A Dryer Fire Every 36 Minutes | Matthew Sarkela with Dryer Vent Wizard

This is a transcript from Episode 11 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan Regala: Have you ever thought that helping people that do laundry could be a big business? If you said no, you're not alone. My next guest is killing it in this space, and I'm excited to learn why. I'd like to welcome to the Franchise Champion Show, Matthew Sarkela with Dryer Vent Wizard. Welcome, Matthew.

Matthew Sarkela: Thank you for having me, Alan. Excited to be on the show today.

From Marine Corps to Franchising

Alan: Awesome, awesome. Well before we dive into this crazy world of dryer vents, tell us what you were doing before you got into franchising.

Matthew: Sure. Okay. So if we go back a good 20 plus years, I was in the United States Marine Corps from '96 through 2001.

Alan: Thank you for your service.

Matthew: Thank you. Thank you so much. After that, I worked for Sears Home Service for many years and then actually ran an appliance repair company and was in a Mr. Appliance franchise for the better part of 14 years.

Alan: Wow, wow, okay, wait—so you had your own independent business and then you became a franchisee with Mr. Appliance. Does that sound right?

Matthew: Correct. Yes sir.

Alan: Okay, so actually, so what got you from being independent? What made you decide to kind of work with a franchise?

Matthew: So really it was kind of a—I think the word today is hack, right? So you can do everything on your own. You can do everything in business on your own from marketing to bookkeeping, HR, all the parts that go into a business. And when you're on your own, you truly have to wear all those hats. So part of a franchise that makes it so appealing is they have proven systems in place for marketing, delivery, software, in the different elements that go into it. So when you're buying a franchise, you're kind of like buying a hack that can propel you years into the future where it would take you years to develop those things on your own.

Alan: Yeah, yeah, and that's a question that a lot of my clients have is like, why wouldn't I just do this on my own? So, you were there, you did it on your own, and then you went the franchise route after. Did you find that helped you be more successful going that way?

Matthew: Absolutely, because now you have a team of winners that you can lean on, you know, other owners that are doing great. So when I first started the business, I said, let me find all of the franchisees that are successful and go learn what their secret sauce is, what makes it work. And so, you know, now they're not your competitors, they're your friends, and they're willing to share everything, the good, the bad, the ugly, the hard, and their successes and how to do it.

Alan: Yeah. Okay. Key tip right there. He just said a great, you provided a great nugget of wisdom there. You go talk to the people who are doing really well, right? And that's kind of the purpose of this show is talking to people that are doing well to help you, you know, inspire you to do better and learn the things that they're doing so that you can be successful. That's great.

Matthew: Yeah, I think the phrase is iron sharpens iron, right? Something like that.

Alan: Iron sharpens iron. That's right. That's right. Okay, great. So you're in Mr. Appliance and yeah, please continue on with your story.

Building a Top-Performing Business

Matthew: Okay, so we were in a really small market, roughly 300,000 people. We were able to take that from 2007 to 2020—we were like, number four or five in the whole system. And that's competing against other franchisees that were in cities like Dallas and Austin and Atlanta, bigger cities. So in a tiny little city, we were on top and winning. And we had the highest per capita sales of any of the franchise locations in the whole system for four years in a row.

Alan: That's great. That's great. You know, actually, I mean, that's fantastic because obviously it's easier to generate bigger numbers if you're in a much bigger, denser area. And I think sometimes it gets overlooked when you're just talking about performance, like based on per capita, like what you said, like based on the size of a territory or the size of an area, it's much more difficult to do if there's not as many people. So that's awesome. Great job.

Matthew: Thank you, thank you. We had decided we were kind of at the top of our market and in my personality type I'm a builder so I like to build businesses and there's people that like to finish businesses. And my personality type's a builder and I was kind of getting a little stuck. And so we decided it was time to sell it. So we put it on the market. We found somebody who was a finisher type where they own multiple businesses in multiple categories. So we signed the contract and we were ready to sell it in 2020 when COVID broke. Luckily that didn't change anything. The trajectory was the same. We sold it, closed in 2020.

We were going to take a couple years off and do a little self-improvement, but we suddenly were stuck at home with COVID, very much limiting travel and plans. So we started looking around for another business to buy and we had some rules that we were looking at for our next business.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What kind of rules?

Finding the Right Franchise Match

Matthew: So my personal rules, it's different for everybody, it kind of depends on your personality and your business and what you're looking for. But my personal rules were I wanted something that was very niche, very one product driven, where you could be really great at one thing. Something where you could train and spool up employees quickly within a few weeks or months. Something that could totally be worked remotely, where you don't need to have a central office or a commercial lease to do it. Something that had the ability to have a remote call center. That was a big one for me. And number one, well, not number one, but I mean, one of the other big portions of it was it had to be very profitable. It had to have very good margins. And so Dryer Vent Wizard came along and it actually fit all of our rules. And so we felt like it was a good fit. So we explored it further and ended up purchasing an existing location in 2020. It was 2020 when we purchased. Same year.

Alan: Yeah, the same year, the same year. Okay. Wow. Well, that's great that you had, especially probably helped that you had experience from your first business, I assume, that gave you these kind of parameters to think about, like, okay, things that you liked from that business, you carry over to a new business and things like you're like, this was a pain in the butt, let's not do that.

Matthew: Correct. Don't want to do that again.

Alan: Don't do that again. Profitability, that's pretty important. I mean, I would say I could see how that might move to the top. It's kind of, yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's great that you found something that meets all these criteria. Now, I know Mr. Appliance and Dryer Vent Wizard are both in the Neighborly family. Is that how you heard about Dryer Vent Wizard?

Matthew: It is, yeah, exactly. In fact, they had started reaching out to me once we sold and were wondering if we wanted to start one. We ended up buying an existing location though in the Raleigh-Cary-Durham area and we thought, you know, if we could do that great in a small market, what could happen if we moved to a bigger market? And so that was another one of the deciding factors in that decision.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

The Hidden Danger in Every Home

Alan: Well, for those that don't know, which is probably most people, what does Dryer Vent Wizard do and what kind of impact do you have on your clients?

Matthew: Sure, it's probably not the most well-known fact, but there's a dryer fire—the national statistic is there's a dryer fire every 36 minutes in the United States. So the number one thing we do is save homes, lower insurance costs, keep people safe. And the reason for that fire is lint builds up inside the dryer and inside of the dryer vent. Over time that vent becomes restricted causing the dryer to run hot. When the dryer runs hot, the element can actually break and spark, which ignites the dry lint on fire. And if you think about it, you've got a metal tube full of lint with air blowing through it. And what happens when you have flammables inside of a tight tube and blow air through them—they become like a blowtorch. They can become very hot.

Alan: Yeah, that is crazy. Like a big flamethrower. Wow. Wow. That's...

Matthew: So we keep people safe through cleaning and repairs of dryer vents.

Alan: That's crazy. Yeah, I mean that, when you think about different types of businesses out there and what type of impact they have on their clients, this is one where, I mean, when you're saving lives, you're saving homes and people's assets, right? That's pretty meaningful. And I believe that you can find meaning really in any business, but we're talking about lives. That's another level, I think. That's really cool. I don't think it doesn't seem like that's something that you get from just the name of this business. I mean, that sounds very boring when I think about the name, right?

Matthew: Right? Yeah. No, so it does take some work. We have to spread that message out there and just let people know we're here and we can help them with those issues and keep them safe.

Marketing a Niche Service

Alan: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, one thing that I find is really interesting about this particular business, to me, it seems very similar to the business that I had when I had my Shelfgenie franchise, another Neighborly brand, which was, I guess, the benefits of this is that it's a super niche, like you said, like very focused, right? But also, you know, it's something that a lot of people don't know about. They don't know what the issues are in your case and with us, they don't know about like kind of the possibilities. And so I spent a lot of time in the marketing with a lot of education. And so how do you, I guess, how do you do your marketing? How do you educate people about this? Obviously, if more people knew about it, they would be on top of calling people like you to get their dryer vents cleaned.

Matthew: Correct, there's a lot more awareness about it now than there ever was, but you know over the years we've done things, we've actually got on the news once where we did a report on the news, because there had been a fire and we met with the news crew and kind of told them some pointers on how to keep yourself safe. We spread the message through social, of course Facebook, Instagram are really useful for that. You know, we do community events, reach out to people. When we're in neighborhoods, people actually stop and ask us, hey what do you guys do? Why are you here? So we're happy to always share that message with homeowners when we're in neighborhoods.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's great. Very cool.

Building to Scale

Alan: So you are in, I think you mentioned, like Raleigh-Cary-Durham Market, is that right?

Matthew: Yes, sir.

Alan: Okay. And how many territories do you have?

Matthew: So we have three territories. So we have Raleigh, Cary, and Durham.

Alan: Excellent. Okay. And when you purchased the business, was it all three territories or did you start with one and add or?

Matthew: No, there was just one area and we grew it into three territories rather quickly. We had a pretty good, pretty aggressive growth plan.

Alan: Nice. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Yeah, tell us a little bit about kind of how the business works, you know, and, you know, how you were able to grow it so quickly.

Matthew: Okay, so my growth plan was pretty simple. I like simple strategies. And my first hire was my general manager. And my theory for that is if I train my manager first, then I already have a manager in place and that person can grow themselves out of a job. So I brought on Jonathan, who's been just a terrific asset to the company, still with me today. We're looking to grow him together now. And I said, Jonathan, I said, your number one goal, I said, the number one thing your first goal is, is to become the absolute best technician, field technician in all of Dryer Vent Wizard. And I said, you have to go out, meet with other owners, ride with other technicians, and find out how to be the best.

Alan: Nice.

Matthew: And he said, yes, sir. He executed. He went out, learned from other owners, learned from other techs, learned on his own and became an incredible technician. So once he was solid, once he knew everything about the job, you know, how to deliver the product and service, then my job was to market. And so I aggressively marketed to bring enough jobs on to support as many techs as possible.

Then we hired two technicians at a time. And so I said, Jonathan, I said, now I'm going to bring on two technicians for you to train. And the theory was is that odds are one of the two may not make it. Just natural attrition, you know, somebody's not cut out for it, whatever. And so we trained two at one time and he would actually leapfrog through the day. He'd get one guy started and then move, take the next guy to the next job, train him. The other guy would catch up and they would kind of leapfrog through the day. That way we still had some cash flow coming in and we were able to achieve more jobs in a day with a crew that was all in training.

Alan: Yeah. Yeah.

Matthew: Yeah, that was our plan for growth. It worked out really well. Our first two technicians ended up staying. So we did really well. And we repeated that process four times.

Alan: And you just repeated that multiple times. That's excellent. That's excellent.

Matthew: Yep, just repeating that process. And there was some attrition, you know, the hunch was right over time. Some of them didn't make it or some of them left on their own accord. But the great thing was we still had somebody in place. We didn't take a step back—we were still building our team.

Alan: That's great. I mean, that's so smart. Yeah. I mean, that's so smart to start with a general manager. That's the first time I'm hearing of this, you know, sort of plan. I mean, it sounded like there was a business already in place that you purchased. It was already running, but then you started with a general manager so that you could grow that much faster. Is that right?

Matthew: Correct. And then also too, it kind of eliminates that dynamic of the team not viewing the manager as the manager. Because a lot of times when you grow a manager from within, the other team members have a hard time adapting to that person being promoted or they still, you know, we created a stronger team dynamic.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And you know, the people that you hire may be great technicians, but maybe they're not cut out to be managers. So hiring with the intention upfront with the end in mind, sounds like a really smart way to go. That's very cool.

How the Service Works

Alan: So tell us about a little bit more about what the technicians are actually doing. Like what are the services you're providing? Obviously it's cleaning dryer vents, but is it that simple or is there more to it? Like, you know, are you going in people's homes and actually—are they just calling to book an appointment and it's done or does someone have to go in and inspect it or how does that all work?

Matthew: Yeah, and it all starts before we even get to the home. The technicians have to prepare for the job. So they're going to stop before they get to the home, tuck their shirt in, make sure everything's squared away, have their tool bag ready. So that way when they arrive at the home, they can park in a nice clear view of the door and hopefully be up to the door within a few minutes and be ready to do their job. They're always going to knock, take a couple steps back, be respectful, and then greet the homeowner.

Once they greet the homeowner, then of course they go through a checklist. There's a 10-point checklist. And we check the dryer to make sure it turns on and heats. We check the airflow inside the dryer through the dryer. We check for safety issues in the area, issues with the dryer or the cord. We check the dryer vent itself. Our technicians actually go all the way in the attic, they go under the house, they crawl, you know, climb whatever's needed to go through the entire system to ensure that every piece of it is up to code because there is a building code on dryer vents. And a lot of the homes built in the last 50 years were not built to any kind of standards. So you'll find a lot of incorrect installation processes and incorrect materials.

So once we do that inspection, then we'll give a report to the homeowner and let them make a decision on what it is they want to do to be safe and efficient.

Alan: Got it, got it. And so is that something that I guess if we just back up one step before you even arrive at the home, someone's typically calling you and saying, hey, I need this cleaned or is it can you come out and just do like a, you know, an inspection and see what's going on?

Matthew: Most of the time there's an issue so your dryer starts taking too long to dry, two, three cycles. You notice your laundry room is very hot or maybe there's moisture buildup all over the walls or ceiling, something hot is happening in the laundry room. That's typically when people notice an issue and then that'll drive them to call for service. One of the most common thoughts is my dryer's broken.

Alan: Hmm.

Matthew: So they'll go buy a new dryer, and then they have the exact same issue happen.

Alan: Got it. Got it.

Matthew: So a lot of times that'll happen. But they do, once they go through that, either buy a new dryer, and that doesn't solve the issue. Maybe have the dryer repaired, put a new element in it, that doesn't fix it. Or they're aware that they have possibly a dryer vent issue. That's when they'll usually search the internet or ask a neighbor, and find us and call us.

Alan: Yeah, got it, got it. That's great. Do you guys like, I don't know, I'm just curious how you demonstrate to the clients that everything's working well. I mean, is that, obviously it's probably pretty obvious, I guess, once they're running their machine or do you like collect all the lint and then show it to them or use cameras or I don't know.

Matthew: A little bit of both. When we're done with the job as we wrap up we take them through everything we did. We show them the working unit. We show them the before and after airflow readings so they can see the improvement. We'll show them the lint and we'll clean everything up to make sure there's no mess left behind. Clean the footprints off the floor and the lint out of the lawn.

Alan: That's great.

The Lifestyle Business Model

Alan: Well, it seems like a much simpler model than the previous business that you had. How much time would you say you're working on this particular business now each week?

Matthew: Now that we're well established, in the early days it was a full-time job the first two years. After the first two years we've really got things established and you know personally I spend about two hours a day working on it.

Alan: Okay, wow, well, that's pretty amazing.

Matthew: It's a very nice lifestyle business, which is rare.

Alan: Yeah, yeah, that's great. And having that manager in place and having that thought of at the beginning, I'm sure helps so that you're not having to search for that person now. And so you started in 2020. And so it's been, what about four or five years now? I believe that you are one of the top performers in the system and have won the Top Gun award, right? Multiple times, every single year. That's fantastic.

Matthew: Yes, sir. Every single year since we opened. Yeah.

Alan: Yeah, with Neighborly, they have Top Gun award winners, and I was one of those for Shelfgenie, so congrats, Matthew.

Matthew: Hey, congrats.

Alan: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's a great achievement. And so congrats to you for doing this every year you've been in business. Would you mind sharing how you guys are doing as a business as far as your gross revenue goes?

Matthew: Sure, we're just over the million dollar mark and in Dryer Vent Wizard that's actually a very good number. And we're, I believe we're in the top five again with Dryer Vent Wizard this year. And that's competing against businesses who have been around 15 years in even bigger cities than Raleigh-Cary-Durham. So I think we're doing incredibly well.

Alan: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, you are. That's fantastic. Congratulations.

Leadership Lessons from the Marines

Alan: Now, you mentioned before that you served in the Marine Corps a while back. Can you tell us a little bit about how that served you or serves you now as a business owner?

Matthew: Obviously you learn how to take direction and work with a team. You learn how to really have perseverance. A big part of business is perseverance and never quitting. Most people give up on sports, on business, on life before they succeed. They could be right there, they just don't know that if they give that one extra percent they're going to make it. So, you know, being in the military really teaches you to push through until you succeed.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I imagine there's a lot that you went through just in training in the military and some of those just physical, I can imagine physically challenging situations that you just have to kind of keep going and even though you want to quit really, really bad, you figure out how to keep going forward.

Matthew: Keep going. You just do the next right thing.

Alan: I like that. I like that.

Mountain Biking and Business

Alan: Now, I hear that you are an avid mountain biker. Is that right? So tell us, last time we spoke, you mentioned a bit about how you can kind of relate mountain biking to business. Tell us a little bit about that.

Matthew: Yeah, you know sometimes when I'm out riding it's great mental therapy because you can kind of work on thoughts to yourself like you know I am successful, I am strong, you know I'm a great leader. You can kind of repeat those things to yourself as you're biking. But riding mountain bike is very much like business because sometimes the path isn't as straight as it seems. Sometimes you hit a rock and get a little off course. Sometimes you just flat out hit a tree and you got to pick yourself back up and start over again. You know, sometimes you're climbing a hill and you're just climbing, climbing, climbing. You think you're never going to get there. Things are getting in your way. You know, you're getting hit in the face with sticks. And it's just difficult. Sometimes you're on top of that hill and you're looking down the side of the mountain and it's just beautiful, you know, trees and clouds and stuff. And sometimes you're flying down the hill and it's just fast and fun and everything's flowing just like it's supposed to.

So it's very much a metaphor for business because business is all of those things, right? It can be sometimes you just get hit by a tree. Sometimes you're on top of the mountain going, wow, this is amazing. Sometimes you take huge risks and jump off of a rock. So yeah, there's lots of metaphors in that.

Alan: Yeah, yeah, I love that. You know, yeah, it's challenging, but also very rewarding. You know, there's a reason that you're doing it, you know, for that view once you get to the top and then, you know, on that way down and you're just having so much fun. And of course, the exercise and, you know, fresh air as you're getting and all these other great things. But yeah, it can be very challenging and dangerous at times.

Matthew: Dangerous at times, sometimes it's scary.

Alan: Yeah, exactly. Very scary. That's really cool. And sometimes you get hurt.

Matthew: Sometimes you get hurt.

Alan: Yeah. Yeah. And that's where that grit and perseverance comes into play is, you know, being able to keep moving forward and, you know, not give up.

Advice for Aspiring Franchise Owners

Alan: What kind of advice would you give to anyone that's considering franchise ownership as their next career move?

Matthew: So, kind of going back to where we started, if you decide you're going to go into a franchise, look at it as a tool to leverage your time instead of a cost, because you can literally propel yourself five years ahead in business by buying into a franchise system. Once you're there, take advantage of everything that's there. The systems that are in place, the processes, the training, and then reach out to all the other owners that are successful. Go spend a day with them, a week with them. Buy them lunch. Learn everything you can from them—how they succeeded and the trees they hit along the way. So you can avoid those things, right? The best people learn from other people.

Alan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's awesome. That's great. Very cool. Well, Matthew, I really appreciate you taking the time to be on our show today. Thank you so much for joining me and congrats on being a Franchise Champion.

Matthew: Thank you, sir. Thanks. Appreciate it very much.

Alan: All right, well, you take care and best wishes to you and your business.

Matthew: Thank you Alan, appreciate it buddy. Thank you so much.