A vision to help communities and families thrive.

“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds their wings on the way down,” says Daniel Hayes, certified franchise consultant and founder of Hundred Acre Consulting in Vermont. Part life coach, part business consultant, Hayes helps families and individuals realize their financial and lifestyle goals through business ownership. For him, that means franchises.

“It just makes sense. Everything about that business is designed to help you be successful,” Hayes explains. “It’s a great way to be in business for yourself but not by yourself.”

Hayes knows the important role entrepreneurs can play in building strong communities. He spent nearly 30 years as the Executive Director of nonprofits, and helping municipalities revitalize their communities by attracting nonprofits and small businesses to their areas. He recalls helping countless towns rethink ways to bring businesses into empty commercial spaces, breathing fresh life into their local economies. “Small businesses are the backbone of any community. They’re the shiny penny on Main Street. They build trust between the town’s businesses and its people,” he effuses. “You put a non-profit in a neighborhood and property value goes up, crime goes down, grades get better. People start to love where they live.”

“Now I just do it at a smaller level. Instead of helping towns, I help families.”

Inspiration struck Hayes in 2008 when, sitting in the parking lot of a plaza, he noticed something: neat little stores lined up in a row, their snappy names and eye-catching branding drawing in foot traffic. “Look at these niche stores,” he mused to himself. “I bet you a dollar to donuts these are franchises.” Hayes became fascinated with the concept of franchising and began studying the industry—its scope, governance, and projected growth.

Hayes explains that franchisees receive a working model to start and sustain a business in exchange for an up-front investment. Franchisers provide training, mentoring, branding, operational instruction, and more to help the business run. Hayes says the industry is highly regulated–both owners and sellers are required to work within their contract and guidelines in the federal Franchise Disclosure Document. “Congress took a hold of the FDD and turned it into 23 points of comparison that any layperson could understand,” Hayes explains. “They wrote it to protect the company and the franchisees. So, you could look at a convenience store or a pizza shop or a tax preparation business and compare them equally.”

By 2014, and with the encouragement of his wife, Hayes redirected all his efforts to franchise consulting. His vision today is to help communities thrive, so people feel good about where they live. “I do not sell franchises,” he explains. “I empower people and businesses to find one another, more like a broker or a matchmaker. If I can help somebody find a way to make their life better, and if they want to employ people too, Holy Cow!”

Hayes starts by asking a client not what they want to do, but how they want to live. He helps them prioritize what’s important to them in their lifestyle, how hands-on they do or do not want to be with the business, how much income they need to bring in, and whether they are well-suited to the responsibilities of a franchisee. Only then does he recommend a possible business. “What the business does—what the manufactured product is—is about the last thing I think about when it comes to the franchise industry.”

Some of Hundred Acre’s clients are disenchanted or unemployed corporate workers looking for a career change. Some are stay-at-home moms looking for a business they can run from home. Many are thinking long-term about transitioning to supplementing their income in retirement. “It runs the gambit,” Hayes explains. “For the past couple of years, most of my clients are looking for absentee businesses that they can own and still keep their day job.”

In one instance Hayes helped a veteran who, upon transitioning back to civilian life, quickly realized his new home and job were not a good fit. Hayes helped him identify what was most important to him in a lifestyle, then presented him with options. Within three weeks, his client was closing on a home in a community much better suited to his needs and opening two laundromats that guaranteed passive income in his new market.

Hayes approaches his work with the same joy and satisfaction he encourages others to achieve. “I’m always in a good mood. I like to help people have fun and enjoy [their lives],” Hayes explains. “If I keep my karma good, everything is fine.”

Life has only gotten better in northern New England. In the fall of 2020, Hayes and his wife sold their hundred-acre farm—hence the name--in upstate New York. When asked what drew them to Vermont, Hayes replies, “We have family here and I have always been fascinated with Montpelier. It seems to me, the most self-sustaining town in the world.” They made an offer on a property the same day and have never looked back. “We fell absolutely in love with it the moment we saw it. It’s like being on a working vacation. I don’t have enough years left in life to get bored of the beauty I see every day here in Vermont.”

For more on Hundred Acre Consulting, visit their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories.