Who Not How- Franchisee Growth Depends on It
Who Not How: The Franchise Owner’s Secret to Scaling Up
When David Potts, a former teacher-turned-franchise owner, scaled USA Insulation to $10 million in revenue, he didn’t do it by learning to love bookkeeping, HR compliance, or SEO. In fact, the turning point came when he finally stopped trying to do everything himself.
“I made a list of everything I hated doing, or was doing badly,” David said. “And as soon as I could afford it, I hired people better than me to take it over.”
That’s the principle behind Who Not How—a mindset every franchisee needs if they want to grow beyond self-employment.
Want to learn more about David Potts?
Stop Fixing Your Weaknesses
Traditional thinking says: “You’re struggling with X, so learn how to do it better.”
Franchise thinking says: “You’re struggling with X, so find the right person to own it.”
If your QuickBooks is a mess, you don’t need to take a finance course.
If your sales pipeline is dry, you don’t need to become a marketing expert.
If you’re burned out from running crews, you don’t need to “push through.”
You need a Who.
Find the Bottleneck, Then Fire Yourself From It
In David’s case, he was bottlenecked at $1.5M in revenue. The financial side was falling apart, and he was spread too thin. So he hired a full-time CFO/GM who could take over the financial and operational systems—and she’s still with him years later.
At $2.5M, he hired a full-time Director of Marketing.
At $5M, he promoted an installer to manage all the crews.
At $8M, he added HR to stabilize the culture and ensure compliance.
Each time he felt friction—he hired a Who and got out of the How.
This Isn’t Lazy—It’s Leadership
A lot of owners hesitate to hand things off. They think, “I can do it faster,” or “I’ll train someone once I have time.” That’s how you stay stuck.
Leadership is not about doing everything yourself. It’s about building a system of people who do their part better than you ever could.
You don’t scale by force of effort. You scale by force of delegation.
When to Use This Mindset
Ask yourself:
What do I dread doing each week?
What’s consistently falling behind or being done half-heartedly?
If I could only fix one thing in my business, what would free me the most?
That’s your bottleneck. That’s where you need a Who.
You Don't Need to Know How—You Need to Know Who
Franchises already solve a big part of the “how” by giving you a proven model, systems, and support. Your job is to identify your personal constraints and hire around them.
Whether you’re stuck at $300K or $3M, the way forward is the same:
Stop asking “How do I do this?” and start asking, “Who can do this for me?”
That’s how real owners think. That’s how David grew. And that’s how you’ll break through your next ceiling.
