--- title: "Why CPG Founder Christian Saab Left the Corporate World in Pursuit of His Own Franchise Brand" url: https://burnaze.com/article/9453d220-0402-4e0f-bab8-dae611721fe4 source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/why-cpg-founder-christian-saab-left-the-corporate-world-in-pursuit-of-his-own-franchise-brand-2721253 category: "Staffing" industry: "Business Services" segment: "Staffing" topics: ["Finance & M&A"] published: 2023-02-23T18:13:31.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T02:08:48.643Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/773583d91b0bb7b3a4c98f382e4ef9a77837.jpg --- # Why CPG Founder Christian Saab Left the Corporate World in Pursuit of His Own Franchise Brand **TL;DR:** Christian Saab, founder and CEO of CPG, left the corporate world to pursue his own franchise brand, which solves recruiting and retention problems for businesses. CPG has sold 5 units in the US and Canada and aims to sell 20 units by the end of the year. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2023-02-23. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/why-cpg-founder-christian-saab-left-the-corporate-world-in-pursuit-of-his-own-franchise-brand-2721253).* ## Key facts - Christian Saab left corporate world to start CPG - CPG solves recruiting and retention problems - CPG has sold 5 units in US and Canada - Initial investment to start CPG franchise: $50,000-$75,000 ## Story Christian Saab is the founder and CEO of CPG, an emerging recruiting franchise on the cusp of major growth. However, the entrepreneur didn’t come from a recruiting background himself. Instead, he was an engineer at Chrysler when he began feeling frustrated in the corporate world and began looking at alternative pathways to building the wealth he desired. “I didn’t come from the recruiting or HR industry. I was an engineer at Chrysler,” Saab explained. “I hated my job, the environment and corporate American culture. I looked at my boss’s boss’s boss. He had been there for years upon years. I thought of my own dreams. Not only did he not have that success, he had to grind to get there — and there were layers upon layers blocking me from even getting there. That’s when I decided I had to be in business for myself.” ## Early Entrepreneurial Ventures Saab’s father was also an entrepreneur, owning a successful roadside business. This became inspiration for Saab when starting his own ventures, as he started off by opening a mobile detailing business. “I quit my job to run my first business full-time, but I knew it wasn’t going to be forever,” he said. “It was just to prove to myself I could run my own company.” During this time, Saab began looking for his forever business. He was hungry for his next idea and would ask his customers, who were often highly successful business owners, three questions to learn: “How does the money flow in your business model,” “Why do you enjoy doing what you are doing” and “What is the worst part of the business?” His curiosity eventually led him to discover what was plaguing every business owner across all industries: people and employees. “I compiled answers across two years, and although I talked to people from nearly every industry, everyone had the same answer for the third question: Their biggest headache was finding employees,” said Saab. “I knew If I could solve that issue, I would never run out of work.” ## Recruiting Industry Entry Saab soon realized he wanted to get into the recruiting industry. But even more importantly, he wanted to create a brand with a simple value proposition: identify and fix the problems an organization is having when recruiting, training and retaining its employees. The entrepreneur spent a lot of time getting to know his customers at the mobile detailing business. One of the successful businessmen he met here was Chuck Lavin, whose car he washed every Friday. He became a friend and business mentor over the next four years. “When I had an idea I was confident in, I proposed it to him and sold him on a partnership,” Saab said. “We started off with a software to train people in the staffing world, but then we found a niche with being a problem solving recruitment company. I asked for $75,000 to start CPG with, and CPG was born.” Five years later, Saab ended up selling that mobile detailing company. “With my detailing business, we don’t offer a mobile service in the winter, so I had two vans that were just sitting there for four months out of the year,” said Saab. “In order to make some extra money during the winter, we started using the trucks to deliver Amazon packages. I found several people who wanted to deliver packages and ended up connecting some of them with a friend who needed a driver for his landscaping job. In that moment, everything came together: I needed to help companies *find* the right people. The next day, I was a part of the recruiting industry.” Saab knew the recruiting world was flooded with competition. But he was also aware that something crucial was missing: client satisfaction. “People hate staffing companies, but they have no choice but to use them because demand is so high,” he said. “As someone coming into the industry with a fresh set of eyes, I realized the only way to differentiate was to do things differently — find out what most of them are doing wrong, and do the opposite.” ## CPG Differentiation CPG stands out in the industry by specializing in finding and solving the *root cause* problems of recruiting, onboarding, training and employee retention for industry-leading businesses. CPG also offers a full suite of back office support, including a CRM lead generator tool (Diva), cloud-based operating procedures, automated billing, client agreements and more. This people-first approach has proven to work, especially in wake of the challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic and persisting labor shortages over the past several years. And now, CPG’s franchise model allows new agents to replicate Saab’s success by starting a business in their own communities “We are selling a lifestyle,” said Saab. “When I first entered the recruiting world, I wanted to be part of a business that was a necessity, not a luxury. I also wanted to sell high-ticket items to high-volume customers, deal with high-profile clientele, enjoy residual income, have the freedom to live anywhere geographically and be able to easily scale my business and run it like a well-oiled machine. Today, these are the talking points I share with other franchise owner candidates.” Saab anticipates 20 CPG units sold by the end of the year. Since starting to franchise, the brand has already sold five units throughout the U.S. and Canada — Windsor, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Detroit, Michigan; London W., Ontario and London E., Ontario. The CEO hopes to eventually have over 1,000 locations with the help of local, dedicated owners across the country. “We created a business model aligned with how we started our business,” said Saab. “We want to help business owners get in at a lower starting cost. However, we are going to be extremely selective on the way we vet our franchisees.” ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - unit expansion (topic) - franchise growth (topic) - Business Services (sector) - entrepreneurship (topic) - Amazon (company) - recruiting industry (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/why-cpg-founder-christian-saab-left-the-corporate-world-in-pursuit-of-his-own-franchise-brand-2721253). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/9453d220-0402-4e0f-bab8-dae611721fe4).