Franchise QB

Episode 104: AI Futureproof | Building a Handyman Multi-Million Dollar Empire with Colin Sprake

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 104

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In this conversation, Colin Sprake, CEO of Local Handyman, shares his extensive experience as a serial entrepreneur and discusses the unique aspects of the handyman industry. He emphasizes the importance of support systems for franchisees, the scalability of the business model, and the significance of building strong relationships. Colin also highlights the critical characteristics he looks for in potential franchise owners and the necessity of following established systems for success.

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Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the franchise podcast. Our entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the small business model ever created. Franchising. Joining us in the huddle today is Colin Sprake, CEO of Local Handyman. Welcome to the show. Yeah, my pleasure to be here, Mark. Thank you so much. It is so great to have you here. So you are a serial entrepreneur from South Africa with over three decades of experience in building multiple multimillion dollar businesses globally in many industries and economies. Very impressive. You founded a company called Make Your Mark Training back in 2004. So you've been at that for over 20 years. And that's a business that assists other businesses to realize their full revenue and profit potential and do it with heart. And we're going to talk about that here in a little bit. Making a positive impression on their businesses, staff, colleagues, vendors, families, customers, the entire kind of ecosystem, including the community. You're also a global authority on assisting companies to grow from six figures, seven figures, eight figures and beyond. This is extremely impressive. You've coached and mentored over 110,000. business owners and know the vital components to growing a massively successful business balanced with a great family life, which is really impressive. You currently own 14 businesses, one of which is on its way to becoming the first billion dollar business in less than two years. You've been mentored by Sir Richard Branson and some of the dragons and sharks from entrepreneurial TV shows, Dragons Den and Shark Tank. Today we're going to discuss your franchise, Local Handyman. uh There are lots of independent handyman companies and also some franchise players. Why did you decide, of all things, to enter the handyman space column? Hey Mike, it's super good and thank you for the kind introduction as well. The big piece for me, Mike, is that the world is changing. It's changing quickly with the whole AI and where AI is going and everything else. I like anything to do with hands, because hands on going anywhere, anytime. So Handyman, I also own a septic company as well, like toilet traders, vacuum trucks, what have you. So I got in the Handyman space because one of my first businesses I ever launched was a Handyman business. I was 16 years old. I went to my grandma's complex that she lived in. There were like about a hundred units in this complex. And I'm like, I'm just going to, I'm very handy. I'm going to launch a business. And it was called Diffy, D-I-F-Y, which stands for do it for you. And I became like super busy. And eventually I was like full time Saturday, full time Sunday during school, you know, and then of course at school during the week. And that just got the bug. I mean, I've always been entrepreneurial, but that's really got the bug in me on entrepreneurship. And now with where the world is at, so many people, they're good with doing this on their phones. That's about all that. That's about the sum total of your technical ability for some people in terms of being a handy person. It's becoming and of course, there's baby boomers out there. This market's only going up and growing and growing rapidly, which is the handyman space. I don't care how many companies are out there. There's way too much work for the number of companies. Yeah, you mentioned the kids that are coming up and they're on their phones all the time and they are definitely not learning how to fix things. So it's a really good point that this next generation is going to really need this service. uh So was there something like broken in the industry that you recognize or was it just the potential based on the boomers and the kind of the new generation coming up that's fixated on the phone? Yeah, Mike is a great question. I think I don't think anything was broken. I think that my background in business coaching, mentoring and training like for over 20 years now, I just looked at so many franchises that were out there and I don't think they have the support. I really don't think they do. um I have built a system now that supports the franchisee from the day they signed the franchise agreement to the day they renewed 10 years later. And in terms of business coaching, mentorship, business groups, like there's nothing like in the industry. like, well, I want to go into this industry. Number one, because I know the industry well, my whole background is engineering. I've done my own handyman before. It's only become more, you know, there's more of a demand than there ever was. But yet there's no one that's really built the system the way we have. I've taken the best of the training world, best of the franchise world and married them together to create a a system and a support structure that I don't think anyone can touch. I just don't. I just know what we've built and that's why we are so inundated. We get between 50 and 100 inquiries a week for franchise. Yeah, that's really impressive. yeah, I mean, it's interesting because most people when they think in the handyman space, they think, well, I have to be a handyman myself, but you're not really looking for that avatar, are you? Exactly who are you looking for to become an owner with a local handyman? Yeah, we look so simply if someone says to me calling I'd love to buy one. I'm a handyman I'm really good as that as a handyman. I'm like I won't even sell you a franchise But I don't want you in the van or in the truck. um I want the guys out of the truck So when we look at that can be ladies to have ladies that own franchises as well What we look for are people that are typically w-2 leaving a corporate job that want to go and own a business have no They don't have a background. They don't know which end of a hammer to hold some of them, but they're looking for an opportunity And we look for guys like that Mike and ladies like that But we also look for people that are investors we can you can be fully absentee in this business as well Buy a franchise put in a general manager business development person and they can run your territories for you So this model is designed to scale You know and I built the model the way I built the model I had to revamp the model when I when I took the company over in 2003 is The model designed to scale and I wanted to build a model that I would buy my own franchises. last week I just signed my fourth territory. oh located in the US or Canada? In Canada right now, um I'm very tempted by the end of the year if someone doesn't buy Austin, I'm going to buy Austin because that's probably the best market in the US and you know nothing's really we've had lots of inquiries for Austin but I don't know if people are super conservative in that city or something but there's lots of opportunity and some of the best territories are in Austin by far. Yeah, Austin's a great market and especially in home services. So I think you're going to be boxed out of your own franchise opportunity because I would bet that someone's going to step up and lock in that market. It's a really good one. Um, so Colin, you talked about your support and how that's a differentiator for you. And I've heard you use the word care being part of your competitive edge. What does that mean to you in terms of like hiring service and support? Yeah, so I mean, of course, have to be in terms of all the things. So when I when I first got involved with Local Handyman on the 1st of August, twenty twenty three, I looked at the business and said, you know what? What a business because of my previous experience with Make Your Mark. What are business owners not good at? They're not good at doing bookkeeping on average. They're not good at doing their social media for the majority of them. They're not good at technology. They're not good at hiring. And they Not good at running ads. So I said great. I'm gonna bring all of that in house We'll charge you a fee for it, but we do all that for you So you can go build the business and be the proper your garden be high touch with your clients so that you can You build great relationships and that's how this business really builds So those are the five things we bring in house and then we actually have a whole process for supporting um our success partners. We don't call them franchisees our success partners on How to hire effectively and we have a whole plan around that. It's called the hero hiring process for trades Mike it's It's our own proprietary system and then once you're into our system Then our support around the groups that you get into we have three levels of business mentorship groups It starts off with the FTFS startup accelerator The FTFS for everyone who's listening to this is stands for follow the freaking system startup accelerator because that's what we want people to do, Mike. And then once you graduate into the multiple six-figure businesses and six-figure revenues, we put you into what we call our K-Club Accelerator Advisory Boards. And then once you get into the multi-million dollar um earnings in terms of revenues, then we put you into what we call the M-Club Summit, which meet at the office here once a quarter. uh Everything is built out in absolute detail that people, when people see our support from, like I said, I'll say it again, from startup all the way through to your 10 year anniversary with us. There's no company out there I know that supports it to that level. Yeah. We support lots of franchises but, or franchisors but for us I haven't seen it. Yeah. So, I mean, you're in a business that's kind of unique in that there's usually more demand than supply, right? Everybody needs things fixed all the time. Homes are aging and deteriorating. And it becomes a business where, like you said, recruiting is so critical for the franchise owner because they're going to like live and die by the quality of handyman that they employ. And I like that you're taking a lot of the stuff off their plate. It's noise in terms of like client acquisition and marketing, but you have to do it because you don't have a business if you don't have customers. If you allow the franchise owner to focus on building those relationships, you get your foot in the door and there's some trust. There's so many things you can, I mean, know at firsthand, we just had our handyman come out and I spent five grand between some lighting projects, some exterior, wood rot, trim, painting. It just keeps like accumulating. Once you're like, these guys are good at what they do. They charge a fair rate. They showed up on time. They, know, all that. So I can see if you allow your success partners to focus on that aspect of the business. They're going to be really wildly successful. uh So I want to touch on, you know, part of the intro is you have coached over a hundred thousand, a hundred and 10,000, in fact, business owners, how have those years of experience kind of shaped the systems that you have built around the local handyman franchise. that it's shaped every aspect of local handyman. So what we've done is we've said, you know, like I said, we know what business owners are not good at, that only comes from the decades of experience through Make Your Mark. And then other pieces we brought in, all the business coaching groups were launched in Make Your Mark. And then also we have very in-depth training on how to do trade shows effectively, how to do sales. heart centered sales effectively, exposure strategies. Like all my top intellectual property from Make Your Mark has been plugged into local handyman so that people go on a journey. when we do an on, when we onboard somebody in our portal, the nice part Mike, we don't require brick and mortar. So it's six weeks from the day you sign the franchise agreement to actually launching your first van, which is amazing in this industry. That whole portal we've built. Has every single step of the way what you need to do day by day all the way from day zero if you want to call it a day one all the way to the six week mark and then through that we actually build out a 30 60 90 day plan with you and we build out that entire plan through the FTS startup accelerator group and we just get people on track we might we just launched St. Louis a few weeks back. Let's say four weeks ago It's incredible where they're at. They've got two guys, two vans, and they're ready over 30 grand in ribbon. Yeah, it's a quick start. I've heard you say that this isn't for like a chuck in the truck, someone who wants to hop in the van and kind of run the business. You want people that are going to work on the business and kind of scale it. People that want freedom and wealth, not just buying themselves a job. So can you elaborate a little bit more about what makes this a scalable business and not just like a side hustle? Yeah, completely Mike. think the piece for me that makes it super scalable is it becomes independent of the owner. know, for sure, the owner can be the one that goes out and meets people, shakes hands, kisses babies, whatever you to grow the brand and become the mayor of the town or the city. But if you're in the van, you cannot do that. That's not it's very difficult, difficult to scale sitting in your truck, you know, because you got work to do. So at the end of the day. The model is scalable in the sense that we only start with minimum three territories, Mike. We don't allow people to buy one territory and see how it goes and then buy a second one. The economies of scale on three are exponentially different to a single territory, number one. And we want people to come in where they start with like three and then they scale to 15, 20, 30 territories over the course of the next 10 years, whatever number. I'm not looking for Let's just say I know Austin very well. Let's say Austin is nine territories. I'm not looking for nine individual franchise owners in Austin. I'm actually looking for one. I want one person to buy at least start with us there. Three territories, four or five, and then buy the rest in the next couple of years because your marketing strategies change when you own the city or enhances them. can do billboards, radio, TV without having to get other franchisees on board to do the like a co-op altogether. in terms of doing that kind of stuff. We have so many people that are owning cities right now. I'd rather have fewer franchisees and give them top notch customer care and customer service than have a thousand franchisees in the US. We could probably have 3,000 franchisees. I don't want that. I would rather have, let's say, 250 franchisees that own all of the US. And that's we're looking for. And each territory you own makes it So that way you can cultivate kind of deeper relationships with the fewer owners that are operating more geography. I get that. ah So let's touch on kind of the footprint. You have grown local handyman to, my information may be dated at least 70 territories in the last 18 months. What's driving that kind of momentum? And do I have that footprint right? Yeah, so I mean it's crazy out has grown like it's let's put it give it more perspective here um Nine months ago. We had one territory in the US. Yeah that was sold now We forced approaching a hundred territories and some are in contract and what have you right now and busy busy gonna be launching soon as well m The big piece and what's driving that Mike is my relationship with people like you I take the relationships very seriously I look at everyone of the consultants that I work with as a relationship that's absolutely top-notch for me. uh don't, and I built that out over time. If you ask me what makes me so successful with all my companies, relationship equity. It's the relationships I have in my life. You can ask me, Colin, do you know uh a certain person? There's no longer six degrees of separation for me. It's like one degree of separation or two. I know so many people and that's what I've done. I've leveraged those opportunities to grow all my brands um and Handyman's grown so quickly, partly because of people like you, but also because of my own social media. I drive a lot of traffic through my own social media and also just I'm blessed, Mike. I wake up every single day and my inbox has got leads in it. It's super crazy and then I'm very much about automation. Someone like yourself sends us leads, you get updated as the person goes through the system automatically, which is very unusual in this space. So I've built a lot of automation to support um the people that refer us and make us one of their brands that they consistently promote. I want you to be fully updated on what's going on all the time. eh sense. I think that whole level of communication between consultants and brands, as well as between you and your success partners is critical because, um, I mean, it's a relationship business. You're signing a contract, but the idea is like, you know, once we understand the rules, let's put that away and let's work together to win. And I also like how you encourage collaboration between your owners, cause that's how everyone gets better. Like there's the corporate relationship and then there's a relationship that these success partners have with the other successful owners in the system where they can kind of. help each other and rising tide floats the boats and all that kind of good stuff. So Colin, I want to touch briefly on something you said earlier, the FTFS, follow the fricking system, right? Like if you join a franchise, you're doing it intentionally because you haven't figured it all out on your own and you can benefit from the way of doing business, the culture, the systems, the technology, the people, the list goes on and on. um In your view, why is the FTF so critical to the success operating within a franchise? Yeah, great question. mean, for anyone listening to this at the end of the day, you don't buy a franchise to do your own thing. You buy a franchise, you know, we put the rails down for you. That's the system. And all you're going to do is follow it. So we look for people that have that, that are like a locomotive that's full of freaking energy and amazing. And they're just looking for rails to run on. We put the rails down so that they can run. Mike, that's the most important piece. And if you decide I want to build, use my own rails or decide to do things differently. That's honestly, I've seen it in our own system where people decide they're not going to follow the system, Mike. And then three months later, like Colin, I think I should start following the system. I'm like, I don't know why you decided to do it your own way from day one. You know, next time just go buy a logo, buy a van, step a logo on and try it yourself. That's a lot of work, Mike. And I know with the people, way the FTFS is my favorite, favorite statement. We use it at all our trainings. We have shirts with FDFS on it as well because it's like don't join us if you want to do it your way. For sure, be an entrepreneur, have some creativity, whatever. In the beginning, the first 90 days, just follow the freaking system. And that's for any franchise that you purchase. I don't know why people buy a franchise and decide to do it their own way. It seems really counterintuitive. don't know why people do that, but as you know, it happens. So let's talk a little bit about the item 19. If someone's kind of evaluating this, they have to get three territories to get in the system. What is that going to cost like from a range standpoint to kind of get started? Yeah, so typically Mike is about a hundred grand a territory. It's a hundred grand all in per territory. So the franchise fee varies typically on three territories. It's 50k territory. um And then on top of that would be 25k per territory and startup capital. Then another 25k in operating capital round figure, a hundred K per territory all in. Okay. That makes sense. Colin, this has been awesome. I really appreciate your time. Anything else you want to add to the conversation before we wrap up today? Not really Mike, I think the piece for me would be, know, for people that are contemplating franchises, you know, the way I look at it in very simple format is I look for people with hunger and hustle that can really follow the system. I look for people that have four key criteria or characteristics. They're decisive, they're committed, they're trainable and they are resourceful, probably the most important being resourceful. And then what you look for from any franchisor, what systems and what support do we have? A year ago, we had four people on our team. We have 19 people now, Mike, supporting our success partners to where they need to go to. And I leave them with this thought, which I see this completely different. Because I haven't been in the franchise world probably for as long as you, And the one thing that I look at the franchise agreements, I don't even call them franchise agreements. I call them prenups. Like when you get, when you sign a contract with us, we get married. This is not like selling a car where At the of the day, the car drives off the lot and you jump up and down, you made a sale. I'm married to you for the next 10 years. I need to know that you're the right partner for us and culture is our number one thing, Every one of our success partners that comes on board has to be a fit for our culture, our core values, who we are as a company. And then we look at skillset, talents, all that kind of stuff they might have. But if they haven't got the culture, they don't match us core values wise. We don't even bring on franchisees like that. And people are like, wow. And my favorite statement around that is, you cannot teach a goldfish to climb a tree. I like how you guys are forward thinking about building the support mechanism for the owners that you anticipate coming on. And obviously in the past 18 months has been quite a few because to build a team like that and make that investment is telling to me as a franchise consultant, because you want to make sure that, you know, the people that get in early benefit from that. They don't have like deficiencies as it relates to their training, their support, et cetera. And also the fourth characteristic you talked about being resourceful. That's a big one. mean, it's like, you know, you'll do anything it takes to make this work and having that grip, that drive, like you can't teach that. It's a behavior that's kind of learned and, um, you know, either you have it or you don't. So it's kind of good that you use that as a measuring stick when you're evaluating your partners. Um, this has been great. Colin, uh, thank you so much for your time. If anyone listening would like to connect with Colin and his team to learn more about becoming a local handyman franchise owner. Contact me at franchiseQB.com or on x at QB franchise QB. I'll get you connected. Thank you, Colin, so much for taking the time to get in the huddle with us today. My sincere pleasure Mike and thanks to all the listeners as well. Thank you for listening and sincerely look forward to supporting you in some way or form because we are one of the fastest growing franchises I know. When you join our family, you'll understand what the word care truly means. Excellent. Thanks, Colin. 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 at QBFranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. Visit 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 old. Thank you for listening.