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We asked Josh Skolnick, CEO and Co-Founder of Horse Power Brands, how Covid has changed the brand’s franchisee recruitment strategy and tactics for 2022.
The pandemic has led to some interesting discoveries and strategy shifts in franchisee recruitment for our portfolio companies.
One area would be the recruitment of more women as franchisees. An increasing number of women became involved in the Mighty Dog Roofing franchise system during Covid, either on their own or through husband-and-wife franchisee teams, and are motivated to recruit more women into the home services industry. It’s not so much that they have a passion or extensive experience in roofing. Rather, these women want to empower other like-minded women to get into what has traditionally been a male-dominated field.
Seeing this trend, we created an internal group – Mighty Women in Roofing – an organization of women dedicated to educating and inspiring the future generation of female entrepreneurs. They are focused on spreading the word that trades and roofing are acceptable career choices for women.
Additional franchisee recruitment themes during Covid are an increased focus on our already stringent franchisee selection process, and providing newly signed franchisees with robust tools to ensure strong openings and long-term growth for their new locations.
It became clear during Covid that franchise lead generation was not going to be a problem. The service industry experienced significant spikes in demand, in large part because consumers are spending more time at home and finally getting around to needed repairs and upgrades. This was particularly true for Mighty Dog Roofing. Because of the housing boom that occurred in the early 2000s, a large number of homeowners now find themselves in need of their first-ever roof replacement.
Additionally, winter storms across the country have wreaked havoc on homes, further driving demand not only to repair damages, but also to install better roofing systems to prepare for the future. The combination of these factors has led to an abundance of franchise prospects interested in opening a service franchise.
The standard practice in franchising has become a race to 100 units sold, often without sensible offerings or a clear vision of how to actually open all 100 locations. During Covid, our team has held ourselves more accountable than ever to our values of growing brands with integrity. We have remained laser-focused on providing atypical efforts and services, not only to ensure that we sell franchises responsibly, but also open them with the tools that will ensure our franchisees’ growth and longevity.