April 28, 2025 • 42 mins
Have you considered franchising your business?
With 80% of franchises still running after 5 years, compared with 80% of startups failing in the same amount of time, it has to be an option to consider.
In this episode I am joined by Iain Griffiths, Founder of The Party Tent Company, which he took from side hustle to full on franchise and still scaling. Iain shares what it took to become a franchise and the successful model to bring on new franchisees.
Iain’s journey has had personal challenges. A divorce from a toxic relationship led him to embracing therapy in multiple forms to help his mental health, which has gone on to change his life for the better.
If you’ve ever had the tiniest thought about franchising, or you’re done with your job looking for a new opportunity this episode is definitely for you.
“80% of franchises are still trading after 5 years” – Iain Griffiths
You’ll hear about:
- Franchising offers a solution that minimises the risk.
- Franchising requires careful planning and support for franchisees.
- Therapy can be a transformative experience for mental health.
- Building genuine relationships with franchisees fosters a supportive community.
- Life after a toxic relationship can lead to newfound freedom and happiness.
Connect with Iain:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iaingriffiths/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thepartytentcompany
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thepartytentcompany/
The Party Tent Company - https://thepartytentcompany.com/
Connect with me:
My website - https://leaturner.co.uk/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-turner/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/leaturnerholt
Find out about The HoLT:
The HoLT - https://www.the-holt.com/
The HoLT on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theholt
The HoLT on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theholtcommunity/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theholtcommunity
The Vault - https://www.the-holt.com/vault
Join The Holt waiting list - https://www.the-holt.com/waitlist
This podcast is sponsored by QDos. Use the code LEA10 at the checkout to get your discount when signing up - https://my.qdoscontractor.com/code/10255/115219
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Iain Griffiths (00:00):
I'm very careful
(00:01):
who I spend my time with, and I
don't care what people think
about me either. I even care
less now, whereas 10 years ago,
I used to sit there worrying
about what people thought about
me, and, you know, said this
five years ago, wow, you're not
even bothered about it now, and
I'm sure the closer I get to 50,
I'll give less of Yeah, shit.
Unknown (00:34):
Hi Iain, hi Lea,
welcome to the Holt Survival
Guide for Small Businesses.
Thank Thank you for having me
along. It's really nice to see
you again, and I think today is
going to be an interesting
episode, because you own a party
marquee company. Yeah, it's a
party tank company, yeah, the
party tent company.
So, yeah, I started that
(00:55):
business in 2011 but
you've actually been franchising
it, and that's why I've invited
you
the original business. I started
in 2011 and it was a bit of a
side business, to be honest with
you. I was just doing it on the
weekends, and it quickly
exploded.
Why do you think it exploded? I
don't know. I
(01:16):
made many different logos and
sort of brand colours and stuff
like that. And then when I
showed the logo and stuff like
that to friends and family, they
were like, that one, that one go
with that one, and didn't even
have a website. Just put an ad
on, yell.com, oh, really, that
didn't even have a website, and
it was getting orders straight
away. So the revenue that got
(01:37):
got in off that, because I had a
job at the time, just got a
website built, and then, yeah,
it just kept going from there.
And I don't know, I just think
the public talk to it, you know,
the service as well that we were
providing, you know, we, I'm big
on customer service and
a very clever name. You've,
you've gone with the SEO, right?
The party tent company says what
(02:00):
it does, yeah. So
like I was working. I was my job
at the time, was working for
auto trader. So I was going
around all sort of independent
car garages, teaching them how
to advertise their cars, and
talking to them about websites
and SEO would just come out. And
we were all trained on SEO
websites and stuff. So I took
some of that knowledge that I'd
(02:20):
learned in my day job, yeah, and
pumped it into my into my own
business. And, you know, I was
going around some of these car
garages with guys in sheepskin
skin coats and flat caps boys,
and they were still advertising
in the magazine, the Auto Trader
magazine. I was like, You need
to put your money into the
internet. That's where it is.
(02:41):
And some of them just wouldn't
have it. I was like, Have you
got one of these in your pocket?
Produced a mobile phone, and
they were like, Yeah. And I
went, well, that's where
everyone's looking for for cars
these days. They don't look in
the magazine anymore auto trade.
They just kept the magazine. It
was losing money just for this
shelf position in the
supermarket. So people spot it
(03:01):
and go, I know I have to go on
the Auto Trader magazine later
on. So it was like I was
teaching these guys how to
market their business. So I was
using that knowledge then to
do my own so you must have been
run ragged if you were that busy
and running a full time having a
full time job as well. But going
forward a little bit, how many
years ago must have been four or
(03:22):
five years ago you started
thinking about scaling with a
franchise model. So
well it was pretty it became
obvious pretty early on. So you
know, 2012 2013 because my
higher business that I was based
in Warrington, blew up on social
media. So, you know, you've got
people's friends and families
were seeing that they were
(03:42):
having marquees offers, and they
were liking the page or engaging
with my Facebook or Instagram.
My organic reach was much higher
Facebook back then. Yeah. So I
was getting people from like
Edinburgh, Swansea, London,
Bournemouth, ringing me up in
Warrington, saying, can you come
and put a market up for us on
switch and touch a date? I'm
(04:03):
like, well, you're 400 miles
away. So that that's when it
started to click. The business
could be franchised, although at
that point I didn't know
anything about it. What happened
was there was a guy, and I've
actually spoke to the guy
recently. His name's Bernie
Harris. He was He lives in
Stockport, and he just sold his
business. He made neon signs of
(04:25):
some description, imported them
over. He'd sold his business and
retired. Did, did a marquee for
him in his garden when we were
taking it down on the Sunday or
Monday or whatever. He said, he
said, Iain, have you ever
thought of franchising this
business? And I went, I have
thought about it. I don't really
know much about it. He said, You
(04:46):
should do it. So I just went
away and started. So I did that.
And then six years, well, no,
that was in 20, 2019, so I
messaged him last year. So
what's that? Five? Years later,
said, Oh, you Hi, Bernie.
Probably don't remember me. I
did a marquee for you five years
ago. And he was like, Yeah. And
I said, Well, you told me to
(05:07):
franchise my business. And I
have done just want to say thank
you, because it was you who put
that idea in my head. What a
lovely thing to do to actually
reach back. It was six, six
years so, so I've got six
franchisees now. So he said,
Okay, well, when you get to turn
to come and see me, I'm gonna
buy you dinner and so that,
(05:27):
that's how it's so like this guy
who I who was just my customer,
and we follow each other on
socials and stuff now as well
and stay in touch. So yeah, he's
pretty cool guy. Bernie, yeah, so,
but it was sort of eight years
between starting and actually,
yeah, getting going with the
franchise. Well, I
think when you when you
franchising your business, you
(05:47):
can't do it too soon, because
you've got to prove that that
model actually works. So the
longer that you do it, the
better, because you can provide
the profit and loss. You can
provide all the statistics and
insights on social media and
SEO. The problem, the problem
you've got when, well, there's
many problems when you franchise
your business, but one of the
(06:09):
main problems is you've got this
original branch that is doing
doing particularly well. What's
to say that that will or will
not do well in another part of
the country. So your first
franchisees are beta testers,
and to get someone to believe in
something that isn't proven yet
is not quite sure about yet.
(06:31):
That's the difficult part, yeah.
So what in your experience now?
So you're up to seven sites.
You've got six franchisees. What
makes a good business to be
franchised? Because this is
something people have talked
about with me, with the
community that I run. But at the
moment, my community draws
(06:51):
people in, mostly because
they're aware of me and my
brand, and that's then sort of
filtered down into the people
that are then members that are
marketing it for me, and it's
been floated to me that
franchising would be a good
idea. I don't personally think
it would be with my business the
way it is certainly not at the
moment. But I'm interested in
(07:12):
your perspective on what kind of
businesses you see doing really
well as franchise. Any
business can could be
franchised, potentially. What
you've got to think of Is it a
bricks and mortar, so like your
subways, your McDonald's, things
like that. So you've got your
bricks and mortar, and then
you've got your service based
businesses which are like mine,
or, I don't know, you may see
(07:33):
green thumb about a bit. They're
quite a substantial one that do
gardening services. You see
their vans dotting around
everywhere, dense away, which is
mobile car detailing and stuff
like that. So with the holes, I
don't know how that would sort
of be franchised, because you
can sort of get the coverage for
(07:53):
the whole of the UK. Yeah,
I think the more sort of like
local networking side London
Hall, where they do in person,
networking and co working and
support, and then all over the
country. Yeah,
well, there's actually one
called Real five that started in
Warrington. That's a networking
event, and they've, they
franchised, and I don't know how
they're doing, but yeah, they
(08:14):
seem to to have a few dotted
around. I know they've just
recently opened Bolton because I
was, I was invited to go along,
and I couldn't make it at the
time, but, yeah, any business
couldn't. What you need is to be
able to prove that it works via
profit and loss. Franchisees got
to see that they're going to be
(08:34):
able to make something out of
it, and it's got to be enjoyable
for the person who's buying into
it as well? And
how have you like, when you
first decided to start the steps
towards getting yourself set up
as a franchise? Yeah, what were
the things that you were most
afraid of? Like, what in your
(08:56):
head? What were the things that
were hard to overcome? Well,
being a massive Empath my my
biggest fear was somebody
investing their time and money
into it, and then it not being a
success, right? For to see
someone fail, afraid
for them, rather than it would
be expensive. And yeah, well,
(09:17):
it's not Yeah, because it's not
my livelihood, is it? You know,
where somebody's making a
decision to they might not leave
the job straight away. They
might sort of be doing this as a
doing it as a part time
business, which we encourage
people to do, to start off with,
because, you know, people have
got bills to pay at the same
time. You know, you're asking
someone to change the lifestyle
for a period of at least five
years. And if somebody does that
(09:38):
for maybe a couple of years, and
it doesn't quite work out for
them, through no fault of their
own. That was my biggest fear.
You know, with hindsight now,
looking back, I've got all of
them have have done well, and
they've all worked. So it's
been,
what do you think has been the
reason that they've done well?
(09:59):
Support in. Any
franchise, and that's from you,
from, yeah, from any, any Frank,
any good franchise, or it's
just, it's support. That's what
they're paying you
for. And what do you think that
they needed support on most
well, any franchisee that comes
to the table when, when you
recruit them, they're gonna have
transferable skills. So for
(10:20):
example, I've got a guy who who
came, and he's pretty savvy with
social media and stuff like
that, but he didn't he setting
up a mark. He was alien, alien
to him because he'd came, he'd
came from a corporate
background, so we had to work
more on the practical side of
things with him, whereas then
you've got, I've had people one
of my other franchisees as a
(10:42):
husband and wife partnership.
The the husband of of that
partnership was a mechanic in a
in a previous career, so he was
pretty hands on. So when it came
to putting Marquise up, it was
like show him once, and it's
done, whereas they'd never done
social media before, so they
needed a little bit more. So
it's about getting what skills
they've already got, where we
(11:03):
can transfer them over into what
we're going to be doing, and
where the shortfalls are
ultimately. So then we can, we
can work on those. And do
you train them in all of that
yourself? Yeah, so you feel like
you're competent enough in all
of the different areas of your
business that you can now fully
train each of the franchise
that's pretty impressive. Like,
(11:24):
you're not bringing any external
services to support them or
anything like that.
Oh, absolutely, yeah. So like,
when we, when we do the sort of
marketing, marketing side of
things, I've got an SEO expert
who does all that side of things
for them, and then we, we do
some PPC as well. So we've got
people that we bring in to do
that. So it's not like I do
absolutely everything, but with
the organic posting, and I
(11:45):
already know what works and what
doesn't, and that's all part of
the process. When we we first,
first on board somebody. So
what? What do you actually,
because I'm just one of the
reasons that I thought it would
be interesting to have this
conversation is because we don't
really hear people talking about
franchising that much, and it is
actually the hardest thing as a
(12:06):
solo business owner or a small
business owner, is thinking, how
am I going to scale when you're
the one that does all of the
business, when you're wearing
all of the hats you are the sort
of the key part of the business
is, well, how do I scale? And
you've done it very successfully
with franchising. And it it's
clear that there's a there's a
really strong future to take it
(12:27):
even further, but it's scary and
see my my initial reaction would
be, well, what if they damage
damage my brand? What if I
franchise to the wrong person
and they do something that could
be really detrimental to my
brand? But I suppose with your
brand as the party tank company,
no one knows you in Warrington,
if they're doing one in
(12:48):
Portsmouth, no
well, and also as well, you
monitor the situation through
your support as well, so you
audit them regularly of what's
going on and what they're doing
so and the way that franchising
works is that it's one limited
company in partnership with
another, and what in between
that is what's called the
(13:08):
franchise agreement. And the
franchise agreement lays out the
obligations of both parties, but
it's, it's heavily loaded
towards the franchisee, you
know, meeting their obligations.
So if there's something that
they don't do during the whole
process, it will be laid out in
(13:30):
the franchise agreement and the
operations manual, which is like
the Bible of the business. The
franchise agreement usually
points towards the operations
manual, which is the, yeah, it's
all the systems and processes
that they have to follow to be
successful. And
what? What do you think? Because
it sounds like there's quite a
range of people that take up
(13:52):
franchising. Yeah, for you, what
do you think attracts people to
the idea of of getting involved
with a franchise? Well, it's
minimal risk, isn't it? So if
you're, you know, a lot of my
franchisees, and they won't mind
me saying that they're entering
middle age as I am, you know.
And yeah, yeah. So they, what
(14:16):
you find is that they've usually
always wanted to start a
business in one way, shape or
form, life has got in the way,
and they've, you know, they've
just been working as we all
have. We've all got bills to
pay, and, you know, maybe
children growing up and stuff
like that. And I think
franchising offers, offers a
(14:39):
solution that that minimises the
risk. So there's a stat on the
BFA website, and it's something
along the lines that 80% of
startups fail within the first
five years. I think that's it.
I've heard that scary, yeah, the
other way around with with
franchising. So it's the numbers
are flipped the other way. So
80% of. Franchises are still
(15:01):
trading after five years, and
only 20 cents have failed.
Has it surprised you the type of
people, as in, like you said,
there was someone from a
corporate background, you've got
a mechanic, that's quite a big
disparity. Yeah,
yeah. And it's, do you know
what? It's not, like, it's not,
you don't sort of judge on what
the what they're doing. You
(15:21):
know, when they're coming on
board, it's, it's, obviously you
do your drill down questions,
why do you want to do this? Why
have you chosen us? What? What
interests you about this and
things like that and and usually
it's that they've been stuck in
a rut with their career, and
they just want to change. They
(15:41):
want to do something where the
hands on and the they are
running their own business. Of
course, it's their business, but
they've got that arm around the
shoulder as well, you know,
like, we've just taken a new
franchisee on a couple of months
ago, and this morning, we were
just talking about him buying
some new equipment. He was
(16:02):
asking for advice on that. And
you know, I welcome that. I want
you know, even if it's something
daft, there's no sort of silly
questions with it ring me. And
that's like I said earlier,
earlier, when we were talking,
that my job is to support them.
Support them every step of the
way, and any good franchisor
(16:22):
will do that. And
are you still really hands on in
your your own part of this
business?
So I still run the Warrington
branch, yeah. How
do you find the time to still be
so hands on the tools, but also
provide the support to six other
franchises? Yeah,
so it's at the moment, it's sort
of, I'm getting to a point where
it's gonna have to be one or the
(16:43):
other. It's like when you start
your own business and you're in
employment, it's when do you
take that leap? So is
that finding somebody else to
provide the advice, or finding
somebody else to run the
Warrington
branch? Well, the Warrington
branch will be sold as a
franchise,
Lea Turner (16:55):
right? So then you
are,
Unknown (16:58):
yeah, it's just a case
of finding the right person for
Warrington, waiting for an
inquiry to come along. And also,
as well, Warrington is going to
demand a higher fee because it's
already a running up and going
concern. So it's a flagship,
yeah, that's it. Yeah. So like I
say, I'm kind of getting to the
point where, during the summer
(17:20):
time, I do send the lads out a
little bit more than than me
going out all the time and
things like that. But yeah,
it's, I always sort of refer it
back to when I was when I
actually started the Warrington
branch, and I was still in
employment, and it was like a
sort of, right, when do we take
this leap? And I'm kind of
getting to that point now. And
in fact, yesterday, I was
(17:41):
discussing it with them, my
franchise consultant, Richard,
my advisor of when that's going
to happen and what that's going
to look like. So we were already
having that conversation for
this year as well. Yeah, so it's
a bit scary, but, but
so you for eight years, you ran
the business yourself, pretty
much on the side, and then as a
(18:01):
full time job, any franchise
deal, what did you notice as a
business owner? What was the
biggest shift you had to make in
your life, and like, mentally,
to to move into that franchise?
Franchising? Because I'd imagine
there are some sort of like,
like confidence mindset shifts.
Because you were going from just
you relying on yourself, to
(18:22):
actually having to constantly
think about somebody else and
what they're doing with their
business. You know, I always say
this, I was an expert. I am an
expert in marquee hire because
I've done it for so long, but I
wasn't an expert in franchising.
So I had to, I had to learn, and
I had to learn quickly, and then
took some wrong advice and
wasted quite a bit of money. And
Lea Turner (18:43):
what was the wrong
advice
Unknown (18:46):
around legalities?
There's a lot of people you know
yourself. There's a lot of
people who claim to be business
coaches and stuff like that
online. And then sometimes they,
you know, they don't live up to
they don't know, and they
probably don't even never run a
business themselves, some of
them, but yeah. So yeah, I took
(19:07):
some some advice. Some of it was
alright, some of it was but I
wasted a bit of time and money
as well at that point. And yeah,
I think what I did pretty
quickly was I surrounded myself
with other franchisors. So
became friends with a lady
called Sharon Corley, who runs
an after school tuition
(19:27):
franchise. She she was in
Warrington, so we could meet up
quite regularly another guy,
Ryan Armitage. He runs, yeah,
yeah. So Ryan's a pretty cool
guy. He was always on hand to
offer advice and support and
yeah. So I just surrounded
myself with with those type of
people. So whenever any problems
(19:49):
came off, I could just text Ryan
or give him, Give Sharon a call
and say, Yeah, sort of
Lea Turner (19:53):
errors, yeah, yeah.
And I
Unknown (19:55):
think that's important,
yeah, running
Lea Turner (19:56):
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eligibility. And you also had,
like, a very young family at the
time when you started. And I
mean, we've known each other
(20:39):
for, what, five,
Unknown (20:41):
maybe six years. Yeah,
be about five years, five years.
Yeah. So we've
known each other that most of
that time, and you know, your
kids are older now and more
mature, but I imagine that
trying to juggle all of that
while you're franchising must
have been a lot for you mentally
to deal with. You've got this
successful business really in
demand. You've now got
(21:02):
franchises depending on you.
You've also got three young
children, yeah, how did you What
did you do to help yourself get
get through that? Because, you
know, one business is to keep
running with a young family. Is
a lot one business, plus other
people's that you're now
(21:23):
responsible to help them and the
three children that that that's
a huge amount of pressure on
your shoulders. Yeah. So did you
get through that?
Well, it's with great
difficulty. It's, it's a
balancing act, isn't it? And you
know, probably by my own
admissions, that during the
summer months, especially when,
when you know, market higher is
(21:43):
is quite seasonal. Probably
wasn't around as much as should
have been in the summertime. But
then I'd make up for it during
the winter months. Yeah, yeah,
it's difficult, difficult
running a business, though,
isn't it? You know,
it's mentally, I feel like it's
harder than, you know, like, I
can work all night long. I can
(22:04):
keep going and going and going,
but the mental burnout when you
get to when you sort of hit that
breaking point, yeah, because
it's not just a couple of days,
it's like your brain just
doesn't feel like it turns on at
all for for potentially weeks on
end, if not longer. That
happens to me every October. So
it's like end of the summer
season. I'm, I'm just,
(22:25):
is that part of your decision to
try and offload Warrington and
well,
yeah, yeah. Look, you know, the
dream is to be a franchisor with
40, maybe 50 franchises trading
and everybody happy and just
running be just managing the
franchise with a couple of
franchise managers, and having
Lea Turner (22:47):
a nice 40 or 50,
Unknown (22:49):
yeah, so that that
that's the plan. And you know,
there's, there's there's,
there's no, there's no reason
why we can't do that. It's just,
the thing is, with franchising,
it's a long call. If you take
too many franchisees on at once,
you're not going to be able to
give them the level of support
that they need.
So is there like a time frame in
(23:11):
your sort of planning between
each franchise? Do you sort of
take one on? And you know anyone
in Franz? Well, there's a lot of
liars in franchising, but anyone
in franchising?
Lea Turner (23:23):
Well, a
Unknown (23:27):
lot of franchisors will
say that they've never had a
franchise fail, and it'll be
masked again around some other
excuse, but we all know that
they've had a franchise that
fail, and so that's one lie.
What you know, last year,
especially, recruitment was slow
across the whole of the
franchising industry. And the
(23:47):
reason was that, you know, we've
got all these people in, you
know, in Westminster and all
these, all the people and the
news, the media, scaremongering
or cost of living, crisis fuel
going off wars also. So usually,
when there's some sort of
economic downturn like that,
people tend to stick with what
(24:08):
they're doing because it's a
safety net. They're in a job and
it's secure, right? I'll just
stay here and do what I'm doing,
rather than invest in a
franchise a bit risky. Plus,
interest rates are up as well,
so if they needed to borrow,
yeah? So that's, that's another
point. So last year, all in all,
the recruitment was slow, so we
only recruited two last year.
(24:29):
This year, it's the early signs
are, well, the back end of last
year, and you know, the first
couple of weeks of this year,
we've had some more quality
leads coming through, not just
sort of tie kickers. So we're
open for about half a dozen this
year. I think I think half a
dozen a year is is manageable.
Going to double in
Lea Turner (24:48):
size, yeah, yeah.
That's yeah.
Unknown (24:51):
Well, like I said
earlier, the hard part is
getting the few, first few on
board. Yeah. Once you get to a
certain amount, you just one of
Yeah. Whenever I go. To whenever
I get a new, new inquiry in the
in the early days, I was saying,
right? Well, this is what we've
done in Warrington, this is what
we've done, and this is what
(25:11):
we've done now, I can say to
them, right? I can tell you how
good it is, and I genuinely
believe how good it is. I could
show you all the figures. But
what I'd like you to do now is
go and speak to those guys and
see what their experience of
working with us is. How much
money have they made? What did
they like, what didn't they
like? And then you can make an
informed efficiency. I
love that transparency, though,
because that shows how confident
(25:32):
you are in the teams that you've
helped to build and the
franchisees that you've you've
brought in. Well, I genuinely
call every one of my franchisees
friends as well, like so
whenever I go, whenever I go and
do a territory visit, of course,
we're going through the social
media, we're going through the
figures, we're going through
everything else. But then we'll
sit and break bread and have
(25:53):
have a meal together and have a
laugh and a joke and talk about
things that are nothing to do
with marquee, nothing to do with
franchising. And
I know because we know each
other outside of just the online
world, I know that you've had
quite a tumultuous, turbulent
two, three years now. Yeah, it's
been tough, yeah. And yet you've
managed to keep the business
(26:15):
going. You've managed to keep it
growing. And when we say
tumultuous, your marriage broke
down, yeah, yeah. And yet you've
managed to keep the business
afloat. We're not going to go
into details, but there's going
to be a lot of people listening
that are going through personal
struggles outside of business
that really can impact how you
(26:35):
show up in your business.
Absolutely. So, well, yeah. So,
yeah, I've just got last year I
got divorced. So, yeah, that
that's that. And running up to
that, it was a little bit, it
was, well, it wasn't little, it
was, it was a very toxic
relationship. And yeah, so it
ended up in me going back to
(26:55):
live at my mum's in a box
bedroom at the age of 3940,
which is, you know, it's not
ideal. No, you own two
businesses, and you're back in
your your mum's box bedroom for
a short period of time. But, you
know, needs must. I think the
one thing that I need in my life
is that the one sort of thing
that I need to be doing every
(27:16):
day is work. And I think that
sort of took my mind away from
that person, yes, but because of
the toxicity of the relationship
and stuff like that, I was, I
was honest with myself. And, you
know, you and I had
conversations at the time quite
a lot as well. Didn't we some
sort of late night phone calls,
and what would you do in this
scenario, Leah and and stuff
(27:36):
like that? So I had friends
around me, but it was, you know,
and men don't, sort of tend to
admit this, but I decided that I
needed to go to therapy, so
that's what I did. And I went to
different types of therapists as
well. I didn't just go to one.
So I went to a talking
therapist, which was great. Got
(27:57):
it all off my chest. She then
said, look, there's nothing else
I can do with the type of
therapy that I do. I did some,
well, I still go to it now every
two weeks. So I did some
alternative Chinese therapy,
which is physical, so it's like
massage, cupping, fire, cupping,
(28:17):
acupuncture, and that, that's
that that's all really good as
well. And then I think, well,
they're all good for many
reasons, but the one that I got
the most out of was from a lady
called dawn, and she did EMDR
therapy. I don't know whether
you've ever heard before that.
Yeah, so did. They've got like,
(28:40):
a rod with a light on the end of
it, and you've got to watch it
whilst you're talking. There's
hypnotherapy involved as well.
And then sometimes you'll have
like, a buzzer in in your in
each hand, and it'll buzz one
and then the other one, and then
the other and then she'll ask
you to sort of think about
things whilst programming your
(29:00):
brain. Yeah, it gets it talking
to apparently, so it gets but
you found it effective? Oh,
absolutely. I came out of it,
like a change. Person, like, I
remember, like, sort of the last
session that, when she said,
right, this is the last session,
but I'm here, and I've been back
quite a few times since. But she
was like, this is the last
session. You can come back
whenever you want, but for now.
(29:22):
And yeah, I was just like, sort
of burst into tears and gave her
a big hug, because it was just
like, you've just, like, she
cured me of everything that was
going on. Yeah, I think.
And I obviously, I don't want to
say anything that you wouldn't
want public, but you moved from
being this sort of solo business
(29:43):
owner to this very successful
franchiser, which meant that you
had more responsibility this
team growing, more money coming
in. Yeah, your confidence grew.
And also, and you're, you are
public about this. This isn't me
like doxing you in any way that
you're very public. Out your
Autism Diet. Yeah, you had after
your children. Well, I'm
(30:03):
just currently going through
ADHD as well, so it turns out
I've got both. But
it's one of those that, and I
know this has happened for me,
and I know it's happened for
very many business owners, is as
you start seeing that success in
your business life, and you
start recognising the things
that bring you joy, yeah, and
(30:24):
the things that don't that you
start outsourcing to other
people. You say, Okay, I don't
need to do that bit myself. Now
I can give that to somebody
else. You start really becoming
aware of what in your life is
good for you and what's not good
for you, how to focus on the
things that you enjoy and double
down on those and how to remove
the things that you really
enjoy, and it starts bringing
(30:44):
that awareness to other areas of
your life, as your confidence,
your self worth, your ambition,
grows, you outgrow people and
relationships in your life.
That's really common in business
ownership, and it's really
painful sometimes to let go,
even when you know it's the
right thing. But would you say
that's something that happened
(31:05):
within your situation leading up
to now? You are this sort of
you're in a healthy, happy
relationship now, but
yeah, absolutely, yeah. So you
know, you quite rightfully said
that in business, if there's
somebody who's not serving you
any purpose, and it just seems
like one way traffic all the
time, then you tend to sort of
(31:25):
distance yourself, away friends,
family. I think the problem is,
when you're married and there's
young children involved that you
want to do best by the children,
and that's sort of and the young
and you still want to see them
every day. That isn't a reason
to sort of stay in a
relationship, because the
unhappiness and the toxicity
then shows to the children, you
(31:46):
know, so it's not in the best
interest of the children to
remain in that relationship,
although, selfishly, you want to
see the children every day and
you want to see them grow up.
It's not the best environment
for them. So yeah, when you know
if you're if you're in a toxic
relationship, and you know about
it, then you know there is life
after that. It doesn't seem like
(32:07):
it at the time, because you you
feel like your whole world's
about to sort of be turned
upside down. But in once you've
got through that initial sort of
few months, six months, 12
months, yeah, life gets better.
Yeah, you just start. I guess
you adjust to a new kind of. You
adjust
to a new a new you, but you sort
of, you got a new lease of life
(32:28):
as well, because you're not, you
feel like, you know, if there's,
if there's sort of a toxic
environment, it's, it's
suppressing the other things
that could be going on in your
life. So, by my own admissions,
when, when I was going through
all this, I wasn't posting on
social media. I just
disappeared. I just had no Mojo
for it whatsoever. Just I'd get
(32:50):
my phone out to post something,
and I'd just be like, No, not
today. It's not got that well,
just didn't add anything to say
in business, where we're sort of
conditioned to social media tell
us all time we need to be around
people that fill us up. We need.
Was it the you want to be around
radiators rather than drains, if
I've got that right, but you
(33:11):
want to be around people that
fill you up rather than people
that would drain your energy.
And I definitely noticed as I
became more confident in
business and the relationships I
was choosing to have through
business, I really started
putting under a microscope other
relationships, and I had people
that I knew from my past that be
like, Hey, why don't we do this?
(33:32):
Why don't we do that? And I'm
like, why? Like, I don't know
you anymore. Our lives have gone
in different directions. Am I
really going to spend four or
five hours to see you after I
haven't seen you for six, seven
years, for what? Because you're
not if I've got an emergency,
are you going to come and help
me? No, am I going to do the
(33:52):
same for you? No, because I've
got other responsibilities now,
and I sort of think I'm so much
more. It sounds ruthless, but
I'm my boundaries are just so
much stronger. And I think,
well, it's there's a point in me
pouring into relationships that
will pour back into me when I
need them. But unless that's
going to happen, I I'm so much
(34:14):
more guarded with my time. I
think, well, I'd rather just
spend that time with my son than
spend five hours rekindling a
relationship that will disappear
again the moment you go home.
Yeah.
Because I think as well, it's
not just sort of, it's
definitely what you've what
you've just said with your sort
of, your business getting more
successful, and you more sort of
aware of how much you spend time
with different people. But I
(34:34):
think it comes with age as well.
So when you get to, like, you
know, I'm nearly 42 now, I'm
very careful who I spend my time
with, and I don't care what
people think about me either. I
even care less now, whereas 10
years ago, I used to sit there
worrying about what people
thought about me, and, you know,
said this five years ago, wow,
(34:55):
you're not even bothered about
it now. And I'm sure the closer
I get to 50, I'll give less of.
But
yeah, I'm facing down 40 this
year, and I'm just like, I
thought I'd feel a certain way
about turning 40. I thought that
I would feel like sad or some
sort of negative feeling. But
I'm actually really excited. I
(35:15):
feel like the best version of
myself I've ever been, and
that's definitely in a huge part
down to the lack of fucks I give
about about what people think
about me, and going, I'm I'm in
my lane. I'm doing all of the
things that I love. I'm avoiding
the things I don't love. I've
got a kid that I adore who is
just the best thing ever, and
I'm so excited my life. And I, I
(35:38):
don't know, when I was 20 and I
looked at 40 year olds, I'd be
like, Oh, life's over.
Yeah, he was old, I know, and I
don't, I feel younger
now than I did 10 years ago.
Yeah, absolutely. But because
I'm excited by the work that I
do, and I'm excited by where
that's leading, and by the
people I'm seeing and speaking
to on a daily basis, I think
what, I think,
what you do, as well as when you
(35:59):
get to sort of our age is you
tend to stop living in the past.
So, like, you should let that
go.
I Do you know what I've never
even thought about? Yeah, let
it go. And there's a lot to be
saying for being present. But
you always, you know, my mom
always says, right? And can't
ask mommy's boy. My mom always
(36:21):
says, Boy, my mom always says,
Never look back, always look
forward. And it's it's so true,
because what that's already
changed, you can't change that.
I thought there's
definitely value in looking at
the journey that you've been,
oh, absolutely fast, and going,
you know, these are mistakes.
I'm not going to repeat those,
and having that value, but
focusing on the next few steps.
And I'm not one to really look
(36:42):
too far in the future. I'm
always thinking about, you know,
the next week or the next couple
of weeks, not the next six
months, the next five years. I
don't have a 10 year plan.
There's definitely value in
having that, and for people that
are much more strategic. But I'm
very much a, well, I don't know
if I'm still going to be here in
10 years, so let's worry about
next week first. There's a lot
of stress about tomorrow. Oh,
(37:03):
the way I cross the road. I'm so
inattentive. It's a wonder it
hasn't happened already. I've
had a few near misses this week.
I should stop texting when I'm
walking. Iain, it's been such a
pleasure to have you on the
podcast. And I think franchising
is not a thing that I've heard
people talking about. And I
think there's, there's definite
value. People should be
following your content on
socials if they want to learn.
(37:24):
You do talk about franchising
quite a
lot. So, yeah, I've been making
some fun videos recently. Your
videos are great. We've got some
ones that get banned on LinkedIn
already. You were in that one. I
think, yeah, you appeared in
that one. So, yeah, yeah. I've
been making some fun content
recently, and I've got, I've got
more coming up as well. We've
(37:44):
got some filming days. So one of
my franchisees did a marquee for
East standards, and he's got to
put it back up and in February.
So I'm going down there with a
film crew. Oh, my God,
how. Excited. Yeah, so that was
quite, that's quite cool. Yeah,
you're gonna get some cool
content set for that one? Yeah,
I'm really excited to see what's
going to happen in the next six
months for you, because if
(38:05):
you're literally going to double
in size, the business double in
size, you keep shrinking. Since
I last saw no, the arms are
bigger. Actually, how you're
happier because of how much time
you're spending actually
investing in yourself and
feeling good and looking good by
(38:26):
default, like as a result.
That's
it just eat. Well, I do a lot of
training, but that's just
because of the community that
I've sort of surrounded myself
with. All my friends are into,
you know, we're doing marathons
and these high rocks events and
stuff like that, so, they're
just my friends, and we do that
for fun. And it's, yeah, it's
better than going to the pub and
drinking and all the other
(38:46):
I don't drink anymore either. No
giving it all up, but I just
hugs and a cup of tea with this
one in the hangovers. I hate the
older I get. You know, that's a
that's something I was on
somebody else's podcast, the a
game podcast, and they were
talking about not drinking, and
I thought, I'm not, I'm not
really a drinker like I don't
drink very often, but whenever I
(39:08):
do, I feel rotten, absolutely
rotten the next day, even if
it's just like one or two
glasses of wine, I feel awful
the next day. And I'm just I'm
past the point in my life where
I want to give any time to
feeling that way anymore. I'm
not making sober my new like
personality.
You said on the podcast, I've
(39:29):
got
it's not my personality, but I
also, and going back to us
talking about the ADHD and
autism diagnosis, I realised,
and we had this conversation
years ago, that I socialise when
I'm drinking, but when I'm not
drinking, I am the most awkward
person trying to socialise with
people I don't know. And I want
to learn how to not be that way.
Now,
(39:49):
I think when you've got autism
and ADHD, use it as a masking
tool, and you end up absolutely
hammered when everyone else is
just
really, yeah, I don't really go
to that extent, but it just.
Gives me that social lubricant
so I don't feel so conscious of
every awkward thing that I'm
doing. I need to learn how to
just embrace being awkward and
(40:10):
not feel awkward about my
awkwardness. I'm just awkward.
That's okay, and that's who I'm
going to be when I go out and
socialise. And I just have to
learn to be okay with that
rather than drinking a couple of
glasses of wine so I can cope
with the situation. It's
so much better waking up in the
morning, isn't it, and being
able to function. So, yeah, I
don't know.
I still need a coffee in the
morning to be able to function.
(40:30):
I don't think
three Alka seltzers. No,
Lea Turner (40:33):
it's vitamin D and A
nootropics. Coffee, usually, to
get my brain going. Iain, it's
been so lovely to chat to you.
Thank you so much for coming on,
and we will actually get
together socially again soon.
Yes, we will. We will. Thank
you. Supporting small business
owners is my biggest passion,
and that's what my membership
community the HoLT is all about.
(40:54):
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(41:16):
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(41:37):
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(42:18):
through brilliant trainings from
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I'm very careful
(00:01):
who I spend my time with, and I
don't care what people think
about me either. I even care
less now, whereas 10 years ago,
I used to sit there worrying
about what people thought about
me, and, you know, said this
five years ago, wow, you're not
even bothered about it now, and
I'm sure the closer I get to 50,
I'll give less of Yeah, shit.
Unknown (00:34):
Hi Iain, hi Lea,
welcome to the Holt Survival
Guide for Small Businesses.
Thank Thank you for having me
along. It's really nice to see
you again, and I think today is
going to be an interesting
episode, because you own a party
marquee company. Yeah, it's a
party tank company, yeah, the
party tent company.
So, yeah, I started that
(00:55):
business in 2011 but
you've actually been franchising
it, and that's why I've invited
you
the original business. I started
in 2011 and it was a bit of a
side business, to be honest with
you. I was just doing it on the
weekends, and it quickly
exploded.
Why do you think it exploded? I
don't know. I
(01:16):
made many different logos and
sort of brand colours and stuff
like that. And then when I
showed the logo and stuff like
that to friends and family, they
were like, that one, that one go
with that one, and didn't even
have a website. Just put an ad
on, yell.com, oh, really, that
didn't even have a website, and
it was getting orders straight
away. So the revenue that got
(01:37):
got in off that, because I had a
job at the time, just got a
website built, and then, yeah,
it just kept going from there.
And I don't know, I just think
the public talk to it, you know,
the service as well that we were
providing, you know, we, I'm big
on customer service and
a very clever name. You've,
you've gone with the SEO, right?
The party tent company says what
(02:00):
it does, yeah. So
like I was working. I was my job
at the time, was working for
auto trader. So I was going
around all sort of independent
car garages, teaching them how
to advertise their cars, and
talking to them about websites
and SEO would just come out. And
we were all trained on SEO
websites and stuff. So I took
some of that knowledge that I'd
(02:20):
learned in my day job, yeah, and
pumped it into my into my own
business. And, you know, I was
going around some of these car
garages with guys in sheepskin
skin coats and flat caps boys,
and they were still advertising
in the magazine, the Auto Trader
magazine. I was like, You need
to put your money into the
internet. That's where it is.
(02:41):
And some of them just wouldn't
have it. I was like, Have you
got one of these in your pocket?
Produced a mobile phone, and
they were like, Yeah. And I
went, well, that's where
everyone's looking for for cars
these days. They don't look in
the magazine anymore auto trade.
They just kept the magazine. It
was losing money just for this
shelf position in the
supermarket. So people spot it
(03:01):
and go, I know I have to go on
the Auto Trader magazine later
on. So it was like I was
teaching these guys how to
market their business. So I was
using that knowledge then to
do my own so you must have been
run ragged if you were that busy
and running a full time having a
full time job as well. But going
forward a little bit, how many
years ago must have been four or
(03:22):
five years ago you started
thinking about scaling with a
franchise model. So
well it was pretty it became
obvious pretty early on. So you
know, 2012 2013 because my
higher business that I was based
in Warrington, blew up on social
media. So, you know, you've got
people's friends and families
were seeing that they were
(03:42):
having marquees offers, and they
were liking the page or engaging
with my Facebook or Instagram.
My organic reach was much higher
Facebook back then. Yeah. So I
was getting people from like
Edinburgh, Swansea, London,
Bournemouth, ringing me up in
Warrington, saying, can you come
and put a market up for us on
switch and touch a date? I'm
(04:03):
like, well, you're 400 miles
away. So that that's when it
started to click. The business
could be franchised, although at
that point I didn't know
anything about it. What happened
was there was a guy, and I've
actually spoke to the guy
recently. His name's Bernie
Harris. He was He lives in
Stockport, and he just sold his
business. He made neon signs of
(04:25):
some description, imported them
over. He'd sold his business and
retired. Did, did a marquee for
him in his garden when we were
taking it down on the Sunday or
Monday or whatever. He said, he
said, Iain, have you ever
thought of franchising this
business? And I went, I have
thought about it. I don't really
know much about it. He said, You
(04:46):
should do it. So I just went
away and started. So I did that.
And then six years, well, no,
that was in 20, 2019, so I
messaged him last year. So
what's that? Five? Years later,
said, Oh, you Hi, Bernie.
Probably don't remember me. I
did a marquee for you five years
ago. And he was like, Yeah. And
I said, Well, you told me to
(05:07):
franchise my business. And I
have done just want to say thank
you, because it was you who put
that idea in my head. What a
lovely thing to do to actually
reach back. It was six, six
years so, so I've got six
franchisees now. So he said,
Okay, well, when you get to turn
to come and see me, I'm gonna
buy you dinner and so that,
(05:27):
that's how it's so like this guy
who I who was just my customer,
and we follow each other on
socials and stuff now as well
and stay in touch. So yeah, he's
pretty cool guy. Bernie, yeah, so,
but it was sort of eight years
between starting and actually,
yeah, getting going with the
franchise. Well, I
think when you when you
franchising your business, you
(05:47):
can't do it too soon, because
you've got to prove that that
model actually works. So the
longer that you do it, the
better, because you can provide
the profit and loss. You can
provide all the statistics and
insights on social media and
SEO. The problem, the problem
you've got when, well, there's
many problems when you franchise
your business, but one of the
(06:09):
main problems is you've got this
original branch that is doing
doing particularly well. What's
to say that that will or will
not do well in another part of
the country. So your first
franchisees are beta testers,
and to get someone to believe in
something that isn't proven yet
is not quite sure about yet.
(06:31):
That's the difficult part, yeah.
So what in your experience now?
So you're up to seven sites.
You've got six franchisees. What
makes a good business to be
franchised? Because this is
something people have talked
about with me, with the
community that I run. But at the
moment, my community draws
(06:51):
people in, mostly because
they're aware of me and my
brand, and that's then sort of
filtered down into the people
that are then members that are
marketing it for me, and it's
been floated to me that
franchising would be a good
idea. I don't personally think
it would be with my business the
way it is certainly not at the
moment. But I'm interested in
(07:12):
your perspective on what kind of
businesses you see doing really
well as franchise. Any
business can could be
franchised, potentially. What
you've got to think of Is it a
bricks and mortar, so like your
subways, your McDonald's, things
like that. So you've got your
bricks and mortar, and then
you've got your service based
businesses which are like mine,
or, I don't know, you may see
(07:33):
green thumb about a bit. They're
quite a substantial one that do
gardening services. You see
their vans dotting around
everywhere, dense away, which is
mobile car detailing and stuff
like that. So with the holes, I
don't know how that would sort
of be franchised, because you
can sort of get the coverage for
(07:53):
the whole of the UK. Yeah,
I think the more sort of like
local networking side London
Hall, where they do in person,
networking and co working and
support, and then all over the
country. Yeah,
well, there's actually one
called Real five that started in
Warrington. That's a networking
event, and they've, they
franchised, and I don't know how
they're doing, but yeah, they
(08:14):
seem to to have a few dotted
around. I know they've just
recently opened Bolton because I
was, I was invited to go along,
and I couldn't make it at the
time, but, yeah, any business
couldn't. What you need is to be
able to prove that it works via
profit and loss. Franchisees got
to see that they're going to be
(08:34):
able to make something out of
it, and it's got to be enjoyable
for the person who's buying into
it as well? And
how have you like, when you
first decided to start the steps
towards getting yourself set up
as a franchise? Yeah, what were
the things that you were most
afraid of? Like, what in your
(08:56):
head? What were the things that
were hard to overcome? Well,
being a massive Empath my my
biggest fear was somebody
investing their time and money
into it, and then it not being a
success, right? For to see
someone fail, afraid
for them, rather than it would
be expensive. And yeah, well,
(09:17):
it's not Yeah, because it's not
my livelihood, is it? You know,
where somebody's making a
decision to they might not leave
the job straight away. They
might sort of be doing this as a
doing it as a part time
business, which we encourage
people to do, to start off with,
because, you know, people have
got bills to pay at the same
time. You know, you're asking
someone to change the lifestyle
for a period of at least five
years. And if somebody does that
(09:38):
for maybe a couple of years, and
it doesn't quite work out for
them, through no fault of their
own. That was my biggest fear.
You know, with hindsight now,
looking back, I've got all of
them have have done well, and
they've all worked. So it's
been,
what do you think has been the
reason that they've done well?
(09:59):
Support in. Any
franchise, and that's from you,
from, yeah, from any, any Frank,
any good franchise, or it's
just, it's support. That's what
they're paying you
for. And what do you think that
they needed support on most
well, any franchisee that comes
to the table when, when you
recruit them, they're gonna have
transferable skills. So for
(10:20):
example, I've got a guy who who
came, and he's pretty savvy with
social media and stuff like
that, but he didn't he setting
up a mark. He was alien, alien
to him because he'd came, he'd
came from a corporate
background, so we had to work
more on the practical side of
things with him, whereas then
you've got, I've had people one
of my other franchisees as a
(10:42):
husband and wife partnership.
The the husband of of that
partnership was a mechanic in a
in a previous career, so he was
pretty hands on. So when it came
to putting Marquise up, it was
like show him once, and it's
done, whereas they'd never done
social media before, so they
needed a little bit more. So
it's about getting what skills
they've already got, where we
(11:03):
can transfer them over into what
we're going to be doing, and
where the shortfalls are
ultimately. So then we can, we
can work on those. And do
you train them in all of that
yourself? Yeah, so you feel like
you're competent enough in all
of the different areas of your
business that you can now fully
train each of the franchise
that's pretty impressive. Like,
(11:24):
you're not bringing any external
services to support them or
anything like that.
Oh, absolutely, yeah. So like,
when we, when we do the sort of
marketing, marketing side of
things, I've got an SEO expert
who does all that side of things
for them, and then we, we do
some PPC as well. So we've got
people that we bring in to do
that. So it's not like I do
absolutely everything, but with
the organic posting, and I
(11:45):
already know what works and what
doesn't, and that's all part of
the process. When we we first,
first on board somebody. So
what? What do you actually,
because I'm just one of the
reasons that I thought it would
be interesting to have this
conversation is because we don't
really hear people talking about
franchising that much, and it is
actually the hardest thing as a
(12:06):
solo business owner or a small
business owner, is thinking, how
am I going to scale when you're
the one that does all of the
business, when you're wearing
all of the hats you are the sort
of the key part of the business
is, well, how do I scale? And
you've done it very successfully
with franchising. And it it's
clear that there's a there's a
really strong future to take it
(12:27):
even further, but it's scary and
see my my initial reaction would
be, well, what if they damage
damage my brand? What if I
franchise to the wrong person
and they do something that could
be really detrimental to my
brand? But I suppose with your
brand as the party tank company,
no one knows you in Warrington,
if they're doing one in
(12:48):
Portsmouth, no
well, and also as well, you
monitor the situation through
your support as well, so you
audit them regularly of what's
going on and what they're doing
so and the way that franchising
works is that it's one limited
company in partnership with
another, and what in between
that is what's called the
(13:08):
franchise agreement. And the
franchise agreement lays out the
obligations of both parties, but
it's, it's heavily loaded
towards the franchisee, you
know, meeting their obligations.
So if there's something that
they don't do during the whole
process, it will be laid out in
(13:30):
the franchise agreement and the
operations manual, which is like
the Bible of the business. The
franchise agreement usually
points towards the operations
manual, which is the, yeah, it's
all the systems and processes
that they have to follow to be
successful. And
what? What do you think? Because
it sounds like there's quite a
range of people that take up
(13:52):
franchising. Yeah, for you, what
do you think attracts people to
the idea of of getting involved
with a franchise? Well, it's
minimal risk, isn't it? So if
you're, you know, a lot of my
franchisees, and they won't mind
me saying that they're entering
middle age as I am, you know.
And yeah, yeah. So they, what
(14:16):
you find is that they've usually
always wanted to start a
business in one way, shape or
form, life has got in the way,
and they've, you know, they've
just been working as we all
have. We've all got bills to
pay, and, you know, maybe
children growing up and stuff
like that. And I think
franchising offers, offers a
(14:39):
solution that that minimises the
risk. So there's a stat on the
BFA website, and it's something
along the lines that 80% of
startups fail within the first
five years. I think that's it.
I've heard that scary, yeah, the
other way around with with
franchising. So it's the numbers
are flipped the other way. So
80% of. Franchises are still
(15:01):
trading after five years, and
only 20 cents have failed.
Has it surprised you the type of
people, as in, like you said,
there was someone from a
corporate background, you've got
a mechanic, that's quite a big
disparity. Yeah,
yeah. And it's, do you know
what? It's not, like, it's not,
you don't sort of judge on what
the what they're doing. You
(15:21):
know, when they're coming on
board, it's, it's, obviously you
do your drill down questions,
why do you want to do this? Why
have you chosen us? What? What
interests you about this and
things like that and and usually
it's that they've been stuck in
a rut with their career, and
they just want to change. They
(15:41):
want to do something where the
hands on and the they are
running their own business. Of
course, it's their business, but
they've got that arm around the
shoulder as well, you know,
like, we've just taken a new
franchisee on a couple of months
ago, and this morning, we were
just talking about him buying
some new equipment. He was
(16:02):
asking for advice on that. And
you know, I welcome that. I want
you know, even if it's something
daft, there's no sort of silly
questions with it ring me. And
that's like I said earlier,
earlier, when we were talking,
that my job is to support them.
Support them every step of the
way, and any good franchisor
(16:22):
will do that. And
are you still really hands on in
your your own part of this
business?
So I still run the Warrington
branch, yeah. How
do you find the time to still be
so hands on the tools, but also
provide the support to six other
franchises? Yeah,
so it's at the moment, it's sort
of, I'm getting to a point where
it's gonna have to be one or the
(16:43):
other. It's like when you start
your own business and you're in
employment, it's when do you
take that leap? So is
that finding somebody else to
provide the advice, or finding
somebody else to run the
Warrington
branch? Well, the Warrington
branch will be sold as a
franchise,
Lea Turner (16:55):
right? So then you
are,
Unknown (16:58):
yeah, it's just a case
of finding the right person for
Warrington, waiting for an
inquiry to come along. And also,
as well, Warrington is going to
demand a higher fee because it's
already a running up and going
concern. So it's a flagship,
yeah, that's it. Yeah. So like I
say, I'm kind of getting to the
point where, during the summer
(17:20):
time, I do send the lads out a
little bit more than than me
going out all the time and
things like that. But yeah,
it's, I always sort of refer it
back to when I was when I
actually started the Warrington
branch, and I was still in
employment, and it was like a
sort of, right, when do we take
this leap? And I'm kind of
getting to that point now. And
in fact, yesterday, I was
(17:41):
discussing it with them, my
franchise consultant, Richard,
my advisor of when that's going
to happen and what that's going
to look like. So we were already
having that conversation for
this year as well. Yeah, so it's
a bit scary, but, but
so you for eight years, you ran
the business yourself, pretty
much on the side, and then as a
(18:01):
full time job, any franchise
deal, what did you notice as a
business owner? What was the
biggest shift you had to make in
your life, and like, mentally,
to to move into that franchise?
Franchising? Because I'd imagine
there are some sort of like,
like confidence mindset shifts.
Because you were going from just
you relying on yourself, to
(18:22):
actually having to constantly
think about somebody else and
what they're doing with their
business. You know, I always say
this, I was an expert. I am an
expert in marquee hire because
I've done it for so long, but I
wasn't an expert in franchising.
So I had to, I had to learn, and
I had to learn quickly, and then
took some wrong advice and
wasted quite a bit of money. And
Lea Turner (18:43):
what was the wrong
advice
Unknown (18:46):
around legalities?
There's a lot of people you know
yourself. There's a lot of
people who claim to be business
coaches and stuff like that
online. And then sometimes they,
you know, they don't live up to
they don't know, and they
probably don't even never run a
business themselves, some of
them, but yeah. So yeah, I took
(19:07):
some some advice. Some of it was
alright, some of it was but I
wasted a bit of time and money
as well at that point. And yeah,
I think what I did pretty
quickly was I surrounded myself
with other franchisors. So
became friends with a lady
called Sharon Corley, who runs
an after school tuition
(19:27):
franchise. She she was in
Warrington, so we could meet up
quite regularly another guy,
Ryan Armitage. He runs, yeah,
yeah. So Ryan's a pretty cool
guy. He was always on hand to
offer advice and support and
yeah. So I just surrounded
myself with with those type of
people. So whenever any problems
(19:49):
came off, I could just text Ryan
or give him, Give Sharon a call
and say, Yeah, sort of
Lea Turner (19:53):
errors, yeah, yeah.
And I
Unknown (19:55):
think that's important,
yeah, running
Lea Turner (19:56):
your own business
takes courage, dedication and
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(20:18):
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first policy subject to
eligibility. And you also had,
like, a very young family at the
time when you started. And I
mean, we've known each other
(20:39):
for, what, five,
Unknown (20:41):
maybe six years. Yeah,
be about five years, five years.
Yeah. So we've
known each other that most of
that time, and you know, your
kids are older now and more
mature, but I imagine that
trying to juggle all of that
while you're franchising must
have been a lot for you mentally
to deal with. You've got this
successful business really in
demand. You've now got
(21:02):
franchises depending on you.
You've also got three young
children, yeah, how did you What
did you do to help yourself get
get through that? Because, you
know, one business is to keep
running with a young family. Is
a lot one business, plus other
people's that you're now
(21:23):
responsible to help them and the
three children that that that's
a huge amount of pressure on
your shoulders. Yeah. So did you
get through that?
Well, it's with great
difficulty. It's, it's a
balancing act, isn't it? And you
know, probably by my own
admissions, that during the
summer months, especially when,
when you know, market higher is
(21:43):
is quite seasonal. Probably
wasn't around as much as should
have been in the summertime. But
then I'd make up for it during
the winter months. Yeah, yeah,
it's difficult, difficult
running a business, though,
isn't it? You know,
it's mentally, I feel like it's
harder than, you know, like, I
can work all night long. I can
(22:04):
keep going and going and going,
but the mental burnout when you
get to when you sort of hit that
breaking point, yeah, because
it's not just a couple of days,
it's like your brain just
doesn't feel like it turns on at
all for for potentially weeks on
end, if not longer. That
happens to me every October. So
it's like end of the summer
season. I'm, I'm just,
(22:25):
is that part of your decision to
try and offload Warrington and
well,
yeah, yeah. Look, you know, the
dream is to be a franchisor with
40, maybe 50 franchises trading
and everybody happy and just
running be just managing the
franchise with a couple of
franchise managers, and having
Lea Turner (22:47):
a nice 40 or 50,
Unknown (22:49):
yeah, so that that
that's the plan. And you know,
there's, there's there's,
there's no, there's no reason
why we can't do that. It's just,
the thing is, with franchising,
it's a long call. If you take
too many franchisees on at once,
you're not going to be able to
give them the level of support
that they need.
So is there like a time frame in
(23:11):
your sort of planning between
each franchise? Do you sort of
take one on? And you know anyone
in Franz? Well, there's a lot of
liars in franchising, but anyone
in franchising?
Lea Turner (23:23):
Well, a
Unknown (23:27):
lot of franchisors will
say that they've never had a
franchise fail, and it'll be
masked again around some other
excuse, but we all know that
they've had a franchise that
fail, and so that's one lie.
What you know, last year,
especially, recruitment was slow
across the whole of the
franchising industry. And the
(23:47):
reason was that, you know, we've
got all these people in, you
know, in Westminster and all
these, all the people and the
news, the media, scaremongering
or cost of living, crisis fuel
going off wars also. So usually,
when there's some sort of
economic downturn like that,
people tend to stick with what
(24:08):
they're doing because it's a
safety net. They're in a job and
it's secure, right? I'll just
stay here and do what I'm doing,
rather than invest in a
franchise a bit risky. Plus,
interest rates are up as well,
so if they needed to borrow,
yeah? So that's, that's another
point. So last year, all in all,
the recruitment was slow, so we
only recruited two last year.
(24:29):
This year, it's the early signs
are, well, the back end of last
year, and you know, the first
couple of weeks of this year,
we've had some more quality
leads coming through, not just
sort of tie kickers. So we're
open for about half a dozen this
year. I think I think half a
dozen a year is is manageable.
Going to double in
Lea Turner (24:48):
size, yeah, yeah.
That's yeah.
Unknown (24:51):
Well, like I said
earlier, the hard part is
getting the few, first few on
board. Yeah. Once you get to a
certain amount, you just one of
Yeah. Whenever I go. To whenever
I get a new, new inquiry in the
in the early days, I was saying,
right? Well, this is what we've
done in Warrington, this is what
we've done, and this is what
(25:11):
we've done now, I can say to
them, right? I can tell you how
good it is, and I genuinely
believe how good it is. I could
show you all the figures. But
what I'd like you to do now is
go and speak to those guys and
see what their experience of
working with us is. How much
money have they made? What did
they like, what didn't they
like? And then you can make an
informed efficiency. I
love that transparency, though,
because that shows how confident
(25:32):
you are in the teams that you've
helped to build and the
franchisees that you've you've
brought in. Well, I genuinely
call every one of my franchisees
friends as well, like so
whenever I go, whenever I go and
do a territory visit, of course,
we're going through the social
media, we're going through the
figures, we're going through
everything else. But then we'll
sit and break bread and have
(25:53):
have a meal together and have a
laugh and a joke and talk about
things that are nothing to do
with marquee, nothing to do with
franchising. And
I know because we know each
other outside of just the online
world, I know that you've had
quite a tumultuous, turbulent
two, three years now. Yeah, it's
been tough, yeah. And yet you've
managed to keep the business
(26:15):
going. You've managed to keep it
growing. And when we say
tumultuous, your marriage broke
down, yeah, yeah. And yet you've
managed to keep the business
afloat. We're not going to go
into details, but there's going
to be a lot of people listening
that are going through personal
struggles outside of business
that really can impact how you
(26:35):
show up in your business.
Absolutely. So, well, yeah. So,
yeah, I've just got last year I
got divorced. So, yeah, that
that's that. And running up to
that, it was a little bit, it
was, well, it wasn't little, it
was, it was a very toxic
relationship. And yeah, so it
ended up in me going back to
(26:55):
live at my mum's in a box
bedroom at the age of 3940,
which is, you know, it's not
ideal. No, you own two
businesses, and you're back in
your your mum's box bedroom for
a short period of time. But, you
know, needs must. I think the
one thing that I need in my life
is that the one sort of thing
that I need to be doing every
(27:16):
day is work. And I think that
sort of took my mind away from
that person, yes, but because of
the toxicity of the relationship
and stuff like that, I was, I
was honest with myself. And, you
know, you and I had
conversations at the time quite
a lot as well. Didn't we some
sort of late night phone calls,
and what would you do in this
scenario, Leah and and stuff
(27:36):
like that? So I had friends
around me, but it was, you know,
and men don't, sort of tend to
admit this, but I decided that I
needed to go to therapy, so
that's what I did. And I went to
different types of therapists as
well. I didn't just go to one.
So I went to a talking
therapist, which was great. Got
(27:57):
it all off my chest. She then
said, look, there's nothing else
I can do with the type of
therapy that I do. I did some,
well, I still go to it now every
two weeks. So I did some
alternative Chinese therapy,
which is physical, so it's like
massage, cupping, fire, cupping,
(28:17):
acupuncture, and that, that's
that that's all really good as
well. And then I think, well,
they're all good for many
reasons, but the one that I got
the most out of was from a lady
called dawn, and she did EMDR
therapy. I don't know whether
you've ever heard before that.
Yeah, so did. They've got like,
(28:40):
a rod with a light on the end of
it, and you've got to watch it
whilst you're talking. There's
hypnotherapy involved as well.
And then sometimes you'll have
like, a buzzer in in your in
each hand, and it'll buzz one
and then the other one, and then
the other and then she'll ask
you to sort of think about
things whilst programming your
(29:00):
brain. Yeah, it gets it talking
to apparently, so it gets but
you found it effective? Oh,
absolutely. I came out of it,
like a change. Person, like, I
remember, like, sort of the last
session that, when she said,
right, this is the last session,
but I'm here, and I've been back
quite a few times since. But she
was like, this is the last
session. You can come back
whenever you want, but for now.
(29:22):
And yeah, I was just like, sort
of burst into tears and gave her
a big hug, because it was just
like, you've just, like, she
cured me of everything that was
going on. Yeah, I think.
And I obviously, I don't want to
say anything that you wouldn't
want public, but you moved from
being this sort of solo business
(29:43):
owner to this very successful
franchiser, which meant that you
had more responsibility this
team growing, more money coming
in. Yeah, your confidence grew.
And also, and you're, you are
public about this. This isn't me
like doxing you in any way that
you're very public. Out your
Autism Diet. Yeah, you had after
your children. Well, I'm
(30:03):
just currently going through
ADHD as well, so it turns out
I've got both. But
it's one of those that, and I
know this has happened for me,
and I know it's happened for
very many business owners, is as
you start seeing that success in
your business life, and you
start recognising the things
that bring you joy, yeah, and
(30:24):
the things that don't that you
start outsourcing to other
people. You say, Okay, I don't
need to do that bit myself. Now
I can give that to somebody
else. You start really becoming
aware of what in your life is
good for you and what's not good
for you, how to focus on the
things that you enjoy and double
down on those and how to remove
the things that you really
enjoy, and it starts bringing
(30:44):
that awareness to other areas of
your life, as your confidence,
your self worth, your ambition,
grows, you outgrow people and
relationships in your life.
That's really common in business
ownership, and it's really
painful sometimes to let go,
even when you know it's the
right thing. But would you say
that's something that happened
(31:05):
within your situation leading up
to now? You are this sort of
you're in a healthy, happy
relationship now, but
yeah, absolutely, yeah. So you
know, you quite rightfully said
that in business, if there's
somebody who's not serving you
any purpose, and it just seems
like one way traffic all the
time, then you tend to sort of
(31:25):
distance yourself, away friends,
family. I think the problem is,
when you're married and there's
young children involved that you
want to do best by the children,
and that's sort of and the young
and you still want to see them
every day. That isn't a reason
to sort of stay in a
relationship, because the
unhappiness and the toxicity
then shows to the children, you
(31:46):
know, so it's not in the best
interest of the children to
remain in that relationship,
although, selfishly, you want to
see the children every day and
you want to see them grow up.
It's not the best environment
for them. So yeah, when you know
if you're if you're in a toxic
relationship, and you know about
it, then you know there is life
after that. It doesn't seem like
(32:07):
it at the time, because you you
feel like your whole world's
about to sort of be turned
upside down. But in once you've
got through that initial sort of
few months, six months, 12
months, yeah, life gets better.
Yeah, you just start. I guess
you adjust to a new kind of. You
adjust
to a new a new you, but you sort
of, you got a new lease of life
(32:28):
as well, because you're not, you
feel like, you know, if there's,
if there's sort of a toxic
environment, it's, it's
suppressing the other things
that could be going on in your
life. So, by my own admissions,
when, when I was going through
all this, I wasn't posting on
social media. I just
disappeared. I just had no Mojo
for it whatsoever. Just I'd get
(32:50):
my phone out to post something,
and I'd just be like, No, not
today. It's not got that well,
just didn't add anything to say
in business, where we're sort of
conditioned to social media tell
us all time we need to be around
people that fill us up. We need.
Was it the you want to be around
radiators rather than drains, if
I've got that right, but you
(33:11):
want to be around people that
fill you up rather than people
that would drain your energy.
And I definitely noticed as I
became more confident in
business and the relationships I
was choosing to have through
business, I really started
putting under a microscope other
relationships, and I had people
that I knew from my past that be
like, Hey, why don't we do this?
(33:32):
Why don't we do that? And I'm
like, why? Like, I don't know
you anymore. Our lives have gone
in different directions. Am I
really going to spend four or
five hours to see you after I
haven't seen you for six, seven
years, for what? Because you're
not if I've got an emergency,
are you going to come and help
me? No, am I going to do the
(33:52):
same for you? No, because I've
got other responsibilities now,
and I sort of think I'm so much
more. It sounds ruthless, but
I'm my boundaries are just so
much stronger. And I think,
well, it's there's a point in me
pouring into relationships that
will pour back into me when I
need them. But unless that's
going to happen, I I'm so much
(34:14):
more guarded with my time. I
think, well, I'd rather just
spend that time with my son than
spend five hours rekindling a
relationship that will disappear
again the moment you go home.
Yeah.
Because I think as well, it's
not just sort of, it's
definitely what you've what
you've just said with your sort
of, your business getting more
successful, and you more sort of
aware of how much you spend time
with different people. But I
(34:34):
think it comes with age as well.
So when you get to, like, you
know, I'm nearly 42 now, I'm
very careful who I spend my time
with, and I don't care what
people think about me either. I
even care less now, whereas 10
years ago, I used to sit there
worrying about what people
thought about me, and, you know,
said this five years ago, wow,
(34:55):
you're not even bothered about
it now. And I'm sure the closer
I get to 50, I'll give less of.
But
yeah, I'm facing down 40 this
year, and I'm just like, I
thought I'd feel a certain way
about turning 40. I thought that
I would feel like sad or some
sort of negative feeling. But
I'm actually really excited. I
(35:15):
feel like the best version of
myself I've ever been, and
that's definitely in a huge part
down to the lack of fucks I give
about about what people think
about me, and going, I'm I'm in
my lane. I'm doing all of the
things that I love. I'm avoiding
the things I don't love. I've
got a kid that I adore who is
just the best thing ever, and
I'm so excited my life. And I, I
(35:38):
don't know, when I was 20 and I
looked at 40 year olds, I'd be
like, Oh, life's over.
Yeah, he was old, I know, and I
don't, I feel younger
now than I did 10 years ago.
Yeah, absolutely. But because
I'm excited by the work that I
do, and I'm excited by where
that's leading, and by the
people I'm seeing and speaking
to on a daily basis, I think
what, I think,
what you do, as well as when you
(35:59):
get to sort of our age is you
tend to stop living in the past.
So, like, you should let that
go.
I Do you know what I've never
even thought about? Yeah, let
it go. And there's a lot to be
saying for being present. But
you always, you know, my mom
always says, right? And can't
ask mommy's boy. My mom always
(36:21):
says, Boy, my mom always says,
Never look back, always look
forward. And it's it's so true,
because what that's already
changed, you can't change that.
I thought there's
definitely value in looking at
the journey that you've been,
oh, absolutely fast, and going,
you know, these are mistakes.
I'm not going to repeat those,
and having that value, but
focusing on the next few steps.
And I'm not one to really look
(36:42):
too far in the future. I'm
always thinking about, you know,
the next week or the next couple
of weeks, not the next six
months, the next five years. I
don't have a 10 year plan.
There's definitely value in
having that, and for people that
are much more strategic. But I'm
very much a, well, I don't know
if I'm still going to be here in
10 years, so let's worry about
next week first. There's a lot
of stress about tomorrow. Oh,
(37:03):
the way I cross the road. I'm so
inattentive. It's a wonder it
hasn't happened already. I've
had a few near misses this week.
I should stop texting when I'm
walking. Iain, it's been such a
pleasure to have you on the
podcast. And I think franchising
is not a thing that I've heard
people talking about. And I
think there's, there's definite
value. People should be
following your content on
socials if they want to learn.
(37:24):
You do talk about franchising
quite a
lot. So, yeah, I've been making
some fun videos recently. Your
videos are great. We've got some
ones that get banned on LinkedIn
already. You were in that one. I
think, yeah, you appeared in
that one. So, yeah, yeah. I've
been making some fun content
recently, and I've got, I've got
more coming up as well. We've
(37:44):
got some filming days. So one of
my franchisees did a marquee for
East standards, and he's got to
put it back up and in February.
So I'm going down there with a
film crew. Oh, my God,
how. Excited. Yeah, so that was
quite, that's quite cool. Yeah,
you're gonna get some cool
content set for that one? Yeah,
I'm really excited to see what's
going to happen in the next six
months for you, because if
(38:05):
you're literally going to double
in size, the business double in
size, you keep shrinking. Since
I last saw no, the arms are
bigger. Actually, how you're
happier because of how much time
you're spending actually
investing in yourself and
feeling good and looking good by
(38:26):
default, like as a result.
That's
it just eat. Well, I do a lot of
training, but that's just
because of the community that
I've sort of surrounded myself
with. All my friends are into,
you know, we're doing marathons
and these high rocks events and
stuff like that, so, they're
just my friends, and we do that
for fun. And it's, yeah, it's
better than going to the pub and
drinking and all the other
(38:46):
I don't drink anymore either. No
giving it all up, but I just
hugs and a cup of tea with this
one in the hangovers. I hate the
older I get. You know, that's a
that's something I was on
somebody else's podcast, the a
game podcast, and they were
talking about not drinking, and
I thought, I'm not, I'm not
really a drinker like I don't
drink very often, but whenever I
(39:08):
do, I feel rotten, absolutely
rotten the next day, even if
it's just like one or two
glasses of wine, I feel awful
the next day. And I'm just I'm
past the point in my life where
I want to give any time to
feeling that way anymore. I'm
not making sober my new like
personality.
You said on the podcast, I've
(39:29):
got
it's not my personality, but I
also, and going back to us
talking about the ADHD and
autism diagnosis, I realised,
and we had this conversation
years ago, that I socialise when
I'm drinking, but when I'm not
drinking, I am the most awkward
person trying to socialise with
people I don't know. And I want
to learn how to not be that way.
Now,
(39:49):
I think when you've got autism
and ADHD, use it as a masking
tool, and you end up absolutely
hammered when everyone else is
just
really, yeah, I don't really go
to that extent, but it just.
Gives me that social lubricant
so I don't feel so conscious of
every awkward thing that I'm
doing. I need to learn how to
just embrace being awkward and
(40:10):
not feel awkward about my
awkwardness. I'm just awkward.
That's okay, and that's who I'm
going to be when I go out and
socialise. And I just have to
learn to be okay with that
rather than drinking a couple of
glasses of wine so I can cope
with the situation. It's
so much better waking up in the
morning, isn't it, and being
able to function. So, yeah, I
don't know.
I still need a coffee in the
morning to be able to function.
(40:30):
I don't think
three Alka seltzers. No,
Lea Turner (40:33):
it's vitamin D and A
nootropics. Coffee, usually, to
get my brain going. Iain, it's
been so lovely to chat to you.
Thank you so much for coming on,
and we will actually get
together socially again soon.
Yes, we will. We will. Thank
you. Supporting small business
owners is my biggest passion,
and that's what my membership
community the HoLT is all about.
(40:54):
Inside the HoLT are more than
150 master classes from experts
in every business skill you
could ever want, and we add more
every single month. There are
also sales clinics, tech
clinics, well being, support and
advice and discounts on a huge
range of software and services.
But it's so much more than just
trainings and resources.
Everyone inside the halt shares
(41:16):
their years of knowledge and
experience generously with
kindness and without judgement.
They're super active, the chat
channels are buzzing, and it's
like having 600 business
cheerleaders in your pocket
willing you to succeed and
helping you wherever they can.
And we offer all of this and
much more at an extremely low
price, because we know that
(41:37):
budgets are tight when you're
bootstrapping a business, the
HoLT is a kind, inclusive and
non judgmental place where
everyone knows that working
together is the fastest way to
succeed, and it makes it a whole
lot more fun. We would love for
you to join us. You can check
out the full details on the dash
halt.com or if communities
aren't really your vibe and you
(41:58):
just want access to the hundreds
of expert master class
recordings with a combined value
of more than 10,000 pounds. You
can access the vault right now
for just 20 pounds per month.
The Vault is all the master
classes with none of the chat or
distractions, just pure value.
Visit the-holt.com/vault to sign
up and start bingeing your way
(42:18):
through brilliant trainings from
leading experts. You.
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