Emerging Franchisors: Pool Scouts

After just its second year in business, Pool Scouts* is entering 2018 as an emerging franchisor to watch in the industry. Founded by Buzz Franchise Brands, the brand is set out to offer premier pool services with a consistent brand experience. The support franchisees receive from its parent company is unmatched in the industry of independent pool cleaning companies in terms of strategic marketing, service training and support. These positive attributes, as well as business management tools, are helping bring on new partners throughout the U.S.

Ending 2016 with nine territories and three franchisees, Pool Scouts grew exponentially ending 2017 with 20 territories sold and nine franchisees on board. With the growth, the brand has a presence in eight states; Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina and New York. Additional milestones in the past year included the hiring of veterans in their respective industries: Timothy Holadia as Director of Franchise Development and Todd Crowe as Director of Operations.

Michael Wagner, President of Pool Scouts, recognizes the importance of franchisee support and explains how the brand is able to provide that to its first set of partners.

“Being a part of Buzz Franchise Brands, we have lived through very fast growth as a company, and we realized the needs to scale accordingly and quickly. Because we’re well-funded, we can make strategic decisions to support franchisees. We’re not waiting on cash thresholds to make those decisions and were thinking strategically to support our franchisees so they’re successful right out of the gate. The people we have now on board with us are early adopters. They have taken a chance on a new business so we have to do an exceptional job at supporting them.”

With a strong corporate team set and ability to provide support and resources to franchisees, Wagner isn’t scared to grow too fast. He mentions they have the bandwidth and experience to handle growth as long as they are bringing on the right candidates. How exactly do they make sure they execute? Pool Scouts 12-step process was carefully created to do just that.

“As the funnel gets more narrow, it gets more intimate. We have been very fortunate with our process. It’s a result of a good solid sales process and a qualifications process where we look at prospects personalities as well as their financial qualifications,” said Wagner.

One of those franchisees is Ray Marinaccio. As a former prosecutor in New York, he may not have been the usual Pool Scouts franchisee. But after deciding he wanted to move to South Carolina and didn’t want to practice law anymore, he started to look into owning a business through franchising. Working with a broker and learning about many different franchises, Pool Scouts caught his eye.

“It fit the model and the industry I was interested in. They were so professional and seemed very involved in your training. They really cared about whether you succeeded or not. The brand was also new enough that I thought I would get personal attention, but no so new that I couldn’t look at their track record,” said Marinaccio. “I can’t imagine the support being any better than what they provide. They have a dozen or so people on their staff and every single one of them is top notch. From marketing to training, it’s been unbelievable.”

Wagner believes there are a number of things that help Pool Scouts stand out from its competitors in the pool servicing industry, but professionalism and focus are at the top of the list.

“It starts with the branding side of the business with PR, providing brand assets and the management and execution of all of the digital marketing. We do all of this with a real focus on professionalism and timeliness, and measuring the ROI for all our franchisees,” said Wagner. “We stay focused by targeting pool owners that fit the right demographics to be our customers. We’re making sure we’re spending our marketing dollar on targeting the right people. For example, we’re focused on the residential side of the business and we know who those folks are.”

With a solid foundation set for the emerging franchisor, Pool Scouts has aggressive goals for 2018 hoping to have at least franchisees within its system with 50 territories sold. Target states for the brand include many warm weather states and those with high numbers of pool owners such as California, Florida, Texas, Arizona and New York.

“Most importantly, our goal is to bring on the right franchisees in our target markets and executing flawlessly with existing franchisees in the system now.”

For anyone looking to sign on with the emerging brand, Marinaccio has some sound advice. “If they are interested in being a franchisee with Pool Scouts, now it would be a fantastic time to do it so you can get the amazing support and individualized attention from their team like I did.”