October 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Franchise business coach Giuseppe Grammatico's definitive blueprint for the franchisee's first year! This full episode combines expert insight and real-life stories to guide corporate executives out of the employee mindset. Learn how to choose the right brand, build a powerful support system, and avoid the top 5 rookie mistakes new owners make. If you are serious about investing in a franchise and achieving time and financial freedom, this is a must-watch.
DISCLAIMER: The information on this podcast is for general information purposes only. Franchising involves risk and careful consideration should be given before making any decisions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dan and Natalie (00:00):
I have never had a family member not one time
(00:02):
say that's a good idea.
Not one time has anyone of allmy businesses ever said, you
should go for that.
It's a good time.
It's never been the case.
They were wrong on the Ringdoorbell, which is massive.
They were wrong about so manyother things.
And then they invested a lot ofmoney in things that didn't work
like that Sweet balls, like whatwas that about?
(00:22):
So I think even if you havepeople that could be experts,
they could be wrong.
But I think that the number onemistake business owners make is
they start to succeed and thenthey go buy the boat or they go
get the new car and it's like,no, you should, like you said,
re reinvest the money into yourbusiness for a while.
Joey Romanczuk (00:37):
Some of these corporate environments are so
structured where you might feellike you're making decisions,
but it's really.
You know, you, you've been giventwo.
It's like the matrix.
You've been given two pills.
Take this one or this one.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
Giuseppe Grammatico (01:00):
Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your franchise guide
to show where we help corporateexecutives experience time and
financial freedom.
Thanks for joining us today.
We really appreciate it.
And don't forget, feel free tovisit our website,
ggthefranchiseguide.com Click onthat book a call.
I'd love to chat with you,answer your questions in regards
to business ownership, franchiseownership, if you're potentially
(01:22):
a good fit.
Book a 20 minute call with metoday.
There's no cost, no commitment,and I would love to help you out
in any, way we can.
today I'm joined by industryexperts who have helped
countless families buildfranchise empires that last.
Whether you're planning to passyour business to the next
generation or building yourfirst franchise with Legacy in
mind, you'll get real worldstories and expert insights
(01:43):
right here.
let's dive into what reallytakes to create a franchise that
just doesn't just survive, butthrives for generations.
Dan and Natalie (01:50):
and what's going on guys?
Giuseppe Grammatico (01:52):
Nothing.
Looking forward to that.
I, merging the shows, which iskind cool.
Meeting of the minds.
Dan and Natalie (01:57):
Absolutely.
And then of course, we've alsogot a special guest over there,
Mia.
Hello, Mia.
Mia's not feeling well, it'stake me out to work day.
That's awesome.
You get the freedom as abusiness owner to be able to do
that, right?
Yeah.
No one's gonna fire me, sothat's a plus.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You had to fire your to thenbecome the boss.
(02:18):
Well, we're gonna be talkingabout you know, utilizing
advisors or, you know, notutilizing advisors and kind of
the difference when thinkingabout starting a business.
And I think I'll, I'll kick thisoff.
Obviously you need to talk totrusted people about, anything
that you're thinking about doingwhen it comes to getting into a
business.
My advice, though is to talk topeople that are in that
industry.
(02:38):
So if you're thinking aboutgetting into the technology
industry, talk to a technologyadvisor.
If you're thinking about gettinginto franchising, talk to a
franchise advisor not yourneighbor.
Not your, you know, friend thattells you that, you know, they,
they don't think franchisingmakes sense because they, heard
on TV that, you know, x, y, zhappened.
And I, I would tell you that,that, where I like to think
(02:59):
about this is I'm on my, youknow, maybe fourth business of
starting and I have never had afamily member not one time say
that's a good idea.
Not one time has anyone of allmy businesses ever said, you
should go for that.
It's a good time.
It's never been the case.
And I'll leave with, or I'llkind of end with I was thinking
about this Sarah Blakely, shestarted Spanx.
(03:19):
Mm-hmm.
And she actually said that whenshe had the idea, she didn't
tell anyone for a year.
She built the idea because sheknew that if people, she told
them they would start to bringher down.
So she had to work on her own.
Get that momentum, get thatconfidence.
What do you guys think aboutthat?
You actually did that to me.
I had a business idea a longtime when we first started the,
when we first started ourconsulting business, I was like,
you know what I'm gonna do?
I was like, we just need to makea site where we sell FDDs and
(03:42):
has like every single FDD on it.
And then after we sold thebusiness, I did it and it
worked.
Yeah, there there you go.
Giuseppe Grammatico (03:49):
Don't listen to Dan.
Dan and Natalie (03:50):
Don't listen to me.
Exactly.
See, it applies to me Itapplies.
I was like, why didn't I do thatearlier?
But it definitely was a massiveundertaking at the time.
But I think what we were talkingabout is Giuseppe was with Shark
Tank.
And you were telling us aboutsomething and that's how even
the sharks are wrong.
Giuseppe Grammatico (04:07):
They, listen you, you never know
exactly what's work out.
And I think just to add what youguys were saying, sometimes
it's, people don't mean anythingnegative by it.
It's of they're just, they'rebeing, cautious.
don't want you to money orthere's a big risk believe it or
not, my first business, myaccountant told me I couldn't
make money with the franchise.
You know what happened?
I made money with the franchiseand I fired the accountant.
(04:29):
So hopefully he's not listening.
We're not gonna name, we'regonna name names, but they look
at the numbers, they don't lookat necessarily the big picture
of the actual business itself.
So yeah, I, I completely it.
But when you do ask advice, haveto be very of who you're asking
for.
Dan and Natalie (04:42):
Yeah.
And where are their motivationscoming from?
Giuseppe Grammatico (04:44):
Sure.
Dan and Natalie (04:44):
You know, I, I know that in my 11 years of
being in franchising, I've neverheard a financial planner, no
offense to financial planners,but a lot of times I've seen
people, they get close to buyinga, a business, they go to their
financial planner to get theirfinancial planners opinion.
And, you know, again, I like tothink, most people operate with
integrity.
I'm sure they do, but keep inmind.
The money that you have in yourretirement account or in your
(05:05):
investment accounts, if you'retalking to a financial planner
about taking them out, they makea percentage fee on the money
that's in there.
Right.
The more that is in there, themore that they can manage and
the more that they can make you,but also the more that they can
make it themselves.
And so a lot of times they'renot gonna be motivated either to
say, yeah, I think it's a greatidea to take out half the
revenue stream of my businessout of the account so you can go
(05:25):
do another business.
Meanwhile, they own their ownbusiness anyway.
Yeah.
And yeah, offense to financialplanner, I am funded.
Giuseppe Grammatico (05:33):
It's a, part of vest it's under
management and hard to control aversus you're mutual There's
data, there's lot more history.
Yeah, we've I've experiencedthat as well, so about Shark
Tank?
some, do we have some examplesof, of deals?
Dan and Natalie (05:47):
Uh, Yeah.
I mean, but imagine if you werelike, well, let me call Mark
Cuban, and you had his ear andyou told him about an idea they
were wrong on the Ring doorbell,which is massive.
They were wrong about so manyother things.
And then they invested a lot ofmoney in things that didn't work
like that Sweet balls, like whatwas that about?
So I think even if you havepeople that could be experts,
(06:09):
they could be wrong.
You just need to trust yourinstinct and it's the secret
ingredient in a business is you.
Yeah, but I mean, you have tounderstand is like if you want
to, you know, get in shape orlose weight, you have to go
through pain to get there,right?
If you wanna make a business,successful, you have to go
through sacrifice.
And so you're gonna have to,like you said, get your spouse
involved.
'Cause they have to be on boardwith the sacrifice that
Giuseppe Grammatico (06:29):
They're gonna be sacrificing too.
It may be less, no income firstyear.
It may be no first year or is bea shift in lifestyle.
Absolutely.
They have to know what they haveset'this is the expectation, but
the goal is to, you know, go onmore vacations, retire spend
more time with family.
So think they've set theexpectation, they're on board
then, but ultimately everyone,everyone has be on board or
(06:52):
gonna be a rocky road.
Dan and Natalie (06:53):
I have a question.
What's this trend or thing thatI feel like I've been seeing,
which is people that are lookingat buying a franchise business
with an expectation of like,they have to make this, crazy
profit their first year.
Which by the way, to me, crazyprofit is anything that's like.
A good amount of money, like,you know, you're trying to
replace your salary or somethingin the first year.
I've never really seenbusinesses usually do that.
(07:16):
So what are you guys seeingwhere people come with those
expectations?
Has something changed in the,you know, kind of economy or the
generation?
Like what is that kind ofdriving?
Giuseppe Grammatico (07:25):
I people expect the immediate return,
right?
They wanna go viral in firstpost on social media.
So I think where it's coming Ialways tell people that first
year you're, it's a learningcurve.
never owned business never hiredpeople.
So this new.
you're learning something bematching the income you were
making immediately.
You're, building something tohave that expectation, you I
(07:47):
always take step back sayrealistically profit, so even if
is that kind profit, you wannareinvest the team, in the right
systems.
Because not a business you hopeto 10% a year.
This is something that's gonnabe growing exponentially.
That's something I'veexperienced in my business and I
always, my first year reinvestedeverything back.
I didn't take a dime out, but Ialso set reserves aside for
(08:09):
that.
So I think it's this instantgratification I have to make
money right away, and it's okayif you don't match salary the
first year.
You should really be investingin systems or else you're
starving the business.
You're pulling too much out.
You're not hiring the rightpeople or not, paying them what
they're owed and you're notinvesting the, in technology as
well.
Dan and Natalie (08:27):
Yeah.
But people say that, but they'restill taking a salary and
they're saying the businessisn't profitable
Giuseppe Grammatico (08:32):
they're pulling their salary.
Dan and Natalie (08:33):
And pulling their salary.
I mean, I think it just depends.
Some people can hit the groundrunning and some people don't.
There's hurdles that you can'tpredict.
No one has a crystal ball likecovid happened.
People that own certainbusinesses were affected and
other people you were sellingmasks, you killed it, or gloves
or whatever.
Right, right.
So it just depends.
I think you can make money yearone.
(08:55):
We've done it before and it'sdoable, but
Giuseppe Grammatico (08:59):
It's of you do with money So even if you
make you don't have pull it out.
You can, reinvest.
think you should be reinvestingas much as you can to build that
base so that the money's madefirst few years.
The money's made and in manycases made the exit.
Dan and Natalie (09:15):
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting, likeYeah, right.
People forget about theenterprise value that they're
building in a business.
Right.
I was talking to I was talkingto a business owner that, had
started building a business.
They, their first year did wellbut didn't make money.
They, they lost money, But theywere building the bones of the
business.
And in their regular job, theymade a substantial amount of
(09:37):
money.
And what you have to remember islike, you know, I can't give tax
advice, but when you lose moneyin a business, but you have
another income that, that lossis a net operating NOI net
operating loss.
Right?
And and then yeah, net operatingloss and, it carries over into
your taxes.
And so if you're making a bunchof money in one place, well now
you're losing money, if you willas far as your other business.
(09:57):
But you're building a business,you're building an asset you're
mitigating tax exposure.
And then the next year when youdo build the business further,
and let's say you do start tomake a profit, which by the way,
most business owners, they, theywanna try to not have a big
profit.
But when they do start to have aprofit, you're gonna be able to
get a multiple on that profitof, you know, whatever, multiple
down the road.
And so you have to think, thinkof it as like enterprise value
(10:19):
of what you're building.
But I think that the number onemistake business owners make is
they start to succeed and thenthey go buy the boat or they go
get the new car and it's like,no, you should, like you said,
re reinvest the money into yourbusiness for a while.
Do you ever realize that thepeople that.
Want to make, like they're like,I need to make this much money
first here.
They're in a worker mindset.
(10:40):
Yeah.
They're, they don't have abusiness mindset.
So I was having a conversationwith someone and it just clicked
to me when you said that, thathe was, I was like, oh, have you
worked with a franchiseconsultant in the past?
And he was like, yes.
I was like, okay, great.
Tell me a little bit about whatyou looked at.
And he was really attached towhat the business was.
Giuseppe Grammatico (11:00):
and, uh, Joey.
Uh, we had worked together lastyear you know, worked for a, a
major, uh, auto, uh, uh,company, and, um, just needed a
change.
Left the, left the job and youknow, was looking at a franchise
business.
So, really excited.
We're, we're doing a two partseries.
We're gonna talk about, youknow, how we, um, you know, how
you went from employee toemployer you know, exactly what
(11:21):
he was looking for in a businessand then how things are going
now.
So, very excited for it today.
But Joey, welcome, uh, welcometo the show.
Thank you for having me.
I'm, uh, excited.
I, you know, I always throw thatout there and I know people get
busy, so I appreciate the timeand.
By the way, let, let's continuethese.
Maybe we'll, we'll do a, we'lldo another show a year out from
now and see how things are, aregoing and, and progressing.
(11:42):
So, if you could just, uh,before we dive in, I had some
questions I wanted to ask you,book recommendations and things
like that.
But, uh, wanted to start off, ifyou can give the audience a
little context, a little, littlebio background information.
Joey Romanczuk (11:55):
Yeah.
Uh, absolutely.
Giuseppe.
Well, thank you for having me.
Uh, my name is Joey Romanczuk.
I'm the proud owner of RestaPros of Hudson County.
Uh, like a lot of yourlisteners, I'm sure, I was a, I
was a corporate exec, so I was ageneral manager for a large auto
automotive firm.
Uh, had done that for a numberof years.
Grew to be a, a territoryoperations manager with a large
(12:18):
customer service team underneathme.
The long and short of it is wehelped, uh, about 20 different
service centers with customerservice and customer
interactions.
I was, by all means doing well.
I was receiving promotions,getting better responsibilities,
increasing my earning potentialwith the company.
But what I didn't have was time.
(12:38):
Uh, I didn't have time,weekends, holidays, you name it.
If you were doing a Memorial Dayweekend down at your house.
There was no way I was gonna beable to attend.
So I started to look around atmyself and I said, well, hey, I,
I, I, you know, I've done welland I've grown professionally,
but at the end of the day, Ijust, I don't have the same time
that I wish that I had forthings.
Uh, I started to look atbusiness ownership.
(12:59):
I realized pretty quickly that Iwas in, uh, a little bit over my
skis as I started to look atdifferent business opportunities
in the area.
And, uh, that's what brought meto franchising.
So.
I, uh, you and I had had plentyof conversations.
We had had conversations, uh,positive and negatively about my
skills.
What works?
(13:20):
Is this gonna be the one, maybethis, uh, maybe this is the
brand and, uh, settled on RestoPros.
So we've been operational nowfor the last.
Call it three months.
So it's, it's still in the veryearly formative days for us.
But, uh, you know, especiallywith where I'm at as our
business still very close to,uh, the due diligence done to
(13:41):
make this decision and some ofthe early days after having made
this decision.
And, you know, I, I, I hope thatsome of my feedback helps others
consider the same thing.
Giuseppe Grammatico (13:50):
Awesome.
I appreciate it.
And, and one, and one thing I,I'd like to mention, and we
talked about this before theshow is.
You know, you're, you, when youtalk about feedback, just talk,
giving us the journey.
You know, it's not this cleartransition, it's exactly, this
is gonna happen and there'snever gonna be an issue or a
hiccup or, or anything likethat.
And sometimes the expectations,you know, things exceed the
expectations.
So I like how you're puttingout, I don't know if it's weekly
(14:13):
or every other week.
I, I forget the, uh, thefrequency, but kind of a, kind
of an update.
How things are going.
You know, this is, uh, it's abig transition, right?
Going from employee to employer.
I always say you go from signingthe front, uh, the, uh, the back
of the check of your paycheck tothe front of the check.
So, um, talk to us a little bitabout that transition.
Just the, you know, that's anemotional rollercoaster, right?
(14:34):
You know, having that consistentpaycheck, responding to the
employer.
Basically they, they're tellingyou exactly what needs to get
done.
You're just showing up.
So talk to us about.
That transition, you know, youknow, talking about how that
affected your, your family, howyour thought process and what
that looked like.
Joey Romanczuk (14:52):
Yeah.
You know, it was, it was a, itwas a decision that I think, you
know, I'm, so, okay let's backup.
You know, when you think aboutthe decision to go from cor, the
corporate world of having a W2job to being a business owner,
it is a.
Binary decision where I need tomake it.
Right.
But at the end of the day,you're not making this on your
(15:12):
own.
Right.
And, and I, I think that thatwas the thing that really helped
me.
You know, I mean, this decisioncouldn't have been made without
the support of my fiance,without the conversations of, of
my peer advisors, my father youknow, the people in my life who
have.
Been a, uh, been a powerfulguiding light for me so that I
(15:32):
can tell whether or not, eventhough, this sounds good, this
sounds like something that wecan do.
Um, you know, that that groupadvisory is really important to
making sure that.
I am receiving checks andbalances of what I believe is a
good decision.
Right.
You know, I think the firstplace that I would take this is
that feeling in corporateAmerica of being like, whether
it is, uh, you have a good jobthat you're happy with, but
(15:55):
maybe some of your needs aren'tbeing met.
Maybe it's the, the feeling thatyou are being compensated, not,
not compensated enough, and wanta little bit of a change.
Mm-hmm.
Um, for me it was.
I, I, I said it before, it wastime.
I was working just about everyweek, weekend.
Saturdays were mandatory,holidays were mandatory, and
that to me was like the firstlittle nugget of maybe something
(16:18):
needs to change here.
You know, I wanna start workingto get a little bit of this time
back.
And as I continued to grow, Ithought to myself you know,
I've, I've experienced a numberof promotions.
And that's only brought meincreased responsibility, but
also just like increased timeand presence in some of these
roles.
I was working for a company whothe higher you grew, the more
(16:40):
involved and invested in allaspects you had to be.
And so for me, the only piecethat was missing was the
business ownership because.
I believed that the bettermanager I was, the better I can
maximize my people, the less Ishould have tactically that I
need to do day to day.
And it just wasn't the case.
You know, I was like, I was verymuch so like this piece in the
(17:01):
machine that had to make certainthings go and when I wasn't
there, things weren't able toadvance in a way that.
Scaled me out of the business,even though we all know the best
way for an owner to scale out isfor getting the right people in.
So I wasn't able to make some ofthose decisions.
Having made this and having nowbeen on the other side of it,
you're absolutely right.
(17:22):
I think some of the earlychallenges is about taking on
and accepting the responsibilitythat these decisions kind of
start and end with me.
They, you know, and, and, andthe nice thing about the
franchise model is you have thesupport that you need to be able
to make that decision in a rightway.
But as the business owner, theonus of making that decision
falls on my shoulders.
And I, I think that's probablyone of the harder transitions I
(17:45):
hear people talking about whenit comes to exploring whether or
not the franchise thing is forthem.
Some of these corporateenvironments are so structured
where you might feel like you'remaking decisions, but it's
really.
You know, you, you've been giventwo.
It's like the matrix.
You've been given two pills.
Take this one or this one.
Right?
Well, in the, well, in thefranchise world, you're suddenly
standing like at a pharmacy,trying to figure out like, what
(18:07):
is the right medicine for me totake for this thing?
And so it's a lot of informationintake.
Giuseppe Grammatico (18:12):
You know, determining the right brand.
And, you know, we talked aboutwhen we first started working
together there's no exact numberbecause it changes, but we'll
say around 4,000.
Franchise companies and 70 plusindustries.
So what really stood out aboutmaybe we'll work in reverse,
what stood out about Resto Prosthat made you make that that
decision?
Joey Romanczuk (18:31):
Yeah.
Well, I guess in the spirit ofthe conversation, we're talking
about decision making here, soI'll, I'll break it down into a
few pieces.
Sure.
You, when we started thisconversation, there was a, it
was a bit of, well, what do Ilike?
What do I not like?
What do I enjoy about myprevious career?
What worked well there and, youknow, what am I looking for in
the next thing?
Mm-hmm.
And, and so for me it was, Iwould say three components that
(18:54):
I was looking for in a franchisebrand, because these three
components did not bring meimmediately and directly to
Resta Pros, right?
It was some level of customerservice and experience.
So I wanted to be working withpeople is a strength of mine,
uh, and being able to providecustomer experience.
Looking at customer experienceprocesses and figuring out ways
(19:17):
to do that better is not only astrength, but something I really
enjoy and take fulfillment outof.
So I wanted there to be anelement of people service.
Number two, I, I, I guess I, Ikind of said it.
There was service, you know?
Mm-hmm.
I wanted to, I wanted to providea service, not a product.
And so when we started to lookat some of these brands, it was
important to me that there was aservice that we were providing.
(19:40):
Um, I felt like that could giveus a bit of a competitive edge
in whatever brand it was gonnabe.
And then I would say numbernumber three for me was having
some flexibility and autonomy,right?
To be able to enjoy time withfamily and friends on holidays.
This was something was, that wasso foreign to me.
Um, and so I wanted to be ableto at least that, maybe it's
(20:02):
not.
The immediacy.
But at at, at a point I wantedto be able to have the comfort
where I could enjoy my holidaysand unless there's an emergency,
my people as well.
We were looking at a couple ofdifferent brands.
I won't say any of the otherbrands that I didn't settle on.
They were, they were great fortheir own reasons, but just not
(20:22):
for me.
I mean, one that we were lookingat was very kids and family
focused.
I'm not a family person yet.
I don't have children of my ownjust yet.
It didn't feel like somethingthat would align with me at this
point.
You know, maybe when I havekids, it'll be something I think
about.
And to me, the water mitigationgame.
And what I learned in thediscovery was it's really a
business to business game.
(20:43):
You know, we're, we're the, thebasis of a lot of our early
sales right now are the businessrelationships that we're
building.
Mm-hmm.
And so with that.
I was like, okay, now we havesomething where I can network
and improve the potential formore sales.
I can bring in people that mightbe able to help us establish a
network.
And so really we don't need tobe better at the website
(21:05):
optimization, the SEO some of.
Those, you know, things thathappen where we're just waiting
on the phone, we can be activeabout this and just build
relationships and hit doors andtry to find new opportunities.
I like that because that gave mea little bit of control over our
early sales, especially being init in the beginning full time.
(21:26):
Right.
Um, and so, so that was really,that was really what brought me
over to rest the pros.
But the biggest thing was justbeing able to service other
people.
I the joys that I got in myprevious role were just helping
people in a time of need.
You know, they either needed acar because of X, Y, and Z.
There was some type of issue.
And being that person that wasable to help them when they
(21:47):
needed something done most, andbe able to handle the problems
that they might experience witha transaction like that, I
always enjoyed.
And so for me, I've gotten a, agreat joy and sense of
fulfillment out of helpingpeople that are, are in my
community.
I'm walking these streets, I'mrunning with my dog, uh, and I'm
running past your house.
So, it's great to be able tohelp and participate within the
(22:08):
community and all those thingsreally helped me settle on what
ended up being a really greatpartnership with the brand.
I, I did settle on with RestaPros.
Giuseppe Grammatico (22:16):
Awesome.
I love that.
You nailed it.
I mean, you, you covered, youcovered a few things there.
We talked about, um, how to winfriends and influence people.
If you could recommend anotherbook, I know you said you didn't
have it on you, but if you couldrecommend another book, to the
audience listening, what, whatwould that be?
Joey Romanczuk (22:32):
You know, I, we were talking about it before,
but business building andbusiness developing is, uh, a, a
new skill for me.
I, I, it's, it's a collection ofa lot of different skills, but
looking at build.
A business and scaling thebusiness that you want is
something that is foreign tomany people, right?
But also wealth of resourcesavailable.
(22:53):
Uh, I'm gonna butcher the AUauthor's name.
I don't know if I know it.
You know it better than me, butyou recommended it to me.
That's traction.
And that's what's just have tobe, remind me, what's that
Officer?
Giuseppe Grammatico (23:04):
Gino Wickman.
Yeah.
Gino Wickman, yep.
Joey Romanczuk (23:06):
He, beyond just traction, he does amazing work
as far as being able to provideentrepreneurship with resources
to make sure that.
Uh, not only are they growingand advancing in their business,
but also let's remember thatlike my business grows and, and
is running at full speed.
If I am, well, if I am right ofmind, if I am locked in and
(23:27):
focused on not only my business,but my passions and my family,
and Gene gives like a ton ofresources on why that's like.
That is so important, especiallyat this stage.
Um, so traction has been one forme.
It's really helped me understandwhere operationally we need to
be focused on right now.
And, uh, especially'cause that'sreally where all my time's
going.
(23:47):
So when it comes back to thebusiness books, it's gonna be
that, uh, that's, that's the bigone for me right now.
I think they should, I thinkthey should use that as a
textbook in, uh, in, in school,you know, in, in a business
related class.
It, it really should.
I think.
I think the other one that Iwould give, and I'm looking at
it, I'm looking at it right now.
This one I read in, in 2023.
(24:07):
It's 4,000 weeks and it's by.
Oliver Berkman, 4,000 weeks.
It is a bit of a different lookon productivity.
I am guilty as probably manyother people of overt stuffing
my calendar, my to-do list, andfeeling as though I need to
maximize every moment of my day.
(24:27):
What we don't realize ismaximization always a, also
happens in the stillness of ourdays, taking a few moments to
just, you know, be here in thisconversation versus all the
other things that are going on.
Right.
Whether it's, uh, just lookingat a, a study guide from that
book or just listening to someof those chapters, I recommend
anybody who's thinking aboutthis or who is a high achiever
(24:50):
trying to go out there and dosome great things in this world,
take a beat and read that book.
Giuseppe Grammatico (24:55):
Awesome.
No, that's, I've never, thatone, I, I haven't heard, so I
just I jotted that down.
Uh, what have, what, I guessany, any other piece of advice
from someone that's actually,done the transition from W2 to,
to employer, employee toemployer, uh, any other advice,
you know, any other suggestion?
Yeah.
Joey Romanczuk (25:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
This has been one that, youknow, unfortunately there's a
lot of layoffs going on, andthere's a lot of layoffs
happening in my network rightnow.
So I've been getting a lot ofpeople who, uh, in one way or
another, you know, whether it'sfranchising or just trying to
figure out what is going to bethe next thing that happens to
them trying to figure out what'snext.
The thing that I find myselfgoing back to when it comes to
(25:35):
feedback on franchise orbusiness ownership, even if.
Even if you're partnering with afranchise, remember you are
accepting the responsibility ofbusiness ownership, right?
The franchise has a model, theyhave a playbook, and they have.
All the resources A A as as theyshould, if they're a good brand
(25:55):
to help you maximize yoursuccess.
But the trick there is maximizeyour success and not guarantee
your success.
And so I believe that anybodywho's interested in franchise
ownership should start with theacceptance of the responsibility
that they're now a businessowner.
And with that means.
Maybe late nights.
(26:15):
What that means, things aregonna go wrong.
What That means that I seeyou're nodded.
'cause you're like, yeah, thingsare gonna go wrong.
Like it just happens.
It happens.
It's avoid,
Giuseppe Grammatico (26:24):
it happens.
Yeah.
It's, it's part, part of it's abusiness, right?
It, it franchise business ontraining wheels.
If you wanna an explanation ofwhat it is, that's it.
Joey Romanczuk (26:32):
Right.
There might be a safety net, butthat doesn't mean that you're
not gonna still fall.
And, and so I, I, I think forme, I really, I try to eMASS
this acceptance ofresponsibility as the biggest
piece of, of takeaway when itcomes to making this decision.
Because if you expect it to beeasy, it won't, but that's a
good thing if you expect it tobe easy work and very passive
(26:53):
from the beginning.
It may, but it also might not.
And you gotta be ready to acceptthat it might take a lot of
effort and challenge to getwhere you want it to be.
In your mind, that vision isn'tgonna happen on its own.
It's gonna take you, thebusiness owner to make it
happen.
And so if you just accept thatsome of those things are gonna
happen, when those problemshappen, you're like, oh, okay.
Wait, wait, wait.
I, yeah, I got this right.
(27:14):
I accepted this responsibility,so now we're gonna make it
right.
And man that mindset has changedeverything for me because now
when things go awry.
Which they will, we tackle it,we take it on full steam ahead.
Um, and I, I, I think sometimessome of the frustrations of
somebody maybe who is in thischair having made this decision
and is wrestling with the otherside of it, where maybe it's not
(27:35):
working, maybe it's not theright brand, I think comes down
to, uh, I thought it was gonnawork out.
I thought this, I thought that.
It's it starts and ends withyou.
Giuseppe Grammatico (27:44):
Well said.
And, and, uh, and, um, you know,I, I gotta give you credit
there.
Dan and Natalie (27:48):
No one's doing their business perfect.
You know what I mean?
Your ego is not your amigo.
Yeah.
Like if you've never been inbusiness and you're in your
first year of business, likeit's not fair to expect you're
gonna be the best business ownerever.
And that's okay.
But yeah, your ego, the ego getsin the way.
Same for franchisors.
Their ego gets in the way.
'cause they start to think,well, like we've been doing this
for so long.
We actually have a, we call itlike a commandment, but one of
(28:08):
our franchisor commandments isthey could be, right, Which is
an idea that like that franchiseowner could be, right.
Let's make sure we're actuallylistening to them, but then we
expect them to also listen tous.
Yeah, no, for sure.
One thing that you said wasabout oh, we'll never get there
without doing it this way.
I hear that sometimes wheresomeone is like.
Oh, I don't need a franchise.
(28:29):
I can just make my own burgerplace.
I'm like, yeah, you don't needMcDonald's.
You could do Bob's Burgers, butdo you really wanna come up with
the branding, all the ads, likeI don't think you realize how
much work is involved.
Like of course you could do it.
You're smart, you're capable,you're an executive.
Like if you wanna do all thatwork at this point of your life,
(28:49):
yeah, go for it and then you cando it.
Giuseppe Grammatico (28:52):
One other thing I, I want to add too,
where, when I, when hear peoplecomplain, is that the idea of
semi absentee ownership where,you know, they, they're keeping
their job and then they'rerunning the business the side.
And I said, there's a couplecomponents there.
Obviously the franchisor has toallow that, but people are
hiring managers.
They, they've never owned thebusiness.
They're hiring managers, butthey're not managing the manager
(29:14):
there.
There's no oversight.
So they're assuming the managersdoing what they need to do, but
they're not checking in.
They're not doing the weeklymeetings or calls and stuff like
that.
And if they, and if they arelike I did with my business and
a mistake I made.
Many, many moons ago, 20 yearsago was I bottlenecked the
business.
So the manager, every bigdecision had to get approved by
(29:35):
me.
Well, who the heck was I toapprove it when my manager had
more in years I was alive at thetime.
Yeah.
So, I became a bottleneck.
So the, so the big part isfinding a franchisor that
support and allow part-timesemi-absentee ownership.
But on the flip side, when bringthat person on, they have.
Some equity, phantom equity, sothey have some skin in the game.
(29:57):
know getting a, cut some of theprofits, you're also managing
setting the expectation, this iswhat I need you to do.
These are the decisions I needyou make.
These are the hours I'mavailable.
Because if you have a job,obviously, you know, and you
can't talk the hours nine totwo, nine to three, or even nine
to five, they know when tocontact you and what decisions
can make.
I believe it's, it's both.
It's the right person andexpectation and, you know,
(30:19):
finding the right franchisethat, would support that type of
ownership.
Dan and Natalie (30:23):
I mean, just for like, you know, obviously
the, for your listeners, theyknow your background, but you,
you owned a cleaning company.
Like what, can you just give thebackground real quick just for
my audience.
Giuseppe Grammatico (30:32):
Yeah.
We had, you know, c commercialbuilding maintenance, commercial
cleaning.
I ran business full time toreally scale that business.
then after that first year,brought on that manager, it
operations manager, generalmanager.
I what the actual title was butI was so tight to the business,
you know, I touched every partof the business.
I had to make, finalize everydecision.
(30:52):
So I had brought a, a managerand, and by the way, my
background was in, on WallStreet and we owned the
restaurants.
I had no, no in that industrywhatsoever.
Yeah.
So I brought a, an experiencedperson to the table a GM with 20
years of experience, 20 plusyears experience in that
business.
But yet I had to okay.
All his decisions to the pointwhere.
(31:13):
You know, he wasn't able job.
It became kind of a, a, abottleneck.
So, I was running atsemi-absentee, but not allowing
the manager to do their job youknow, on, on a daily basis.
So, an interesting business, Ilearned a lot.
I learned that you be the expertin all areas and that you to
hire people better than you incertain areas, know, at social
media, at marketing, at sales.
(31:35):
So, I learned a lot in thatbusiness, and I bring.
I I do a lot of learning, so tryto bring that table helping
people to find a franchise.
Dan and Natalie (31:43):
You know, it's interesting what you did though
is you, you, you got in thebusiness, you learned it and you
grew it.
Like, when I think of mydefinition of, of semi-absentee,
first of all, is it's a hockeystick.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And so when you start abusiness, your revenue is the
lowest you work the most.
It's the worst time.
But as you grow the business,the revenue goes up.
And then your time goes down.
Right?
(32:03):
But this idea that you're notgonna work in the business and
the revenue's gonna go up, I'vejust, I've never experienced
that in, in a business.
And I, I think that you have tobe involved like.
know, example, I'm not asinvolved in the day-to-day of
Voda as I was even six monthsago, right?
But it took time to get there.
And my definition ofsemi-absentee isn't that.
Now I'm going on the beach,drinking my ties, and, you know,
(32:24):
hanging out.
If I'm not in the office on aMonday through Friday, then I'm
out doing something to generaterevenue or recruit people.
Now, sometimes that might meangoing out to play around a
tennis in Friday afternoon,networking with a property
manager, a plumber, or aconsultant, a, a potential
teammate.
That is the of the businessowner.
But I always of semi absenteemeans like you're not in the day
(32:45):
to day, so you can go out thereand be what we call the mayor of
the town.
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
transition from corporate toowning your franchise.
Join Giuseppe on the nextepisode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
I have never had a family member not one time
(00:02):
say that's a good idea.
Not one time has anyone of allmy businesses ever said, you
should go for that.
It's a good time.
It's never been the case.
They were wrong on the Ringdoorbell, which is massive.
They were wrong about so manyother things.
And then they invested a lot ofmoney in things that didn't work
like that Sweet balls, like whatwas that about?
(00:22):
So I think even if you havepeople that could be experts,
they could be wrong.
But I think that the number onemistake business owners make is
they start to succeed and thenthey go buy the boat or they go
get the new car and it's like,no, you should, like you said,
re reinvest the money into yourbusiness for a while.
Joey Romanczuk (00:37):
Some of these corporate environments are so
structured where you might feellike you're making decisions,
but it's really.
You know, you, you've been giventwo.
It's like the matrix.
You've been given two pills.
Take this one or this one.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
Giuseppe Grammatico (01:00):
Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your franchise guide
to show where we help corporateexecutives experience time and
financial freedom.
Thanks for joining us today.
We really appreciate it.
And don't forget, feel free tovisit our website,
ggthefranchiseguide.com Click onthat book a call.
I'd love to chat with you,answer your questions in regards
to business ownership, franchiseownership, if you're potentially
(01:22):
a good fit.
Book a 20 minute call with metoday.
There's no cost, no commitment,and I would love to help you out
in any, way we can.
today I'm joined by industryexperts who have helped
countless families buildfranchise empires that last.
Whether you're planning to passyour business to the next
generation or building yourfirst franchise with Legacy in
mind, you'll get real worldstories and expert insights
(01:43):
right here.
let's dive into what reallytakes to create a franchise that
just doesn't just survive, butthrives for generations.
Dan and Natalie (01:50):
and what's going on guys?
Giuseppe Grammatico (01:52):
Nothing.
Looking forward to that.
I, merging the shows, which iskind cool.
Meeting of the minds.
Dan and Natalie (01:57):
Absolutely.
And then of course, we've alsogot a special guest over there,
Mia.
Hello, Mia.
Mia's not feeling well, it'stake me out to work day.
That's awesome.
You get the freedom as abusiness owner to be able to do
that, right?
Yeah.
No one's gonna fire me, sothat's a plus.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You had to fire your to thenbecome the boss.
(02:18):
Well, we're gonna be talkingabout you know, utilizing
advisors or, you know, notutilizing advisors and kind of
the difference when thinkingabout starting a business.
And I think I'll, I'll kick thisoff.
Obviously you need to talk totrusted people about, anything
that you're thinking about doingwhen it comes to getting into a
business.
My advice, though is to talk topeople that are in that
industry.
(02:38):
So if you're thinking aboutgetting into the technology
industry, talk to a technologyadvisor.
If you're thinking about gettinginto franchising, talk to a
franchise advisor not yourneighbor.
Not your, you know, friend thattells you that, you know, they,
they don't think franchisingmakes sense because they, heard
on TV that, you know, x, y, zhappened.
And I, I would tell you that,that, where I like to think
(02:59):
about this is I'm on my, youknow, maybe fourth business of
starting and I have never had afamily member not one time say
that's a good idea.
Not one time has anyone of allmy businesses ever said, you
should go for that.
It's a good time.
It's never been the case.
And I'll leave with, or I'llkind of end with I was thinking
about this Sarah Blakely, shestarted Spanx.
(03:19):
Mm-hmm.
And she actually said that whenshe had the idea, she didn't
tell anyone for a year.
She built the idea because sheknew that if people, she told
them they would start to bringher down.
So she had to work on her own.
Get that momentum, get thatconfidence.
What do you guys think aboutthat?
You actually did that to me.
I had a business idea a longtime when we first started the,
when we first started ourconsulting business, I was like,
you know what I'm gonna do?
I was like, we just need to makea site where we sell FDDs and
(03:42):
has like every single FDD on it.
And then after we sold thebusiness, I did it and it
worked.
Yeah, there there you go.
Giuseppe Grammatico (03:49):
Don't listen to Dan.
Dan and Natalie (03:50):
Don't listen to me.
Exactly.
See, it applies to me Itapplies.
I was like, why didn't I do thatearlier?
But it definitely was a massiveundertaking at the time.
But I think what we were talkingabout is Giuseppe was with Shark
Tank.
And you were telling us aboutsomething and that's how even
the sharks are wrong.
Giuseppe Grammatico (04:07):
They, listen you, you never know
exactly what's work out.
And I think just to add what youguys were saying, sometimes
it's, people don't mean anythingnegative by it.
It's of they're just, they'rebeing, cautious.
don't want you to money orthere's a big risk believe it or
not, my first business, myaccountant told me I couldn't
make money with the franchise.
You know what happened?
I made money with the franchiseand I fired the accountant.
(04:29):
So hopefully he's not listening.
We're not gonna name, we'regonna name names, but they look
at the numbers, they don't lookat necessarily the big picture
of the actual business itself.
So yeah, I, I completely it.
But when you do ask advice, haveto be very of who you're asking
for.
Dan and Natalie (04:42):
Yeah.
And where are their motivationscoming from?
Giuseppe Grammatico (04:44):
Sure.
Dan and Natalie (04:44):
You know, I, I know that in my 11 years of
being in franchising, I've neverheard a financial planner, no
offense to financial planners,but a lot of times I've seen
people, they get close to buyinga, a business, they go to their
financial planner to get theirfinancial planners opinion.
And, you know, again, I like tothink, most people operate with
integrity.
I'm sure they do, but keep inmind.
The money that you have in yourretirement account or in your
(05:05):
investment accounts, if you'retalking to a financial planner
about taking them out, they makea percentage fee on the money
that's in there.
Right.
The more that is in there, themore that they can manage and
the more that they can make you,but also the more that they can
make it themselves.
And so a lot of times they'renot gonna be motivated either to
say, yeah, I think it's a greatidea to take out half the
revenue stream of my businessout of the account so you can go
(05:25):
do another business.
Meanwhile, they own their ownbusiness anyway.
Yeah.
And yeah, offense to financialplanner, I am funded.
Giuseppe Grammatico (05:33):
It's a, part of vest it's under
management and hard to control aversus you're mutual There's
data, there's lot more history.
Yeah, we've I've experiencedthat as well, so about Shark
Tank?
some, do we have some examplesof, of deals?
Dan and Natalie (05:47):
Uh, Yeah.
I mean, but imagine if you werelike, well, let me call Mark
Cuban, and you had his ear andyou told him about an idea they
were wrong on the Ring doorbell,which is massive.
They were wrong about so manyother things.
And then they invested a lot ofmoney in things that didn't work
like that Sweet balls, like whatwas that about?
So I think even if you havepeople that could be experts,
(06:09):
they could be wrong.
You just need to trust yourinstinct and it's the secret
ingredient in a business is you.
Yeah, but I mean, you have tounderstand is like if you want
to, you know, get in shape orlose weight, you have to go
through pain to get there,right?
If you wanna make a business,successful, you have to go
through sacrifice.
And so you're gonna have to,like you said, get your spouse
involved.
'Cause they have to be on boardwith the sacrifice that
Giuseppe Grammatico (06:29):
They're gonna be sacrificing too.
It may be less, no income firstyear.
It may be no first year or is bea shift in lifestyle.
Absolutely.
They have to know what they haveset'this is the expectation, but
the goal is to, you know, go onmore vacations, retire spend
more time with family.
So think they've set theexpectation, they're on board
then, but ultimately everyone,everyone has be on board or
(06:52):
gonna be a rocky road.
Dan and Natalie (06:53):
I have a question.
What's this trend or thing thatI feel like I've been seeing,
which is people that are lookingat buying a franchise business
with an expectation of like,they have to make this, crazy
profit their first year.
Which by the way, to me, crazyprofit is anything that's like.
A good amount of money, like,you know, you're trying to
replace your salary or somethingin the first year.
I've never really seenbusinesses usually do that.
(07:16):
So what are you guys seeingwhere people come with those
expectations?
Has something changed in the,you know, kind of economy or the
generation?
Like what is that kind ofdriving?
Giuseppe Grammatico (07:25):
I people expect the immediate return,
right?
They wanna go viral in firstpost on social media.
So I think where it's coming Ialways tell people that first
year you're, it's a learningcurve.
never owned business never hiredpeople.
So this new.
you're learning something bematching the income you were
making immediately.
You're, building something tohave that expectation, you I
(07:47):
always take step back sayrealistically profit, so even if
is that kind profit, you wannareinvest the team, in the right
systems.
Because not a business you hopeto 10% a year.
This is something that's gonnabe growing exponentially.
That's something I'veexperienced in my business and I
always, my first year reinvestedeverything back.
I didn't take a dime out, but Ialso set reserves aside for
(08:09):
that.
So I think it's this instantgratification I have to make
money right away, and it's okayif you don't match salary the
first year.
You should really be investingin systems or else you're
starving the business.
You're pulling too much out.
You're not hiring the rightpeople or not, paying them what
they're owed and you're notinvesting the, in technology as
well.
Dan and Natalie (08:27):
Yeah.
But people say that, but they'restill taking a salary and
they're saying the businessisn't profitable
Giuseppe Grammatico (08:32):
they're pulling their salary.
Dan and Natalie (08:33):
And pulling their salary.
I mean, I think it just depends.
Some people can hit the groundrunning and some people don't.
There's hurdles that you can'tpredict.
No one has a crystal ball likecovid happened.
People that own certainbusinesses were affected and
other people you were sellingmasks, you killed it, or gloves
or whatever.
Right, right.
So it just depends.
I think you can make money yearone.
(08:55):
We've done it before and it'sdoable, but
Giuseppe Grammatico (08:59):
It's of you do with money So even if you
make you don't have pull it out.
You can, reinvest.
think you should be reinvestingas much as you can to build that
base so that the money's madefirst few years.
The money's made and in manycases made the exit.
Dan and Natalie (09:15):
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting, likeYeah, right.
People forget about theenterprise value that they're
building in a business.
Right.
I was talking to I was talkingto a business owner that, had
started building a business.
They, their first year did wellbut didn't make money.
They, they lost money, But theywere building the bones of the
business.
And in their regular job, theymade a substantial amount of
(09:37):
money.
And what you have to remember islike, you know, I can't give tax
advice, but when you lose moneyin a business, but you have
another income that, that lossis a net operating NOI net
operating loss.
Right?
And and then yeah, net operatingloss and, it carries over into
your taxes.
And so if you're making a bunchof money in one place, well now
you're losing money, if you willas far as your other business.
(09:57):
But you're building a business,you're building an asset you're
mitigating tax exposure.
And then the next year when youdo build the business further,
and let's say you do start tomake a profit, which by the way,
most business owners, they, theywanna try to not have a big
profit.
But when they do start to have aprofit, you're gonna be able to
get a multiple on that profitof, you know, whatever, multiple
down the road.
And so you have to think, thinkof it as like enterprise value
(10:19):
of what you're building.
But I think that the number onemistake business owners make is
they start to succeed and thenthey go buy the boat or they go
get the new car and it's like,no, you should, like you said,
re reinvest the money into yourbusiness for a while.
Do you ever realize that thepeople that.
Want to make, like they're like,I need to make this much money
first here.
They're in a worker mindset.
(10:40):
Yeah.
They're, they don't have abusiness mindset.
So I was having a conversationwith someone and it just clicked
to me when you said that, thathe was, I was like, oh, have you
worked with a franchiseconsultant in the past?
And he was like, yes.
I was like, okay, great.
Tell me a little bit about whatyou looked at.
And he was really attached towhat the business was.
Giuseppe Grammatico (11:00):
and, uh, Joey.
Uh, we had worked together lastyear you know, worked for a, a
major, uh, auto, uh, uh,company, and, um, just needed a
change.
Left the, left the job and youknow, was looking at a franchise
business.
So, really excited.
We're, we're doing a two partseries.
We're gonna talk about, youknow, how we, um, you know, how
you went from employee toemployer you know, exactly what
(11:21):
he was looking for in a businessand then how things are going
now.
So, very excited for it today.
But Joey, welcome, uh, welcometo the show.
Thank you for having me.
I'm, uh, excited.
I, you know, I always throw thatout there and I know people get
busy, so I appreciate the timeand.
By the way, let, let's continuethese.
Maybe we'll, we'll do a, we'lldo another show a year out from
now and see how things are, aregoing and, and progressing.
(11:42):
So, if you could just, uh,before we dive in, I had some
questions I wanted to ask you,book recommendations and things
like that.
But, uh, wanted to start off, ifyou can give the audience a
little context, a little, littlebio background information.
Joey Romanczuk (11:55):
Yeah.
Uh, absolutely.
Giuseppe.
Well, thank you for having me.
Uh, my name is Joey Romanczuk.
I'm the proud owner of RestaPros of Hudson County.
Uh, like a lot of yourlisteners, I'm sure, I was a, I
was a corporate exec, so I was ageneral manager for a large auto
automotive firm.
Uh, had done that for a numberof years.
Grew to be a, a territoryoperations manager with a large
(12:18):
customer service team underneathme.
The long and short of it is wehelped, uh, about 20 different
service centers with customerservice and customer
interactions.
I was, by all means doing well.
I was receiving promotions,getting better responsibilities,
increasing my earning potentialwith the company.
But what I didn't have was time.
(12:38):
Uh, I didn't have time,weekends, holidays, you name it.
If you were doing a Memorial Dayweekend down at your house.
There was no way I was gonna beable to attend.
So I started to look around atmyself and I said, well, hey, I,
I, I, you know, I've done welland I've grown professionally,
but at the end of the day, Ijust, I don't have the same time
that I wish that I had forthings.
Uh, I started to look atbusiness ownership.
(12:59):
I realized pretty quickly that Iwas in, uh, a little bit over my
skis as I started to look atdifferent business opportunities
in the area.
And, uh, that's what brought meto franchising.
So.
I, uh, you and I had had plentyof conversations.
We had had conversations, uh,positive and negatively about my
skills.
What works?
(13:20):
Is this gonna be the one, maybethis, uh, maybe this is the
brand and, uh, settled on RestoPros.
So we've been operational nowfor the last.
Call it three months.
So it's, it's still in the veryearly formative days for us.
But, uh, you know, especiallywith where I'm at as our
business still very close to,uh, the due diligence done to
(13:41):
make this decision and some ofthe early days after having made
this decision.
And, you know, I, I, I hope thatsome of my feedback helps others
consider the same thing.
Giuseppe Grammatico (13:50):
Awesome.
I appreciate it.
And, and one, and one thing I,I'd like to mention, and we
talked about this before theshow is.
You know, you're, you, when youtalk about feedback, just talk,
giving us the journey.
You know, it's not this cleartransition, it's exactly, this
is gonna happen and there'snever gonna be an issue or a
hiccup or, or anything likethat.
And sometimes the expectations,you know, things exceed the
expectations.
So I like how you're puttingout, I don't know if it's weekly
(14:13):
or every other week.
I, I forget the, uh, thefrequency, but kind of a, kind
of an update.
How things are going.
You know, this is, uh, it's abig transition, right?
Going from employee to employer.
I always say you go from signingthe front, uh, the, uh, the back
of the check of your paycheck tothe front of the check.
So, um, talk to us a little bitabout that transition.
Just the, you know, that's anemotional rollercoaster, right?
(14:34):
You know, having that consistentpaycheck, responding to the
employer.
Basically they, they're tellingyou exactly what needs to get
done.
You're just showing up.
So talk to us about.
That transition, you know, youknow, talking about how that
affected your, your family, howyour thought process and what
that looked like.
Joey Romanczuk (14:52):
Yeah.
You know, it was, it was a, itwas a decision that I think, you
know, I'm, so, okay let's backup.
You know, when you think aboutthe decision to go from cor, the
corporate world of having a W2job to being a business owner,
it is a.
Binary decision where I need tomake it.
Right.
But at the end of the day,you're not making this on your
(15:12):
own.
Right.
And, and I, I think that thatwas the thing that really helped
me.
You know, I mean, this decisioncouldn't have been made without
the support of my fiance,without the conversations of, of
my peer advisors, my father youknow, the people in my life who
have.
Been a, uh, been a powerfulguiding light for me so that I
(15:32):
can tell whether or not, eventhough, this sounds good, this
sounds like something that wecan do.
Um, you know, that that groupadvisory is really important to
making sure that.
I am receiving checks andbalances of what I believe is a
good decision.
Right.
You know, I think the firstplace that I would take this is
that feeling in corporateAmerica of being like, whether
it is, uh, you have a good jobthat you're happy with, but
(15:55):
maybe some of your needs aren'tbeing met.
Maybe it's the, the feeling thatyou are being compensated, not,
not compensated enough, and wanta little bit of a change.
Mm-hmm.
Um, for me it was.
I, I, I said it before, it wastime.
I was working just about everyweek, weekend.
Saturdays were mandatory,holidays were mandatory, and
that to me was like the firstlittle nugget of maybe something
(16:18):
needs to change here.
You know, I wanna start workingto get a little bit of this time
back.
And as I continued to grow, Ithought to myself you know,
I've, I've experienced a numberof promotions.
And that's only brought meincreased responsibility, but
also just like increased timeand presence in some of these
roles.
I was working for a company whothe higher you grew, the more
(16:40):
involved and invested in allaspects you had to be.
And so for me, the only piecethat was missing was the
business ownership because.
I believed that the bettermanager I was, the better I can
maximize my people, the less Ishould have tactically that I
need to do day to day.
And it just wasn't the case.
You know, I was like, I was verymuch so like this piece in the
(17:01):
machine that had to make certainthings go and when I wasn't
there, things weren't able toadvance in a way that.
Scaled me out of the business,even though we all know the best
way for an owner to scale out isfor getting the right people in.
So I wasn't able to make some ofthose decisions.
Having made this and having nowbeen on the other side of it,
you're absolutely right.
(17:22):
I think some of the earlychallenges is about taking on
and accepting the responsibilitythat these decisions kind of
start and end with me.
They, you know, and, and, andthe nice thing about the
franchise model is you have thesupport that you need to be able
to make that decision in a rightway.
But as the business owner, theonus of making that decision
falls on my shoulders.
And I, I think that's probablyone of the harder transitions I
(17:45):
hear people talking about whenit comes to exploring whether or
not the franchise thing is forthem.
Some of these corporateenvironments are so structured
where you might feel like you'remaking decisions, but it's
really.
You know, you, you've been giventwo.
It's like the matrix.
You've been given two pills.
Take this one or this one.
Right?
Well, in the, well, in thefranchise world, you're suddenly
standing like at a pharmacy,trying to figure out like, what
(18:07):
is the right medicine for me totake for this thing?
And so it's a lot of informationintake.
Giuseppe Grammatico (18:12):
You know, determining the right brand.
And, you know, we talked aboutwhen we first started working
together there's no exact numberbecause it changes, but we'll
say around 4,000.
Franchise companies and 70 plusindustries.
So what really stood out aboutmaybe we'll work in reverse,
what stood out about Resto Prosthat made you make that that
decision?
Joey Romanczuk (18:31):
Yeah.
Well, I guess in the spirit ofthe conversation, we're talking
about decision making here, soI'll, I'll break it down into a
few pieces.
Sure.
You, when we started thisconversation, there was a, it
was a bit of, well, what do Ilike?
What do I not like?
What do I enjoy about myprevious career?
What worked well there and, youknow, what am I looking for in
the next thing?
Mm-hmm.
And, and so for me it was, Iwould say three components that
(18:54):
I was looking for in a franchisebrand, because these three
components did not bring meimmediately and directly to
Resta Pros, right?
It was some level of customerservice and experience.
So I wanted to be working withpeople is a strength of mine,
uh, and being able to providecustomer experience.
Looking at customer experienceprocesses and figuring out ways
(19:17):
to do that better is not only astrength, but something I really
enjoy and take fulfillment outof.
So I wanted there to be anelement of people service.
Number two, I, I, I guess I, Ikind of said it.
There was service, you know?
Mm-hmm.
I wanted to, I wanted to providea service, not a product.
And so when we started to lookat some of these brands, it was
important to me that there was aservice that we were providing.
(19:40):
Um, I felt like that could giveus a bit of a competitive edge
in whatever brand it was gonnabe.
And then I would say numbernumber three for me was having
some flexibility and autonomy,right?
To be able to enjoy time withfamily and friends on holidays.
This was something was, that wasso foreign to me.
Um, and so I wanted to be ableto at least that, maybe it's
(20:02):
not.
The immediacy.
But at at, at a point I wantedto be able to have the comfort
where I could enjoy my holidaysand unless there's an emergency,
my people as well.
We were looking at a couple ofdifferent brands.
I won't say any of the otherbrands that I didn't settle on.
They were, they were great fortheir own reasons, but just not
(20:22):
for me.
I mean, one that we were lookingat was very kids and family
focused.
I'm not a family person yet.
I don't have children of my ownjust yet.
It didn't feel like somethingthat would align with me at this
point.
You know, maybe when I havekids, it'll be something I think
about.
And to me, the water mitigationgame.
And what I learned in thediscovery was it's really a
business to business game.
(20:43):
You know, we're, we're the, thebasis of a lot of our early
sales right now are the businessrelationships that we're
building.
Mm-hmm.
And so with that.
I was like, okay, now we havesomething where I can network
and improve the potential formore sales.
I can bring in people that mightbe able to help us establish a
network.
And so really we don't need tobe better at the website
(21:05):
optimization, the SEO some of.
Those, you know, things thathappen where we're just waiting
on the phone, we can be activeabout this and just build
relationships and hit doors andtry to find new opportunities.
I like that because that gave mea little bit of control over our
early sales, especially being init in the beginning full time.
(21:26):
Right.
Um, and so, so that was really,that was really what brought me
over to rest the pros.
But the biggest thing was justbeing able to service other
people.
I the joys that I got in myprevious role were just helping
people in a time of need.
You know, they either needed acar because of X, Y, and Z.
There was some type of issue.
And being that person that wasable to help them when they
(21:47):
needed something done most, andbe able to handle the problems
that they might experience witha transaction like that, I
always enjoyed.
And so for me, I've gotten a, agreat joy and sense of
fulfillment out of helpingpeople that are, are in my
community.
I'm walking these streets, I'mrunning with my dog, uh, and I'm
running past your house.
So, it's great to be able tohelp and participate within the
(22:08):
community and all those thingsreally helped me settle on what
ended up being a really greatpartnership with the brand.
I, I did settle on with RestaPros.
Giuseppe Grammatico (22:16):
Awesome.
I love that.
You nailed it.
I mean, you, you covered, youcovered a few things there.
We talked about, um, how to winfriends and influence people.
If you could recommend anotherbook, I know you said you didn't
have it on you, but if you couldrecommend another book, to the
audience listening, what, whatwould that be?
Joey Romanczuk (22:32):
You know, I, we were talking about it before,
but business building andbusiness developing is, uh, a, a
new skill for me.
I, I, it's, it's a collection ofa lot of different skills, but
looking at build.
A business and scaling thebusiness that you want is
something that is foreign tomany people, right?
But also wealth of resourcesavailable.
(22:53):
Uh, I'm gonna butcher the AUauthor's name.
I don't know if I know it.
You know it better than me, butyou recommended it to me.
That's traction.
And that's what's just have tobe, remind me, what's that
Officer?
Giuseppe Grammatico (23:04):
Gino Wickman.
Yeah.
Gino Wickman, yep.
Joey Romanczuk (23:06):
He, beyond just traction, he does amazing work
as far as being able to provideentrepreneurship with resources
to make sure that.
Uh, not only are they growingand advancing in their business,
but also let's remember thatlike my business grows and, and
is running at full speed.
If I am, well, if I am right ofmind, if I am locked in and
(23:27):
focused on not only my business,but my passions and my family,
and Gene gives like a ton ofresources on why that's like.
That is so important, especiallyat this stage.
Um, so traction has been one forme.
It's really helped me understandwhere operationally we need to
be focused on right now.
And, uh, especially'cause that'sreally where all my time's
going.
(23:47):
So when it comes back to thebusiness books, it's gonna be
that, uh, that's, that's the bigone for me right now.
I think they should, I thinkthey should use that as a
textbook in, uh, in, in school,you know, in, in a business
related class.
It, it really should.
I think.
I think the other one that Iwould give, and I'm looking at
it, I'm looking at it right now.
This one I read in, in 2023.
(24:07):
It's 4,000 weeks and it's by.
Oliver Berkman, 4,000 weeks.
It is a bit of a different lookon productivity.
I am guilty as probably manyother people of overt stuffing
my calendar, my to-do list, andfeeling as though I need to
maximize every moment of my day.
(24:27):
What we don't realize ismaximization always a, also
happens in the stillness of ourdays, taking a few moments to
just, you know, be here in thisconversation versus all the
other things that are going on.
Right.
Whether it's, uh, just lookingat a, a study guide from that
book or just listening to someof those chapters, I recommend
anybody who's thinking aboutthis or who is a high achiever
(24:50):
trying to go out there and dosome great things in this world,
take a beat and read that book.
Giuseppe Grammatico (24:55):
Awesome.
No, that's, I've never, thatone, I, I haven't heard, so I
just I jotted that down.
Uh, what have, what, I guessany, any other piece of advice
from someone that's actually,done the transition from W2 to,
to employer, employee toemployer, uh, any other advice,
you know, any other suggestion?
Yeah.
Joey Romanczuk (25:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
This has been one that, youknow, unfortunately there's a
lot of layoffs going on, andthere's a lot of layoffs
happening in my network rightnow.
So I've been getting a lot ofpeople who, uh, in one way or
another, you know, whether it'sfranchising or just trying to
figure out what is going to bethe next thing that happens to
them trying to figure out what'snext.
The thing that I find myselfgoing back to when it comes to
(25:35):
feedback on franchise orbusiness ownership, even if.
Even if you're partnering with afranchise, remember you are
accepting the responsibility ofbusiness ownership, right?
The franchise has a model, theyhave a playbook, and they have.
All the resources A A as as theyshould, if they're a good brand
(25:55):
to help you maximize yoursuccess.
But the trick there is maximizeyour success and not guarantee
your success.
And so I believe that anybodywho's interested in franchise
ownership should start with theacceptance of the responsibility
that they're now a businessowner.
And with that means.
Maybe late nights.
(26:15):
What that means, things aregonna go wrong.
What That means that I seeyou're nodded.
'cause you're like, yeah, thingsare gonna go wrong.
Like it just happens.
It happens.
It's avoid,
Giuseppe Grammatico (26:24):
it happens.
Yeah.
It's, it's part, part of it's abusiness, right?
It, it franchise business ontraining wheels.
If you wanna an explanation ofwhat it is, that's it.
Joey Romanczuk (26:32):
Right.
There might be a safety net, butthat doesn't mean that you're
not gonna still fall.
And, and so I, I, I think forme, I really, I try to eMASS
this acceptance ofresponsibility as the biggest
piece of, of takeaway when itcomes to making this decision.
Because if you expect it to beeasy, it won't, but that's a
good thing if you expect it tobe easy work and very passive
(26:53):
from the beginning.
It may, but it also might not.
And you gotta be ready to acceptthat it might take a lot of
effort and challenge to getwhere you want it to be.
In your mind, that vision isn'tgonna happen on its own.
It's gonna take you, thebusiness owner to make it
happen.
And so if you just accept thatsome of those things are gonna
happen, when those problemshappen, you're like, oh, okay.
Wait, wait, wait.
I, yeah, I got this right.
(27:14):
I accepted this responsibility,so now we're gonna make it
right.
And man that mindset has changedeverything for me because now
when things go awry.
Which they will, we tackle it,we take it on full steam ahead.
Um, and I, I, I think sometimessome of the frustrations of
somebody maybe who is in thischair having made this decision
and is wrestling with the otherside of it, where maybe it's not
(27:35):
working, maybe it's not theright brand, I think comes down
to, uh, I thought it was gonnawork out.
I thought this, I thought that.
It's it starts and ends withyou.
Giuseppe Grammatico (27:44):
Well said.
And, and, uh, and, um, you know,I, I gotta give you credit
there.
Dan and Natalie (27:48):
No one's doing their business perfect.
You know what I mean?
Your ego is not your amigo.
Yeah.
Like if you've never been inbusiness and you're in your
first year of business, likeit's not fair to expect you're
gonna be the best business ownerever.
And that's okay.
But yeah, your ego, the ego getsin the way.
Same for franchisors.
Their ego gets in the way.
'cause they start to think,well, like we've been doing this
for so long.
We actually have a, we call itlike a commandment, but one of
(28:08):
our franchisor commandments isthey could be, right, Which is
an idea that like that franchiseowner could be, right.
Let's make sure we're actuallylistening to them, but then we
expect them to also listen tous.
Yeah, no, for sure.
One thing that you said wasabout oh, we'll never get there
without doing it this way.
I hear that sometimes wheresomeone is like.
Oh, I don't need a franchise.
(28:29):
I can just make my own burgerplace.
I'm like, yeah, you don't needMcDonald's.
You could do Bob's Burgers, butdo you really wanna come up with
the branding, all the ads, likeI don't think you realize how
much work is involved.
Like of course you could do it.
You're smart, you're capable,you're an executive.
Like if you wanna do all thatwork at this point of your life,
(28:49):
yeah, go for it and then you cando it.
Giuseppe Grammatico (28:52):
One other thing I, I want to add too,
where, when I, when hear peoplecomplain, is that the idea of
semi absentee ownership where,you know, they, they're keeping
their job and then they'rerunning the business the side.
And I said, there's a couplecomponents there.
Obviously the franchisor has toallow that, but people are
hiring managers.
They, they've never owned thebusiness.
They're hiring managers, butthey're not managing the manager
(29:14):
there.
There's no oversight.
So they're assuming the managersdoing what they need to do, but
they're not checking in.
They're not doing the weeklymeetings or calls and stuff like
that.
And if they, and if they arelike I did with my business and
a mistake I made.
Many, many moons ago, 20 yearsago was I bottlenecked the
business.
So the manager, every bigdecision had to get approved by
(29:35):
me.
Well, who the heck was I toapprove it when my manager had
more in years I was alive at thetime.
Yeah.
So, I became a bottleneck.
So the, so the big part isfinding a franchisor that
support and allow part-timesemi-absentee ownership.
But on the flip side, when bringthat person on, they have.
Some equity, phantom equity, sothey have some skin in the game.
(29:57):
know getting a, cut some of theprofits, you're also managing
setting the expectation, this iswhat I need you to do.
These are the decisions I needyou make.
These are the hours I'mavailable.
Because if you have a job,obviously, you know, and you
can't talk the hours nine totwo, nine to three, or even nine
to five, they know when tocontact you and what decisions
can make.
I believe it's, it's both.
It's the right person andexpectation and, you know,
(30:19):
finding the right franchisethat, would support that type of
ownership.
Dan and Natalie (30:23):
I mean, just for like, you know, obviously
the, for your listeners, theyknow your background, but you,
you owned a cleaning company.
Like what, can you just give thebackground real quick just for
my audience.
Giuseppe Grammatico (30:32):
Yeah.
We had, you know, c commercialbuilding maintenance, commercial
cleaning.
I ran business full time toreally scale that business.
then after that first year,brought on that manager, it
operations manager, generalmanager.
I what the actual title was butI was so tight to the business,
you know, I touched every partof the business.
I had to make, finalize everydecision.
(30:52):
So I had brought a, a managerand, and by the way, my
background was in, on WallStreet and we owned the
restaurants.
I had no, no in that industrywhatsoever.
Yeah.
So I brought a, an experiencedperson to the table a GM with 20
years of experience, 20 plusyears experience in that
business.
But yet I had to okay.
All his decisions to the pointwhere.
(31:13):
You know, he wasn't able job.
It became kind of a, a, abottleneck.
So, I was running atsemi-absentee, but not allowing
the manager to do their job youknow, on, on a daily basis.
So, an interesting business, Ilearned a lot.
I learned that you be the expertin all areas and that you to
hire people better than you incertain areas, know, at social
media, at marketing, at sales.
(31:35):
So, I learned a lot in thatbusiness, and I bring.
I I do a lot of learning, so tryto bring that table helping
people to find a franchise.
Dan and Natalie (31:43):
You know, it's interesting what you did though
is you, you, you got in thebusiness, you learned it and you
grew it.
Like, when I think of mydefinition of, of semi-absentee,
first of all, is it's a hockeystick.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And so when you start abusiness, your revenue is the
lowest you work the most.
It's the worst time.
But as you grow the business,the revenue goes up.
And then your time goes down.
Right?
(32:03):
But this idea that you're notgonna work in the business and
the revenue's gonna go up, I'vejust, I've never experienced
that in, in a business.
And I, I think that you have tobe involved like.
know, example, I'm not asinvolved in the day-to-day of
Voda as I was even six monthsago, right?
But it took time to get there.
And my definition ofsemi-absentee isn't that.
Now I'm going on the beach,drinking my ties, and, you know,
(32:24):
hanging out.
If I'm not in the office on aMonday through Friday, then I'm
out doing something to generaterevenue or recruit people.
Now, sometimes that might meangoing out to play around a
tennis in Friday afternoon,networking with a property
manager, a plumber, or aconsultant, a, a potential
teammate.
That is the of the businessowner.
But I always of semi absenteemeans like you're not in the day
(32:45):
to day, so you can go out thereand be what we call the mayor of
the town.
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
transition from corporate toowning your franchise.
Join Giuseppe on the nextepisode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
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