Ethical Community Growth: The Future of Innovative Franchise Models with Nick Ridgway

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:00)
Oh, it's on the screen.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:05)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:18)
Well, come back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here again with my co-host Tullio Siragusa, and we've got a special guest who we'll introduce in a moment.
So franchising has long been a powerful pathway into business ownership, and it gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to build locally while drawing from proven systems, brand support, training, and operational experience. But as businesses continue to evolve, the future of franchising cannot be just about expansion. It must also take into consideration innovation and topics like community trust and long-term responsibility and ethics. And in essential home services, that responsibility becomes especially clear. When someone is inviting a service professional into their home, they aren't simply buying a repair or installation, they're placing trust in a company to show up with skill, honesty, reliability, and ideally care. And so today, we are exploring ethical community growth and the future of innovative franchise models.
And we're going to talk about how franchising can create opportunity for entrepreneurs and how systems can support responsible growth and how local service businesses can strengthen the communities they serve. Tullio, introduce our guest today.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:44)
Absolutely. Our guest today is Nick Ridgway, Vice President of Franchise Development for Service Experts.
Nick leads the growth and expansion of the Service Experts Franchise Program, helping prospective owners evaluate opportunities in the essential home services industry. He brings more than 10 years of franchising experience across support, development and leadership, and has helped more than 400 entrepreneurs move forward, move toward successful business ownership. At Service Experts, Nick helps entrepreneurs leverage proven systems, national brand support, operational excellence and local service opportunities to build sustainable businesses rooted in trust and community impact. Nick, it's a pleasure to have you. Welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast.

**Nick Ridgway** (2:37)
Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you both.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:40)
Yeah. So Nick, let's start kind of on that topic area, ethical community growth and the future of innovative franchise models. What does ethical community growth mean to you in the concept and context of franchising?

**Nick Ridgway** (2:55)
I think it really kind of goes back to it's our why in franchising.
Home service businesses are really built on a foundation of community involvement and built with a face to the organization. If you look at any home services, most of them are regional or even local players. And that was one of the reasons we wanted to play on that because people, like you said, are allowing them in your home. They need to build a foundation of trust and a high level of trust. Because once they have that service, they continue to use it. So it's really a driver for us to define the right franchisees to help build that ethical local community and be a part of it.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:30)
Can you give people a little background on like the types of businesses that, and the types of services you do in people's homes?

**Nick Ridgway** (3:38)
Yeah. So we're an HVAC company. So we do HVAC repair and replacement, in-home air quality, as well as in some markets, the franchise owners will do water heaters. As a full scope, we do plumbing as well as electrical as well. So we have a full scope of services ranging from airflow to water to the electricity in the home.

**Stephen Sakach** (4:02)
Yeah. I know, like as my house, you're always looking for that person you can trust, that plumber that you can trust, that is not going to upsell you on something, or you've always shopped around that. So you guys, you really concentrate on that ethical approach to doing what you do in people's homes.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:26)
Yes.

**Nick Ridgway** (4:26)
We have a tagline, it's trust the experts.
That's what we focus on, it's in our name as a brand, it's what we promote as a brand. We want to make sure that we're helping customers do the right thing, and do what's needed to be able to fix the problem, whatever the problem may be, but give them affordable solutions to make sure that we're going the extra mile as well. That we're comparable in cost, but also giving value adds, so build high level of trust, high standards in terms of the services delivered, and then make sure that we have repeat touches to build that relationship and trust in the customer long term.

**Tullio Siragusa** (5:03)
Nice. I consider myself pretty handy, but there's certain things that will never touch plumbing.