He Passed On A Near-$1M Corporate Role To Start A Franchise. Three Years Later His Chain Tops $22M.

Aaron Harper gave up a Belfor Franchise Group vice president position with nearly $860,000 in on-target pay to launch his own franchising venture — and within roughly three years turned a single regional pressure-washing shop into a national franchise network reporting about $22 million in systemwide sales. The business now spans 356 territories in 37 states and counts roughly 100 franchisees, after Harper bought the brand and rebuilt it as a franchisor.

The move became unavoidable after Harper accidentally replied to a staff update from the email tied to the small LLC he’d formed to explore acquisitions. Executives on the call pressed him for details, and he disclosed he was pursuing an independent project. Company leaders reacted supportively but also made Harper face a hard choice: accept the promoted role or leave to pursue his own plan. He chose the latter, saying he preferred creating systems and recruiting proactively instead of reacting within a corporate structure.

Harper’s strategy was not a conventional buyout. Rather than pay top dollar for an operating firm and then spend more to franchise it, he created a new franchising entity, raised outside capital for that vehicle and invited the original owners of the target business to take minority stakes in the new company while keeping their local operations intact. Harper put $155,000 of his own funds into the acquisition and attracted investment from six backers, including former International Franchise Association chair David Barr and PR executive Brad Fishman.

Before making Rolling Suds the centerpiece of the plan, Harper examined roughly two dozen service sectors — from roofing to tree care — looking for a durable, fragmented market that could be standardized. He settled on a 35-year-old family-run pressure-washing company near Philadelphia that had strong unit economics and little in the way of a national rival. He closed the brand purchase in January 2023, signed the first franchise by June and then rapidly expanded territory sales across the country.

Harper spent months ahead of the rollout assembling the scaffolding franchises expect: vetted suppliers, centralized call handling, bookkeeping and marketing partners. That preparation, he and other franchising advisers say, is what convinces investors and operators to commit. Typical startup capital for a Rolling Suds territory ranges from $350,000 to $450,000, according to company materials, and Harper directed seed dollars toward building support services rather than bolting onto the operating business.

Independent franchise consultants suggest this acquire-and-scale approach can reduce the premium paid for a target while keeping founders engaged, but it also concentrates risk on the franchisor to deliver ongoing lead generation and training. Harper frames his choice in personal terms, telling reporters he preferred the uncertainty of entrepreneurship to a predictable corporate path because he wanted to build something repeatable and owner-friendly. He now faces the next phase: converting the rapid early expansion into sustained unit-level profitability and service quality as the brand matures.