A close-up look at this lucrative opportunity led this consultant to get in on the ground floor of this emerging, easy to own dryer vent cleaning business
After many years in corporate America and in real estate and rental ventures, as well as their own franchise consulting business, Jason Yutze and his wife Lisa were ready for something new. After seeing how long it was going to take to book an appointment with a local dryer vent cleaning franchise, the lightbulb went off and they began to look into owning a Dryer Vent Squad franchise. Here’s what they have to share about their success as business owners:
What led to your decision to open your own franchise business, and how did you come to Dryer Vent Squad?
We’d been dabbling in other things as well as working regular corporate jobs, and when COVID hit that gave us an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Lisa and I began to look at different business options. I’m also a franchise consultant, and so have exposure to more than 300 different opportunities. I came across Dryer Vent Squad and thought it was a pretty good business, as this is something people really don’t want to do themselves. It’s a pretty basic business — anybody with a dryer can be a customer. And with the new dryers coming out that will shut down without proper airflow, there’s really a lot of potential.
How are you establishing the brand and setting yourself apart from the competition?
We are doing a lot of promoting, probably above and beyond what our colleagues may be doing right now/ We are doing some pay-per-click campaigns on everything from Home Advisor and Thumbtack to social media like Facebook. We’ve also got two billboards, and a commercial running on local cable television and some streaming channels. So, my marketing budget is significant right now in terms of revenue, but I believe the more we spend now, the more dividends it’s going to pay down the road. We’re getting good reviews online and working to build even more because those will do marketing for us all on their own.
What’s your territory like?
We only have one real competitor that’s been around a long time and has kind of cornered the market. But the way I see it, they have been educating the market for many years, and so there’s a lot of awareness here. We get a lot of calls when someone’s dryer has stopped working, or is not working well, but we also get calls from people who have had someone out before, but it’s been a few years. They know what to do, and they are willing to give us a try.
How are you hoping to scale up business?
I’m a former operations guy, so I am big on asset utilization. You can’t work a tech seven days a week, but you can run a van seven days a week. So soon we’ll bring on a second tech, allowing them to do a 4-3-day swap, so that van is rolling all the time. Once I get that done it’ll be easy to grow into a second van, and just keep expanding out that way.
As for accounts, we’re working now on landing some commercial accounts, like apartment complexes. Recently we quoted an 850-unit, three-complex setup. You get a couple of those, and it’s pretty easy to grow quickly.
What else appealed to you about Dryer Vent Squad besides the ability to ramp up on your own terms?
This business is set up to capture recurring revenue. For instance, commercial sites like those apartment buildings must show their insurance providers that those vents have been cleaned by a professional every so often. That puts us in the game not just for one visit, but for an ongoing contract. We can come in and offer a lower price than the competition because the volume will more than compensate for that.
Let’s talk more about pricing and volume. How else do you plan to leverage an affordable service against competitors and still build revenue?
If it’s a residential customer, I’d say it’s based on our fee structure. The competition does a service charge, or a charge for the first hour and then bills in 15-minute increments. One of our advantages is that we have a flat rate based on where the vent exists in the home. The higher up it is, the more expensive it is, but we set that flat rate. We can also identify problems on that estimated visit, and then add the fixes into the price. People like knowing what something is going to cost them right up front. When I tell people that our price isn’t going to change, and then explain how our competitors’ pricing structure can shift upward, about half the time they book right then.
What are you going to tell someone who calls you for insights as they consider purchasing their own Dryer Vent Squad franchise?
If they are looking to quit their job and do this full time right away, I’d say you need to get a tech so you can build the business while also actually servicing clients. If you’re going to keep your current job and build this up, you can scale a bit more slowly. But more than anything, make sure you have good tech pretty soon because you can grow really quickly even if you’re just doing this part-time. Remember, every home you drive by is a potential customer. You could have a business doing painting or flooring, but those people won’t need you back for many years. Every time you clean a vent, you can set someone up for a return appointment in a much shorter time frame. This is a service that everybody needs, and if you use your imagination you can market, promote and grow it in all kinds of ways.
Interested in becoming a Dryer Vent Squad franchise owner?
If you’re ready to take control of your future and build a better life for yourself and your family, consider franchising with Dryer Vent Squad. To learn more about the Dryer Vent Squad opportunity, visit our research pages or simply fill out an inquiry form and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly. We can’t wait to learn if your dreams can be realized by owning a Dryer Vent Squad franchise.