Running a Seasonal Franchise Can Also Mean Time Off

F rom January to April, Larry and Kryssi Contreras of The Colony, Texas, spend long days supervising the 300-plus employees who work in their 10 Liberty Tax Service franchises in the Dallas suburbs. But in the summer they don't work at all, and travel the country instead.

While most franchises requireafull-time commit- ment, others�like lawn care, pool maintenance, mosquito abatement and tax prepara- tion�allow franchisees to work other careers during the downtimes, or not. Before 2008, Kryssi Contreras was an insurance adjustor and Larry rananumber of businesses, "until I opened my own tax- preparation office and did horribly," Mr. Contreras says.

"We had a five-year lease, so I looked for a franchise in the field and found Liberty. That changed our lives in ways that are incredible." The Contrerases signed on as co-owners of their Liberty Tax office, divided tasks�"Larry is all marketing," Ms. Contreras says, "and I'm great with numbers,"�and expanded by opening one or two more offices each year. "We spend four months working hard, four months enjoying the summer and four months revving up for the next tax season," says Mr.

Contreras. "It was hard to build but, once you have employees trained, your business almost runs on autopilot." FUN AND LUCRATIVE Martha O'Gorman, chief marketing officer for Liberty Tax, in Virginia Beach, Va., says the tax-preparation franchise has 1,900 franchisees, with about 900 single-unit operators; the others have at least two offices and the largest has 58.

"Our biggest challenge," she says, "is to get people to under- stand that preparing taxes can be a lucrative and fun business.

When you becomeaLiberty Tax franchisee, you don't prepare clients' taxes yourself.

You hire and train office supervisors and tax preparers to do the work. Your job is to monitor the business, make sure your store opens at the right times and set reasonable rates for your services." Because the franchise is busiest from October to April, many franchisees, she says, have second careers, selling real estate or health insurance, or operating businesses that are most active in the summer months.

Miles Lanacone, who has a single Liberty Tax franchise in Naples, Fla., goes to baseball games. "You can't get rich running one store," Mr.

Lanacone says, "but you can make a middle-manager's income. My wife and I had sold a business in the construction field andIwas looking for something else to do when I met John Hewitt, Liberty's founder and CEO. I never would have thought of preparing other peoples' taxes for a living, but John was pretty convincing." Mr. Lanacone opened his office in 2007, works eight- or nine-hour days seven days a week during tax season, and spends a few afternoons in his tax center during the summer, unless he and his college-age son have tickets for the Miami Marlins or the Tampa Bay Rays.

"Owningaseasonal franchise affords the opportunity to be somewhat semi-retired," Mr.

Lanacone says.

When new franchisees ask about summer businesses, Liberty Tax salespeople often refer them toafranchiser neighbor, Mosquito Joe, also in Virginia Beach, and so far five couples have purchased both concepts, Ms. O'Gorman says.

Like preparing taxes, eradicat- ing mosquitoes is not high on most people's lists of reward- ing careers, jokes Kevin Wilson, Mosquito Joe's chief executive officer.

Mr. Wilson says he was a partner inaprivate-equity firm when an independent mosquito- abatement company came to him for advice. "I saw a real opportunity there," he says, and left the PE firm to run Mosquito Joe. Mr. Wilson says he was attracted by the unit economics.

"This is a low investment (about $75,000), high-margin business with which franchisees can usually reach cash-flow break- even at the end of their first year," he says.

Mosquito Joe franchisees are not expected to kill mosquitoes themselves, Mr. Wilson says.

"All new owners must go through training and learn all aspects of the job, but we are looking for people who are good at running a business, who can hire a team of techni- cians and marketing people to recruit customers. Our motto is, ‘Outside IS Fun Again,' and homeowners who use our service once tend to stay on as steady customers." Mosquito Joe has 85 franchi- sees keeping the outdoors bug-free in 112 territories across 23 states. Mr. Wilson says about half of established franchisees use the franchise as their major source of income.

TIME TOGETHER Kurt and Melissa Godwin, of Howard County, Md., for example, started their fran- chise in the Baltimore/ Annapolis area in 2013. "When I married Melissa, she had worked for 25 years as a state government employee," Mr.

Godwin says, "andIwas a commercial pilot. It was a second marriage for both of us and flying airplanes takes you away from home. We were looking for something we could do together whenIran across Mosquito Joe on the Internet.

Melissa isamosquito magnet and whenIasked her about killing mosquitoes for a living, she said, ‘Tell me more.'" The Godwins began with one truck and two technicians. Kurt Godwin kept his day job while Melissa set up mosquito-control appointments from their home.

Today, their customer-service function operates from a rented office and they have five trucks, 10 employees and scores of customers whose yards they spray every 21 days, from April through October. Mr. Godwin has stopped flying airplanes and "in November and December, we head for the islands, the Virgin Islands in particular," he says.

If you, too, dream of spend- ing part of the year traveling or watching baseball games, you might also consideraseasonal franchise, but don't expect to take time off right away. "One of the challenges ofaseasonal franchise," Mr. Wilson says, "is that you don't have a full year to build your client base. It can take two or three years to replace your current income.

We tell franchisees not to drop their other jobs right away." Couples make ideal candidates for seasonal franchises, he says, because one spouse can keep his or her year-round job while the other one launches the franchise.

"Although Melissa andIare working harder now, it's more rewarding," Mr. Godwin says.

"Providing a living for our employees makes us feel really good and we are building something for ourselves." "I had always worked full-time jobs," says Ms.

Contreras, "and never knew this other life existed. Now I can't imagine going back to working year round."

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