"There’s something to be said about standardization when you have a franchise organization. You get economy of scale, better support with a lean team, and price advantages you couldn’t get individually. But you also can’t dictate everything, you have to make it the obvious choice by showing value, not just mandating it. It’s all about finding the right balance, so you scale without losing your brand’s personality."

"AI does not replace people; it repurposes people. It removes the mundane and transactional, letting employees focus on strategy, the customer, and development. The efficiencies add up, maybe you free up 10% per person, and with a big enough team that’s a headcount, but most often you’re just shifting talent to where you need it most. AI isn’t a magic bullet for cutting costs overnight."

"A lot of our pain was in call centers and front desk bottlenecks. Think of daycare drop-off at Camp Bow Wow, 40 dogs coming in, and phones ringing. The phone’s not most important then, and customers expect instant digital service now like Uber or Amazon. AI helps manage overflow, answer FAQs, and smooth that experience, especially during peak times. It’s about matching today’s expectation economy."

"Always use a paid AI service. With the free versions, whatever you submit can go into the public domain - names, account numbers, anything. Paid versions keep it private and won’t sell your info. Second, always keep your systems patched. Hackers use AI to scan for vulnerabilities constantly, and those updates you skip are exactly how you get breached."

 "Franchisor gets one vote. Franchisee gets one vote. But the customer gets three votes. Build software that actually helps your customer, not just because it’s cool. Talk to your customers. Make the path to purchase frictionless. Over-complicating things because it looks fancy hurts you make it easy for people to buy from you."

"Only buy what fits your current need and budget. You can buy bigger software later as you grow. Scale your technology with your revenue and P&L—not ahead of it. Tech should either make you more efficient or add to your top line. Otherwise, it’s just dead weight in your income statement."

"Whether it’s Salesforce, Blaze, or even Google’s new tools, a CRM gives you the end-to-end customer picture- from the first website click to transactions. Layer in AI for predictive analytics, and you can cultivate your core base, personalize offers based on real habits, and maximize revenue by getting one more transaction per customer without paying for more acquisition. That’s massive for any service business."