Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on this show we have the president of Bio-One, Ben Kramer. Welcome.

Ben Kramer: Hey Lee. Thank you. It’s good to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about bio one. How you serving folks.

Ben Kramer: Yeah absolutely. So you know bio one’s a it’s a very, uh, very interesting brand. Uh, we we definitely are not uh, I would say your typical, uh, clean up company. Uh, we we’re a franchise system that is truly built around helping people. Uh, and quite honestly, they’re, you know, one of their, if not their most difficult moment. Um, and it’s that interesting model built, um, around a, you know, purpose driven business that combines a really strong business model, which I think just makes us a very unique brand, uh, out, in, out in this space.

Lee Kantor: Now, to be clear, a lot of your work is crime scene cleanup, biohazard decontamination. Like, you’re kind of working it, like you said, probably in someone’s worst day.

Ben Kramer: Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, there’s there’s several markets that we hit, uh, you know, we call it bio bio cleanup. So that’s going to cover crime scenes or, uh, anything similar to that. Um, and then there’s a lot of also, um, hoarding cleanup, uh, that we do in our communities as well. Um, we also do a good portion of our owners do, uh, drug remediation, um, as well. And that’s becoming a big piece of our business.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you take us back to how this the genesis of the business, how to get started?

Ben Kramer: Yeah. Started, um, you know, I’d say almost 15 years ago, individual started actually here where I sit in Denver, Colorado. Um, and it just grew like, like a lot of, uh, organic franchises grow, um, and it grew to, you know, from 2 or 3 offices here in the, you know, front Range of, of of Denver, uh, out to, you know, now we’re at, um, you know, give or take 125, uh, territories with 110 plus owners. Um, we went through a lot of transition transactions, mostly transitions, I’d say mostly, uh, 2022 time frame where instead of being an independently owned franchise, uh bio one was acquired by uh five Star uh franchising, which is a platform brand owned several brands and their private equity backed. So, um, you know, different definitely different, um, feel for some of the owners, uh, initially. But, uh, I think we’re all coming around to the benefits of being part of a platform brand and also having, you know, private equity funding behind us to, uh, put in some bigger tools, you know, larger system wide CRMs and things like that.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it’s first started, was it built to be a franchise or was it just someone said, hey, I can help people in my market by doing this kind of work?

Ben Kramer: Yeah, no, I don’t know the answer to that. Lee. I think it was built initially as I think I can help people. Um, and if you look at our, our our our tagline, our mantra help first, business second, um, I would venture to say it was built around helping people. And then that grew into the concept of how can we help more people? Uh, and like most franchises, you know, putting brick and mortar and scaling a business yourself, uh, nationwide, just it’s just not not a possibility. Right. But franchising makes that possible.

Lee Kantor: Now, what does that ideal franchisee look like? Because it’s such a weird business. Like it’s not a yogurt shop, you know? Yeah.

Ben Kramer: No, definitely not a yogurt shop. Um, you know, there is definitely a piece of this ideal owner that that we have the conversation with about making sure they fully understand, uh, what this job entails day in and day out. And what we do see, a lot of we see a lot of, uh, uh, EMTs, uh, that want to kind of start their own business, uh, first responders, other first responders, police officers, firefighters, um, that have already gone through a lot of the training, uh, that they might need to, uh, be able to deal with this on a day to day basis. Uh, so we do see a lot of that, a lot of military, actually. A lot of, uh, retired military folks also feel pretty comfortable in this space. And quite honestly, we also see just a lot of business folks, um, that, that go down the route of, uh, you know, executive model, so to speak. Um, they see our business model, um, and they say, hey, that looks good. Uh, I don’t necessarily want to do this work every day, but I know I can find a great general manager, I can find a great lead tech, and I can scale and run a profitable business.

Lee Kantor: So then, um, the the kind of the operations and the mathematics of it are attractive to folks who may not be as comfortable, you know, being inside that a crime scene environment there. You can hire folks to do that work.

Ben Kramer: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. We could inside bio one, we call it in the suit. Uh, right. Because we have to put on these Tyvek suits. A lot of times to enter into these different environments. And so we definitely have owner operators that are in the suit, so to speak. Uh, and we definitely have owners that are not in the suit. Um, and, and it does work. You know, it works for both, both types of owners, I would say. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So now when you’re working on, um, it’s a it’s such an unusual concept to be a franchise. And I love it for the because of that, because a lot of people think they know what franchising in is and they think it’s some restaurant or it’s some, you know, kind of food related business. And franchising works in a lot of different industries. And this is a great example of how, um, this isn’t an obvious franchise for folks. And I would imagine that’s, uh, kind of is good and bad, like to attract a person to even be aware that this is a franchise that takes a lot of education. And I would imagine you work with a lot of brokers or folks that are out there recommending this as an option, because, I mean, how many people just think, hey, maybe this will be an area.

Ben Kramer: Maybe I want to go do pricing, right?

Lee Kantor: Like.

Ben Kramer: It’s not, it’s it’s not. And we do we do a lot of outreach, a lot of, uh, work in the broker networks. Um, and it’s interesting your point, Lee, we, uh, ifg recently, uh, bio one took away a broker, um, a broker voted award of. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Um, because of exactly what we’re talking about here, which is, you know, on the surface, it may immediately kind of turn some people off and say, oh, I don’t I don’t know about this. Right. Uh, but when you start opening up, uh, you know, the FTD and looking through the financials and looking through the operating model and the business model and the support, um, you start to see that it’s not quite what you thought it was on the surface.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, and I think it’s the hard part. I don’t know if this is true, but just to be part of someone’s consideration set, you know, takes a lot of education because again, this is not something if somebody’s putting a list together of things where they would work because they just, you know, retired from, you know, IBM, I don’t know where this would be on that list unless someone prompts them.

Ben Kramer: Yeah. And that’s why I would say the majority of, uh, of the interested parties that we get to talking to are coming from broker networks, uh, where they’re able to have those conversations with them about, have you thought about something like this? Let’s look at the let’s look at the, uh, you know, what they’ve got published as kind of the, the model and and how do you feel about it. And and so and that is why you do see, like you asked me at the beginning, traditional or ideal owner type. And even brokers tend to lean in more towards first responders and military, um, and EMTs and nurses, uh, even ex doctors we have in the network. Um, just because there’s not as much of an initial right.

Lee Kantor: They’re not going to be squeamish about this. This is not something, you know, if you just go to some random person, I’m sure the average person’s like, do you want to be around this or do you not want to be around this? And they’d say, no, I don’t want to be around this. Yeah. You know.

Ben Kramer: But I will say, what I will say is having started here at bio one and, um, we have a lot we five star in bio one, you know, there is very proud brands and so everything we have is branded. And uh, I travel quite a bit for this job. And so I’m always wearing bio one logoed gear and I’ve had more people, uh, just random strangers stop and talk to me about it than I ever have of any other logo that’s been on my shirt, so there’s definitely an interest in it. Yeah, I won’t admit it off the top.

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, I think there’s a curiosity. I mean, I think what goes in your favor is that so many people love true crime, things like that, that it’s just a conversation starter just around that.

Ben Kramer: It is. You’re right, you’re right. But but the real I mean, honestly, the part of the reason why I’m at this brand now is, is that that very unique. And I think this is what draws in and what brokers are able to talk to potential owners about is, is what draws in people about this, uh, this ability to combine, uh, a successful, profitable business with a mission driven focus. Um, that that, to me, helps people put the work aside sometimes, um, because it opens up the door to them being able to put those two worlds together, which, which is, which is sometimes, uh, a A challenge. Um, in any work you’re doing?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. When you have a why that’s so compelling. And again, I don’t I’m not I think what you’re doing is important. And I want more people to know about it because it is important. It’s just I don’t think they connect the dots that this could be a franchise for me. You know, in my town, like, they don’t, they don’t even think of the possibility. So the more that we can help you get the word out, I think is important because it should be part of a consideration set of someone who’s thinking about this. Because, like you said, there’s probably in any community, a bunch of people that can go into this environment and do a great job and turn someone’s worst day into something manageable, you know, down the road because they did good work. I mean, I think it’s important work you’re doing. I don’t think there’s any debate about that.

Ben Kramer: Yeah. And the owner group here, uh, we we are just hyper focused on that mission of help first, business second. And quite honestly, I think that’s what distinguishes us from other brands. And that’s what you start to call we’re just not another cleanup company. There’s the owners that come in and maybe I’ll go back to, you know, what an ideal owner, the other ideal owner has to be one that is going to lead with that mantra, with that mindset, uh, that I’m here to service the community, my community, um, and help these folks and I can have a profitable business while I’m doing that.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you kind of train that level of empathy and not look at it as, hey, get out of my way. I got to clean this stuff up, but really kind of empathize with whatever the situation is that the person that called them is going through, because that’s kind of some art and science there, I would bet it is.

Ben Kramer: And quite honestly, I don’t think you can you can’t train it. Um, so really, I think, well, what we do is we look for that, those personality traits while we’re going through the process with prospective owners. And once we as a brand feel like, yeah, they fit, they have this because teaching somebody, you know, to to balance empathy with with also running a successful business is is very challenging to do. It’s one of those things they almost have to bring to the table. Um, but we do coach and teach on why and how it’s important. Um, and what impact that can directly have on your business. And I’ll take that to, uh, Google right now. Right. Google is Google changes their algorithms for, you know, paid advertising and SEO constantly. But more recently they’ve pivoted to this, uh, eat algorithm or eat algorithm, which we, they experience, uh, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. And that’s different for Google. It’s a pretty big shift for Google. Um, but it’s in bio ones favor. Um, because of the way we’ve built this brand from the beginning, uh, which is around this the and I would I’m never going to say it’s a customer. Right. It’s a it’s around the client’s experience. Um, and what we as a brand are bringing to the table so that having that is kind of a necessary requirement. And then we teach them how to how to make that a business advantage, if that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does that, uh, franchisee kind of the boots on the ground in a, in a market, um, go about building the I would imagine referrals are the key for you. Um, because, you know, I don’t I hope they don’t have a lot of repeat customers, you know.

Ben Kramer: Well, it it’s interesting. We we really have a couple paths, a couple verticals to, to pull those revenue streams from. And there are actually, um, uh, recurring revenue, uh, that, that a bio one owner can can get. Um, and it’s not what you would think. It’s not a, it’s not a person’s home that we’re going into or an apartment or something like that. Um, those are no, that’s not a repeat business, but the apartment complex itself, uh, property managers that oversee, uh, multiple complexes, those are referral partners that we build relationships with that do deliver, uh, recurring revenue streams. Um, and because of what our owners are trained in handling every day, there’s some really unique ones out there that that owners have been able to find, uh, you know, partnering with, uh, vet clinics, um, partnering with, um, uh, recently I’ve talked to one that partnered with, uh, trailer, a trucking company, and they their job is to to haul biohazardous waste. And these trucks have to be cleaned. Uh, you know, every month. So again, that’s a recurring revenue stream that they’re partnering with locally, um, in their community.

Lee Kantor: So now is your team at corporate, like you’re trying to figure out the processes and equipment and the things they need to deliver on whatever kind of, um, situation that a franchisee might find in their local community. So, like, once somebody finds the trucking company and it’s like, hey, that’s great. Everybody can use that. Uh, then then you go to work building the process and equipment and the, the systematic way to execute on something like that so that everybody benefits from that kind of learning.

Ben Kramer: You hit the nail on the head. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re leveraging those those um, in this particular case where we were taking, uh, brand fund dollars and we’re applying that to what we’re calling national accounts, national relationships. And we take these that are happening at a local level, and we scale them up and we put the tools and the resources behind that. You know, let’s let’s take a couple examples. Call centers, distribution centers, uh, to be able to say, all right the call comes in dispatch center, be able to take the call, dispatch it to the right owner. Um, make sure the owners, uh, understand what the SLAs are for that national account. Make sure that to your point, you know, do we have and are there any special, uh, equipment that we have to have, uh, for any of these accounts that we can, again, leverage our buying power as a network to get them at a better prices for the owners. These are things that we as the franchisor, um. As a leader, I look at the North Star as what are we doing as a franchisor to help these owners be more successful? And what you just laid out and what I went into a little more detail is exactly that. It’s leveraging the community buy in through brand fund or software, tech fee or SEO fees to to provide a service to these owners that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get if they were independent operators.

Lee Kantor: Right. And you’re just constantly kind of pushing the value up and create more and more value to make it easier for your franchisees to get one more client.

Ben Kramer: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And and not only that, but we you know, we answered the phone and we dispatch it to them, right? So we make it even easier.

Lee Kantor: So that’s part of the offering is that, um, you’re kind of giving them the leads in their local market.

Ben Kramer: Yeah. That’s, that’s the direction we’re moving is we’re giving them leads. I mean, they’ll get leads through the SEO process, which we definitely, you know, that’s a huge piece of of what we’re doing as a brand, uh, is trying to leverage leverage national SEO. Right. The so-called saying of, you know, the rising tide lifts all the boats. Um, get everybody going up with that. Um, so that’s where a lot of the lead delivery is going to come from. You know, we’re looking at actually delivering them the job, right? So let’s walk through a small example that we we’ve been kind of using is locally somebody finds a relationship with a trucking company. Uh, we pass that to our national accounts, which is, you know, funded by the brand Fund national accounts, gets Ahold of them, negotiates a national deal for the whole network. Right. And now those calls. And when we negotiate those calls come into our call center. Um, we we take those calls 24 over seven. And then we’ve trained that call center to even dispatch that call to the particular location that need that would be able to service that job and push it directly into their into our CRM. And so it’s just interesting to look at that like that’s the brand fund working. That’s the tech fee working. Um, that’s all of these, um, monthly fees going to work and paying dividends back to the owners.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Ben Kramer: You know, I think what we need is just to your point earlier, right? We need more exposure and more understanding that franchising, uh, isn’t just, you know, yogurt shops and dog washing places and restaurants, um, that there are there are franchising opportunities out there for folks that that are wildly different from what most people think. Um, and quite honestly, uh, I think provide a, you know, a really strong operating model and profitable business that can couple with this mission driven again. So we just need more exposure. We need more people to know about us.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share, maybe a franchisees success story that you’re most proud or is memorable.

Ben Kramer: Yeah. You know, um, we had a franchisee join the system, uh, last year. Um, you know, let’s call it mid-year. Uh, 24, in the, in the, uh, Maryland area, uh, ex-military and, um, just, you know, really bought into, um, our startup and our ramp up and our onboarding, um, really, even from an early, early stage was just. Yeah, this is what I’ve been looking for. Um, and the revenue growth that he saw was like, nothing I’ve seen in a short ramp up time. Uh, and it allowed him to. Within 12 months of starting, he bought two more locations, um, and funded that through his business, which is just incredible. Um, and to to see that kind of success. And now he has three communities that he’s supporting. Uh, with bio one services is really awesome to see. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So how do you kind of, um, manage the territories? Like what? Because I can’t imagine, like, it can’t be a subway where there’s one on every corner.

Ben Kramer: No, no, no. Definitely not. Um, you know, we manage the territories, uh, right now. You know, it was a it was a difficult topic because early on, um, we talked about how the brand was founded initially. Right. And, um, they my experience in franchising, it wasn’t really set up. Like, I like a traditional franchise. There weren’t dedicated, uh, territories assigned, which makes it a challenging once we’re coming back on this now. But now we’re looking at it through these protected marketing territories or pmts. So every new owner that comes in gets a PMT, and then we base that off of a couple of different numbers. Population is one, demographic is another. And then we can cross that with, you know, public statistics as well, uh, that show us what we believe. The potential in that particular, um, PMT would be for the owner.

Lee Kantor: Now is the I mean, can you educate us a little bit about how it works, like say something terrible happens, like crime related? Is it the like the residence owner’s responsibility to pay for the cleanup on that? Like, how does that work?

Ben Kramer: Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. There are quite a bit of what we call self pays that do happen in this space, but there’s also quite a bit of insurance coverage that happens during this time as well. Um, and that’s an education piece on bio one when we, when we get this and typically we’re going to get that kind of a crime scene. Uh, we’d would typically come through um, either local law enforcement, usually the detectives that would be potentially be involved um, and or um, the medical examiner’s office or coroner’s office, um, also lets families know about our type of services. And so when we come in, it’s our job to educate, uh, that homeowner, if it’s an individual, um, that in many cases, their insurance policy, their homeowner’s policy may cover some or all of this type of service.

Lee Kantor: So our insurance agents also referral source.

Ben Kramer: Not so much the agents. Um, we we go more towards, um, the adjusters themselves. Um, and then also again on a national level, we would approach them nationally for national contract work.

Lee Kantor: Oh, so they say, okay, if this happens in this market, these are our go to or.

Ben Kramer: Yeah, typically with insurance companies you really just get put on a preferred.

Lee Kantor: Preferred vendors list.

Ben Kramer: Because insurance can’t mandate something, right? Right. But we buy one is, you know, a preferred vendor on a few of the carriers. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Ben Kramer: Yeah. Bio-one Bio-one, Inc. Inc.com is the website to go to. And all the information they would need is there.

Lee Kantor: And it’s all together. B I o n e I n c.com.

Ben Kramer: That’s correct.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Good stuff Ben. Well congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Ben Kramer: Yeah, absolutely. I really appreciate you having us on and getting getting by one a little more exposure to to the communities out there.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.