Young Ones to Watch: Brent Dowling, CEO of Raintree Sales

Brent Dowling is the CEO of Raintree Sales, a franchise consulting company. Before diving into the franchising industry, Dowling had a colorful background in professional snowboarding, diplomacy and franchise marketing. Now, in addition to spearheading Raintree’s services, he’s a franchisee of three different concepts and a franchisor of two concepts.

“Like a lot of people, I learned that this weird little niche industry is actually this trillion-dollar giant machine that spurs a good amount of all business done in this country,” said Dowling. “For that reason, I realized it was an industry I had to get involved in.”

His favorite thing about the industry, though, is the people. “It’s always been and will always be about the people for us,” he said. “I love the families and the founders that I get to work with every day. And I love my teammates at Raintree. It’s honestly what gets me out of bed in the morning.”

As someone who has played many roles throughout his professional career, Dowling advises other young entrepreneurs to wear as many hats as possible. “I went from snowboarder to diplomat to franchise sales guy,” he said. “So don’t get into something thinking that’s what you’re going to do for the next 10 years — try and ask to do as much as you can to see where your true skill sets are and to develop them faster.”