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What happens when you combine fifteen years of franchising experience in the home improvement industry, a global pandemic, and the discipline and resilience of two military veterans? You get one of the top performing rookie franchisee businesses for the year!
It takes a lot of courage to start your own business, especially when you’ve seen friends and family go after the same dream and fail. But Alex and Leah Serrano decided to go for it anyway. However, instead of starting something new from the ground up, they chose to investigate franchise opportunities. They knew that by going this route, they would increase their chances for success based on the added support from a proven franchisor.
The couple began researching business ownership opportunities after Alex retired from the US Army and was working from home in a civilian job. Alex has a degree in IT and was a network engineer throughout his military career. After retirement, he considered becoming an IT consultant with his own firm but realized that the market was saturated. He knew getting his name in front of enough people to win contracts would be extremely difficult. He and his wife Leah, also a military veteran, were looking for something they could invest in that would already have brand recognition and proven systems. Never having owned their own business before, they were looking for a roadmap to getting started and ongoing support.
When the Fresh Coat Painters franchise opportunity was presented to the couple, they were interested right away. According to Alex, Fresh Coat was in an industry that he believed would be recession resistant and the business model did not require a huge capital investment. He did not want to be drowning in debt in order to open a business. Not having to invest in a brick-and-mortar location was very appealing and they ultimately opened Fresh Coat Painters of Northwest San Antonio in March of 2020.
“Fresh Coat Painters gives us the support we need to bring an industry-leading experience to our clients and to offer things like financing options while running the business that speaks to our own values. We are looking forward to helping people in our area increase the values of their homes without the risks and worry of working with a fly-by-night painting company,” Leah said.
Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic made their first year more challenging than a normal rookie year would be, but that didn’t stop Alex and Leah and the rest of their family, who is also involved in the business. They focused on exterior projects during the first months of the pandemic and then put their efforts toward social media marketing to drive awareness of contactless estimates and to winning interior job contracts later in the summer.
“We knew that if we made it through the first year, despite Covid, we would be ahead of the game going forward. We sat together as a family and as business partners and decided that if we were going to survive this, it would be because we chose to persevere. We looked to our experiences in the military, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and knew that we already had been through difficult situations and survived.”, said Alex.
These business owners did more than just survive, they drew on their personal resolve and leveraged the support of the Fresh Coat franchise system to thrive in the face of challenges in 2020!
These business owners did more than just survive, they drew on their personal resolve and leveraged the support of the Fresh Coat franchise system to thrive in the face of challenges in 2020!
Fresh Coat Painters is honored to have US Army Veterans, Alex and Leah Serrano, as members of the franchise network and would like to congratulate them on an incredible first year.