drain text, you have a pricing model, you have an equipment model that works And like all of that is solved and set in front of you. And all you have to do is figure out how like all you have to do.
Yeah But that's the big oh, how do we drive dollars is what does launch look like? and Man if I were in your shoes, and I'm like looking down the barrel of second location across states, then I would be like, alright, this is the model now, is state expansion, so what I have to do is I have to be figuring out... Yeah, how does BizDev work? I'm saying what you already know, but like, how do I gen lead flow, and like, who really cares about the other models at this point?
Like, how do we get up to ten locations in Zoom? Because if it's multi location, multi state that's the game.
Rick Vazza: No, a hundred percent.
John Wilson: That first million in each location.
Rick Vazza: No, I agree with that. And like, I'm talking about that playbook late. Look, I said, I'm in this for a long time is my plan.
So that's the down the road. But yeah, I mean, I echo that. I mean, the thought process, even as I was talking to my partner, it was like, if we can grab more territories and, we have that playbook that we can run and we know how to do it. It looks pretty attractive.
John Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. No, this is sick. So walk me through your partnership.
Rick Vazza: As I was saying to you guys, it's kind of what we're figuring out. I have a ton of confidence here and I'm really excited about it, but like ,we we're in the early stages of this and this all happened no joke. It was like a Tuesday of like, Hey, this thing's available by Friday. You have to now make a decision. Like it was like that fast. So we're definitely still in the early stages of figuring that out. Even right now we're going through Hey, what are roles and responsibilities? What's the split going to look like? All that stuff. I think ultimately like the thing that I'm confident is especially like we've only spent a little bit of time together in person, but I haven't. Right off the bat, like a ton of confidence in her capabilities and such. think off that, we're like, okay, we've complimentary skill sets, we're clearly very committed to this. And now we've got to figure out like the, X's and O's of what does it actually look like from that perspective? Yeah.
Jack Carr: Maybe a silly question, but step back a second. Why are you pulling on a partner? Did I miss that? Or is this the old business owner?
Rick Vazza: No. It's a new partner. So part of the initial thought process was frankly the time zone issue and just me literally being so far away from this location like she's in Philly, so it's a bit of an easier commute for her same time zone so she can help from that perspective.
So that was like honestly a big part of it. 'cause like I said, this was so fast, but I think now we are like, Hey, we're pretty good working together. I was telling John earlier I've been traveling nonstop in October, so I was totally unresponsive and I flat out was like, hey, I already have all this travel books this is not good timing for me at all.
So I felt horrible because she just held down the fort, but she did an awesome job. And I think like even through something as difficult as that was too, I was like, okay, this is a good early signs of something that could be pretty beneficial in the long run.
John Wilson: Is this a nap table partner or operating partner? Is she running it day to day?
Rick Vazza: We're still figuring that out, to be honest with what that's like. I think what we expect is that role to be taken off significantly from the location. But we're thinking if this becomes something where we brought it out, what does that hold code then look like?
And then there's being be like, is she COO and my CEO? Like, how does that all look? So like cars just got started at the local level. And now I think we're quickly realizing it's actually a little bit beyond that. And then from the day to day stuff, I mean, like I was telling you, John the guys are really self sufficient.
As far as like stuff goes, it's hey I'm going to take pretty much all back office stuff off your plate. We're going to try and run marketing off your plate. As long as I can get leads and you can service those leads we're pretty good from the actual location standpoint. And like the guy who's there right now, like he's already expressed interest in wanting to like eventually move toward that GM role.
So he's already doing a lot of the things that like would showcase willingness to do that, right? He's going to be able to take the lead on Hey, van goes down. What do I go to get it repaired? He already is doing that stuff.
We're like, in some cases, I think if that happened here, I don't know that anyone would really know what's next steps. Like they're going to need that support. Like he's already doing some of that, which is promising. So yeah, I don't know. We're like, I'm super early. We're a lot of these questions are questions we're asking each other, honestly, right now.
John Wilson: Yeah. That's interesting. Is she another franchisee?
Rick Vazza: No, she work was working for the franchise . And she's the daughter of the CEO. So she's been really involved from basically the beginning.
John Wilson: Yeah. That's interesting. Inside a franchise system, do you just like get an email? Like, how's it like, I don't even know. Do you get a phone call? Hey man, you're doing good. This guy's not doing good. You want to. You want to party, like, how does that work?
Rick Vazza: We share like numbers pretty regularly.
So in general, everyone has a general sense of where people stand. And then there's a lot of like breakout sessions and things like that. And you can kind of see like, okay, who's active, who's participating, who's really in this for sure. And then there's some people you just don't really hear from or, see, so, it's kind of. varies in that regard as far as like the actual, dynamics of it go, what I appreciate is they actually do like a survey of franchisees of I don't remember all the questions, but one of them was like, what is your growth plans? Or what do you see happening? And I just flat out said yeah, I want to grow through acquisition.
I'm interested in this stuff. So I think just simply raising my hand you know, they then probably tapped on a few people who were like, Hey, you expressed interest in this. What are your thoughts? And I was just like, yeah, let's go.
John Wilson: So how does a deal work inside a franchise system? Like, how does this deal work?
Do you have to pay a new franchise fee? Do you just take over debt? Like how does that even work? Because this isn't, like me buying a plumbing company.
Rick Vazza: No, exactly. Yeah. It was very different. So in a lot of cases, right? Those people are on the hook for various liabilities. That's really the value that you're doing. It's, Hey, I'm just assuming those liabilities and now you're off the hook.
John Wilson: Yeah. Okay. This is like a seven or eight year old story now, but like the deal that like made my career, that was my second acquisition, like my first was my family's, my second was this failing plumbing company that I bought for debt, like I bought for what they owed.
And I think people try to overcomplicate it, and they, do a lot of different things, but that got them off the hook. I've done three deals like that now, where it's just like, this is what they owed on something, this is what they needed to walk away. I don't know. It wasn't that deep, and I think people are always surprised by that, because it's no, you have to multiply by whatever, you have to take asset value, and it's like, These people literally just can't afford the debt, and that's all that they're thinking about, and don't overcomplicate it.
Hey, you want to be out of debt? Here you go. You want a job after? There you go.
Rick Vazza: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think it's different if I were to go approach a super successful franchisee, that's totally different, right? They're gonna have some sort of valuation that they expect, but yeah, in this case, when it's just someone who's hey, I'm out, what else can you do, really?
It's, all right, I'm bailing you out of a situation here.
John Wilson: Yeah, for sure. Were you able to take over the asset liens as well? Were you able to take over loans on vehicles, or did you have to get new loans, or how did those work?
Rick Vazza: Funny enough, we're still going through that, so to be determined, but the idea is that we're just assuming those leases.
John Wilson: Okay, so they're leased, so that makes that a little bit easier.
Rick Vazza: Yeah, essentially, I mean, if you think of the big ones, right? Big ones have been assume the leases, assume the lease on the location make sure that insurance can cover it. So that was even funny, right? Of like underwriting. They're like, yeah we're going to now a whole different state here. So we had to get all that, go through. And then those are like the big outstanding, issues. Then all the other stuff's okay, now you get the stuff that you do all the time, right? Payroll. Switch over the accounts. That's all the other stuff. But the big three of let's make this actually happen. It's The, ones I just said. And then the other thing is obviously gonna be now licensing requirements, right?
John Wilson: Yeah, you gotta make that happen. So does the franchise it's in their best interest to find a good partner. It's in their best interest to find a growing partner. Do they give you a floor? Is there like a parachute here of Hey, we'll help support you for the first month. Like they need this to win too. Or is it just like day one? This is your freaking problem, bro. Good luck.
Rick Vazza: That's a good question. I mean, Like I said, they've been very supportive, so I'm sure if something that comes up, like I could reach out, but I think when I put like my projections together and now I'm at the team and see everything, like I see the path, so I don't expect things to go that direction.
But I also didn't go into it blind. Like I got my cash reserves if I need to and things like that, and , that was also Jack's question why go in with a partner? Like part of it is like, Hey, these are currently not cash flowing businesses. Like I don't want to be ruining my current operations with how long this could potentially take.
So God forbid it takes longer than I'm initially thinking, it helps lessen that load.
Jack Carr: Yeah. Maybe a personal question, but do you actually have to PG or your other businesses or your other franchise to pick up that one? Oh, good. So it's a whole separate entity. Cause I know when we get to that.
Rick Vazza: And I wouldn't have done that. Yeah.
Jack Carr: Especially on, on catching a knife, there's always that extra risk there so, um, I have a question for you. So we're buying a business that's 50 miles away and I'm having a heart attack just thinking about driving out there every once a week or twice a week.
And I know it's going to be more than that in the beginning, but how are you wrapping your head around the travel constraints of being so far away? What's your expectation on, how often you're going to be out there or is it a, Hey I'm managing the marketing. The back office, the overall business, but I'm not going to be the onsite operations.
Rick Vazza: Yeah, I think that was obviously a huge concern initially. And I think, that concern has lessened since I've met the team. Cause I think there are two really good guys there. And the lead guy, like I said is really self sufficient and he's excited about like training up the next guy and all that stuff.
So, it's a date, like what we've been doing is just a lot of virtual calls. A lot of videos in the morning to get the day started most of those I missed because I was traveling all of October. So my partner led a lot of that, but that's the game plan going forward. She's kicking off in the morning.
And then since it's easier for me to do afternoons, like I can start handling that. The other thing that was helpful is you know, we already moved toward the remote call center. I already have that in place for what we're doing now. So it was pretty easy for me to just scale that up.
So like I basically told him, all right, Hey, now you're going to have one point person for all of your calls. So any questions you have, it's gonna be for them. We have the infrastructure in place, I think, which gave me the confidence that like, they're going to have a lot of support. I think, my hope well, honestly, because they're going to have more support than they did, even with someone in the office than before.
So, that should really help them from that standpoint. And then, yeah, of course I'll probably go out there periodically because I want them to know that I care and I'm part of this. But that was a concern initially that has lightened.
Who knows something could pop up that makes me like totally eat my words right now But I feel pretty good about where we're at.
John Wilson: I almost feel like it's easier I feel like it's because we bought a business that was about an hour away and I frequently wished it was like five or six hours away because that would mean That there's no chance of me just going there to
Rick Vazza: see the problem. I could see that.
John Wilson: And like states away versus like 45, 50 minutes. Like what it ended up doing to our team is that's under an hour. It feels close enough that you're just going to pop out there real quick.
Rick Vazza: Yeah.
John Wilson: I feel like you're in a position where like you just literally don't have that luxury. I think that's going to force some better execution than what we did, which was drive up when we have to..
Rick Vazza: Yeah, I think like a lot, honestly, too, like part of it. And I know sometimes it's just like maybe ignorance, but like, there are people who do this. So I know it, it can be done.
And I'm like, we're going to figure it out. you know, This is not like uncommon that people have, you know, locations in different places. So I'm just like, Hey, they can do it. Why can't we figure it out? And I know that's not like a super strategic answer, but that's part of..
John Wilson: Honestly,
for the most part, when I'm like, when I'm looking around and like the reason I started buying businesses in the first place. Is because somebody left our company and bought a business and I was like what if they can do it I can do it and then we bought nine, right? So No, a hundred percent. That's a good answer. That's a great answer I remember I was talking to nathan baycock and he's got three or four zooms. I think and
Rick Vazza: Uh at the territories. I think there's yeah, he's south carolina, right?
John Wilson: Yeah, and he's got a bunch of two minute trucks. So I think he's like 35 total franchise locations across all the different things he's a part of, which is interesting.
And what he said is like the farther they are from him, the less the performance, which I think is interesting. And they're all within driving distance for him.
And I was like, okay, that's interesting. And I wonder if that's a part of that's like sort of flagship store or which one's getting the attention and like. how you think about where your office is. Cause if your office is in one, then that one's always going to outperform the one that your office isn't in. And that's from my experience too, the one region, but like multi location, but I thought that was interesting. I don't know.
He could be a good connection just cause he's he's doing it. And obviously like you do your best to impact that and you do your best to make that less of a thing. But I just thought it was fascinating.
Rick Vazza: Yeah, I have not connected with him and I've been wanting to. He has a couple operators too. Are typically involved in those calls I was talking about, and we had our like annual retreat and it was the same week that my sister was getting married, so I didn't make that one. So I'm going for the next one though.
John Wilson: Nice. All right. Man, yeah, this is crazy. So you started a franchise, you got into another state like a year later. How quick do you feel, I know you're like a month into this or a week into this or whatever it is, but like, how quick do you think you want to activate new locations?
Is that on your brain yet?
Rick Vazza: Yeah, I mean, honestly, that's what's interesting with the franchise things, like some of it I feel like isn't really on my timeline, to be honest, like it's just some of these may pop up and it's just like, I said, either you're willing to say yes, or
John Wilson: There's not available territories to greenfield?
Rick Vazza: Oh, sorry. You're talking about in Michigan I thought you meant would I acquire more if presented opportunity? Sorry, I misinterpreted.
John Wilson: No, I am asking that but to me activating a new location in your capacity is either green fielding a new one because there's open spots or buying an existing territory so you sort of have two paths to grow here.
Rick Vazza: Oh, yeah, I think right now probably the buying is more attractive because this wasn't even on my timeline right now.
It just came up as an opportunity a lot sooner. But we still have so much opportunity just here. But I wouldn't like outlay cash to go greenfield a place that would then slow us down here. So I'd be focused on going here. But if opportunities like this present themselves where frankly, in a lot of ways, it's too good to be, turned down, it's like, all right just, you got to figure it out and then see what happens.
That's the only reason this even happened so fast. It's just like a kind of a unique opportunity to present itself.
John Wilson: Yeah. I wonder if it turns into a logistics game. So I'm like, I'm thinking a couple of years down the line and I'm like, what if he does this again next year? And what if he does two next year? Same as you did this year. And. If they're green fielded and you start running like, let's say 20 of these trucks, the big jet 150, 000 trucks, like that's the significant investment, right? That's the hard nut to crack the, either the debt or the cash or whatever. So in a couple of years, you'll have more of these and you could just start moving them around in a interesting way.
Hey I want to launch one in Cleveland. I have four trucks in Detroit, I'm just going to deploy a truck down to Cleveland and I'm going to use that to Greenfield for a while or even just density to pick up the things around Detroit and get way denser inside those, that same area.
Jack Carr: Does the size of your area that you buy, does it allow for green fielding or would you have to purchase another location on top of trying to greenfield?
Rick Vazza: Each territory is 300,000 people. So we have three territories in like the Detroit area, which I did, and we have seven in San Diego.
So with Detroit there's definitely room to continue to expand. San Diego is closed out at this point. So it would have to be through acquisition. Or going into Orange County. Or Arizona.
John Wilson: Yeah, cause the flagship store is like 15 million. How many territories does it take to get to 15 million?
Rick Vazza: I don't know how many territories they represent. You figure the map is... You know, Just based on the vehicles, right? You could probably back into the math. I'd have to whip out the calculator, but yeah, I mean, we can figure it out. I still don't know off the top of my head how many territories that one represents.
John Wilson: All right.
Rick Vazza: I know. According to them though it's not even remotely near where it could and should be. So like they still have a lot of room to run over there as well.
John Wilson: That's interesting.
Jack Carr: Yeah. But to John's point earlier, the neat part is once you get that biz development muscle set you get that everything's set in place and all of the processes and all of the people, mean, biz development really is, can be a remote position as well.
So you could build out an entire call center and a biz development center and just freaking pop these things up all over.
Rick Vazza: Oh yeah, I have some other crazy ideas, but I know everyone goes restoration, electrical, HVAC, things like that.
But like, ironically for like this type of business, like one, I'm super interested is like window cleaning. Because they're doing all the restaurants all the time, I think there's like other adjacent businesses that become very interesting pop ons to these. and again, this is, I'm talking down the road, but like there's a lot of stuff in it that becomes interesting that are lead adjacent.
And to like the point, if you can figure out, that muscle, it could get replicated across a few different things. I don't know. We have a lot of work to do. We're not even close to where I want to be with San Diego. I'm really excited. We've made some changes recently.
Really a lot of it, honestly, based on what you guys have shared. And our group and I'm super excited. I think we've got good energy going now, but like we're just beginning to get going there. So yeah, it's going to be hopefully a fun, 10 plus years, but the next few in particular are going to be pretty interesting
John Wilson: For sure. And yeah, zoom is great. We probably really need to get like sponsor or something.
Rick Vazza: I know a few people I could help.
John Wilson: Yeah. It's a good, it's a good pro. I'm not even a franchisee and I'm like, hell yeah. Hell yeah. We talked to them about it but they, yeah, we had to convert like our six or 7 million drain business.
And I was like, ah I think I'm okay.
Rick Vazza: I think I'm yeah. I see. You'd be tough to figure out how that would work.
John Wilson: They had a plan. I just didn't look, so it ended up at full royalty, but it was like staggered over years. So It would be like 1%, 2%, whatever. And I'm like, yeah, but I don't know.
You struggle with it. Cause then there's also like the debt attached to it. It's not like I launched it and it's debt free. Like I bought it. so I don't know.
Rick Vazza: I was surprised. Like maybe the six is like your base and then anything, maybe off of that could riff on the royalty, but like, that's kind of a
John Wilson: yeah, I think their philosophy was like they believe in their systems. So their systems are going to create such a net positive effect to the rest of my business that they deserve the royalty. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's their belief in what they bring to the table.
Rick Vazza: Yeah, you'd be, you'd be a hard one.
John Wilson: Man, this was awesome. Thanks for sharing your story on grabbing that second location in Detroit. That's crazy. And also I just want to visit, like I'm not very far from Detroit. So like next time I'm gonna hit you up and just like do some ride alongs and like try to convince your guys to help me greenfield a drain business in Detroit.
But no this was great. Thanks for coming on and sharing your story. This was cool, unique opportunity I'm glad you took advantage of it. I'm excited to see where it goes.
Jack Carr: Yeah, me too.
Rick Vazza: Thanks for having me on. And as always, like thanks for everything that you share and you've helped my business and myself significantly.
And Jack, I know we're recently acquitted, but I can't wait to hear more about what you got going on. So, I really appreciate it, guys.
Jack Carr: I'm going to start up a Zoom down here in Nashville, and you're going to hear a lot more from me. You just wait. Oh, yeah. I'm excited. I know, honestly, it's a good opportunity.
I've been chewing on it. Once we get our plumbing business up, we're legitimately going to think about it.
John Wilson: That just could be the plumbing business. Yeah.
Alright. Thanks for tuning in. Next week we'll be talking about how Jack bought the uh, zoom.,
Tune in twice a week with own and operated. Thanks Rick for coming on.
Rick Vazza: Thanks guys.
John Wilson: Thanks for tuning in to Owned and Operated, the podcast for home service entrepreneurs. If you enjoyed today's episode, please hit the like button and subscribe to the podcast. If you have any questions or topics you'd like us to cover, feel free to reach out. You can find me on Twitter at at Wilson companies.
I'll see you next time.
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