Tim Courtney, vice president of franchise development for PuroClean, details why restoration cleaning is on the rise.
Content Partnership*
PuroClean has been offering its best-in-class restoration cleaning services since 2001, but for Tim Courtney, VP of franchise development for the trailblazing brand, the real ascension has taken place in the past half-decade.
Case in point: since CEO and chairman Mark Davis and vice chairman Frank Torre took ownership of PuroClean in 2015, the franchise has grown its franchise roster by 45 per cent; now accounting for 322 locations across North America, with new executives bringing decades of franchise and restoration experience to PuroClean.
Today, PuroClean offers a whole host of restoration and remediation services, including cleaning up after damage caused by fire, water, mold, and biohazard conditions. The franchise has even introduced its PuroClean RapidDefense service, which is tailored to a coronavirus or influenza outbreak. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this service offers a deep clean to prevent the spread of viruses.
HOW HAS PUROCLEAN’S SERVANT LEADERSHIP APPROACH HELPED FRANCHISEES TO NAVIGATE THIS YEAR?
TC: We have multiple regional directors throughout the country, which works out to around one for every 25 franchisees in our network. Early on this year, our directors made sure to visit franchise owners’ offices where it was safe to do so, but naturally, we’ve done a lot of communicating through video conferencing.
When training new franchise owners, we’ve been able to host in-person sessions at our corporate headquarters in Tamarac, Florida, where we can create a safe, socially distanced setting.
We spent a lot of time and money upgrading our training room prior to the pandemic, not knowing that we’d need to utilize its capabilities so early on. We also have an online learning academy that franchise owners can engage in pre-training remotely and continue learning once they return home.
All of this hard work has meant that we have continued to sign new franchise owners, by adding 40 new locations to our network this year – with 37 of those since May 1.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES PUROCLEAN’S RESTORATIVE CLEANING FROM DOMESTIC- FOCUSED FRANCHISE CONCEPTS?
TC: The history of restoration and remediation started with janitorial services. People doing the basic office cleaning and mopping would come across a broken pipe causing water damage and have to try and solve it.
We deal with those broken pipes, any fire or smoke damage; this is an advanced level to what standard janitorial services offer. In the old school days, you could go in with a shop vacuum and a couple of fans, but now, due to a focus on environmentalism and things of that nature, restoration cleaning has become a science.
This business has truly proven to be recession-proof. For example, when the whole world went into lockdown, we saw a huge uptick in kitchen fires because people were trying to cook their favorite restaurant meals at home. More people cooking led to a greater number of kitchen fires, and PuroClean owners were ready to lead with a servant heart during those times.
“Our franchisees call themselves community superheroes because they’re in touch with their community and always lead by example. They love what they do”
Our franchise owners call themselves community superheroes because they’re in touch with their community and always lead by example. They love what they do to serve their neighbors during times of need.
I think the myth of this business is that it’s very dependent on natural disasters, but we’re solving problems every day. One in every 22 homes in the U.S. will suffer water damage, and we’ll be there to help out.
WHAT WOULD YOU ATTRIBUTE TO PUROCLEAN’S EXPONENTIAL FRANCHISE GROWTH?
TC: It’s a great investment. We receive franchise inquiries from all over; individuals from the corporate world, for example, who are looking to control their own destiny and build a legacy for themselves and their families. We have multi-unit franchise owners who are looking to diversify their portfolio, as well as property managers and hoteliers – in fact, we recently brought on a gentleman from Syracuse, New York, who owns several hotel properties. He decided that if he was going to clean the hotels, he may as well own the restoration and remediation company that would perform the service.
PuroClean is a safe place to start if you’re getting into business, because of the system and the opportunities that we provide. We even look at SYSTEM as an acronym, which is ‘Save YourSelf Time, Energy, and Money’. If you follow the system, you have a high probability of success, and we’re seeing our standardized way of doing business really lending to the success of our franchise owners.
We call our franchise model a fully-managed business because we want our franchise owners to be able to go on vacation with their families and know that their business can be run efficiently. We teach them how to hire when to hire, who to hire, and how and when to make additional investments in their business. We now have over 150 years of restoration and franchising experience across our leadership team, and we’re going to make sure that all of our franchisees can share in the businesses’ success.
Due to the five years since new ownership took over PuroClean, I like to call us a reemerging brand. The growth in these past five years has been nothing short of phenomenal, and our franchise owners are making more money than they’ve ever made in the history of the company. Franchise inquiries have gone up, those leaving the system has been shrinking, and we’re really excited about what the future holds for PuroClean.
AT A GLANCE
Established: 2001
Number of franchised outlets: 300+
Location of units: United States, Canada
Investment range: $78,805 – $204,455
Minimum required capital: $50,000 – $75,000
Contact: sales@puroclean.ccom, 800-351-2282
