Aaron Harper

I searched for a business to buy for 3 months and exactly 2 years ago, I found it. Here’s what happened: I had worked in the franchise industry for years growing brands into household names We grew the biggest carpet cleaning company in the world Then the biggest drywall repair company in the world Like many searchers, I thought to myself “why am I not the owner of these businesses I’m building?” I set out across the country (while still an employee) to seek out a business that I could turn into a national brand The offer was simple: Business owner gets to keep 100% of the economic benefit of their business I acquire the brand, systems, processes, franchise rights, trademarks They get upside in a new business I create: the franchise business I raise capital and take all the risk in building that business We need help replicating and teaching franchisees how to replicate their model They can invest alongside me in building this new franchise business together if they want Enter: Brian Wendling Sr. and Brian Wendling Jr., the Founders of a professional power washing company doing 2.2M/yr Great business, great founders, I saw the opportunity for a great partnership We met in September 2022. A non-franchised 1 location power washing business A family that had perfected the power washing process with a secret process I knew we could grow this into a national brand together Had no idea how to raise capital, structure deals, acquire a company etc I knew I could figure it out though I partnered with mentors from the franchise industry who wanted to invest and help along the way We finalized the acquisition in January of 2023 We took the franchise to market in February of 2023 We’ve sold 222 locations to 63 franchise owners who operate in 28 states We’ve become the biggest power washing brand in the world February 2025 will mark 2 years and we should have close to 300 locations by then I love franchising and growing companies and I’ve learned to love content My goal is to share the ups and the downs in growing a company to be helpful to those who find it interesting Make sure you’re following along as we build the biggest power washing brand in public: @AaronHarperCEO

Love to see Rolling Suds franchisees crushing it!

I have heard the term “Sunday scaries” many times. Here’s what it meant to me working for someone else. If you have a job, you may know the feeling. Sunday evening rolls around and there it is. That low grade dread about Monday morning. The meetings, the one-on-ones. Answering to the board. I used to think that was just normal. Everyone feels that way, right? The weekends are just better than work weeks. Totally normal. Truth is, I was tired grinding with no real ownership. Did the math on the approximate value that my efforts added to the company I was working for while I was working there. All the responsibility, none of the ownership part. Making the scary decision to own my own business changed everything for me. Not instantly, but steadily. Once I got through a couple of years of tax returns and seasonality. The reality was that I would never be able to work for anyone again. You will never work harder than you will on your own business. And truthfully, that work will harden you. Turn you into a stronger person. Pressure does that. That’s how diamonds are created. PRESSURE. If you have been drained week after week, maybe you're not in the wrong job. Maybe you just shouldn’t have a job.

This tweet is for the Rolling Suds franchisees and the national account relationships we have built There is a lot of negative content about franchises largely because of one person's bad experience I empathize. I've seen this movie before. Many times. I have largely stayed out of the discussion because: a) It's none of my business & b) I know the backstory on both sides of that issue and again, it's none of my business I am not here to talk about that, I am here to talk about what I can control I made a decision to build a national brand in the power washing space, where a national player didn't exist yet Think: 1-800-GOT-JUNK in the early 2000s Power washing is a largely unsophisticated labor force (and group of business owners) with a low barrier to entry that is tough to scale without a good amount of capital and...most importantly: The willingness to go out and sell commercial jobs like your life depends on it There is not a commercial pressure washing franchise (or local or regional company) that is anywhere near the size we are in terms of number of locations I also made the decision to build this brand on the back of a personal brand One that I didn't want to build at the beginning but realized that the leverage we get is such that my opinion didn't matter Here's how being so public has dramatically helped our franchise owners: First, a note: the way an emerging franchise grows is largely through broker networks which take large fees -- which I am happy to pay as we wouldn't be where we are without the broker relationships I have However, building a personal brand has allowed us to not have to pay any fees on a good percentage of our deals This has resulted in capital for: - A national accounts team that most brands never get to (accounts with Starbucks, KIMCO, Popeyes, college campuses, govt contracts, and more every day) - A select community of high caliber franchise owners of which not one of our franchisees would disagree is amongst the most valuable part of their investment - A 25 year CEO who has worked for companies like ServPro, PuroClean, Restoration1 (just some no-name brands) - A team underneath him of rockstars in all facets of the business - Partnerships with suppliers that give our franchisees preferred pricing because they want to be associated with us due to how public we are and much more... Without having ~100 owners and 340+ territories, we wouldn't be able to get the national account partnerships we have We have delivered national account jobs to franchise owners which just that job alone justifies the overall investment in Rolling Suds Did I open myself up to criticism by being so public? Yep, sure did. Was it worth it? Absolutely Would I do it again? Sure would - again, we wouldn't be where we are today without that strategy. I have learned that "haters" online have absolutely nothing to do with me and to not take it personally These people are making decisions and judgments based on their learned experience which is normal What is frustrating is that the franchisees of all brands Who made a decision to grow their wealth and are having success, get flack and hatred because someone else made a grown up decision that didn't work Also, the franchisees who are making millions of dollars aren't on X talking about it, because they are out growing their business adding more locations We just had three franchisees expand to more territories in the last two weeks Not everyone who joins a franchise will be successful. This is the cost of doing business in growing franchises. No company gets only 5 star reviews. People join franchises and don't succeed. Other people will join that same franchise and THRIVE No franchise will have 100% success rate. In a business largely dominated by huge commercial jobs spanning multiple years, you need to have the stomach to close, manage and collect the AR from those jobs. Many don't have that stomach, and they shouldn't join Rolling Suds (or maybe any business, frankly) I'm beyond proud of what we are doing at the local and corporate level I hate to see that some people have bad experiences with franchises. Honestly, it kills me. But after working in this industry for nearly a decade on 14 different service brands, failure and misery is part of this Not everyone is cut out for business. Not everyone is cut out to be a franchisee (comma) and that's okay. Been largely staying off this platform but I hope everyone crushes their goals in 2026. Thanks for reading

Raising capital is a gauntlet, but it’s where you find out what you’re really made of. Early on, it feels like the room is against you. You’re facing seasoned pros who know the game inside and out, while you’re still learning the rules. It’s a high-stakes environment where people are looking for leverage, and the pressure is real. I remember staring at a term sheet that would have made me a minority owner in my own company. At the time, the stakes couldn't have been higher: a new baby on the way, a mortgage to pay, and no safety net to catch me. The deal had to close, but I had to keep my head. The Turning Point The "brutality" of fundraising is actually a masterclass in professional growth. You learn to: •Negotiate under pressure: Protecting your vision when it matters most. •Filter the noise: Distinguishing between predatory terms and genuine partnerships. •Build Resilience: Realizing that if you can survive the capital raise, you can survive anything the market throws at you. No book can prepare you for the intensity of this season, but that’s exactly why it’s so transformative.

If you want to become a franchisee (of any brand) here are questions you should ask the brand: How do you plan on achieving national scale to get into every market? When will you be there by? Once your brand is in every major market, how do you plan to leverage that to make your franchisees more money? What experience does you or your team have in franchising (remember, franchising is a different business!) How do you plan to scale the infrastructure as the brand scales? Who are your next three hires? (If the brand is using an outsourced franchise sales company) how do you plan to support me and a network of owners with keeping only a fraction of the upfront fees? Where will you pull capital from? What are you looking for in a franchise owner? What are some things that make it an immediate no when you’re talking to a candidate? How many of your franchisees are semi-absentee? What do your worst franchisees do and why do you think they’re not successful? These questions will help you cut through the crap and have a real discussion. Some of these may have to wait until an executive call but I’d ask every one of them before buying into a brand

After not posting super regularly on X, my thought is the move is to just overload with regular content and engagement within your preferred niche Who has an opinion or experience with this topic?

Here’s why building a sales team for your SMB is one of the scariest things you can do: You’re losing money 3 ways while the team ramps Way 1 - salary for the team Way 2 - marketing costs for the leads Way 3 - the deals they aren’t closing yet Also, not all salespeople work out In fact, there’s far fewer good ones than there are bad ones This entire time, you’re watching the bank account go down Here’s what I’ve learned doing it two different times now: You need to hire more than one salesperson (ideally 3 if you can afford it) Depending on the size of your company, you need a sales leader who holds the team accountable (or you need to be this person) Have clear scripts and a defined process The more defined your process, the faster the team ramps up, and the less money you burn Doesn’t matter who you are, it’s unlikely your company will grow past 2-5 million in revenue without a great sales team/function Your company isn’t an asset without a sales team, because you’re the salesperson and therefore have key-man risk Hope this was helpful!

Content creation and being creative has come back to me in a big way recently Putting yourself out there online is wild, especially as a franchisor Largely because people are gnarly with their opinions and the more public you become, the more their insecurities become targeted your way When in reality while it feels personal, it actually has little to nothing to do with me

We grew Rolling Suds to over 118 open units in 2 years. Here’s some things we did to get to today: -Did not let one “semi-absentee” franchisee join -Knew exactly who we wanted in our system and turned down ~90 well-capitalized operators who weren’t going to be right for us -Hired smart people before we needed them and getting out of the way -Parted ways with the wrong team members -Reinvested significantly in infrastructure -Build a products business to control truck production and delivery -Launched a national accounts team to deliver high value jobs to franchise owners -Holding our suppliers accountable and parting ways with the ineffective ones -Building a robust c-suite before we “needed” to -Working closely with some of the best franchise consultants in the business -Creating content daily to drive lead flow -Getting franchisees open and generating revenue quickly -Having a public relations strategy for franchise sales centered on my personal brand that’s never been done before in franchising -Working closely with franchisees to help them solve constraints, then systemizing those solutions network wide -Ruthless execution despite criticism It’s easy! (Clearly kidding) Building a franchise brand is one of the hardest businesses you can build, barring maybe a SAAS company Incredibly expensive and risky, but beyond rewarding As Chairman, I now focus on content creation with the majority of my time while our CEO runs the organization We will keep ROLLING!

Imagine logging into X every day… Seeing a post from someone you want to engage with Copying their post into ChatGPT and giving it some prompt like “respond to this” Then directly copying that empty response and posting it as a comment on the post Then thinking to yourself, “nice”

How do you build a business that doesn’t need you? Definitely not by buying a franchise and thinking you can not operate it from the beginning It’s by: putting in years of sweat equity reinvesting most of the profit back into the business continuing to replace yourself with great team members Building a business that runs without you requires a significant risk tolerance But you have you earn it

I’ve started to think about my travel differently now that I’m Chairman of Rolling Suds. Let me explain where my head is at: My family is everything to me. I’m fortunate to have my wife and kids who adore me My wife doesn’t care what I do, she just wants me home as much as possible Also, my daughter and I have grown particularly close this past year (I’m her person) So when I travel, my family misses me more and more each day I’m away To get this business off the ground, there have been times where I’ve needed to travel 3-4 times a month It’s no longer sustainable or a trade I’m willing to make Additionally, training for an Ironman is an incredibly long and grueling process Each day builds on the next When I’m gone for 4 days, I don’t sleep well and my training schedule goes off the rails Even if I train while away, I more or less lose those days because I can’t bike or swim For these reasons, I’ll only travel to the truly needle moving events The rest of the events, I’ll send my team and maybe only fly in for one night Lots of work to still do and I must prioritize the things that matter most

My Ironman training load this week: Monday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles Strength - Chest & shoulders(60min) 2hr long ride, 30min run off the bike 4hrs Tuesday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles Strength - Back & lats (60min) Swim 1600yds 2.75hrs Wednesday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles 1hr bike 3x12 intervals 20min run off the bike 2hrs Thursday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles Strength: Legs (90min) Track day with the Working Triathlete team (20min warm up, 4x1000m threshold pace, 15min cool down) 3hrs Friday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles Strength - arms and abs (60min) 1.5 hour bike at tempo pace 25min run off the bike 3hrs Saturday: Rest and recover Sunday: 30min of sauna/plunge cycles 70min long run 1.2hrs Total time: ~18 hours

If you really truly think about your life 30yrs from now, what do you 30 years from now wish that you did more of? Do you think 65 year old you will think, “man, I wish I worked more and made more money” If you truly gave it your all every day, I don’t think that will be the case 65 year old you will wish you: spent more time with your family went on more dates with your spouse built better and more meaningful friendships This year, I started to think about my life through the lens of 55 year old me I don’t check email I don’t work past 5 I don’t work on the weekends I put my kids to bed I have a date with my wife once a week I take care of my body by working out and eating healthy I talk to my close friends multiple times a week These things will have a significantly higher long term ROI than simply making more money With that said, I grinded for years to have the ability to prioritize these things in the way I am now Every entrepreneur will have to show up daily to a knife fight The goal is building a business that works for you and not against you Hard to get there but highly recommend If you’re in the trenches, keep grinding but understand the end goal is a whole full and balanced life

I spoke to a prospective franchise owner who has built a financial nest egg of 1.2M while working for someone else He diversified into real estate and had some success But he’s still not satisfied because he spends 8-10 hours a day building the wealth of the owner of his W2 It was clear that until he becomes a business owner, he won’t be satisfied He’s also hoping to build a large business Rolling Suds is perfect for him and fits his buy box Hope he ends up buying

Was having a discussion with the second largest owner of Applebee’s locations 50+ year old business, second generation franchisee We discussed the major differences between restaurants and commercial/residential service businesses Restaurants are about fulfillment and ops Service businesses are all largely sales businesses With restaurants you build it and if the brand is solid, the customers come to you and you fulfill their orders You’re limited by the physical location of the building and how much volume you can truly do In service, you’re limited by how much you can sell and what you can do in your community by become the go to (power washer, painter, line striper, roofer…fill in the blank) Fulfillment of the services, in the case of Rolling Suds as an example, is spraying water and soap on the side of a building and rinsing it off Not overly complex Whereas a restaurant is going to require nearly round the clock employees and 7 days a week (unless you’re Chic-fil-A) and Complex operations You just have to know what business you’re in, fulfillment or sales Both are great businesses, you just have to understand what type of business you are in