How to Build a Franchise Empire Without Starting From Scratch
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What unique approach does Aaron Harper take to franchise ownership?
Most people think franchising means buying a burger joint. They are wrong. My guest today took a 36-year-old power washing company in northern Pennsylvania, franchised it from scratch, and scaled it to 352 locations across 37 states. He did not wait for permission. He did not start from zero. He acquired the proven machine, systemized it, and let other operators plug in and run. Aaron Harper figured out something most founders miss. The fastest path to scale is not building something new. It is replicating something that already works. Today, we are talking about franchise through acquisition, how to de-risk a business without killing the upside, and what it actually takes to execute when no one is watching.
If you have ever thought about owning a business, building a business, or scaling without burning your life down, this episode is for you. Let's unlock it.
So, Aaron, I mean, just before the show, you were we were discussing about essentially how you become this master in franchises and building a franchise and being able to sell them through brokers. Before we really get into it, tell me, tell us a little bit like who's Aaron Harper? Like, where do you come from and how do you even land in this place you are today?
Well, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here and talking with you today. Yeah, I'm from Southern California. I didn't grow up wanting to be in the franchise industry. In fact, I didn't even know what that meant. I actually wanted to be like a Hollywood agent. So I went to Hollywood and I, after college, I literally worked in like at the agencies and like thought I wanted to like be Ari Gold. If you've watched Entourage.
Yeah. One of my favorite shows. I love it. It's such a good show.
It's so good. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought I wanted to be Ari Gold. And then I was like, wait, this is like a miserable existence and I don't enjoy this at all. So I had a friend that worked in franchise development and he goes, you should get into franchise development. And I was like, what's that? You know, I think like many people who hear the word franchise, they think McDonald's, Wendy's, Chick-fil-A. And I was like, dude, I don't really want to like build franchises. fast food joints and he's like no like that's not what i do at all and and i was like well what is it and he goes well you know 1-800-GOT-JUNK is a franchise and two men in a truck is a franchise and mr rooter is a franchise and chem dry is a franchise and i was like oh and then i didn't know that business like franchisees were independent business owners like i had no idea
And I didn't know that they owned a hundred percent of their locations that they bought. Like, so like for, I didn't know if McDonald's wasn't like corporate, it's like an actual person who owns McDonald's. Like I had no clue. And, um, and I, you know, I think I'm like a pretty generally smart person and like had no clue, literally no clue. Um, But the idea of helping people become business owners was like, oh, I can march behind that forever. Like, that's a great thing. And so I emailed his boss every three weeks until he hired me, basically. And then ended up working at a carpet cleaning franchise.
Why is it crucial to separate core business operations from franchise management?
And I grew that by about 200 locations in three years. And then I got on a drywall repair franchise as an employee and I grew that from 98 locations to 323 locations in about 23 months. And then I was like, wait, I can do this on my own, turn down a million-dollar offer to keep doing what I was doing and raise capital and looked at a bunch of different businesses to franchise across the country. And I found a now 36-year-old power washing company called Rolling Suds based in northern Pennsylvania. um great family business good bones knew i could replicate it anywhere acquired the brand invested my own money and i'm the majority shareholder in rolling suds franchise that was not a franchise so i created an entirely new company um and franchised a business that's been around for 36 years um
And we've since grown from a single location power washing business in northern Pennsylvania to we have by the end of this week, we'll have 352 units operating in 37 states across the country.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What unique approach does Aaron Harper take to franchise ownership?
0:00–3:18
2
Why is it crucial to separate core business operations from franchise management?
3:18–8:15
3
What factors contribute to the low success rate of franchises reaching 100 units?
8:15–13:41
4
How can existing business owners transition into successful franchisees?
13:41–21:35
5
What mindset shift is necessary for franchisees to succeed?
21:35–26:57
6
How is AI influencing the relevance of franchise ownership today?
26:57–32:36
7
What strategies help achieve high owner retention rates in franchises?
32:36–38:06
8
How does Aaron Harper define success in the franchise business model?
38:06–38:09
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Vault Unlocked
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