52: Murder Scenes, Meth Labs, and 27 Franchises with Laura Spaulding

Not happy in your current career? Looking to do something entrepreneurial but don’t know where to start? Well, maybe this is the inspiration you need to build something HUGE! Laura Spaulding is a former police officer who was ready to forge her own future. Using the experience, knowledge, and insight she got working undercover, she decided to start her own business focused on cleaning up crime scenes, meth houses, and a host of other environmental hazards that many of us don’t have the stomach for. Laura walks us through how she decided on her business path, how she financed it, and how she came to realize that the real opportunity was in expanding it through franchising. But it hasn’t all been rainbows and teddy bears—franchising created a whole host of challenges that Laura had to tackle in order to continue to grow and expand her business. And grow her business she's done! Entrepreneur Magazine recently ranked Laura's company as one of the top 10 new franchises, and Spaulding Decon has been at the forefront of the coronavirus cleanup across the U.S. over the past six weeks. If you’ve ever thought about creating your own franchise system from the ground up, this is the episode for you. Laura tells us how it’s done, how NOT to do it, how much to expect to pay, and all the good and bad that come with expanding your business nationwide. If you have a strong stomach, make sure you listen to the end, when Laura tells us some of her favorite crime scene cleanup stories... Check her out, and subscribe to the BiggerPockets Business Podcast so you won’t miss our next show! In This Episode We Cover: How she went from being a beat cop to cleaning crime scenes How she funded and started her business How she drives house to house to get leads How her first hires were stay-at-home moms How she got into franchising The lesson she learned from hiring a consultant Entrepreneur vs. franpreneur Why brand culture matters The common misconception in franchising The biggest reason franchisees fail And SO much more! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Crime Scene Cleaning Youtube Channel Chick-fil-A Check the full show notes here: http://biggerpockets.com/bizshow52 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices