Speaker 1: It's CEOs you should know. I'm Adam West here today
Speaker 1: with Courtney Lightfoot, CEO of Squeegee Squad.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Thank you for having me. Adam.
Speaker 1: I've seen your signs places, I've seen your logo out there.
Speaker 1: Tell me about Squegee Squad. Give me the old elevator pitch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3: Squeegee Squad started out as just a small window cleaning
Speaker 3: company started by brothers Jack and Joe Rupzegger, and over
Speaker 3: time they built it and started branding and looking into franchising,
Speaker 3: and so over the last years we've grown to about
Speaker 3: seventy five plus units. And so the greatest thing about
Speaker 3: Squeegee Squad is not only is it window cleaning company
Speaker 3: that services residential customers, we also are in the niche
Speaker 3: of high rise and commercial.
Speaker 2: So we're the only actual window.
Speaker 3: Cleaning franchise in the United States that offers both of
Speaker 3: those services to their customers. And so it's given us
Speaker 3: a wide open feel of kind of how we can
Speaker 3: operate and really monopolize in a metropolitan an area in
Speaker 3: a residential area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so did it start here in the Twin Cities.
Speaker 2: It did, and so they actually just started it in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine and wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so we just celebrated twenty five years of
Speaker 3: window cleaning with them. And they started just in the
Speaker 3: residential market themselves, and so kind of came from different
Speaker 3: backgrounds and fields. They thought they were going to go
Speaker 3: on to different career paths at that time, and ended
Speaker 3: up that window cleaning was actually making them more money
Speaker 3: than the current jobs that they were in, and so
Speaker 3: they kind of went down that path servicing residential customers
Speaker 3: and so they kind of built out organically a huge
Speaker 3: company at that time, so maybe a million dollars in residential,
Speaker 3: which would transfer to about two million dollars today. And
Speaker 3: so then they started looking more into developing. We have
Speaker 3: a really good system here. We've we've built all of
Speaker 3: the things on the back end, we have technology to
Speaker 3: support this business. And then they started looking into franchising,
Speaker 3: and so in two thousand and five they were approached
Speaker 3: as part of I Franchise Company Group, and so they
Speaker 3: met with people, they developed all the legal all of
Speaker 3: the supporting documents to really start the franchising. The funny
Speaker 3: story is that Jack, one of the brothers, was thinking
Speaker 3: that it was really going to take off.
Speaker 2: So as soon as they were registered in all the states.
Speaker 2: He thought that the.
Speaker 3: Phones were going to go ringing off the hooks, and
Speaker 3: that definitely wasn't the case.
Speaker 2: So it's been it's been a.
Speaker 3: Long haul of really figuring it out and expanding the
Speaker 3: franchise organically, which has proven to be a really great
Speaker 3: model for where we are today. And so it was
Speaker 3: just honestly the three of us, Jack, Joe and myself
Speaker 3: building and supporting franchisees from two thousand and five on.
Speaker 3: And so the first franchisee actually signed on in January
Speaker 3: of two thousand and six in Minnesota, so he started
Speaker 3: in the dead of winter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of the things I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you about. But I mean, yeah, yeah, just I mean,
Speaker 1: as we record this r at the end of February
Speaker 1: and I should probably just getting ready to really ramp
Speaker 1: up here.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so across the nation, we do have some
Speaker 3: seasonality that we will experience. We've definitely supplemented with other
Speaker 3: services that we can kind of fill the gaps. And
Speaker 3: so some of the northern climates will offer snowplowing because
Speaker 3: they already have the trucks in there. They'll just put
Speaker 3: a plow on and be set for the winter. We've
Speaker 3: also integrated some interior painting as an option too, So
Speaker 3: we're consistently looking at how can we supplement income for
Speaker 3: those that experience maybe a lull due to seasonality. We
Speaker 3: do also because we're in that commercial niche, however, have
Speaker 3: great relationships with our customers where we can offer interior
Speaker 3: window cleaning.
Speaker 2: When it's too cold.
Speaker 3: Most times people think it's probably too cold to clean windows,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: But we're out there at thirty two degrees.
Speaker 3: And sometimes below still cleaning exterior windows.
Speaker 1: So that's impressive. So did you was there always a
Speaker 1: vision for like a national model or was it concentrated
Speaker 1: here in Minnesota more?
Speaker 3: I think yeah, it was, like I said, really hard
Speaker 3: to get into it first, and so we had a
Speaker 3: few starting out in Minnesota, and then the owners actually
Speaker 3: moved to Florida for like a temporary time and just
Speaker 3: started a corporate unit at that time to really start
Speaker 3: to expand nobody knew who we were, our name, we
Speaker 3: didn't have any recognition across the country at that time,
Speaker 3: and so that was kind of the path and actually
Speaker 3: Florida now is probably one of our most populated franchise
Speaker 3: within the.
Speaker 1: United Funny Florida came to my mind before, except in
Speaker 1: the summer. I don't know if that's like the opposite
Speaker 1: of Minnesota. You're trying not to cook on the side of.
Speaker 2: The building exactly.
Speaker 3: It's a little bit different there too, but that each
Speaker 3: market has a unique thing. So because they have consistent
Speaker 3: salt water hitting their windows, it's always pressure washing season
Speaker 3: and it's always window cleaning season.
Speaker 1: You mentioned some things, but what makes Squeegee Squad different
Speaker 1: from everybody else?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I would say it is that family approach
Speaker 3: because we have a really small support system in the
Speaker 3: back end. We have a team now of ten on
Speaker 3: the corporate side, and so for us, that's that's great.
Speaker 3: It also provided some growth to really expand and support
Speaker 3: for our franchises, but it also allows us to have
Speaker 3: relationship with them.
Speaker 2: So people are calling.
Speaker 3: Us on a regular basis for support and questions, whether
Speaker 3: that's you know, related to the business or just venting
Speaker 3: about how difficult their day was.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, it's great cool.
Speaker 3: So I think the great thing about us is that
Speaker 3: somebody can be reached at any time for any questions.
Speaker 1: What markets do you kind of see the most opportunity
Speaker 1: in moving forward?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're just dipping our toes and going to
Speaker 3: the western coast. We just have a franchise that kind
Speaker 3: of signed on around Seattle, small market, a little bit
Speaker 3: around Portland that just signed on, and then we have
Speaker 3: in northern California, so three that we're just starting in
Speaker 3: the West coast here, but we'll really see a lot
Speaker 3: of opportunity for growth and expansion there as well. There's
Speaker 3: still a lot of market left actually for our industry,
Speaker 3: so we're excited to see it continue to grow.
Speaker 1: Do you say seventy five units so far.
Speaker 3: So we're about seventy five owners. Some of those are
Speaker 3: multi unit owners, and so yeah, we're probably over like
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty locations.
Speaker 2: I would say right.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're driving around right now, you may I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys still do this, but I
Speaker 1: just remember your logo being on signs, you know, in neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: Do you still have that same logo?
Speaker 3: And we do have that same logo, and so kind
Speaker 3: of going back when when the brothers started it, it
Speaker 3: was Jack and Joe's Window cleaning. That was their names.
Speaker 3: That's how they started it. When they moved into franchising,
Speaker 3: then at that time, they said, you're going to have
Speaker 3: to rebrand. There's too many Jack and Joe's this across
Speaker 3: the country. It really has to be something unique. And
Speaker 3: they were both actually walking through Best Buy and walked
Speaker 3: by the Geek Squad and so the brothers at that
Speaker 3: time at thought that's a great idea, and so they
Speaker 3: thought Squeegee Squad. And it's honestly one of the greatest
Speaker 3: things that our customers continually comment on that they love
Speaker 3: the name. It's so catchy, it's hard to forget. And
Speaker 3: so at that time that's been the brand and the logo.
Speaker 1: Since that time, did somebody internally develop the logo or
Speaker 1: is that it did.
Speaker 3: We did have a marketing team out of the Twin
Speaker 3: Cities that kind of helped us expand and grow that
Speaker 3: initial branding package.
Speaker 1: And you've been there for I don't know about since
Speaker 1: the beginning for a very long.
Speaker 3: Time, right, Yeah, I've been with the company just over
Speaker 3: sixteen years. Started with them as an office administrator and
Speaker 3: was pregnant actually with my first when I started, so
Speaker 3: it was it was supposed to be potentially a temporary
Speaker 3: fill in job for me when I had my child.
Speaker 3: They approached me to come back, and being a new
Speaker 3: time mom, I wasn't quite ready to leave my son,
Speaker 3: and so I said I'd be willing to come back
Speaker 3: if I could take my baby to work with me,
Speaker 3: already knowing the office and what that looked like and
Speaker 3: felt like I knew it was probably a possibility, and
Speaker 3: they agreed. So my first child came to the office
Speaker 3: with me for the first two years, and so.
Speaker 2: That was great.
Speaker 3: They valued a lot of the same things that I valued,
Speaker 3: family and time and kind of being able to juggle
Speaker 3: and balance both. And so luckily technology definitely got better
Speaker 3: over time, and I was able to start working from
Speaker 3: home probably within like year four of the company of
Speaker 3: working with them, and so that allowed me to have
Speaker 3: the best of both worlds, continue to be there for
Speaker 3: my family and also support them and be there for
Speaker 3: the business as well as it continue to grow.
Speaker 1: Do you have any funny stories from over the years,
Speaker 1: either your own or ones that you've heard about, you know,
Speaker 1: the window cleaning process and things that happen out there
Speaker 1: in the field.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So there's always going to be a funny
Speaker 3: story here there within our franchisees and we get together
Speaker 3: with them once a year at convention that we hold
Speaker 3: in Florida, and so it's always a great time to
Speaker 3: kind of share those stories connected network. And one of
Speaker 3: them actually had to do with a waterfed pole, not
Speaker 3: for sure if you're familiar with that, So on the
Speaker 3: outside of your building, if you have maybe over like
Speaker 3: four or five stories, we could start accessing from ground
Speaker 3: level and still clean the windows with a pole. And
Speaker 3: so it's not a very inexpensive piece of equipment. And
Speaker 3: so we had one location that shared a story that
Speaker 3: their employees actually put it on the ladder rack, which
Speaker 3: is on the back of a truck, and didn't strap
Speaker 3: it down, and so they lost it on this side
Speaker 3: of the road. And and the funny part is that
Speaker 3: then the owner found it in the ditch as he
Speaker 3: was driving by the job or on the road the
Speaker 3: next day, and.
Speaker 2: So they were able to recoup it.
Speaker 3: And the next day they put it on the ladder
Speaker 3: rack again and they lost it again.
Speaker 2: So just continual.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's funny now, I think he would say.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you were.
Speaker 1: Talking about high rises before. And I did a thing
Speaker 1: where I repelled off of one of the hotels here locally,
Speaker 1: and I was worried as I was coming down. I
Speaker 1: think they used to warn the people in those rooms
Speaker 1: that hey, there's gonna be people coming through here, not
Speaker 1: on the glass, right right next to the glass. I
Speaker 1: don't know if anything weird like that has ever happened.
Speaker 3: We're surprised, but I don't think there's been surprise as
Speaker 3: efforts yet. But I think most most are really good,
Speaker 3: and we have that communication to let their customers know
Speaker 3: or let their tenants know that we're going to be
Speaker 3: off the side of the building. We've actually in a
Speaker 3: few markets been able to work with hospitals and have
Speaker 3: our crew dress in costume to repel off the side
Speaker 3: of off the buildings as well. And so I think
Speaker 3: that's happened for us in both Denver and Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: So if somebody's listening to this and thinking this might
Speaker 1: be a good business that I want to get into,
Speaker 1: I like cleaning up like windows, whatever, how do you
Speaker 1: get involved or how do you become a franchisey with
Speaker 1: Squeegee Squad?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we do have a process in place. Most
Speaker 3: people can go to our website to reach out and
Speaker 3: fill out a contact forum, at which point are our
Speaker 3: marketing or sales team would reach out and make that communication.
Speaker 2: I think the.
Speaker 3: Unique part is that part of our sales and marketing
Speaker 3: team is still our owners, the original founders, and so
Speaker 3: you're getting to have that upfront communication with them right away,
Speaker 3: whereas other systems you maybe have to, you know, talk
Speaker 3: through a few different people before you actually get to
Speaker 3: make that introduction with the owners, and so it's just
Speaker 3: introductory calls at that point. We do have a few
Speaker 3: other steps in process as far as you know application.
Speaker 3: We give the opportunity to meet us in person at
Speaker 3: our office here in Minnesota as well, and then we're
Speaker 3: walking through the steps, and should they want to proceed,
Speaker 3: we would just go ahead and continue down those steps
Speaker 3: as far as figuring out territory markets with them and
Speaker 3: kind of doing a little bit of that business planning
Speaker 3: to see what it's going to look like for them
Speaker 3: as they onboard as well.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe there's not much of a real estate
Speaker 1: component to getting started, but not much of a.
Speaker 3: Real estate component at all, and actually we say and recommend,
Speaker 3: depending on starting capital, that most people can start this
Speaker 3: business out of their home. We do have plans in
Speaker 3: place for them to excel and expand quickly on their
Speaker 3: revenue tracking, and so the goal will be eventually to
Speaker 3: move into a shop space or something that they would
Speaker 3: be able to continue to expand and service their market.
Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about like when you're
Speaker 1: a new franchisee, maybe the support and you know the
Speaker 1: day to day as opposed to maybe when you've been
Speaker 1: around for a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So when you are a brand new franchisee,
Speaker 3: you've signed the agreements, you've made the investment with us,
Speaker 3: and we've started to partner with each other. We have
Speaker 3: a few onboarding processes in place, and so we have
Speaker 3: a support team within our office that will connect with
Speaker 3: you prior to our franchise training week in which we'll
Speaker 3: walk through a lot of the tasks we needed to
Speaker 3: help you set up as far as your entity, your
Speaker 3: you know, your banking information, We have all the steps
Speaker 3: in place that you're going to make sure that you're
Speaker 3: checking all of those areas off prior to starting. And
Speaker 3: then we do offer and require that they come to
Speaker 3: actual training with us in Minnesota, and so they're here
Speaker 3: for a full week and that's a full week of
Speaker 3: hands on training, business learning, coaching, and a lot of
Speaker 3: technology in there as well. And so it's a full
Speaker 3: forty hours of consistent classroom slash hands on training to
Speaker 3: kind of make sure we're at least touching on.
Speaker 2: All of the areas that we service or offer within
Speaker 2: our business, actual windows, including.
Speaker 3: Cleaning actual windows. And so we do also have someone
Speaker 3: on our team that's revise a lot of this safety
Speaker 3: training that's necessary. So when we're doing high rise repelling,
Speaker 3: we're you know, OSHA compliant, we work with iw c A,
Speaker 3: We're doing all of the necessary steps to make sure
Speaker 3: that everybody is trained in and very able and capable
Speaker 3: of actually going up the side of the building. And
Speaker 3: so even with that first full week of training that
Speaker 3: they experience, we know that they're not going to be
Speaker 3: ready to go back to their market and take on
Speaker 3: some of.
Speaker 2: Those high rise jobs.
Speaker 3: And so what we do offer at that point is
Speaker 3: that we can have their employees come and train with us,
Speaker 3: or we can maybe work alongside them on a job
Speaker 3: that they have and train in at the same time.
Speaker 3: And so we're offering to make sure that we're we're
Speaker 3: consistently having that at our forefront of our mind that
Speaker 3: everybody is doing this very.
Speaker 1: Safely and is there ongoing training as the there is
Speaker 1: established here.
Speaker 3: There's absolutely ongoing going training opportunities as well, so we'll
Speaker 3: all do some remote training post that training week as well,
Speaker 3: so going further into you know, accounting, further into technology.
Speaker 3: And then we do host with our business coach, you know,
Speaker 3: monthly weekly cadence calls as well with each franchisee, so
Speaker 3: they have someone to consistently reach out to with any
Speaker 3: questions that they have to bounce ideas off, you know,
Speaker 3: not everything we've we've definitely made decisions in some of
Speaker 3: our marketing and how we've approached the business, and we've
Speaker 3: made mistakes along the way, and so part of it
Speaker 3: is we've made a lot of the mistakes up front
Speaker 3: so that these people can really get out of the
Speaker 3: gates and kind of know where to go, know how
Speaker 3: to market and and really get off the ground running.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about the marketing because
Speaker 1: that's changing all the time.
Speaker 2: Right, consistently changing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we used to it just do you know, print
Speaker 3: and advertisements and magazines, and we've definitely moved into a
Speaker 3: lot of the SEO website presence marketing as well. But
Speaker 3: we do find and recommend still to all of our
Speaker 3: franchisees that door to or is still going to be
Speaker 3: the best marketing.
Speaker 1: Out to ask, Yeah, if it's if you come back
Speaker 1: to the old, tried and trude or or old yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, especially in the residential market. And so you know,
Speaker 3: we're going to recommend that you have somebody canvassing the
Speaker 3: area for a while.
Speaker 2: You mentioned yard signs.
Speaker 3: We still utilize yard signs to kind of just continually
Speaker 3: get the brand presence out there so that somebody has
Speaker 3: that consistent point of Squeegee Squad to reach out to.
Speaker 1: All Right, clean glass, clean windows, clear view is awesome.
Speaker 1: What are some of the other benefits of having you
Speaker 1: guys clean windows?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of it comes down to building
Speaker 3: maintenance as well. And so we will come across a
Speaker 3: building where a customer reaches out to us, they potentially
Speaker 3: haven't had any cleaning services for multiple years, and at
Speaker 3: that point you start to have failures on the outside
Speaker 3: of your businesses on the building as well. So you'll
Speaker 3: have you know, ceilans cracking, you'll have water coming into
Speaker 3: the building from points, just different staining on the building,
Speaker 3: which also you know, for property managers is a huge
Speaker 3: key point in trying to keep your clients all happy
Speaker 3: that you have renting or leasing from you space. But
Speaker 3: in seasonality, you'll also come across homeowners that clean windows
Speaker 3: are really We had somebody work in our company that
Speaker 3: said clean windows are good for the soul, and so
Speaker 3: customers will get their windows clean and they just they
Speaker 3: have that service done and the sun comes in so
Speaker 3: much better. And yeah, so simple process, but I think
Speaker 3: it definitely makes a benefit for customers.
Speaker 1: Do you offer inside cleaning as well?
Speaker 3: We do offer interior cleaning as well, and so we
Speaker 3: do have our you know, employees that work within them.
Speaker 3: They're all background checked and so everything is done formality
Speaker 3: and by a process to make our customers comfortable as well.
Speaker 1: Certainly, I mean, you can't give away everything because you
Speaker 1: want people to use your service, but like any tips
Speaker 1: for I mean, I feel like I can never get
Speaker 1: windows clean.
Speaker 3: So I mean, yeah, tips, I'm not going to go
Speaker 3: with the brand.
Speaker 1: Secrets, but have your own products and everything.
Speaker 3: But yeah, and years and years of experience and kind
Speaker 3: of learning the right way, but yeah, I think I
Speaker 3: think what I've learned is that it's a service that
Speaker 3: most people either say is maybe not worth my time,
Speaker 3: and so I would rather do something else on a Saturday,
Speaker 3: like take my kids to their sporting events, or go
Speaker 3: on vacation or do some other things with their time,
Speaker 3: whereas they say, this is a nominal fee that we
Speaker 3: could pay somebody else to come and clean our windows.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Talking to Courtney lightfoots CEO of Squeegee Squad, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've seen their logo. What would what advice would you
Speaker 1: give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start any business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely say do your research, kind of
Speaker 3: connect with the right people, whether that's going to be
Speaker 3: account other business owners that you might know, to kind
Speaker 3: of go through the initial steps, making sure you're just
Speaker 3: dotting all those eyes and checking the tea's because there's
Speaker 3: so many different steps within a business to startup that
Speaker 3: you might not be considering, and you always want to
Speaker 3: be ahead of it rather than have something thrown at
Speaker 3: you after you've already started your business. And so for us,
Speaker 3: I think it has been making connections and being wise
Speaker 3: with who we're consulting with to really know are we
Speaker 3: making the right moves. And as an entrepreneur, you're going
Speaker 3: to find that you're going to wear many hats over
Speaker 3: the course of starting your business. And so even as
Speaker 3: I mentioned for the three of us, I learned accounting,
Speaker 3: I learned legal process, I learned tech support. And so
Speaker 3: you're going to kind of fulfill those roles within your
Speaker 3: own self for a while as you're starting out your business,
Speaker 3: and it's going to force you to really expand your
Speaker 3: knowledge as well, and then you're going to very quickly
Speaker 3: find out if you don't have time capacity for those things,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to find the right person that has
Speaker 3: those skill sets that maybe you don't have or don't
Speaker 3: come naturally to you. So kind of just planning that
Speaker 3: out as an entrepreneur as well.
Speaker 1: What kind of tech support are we talking here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so our brand actually has its own proprietary software
Speaker 3: to operate and run the business.
Speaker 2: So it's called Squadware.
Speaker 3: One and it's actually been through four iterations over the years.
Speaker 3: And so software is definitely a constant evolving product. And
Speaker 3: so we have our own team that is continually developing,
Speaker 3: working with our franchisees to consistently hear what do we
Speaker 3: need to do next, How can we have this better
Speaker 3: work with our company to be more efficient, And this
Speaker 3: gives us the capability to do that.
Speaker 1: Where do you see Squeegee Squad going in the next
Speaker 1: five to ten years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. I think probably in the next five years.
Speaker 3: It might be a lofty goal, but we would like
Speaker 3: to have the United States kind of sold out as
Speaker 3: far as territory goes. We kind of imagine it to
Speaker 3: be roughly around two hundred and fifty locations that we
Speaker 3: could say we've kind of tapped out the market here,
Speaker 3: and that's going to require us to definitely grow our
Speaker 3: internal headquarter support as well along the way, And so
Speaker 3: I think that's where we're at, and then at that
Speaker 3: point we'll kind of just be in maintenance mode of
Speaker 3: you know, continuing to support the franchisees. There might be
Speaker 3: a business that sells and then we help the new
Speaker 3: owner kind of roll up and start again. But more
Speaker 3: long term after that, I think is when we kind
Speaker 3: of sell the United States, would be to look into
Speaker 3: other countries at that time.
Speaker 1: How can people get a hold of you, whether it's
Speaker 1: to order up some service or they want to be
Speaker 1: a franchise or whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the best way to reach out to us or
Speaker 3: get contact its would be to visit our website at
Speaker 3: www dot squeegee squad dot com and you.
Speaker 1: Do other stuff besides just windows.
Speaker 3: We do we do press you, washing, got her cleaning,
Speaker 3: soft washing, culking, so just a variety of services as well.
Speaker 1: Courtney Lightfoot, CEO of Squeege Squad, thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 1: CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2: Thank you.