Scaling With Purpose: Service brand franchisees build culture, careers, and legacy

Service brands have long been treated as an entry point into franchising, valued for lower startup costs, leaner overhead, and faster paths to cash flow. For many operators, those practical beginnings evolved into something more. What started as a way to get a truck on the road and the phone ringing evolved into businesses built around people, trust, and long-term opportunity.

Today, service brand operators like Jerry Akers and Saunda McDaniel are speakers and advocates within the franchising industry. While they started with different brands for distinct reasons, both have watched their businesses develop as their relationships with customers and employees have deepened.

Wes Snyder got into Fastsigns because he liked the B2B aspects of it. He’s also learned there’s a substantial person-to-person aspect to business success. Over the years, employees have become partners as Synder has taken active steps to scale his business and share the wealth.

Veteran franchisee Sean Falk and his daughter, Keely Garza, made a purposeful decision to steer clear of the restaurant business when choosing Scenthound. In addition to reduced initial investments compared to other types of franchises, the business allows them and their team members to become part of the dog families who frequent Scenthound.

No matter how they got involved with service brands, each took advantage of what service brands have to offer by scaling their businesses and developing their in-house talent. A service brand’s initial investment is often a fraction of the costs associated with opening a restaurant. The businesses themselves often need fewer employees to operate than other types of franchises. Utility and maintenance costs can be lower, and most service brands don’t require large inventories.

The following stories show how practical beginnings can lead to businesses defined not just by scale, but by longevity, culture, and the impact left behind.

“For me, it was just a business. The franchising piece was ancillary,” Akers says of his start with Great Clips. “What I’ve learned since is that scaling a service business demands far more than operational efficiency.”

Diving in

Akers didn’t enter franchising with a specific focus on service brands. Instead, he approached Great Clips as a business opportunity that offered a simple operating model, manageable investment levels, and a strong return on capital. The lower startup and overhead costs stood out quickly, giving him confidence that the numbers worked and that the model left room for disciplined, long-term growth.

“The ROI for the investment was excellent,” he says. “I was a business guy more than a franchise guy at the time. It was about the simplicity of the business, the time that it was going to take away from my other endeavors, and the cost and ROI factor.”

From that practical beginning, Akers, president of Sharpness, Inc., now operates 32 Great Clips salons across a multi-state territory that stretches from the Mississippi River west toward Colorado. He also serves as president of Mocha, Inc., which owns four The Joint Chiropractic clinics, extending the same service-driven, system-focused approach into another personal services category. He’s also a franchising expert who has testified before Congress twice.

When it was time to scale up the business, Akers needed to build a team. That started with the stylists at Great Clips. Akers learned quickly that the stylists he hired were not wired like he was and had not been taught how customer service, behavior, and professionalism translated into income or opportunity. Akers built classes designed around what he calls the “WIFM” question: What’s in it for me?

“Giving great customer service could lead to a 30% change in their income level without really working extra hours or working harder,” he says.

The classes coached employees on eye contact, conversation, presentation, and punctuality, and tied those concepts directly to financial outcomes. Akers framed the material deliberately, avoiding judgment and emphasizing shared goals.

“I wanted them to make as much money as possible,” he says.

Over time, those sessions evolved into ongoing coaching and accountability, forming the foundation for a broader training system that supported growth across multiple locations as the business scaled. Akers developed management training programs that offered employees structured instruction on running a location and, eventually, overseeing multiple units.

The programs ran in multi-month sessions and were designed to test both interest and readiness for leadership roles. Not everyone chose to continue. About halfway through the process, some participants opt out, deciding management is not for them. Even so, Akers says that stylists often become top performers and informal leaders when they return to their salons. Those who complete the program move on to a bench for future opportunities, creating a steady supply of internal candidates as the organization expands.

Now that he has a talented and trained bench of performers on his team, scaling isn’t a daunting task. The past two acquisitions each involved 10 units. “We don’t get quite as nervous as others because we built in a group of prospective managers who are anxious for an opportunity, who would look forward to that challenge,” Akers says.

He adds that one of his great pleasures of owning Great Clips salons is watching team members grow in confidence and ability.

“For us, changing our employees’ lives helps change our business,” Akers says. “But more importantly, I’ve got about 250 employees between my two businesses. So, I’m changing 250 lives. But each of those employees has three kids. At the end of the day, I’m changing 1,000 to 1,200 lives every day by the way that we run our business.”

Shaping the future

Nearly 30 years ago, Saunda McDaniel’s then-husband was working as a new construction electrical contractor and looking for a turnkey way to move into residential service. An advertisement for Mr. Electric caught his attention, offering a systemized model with low startup costs and built-in support.

“It was very appealing because there was a system already in place for this,” she says. “There is really low overhead. There was a low startup cost: Just pay a royalty fee and get a truck loan, and off to the races.”

As McDaniel spent more time with Neighborly franchisees, she gravitated toward the plumbers, who were often up-and-coming franchisees who seemed like fun.

“We tried to get some plumbing friends to purchase the Rooter franchise, and nobody wanted to do it,” she says. “I was like, ‘Well, let’s start it and see what we can do with it.’ It ended up passing Mr. Electric in sales within four months.”

McDaniel leaned into hands-on, community-

first marketing. Trucks served as billboards. T-shirts traveled through schools. Through sponsorships, door hangers, and other grassroots marketing, Mr. Rooter became a familiar presence in Sonoma County.

“We really built our brand and built our presence within the community,” she says. “We would send kids to school with Mr. Rooter T-shirts. All the teachers were our customers.”

Once McDaniel understood the business, it was time to scale into new territories. It was a logical next step to apply what her team had learned in other communities. Over the years, McDaniel operated multiple Mr. Rooter territories across Northern California and added other Neighborly brands, including Mr. Electric and Rainbow International. Eventually, her priorities shifted.

“We had grown and sold those other locations off when I wanted to spend more time focusing on being a mama,” she says. “We had the opportunity to do that and solely work with Mr. Rooter of Sonoma County, which we continue to do now.”

She says that success in a service brand depends on whom she hires and how they’re developed. Residential plumbing demands availability, empathy, and trust.

“We wanted to be able to teach this trade to team members who would be awesome team members, who would really take care of the customers, and who had a service-first mindset,” she says. “That really paid off.”

Training became central to the operation. McDaniel began holding regular meetings with just one or two employees, operating as if the company were already much bigger. Those early sessions evolved into a structured approach to coaching and accountability, reinforcing expectations around customer care, professionalism, and teamwork. That emphasis created stability and continuity, allowing the business to grow without losing its culture. These days, she shares what she’s learned as a keynote speaker.

“What came easy for me is hard for others, so I go now and teach how I was able to build our company from dollars to millions,” she says. “It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart.”

Her approach created a business where tenure and continuity became part of the culture. Employees stayed, advanced, and, in some cases, encouraged their own children to join the company. That same sense of continuity eventually became personal.

“I have two daughters who are in the business today,” she says. “I would have never anticipated that a franchise could provide a multi-generation legacy business. It’s absolutely doing that right now.”

Offering equity

At 25, Wes Snyder wanted to do something on his own, and Fastsigns was one of the few brands he could afford. The model offered a low-cost way to get started, minimal barriers to entry, and a product he understood.

“I didn’t really think about barriers to entry or competition. That thought never crossed my mind,” Snyder says.

It’s safe to say that he learned along the way. Today, Snyder owns and operates seven Fastsigns centers, six Pirtek units, and five My Salon Suite units across multiple states. The appeal of service brands, and franchising more broadly, is the ability to learn a business and then replicate it across different territories. “We just run our model wherever we go,” Snyder says, “and that makes it work.”

Unlike consumer-facing service brands, Snyder’s businesses operate largely behind the scenes. Fastsigns, Pirtek, and My Salon Suite all serve business owners rather than walk-in customers. As his portfolio grew across multiple states, Snyder’s role shifted away from day-to-day operations and toward building leadership capacity inside each location.

“Most of my direct reports at this point are the general managers,” he says. “They’re doing the majority of the training for the employees. We have weekly phone calls with all the GMs to go over their financials and go over their training and hiring. We’ll help them with anything.”

That structure allowed the brands to operate locally while still adhering to system standards, creating consistency without requiring his constant presence. “Our general managers all have equity in the business,” Snyder says.

By tying leadership responsibility to ownership outcomes, Snyder pushes decision-making closer to the market while reinforcing long-term accountability. General managers are expected to act like owners because they are.

When Snyder evaluates new locations to add to the portfolio, the general manager usually understands day-to-day operations but not the back end of the business. Snyder brings general managers into accounting, human resources, and marketing decisions that they may not have handled before.

“You’re helping bring some of them along and developing them to be in this position,” he says.

By broadening their understanding of how the business works, Snyder prepares general managers to eventually purchase locations themselves, turning operators into owners and creating a natural succession path within the system.

“I really enjoy that part of my job, getting the next generation of entrepreneurs and small business owners prepared to start that journey themselves,” he says.

Snyder’s role has continued to evolve. He regularly speaks with prospective franchisees, fields validation calls, and serves on panels, offering a firsthand view of what the model demands and what it can deliver. Snyder says franchising is a way to create durable small businesses rather than short-term wins. For him, service brands were not just an entry point, but a platform that allowed ownership to scale through people willing to take responsibility for what they build.

“At a certain point, the bank account is nice, and the travel is nice. You can do things with and for your family, which is nice,” Snyder says, “but when that is settled, then it’s like, ‘How can I bring other people up?’”

A part of life

Sean Falk spent a quarter of a century as a franchise owner in the food industry, and he’s regularly called upon to share his experience with franchisees and franchisors. His daughter, Keely Garza, was happy to tap into that accumulated wisdom, but she brought her own skills to the table. Her work as a kennel technician helped steer the pair toward Scenthound.

“I walked into our discovery day, and I remember being like, ‘Oh my god.’ It just spoke to me on a heart level,” Garza says. “This is something I could see myself doing day after day.”

The pair looked at multiple dog-care brands, but Scenthound stood out. It costs about $400,000 to open a location, and Falk says he’s been impressed by the margins. The business is ripe for scaling. “Our business model is set up to encourage multiple locations,” Falk says.

He also appreciates the support the brand provides to its franchisees. “I’ve been with many different franchisors,” he says, “and not all the relationships have been great. This one is great.”

Today, the family operates four Scenthound locations, and one or two additional centers are planned for next year. Garza says safety is the top priority, particularly for entry-level bathers who are often handling animals and equipment for the first time.

“Training is something that we take very, very seriously,” Garza says. “You are entrusted with the safety of this animal in your care. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I made the sandwich wrong. Let’s swap it out.’ You could injure an animal for real. We rely on a lot of one-on-one training.”

That focus has helped reduce turnover and build internal leadership. One team member joined before the first Wichita, Kansas, location opened three years ago and has since advanced from an entry-level role into an area manager position. The Scenthound model was designed for multi-unit growth with clear advancement paths for employees who want to stay in the industry. Entry-level team members can progress into trimming, customer-facing roles, training positions, or management, depending on their strengths and interests.

“We’ve gotten the opportunity to make it more than just, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just here,’” Garza says. “They have a career now, and they have education and knowledge that they didn’t have previously.”

Scenthound’s Clean Start program provides a way to connect with the community, Garza says. Through partnerships with humane societies and rescue organizations, team members visit shelters each month to provide grooming services for dogs in their care. They focus on messy and matted animals most in need. The services help improve comfort and adoptability, and every dog adopted from a partner shelter also receives a voucher for a free bath at Scenthound.

“Sometimes, we’ll see the same dog twice: once when we get them all cleaned up going into the shelter and again when they finally find that forever home,” she says.

For Garza, the sense of purpose comes from relationships built over time, not just transactions. She recalled a longtime client whose dog was diagnosed with cancer after a lump was discovered during routine care. The dog eventually passed away, but the connection remained. The client still stops by regularly, Garza says, even without a pet.

“We get to be a part of their lives. We get to change lives,” she says. “You don’t get that in some other business models. That is what honestly keeps me going: I get to make a difference in dogs’ lives, in employees’ lives, and in clients’ lives.”

Service Franchising Benefits

Service brands remain one of franchising’s most accessible models. The typical initial investment is far smaller than restaurant concepts.

Other points to consider include:

• Real estate and build-out costs. Many service brands operate without a storefront, eliminating leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, and large footprint requirements common in food and retail franchising.
• Ongoing overhead. Service franchises generally require fewer employees, minimal inventory, and lower utilities and maintenance costs, which result in leaner operating expenses and easier cash-flow management.
• Franchise fee and equipment costs. Service brands typically carry lower franchise fees and equipment needs than restaurant or retail concepts where build-out and equipment costs can far exceed the franchise fee itself.
• Barrier to entry. Lower capital requirements make service franchises a common entry point for first-time franchisees and an attractive platform for multi-unit growth without heavy leverage.