Building a Business Empire With Brand Stacking

Virtually anyone can start a business, but building an enduring empire requires a well-planned strategy.

If you’ve ever considered starting your own business you’ve likely spent a lot of time doing your Google research and receiving (often unsolicited) advice about the failure rate of new businesses.

According to Clarity Capital, 40% of businesses fail within the first three years, 49.9% within five years, 65.8% within 10 years, 73.3% within 15 years, and nearly 80% within 20 years.

There are, of course, a variety of reasons both within, and outside of the owner’s control that contribute to the downfall of a business. The most common reasons, controlled by the owner, are the lack of sufficient proof of concept, the lack of a business plan, and insufficient startup capital.

Outside of the business owner’s control are reasons such as widespread economic downturns, competition, and evolution of technology rendering the business’s products and/or services obsolete.

With most things in life, business, and finance, diversification is a powerful hedge against failure.

Businesses that not only survive, but thrive and dominate, have men and women at the helm who understand the power of diversification and view business as one might view a chess game, moving the various game pieces in the right way, at the right time, with the ability to see several moves ahead, by both players, until checkmate.

Brand stacking is one such powerful strategy. I’d like to tell you a story about an entrepreneur couple named Thomas and Elizabeth who in their early 40’s made the decision to leave corporate life, take control of their future, and begin creating generational wealth through a portfolio of franchises.

Thomas spent most of his career in the mortgage industry. Elizabeth was a finance major in college, worked as the CFO for a couple of mid-sized companies, but always felt a passion for home design and creating beautiful living spaces. Both of them had experienced times of uncertainty in their careers and longed to have greater control over their future and more time together as a family.

The First Family Business

One day Thomas saw a post on LinkedIn by a franchise brokerage and consulting firm about an outstanding franchise opportunity with a national brand that designs and installs residential and commercial landscape lighting. Working in the mortgage industry he understood the importance of improving a home’s curb appeal and value prior to a sale, but he also knew that new homeowners often invest into making aesthetic changes to their new home and property after the purchase.

Thomas began working with the franchise consultant and learned through his due diligence that franchise owners with this brand saw, on average, between $750,000 and $1 million in annual revenue with strong margins and an all-in investment range between $125,000 and $150,000.

Thomas and Elizabeth agreed that this was an easy “yes” for them so they successfully completed the franchise award process, attended training, and opened their landscape lighting business with Thomas leaving his position to manage the new business full-time.

The Second Family Business

Thomas and Elizabeth had already agreed that their first business wouldn’t be their last and had put a plan in place to reinvest some of the profit from the first business into startup capital for a business that Elizabeth would manage.

About a year later, while sailing across the Caribbean with their franchise consultant and many other franchise owners during the annual Franchise Family Reunion group cruise, they learned about another concept that Elizabeth absolutely fell in love with.

This franchise brand was a property staging company that helps homeowners increase the sale price of their homes through professional staging of the home for showings and open house events. There was even a furniture sales component to the business.

She learned that this concept had a documented history of producing about $650,000 in annual revenue with an investment of only about $165,000.

Since this was another easy “yes” for them, Thomas and Elizabeth opened their property staging business about 60 days after returning from the Franchise Family Reunion Cruise, with Elizabeth leaving her position to run the business, and soon thereafter, actually began helping a couple of the clients from the landscape lighting business prepare their homes for sale.

The Third Family Business

About a year later Thomas and Elizabeth were at the annual conference with the landscape lighting franchise and learned that the same company owned another franchise concept that designs and builds outdoor living spaces such as decks, patios, gazebos, outdoor kitchens, fire pits, and beautiful hardscaping projects.

They were amazed by the financials with this concept, with average annual revenue about $1.8 million and an initial all-in investment of only $130,000.

Thomas thought about all of the homeowners he’d already installed landscape lighting for and began imagining the new outdoor living spaces many of his current clients would love to learn about.

Since they were already members of the brand family with their lighting franchise, becoming the owner of their new outdoor living spaces concept was a breeze and within 30 days they were ready to begin training and preparing for grand opening.

The Big Picture

Five years after opening their very first franchise, Thomas and Elizabeth were now the owners of a portfolio of businesses that were generating a combined $3.2 million in annual revenue*. Their total initial investment for all three businesses was less than $450,000.

Many of their clients every year are the same across the various businesses because all three are complimentary businesses serving the same client avatar, just in different ways.

Today Thomas and Elizabeth are exploring a fourth business, this one for their son Anthony, who loves interior renovation. They’ll soon be awarded their next family business, a kitchen and bath design and renovation business with a history of producing about $1.4 million in annual revenue, and an initial investment of about $350,000.

Franchising is the power play for building a business empire through brand stacking.

Many of the factors we discussed at the top of this article that contribute to the failure of new businesses are significantly mitigated by franchise ownership. The proof of concept is already established. There’s immediate brand recognition. The business plan, systems, processes, and procedures have already been tested, proven, and replicated, and the ongoing corporate and peer support ensures that you are always in business for yourself, but never by yourself.

If you’re ready to begin mapping out your new future as the builder of a business empire, we have a whole team in place and ready to assist you at Quantum Franchise Group.

*The financial results experienced by Thomas and Elizabeth may or may not be the same for other owners of the same franchise concepts. No promise, projection, or guarantee of future earnings should be construed from this article. All revenue information shared in this article is derived from Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document for each brand and represents actual performance for the reporting year of the FDD.

About Quantum Franchise Group

Quantum Franchise Group is a full service franchise brokerage representing over 800 brands across 37 industries. We are a member of the Franchise Brokers Association with certification in FTC compliance. Since March, 2022, Quantum President William Huffhine has helped aspiring business owners to open nearly 100 franchises across the United States.

We serve aspiring business owners, at no cost to them, by guiding them step-by-step through the entire 6-step franchise ownership process.

Our role is not to sell. We're in the relationship business. Our role is to guide our clients toward successful business ownership with great franchise opportunities. All of our brands are carefully evaluated and vetted so our clients can be assured that all of the work we do together will be in their best interest.

*The financial results experienced by Thomas and Elizabeth may or may not be the same for other owners of the same franchise concepts. No promise, projection, or guarantee of future earnings should be construed from this article. All revenue information is derived from Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document for each brand.