How to Scale a Niche Service Business Into a Global Franchise Opportunity with Brandon Adams

Brandon Adams is the Founder and CEO of Pure Maintenance, an innovative environmental services company disrupting the mold remediation industry through patented technology, strategic franchising, and rapid international expansion. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Success comes from staying committed, especially when the work gets repetitive and recognition is scarce. 2. You don't always need large startup capital, creative business models and intellectual property can unlock growth. 3. Big opportunities come from solving overlooked problems better, faster, or more affordably, then staying consistent. Check out Brandon's website to learn about franchise opportunities - Pure Maintenance https://www.puremaintenance.com/ Sponsors HighLevel https://highlevelfire.com - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com https://highlevelfire.com. Ruune https://www.ruune.ai/eof - Ruune is an ultra-thin AI note-taking device that attaches directly to your phone with MagSafe. Press a button, and Ruune captures the conversation and turns it into notes, action items, and info you can actually use later. Stop trying to remember every great idea and start capturing them. For a special 10 percent off, visit Ruune.ai/eof https://www.ruune.ai/eof.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. And today, we'll be breaking down how Brandon Adams scaled a niche service business into a global franchise opportunity. And to drop these vibe bombs, I have brought Brandon Adams into EO Fire Studios. Brandon is the founder and CEO of Pure Maintenance, an innovative environmental services company, disrupting the mold remediation industry through patented technologies, strategic franchising, and rapid international expansion. And today, we'll be talking about disrupting an industry, going from a local business to franchise brands, reinventing mold remediation, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brandon and our sponsors.

• 0:47Speaker 00

  Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships, all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial, plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. High Level Fire.com.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  Brandon, say what's up to Fire Nation, and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  Awesome. Well, thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here. It's a great podcast.

• 1:24Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  I'm a big fan. Yeah, something that there might be unique about something I believe in that has to do with success is, is one of the highlights of one of the books I, of the book I wrote, is really just highlighting that I believe success really, it comes maybe less from talent or luck than than people might believe generally or at the onset of things, and more from just being willing to just stay committed longer than anyone else, even when the work becomes repetitive and uncomfortable, and you don't feel like you're getting recognized. I think most people understand and admire consistency, but maybe they underestimate how long you have to be consistent sometimes in order to see real success.

• 2:08Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, I've been showing up seven days a week, 365 days per year, for 14 years now. Brandon is episode 5,894, and there's a reason we've been successful: consistency, my friends. And we're going to talk about how Brandon scaled a niche service business into what? A global franchise opportunity. So Brandon, let's talk about disruption. Let's talk about disrupting an industry. So what was the aha moment, that light bulb that made you realize the mold remediation industry was just broken? And how did that insight lead to you creating this disruptive solution?

• 2:49Speaker 01

  I'm going to tell a story now about how I got lucky. It also requires consistency, obviously, but kind of the, the way we backed into this technology and this, this industry was actually, my dad had started a property management business, and he was doing like mid-level buildings where he was taking care of HVAC systems, changing filters, hiring janitorial crews, you know, buildings that were the size that they didn't have their own staff on hand, but they needed all that stuff taken care of and didn't want to have to worry about it. So he was doing that. He got a contract for a surgical suite, and they needed a janitorial crew. He hired a janitorial crew to come in. He was worried that someone was going to miss

• 3:31Speaker 01

  something, someone was going to get staph infection because they didn't wipe things down good enough. He found about a technology that was being used in Europe, where they actually created a vapor that filled up the entire facility and disinfected everything in the facility overnight. And he thought, that's a great solution. He couldn't get much traction with it in the medical industry. And I was going to college at the time and didn't have, you know, a dime to my name. I didn't have much going on. And I asked him if I could, you know, see what I could do with, with this technology. And I ended up hearing about some people that couldn't get a home to, to close on a real estate transaction because an inspector had found mold inside of a, inside of a home. And they, you know, the industry

• 4:15Speaker 01

  standard was to go in and basically demo all the parts of the house that they could find mold and rebuild it. And so, you know, I'd, I'd heard about this technology that had been used in Europe, and they were supposedly supposed to kill mold bacteria and virus inside of a facility. And so I asked the real estate agent, you know, hey, can we try this? It would cost you almost nothing to just let us come in and try it. And, and they said, yeah, sure, because we can't afford to pay the $40,000 quote that we got from the traditional remediation company to come in and tear out insulation and sheetrock and rebuild it and get it ready for sale. It's just doesn't, there's not enough money in the transaction for that. And

• 4:58Speaker 01

  so we came in and figured out how to make this, this device work where that was being used in Europe. It was a big, huge piece of equipment at the time, and kind of deployed this concept to see if it would work on, in this application. And we didn't even know how to test it at the time. We didn't, we didn't really know what we were doing. And we tried it. We, we did a treatment and had an inspector come in and do a test afterwards. And, you know, he reported back to us that, hey, this is like hospital-level cleanliness. There's no more mold in the air. The, the surface mold is gone. The home is ready to be sold and needs no remediation. And so we were like, holy cow, maybe there's a, there's

• 5:40Speaker 01

  a market here that we don't know about. And then, and that's when, that's when it came down to, okay, maybe there's an opportunity here. This is the aha moment. And now it's just about, you know, putting our nose to the grindstone and just being consistent and coming to work every day and figuring out how to make this technology work the very, very best it can in this application, and then, and then figure out how to scale the business the best way we can.

• 6:00Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, that's how businesses can be born. I love these type of stories. And I want to now talk about going from a local business to actually a franchise brand. Brandon, how did you grow Pure Maintenance from just this local service business into what is now a rapidly expanding franchise network?

• 6:19Speaker 01

  That was the most tricky thing, I think, that we had to do, especially because it wasn't a situation where we had tons of capital to, to just go out and, you know, hire attorneys or, or scale the business rapidly. We didn't have anything. In fact, we, after my dad had bought this test piece of equipment and then put everything else he had into reengineering it and making it applicable in a residential environment, and really honing in the, the science on, on what we were doing. And we, we had, I think we had like $350 in the bank account that we had set up for the business. And we were like, okay, we have these fans of this business, these champions of our business locally. Everybody loves this. And, you know, we had a bunch of clients that were like, how do I invest in this business?

• 7:02Speaker 01

  I want to buy a franchise. We're like, well, let's figure out what we're going to do. We actually went and met with a franchise attorney. He showed us the franchise paperwork that was going to be required and told us, okay, it's going to cost you about $300,000 to set up this franchise. And we're like, well, we have about $350. I don't know what we're going to do here. And so we kind of came up with a hybrid business model originally, where it allowed us to scale rapidly, where we actually, instead of getting a franchise agreement, we got a patent on, we got a patent on the equipment and a patent on the process. The reengineered equipment and the, the process that we had developed that really worked well against mold. And by getting that patent, it allowed us to then enter into some licensing

• 7:47Speaker 01

  agreements. So that, that was a lot more affordable for us, and it allowed us to scale a lot quicker. We didn't need to develop CRMs for the franchisees off, off the bat. We didn't need to do a lot of the, the legwork that is required with a franchise originally, and allowed us to scale really quickly to 50 licensees that were, were paying for territorial rights to use our patents. And we started generating income. And once we had that income, we could set up the franchise business. But that allowed us to grow when we had almost no capital. It was kind of a unique way we got to where we're at. But with no capital, you got to be creative sometimes.

• 8:24Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, sometimes you need to be a little creative and take ideas from people who have been there and done that, because they've probably been creative before you. Now, let's talk about reinventing mold remediation, because your patented DryFog technology, it actually changed the way that mold remediation is performed. What makes it such a game changer?

• 8:41Speaker 01

  The great thing about it is it's a more effective treatment for anyone who's worried about their air quality and their safety and their health. And it's also more affordable treatment than the traditional methods. So instead of coming in and, let's say, you had a flood in your bathroom, and mold starts to grow in the grout or up on the ceiling, by the fan is where we see it commonly, or in the window seals. The traditional remediation method would be to come in and we plastic off that bathroom, quarantine it off, and then we just start demoing the bathroom and rebuilding it. And then we bring in air scrubbers inside the quarantined bathroom.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  The sealed off bathroom, and we run air scrubbers in there for three or four days to get all those airborne mold spores that are inside the bathroom, ran through an air scrubber filter that catches those, and then they come, come out. So you're talking, you know, between demo, a couple of days of demo, a couple of days of rebuild, four or five days of air scrubbers. It's a two week project. And you're paying for, you know, staff that whole time. You're paying for those air scrubber rentals. You're paying for all of that. And most of the time, the insurance isn't going to cover it. So that's why these, these bills get up so high. And what a traditional remediation job is failed to address is that that those mold spores spread throughout the house. They get in your HVAC system long before anybody puts up plastic or an inspector shows up. Once mold starts to grow in your

• 10:06Speaker 01

  house, it's circulating through your air into every room. And it's creating a more vulnerable environment for, for mold to start growing in the future. So a lot of times we'll see, yeah, we had a flood two years ago in our basement, but now we've got mold growing in our front loading washing machine. We've got mold growing in our window seals all over. Like everywhere there's a little bit of moisture in the house, the mold starts to grow because those elevated mold spore counts inside the air have created these little factories all over. With our whole home remediation treatment, we can come in, we fill up the entire home, the HVAC system, your washer, dryer, your, your window seals, everything gets treated during the treatment. And the treatment usually takes about four to five hours. And we can be in and out. The mold, the kind of the secret sauce is the particle

• 10:49Speaker 01

  size that we create. We're actually now able to create a particle size that's sub four microns, which allows us to penetrate areas where anywhere where a mold spore can get to inside of a home, we can penetrate those same areas and have an effective treatment. You know, throughout the home, we can do it at a, a lower price point because we're not there for five days. We can do it with less staff. We don't have air scrubbers that we're bringing in. And it's far more effective because instead of, you know, breathing in those mold spores that have traveled throughout the rest of your house, we're taking care of it and leaving you with a clean bill of health throughout your whole home.

• 11:24Speaker 00

  Now, are you able to like, hold, I'm like envisioning like, can you hold something like up in the air in somebody's house that like shows them like the mold spore counts, or maybe even just the air quality like before. And then you do that four or five hour session, and then maybe, I don't know, if a day or two has to go by, whatever, maybe it's only an hour. And then you can hold it up again and show them it's the new reading. Like, do you guys have that?

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. So there's, there's a few different testing methods out there. There's a deficiency certainly in the testing industry for mold as well. But the traditional method is, is what we call spore trap testing. So we'll run about 75 liters of air through a small filter. That filter gets sent to a lab, third party lab. The lab can break down what exactly got caught on that filter. So, and then they'll extrapolate those numbers to tell you how many mold spores are in a cubic meter inside the air inside your house. And they'll tell you what types of mold. So between the, the levels of mold and the types of mold, we can tell, you know, how bad is the situation inside of your home? Is it, does it warrant remediation? And then after that remediation, we can run that same test and give you, you

• 12:28Speaker 01

  know, we guarantee all our work based on those tests. So we can give you a, a air quality test after that shows a much cleaner environment. And we always guarantee that it's going to be cleaner inside your home than after, or than outside your home after our treatment.

• 12:42Speaker 00

  See Fire Nation, I've said it before, I'll say it again. Create the number one solution to a real problem in a growing industry, and you will win. Like, it's going to happen because people will be the door, a path to the doorstep of the number one solution to their problem. And when you create a better solution that's also cheaper, like, you're going to win. So remember, that's a great recipe for success. We're going to talk about scaling across borders, finding hidden opportunities and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. How many times have you had a conversation with a customer, a team member, or another entrepreneur, and walked away thinking there were some great ideas in there, only to forget half of them an hour later? You want to be present in the conversation, not buried in

• 13:24Speaker 00

  your phone taking notes. That's where Rune comes in. Rune is an ultra thin AI note taking device that attaches directly to your phone with MagSafe. Press a button and Rune captures the conversation and turns it into notes, action items, and info you can actually use later. Use it for team meetings, customer conversations, brainstorming sessions, or those random moments when your next great idea shows up unexpectedly. I am so blown away by how much more efficient my pre-interview process is with the help of Rune. And at less than three millimeters thick, it lives right on your phone without feeling like another device you have to carry around. For a special 10% off, visit ruune.ai/EOF. Rune can also connect with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Notion, and security stores up to 140 hours of recordings locally, even without an internet connection. Stop trying to remember

• 14:08Speaker 00

  every great idea and start capturing them. For a special 10% off, visit r u u n e dot a i slash E O F. Again, for a special 10% off, visit ruune.ai/EOF. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award winning 24/7 support, so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you

• 14:48Speaker 00

  unlock my full bonus stack, a 30 day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 15 minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Brandon, let's talk about scaling across borders. What are the biggest lessons you've learned while expanding across the US and of course, into international markets?

• 15:25Speaker 01

  It's something that we're still navigating, honestly, still learning every day on, on the best ways to do that. Really, the, but the best thing that we've done in terms of expanding internationally is finding good partners that are in those local markets and those know, that know those local markets better than we do. You know, we've had great partners in Australia, over in the UK, as well as in Canada. And, you know, coming soon, we're working on a project now where we're going to be opening up franchise locations in Dubai. And it really comes down to finding a partner that, that understands that market, understands the local laws and the customs, and the price points, and the, the workers and everything that, that you, you don't even think about when you, when you think

• 16:09Speaker 01

  about opening up a new market in the United States. There's just a whole lot more obstacles and a whole lot more questions to have answered when you're doing something internationally. And the easiest way for me that I've found has been to find a partner that understands those nuances in those international markets.

• 16:27Speaker 00

  Let's talk about finding hidden opportunities, because you built your business by solving an expensive and sometimes an often overlooked problem. So how can entrepreneurs identify similar opportunities that creates long-term recurring growth? I mean, we want to inspire, we want to educate, we want to give light bulbs to Fire Nation.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Thinking about myself, you know, coming out of college, this isn't ever like what I set out to do. I didn't ever set out to become part of the mold remediation industry. Even, even through college, you know, I, I didn't think that this was on the plate or in the realm of possibilities of something that I would do. But I always had the entrepreneurial spirit. And I wanted to find something that was a solution like this and, or was that I could set up a business model like this. And I think that you got to keep your eyes open and look for opportunities like this. And even if it doesn't seem as glamorous as, as, you know, you, you might imagine that your, your global business empire that

• 17:26Speaker 01

  you set up will be, if it solves a problem like you mentioned before, and it's a better solution than what's available, then you've got to be able to, to be ready to run with it. And regardless of the market or the niche, or whatever it is, there's a million other things out there that are going to be a better solution to, to a current problem. As long as you can find that and you're ready to run and you're ready to scale, anything can happen. But I think it's a matter of just keeping your eyes open and being willing to go all in and being able to, you know, be consistently giving effort and stay committed to a cause that you know is a good solution. And like I mentioned before, you know, stay consistent with it. When you see the opportunity, jump on it and then stay consistent with

• 18:11Speaker 01

  it, continue to believe in it, and go through the hard times. And then there's, there's better times on the other end of that.

• 18:17Speaker 00

  So as you've grown personally through franchising, what leadership principles and systems have been essential to scaling sustainably?

• 18:25Speaker 01

  I certainly don't think that I deserve all the credit for, for our scaling. I've been very fortunate to have franchisees and licensees that we've partnered with that have bought into the, the process and the system that have, have represented the brand in a way that I respect and the way that I, I can trust them. So I think that's, that's super important is, you know, be humble enough to surround yourself with people that maybe are smarter than you. And then develop good relationships with them so that you can, you can trust them. That, that would be my, my biggest takeaway is, is find those people that you think you can trust and that have the same kind of core values that you have.

• 19:07Speaker 01

  And, and then run with it, you know, let them, let them exhibit their leadership skills, let them be part of the brain trust, let them, you know, throw out ideas, learn, learn from the people that are around you, take in all the ideas, run it through your own filter. And then, you know, what comes out the other side is going to be, you know, a lot of happy partnerships and a lot of successful partnerships. And, you know, they say pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered. So if, if you're, you're humble and you're willing to, you know, partner with people and you're willing to continue to grow, sometimes it takes a little bit longer than, than you want. But if you just hang in there, and like I said earlier, if you're consistent with it, good things happen.

• 19:46Speaker 00

  If Fire Nation wanted to connect with you, if they wanted to learn more about what you have going on, what would be your call to action? What would be your directive to our listeners today?

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the easiest thing to do is go to puremaintenance.com, the website. You can check out franchise opportunities there, see what markets are available, get in touch with us. We'd love to connect with you. We'd love to connect with people all over the, the country, whether it be in a capacity of, hey, you know, I'm a real estate agent, looking for a solution to this problem, or hey, I'm an entrepreneur that are like most people that are listening to this podcast and, and looking for a great business opportunity with massive margins, that is, is pretty much turnkey at this point, and, and want to see what it's about. We'd love to, to connect with you and learn more.

• 20:31Speaker 00

  Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with BA and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit EOFire.com, type Brandon in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Brandon, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 20:53Speaker 00

  Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Brandon for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire with a high ticket offer but not enough quality leads? If yes, Nexus Install may be your answer. So to learn more, email me, [email protected]. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships, all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30 day free trial, plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.