After years in law enforcement, private security and corporate operations, Jacob Pugh brought a different kind of background to restoration franchising. He entered DRYmedic Restoration Services, an Authority Brands company specializing in water damage, fire damage, mold remediation and other emergency recovery services, with a long track record of managing complex field operations.
“I wanted out of corporate America for all the same reasons everybody does,” Pugh said. “I started looking at franchises to buy and thinking about what I wanted to do. Years before, a friend had talked to me about restoration. It never really panned out, but it was always on my mind.”
The structure of the business felt familiar because it mirrored many of the operational systems he had spent years managing in the security world, where employees regularly worked remotely in the field under decentralized supervision.
“We were dealing with hourly workers. You have a central hub office, but you have all these remote sites where you’re sending employees out every day to work essentially unsupervised, with a foreman or lead person,” Pugh said. “Even though the service they were providing was different, the structure was the same. I felt like it would be a very transferable skill.”
The operational systems felt familiar to Pugh almost immediately, but the actual restoration work took much longer to understand because every job came with different conditions, customers and challenges in the field.
“You can go through all the training and get the certifications, but it’s not until you actually start doing the job that you really start to learn what all is involved,” Pugh said. “Every job is different. The seasonality may be different, the customer is different, their personality is different, and then you start adding employees’ personalities. That’s the part you have to learn to adapt to, and you’re always learning.”
As Pugh worked to develop his business, he had to stay visible in the market while referral relationships slowly started to develop. He quickly realized that restoration required a different kind of customer acquisition than the more visible franchise concepts he had considered.
“You’re not putting a fast-food restaurant on the corner where everybody is going to drive by and see you every day,” Pugh said. “People are experiencing a very hard time in their lives. They’re having a drastic disaster in their house, and we’re all fighting for those jobs.”
The first six months were a slower build, but this ramp up period gave Pugh a clearer sense of how much persistence the model requires before marketing and networking efforts begin creating consistent opportunities.
For Pugh, those first months made it clear that ownership of a restoration business requires more than managing jobs from a distance. New owners have to be out in the market, building referral relationships and staying close enough to the operation to understand where the business is gaining traction and where it still needs work.
“In my early days, I didn’t go anywhere without a business card in my pocket,” Pugh said. “I still don’t go anywhere without a business card, some DRYmedic Restoration Services apparel on, or constantly talking about who I am and what I’m doing. If you’re not somebody who is willing to breathe and sleep it all the time, you’re probably going to struggle, especially in the beginning.”
From the beginning, Pugh viewed expansion as part of his long-term strategy, with the goal of eventually building a stronger presence across the broader market surrounding his original territory.
About a year after opening his initial operation, Pugh began looking at the adjacent territory. As his operation continued to gain momentum, Pugh moved to acquire the neighboring territory and integrate it into his existing business.
The acquisition allowed Pugh to expand his service capacity efficiently, folding additional equipment and resources directly into his growing operation at a time when demand was already increasing.
“It was a simple asset acquisition,” Pugh said. “We were already in a growth phase, and the timing just made sense from an operational standpoint.”
In restoration, growth can put pressure on a business long before the revenue from completed jobs actually arrives. Pugh learned quickly that even strong jobs can create cash flow strain when labor, equipment and other costs are paid upfront while insurance-related payments may take months.
“You can go at least three to six months on a job you’ve done without collecting any money from it,” Pugh said. “Cash flow is the name of the game here.”
That reality shapes how Pugh approaches growth and advises prospective franchisees considering restoration or multi-territory expansion. He encourages operators to prioritize working capital because financial pressure often leads owners to make short-term decisions that hurt the business long term.
“You have to have the cash, minimum,” Pugh said. “You want six months of operating capital because when you start getting cash-strapped, you start making desperate decisions. Those desperate decisions are usually bad decisions.”
Larger expansion plans may require financial planning or outside capital support.
“You have to buy the territory, buy the equipment on top of that and sustain those operations in other locations while you’re waiting on the networking and marketing to happen,” Pugh said.
Pugh’s expansion shows how much of restoration franchising comes down to preparation, persistence and the willingness to stay close to the work. His background helped him understand the business structure, but the growth has come from learning the industry in real time, protecting cash flow and treating each new opportunity with the discipline required to keep scaling.
For more information on franchising with DRYmedic, please visit https://1851franchise.com/drymedic-restoration.
DRYmedic Restoration
SPONSORED
After years in law enforcement, private security and corporate operations, Jacob Pugh entered restoration franchising and quickly expanded into a neighboring DRYmedic territory.
After years in law enforcement, private security and corporate operations, Jacob Pugh brought a different kind of background to restoration franchising. He entered DRYmedic Restoration Services, an Authority Brands company specializing in water damage, fire damage, mold remediation and other emergency recovery services, with a long track record of managing complex field operations.
“I wanted out of corporate America for all the same reasons everybody does,” Pugh said. “I started looking at franchises to buy and thinking about what I wanted to do. Years before, a friend had talked to me about restoration. It never really panned out, but it was always on my mind.”
The structure of the business felt familiar because it mirrored many of the operational systems he had spent years managing in the security world, where employees regularly worked remotely in the field under decentralized supervision.
“We were dealing with hourly workers. You have a central hub office, but you have all these remote sites where you’re sending employees out every day to work essentially unsupervised, with a foreman or lead person,” Pugh said. “Even though the service they were providing was different, the structure was the same. I felt like it would be a very transferable skill.”
The operational systems felt familiar to Pugh almost immediately, but the actual restoration work took much longer to understand because every job came with different conditions, customers and challenges in the field.
“You can go through all the training and get the certifications, but it’s not until you actually start doing the job that you really start to learn what all is involved,” Pugh said. “Every job is different. The seasonality may be different, the customer is different, their personality is different, and then you start adding employees’ personalities. That’s the part you have to learn to adapt to, and you’re always learning.”
As Pugh worked to develop his business, he had to stay visible in the market while referral relationships slowly started to develop. He quickly realized that restoration required a different kind of customer acquisition than the more visible franchise concepts he had considered.
“You’re not putting a fast-food restaurant on the corner where everybody is going to drive by and see you every day,” Pugh said. “People are experiencing a very hard time in their lives. They’re having a drastic disaster in their house, and we’re all fighting for those jobs.”
The first six months were a slower build, but this ramp up period gave Pugh a clearer sense of how much persistence the model requires before marketing and networking efforts begin creating consistent opportunities.
For Pugh, those first months made it clear that ownership of a restoration business requires more than managing jobs from a distance. New owners have to be out in the market, building referral relationships and staying close enough to the operation to understand where the business is gaining traction and where it still needs work.
“In my early days, I didn’t go anywhere without a business card in my pocket,” Pugh said. “I still don’t go anywhere without a business card, some DRYmedic Restoration Services apparel on, or constantly talking about who I am and what I’m doing. If you’re not somebody who is willing to breathe and sleep it all the time, you’re probably going to struggle, especially in the beginning.”
From the beginning, Pugh viewed expansion as part of his long-term strategy, with the goal of eventually building a stronger presence across the broader market surrounding his original territory.
About a year after opening his initial operation, Pugh began looking at the adjacent territory. As his operation continued to gain momentum, Pugh moved to acquire the neighboring territory and integrate it into his existing business.
The acquisition allowed Pugh to expand his service capacity efficiently, folding additional equipment and resources directly into his growing operation at a time when demand was already increasing.
“It was a simple asset acquisition,” Pugh said. “We were already in a growth phase, and the timing just made sense from an operational standpoint.”
In restoration, growth can put pressure on a business long before the revenue from completed jobs actually arrives. Pugh learned quickly that even strong jobs can create cash flow strain when labor, equipment and other costs are paid upfront while insurance-related payments may take months.
“You can go at least three to six months on a job you’ve done without collecting any money from it,” Pugh said. “Cash flow is the name of the game here.”
That reality shapes how Pugh approaches growth and advises prospective franchisees considering restoration or multi-territory expansion. He encourages operators to prioritize working capital because financial pressure often leads owners to make short-term decisions that hurt the business long term.
“You have to have the cash, minimum,” Pugh said. “You want six months of operating capital because when you start getting cash-strapped, you start making desperate decisions. Those desperate decisions are usually bad decisions.”
Larger expansion plans may require financial planning or outside capital support.
“You have to buy the territory, buy the equipment on top of that and sustain those operations in other locations while you’re waiting on the networking and marketing to happen,” Pugh said.
Pugh’s expansion shows how much of restoration franchising comes down to preparation, persistence and the willingness to stay close to the work. His background helped him understand the business structure, but the growth has come from learning the industry in real time, protecting cash flow and treating each new opportunity with the discipline required to keep scaling.
For more information on franchising with DRYmedic, please visit https://1851franchise.com/drymedic-restoration.
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