Best Option Restoration Franchise Radio Show Interview

Speaker A: All right, folks, thank you so much for joining us. John Henning here with the franchise radio show. And today we're joined by Kyle Chasen, the president of Best Option Restoration. And something real quick about Kyle before we jump into him personally, is Kyle was the first franchise owner with Best Option as well. So, Kyle, thanks for jumping on with us, buddy.

Speaker B: Hey, thanks for having me on the show today, John.

Speaker A: My pleasure, my pleasure. Now, if you've ever listened to any of my episodes, you know that I like to get to know the person for just a minute before the business without using the word. This is what I do for a living or the word franchise. Tell us about you.

Speaker B: So I, uh, I, uh, I was the first Fran. I just used the word franchise.

Speaker A: No, go back further. Where are you from?

Speaker B: Oh, oh, way back. Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah, way back. We want to know you.

Speaker B: All right. All right. I was born in California, but I moved to Denver, Colorado at a pretty young age. I was, uh, just six years old. So I grew up in Denver, went to college in Washington Place called Walla Walla University. Small, Small, uh, wine country out there. And then I worked at a bank after. Met my wife out in. Out in college. And she now, uh, we're married now, and she lives, uh, here, of course, in. In Denver. We're down in a town called Castle Rock. She. She's, uh. She's in anesthesia. Fun fact, uh, about her. So she's awesome. Killing it. And, uh, I'm, uh. I can't use the F word, the. The franchising word. But here I am, so I'm. I'm active. I like. I like good food, good friends. I like business. All right, um, yeah, there's. You Tell me what else you want to know.

Speaker A: Oh, that's it, man. I just like to know what makes you go before we jump into the franchise stuff. That's all. That's great. I, you know, look, people do business with people, right? You know, they don't, uh, it's just how it works today. And I always like to give our listeners just a minute to kind of hear about you. They know where you went to school. They know about your wife. Right? So all that type of stuff. Um, what. What got you in? I mean, we already know you were the first franchise owner. What brought you to best option? Like what. What attracted you as a potential franchise owner? And then what made you want to scale the business and end up where you are?

Speaker B: So in 2016, I was in banking. I was in wealth management banking. And I had the opportunity actually introduced by My sweet mother. She introduced me to the founder, Nick Anthony Samson, and this is his fourth franchise system. So we. We, uh, met at a networking event. Um, long story short, we ended up having dinner a few months later. He said, hey, I'm getting my next franchise system off the ground. Why don't you come be the first franchise? And, uh, I agree. I took the unconventional route in that I didn't know a lot about franchising at the time, didn't know anything about restoration. I was lucky to screw in a light bulb and maybe change a tire here and there. Um, but what I did know is, uh, I was attaching myself to a gentleman who had a proven track record of success. And I was only 23 at the time. So, uh, I went all in. I burned the boats and said, let's do this thing. So, a little bit unconventional route to franchising, but it's been the best decision. Outside of marrying my wife, it's been the best decision I've ever made, and it's totally changed the trajectory of my life.

Speaker A: That's good. Well, I'm excited to hear about everything that's happened at, uh, Best Option Restoration. I. I happen to know Nick, uh, from previous life and franchising. So I knew where he was before and that he. This was his fourth company and all of that stuff. So. And I've actually, I think a few years ago, when he first started Best Option, I think I interviewed him on the podcast. Maybe, uh, it was several years ago.

Speaker B: We're going to have to go to the archives.

Speaker A: Yeah, man, we'll have to bring it up and listen to it. It's changed, right?

Speaker B: That's right. That's right.

Speaker A: Bring us up to where you are today. Like, uh, how many units? How long have you been in business? Now walk us through how the company got to where it is right now.

Speaker B: Yeah. So started in 2017, and now we're up to 75 units. The last four years has been really pivotal to our growth. You know, the first few years was cementing the foundation, improving the model, and getting, uh, all systems go. And then Nick really hit the gas, and now it's, you know, it's me keeping my foot on the gas to, uh, continue our system growing where it's at. Uh, just this year, we've launched a proprietary project management and CRM system. We have a whole new web strategy for our franchises. And if there couldn't be a better time to be where we're at, because at 75 units, you have a proven track record, a very Strong foundation yet. There's not a single area that we don't have available territories and franchises in.

Speaker A: Right. And that happens quite often in franchising is if, if they're not that early adopter, sometimes they're coming in a little too on the, on the back end a little, you know, maybe it's the tertiary availability. Right. It sounds like you guys are right in that sweet spot at that 75 mark where you' proven it out. You've got, you're not building the plane in flight anymore. Right. So you, you got the, got the model ironed out and then you've got a lot of potential territory, uh, availability as well. That's great. That's great.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And, and the market, $260 billion marketing growing. So there's more work out there than there are, are people doing it in, in re. In restoration. So it's great for uh, any, any best option franchise.

Speaker A: Let's, let's talk about the business model a little bit. Let's give the folks listening here a uh, high level overview. What do you do at the consumer level? Right. We'll talk about ideal franchise owners in a minute, but tell us about the business model. What does a franchisee do and who are their customers?

Speaker B: So the bread and butter of what we do and our clients that we serve have typically emergency restoration needs. So what that means is think of us as the er of properties. It's a very bad day when clients have to call us and something that might happen is they wake up, they're ready to go get their cup of coffee and now they realize their kitchen ceiling is sitting on their dining room table. They have a pool in their basement and they need somebody now. So they're reaching out to our franchises and they're calling best option restoration. And we're extracting the water out, placing, uh, equipment to dry it out. And we do use, uh, thermal technology to draw out structures. So we're able to draw structures. And half the time is all of our competition, which is fantastic. And we ultimately get it dry. But we don't stop there. We also are going to make sure that we put the drywall back in the flooring bag. And by back, I mean brand new flooring, brand new drywall, there's fresh coats of paint, um, it looks better than when we found it, which is, which is our mission, to leave the world better than we found it. And that's the typical project that we help a client with. Now we get into asbestos abatement and remodeling and we get into mold remediation and fire cleanup and duct cleaning. There's all these verticals that we enter into. And so the role our franchisee plays in that is from day one they are going to hire a lead technician in their first 90 days and all they need is a van. So we don't require real estate, we don't require uh, an expensive office or warehouse. This is a home based model that truly scales with them. You do have to spend money to make money, we know that, but we don't want you to waste a dime. We don't want a franchisee to waste a dimensional. So it's a very lean model out of the gate which allows it to scale extremely quickly in a recession, uh, proof, you know, needs based business. So our franchisees, we say we recommend, we make recommendations, they make decisions. And so that means we recommend in um, 12 to 18 months bringing on a business development rep. But it's ultimately up to the franchise. And as the demand for job scales, they're going to add personnel, they're going to grab more vans and they'll eventually expand with more equipment and hopefully coming to me and buy another franchise.

Speaker A: Sounds good man. Sounds like you got it figured out. Now I want to circle back to something you said and I, I want to emphasize this one. I remember this in learning about the company a, ah, few years ago, I think it was about 2018, 2019 when I talked to Nick, going um, to ask you a loaded question because I already know the answer. But I think it's super important that these folks hear this answer. What separates you from the competition? There's a lot of restoration, a lot of water damage companies out there. How do you guys differentiate and really focus on, on what you're going to say on that difference? Because I know what it is and I also know that no one else out there is doing what you guys are doing.

Speaker B: Yeah, John, I'm glad you brought this up and are emphasizing it for our listeners. The use of thermal technology, using heat to dry out structures in half the time as the competition is an extreme, extreme differentiator. There's nobody out there doing it like we are. And while you could have a great logo, a great reputation, uh, you're going to get the property dry. If you can have all those things, why not do it better and do it in the best way, which is with thermal technology, with best option restoration, our franchises are able to get market share at the rate they do because of thermal technology.

Speaker A: Now it's not just, it's the, the reason why they're using the thermal technology isn't just because it's cool and better. It's because it allows them to do it faster, double up on revenues, have less employees per, you know, like all those things. It isn't just that it's, it's cool and neat. Right. It's that, uh, it really actually helps them do more business. Isn't that right?

Speaker B: Yeah. They can take on more jobs in a week. Their jobs are more profitable and it's better for the clients. And the insurance companies love us as well because we are better, faster, stronger. It's truly a win, win, win. And you don't find that often in business.

Speaker A: No, you don't. And I'm thinking like a consumer scenario, um, I would assume, just correct me if I'm wrong, it's less time in my home that I'm disrupted there as well, right?

Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. If you think about, think about just drying your clothes. You put it on an air cycle, it's four hours. You throw that same load of laundry on a heat cycle, it's done in 45 minutes. And it's because of how the science of drying works. And we've implemented that science into drying structures out.

Speaker A: Now, I don't want to make any assumptions from our listeners. A lot of folks, different types of folks listen to this. And the reason that what Kyle just said is important, folks, is because m, all of the other companies out there in this space are using air movers to move the air around and then extracting the moisture through a system. Right. You're, you're using that thermal heat technology to actually dry it out. That's the difference, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely. We call them just a man in the van with a fan.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: If you're just blowing air around, that's exactly what you are.

Speaker A: That's it. I love it. I love it. Good deal. Let's dig into a little bit about the numbers. Let's go through about the cost of the franchise. And at this point I always tell everybody, refer to the franchise disclosure documents just to get the most accurate and up to date information, depending on when they're listening to this. But what's the cost to start a

Speaker B: franchise today with with best option, the cost is 170,000. So with that you get the business in a box, proven scalable model. And the highlight is enough equipment to do four jobs at one time.

Speaker A: Wow, that's great. So now they're not coming necessarily out of pocket for all of that. Is it a certain amount they need up front and then there's some financing available or is it. They need all 170 upfront.

Speaker B: That. No, there is certainly financing available. A lot of our franchisees get financing. A few options for that. You can do a retirement rollover or we. What's really popular right now is uh, it's a unsecured loan. So not the. We have plenty of folks who's gone through the sba. We're rubber stamped by the sba. We're in their registry. They can get financing there. They're just taking longer than I'd like to see. So there's an awesome unsecured route, um, that we have and it's our lenders that we, you know, we introduce them to them and, and they can work with them or not. But 80% of our group goes and gets financing to uh, to get a franchise and they typically need somewhere between 10 and 25% of that total investment.

Speaker A: Good deal. So, um, ready to go. I've gone through the due diligence, I've been approved as a franchise owner. We've signed the documents. You have my initial franchise fee. What's the next part of this look like? Is there some onboarding, some training? How does all of that work?

Speaker B: Work? Yeah, so there will be a onboarding that our franchise liaison assists with. And, and most importantly, there's going to be two weeks of training. One week is, call it your insurance standards training. That's going to be online or in person. It's, it's, there's uh, a choice there, but then there is a week, like it or not. You get to come spend a week with me and our management team and uh, our training team, learning everything there is to know about the business. A to Z, from hiring to invoicing, to operations, to the CRM and project management system to working with insurance companies. Uh, of course the sales and marketing. We spend a lot of time on sales and marketing and that's right here in Denver. And then following training, this is where I actually say this is where the beauty starts here in franchising. But that's where the whole support side comes in. Because the reality is, John, I've been to trainings myself and I'd like to think I remember everything I learned. I might remember 18 to 20%. There's actually a stat about that. It's right around there. So the follow up and support is incredibly important and our team does a great job of that.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's. If it's similar to some other franchise companies that. Not in your space. But I've been Part of um, it's kind of like drinking from a fire hose. It's just impossible to absorb everything in that one week, you know, in person scenario. Right.

Speaker B: Yeah, our trainers do a great job, but it's certainly, uh, it's, it's not possible. That's absolutely correct.

Speaker A: So we, we're, we're going through, we've again, we've signed the agreement. From the time that I say go and I get approved by you guys, how long is it until I typically can say open the doors? I. That it's a van based business with no real estate? Yeah, you know, if you had had real estate, I would, I would have asked that question. But if it's a van based business without real estate, and from the time I say go and get approved and I've signed until I'm open, what does that look like? What's that time frame?

Speaker B: It's typically around 30 days. The reason being we, we train every month. We train around the third week of every month. And uh, once they come to training, of course we're ordering their equipment. They have the van. It's somewhere between the, the day they get back and call it 14 days from the day they get back when they're typically open.

Speaker A: That's great, man. That's great. There's not many companies out there that can say it's about 30 days or so to, to get open. Right. It's sometimes they're just reviewing their first location 60 days in. Right. So yeah, completely different. Now, you mentioned the word support and this is one of the big things in franchising that I've always kind of latched on to. Because support is just a word until you define it. Right. Like everybody is. Do you think there's a franchise coming out there says we give bad support? Right. It just, they don't. Right. Everybody says we have great support. Give us a little taste of what does that support look like? Like kind of define it for the listeners a little bit.

Speaker B: Yeah. We've actually defined it in a, in a operational way where franchisees don't have to think it's 1, 2, 3 rule. If you have an emergency, you're picking up the phone and calling and they have the cell phone number of multiple people in the organization, from a lead trainer to myself to franchise liaison, director of ops. Even the founder, all they got to do is pick up the phone and call if they have an emergency. You need to know right now what we typically say is if you're standing in water and you need help, you pick up the phone and call. Otherwise you need to know in 20 minutes, send a text. If it's a general question, can, can know in the next 24 hours, shoot an email over. We'll always make time. And we certainly, uh, we certainly respond quickly to our franchises.

Speaker A: Good deal. Love to hear that. Love to hear that. Because obviously that's not always the case. Right? You know, not at all. Not everybody's standing up to their knees in water when you're making, say, donuts or something like that.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And we 100 and we have a, uh, private group where all of our franchises communicate together. We have, uh, ongoing zoom meetings. We have ongoing, uh, marketing meetings. There's many different ways that we're not only being reactive to the support they need, but also proactive to helping them grow their businesses.

Speaker A: Good deal. Now let's talk about, say, an average location. Um, um, I'm in the business for a bit. Um, everything's going the way it's supposed to be going. Average location. How many employees are working at that location with me or in that franchise with me? On average?

Speaker B: Yeah. The average location is going to have a couple trucks. Um, and so your, each truck think of somewhere between one and two technicians. You definitely need one lead tech who's, who's, uh, driving that truck. And then as you scale out, you'll, you'll fill a junior technician, um, in their seat and then you go to get another truck and you can promote the junior or, or grab another technician. So 2 to 4 would be on average for, for one unit.

Speaker A: That's great. Yeah. Not a, not a huge lift on employees.

Speaker B: No, no, not at all.

Speaker A: A lot of folks like that, right? What as the. Neil, let's talk, shift gears a bit and talk about the franchise owner you kind of touched on a little bit earlier. What type of person makes an ideal fit for your franchise as an owner? Like who, who are you looking for? Who would be a really good fit? Uh, what kind of personality, what kind of backgrounds do they come from? That kind of thing.

Speaker B: Yeah. So background wise, I'm actually going to flip it and say it doesn't matter background. And the reason is we have managers and salespeople and HR reps and, and engineers and software guys and gals. And we have husband and wife teams who both have different. I mean, we have such a wide variety of successful franchise owners that it's less about background, but they do share some common characteristics. One of those being there's a gap between where they are and where they want to be. And that's what we help fulfill. They have bigger goals and bigger dreams, and they typically want to build something for themselves.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And we're a great way to be in business for yourself, just not by yourself. Then some traits that they have is, number one, they value a proven scalable system. They want something that's out of the box, that they can hit, go and start scaling up and that. That's where we fit in. Two, they're coachable. We don't, we're not here, you know, franchise don't need to innovate. Follow the model. We have a proven System. We have 75 franchises across the United States out there doing this. Continue to follow the system in the playbook. And then lastly, it's just a willingness, a willingness to, to go all in and a willingness to talk to people. So we call it building relationships. But we get a lot of business from insurance agents, property managers and plumbers. And we'll tell them who to see, when to see them, what to say, what the addresses are. We just need them to be willing to go build a relationship. And those are the few common characteristics and traits that we see across our group with our successful franchise owners.

Speaker A: That's perfect. That's, that's, uh, that's a great explanation. I love how you went through each one of those three and why it's important to the success of the franchise owner. Because you could easily just come up with a list and say, here's who we need. But the folks listening, understanding why that's important. I want to go one step further. Uh, Kyle. And, uh, in the franchise owner on average, and there's always firefighting days and hiring days and training days and all of that stuff, because that's just normal business. What's a normal day in the life of a franchise owner? What are they doing generally in a regular day?

Speaker B: So it's going to evolve over time. We start as an owner operator model, and there's two core functions of the business. It's driving work. So, and there's producing the work. Let me apply that to restoration. You get a water job, a water damage call. The team needs to respond to that call. So part one of that equation was driving that call. And whether that was through our lead generations, our national account or relationships, you know, created locally, that call comes in then. The second part of it is now that you have the call command, it's serving the client, it's producing the project. Those are the two core functions of the business at a very high level. And so early on, the franchise owner is Participating in both of those. And then as they scale out, they're taking a further step back. And I'll say it's typically from production first. So that's hiring that lead technician. It's, it's getting, uh, a junior technician in the van with them so that they're, you know, they're really off the jobs. The production team takes care of the projects. The franchise owner is now, they might be at their local, uh, you know, chamber of commerce meeting with business leaders. They might be connecting with the insurance agents. Like I said, they're optimizing their campaigns. They're, uh, going to the apartment association, so they're out and about. And then come 12 to 18 months, they hire that business development rep who's now going to fill that seat. So they're at an even more strategic viewpoint, uh, of their company and they keep taking a further step back. So we start as an owner operator, uh, from day one. And it certainly builds into a absentee, semi absentee model as the franchise scales. So the role they play in year one is substantially different than year four. And the best part is they get design. Design what that looks like for them.

Speaker A: No, that's a great explanation. I mean, there's not many companies out there. Usually when I interview companies like this, it's usually like, here's the role of the owner. Yeah, like that's, that's it. It's like predefined, which it is here, but in the sense of that's the only thing they're ever going to do is this, basically this one or two things, you know, in the company. So it seems like there's a progression if they want to. Now I'm assuming if somebody wanted to stay doing it that way, they could. But for me, as a business person, I'm thinking, okay, how do I scale? How do I take one more step back? And it seems like you have that progression down.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, we have. We, we completely do. And it's. I did it. That's part of the reason why John, is I lived it out and, and I know intimately how it works. But in addition, some franchisees, they want to be the operator and they, I'm a scale guy. I want to, I want to continue to grow this thing as, as, as big as the franchisee wants, you know, wants their business to grow. However, we get some folks who, you know, we had an operator who he, he was, you know, coaching his son's hockey games and taking his family on vacation and living the exact lifestyle he wanted to live. Didn't have a big team, but he had it perfectly dialed in and that's okay too. It's hard for me as the franchisor and uh, ah, as a scale guy to, to accept, all right, we're, you know, we're gonna operate at this level. However, when your franchisee is happy as can be that there's, there's not much I can say. They've achieved their goals and, you know, they're continuing to build every year still just slower than what they could if they, you know, hired that, that business development person and added more team members. But, you know, it, it changes their role. And he was very happy in the role that he was fulfilling.

Speaker A: That's great. That's great. I got a couple more questions for here and then I'll, I'll give you some time at the end here to give us some information on how you want folks to reach out to you. And down after that we'll go into anything else you want to share. But let's talk about. I've raised my hand and said, hey, Kyle, I'm interested in learning more about best option restoration as a franchise. What does that due diligence process look like? What are the milestone steps? How long does that process kind of take? And you know, who am I talking to?

Speaker B: So, uh, the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to book an intro call with me. And you heard that, right? I handle, uh, our franchise development. Um, I take great, you know, great responsibility and who we bring into the franchise system and educating them on that process. So the first step is let's book a call. And this call is important because, John, if you get on and you tell me, kyle, I'm looking for a cupcake shop, this is not going to be the business for you, I can promise you that. So I'm learning a little bit about more about you and what you're after and what you're looking for and then give you an opportunity to ask some of those initial, I call them, what are the burning questions that you have? What do you want to know? And that's the introductory call. From there, we're going to shift towards validation and what that means. John, I know you know what this means before the listeners. In case they don't, they're going to get to talk to franchises and find out about a day in the life. My whole goal through this discovery process is to educate and say, this is what we're all about. This is what best option restoration is. I'm finding out, are You a fit for the culture and do you feel like you're, you know, you're a fit to be a business owner too? And when we mutually agree, it's a, you know, it's a good, uh, it's a good thing to push forward. So that next step is talking to franchises. From there we're going to review that franchise disclosure document which you referenced at the beginning, uh, of the call. And then after that it's scheduling the training, securing funding and getting uh, the franchise agreement and the territory built out. So only about, uh, just four, four to five steps.

Speaker A: Okay. And usually most folks are going through that in a month or two. Is that generally what we're looking at?

Speaker B: Yeah, it's typically our, our, I would say that process about 30 days.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: If depending on the funding route they go, it's not me that's going to slow you down. It'll be the franchise who's, who's deciding the things. Maybe they're securing funding, lining up the pieces on their end, but it's 30 to 60 days.

Speaker A: Okay, good, good deal. Let's break out the crystal ball here for a minute. What does uh, what does the future look like for best option restoration? Any growth plans, Anything exciting happening you want to share with our listeners? Or is it, you know, slow, steady beats, you know, wins the race. Tell us about the future.

Speaker B: Yeah, we, we are full steam ahead. Uh, we, we took the beginning of this year to really, because we launched our own project, uh, management CRM system. And you know, software is important to, to our business from not only from insurance standpoint, but from an efficiency standpoint. And so that was uh, that was massive for the group because we truly have something now that is not in control of any big corporation or company. It can't get sold to somebody. Um, it's, it's you know, the dev team that we picked and, and that, that we work with and so we can get real feedback from franchises and, and continue craf building this to exactly what's required by uh, our franchises in the industry. Um, and then the future as, because we have a 75 person, 75 unit franchise group, uh, I'd say about 70% of our portfolio right now is residential, 30% commercial. We're continuing to bring on property management groups and uh, insurance groups and senior living facilities. And we're really pursuing hard to, to acquire uh, more business for our franchises and, and call that shift to what we would call the commercial side of the business. So shifting the portfolio a little bit more and it's just because we're ready, you know, at 75 units, we have an established group, we have a, A, um, solid foundation that we can help more people out there, and we're going to continue to double down on that. So long winded answer to say we have a clear trajectory to continue scaling. We're not going to change much what we're doing because we're executing well. It's continuing to double down on those strengths and the things we're doing well, which will propel us to that growth.

Speaker A: I love it. I love hearing about companies that are taking a strategic, healthy approach to growth. You know, it's a big thing out there, right? So I, I love that plan and that trajectory of where you guys are headed. Let's, let's talk, uh, final finish up here on how can folks learn more about the franchise? How do you want them to reach out to you? What. We'll make sure to include all this right in the episode down underneath of the. Where they listen to it. But how do you want them to reach out to you?

Speaker B: Yeah, I will. Uh, I have my email and my phone number that I'll give. Either one's. Okay. I believe it or not, John, I answer my phone. Hard to believe sometimes, I know, but I do answer my phone. I'm extremely responsive. And in addition, uh, I'll put my email in there. And if anybody wants to just have a conversation and explore this opportunity further, uh, I'll gladly make time. And I, uh, I even have a scheduling link that makes it easy so you can drive and find what. What works best for you.

Speaker A: Awesome. We'll make sure to include everything right underneath the episode for them then as we finish up here. Kyle, anything else you want to share? A quick little recap for us?

Speaker B: Yeah, what, what I'll close with is for those folks who are on the fence of doing something or not doing anything, the biggest risk is the one you don't take. And what I learned early is you can fix activity, but you can't fix inactivity. So if you're thinking about it, go be about it. Go do it. If that happens to be with best option restoration, or if you're curious, great. If not, I'm happy you made the decision to move forward because that's what changed my life was, was taking the leap and saying yes and building something for myself.

Speaker A: I love it, man. I am a doer, not a thinker. So, I mean, I think, but I execute. That's what it's all about, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Good deal, man. Well, hey, folks, I hope you got what you needed out of this episode. It seems like, uh, best option restorations got it figured out. They're on a growth trajectory with a great leadership team. Uh, when you reach out to Kyle and talk with him, make sure you tell him that you heard this episode on the franchise radio show to give him a lot more perspective for that conversation. Knowing that you've already listened through to all of this, we'll make sure to include that contact information down here. And, Kyle, man, thanks a bunch for your time, too, John.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to talking with folks.