Hey Contrarians,
Whatever preconceived notions you may have about your unconventional career path preventing you from eventually finding opportunities in Main Street industries…
Today is about washing them down the drain.
Aaron Harper doesn’t have a background in power washing, but his goal is to build the biggest, most professional, most ethical power washing business on Earth. Here’s how.
Today in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
From Hollywood to washing wood
If you knew Aaron a decade ago, trying to build a multi-hundred-location boring business franchise system is probably the last thing you’d assume he’d be up to today.
“My background has nothing to do with power washing,” as he puts it…
Aaron grew up in California. In college, he went to film school, and after graduating, he moved out to Hollywood to try to become an agent.
In his first gig at a major talent agency, Aaron was working for the folks who represented Academy Award-caliber actors like Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo.
It was not glamorous (at all)
“I had clipboards thrown at me. There was the time I got fired 3 times the same day. I sometimes worked 7:30 a.m. until 2:00 a.m., while making $30k a year. That’s just what they expect you to do out there.”
Eventually, he had enough.
“I didn’t like any of the people I was working for and I didn’t want anything that they had. So I just started calling buddies of mine from college and asking them what they were doing.”
That’s when one friend told Aaron he should consider franchise development.
“And I was like, what’s that?”
Some skills are more transferable than you think…
Back then, Aaron assumed “franchises” only referred to restaurants like McDonald’s.
But he soon learned there were all kinds of franchises, and he grew fascinated by the business model.
“I loved that concept of being able to help people become service business owners.”
It wasn’t till a move to Nashville, that Aaron’s journey from Hollywood to washing wood really began.
But before we get to that, you may be asking yourself something like:
How the hell does being a Hollywood agent-in-training prepare you to scale and exit carpet cleaning and drywall franchises?
Fair question, so let’s look at Aaron’s early résumé:
- He was responsible for helping ensure the success of clients
- He maintained relationships with studio heads
- He managed daily calls, scheduling, negotiations, and project updates
- He trained and developed other assistants
Replace terms like “studio heads” with “franchisees”, and you can start to see how the dots could connect.
Let’s ROLLLLLLLLLLLLL
So as we were saying, Aaron took those foundational skills with him to Nashville and into the world of franchising.
- First, he helped scale and exit Chem-Dry, a large carpet-cleaning franchise
- Then, he helped turn around an emerging drywall franchise, The Patch Boys
“We listened to all the franchisees. We asked them what they needed. Built processes around everything. Got jobs on the calendar. Built a franchise system that just worked anywhere in the country.”
Thorough, diligent, hard work. Years of it.
And at some point, as he told us, Aaron started realizing he was getting good at this.
Really good.
In August 2022, the company he was working for offered him a fancy title change and salary bump to franchise another business.
But he had another idea.
“I was like, wait a minute. I can do this on my own. I could find a business, I could partner with the founders, and I could franchise that business.”
So he turned the offer down, quit, and decided to do exactly that. His wife? 7 months pregnant at the time — but faithful in his plan.
Searching for “the one”
So Aaron went looking at dozens of businesses across the country.
HVAC, plumbing, solar, tree care, insulation, epoxy coating, line striping, roofing. “Just a bunch of boring businesses,” as he put it.
And the ONLY one that checked all these boxes:
- Fills a practical need (cleaning)
- Recession-resistant sector (30+ years old)
- Easy-to-explain (residential and commercial power washing)
- Fragmented industry (easier to disrupt)
- Potential for high margins
- Can rely on unskilled labor
- Great founders (now refer to Aaron as their 3rd son)
- Large market (every building is a potential customer)
- Proprietary products and processes
- Little to no franchise competition
… Was a lone, 34-year-old power washing biz doing $2.2M a year:
Rolling Suds.
Because of his industry know-how, Aaron was able to negotiate and land a deal and raise smart, relevant capital. The franchise rights were his and he now had dry powder at the ready.
As he’ll tell you, his goal was NEVER to go and run a pressure washing business, because that’s not what he’s good at.
It was to acquire the rights to a good business and build a scalable franchise system around it.
And that’s exactly what he started doing next.
He went on a roll…
In a little over a year, Aaron has gone from selling Rolling Suds’ 1st-ever franchise unit in Austin, Texas, to…
- Hiring nearly 2-dozen people to his support staff
- Building out robust resources for franchisees across sales, marketing, and operations
- Signing up dozens of franchisees who have purchased almost 200 territories in dozens of states
As Aaron puts it, his goal is to help franchisees “turn years into days.” That means helping them with everything from:
- In-house marketing
- Call center services
- Power washing know-how
- Sales training and coaching
- Technology services
“There’s really no professionalized national brand that does power washing,” he told us.
“The guy who buys a $500 machine and does it nights and weekends is like 90% of the industry. And so we’re coming in with sophisticated equipment, proprietary processes, and higher level operators.”
It’s a strategy that’s proving itself in the field.
In one instance, Rolling Suds recently went up bidding against ~50 other power washing companies for a major contract.
“We showed up. We sent our founder out. We sent my VP of Operations out. Everyone was there in blue. There were 7 of us, 2 trucks parked outside.”
Per Aaron, “It seemed so clear we were going to get the job that other companies began putting their business cards on our trucks because they just wanted us to subcontract them out to do the work.”
Remember — none of this would be possible without spending years honing his franchise craft and building relationships.
And it’s because of all that upfront work that things like this are working out years later.
What it means to be a GOOD businessman
In the franchise world, Aaron’s built a name for himself by being an outspoken proponent of something called “responsible franchising.”
“The franchise industry has kind of operated in the darkness for a lot of years,” he told us. “There are a lot of shady operators that just take money and don’t provide support. And part of my personal mission is to change that.”
He now wants to lead by example and inspire others to do good by doing good business.
The 4 core tenets he preaches:
- Capital adequacy
- Setting clear expectations
- Choosing the right franchisees
- Sustainable growth
Aaron can talk at length — and often does — about how important these tenets are to him. He’s obsessed with them. It’s unusual, but awesome.
“You need people to know what they’re getting into and that they’ll be working HARD.”
“As a franchisor, you absolutely shouldn’t just take a check from whoever will give you one.”
And importantly, “franchisors should never sell more units than they can feasibly open.”
That last one may sound surprising. Remember, Rolling Suds has seemingly exploded overnight.
“Many may see the number of territories we’ve awarded and ask themselves, ‘How is that responsible?’,” Aaron says.
His answer?
Experience. Growing fast — and doing it responsibly — was the plan all along.
“I knew we were going to grow fast, so I raised a LOT of capital, calculated how much it would cost in infrastructure for me to get 1 unit open and cash flowing, and built a BIG team” to support the network.
Aaron says he’d never EVER recommend a new franchisor attempt to do this, and that franchisors must do their math to know how much growth they can profitably afford.
He believes if the industry were to live by these tenets, franchisors and franchisees would find more opportunities for success.
“If we aren’t setting people up for success, what the hell are we even doing here?”
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