Top Franchise Development Executives of 2024: Matt Cook, Director of Business Development, HomeTeam Inspection Service

Matt Cook, director of business development at HomeTeam Inspection Service, found his way to franchising after time in the Marine Corps, manufacturing and sales. Taking the leap to sales roles opened up the horizon for him to better support his family financially, but shifting over to the family business, HomeTeam, is what brought everything together.

Since getting into the business as an opportunity to support his own family, Cook has come to lead development efforts at HomeTeam, working to provide entrepreneurs with similar opportunities to control their destinies and build something for their own families.

1851 Franchise spoke with Cook to learn more about his story, as well as to learn about some common mistakes he sees franchisors making in today’s industry.

A transcript of Cook’s interview with 1851 has been provided below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity and style.

1851 Franchise: Tell us about your brand.

Matt Cook: HomeTeam has been franchising for over 30 years and provides the highest quality customer experience and customer service in the home inspection industry. We use a team approach on every inspection which allows us to do inspections in 90 minutes or less, on average, allowing our teams to do multiple inspections per day. Our model is centered around our owners building something bigger than themselves.

1851: How did you get into franchising? 

Cook: HomeTeam is a family company. My father-in-law started HomeTeam, and I was in sales in the printing and advertising industry when one of the employees reached out to me about a sales role. 

I had a conversation with my father-in-law, very similar to the ones we have with our owners. That helped me to change my mindset from being an employee to making a good living and providing wealth for my family. He helped me realize that every hour I spend away from my family is me investing in my future and salary, and the best return on investment for the time is to build value and equity for the next generation. Even if I were to make less in my first job at HomeTeam, the impact that I have on my children and grandchildren will be greater when I’m working for a family company like ours, working a job that helps someone else build their dream.

1851: Did you always intend to work in sales and business development?

Cook: No. I was in the Marine Corps straight out of high school. I worked in special operations, communications, truck driving, people and motor transport — all kinds of things. When I got out of the military, I realized that the U.S. government doesn’t necessarily set you up for success like they say they want to. That’s one of the reasons I’m so passionate about helping veterans in entrepreneurship.

I quickly realized that I was just another person. I was making $12/hour in manufacturing for a one-income household with two babies. It was then that I realized that if I got into sales of any kind, the harder I worked, the more money I would make. I knew I could work hard, so I got into sales in the printing industry. I spent three or four years doing that before I came to HomeTeam.

1851: Are there any keys to consistent franchise growth? 

Cook: We are quite unique in the franchising space. Franchising itself is not our business. If you ask executives in our space what they do, many would tell you that they own a home inspection franchise company. We say that our family owns and runs one of the premier home inspection companies in the country.

When we’re looking at selling franchises, or at growth overall, the words that come to mind are “consistency” and “stability.” Our model really does work, so having good validation and happy owners, and making sure that a prospective franchise owner is a good person and someone who we want to be a part of our brand and family, is most important. You can teach anybody anything, but you can’t teach someone how to be a good person.

Internally, every single person in our office wakes up every day with the mentality of growing our owners, whether that’s mentally, spiritually, economically — whatever we can do to benefit them — while at the same time searching for that next thing that’s going to help our owners grow their business, whether that’s a new marketing tool, better partnerships or new technology.

1851: What are the biggest hurdles to successful franchise growth right now? 

Cook: For us, the real estate economy is now what it was six years ago. Nobody’s talking about it, but this is the worst real estate economy this country has seen in decades. The hardest thing for our owners right now is fear. That’s the biggest hurdle for our owners, and really any owner looking to start a business in an uncertain economy.

I like to talk about limiting beliefs. There may be some validity to the shred of evidence that helps you create your opinion on XYZ, but the reality is, HomeTeam has 1.5% market share. We could double the business and still only have 3% of the market. The opportunity available to our owners is not the concern; the limiting beliefs are.

1851: Are there any common mistakes you see franchisors making when trying to grow? 

Cook: Yes. They’ll sell to anyone who can fog a mirror. One of the biggest challenges I see with franchising is that it’s an incredibly lucrative model. The only profit that our home office makes is our 6% royalty, and even that is a tiered structure. It decreases as someone’s revenue grows, all the way down to 4%, because we’d rather have an owner investing in their business than paying us.

But franchising is so lucrative, and a lot of brands are only focused on the quantity of franchises they’re selling. The biggest mistake someone can make is to set a goal for how many franchises they want to bring on board based on economics. The best thing to do is figure out how many franchise owners you can support with wholehearted effort. 

The biggest problem is growing with too many people too fast. Franchisors want to grow and make a ton of money, but they don’t realize how many families are affected by their dreams.

1851: What is your number one goal at the moment?

Cook: I’ve talked about fear. My biggest goal at the moment with both our staff and our franchise owners is to help people realize that what matters is the way they react. Whether it’s the economy, a natural disaster or something else, you’re in control of how you react. A lot of people get very emotional very quickly, and when you can take hold of that and not let fear control your decision-making, that helps you grow your business. My goal is to help our owners get mentally tougher so they feel even more control over the success they’ll have.

Every great franchisee had help buying a franchise. Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisees find the right franchise opportunity? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and start your journey.