Conversations With Coffey

How To Start A Home Improvement Franchise with Andy Bell

• Guy Coffey • Season 1 • Episode 20

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Andy Bell started Ace Handyman Services from the ground up. In this episode Andy tells us how he created this nationwide franchise from humble beginnings.

Connect with Guy Coffey:
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 I put the smallest line ad you could put in the Rocky Mountain News, you know, where you abbreviate, you use slashes, Swamp Boy, start up and repair swamp coolers, and I'll be darned if the phone didn't start ringing. You can't do new construction and frame out a second floor when you're 70 anymore, but you can work for us and continue to share your brain, your talents, and your abilities in a way that doesn't break your back, like all 200 contractors and 200 homeowners.

And out of those conversations, they gave me the blueprint and  the blueprint basically was 

Welcome to the show franchise business real talk with me. B coffee and a special guest today. Mr Andy bell from ace handyman services. Uh, we were just catching up. Um, we actually live in the same area, not too far away from each other, um, but I've never met before. And I saw a fantastic article on Andy and what he's doing at ace handyman services and one of the franchise magazines. 

out to him and he was kind enough to come on the show and I'm, I'm really pumped for what he has to share from his, his journey, um, to wear ACE handyman services now. And then this fantastic program they have for kids that can really help kids and families. So thanks for being here, Andy, I really appreciate your time.

Guy, it's an absolute privilege to be on your show. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah. Well, let's start out with Ace Home Handyman Services, which we'll go into later, but I just had a great experience using them in my own house. Cause as I, as I often said, if someone sees me walking with a hammer, it means I'm delivering it to somebody.

I have zero skills and my wife will gladly attest to that. We count on people like you every day. I'm here. I'm here. Um, uh, more money than skills. That's for sure. But tell us how Ace Handyman Services started if you, if you wouldn't mind and then where it's at right now and where you would like it to go.

It's funny, but it started in the basement of my house in Lakewood, Colorado. Uh, two saw horses in the door. I had recently exited the restaurant industry, uh, where it kind of gobbled up a lot of time, and we were just about ready to have our first child, and I wanted to be a father that advanced the ball, invested it the time.

I didn't want to be absentee. I wanted to stand on the sidelines and be there for my boys. Um, so before our first boy came along, uh, we started, uh, What was called Handyman Express at the time in the basement of our home. And it was simple. We just wanted to do small repairs around people's homes. We counted them up.

There's 1, 162 little projects around the house that we can do. Big drywall, a leaking gutter, A downspout that got ran over by a lawnmower, uh, a sprinkler that doesn't work, a drywall hole put by a soccer ball. I've got all of those.  Right. And, and, you know, it, it, it started interestingly, uh, I, I didn't know what I was going to do after, uh, restaurants.

And I had, I was about 31 years old and And I had been working at the Wynkoop Brewing Company as their general manager and director of operations, and in order to make the climate inside the restaurant very comfortable for everybody coming in, uh, what I would do is, um, I was, you know, obviously, diming the tables, set the chairs up, but on the fifth story of the Wynkoop Brewing Company was the cooling system, and the cooling system is Forty Swamp coolers.

Now, not everybody knows what a swamp cooler is, right? Arizona, New Mexico, Utah. Um, it takes the wet air and it, or excuse me, the dry air adds moisture to it. It's a very simple, but kind of  touchy little machine and it cools the air by 25 degrees. So that was the only discipline I knew coming out of the restaurant.

I had hospitality. I, I didn't know where I was at on construction services, but I knew I could fix a swamp cooler. I just decided one day to. call myself Swamp Boy, uh, back to the creature of the Black Lagoon. He was, yeah, he was my image, uh, for the logo. And I would just,  I, I put it, uh, uh, the smallest line edge you could put in the Rocky Mountain News, you know, where you abbreviate and you use slashes.

Swamp Boy, start up and repair swamp coolers. I'll be darned if the phone didn't start ringing. It started ringing off the hook and I'd show up in my swamp boy uniform. I was careful. I was competent. I was clean at what I did. And I charged a fair price and I didn't charge that price till after everybody was a hundred percent satisfied. 

And it was the darndest thing. He, um, people would call me before I got home. They say, Hey, the dryer vents fell out. Could you come fix that? Or Hey, this door sticks. I was wondering if you could help me out with that or this drywall patch. It. Needs fixed. I can't fix it. I don't know. I can't find anybody do it.

What would you do? So I told my wife, uh, you know at the time  There's something to this and she encouraged me to sit down and so I called 200 contractors and 200 homeowners And out of those conversations they gave me the blueprint Um, and the blueprint basically was we would need to do things time plus materials.

We didn't have the time to go do estimates  because in the time you'd drive from, you know, Lakewood to Parker, Colorado, an hour, an hour, John, we could already finish the project. So we had to sell it over the phone and we had to put certain things in place. These are employees of our organization. So I could offer exact schedule times.

Mrs. Jones, if you'd like us there at eight o'clock, we'll be there at five minutes till ready to ready to do your project. I can tell you, Mrs. Jones, this is probably a three hour project, but when my craftsmen arise. It will review the project in earnest with you, and it'll put the final price in writing.

And if it's not agreeable to you, we'll leave immediately, ma'am. However, most times it is agreeable, and we'll get started right then. And boy, this thing just took off. Nice. Yeah. Like that's just taking action. Like  you got a little skill, make some phone calls, you know, like that didn't cost you anything.

You didn't have a market research company go out and do complicated studies. It's like, yeah, I, I, I know some people and I know some places there's phone numbers and I can call them up and just ask them. And you've got such a great personality. Like it's such an engaging personality. I'm sure people are like, yeah, I'll talk to this guy.

You know, he's, he's nice.  It's funny, you really hit on something there, um, when, when I made those calls and I got the blueprint, uh, I don't know if you ever heard of my business mag, my biz mag, it was a magazine and they did a, they did an article on us about, How I made 200 phone calls to contractors and homeowners, and then they put a 25 million research company that did all their research to decide what they're in side by side.

And honest to goodness,  sister of our first franchise owner read that magazine. He was in Sugarland, Texas. He, she told him, you really got to get ahold of these guys. And that's how we sold our first franchises off of that. Wow. So, you know, as, as we discussed this, this podcast is for people that are going to be an entrepreneur one, one way, shape, or form, whether it's franchising or something else, or people that are already in the entrepreneurial world, um, you know, of size or not of size yet, or, you know, still have a long way to go, but they're in it.

Um, and then people who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs. And I think what that story illustrates is like,  You just go like you just take an action. Um, and you see what happens and that's the beauty of This, this game we call entrepreneurship is like, you can keep on getting better at it, but as you get older and older and older, like as long as you don't do the same mistakes over and over again, you're learning every time, you know, like I haven't heard one successful entrepreneur like you, that hasn't  gone into something, failed at it, you know, learned a lesson from it and adjusted and move forward and then eventually won.

So that's fantastic. Yeah, just grit, right? You're gonna have grit, right?  Nothing comes easy. But the way I look at it is, if I start a business and I fail,  I'm going to have to work for somebody just like everybody else till I'm 65. However, if I don't fail, I'm never going to have to work for somebody else. 

Yeah. Which is a, which is a big deal because that's one of the reasons, you know, I do what I do and I do this podcast is because I want more people to do it. You know, I just think it,  it does a couple of things besides income and time. You know, I believe in work life integration, not balance. I don't. Like you're always going to work more than you play.

You should, I think that's my opinion, especially if you enjoy your work and it's adding value to other people. Right. Well, it's, it's funny when you own your own business, you look at the clock and it says four 45 and you go, darn it, where did I lose those two hours? I need, I'm going to, I want to keep going, uh, as opposed to, wow, 15 more minutes till I get out of here.

So. So I think it lifts the spirits to, to have that freedom. Um, it, and it changes the mindset and perspective of what you do every day and how much gusto you have. A hundred percent. And the other thing I think small business and entrepreneurship does is it highlights.  Are in interdependence as human beings.

I've, I recently spent a very short amount of time in the corporate world. I have nothing against the people that I was working with or anything like that, but it's almost like you're a little bit bubble wrapped. Like you don't feel everything's like, Oh, you know, like, you know, earnings are down, it's like, Oh, well, I still have a salary and benefits and things like that, like, whereas like everything in a small business or entrepreneurship, you know, there, there are things that you have to react to and, and do it.

And nothing is like. Uh, you slough it off. Like every  opportunity is taken advantage of, every setback is felt in one way or another, right? Um, and,  You know, I was, I was sharing with someone yesterday, like, I don't, I don't cook, I don't, I don't do anything like that, but I, I go to the spice shop, that's three doors down from our office because it's privately owned, you know, so I bought some like rib, rib rub or something, because I want to know that person and I want them to do well, I want that business to stay there, so like, if you're working a corporate job, like, maybe like, I don't, I just drive by these places, doesn't really matter to me, but when you're a small business owner, you realize, Yeah.

And boy, you use the, uh, a magic word for franchising, I think, and it's interdependence. Yeah, totally.  'cause you know, as a franchisor and a franchisee, your franchise owner has to be successful. That's, that's the only game in franchising. Successful franchise owners, um, are happy and they'll help you sell more franchises.

So, yeah. So always that inner, just as you were speaking about interdependence, I think franchising is inter an interdependent. Interdependent relationship for sure. It's an interesting relationship. You know, they say parent child, which sounds not too great if you're a franchisee, but I am a franchisee of anytime fitness and B because  one of the parties kind of sets the rules and brings the tools and, and does all that.

And the other one hopefully executes really well and does really well, because that's, that's the goal of every true franchise or that's in it for the long term, because everybody knows, like. Doesn't matter how much you have PR or marketing or anything. If your franchisees aren't overall happy, you're going to have a really hard time sticking around.

So, but tell us about, so speaking of successful franchises, Ace handyman services, that was, that was.  They, they purchased your company, right?  Yes. And then you guys are really big now, and you have growth plans. Tell us about that. Yeah, so from those humble beginnings in the basement of Handyman Express, uh, in 2001 we started franchising.

So I've been doing it, I guess, 23 years franchising. We sold that first franchise through that public relations magazine, which is a really great way to, if you can get press, you can, you can, you can find people nationwide. And then we went along as handyman matters for many years and grew the organization.

It was, you know, just owned by myself and a very small number of shareholders. And we were up to about 120, 130 franchises. Uh, and when Ace called, we, um, you know, of course I answered that  Chief,  uh, the vice president of Ace Hardware, Bill Guzik, called me  and said, Andy, we've done some research on your business.

We see the foot traffic in Ace Hardware is predominantly do it yourself traffic. And we see research leaning towards.  Baby boomers not being able to do everything in the home, like stand on the ladder like they used to, so we see that reducing, and we see millennials buying more homes, and they're going to prioritize their weekends different.

So this is 2018, and they said, we see the do it for me economy coming, and we want to get ahead of this to, you know, make sure our retailers are insulated against things. Ace Hardware. This year, uh, is a 100 years old. So this is their hundredth anniversary. So from 2018,  uh, to 2019, we kind of negotiated back and forth.

And finally in September, September 5th of 2019, they acquired the entire brand and hired myself and my entire staff, and we got to stay in Denver. And operate from here because they're in Oakbrook, Illinois. So it was tremendous amount of trust, uh, afforded us. And, and so from that day, we had to rebrand to, from handyman matters to ACE handyman services.

We're able to get that done by March 2nd of 2020. And I gotta tell you, we got  150 people converted over all the brochures, all the signs, all the truck magnets, all the truck wraps, everything across the entire country done. Everything went fabulous. And then bam, COVID hit in April of 2020. I knew that was coming. 

You know, the governor's deemed us essential. And we were kind of behind on our promise. We had promised to sell 50 franchises and our royalties were a little behind our franchises are behind, but we just kept chipping away, chipping away. And by the end of the end of the first year with ACE hardware, we had sold 61 franchises more than any other year we had ever sold.

The most we ever sold in one year was 40. And that was, you know, back in 2006, before the. Um, 2008 crash and it was just, it was just like, boom, this thing made sense to our, our franchise owners. This made sense to our consumers. It made sense to us, but you're so right. We're still getting our feet. Wet because here we are a little over five years later.

I'm still the CEO of the ACE handyman services. And so you got to know that the relationship was founded on, um, core values. Over the years, a lot of equity groups called us. I just never wanted to do that. Um, the franchise owners that I brought on, I know their families. I know them. I care about them. I love them. 

I want to do the best for them. And I just didn't feel like that was the fit. But when ACE hardware called.  Strategically,  how could you say no to that? Yeah, well, you know, I, I think I, I don't think I'm the only one that can do the jingle. I'm not going to sing, I promise, but like ACE is the place with the helpful hardware, man.

Like you think about local help, smaller stores, better service. Um, you're not in a cavernous warehouse. Um, I mean, I think they have, they're local, they're super local. Yeah. Um, and they always, like the ones that I go to, like.  Like, I don't know where people get these, this knowledge because I've gone in there asking for some pretty arcane things and the guy will be like, Yeah.

Yeah. We got some of those and he looks at a wall.  I don't know how you did that, but it seems like you do magic, but it's just got that great,  like, yeah, we're, we're here in your neighborhood and we're going to help you out like reputation. Yeah. That's the synergy, you know, handyman's very local as well.

We, we have our offices, um, in each of the locations, the employees are from the local area. The offices are, people are from the area that, that franchise owners from local area. We're a local handyman business, so it really fit together well with the hardware story. And we, we just came together and, and now we're bringing helpful to people's homes. 

So it isn't just inside the four walls, it's coming to their homes, right? Right. Which makes a ton of sense. And as we were talking, um, I have a 20 year old house and, um, zero, zero, uh, handyman skills. So a lot of things need a lot of attention. And unless it's like a big job. Especially after COVID, it just seems like there was such a boom in home services and people wanting to get new decks and people doing all these things for, for their home  that unless it's a 50, 000 project, everybody's like, no, we're not, we don't do repairs anymore.

We built new decks, but we're not going to repair your deck.  We'll come over for a one hour project. You got a little tear in your screen. We'll come do it. And that this whole business is built around doing those little things that  people just don't have time to do, but you notice it and it kind of undermines the self confidence if you're taking care of one of your biggest investments.

So it's a really.  really fabulous way to get a lot done. Um, our craftsmen are multi skilled. They can do fix that little screen, you know, do some grouting, some caulking, some carpentry, some drywall, some plumbing, all in one visit. So it's super efficient to schedule one multi skilled craftsman with us and get a bunch of stuff done.

And get it off of your list and get it out of your hair and get you back to smiling about your place. The only thing that could have been better is if my wife was traveling and, and SETI, who is the, the guy who came over yesterday, fantastic, like just professional. You used our service, SETI. Yeah, I did, I said SETI. 

You know, it'd be great if my, my wife had been traveling and she came home and all these things were fixed. And I'm like, yeah, I just decided to take care of a few things. Unfortunately, she, she knows that I used ACE handyman service.  Gabe, we'll hold confidence. We'll, we'll pair up after, after receipt, we'll destroy all evidence.

We, we don't mind given the, you know, the It's somebody to the credit for the work. So,  but tell me about, uh, I had a couple of questions and then I definitely want to get to what you're doing for kids and families in local neighborhoods. Cause I think that's gigantic service and I love seeing businesses giving back, but I had two like business questions.

Number one is how much of a crossover is there between the ACE hardware store and like owners, or, or is, Are those are franchised too, right? Um, it's a, it's a co op, but it runs like a franchise. Yes. Okay. Okay. I was wondering how much of a crossover there is between that and who owns the franchise, uh, Ace Antiman services franchise.

Yes. Uh, I think that's a great question. Um, I always wish we had more retailers owning it. We have about 50 retailers. Uh, we have 395 territories across the country and. 50 of those 52, 48, somewhere right around that number, uh, or ACE retailers. And they own the ACE hardware store and they run the ACE handyman services business.

Um, those two crossover in those 50 markets. And then in the other markets, what we do is, uh, we go in with a very servant hearted attitude and say.  Hey, we're a wholly owned subsidiary of Ace Hardware. You know, um, we, how can we help your business, Mr. Retailer or Mrs. Retailer? And when they, they give us, you know, those things, we act on them.

And what we're hoping is at some point they say, what can I do for you? And we have point of purchase material that we put up in, in the stores that introduce customers to the two, two brands coming together. Sure. We work with the, uh, Red Vested Heroes, the associates and share donuts and conversations because what, what Ace Hardware wanted to do is take that, that board, that cork board off the back with everybody that, you know, they don't know, they don't know if there's a.

a safe, a safe bet, you know, on that cork board and give them somebody who they know are licensed, bonded, insured, um, will do what they say, understand that the middle of the company is when you make a mistake, taking the high road, um, all those things to demonstrate exactly their core values of how they take care of people inside their store.

Um, so that, that, that's the marriage. We're in the community as a, as a, as a wholly owned subsidiary, but these are our partners. These are our friends. These are many owners of our organization, uh, Ace Hardware retailers. And you mentioned, are they a franchise? And I said, they're a co op. They act, they look like a franchise, but in 1976, the retailers bought the brand from the support center.

So the board of directors is made up of ACE hardware retailers. They really have the command and control of the whole organization. And then the support center of ACE hardware reports up to them, acts on their behalf and keeps pushing this thing up. I mean, this ACE hardware is cranking. Yeah, yeah, that's a very unique structure. 

Yeah, it sure is. I don't know. Took a while to get my head around it. Yeah, my second question was on, it just seems like, um, like Seti came here yesterday, um, spent four hours, went up to the Ace Hardware nearby to purchase all the supplies, um, You know, as I said, professional had the, you know, children's hospital miracle network vest on with the ACE hardware, just totally pro.

Um, and he was doing like, he literally had to do a major toilet repair. He also did the whole thing. He's. Doing smoke alarm, rewiring everything. And I was like, what a great thing for someone that's got that many talents that I, I really admire. Cause as I've mentioned, I don't have them. Um, and so multifaceted, but if that, if you like the challenge for someone that's that talented in that area, it's probably also not in marketing and sales and follow up and invoicing and AP and AR and all that kind of stuff.

Whereas if someone like that can plug into a network. That is going to feed them work. They don't, they can just do what they enjoy and be in their areas of genius rather than like, Oh, I'm doing marketing for a while and I'll get into all these clients and then I'm going to go out and do the jobs and then the pipeline slows down and it's, it's just not a way to work.

It just seems like a, a, a nice fit for these tradesmen. Oh, gosh, it really is. And, you know, you, you look at the tradesmen out on their own, um, you know, they have to do estimates, they have to do the administration, they have to catch the phone calls, sometimes you get a little behind. So you're working on eight different houses for an hour and a day instead of one house for eight, eight days.

And so, um, you know, timely completion starts to fall into jeopardy and they're really talented people out there. Um, they burn out. And when they come to us, they really recognize exactly what you just explained, is that they, you know, we, they, they're focused on their strengths, which is showing up at the property, looking at the multiple different projects they have to do, coordinate in their mind and in communication with the customer, how they're going to complete it.

And then when they're done, they're done. They don't have, you know, if the bill doesn't get paid, it's on us. If something happens, we're coming back. If, um, There's an incident in the house. We have the insurance to cover it. If they harm themselves in somebody's house. Our insurance covers it, not the homeowner's insurance.

Not everybody realizes that. So it's safe. And then we do a background check. We do, we do all counties they've ever lived in and a nationwide sex offender, because we feel that if somebody is going inside somebody's home, they need to represent, um, a very professional lifestyle that led up to, and will continue with us.

And then what we do is there are employees. So, you know, they get a solid hourly wage, They also get, um, you know, compensated for their time in the vehicle, getting from one place to the other, they get, um, they get a reimbursement for, um, tools that, you know, like saw blades and, and those types of things that burn up, but we have health insurance, 401k, life insurance, uh, sick days, vacation days, and, and all that is great.

But I gotta tell you, uh, Guy, the greatest thing gift we give them is. is they get their nights back, they get their weekends back, they can go on vacation with their family, and it just changes the dynamic of their relationship with their family. And I would, I would venture to say that all the craftsmen and craftswomen in our organization They lift up in their community and they're better community members because they have consistent pay, they're beloved at work, and they're respected for the trades they have.

And we see 40, year old craftsmen come in because you can't do new construction and frame out a second floor when you're 70 anymore. But you can work for us and continue to share your brain, your talents, and your abilities in a way that doesn't break your back because it is lighter construction. We're doing the smaller stuff, two 2x4s, not a bunk of 2x4s. 

Right. Well, before we wrap this up, I just definitely want to get to, you were talking about 40, 50, 70 year old, uh, you know, tradesmen.  They got to start somewhere. And you have a terrific program. It comes, it's near and dear to my heart. Cause, uh, my younger son, um, he does fantastic. He's in a great school.

He gets great grades. He's, he's a doer, you know, like he wants to work with his hands. Um, we, we toured Lincoln technical college recently and he was like, this is the place for me. Like, like he just loved the whole idea of whether it's HVAC or refrigeration or auto repair or whatever. Um, and I love how the pendulum is swinging back to like trades.

Like we understand, like not everybody's going to four year college. It's not the best thing for everybody. And like, so tell me about this program you have for apprentices. Cause I think it's fantastic. Yeah, and Keith, thank you for bringing this up, because it is near and dear to our heart. And exactly as you described, not everybody's on track to go to college and end up with, you know, some student loans that, you know, kind of weigh them down for many years.

And, and, and why waste that money? Um, so what we put together at A. C. Handyman Service is what we call an apprentice program. And I, I want to dub it as earn while you learn, because we pay you while you're working. And here's kind of how it works. We We have a ladder from apprentice to handyman to craftsman to master craftsman to lead craftsman.

To general, uh, excuse me, to field supervisor, to general manager, to franchise owner, it goes the whole, the whole stair all the way up to the top. And it can start with joining us. We have, um, a curriculum that they go through when there isn't anything to do. We tuck them under the wing of a master craftsman that can show them the ways of, of things.

They keep track. The master craftsman signs off on their abilities and when they get to a level of competency, then they start to, they start to, they start to be able to expand out more. Maybe they do, you know, Drywall first, tile next, framing third, carpentry and trim finish last, but they, it ups their skills while they're learning, so there's no bill at the end of it.

It helps us, and I can tell you the one example we had is we had a lady, a younger lady join us. This was two years ago. She was dressing up as a clown and panhandling on the side of the street.  She came to us into our apprentice program, and of course, everybody took good care of her, made sure she was, you know, riding with, um, you know, craftsmen that had the brain and she would help out with some of the back work.

She ended up becoming our best, our best billing, uh, handyman.  That's how confident she got. She loved plumbing, or excuse me, welding so much. She went to a trade school, learned welding, started welding, and then she said, you know what, I really love plumbing. So she went into, uh, got her plumbing license, started working at a plumbing contractor, and now we refer work to her  when, when the plumbing goes beyond what our craftsman could do.

And her economic outlook, Is favorable now and and I just hope someday and I saw it last May at high school. You know, somebody's going to see you. Somebody's going to see us. You they put up I T T Tech and the crowd  clapped as loud as they could. I think we all have a duty to lift up those people that maybe we're squirming in the classroom but are suited for the artist level.

Um, carpentry and, and skills that the trades bring our way, because if we can lift them up, by golly, someday in the future, when they're  70 or we're, or I'm 70, we can get our houses fixed. The stock of trades people that, that are coming along and are excited to be a part of, um, something where they can see their results.

And some of the wealthiest people I know each own HVAC and plumbing companies and electrical companies. It's, it's not small potatoes anymore. And people understand if you can run it as a business, these can be very big businesses. No, I have, I have a friend. He lives on the very top of Conifer mountain and he's, he's an HVAC.

And I think he got a GED, but he knows how to put deals together and take care of people and market. And so you're, you're building this track for people to run on. Um, that is fantastic. How, how just one last, how early could someone start in that program? The apprenticeship  high school, we're starting to go to high schools.

We'd love to have people work over the summers. You know, we'd love to, we have a curriculum that as long as the, the school district or schools board would accept, they should be able to get high school credit. Maybe they can work two days a week, you know, and, and the weekends. We'd love to have, um, You know, any, any age we're, we're here to lift people up.

So it's agnostic of, of, of just about anything. Oh, I, you don't need the skill. You just need the will, just the will, you got the will to learn this. We, we could, we could teach you and handyman's like the buffet of trades. So maybe you try out these, you know, five or six different trades. And then you go, I really like welding, like our, like our gal and then.

and then, you know, ended up in plumbing because she had a taste of that with us too. That is fantastic. I'm, I, I really want to get the word out on that program because I think it can help so many people. I just wanted to say thank you so much, Andy. I, you know, like good luck to Ace Handyman Services and you and your family and everybody that's involved. 

Especially in this program that you're talking about. And, um, thanks for sharing your story. I think it really shows that  it goes back to what you just said. Like sometimes you don't have to have the skill. You just have to have the will and the willingness to fail a little bit and learn from it and then keep moving forward.

So you're, you're an inspiration and your business is an inspiration. I really thank you for sharing it with  Thank you, Guy. And I just say, any early stage franchise owner, just keep going. Just keep going. Grit. Grit's all you need. Determination and a little bit of luck. Keep it going.  Absolutely. Absolutely.

Well, thank you again, Andy. Take good care. Privilege