She bought a franchise in 6 weeks. Now it is a $ 1 million company. | Entrepreneur

Rochelle Hendricks is moving quickly.

In 2022, a decade after opening her own insurance broker, she decided to try her hand at the facade companies-the purchase of an ideal pit franchise in Ontario, Canada, quickly follow in less than two months. In the next two years she opened three more locations and has now surpassed $ 1 million in annual turnover.

But what is the most important thing for her? It’s not just the numbers. It is the way her company benefits her family. She has transformed her ideal façade cladding franchises into a real family operation, including immediate and extensive relatives. Here she shares how she has built up momentum, how working with family has been a game changer and the advice she has for women who are ready to bet in herself.

You have opened your cladding franchise in just six weeks. Why did you move so quickly?

I was interested in the facade companies because it is visual – people notice how beautiful the house of the curb is. And I briefly looked at buying a company a few years earlier, but it was an individual person and did not come up with a franchise support, so I got away. When I heard of ideal cladding and discovered that they are doing marketing and offering the leads, I was interested. When I saw the head office and how much passion there was for the company, it was an easy decision for me. I moved quickly, because at that moment I already had a strong belief in the brand.

What is the key to scaling your franchises?

It was absolutely not from aggressive sales tactics. It came from building relationships and establishing trust among customers and partners. It happened organically, by surrounding myself with family and friends who share the same passion for growth through quality and relationships as me.

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What is it like to work so closely with your family every day?

I think it’s great. I surrounded myself with my oldest son and other family members. My partner in the Cambridge area is the father of my daughter-in-law. My partner in the Muskoka area is the father-in-law of my niece. I wanted to build something sustainable where we would be known for quality and consistency, and I knew they had the same goal.

How do you manage limits if your company is a family affair?

We respect our personal space. The business community is one thing, personal life is something else. The staff meet at work once a month to tackle problems or difficulties that we encounter and find solutions together. All stakeholders must get away with a win-win situation. That has been the heartbeat and culture in our company and what makes things in balance between that personal and business relationship.

The construction is still a sector dominated by men. Have you had to deal with a pushback like a woman who leads in this space?

When I started for the first time, some people looked at me as if I was playing on this. But it has also worked as an advantage, because I have let customers say that they are happy to deal with a woman. If you have a passion and believe in it, just do it. I had no safety net, I just had that deep belief in doing differently in the construction world – that we ensure that there are norms and protocols in the industry – and that women can be valuable for this industry.

Related: No experience? No problem. How this first franchisee built a $ 3 million company.

Are there any lessons you learned while scaling?

In the beginning I was hard for myself – mentally beating myself because I expected to know everything in the beginning. I now realize that it takes time to learn the company and the best practices.

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