Franchise Business Real Talk

Building a Home Services Franchise with Daniel Feltman

• Guy Coffey • Season 2 • Episode 5

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In this episode I interview Daniel Feltman, co-founder of The Garage Floor Company. Daniel shares his journey from a state trooper to a successful entrepreneur in the franchise space. 

We discuss the inception and growth of his company, the importance of extensive training for franchisees, and the operational aspects of running a garage floor business. 

The episode also touches on the significance of mentorship and coaching for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

Tune in for insights into franchising, business growth, and the personal stories behind Daniel's success.

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/daniel-feltman-10724a141

Or see: garagefloorcompanyindy.com

Connect with Guy Coffey:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/guycoffey
Website: www.guycoffey.com
Instagram: @guycoffey
YouTube: @guycoffey

 Welcome to Conversations with Coffey with me, Guy Coffey. I've owned independent businesses. I've been a franchisee of a global brand for over 17 years, and I co founded and successfully exited our own franchise brand. This podcast is dedicated to growing the lives and businesses of entrepreneurs everywhere.

By sharing conversations with successful owners and some of my own experiences and insights. So please grab a cup of coffee and let's just dive right into today's episode.  Hello and welcome to another episode of conversations with coffee. And today I have a special guest, Daniel Feltman from the garage floor company all the way from Indianapolis, although we're just meeting virtually here, but just excited to share Daniel's journey with you as a, an emerging.

Brand founder in the franchise space. So anybody that's thinking about building their own business can learn some of the, the journey from listening to this conversation. And without further ado, I am going to let Daniel introduce himself. Yeah. Thanks, Guy. I appreciate you having me on. It's a, it's always a pleasure.

Uh, meeting you and stuff like that and being able to pick your brain. You're amazing in the industry and I always follow you. So just, you know, having that friendship with you, it's just, it's just a pleasure for sure. So thanks for having me on. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for taking the time on our, on our Friday afternoon.

Right. That's right. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, a little bit of backstory on me. I am the co founder with another business partner of the garage floor company. I am in Indianapolis, Indiana. My business partner is in Nebraska. Um, we started the franchise journey about 2020 is when we started, you know, diving into the, getting into the franchise, but the company has actually been around since 2010, that's when it got established and it's kind of ran as corporate units and Omaha.

Arizona and Indiana. We kind of run those as corporate units. They've been kind of running and we just just kind of decided later on that we wanted to help share the, you know, the the pathway to freedom with other people. And that's what really drove us into franchising  to give it that that. you know, that feel for other people to help them out.

But it's kind of a long road for me where I came from. My background is actually not in business. I got a business degree and everything. But when I got out of college, I went straight into the state police. I was a state trooper for 13 years. Oh, wow. And, uh, I did that. I, while I was there, I actually got a, the opportunity to guard three different governors for Indiana.

So I was their protection detail. Very cool. So I traveled a lot and did all that, that neat things and, and did that and kind of got one day I was sitting there and I was like, man, I am really bored, you know, cause we hurried up and waited a lot. And I was like, what do I want to do with my life? I knew I was meant for so much more.

So I actually looked into buying a franchise in our industry for somebody else. And that's how I met my business partner. He was part of that franchise at one time. Calling them up, you know, we kind of learned each other's things and he told me not to go with them. And I saw him like, okay, I definitely won't go with them.

And he and I just had a vision that we could make things so much better than they were doing with the lack that they were, you know, not doing and supporting and things like that. So, um, we had the driving force to start doing it here in Indiana as a test model for a franchise. And, uh, I built it up and decided, yeah, it's ready.

So let's start franchising. That's kind of how we got into franchising. It's, it's a long winded story, but, uh, you know, it's a kind of a happy ending, I guess. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. I like the background. It makes for a solid foundation. You know, um, you guys operating multiple, actually pretty spread out locations as well for corporate locations.

So you have that deep operational knowledge. You've got data points, you've got KPIs that you know, that matter. You're. Not just talking the talk, you're walking the walk every day when you're running those operations. And then even, you know, like to start out with the formation of it when you're saying, this is what the system didn't provide that we found that it's important.

So kind of iterating on that and fill in those gaps that you would have felt if you joined that other system. And that other gentleman was part of it, your business partner. So that's a really strong foundation. How, how did you come to be in the garage floor? Business, you know, like sealing the garage, you know, tell us a little bit about that without too much technical detail, cause it'll go right here on me. 

Yeah. So, uh, it was, it was pretty simple. I didn't know what I wanted in a business. And so I just kind of sat down and I said, what do I like to do? And I love hanging out in my garage. So that's how the journey started. I just kind of looked at what does a garage have to offer. They have garage doors. And then I was like, Oh, they got storage.

And I didn't, but I never even really even knew about the epoxy world. Like I knew nothing about it. And I just saw it and they offered epoxy and storage and that's kind of how I fell in love. I'm like, man, I love the way it looks and it, you know, just makes it so clean and crisp. I've always wanted one.

So, you know, that's the journey that I was like, that's what I want to get into. It's just neat. And you get to see that passion, you know, growing through, you get to see the finished product immediately, um, within a day or two. So it's just, You know, it's just fulfilling. And that's just how I stumbled across.

I just, I'm like, I like hanging out in my garage. It's pretty simple.  That's a great story. Scratch your own itch. Right. You know, like it is, I have epoxy on my garage floor and absolutely love it. It just makes it, you know, so much easier to clean. It looks super sharp, um, when the cars are sitting on it, it looks, it looks nice and it is, I think, you know, a while ago it was.

Pretty much a luxury item. Like people are like, why are you putting a proxy on top of concrete? Who cares? But it is a level up and most people are entering their houses through their garage. So it does make a difference. Like, you know, that space, and I don't know anything about Feng Shui or anything like that, but I do know when my garage is like looking good and the floor is looking good, just feels a lot better. 

You guys are a little bit ahead of the curve here in 2020. When you guys are thinking about franchising, everybody started just loving home service businesses, you know, especially franchises, PE in particular, you know, with the long term agreements and people spending more money on their homes. I'm sure you saw a bump after that.

I know in our own Uh, business in the beauty care, um, space when those shutdowns were done, you know, we were kind of pinching ourselves, like, is this a sugar rush or, or, or what? And luckily for us, it, it wasn't, it was a sustained demand. But did you find the same thing after the COVID shutdowns where people are like, I spend so much time at home.

I want it to look nicer. I'm investing in this because it's the space I occupy the most. Yeah. So I think everybody, of course, you know, everybody made money during that COVID time, whether you were even working or not, um, or even trying because they were constantly, everybody was home and putting money into their house.

So it definitely was an increase, but afterwards we still see that increase. And I don't know if it's because of what we're doing, if we're doing the right things, or if it's just because people still want to spend that kind of money. I don't really know, but we've seen it year over year, we're profitable.

So the numbers show that it's still going up and up and it's projected to continuously raise. Like our industry has always been said to do that. There's just always a big demand for it. And like you said, It is a luxury item, but it's starting to become more of a, this is, Hey, pick out your cabinets, pick out your countertop, now pick out your garage floor, because what a lot of people don't understand is  concrete is really porous, right?

Um, a lot of things can affect it and I'm in Indiana and right now we have like a snow blizzard going on and what do they put down on the ground? They put all that salt. And salt eats concrete like it's no tomorrow and you eat this concrete, it's gone. Like it's, there's no coming back. So it's actually protecting it.

So like my wife pulled in just recently and I'm like, Oh my God, it's all over my floor. You know, I got to clean it, but at least it's not eating through it. So it's actually a protectant.  So it's really starting to become more of a, okay, this needs to be done versus this. is nice to have, you know, and only rich people can afford it.

Sure.  This is a non sequitur kind of question. So have you ever looked at working with home builders as part of the finish packages of like, just like you said, like, Oh, you're picking out your countertops. You want an upgrade on that? Y'all you're picking out your cabinets. You want an upgrade on that? You know, the, the house.

The house price goes up significantly, but when you're in that mode, you're kind of like, yeah, put some epoxy down. Yeah. It's not a big deal. It's going to be in a 30 year mortgage.  Right. Yeah. So we do, we do about 80 percent is residential that we like people calling in to get their jobs done. And then we have about 20 percent is commercial work that we do.

And those are included with builders. Um, general contractors and then like business owners that own like multiple buildings or complexes and stuff like that, that we work, but Jeff and I have really focused in on that, that that's like the key behind everything because it's reoccurring revenue and literally can be sleeping and they're working for you.

So they're selling it. And then they're just calling and saying, Hey, I got a job for you. And when can you do it? And then you're just scheduling it. So we've partnered up with a lot of custom builders, like the track builders don't really work as well, just because it's kind of low, you know, profit margins for them.

And they just don't want to add that in, but we've dealt with a lot of the custom builders and they're the ones that really want it. Um, the people really want it and they just offer it like a, like a standard. They're just picking stuff out and they just show them our colors. So yeah, we do work with a lot of builders and a lot of contractors and it saves me, you know, on going out to have to do the sale and stuff like that.

They just call and say, Hey, we've got another one. Here's the color. When can you do it? So it's nice.  That sounds like a fun sales cycle dealing with people with, you know, a fair amount of money that are building a new house and using a custom builder, which is always, you know, a lot of money and they probably have some nice vehicles that they want it to look good in the, in the garage too.

So tell me a little bit about your structure right now, your corporate structure as you, you know, are just getting out of the gate with, with franchising you, Jeff, um, who else is on the team and what are you doing for marketing and what are you doing for support? Yeah, so it's just basically it's Jeff and I right now.

We do have another guy that's going to be starting to do the sales process for our franchise development. Um, he's in training, so right now, since we're an emerging brand, we really wanted to focus in on Jeff and I being the co-founders, but still being really active and part of that. So when you go through the entire process, as of right now, it's Jeff and I that are doing that process with you.

We see a lot of advantages to that just because you get hands on with the owners, the founders, the guys that are actually still doing floors to this day and came from an installation background versus, you know, yeah, I owned a bunch of businesses. I sold them and now I'm starting a new garage floor business and not really knowing what to do.

So, um, that's the structure as of right now. We are with. carpools program. So we do with all the fast lane, you know, the processes, they do all the speedy territory checks and all that stuff. So they handle that. But once it gets to that person, it's, they're bringing them straight to Jeff and I, and we, we go through the whole entire life cycle of sales, the, you know, the development and stuff like that and, and qualify both sides and seeing if they're a good fit for us and if we're a good fit for them.

Right. It's such an exciting time having gone through it. You know, we started with Anytime Fitness when they had less than 100. So, you know, a little bit further down the road. But when we were starting out at Frenchies, it was just a lot of fun because the people that were coming on board knew that they were going to be working with you as the founder and your, you know, your, your startup team.

And we were really intentional about it is you had to find these people that are pioneer spirits. They're willing to go ahead of the rest of the crowd. and see how this works out. You know, I'm a huge fan of franchising, but I'm also a huge fan of just entrepreneurship. And, and I think franchising is a great way for people to go.

I really do like home services. It's one of the categories that we're, we're looking at as well. Um, as we have exited out of our other businesses, um, because there is a need for it all the time. Can you usually get up, ramped up a lot faster than you can with brick and mortar? You know, brick and mortar has its own benefits.

I'm. I'm franchisee and franchisor of two that are brick and mortar based, but I'm looking for something that's not just because you can get to speed faster. You know, you get a cool looking vehicle. I saw your rebrand that you did a couple of years ago and um, you know, sharp, sharp looking things, uh, those vans going down the road and everything like that.

And someone that's a go getter that's not afraid to have conversations like you right now, like we're in the branded product. When people are starting out, I'm just. If you're not wearing your brand all the time everywhere, you are just leaving money on the table. If you like this show, would you do me a huge favor and share it with one more person?

It's super quick and easy to do, and it will help me impact more people in a positive way. Thanks. Now back to the episode.  Right now, obviously your, your focus is on sales and you've got someone that's handling that for you in a professional manner, which is always smart because it's. It's about speed organization and as a busy founder that's also running an operation, it's not always easy to like drop everything to handle an important sales call and give that person the time, attention and focus that you need to.

So that's a, that's a really smart move. Um, sounds like you guys are making a bunch of really smart moves. What do you see as the next step? What, what's your goal for 2025 in terms of maybe it's sales, maybe it's getting people. What, what is your ramp up time? Actually, that, that brings me to a question.

How long does it take for someone to like, I really want to own a garage floor company franchise unit here in  wherever, you know, Cincinnati or Chicago or wherever they sign, you know, they, they go down the path with you. They learn you, you approve them. Um, they're excited to be working with you guys. How long does it take for them to go from that?

day until they're out marketing and hopefully having someone or doing it themselves, perhaps doing a garage floor somewhere. Yeah. So like the entire life cycle process for us is about three to six months to get everything you need, get everything structured, get everything in order, get all your equipment ordered, get your training done, just different things.

So about three months is we can get it done in three months. And then six months is just way like that's the highest route. Like that's saying that we're, you know, going through a lot of different hoops and we have to get licensing and contracting and things like that. Um, certificates of, you know, for general contractors, it's mainly about three to six months, but it's max is six months, but you can get started within about three months, um, with this.

It's just a, it's a quick startup, low cost investment. And that's what a lot of people like about it is kind of, you know, getting into it. But the reason that it's a little bit longer, I would say I call three months long because we really want to hone in on the training. And this is kind of our industry is really lacking that training. 

And that's the biggest reason for us is we noticed it was lacking. We wanted it better. We're adding more training, we're adding more days, we're adding more hours. So you're really getting focused. Um, we're a simple business model, but it's not an easy job. Like it's not an easy thing to run. You really need to learn the right ways to do it.

And you can't learn it in a two day class to run a business. You just can't. And a lot of people do that. So we do 40 hours of virtual training, and then we add in another 40 hours of corporate training at our location in Nebraska. And then when you're done and you're ready to open up, we actually give you an additional 40 hours where Jeff and I right now, currently, Jeff and I are flying to your location and we're actually doing hands on training with you at your home base.

So that way you're feeling comfortable. You're getting started. You're not like, Oh man, what did I learn? It was like two weeks ago and I forgot everything right? Like we all do it and we just don't want somebody to go out there and be like, left in the dark. We just want to help him and make him successful because at the end of the day, when everybody's successful, we're all happy.

And that's what we're really looking for is just really changed in the lives of everybody. One person at a time. That's that's our goals is just really helping people out. Yeah, I will say from being in the industry for a while, if anybody's looking at getting into franchising or home service franchise or entrepreneurship in general, you know what you and Jeff are doing right now is a truly unique opportunity to get trained by the founders, you know, have been operating corporate units for If going on 15 years, probably not all the same age because that, that will go by the wayside probably is, you know, best intentions of you and Jeff for sure.

But like at a certain point you got to focus on scaling the business so that you can, you know, keep growing it. That's a lot of training and that's a fantastic what I'm, I'm bringing that up because I just want to point out that that's a fantastic value for someone. If someone was saying like, well, why should I go with the garage floor company?

You know, that they're. They're not nationwide, they don't have 400 units, you know, they're, they're emerging and things like that is like, that's your answer, because you're not going to get trained by the founders at one of those other places, you're going to get trained by someone eight levels below. And hopefully they, you know, hopefully they know what they're doing, but you're not going to be on this journey from the get go with the founders and actually hands on training.

So that's, that's a huge value proposition. I'm so I'm yeah. really glad that you mentioned that.  I'm just in this phase where like home services is really of interest to me. And, um, you know, having seen the process in my own garage and the effect it had and everything, it's, it sounds like  a hard business in terms of the labor, right?

It's not easy. Are you looking for people to come in and own or operate? Or are you also looking for people that  don't ever say semi absentee because it's not, it's not true.  You know, it's, you're probably looking for someone that can actually do the work in the beginning for the most part, but I could be wrong.

So don't let me put words in your mouth. What's your ideal candidate? Yeah. So our ideal candidate, we do, we have two models. We have the owner operator model and we have an executive model. So we don't, we don't say semi absentee either. We just, we don't like that word, you know, we stay away from that. So we call it the executive model, but you know, that owner operator model, what that looks like is, is the owner and they're the lead installer.

And then what they're going to do is hire one other person to help them out with that installation process. And then as they start scaling, what they're going to do is they're going to hire more installation people, and then they're going to kind of take a backseat and start running the business. So that's that first model to scale that one up.

But we do offer if your clients and stuff like that, if they have the money and the cash flow to do so in the beginning, to hire that manager, that project manager to run it. You can start off with the executive model. We still want you to be active in the business, not just, but just not probably in the installation process.

So you'll get two installers. What you'll be focused is like sales. the marketing aspect and then also being able to scale your business into multiple territories. So we do welcome that as well with that executive model. 

You know, yeah, the danger is someone thinks that they're, they're going to be semi absentee and assuming that the business is going to make money on its own, but it. It won't. And I, I've seen it enough times that there's no doubt in my mind and I don't, I say that unapologetically. If you think you're going to run a small business on 10 hours a week, get it off the ground.

You are crazy.  So even, even me, you know, looking at some of the home service businesses that I've looked at, you know, people are asking like, I'm obviously more in the executive model kind of realm, but I tell them, you know, for the first six to 12 months, I'm going to be in the business. Like, I will be in the business,  you know, unless it's mechanical or something like that.

Cause I can't do anything like that.  Yeah. Not that I don't want to, I just don't have the skills to do that. Um,  no, it sounds, it sounds like you've got your, your prospects, you know, your potential candidates narrowed down. Sounds like it'd be a great opportunity for someone that's willing to roll up their sleeves.

do some sales and marketing, be a great customer service person. Um, I see it working all the time. I've actually got guys out right now in our, in our trees right now from, um, it's a window washing company, but they also wrap trees, you know, for Christmas. And I was asking the guy, I'm like, You know, he's a, he's a window washer and, um, I found out I have way more windows in my house than I thought I did,  but I'm like, how, how do you like working for this company?

Um, and I'll say it, it's, it's shine window cleaning. It's been a fantastic experience working with them. It's also a franchise. Yeah. And. You know, the, the owners, it's a husband and wife team. They're so good at communication. They are all over everything. And, um, I was talking to Joshua and I'm like, how long have you worked here?

And he's like four and a half years. I'm like, how do you like it? He was like, best job I ever had, you know, like he loves it. You know, and he's super professional and upsold me on holiday lighting, which was a lot of money.  So those are, those are the opportunities for someone, you know, you can build this little community.

You don't have a ton of overhead. You don't have a ton of employees.  You can have this small crew that like, It gets to know like it trust each other and and build this thing that changes your lives, your employees lives, your clients lives. Um, that's why I just, I'm sorry, I just go off on, on entrepreneurship because I think it's just a life game changer, you know, for, for young families so that they can have the time flexibility to, to do what they need to do with the kids and want to do with the kids and, um, just the trickle down effect and the interdependency of it all.

Whereas. You know, like if you're working a  corporate job or something else, like you don't really get the interconnectedness of everything that's going on around you. Whereas if you're a small business owner, suddenly you become very aware of it. And um, it's, it's a, it's a gift, it's a, it's, it's a responsibility, but I also see it as a gift.

And so you're, you're providing that opportunity for people and I think that's fantastic. So thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that was a big thing for me too. Cause when I was a state trooper, I, I was constantly working. I never knew my schedule and I was constantly traveling. Cause I was guarding the governors and I'll tell you, my wife was getting pretty fed up.

You know, I was always gone. And now since I, owning, you know, a business. I have that more freedom. Um, it is a risk. It is something that you, you'd really have to, you know, have that risk tolerance for to do to have that special personality to build into this. But for me, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cause like any day I want, I can go pick my kids up from school. I can take the day off and we can go to the park. So it was all about really at the end of the day, if I really looked back at it, it was about the family aspect. And having that freedom, um, the money's nice, but you know, the families, you know, the memories, they, they last a lot longer than the money does for sure.

And so that was a really driving force for me to, to be into this business. And I couldn't see it any other way. Like I couldn't go work for somebody else. That's for sure. From now on, like it's entrepreneurs from here on out, uh, you know, just being able to do that, just, just for my family's sake,  absolutely.

You know, even with remote work, it's, it's not the same. No. Granted, you know, there's a, there's a cartoon. I saw someone's like paragliding behind a boat and like they zoom in on him, but he still got his laptop going and he's like, I'm in the franchise world. It was like, yeah, like you're, you're always working, but you could be working in pretty cool environments too.

Right. If you're interested in learning more or from our guests today, please check out the links in the show notes. If you want to learn more about me, please check out my LinkedIn at Gee Coffee. That's G U Y C O F F E Y. Or for more personal and behind the scenes info, check me out on Instagram, which is at the same handle at Gee Coffee.

Now let's get back to the episode.  Well, hey, as we land the plane here, just wanted to ask a couple questions for any aspiring entrepreneur. You've been down the path, you're going down the path. And maybe I'll even make it more specific as a, as an emerging brand founder,  any advice or words of wisdom, or maybe, uh, you know, maybe something that will help someone get up the learning curve faster on what to do or what not to do.

You know, as, as far as you've gone down the path so far. Yeah. So I'll tell you right now, like, I still don't know everything and I don't think a lot of people do, you know, we're all still learning. I've had a lot of mentors in my day a lot. Like, like you're one of them, like, so. There's a lot of people that have played a big role in my life to learn every step of the way.

And if you don't, I think if you don't have a coach and a mentor, I'm really big into that. Find the right coach, find the right mentors, put them in your life and use them and take their advice seriously. Like, don't just be like, yeah, yeah. And then just kind of push it off. The mentors have changed my life forever.

Years ago, I wouldn't even know what a KPI was. And then like, not even a clue. You're like, yeah, what's. business KPI. I don't even know what that is, but okay, whatever. But, you know, it learning all this from all of my mentors has been, you know, basically the game changer for me, um, and life changing and it's afforded me to continue to move on.

Cause I would have been stuck in a job. you know, running a job versus running a business. Had I not had those people in my life. So I think if anybody's listening and they're trying to get the figure out just different things, like find people, reach out to them. There's a lot of people that will give you help.

Like just talk to you, you know, talk to somebody. Um, and then definitely, I mean, I I've invested, I have. Like four coaches that I invest in. So it's, it's well worth the money. It's an investment, not money. Like a lot of people think, Oh, I can't afford that. It's like, you really can't afford not to, because trust me, it works.

And even Michael Jordan had a coach his entire life and he's the best basketball player ever to live. You have to have a coach in your life. You got to have that driving force to keep you going. If you don't, you're just going to be another, you know, Chuck in a truck is what we like to call it. So. Um, my word of advice,  my word of advice is just find mentorship.

Yeah, that is great advice. That is great advice. Yeah. I think more and more people are getting the message like,  uh, go to the Olympics and point out the, the athlete that's made it to that level. It doesn't have a coach. You know, I have a writing coach, I have a podcast coach, I have a business coach, you know, it's, it's well worth it.

It helps you move faster. A hundred percent agree with your. Your assessment there.  Well, Daniel, thank you so much for being on the show. We sure do appreciate you sharing your journey. Um, we'll have all of the ways to connect with you so people can get more information if they're so inclined. And, um, just wanted to say thanks so much and appreciate your time and energy and what you're doing for people.

Thanks, Guy. I appreciate it. Appreciate your friendship and I love meeting us with you. So, uh, looking forward to our next get together. Sounds good.