When they began their franchise search, Robby and Sandi Armstrong came equipped with extensive backgrounds in sales, marketing and business development. Robby also had felt the itch to continue his family’s legacy of business ownership. After all, he and his wife’s skills were perfect for such an endeavor. By Brianna Bohn
When they began their franchise search, Robby and Sandi Armstrong came equipped with extensive backgrounds in sales, marketing and business development. Robby also had felt the itch to continue his family’s legacy of business ownership. After all, he and his wife’s skills were perfect for such an endeavor.
“A franchise recruiter reached out, and we looked at 15 different concepts, with City Wide Facility Solutions being one of them. After doing our due diligence, we knew that City Wide had the right culture and business model for us,” Robby said.
Now, over eight years since they opened City Wide Facility Solutions of Southeastern Wisconsin, the husband-and-wife team are top performers, impacting thousands of people in their community while building a multimillion-dollar business that shows no signs of slowing down.
While the Armstrongs appreciate the recurring compounding revenue stream, they shared the most rewarding part of being City Wide franchisees: Their growth directly impacts the communities they serve.
“We love the ripple effect of working with small owner-operator contractors,” Sandi shared. “We had a contractor come in who was making $600 a month trying to find their own contracts. At their peak working with us, they were doing about $60,000 per month. It significantly changes their lives, their employees’ lives and the scope of what they thought they could accomplish with their business.”
Also, according to the Armstrongs, as a result of City Wide’s resilient concept, recurring revenue model and ongoing support, they were able to double their business during the pandemic.
“We have the benefit of being a small, tight-knit organization with a huge backbone and support team. We’ve become a world-class organization, and every year all aspects of the business improve,” Sandi said.
Franchise owners are expected to be active operators of their business – the Armstrongs have worked plenty of 24-hour shifts since opening in 2014 – but with hard work comes more freedom and flexibility, especially as franchisees grow their teams and scale their business strategically.
“We couldn’t have done any of this without everybody we’ve hired. They continue to be willing to do whatever it takes for their teammates and the business,” Robby said.
Brianna Bohn