Authority Brands Announces Top Franchisee Award Winners For 2021
November 16, 2022 // FranchiseMarketingSolutions.com // – Authority Brands’ 2021 Franchisee of the Year winners were announced at the inaugural Authority Brands Convention. For the first time, all 12 of our brands were gathered in one place. It was an amazing opportunity to celebrate the Franchisee of the Year winners together. We are proud to present the winners and select remarks from their brand leaders.
Woofie’s Franchisee of the Year: Tanya Lee – Reston-Herndon, Virginia
“Leslie and I chose the franchise model because we wanted to create opportunities for people to own their own Woofie’s business. We wanted to work with people who would share our passion, vision and values. When we first met Tanya Lee 3 years ago, we knew right away that she was going to be our founding franchisee.
Tanya has built a fantastic business. The name of her LLC is Inspired Minds and I couldn’t think of a more fitting name. This past weekend we inducted Tanya as our first member of the Goldendoodle Club as she exceeded $1 million in annual revenues earlier this year. We are so proud of this accomplishment, especially after all the challenges of the past 2 years.
Thank you, Tanya, for taking this franchise journey with us and for trusting in the Woofie’s brand. Thank you for taking a leadership position with our franchisees and serving as a role model for them. Thank you for your kindness and for creating a fun, positive culture within your company. Thank you for inspiring your team members and for providing a career path for so many of them. Thank you for being part of your local community and knowing the importance of giving back. Thank you for providing exceptional care to all of your clients and their pets. And lastly thank you for your friendship. Congratulations!”
-Amy Reed, Co-Founder and President of Woofie’s
Color World Painting Franchisee of the Year: Gary Sheffer – Birmingham, Alabama
“Gary encompasses the Color World system every single day. He joined Color World after leaving a career in the banking industry, and it has served him well, and we are so glad to have him in our system!
He has embraced all new programs we have rolled out and been very active in our newest program the PPG Services, and he just completed 150K commercial painting project as a result. Last holiday lighting season, he did this massive holiday lighting job that was the talk of the town, and he won our award last year for the Most Creative Holiday Lighting job because of it. This franchisee is also an active member in his community and well-liked by his customers with over 75 5-star reviews on Google.
We are impressed with his sales and production, but also his engagement with the Color World corporate team and processes. He is always asking how he can better himself and his business. He also makes himself available to offer advice and input to other franchisees and staff as a key member of our Franchise Advisory Council. He is a natural leader, and we are excited to see how his business grows in the upcoming years. He is already on his way to sell and produce well over 1 million dollars this year.”
-Tom Hodgson, Founder and Brand President of Color World Painting
DoodyCalls Franchisee of the Year: Amy Wise – Houston Texas
“The journey for our franchisee of the year began over 15 years ago, when she and her husband took a chance in the franchising world, launching this “dog poop thing” in the biggest city in Texas, the fourth largest city in the United States – Houston Texas. Amy Wise (and husband Kelly) launched her business and immediately worked to bring this service awareness to the great city of Houston Texas!
Today, Amy has built a solid commercial business, not to mention her residential retention. As a franchisee, she has built her DoodyCalls into being one of the top performing company’s year after year (consecutively in our top 3), she has the best employee retention for the organization (culture / diversity / value driven), she is actively involved in philanthropy efforts, she lends her skills and experience to our Franchise Advisory Council, acts as a Commercial Sales Trainer, and recently started her new chapter with our team as the Franchise Support Manager for DoodyCalls.
Amy defines the Values of our team. No matter the time of day, the day of week, the business up, the business down, employee challenges, competitor pressure to new market growth…you can expect High Integrity and Ethical Leadership, Servant Leadership, Humility, Respect, Kindness, Winning Together and Amy is Driven!
It is a privilege to work with Amy Wise and her team each day, as a leader, she inspires us to be better, be stronger and continue to be our best!”
-Larry Amos, Vice President of Operations for DoodyCalls
Monster Tree Service Franchisee of the Year: Tom Lessing – Greenville South Carolina
“Tom joined our brand three years ago and, since that time, has impressed us with his ability to establish a strong business and continue to scale his business over time. Tom is a natural-born leader who cares about making a difference in his community by providing his customers with excellent customer service and his cultivating a great workplace environment for his employees. With the help of his wife, Beth, their son Tommy and their devoted crew, they have created a business worth being proud of. Tom and his team continue to provide excellent recommendations to customers to encourage optimal tree health. His location plays an integral role in helping to establish best practice standards for the Monster Tree Service community. I want to thank Tom for being an innovative thinker, a great sharer of information for the brand, and for making Monster Tree Service a stronger brand overall.”
-Scott Hilary, Chief Operating Officer of Monster Tree Service
STOP Restoration Franchisee of the Year: Wyatt Gardiner – Spokane, Washington
“Our franchisee of the year for STOP Restoration will admit to most that he struggled the first few years until he started to embrace the system. In 2021 he grew almost 100% in revenue from $598,000 to a little over $1.1million dollars with a bottom line profit of over 20%. He attributes that to the hard work of his team and following the system. Our franchisee of the year for 2021 is Wyatt Gardiner from Spokane Washington.”
-Mark Dawson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Brands
Mister Sparky Electric Franchisee of the Year: Aaron Hagan – Lowell Arkansas
“Aaron is owner of multiple Mister Sparky Electric locations in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. He understands and embraces the franchising model and is a true brand ambassador. He is always open to hosting franchisees and Mister Sparky staff at his location to provide mentoring, training, and support. He is known for being very innovative in his approach to training his team, and they have serious fun while doing it! He has also added new locations to ensure the continued growth of his organization while offering even more opportunities to his team members.
He is part of our Franchise Leadership Team collaborating with the executive team to positively impact the system for all franchisees. In 2021 his team had total combined sales of $15.9Million which was an increase of over 50% of their sales in 2020.”
-Mark Dawson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Brands
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing Franchisee of the Year: Lenny Siers – Niceville, Florida
“It’s hard to describe this franchisee by using one word. He’s a forward thinker always looking into the future to improve not only his business but all the franchisees in the system. He’s a team player sacrificing his own agenda for the good of the team. He’s an early adopter being first in line to test programs to improve the system. He’s a visionary by thinking outside the box when others may hesitate to embrace change. Last, he is a leader not only of his team but within his community.
These are just a few of the characteristics afforded to this honoree of great character and integrity. He’s a consistent and selfless brand champion that’s always willing to lend a helping hand to fellow franchise owners by offering mentoring as well as training to new and existing franchisees. To support his respective Trade Brands’ goals and objectives, he invests not only in his businesses’ infrastructure, but he also pours personal development and growth opportunities into his staff and team members. As a top performer for Benjamin Franklin plumbing his unified locations recorded a whopping 28% increase in 2021 over previous year of 2020 with total sales exceeding $9,850,000.
The Benjamin Franklin brand and network of franchise owners value and appreciate his contributions to further building our brand’s local market dominance by sharing and encouraging best practices.”
-Mark Dawson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Brands
One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning Franchisee of the Year: Richie Drew and Team – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
“Richie is the first two-time winner in our system. This award is presented to the franchisee that always embraces the One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning brand values and system while consistently growing their business through proper training and management of their organization and maintaining a high level of sales through quality professional service. He is a model for the Brand, with consistent fantastic results.
Richie and Team did over $22.1MM in sales for 2021 which amounted to an astounding 23% year over year growth compared to 2020! His business produces an excellent double digit bottom line and continues to get better year over year.
He lives by the advice he received from his grandfather Sammy when he told him ‘Serve your fellow man, always do what is right. When you focus on doing good work, making someone else’s life better, at the end of the day, you win.’ He and his team believe that success comes from serving their clients well, doing the work right and doing it from the heart. You will often hear him attribute his success to ‘going back to the basics and following the system.’ You will always see their DMR filled out each day, a true testament to knowing their numbers daily, giving them the ability to strategically plan and budget for continuous growth in fact if you are listening today, he will tell you if you are not doing that stop what your are doing and just get that one simple step started immediately.
He has built an amazing culture where every employee that works there –are truly considered family. They have each other’s back; they care about each other, and they would do anything for each other.”
-Mark Dawson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Brands
Mosquito Squad Franchisee of the Year: Maryellen and Tom Heinemann, Northern New Jersey
“Our 2021 Franchisee of the Year opened their first location in 2012 and then quickly developed an expansion model, adding 4 additional territories over the next 6 years. They quietly built an impressive organization that hit $3.0m in sales in 2021, which was an impressive growth rate of 67% over 2020. While this award is for 2021, I do want to note that they are projected to hit $4.2m in sales this year. When asked ‘how did you do it?”, true to their humble personality, they responded – ‘Well, it was easy, I just did what Dave Macchia told me to do.’ I think that we can all agree that this type of growth is not easy at all, but it takes hard work, discipline and a hunger to succeed.
This husband-and-wife team is a powerhouse for Mosquito Squad who flawlessly executed Dave’s concept of scaling the 3 Gears of Success – Marketing, Sales and Production BUT the best part is that they are wonderful people, live true to our values, are always willing to help others, and are loved by our brand.”
-Tom Swift, President of Mosquito Squad.
America’s Swimming Pool Company Franchisee of the Year: Nick Carver – Panama City Beach, Florida
“At ASP, our Franchise of the year award winners are true leaders in our company. They embody all of the traits that a successful small business owner MUST possess. They are hardworking, loyal, customer focused, true brand ambassadors every day, a most importantly, a great boss to their employees.
This years Franchise of the year award winner for ASP started his location in Florida just 5 years ago. His first year in business he generated $353,000 in revenue and hired his first employee. In 2021 his location produced sales of $1.9mm – and currently he is on pace to do well over $2.3mm in revenue, employing 20 hard working men and women, and is a leader in both his local community, as well as a leader at ASP – by serving on our Franchise Advisory Council.”
-Stewart Vernon, Founder and Brand President of America’s Swimming Pool Company
Homewatch CareGivers Franchisee of the Year: Bindu Agarwal – Langhorne, Pennsylvania
“Bindu started with her first client Jan 2018. 22 months later she hit a $1.6M run rate. During this year’s opening reception, we welcomed her into the multi-million dollar club.
Bindu successfully drove up her revenue 25% YOY mid-year 2021-2022 as compared to 2020-2021; this was after a 16% growth rate through the toughest COVID year and a huge increase of 75% the year prior.
Bindu embodies our values and lives our mission. She has embraced the financial training/Qvinci platform and runs a profitable business that has withstood market fluctuations through COVID-19 and workforce challenges. Her team has completed 924 courses (with 88 active caregivers enrolled) as of September 2022 YTD on HWCG University. Clearly she focuses her team on ongoing education, the lynchpin of our business. She always ask intelligent questions and engages in a way that shows she cares about her business and our brand, and she strives to be a good manager of her team.”
-Jennifer Tucker, Chief Operating Officer of Homewatch CareGivers
The Cleaning Authority Franchisee of the Year: Kent Lewis – Sacramento, California
“We had several great contenders for Franchise Owner of the Year – but as we do every year, in ranking Franchise owner’s stats using our BPIs, they have risen to the top. In 2021, this office was firing on all cylinders. With a 77% close rate and a customer termination rate of just .90%, their revenue grew 32% from 1.8m to 2.4m. They are no stranger to growth – outside of the COVID year, this office averages over 16% growth year over year.
This Franchise owner has a passion for building a culture to better the lives of their employees and you can see that with their outstanding employee retention rate – consistently one of the lowest in the system. One stat that points to this is that 85% of their employees have been with his company for over 1 year and even more remarkable – 19 of their 42 staff members being employed for over 4 years – that’s close to half of his staff.
In addition to this office, the owner owns and manages 2 other The Cleaning Authority territories and his overall revenue between the three is over 4.1m. Outside of these fantastic stats leading him to win franchisee of the year– I know this owner on a personal level and I can assure you that he is one of the most genuine, kind hearted and good spirited owners that you will ever meet.”
-Leanne Stapf, Chief Operating Office of The Cleaning Authority
Click the links below to learn more about specific Authority Brands Franchise Opportunities at Home Services Opportunities.
ASP – America’s Swimming Pool Company
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing
The Cleaning Authority
Color World Painting
DoodyCalls
Homewatch CareGivers
Mister Sparky
Monster Tree Service
Mosquito Squad
One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning
STOP Restoration
Woofie’s