Gary and Andrea Locke started their Superior Fence & Rail Southwest, Florida, location in October 2017. The couple worked hard, hired the right team, followed the processes set forth by their franchisor, and, in just seven short years, were able to sell their company in October 2024 and are, according to their LinkedIn profiles, “joyfully retired.”
- What were you doing before you bought your own franchise location? Why did you decide to enter the franchising world?
We both came from the hospitality industry.
Gary Locke was the director of operations at a hotel and had been on the board of directors for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.
Andrea Locke was a general manager at a vacation rentals start-up and had worked in sales and human resources at various resorts and hotels in Florida.
- Why did you decide to purchase a Superior Fence & Rail franchise—what makes their business model attractive?
We were both in our early 50s and had worked in hospitality most of our lives. We’d always wanted to own our own business but didn’t have the capital it would take to start our own hotel. Hotels are very capital intensive. Owning a restaurant might also be a natural choice for people in the hospitality industry, but the success rate for new restaurants is very low—about 20%– so that wasn’t something we wanted to take a risk on.
We had never really considered franchising, but during our search for a business idea, we happened to meet Chris Johnson, who is one of the original co-founders of Superior Fence & Rail. He was getting ready to enter the franchise system with Zach Peyton, who is now the brand president of Superior Fence & Rail.
Chris and Zach impressed us. They were both very smart and successful. It’s been our experience that if you want to be successful, you should surround yourself with successful people, so we decided to take a chance. We were sold on the concept and bought into the franchise system in October 2017.
- What lessons did you learn in the early days of franchise ownership?
While it’s always good to have a mentor when you start a new business, this is especially true in franchising. Zach served as our mentor and held our hand every step of the way. He was working as hard for our success as we were, given that we were the very first franchise to open.
It’s imperative that new franchise owners develop a good working relationship with the franchise manager and brand president. You also have to take the tools they give you and follow their processes. It’s not rocket science, but it does require that you work hard and follow the system.
One thing you need to realize is that you don’t buy a franchise, sit back and let the money roll in. It requires a commitment. Franchising is like anything else of great importance: you get out of it what you put into it. For us, we worked a lot of hours during the first several years, but it was worth it. We believe that hard work set us up for the success we’ve enjoyed.
- Are we seeing more homeowners opting to make improvements rather than sell? What are some of the factors that are driving the current boon in home and property improvement?
We believe it started when people began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because people were home all day, every day, they noticed things in their homes and on their property that needed updating or improving.
Now, you have rising housing costs, high mortgage rates and a limited availability of good homes on the market, so more homeowners are opting to make home and property improvements rather than sell. They don’t want to feel like they’re stuck in their homes, so they make their homes and yards more attractive and comfortable to live in.
We realize that COVID created a lot of disruption in the market, but it also created a lot of opportunities. For us, we saw very little downtime. We went from four to five estimate appointments per day for each sales rep down to two to three per day, but that was short-lived.
Once people began working remotely, they noticed the need for home improvements, whether it be for safety, privacy, a pool installation or a pet adoption. This had a huge impact on the fencing industry although everyone in the home improvement space saw the same increases.
- How did your company weather the hurricanes that hit Florida during the time you ran your company?
We opened right after Hurricane Irma hit in September 2017. We were scheduled to open in October, but Irma created a huge demand for fence replacements.
Irma also tore the roof off of the building at the location we were renting. As it turns out, the building was condemned because this damage revealed that the building had asbestos.
On the same property, we were utilizing an open pole barn for storage and warehouse space. The pole barn was old, rusted and leaking from the roof. We rented a trailer office that was placed on cinderblocks to keep the business going and we had four people working inside the trailer office.
This is how we operated for the first five years before moving to a newly constructed building on Ironbridge Boulevard in Fort Myers. We realized that we could not stay in the same location and continue to grow the business. We purchased two acres of land and worked with a builder to construct a 7,500-square-foot metal building that houses materials and office space.
During our time in business, we navigated through two major hurricanes, and two minor hurricanes. In Florida, we are accustomed to the storms, so you learn to carry on.
- How did you motivate your employees during the difficult times?
You have to start by hiring good people. Hire the right people and put them in the right positions and they motivate themselves. If they like their jobs, you reduce your turnover and improve your employee satisfaction levels.
Before we sold our company, we had three sales representatives, and one of them had been with us for five years. The same is true of our installers. We never had a lot of turnover, especially in the last few years because we learned how to put the right people in the right place.
- You have recently sold your Superior Fence & Rail location. How were you able to grow your business so quickly? How were you able to sell your business for a profit to retire in just seven short years?
We credit it to a combination of a lot of factors. We got started on the right foot by buying into a franchise that we believed in and by working closely with our franchisor to get our business off the ground. We worked the system and ran the processes the way we were trained.
Our success is also attributed to hard work. Not only did we work hard, but we hired the right team, and they worked hard, too.
We also spent a lot of time networking in our community. We attended ribbon cuttings and other events and supported other businesses in the community. We also began donating and volunteering for several local animal shelters and humane societies. In 2023, we donated an entire truckload of items to the Gulf Coast Humane Society, and, during our tenure at Superior, we also donated money towards rebuilding a home for a person with a disability.
One of our favorite events was when we attended our first dinner with the Building Industry Association and bid money toward rebuilding that home. We stood up, and they asked who we were. When we told the room that we represented Superior Fence & Rail, most people began clapping and nodded their heads because they knew us from the community. It’s nice to be recognized for your contributions.
- What advice would you give entrepreneurs who are looking to buy a franchise rather than start a business from scratch?
First, make sure that franchising is something that fits your personality. If you are a traditional entrepreneur who likes to invent new ways of doing business or if you’re at your best when you are creating new products or services, then you might not be a good fit for a franchising business.
Franchises work because the franchisor has spent years developing the processes that lead to success. If you want to run your own business but want help to learn the ropes, a franchise is the perfect fit. You have built-in mentors at the corporate level, peers to lean on in other franchise owners, and tried-and-true processes to follow.