July 16, 2025 • 43 mins
Alka Sharma introduces April Porter, who shares her entrepreneurial journey and transition from law to entrepreneurship. They discuss the challenges faced during this shift and April's strategies for maintaining self-awareness and preventing burnout. The conversation provides a comprehensive guide to obtaining a business license and explores the essentials of scaling a business while maintaining profitability. April warns of the dangers of premature business expansion and emphasizes the need to balance customer feedback with business decisions. They discuss selecting the right attorney and business coach. April offers her top three life lessons, and the episode concludes with closing remarks and information on how to connect with her.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Amazing April, thank you so much for joining ustoday.
Oh, I'm happy to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, so good to see you.
Well, I'm really excited to get to I know wechatted, but I'm just excited to get to know
you a little bit more, just chat about yourjourney.
You've got an incredible journey, so I'm justexcited to get going with this because I know
(00:23):
the viewers will wanna hear more about yourstory.
Welcome everyone.
Welcome to another episode of Ask the Expertspodcast.
So truly grateful to have each and every one ofyou who join us each and every week and we are
so grateful.
But without you the viewers, there would not bea show.
So I want you to, if you have gotten value fromthe show, from the amazing guests that we've
(00:48):
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I want you to click the link in the box below,subscribe to the channel so that in this way it
will really help us to bring other amazingguests and bring value to you as well.
So I am looking forward.
Our guest today is the amazing April Porter.
(01:09):
But April Porter, she has such an amazingjourney that is just incredible.
If you are wanting to start a business, if youare a startup, you are looking to start a
business, how to, you know, the day to dayoperations of a business, what is required,
what you need to do, and you want to get into afranchise.
(01:30):
Well, April is the expert who will talk to youand guide you through as to what is required.
So let's get started.
April is a former prosecutor who turned afranchisee phenomenal.
She has scaled and expanded into four locationswho have done and performed incredibly well.
(01:53):
April is the founder of Secret Source.
Now Secret Source is a business intelligentagency who is helping small business owners to
escape burnout, to help them to scale theirbusiness and also with structure.
Now April also helps small business owners whohave gone through failures and helping them to
(02:20):
navigate how they can start by thinking to be aCEO entrepreneur.
April, welcome to the show.
So good to see you.
Wonderful
to be here.
Thank you so much, Alka.
Well, I want you to, first of all, for theviewers to just get to know a little bit more,
(02:41):
if you can just tell us your backstory.
How did you get started?
You were a prosecutor.
So can you just share your story, and thenwe'll just take
it from there?
Sure.
Well, like most entrepreneurs, I didn't justwake up one day and decide, ah, I want to be an
entrepreneur.
It showed up in little ways throughout my wholelife, that entrepreneurial spirit.
(03:05):
And so while I chose to go to law school andultimately to become a prosecutor, I was never
content just working that nine to five.
So I always had a side gig, right?
I had, I was some, I was selling skincare.
I was one of the top recruiters in the companyfor sale for skincare and sales.
I was teaching fitness or dance on the side.
(03:27):
So I always had these little things I wasdoing.
And ultimately I was a prosecutor for about tenyears.
I was very, very good at my job.
And the unfortunate thing, when you're a goodprosecutor, that means you get really horrible
cases because those people don't wanna pleadguilty and they and the office needs you to go
to trial and and attempt to prosecute them.
(03:48):
So I was dealing with heavy subject matter on adaily basis, sexual assaults, child abuse,
homicides, and domestic violence.
That was my caseload.
And it, after ten years, I really just wantedto do something lighter.
I wanted to feel more like my happy go luckycheerleader self again.
And saw that I had some friends across thestate.
(04:11):
I live in Missouri.
So on the other side of the state is KansasCity.
And they'd opened a kickboxing gym.
I found out it was a franchise.
And I had already been teaching fitness.
I knew a lot about fitness and I had theentrepreneurial spirit.
So rather than go get a boring attorney jobreading contracts somewhere, I decided to take
a risk and to jump into franchise ownership asa kickboxing owner, gym owner.
(04:36):
And when I did that, I took a look at the lifethat I wanted and realized if I were to just
open one location, basically, I would be buyingmyself a job.
And so I would have to open multiple locationsif I were to build a life of what I call SWAG,
which stands for sanity, wealth, and gratitude.
(04:57):
And I believe that's what we're all looking foras business owners is a life of sanity, wealth,
and gratitude.
And so, so I, I agreed to open three.
I had no idea how to be a business owner.
I thought the franchisor was going to teach mehow to be a business owner.
And when I got in, I found out that that'sactually not what franchisors do.
They teach you how to be an operator of aparticular business model.
(05:21):
And so, and so, after three months, followingthe franchisors operational training, we were
profitable.
But I knew I had two more locations open and Icouldn't be in three places at once.
So I knew I had to figure out how to scale andhow to do it differently.
And so I started investing in different coachesand ultimately did figure that out and grew to
(05:43):
four locations in less than three years.
And ultimately, out of 800 locations betweenCanada and The US, I was the only franchisee
out of 800 to own four or more locations, havethem all consistently performing in the top 20%
revenue earners across across the brand and notwork in my gyms.
I was the only one.
(06:03):
So Incredible.
Yeah.
So that's what got everybody talking, right?
Everyone wanted to know, well, what what isgoing on?
Because we're running the exact same business.
The model and how we were required to run itwas exactly the same for everyone.
So, so everybody was like, I don't understand.
Why does your life look that way with thismodel and my what, my life, I'm working sixty
(06:24):
to eighty hours a week.
I'm not making that type of money.
Like, what are you doing differently?
And that's when I really identified thefranchise gap, which is that space between what
the franchise or provides and the life that thefranchisee wants to live.
And the only way to fill that gap is throughbusiness intelligence and it's business
intelligence that the franchise or can'tprovide because it requires way more, resources
(06:50):
than makes sense for the franchise or as abusiness owner to invest in and to provide to
franchisees.
And because most of that transformation comesfrom within the franchisee, it's a different
way of thinking.
It's a different way of acting.
It's a different way of reacting emotionally tothings of leading people and how you
communicate.
And all of those things are nuanced and they'redifferent for every single person.
(07:12):
And so you have to get outside coaching andeducation and feedback on what you're doing in
order to make those behavioral changes thatactually take you from being an operator into
being an elite entrepreneur.
Absolutely.
100%.
Now, you know, it is also fascinating
(07:33):
as, you know, we start with one career path,but that one career path can change.
But what is incredible, if you can just sharewith us also the steps that you had taken.
So you started from the courtroom into theboardroom, but what was that mindset?
What was that mindset shift that was thedefining moment for you where you said, okay,
(07:58):
I'm going to leave a law, I'm going to takethat risk, and I am going to venture into a
business?
What was that mindset shift like for you?
Well, like most people,
as humans, we're extraordinarily motivated bythe avoidance of pain.
Even more so than the pursuit of pleasure.
We are motivated by the avoidance of pain.
(08:19):
So, like most people transitioning from a acareer into business ownership, I was more
focused on escaping my job than I wasnecessarily of how far I could go when I made
that initial decision.
And the reason that for me it was a big shiftis, yes, I had the heavy subject matter, but I
(08:39):
loved being a prosecutor.
I love fighting for justice.
I love fighting for the underdog.
I will stand up for anybody that I feel isbeing mistreated or unfair is being treated
unfairly.
What cases were you, prosecuting on?
What cases?
It
was sexual assaults, child abuse, homicides.
So, it was the victims, the most vulnerablevictims.
(09:00):
And I loved it, but my working environment, myoffice environment was absolutely toxic.
I had, like my direct supervisor, it felt likeevery day she went out of her way to just
demean people and make you feel terrible.
And so working in that environment combinedwith the heavy subject matter, it was just, it
(09:26):
was so, it created such a heavy weight on me.
It made me feel like not who I was meant to be.
And I remember driving into work, it takes meabout thirty minutes from my home to where I
worked.
And I remember the closer I got to the office,the more my stomach would hurt.
Right.
Yeah.
And so making that shift and taking on the riskof business ownership, was it a big risk?
(09:52):
Yes.
But the why I was willing to risk it all wasbecause of the position I was in in my career.
I didn't want to feel that way anymore.
I wanted to escape that pain and have a life ofjoy, right?
So that was, that was the shift in, in thatmoment.
And then other shifts happened along the way,of course, but that was the big one in order to
(10:15):
the catalyst to becoming a business owner.
Exactly.
And becoming a business owner, I mean, it'snever an easy ride.
A lot of people assume, you know, that paththat they wanna go on is easy, but it never is.
But if you're willing, you know, put in thework.
You gotta put in the work, whether it's, youknow, as a startup, a franchisee, you've got to
put in the work so that you're going to get themost out of it.
(10:38):
If you think you want to start a business andit's going to be easy, it never is.
And I think then,
right?
Oftentimes it's not.
Well, here's what I think.
I think people don't actually wanna be businessowners because they don't know what that means.
They don't know what that looks like.
They don't know how what their life will reallybe like as a business owner.
What people want is what they perceive as thebusiness owner life.
(11:01):
Right?
It's the same reason that people would go,like, study education in college, not because
they truly wanted to be a teacher, but becausethey wanted to have summers off.
Right?
And I'm not saying that's true of everybody whohas a major in education, but there is a good
portion of people who say, I want the job whereI have summers off, and so I'm going to be a
teacher.
And that's, I think, true in businessownership.
(11:24):
And many people don't actually want to do theactivities that a business owner has to do,
especially in creative businesses, right?
I mean, if you're going into business and let'ssay you're going into a bakery because you love
baking, Well, chances are, if you love bakingand decorating cakes, you don't love accounting
and you don't love bookkeeping, but you have todo that if you're going to run a business.
(11:47):
Right?
You may not even like marketing.
You might have accounting.
Somebody might go in to a business wherethey're a tutor.
They love the hands on tutoring of the kids,but they have zero interest in putting their
face on social media or doing a video or doingthe accounting, right?
Or managing employees.
That could be a headache for people.
And so the reality is, is a lot of people don'trealize they don't actually want to be a
(12:09):
business owner until they already are abusiness owner.
And that's a tough spot to be in, right?
Because you're, I mean, at that point in time,it's either sink or swim.
So either you got to figure out how to lovebeing a business owner and do the things that
need to be done to get you to at leastsustainability so that you have some sellable
asset that'll help you get out of being abusiness owner, or you learn to love it.
(12:33):
You learn how you can be creative and where theplaces are that you can make the impact you're
wanting to make, and then you hire and delegatethe other stuff, right?
So those are the two pathways that I seegetting, when people end up maybe disillusioned
by what it really means to be a business owner.
Absolutely.
(12:54):
Disillusioned.
I think that is the word because you know, ifyou haven't seen the reality or if you haven't
worked you know, with someone who runsbusinesses and you just assume that you wanna
get into business.
It could be a right business or wrong business,but failures, you'll learn from your failures.
What's the number one discipline?
(13:15):
What's the number one operational disciplinethat you have seen with small business owners
who have perhaps gone into a business?
What's really required of them before they evenstart a franchisee?
What is that number one discipline that cantake them to, you know, where they can go into
(13:36):
a successful business?
The number one thing is self awareness.
You have to have disciplined self awarenesswhere you're constantly challenging the way
that you're thinking and attempting to breakthose habits.
We all have subconscious programming.
(13:57):
We we've been through experiences our wholelife that have created neurons that dictate the
way that we operate 90% of the time when we'renot paying attention and so we all have
subconscious programming.
The only way to learn how to become a businessowner is to break those subconscious habits and
patterns that are in our actions that arekeeping us in the position of an employee
(14:22):
because that's what we've all been trained todo.
So, what where business owners and franchiseesgo wrong is they open the business and they
dive into the day to day doing.
All the little things that that feel urgent andthat feel like they have to get done.
Otherwise, I don't have a business.
That's not wrong.
But if you allow yourself to focus on thosethings and you're only looking at what what do
(14:43):
I have to do this afternoon?
What do I have to do tomorrow?
What's, you know, in the next couple of weeks,that's as far out as you're looking.
Well, then you're missing the long term visionof where you need to go for your business to be
successful.
And so you're not, you're not evencontemplating, but what are the bigger actions?
What are the long Yes.
Actions that I have to be taking for thatpayoff and so what happens is business owners
(15:05):
never get around to taking any of those biggeractions or to take or to doing the things that
have a longer gestation period, but ultimatelywill result in the highest return on that
investment.
They just keep doing the little day to daystuff, and then they get stuck, their revenues
plateau, they get burned out because they endup working sixty, eighty hours a week trying to
(15:28):
juggle all the balls.
And so you have to be very self aware.
You have to be challenging and saying toyourself all the time, should I be doing this?
Now, in my experience, too many business ownerstry to do that themselves.
And the reality is, is like, that's like,that's like trying to wipe dirt off your face
(15:49):
without a mirror.
Right?
It's like, is my face dirty?
I don't even know.
I can't see it.
Well, let me wipe over here.
I hope I got it.
Right.
You have to have somebody who understands howto identify what you're doing and what impact
it's having both in the short and long term andwhat and that already knows the pieces of the
(16:10):
puzzle that you're missing so that they can putyou on that trajectory faster.
In my opinion, business education should berequired if you wanna open a business.
Like, it's just like you have to, you have toget a driver's license to drive a car.
Right.
You know, yes, you have to get a businesslicense for most jurisdictions, but literally
you walk up to a counter and you pay a fee.
Like, there should be an educationalrequirement that you have to meet in order to
(16:35):
receive the business license because you'reputting your entire livelihood at risk.
Right.
And your families and and and it your mentalhealth because if you start to get worried
about failing, then you feel like you'redisappointing your your family.
It it bleeds into everything of your life andthat's why entrepreneurs have a thirty percent
(16:56):
higher rate of depression, divorce, andsuicide.
Is because of these ripple effects.
So, we could we could combat a lot of this ifwe just required an educational component and
helped people really understand one, whatthey're getting into and then two, how to
ensure a higher probability of of success,which is definitely with a coach or with
(17:23):
education continuously throughout your businessjourney.
Right.
I want to touch, I'm going touch on two thingsthat you mentioned.
One was burnt out and that is very, very commonwith business owners.
So let's talk about burnout.
What are the steps or the strategies or theprocesses for our viewers listening?
(17:46):
What can they do today that they can help tominimize on preventing burnout?
Well, the first thing I always tell my clientsis you have to come to terms with the fact that
there will always be more to do.
Yeah.
There will your your list of to dos will neveractually be done.
(18:07):
Exactly.
Yeah.
It'll never be done.
And we we fool ourselves into thinking like, mygosh, I have to get this one more email out
before I leave.
Right?
And you think it's gonna take you fifteenminutes and it takes you forty five.
And now you're late to your kid's soccer game.
And your spouse is upset and your child mightbe upset.
And even if they're okay with it, you feelguilty, you feel rushed, you feel overwhelmed.
(18:29):
Mhmm.
And all of that leads to burnout.
So you have to, number one, you have to come toterms with there's always going to be more to
do.
Yeah.
And most things can wait till tomorrow.
Yes.
Absolutely.
And I don't say that for procrastination.
That's not like don't like we don't wannaprocrastinate, but we don't want to fool
ourselves into thinking that it has to be donethis minute when it doesn't.
(18:52):
We need we wanna have a realistic view of that.
Mhmm.
So that's number one.
Number two, and I mean, honestly, you know, Iteach a whole six month takes us with all of
the different things we do to get over burnout,but or to ensure burnout doesn't happen ever
again in the future.
Right.
But these are some big ones.
Number two is you have to learn how to delegateand too many people are fooling themselves into
(19:15):
believing that they are delegating.
And the reality is there's a difference betweendelegation and effective delegation.
And
too often, if people are delegating, they'refilling up the time that they've freed up with
tasks that are not moving the needle forward,or they're filling it up with personal things
(19:38):
because they feel like they finally got abreath and now I can get some of my personal
stuff done.
So what happens is either one of thosescenarios, we've delegated stuff and now we
don't see our revenues move.
And when our revenues don't move, it tells us,oh my gosh, it's not working.
I have to take it back over myself in order tomake this work.
And so we, so then we stop trusting employees.
(20:00):
We don't understand how to develop employees.
We're taking everything back onto our ownplates.
And then there's no, there's no other end otherthan burnout at that point.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah, mean you've got to take time, you've gotto take the time to say, well you know what,
there is, as you said, there's always tomorrow.
And I was like that too, that you know, I hadto get everything done.
(20:24):
And then only recently did I begin to realize,no, wait a minute, it's my sanity, it's my
health and well-being that I have to, it'sparamount and I've got to take care of that
because there is always tomorrow.
And this is exactly what I do.
I just prioritize me time.
I prioritize what needs to get done.
And if I cannot get the other tasks done, I'mgoing leave it for tomorrow.
(20:48):
Know, just mark it off for tomorrow.
But that is exactly what we need to do,absolutely.
And the second point, you talked about businesslicense.
That is very, very crucial to start a businessthat they need to get a license.
Now let's talk a bit more about that because asa prosecutor, as a former attorney, you know
(21:09):
the legalities.
What are the steps that people can take to geta business license?
Is it some form of legal documents that perhapsthey might need to sign?
So can you just walk us through the stepsperhaps that to obtain a business license and
what what's required?
(21:30):
Well, it's I mean,
it does depend on jurisdictions.
And, I know you're in Canada, so I can't speakto what it's like in Canada, but typically
here, the first thing that you need to do isyou need to get your business registered with
the state as an entity, and you could have itregistered as an LLC, a sole proprietorship, a
partnership.
So there's a lot of different ways, and itdepends on your business structure.
(21:52):
Want to consult with your attorney and yourCPA.
Many times people go talk to their CPA aboutit.
Your CPA is going to give you advice as far ashow your taxes will work, but not necessarily
about liability protections.
Your attorney is going to give you advice as toliability protection.
So you need to talk to both of them about yourlong term goals for your business and short
term in order to figure out what the rightentity for you, but you've got to get your,
(22:14):
your entity signed up or registered.
You would also need to get a fictitious nameregistered.
You're not going to be doing business in thename of your LLC, that is the case in
franchises, you will have an LLC and thenyou'll do business under the brand name, which
is your fictitious name.
You would then also need to have, a EIN, whichis an employment identification number.
(22:38):
That is provided by the IRS here in The UnitedStates.
So you have to apply for that and get your EINnumber.
There is no cost to get an EIN number, but youdo have to register and go through that
process.
I'm assuming April, submit to interrupt, butI'm assuming EINs, probably like in Canada, but
it's like your SIN number.
Yeah, so I'm sure that they're very similar.
It's the way that your business is identifiednumerically for all of your governmental
(23:00):
filings and your employment law filings andthings like that.
So you
have to
have your EIN.
If you sell anything that sales tax is requiredto be collected on, then you have to also file
to get your sales tax registration.
So you have to do that.
Often you need to have an operating agreement.
Even if you are the only owner of the business,you need to create an operating agreement and
(23:25):
you will need the operating agreement andtheir, your LLC registration and your EIN
number to get a business bank account, which,which you would want to do as soon as possible.
So if you get those three things done, thefirst thing you do is go get your business bank
account, because when you go file for yourbusiness license, it's going to cost you money
and you want all of those expenses to come outof one bank account for accounting purposes and
(23:48):
to show that there's no commingling of funds.
So once your bank account signed up, then youcan go get your business license.
Typically you do that at your localmunicipality.
So here, I live in a city that's inside acounty, that's inside a state, that's inside
The United States.
So I have all levels of those governmentdepartments to work with.
So we go to my city clerk, file for thebusiness license there, and occasionally,
(24:14):
depending on your jurisdiction, you would alsothen need to file with your county and file a
business property assessment if property taxesare collected on business property.
So that would be the whole string of events.
Just to get your typical license andcertification set up in order to legitimately
(24:35):
run your business, That doesn't include any ofthe additional industry regulations that you
might have to comply with or otherregistrations you might have to do based upon
the industry of your business.
Right.
Exactly.
So there there's it's a long process.
It's a long process.
Absolutely.
So when it comes to scaling, let's talk aboutscaling the business.
(24:56):
Now, you know, you are a franchise operator andthe exit strategy is to scale.
You're helping small business owners to scale,escape burnout, scale with structure, scale
with ease so that they don't get burned out.
Most business owners do believe though, April,to scale a business you know that they have to
(25:20):
do it themselves.
Now it's a myth as to how they're going to growthe business.
How is it possible that?
Can you walk us through the possible steps togrow a business, then to scale the business?
What does it look like so that we can get apicture?
Well, it's a process.
(25:40):
And you have to look at it like a marathon, nota sprint.
And as our brains have been rewired for instantgratification because of social media and,
like, now our attention spans are shorter thanever, we're being rewired and programmed to
expect instant gratification.
And in business, that is not the case.
And so, that goes back to you have to deprogramthose subconscious patterns and habits out of
(26:03):
yourself if you're going to be successful.
But the process of of growth, growth comesfirst, then comes scaling.
So you first have to grow your business.
Ideally, you wanna grow your business so youhave at least a 10% profit in your business
before you consider scaling.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people makeis that they're they believe they're
(26:26):
profitable, and I say believe because theydon't know how to actually calculate their
money.
They don't know how to read their P and Ls.
They don't understand how to predict futureincome based upon forecasting through marketing
analytics and sales analytics and everythinglike that.
So you want to ensure, so people end up tryingto go to a second location, a second territory,
(26:47):
or an expansion too soon when they really don'thave the buffer of profit to support them
through that scaling process.
So the first goal you need to have is to get to10% profitability.
Next goal is to get to 15% profitability andearmark that additional 5% for reinvestment
(27:07):
back into the business for scaling.
Or higher, obviously.
But, but, but that's at the point when you're,you're financially stable enough to scale.
That doesn't mean you're operationally stableenough to scale.
So when you're talking about scaling thatrequires operationally, what it requires is it
(27:28):
requires two things, team and capital.
We talked about the capital.
The second part is team.
You have to have a team and that team needs tobe developed, not trained.
Too often we train a team, but we don't developthe in the business intelligence, the emotional
intelligence, the leadership skills of our teamto match our own.
(27:49):
So what I call that is an ownership cloningsystem.
You need to have an ownership cloning system inplace so that every employee in your business
is acting and reacting the way you would to anygiven situation.
So you want them to be mini mes of you.
When you have a team of mini mes, guess whatyou just did?
You just duplicated yourself.
So I mean, right now, if you could rub a genielamp and say, genie, give me four more, you
(28:13):
know, alcas to help me run my business.
Man, that would be like a business on steroids.
So you need to do that with people.
And when you have a team of mini mes and youhave the capital, you're ready to scale into
the next location and then you repeat and thenyou do it again.
Exactly.
So it's that winsome repeat, but April, youknow, that's such a great point because when I
(28:35):
was looking to open a studio, opened a fitnessstudio and eventually I did open a fitness
studio.
A lot of my clients and people would tell me,you should open another location.
And oftentimes when we listen to people, wemight say, well, yeah, oh, that's a great idea.
I think, you know, I will look into it.
(28:55):
And if you do then decide to open a second one,but then your first business hasn't really
taken off or it hasn't made the profits, ithasn't grown.
That's a red flag because then you're puttingcapital into the second business, but your
first business hasn't really taken off.
(29:16):
And when people would say that to me and Ithought, no, wait a minute, I have to grow my
first business in order to acquire a secondbusiness because otherwise it doesn't really
make sense.
You're just wasting money at the same timebecause how do Oh, you You're just wasting
money.
I mean, some of the biggest mistakes I seebusiness owners make are listening to
(29:37):
customers.
Right.
I see way too many people saying, well, I'mgoing to ask my customers, how much would you
be willing to pay for this?
What?
I mean, have you run a garage sale lately?
I ran a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.
I haven't done one in years, But I was like,every person who walks onto my driveway is
going to ask me if I would take less money forwhatever it is I'm selling.
Right?
I know that's going to happen.
(29:58):
So why would I ever ask a customer, what wouldyou be willing to spend on this?
They're never going to say, Oh, top dollar.
I'd spend top dollar for that.
Charge me more.
Right?
But it happens in all areas of our businesswhere customers say, oh my gosh.
This is great.
You should add another class on Saturdays.
And guess what's gonna happen?
That customer is gonna go to the lake onSaturdays, and they're gonna go to kids
(30:18):
baseball games on Saturdays.
No.
And occasionally, they might come in for aclass.
And you're gonna do that, and it spread yourbusiness and spread your bandwidth, stretch
your bandwidth farther, and they're not gonnashow up.
And you're gonna be like, you you asked forthis, and now here I am, burnout, spreading my
resources thinner, and I can't make up themoney for what it's costing me to do this.
(30:40):
I see it happen all the time.
And it just escalates as you get into, like,bigger and bigger moves, like your example of
being encouraged to open another location.
Exactly.
And I think, you know, those are, you know,business and life, they do collide, they go
together.
So it's almost like you're listening to yourgut intuition.
(31:01):
So whether, you know, it doesn't matter whatendeavor business you want to get into, but
listen to your gut.
If you feel that's not what you wanna do rightnow, don't do it.
And it's almost like, so what I'm trying to sayis as business and life they are together is
pleasing.
You know, it's pleasing people.
(31:22):
You will never, you know, we will never sort ofstop not pleasing someone because we think,
okay, maybe that's the right guide.
Maybe that's the right, what it's saying.
We do need to do it.
But listen to your gut because your gut willalways tell you, you know, where are the red
flags to avoid.
I mean, I
(31:42):
do agree with that for the most part, but Iwill say you have to be self aware first
because some people some people are verymotivated by flattery and so their gut is
telling them, oh, I'm I should probably do thisbut you have to know, am I motivated by
flattery?
Then, you have to do a check.
Sure.
Hold on a second.
Am I doing this because it's the right businessmove Or am I doing it because it feel like
(32:05):
somebody told me I was good at it and thatmakes me feel really good and now I feel super
motivated to do it.
That is true.
Yeah.
So so there are so we all have our own gaps.
We all have our own, you know, faults, for lackof a better word.
And if you're a people pleaser, that willsabotage you.
You succumb to flattery, that will sabotageyou.
(32:28):
You have to know where your weak links are, beaware of them, and then challenge yourself when
you're making a decision and say, okay, am Ibasing this decision on business data?
What data did you look at?
Yeah.
Right?
Or am I basing it on emotion, personalperception and emotion?
Anytime you're basing a decision on emotion,it's not the right decision.
(32:49):
It's not.
And when you're looking at data, you can lookat so many datas to like really compare, you
know, was that the right data?
What is, what's really relevant?
And if it's irrelevant data, well then it's notreally gonna, that's not the right one.
So going through, you know, data and reallysort of having that self awareness is the
(33:13):
crucial point.
My final question, April, this has been such anamazing conversation.
When the whole part about franchising, thewhole essence of starting a business really
requires that, it's the lifeblood that, youknow, we're putting our heart and soul into it.
So when you're getting into a business, you'vegot to make sure, you know, that all the boxes
(33:37):
are ticked As you said, you know, speak to yourattorney, speak to a lawyer, speak to What
would be the best lawyers that, you know,people can talk to when they're starting a
business?
Does it have to be a real estate lawyer or whatwhat type of client?
Well, it depends.
It completely depends on the business thatyou're going into.
(33:57):
Right.
Like, if you're a franchise, if you're gonnabuy a franchise, you need to find a franchisee
specific attorney.
Okay.
Too often people go to a business attorney orthey go to a franchise attorney, but that
franchise attorney represents both franchiseesand franchisors.
Franchisees and franchisors are two parties,opposite parties to a contract.
(34:18):
So you want an attorney who has its sole focuson fighting for franchisees and getting you the
very best terms in that contract and being ableto identify the red flags.
So, so that, that would be true if you'reotherwise you want a business attorney, not a
family law attorney said that they could helpme do an entity.
No, it's like a surgeon, right?
(34:40):
You would never go to an orthopedic surgeon whodoes knee surgeries all day long and say, yeah,
I want you to operate on my brain.
That would be a bad idea.
Right?
So same thing is true with attorneys.
You want to find the person who's a specialist.
Also, my recommendation would be that you findyour business coach first.
(35:00):
Now this can be, this can be difficult becauseyou don't know what you don't know.
You, you might, it's hard to judge the rightbusiness coach.
I would say, listen to more podcasts, get asense for how to, how, who's really intelligent
in this space and, you know, figure out there.
But get your business coach first, a reallygreat business coach.
(35:21):
They know all the right people.
They have all the connections.
Like, I have a suite of CPAs that I know everyperson I've ever sent them has never let me
down.
I have attorneys, same thing.
I will, I have, I know who's good.
I know who's bad.
I know exactly who to send people to.
My broker just, I have a client.
She has eight franchise locations.
(35:42):
I told her, you need to use my broker to sellthem.
He's going to get them sold for you.
She didn't listen to me.
She went with a different broker because thatbroker was connected to her franchise brand and
she thought it would be advantageous.
That broker did not bring her a single offer ina year and a half.
Oh, wow.
And so at the year mark, she started to engagewith my broker.
Once she got listed with my broker, she has hadfour offers in less than thirty days.
(36:04):
That's amazing.
Wow.
It's amazing.
But it's all about knowing the right people andlike really understanding how to tap into the
network of experience, right?
So you gotta find a very experienced firstpiece, the the cog, the first cog in the wheel
and then lean on that person and theirconnections to all their to to create your
suite of services and professionals to surroundyou with.
(36:26):
Exactly.
Well, you know, your connections, network isyour network and as they say, what would be
those steps to for people to, you know, goabout finding a business coach?
Where would they go?
Just Google or would it be by referrals?
What's the best way to find find a coach?
Oh, that's a really difficult that's adifficult thing to do quite frankly, because
(36:48):
there's the coaching industry is saturated andit's saturated with there are no
qualifications.
You just have to hang a shingle and say, hey,I'm a coach and I'm gonna teach you how to do
ABC.
So, the most important thing is to vet.
Vet, vet, vet.
So you want to talk to their former clients.
(37:10):
The hard part about that is they're never goingto give you connections to former clients that
were unhappy with them, So you want to look atthe reviews, any reviews you can get your hands
on.
If they have a podcast, you want to listen totheir episodes, find out if they, their advice
resonates with you.
What kind of guests do they attract?
Are they bringing in quality guests?
(37:30):
Those, I would avoid, I see way too many peoplego to their local chamber of commerce, strike
up a conversation with the person they'resitting next to who happens to be a business
coach.
They like the person as a person and they givethem their money.
That's what I did for my first coach.
It was a mistake.
They didn't know any more than I did.
Right?
So you have to be You have to look for someonewho's done it, who's exceeded your success,
(37:56):
who's actually done what you aspire to do.
Have they built a multi location company andsold it?
Yes.
That's who you want to learn from.
Right?
You don't want to learn from the person who gotthe business coaching certificate at a three
day course, which there are plenty out there,but hasn't really owned a business other than
that one.
Absolutely.
(38:16):
Walk the walk like they say and you know andbuild that proof that that someone has built it
so that you can also build.
My final question April, this has been soamazing and your journey and your experiences
that you have, you know, journey is just soincredible.
Could you share with us your three life lessonsthat, you know, our viewers can take away?
(38:42):
What are the three life lessons that havetaught you when you first started out in your
in your career as a as an attorney?
Share with us your your life lessons.
Three life lessons.
Well, I would say one is failure is a catalyst.
It's a catalyst to one of two paths, eitherdoubling your efforts or walking away.
(39:07):
And so you need to figure out what yourpatterns are failure if you plan to become a
business owner because there's a lot of failurein business ownership.
If you are someone who fails at something andthen abandons it and walks away, that's okay
because you're looking for something that'smore fulfilling.
But in business ownership, you've got to beable to double those efforts and make it work.
I would say swag is another lesson, sanity,wealth, and gratitude.
(39:33):
Yeah.
That lesson is all about the and is the mostimportant word in that phrase because it
signifies that you can have all three of thosesimultaneously.
Need to stop sacrificing your sanity trying toattain wealth or stop sacrificing your wealth
in order to feel grateful, right?
(39:54):
Order to feel not greedy and those things.
So you want to be able to have all of those atonce.
And then a final life lesson, and I can't saythis enough, the key to success is your
personal evolution.
You are the secret sauce.
It's not the latest marketing tactic.
It's not the business industry that you're in.
(40:16):
It's none of that.
It's you.
You are the secret sauce to whether or not yourbusiness succeeds.
And so you must invest in yourself first.
Absolutely.
Your business will only be able to grow as muchas you grow.
So if you're walking into your business withyour only experience having been an employee,
(40:37):
guess what?
Your business is going to stall out at thelevel that an employee is capable of growing
that business.
You have to evolve and become some you have tobecome more.
You have to become a manager mindset and thenan owner mindset and then an entrepreneur and
then an elite entrepreneur and then an eightfigure entrepreneur and then a nine figure.
(41:00):
You have to continue to invest in yourself andgrow and you're gonna pull your business behind
you.
That's how that works.
So if you're investing in everything andeveryone else first, then it's most likely not
going to work.
Absolutely powerful.
So great.
April, where can people connect with you?
(41:20):
Well, I have a podcast.
In fact, last week, our podcast was just namednumber 10 in the world on for business
strategy.
So I'd love it you came.
Thank you.
I'd love it if you came over and listened to uson the infinite franchisee show where I drop
business strategies for all small businessowners, whether you're a franchisee or not.
(41:40):
And then other than that, can findmesecretsauce.com and that's spelled
secrets0s.com where that's our academy and ourbusiness there.
And then if you want to find me on socials,just look for Ask April Porter.
Amazing.
That is so great.
Well, I hope, you know, each and every one yougot your pen and paper.
(42:04):
You got your notes out.
You were taking notes as to what April justshared with you as to when you are starting a
business and, you know, the franchisee.
You need to know you need to know what you'regetting into first of all.
So you have to connect with a, you know, talkwith your CPA, your attorney, who is going to
help you on this journey.
(42:24):
So make sure that you absolutely do heed andfollow, connect with April who is going to help
you and guide you in your business.
So we look forward to seeing you all on thenext episode of Ask the Expert, but in the same
time, we appreciate you.
And I'm going to ask you to subscribe to thechannel.
If you have found this conversation valuableand future episodes have been valuable to you,
(42:50):
then I want you to because this really helps usto bring value to you.
So I want you to go ahead and subscribe to thechannel.
But thank you so much to each and everyone whotuned into the episode and we look forward to
seeing you soon.
Bye for now.
Thank you so much April.
Appreciate your time.
Amazing April, thank you so much for joining ustoday.
Oh, I'm happy to be here.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, so good to see you.
Well, I'm really excited to get to I know wechatted, but I'm just excited to get to know
you a little bit more, just chat about yourjourney.
You've got an incredible journey, so I'm justexcited to get going with this because I know
(00:23):
the viewers will wanna hear more about yourstory.
Welcome everyone.
Welcome to another episode of Ask the Expertspodcast.
So truly grateful to have each and every one ofyou who join us each and every week and we are
so grateful.
But without you the viewers, there would not bea show.
So I want you to, if you have gotten value fromthe show, from the amazing guests that we've
(00:48):
had so far, I want you to go ahead andsubscribe to the channel.
I want you to click the link in the box below,subscribe to the channel so that in this way it
will really help us to bring other amazingguests and bring value to you as well.
So I am looking forward.
Our guest today is the amazing April Porter.
(01:09):
But April Porter, she has such an amazingjourney that is just incredible.
If you are wanting to start a business, if youare a startup, you are looking to start a
business, how to, you know, the day to dayoperations of a business, what is required,
what you need to do, and you want to get into afranchise.
(01:30):
Well, April is the expert who will talk to youand guide you through as to what is required.
So let's get started.
April is a former prosecutor who turned afranchisee phenomenal.
She has scaled and expanded into four locationswho have done and performed incredibly well.
(01:53):
April is the founder of Secret Source.
Now Secret Source is a business intelligentagency who is helping small business owners to
escape burnout, to help them to scale theirbusiness and also with structure.
Now April also helps small business owners whohave gone through failures and helping them to
(02:20):
navigate how they can start by thinking to be aCEO entrepreneur.
April, welcome to the show.
So good to see you.
Wonderful
to be here.
Thank you so much, Alka.
Well, I want you to, first of all, for theviewers to just get to know a little bit more,
(02:41):
if you can just tell us your backstory.
How did you get started?
You were a prosecutor.
So can you just share your story, and thenwe'll just take
it from there?
Sure.
Well, like most entrepreneurs, I didn't justwake up one day and decide, ah, I want to be an
entrepreneur.
It showed up in little ways throughout my wholelife, that entrepreneurial spirit.
(03:05):
And so while I chose to go to law school andultimately to become a prosecutor, I was never
content just working that nine to five.
So I always had a side gig, right?
I had, I was some, I was selling skincare.
I was one of the top recruiters in the companyfor sale for skincare and sales.
I was teaching fitness or dance on the side.
(03:27):
So I always had these little things I wasdoing.
And ultimately I was a prosecutor for about tenyears.
I was very, very good at my job.
And the unfortunate thing, when you're a goodprosecutor, that means you get really horrible
cases because those people don't wanna pleadguilty and they and the office needs you to go
to trial and and attempt to prosecute them.
(03:48):
So I was dealing with heavy subject matter on adaily basis, sexual assaults, child abuse,
homicides, and domestic violence.
That was my caseload.
And it, after ten years, I really just wantedto do something lighter.
I wanted to feel more like my happy go luckycheerleader self again.
And saw that I had some friends across thestate.
(04:11):
I live in Missouri.
So on the other side of the state is KansasCity.
And they'd opened a kickboxing gym.
I found out it was a franchise.
And I had already been teaching fitness.
I knew a lot about fitness and I had theentrepreneurial spirit.
So rather than go get a boring attorney jobreading contracts somewhere, I decided to take
a risk and to jump into franchise ownership asa kickboxing owner, gym owner.
(04:36):
And when I did that, I took a look at the lifethat I wanted and realized if I were to just
open one location, basically, I would be buyingmyself a job.
And so I would have to open multiple locationsif I were to build a life of what I call SWAG,
which stands for sanity, wealth, and gratitude.
(04:57):
And I believe that's what we're all looking foras business owners is a life of sanity, wealth,
and gratitude.
And so, so I, I agreed to open three.
I had no idea how to be a business owner.
I thought the franchisor was going to teach mehow to be a business owner.
And when I got in, I found out that that'sactually not what franchisors do.
They teach you how to be an operator of aparticular business model.
(05:21):
And so, and so, after three months, followingthe franchisors operational training, we were
profitable.
But I knew I had two more locations open and Icouldn't be in three places at once.
So I knew I had to figure out how to scale andhow to do it differently.
And so I started investing in different coachesand ultimately did figure that out and grew to
(05:43):
four locations in less than three years.
And ultimately, out of 800 locations betweenCanada and The US, I was the only franchisee
out of 800 to own four or more locations, havethem all consistently performing in the top 20%
revenue earners across across the brand and notwork in my gyms.
I was the only one.
(06:03):
So Incredible.
Yeah.
So that's what got everybody talking, right?
Everyone wanted to know, well, what what isgoing on?
Because we're running the exact same business.
The model and how we were required to run itwas exactly the same for everyone.
So, so everybody was like, I don't understand.
Why does your life look that way with thismodel and my what, my life, I'm working sixty
(06:24):
to eighty hours a week.
I'm not making that type of money.
Like, what are you doing differently?
And that's when I really identified thefranchise gap, which is that space between what
the franchise or provides and the life that thefranchisee wants to live.
And the only way to fill that gap is throughbusiness intelligence and it's business
intelligence that the franchise or can'tprovide because it requires way more, resources
(06:50):
than makes sense for the franchise or as abusiness owner to invest in and to provide to
franchisees.
And because most of that transformation comesfrom within the franchisee, it's a different
way of thinking.
It's a different way of acting.
It's a different way of reacting emotionally tothings of leading people and how you
communicate.
And all of those things are nuanced and they'redifferent for every single person.
(07:12):
And so you have to get outside coaching andeducation and feedback on what you're doing in
order to make those behavioral changes thatactually take you from being an operator into
being an elite entrepreneur.
Absolutely.
100%.
Now, you know, it is also fascinating
(07:33):
as, you know, we start with one career path,but that one career path can change.
But what is incredible, if you can just sharewith us also the steps that you had taken.
So you started from the courtroom into theboardroom, but what was that mindset?
What was that mindset shift that was thedefining moment for you where you said, okay,
(07:58):
I'm going to leave a law, I'm going to takethat risk, and I am going to venture into a
business?
What was that mindset shift like for you?
Well, like most people,
as humans, we're extraordinarily motivated bythe avoidance of pain.
Even more so than the pursuit of pleasure.
We are motivated by the avoidance of pain.
(08:19):
So, like most people transitioning from a acareer into business ownership, I was more
focused on escaping my job than I wasnecessarily of how far I could go when I made
that initial decision.
And the reason that for me it was a big shiftis, yes, I had the heavy subject matter, but I
(08:39):
loved being a prosecutor.
I love fighting for justice.
I love fighting for the underdog.
I will stand up for anybody that I feel isbeing mistreated or unfair is being treated
unfairly.
What cases were you, prosecuting on?
What cases?
It
was sexual assaults, child abuse, homicides.
So, it was the victims, the most vulnerablevictims.
(09:00):
And I loved it, but my working environment, myoffice environment was absolutely toxic.
I had, like my direct supervisor, it felt likeevery day she went out of her way to just
demean people and make you feel terrible.
And so working in that environment combinedwith the heavy subject matter, it was just, it
(09:26):
was so, it created such a heavy weight on me.
It made me feel like not who I was meant to be.
And I remember driving into work, it takes meabout thirty minutes from my home to where I
worked.
And I remember the closer I got to the office,the more my stomach would hurt.
Right.
Yeah.
And so making that shift and taking on the riskof business ownership, was it a big risk?
(09:52):
Yes.
But the why I was willing to risk it all wasbecause of the position I was in in my career.
I didn't want to feel that way anymore.
I wanted to escape that pain and have a life ofjoy, right?
So that was, that was the shift in, in thatmoment.
And then other shifts happened along the way,of course, but that was the big one in order to
(10:15):
the catalyst to becoming a business owner.
Exactly.
And becoming a business owner, I mean, it'snever an easy ride.
A lot of people assume, you know, that paththat they wanna go on is easy, but it never is.
But if you're willing, you know, put in thework.
You gotta put in the work, whether it's, youknow, as a startup, a franchisee, you've got to
put in the work so that you're going to get themost out of it.
(10:38):
If you think you want to start a business andit's going to be easy, it never is.
And I think then,
right?
Oftentimes it's not.
Well, here's what I think.
I think people don't actually wanna be businessowners because they don't know what that means.
They don't know what that looks like.
They don't know how what their life will reallybe like as a business owner.
What people want is what they perceive as thebusiness owner life.
(11:01):
Right?
It's the same reason that people would go,like, study education in college, not because
they truly wanted to be a teacher, but becausethey wanted to have summers off.
Right?
And I'm not saying that's true of everybody whohas a major in education, but there is a good
portion of people who say, I want the job whereI have summers off, and so I'm going to be a
teacher.
And that's, I think, true in businessownership.
(11:24):
And many people don't actually want to do theactivities that a business owner has to do,
especially in creative businesses, right?
I mean, if you're going into business and let'ssay you're going into a bakery because you love
baking, Well, chances are, if you love bakingand decorating cakes, you don't love accounting
and you don't love bookkeeping, but you have todo that if you're going to run a business.
(11:47):
Right?
You may not even like marketing.
You might have accounting.
Somebody might go in to a business wherethey're a tutor.
They love the hands on tutoring of the kids,but they have zero interest in putting their
face on social media or doing a video or doingthe accounting, right?
Or managing employees.
That could be a headache for people.
And so the reality is, is a lot of people don'trealize they don't actually want to be a
(12:09):
business owner until they already are abusiness owner.
And that's a tough spot to be in, right?
Because you're, I mean, at that point in time,it's either sink or swim.
So either you got to figure out how to lovebeing a business owner and do the things that
need to be done to get you to at leastsustainability so that you have some sellable
asset that'll help you get out of being abusiness owner, or you learn to love it.
(12:33):
You learn how you can be creative and where theplaces are that you can make the impact you're
wanting to make, and then you hire and delegatethe other stuff, right?
So those are the two pathways that I seegetting, when people end up maybe disillusioned
by what it really means to be a business owner.
Absolutely.
(12:54):
Disillusioned.
I think that is the word because you know, ifyou haven't seen the reality or if you haven't
worked you know, with someone who runsbusinesses and you just assume that you wanna
get into business.
It could be a right business or wrong business,but failures, you'll learn from your failures.
What's the number one discipline?
(13:15):
What's the number one operational disciplinethat you have seen with small business owners
who have perhaps gone into a business?
What's really required of them before they evenstart a franchisee?
What is that number one discipline that cantake them to, you know, where they can go into
(13:36):
a successful business?
The number one thing is self awareness.
You have to have disciplined self awarenesswhere you're constantly challenging the way
that you're thinking and attempting to breakthose habits.
We all have subconscious programming.
(13:57):
We we've been through experiences our wholelife that have created neurons that dictate the
way that we operate 90% of the time when we'renot paying attention and so we all have
subconscious programming.
The only way to learn how to become a businessowner is to break those subconscious habits and
patterns that are in our actions that arekeeping us in the position of an employee
(14:22):
because that's what we've all been trained todo.
So, what where business owners and franchiseesgo wrong is they open the business and they
dive into the day to day doing.
All the little things that that feel urgent andthat feel like they have to get done.
Otherwise, I don't have a business.
That's not wrong.
But if you allow yourself to focus on thosethings and you're only looking at what what do
(14:43):
I have to do this afternoon?
What do I have to do tomorrow?
What's, you know, in the next couple of weeks,that's as far out as you're looking.
Well, then you're missing the long term visionof where you need to go for your business to be
successful.
And so you're not, you're not evencontemplating, but what are the bigger actions?
What are the long Yes.
Actions that I have to be taking for thatpayoff and so what happens is business owners
(15:05):
never get around to taking any of those biggeractions or to take or to doing the things that
have a longer gestation period, but ultimatelywill result in the highest return on that
investment.
They just keep doing the little day to daystuff, and then they get stuck, their revenues
plateau, they get burned out because they endup working sixty, eighty hours a week trying to
(15:28):
juggle all the balls.
And so you have to be very self aware.
You have to be challenging and saying toyourself all the time, should I be doing this?
Now, in my experience, too many business ownerstry to do that themselves.
And the reality is, is like, that's like,that's like trying to wipe dirt off your face
(15:49):
without a mirror.
Right?
It's like, is my face dirty?
I don't even know.
I can't see it.
Well, let me wipe over here.
I hope I got it.
Right.
You have to have somebody who understands howto identify what you're doing and what impact
it's having both in the short and long term andwhat and that already knows the pieces of the
(16:10):
puzzle that you're missing so that they can putyou on that trajectory faster.
In my opinion, business education should berequired if you wanna open a business.
Like, it's just like you have to, you have toget a driver's license to drive a car.
Right.
You know, yes, you have to get a businesslicense for most jurisdictions, but literally
you walk up to a counter and you pay a fee.
Like, there should be an educationalrequirement that you have to meet in order to
(16:35):
receive the business license because you'reputting your entire livelihood at risk.
Right.
And your families and and and it your mentalhealth because if you start to get worried
about failing, then you feel like you'redisappointing your your family.
It it bleeds into everything of your life andthat's why entrepreneurs have a thirty percent
(16:56):
higher rate of depression, divorce, andsuicide.
Is because of these ripple effects.
So, we could we could combat a lot of this ifwe just required an educational component and
helped people really understand one, whatthey're getting into and then two, how to
ensure a higher probability of of success,which is definitely with a coach or with
(17:23):
education continuously throughout your businessjourney.
Right.
I want to touch, I'm going touch on two thingsthat you mentioned.
One was burnt out and that is very, very commonwith business owners.
So let's talk about burnout.
What are the steps or the strategies or theprocesses for our viewers listening?
(17:46):
What can they do today that they can help tominimize on preventing burnout?
Well, the first thing I always tell my clientsis you have to come to terms with the fact that
there will always be more to do.
Yeah.
There will your your list of to dos will neveractually be done.
(18:07):
Exactly.
Yeah.
It'll never be done.
And we we fool ourselves into thinking like, mygosh, I have to get this one more email out
before I leave.
Right?
And you think it's gonna take you fifteenminutes and it takes you forty five.
And now you're late to your kid's soccer game.
And your spouse is upset and your child mightbe upset.
And even if they're okay with it, you feelguilty, you feel rushed, you feel overwhelmed.
(18:29):
Mhmm.
And all of that leads to burnout.
So you have to, number one, you have to come toterms with there's always going to be more to
do.
Yeah.
And most things can wait till tomorrow.
Yes.
Absolutely.
And I don't say that for procrastination.
That's not like don't like we don't wannaprocrastinate, but we don't want to fool
ourselves into thinking that it has to be donethis minute when it doesn't.
(18:52):
We need we wanna have a realistic view of that.
Mhmm.
So that's number one.
Number two, and I mean, honestly, you know, Iteach a whole six month takes us with all of
the different things we do to get over burnout,but or to ensure burnout doesn't happen ever
again in the future.
Right.
But these are some big ones.
Number two is you have to learn how to delegateand too many people are fooling themselves into
(19:15):
believing that they are delegating.
And the reality is there's a difference betweendelegation and effective delegation.
And
too often, if people are delegating, they'refilling up the time that they've freed up with
tasks that are not moving the needle forward,or they're filling it up with personal things
(19:38):
because they feel like they finally got abreath and now I can get some of my personal
stuff done.
So what happens is either one of thosescenarios, we've delegated stuff and now we
don't see our revenues move.
And when our revenues don't move, it tells us,oh my gosh, it's not working.
I have to take it back over myself in order tomake this work.
And so we, so then we stop trusting employees.
(20:00):
We don't understand how to develop employees.
We're taking everything back onto our ownplates.
And then there's no, there's no other end otherthan burnout at that point.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah, mean you've got to take time, you've gotto take the time to say, well you know what,
there is, as you said, there's always tomorrow.
And I was like that too, that you know, I hadto get everything done.
(20:24):
And then only recently did I begin to realize,no, wait a minute, it's my sanity, it's my
health and well-being that I have to, it'sparamount and I've got to take care of that
because there is always tomorrow.
And this is exactly what I do.
I just prioritize me time.
I prioritize what needs to get done.
And if I cannot get the other tasks done, I'mgoing leave it for tomorrow.
(20:48):
Know, just mark it off for tomorrow.
But that is exactly what we need to do,absolutely.
And the second point, you talked about businesslicense.
That is very, very crucial to start a businessthat they need to get a license.
Now let's talk a bit more about that because asa prosecutor, as a former attorney, you know
(21:09):
the legalities.
What are the steps that people can take to geta business license?
Is it some form of legal documents that perhapsthey might need to sign?
So can you just walk us through the stepsperhaps that to obtain a business license and
what what's required?
(21:30):
Well, it's I mean,
it does depend on jurisdictions.
And, I know you're in Canada, so I can't speakto what it's like in Canada, but typically
here, the first thing that you need to do isyou need to get your business registered with
the state as an entity, and you could have itregistered as an LLC, a sole proprietorship, a
partnership.
So there's a lot of different ways, and itdepends on your business structure.
(21:52):
Want to consult with your attorney and yourCPA.
Many times people go talk to their CPA aboutit.
Your CPA is going to give you advice as far ashow your taxes will work, but not necessarily
about liability protections.
Your attorney is going to give you advice as toliability protection.
So you need to talk to both of them about yourlong term goals for your business and short
term in order to figure out what the rightentity for you, but you've got to get your,
(22:14):
your entity signed up or registered.
You would also need to get a fictitious nameregistered.
You're not going to be doing business in thename of your LLC, that is the case in
franchises, you will have an LLC and thenyou'll do business under the brand name, which
is your fictitious name.
You would then also need to have, a EIN, whichis an employment identification number.
(22:38):
That is provided by the IRS here in The UnitedStates.
So you have to apply for that and get your EINnumber.
There is no cost to get an EIN number, but youdo have to register and go through that
process.
I'm assuming April, submit to interrupt, butI'm assuming EINs, probably like in Canada, but
it's like your SIN number.
Yeah, so I'm sure that they're very similar.
It's the way that your business is identifiednumerically for all of your governmental
(23:00):
filings and your employment law filings andthings like that.
So you
have to
have your EIN.
If you sell anything that sales tax is requiredto be collected on, then you have to also file
to get your sales tax registration.
So you have to do that.
Often you need to have an operating agreement.
Even if you are the only owner of the business,you need to create an operating agreement and
(23:25):
you will need the operating agreement andtheir, your LLC registration and your EIN
number to get a business bank account, which,which you would want to do as soon as possible.
So if you get those three things done, thefirst thing you do is go get your business bank
account, because when you go file for yourbusiness license, it's going to cost you money
and you want all of those expenses to come outof one bank account for accounting purposes and
(23:48):
to show that there's no commingling of funds.
So once your bank account signed up, then youcan go get your business license.
Typically you do that at your localmunicipality.
So here, I live in a city that's inside acounty, that's inside a state, that's inside
The United States.
So I have all levels of those governmentdepartments to work with.
So we go to my city clerk, file for thebusiness license there, and occasionally,
(24:14):
depending on your jurisdiction, you would alsothen need to file with your county and file a
business property assessment if property taxesare collected on business property.
So that would be the whole string of events.
Just to get your typical license andcertification set up in order to legitimately
(24:35):
run your business, That doesn't include any ofthe additional industry regulations that you
might have to comply with or otherregistrations you might have to do based upon
the industry of your business.
Right.
Exactly.
So there there's it's a long process.
It's a long process.
Absolutely.
So when it comes to scaling, let's talk aboutscaling the business.
(24:56):
Now, you know, you are a franchise operator andthe exit strategy is to scale.
You're helping small business owners to scale,escape burnout, scale with structure, scale
with ease so that they don't get burned out.
Most business owners do believe though, April,to scale a business you know that they have to
(25:20):
do it themselves.
Now it's a myth as to how they're going to growthe business.
How is it possible that?
Can you walk us through the possible steps togrow a business, then to scale the business?
What does it look like so that we can get apicture?
Well, it's a process.
(25:40):
And you have to look at it like a marathon, nota sprint.
And as our brains have been rewired for instantgratification because of social media and,
like, now our attention spans are shorter thanever, we're being rewired and programmed to
expect instant gratification.
And in business, that is not the case.
And so, that goes back to you have to deprogramthose subconscious patterns and habits out of
(26:03):
yourself if you're going to be successful.
But the process of of growth, growth comesfirst, then comes scaling.
So you first have to grow your business.
Ideally, you wanna grow your business so youhave at least a 10% profit in your business
before you consider scaling.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people makeis that they're they believe they're
(26:26):
profitable, and I say believe because theydon't know how to actually calculate their
money.
They don't know how to read their P and Ls.
They don't understand how to predict futureincome based upon forecasting through marketing
analytics and sales analytics and everythinglike that.
So you want to ensure, so people end up tryingto go to a second location, a second territory,
(26:47):
or an expansion too soon when they really don'thave the buffer of profit to support them
through that scaling process.
So the first goal you need to have is to get to10% profitability.
Next goal is to get to 15% profitability andearmark that additional 5% for reinvestment
(27:07):
back into the business for scaling.
Or higher, obviously.
But, but, but that's at the point when you're,you're financially stable enough to scale.
That doesn't mean you're operationally stableenough to scale.
So when you're talking about scaling thatrequires operationally, what it requires is it
(27:28):
requires two things, team and capital.
We talked about the capital.
The second part is team.
You have to have a team and that team needs tobe developed, not trained.
Too often we train a team, but we don't developthe in the business intelligence, the emotional
intelligence, the leadership skills of our teamto match our own.
(27:49):
So what I call that is an ownership cloningsystem.
You need to have an ownership cloning system inplace so that every employee in your business
is acting and reacting the way you would to anygiven situation.
So you want them to be mini mes of you.
When you have a team of mini mes, guess whatyou just did?
You just duplicated yourself.
So I mean, right now, if you could rub a genielamp and say, genie, give me four more, you
(28:13):
know, alcas to help me run my business.
Man, that would be like a business on steroids.
So you need to do that with people.
And when you have a team of mini mes and youhave the capital, you're ready to scale into
the next location and then you repeat and thenyou do it again.
Exactly.
So it's that winsome repeat, but April, youknow, that's such a great point because when I
(28:35):
was looking to open a studio, opened a fitnessstudio and eventually I did open a fitness
studio.
A lot of my clients and people would tell me,you should open another location.
And oftentimes when we listen to people, wemight say, well, yeah, oh, that's a great idea.
I think, you know, I will look into it.
(28:55):
And if you do then decide to open a second one,but then your first business hasn't really
taken off or it hasn't made the profits, ithasn't grown.
That's a red flag because then you're puttingcapital into the second business, but your
first business hasn't really taken off.
(29:16):
And when people would say that to me and Ithought, no, wait a minute, I have to grow my
first business in order to acquire a secondbusiness because otherwise it doesn't really
make sense.
You're just wasting money at the same timebecause how do Oh, you You're just wasting
money.
I mean, some of the biggest mistakes I seebusiness owners make are listening to
(29:37):
customers.
Right.
I see way too many people saying, well, I'mgoing to ask my customers, how much would you
be willing to pay for this?
What?
I mean, have you run a garage sale lately?
I ran a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.
I haven't done one in years, But I was like,every person who walks onto my driveway is
going to ask me if I would take less money forwhatever it is I'm selling.
Right?
I know that's going to happen.
(29:58):
So why would I ever ask a customer, what wouldyou be willing to spend on this?
They're never going to say, Oh, top dollar.
I'd spend top dollar for that.
Charge me more.
Right?
But it happens in all areas of our businesswhere customers say, oh my gosh.
This is great.
You should add another class on Saturdays.
And guess what's gonna happen?
That customer is gonna go to the lake onSaturdays, and they're gonna go to kids
(30:18):
baseball games on Saturdays.
No.
And occasionally, they might come in for aclass.
And you're gonna do that, and it spread yourbusiness and spread your bandwidth, stretch
your bandwidth farther, and they're not gonnashow up.
And you're gonna be like, you you asked forthis, and now here I am, burnout, spreading my
resources thinner, and I can't make up themoney for what it's costing me to do this.
(30:40):
I see it happen all the time.
And it just escalates as you get into, like,bigger and bigger moves, like your example of
being encouraged to open another location.
Exactly.
And I think, you know, those are, you know,business and life, they do collide, they go
together.
So it's almost like you're listening to yourgut intuition.
(31:01):
So whether, you know, it doesn't matter whatendeavor business you want to get into, but
listen to your gut.
If you feel that's not what you wanna do rightnow, don't do it.
And it's almost like, so what I'm trying to sayis as business and life they are together is
pleasing.
You know, it's pleasing people.
(31:22):
You will never, you know, we will never sort ofstop not pleasing someone because we think,
okay, maybe that's the right guide.
Maybe that's the right, what it's saying.
We do need to do it.
But listen to your gut because your gut willalways tell you, you know, where are the red
flags to avoid.
I mean, I
(31:42):
do agree with that for the most part, but Iwill say you have to be self aware first
because some people some people are verymotivated by flattery and so their gut is
telling them, oh, I'm I should probably do thisbut you have to know, am I motivated by
flattery?
Then, you have to do a check.
Sure.
Hold on a second.
Am I doing this because it's the right businessmove Or am I doing it because it feel like
(32:05):
somebody told me I was good at it and thatmakes me feel really good and now I feel super
motivated to do it.
That is true.
Yeah.
So so there are so we all have our own gaps.
We all have our own, you know, faults, for lackof a better word.
And if you're a people pleaser, that willsabotage you.
You succumb to flattery, that will sabotageyou.
(32:28):
You have to know where your weak links are, beaware of them, and then challenge yourself when
you're making a decision and say, okay, am Ibasing this decision on business data?
What data did you look at?
Yeah.
Right?
Or am I basing it on emotion, personalperception and emotion?
Anytime you're basing a decision on emotion,it's not the right decision.
(32:49):
It's not.
And when you're looking at data, you can lookat so many datas to like really compare, you
know, was that the right data?
What is, what's really relevant?
And if it's irrelevant data, well then it's notreally gonna, that's not the right one.
So going through, you know, data and reallysort of having that self awareness is the
(33:13):
crucial point.
My final question, April, this has been such anamazing conversation.
When the whole part about franchising, thewhole essence of starting a business really
requires that, it's the lifeblood that, youknow, we're putting our heart and soul into it.
So when you're getting into a business, you'vegot to make sure, you know, that all the boxes
(33:37):
are ticked As you said, you know, speak to yourattorney, speak to a lawyer, speak to What
would be the best lawyers that, you know,people can talk to when they're starting a
business?
Does it have to be a real estate lawyer or whatwhat type of client?
Well, it depends.
It completely depends on the business thatyou're going into.
(33:57):
Right.
Like, if you're a franchise, if you're gonnabuy a franchise, you need to find a franchisee
specific attorney.
Okay.
Too often people go to a business attorney orthey go to a franchise attorney, but that
franchise attorney represents both franchiseesand franchisors.
Franchisees and franchisors are two parties,opposite parties to a contract.
(34:18):
So you want an attorney who has its sole focuson fighting for franchisees and getting you the
very best terms in that contract and being ableto identify the red flags.
So, so that, that would be true if you'reotherwise you want a business attorney, not a
family law attorney said that they could helpme do an entity.
No, it's like a surgeon, right?
(34:40):
You would never go to an orthopedic surgeon whodoes knee surgeries all day long and say, yeah,
I want you to operate on my brain.
That would be a bad idea.
Right?
So same thing is true with attorneys.
You want to find the person who's a specialist.
Also, my recommendation would be that you findyour business coach first.
(35:00):
Now this can be, this can be difficult becauseyou don't know what you don't know.
You, you might, it's hard to judge the rightbusiness coach.
I would say, listen to more podcasts, get asense for how to, how, who's really intelligent
in this space and, you know, figure out there.
But get your business coach first, a reallygreat business coach.
(35:21):
They know all the right people.
They have all the connections.
Like, I have a suite of CPAs that I know everyperson I've ever sent them has never let me
down.
I have attorneys, same thing.
I will, I have, I know who's good.
I know who's bad.
I know exactly who to send people to.
My broker just, I have a client.
She has eight franchise locations.
(35:42):
I told her, you need to use my broker to sellthem.
He's going to get them sold for you.
She didn't listen to me.
She went with a different broker because thatbroker was connected to her franchise brand and
she thought it would be advantageous.
That broker did not bring her a single offer ina year and a half.
Oh, wow.
And so at the year mark, she started to engagewith my broker.
Once she got listed with my broker, she has hadfour offers in less than thirty days.
(36:04):
That's amazing.
Wow.
It's amazing.
But it's all about knowing the right people andlike really understanding how to tap into the
network of experience, right?
So you gotta find a very experienced firstpiece, the the cog, the first cog in the wheel
and then lean on that person and theirconnections to all their to to create your
suite of services and professionals to surroundyou with.
(36:26):
Exactly.
Well, you know, your connections, network isyour network and as they say, what would be
those steps to for people to, you know, goabout finding a business coach?
Where would they go?
Just Google or would it be by referrals?
What's the best way to find find a coach?
Oh, that's a really difficult that's adifficult thing to do quite frankly, because
(36:48):
there's the coaching industry is saturated andit's saturated with there are no
qualifications.
You just have to hang a shingle and say, hey,I'm a coach and I'm gonna teach you how to do
ABC.
So, the most important thing is to vet.
Vet, vet, vet.
So you want to talk to their former clients.
(37:10):
The hard part about that is they're never goingto give you connections to former clients that
were unhappy with them, So you want to look atthe reviews, any reviews you can get your hands
on.
If they have a podcast, you want to listen totheir episodes, find out if they, their advice
resonates with you.
What kind of guests do they attract?
Are they bringing in quality guests?
(37:30):
Those, I would avoid, I see way too many peoplego to their local chamber of commerce, strike
up a conversation with the person they'resitting next to who happens to be a business
coach.
They like the person as a person and they givethem their money.
That's what I did for my first coach.
It was a mistake.
They didn't know any more than I did.
Right?
So you have to be You have to look for someonewho's done it, who's exceeded your success,
(37:56):
who's actually done what you aspire to do.
Have they built a multi location company andsold it?
Yes.
That's who you want to learn from.
Right?
You don't want to learn from the person who gotthe business coaching certificate at a three
day course, which there are plenty out there,but hasn't really owned a business other than
that one.
Absolutely.
(38:16):
Walk the walk like they say and you know andbuild that proof that that someone has built it
so that you can also build.
My final question April, this has been soamazing and your journey and your experiences
that you have, you know, journey is just soincredible.
Could you share with us your three life lessonsthat, you know, our viewers can take away?
(38:42):
What are the three life lessons that havetaught you when you first started out in your
in your career as a as an attorney?
Share with us your your life lessons.
Three life lessons.
Well, I would say one is failure is a catalyst.
It's a catalyst to one of two paths, eitherdoubling your efforts or walking away.
(39:07):
And so you need to figure out what yourpatterns are failure if you plan to become a
business owner because there's a lot of failurein business ownership.
If you are someone who fails at something andthen abandons it and walks away, that's okay
because you're looking for something that'smore fulfilling.
But in business ownership, you've got to beable to double those efforts and make it work.
I would say swag is another lesson, sanity,wealth, and gratitude.
(39:33):
Yeah.
That lesson is all about the and is the mostimportant word in that phrase because it
signifies that you can have all three of thosesimultaneously.
Need to stop sacrificing your sanity trying toattain wealth or stop sacrificing your wealth
in order to feel grateful, right?
(39:54):
Order to feel not greedy and those things.
So you want to be able to have all of those atonce.
And then a final life lesson, and I can't saythis enough, the key to success is your
personal evolution.
You are the secret sauce.
It's not the latest marketing tactic.
It's not the business industry that you're in.
(40:16):
It's none of that.
It's you.
You are the secret sauce to whether or not yourbusiness succeeds.
And so you must invest in yourself first.
Absolutely.
Your business will only be able to grow as muchas you grow.
So if you're walking into your business withyour only experience having been an employee,
(40:37):
guess what?
Your business is going to stall out at thelevel that an employee is capable of growing
that business.
You have to evolve and become some you have tobecome more.
You have to become a manager mindset and thenan owner mindset and then an entrepreneur and
then an elite entrepreneur and then an eightfigure entrepreneur and then a nine figure.
(41:00):
You have to continue to invest in yourself andgrow and you're gonna pull your business behind
you.
That's how that works.
So if you're investing in everything andeveryone else first, then it's most likely not
going to work.
Absolutely powerful.
So great.
April, where can people connect with you?
(41:20):
Well, I have a podcast.
In fact, last week, our podcast was just namednumber 10 in the world on for business
strategy.
So I'd love it you came.
Thank you.
I'd love it if you came over and listened to uson the infinite franchisee show where I drop
business strategies for all small businessowners, whether you're a franchisee or not.
(41:40):
And then other than that, can findmesecretsauce.com and that's spelled
secrets0s.com where that's our academy and ourbusiness there.
And then if you want to find me on socials,just look for Ask April Porter.
Amazing.
That is so great.
Well, I hope, you know, each and every one yougot your pen and paper.
(42:04):
You got your notes out.
You were taking notes as to what April justshared with you as to when you are starting a
business and, you know, the franchisee.
You need to know you need to know what you'regetting into first of all.
So you have to connect with a, you know, talkwith your CPA, your attorney, who is going to
help you on this journey.
(42:24):
So make sure that you absolutely do heed andfollow, connect with April who is going to help
you and guide you in your business.
So we look forward to seeing you all on thenext episode of Ask the Expert, but in the same
time, we appreciate you.
And I'm going to ask you to subscribe to thechannel.
If you have found this conversation valuableand future episodes have been valuable to you,
(42:50):
then I want you to because this really helps usto bring value to you.
So I want you to go ahead and subscribe to thechannel.
But thank you so much to each and everyone whotuned into the episode and we look forward to
seeing you soon.
Bye for now.
Thank you so much April.
Appreciate your time.
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