From Tech Leadership to Tiny Homes: Brad Jones Finds New Purpose in Franchising

Brad Jones, with 30 years of experience in sales and tech leadership, found himself considering a new direction. Approached by franchise brokers, he began exploring opportunities beyond corporate life. Despite suggestions for tech or consulting ventures, Brad felt drawn to something different, specifically the home services industry. 

After researching various options, Brad was introduced to Anchored Tiny Homes, a brand that instantly resonated with him. Inspired by the brand’s mission of providing affordable housing and the fact that it was rooted in faith, Brad knew he had found his calling. Anchored Tiny Homes wasn't just a franchise; it was a chance to make a difference in his community.

As he prepares to open for business in Tucson, Arizona, 1851 Franchise spoke to Jones about his journey into franchising and his excitement about Anchored Tiny Homes. 

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Jones: I spent 30 years in sales, leadership and executive management — mostly in the tech space. An opportunity presented itself to me to explore something outside of managing sales people. I wasn't looking for anything like this, it was presented to me. I had two different franchise brokers that had reached out to me, but at the time, I didn't realize I was going to be talking to a franchise broker; I thought it was a different type of job opportunity. They started pitching the concept of owning your own business and having it be a franchise and having some organization that can lead the way, and I started warming up to it. Probably within three or four weeks of that initial conversation, I decided that this is something I would like to pursue. So it just came down to finding the right brand. They would ask me questions to find out what's of interest to me, or what I would like to be selling. There was an assumption that I should go into some consulting type of businesses or the tech space. But I was really determined that I had done enough of that. I'd given 30 years to that and I was looking for something different. I found myself kind of gravitating towards home services. I looked at a few of those brands and got pretty far down the path on a few of them before I had even heard of Anchored Tiny Homes. But once I did, that was the last presentation that I saw. I didn't need to see anymore. After I saw Anchored Tiny Homes, it was a done deal. 

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Jones: I would almost say I didn't have a perception. I thought of the movie “The Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock and how, in that movie, their family owned a bunch of Taco Bell franchises and that the family seemed very well off. I also just associated franchises with athletes, like Shaquille O'Neal and Magic Johnson. I only knew one person who bought a Budget Blinds franchise over 20 years ago, and he was doing the selling and installations himself, and I thought that would be a lot for me. I have some skills but I don't think I would be as good at that as I probably needed to be. I know now that a lot of those companies have their own installers and, even with Anchored Tiny Homes, I'm not building the house. But overall, it was just something foreign to me and felt out of my reach. 

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Jones: When I was in college, I did some construction in the summers. At the end of every day, you saw what you accomplished. That was a cool thing for me. And a lot of times in the corporate world, you can go days — and sometimes weeks — and not feel like you've made any impact whatsoever. But in this space, you do. The financials were also impressive to me. When you compare them against all of the other franchises that I looked at, the revenues were significantly higher than the rest, even with new owners.

But when I actually started watching the brand’s videos, I heard Austin [Paulhus] say that the name Anchored Tiny Homes came from “anchored in Christ.” And I said, “Okay, I'm done.” That was the sign I was looking for. I just felt that I was being led to do it. It was also the story of who Anchored Tiny Homes is helping. It’s seniors who don’t have places to live or can't afford where they're living. It’s young adults who have maybe graduated college but can't afford to get a house yet and won’t ever get ahead if they rent. And then certainly there’s the opportunity for rental income, and helping families build additional wealth or even helping cover the cost of their current mortgage. Those were all important to me. 

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth? 

Jones: I think Tucson is such an amazing opportunity. You know, in 2022, Arizona was ranked last in the country as having affordable housing available. So certainly, from that perspective, you can see that there's an opportunity. Tucson made some changes in terms of the regulations to allow casitas, and Pima County followed suit. And so it opened up the opportunity to build these homes when they hadn't been able to be built in the past. The City of Tucson is really doing a good job of promoting ADUs and having this be a solution to the affordable housing crisis in Southern Arizona, so I think there's a huge opportunity there.

And secondly, Tucson is a pretty cool destination. You have golf, the sun — you have Mount Lemmon and you could actually go skiing if you wanted to in February — all within 45 minutes. It's a beautiful climate for most of the year. I think there is an opportunity for rentals and even short-term rentals. I think that with the marketing engine that Anchored Tiny Homes is going to provide, we're going to have a slew of opportunities in conversations with clients who want to build one of these for themselves or for rental property usage. So I think that we're going to scale up very, very quickly. We're going to need to hire a couple more salespeople within the first six to 12 months. Eventually, I will have to bring on a construction manager to manage all the projects. I have three territories that make up Tucson. So, I just don't see how we're not going to be selling three to five of these per month, once we get up and running. 

1851: What is the one thing about your story you want us to know?

Jones: First of all, I love Tucson. I went to the University of Arizona, and I worked there for a little while after I got out of school. But I’ve traveled for the last 20 years, moving from place to place and followed career paths with the intent of eventually retiring in Arizona. And I figured that was probably going to be another 10 years from now. But now, I get to retire almost early, because I get to do something that I think is going to be awesome for the community. I’ll be working for an organization that’s based on a foundation of faith in Christ and that has potential to impact and affect the affordable housing crisis that does exist across the country, and most certainly in the state of Arizona. 

I have an 18-year-old daughter who's going to start going to the University of Arizona this fall; I have a 16 year old son. I just look at them and say, “Hey, this could be something that they get involved with in the next four or five or six years.” It would be awesome to really grow this. My brother lives in Tucson — his family lives there — and to whatever extent we can build this and provide opportunities for them to potentially join, hop on the ride, I think would be awesome. It’s great to be able to do something like this and be able to know that you're helping your fellow man in the process. 

1851: What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming a franchise owner?

Jones: I think the first thing I would say is “clear the mechanism”; forget whatever you think that the franchise space is about, start with a clean slate and you go in with a very open mind. It's important to speak to owners and really have an understanding of what is the good, the bad, the ugly. Take opportunities to ask any question you want to the corporate leadership and then the franchisees themselves. 

There’s a level of freedom with franchising. Moving into something like this from what I've done for the last 30 years has felt like a complete weight lifted off my shoulders. You may be out of your comfort zone when you move into something like this. But you will feel this is where you were intended to “get” comfortable. 

ABOUT ANCHORED TINY HOMES

Anchored Tiny Homes (ATH) is on a mission to solve the housing crisis in the United States. Created by the Paulhus family, who hold over 40 years of combined construction experience, ATH is the only accessory dwelling unit (ADU) franchise on the market. 

With hundreds of completed and active projects in multiple states and growing daily, the ATH business model makes it easy for anyone to join this surging industry without a construction background and generate some of the best numbers shown in franchising!