Unit Franchise Focus Stephen Doell Edmonton Alberta Canada

Don’t be afraid to take a chance. If Stephen
Doell, a Stratus Building Solutions owner in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has
learned anything lately, it’s that you’ll never know what might happen,
simply by putting yourself out there. Hard work helps. Ambition. But even a
simple phone call, an email, or even a
reference from your sister-in-law can change your life.

In Doell’s case, it was a classified
ad.

But more on that in a moment.

For much of his career, Doell, 38, worked in
the oil and gas sector, in quality control. His responsibilities revolved
around making sure that the quality of manufactured pipes was up to industry
and government standards. He enjoyed his work, but what he didn’t relish was
how connected the oil and gas industry is to the global economy. When the
economy was up, boy, did he have a lot of work. When it was down, um, not so
much. He also didn’t love traveling for his business. It pulled him away from
his wife, Sarah, and their four children.

Which is how Doell found himself going into
the cleaning business.

Ah, you’re thinking.
I’m reading this on the Stratus Building Solutions website. So now
you’re going to tell us that he bought a Stratus Building Solutions franchise
and became a successful business owner.

Um, no. Well, not yet.

About six or seven years ago, according to
Doell, he and Sarah started earning extra money in the cleaning business.
Sarah’s aunt and uncle owned a cleaning business, and when they wanted to go
on vacation, the Doells did the cleaning for their clients that week. It
allowed Sarah’s aunt and uncle to take a break and not lose clients, and it
helped the Doells when the economy wasn’t faring well – and the extra cash
was also appreciated when the economy was healthy.

And then one day, Doell started helping a
friend renovate his office building. The friend needed a lot of odd jobs
done, like painting and plumbing, and Doell picked up some extra money by
tackling those tasks. Then he noticed another way he might make even more
revenue.

“I started looking at the job the cleaners
were doing, and I figured I could do a better job, and so I offered my
services to him,” Doell recalls.

Ah. So that’s when Doell bought a
Stratus Buildings Solutions franchise and became a business
owner.

Nope…not quite yet.

Doell kept his job in quality control, but in
his spare time, he ran his cleaning company. And the more he ran it, the more
he liked the idea of being his own business owner full-time. And so one day,
Doell posted an ad on Kijiji,
Canada’s number one classified ads site (for those who are unfamiliar with
it, it’s kind of the American version of Craigslist).

“I refer to it as putting a message in a
bottle,” Doell says. He was looking for more accounts and hoping to build up
his business. And about 90 days later, he received a phone call from Stuart
Erskine, the CIO of Stratus Building Solutions.

Ah ha! And then he bought a Stratus
Building Solutions franchise and became a business
owner.

Well, that’s close. Erskine wanted to know if
Doell would be interested in using his cleaning business knowhow and buying a
Stratus Building Solutions franchise. And long story made short: Doell liked
what he heard, and after he did his research, in August of 2018, he decided
to open up a Stratus Building Solutions franchise, and…?

Became a business
owner.

Yes. But not full-time.

Wait, what?

It wasn’t an immediate transition from quality
control guy in the oil industry to running his own business. For starters,
Doell had some clients with his part-time cleaning business, pre-Stratus, but
not enough to support his family full-time – and just because he bought a
Stratus Building Solutions franchise, that didn’t automatically give him a
full roster of commercial cleaning clients. So, for the next several months,
he didn’t quit his day job – and he ran Stratus for about four or five hours
in the evenings.

Not glamorous? Grueling? To be sure. But Doell
believed his hard work would pay off. “Whatever cleaning job was offered to
me, I took it,” he says.

He was cleaning everything from a bar to
cluttered little shops. “Everyone provides their own unique challenge,” Doell
observes. “Cleaning is cleaning, but every client or customer has a slightly
different idea about what’s the most important thing to be cleaned. They all
focus on something a little different.”

You have to spend some time figuring out
everybody’s cleaning personality, in a sense, Doell explains.

In December of 2018, he finally quit his oil
and gas job and switched to Stratus full time.

“We still didn’t have quite enough clients,”
he says. “But we were busy enough that I knew I needed to put all of my time
into one thing.” Plus, he wasn’t seeing his kids too much, except for his
oldest, their 18-year-old daughter Katelyn who would sometimes come on
cleaning gigs with her father and mother.

Mostly, though, Doell has had a part-time
cleaning crew helping him get things moving, and he has thoroughly enjoyed
being his own boss. “I have control of my own destiny, and I like that,” he
says.

So, he envisions his Stratus Building
Solutions growing into a far bigger company, one in which he could have teams
of cleaning crews working under him? Well, he could do
that, but, no. At some point, Doell says he’ll sell his Stratus Buildings
Solution franchise.

What? Already? C’mon. What sort of
crazy inspirational story is this?

It’s actually very inspiring. Doell thinks his
message in a bottle has been answered – and then some. The Stratus corporate
office was so impressed with him, they invited Doell to run the Edmonton,
Alberta office.

“Right now, we have 12 franchisees, including
me,” Doell says.

He eventually plans on selling his business
since he’ll have more than enough work on his plate. “But I’ll still be
within the Stratus family,” Doell says. “I love the business model and the
people in the office.”

So what advice would he give people who are
thinking of buying a franchise, whether Stratus or something else?

“Don’t be afraid to take a chance,” Doell
says. “Sometimes people get afraid of things. They’re afraid they won’t make
enough money. They’re afraid of doing something different. But take a chance.
If I hadn’t written that note in the bottle and put it out there, I never
would have had a response.”

He admits he still marvels at how that
classified ad changed his life. He also is grateful that he picked up the
phone when Erskine called.

“I didn’t recognize the number,” Doell says.
“I thought it might be a robo-call.”

Are you ready to answer the call and begin
your path towards entrepreneurship, just like Stephen?   Does a
unit franchise opportunity with Stratus Building Solutions sound like it
could be right for you?   Learn more about unit franchise
opportunities in the United States and Canada at Stratus
Unit Franchising.