Were you a trouble maker growing up? If this describes you, according to our guest today, it might be the reason why you are such a good entrepreneur.
Ellen Rohr shares her misses, makes, and multipliers today on what she has learned over her years of growing businesses. As president of Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber, a home service company, she helped grow the company from zero to $40 million in franchise sales and 47 locations in less than 2 years. She is also the COO of ZOOM DRAIN Franchising, LLC, a new drain and sewer company expanding across the USA. We make Business UN-Complicated so you can live Life UN-Leashed!
Ellen is an author having written 4 books and has been a columnist for Huffington Post, PHC News, business journals, and trade magazines around the country – providing “in the trenches” insight that business owners can relate to.
- Learn more about Ellen Rohr at her website = CLICK HERE
- Zoom Drain Franchising = CLICK HERE
If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
You’ve worked hard to build your business, and now it’s time to grow. Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, I’m your host, Tom DuFore. CEO of Big Sky Franchise team, and I’d like to thank you all for joining us for the next great edition of the Multiply Your Success podcast.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
As we get going today I’d like to ask you a quick question and that question is are you a trouble maker? I know it’s kind of goofy but are you? I don’t know, I was a pretty good kid I think for the most part when I was growing up but today’s guest, Ellen Rohr, talks about how she thinks trouble makers make for great entrepreneurs,and partially because that was her and she gives a great example of how she has gone through life and expanded and built and grown many, many companies over the years.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
She’s been the president of Benjamin Franklin The Punctual Plumber, where she took that business from zero to over 40 million dollars in sales and 47 locations in just two years. She and her business partners also run Zoom Drain Franchising, which she talks about where she took from just one or two locations to now 19 and growing. And she’s the author of several books and has really created this idea of where she makes business uncomplicated so that you can unleash your life and do the things that you want to do.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Ellen has also been a columnist for the Huffington Post, PHC News, Business Journalist, and trade magazines all over the country. She provides in the trenches insight that business owners can relate to; she’s just absolutely fantastic. She’s been a client I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with for several years and just being connected with her, this is really a treat of an interview. I think you’re going to really enjoy it. So without further ado, here is my interview with Ellen Rohr.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
My name’s Ellen Rohr and I’m the COO of Zoom Drain Franchise company; we’re the drain and sewer experts and Tom and I go way back. As we got started in franchising, Tom you’ve been a big help to us and thank you so much. Thanks for inviting me on the show and yeah I’m happy to share my story with you and you dear listeners.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that Ellen, And you’re just awesome and I’m so excited. In fact, I wanted to make sure that I had a few shows under my belt so that… you know kind of worked out some of the kinks so when a superstar like Ellen Rohr comes on that I feel like I’m ready.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Yeah. Oh, we’re ready, we got this. We got this. But it’s funny because I always feel so motherly. I’m so proud of you like I’m proud of my son. You’re just doing really great and I’m really honored to be here and we’re learning together. So happy to share what I’ve learned and learned from you today, so we’re going to make this a conversation. Fair enough?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
All right, I love it, yeah let’s do it. Well, thank you, so Ellen you have a really interesting background and I love your background and all of the success that you have had in your career in growing businesses, running companies, leading companies, and doing it in kind of a dirty business as they say, you know? Businesses I should say and industries.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I love a dirty job. Yeah.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
So tell us a little about that, about your background with that.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Well, when I was growing up my dad wasn’t handy. I didn’t know anything about the trades. If there was a problem we called somebody. I thought when you flushed the toilet a miracle happened. I never gave it a thought. You switched the light switch on, there’s instant weather with HVAC, I didn’t think of any of these things.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And then I married Hot Rod, my husband, the plumber and that was my first introduction to dirty jobs. So I’d ride along with him and I’d go on the job and I love tradespeople, they were so cool, they knew how to do things. And you know, if you strip away the walls of a city and you look just at the mechanical systems it is a miracle what they do.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Keeping good water from bad water, creating weather, wrangling electricity. It was not lost on me because I don’t have any of these skills. I would say one of my strengths in my career has been that I am a champion of the people who do. I appreciate tradespeople and their contribution to society and now more than ever, keeping people safe and mitigating the effect of diseases born of septic and faulty HVAC systems, all of these things are more relevant than ever in a society as condensed and as… You know, including the pandemic soup that we live in now and probably will.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So I am a big champion of the trades and I’d say that’s probably one of the reasons I have such an illustrious career. I’ve never learned the skillset of doing the work. I’ve always been the guy holding your beer championing those who are willing to go in as others go the other direction. So it’s been an honor.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
But also, just to share some salient points from my life that have really impacted my career, I had a lot of jobs as a kid. I was a trouble-making, fence testing. Even if you start to bash kids today I just won’t have it because I am that kid. I think that’s what happens to a lot of entrepreneurs, maybe you too, that at this point I’m not very hireable because trouble makers make for good entrepreneurs and are the ones who are going to take risks and test the boundaries.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And as a kid, I was like that. So I also have an appreciation for the trouble maker at your shop. Does he know the vision? Do you know what his goals are? What can you guys do to grow together at least for a while? He probably won’t stay, they all go at some point. They’re going to move, they’re going to start their own business. If you get someone who sticks with you for a long, long time that’s wonderful but could you make your place a haven of sanity for when somebody who’s with you for a while just gets better on your watch?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
That really motivated me as a kid. I just wanted someone to see me and create a better game than I could play on my own and then I’d go. But those people have had these big impacts on my life throughout the years. So it’s also impacted the way I appreciate our team. I am prejudiced toward the youth. I do love young people I must say, I’m an agist that way and I’m an old lady.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So there. So I did have a lot of jobs but the first real job I had was I had a son, that can change your life, you’re a dad.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And the first time I thought, I better get a job I became a restaurant manager and boy I tell you, all life lessons can be learned in a restaurant. If anybody has restaurant experience it’s going to serve you very, very well and any team members who come to the party and have restaurant experience on their resume I will always take a second look at that candidate because there’s just so much that happens on a customer relationship and production and community way every day at a restaurant.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
But then, when my husband’s partner died unfortunately and tragically he just really worked himself into a health crisis and at age 33 he died. This is Hot Rod, my husband’s partner, and that had a big impact on me. You know how this is, you can sacrifice your health and your relationships for your business.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You’re working 20 hour days, nothing’s coming of it. You take it out on your family. Those things can happen. So when Hot Rod’s partner died that’s when I left my real job, I went to work in the family plumbing, heating, and solar business and all of my dreams did not come true.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
It was really awful. So I also know what it’s like to be the plumber’s wife to have to try and pay bills and juggle the family and there’s never enough and I would tell Hot Rod, “We don’t have enough money.” And he would hear, “I’m not good enough. I’m not working hard enough.” And the stress and challenges that that creates. So all these things lead to the next best thing.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And we ended up selling… Well, let me not skip this piece. I met a mentor, I’ve had a zillion mentors in my life and that’s why I’m here. Once you’ve gotten help from someone your honor-bound to give it to someone else, so that’s why I love it when I get the opportunity to share on a podcast like this.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
But I met a guy named Frank Blau and I met him in the pages of a trade magazine. Every trade has now an online magazine or a blog or something that you can go and learn from smart people in that industry and he wrote this article on how much a contractor should charge. And I read the article and I typed him a letter and I said, “I read your article, it’s really great. None of that will work for me. You don’t understand my rotten guys.” Because at this point I’m completely burned out.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
“My cheap customers, my husband who he and I don’t get along.” I give him all these reasons why what he said in this article were wrong. So he calls me up. The author of this article, Frank Blau calls me up after getting my letter and he tells me where my head is. And I am on the other end of the phone like wait, what? Who is this? And it’s the guy I wrote the letter to and everything.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
That was the inauspicious start to a very great friendship and mentor relationship. He’s the guy who told me this, and if you’re listening and you’re thinking you might write something down today, write this down. He taught me you have to charge more than it costs. It doesn’t matter what your competition is doing, it doesn’t matter what they taught you in college about the going rate and all that. It doesn’t matter.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You have to charge more than it costs and if you don’t know, if your financials aren’t tight and right and you don’t know then you can be swayed into thinking you can do it for less and that is a path to disaster and it was the path that I was on. So he’s the guy who taught me the most basic element of business and it’s you got to make money.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Sales minus expenses, positive number, profit. Profit and cash are everything in business and I learned that from Frank. So when we turned our company around we decided not to work together anymore and I have nothing but compassion for family businesses but the worst businesses are family businesses. The best businesses are family businesses. Those who get it and communicate and are on the same path have a unifying mission and vision, those companies are unstoppable as family businesses.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
But unless you are aligned that way you will fight and it’s terrible and Hot Rod and I had just different visions for the company. He likes to work by himself, I like a lot of people. So at that point, we sold our company and I’m proud of that. It totally turned me on to employee opportunities. Our team members still own and operate that company 25 years later. Makes me super proud.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Then I went on to have just one awesome opportunity after another. I worked with Benjamin Franklin, The Punctual Plumber, I was the only employee of that company at the start and that’s had an amazing trajectory and now, oh I’ve got my dream job. I work with my best friends as partners at Zoom Drain franchising.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I love our franchisees, we’re at 19 locations and just getting started. I mean I’m just so, so fortunate. So that’s my story in a nutshell. I’m going to stop talking because I’m out of breath.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well Ellen I love it and I love your energy. Your one of my most favorite people, I just think you’re so wonderful and you’re so wise.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Oh, thanks, I love you too.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Thank you. And the wisdom you bring is to me, priceless and invaluable. I know you’ve done a session for one of our companies, for actually the one where we’re a franchisee and it was extremely helpful and set us on a pathway to get us to that direction that you’re talking about, about getting those numbers, I heard you say tight and right.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Helped getting that and our staff going down that direction and in just in connection how many people we’ve run into in these trades and these businesses that are using your books as a guidepost. So talk about how you took… I’d love for you to share how you took what you were learning and translated that into writing books and being an author and very practical information in there.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Well and let me add that one of the great things about getting older is the 10,000 hours. It’s just like you can’t help but become an expert if you last long enough, so just keep that in mind. So these experiences just build on one another and everything, even the stuff that I learned in the restaurant or as a trouble-making kid, all of that colors the decisions that I make today and that’s what happens.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You can look at your own life and see those patterns. I learned that not knowing where that would come in helpful and then here it is now. So I ended up writing the books, I’ve written four books and they’re thin and have pictures in them and they’re very simple to understand but I wrote them because I would have given my right arm for this information once upon a time.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So when Frank tells me, “You got to get your financial house in order.” I didn’t know how. I went to college, I took accounting and finance and in those classes, the financials were always assumed correct. So you’d do financial analysis on these financials but it never came up that you know what, they’re probably wrong. Those numbers are probably wrong. They’re probably a hot mess.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Because as I got into business and I took over for my husband’s partner, they were a mess and I didn’t know how to fix it. I didn’t know my asset from my elbow, so I had to ask, ask, ask questions, and sit with my accountant who was lovely thank you, Brenda. I mean I’ve seen some accountant abuse in my days and I am just fortunate that I had a great accountant when I needed one who said “You can learn this, I’ll help you, sit next to me. This is your asset, this is your liabilities. This is your equity, here’s how you populate these things on the reports. Here’s what’s wrong, here’s how to fix it.”
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
That really set me on this path and then I was looking for a book, like accounting for dummies and I found one that was 500 pages and I’m like that’s not me. I’m not the likely candidate to be a financial expert. It wasn’t called that when I was a kid but I’m sure I’m dyslexic. I don’t see numbers in columns very well. I have to use a ruler or a piece of paper when I go down a financial report.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So I’m the unlikely financial maven because it wasn’t my natural inclination but I had to learn it because we were starving. There was just nobody else to do it. I had to learn it and once I did it was a born again moment for me. How does everyone not know this? This is really great. You know what you have, you know how to make money if you are or if you aren’t. You know where the money is and where it goes.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And I was just so turned on by it that I wrote the book, Where Did The Money Go? To demonstrate what’s a balance sheet, what’s a profit loss? And what kind of information you get from these things to make better, faster, more profitable decisions. I wanted that book so I wrote the book and that was, I think it was 15 years ago or something. But it’s an evergreen thing.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I mean accounting hasn’t changed since the 1400s. Luca Pacioli came up with the equation, assets equal liabilities plus equity in the Renaissance in Florence, Italy. So I mean it’s a universal language. So all of this really turned me on that once you knew how to keep score you could make more money. That blew my mind. So that’s why I wrote the books and I wrote How Much Should I Charge? Which is a little budgeting book and then a couple of books on business planning because once you get enough money, money buys options.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
In fact, when we stopped the bleeding and started turning our debt into savings all we did was raise our prices essentially Tom but I had to do the math to figure that out. So as we dramatically increased our prices, start making more money, I turned to Hot Rod and I said, “Okay we’re making more money, now what? What do you want?”
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And that is the definitive business planning question, what do you want? Maybe the second question is why do you want it? What and why? Those are good questions to ask, so I asked that to Hot Rod and that’s when he told me, “I’d like to work all by myself.” At first, I was insulted but then you just have different dreams.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So I see over and over with all the companies I’ve worked with over the years, these books lead to speaking engagements and then to consulting and I have talked to thousands of business owners. Visited hundreds of companies, gone on I think 175 ride alongs at this point with team members. I am in it and over and over again I see people at the top of an organization not aligned.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
It could be husband and wife and that makes it even kookier or father/son or something. Family is often kookier. But when the owners are aligned on the same vision they’re clear on what they want. It’s easier to say no to stuff that doesn’t line up and now we start moving faster. So that’s a big part of what I learned with that personal experience and then I see it play out over and over again in my experiences.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Wow. Well thank you for sharing that and I’m not saying this just as flattery, it’s just a fact.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Keep the flattery going. I love it.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
But I mean truly for anyone that’s questioning, looking for financial management for your business, pricing your product or service, I mean Ellen’s books are fantastic. They’re simple, easy to understand, they’re just like she said, they’re thin books with images and pictures and lots of white space so you can get through it quickly but it’s practical.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
You can use it, so I really appreciate that thank you and well Ellen let’s jump into part of the format here a little bit and we like to talk about the misses, makes, and multipliers. So let’s start with a miss or two you wouldn’t mind sharing that maybe you learned something from that you could share with us.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Well you know I thought about this, I know I’m very optimistic, that’s my nature and I think part of this is a function of age but for everything, I’ve missed something better has come. So I remember hearing this, I can’t even remember who said it once but what if you miss your shot? Like if that was the opportunity you should have said yes to?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Somebody said to me, “If you go to the harbor you’ll see that ships are coming in and out of the harbor all the time. If you miss a ship there’s another ship.” Like to lighten up on this idea that there’s one path. It’s going to be fine. So if something doesn’t pan out for you that okay that show, Shark Tank. 100% of the time, I would cut a deal with those sharks. Why? Because you’re going to have another idea.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Work on them with this one, see what that adventure would do for you because that’s not your last idea like that’s how I think. Say yes to that adventure because even if it’s a bust you will learn a ton from that experience that you can’t learn in your own bubble. So that’s kind of always been my approach.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
It certainly is easier for me now to see that it’s all going to be fine, that this disaster… Or you know I would say that I’ve worked for people that I knew ahead of time I maybe didn’t trust them and when you have that voice you know you don’t. And that may or may not end well.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Even in those situations was the experience worth it? And just keeping an eye on when it would be time to leave, yes. Would I do it again? Not now. Not now, not anymore. I’ve done it and I forgive myself for it or understand that there are going to be people in your life that let you down. Your mentors are going to let you down.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You’re going to think that they’re one way and they’re like that in every area of their business and they’re not. They might have one thing figured out. So it’s okay, people aren’t perfect and I think that lightening up a little bit in terms of making the right decision.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Yeah.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And this is, I don’t know man.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Yeah, no I appreciate that and you echo the sentiment that a lot of our folks who have been on had which is, is it really a miss? It’s not really a miss and that’s why we want to get your perspective on it and I love that. I like the analogy of the ships coming in, you know hey, another ship’s going to come. It’s on its way. Well, let’s talk about a make or two that you could share. Kind of the other end that you’d like to talk about.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
One thing that I did that really had a big impact on my career is what you’re doing right now with the podcast. I started writing for magazines. And the first person that encouraged me to do it I was like, what do I have to say? I had a four truck company at the time. What is it that I have to share?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I was really looking up to these people that had massive businesses and the person, it was Dan Holohan, I love you so much, Dan. He said to me, “Your voice is the voice of our industry. Most companies are your size. You’re the one that will really connect with them.” They say your experience, strength, and hope and so I did and that gave me credibility and visibility.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So you know I heartily recommend making yourself an expert in your industry and I got to be an expert like you are, by interviewing people. Asking them what they thought and you know they’ll say, “Do you want to be on my podcast?” I’ll say yes, Tom. Anybody you want to ask because this is the way we’re communicating now so it’s a really great idea to put yourself out there and then to leverage it with social media and let people know that you’re going to be an expert or a connector with expertise in your area.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Again, I have never been the one to actually know anything but what I’ve done is found people who are smarter than me and are going to plug in the pieces for me, so that’s one. And that leads to the second one is, you’re better together. Steven Covey said, “Run with your strengths and organize to overcome your weaknesses.”
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
There’s some things I’m not good at, that I have no interest in going and figuring that out. I’m going to let someone else do that. I’m going to find someone who really digs the things that I don’t and I love, love, love a collaborative effort. Whenever I try and do something on my own it is never nearly as good as when we put together a team.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Now there has to be a leader and there has to be deadlines and it’s got to be good enough to get it done and all of that because you could die in committee as well but that energy of different personalities really appeals to me and it’s why that’s how you can create not just good, it’s why I like franchising.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
There is an innate dynamic between franchisor and franchisee which can be really healthy and challenging because it’s going to be adversarial at times. Like okay, you got my money, what are you doing for me? What do you mean what am I doing? Those things can happen and when you come together and make the best of what you can bring to the party happen that is delicious and I really love the franchise model for that opportunity.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So yeah, the makes would include collaborating and finding people who are doing what you’re doing already and learning from them. Inviting them to the party, asking them questions, and then working in a diverse team. I like personality mapping, motivational mapping, those tools, have you ever done one of those? Like DISC?
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Very much so yes. I’m very much into it. For me, I love the Enneagram and DISC and the strength’s finder and several others out there. I mean there are so many great ones out there. Those just are my preference right now.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Yeah, we use one called Flag Pages which is simple and it appeals to me. It’s like Coke and Pepsi, there’s different types.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
That’s right.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
But what those tools allow you to do is to celebrate diversity. To understand people are weird, different, and wonderful. They’re not like you and that can really contribute to better communication and collaboration. I’m just getting started on these tools too. I think there’s a lot more to learn. I think they’ve got a lot of validity.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Look, I agree with you. I think they’re a huge… Once you start using it and really incorporating it and it’s really so powerful internally and I’ve seen how you use it internally in your organization with your partners, with your staff, with your team. Even with incoming franchisees, and just to understand how they communicate and it helps you communicate better with them.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
So I think that’s a huge, huge extra bonus make for your make here. Well and how about a multiplier Ellen? I mean you’ve had so many things that have multiplied in your career, what would you mind sharing with us?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
One that I could be doing better like I was saying to you earlier when you come on a podcast I feel like oh great I can tell people how smart I am and inside I feel completely humbled. I guess that’s another tip I would share is if there’s something that is aligned with what I want I will say yes whether or not I’m ready and I encourage people to do that too. You’re never going to be ready. You wait until you’re ready your going to miss out on some fun stuff.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Again, those other ships coming into the harbor but just catch a ship now and then, get on one. So I’ve been able to put myself, and I believe in fine intervention. Great opportunities have come into my life that I’ve said yes to and then figured out along the way which I would give that advice.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
One thing we could do a lot better at in terms of multiplying and when we engage this tool, we kick it and that’s acquisition, buy companies. So buy companies. There are lots of people, especially now. COVID really wrecked with a lot of people’s heads they don’t want to do it anymore. Maybe they were already thinking they didn’t want to do it and this put them over the edge.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So there are going to be people in this world, in your community, in your industry who just have burnt out, who’ve had it and you may be able to make a win/win situation. They don’t want to do it anymore, they’d rather come work for you maybe. Or maybe they want to retire and go someplace warm and spend time with their grandkids.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You could help them facilitate and exit in a way that is the best return on investment that you could make in terms of marketing. You know you’ve got a ringing phone, you might have access to some people who want to come work for you, so calls and people. You can’t buy people of course but you can magnetize them and you can say, “I’m going to work with Bob. Bob’s ready to move on. We’re going to take good care of his customers. And maybe you could find a place to work here that would really suit your dreams. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want?”
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So you can use acquisition as a way to double or triple the size of your company and I heartily recommend exploring it. It’s not just for the big guys, it’s for anybody. So we’re going into a new market, we will look for a company that we could acquire as well as start-up shop, maybe two or three, and see if we can’t make some win/win deals happen.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well, that’s an interesting perspective and I think your right, Ellen. I think there are a lot of small businesses, small to mid-size companies that are out there that have just been growing through new customer acquisition right? Adding more customers and new customers expanding their marketing and sales teams and operations and just kind of growing very normal.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
However, you bring up a great point there are lots of businesses that are those small companies that are readily able to be acquired. Sometimes there might just be an asset purchase to buy the equipment if it’s an asset or acquire a customer list. If you’re in a service-driven business it may just be you get their customers and you get their…
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You got so excited about it you knocked your microphone off the desk.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Yeah, I started getting some crazy… it sounded like an angry cat screaming in my ears.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Oh no, it sounded good.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Oh gosh. Yeah anyway, so yeah but you bring up a great point on that.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
It could be a phone number. Yeah, just you’re ringing phone or your website, it could be simple. And another thing that’ll happen is dear listener, raise your hand if some day you might want to sell your company for big bucks, right? As you get your arms around these little acquisitions, just maybe some mailbox money for the owner. I’ll pay you $50 per call that comes in or a percentage of sales and it’s an owner financed deal, see then you’re going to pay that owner as you make the money. It’s really an accessible way to grow your business and we’ve learned a lot about it. We even have a procedure for it at Zoom Drain. Here’s how you buy companies.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And all the deals can be different and delicious but the experience you get on that side of the table will help you the day you decide, hey maybe I want to move on. And that can be a whole nother ball game. There are buying houses, you might buy a rundown house in a great neighborhood for instance. So you might start by buying companies that aren’t really worth a lot but you can find something that’s a win for the owner and a win for you.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And then later on as you build as my… I got a big star crush on Charlie Chase in the franchise world, you know Charlie.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
He told me once upon a time that he looked for companies that are compelling, scalable, and profitable. Okay, for that you can get paid a lot of money.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
That’s right.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Okay so if there’s a story, there’s a unique position in the marketplace and its scalable meaning you can keep growing this thing turnkey, and then it’s profitable. You have a lot of options for keeping or selling that business which is pretty darn exciting.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Wow. Wow, great advice. Great, great, great advice.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Yeah. Well, you see I listen to the smart people, that’s how I got so smart.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well thank you for sharing that and Ellen we always like to ask every guest, what does success mean to you?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I appreciate that you can say the word success without stumbling on it. That’s a hard one to say. I struggle with that one. So what does success mean to me is my personal mission is freedom. And I believe that a business can expand peace, prosperity, and freedom across the planet.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
All right? So if there are two people in the world, they’re going to trade with one another to survive. Right? Trade is our natural instinct, it’s how we as a society must survive and there are different ways to trade. There’s government and I believe in government, there’s a role for it.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And there’s charity, I believe in charity but it’s limiting. There’s crime and you and I would probably both participate if the black market was the only way to get bread on the table right? There may be even a place for that and then there is… Government, crime, I’m trying to think of it. I think there’s five but I’m coming up with the fourth one is business.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So now we’re going to trade with one another. So you have something I want and I can exchange it for something you want and money is this lovely neutral medium of exchange. It’s the only way to exchange goods and services that promotes real freedom. The other ways are there and are necessary to some degree but business is the way that we can expand freedom in a family, in a community, in a society, in a country, in any country there won’t be true freedom until there’s an economy.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Right? That people can set up business and trade with one another. So freedom is really if I were to boil all that down to one word, that’s what I’m looking for. For myself and for the people with whom I interact and share responsibility. So the people on my team, can they buy a house? Could they send their kid to dance lessons if they want to? Can they go on the vacation that they want to? Can they uphold their principles the way they’d like to because they have enough money to do that?
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
That to me is super exciting. So the conversations that I like to have are what do you want and why? And if we can have those conversations with our team members, with each other than that to me is we’re marching together on a path toward freedom or being able to do what we want to do.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Beautiful, I love that. I love that and that’s something I know that probably part of the reason we resonate so well together, that idea of freedom, of having that ability to just whatever. I like how you put it, what do you want to do and why? And figure out a way through what you’re doing to make it happen. I really like that. That was just great words of advice here Ellen.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
And as we close out here I always like to ask if there’s just anything you’d like to share with the listeners, with our audience that maybe you didn’t get to have a chance to say throughout the process here.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Well, two things. One is that I have always enjoyed our conversations. You are candid and vulnerable and you really are someone I cherish as a friend because of that but we tend to talk real with each other which I just so appreciate, so thank you for that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Thank you.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
And it is important to do business with people you love and trust and I want to shout out to my Zoom Drain team, I love them. Al Levi, Jim Criniti are my partners and then all the team members. You know I fail every day and yet they forgive me and trot me out to represent them every day.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
I always like to give a shout out and gratitude. I’m holding their beer, I love people who do dirty jobs. They are my favorite and that’s what we do day in and day out, we clean drains and try and elevate it to a place where you can make dreams come true, you can learn a skill, you can grow, you can achieve your goals and that’s just a shout out to my crew for that.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Wow. Well, and I can echo that. Your partners, as you were talking earlier about doing it with others, like liking to do a business with business partners and not going it alone and your partners, your team at Zoom, it’s like the all-star team. You’ve got all the best of the best coming together, working collaboratively and each of you bringing your strengths and background, it’s really amazing to watch.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
And it’s not just lip service, I told Ellen this before that the process at Zoom, I’ve seen literally thousands of businesses that I’ve been in and advised over the years of doing this, of helping companies to franchise their business and Zoom is really a standout for their training, for their support. Especially when we had first met, it was early, early on in the growth, and just seeing everything that was in place I mean it looked like the might as well have had 10,000 locations because it was equivalent. It’s really impressive.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Oh, that makes me so happy and that will be very reassuring to our franchisees.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Yes, absolutely.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
You know we have such a cool, diverse group of franchisees too and I learn from them every day and it helps me keep it real because you know in anybody’s life as your running a business there is this opportunity to get so into your head and another great thing about franchising is it forces us into community.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Like you’ve got to come to the huddle. We got to hang out with each other and love on one another and support each other and that I think is so important. It is for me, I mean that’s another reason why I love franchising as a model, it’s such a great business concept.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Yeah.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
So thanks for doing your part to grow this industry, I’m so proud of you.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well, thank you, Ellen. Well, I love being connected and part of your network, thank you for that and thank you for all of the help and for the interview here and sharing your words and your wisdom. I really, really appreciate it, this has been wonderful.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Well of course I’m going to come and get flattered like this. I’ll be back.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well, you can count on that.
Ellen Rohr, Zoom Drain Franchising:
Okay good, good.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
Well thank you again Ellen for being on our show today and let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So our first key takeaway from Ellen is that money buys options and the way you get there is by getting your numbers right and tight in Ellen’s words. Getting your numbers right and tight. And the most important thing out of all of those number discussions is that you have to sell your product or service for more than it costs.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
It sounds like commons sense but it happens all the time in business. Number two, if there is something that you are aligned with, an opportunity that comes your way and you aren’t ready yet, say yes. Go for it. If it doesn’t turn out the way you had hoped or something doesn’t go as planned remember, there are always boats coming in and out of the harbor so you’ll always have another opportunity to hop on another boat and go to the next destination.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
And number three was Ellen gave us an interesting perspective on using acquisitions to buy companies for whether it’s franchisees in their system or opening up new company-owned areas or expanding into new markets, it was a pretty interesting perspective there. And now it’s time for today’s win/win.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
So today’s win/win comes from Ellen when she said, business is a vehicle or the vehicle that can spread peace, prosperity, and freedom across the planet. So business is the vehicle that can spread peace, prosperity and freedom across the planet and I think it’s beautiful and wonderful and as someone I just resonate so deeply with that and I hope that all of you in business who are listening in understand that as well.
Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team:
That this is really a vehicle that can help fundamentally change the world and I think has over the last couple of centuries for sure. So thanks again for tuning in. Ellen thanks for being our guest. Please share this with your friends, colleagues, family, anyone you think who could benefit from this and we’ll see you back here next week.
