Franchise QB

Episode 48: Mark Amery, CEO and Founder of Puddle Pool Services

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 48

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Mark shares his entrepreneurial journey, the innovative approach of Puddle Pool Services in the pool maintenance industry, and the support systems in place for franchise owners. He adds insights on the ideal franchisee profile, the startup process, market share considerations, and the financial performance expectations for potential franchise owners. The conversation emphasizes the importance of support, recurring revenue models, and the flexibility of running a franchise business.

Takeaways

Puddle Pool Services offers a modern approach to pool maintenance.
Recurring revenue models are attractive for franchise owners.
Support systems are crucial for franchisee success.
The ideal franchisee is driven and willing to scale their business.
Franchise owners can operate without a physical office.
Startup costs for Puddle range from $95,000 to $118,000.
Financial performance data is available for potential franchisees.
Building a strong team is key to business growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction 
01:12 Mark Amery's Entrepreneurial Journey
03:35 Overview of Puddle Pool Services
05:02 Growth and Development of Puddle Pool Services
07:52 Support for Franchise Owners
09:16 Ideal Franchise Owner Profile
12:08 Starting a Puddle Pool Services Franchise
13:58 Market Share and Territory Insights
15:48 Startup Costs and Financial Performance
17:16 Conclusion

https://puddlepoolsfranchise.com/

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Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created. Franchise it! Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20 year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us in the huddle today is Mark Amery, Founder and CEO of Puddle Pool Services. Welcome to the show, Mark. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, it's great to see you. So you are a serial entrepreneur and franchising expert who has created and developed multiple home service brands. You're the founder and CEO of Puddle Pool Services, a company that has revolutionized the pool maintenance industry with a professional, modern, and technical approach. With locations across Canada and the US, Puddle Pool Services offers its clients top-notch service with an all -in price structure, e -reports, and a smartphone app. So before we get into the brand, tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial background, Mark. gosh. OK. This might take longer than an hour. Here we go. So I have always been in the home service space. Ever since I was young, I've always just been in the, you know, the... landscape, pest control, homemade, just that kind of thing. I started my own company, wasn't franchise. I started my own company when I was about 20 -ish or 18, 19, 20 around there. was a pest control brand, really liked the space. From there, I exited that one, sold it and I was happy and I really, attended a conference with a gentleman who was a professional in the franchise space and... I just listened to it, it kind of just really resonated with me that, you know, growing through the teens and through the brand, you know, as that type of person. So I decided my next venture to, to start a property maintenance company and started from the franchise system right from the beginning. So I started out one, went great. Went into a landscape brand as well. We started a pest control brand as well. So really just kind of found my niche in that area. So kind of frustrating for my wife and kids, but that's, think we're all built the same, right? So that's kind of where I started in. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like if you already have a company that's got really good systems and procedures and operational kind of expertise, then franchising is great because it's just all about putting all the systems together. So let's talk a little bit about the brand that you're leading today, which is Puddle Pool Services. What is Puddle Pool Services? Yeah. So Puddle is a residential and commercial pool, spa, and water feature maintenance company. So we service, you know, if you have a pool yourself, it has to be serviced weekly. Hot tubs are bi -weekly, so it gives us that reoccurring revenue. So that would be not only the service side, we also do the maintenance side. So pump repairs, heaters, we do vinyl liner installs, safety covers, everything down. actually do fiberglass pool installs. So we don't leave anything on the table. Yeah, that recurring revenue model I know is attractive to a lot of people that are looking to get into business. So it's not just one -offs. You have this predictable revenue as long as you're taking care of the customer. You've got it. So tell us a little bit about the team that you've assembled to kind of lead, Puddle forward. Yeah, I was just going to get into that. I can't take all the credit. So we've had the same leaders, which I could, but it's the team. That's what it's, I think that's with anything, right? Being in sports business, if you're a team, there's no single person to lead the team. So. We've had the same leadership team for over a decade through all the brands. So I think the value with puddle is it's kind of like this emerging, but it's not emerging, right? We have this big, big, big brother in the corner. So our team is we have our field ops team, which is run by Mike and his crew. We have the in -house, in -house marketing. So we have, this is probably the most stressful part of puddles. We have three Tyler's, have T1, T2 and T3. We have our liaisons and then have our regular in -house. So the team itself really, and even being able to drive everything from the phone and run it from the phone is all trial and error through 12 plus years, but it's really the backend team that really kills it. So. Yeah. So you mentioned that, know, Puddles classified as an emerging brand. And that's just because when you're fewer than a hundred units, that's where people put you. But you've been at it for many years. So tell us a little bit about the history of the brand, like going back to the beginning. Yeah, so going back to the beginning, it was started in 2018 and then we actually started development in 2020, put the things together, put the systems, put everything in place that we have from our other brands, just meshed and folded. 2021 was the soft launch, moving into 2022. And then we added our first franchise partner in 2020, the beginning of 2023. We added 12 in the first year. And then after that, we moved into the US. So when I'm at Emerge, I'm at more into the US, but we have 12 and now we have 24, 25 today. So that's kind of the... Yeah, that sounds like good growth, but also responsible growth, especially when you're kind of working in both jurisdictions between Canada and the US. So I know there's a of franchises out there. What are some of the top reasons that a candidate exploring franchising would kind of select Puddle as their brand? For sure. Yeah, great question. I'd say number one has to be the ability, can run the entire business from your cell phone. Like the, could run where you are from where I am, if a technician's in place. It has to be the most attractive. It eliminates paperwork, eliminates ease. It's just, that's, that's, that would be the number one. Does an owner need an office to operate the model or not necessarily? They need a Starbucks. Nope, not at all. They don't need that. You know, they don't have shop. Nope. We have, we have like two that have actual locations. Whenever you get to the growth rate, five, six technicians, lot of moving parts, but we start, keep it really lean and really mean. We want the return to be yesterday, the quicker they can get their money back. You know, that's going to be their number one, how long is it going to take for me to recoup? Right? So we want that we have zero overhead, not zero, but close to zero overhead allows us to get those nice margins. So that would be number one. Number two would roll into the reoccurring revenue model. So it's, it's a little different. It's, little different than like a painting franchise or something more of a one and done, nothing real painting, but you don't mean no, no, no, something different there. So it allows them to, once they onboard a client, they're in the system. Boom, there they go to run a weekly service, move on to the next one. So the scalability is probably a number two. And then number three is once they meet the team and the support, because that is huge. The in -house call center, in -house marketing teams, they don't really have to do it's very hands off. So it's done a very D .F .Y. done for you, done for them. That'd the top three. I could go all day. Why were they Yeah. Well, you mentioned the team that's been with you for a long time, you know, through multiple brands. how do you support your franchise owners? What does the team do to kind of go above and beyond to make sure that these owners succeed and puddle as a emerging, you know, soon to be mid -market franchise brand? For sure. Yeah, that's probably the most important part is the support. Right, so be it if they've, even if this is their first business and we have some that have had six, seven businesses, right, even running at the same time. So more is there, we run a weekly executive, like a GSR, right, a goal set and review. They meet with their business or their puddle coach once a week. It kind of gives them that bird's eye view and we're setting goals and making sure we attain those goals. Monthly round tables with all the puddle partners as a whole. We have a social media corner once a month. We have a business growth once a month. And then we have a every two months we have a, we call them power packs. So people that are in it from zero to three months, then four to eight months, then eight months plus, because the growing pains are different in all of those areas. So, yeah, yeah. Last guy told us, he's like, there's just too much damn support here, which is great. Right. So, love that peer support. Yeah. That peer support is really meaningful because like, as they're ramping up, having other people going through the same thing in different markets that are like there to collaborate there to help each other. In addition to the support you get from corporate, that's huge. That's a big differentiator. You got it. So that's great that you guys encouraged that. Yeah, yeah, it's mandatory. Yeah, you got to be able to kill it, right? So awesome. So who are you guys looking for? Who's the ideal candidate to be a Puddle franchise owner? Yeah, that's always a great point. we don't, it's not, you know, male 18 to 36, female, you know, 20 to 40. We have a wide variety of, have our youngest franchise partners, 21, our oldest is 57, right? We have husband and wife, we seven female -owned locations, we've got, so we have a little bit of everything. They'll have that same drive. They wanna be able to scale. That is number one. They have to want to build an empire. Think outside of the box. BAG, the big ass goal, that's what you want, right? Everybody knows that type of person. And they don't have to have, they don't have have managed a team of, thousand, but as long as they have that, if they manage one person, two people, they kind of have that, that drive, that spunk, right? You kind of just know that that's for them. It's home service. So they have to have, they're not, they're not actually, you know, shaking hands, kissing babies, but they have to have that, that ability to, to hold a conversation. So those types of things, we call it a, multitasking side hustler. this is, I hate saying this is a side gig, but probably 80 % of our locations all have their primary job or their day job. And this runs on the side until it develops that, we get to a certain level where they can flip into it. that's more that we're looking for. know that's what a lot of people are looking for is a way to kind of wean themselves off of their salary and kind of get off the W -2 and do so in a way that is scalable and isn't going to kill them with a huge investment where they have to sign a lease and build off this big project. And the fear too, right? Like that's scary to just go, okay, I'm going to leave my day job and now I'm going to try this. And if you have a family, especially that's a cute, like I have five kids, you know, initially I'm, I don't know how my wife let me do that, that's, you know I mean? It can be scary. you need that support, you need that. But if you can give them that, where we would rather, you don't need to, be, you know, full, full time kind of thing. So super important. Just before we're speaking here today, I was speaking with a first time franchise candidate that was deciding between a home services brand and acquiring seven QSR restaurants. And I was like, where do want me to begin? Like, yeah, away from the seven units out of the gate, because there's a high probability that you may not succeed. Whereas something that you can ramp into, make sure you like being a business owner, make sure you like operating within the franchise system, and then take that leap into that, those big lease commitments and manage the big teams kind of like. crawl before you walk, before you run type of deal. Baby steps for sure, man. Like taking on steps. So conversely, who would not be a good fit for you? I would it be someone that's just kind of an introvert, that's more of like a behind the scenes person that just doesn't have that connectivity, like doesn't want to get out in the community and be the face of puddle? Yeah. So even in those, that definitely would not help, right? You can always supplement people in your system that have the ability to do that. It's more of, more of that person who may be, I'm, I'm retired. I'm, I just want to clean some pools in my neighborhood and be done for the day or cut some lawns. And I'm in your right, more like introvert, not very, we really don't, this will not resonate well with them at all. Like it, it scales organically and it scales quick. So you don't want that would offset that. So for sure. Yeah, cool. So, you know, someone you know, goes through the process of educating themselves on the model. They like it. They want to join. What does it take to start? Like, what does it look like in terms of vehicles and staff to kind of get a puddle pool off the ground? Yep. So it's, it, we always start with one tech with one truck. It doesn't matter if it's one location or they buy multi of a five, five territories. We always start with one. It's, I would say it's easier to add. It's a lot harder to take away. So of course they'll scale a lot quicker with multiple territories, but That's all it takes. And that could be the owner themselves or someone they hire for that role. Yeah, we usually tend to prefer where they would have a technician in place. They would come to training and then they would play more of the admin role more that back. We have had locations that we have one that's two months in now and they took that owner operative. They're just that type of person. I'm that type of person. I got to get my hands. I got to, I got to feel it before I know it. That's just the way I learned. it does, they have to be under the understanding is it does flip into exact model right away. You know, they're month two and they're looking to hire their first tech in about another two months. They'll probably hire their next one. So, you can kind of be flexible for, it can be either way. Got it. So I guess being that you're servicing pools, your territory must be a little bit different than a traditional service franchise. So what does the territory size look like for Puddle? And what percent of market share is needed to kind of have a mature puddle pool services business operating within that territory? Yeah, I love that second question. It's so each territory is based on a 10 ,000 pool count. Right. So everything is even. Yeah. So everything is based on 10 ,000 pool. What is the percentage needed to have a mature business or when they can flip into from their day job into the puddle role? So if we go after 5 % market share initially is what we go after market share. So if we're going after 5 % of 10 ,000, that's going to give us 500 pools. Each vehicle can service 60 to 70 pools a month. So how that works out is 12 to 15 jobs a day, pools a day, times five days a week, Monday to Friday. And it's the same reoccurring one week after week. That'll give you that 60 to 70. So we take 500 into 60 or 70, that's going to give you those six or seven vehicles. So how long does it take to flip in? Yeah. So in each, if they're netting, you know, roughly if they're netting 30, 40 K from each vehicle per year, depending on supplementing their income, if they're making 80 K, 120. So now we know by vehicle three, four, two, whatever that may be. it doesn't, so you can kind of reverse engineer and figure, know, how do I get to my number by how many, you know, vans and technicians do I want to get out there? Exactly. If I want to be making 180 a year, I need this many. So. OK, so in terms of item seven, how much does it cost to get into the business? What's it? What's the startup cost look like? I know there's a range, but where do we typically fall? Yeah, so it's 95 to 118, 95, one to one. It's typically it's 95 118 is if you're. you wanted to start with the Mercedes Sprinter and the Ford Raptor, something big and juicy. You've got to pay for that, right? So, but average is 95 .1. And that includes everything. Okay. And I'm assuming you have an item 19 about financial performance. You just touched on it before. Is there anything else you can share with us in terms of what an owner can expect based on historical data? Yeah. So in item 19, we have three P&Ls. It's going to give you margins. It's going to give you performance to work off of. There's all kinds of goodies in there. you know, being our next one that's coming next year will have close to 20 P &L. So even more juicy. But yeah, this one here is definitely has a has a lot of items they can. that's awesome. Yes. There'll be a lot more data points for the next one. You got it. Yeah. Cool. You got it. Awesome. Well, hey, this has been great. Really interesting. Any other kind of information about Puddle you want to add to the mix before we wrap up today? Yeah, just, know, if you think if Just like anything, if you think this might be for you, know, just schedule an intro call. of our team members can take you through. Maybe it is, maybe it's not, right? Everything we do is in -house, like from call one to call seven, you know, the entire process you're dealing with somebody in -house. And I am always on call one, two, three with all of our brands and all of the awards and over a hundred. That's super important. It's very, you want that family base, that culture base is you need to have that. Very cool. Well, if anyone listening would like to speak with Mark about franchising with Puddle Pool Services, contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on Twitter @QBfranchiseQB. I'll get you connected with him and his team. Thank you so much, Mark, for taking the time to get in the huddle and speak with us about Puddle Pool Services. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. Absolutely. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast, where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit FranchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter and for an actionable playbook to go from walk -on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter @QBfranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. FranchiseQB.com to take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence and franchise ownership. And remember, When working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.