Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of All Things Considered Franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. I am your host, Scotty. My All Things Considered Franchising is a podcast devoted to the franchising industry and the entrepreneur for those who are seeking or looking to diversify a portfolio. In considering franchising all things Considered franchising, pres, uh, presents a lot of wealth and information about the processes and the different opportunities out there. Scott, my franchise coach.com, I am the president and founder of that organization as well, is a consulting organization that helps people research and explore business ownership, helping you put together the, uh, dotting the i's, crossing the T's, putting together the model and introducing you to opportunities that potentially fit what you're looking for. So today's guest is somebody and I, I didn't mention to this in her in our preliminary conversations, but, um, today's guest, uh, along with her, one of her counterparts that she happens to be very, very close friends with Jamie, uh, is Pro, is the first person, or first people that I had ever met outside of the organization I started working with, uh, outside of, uh, in franchising.
Speaker 1 00:01:21 Uh, our, our, our guest today is Kim Woods, um, a franchise developer with, uh, authority Brands, color World Painting. Uh, Kim has an extensive, extensive background in franchising, has been in the industry. I won't go into the number of years because <laugh>, I don't wanna, uh, I don't wanna, I don't want people to start counting much like me. Um, but, uh, Kim is the C FFE Certified Franchise Executive recently, uh, that I say recently, probably over within the last year, made the transition out of the, uh, marketing lead generation over to the development side. Now, as I mentioned, with Authority Brands and Color World painting. The other caveat here for Kim is Kim is, uh, spent 10 years in the Naval Reserve. So thank you for, uh, serving this country. Kim, welcome to All Things Considered Franchising.
Speaker 2 00:02:09 Well, thank you for having me, and I love that introduction. I appreciate it, and thanks for not making me feel too old. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:02:16 <laugh>. Well, thank you for, uh, for, for, for coming on board here and, uh, you know, you have a tenure within the industry. I mean, I think, you know, if I was going to, you know, want to grab somebody and, uh, sit them down and bend their ear about the industry on whether I wanted to get into it or stay away from it, you are certainly one of those people. I mean, you've seen all aspects from the marketing side now, the development side, uh, you've seen the successes of franchising, you've seen the failures. So I guess my first question is, you know, being in it as long as you have and seeing kind of this circle of, uh, uh, within the industry, um, for our listening audience, for people who are thinking about getting into franchising or investing in a business, becoming an entrepreneur for the first time, um, what are your thoughts? What is somebody should, what what should somebody be thinking about at this point? Um, you know, what, what direction do you recommend they go in? Um, you know, let's start out there and then of course we'll get into, uh, color World and the brands that you're, uh, representing.
Speaker 2 00:03:24 Okay. I think first of all, when somebody's getting into franchising, they need to understand they're getting into a proven model. Somebody's already done it, and basically they're replicating it, but it's still a business, and the business still needs somebody to run it and need somebody to drive it. So they still, even though there's all these bells and whistles and tools that are gonna help them be successful and replicate the model, they still have to have the desire to grow their business and still have to have the, uh, you know, the drive to show up every day and to turn it into a bigger business than they thought it could be. Um, I think sometimes people make the mistake of just thinking, oh, I'll just buy this and this is great, and, you know, they'll do everything for me. We do a lot of things for you and a lot of franchise brands do, but you actually have to have the drive and you have to wanna succeed and or hire the right people to help your franchise succeed.
Speaker 1 00:04:12 You know? That's absolutely right because a lot of my clients, you know, some of the questions I get, um, is, you know, what is the franchisee gonna be franchisor gonna be doing to help build my business? I mean, are they gonna go out there and get me clients? Uh, and so on. And, you know, sometimes there's that misnomer about franchising and the beauty about franchising. As somebody you probably know, Emily Anderson said, there's a lot more to the golden arches in the $5 foot long franchising is a very diversified industry. And I think when, you know, we look back when we first started getting into this industry and started our plant, our feet make a career out of this. Um, you know, there may have been thousand franchisors in the us now we're creeping up on 4,000. I mean, that, that's, that's, that's incredible growth over a period of x amount of years.
Speaker 1 00:05:04 Yeah. Um, you're with Authority Brands, uh, as I mentioned in our, our intro, you, you, you decided to make a transition into the service or supplier side, uh, where you've built a lot of friendships, uh, provided a lot of guidance and help even to people like myself, uh, on the marketing side, building organizations. And now you're on the development side with Colorworld painting, uh, one of the great brands, uh, managed by Authority Brands. Um, tell us a little bit about Colorworld painting. Um, uh, who fits in well with this? Um, it, it it's, it's an exciting brand. Um, uh, you know, uh, it's in this home services category. Tell us a little bit about it.
Speaker 2 00:05:47 Okay. So I will say, first of all, I love the transition. I like, I love being on this side and working with the candidates directly, but Colorworld is commercial residential painting company that does interior and exterior painting. Uh, but we also have additional revenue streams, holiday lighting, uh, power washing. We're now getting into replacing cabinet doors instead of just painting cabinets. So it's a whole additional revenue stream. And there's a few other things that are, uh, franchisees can offer. Uh, but essentially it's an owner operator. It is a semi absentee operator. And, uh, they're gonna, they're not even gonna do the painting. So you don't have to have painting experience, you don't have to have remodeling experience, basically gonna get 10 99 employees to do the painting. But the, as a franchisee, if they're gonna be the owner operator, they're gonna go around doing the estimates and then asking for the job and then coordinating the painters on the back end. The goal is to have as many paint crews as possible. So you can say yes to as many jobs as possible, but it fits for veterans, for, uh, former executives, uh, pretty much anybody who wants to, you know, that feels comfortable going into a homes, working with people or managing people.
Speaker 1 00:06:53 You know, you brought up an interesting point. Um, you know, and one of the things that Scott, my franchise coach.com, the consulting side of my businesses, uh, works with people is that sales aptitude. Yeah. Uh, you know, uh, there are people that are just not comfortable being in what I call that boardroom presentation mode, speaking to people or at, or presenting to a homeowner. Um, is that a big requirement with color world painting? I mean, there's gotta be a, I would think there has to be a comfort margin to that or be able to hire somebody to do that for you. Well,
Speaker 2 00:07:27 I love to say to people, you know, because people do worry about the sales aspect of it, but you're going to somebody's home that invited you there because they know they need your services. They invited you there to do an estimate. So it's not like you're knocking on the door trying to sell vacuum cleaners and you know, you're trying to do the hard sell, get them into the house so you can do this demonstration. You're going there cuz they already knew they needed the outside painted, the inside painted or whatever it is that they needed painted. So you're going out to do the estimate and obviously you should try to upsell, you know, so you can have, uh, a bigger ticket, but also most of the time they need more work done when you get there and they want you to paint the outside and you're inside their home, you can see there's, you know, paint chipping rooms that need to be painted, half painted, different colors.
Speaker 2 00:08:07 There's always something more. So it's not really a hard sell, it's just feeling uncomfortable enough with people and, you know, looking around and being aware of what needs to be done and suggesting it. They don't have to do it, right. You can just suggest it. But, um, and then hire or hiring somebody that can do that. Uh, but we do have great training. We have a really awesome sales trainer. Um, and we have two sales trainers, actually. One who do is the regular training and one who does sales training. And both are great at sales, um, and really good at coaching our franchisees. So sometimes we have a franchisee that thinks they're good at it, but then if they ask us for help, we can totally increase their margins. We've had a few that we've done that with recently.
Speaker 1 00:08:44 I'm sure one of the questions you get, and I'm sure it'd be one of the questions that I ask you if I was exploring, uh, color World on my own, um, I'm not that handyman type guy. Uh, you know, my wife takes care of all of that <laugh>. Uh, but one of the questions I probably could see being a asked or, and it may be something to inform our audience, our listening audience here, is, is that, um, I wouldn't know one can of paint from another can of paint, uh, other than going to the local store down the street to pick up a can. What type of training is there, uh, that you're giving to, uh, franchisees that are coming into the system about the products? Um, when to use, what to use, what when? Um, yeah, different types of paints. I mean, is there a lot of education, continual education on the products, uh, that they're providing to their customers?
Speaker 2 00:09:38 Yeah, so there is a lot of education, but also there are, uh, you're gonna be assigned a rep at P P G and a rep, which is a painting company and our paint company and Sherwin Williams. So you're actually gonna have a rep that's dedicated to you that is going to continuously be telling you about the products going on and products for your market. So they're gonna work with you and guide you because what we use here in New England, cuz you're not that far from where I am, what we use in this area is a lot different than they might need in Florida, uh, where the sun is just beating on the houses all day. So yes, there's plenty of education that happens, yearly education that happens, and then there is a team that's going to help you that's dedicated to helping you to making sure you're, uh, getting the best, using the best product and also getting the best margin outta the product. You know, you can go anywhere to buy paint, but if you're not going to, you can go to a certain place and buy it for cheaper, which would make sense obviously to do it that way. Right,
Speaker 1 00:10:29 Right. Um, one of the things that I always try to kind of point, uh, out to my clients that are investigating and researching business ownership is that being involved in a business that has multiple revenue streams, um, is always a bonus. Yeah. Uh, versus the one and done type thing. Now I, again, I'm not here to say that one and done is not the wrong way to go, but having multiple revenue streams, kind of that, you know, Willie Loman briefcase of, uh, of services I call it. Um, and, and, and Colorworld is providing multiple revenue streams. And based on what you said before, it sounds like you're adding additional revenue streams or listening to your franchisees about potential other revenue streams. Can you share any little information about those additional revenue streams outside of the interior exterior painting?
Speaker 2 00:11:23 Yep. So, uh, Tom, who started Color World, uh, you know, realized that cuz he, they're in Columbus, Ohio, similar climates up here in New England. He realized during the winter it would get a little slower for exterior painting. Uh, so he added holiday lighting, which is really taken off. Holiday lighting, uh, you know, I'm sure you know in the neighborhood that you live in, there's just always holiday lights up and it's a lot to do, right? It's a lot for somebody to get out there with a ladder, try keep moving the ladder. So they do outsource that. So adding the holiday lighting, even painters can, can put up the holiday lighting for you. Um, or you can have college kids do it, whoever you want to put up the holiday lighting. But that was a way to get in front of people in the winter that then can become customers in the summer or in the spring.
Speaker 2 00:12:04 So we, we use it to try to get in front of the homeowner throughout the year. So the separate advertising for the holiday lighting than there is for the, um, like the painting, which is double duty. But that is our goal ultimately is to get in front of the homeowner throughout the year. We're also added interior designing, uh, which we don't use everywhere, but for that special client that really wants somebody to come in, you know, and help with the interior designing, we do have that as an outlet that our franchisees can offer to a, a homeowner and stuff as well. And then we're really putting a push on commercial work and homeowners associations and things like that too. So we're trying to give our franchisees every aspect to get in front of as many customers as possible. Um, and then networking. They need to network, they should join local Right.
Speaker 2 00:12:46 Networking groups drive around in their vehicle. I always say maybe not date night. Cause that might get a little weird if you're riding around in your color car on date night or if you're just dating, right. You pick somebody up in the Colorado car. It might be a little weird <laugh>, but you know, you should use that when you're go into the kids', uh, game. Or if you're go into a football game and use tailgating or even go to the grocery store in the mall. Just trying to do some awareness like that. Having somebody hand out flyers, I always say, you know, I've a, uh, just turned 50 and oh my gosh, <laugh> and, uh, gotta be 18 year old. And I always say if somebody offered them 20 bucks to hand out flyers, it'd be psyched. They
Speaker 1 00:13:19 Absolutely doing that.
Speaker 2 00:13:21 So just things like that.
Speaker 1 00:13:23 Now, we touched on this, uh, a a couple of minutes ago, but just to kind of flip back to it. Uh, we talked about sales aptitude, but as an organization, I know authority brands, uh, and, and in the different brands, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I would guess that Colorworld has it too, that sales assistant, I mean, are we talking about call center, uh, assistance or, uh, scheduling? Um, I mean the technology side here, uh, can you share any information about that, that, uh, franchisees would get coming in? Uh, helping them on the, uh, the sales assistance side?
Speaker 2 00:13:57 Okay, perfect. I love that question. And so obviously a lot of individual painters have, you know, play phone tag a lot with customers trying to call them, and they're usually using the cell phone and they're playing back and forth. And it might take a week to get somebody on the phone. We have a twenty four seven call center that books all of the appointments for the franchisee. So any, anytime someone calls their phone number, their individual phone number for their location or even goes in through the website, they're getting booked on the franchisees calendar. So we literally set up the appointments for them to go out and do the estimates. So you just have to show up and do the estimates and then ask for the sale. But our call center goes above and beyond. So when the franchisee has ads on Angie or Thumb Tech, we actually call those leads too. So we do the phone calls to them to get them scheduled on the calendar too. So we try to take the day-to-day trying to get people on the schedule, offer the franchisee so they can be out there doing as many estimates as possible, and then working on getting the sales and getting everything lined up behind the scene. Or even developing more relationships with painters so they have more painters to line up for for us contractors.
Speaker 1 00:14:58 Yes. Now, one of the reasons that people get into business ownership or coming outta corporate, um, and, and wanna start their own business in a considering franchising is because of that work life balance, um, they want to be able to turn it off and turn it on when they want to. They may not wanna work on weekends. When we talk about that scheduling call center, and again, in the beginning we're talking about gunning out there and really hustling. Yeah. But when the, the business starts turning and, and, and, and, and the revenues coming in and the calls are coming in, I would think that a franchisee, the owner has that ability to really kind of schedule with that call center when they're gonna be available when they're not, or bring somebody on and train them to do the estimates that they're doing to kind of create that work-life balance. Is that a fair statement?
Speaker 2 00:15:51 Yeah, so we totally believe in work-life balance. Obviously, you know, we believe their family's very important. So if somebody needs to leave, let's just say at three o'clock on Wednesdays because they're, you know, their son or daughter has a sporting event and they have to bring 'em to the event, we're totally okay with that. You know, we would like our franchisees to be open, uh, Monday through Friday, regular business hours, seven to four or eight to five or somewhere in there, but tweaking it up every now and then, or having one day where you have to manipulate that, uh, we don't expect 'em to work on nights and weekends. Although if the franchisee wanted to, that is totally an option for them. And sometimes the semi absentee operator might wanna do one night a week so they can get their hands in there and kind of understand what's going on for their estimator or, or maybe even out on a Saturday or, you know, one week in a month something. So they can get their hands in there and understand what's happening and see if there's a way for them to help their salesperson maybe even do a better job since they know what's going on.
Speaker 1 00:16:47 Good. Good. We're talking to, uh, Kim Woods, a franchise developer for Color World painting. I'm Scotty, my, the host of All Things Considered Franchising, uh, Kim, you know, um, we talk about the marketing aspect of a business, um, we talk about the hustling side, getting out there, networking, um, but there are what we call differentiators between different models. I mean, a lot of people would say, I, I shouldn't say a lot of people, but the pushback may be, well, there are a lot of painters out there and I get a lot of questions about this, uh, presenting brands and options to people. Well, there are too many hamburger places, there are too many pizza places. I always seem to think that. And, and my belief is, is that competition is good. Yeah. And there's a reason why there are a lot of pizza hamburger painters, painting companies because it pleases the masses.
Speaker 1 00:17:39 There is a mass, uh, in your territory that are gonna require and need your services. You always, the, the differentiator is, is that as an organization business, you have to be a little bit different than everybody else and a little bit better than everybody else. And that's where the franchisee comes in, building it with the support of Authority Brands and Color World painting. Are there any distinct, um, differentiators between you and some of the other organizations out there? Again, look, all businesses are good businesses. Yeah. And we're not here to put anybody's spot, but yeah. I firmly believe, and I direct my clients to this, that you need to take a look at the infrastructure of the franchise war, the systems, the behind the scenes thing. Because the culture, you may not agree all the time, but you gotta be able to get along. It's like marriage. I mean, it's Uhhuh <affirmative>.
Speaker 2 00:18:34 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:18:35 <laugh>, you know, I mean, it's, it's, so are there anything, is there anything about the culture and I know the culture or authority brand, so, and Color World paintings. So anything about the culture that someone should know, uh, that would make them want to pick up the phone and talk more about Color World painting?
Speaker 2 00:18:51 Yeah, so I think that, you know, in, in terms of the culture, we're a family, right? We want somebody to be part of our family. We're looking for a partner. We're looking for people who are energized, wanna grow their territory, uh, that are not looking to fully reinvent the wheel. If you have a great idea of additional revenue streams, we're always open to that idea and see if it's something we can roll out across the brand. But, you know, we want somebody who wants to partner with us. We're not looking to be the full dictator other than obviously following the model. But our marketing team works with our franchisees to best spend their money in the local market. Uh, so we're not like, oh, give us all your marketing dollars and we'll spend it for you. Right. You know, we work with them and we write up a 12 month plan of how best to spend their money at different times of year.
Speaker 2 00:19:33 It also depends where you're located, right. On how you need to spend money. Like, you and I are only painting between, uh, exterior between, uh, April and October, maybe. Right. With Florida, they can paint year round. But I think the biggest thing is just making sure that they are, you know, we have all sorts of training available that we're gonna put them through. Uh, but we're also here to always encourage 'em and teach 'em new tips and tricks. Uh, we have all these different sales tools we can teach 'em, but you can't always just keep going back and say, well, let do this. We're gonna show you this, we're gonna show you this. Sometimes they have to say, you know what, I'm, I'm ready for a little bit more help. Right. Good. Um, because we don't wanna seem overbearing either, you know, cuz it is their business. We want them to feel independent. Uh, but, you know, the marketing department I think is a, a differentiator. But we are also one of the only ones that does interior and exterior, commercial and residential, but has protected territories for both. I know a lot of people protected
Speaker 1 00:20:26 Territories. Ok.
Speaker 2 00:20:27 Yeah. For both. And a lot are just for one, uh, just for residential, not for commercial. We don't want everyone competing against each other. Uh, but, you know, bringing in all these new partners that we have is really gonna help our franchisees make the most of their market. Uh, I dunno, it's just a really exciting time. Really good things going on, bringing on new things. I, I think people don't think sexy painting is sexy, but I will tell you, there's plenty of people out there that need things painted.
Speaker 1 00:20:53 Yeah. I mean, I you're, you're absolutely right. I mean, I, you know, uh, certainly the service-based businesses, uh, in most cases don't fall under the word sexy. Yes. <laugh>. But, uh, you know, but when you look at the franchising industry and whole, uh, home services, service-based businesses play a large part of it. And I can tell you there are a lot of people out there that, that have done very, very well and successful and, uh, become multi-brand, multi-unit operators, uh, in the service-based businesses. So, uh, yeah, exactly. It's definitely an opportunity if you can put the time, effort, and energy and be, uh, to be successful. So,
Speaker 2 00:21:30 Uh, yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:21:32 Um, we're running outta time here, Kim. Is there anything else you'd like to share, maybe about Color World or the franchising industry in general? I mean, like, like I said earlier in our, uh, as we started, uh, I think you and I have seen, uh, some really great positive changes for the better protecting the franchisee, uh, uh, within the industry. There's a lot of things that are, you know, happening in Washington, DC and the political side, um, you know, through the I F A, but is there anything else you wanna share or, or touch on, you know, uh, before we close out here?
Speaker 2 00:22:06 Well, yeah, and I think it's important sometimes when somebody's looking to buy a business, uh, especially a franchise, sometimes they get a little worried about the wording in the F D D that seems like it's a little too heavy protecting the franchisor. Um, and a lot of that is written for the extreme cases, right? It's written for a franchisee who just closes up shop one day and goes away and then, you know, we have a closed location or it's, it's written for, you know, um, somebody who doesn't wanna follow a system. Franchise disclosure documents are not meant to scare somebody looking to buy a business in most cases. Like I said, it's for the extreme. So you just realize there are a lot of laws and a lot of things written in to protect you too. And we're trying to protect all of our franchisees, not just one. Exactly. Or not just us. We're trying to protect the brand as a whole. And that's the biggest thing is we're protecting the brand, but we want the brand to be successful and to grow. And that takes everybody participating.
Speaker 1 00:22:59 You know, you're absolutely right. I mean, uh, you know, again, one of the things that Scott Mylo franchise coach.com does as a, a consulting organization is help educate people on the franchise disclosure document and the franchise agreement. And I think you hit it right, the nail right on the head that from the outside looking in, it is a very intimidating document. I mean, we could spend the next hour and a half, two hours on the F D D
Speaker 2 00:23:23 <laugh>. Exactly.
Speaker 1 00:23:23 Yeah. Hey, but what I always try to, and you alluded to this, is to tell clients and people that are researching or have maybe zeroed in on a brand and kind of have some pushback on the F D D F A and say to them, look, on the outside looking in, you're right, it is intimidating, but when you get inside the door and you are a franchisee, you're gonna wanna know that the franchisor has those systems and protections set up to protect you and protect your business, your investment. Um, so I think, you know, uh, I I think that's, but you hit the nail on the head, Tim. Uh, what is the best way for someone to get ahold of you if they're interested in learning more about Colorworld painting? Or maybe just have some questions on franchising in general?
Speaker 2 00:24:06 Okay, so it would be, I guess, via my phone, which would be (603) 475-5753 or, uh, k Woods Authority brands llc.com is the email. And then color worlds franchise.com is our website. I'd love to speak with anyone that has questions regarding Colorworld or just wants to chat about franchising. Totally open to it. Yep. And
Speaker 1 00:24:28 I appreciate you having me. Yep. Just have that information on the bottom there. Just, uh, reach out to Kim, uh, mention all things considered franchising. That would be great if you could do that. Um, Kim, thank you so much. Um, I, I continue, uh, success and help to you and your family. Um, thank you. I I, I know this was a big change for you because you spent many, many years on the marketing lead generation side. Uh, but, uh, the good thing is, is that you built a really good and great reputation amongst your peers in the industry that allowed you to get into this. And there's no doubt that you will be if you're not, you're already successful, uh, working with, uh, authority brands. Thank you. This is Scotty. My, uh, your host of All Things Considered franchising, powered by Scott, my franchise coach.com. To reach me, you can call me at (860) 751-9126. Go to my website scott my franchise coach.com, or email me Scott Scott, my franchise coach.com. This is Scotty, my signing off. Until next time, have a great day.
