Can a Layoff Lead to $1.2M?

This is a transcript from Episode 27 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan: Welcome to the Franchise Champion Show. I'm Alan, a former D1 athlete, Stanford engineer, and franchise owner who built a multimillion dollar exit. I created this show to help driven individuals like you find the right franchise and learn how to build wealth and reclaim your time.

My guest today spent over two decades climbing the corporate ladder. Something very personal kept him anchored there far longer than he wanted. And when he finally decided to make a move, he and his wife couldn't agree on how to do it. Then something happened that made the decision for them. He jumped in full time with Surface Experts, hit the ground running, and built one of the fastest growing operations in the system. Today he's got multiple territories, a full team, and numbers that would make most franchisees envious.

Jay Tippens, welcome to the Franchise Champion Show.

Jay: Thank you, Alan. Great to be here.

Alan: I'm very excited to have you on. Surface Experts is a business I really appreciate and love the model. I'm excited to have you share some of the details with our audience. But to get us started — tell us your background and how you eventually got into franchising.

Jay: So I was in corporate America in technology for many, many years. I worked at Deloitte in their technology area for almost 18 years, then jumped over to Cigna. Always in technology, and I really had that entrepreneurial spirit the whole time. Always wanted to do something on my own. But I had a daughter born with some health complications, which from that point on tied me to corporate America. There was no small business or independent insurance that would cover her. I needed the stability of a large firm that could cover the cost of her insurance wrapped into their corporate plan.

Alan: That makes sense. So you were itching to go, but you couldn't.

Jay: Always itching. And then Covid hit. A lot of working from home. And I just got to a point where I was pretty miserable. I could do my corporate job, and I was doing great — great position, highly sought after. But I just wasn't happy. I felt like the Lord kind of started changing my heart.

I knew it was Him when my wife was kind of on board with it. That is not her thing.

Alan: Wait — why did that surprise you?

Jay: My wife Rose is an accountant. Very risk averse. We joke that if it wasn't for her, I would have been a multimillionaire and homeless several times over at this point in my life. Rose really was tied to the appearance of the safety net that corporate America provides. And I say appearance — because it is safe. Until they don't need you anymore.

In my years at Deloitte and Cigna, I watched friends get tapped on the shoulder and let go because of cutbacks. Corporate America is safe until it's not.

Alan: Okay, so you were itching to get out, wife came around — take us from there.

Jay: I think she saw how miserable I was. I had the big paycheck, all of that. But I just wasn't happy. So her heart changed a little, and we started looking together. We had a couple of ideas — not all of them were good. But we went down the path of reaching out to a franchise coach. We didn't know anything about franchising. We knew some business owners in franchises, but we hadn't really connected the dots.

So we filled out the survey, they brought us about eight options, and we did a deep dive on four of those. And then a friend of mine — Ryan — was riding with me one day on the way back from Arkansas. He mentioned his old worship pastor had gotten into franchising and done pretty well. So he connected me with Kent, who was with Surface Experts. I reached out to our franchise coach and said, "I want to add this company to our deep dive."

We got it down to two finalists. That was around February. And Rose and I just couldn't agree on how to move forward. I was like, just unleash me. Let me go. And she said, "Why don't you keep your day job and build this on the side until we know it's safe?"

Alan: So she was all in — just wanted you to manage the transition more conservatively.

Jay: Exactly. We were in unity on everything except that. And then our church started a men's prayer group on Thursday mornings at 6:30. I went one week and shared what was going on — that we felt like this was what we were supposed to do, but we weren't quite in agreement on how. My best friend Scott prayed for clarity and wisdom.

Two hours later, I was laid off.

Alan: Oh my gosh.

Jay: I left the prayer meeting, went home, had a surprise meeting on my calendar from my director, and he let me go. And it was the best news I had ever heard. I imagine my reaction was very different from the rest of his meetings that day.

They valued us as people — our group just didn't fit where the organization was going. They encouraged us to apply for other positions internally. But I took the generous severance package — they were going to pay me through late August — and we moved full speed ahead with Surface Experts. I bought in around June, went to tech training in July, did owner's training the first week of August. I launched my business on a Monday. My severance ran out that Friday.

Alan: Four days of overlap. Not that you were making money those first four days, but still — the timing.

Jay: It really was meant to be. And the best part — when it happened, Rose had peace about it. So we went into it together. That was really cool.

Alan: That's awesome. Okay, let's take a step back. What is Surface Experts and how do you impact your clients?

Jay: Surface Experts does what we call spot repair. If you get a chip or a crack in any hard surface in your home — a bathtub, countertop, floor, cabinet — we come in and repair just that spot so you don't have to replace the whole thing. So if you've got a granite countertop that gets chipped, we'll rebuild that area, match the color, pattern, texture, and sheen — all on site.

Alan: Fantastic. Who are your typical clients?

Jay: One of the things that attracted me to Surface Experts is that it can be whatever you want, but primarily it's B2B — and multifamily is really our bread and butter. Probably 65 to 80% of our business is multifamily.

Here's the difference: if I come to your house and do a great job, you'll call me back in four years when you have another repair. If I do that same great job at an apartment complex, they're calling me back next month when they're turning 12 units. We also do construction, moving companies, universities, hotels. Everyone has interior surfaces.

And part of what attracted me to the model — when I bought in 2022, 2023, you just didn't know what was going to happen with the economy. Businesses spend money longer than individuals do. And when the economy tightens, we become even more valuable. Our average repair is somewhere between $200 and $300. The average cost to replace that item is probably a couple thousand. We come in at a very reasonable price.

Alan: I really like what you said about keeping things out of the landfill. That's a big deal — very similar to ShelfGenie, actually, where we'd retrofit cabinets so people could keep them rather than replace them.

One thing I hear from people when I introduce this concept is, "A handyman could do this." How do you respond?

Jay: Yeah, cousin Jimmy can do it. And then you can pay me three months later to come fix cousin Jimmy's work.

Look, there are people out there who will fix your bathtub, replace your flooring, put in new countertops. But you don't have many people doing what we do — coming in to repair just that spot across all those surfaces. If I chip your granite countertop, there's a mechanical fix, but there's also an eye for color, pattern, and texture. There's an artistic piece to it. A handyman is going to use a Sharpie and duct tape. We love handymen — if something's not for us, I'll refer it to one. But they can't do what we do.

Alan: Tell me about the evolution of your business — from a team and responsibilities perspective.

Jay: In the beginning, it looked a lot like me putting in long hours, coming home with paint on my hands. I started with myself as kind of the asterisk — I go wherever I'm needed — one tech, a salesperson, and Rose handling all the back-office stuff. She still reminds me to this day that she wasn't looking for a job when we bought a business. But she's got one.

My first tech only lasted about a month, so I was the full-time tech. Everything went through me. Sales guy would call me, techs would call me, Rose would call me, customers would call me.

As we've grown, we've done a good job putting a team in place so everything isn't Jay-centric. We created a senior tech position and elevated a couple of guys into it. Now when other techs have questions, they go to their senior tech. Last year we brought on an operations manager, so I'm no longer handling fleet management or procurement. And we always say around here — if I'm out doing repairs or I'm filling the schedule by going out to sell, we're not doing something right.

We're at a point now where I can focus on the big picture. This year our strategic focus is universities. We have several in our territory we haven't touched yet. That's an untapped revenue stream just sitting there.

Alan: Three and a half years in, remind me where your territories are located.

Jay: Nashville, Tennessee. I have most of the northeast area, north of I-40, and then it curves around — Brentwood, Franklin, Bellevue, Spring Hill. So I kind of circle Nashville. I have a counterpart down in Murfreesboro and the southeast Nashville area.

Alan: You had an interesting story about planning how your business would do before you even opened. Tell us about that.

Jay: When you go through the franchise process, Surface Experts gives you a proforma — here's what you can expect as things scale, here are the costs that come with growth. Rose looked at it and started asking, "But what if this happens? What if this doesn't work?" So we created a proforma for her that was somewhat below theirs — could the Tippens family still eat if we didn't hit their numbers?

And then I looked at their proforma and thought, that's way too low. So we literally had three proformas: Jay's, Surface Experts', and Rose's. We had to decide as a family that we could survive on even the conservative version.

And I'm happy to say we blew all three of them out of the water.

Alan: That is incredible. You were stress-testing the numbers before you even opened. And then to crush all three versions — that's fantastic. That was not just luck.

Jay: No, it wasn't. I'd be lying if I said it was. Anyone who's ever started their own business would know that. We locked ourselves into some things and just figured it out. We had the mindset that we were going to make it happen. And we did.

Alan: How did you do your first full year from a revenue perspective?

Jay: My first full year, we did just under $750,000.

Alan: Wow. That is incredible. Tell us more.

Jay: I remember January 9th specifically. I got a call from a large plumber on a construction site. I had just had somebody turn in their notice — they had four days left — and I'd just hired somebody who had started the day before and was still in training. And this guy says, "Hey, I got your number from so-and-so. We have about 40 shower pans that need to be repaired before the end of the month."

This was January 9th. I had essentially no techs.

I said, "Absolutely. That's what we do. No problem at all. We'd be glad to help." I hung up the phone and thought, oh boy. Let's figure this out.

Those 40 shower pans by the end of January became about 300 by the end of June. And had I said, "Gosh, I'm just not in a position to help you right now," it never would have happened. We were determined to be the best partner. That client needed someone. We made it happen.

Alan: You were thinking "how can we get this done?" — not making excuses.

Jay: Exactly. And that's really the mindset. I joke, but the mindset is: absolutely, we can do that. And if I'm not at that place today, I'm still going to say yes, and I'm going to figure out how to get there before you need it.

[Mid-episode break]

Alan: Jay's story is a perfect example of what it looks like when the right franchise meets the right person at the right time. That match doesn't happen by accident. I help driven professionals cut through the noise and find the specific opportunity that fits their goals and their life — completely free of charge. If you're ready to start that conversation, book a quick intro call at athletetoowner.com/ready.

Alan: Just under $750K in your first year. That is truly remarkable. How did you do this most recent year — 2024?

Jay: Probably right at $1.2M. And we went through some transition — lost our salesperson who had been with us the entire time, went a couple months without anyone in that role, brought on someone new, was short a couple techs for a stretch. So yeah, it was great. But it wasn't what it could have been. Not what we're expecting this year.

Alan: So turnover, transitions — that's part of the journey. What have you learned about hiring over three and a half years?

Jay: One of my biggest weaknesses — in full transparency — is that I can be slow to fire. I really try to believe in people. I can help you. You can get there. But I've gotten better at releasing people to their destiny. You can be a great employee — just not here. It doesn't mean I'm bad or you're bad. It just means it's not a fit.

And at the beginning, if I had one or two techs and the schedule was full, I felt almost held hostage. If I let someone go, I'd have to step back in as the tech myself. So I've been intentionally trying to overstaff for the past two years. A year and a half ago we were at two techs and I hired a third. Their schedule filled up. Hired a fourth. Got up to six. We took a chance on a couple of college students who could work four days a week. Lost them last August. Hired back up to six. And we've got a seventh starting next week.

I would always rather be a half employee overstaffed than understaffed.

Alan: And you just keep getting more work to fill them, which is a great problem to have.

Jay: People ask me — what's the biggest surprise after three years of owning your own business? I'm like, I didn't think I'd be buying nine vehicles so quickly. There are supplies and kits that go with each one. Nine vehicles is a lot.

Alan: Yeah, and you definitely don't want to tell the sales guys to slow down so you can catch up.

Jay: No. And I tell them that's fully on me. It's my job to make sure the sales team has enough techs to do their work. Fortunately, we're growing — and we're going to see what seven techs does. We might even spin up a temporary eighth to get through the busy summer season, especially if we start hitting some universities.

Alan: I love it. These big opportunities just sitting there waiting for you to tap into them. What would have happened if you'd kept your job and tried to build this on the side?

Jay: Year delay. And doing what I did — jumping in full time — even that was hard. I lost my tech 30 days in. If I'd been working a full-time job, we would have been dead in the water. It would have taken 30 more days to hire and train someone. I really believe it would have been a multiple-year delay at minimum.

I also think I would have lost my salesperson. They wouldn't have been earning commissions because they couldn't sell full time without techs to do the work. I just don't see how I could have been successful trying to run this alongside another job.

This is not a "throw money at it and let it run" kind of business. In my opinion, the owner needs to come in, learn every aspect, run it, get it up, and then put systems in place if they want to step back.

Alan: Earn your freedom by being in the weeds at the beginning — then slowly pull yourself out.

Jay: Exactly. And now I'm in that place where I do have more of that freedom. But if any aspect of our business went down tomorrow — somebody's in trouble or out sick or whatever — I can jump in and fill the gap. Any part of the business. Well, except payroll and invoicing. Rose, your job is secure.

Alan: That's the benefit of having learned all those aspects by being in it early on. So now let's talk about the team you've built. Walk us through where you are today.

Jay: Seven techs, two sales reps, an operations manager, and somebody who helps Rose with invoicing. It's like — wow, we've got a real team. And three and a half years in, it feels like, how did we get this big?

The other thing I'm proud of — for the first several months, I trained all of our techs myself. But on this last round, my two senior techs did the majority of the training. That's a system. It took time to build, but it's there now.

And what that means in practice is — last November, I had two daughters doing mission work in South Africa. I took off most of the month of November and went to spend time with them. I didn't ask anyone. I didn't take PTO. The business was in a position where I had people I trusted to run it. That's the freedom you earn.

Alan: That's what it's all about. But you have to be intentional about creating those systems. It doesn't just happen.

Jay: It doesn't. And we have a saying around here: chaos breeds one of two things — more chaos or opportunity. We try to let other people's chaos be an opportunity for us. When a construction manager calls the day before an owner's walk and needs 12 units done by tomorrow — that's their chaos. We don't let it affect our team. But if it creates an opportunity for us, we're more than happy to take it.

Alan: I love that. Okay — where did you build your grit and competitive edge? That's the athlete to owner theme.

Jay: I'm the youngest of three boys. I'm funny and fast because if I wasn't, I got beat up. But really — track and field was my main sport in high school. I played soccer too, but track was my thing. And then post-high school, I actually founded a track and field and cross-country program for homeschooled athletes here in the Nashville area around 2010, 2011.

I quickly realized that homeschooled athletes could compete in smaller public school meets during the week, but when it came to tournaments and championships, they weren't allowed to participate. So I created a track and field championship — I wanted students to know what it was like to compete in a big, well-run event. It went well. Some coaches came to me and asked if I'd do the same for cross-country. So I built a cross-country course and started a championship race. That first year, I think we had about 300 students. This past November, we had 1,700 athletes from around 15 different states.

Alan: That is really cool. And I think what you're describing — the mindset shift from "I want to play" to "I want to be really good" — is exactly what separates high performers in sports and in business.

Jay: At some point it has to shift. In competitive sports, you go from "I want to play basketball" to "I want to be really good." And that means being coachable, learning from mistakes, not quitting, hitting the weight room. There's that intentional shift. And it's the same in business.

The month I started Surface Experts, there were several of us who bought in around the same time. Some of my good friends are doing better than I am, which drives me crazy. But that competitive spirit — that's a good thing. At some point you just say, we're going to be the best we can be. And whatever we do, it's going to be quality. We'll lose money going back out to fix something if we have to, but it's going to end up in the right place.

Sports teach you that. The principles you learn there can guide you the rest of your life.

Alan: All right. Last question. What advice do you have for new or aspiring franchise owners?

Jay: Own it. Put in the hard work. If you don't want to work extremely hard to earn your freedom — this isn't for you. Know your business. Know your customers.

And this is one I've really learned — invest 100% in your people. Know them. Have their backs. If something goes wrong on a job, that's on me. I'll do what I can to make it right, then hang up and figure out what happened. We celebrate wins publicly, across the whole team. And we hold each other accountable privately.

My nephew works for me, and one day he said, "Nobody's going to care about this business as much as you do." He's right. But everybody around me knows how much I care. And I think that raises their level of ownership too.

Get in on the details. Even as the owner, there's nothing beneath you. If I need to break down boxes, I break down boxes. If I need to vacuum a car, I vacuum a car. Be willing to do whatever it takes — because at the end of the day, it's your business.

Alan: Well, Jay, I had so much fun learning from you today. Thank you for joining us, and congrats on being a Franchise Champion.

Jay: Thanks for having me, Alan. Let's do it again sometime.