Description

🎙️ Guest:
Jacob Horton, Multi-Unit Franchisee at Scenthound and Co-Founder of SBA Source

📍 Location:
Birmingham, AL & Nashville, TN

If you’re a multi-unit franchisee considering selling your locations, get in touch https://www.fdcapitalgroup.com/ 

Interested in buying a franchise? Reach out here: https://www.frandawgs.com/buy-a-franchise 

Jacob Horton went from PowerPoint presentations to puppy baths, and built the #1 Scenthound location in the country.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why Jacob left nuclear engineering and consulting to dive into franchising

• The turning point that made him abandon a traditional acquisition search in favor of building a pet grooming empire

• How he evaluated over a dozen franchises before choosing Scenthound

• The systems he built to drive over 1,000+ active members at a single location

• What he’s learned from scaling to 6 stores (on the way to 20)

• How a homegrown call center and sales CRM became his unfair advantage

• His new startup: SBA Source, the software platform simplifying SBA loans for franchisees

Jacob’s business is proof that boring, recurring revenue models—paired with operational excellence—can create serious compounding growth.

• Opened 6 Scenthound locations in 3 years

• Averaging $185K in four-wall EBITDA per location

• Built a 5-person in-house sales team + call center

• Generated 1,000+ members at his top location

• Recently launched SBA Source to fix the broken SBA loan process

• SBA Source
• Jacob's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-lee-9803a480/ 

• [00:00] Jacob’s journey from nuclear engineering to franchising

• [06:00] Why he abandoned the ETA path

• [09:00] The business case for pet grooming (vs. daycare)

• [13:30] Building trust and loyalty through health-focused grooming

• [15:00] Opening a Scenthound: real estate, pre-sale, and staffing strategy

• [19:00] How many members to break even (and to thrive)

• [20:00] The secret weapon: a custom-built call center + CRM

• [27:00] Evolution of store ops: from 2 units to 6 and beyond

• [33:00] His labor strategy—and how he built the best grooming team in town

• [39:00] The playbook for local marketing + Facebook lead gen

• [44:00] Why he started SBA Source and how it works

• [54:00] His long-term goal: 20 stores + building a legacy