March 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Considering a franchise but don't know where to start? Discover the Bloomin' Blinds franchise opportunity!
In this episode of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, Giuseppe Grammatico interviews Kelly Macht and Kelsey Stewart from Bloomin' Blinds, revealing their unique approach to franchising, their focus on technology (including AI!), and their commitment to supporting first-time business owners.
Learn about their business model, ideal candidate, and success stories.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I think we are more of abusiness building organization
(00:02):
that happens to use windowcoverings as that product,
because it's a skill set,running a business, creating
money out of thin air,attracting customers.
Sometimes franchising gives themystique or, or perception that
it's the easy button inbusiness.
And it is easier than creatingit on your own, but there's very
(00:24):
much still that, that gut checkthat says that you got to show
up every day.
if you can't handle validationand research of a brand, how are
you going to manage an entirebusiness?
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
(00:50):
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your Franchise
Guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
Thanks for joining us today.
Just before we, we start theshow, just as a reminder, if you
have a burning question, you'relooking at franchises, don't
know where to start.
Just have no idea kind of iffranchising is a, is a good fit
(01:10):
or not.
Give us a call or, or send usover an email at gg at gg, the
franchise guide.
com.
You can go directly to thewebsite.
There's a survey there, figuringout if you're a great match and
you can book a call directlywith me.
So it's me, you get, I alwaysget that question all the time.
There's no staff or I don't, Idon't have a VA handling that.
(01:30):
Just let me know.
We'd love to help.
And just figuring out if afranchise is a good fit and we
have a free gift for everyonethat contacts us.
Excited for our show today.
So today we mixed it up insteadof hearing me.
everyone told me they want me tobring on more and more guests.
We have a very exciting showbecause we don't have just one,
but we have two guests, whichI'm going to bring on.
We have Kelly Mott and KellyKelsey Stewart from bloom and
(01:52):
blinds.
Welcome to the show guys.
Hey, just stuffy.
Appreciate having you invite us.
Yeah, I'm excited.
People were sick of seeing meand just hearing from me.
So I'm like, all right, let's Igot, I got the the clue and
we're, we're going to bringguests on.
But yeah, really excited.
Wanted to, maybe you guys, ifyou can give, we'll start with
Kelly, just a quick little bio,a little, little background,
(02:14):
what you do, how you got intofranchising, and then we have
some really good questions andthings I want to review with the
with the, with on the showtoday.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I am actually in franchisedevelopment.
So I work with candidates thatyou pass along to us to guide
them through the journey ofbeing educated on the blue and
blinds opportunity.
And that is my role.
I've been in the franchiseindustry, U.
(02:35):
S.
franchise industry, for about 12years now.
And now I I actually have knownKelsey for about 10.
I used to work at the FranchiseShow which is a big regional
show all over the country.
And Kelsey and his familyexhibited with us when they were
brand new franchisees.
So now I have the pleasure ofWorking with them nine plus
years later doing theirfranchise development.
(02:56):
And it really is incredible tosee where that family business
started and where they havegrown to this point.
So I I love what you, what I doand you will see that come
through loud and clear in mypassion for blue and blind.
Awesome.
And where's that accent from?
That would be my good oldCanadian accent.
But don't let that throw you.
I know the U.
S.
franchise industryextraordinarily well.
(03:18):
Well, I guess depending on who'slistening, they can ask where my
accent's from.
But that's we all know that,there is that.
Kelsey, the stage is yours.
Okay.
Yeah, Kelsey Stewart.
I'm one of the founding familymembers of Blue and Blinds.
It was a family company my momstarted.
And we spent 18 years running itas like mom and, a big mom, I
(03:39):
guess, mom and the boys workingwith Kelly's awesome because now
I actually take her calls versusdodging them when she's trying
to sell booth spaces.
Yeah.
We've grown quite a bit.
I, I've worn all the hats.
Now I am primarily on the.
Like the, the stage where peopleare trying to figure out if
we're a great fit as afranchise.
(04:00):
And then I help on the scalingand growth once they're actually
in operation.
So I get to play with like myfavorite parts of the whole
business.
I get to the daydreams and thenthe executions.
I like that.
And we got to catch up a littlebit in Houston last month and
excited to hear updates and divea little bit deeper.
Let's start with Bloomin Blinds.
What, what is obviously it is afranchise, but tell us, tell the
(04:23):
audience a little bit aboutassuming they haven't heard of
the brand, what exactly isBloomin Blinds and, talking a
little bit more about thebusiness model itself.
I'll go high level.
Kelly, if you want to add somecontext, please feel free to
jump in.
So on the surface, we're awindow, window covering company,
right?
We sell and install and repairwindow coverings.
(04:45):
Primarily inside the house, butthere's a ton of pieces that go
outside the house too.
And it's a mobile service, ahome based virtually zero
inventory primarily owneroperator.
And then as you grow, you addadditional employees and
whatnot.
And I say at the surface,because part of what we really
enjoy.
is teaching people how to run abusiness.
(05:08):
I think we are more of abusiness building organization
that happens to use windowcoverings as that product,
because it's a skill set,running a business, creating
money out of thin air,attracting customers.
That is a skill set.
And we really enjoy teachingthat we're in the window
covering space, but that's byand large, the kind of the heart
behind the whole thing.
Kelly, if you have anything,please jump in.
(05:29):
No, I mean, obviouslytraditional home service window
coverings as, as Kelsey said, Ithink when to expand on sort of
what you just mentioned in termsof, creating an opportunity to
teach people how to run abusiness, I think one of the
incredible things that I saw thebrand do in Q4 of last year was
to actually bring itsfranchisees together and host
(05:50):
them for financial literacyweekend.
Really helping them understand alot of these people have never
really had to deal with thefinances of a business and
really teaching them at the corewhat that means and the ability
to pull different levers withinyour business and, and the
outcomes as a result.
And I've had tremendous feedbackfrom franchisees that I've
(06:13):
placed, but also from consultingcandidates that I'm currently
working with.
You just say, you know what?
I'm looking at other brands and,and I challenged them, ask them
if they do anything of thatnature.
And they come back to meconsistently say no, like that,
that struck them as an oddquestion.
And so I think at the heart ofwhat Blue and Blinds is doing in
in really teaching and coachingKelsey and his family having
(06:35):
worked in the industry, it's socritical to understand that,
like they've, they've worked inthe vans, right?
They've done everything we'reasking a franchisee to do to
build a business of their ownbefore they franchised it.
And I think at that essencethere's just a real uniqueness
to the Blue and Blindsopportunity for sure.
I will, I will say they're,they're definitely a huge
benefit in that because you geta better appreciation of not
(06:59):
just what the business is, butwhat the future franchisees will
be going through.
So I ran my business the exactsame way.
And especially if it's abusiness you've never been in.
Yeah.
Just how long a job shouldactually take.
If you're working with anemployee or subcontractor, it's
going to take you half a day.
If they're taking two days,something, something's off.
I, I, yeah, I couldn't agreemore.
Financial literacy is is a bigone as well.
(07:21):
And I think as a first timebusiness owner, I had, I had my
graduate degree.
I, I couldn't really.
put together a proper PNL, evena pro forma.
And I needed a lot of help.
A lot of people I'd say over myyears, I've been in business.
If you, if you consider my sidehustle of, of auto detailing 25
years now 20 years infranchising, people don't know
(07:43):
the difference between netincome EBITDA or margins gross
margins, net margins, and it'sscary.
They're buying businesses, notreally understanding the terms.
And it's a little bitfrightening or they're not
factoring in, a note paymentthat they have to make when,
when buying a business.
So I think so yeah, applause toyou guys.
That's awesome.
That's a.
(08:03):
That's something we don't heartoo much about.
And these are the things thatare overlooked, or maybe a
candidate assumes it's all goingto be handled, right?
It just, Oh yeah, they'll teachme about profit loss.
Well, they're going to teach youthe system and help you
obviously with the pro forma,but reading balance sheets and
pro and a profit loss issometimes not part of the
curriculum.
So that's, that's awesome.
What makes bloom and blindsdifferent?
(08:25):
Obviously there are other nonfranchise brands in the same
space and franchises in the samespace.
What is, the key differentiator?
Obviously we talked about a fewothers, but in the underlying
services you offer, are thereany standout differentiators
compared to others?
Yeah, I'd love to tackle thatone.
(08:45):
So when I'm talking toconsultants like yourself,
trying to educate you on thebrand or our candidates that we
have, I really feel there'sthree things that really stand
out with blue and blinds.
Number one, we've kind oftouched on it's the family
aspect of the business.
Cause because consistentlycandidates and new franchisees
that we closed, they tell me thereason that they chose blue and
blinds was because there was,there's a feeling, there's a,
(09:06):
there's a real energy that comesfrom having, being part of a
family run business.
If they're looking for.
A smaller, intimate, morerelationship based franchise
opportunity.
This is absolutely it.
We are not the big engine andyou're not going to be treated
as such, right?
So number one is, is the familyaspect and that, that relational
(09:27):
side.
Number two is definitely the,the notion that we do repairs.
It's a simple thing, but it getsus into more homes, Giuseppe.
And at the end of the day, if wehave that opportunity to get
into those homes and createrapport with the homeowner and
provide the ability to getfuture sales, future referrals,
great Google reviews, all ofthose things are going to grow
(09:47):
your business.
So the more homes that we canget into the better system wide
in our current FDD, we showedover 8, 000 invoices, just on
repairs alone.
And it is a standout.
Again, I'll encourage my, mycandidates like Google, blind
repair near me.
Right.
And, and it's very rare thatthey find a lot of options out
there.
So it does get us into morehomes.
(10:08):
And then lastly, technology,Kelsey touched on the idea that
the window coverings is just thewidget.
Well, the other piece of thebrand is that they are
technology heavy.
Anytime somebody who's jazzedabout technology, jazzed about
AI, this is a brand you shouldreally consider because it's a
simple widget, but thetechnology that is the engine
behind it is really significant.
(10:29):
And it's an area that thebrand's making significant
investments in.
Kelsey, you probably want toexpand on that a little bit
more.
Yeah.
Well, on the technology side inparticular early last year,
early 24.
We just kind of sat around inone of our leadership meetings
and we, the concept was like, dowe really believe that AI is
going to be the future?
Is there an opportunity to getthe brand ahead of the curve to
(10:51):
start adopting and bringing onthese pieces before the rest of
the world?
And, and can that get us in aposition where we can, where we
have like a defense as the worldshifts and, and Businesses go up
and down.
Anytime you can kind of create amode around you, like that,
that's an opportunity that hasto be evaluated.
So we, we dove in, but inparticular, we decided to build
(11:14):
out our own AI system.
So instead of renting, a lot ofpeople are using AI right now,
renting other people's businessor renting their models or their
information, that means theirprograms are getting smarter,
not yours.
So we partnered with Yeah.
Yeah.
So we partnered with a company.
We had our own AI built out ofour own data.
We're almost complete within a,a, a full tech stack that sits
(11:36):
on top of that.
So the AI is actually learningfrom virtually every twitch of
the business.
And that becomes the base on howthe franchisees operate their
business.
It also becomes the base on howthe clients interact with.
Us from a marketing standpointor in the house doing consults
and, and by continually growingour data set I firmly believe
(11:59):
it's going to put us in aposition where we can react and,
and improve upon data and arereally kind of comes down to
marketing and efficiency in away that even once everyone
decides that this is the rightpath, we'll already have a
headstart.
And so they, even when theystart moving as fast as we do.
They won't be able to catch upbecause we're then running at
(12:20):
the same speed.
We've just been doing it longer.
I like that.
We the AI conversations havedefinitely hit home with people.
We've noticed a lot more, a lotmore views on those
conversations or those kind ofsegments or snippets.
And to your, to your pointowning it I think people don't
realize there's nothing free inthis world.
And when you're using free eye,I've tested some, some platforms
(12:42):
as well.
Friends of friends.
I'm basically almost like theguinea pig in a way I'm putting
my information and they'regathering it.
So although I'm not paying, I'mtechnically paying with my time
and not building something formyself.
So I do have somewhat of a freeservice, but I'm not building
anything.
And I think that is, that'sjust, is AI taking over?
I don't think it's taking over.
I think we all have to step upand use it somewhat in our
(13:05):
businesses.
I know we've, we've cut it,we've cut our marketing spend
down by using AI with a coupleof agencies that we've used.
I think it's a, it's a must touse, but I don't think AI is
going to replace everything.
So I like that.
Can you, can you talk a littlebit?
I mean, I know you said it's,it's being launched.
Can you talk specifically onany, on any aspects of it or is
that yeah, yeah, I, nothing I,in the long run, a lot of it is
(13:29):
the stuff.
that humans do, we're just doingit with either automation or
with more sensitivity and datais really kind of where AI gets
its superpower is when it'sfinally got enough data that it
can create what's calledpredictive analytics.
Most of the data in today'sworld is looking backwards.
It's what happened, how thathappened.
Now, how do I analyze?
(13:50):
and guess on how to make itbetter.
AI gets really valuable when italmost gets to a level where it
can almost predict at a highdegree of certainty what's going
to happen.
So a couple pieces that'll beactionable for the franchise
owners.
Our call center will be ran byAI voice agents.
We will have people in thebackground, so if the AI gets
(14:12):
stumped or doesn't know theanswer, I've got people sitting
there ready to pick up the phonelive, but it's going to allow us
to answer the phone 24 snowdays.
We're still answering the phone.
So that's the phone, right?
That's right.
Right now I've got seven peoplewho work in a call center.
They're taking phone phonecalls.
I mean, this is like in myoffice 30 ft behind me.
But what happens when there'seight phone calls?
(14:35):
Somebody's got to wait.
And this thing it's programmedto take up to 250 calls at once.
It can do some amazing, yeah, tobe able to do smart scheduling.
So like we're very route basedor geographically based drive.
Time is a waste for us.
And so being able to presentoptions to customers in like a
basically a very smart routingsuggestion, like we only give
(15:00):
customers options that aregeographically appropriate for
us with the right people withthe right skill sets.
My favorite example, and I'vealready seen this in action, is
we use iPads.
We're not using, I mean, itcan't build AI and still use a
notepad.
We're on iPads and as thecustomer is, or as we're having
(15:21):
a conversation about how theywant the room dark at 7.
30 on a summer night because thekid's got to go to bed, but they
don't want strings and they wantto be able to push a button to
make it go up and down, the AIsystem is listening to these
descriptions and beginning topopulate the products and the
manufacturers and the follow upquestions.
(15:42):
That match that activeconversation.
So in real time, the AI ispresenting the products and the
real value that the homeowner isgoing to think it's cool, but
for a new franchise owner or anew employee who hasn't yet
learned all the variables andhasn't really mastered the, the,
the trade yet, we can give themthe ability to feel and look
(16:05):
like an expert because theydon't have to have all that
knowledge in their mind.
They like, we're going topresent it to them so that they
can just.
Work with the information that'salready in front of them.
That's that's impressive.
This is, this is this is itguys.
This is what the future islooking like.
And AI doesn't need, as youmentioned, snow days, not
feeling well.
We lost power.
My AI it's, I'm also setting upsomething on my end.
(16:28):
If we lose power, it doesn'tmatter.
It's not running from my home,it's, it's run off servers and
it's being hosts elsewhere.
And I don't know about you.
I openly tell people I utilizeAI.
We offer our services are free.
We were able to, to assist you,but one way to cut back on
expenses, just I utilize AI onthe, on the intro end and then
kind of handle it from thereessentially to set up
(16:49):
appointments and I'm very openand honest and just say, you'll
have an AI agent.
They'll be contacting you to setup that appointment and then
we're going to talk from there.
I think the more you peoplerealize what it is, because I, I
saw my parents last night, Imentioned AI and they, I don't
know, they're, they're, they're,we're talking about Terminator
and the robots taking over.
I don't think I reallyunderstood exactly.
(17:10):
What it was.
So it was a pretty funnyconversation, but I think we
just have to accept it, right?
Accept it, embrace it.
And this is the future.
when people are looking atswitching gears a little bit, so
off of AI, just looking at thebusiness itself, we, the
audience, a lot of people havenever owned a business before.
They're, they've been looking atindividual businesses.
(17:30):
They've been looking at, Kind offranchises and they're like, you
know what, I don't even knowwhere to start marketing, call
center, all that kind of stuff.
Who is the ideal candidate andwhat can they expect to kind of,
help them with all their fearsand things holding them back
such as who's going to do themarketing, the call center, and
I don't know anything aboutwindow coverings.
(17:52):
Yeah, so I'll tackle that.
So at the, at the core of it,we've looked at who, and very
recently, we really looked atwho's having success within the
organization.
And what role they've played andhow they started in the business
and really kind of stripped itback to say, you know what, we
want an owner operator in thisbusiness, we're not going to try
to be everything to everyone.
(18:13):
We want somebody who dedicatestheir time and energy fully to
bloom and blinds.
We want you to learn to crawlbefore you can run.
This is a highly scalablebusiness, Giuseppe, and we want
people to recognize that, but wewant them to understand the
foundation of their business.
before they try to scale itthemselves.
So yes, that owner ideally iscoming up to training.
(18:33):
They're getting in the truck.
They're doing the reps beforethey begin to scale.
People come from all walks oflife, not knowing the window
covering industry.
That's probably a big asset.
We like those newer owners that,that, that don't know it.
And so we can teach them theBlumen way of doing things.
So we've got men, women, we'vegot people of all ages.
And, and I think that'simportant to understand, too.
(18:55):
We do have a good female base ofowners here at Bloom Blinds and,
and absolutely support that.
So the fear is, I, I, I don'tknow how to do window coverings.
I don't know anything about thator I'm not super handy.
You can hold a drill, you canwork a drill and drill two
screws and, we'll work with you.
We can teach you.
Training is phenomenal at Womenwith Blinds.
(19:17):
They've got a full trainingcenter that they do take
franchisees and their extendedteams through, but we really are
looking for people, people it'ssuper important.
We are in home consultativesales, right?
This is an opportunity toconnect with the homeowner.
People buy from people theylike, right?
So we're looking for people thatare outgoing.
(19:37):
They want to be connectors intheir community.
They want to be problem solversmore than sales people.
With bloom and blinds because atthe end of the day, the
homeowners called you into thehome because they've got a
problem they need you to solve,right?
They're not looking for you tobe their decorator necessarily,
right?
So if that's, that's somethingyou have concerns about that's
what, I'm the primary buyer ofwindow coverings, the female in
(20:00):
the household.
I can promise you I've chattedwith my girlfriends, seen their
design style.
I've been on Pinterest.
I've read the magazines.
I like, I have a pretty goodidea of what it is that I want.
But I'm looking for you to comein and solve the problem that I
have no blinds in my new houseor in my newly renovated kitchen
or, redecorating my office and Iwant a different look.
(20:21):
So that, but at the end of theday, we need people that really,
truly are people, peopleoutgoing, friendly smile, right?
That's what I'm looking for.
And what, and what does theinitial kind of team look like?
T and staff, employees, vehiclehow quickly are you up and
running?
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat as well?
Yeah.
I think one of the big benefitsof Blooming Blinds is that you
(20:42):
can start lean and mean, right?
Like you can start in a businesswhere, as Kelsey mentioned
earlier, we're low overhead.
There's no brick and mortar.
There's no inventory to becarrying.
We outfit the vehicle for youwith your tools and all of your
hardware and your samples andrepair items, whatnot, and, and
put you out on the road.
If you're willing to start inthe business on your own and
learn it from the ground up anddo the sales and the
(21:04):
installations and repairs, andreally get a foundation on a
knowledge base on your business.
You can keep your operatingexpenses really low.
You're going to hit thresholdswhere you're going to want to
talk about scaling.
You can only manage so muchbusiness out of one vehicle,
right?
And so as those thresholds arehit, I think this is one of the
things that Kelsey's just soadept at.
(21:25):
He really enjoys.
Having those dialogues withindividual franchisees about
their, their scalability oftheir business, whether they've
got one territory or fourterritories and, how quickly
they're looking to do that andwhat that means.
Does that mean buying moreterritory?
Does that mean putting a van onthe road, hiring an employee?
It can be different thingsdepending on the model that that
(21:45):
business owner is running.
So we're not cookie cutter.
It's not just, there's not justthis standard blueprint.
You've got to hit thesemilestones in order to move to
the next.
And I think that is somethingthat's very appealing to a lot
of people that can scale attheir own pace But keep their
operating expensesextraordinarily low to give them
the opportunity to do thatfaster and to see an roi in
(22:06):
their business Faster.
I like that now What would yousay lean lean lean and mean to
to get started?
They want to keep the expenselow They want to get up and
running fast.
I mean, those are, those aresome common themes and some
common requests that I get whenI'm, when I'm working with
someone.
Operator, I think so many ofthem are, they're leaving full
time careers.
(22:26):
They ultimately want to be ableto replace some income.
Right.
And taking that leap and nothaving that safety net of doing
something semi absentee where Ican keep my job and just kind of
incubate a business over here.
It's very different.
We want you to leap in two feet.
But we, because we are so leanand mean.
We really do give people withina certain range of income, the
(22:49):
ability to to see that very,very quickly and, and keep
their, their quality of lifewhile they're building this
asset that is a business oftheir own.
Yeah, I like, I like that.
Giuseppe, you asked a question,or part of one of your questions
was expectations, like, what arethey, like, like, what do they
get?
What, what support is there kindof, so to go back on that,
(23:11):
because I think that's a reallyimportant topic.
We kind of build all the systemswith the overarching concept.
There's going to be a lot to do,but you're not gonna have to
figure out what to do.
And, and by that, again, we, wedo really enjoy that first time
business owner.
And so we know that, in thatenvironment, there's a lot of
(23:32):
questions on like, how do I getthis set up?
How do I do my marketing?
Who do I talk to?
What do I say?
And for one reason or another,we've just really gravitated
toward that coaching role ofwalking people through that
stage.
The business setup, theinfrastructure of it, the
business checking account, howdo I, all these little elements
of setting up a business, wewalk candidates through that.
(23:55):
The marketing can be broken upinto two categories.
You have your digital presence.
And then you have like yourcommunity interaction, the
digital side.
We pretty well automate that forthe owners.
In fact, we've got AI runningSEO and PPC for owners.
Pretty effective there on theground level.
We'll tell you exactly where togo, who to talk to, how to get
(24:15):
engaged, how to become known inthe room.
You're going to have to go doit, but you're not gonna have to
figure out what to do.
And that's really kind of thetheme throughout the first,
probably first year of thebusiness is most of these things
are going to be brand new to youand you're going to have someone
who's excited and willing andwanting to walk with you during
(24:37):
that kind of saying, Hey, goover here now, go over here and
now do this thing and now dothat thing you have to execute
on it, but we will walk with youand kind of point you in the way
so that you can at least headforward with some confidence.
knowing where you're supposed togo and what it's supposed to
look like when you get there.
I like that.
And that's, and that's whatpeople are looking for.
I think that, I had someone justsay, I'm overwhelmed.
(24:59):
I'm overwhelmed and They wereonly on after the second call
and, and I said, well, thefranchise or is, and you have to
ask these questions, what isincluded, what, what they will
help you with kind of step bystep.
These are the questions to beasking.
We haven't made a decision onthe brand yet, but you want to
find out the support.
And as we mentioned, first timebusiness owner, it is extremely
(25:19):
overwhelming because you don'tknow what you don't know.
You don't even know thequestions to ask or the things
to do.
What are these legal entitiesdoing?
How do I set them up?
Who does that?
Do I do them online and theattorney so I get it and that's
where there was just a aninterview Forget who shows on
but it was the president of theIFA said that three quarters of
(25:41):
people in the u.
s Have have X.
Oh, we have at some point intime thought of owning a
business and of those threequarters of those people So
those 75 percent 75 percent ofthe 75% said, well, they never
got into business because theydidn't know where to start,
which which is crazy in this, inthis, in this day and age with,
(26:02):
with the internet and the amountof information we have.
So that was the one thingholding them back.
It was the fear of the unknown,the fear of not knowing where to
start or who to contact.
So hopefully we've, we've gottenrid of that fear.
There, there are people not, notto say it is going to be a good
fit for everyone.
Obviously I'm going to, I'mgoing to say it is definitely
not a good fit.
Business ownership, franchisingfor everyone.
(26:23):
You need to be qualified.
You need to set someexpectations.
My question of the year or oflast year was I heard you can't
lose money.
When you buy a franchise and,and my, my response was, if that
were true, I wouldn't bespeaking with you right now.
I don't them all.
As a joke, obviously, but thatwas, it was someone just out of
college and said he heardsomewhere on a, on a podcast,
(26:44):
you can't lose money.
So there's some, yeah, and, and,and even if you heard that,
that's a question to bring upwith the with the franchise
company because.
Not every brand is built thesame you talk with a, if you're
looking at franchising andwindow coverings, you can't
throw everyone in the samebucket and say this is the
industry.
Each brand will kind of functiondifferently.
(27:05):
One may be owner operator.
One may have you actually doingall the installs to start or
maybe they're not doing anymarketing or call center, not
utilizing AI.
You need to see thedifferentiators between the
brands.
And I think too many people justsay, Window coverings or
flooring or painting is this.
And they kind of think all thebrands work, that kind of
(27:26):
functions.
And that is absolutely not thecase.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're a hundred percent rightabout that.
Yeah.
We're quick to point out ourdifferentiators and we stand by
those wholeheartedly.
We're so fortunate to work withconsultants like yourself who we
do get an opportunity toeducate.
And so many of the candidatesthat, that people like yourself,
Giuseppe, send us are alreadyhave a sense of who we are and
(27:46):
what we are and, and why we'regoing to be potentially a little
bit different.
I think Kelsey and I do workvery closely with, with the
candidates and I think becauseit's their family business, I
think because I've bought afranchise before when I wasn't
super well versed infranchising, I, I really do take
care to hold people's handthrough this process to educate
them to not assume that assumethat when we talk about an FDD,
(28:08):
they know what I'm talkingabout.
Right.
And to really walk them throughthe basics of franchising as
much as we're educating them onon the blue and blinds
opportunity.
And but you know, we, we alsorely on great consultants like
yourself to help educate their,their candidates and provide us
with candidates that are theright fit for this opportunity
(28:30):
specifically.
Yeah, we try our best.
We work with the willing.
Someone said in our group not,not everyone to people that are
open to learning andexperiencing and knowing the
differences.
We, we try our best.
I think we should change it to,if you work with a franchise
consultant, you can't losemoney.
There you go.
(28:51):
That'll be a, that'll be asnippet.
That'll, that'll get me in a lotof trouble, but there you go.
Yeah, that'll be, that'll be mylast interview.
Yeah, it's it's great.
It's great.
I mean, just for someone to saythat, that really kind of, that
really bothered me.
I mean, I'm sure hemisunderstood, but.
It's kind of bothersome if thatactually was said or maybe it
was taken out of context, whoknows, but having said all that,
(29:13):
I think there's one point that Iwant to bring up on Blumen, and
there's, in the, in the FDD,which I just mentioned, which is
the Franchise DisclosureDocument, the very large legal
reading that every brand has,there's a section in that called
the Item 19, and that'sfinancial performance
representations on that specificbrand.
And when you, they're not allcreated equal, right?
The amount of information afranchise system wants to put in
(29:35):
there can be varying widely.
And I think I'm really blessedto work on a brand that Kelsey
and his family have decided toput a tremendous amount of
information.
There's 13 tables ofinformation.
There's seven different P& Ls.
We show you consolidated P& Lsfor a single van owner versus a
multi van owner.
So you can say, Hey, why would Inot want to scale my business
(29:56):
down the road?
Right?
We even show you a consolidatedP& L for our owners.
For whom in that calendar year,that was their first full year
of operation with us.
So you can see what brand newowners are doing with us.
And we're just reallytransparent.
The information is there.
It works for you or it doesn't.
We continue to move along or wedon't.
But we'd rather give you as muchinformation as we can to help
(30:18):
you digest that and reallydetermine if we're, I use the
term moving the needle, if we'removing the needle in your
decision making, you should begoing forward to keep working
with us, and if it's not, thenmaybe this isn't the right brand
for you, and that's okay too,right?
We'll wish you well to findsomething that is, but I think
having a very robust item 19 inour FDD is something we do get.
(30:40):
Continual praise on in terms ofjust being able to disseminate
the financial financialopportunity within the
organization.
That's, yeah, that's good toknow.
And someone viewing an FTD forthe first time will have no
idea.
That's a very good point.
I've seen a paragraph, I've seenit empty.
I would say full listed PNLs.
I've seen it before.
I don't think it's as common aspeople would think.
(31:01):
I think they expect the PNL forevery single franchisee.
And I think setting theexpectation of what you're going
to be seeing in the differencesis big.
Can you, can you share asuccess, maybe a recent success
story?
Some of that, and, and it couldbe, they've been in six months,
a year or, or, or more, but canyou share any, any success
(31:21):
stories of franchisees thatmaybe invested in a bloom and
blinds and expanded maybe, into,into other territories?
Yeah, I'll jump on this one.
maybe I shouldn't be giving hisname, I don't know, but I mean,
he's a franchise owner in theNorth end of Philly.
Came in as a schooladministrator wanted out of that
(31:42):
world, was having desires tokind of move into his own
business, jumped into blue andblinds, jumped in the van
brought on a part time employeeright off the bat that way he
could focus on the sales and themarketing and the growth of the
business.
And then he had someone whocould help him out with the
labor side.
Most of our owners don't havethat part time addition right
(32:03):
off the bat.
It's an option.
It's just most of them don't.
It's been with us about threeand a half years.
I started off with a total offour territories.
So he came in with an ambitiousplan and he's executed it.
He's added just recently he justpicked up two new territories.
So he's up to six now.
And he's just, he's running andgunning and having a really good
(32:24):
time.
He's living.
He's purposefully drivingtowards the goals that he set
forward, and he's using thesystems and processes and the
infrastructure that we've builtaround him, and then he's
putting in the time, the work,and the energy to make the most
out of it.
And that's part of what I reallylove, is he'll tell anyone,
(32:44):
they're not here to do it forme.
I'm here to use the systems as acatapult or as my ability to
stand on the shoulders of giantsis a phrase he used.
He's using the framework to getthe most out of it.
And I just feel like that's areally good healthy mentality.
Sometimes franchising gives themystique or, or perception that
(33:10):
it's the easy button inbusiness.
And it is easier than creatingit on your own, but there's very
much still that, that gut checkthat says that you got to show
up every day.
And so you got to follow thesystem.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not, it's not a setit and forget it.
That was the Ron Popeil said it.
I don't know if you rememberhim, the inventor, he had the
pasta sausage, make it had, itwas always after, after
(33:31):
midnight, those infomercialsjust set it and forget it.
And I go, it is a lot easierthan starting from scratch, but
you have to execute.
Nope.
They're not gonna, the franchiseor is not executing for you.
You need to follow theblueprint, the process.
And I think some people don't,they, they just think they
invest and the business kind ofruns on itself.
I haven't found that businessyet, but I'll keep looking, but
(33:52):
to my, to my knowledge, itdoesn't exist.
I think Kelsey brings up a goodpoint when you're talking about
some of our franchisees and someof our success stories.
One of the important things thatyou should be doing when you're
vetting any franchiseopportunity is having an
opportunity, not only to.
Speak to the leadership team.
You've got to get to know peoplelike Kelsey and his brothers.
And, we put them up every weekon calls that our candidates can
(34:13):
join in on, but we do the samething with our franchisees.
Then Blumen is very fortunate tohave a wide variety of
franchisees on our validationcalls is what we call them.
Giuseppe.
And so each week we hold onehour zoom calls, open format, Q
and a, for them to just talk toa franchisee.
Like, what are your pain points?
What are the things that you'vehad challenges?
(34:34):
Would you do this all overagain?
Where are you having success?
What are your growth planslooking like?
Are you meeting those?
If not, how is anybody helpingyou with that?
Right?
Bring those questions.
But we put brand new owners.
We've got two owners that justopened with us in 2024.
So people can talk about like,what does it look like the last
few months for you?
We've got legacy owners, some ofour most successful owners that
(34:56):
are in the system.
The gentleman that Kelsey justmentioned validates with us and
can talk about, scaling hisbusiness.
So we've got people that havecome from all walks of life and
they've got all differentstories.
They've got different territorysizes, some are in big major
metros, some are in smaller.
So there's really, you can seeyourself in a little bit of, of
different franchisees, but wehighly encourage, like, you've
(35:18):
got to talk to franchisees tounderstand.
From their perspective, is thissomething that you really want
to dive into and do?
And I, I often say, if you'renot on those validation calls,
or at least making some calls ofyour own, like, you don't really
look at you as a seriouscandidate, because without
validation, you can't reallydetermine if the vision you have
(35:40):
in your head or the stories thatwe've shared with you really
make sense for you, and validatethat this is the opportunity
that you want to move forwardwith.
It also gives us a chance to getto know the franchise candidates
on a very different level aswell.
They get time to spend with theleadership team and they, along
with myself, can kind of pre vetthem before we have them out to
(36:00):
Dallas to meet the teameventually, right?
You would think that's commonsense.
I know for me it was completecommon sense to speak with other
franchisees, but it's not.
You need to, you need to remind,I, I've been shocked that people
come with that so hard.
It's what I wouldn't do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I tell my candidates quitefrankly, look, if you're a
(36:22):
couple of weeks in, you're noton any validation or leadership
calls, I'm going to assumeyou're not interested in this
brand.
Right.
And I get it.
Life happens.
There's all kinds of things thatwill happen that prevent people
from being on calls.
But you know, the fact thatyou're working or the fact that
you've got kids in the eveningor the fact that like none of
those are enough, you're goingto, you're looking at being a
business owner.
You, you're going to have tojuggle responsibilities.
(36:43):
You're going to be investingyour time.
You can't do that now.
This is the easy part.
Running a business is going tobe a lot.
If you can't, if you can'thandle validation and research
of a brand, how are you going tomanage an entire business?
So yeah, it's the three stages.
I always say you talk with thefranchise or you learn about the
(37:03):
brand.
You talk to the franchiseesvalidation.
And then stage three is you talkto the captain steering the
ship.
You talk to the franchise ordirectly virtually in person at
a discovery meet the team day.
Or some, some brands aren't evendoing that.
They're doing that within theirdue diligence calls and just
asking where, where is the shipgoing?
(37:24):
What are we adding revenuestreams?
What others, talking about AI,this is something new that we're
going to be adding on.
There's no, there's an addedcost.
There isn't a cost.
This is included here or we'rechanging something else up, but
you have to have that completepicture.
In my opinion, to be comfortablewith it and to make the best
informed decision.
All stages equally important.
Yeah, at the end of the day, youas the consultant and myself as
(37:48):
the franchise development personare not going to be part of the
picture.
The relationship lies with thefranchise system, with the
franchisor.
If you haven't invested in them,if that's not where you're
making your decision based on.
that interaction, that potentialrelationship, that's
problematic.
Absolutely.
You and I are going to be gone.
Yes.
Yeah.
(38:08):
Right.
Right.
We're not, we're not going to behere.
I mean, it's, it's exactly it.
And I think they, they for kindof forget that Kelsey we're,
we're approaching the hour.
What advice would you give?
Yeah, we have a lot.
I would say we've run some pollsthat had some surveys, 80, 90
percent of the people listeningin have never owned a business
franchise or not.
(38:28):
They've just never owned thebusiness aside for maybe an
Airbnb or, or, or some realestate on the side, but I've
never just truly owned afranchise or non franchise
business.
What advice would you give tosomeone that is in the beginning
stages?
They're usually a corporateexec.
That's who we're, we're gettinga lot of feedback, corporate
exec.
Been in the workforce, longcommute, long commute, hate my
(38:51):
job.
And there's this fear of leavingthis job.
What advice would you give tothem from someone that's, that's
obviously done it?
Well, the fear part is toughbecause I mean, there are
obligations.
There are, lifestyles that youare kind of accustomed to.
So those golden handcuffs can bequite debilitating and that's
(39:12):
fair.
Like you have to take care ofyour family.
No one's going to fault forthat.
I think, I think I could pointto a couple of things.
There's probably, I could writea big list down, but before
anyone really wants to invest ingetting into a business
franchise or not.
Like, you gotta have a realhonest gut check with yourself
about your ability to staymotivated when nobody's
(39:35):
watching.
Something I see as new franchiseowners coming from corporate
America, there's this frameworkof accountability, like a subtle
threat.
If you don't do it, then you'regoing to have these
repercussions.
And when you, if you move out ofthat, some people thrive when
they move out, but some peoplemiss those guidelines.
They don't know how to work whenthe whole thing's opened up and
(39:57):
there's no border.
And so you really have to bevery good about being self
motivated.
I'm not an extraordinarilydisciplined person, but I will
work when chasing a goal.
So in that regard, I am.
So I think the gut check on isbusiness ownership right for
you.
I think that's an importantstep.
The other piece is as you getgood at something in business,
(40:21):
stay humble, assume that youhave more to learn.
I see too many franchise ownerswho get good at the thing and
then they think they're greatand they just stop this learning
process.
And part of what.
What I think is the magic inbusiness is recognizing that
there's always more to learnbecause there's, I mean, your
next great thing is just rightaround the corner.
(40:43):
But if you stop looking, youjust stay stagnant and, and
that's dangerous.
And that's not, you're not goingto achieve a lot of really good
things if you just stoplearning, right?
So stay humble enough to believethere's always more to learn.
Either from somebody orsituations and environments,
(41:05):
Kelly, anything you'd like toadd.
I think, I mean, I think Kelseyreally summed it up like that.
That's exactly what we'relooking for.
And it's a hard tangible torecognize through this discovery
process, right?
Sometimes it involves a reallydirect question to a candidate
(41:25):
to ask them to really thinkabout.
You don't have somebodyReporting your reporting into
you don't have somebody standingover your shoulder.
You have somebody telling you toget out of bed in the morning,
right?
You're on your schedule.
You're on your, your plan.
And yeah, so those hardconversations have to be had as
part of the discovery process.
They really do.
(41:46):
Can I add and I'll add 11 andthere's plenty more.
We I'm sure we can all add, but.
If you're married, boyfriend,girlfriend, whatever your
situation is, people, the peoplein your household, let them know
what the hell's going on.
That's it's amazing how manypeople I talk with the spouse,
the other spouse has no ideawhat's going on.
They'll jump on a call andthey're just like, wait, what
(42:07):
are we doing here?
So let everyone know what you'redoing, why you're looking into
it.
That let's set the expectationthe first year, maybe a little
lean, I may be working twice theamount of hours than I, than I
did in the past.
Whatever the case may be,because I am looking to create
time freedom so that we nevermiss the kids, soccer games, the
girl scouts, the dance recitals,all that stuff.
(42:29):
That is something that ismissed.
And I can tell right off thebat, yeah, they're, they're,
they're on board.
I go, how about you?
You just jump on a call andyeah, I get to say hello when
they will not get their partneror spouse involved in calls.
Absolute red flag that we, wecan only take them so far
without that conversation thatinvolves parties for sure.
(42:51):
We'll do it.
We'll do a red flag episode.
I know, I know we're coming.
I know you have a call coming upand we're at the top of the
hour.
That'll be a whole day thatwe'll do the red flags.
Yeah.
That's a whole nother, that's awhole nother show.
So we'll, we'll do that.
Maybe we'll get a bunch ofpeople on and everyone will have
their own top red flag and we'lldo a dozen of them or so.
But I wanted to thank you guys.
This is awesome.
(43:11):
If anyone wants to learn moreabout bloom and blinds, where,
where can they go?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, we've got our website andthat'll show you something, but
I think having a tour guidethrough the process of
discovery, like working withyou, Giuseppe, I think it's
really probably more of thesafer way to go.
(43:32):
Because not only you learn aboutBlumen, but you can learn about
a bunch of other differentconcepts as well.
And so to kind of have like afranchising realtor, if you
will, to kind of help you walkthrough the houses of
franchising.
I think that's one of the betterbenefits you guys provide to
this entire thing is, is thattour guide process.
So yeah, you can come to us, butI'd go to Giuseppe.
Appreciate that.
We'll put all that in the, inthe show notes.
(43:53):
If you're in the car and youwant to check out the link,
we'll, we'll put everything inthere, guys.
I really appreciate it.
This was awesome.
Learned a lot.
We just, just learning abouthome service in the home versus
out, out of the home, been doingthis a long time and I, that
never really.
There you go.
Be humble.
I just learned today guys, andI've been in franchising 20
years, so I'm sure I have a lotto learn.
But thank you very much.
I appreciate you guys.
(44:15):
Coming on the show and we'll letyou know as soon as the show is
ready to go live.
Thanks for letting us share yourstory.
Thanks again.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
I think we are more of abusiness building organization
(00:02):
that happens to use windowcoverings as that product,
because it's a skill set,running a business, creating
money out of thin air,attracting customers.
Sometimes franchising gives themystique or, or perception that
it's the easy button inbusiness.
And it is easier than creatingit on your own, but there's very
(00:24):
much still that, that gut checkthat says that you got to show
up every day.
if you can't handle validationand research of a brand, how are
you going to manage an entirebusiness?
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
(00:50):
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your Franchise
Guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
Thanks for joining us today.
Just before we, we start theshow, just as a reminder, if you
have a burning question, you'relooking at franchises, don't
know where to start.
Just have no idea kind of iffranchising is a, is a good fit
(01:10):
or not.
Give us a call or, or send usover an email at gg at gg, the
franchise guide.
com.
You can go directly to thewebsite.
There's a survey there, figuringout if you're a great match and
you can book a call directlywith me.
So it's me, you get, I alwaysget that question all the time.
There's no staff or I don't, Idon't have a VA handling that.
(01:30):
Just let me know.
We'd love to help.
And just figuring out if afranchise is a good fit and we
have a free gift for everyonethat contacts us.
Excited for our show today.
So today we mixed it up insteadof hearing me.
everyone told me they want me tobring on more and more guests.
We have a very exciting showbecause we don't have just one,
but we have two guests, whichI'm going to bring on.
We have Kelly Mott and KellyKelsey Stewart from bloom and
(01:52):
blinds.
Welcome to the show guys.
Hey, just stuffy.
Appreciate having you invite us.
Yeah, I'm excited.
People were sick of seeing meand just hearing from me.
So I'm like, all right, let's Igot, I got the the clue and
we're, we're going to bringguests on.
But yeah, really excited.
Wanted to, maybe you guys, ifyou can give, we'll start with
Kelly, just a quick little bio,a little, little background,
(02:14):
what you do, how you got intofranchising, and then we have
some really good questions andthings I want to review with the
with the, with on the showtoday.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I am actually in franchisedevelopment.
So I work with candidates thatyou pass along to us to guide
them through the journey ofbeing educated on the blue and
blinds opportunity.
And that is my role.
I've been in the franchiseindustry, U.
(02:35):
S.
franchise industry, for about 12years now.
And now I I actually have knownKelsey for about 10.
I used to work at the FranchiseShow which is a big regional
show all over the country.
And Kelsey and his familyexhibited with us when they were
brand new franchisees.
So now I have the pleasure ofWorking with them nine plus
years later doing theirfranchise development.
(02:56):
And it really is incredible tosee where that family business
started and where they havegrown to this point.
So I I love what you, what I doand you will see that come
through loud and clear in mypassion for blue and blind.
Awesome.
And where's that accent from?
That would be my good oldCanadian accent.
But don't let that throw you.
I know the U.
S.
franchise industryextraordinarily well.
(03:18):
Well, I guess depending on who'slistening, they can ask where my
accent's from.
But that's we all know that,there is that.
Kelsey, the stage is yours.
Okay.
Yeah, Kelsey Stewart.
I'm one of the founding familymembers of Blue and Blinds.
It was a family company my momstarted.
And we spent 18 years running itas like mom and, a big mom, I
(03:39):
guess, mom and the boys workingwith Kelly's awesome because now
I actually take her calls versusdodging them when she's trying
to sell booth spaces.
Yeah.
We've grown quite a bit.
I, I've worn all the hats.
Now I am primarily on the.
Like the, the stage where peopleare trying to figure out if
we're a great fit as afranchise.
(04:00):
And then I help on the scalingand growth once they're actually
in operation.
So I get to play with like myfavorite parts of the whole
business.
I get to the daydreams and thenthe executions.
I like that.
And we got to catch up a littlebit in Houston last month and
excited to hear updates and divea little bit deeper.
Let's start with Bloomin Blinds.
What, what is obviously it is afranchise, but tell us, tell the
(04:23):
audience a little bit aboutassuming they haven't heard of
the brand, what exactly isBloomin Blinds and, talking a
little bit more about thebusiness model itself.
I'll go high level.
Kelly, if you want to add somecontext, please feel free to
jump in.
So on the surface, we're awindow, window covering company,
right?
We sell and install and repairwindow coverings.
(04:45):
Primarily inside the house, butthere's a ton of pieces that go
outside the house too.
And it's a mobile service, ahome based virtually zero
inventory primarily owneroperator.
And then as you grow, you addadditional employees and
whatnot.
And I say at the surface,because part of what we really
enjoy.
is teaching people how to run abusiness.
(05:08):
I think we are more of abusiness building organization
that happens to use windowcoverings as that product,
because it's a skill set,running a business, creating
money out of thin air,attracting customers.
That is a skill set.
And we really enjoy teachingthat we're in the window
covering space, but that's byand large, the kind of the heart
behind the whole thing.
Kelly, if you have anything,please jump in.
(05:29):
No, I mean, obviouslytraditional home service window
coverings as, as Kelsey said, Ithink when to expand on sort of
what you just mentioned in termsof, creating an opportunity to
teach people how to run abusiness, I think one of the
incredible things that I saw thebrand do in Q4 of last year was
to actually bring itsfranchisees together and host
(05:50):
them for financial literacyweekend.
Really helping them understand alot of these people have never
really had to deal with thefinances of a business and
really teaching them at the corewhat that means and the ability
to pull different levers withinyour business and, and the
outcomes as a result.
And I've had tremendous feedbackfrom franchisees that I've
(06:13):
placed, but also from consultingcandidates that I'm currently
working with.
You just say, you know what?
I'm looking at other brands and,and I challenged them, ask them
if they do anything of thatnature.
And they come back to meconsistently say no, like that,
that struck them as an oddquestion.
And so I think at the heart ofwhat Blue and Blinds is doing in
in really teaching and coachingKelsey and his family having
(06:35):
worked in the industry, it's socritical to understand that,
like they've, they've worked inthe vans, right?
They've done everything we'reasking a franchisee to do to
build a business of their ownbefore they franchised it.
And I think at that essencethere's just a real uniqueness
to the Blue and Blindsopportunity for sure.
I will, I will say they're,they're definitely a huge
benefit in that because you geta better appreciation of not
(06:59):
just what the business is, butwhat the future franchisees will
be going through.
So I ran my business the exactsame way.
And especially if it's abusiness you've never been in.
Yeah.
Just how long a job shouldactually take.
If you're working with anemployee or subcontractor, it's
going to take you half a day.
If they're taking two days,something, something's off.
I, I, yeah, I couldn't agreemore.
Financial literacy is is a bigone as well.
(07:21):
And I think as a first timebusiness owner, I had, I had my
graduate degree.
I, I couldn't really.
put together a proper PNL, evena pro forma.
And I needed a lot of help.
A lot of people I'd say over myyears, I've been in business.
If you, if you consider my sidehustle of, of auto detailing 25
years now 20 years infranchising, people don't know
(07:43):
the difference between netincome EBITDA or margins gross
margins, net margins, and it'sscary.
They're buying businesses, notreally understanding the terms.
And it's a little bitfrightening or they're not
factoring in, a note paymentthat they have to make when,
when buying a business.
So I think so yeah, applause toyou guys.
That's awesome.
That's a.
(08:03):
That's something we don't heartoo much about.
And these are the things thatare overlooked, or maybe a
candidate assumes it's all goingto be handled, right?
It just, Oh yeah, they'll teachme about profit loss.
Well, they're going to teach youthe system and help you
obviously with the pro forma,but reading balance sheets and
pro and a profit loss issometimes not part of the
curriculum.
So that's, that's awesome.
What makes bloom and blindsdifferent?
(08:25):
Obviously there are other nonfranchise brands in the same
space and franchises in the samespace.
What is, the key differentiator?
Obviously we talked about a fewothers, but in the underlying
services you offer, are thereany standout differentiators
compared to others?
Yeah, I'd love to tackle thatone.
(08:45):
So when I'm talking toconsultants like yourself,
trying to educate you on thebrand or our candidates that we
have, I really feel there'sthree things that really stand
out with blue and blinds.
Number one, we've kind oftouched on it's the family
aspect of the business.
Cause because consistentlycandidates and new franchisees
that we closed, they tell me thereason that they chose blue and
blinds was because there was,there's a feeling, there's a,
(09:06):
there's a real energy that comesfrom having, being part of a
family run business.
If they're looking for.
A smaller, intimate, morerelationship based franchise
opportunity.
This is absolutely it.
We are not the big engine andyou're not going to be treated
as such, right?
So number one is, is the familyaspect and that, that relational
(09:27):
side.
Number two is definitely the,the notion that we do repairs.
It's a simple thing, but it getsus into more homes, Giuseppe.
And at the end of the day, if wehave that opportunity to get
into those homes and createrapport with the homeowner and
provide the ability to getfuture sales, future referrals,
great Google reviews, all ofthose things are going to grow
(09:47):
your business.
So the more homes that we canget into the better system wide
in our current FDD, we showedover 8, 000 invoices, just on
repairs alone.
And it is a standout.
Again, I'll encourage my, mycandidates like Google, blind
repair near me.
Right.
And, and it's very rare thatthey find a lot of options out
there.
So it does get us into morehomes.
(10:08):
And then lastly, technology,Kelsey touched on the idea that
the window coverings is just thewidget.
Well, the other piece of thebrand is that they are
technology heavy.
Anytime somebody who's jazzedabout technology, jazzed about
AI, this is a brand you shouldreally consider because it's a
simple widget, but thetechnology that is the engine
behind it is really significant.
(10:29):
And it's an area that thebrand's making significant
investments in.
Kelsey, you probably want toexpand on that a little bit
more.
Yeah.
Well, on the technology side inparticular early last year,
early 24.
We just kind of sat around inone of our leadership meetings
and we, the concept was like, dowe really believe that AI is
going to be the future?
Is there an opportunity to getthe brand ahead of the curve to
(10:51):
start adopting and bringing onthese pieces before the rest of
the world?
And, and can that get us in aposition where we can, where we
have like a defense as the worldshifts and, and Businesses go up
and down.
Anytime you can kind of create amode around you, like that,
that's an opportunity that hasto be evaluated.
So we, we dove in, but inparticular, we decided to build
(11:14):
out our own AI system.
So instead of renting, a lot ofpeople are using AI right now,
renting other people's businessor renting their models or their
information, that means theirprograms are getting smarter,
not yours.
So we partnered with Yeah.
Yeah.
So we partnered with a company.
We had our own AI built out ofour own data.
We're almost complete within a,a, a full tech stack that sits
(11:36):
on top of that.
So the AI is actually learningfrom virtually every twitch of
the business.
And that becomes the base on howthe franchisees operate their
business.
It also becomes the base on howthe clients interact with.
Us from a marketing standpointor in the house doing consults
and, and by continually growingour data set I firmly believe
(11:59):
it's going to put us in aposition where we can react and,
and improve upon data and arereally kind of comes down to
marketing and efficiency in away that even once everyone
decides that this is the rightpath, we'll already have a
headstart.
And so they, even when theystart moving as fast as we do.
They won't be able to catch upbecause we're then running at
(12:20):
the same speed.
We've just been doing it longer.
I like that.
We the AI conversations havedefinitely hit home with people.
We've noticed a lot more, a lotmore views on those
conversations or those kind ofsegments or snippets.
And to your, to your pointowning it I think people don't
realize there's nothing free inthis world.
And when you're using free eye,I've tested some, some platforms
(12:42):
as well.
Friends of friends.
I'm basically almost like theguinea pig in a way I'm putting
my information and they'regathering it.
So although I'm not paying, I'mtechnically paying with my time
and not building something formyself.
So I do have somewhat of a freeservice, but I'm not building
anything.
And I think that is, that'sjust, is AI taking over?
I don't think it's taking over.
I think we all have to step upand use it somewhat in our
(13:05):
businesses.
I know we've, we've cut it,we've cut our marketing spend
down by using AI with a coupleof agencies that we've used.
I think it's a, it's a must touse, but I don't think AI is
going to replace everything.
So I like that.
Can you, can you talk a littlebit?
I mean, I know you said it's,it's being launched.
Can you talk specifically onany, on any aspects of it or is
that yeah, yeah, I, nothing I,in the long run, a lot of it is
(13:29):
the stuff.
that humans do, we're just doingit with either automation or
with more sensitivity and datais really kind of where AI gets
its superpower is when it'sfinally got enough data that it
can create what's calledpredictive analytics.
Most of the data in today'sworld is looking backwards.
It's what happened, how thathappened.
Now, how do I analyze?
(13:50):
and guess on how to make itbetter.
AI gets really valuable when italmost gets to a level where it
can almost predict at a highdegree of certainty what's going
to happen.
So a couple pieces that'll beactionable for the franchise
owners.
Our call center will be ran byAI voice agents.
We will have people in thebackground, so if the AI gets
(14:12):
stumped or doesn't know theanswer, I've got people sitting
there ready to pick up the phonelive, but it's going to allow us
to answer the phone 24 snowdays.
We're still answering the phone.
So that's the phone, right?
That's right.
Right now I've got seven peoplewho work in a call center.
They're taking phone phonecalls.
I mean, this is like in myoffice 30 ft behind me.
But what happens when there'seight phone calls?
(14:35):
Somebody's got to wait.
And this thing it's programmedto take up to 250 calls at once.
It can do some amazing, yeah, tobe able to do smart scheduling.
So like we're very route basedor geographically based drive.
Time is a waste for us.
And so being able to presentoptions to customers in like a
basically a very smart routingsuggestion, like we only give
(15:00):
customers options that aregeographically appropriate for
us with the right people withthe right skill sets.
My favorite example, and I'vealready seen this in action, is
we use iPads.
We're not using, I mean, itcan't build AI and still use a
notepad.
We're on iPads and as thecustomer is, or as we're having
(15:21):
a conversation about how theywant the room dark at 7.
30 on a summer night because thekid's got to go to bed, but they
don't want strings and they wantto be able to push a button to
make it go up and down, the AIsystem is listening to these
descriptions and beginning topopulate the products and the
manufacturers and the follow upquestions.
(15:42):
That match that activeconversation.
So in real time, the AI ispresenting the products and the
real value that the homeowner isgoing to think it's cool, but
for a new franchise owner or anew employee who hasn't yet
learned all the variables andhasn't really mastered the, the,
the trade yet, we can give themthe ability to feel and look
(16:05):
like an expert because theydon't have to have all that
knowledge in their mind.
They like, we're going topresent it to them so that they
can just.
Work with the information that'salready in front of them.
That's that's impressive.
This is, this is this is itguys.
This is what the future islooking like.
And AI doesn't need, as youmentioned, snow days, not
feeling well.
We lost power.
My AI it's, I'm also setting upsomething on my end.
(16:28):
If we lose power, it doesn'tmatter.
It's not running from my home,it's, it's run off servers and
it's being hosts elsewhere.
And I don't know about you.
I openly tell people I utilizeAI.
We offer our services are free.
We were able to, to assist you,but one way to cut back on
expenses, just I utilize AI onthe, on the intro end and then
kind of handle it from thereessentially to set up
(16:49):
appointments and I'm very openand honest and just say, you'll
have an AI agent.
They'll be contacting you to setup that appointment and then
we're going to talk from there.
I think the more you peoplerealize what it is, because I, I
saw my parents last night, Imentioned AI and they, I don't
know, they're, they're, they're,we're talking about Terminator
and the robots taking over.
I don't think I reallyunderstood exactly.
(17:10):
What it was.
So it was a pretty funnyconversation, but I think we
just have to accept it, right?
Accept it, embrace it.
And this is the future.
when people are looking atswitching gears a little bit, so
off of AI, just looking at thebusiness itself, we, the
audience, a lot of people havenever owned a business before.
They're, they've been looking atindividual businesses.
(17:30):
They've been looking at, Kind offranchises and they're like, you
know what, I don't even knowwhere to start marketing, call
center, all that kind of stuff.
Who is the ideal candidate andwhat can they expect to kind of,
help them with all their fearsand things holding them back
such as who's going to do themarketing, the call center, and
I don't know anything aboutwindow coverings.
(17:52):
Yeah, so I'll tackle that.
So at the, at the core of it,we've looked at who, and very
recently, we really looked atwho's having success within the
organization.
And what role they've played andhow they started in the business
and really kind of stripped itback to say, you know what, we
want an owner operator in thisbusiness, we're not going to try
to be everything to everyone.
(18:13):
We want somebody who dedicatestheir time and energy fully to
bloom and blinds.
We want you to learn to crawlbefore you can run.
This is a highly scalablebusiness, Giuseppe, and we want
people to recognize that, but wewant them to understand the
foundation of their business.
before they try to scale itthemselves.
So yes, that owner ideally iscoming up to training.
(18:33):
They're getting in the truck.
They're doing the reps beforethey begin to scale.
People come from all walks oflife, not knowing the window
covering industry.
That's probably a big asset.
We like those newer owners that,that, that don't know it.
And so we can teach them theBlumen way of doing things.
So we've got men, women, we'vegot people of all ages.
And, and I think that'simportant to understand, too.
(18:55):
We do have a good female base ofowners here at Bloom Blinds and,
and absolutely support that.
So the fear is, I, I, I don'tknow how to do window coverings.
I don't know anything about thator I'm not super handy.
You can hold a drill, you canwork a drill and drill two
screws and, we'll work with you.
We can teach you.
Training is phenomenal at Womenwith Blinds.
(19:17):
They've got a full trainingcenter that they do take
franchisees and their extendedteams through, but we really are
looking for people, people it'ssuper important.
We are in home consultativesales, right?
This is an opportunity toconnect with the homeowner.
People buy from people theylike, right?
So we're looking for people thatare outgoing.
(19:37):
They want to be connectors intheir community.
They want to be problem solversmore than sales people.
With bloom and blinds because atthe end of the day, the
homeowners called you into thehome because they've got a
problem they need you to solve,right?
They're not looking for you tobe their decorator necessarily,
right?
So if that's, that's somethingyou have concerns about that's
what, I'm the primary buyer ofwindow coverings, the female in
(20:00):
the household.
I can promise you I've chattedwith my girlfriends, seen their
design style.
I've been on Pinterest.
I've read the magazines.
I like, I have a pretty goodidea of what it is that I want.
But I'm looking for you to comein and solve the problem that I
have no blinds in my new houseor in my newly renovated kitchen
or, redecorating my office and Iwant a different look.
(20:21):
So that, but at the end of theday, we need people that really,
truly are people, peopleoutgoing, friendly smile, right?
That's what I'm looking for.
And what, and what does theinitial kind of team look like?
T and staff, employees, vehiclehow quickly are you up and
running?
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat as well?
Yeah.
I think one of the big benefitsof Blooming Blinds is that you
(20:42):
can start lean and mean, right?
Like you can start in a businesswhere, as Kelsey mentioned
earlier, we're low overhead.
There's no brick and mortar.
There's no inventory to becarrying.
We outfit the vehicle for youwith your tools and all of your
hardware and your samples andrepair items, whatnot, and, and
put you out on the road.
If you're willing to start inthe business on your own and
learn it from the ground up anddo the sales and the
(21:04):
installations and repairs, andreally get a foundation on a
knowledge base on your business.
You can keep your operatingexpenses really low.
You're going to hit thresholdswhere you're going to want to
talk about scaling.
You can only manage so muchbusiness out of one vehicle,
right?
And so as those thresholds arehit, I think this is one of the
things that Kelsey's just soadept at.
(21:25):
He really enjoys.
Having those dialogues withindividual franchisees about
their, their scalability oftheir business, whether they've
got one territory or fourterritories and, how quickly
they're looking to do that andwhat that means.
Does that mean buying moreterritory?
Does that mean putting a van onthe road, hiring an employee?
It can be different thingsdepending on the model that that
(21:45):
business owner is running.
So we're not cookie cutter.
It's not just, there's not justthis standard blueprint.
You've got to hit thesemilestones in order to move to
the next.
And I think that is somethingthat's very appealing to a lot
of people that can scale attheir own pace But keep their
operating expensesextraordinarily low to give them
the opportunity to do thatfaster and to see an roi in
(22:06):
their business Faster.
I like that now What would yousay lean lean lean and mean to
to get started?
They want to keep the expenselow They want to get up and
running fast.
I mean, those are, those aresome common themes and some
common requests that I get whenI'm, when I'm working with
someone.
Operator, I think so many ofthem are, they're leaving full
time careers.
(22:26):
They ultimately want to be ableto replace some income.
Right.
And taking that leap and nothaving that safety net of doing
something semi absentee where Ican keep my job and just kind of
incubate a business over here.
It's very different.
We want you to leap in two feet.
But we, because we are so leanand mean.
We really do give people withina certain range of income, the
(22:49):
ability to to see that very,very quickly and, and keep
their, their quality of lifewhile they're building this
asset that is a business oftheir own.
Yeah, I like, I like that.
Giuseppe, you asked a question,or part of one of your questions
was expectations, like, what arethey, like, like, what do they
get?
What, what support is there kindof, so to go back on that,
(23:11):
because I think that's a reallyimportant topic.
We kind of build all the systemswith the overarching concept.
There's going to be a lot to do,but you're not gonna have to
figure out what to do.
And, and by that, again, we, wedo really enjoy that first time
business owner.
And so we know that, in thatenvironment, there's a lot of
(23:32):
questions on like, how do I getthis set up?
How do I do my marketing?
Who do I talk to?
What do I say?
And for one reason or another,we've just really gravitated
toward that coaching role ofwalking people through that
stage.
The business setup, theinfrastructure of it, the
business checking account, howdo I, all these little elements
of setting up a business, wewalk candidates through that.
(23:55):
The marketing can be broken upinto two categories.
You have your digital presence.
And then you have like yourcommunity interaction, the
digital side.
We pretty well automate that forthe owners.
In fact, we've got AI runningSEO and PPC for owners.
Pretty effective there on theground level.
We'll tell you exactly where togo, who to talk to, how to get
(24:15):
engaged, how to become known inthe room.
You're going to have to go doit, but you're not gonna have to
figure out what to do.
And that's really kind of thetheme throughout the first,
probably first year of thebusiness is most of these things
are going to be brand new to youand you're going to have someone
who's excited and willing andwanting to walk with you during
(24:37):
that kind of saying, Hey, goover here now, go over here and
now do this thing and now dothat thing you have to execute
on it, but we will walk with youand kind of point you in the way
so that you can at least headforward with some confidence.
knowing where you're supposed togo and what it's supposed to
look like when you get there.
I like that.
And that's, and that's whatpeople are looking for.
I think that, I had someone justsay, I'm overwhelmed.
(24:59):
I'm overwhelmed and They wereonly on after the second call
and, and I said, well, thefranchise or is, and you have to
ask these questions, what isincluded, what, what they will
help you with kind of step bystep.
These are the questions to beasking.
We haven't made a decision onthe brand yet, but you want to
find out the support.
And as we mentioned, first timebusiness owner, it is extremely
(25:19):
overwhelming because you don'tknow what you don't know.
You don't even know thequestions to ask or the things
to do.
What are these legal entitiesdoing?
How do I set them up?
Who does that?
Do I do them online and theattorney so I get it and that's
where there was just a aninterview Forget who shows on
but it was the president of theIFA said that three quarters of
(25:41):
people in the u.
s Have have X.
Oh, we have at some point intime thought of owning a
business and of those threequarters of those people So
those 75 percent 75 percent ofthe 75% said, well, they never
got into business because theydidn't know where to start,
which which is crazy in this, inthis, in this day and age with,
(26:02):
with the internet and the amountof information we have.
So that was the one thingholding them back.
It was the fear of the unknown,the fear of not knowing where to
start or who to contact.
So hopefully we've, we've gottenrid of that fear.
There, there are people not, notto say it is going to be a good
fit for everyone.
Obviously I'm going to, I'mgoing to say it is definitely
not a good fit.
Business ownership, franchisingfor everyone.
(26:23):
You need to be qualified.
You need to set someexpectations.
My question of the year or oflast year was I heard you can't
lose money.
When you buy a franchise and,and my, my response was, if that
were true, I wouldn't bespeaking with you right now.
I don't them all.
As a joke, obviously, but thatwas, it was someone just out of
college and said he heardsomewhere on a, on a podcast,
(26:44):
you can't lose money.
So there's some, yeah, and, and,and even if you heard that,
that's a question to bring upwith the with the franchise
company because.
Not every brand is built thesame you talk with a, if you're
looking at franchising andwindow coverings, you can't
throw everyone in the samebucket and say this is the
industry.
Each brand will kind of functiondifferently.
(27:05):
One may be owner operator.
One may have you actually doingall the installs to start or
maybe they're not doing anymarketing or call center, not
utilizing AI.
You need to see thedifferentiators between the
brands.
And I think too many people justsay, Window coverings or
flooring or painting is this.
And they kind of think all thebrands work, that kind of
(27:26):
functions.
And that is absolutely not thecase.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're a hundred percent rightabout that.
Yeah.
We're quick to point out ourdifferentiators and we stand by
those wholeheartedly.
We're so fortunate to work withconsultants like yourself who we
do get an opportunity toeducate.
And so many of the candidatesthat, that people like yourself,
Giuseppe, send us are alreadyhave a sense of who we are and
(27:46):
what we are and, and why we'regoing to be potentially a little
bit different.
I think Kelsey and I do workvery closely with, with the
candidates and I think becauseit's their family business, I
think because I've bought afranchise before when I wasn't
super well versed infranchising, I, I really do take
care to hold people's handthrough this process to educate
them to not assume that assumethat when we talk about an FDD,
(28:08):
they know what I'm talkingabout.
Right.
And to really walk them throughthe basics of franchising as
much as we're educating them onon the blue and blinds
opportunity.
And but you know, we, we alsorely on great consultants like
yourself to help educate their,their candidates and provide us
with candidates that are theright fit for this opportunity
(28:30):
specifically.
Yeah, we try our best.
We work with the willing.
Someone said in our group not,not everyone to people that are
open to learning andexperiencing and knowing the
differences.
We, we try our best.
I think we should change it to,if you work with a franchise
consultant, you can't losemoney.
There you go.
(28:51):
That'll be a, that'll be asnippet.
That'll, that'll get me in a lotof trouble, but there you go.
Yeah, that'll be, that'll be mylast interview.
Yeah, it's it's great.
It's great.
I mean, just for someone to saythat, that really kind of, that
really bothered me.
I mean, I'm sure hemisunderstood, but.
It's kind of bothersome if thatactually was said or maybe it
was taken out of context, whoknows, but having said all that,
(29:13):
I think there's one point that Iwant to bring up on Blumen, and
there's, in the, in the FDD,which I just mentioned, which is
the Franchise DisclosureDocument, the very large legal
reading that every brand has,there's a section in that called
the Item 19, and that'sfinancial performance
representations on that specificbrand.
And when you, they're not allcreated equal, right?
The amount of information afranchise system wants to put in
(29:35):
there can be varying widely.
And I think I'm really blessedto work on a brand that Kelsey
and his family have decided toput a tremendous amount of
information.
There's 13 tables ofinformation.
There's seven different P& Ls.
We show you consolidated P& Lsfor a single van owner versus a
multi van owner.
So you can say, Hey, why would Inot want to scale my business
(29:56):
down the road?
Right?
We even show you a consolidatedP& L for our owners.
For whom in that calendar year,that was their first full year
of operation with us.
So you can see what brand newowners are doing with us.
And we're just reallytransparent.
The information is there.
It works for you or it doesn't.
We continue to move along or wedon't.
But we'd rather give you as muchinformation as we can to help
(30:18):
you digest that and reallydetermine if we're, I use the
term moving the needle, if we'removing the needle in your
decision making, you should begoing forward to keep working
with us, and if it's not, thenmaybe this isn't the right brand
for you, and that's okay too,right?
We'll wish you well to findsomething that is, but I think
having a very robust item 19 inour FDD is something we do get.
(30:40):
Continual praise on in terms ofjust being able to disseminate
the financial financialopportunity within the
organization.
That's, yeah, that's good toknow.
And someone viewing an FTD forthe first time will have no
idea.
That's a very good point.
I've seen a paragraph, I've seenit empty.
I would say full listed PNLs.
I've seen it before.
I don't think it's as common aspeople would think.
(31:01):
I think they expect the PNL forevery single franchisee.
And I think setting theexpectation of what you're going
to be seeing in the differencesis big.
Can you, can you share asuccess, maybe a recent success
story?
Some of that, and, and it couldbe, they've been in six months,
a year or, or, or more, but canyou share any, any success
(31:21):
stories of franchisees thatmaybe invested in a bloom and
blinds and expanded maybe, into,into other territories?
Yeah, I'll jump on this one.
maybe I shouldn't be giving hisname, I don't know, but I mean,
he's a franchise owner in theNorth end of Philly.
Came in as a schooladministrator wanted out of that
(31:42):
world, was having desires tokind of move into his own
business, jumped into blue andblinds, jumped in the van
brought on a part time employeeright off the bat that way he
could focus on the sales and themarketing and the growth of the
business.
And then he had someone whocould help him out with the
labor side.
Most of our owners don't havethat part time addition right
(32:03):
off the bat.
It's an option.
It's just most of them don't.
It's been with us about threeand a half years.
I started off with a total offour territories.
So he came in with an ambitiousplan and he's executed it.
He's added just recently he justpicked up two new territories.
So he's up to six now.
And he's just, he's running andgunning and having a really good
(32:24):
time.
He's living.
He's purposefully drivingtowards the goals that he set
forward, and he's using thesystems and processes and the
infrastructure that we've builtaround him, and then he's
putting in the time, the work,and the energy to make the most
out of it.
And that's part of what I reallylove, is he'll tell anyone,
(32:44):
they're not here to do it forme.
I'm here to use the systems as acatapult or as my ability to
stand on the shoulders of giantsis a phrase he used.
He's using the framework to getthe most out of it.
And I just feel like that's areally good healthy mentality.
Sometimes franchising gives themystique or, or perception that
(33:10):
it's the easy button inbusiness.
And it is easier than creatingit on your own, but there's very
much still that, that gut checkthat says that you got to show
up every day.
And so you got to follow thesystem.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not, it's not a setit and forget it.
That was the Ron Popeil said it.
I don't know if you rememberhim, the inventor, he had the
pasta sausage, make it had, itwas always after, after
(33:31):
midnight, those infomercialsjust set it and forget it.
And I go, it is a lot easierthan starting from scratch, but
you have to execute.
Nope.
They're not gonna, the franchiseor is not executing for you.
You need to follow theblueprint, the process.
And I think some people don't,they, they just think they
invest and the business kind ofruns on itself.
I haven't found that businessyet, but I'll keep looking, but
(33:52):
to my, to my knowledge, itdoesn't exist.
I think Kelsey brings up a goodpoint when you're talking about
some of our franchisees and someof our success stories.
One of the important things thatyou should be doing when you're
vetting any franchiseopportunity is having an
opportunity, not only to.
Speak to the leadership team.
You've got to get to know peoplelike Kelsey and his brothers.
And, we put them up every weekon calls that our candidates can
(34:13):
join in on, but we do the samething with our franchisees.
Then Blumen is very fortunate tohave a wide variety of
franchisees on our validationcalls is what we call them.
Giuseppe.
And so each week we hold onehour zoom calls, open format, Q
and a, for them to just talk toa franchisee.
Like, what are your pain points?
What are the things that you'vehad challenges?
(34:34):
Would you do this all overagain?
Where are you having success?
What are your growth planslooking like?
Are you meeting those?
If not, how is anybody helpingyou with that?
Right?
Bring those questions.
But we put brand new owners.
We've got two owners that justopened with us in 2024.
So people can talk about like,what does it look like the last
few months for you?
We've got legacy owners, some ofour most successful owners that
(34:56):
are in the system.
The gentleman that Kelsey justmentioned validates with us and
can talk about, scaling hisbusiness.
So we've got people that havecome from all walks of life and
they've got all differentstories.
They've got different territorysizes, some are in big major
metros, some are in smaller.
So there's really, you can seeyourself in a little bit of, of
different franchisees, but wehighly encourage, like, you've
(35:18):
got to talk to franchisees tounderstand.
From their perspective, is thissomething that you really want
to dive into and do?
And I, I often say, if you'renot on those validation calls,
or at least making some calls ofyour own, like, you don't really
look at you as a seriouscandidate, because without
validation, you can't reallydetermine if the vision you have
(35:40):
in your head or the stories thatwe've shared with you really
make sense for you, and validatethat this is the opportunity
that you want to move forwardwith.
It also gives us a chance to getto know the franchise candidates
on a very different level aswell.
They get time to spend with theleadership team and they, along
with myself, can kind of pre vetthem before we have them out to
(36:00):
Dallas to meet the teameventually, right?
You would think that's commonsense.
I know for me it was completecommon sense to speak with other
franchisees, but it's not.
You need to, you need to remind,I, I've been shocked that people
come with that so hard.
It's what I wouldn't do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I tell my candidates quitefrankly, look, if you're a
(36:22):
couple of weeks in, you're noton any validation or leadership
calls, I'm going to assumeyou're not interested in this
brand.
Right.
And I get it.
Life happens.
There's all kinds of things thatwill happen that prevent people
from being on calls.
But you know, the fact thatyou're working or the fact that
you've got kids in the eveningor the fact that like none of
those are enough, you're goingto, you're looking at being a
business owner.
You, you're going to have tojuggle responsibilities.
(36:43):
You're going to be investingyour time.
You can't do that now.
This is the easy part.
Running a business is going tobe a lot.
If you can't, if you can'thandle validation and research
of a brand, how are you going tomanage an entire business?
So yeah, it's the three stages.
I always say you talk with thefranchise or you learn about the
(37:03):
brand.
You talk to the franchiseesvalidation.
And then stage three is you talkto the captain steering the
ship.
You talk to the franchise ordirectly virtually in person at
a discovery meet the team day.
Or some, some brands aren't evendoing that.
They're doing that within theirdue diligence calls and just
asking where, where is the shipgoing?
(37:24):
What are we adding revenuestreams?
What others, talking about AI,this is something new that we're
going to be adding on.
There's no, there's an addedcost.
There isn't a cost.
This is included here or we'rechanging something else up, but
you have to have that completepicture.
In my opinion, to be comfortablewith it and to make the best
informed decision.
All stages equally important.
Yeah, at the end of the day, youas the consultant and myself as
(37:48):
the franchise development personare not going to be part of the
picture.
The relationship lies with thefranchise system, with the
franchisor.
If you haven't invested in them,if that's not where you're
making your decision based on.
that interaction, that potentialrelationship, that's
problematic.
Absolutely.
You and I are going to be gone.
Yes.
Yeah.
(38:08):
Right.
Right.
We're not, we're not going to behere.
I mean, it's, it's exactly it.
And I think they, they for kindof forget that Kelsey we're,
we're approaching the hour.
What advice would you give?
Yeah, we have a lot.
I would say we've run some pollsthat had some surveys, 80, 90
percent of the people listeningin have never owned a business
franchise or not.
(38:28):
They've just never owned thebusiness aside for maybe an
Airbnb or, or, or some realestate on the side, but I've
never just truly owned afranchise or non franchise
business.
What advice would you give tosomeone that is in the beginning
stages?
They're usually a corporateexec.
That's who we're, we're gettinga lot of feedback, corporate
exec.
Been in the workforce, longcommute, long commute, hate my
(38:51):
job.
And there's this fear of leavingthis job.
What advice would you give tothem from someone that's, that's
obviously done it?
Well, the fear part is toughbecause I mean, there are
obligations.
There are, lifestyles that youare kind of accustomed to.
So those golden handcuffs can bequite debilitating and that's
(39:12):
fair.
Like you have to take care ofyour family.
No one's going to fault forthat.
I think, I think I could pointto a couple of things.
There's probably, I could writea big list down, but before
anyone really wants to invest ingetting into a business
franchise or not.
Like, you gotta have a realhonest gut check with yourself
about your ability to staymotivated when nobody's
(39:35):
watching.
Something I see as new franchiseowners coming from corporate
America, there's this frameworkof accountability, like a subtle
threat.
If you don't do it, then you'regoing to have these
repercussions.
And when you, if you move out ofthat, some people thrive when
they move out, but some peoplemiss those guidelines.
They don't know how to work whenthe whole thing's opened up and
(39:57):
there's no border.
And so you really have to bevery good about being self
motivated.
I'm not an extraordinarilydisciplined person, but I will
work when chasing a goal.
So in that regard, I am.
So I think the gut check on isbusiness ownership right for
you.
I think that's an importantstep.
The other piece is as you getgood at something in business,
(40:21):
stay humble, assume that youhave more to learn.
I see too many franchise ownerswho get good at the thing and
then they think they're greatand they just stop this learning
process.
And part of what.
What I think is the magic inbusiness is recognizing that
there's always more to learnbecause there's, I mean, your
next great thing is just rightaround the corner.
(40:43):
But if you stop looking, youjust stay stagnant and, and
that's dangerous.
And that's not, you're not goingto achieve a lot of really good
things if you just stoplearning, right?
So stay humble enough to believethere's always more to learn.
Either from somebody orsituations and environments,
(41:05):
Kelly, anything you'd like toadd.
I think, I mean, I think Kelseyreally summed it up like that.
That's exactly what we'relooking for.
And it's a hard tangible torecognize through this discovery
process, right?
Sometimes it involves a reallydirect question to a candidate
(41:25):
to ask them to really thinkabout.
You don't have somebodyReporting your reporting into
you don't have somebody standingover your shoulder.
You have somebody telling you toget out of bed in the morning,
right?
You're on your schedule.
You're on your, your plan.
And yeah, so those hardconversations have to be had as
part of the discovery process.
They really do.
(41:46):
Can I add and I'll add 11 andthere's plenty more.
We I'm sure we can all add, but.
If you're married, boyfriend,girlfriend, whatever your
situation is, people, the peoplein your household, let them know
what the hell's going on.
That's it's amazing how manypeople I talk with the spouse,
the other spouse has no ideawhat's going on.
They'll jump on a call andthey're just like, wait, what
(42:07):
are we doing here?
So let everyone know what you'redoing, why you're looking into
it.
That let's set the expectationthe first year, maybe a little
lean, I may be working twice theamount of hours than I, than I
did in the past.
Whatever the case may be,because I am looking to create
time freedom so that we nevermiss the kids, soccer games, the
girl scouts, the dance recitals,all that stuff.
(42:29):
That is something that ismissed.
And I can tell right off thebat, yeah, they're, they're,
they're on board.
I go, how about you?
You just jump on a call andyeah, I get to say hello when
they will not get their partneror spouse involved in calls.
Absolute red flag that we, wecan only take them so far
without that conversation thatinvolves parties for sure.
(42:51):
We'll do it.
We'll do a red flag episode.
I know, I know we're coming.
I know you have a call coming upand we're at the top of the
hour.
That'll be a whole day thatwe'll do the red flags.
Yeah.
That's a whole nother, that's awhole nother show.
So we'll, we'll do that.
Maybe we'll get a bunch ofpeople on and everyone will have
their own top red flag and we'lldo a dozen of them or so.
But I wanted to thank you guys.
This is awesome.
(43:11):
If anyone wants to learn moreabout bloom and blinds, where,
where can they go?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, we've got our website andthat'll show you something, but
I think having a tour guidethrough the process of
discovery, like working withyou, Giuseppe, I think it's
really probably more of thesafer way to go.
(43:32):
Because not only you learn aboutBlumen, but you can learn about
a bunch of other differentconcepts as well.
And so to kind of have like afranchising realtor, if you
will, to kind of help you walkthrough the houses of
franchising.
I think that's one of the betterbenefits you guys provide to
this entire thing is, is thattour guide process.
So yeah, you can come to us, butI'd go to Giuseppe.
Appreciate that.
We'll put all that in the, inthe show notes.
(43:53):
If you're in the car and youwant to check out the link,
we'll, we'll put everything inthere, guys.
I really appreciate it.
This was awesome.
Learned a lot.
We just, just learning abouthome service in the home versus
out, out of the home, been doingthis a long time and I, that
never really.
There you go.
Be humble.
I just learned today guys, andI've been in franchising 20
years, so I'm sure I have a lotto learn.
But thank you very much.
I appreciate you guys.
(44:15):
Coming on the show and we'll letyou know as soon as the show is
ready to go live.
Thanks for letting us share yourstory.
Thanks again.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
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