2009 30 under 40 winners

Dan Frey, 33

Founder/CEO, The Glass Guru, Roseville, Calif. 

With 25 markets under his belt and big plans for The Glass Guru in the coming years, Frey knows his personal experiences with the flagship company will transfer to new franchisees. “The key to having a successful franchise is to have a successful model, so we had to prove it and show success ourselves before we could sell it to others. We’ve learned, for example, where to most effectively spend our marketing budget. We’ve tried 10 to 15 avenues in the last few years. We stuck with the things that worked and gave up on the things that didn’t, but it was a costly process in the meantime. It’s one of the things we’ve passed on to our franchisees so they don’t have that learning curve.”

Besides a strong marketing foundation, The Glass Guru franchise model stresses good customer service, Frey says. “We’ve found that by being willing to go just a little bit more than the other guy, even just showing up on time, amazes our customers. We make sure we treat our customers the way we would want to be treated as customers.”

What started as a glass restoration concept evolved when Frey recognized he was passing up a lot of business when the glass he was servicing was beyond repair. “By our second year, we evolved into a full-service concept. We do everything from the restoration to replacing glass, windows, showers enclosures, mirrors and screens.” This rapid evolution inspired Frey to begin franchising his model. “We built this model ourselves in such a short time, we thought we were in a position to teach others what needed to be done.”

One-word description of the glass industry: Evolving
One-word description of self: Determined
Career history: 2004-present, founder/CEO, The Glass Guru, Roseville, Calif.; 2000-04, project manager, OmniCorp Financial Group (no longer in business)
Education: 1993-99, attended University of California, Davis, Calif., pursued economics, sociology, organizational studies
Diversions: Gardening and “Jeeping”
Family: Wife, Joy; three dogs and a cat
Favorite book: “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand
If a movie were made about your life, who would you cast to play you? “I would say Ed Norton. I just watched the Illusionist and he was great.”
Connections: 198 Cirby Way, Suite 120, Roseville, CA, 95678, 916/786-4898, dan@theglassguru.com, www.theglassguru.com

 
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