From Family Business to Franchising: An Entrepreneur’s Winding Road

Meg
And there you were with Vanguard doing what I love to do as well, which is building entrepreneurs out of your, what do you call them? Contractors who are actually franchisees.

Dan
Yeah, sub. Sub franchisees or unit franchisees we call them. Oh, that’s what I call them. I think they may have changed that term now.

Meg
So much of that work then is overnight work but your, your day to day impact or influence was in attracting those sub franchisees who were then going to actually go out. And, and I’ve hired actually Vanguard recently to do some cleaning at one of my businesses. So they’re all in, they’re all independent, but they’re sub franchisees of that particular model.

I remember having a conversation with you in the very beginning about the legal structure and the complexity and getting your feet wet with some of them were different nationalities, some of them had different work ethic and molding them into your franchise.

I think that’s where that variability really benefited you because you could, you could put your own stamp of approval on it. But again, not exactly following. Every crew is going to be a little bit different.

Dan
Exactly, exactly. And that was, that was as rewarding in that, in the particular model that I was in, that was additionally rewarding not only being able to build a business and be successful in my own right, but, but I took a lot of pride in not only, I guess just a lot of personal pride and very humbly being an influencer and having an impact on individuals lives and their families and creating them instead of them going out and you know, if this is what they’re passionate about.

And the franchisees that we did were cleaners, they were working for other people and the motto was be your own boss, you know, just the same as I wanted to do. But now you could take these people and you could guide them and coach them and you know, you certainly they’re their own business, but to be able to have an influence and now have.

See them be rewarded financially and the same as I was and owning my own business now I’m helping people do that for themselves. So it was a very rewarding model and it was. Is the best decision I ever made, bar none. So. And I owe that credit to you.

Meg
Thank you. I remember getting together with you for lunch a couple of times in Milwaukee and talking about some of the, some of the future plans that you had had. And so you started to create an exit strategy to sell Vanguard.

Tell. Talk about how that all came about because I’m not, I’m not remembering all the details clearly as far as what.

Dan
Yeah. Yeah. So there was. And that’s what I was actively looking for is is I had had launch. I had some conversations with one of the other master franchisees of Vanguard. And this was long before my brother became ill and anything like that. So we had talked about possible sale of my, my region of southeast Wisconsin to another region.

And it was fit very nicely for her to, to acquire me. I said, but you know, here’s the plan, here’s the idea. We were both in agreement. I said, hey, this is great. We’re gonna, I’m gonna sell. It’s gonna be a nice stash for retirement. But at that point, I was early 50s and it wasn’t certainly in today’s world, in today’s economics, it wasn’t gonna be enough for me to ride out the rest of my career.

So my adage was I need to have my, my plan B, you know, I need to come do something. So I had been actively looking and you and I think I, we had some conversations about a different franchise model and, and possibly going in a different direction. And coming up with plan B. We had had some early conversations, but then nothing really appealed to me as, as much as the Vanguard model did.

And so we were in about a two year holding pattern with this other franchise region of buying me out. And it was only about seven weeks from my brother’s diagnosis with kidney cancer, stage four kidney cancer, to his passing.

And it was a decision point then is do I keep Vanguard and continue to do that franchise model and sell my brothers our family business, which is a, a power sports business. So we sell UTVs. We started that, My dad started that business the year I was born. In 1968. So we’re 57 years there now.

And, and it was sell that family business with our name on it and, and move out of that and keep Vanguard going, or the opposite. Which is obviously what I, that’s why we’re talking is that’s what I decided to do was I called up this other master franchise and said unfortunately. And fortunately my plan B presented itself, unfortunately that I lost my brother, but fortunate that I had some options now to, to consider and, and figure out my path forward.

And, and so we put on a fast track and, and we basically came to terms on purchase price. Nice part about, and I’m not sure about other franchise models, but in Vanguard there’s been some precedences set with the purchase price and kind of a valuation factor.

And so it was, that was kind of the, the process of, hey, let’s look at doing something different. Let’s, let’s look at a different business model and, and try and go into kind of a holding pattern. And then that unfortunate thing in my life that then set up for what, became a very good thing for me and my family and getting out of the, I don’t say I want to get a bad term to say getting out of, but having an equitable exit out of that business and keep all my franchisees happy so that everybody was, everybody at the end was very happy.

Meg
So you mentioned that Vanguard had some precedent set. Talk about, if you will, your business, what you knew it needed to look like, sound like, act like in order for you to get the asking price that you wanted based on the precedent that Vanguard prior transactions had set forth for you.

But you still independently owned and operated, you needed to present your business as a saleable asset. Talk about how you did that.

Dan
Yeah, absolutely. So obviously in any business, keep your books in order. That’s the biggest thing is be sure that there’s a clear path to show what your revenue’s been, your profitability, where your expenses are.

You know, any business that’s, that’s staple, that’s, that’s elementary 101 of running a good business. Have your books in order, know where your dollars are coming in, know where your dollars are going out. And that’s, that’s an, obviously a baseline. Anybody who’s going to buy a business needs to see those numbers and know what they’re buying.

The second thing is, is the assets. It’s in the Vanguard model, your assets are your franchisees. So I was a franchisee of the Master Network and I was a sub franchisor. So I had to have the franchise agreements and do the presentations and the FDD and all of those things.

But be sure that you’re following the appropriate guidelines of the model. And for us, that’s having all of our franchisees have business entities in place that they are properly. You’re not following up, but you’re being sure that they have all of their legal paperwork, that they’re current with the state with their EINS and, and their business entities and those basic things.

Now, every business model is going to be a little bit different but you know, have things in order, have things aligned and be thinking about what, what in your business made it attractive and made it profitable and, and made it a. A viable business for you to want to get into it. Look at that from the eyes of an investor of somebody who’s looking to come and possibly buy your business.

What are they going to be looking for? Obviously, the financials and your P&Ls and your balance sheets and being sure that everything’s tied out in a franchise, obviously depending on how you finance it. Those are things that you need to submit in annually anyway in most cases.

But be sure that you have not just looking at it from your eyes, but look at it from the outside in. How is someone else going to be looking at your business to say, yeah, this is, this. I can see myself being profitable. Here’s my investment. Here’s why I wanted, here’s, here’s what I want to get out of it.

Are they willing to pay that price? And be sure that all your ducks are in order and that it’s attractive to them.

Meg
As you were running that business. Many owners look for tax benefits and strategies to run owner expenses through the business. Some people do that legitimately and some of it take advantage of. Advantage of that.

I remember working with a Glass, what was it? Glass doctor franchisee in the Green Bay area. He wanted to sell his territory. He was running so much personal stuff through his business that he really didn’t have a saleable asset unless he was willing to go back three years and adjust his books to add back in everything been taking out.

And ultimately he decided that he was just going to close the doors. It’s. You didn’t want to get tangled up with the IRS to have to undo all of that.

Were you, were your, were your assets and liabilities everything pretty straightforward with your business?

Dan
Yeah, and there’s, there’s again, I always with the accountants that I’ve worked with, I had a, I had an old gym teacher back in. When I was in grade school that he would always say he was, he was ex military. And it was toes up two but not over the line. And you came up there and it was right there and you stood you. You knew where you were. You know, these are back in the days where you need you could be hard on kids. And that adage always stuck with me. And I thought it was a perfect one to use with my with my accountants is I want to go two toes up too but not over the line. I don’t want to cross over anything. I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get me in trouble.

Orange suits do not look. I don’t look good orange so. Or pinstripes or black and white stripes. Whatever the appropriate tire is for today’s incarcerated. But it was of course that’s you want to. I guess I wanted to push the boundaries. I didn’t want to do anything over the line but take advantage of.

And that’s what business owners want to do and they should be able to do that. Mine was, you know, I drove my vehicle. I had a nicer vehicle. But mine was legitimately a company vehicle. It was used for business every day.

Now obviously I had to do some things where maybe I hope nobody’s gonna from the IRS is gonna be listening. But maybe I didn’t take put all my personal miles back in.

But those are the kind of things that you wanna be sure you’re. You’re in line with because again what’s that outside person gonna look like? Yours is a great example of if now I had to go back and readjust my books and a potential buyer understands that you’re gonna scare. You’re gonna scare people off.

So have your have your books in a row and look at it from the outside. Am i goona be a good investment for someone and you  take advantage of that. Do do the things you’re in a business for hopefully all the right reasons, which is autonomy. You know, time is precious. But certainly learn that with the personal things I’m talking about.

But financially you want that financial freedom and that freedom of time. And if do both of those things right, that’s why you’re in business. But if you align them properly, you’re going to be able to take both of those advantages and have a viable business that someone’s going to be attracted to.

Meg
And what is also nice for your exit is that there was an existing franchisee who already had a track record. You two were in alignment. And so it’s like the franchisor dream to be able to exit an excellent owner.

Dan
Yeah.

Meg
Who’s going to hired by an excellent owner.

Dan
And she was. And Cindy is a phenomenal business owner. When I started, she had been about 10 years, 12 years in the Vanguard Network and I had a few people like that. I was flanked by two of the best business owners, one in Minnesota and one in Michigan. And both of those entities were of incredible help.

Again, because we’re non competing, we’re territory. So the beauty of the Vanguard Network was I had great people around me. There was no competitive nature. Everybody in the network was willing to take your phone call, give you advice, answer your questions.

Cindy in the Twin Cities was, is a, is a phenomenal business owner. And she was somebody who I looked up to in a lot of different ways. Well, not physically because she’s vertically challenged, but. Sorry Cindy.

But to model off of that and then ultimately be working with her to then buy me out. Because she knew my business, she knew where I was at. We reported all of her numbers in, so she knew my monthly revenue. Once you get in, she’s not seeing my profitability, but once she got in, obviously she was, she was happy with what she saw.

Again, keeping your books in line and running your business the right way. But when you have somebody like that where you’re not only feeding off of them and giving them information so that they can then help guide your business and then ultimately have that be the person that wants to buy you is. It was a great thing. It was, yeah. Kind of. Again, strategically, I’d like to say that everything was a strategic decision, but sometimes you just, just the luck of being in the right place at the right time and having the right people around you.

Meg
Benefit of the franchise. And that’s why I am a franchisee again. Yet again. To be part of a network and not have to do all the heavy lifting, the heavy thinking on my own, but creating those over the border, cross state line relationships definitely makes a business asset more attractive because then that person in another state is not going to have to step into a major role. They’re stepping into a well oiled machine that is already functional.

Dan
Functioning. Exactly.

Meg
Yep.

Dan
Yep.

Meg
So in a short period of time there, I didn’t realize that your dad and your brother passed away so close to each other. It’s less than a year. Your kids have been watching, they’re watching, they’re watching what you’re doing. Are either one of them inclined to get into business with you in the future?

Dan
No, no, they’re, they both have tremendous careers. My, my son knew he wasn’t suited for a four year college and before he even graduated. Well I’d say within about three weeks of graduating high school he already had his fire one in his EMT.

He was hired on by the city of Oak Creek when he was 19 years old as a full full time fireman paramedic. Spent three years in the city of Oak Creek and great department, great people but he wanted more action.

So what did he do? He applied for the Milwaukee Fire Academy and was accepted very I think 600 applicants and he was ranked number 14 out of all those applicants and was accepted, went through and just in fact last week, Thursday was his end of probationary period and so he is a full time city of Milwaukee firefighter paramedic and loves it is great career, absolutely loves what he’s doing and who he’s doing it with.

And, and my daughter is knew she wanted to do something in the medical field and went to school and graduated from Viterbo University out La Crosse with a nursing degree, Bachelor’s of Nursing and jumped right in and was accepted into the master’s program master’s nursing program at Marquette University and graduated last year December with a acute care.

I got to get the whole title right. Acute care pediatric nurse practitioner or master Masters of Acute Care Pediatric nurse practitioner. Just passed her boards here about three weeks ago. Four weeks ago.

So she is a full time nurse practitioner up at Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee. So I’d like to think, you know someday my son’s body probably won’t. Isn’t going to appreciate the, the physical nature of being a firefighter. So who knows if he’ll come back to the family business at some point. But, but we’ll see. 

Meg
High achieving youngsters. I would expect nothing less from children. From your DNA, the two of you, you and Denise, what’s she up to these days?

Dan
She is still office manager and accounting specialist for a construction company. She’s my daughter got engaged so their wedding is next fall and she is anxiously. She’s already told me that if she at minimum she’s going on the part time if not fully retiring so she can take care of grandbabies.

She still has her full time gig of managing the books for a large construction company and taking care of that and she loves it because she gets to have, she’s got two office cats that we’ve got two dogs. So to have the whole household of different pets. So she gets her cat fixed at work.

So yeah, she’s doing great.

Meg
I love that where our dogs go back and forth between our house and our office. So one just got up and left. Thankfully, she didn’t bark, but when she does, I just have to remind people that every day is take your dog to work day. Sometimes you don’t get the advance warning that the barking. The barking chain is about to start.

Dan
Yeah, yeah. So we get. We’ve got our windows, look out. We’re fortunate our home is on a hill. And we get a lot of good deer and turkey. And so we won’t see a thing with our human eyes, but they pick it out. And then all of a sudden, a couple minutes later, all of a sudden, something pops out from behind a tree and said, oh, that’s what you’re barking at.

So, yeah. And then one gets one straight see something and just gets the other one going, and then there’s a barking war. So I get you.

Meg
Yeah. I appreciate the fact that your wife gets to go to work where there are cats. The funny tangent story that I’ll tell you really quickly is in 2015, we had to put both of our dogs down separate. Time of year 2019 comes along and there’s a lab rescue that continued to call us.

And they knew that we had our tall grass property, that there are duck ponds, there must be pheasant. They had this amazing hunting dog. Did we want to foster or adopt this dog?

And I said to Pete, I really want a cat. Maybe like a Maine coon. Something big, something substantial.

Dan
Yeah.

Meg
Because guys don’t tend to like cats. And so what did the universe deliver but a black lab? Immaculately. Immaculately trained and bred. So she had a kennel name. Her full name was whatever the kennel was. Ali Cat.

Dan
So you got your cat.

Meg
I got my cat and my husband got his dog. 

Dan
So there you go. Perfect.

Meg
That’s one of the. One of the side topics that you and I discussed for quite a while. But getting back to business, now that you’ve stepped back into Schauer Power, what has been the most rewarding aspect of that in the, in the couple of years you’ve been back?

Dan
Legacy, you know, again, we’ve been. We’ve been this year’s. Even though the power sports business, that is the only business that’s. That’s standing there today, has been there since 68. So it’s 57 years that that business been open.

But we’ve been doing business on that property since 1955, when my dad first started the dairy farm business when he was 21, and we started that again at 55. He was a Surge Dairy Farm equipment dealer. And then in 68 he started the, the what’s what is now our power sports business.

But back then it was lawn and garden equipment and snowmobiles in the winter. And then in 76, where our main showroom is now, my, my dad expanded over and there’s an old drive in station on that property that we owned and he rented out and we didn’t own the drive in, but it was, it was, the building was there.

Well, he knocked that down and expanded over and we put in a liquor store. So needless to say, through high school and college, my parents say they could have retired a lot better if I wouldn’t have taken all those cases of beer out of there over the years.

But we’ve been doing business there for, for, again for 70 years. So from farmers to local people around Union Grove to all over southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois of being Schauer Power Center and being able to come back.

And there’s so many people that have come back and said so glad that after your brother passed that you didn’t, you didn’t sell it, you didn’t divest or close it down, that you kept it going because we love coming here.

You know. My dad was a great businessman, great communicator. My brother was a very good businessman, a little bit more of an introvert. He liked to be behind the scenes and wrenching on stuff. And so we, we had a, he had a, a very good general manager who still works for me today.

And, and I guess the most rewarding part is, is one coming back to. I grew up in this business and, and that was, it was because it was the cool, fun business, snowmobiles and, and motorcycles and things like that. So selling cool toys is, is a pretty appealing thing in and of itself.

But when you have a legacy, that was my dad and then, and everybody knew my dad and, and just from he was 40 years, almost 50 years running the Racine County Fair, which is just across the way. All the farmers knew him from business, all the, the local people to my brother running the business and being able to step back into that and carry on the family name was probably, it’s probably the most rewarding part.

Plus it’s a, it’s a solid business too. So.

Meg
So with the business that old and now here we are in 2025 and there’s artificial intelligence and what kind of adaptations are you implementing in the business to keep it going forward? And have there been many, many changes that you needed to, to put into place in taking over from your brother?

Dan
Not a lot. Certainly setting up, and I won’t say setting up the books, but really just taking over and. And being sure that. That the business is being run the way that I wanted it run, which, you know, certain tweaks here and there.

And I think this goes back to my brother. Some of the big changes right from the beginning were my brother wanted to keep it open six days a week. Well, it was very taxing on the employees. So the first thing I did was shut down on Mondays. So that’s why today’s a perfect day to do the interview. So we. Our business is open Tuesday to Saturday, which that’s a big culture shock coming from the old franchise network where, you know, if I’m leaving early on a Friday afternoon, no problem. Now I’m in retail. So Fridays and Saturdays are a staple.

Doing some structural changes. I think it goes back to my dad of being in the dairy business that one person’s junk is another person’s gold. Because you had dairy farmers that were, you know, maybe get some new equipment. Well, that equipment is somebody else’s new, new to them type stuff. So he never got rid of anything. And I think my brother took that mentality over.

So there was a lot of stuff stashed. So a lot of things were just making it efficient, you know, getting rid of junk and clutter, things that he felt were, you know, that he could sell at some point. And I really had no idea, no desire to manage it or have it around. So it was a lot of cleaning house and restructuring.

We did some remodeling. The. I think one of the bigger things is. Is using AI maybe when you mentioned that. So there are some things in. In writing job postings to hire, you know, if I’ve had to hire some people. So it’s some cool technologies that are. That are available now.

But really where I think where I’m stepping up or we’re changing, I should say, is putting a much larger emphasis on marketing because these vehicles now where they were kind of a commodity and you kind of still dealt local things like Facebook Marketplace are such a huge advantage to our business because we’ve got people coming from all over the state, all over the Midwest, actually, if we’ve got the one machine that they’re looking for.

So really putting a much larger emphasis on marketing and branding of our branding of Schauer. I don’t have my logo shirt on, but our. Our logo, that’s. That’s as much of a brand as the products that we sell in Polaris and, and CF Moto and some of the other products that we carry. They do their own corporate marketing and we wanted, we, we take those, take advantage of their corporate marketing initiatives and do some of our co-oping and really setting ourselves apart because there are, there are a lot of other dealers around, they’re selling the same brands that we are and not to. We’re a very congested dealer network in, in our area. I’ve got six other dealers within 25 miles in any direction of me.

So it’s so important for us to be setting ourselves apart not from just the OEM brands that we represent, but what are we doing at Schauer Power Center. And that’s the biggest thing I’m having that I’m facing and doing right now is really promoting what we’re doing as a business. How we’re taking care of our service department, our parts department and marketing and selling that differently from what we’ve ever done before.

Meg
Did those businesses pop up over the years as the competitive landscape? Maybe they saw your business and thought oh well, the whole compounding effect of McDonald’s and Burger King. Did these open around you over the decades?

Dan
No, they were, when you go back to where some of the, the branding started years ago was or where the products were, they were more of a commodity when you could get in, when you could buy a snowmobile for 3,000, 4,000 dollars. ATVs were very much at their infancy and there was the way that Polaris was structured at the time, went through distribution.

So I like to say that they had the mentality of a Walgreens. Put a store in every corner and you’re going to sell more volume because they were relatively inexpensive and, and because Polaris is our lead brand now, we’re kind of left with that legacy of over the years all these different dealers that were set up.

Now we’re selling, we’re not selling 3,000, 4,000 dollar snowmobiles anymore. We’re selling 20, 25,000 dollar snowmobiles and we’re selling ATVs, UTVs, side by sides that the median price is roughly 25, 26,000 dollars.

Yeah. So we’ve got one of the most expensive units we, we have right now is you know, the guy decked it out and I think went out the door for almost 70,000 dollars. Crazy money.

But the, the moral of the story is that these aren’t commodities anymore. So it makes it challenging that we have to set ourselves apart as the business. Not just, hey, I need a Polaris. Oh, there’s the one shop that’s around. No, there’s six other dealers around there.

Well, why do I want to go to Schauer? Well, we’ve got some policies about our pricing, transparency and pricing. We don’t play the games. We’re consistent where some of these guys, they’re rolling through people.

And so the importance there of making or setting ourselves apart and making ourselves unique even though we’re selling the same product, but it’s that legacy of stuff that just they’re really not wasn’t that they were seeing us successful. It was everybody was able to kind of grow up at the same time.

But now it’s that being sure I’m differentiating.

Meg
Which is so important. It’s culture and consistency. And I would venture a guess that some of your Vanguard experience has carried over into how you are taking over Schauer Power and providing that backbone of consistency for your consumer. Because word of mouth is obviously a whole lot less expensive to keep bringing people back. Repeat buyers.

Dan
Absolutely. I mean just even Google reviews and your Google rating and, and so important that so many people, you know, just as in Vanguard, where okay, what’s this? Who is this company? I gotta, I gotta, I gotta inquiry or I got a sales call or you know, what are these guys about?

And that’s where the, the power of social media is so critical to a business owner to you know, I guess use the term. You gotta play the game. You gotta be sure that you’re, you’re engaged in it, that you’re monitoring it, that you’re staying on top of your Google reviews, how you’re portrayed in social media, the reviews that you get written encourage people, you know, go out and search those people to give you a good review, a five star rating.

Because especially in the cleaning business in Vanguard, that’s what they’re looking for is what’s, what are other people’s experience with this company the same as in the powersports business is how was the experience with these people? How did they treat me? How did you know what was their ultimate experience like? Would they go back and buy from them again?

And it’s, I don’t care what business you’re in. The power of social media is such a tool that can really, really help you or it can hurt you if you don’t stay on top of it. The same as we talked about before about managing your books, what do you look like from that outside consumer or that potential buyer, same thing with your customers. So manage all of that.

Meg
This has been such a great reconnecting point. I have always enjoyed our conversations and getting together for lunch. I’ll never forget you posted on Facebook that winter picture with the American flag with the snow was falling and sitting.

Dan
Right there on my leg.

Meg
Sitting right there. So it’s fun to find.

Dan
You can see that.

Meg
That is such a magical picture.

Dan
Just came out one morning and the breeze was. We had just gotten that snowfall and it was one of those heavy sticky ones that stuck to everything and it just, it happened to be where the flag was. There’s a little bit of a breeze yet. Yeah, it was a good one.

Meg
That’s beautiful one. And so I always love following what’s going on in your. In your social media, your private social media page and following along with the family. Well, good for Denise. Looking forward to being a grandma. I just became one last October.

Dan
Congrats.

Meg
Thank you. So it’s. Yeah, it, it’s a lot of fun when they come and then when they go you hand them back over and you get to be chill about it because you don’t have to worry about breaking them. I didn’t break the first one, so I’m not going to break this generation.

Dan
Yeah.

Meg
Well, it’s been great to catch up with you. This is so chunky chewy. The data points and the. Just the context of the evolution of your professional business ownership career and where you’re going. So I appreciate your hopping on the calendar right away and making time for me, Dan.

Dan
Absolutely. Glad to do it anytime.

Meg
Thank you.

Dan
Thanks.