Don’t Wait to Franchise with The Glass Guru, Says Colorado Franchisee Dan Lahti

Dan Lahti didn’t have to go too far when he decided to look into franchising to see whether it might be a good fit for him.

“I have three brothers-in-law who are franchisees in different businesses, so I talked to them and thought it would be a really good option,” he said.

He was researching franchise opportunities online when he came across The Glass Guru. A veteran of the construction industry, Lahti figured he wanted to franchise with a business related to that field.

“I learned about The Glass Guru in an online search and I was just searching for a construction-related franchise to get into and this seemed like the best one for me,” he said.

Research and due diligence

He did a ton of research on The Glass Guru before he decided to franchise with the window repair service.

“I did research many other franchise opportunities,” he said. “I did also talk to a number of existing franchisees of The Glass Guru.”

Lahti opened his franchise in 2012 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He runs the business with his wife, a certified public accountant, who helps him with tax planning and other finance-related matters. More than six years later, he plans to open a second location as part of his existing franchise.

“I’m hoping to open up another store location within my territory, so it wouldn’t be a new franchise or anything, it’d just be another store location,” he said. “In addition to that, I’m trying to work myself out of the business and be an absentee owner.”

Community involvement

Today, Lahti is heavily involved in his community. His history with the Glenwood Springs area already went a long way back before he franchised with The Glass Guru.

“Previously, I was a project manager for a general contractor for this same area,” he said. “I did that for 14 years and I’ve developed a huge amount of relationships with a lot of people, including realtors, building inspectors and many different community members. I’ve personally built as many as 25 or 30 homes for various people and just got a lot of contracts and built relationships. It’s all carried over into this business, too.”

His territory encompasses several cities and jurisdictions and zip codes, and so he tries to be a member of local chambers of commerce wherever his franchise does work.

“We donate to a number of local charities, including the Glenwood Springs Kiwanis Club,” he said. “But primarily the local chambers are the biggest things that we’ve done.”

In terms of company and franchisee culture, Lahti likes how The Glass Guru encourages “very, very open communication” throughout the entire system.

“Everybody in headquarters is very easily accessible,” he said. “Very open communication is highly promoted throughout the franchise.”

Franchisee experience

Lahti speaks regularly with prospective franchisees. On average, he’ll speak with a prospective franchisee for The Glass Guru once every two weeks or once a month. He enjoys sharing his knowledge about the brand and the benefits of following The Glass Guru’s model.

“I enjoy talking about the potential for success,” he said. “As long as you follow the model and do what was explained in training, there’s definitely a lot of success to be had and, frankly, money to be made.”

The way he sees it, there are many advantages to being a franchisee with The Glass Guru.

“Having a national brand to back us up is great,” he said. “We’ve also gotten some pricing benefits from suppliers. The national branding is definitely up and coming and getting better. It’s definitely gotten much better in the six years since I’ve started.”

He’s also witnessed overall changes in the organization as a whole.

“Some of the things I’ve noticed is that headquarters and training have gotten more organized and detailed,” he said. “There’s more of a focus on company culture and better support. It’s been great because I was happy with the support when I first started but it’s only gotten better.”

His main advice for anyone looking to franchise with The Glass Guru is to not stall the process.

“Before I signed up, I asked one of the franchisees I spoke with if he would do anything differently and he mentioned he wouldn’t have waited around for so long to get started,” Lahti said. “He would have started sooner. I also show that same sentiment. It definitely took me a little bit longer to make the final decision but looking back I should have done it sooner than I did.”