For Sparkle Squad Founder Chris Stoness, Firsthand Experience Is the Best Teacher for Franchisees

The power of a founder-led franchise is undeniable. With an experienced leader at the helm, a franchise system has access to an incredible amount of knowledge — the type of understanding that can only be gained through firsthand experience — and a unique perspective on the growth of its business and the system as a whole. Sparkle Squad, the emerging window-cleaning franchise backed by Happinest Brands, offers these benefits to its own franchisees thanks to the continued leadership of its founder and CEO, Chris Stoness.

“In a founder-led franchise system, what you hear is real, not hypothetical. The ability to speak from firsthand experience is valuable,” said Stoness. “That’s one of the reasons why we still have a corporate location. We are able to do what our franchisees do, prove out new practices and make sure that our coaching is optimized. The expertise I developed while building the business on my own is important, but I choose to stay involved as a business owner so I can continue to provide that additional context to franchisees, even as the industry evolves.”

Franchisees Want Guidance from Someone Who’s Been There

Stoness explained that, in addition to the practical knowledge a founder can bring to the system, franchisees find great value in the knowledge that they are working with someone who has a similar journey and drive.

“One of the things that founders can bring to a system — and it’s something that I think is often undervalued — is the courage to start something from nothing,” he said. “It’s a certain type of person who puts all of their chips on the line to achieve a dream of vision, and it’s hard to relate to that experience if you’ve never done it. When franchisees buy into a franchise model, they’re taking a huge leap, and there’s value in having a founder in the system — someone who understands the fear, risk and emotion of that big investment.”

Having this background allows founders to better communicate with the system, especially when they’re advising franchisees on the steps they’ll need to take to grow. Because all of their information comes from practical experience, founders can serve as true subject matter experts for owners, and owners can feel more confident knowing that the founder is not just providing guidance based on hypothetical expertise. They’re transferring knowledge based on the very steps they took when growing their own business. 

When Stoness supports Sparkle Squad franchisees, he’s able to tell them exactly what he did to get to where he is, and owners are confident that he’s not offering an untested solution or asking them to do something he wouldn’t do himself. At first glance, this expertise may be overshadowed by the post-secondary education and other accolades that non-founder leaders bring to the table, but ultimately, there is no formal education that teaches a student how to build a seven-figure window-cleaning business.

“In a real-world situation, my experience is the only thing that is going to get a franchisee across the line because I know how to solve the acute problems that come up in the Sparkle Squad business,” said Stoness. “Window cleaning doesn’t seem too complex from the outside looking in, but to scale it to be a massively profitable business isn’t easy. The ability to download that experience to a team and create a written playbook is only something that you have if you’ve done it.”

Experience Is the Best Teacher

In his decade-plus of experience, Stoness has navigated a range of challenges associated with the establishment and growth of a business, as well as other societal circumstances beyond his control.

One of the most meaningful pieces of experience he brings to the system is clear hindsight as it relates to scaling the business, both in terms of profits and the size of the team. Having walked through every stage of growth, from the first window cleaned to the creation of a multi-million-dollar business, Stoness has a clear understanding of what worked and what he could have changed for an even better outcome.

“I know what $599,000 feels like from an operational standpoint — what the org chart should look like, what tools you need and what your customer composition should look like,” he explained. “I don’t have to create a scenario and imagine what it may feel like based on qualitative and quantitative information. I have walked in your shoes, and I can tell you, ‘Here’s the good, bad and ugly of each of these steps that you’re going to take as a business owner.’”

Making the mental shift from customer acquisition to customer and employee retention, for example, can be a difficult step for new business owners. This is one of the challenges Stoness faced as he grew because there was no one there to encourage and reassure him as he took the leap to the next step.

“I hung out in that $1 million top-line revenue range for a couple of years longer than I needed to because I didn’t have the ability to download foresight from someone in a franchise system,” he said. “You have to make a cognitive switch. Hanging onto the model where you haven’t graduated your employees into junior leaders in your business can actually slow your progress.”

Another major hurdle that Stoness overcame as he scaled the business was the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only was he leading a team of people who relied on his business for their livelihood, but he was also navigating a major cultural shift in how people regarded their jobs. Instead of simply embracing the common idea that certain generations just did not want to work, Stoness took the opportunity to evaluate what potential employees might want out of a job and adapt accordingly.

“Rather than resign to the narrative that millennials and Gen Z don’t want jobs, we tried to figure out what millennials want in a position so that we could properly position our job to meet their needs,” explained Stoness. “As a millennial myself, what I want out of work is rules and guidelines. I want to clearly understand what I need to do and what I get. We created a structure around giving people autonomy and making sure they knew the rules of the game. We were — and still are — upfront and clear in a way that had never really been done in the blue-collar workspace before.”

This shift allowed the team to attract great candidates while developing hyper-detailed job postings that could later be distributed to the franchise system to support stronger recruiting efforts.

As the Sparkle Squad system continues to grow, Stoness’ experience remains a valuable asset to the leadership team and franchisees.

“I started this business with a borrowed car and a bucket, and have grown it to a multi-million-dollar concept. That’s surreal almost every time I stop and think about it,” he said. “But that journey and boots-on-the-ground experience give me relevancy with franchisees that shows itself in the minutiae of the business. There are things that you can learn through formal education and adjacent experience, but there are some things you just don’t know unless you’ve been ‘in the trenches.’ I bring the granular knowledge gained through firsthand experience to fill that gap for our franchisees.”

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/sparkle-squad/info.