After a Long Career in Facilities and Maintenance, Jerry Powell Pursued Entrepreneurship with Men In Kilts

For Jerry Powell, Men In Kilts, the nearly-50 unit exterior cleaning franchise backed by Threshold Brands, just made sense when he decided to pursue entrepreneurship. After 10 years in the Navy and over a decade working in maintenance, facilities and operations, Powell decided it was time to take the leap.

“My wife and I started talking about it last year, and we felt like if we were going to open a business, now is the time,” Powell explained. “I did a lot of soul searching trying to decide if I wanted to go out and open a business on my own or look at franchising, and ultimately I decided to go into franchising. No business is safe when you open it, but a franchise is a little bit more established and you get more support, so it’s a little bit safer of a way to open a business.”

After he decided to go the franchising route, Powell was tasked with choosing his concept. As someone who has always been interested in a wide range of things, this was quite the task. He started out with a list of 700 franchise concepts.

As he narrowed it down, the pool reached the 500 mark, then 250, then 100. When Powell finally came to his final two, the decision was between Men In Kilts and a pet waste cleanup concept.

“I started to do some market analysis in the Colorado Springs area, and there is a lot more competition in the dog industry than there is in the exterior home cleaning industry,” he said. “On top of that, I was just thrilled by the fact that they wore kilts because that is marketing genius. You can’t see a man or woman up on a ladder, wearing a kilt, and not wonder what in the world is going on.”

Powell also looked into the demographics of his area and found a high concentration of retirement-aged folks who will need help with strenuous labor, as well as younger generations whose busy lives and schedules don’t afford them the time to be heavily involved in exterior cleaning tasks. With all of these factors in mind, he decided to sign for two territories. The first of the two is set to open in early April.

“The experience has been very, very nice. The team is very professional,” he said. “It’s also interesting because some of the franchise teams that I’ve worked with, they literally tell you exactly how you’re going to do everything. At Men In Kilts, the team says, ‘Hey, this needs to be done, but we’re giving you creative freedom to figure out what the right answer is for you.’”

The structure of Men In Kilts, which provides franchise owners with the skeleton of the business while allowing them to function as true business owners rather than just employees of the corporate team, has been perfect, he says. By allowing him the freedom to strategize and take ownership with confidence that the corporate team and other franchise owners will be available for support has fulfilled his long standing dreams of entrepreneurship in a way that is both safe and enjoyable.

“I love the fact that it gives a little bit of structure and I get to put all of the pretty layers on the outside of the business. I really get to turn it into what I want it to be,” he said. “That’s a big deal for me. That was something that I really looked for when I was evaluating franchise systems.”

Moving forward, Powell says he is excited to get both of his territories open, fully operational and very successful. After growing to become a well-known name in the community, he hopes to leverage Men In Kilts Colorado Springs and his position as a local business owner to provide employment opportunities for other members of the community, sponsor little league teams, have a presence at high school football games and truly weave himself in with the community on all levels.

The total investment required to begin the operation of a Men In Kilts franchised business ranges from $157,290 to $191,950. This includes $38,000 that must be paid to the franchisor. For more information about Men In Kilts, visit https://meninkiltsfranchising.com/.