Adam Povlitz: Grow Without Becoming the Bottleneck

The short version

Growth becomes difficult when every customer issue, operational decision, and new idea requires the CEO’s attention. In this episode of The 1000-Day CEO, Bill Canady speaks with Adam Povlitz of Anago Cleaning Systems about building systems that allow businesses to grow without depending on one person to solve every problem. They discuss the challenges of maintaining service quality, retaining customers, and creating clear responsibilities across a growing franchise organization.

Adam explains why strong performance numbers do not always tell the complete story. Dashboards can show positive results while customers or teams experience inconsistent service and communication. The conversation explores the importance of customer feedback, personal contact, and faster service recovery. Adam also discusses Anago’s three-tier franchise structure, how the company balances new sales with customer retention, and why competing only on the lowest price can create problems for long-term growth.

The episode also focuses on delegation and leadership. Adam shares how clear messaging, defined responsibilities, and practical systems help teams make decisions without constantly involving the CEO. Bill and Adam discuss using pilots and evidence to influence independent franchise owners, protecting leadership time for sales and growth, and evaluating progress at days 30, 100, and 1,000. The central lesson is simple: businesses grow more effectively when leaders build systems that empower people, maintain accountability, and reduce unnecessary dependence on the CEO.

Four key takeaways

1. Look beyond dashboards to understand service quality

Dashboards help leaders monitor performance, but numbers alone may not reveal the full customer experience.

Adam discusses how positive reports can hide inconsistent guidance, service problems, or communication gaps. A business may appear to be performing well while customers are becoming frustrated.

This is why leaders need to combine operational data with customer sentiment and direct human contact.

Customer feedback can reveal issues that traditional reports may miss. Regular communication also helps businesses understand whether customers are receiving the service they expect.

For CEOs, the goal is not to stop using dashboards. It is to make sure the numbers are supported by real customer experiences.

2. Balance new customer acquisition with retention

Winning new customers is important, but sustainable growth also depends on keeping existing customers satisfied.

Adam discusses the need to balance sales activity with consistent service delivery. When companies focus only on new business, they may overlook problems affecting current customers.

The episode also explores how proposal activity can help identify issues in the sales pipeline.

Another important lesson is to avoid competing only on price. Customers may value reliability, communication, responsiveness, and service quality alongside cost.

Businesses that clearly communicate their value can compete on more than being the cheapest provider.

A stronger growth strategy connects marketing, sales, service delivery, and customer retention.

3. Build systems for faster service recovery

Customer complaints are unavoidable in service businesses, but the way a company responds can make a major difference.

Adam discusses CleanCom, Anago’s approach to improving complaint handling and using information to identify potential service problems.

Faster communication helps teams respond before issues become larger problems.

The discussion also highlights the value of preventive analytics. Rather than waiting for repeated complaints, businesses can look for patterns that indicate where service improvements may be needed.

Clear processes help employees understand who is responsible, when to act, and when an issue requires escalation.

For growing companies, effective service recovery should become part of the operating system rather than depend on the CEO’s personal involvement.

4. Delegate decisions so the CEO can focus on growth

A business cannot scale effectively when every decision must go through its CEO.

Adam and Bill discuss the importance of setting clear rules for delegation and helping teams understand the company’s priorities.

Adam describes using messaging pillars and prioritization to guide decisions. These provide a shared framework so employees can act consistently without seeking approval for every situation.

The conversation also explores how independent franchise owners can be influenced through pilots, evidence, and demonstrated results rather than relying only on authority.

Delegation does not mean removing accountability. It means establishing expectations, assigning responsibility, and giving people the information they need to make good decisions.

When recurring operational decisions are handled by the right people, CEOs can protect more time for sales, strategy, customer relationships, and long-term growth.

Featured insight

A business becomes easier to scale when teams can solve recurring problems without waiting for the CEO.

Clear responsibilities, useful performance information, and reliable systems allow leaders to focus on growing the company rather than managing every daily issue.

How to Grow Without Becoming the Bottleneck

As businesses expand, the number of customers, employees, locations, and operational decisions increases.

Without clear systems, those responsibilities can gradually become concentrated around the CEO.

This creates delays, limits employee independence, and reduces the time leadership can spend on growth.

A more scalable approach begins with defining responsibilities and creating consistent processes for common situations.

Teams should understand which decisions they can make independently, which issues require escalation, and how success will be measured.

Customer experience must also remain a priority. Operational reports should be supported by feedback, communication, and timely responses when problems occur.

For franchise organizations, these challenges can be more complex because independent owners need both flexibility and consistent standards.

Testing improvements through pilot programs and sharing measurable results can help build support for better practices.

The first 30, 100, and 1,000 days provide useful checkpoints for reviewing progress, improving systems, and ensuring that leadership responsibilities continue to support the company’s goals.

Ultimately, the CEO’s job is not to personally solve every problem. It is to build an organization capable of delivering results consistently.

Episode chapters

• 00:00 — The growth challenge: winning customers and delivering consistently
• 01:04 — Spotting inconsistent guidance behind reassuring numbers
• 03:52 — Why dashboards need customer sentiment and human contact
• 05:29 — How Anago’s three franchise tiers divide responsibility
• 09:14 — Balancing new sales with customer retention
• 11:08 — Using proposal activity to diagnose a sales pipeline
• 12:09 — Why Anago avoids price-led marketing
• 14:13 — CleanCom: faster complaints and preventive analytics
• 18:55 — Delegating with messaging pillars and prioritizing ideas
• 24:22 — Influencing independent owners through pilots and proof
• 29:29 — Why leaders must protect time for sales and growth
• 30:46 — What should change by day 30, 100, and 1,000

Connect with Adam Povlitz

• Anago Cleaning Systems
• Adam Povlitz on LinkedIn

Full transcript and captions

Bill Canady: Welcome everyone to the 1000 Day CEO. I'm Bill Canady. This is where we get inside the decisions that build enterprise value. Today I'm joined by Adam Povlitz, CEO and president of Anago Cleaning Systems. Adam came from IBM, joined Anago in 2009, and has led the company as CEO since 2018. We're talking about challenges every growing business has faced. How do you win more customers and deliver consistently? wherein you can't personally oversee everything. We'll get into the operating decisions behind Anago's franchise model and the role of technology and what another CEO can put to work. Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam Povlitz: Hey Bill, thank you for having me.

Bill Canady: I thought we would jump right in and start with you had written about a territory where the numbers look fine, but franchisees were getting inconsistent guidance. What first told you something was wrong?

Adam Povlitz: Well, I think, it it's something where it's it starts out as a little bit of a gut feeling. I think we've all had those where, the numbers, if you just look at the simple reports, the numbers look fine. but the but the trend lines are not consistent, right? It looks more like a little bit of a zigzag and you're going, Well, what's going on here? Why is this you know, it seems like they have it all together, but let me let me look into it a little bit deeper. and then you find out that, you know, what what's happening is you have different people that you start getting into when you have field reps talk to them. You go, Well, this guy told me this and that guy told me this, and I'm not sure how to operate. So I just make my own decision on what I feel is the best thing to do. and so you go, Well, wait a minute, how do we standardize this? and and make it in such a way where, you know, no matter who is giving the advice, they're they're singing from the same sheet of music.

Bill Canady: It's really important. I know both you and I are big users of AI and technology adopters. And did you f were you able do you use any tools today looking at that or do you you still go with your gut feels?

Adam Povlitz: So we have everything everything now, we try to use as much of our our ERP platform as as humanly possible, right? The I say if it's not in the CRM or the ERP, it doesn't exist. you know, everything has to be data backed in order for it to be really analyzed. Sometimes, like, you know, I've been doing this now for seventeen years at Anago. So sometimes I'm able to just kind of go like, something doesn't feel right here. but we don't want it to be, you know, we don't obviously don't want to To be a franchise system that's relying on one person's gut. and so you know, everything is everything is set up where at the unit franchise level, right? We we have inspections and performance evaluations to ensure that the service quality is good. And so that way you get the not only the customer's opinion, but also the the regional territory owner's opinion. So you can say, hey, maybe there's something that that we see that the customer doesn't see, for example. And we can take care of it before the customer even notices. Or maybe there's something that we don't think's a big deal, but it's a big deal in the customer's mind, and better to find out about that early rather than going like, everything's fine and turning a blind eye to it as an example. and that and that you mean that's just one of you know a hundred different examples, but ever every KPI has a and what happens if from here to here breaks down. What are my two, three, four questions that that we go in and ask and and say, okay, how is this looking? How's that looking? Whether it be for sales or operations, customer service, everything, everything's gotta be data oriented, otherwise it is. It's just relying on someone's gut.

Bill Canady: What do you find the typically the dashboards miss?

Adam Povlitz: Sentiment. I think dashboards are great at catching, you know, numbers and trends. but I think what obviously dashboards are are not meant to do is capture sentiment. And so by that I mean at the franchise level, you know, is this franchisee someone who when they get advice are gonna buy into the advice or they're gonna push back on the advice? And that's something where you have to really just gauge the recommend, the the your your gut feeling, the relationship, the the regular keeping in touch and call cadence to make sure you know where their head is at. and then same thing with the customer, right? we're we're I think that the the the dual view on on the service quality assessments are are help overcome that to some degree. you know, I remember early in my career. I had a lady chew my ear off because there was a paper clip in a corner somewhere for two weeks and she said, Well, your cleaners aren't coming in and doing anything. And the place you could eat off the floors in this place, Bill. And the and you go, What? Like what are you talking about? And you find out that, that paper clip, I s in that example, was something that, you know, she saw every day. She walked by it every day and she goes, What the heck are these guys doing? And so you you don't have that with the data. And that's why it while while I think AI is extremely powerful and and valuable, it still goes, this is still a relationship business. and and we can use AI to to get to the data faster, but at the end of the day, you know, you're you're gonna you're gonna gain new accounts and and keep the ones you have through through the relationship.

Bill Canady: For someone new to Anago, how does responsibility divide between corporate, the mattr the master franchise owner, and the unit franchise owner?

Adam Povlitz: So to answer that, I have to give you a little bit of an overview of my business model because I I would imagine well probably most of your listeners are familiar with franchising. Most most most people who are familiar with franchising are not familiar with a three-tier franchise model. most franchises are two tiers, right? So you have like, you know, McDonald's, the corporate office, and then the people who own the restaurants. Ours is three tier. So I lead the corporate office. We sell what's called a master or regional franchise, which is think of you know, your major metro areas, Atlanta, Dallas, you know, LA, New York, whatever. and then within their metro, they they are selling what's called a unit or janitorial franchise and supporting it. Now the easiest way to think about how the model actually works is flip it upside down, right? So Who does the cleaning, right? Most people envision when they hear Anago cleaning systems, they picture a guy with a mop in a bucket or a vacuum or whatever it may be. that would be your unit franchisee and his his or her team of employees, and their job is to you know learn the chemicals and equipment, keep the buildings clean, deal with any kind of you know training at that level in terms of building cleaning. but what they don't need to do, at least in our model. Is they don't have to go, you most people say, Well, where did he get those accounts? Where did how much money is he spending on advertising? And our model, he doesn't have to do that. So what our model does is our model says, Well, wait a minute. if if you know, cleaning is not rocket science, right? There's best practices, there's better equipment and chemicals. but the hard part of the cleaning business is the business side, right? It's okay, I have to acquire new customers, which means I need a website. I need salespeople. I need a sales process. I need a CRM. and now that I've acquired those customers, well, I need to make sure I'm keeping them happy and I need to make sure that I'm, you know, the bills get sent out on time, the money gets collected, my cash flow is good. And so what our model does is we said, okay, the unit franchise can just focus on being the operator of a cleaning business. Just focus on keeping your staff trained. keeping the buildings clean, where the master franchise is like the white collar of the blue collar industry. So their whole role is they don't do any cleaning at the master franchise level. All they do is the sales administration and back office of the cleaning business on behalf of numerous janitorial franchisees in their territory. And then my job at Ed Corporate is high level strategy, overall marketing plan. any kind of the collateral, any kind of IT, CRM, ERP platforms, where are we going, to and what are we dealing with with any regulatory changes? And so it's it's very much like, I I'm I'm strategy and direction and vision. The master franchise is sales, marketing, and administration. And then your janitorial franchise is going to be like operations and customer service.

Bill Canady: Who who wins the customer?

Adam Povlitz: The typically the master franchise and their sales team.

Bill Canady: You go on do that. What an interesting model on that. So the local for the third level, or maybe it's the first, but delivers a service. Second level really finds the business, wins it, gets it in off of it. That's right. If the

Adam Povlitz: Yeah, exactly.

Bill Canady: customer's unhappy, who goes and fixes it?

Adam Povlitz: the the unit level franchise, the person that's cleaning the building.

Bill Canady: The person that cleans the building off of that. What's the which few activities make the biggest difference to profitable growth in a territory?

Adam Povlitz: one, it it's the old Glengarry Glen Ross, right? A B C always be closing, right? It's it's

Bill Canady: A B C. First is a Cadillac, next is a set of steak knives.

Adam Povlitz: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think at the end of the day, this is while on one hand, you know, you don't want to be selling customers and losing everything you're selling out the back end. the it it's very easy in this business to get sucked into the customer service piece rather than making sure that you've you've you know you're you've trained those janitorial franchisees how to handle issues, how to handle things when s when something does go awry. and so from a master franchise standpoint, the the KPI is is new new sold accounts, right? It's we need to continue focusing on growing, not because and not because we don't like the existing customers, but because there's a there is a life cycle. you know, the you know, cancellations occur in this industry. on a I would say, you know, it higher than higher than you would change your phone provider, maybe, but you know, where Anago is probably at maybe fifty percent of the attrition of the industry. So we're doing we're doing significantly better in retaining the accounts. But also, if you're a customer and every three years you go out to bid, you know, unless you have an ex you know, an absolutely stellar relationship with your cleaner and the and the local regional owners, you know, there's no love lost in them going like, well, found a cheaper price. and so that happens and and so, you know, it's always incumbent upon the master franchise to be selling more business while you know relying heavily on their unit franchisees to support it and make sure that those customers are satisfied and that we're not losing, you know, losing what we're picking back up. And then obviously the unit franchise is happy when he 'cause his business is growing every time the master franchisee finds a new you know, a new account in his neck of the woods that he can assign over to him and say, Hey, hey, congratulations, your business just grew by, you know, a couple thousand dollars this month. You know, great, let's go.

Bill Canady: Absolutely. What one or two numbers tell you where their team is focused?

Adam Povlitz: so probably the most important number that we focus on that is we we would just call it bids. So it's essentially like, you know, paper on the street. How much new, how many new clients have you given a proposal to in the last, you know, three months, six months, thirty days, whatever it may be? and and at you know, simple rule of thumb, right? There's 22 business days roughly in a month. Are you putting out are you putting out less than one a day? There's my instant red flag, right? It doesn't take that long to meet with a customer, draft a draft a proposal, maybe, maybe all in a few hours, right, to do it. And so you go, okay, if you're not doing one a day, I know something's something's not quite right. And I can easily jump in and go, okay, is it because you don't have enough appointments to to meet with them? Are you not prospecting to to generate your own appointments? Are you getting there and and you know, turning down the business before you even give them a quote? What's going on? It allows me to really dive in on that particular

Bill Canady: What separates marketing that generates leads from marketing that wins customers worth keeping?

Adam Povlitz: That good one. I think anytime we focus on price, you're going to get what you paid for. if we advertise anything about how we price things in terms of, you know, affordability or or anything like that, you get customers that their only focus is who's the cheapest. And if you do that long enough, then you have a lot of customers that all they care about is not you and the relationship. It's all they care about is who's the cheapest. then you end up losing them pretty pretty rapidly. So we we never focus on price. I'm not going to be the cheapest. my, you know, my kind of claim to fame is if you never want to have to change service providers again, you know, come to Anago. If you're looking for the, you know, quick, the quick, quick and cheap one, we're not gonna be the fit for you. If you're looking to not have you know to have this taken off your plate and something that you don't have to worry about where You come in every day and you don't have to think about cleaning at all. You just go, Well, it's another Monday or Tuesday and I gotta get to work then, maybe we would be the the right fit for you.

Bill Canady: have you had to reprice or walk away from work?

Adam Povlitz: yeah, of course. I think it it it's embarrassing when you have to when you have to reprice. We've had it, where maybe a newer sales rep gets in and misses an area or or prices it a little too aggressively to try to win it. and and and you know it's learning it's a learning curve that you know new markets, when a new market opens, maybe they're pricing it based on what they're finding in terms of the the hourly rates, and then you find out that that's you know not what the you know the the wages are in that particular particular locale and so it it happens. It doesn't happen very often. but I in my mind better to go back to the customer and say, listen, we you know we we screwed this up. We need to, you know, here is here is what we missed. Here is why we you know what we're going to do in terms of making this right. But I you know I would rather walk away and say, hey, let's just part as friends rather than trying to, you know, do the do the cheap service and and leave on leave you with being unhappy.

Bill Canady: I think it's really smart. Take me through a customer complaint and walk me through how your technology helped resolve it.

Adam Povlitz: So in our system what we've created is a software called CleanCom, which is proprietary to us. And in in my industry, if you have your customer and you have an issue, you're gonna laugh. But the most common way that people report the issue is first they go, like, who cleans this place? And they

Bill Canady: Yeah.

Adam Povlitz: they have to Google it or It's crazy. It that you have to Google it or yeah, that maybe these guys clean it, or they have to find an invoice and go, ABC Cleaning Company cleans this place. Let me give

Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.

Adam Povlitz: them then they give a call or they try to find their website and it turns into this little mess of communication where they don't know. I would say a level up from there is is they have a little booklet, right? And so customers they go, Hey, where's the booklet? I need to leave a note and complain to the cleaner about an issue or whatever. And so they Then it then where is the booklet? and by the way, you know, I notice I know who the cleaning lady is that comes here every night and you know she doesn't speak much English. Do you does someone here speak Spanish? Can someone leave a note for me? Does anyone can someone can I Google translate this? And it's so crazy how so we looked at that and we go, man, this number one, you know, cleaning is not an industry where you're gonna get a lot of raving fans, right? It's not like a restaurant where you get my gosh, the food was so good and the w service was so good. I I need to I need to tell all my friends and come back here. Either either you get your cleaning done and you go, Well, I gotta work and you don't think about it, or you you get the cleaning done and it's not good, and you're going, like, why is my trash can still full? So we go, we need an easier way than like finding the booklet or Googling the cleaning company for customers to complain to us so that ultimately using that complaint and and resolving it as fast as possible, we can make a friend. So what CleanCom does is instead of finding a book, you take out your phone, which everybody has in their pocket or their purse, you take a picture of whatever the issue is on our CleanCom web application. You tell us what area the issue is in. You can leave a note as to what, you know, any specific details you want to leave. You're gonna type that in whatever language you speak. It has built-in Google Translate so that the cleaner can actually respond in whatever language they speak, but you all can communicate in in in in what what's going on. It's all private communication. There's no cha exchange of cell phone numbers or anything like that. So it's all in contained within the platform. You have a two hour response guarantee. So you're not just going like, I wonder if they left me a note back in the book. I wonder when this is going to get done by. No, you'll get responded to within two hours. And then on the on the back end of that it also has what we call preventive analytics. And what preventive analytics are is say that same franchise owner that's servicing your building is a servicing someone else's, and both of you all of a sudden reported issues in your restrooms, for example. Well, that regional owner gets those reports and says, wait a minute, let me bring this guy back in for a retraining on how to properly do restrooms so that we can prevent future complaints in restrooms by this particular provider. So for for you know, if you come to Anago, you're not wondering who cleans this place. You're literally you you you never have the same issue twice in theory.

Bill Canady: Very impressive. How do you know the model is producing a healthy business for the unit franchise owner?

Adam Povlitz: you know, I would say we're we're continually coming into the, you know, like the top we've been as high as, man, like third or fourth fastest growing franchise at the unit level. we're consistently, you know, over my tenure in the top one hundred. and so people are buying in and and and our retention rates are great, right? We have we we support over eighteen hundred unit franchisees across the North America. And so, I guess, I it's a little bit of a proof is in the pudding answer to you, but if if it if it if people weren't making money, that no no new people would continue buying. We actually are doing a you know our our Unit Franchise of the Year award that we're that we just got our submissions for this year. And as an example, the top handful of people that were that were nominated Each have million dollar businesses as as a janitorial franchise. So to be, to come in, you say, I don't have to do any sales and marketing, I don't have to have a website, I I manage a cleaning business and I have a million dollar business. I think I think there's there's money and dirt that that seems to keep being found.

Bill Canady: That's really impressive. And particularly given this industry, that's really impressive of what you've been able to accomplish. Changing ge gears just a little bit. So what's one decision that used to come to you that now your team handles without you?

Adam Povlitz: all things social media. That was I couldn't get that off of me fast enough. When I so

Bill Canady: Ha ha ha.

Adam Povlitz: when I f when I first started at Anago, there were I there wasn't social media, right? I think Facebook was, you know, a few years old. It was more for friends, it wasn't for businesses. And I remember I was the one going on Facebook every day, and I would be the one typing in a post and and it's been a long road. I mean it's been a long time since I've done that, but I I we have a we have a team now where, they're using a combination of different I don't even know the names of the platforms, frankly, but they're using s whatever platforms to be able to then post on Facebook, Instagram, meta you know, so the meta ones, X, LinkedIn, I believe a little bit of YouTube, and it's all coordinated and it's all cut to the right. s image size and and video size. there and all I get to do is I meet with my CMO. I mean, she and I meet every week just as a kind of a touch base. And then we do a quar I get a quarterly review of like what are the trends? How are we looking? Are we improving? what you know, what what what's working, what's not. and it is I mean it is it's social media, you know, didn't exist twenty years ago. Now it's like a three person job to really keep it ahead of everything.

Bill Canady: It really is. what rule of replace your approval? How how does she know what she can do and what she can't do?

Adam Povlitz: So I we we spent a lot of time on a document that we call our messaging pillars. And so do you remember the old you remember the old the the old diet book, eat this, not that? I that's what I call it. It reminds me of that. And so I say, say this, not that. and so there was a lot of things put in there about hey, if we're mark you know, who's our audience? Right? Is it a are we talking to a master franchise buyer, a unit franchise buyer, or a customer? and then here are the kind of rules of the road of if I'm speaking to this person, here are the words I'm gonna use, here are the things I'm gonna make sure I focus on, here are the things that I'm not gonna say. and here's you know, we don't say it like this, we do say it like that. And having that persona built out for each potential buyer, of of do this, not that. Say this, not that. it allows you to release the reins and say, okay, as long as we're in those guidelines, and yeah, occasionally they change when, whatever changing things happen in the market or in regulation or whatever it may be, but it it allows you to step away when you have essentially a playbook that someone can just say, just just operate, as long as you operate within the guide by the guidelines of the playbook, you know, you're you're you're gonna be fine.

Bill Canady: Is there any decisions that must still escalate?

Adam Povlitz: Not not in that front. I right now my my main focus would be it really is is is we're we're we're on the on the verge of rolling out a new ERP platform. I am a technology dork, admittedly. and so I'm heavily involved in that because I want the the the AI enablement that we're put building into that to to do a lot of things that I need it to do. So I'm really focused on that. I I I you know I do a lot of the I I like to be involved in the franchise renewals at the master franchise. I think it's you know, in my mind they bought from me and so I should be the one that even though I have a person who does franchise development, you know, I think it, you know, they they bought the relationship with me. And so when it's time for that renewal, I wanna be involved and have the conversations. Some of them are are easy, some of them are tough, right? and and I think that it it's It's important that it come from me. and then, you know, other than that, I you know, I'm I'm I I was the one, you know, I come up with the ideas. I'm the idea guy. I'm I I have a thousand ideas a day. I try to live by I saw something that said, you know, I forget who the gentleman's name was, but he was like Jeff Bezos right hand man over at at Amazon years ago. And he said, he goes, Jeff, he goes, if Amazon tried to incorporate all of the ideas that you come up with, you would absolutely crush this company, not in a good way. it would just be like absolutely drowning in the amount of ideas you can come up with. And so it is something where that I mean, maybe that's where franchising sort of you know gut checks me. Is I I could have a hundred ideas, thousand ideas, and go, we should try this, we should try this, we should try that. But when you start fleshing it out and saying, Man, okay, well, if we did this, here's what it would involve, and here's who it would involve, and here's how much it would cost.

Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.

Adam Povlitz: And and you start going down the road, you you almost you you mentally create hard and fast rules of like, well, okay, that's gonna that's gonna be way too many people that to adapt that in order to make that work. So let's rule that out. Or man, that's gonna take a lot of people with a with a huge investment, and maybe that's not the best idea for us. So it it forces you to. to naturally eliminate some of the more wild ideas that you can come up with. and and focus on, you know, essentially like if it doesn't grow revenue, increase profit, decrease cancellations and and decrease costs, we just pass on it. It it has to do, you know, something in those buckets and to a decent amount, otherwise it's just noise.

Bill Canady: We we have no shortage of ideas. it's it's the execution that drives us crazy. So what what should a CEO understand about leading independent business owners that also makes them better at leading their own team?

Adam Povlitz: So when you switch from leading direct reports to leading a franchise system, you know, the the f first and foremost, right, now it's no longer this, you know, do as do it do what I tell you to do because you're you're the employee and you're required to. Now I'm speaking to independent business owners that within you know the bounds of their franchise agreement and the and the brand, you know, some of the brand stipulations. They're able to run their business generally, how they feel they need to run their business. And so it it moves from a you know, do what I tell you to do to influence, I would call it influence marketing or influence, you know, relationship influence, or I don't know exactly what I would call it, but something along those lines where ultimately, yeah.

Bill Canady: really getting influence through others, right? You 'cause they they don't you don't they don't really report to you.

Adam Povlitz: Right. And and exactly. And so but but it's also, it's building up building up buy-in, putting your money where your mouth is, testing things. I I I happen to own the South Florida master franchise as well. And so you know, anytime there's a new test, I you know, I'm the first one that go, Okay, let's test it out in my market. I'll be the you know, the the test dummy here. I'll spend the money. I wanna see if it works. and if it does work, then it, it gives me a lot more credence to go to another franchise owner and say, Hey, here's my numbers, here's what I spent, here's what here's what results I got. and ultimately, you know, say, you know, now, you know, b and then building up sort of a a group of people who are willing to pilot things. And then from the pilot group building a coalition of people who are willing to to really you know trumpet about how important this is. And so it's It's it's a lot of it's it's influencing versus pushing and forcing and might is right. And so going back to my team, you know, it it it makes you sometimes yes, sometimes you have to pull rank and This is what we gotta do and this is what it gotta gotta be done by. But I feel you find people tend to work harder and be happier when you're building that influence and that sphere of influence and saying, Here's why. And here's why I'm investing in it and here's why I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is on this, where maybe it's a bonus or a commission plan or whatever it may be. now people feel like you're investing in them and not just investing in your own goals. I think that's that how it translates.

Bill Canady: Yeah, being a man of a a thousand ideas and running a franchise, there still have to be a few very consistent things. What do you find must be consistent everywhere?

Adam Povlitz: I would say the probably the most important thing is how we the master franchise community treats the unit franchisees, right? Because you know, un unfortunately for a unit franchisee, right? Like I said, cleaning's not sexy. It's not, you know, people aren't, you know, busting down the doors to become the next, you know, cleaning business owner. it's it's a tough job. And, you know, you have people who are unhappy. and you have people who are or ignore you, frankly. And so I think it's absolutely critical that we build culture at the unit franchise level, that our master franchisees do that. And it's listen, these are the hardest people, hardest working people in the business. They're the boots on the ground. Without them, none of the other layers of the franchise exist. and so it's absolutely crucial to to ensure that you know, those relationships are rock solid. That they're treated like the business owners that they are. and and that, you know, culture at that regional level is like, hey, who, who, you know, who's the unit franchise of the year in such and such market? And who's you know, best customer service of the year in that market? I think it's absolutely crucial to create those cultural moments so that people feel valued within the network.

Bill Canady: where do you find local judgment really should win?

Adam Povlitz: I think it comes down to I think it comes down to the the the I would say the community marketing, right? And so, while we have, you know, playbook upon playbook and graphics and videos and social media, pre-made posts and all the wonderful things that a franchise or should, at the end of the day, how you how I go up to someone and and meet them in the community and and do that local networking aspect at, you know, in South Florida is very different from how someone does it in, you know, Michigan or Alabama or Texas. and there's the the relationships and the local community outreach I think has to be done, and and that's why we did our model the way it is. Because a master franchise is gonna go in and ultimately say, Hey, I want you to trust me to service your the the the school your kids go to or the doctor's office that you get your, your checkups at. and so those local relationships have to remain local.

Bill Canady: Who is typically a poor fit for a master franchisee?

Adam Povlitz: someone who gets a little too bogged down on the customer service side. Interestingly enough, I know customer again, I I alluded to it earlier. Customer service is important. But if you're only worrying about putting out fires, then you're not worrying about growing your business. And while, you know, while they're, you know, fires don't happen that often, they do happen and and it's it, and there is a mental Switching costs, right? and so it's crucial for someone in the in the role to either acknowledge that I hey, I am a customer service guy, and so therefore I'm gonna spend my money on hiring really killer sales people, or

Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.

Adam Povlitz: I love the sales side, which is probably more common. I love the sales side. And I'm gonna hire people who are really phenomenal customer service people so that I can stay in the creative and and focus on the growth-oriented side. But it's usually people that that, if you spend your whole day putting out fires, there's just no more time left in the day to go grow your business. and it really is. It's you you it's people, so maybe that's the better way to say it. As someone who has tries to be the jack of all trades, And and you really have to say, No, no, this is this is my lane and this is where I'm gonna focus on and I need to hire for the other side.

Bill Canady: a CEO or a new franchisee typically has a thousand days to really build enterprise value. It takes a long time to get these things where they really are worth something. What must they understand in the first thirty days?

Adam Povlitz: You got some tough questions today, Bill. in the first 30 days, I mean, yeah, to rewind all the way to the first 30 days, I it it really is just one foot in front of another, right? When we we do we do a lot of training for our franchise model. someone comes to my office, they're gonna get They have about a month of remote training. They're gonna do a week in my office doing local training where we take them into the field and actually run appointments with them and and inspections and that stuff. I I think, you know, when they get then they get back to their territory and we have someone who goes out there with them and kind of holds their hand a little bit. and there's there's more and there's even more from there. But in that first thirty days, so much of it is just like just you gotta keep moving. It's it's we didn't teach you everything. I I tell every master franchise this, I go, I did you go, you're gonna leave here and you're gonna in all of this is gonna hit in the real world and I need you to know we didn't teach you everything you need to know over the next five years in one week. it's it's not possible. It's sort of like imagine, you know, trying to, you know, if you have kids and it's like, Okay, I'm gonna teach you everything you need to know about life before you leave home. but instead of having eighteen years, I have a week. Like, no. It's just it's not gonna happen. So it's it I think

Bill Canady: thinking is still required.

Adam Povlitz: yeah, exactly. So it's it's I would say probably the most important thing is is one foot in front of the other and this and and part two almost is like, and there are no dumb questions. You

Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.

Adam Povlitz: know, ask ask us anything. We're here to help. We're here to, you know, help make sure you understand how things work. You've been drinking from the fire hose and our trainings. and now it, it's it's it's a very different thing. talking about the theoretics of running than getting out there and getting on, you know, and running a mile. You know what I mean? It's just it's a it's a different world and so it feels different from how you saw it in an academic setting than in a real life setting. And so, you know, keep moving and and ask lots of questions.

Bill Canady: What should be visibly different by day one hundred?

Adam Povlitz: focus. I think they're rather than being, you know, all over the place and and making sure that they're, you know, did I do this? Did I do that? Did I do this? There should be a little bit of a routine now. Here's what I do each week. Here's here's, you know, I here's what I do on a monthly basis. You know, this is what my Mondays look like. it allows them to then, you know, to to then experiment with, you know, some some more of the in depth things that we train on versus just doing, you know, having to paddle everywhere to keep afloat. But I would say it's being able to to organize their thoughts a little better and focus on what they what they really need to get done to move the needle.

Bill Canady: And by day one thousand, what do you think the company that they're running should be able to do without repeatedly depending on that franchise owner or that CEO?

Adam Povlitz: But day one thousand, they really ought to be able to you know, I I think I think the the marketing machine should be on, right? So whether they're

Bill Canady: Mm-hmm.

Adam Povlitz: they're running appointments themselves as well or just having it all handled by their sales team, that that is on, it's running. they know what vendors they're working with, they know, you know, they have an estimate of how many leads they should expect in a given month. And then the the on the on the customer billing side, right? There's no more like did we invoice this guy, did we did we get that bill out? Hey, we started this new one, did we make sure we got that customer? Did we collect from this particular customer? That should be a well oiled machine because if you can get your cash flow right, frankly everyone's happy at that point.

Bill Canady: Where would you like listeners to go to learn more about you and Anago?

Adam Povlitz: So for Anago, it's it's simply Anagocleaning dot com. That's A-N-A-G-O cleaning dot com. And then we're also like I and and I'm not doing it, but we're on all the social media. So at Anago Cleaning, you know, on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, all of that at Anagocleaning. and then if you want to get in touch with me, I am very active on LinkedIn. so if you type in Adam Povlitz on LinkedIn and shoot me a note, I will be sure to get back to you.

Bill Canady: So, Adam, I want to thank you so much for taking us inside to the decisions behind the business. For CEOs listening, choose one recurring problem this week. Give it a clear owner, a measure, and a date to find that result. Build the system so your next stage of your growth that it will require. Follow the 1000 day CEO and share this conversation with other leaders who can use it. For our free operating and tools and more resources, you can visit my website at billcanady.com. So I'm Bill Canady. Thank you so much. Make every day count. Adam, thank you. Which again, I can't thank you enough for being here today. So take care, everyone.

Adam Povlitz: Thank you for having me.

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