May 10, 2025 • 37 mins
Essential listening for BOTH sides of franchising! Join Giuseppe Grammatico & Rebekah Horowitz (Rep'm Group) for insights on becoming a franchisor, spotting franchisee red flags (Item 2, Item 20), asking powerful validation questions, assessing fit, debunking myths & navigating your franchise journey.
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
it was a total 180 from theextremely kind of tightly
(00:04):
managed, tightly controlledpublic company world where I
was, it felt like the wild westwhen I got there.
And kind of been thrown into thedeep end, but met a lot of
really fantastic people and itcompletely changed the
trajectory of my career and mylife.
I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot
of executive types who come inand one of the things they say
right up front is they say, looklike you are gonna be doing work
(00:25):
that you thought you were like,too good for 20 years ago.
You have to be willing to getyour hands dirty.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:46):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatical, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom.
Exciting show for you today.
We had some technicaldifficulties, so my guest is,
help me we're recording on a newplatform, Fingers crossed
everything is working today.
We have Rebekah Horowitz fromthe Rep'M Group on the show.
Rebekah, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
(01:06):
I appreciate your patience.
We're gonna make things work,we've been trying to get you on
the show for a while.
I'm glad we were able to connectand looking forward to chatting.
But before we dive into the showtoday tell the audience typical
audience or listener, I shouldsay, is someone that is looking
to explore franchise ownership,leave the corporate grind.
So if you can give us a littlebit of background as to how you
got into franchising.
(01:27):
Absolutely.
I actually came a little fromthe corporate grind myself.
My entry into franchising wasprobably somewhere 12, 15 years
ago.
I was actually working atJohnson and Johnson right before
then.
A complete horse of a differentcolor.
But I ended up with some closefriends who were actually
working for a large franchisorin North Carolina driven brands
and.
Met the leadership team therewas really impressed as they had
(01:49):
some close relationships andended up really unexpectedly
kind of taking a flyer intofranchise operations.
And it was a total 180 from theextremely kind of tightly
managed, tightly controlledpublic company world where I
was, it felt like the wild westwhen I got there.
And kind of been thrown into thedeep end, but met a lot of
really fantastic people and itcompletely changed the
(02:10):
trajectory of my career and mylife.
And I have stayed in franchisingever since.
I love that you never know whatlife will throw at you, what
direction don't you go in.
I was just talking to my parentsthe other day.
My, my son's going to college.
He is got another year of highschool, and it's just like,
well, what is one looking tostudy?
What is he looking to study?
And then what they're gonna endup doing.
Sometimes they confirm.
Oh, right.
I mean, yeah.
(02:30):
Who among us, like has ouractual college major have
anything to do with what we dotoday?
Right.
It's gotta be a minority.
Yeah.
I was computer science that tookme two years to realize I am not
a, I'm not a computerprogrammer.
So, but you kept just enough tobe tech support.
That's good.
Yes.
Tech support, which we utilizetoday.
And when all else fails, restartthe program.
Restart your computer.
And that's as far as that'sright.
(02:51):
As far as I got, plug it backin.
Yeah.
And we've been on a lot of thosecalls.
So I guess talk to us becauseyou're in, in Rep'M group
there's different divisions, soI guess, we'll start there.
Who is Rep'M and then maybetalk, if you can touch on the
divisions of Rep'M and then thedivision that you focus in on.
Absolutely.
if you've heard of Rep'M, a lotof people, their first entry
into hearing about us is aboutthat we sell franchises.
(03:13):
Sometimes there's an expressioncalled an FSO, like a franchise
sales organization.
And we do actually have a partof the company that does that.
So for a lot of people, that'skind of what they've heard of,
but that is just one of fourpillars of what Rep'M is.
So we have four divisions.
So they're called Brando, buildthem, grow'em, and Scale'em.
So Brando essentially helpsemerging brands to create
(03:33):
marketing collateral andcommunication campaigns to drive
leads and to try to connect themwith the right franchise
candidates.
Build them works on real estateand construction.
So we work with franchisors.
And then with individualfranchisees to try to get
locations open on time and onbudget.
This is a major headache withinfranchising.
And one that, those of us whohave been at the company for a
(03:55):
while have been in franchising,really see this a lot, where you
have companies that selllicenses and then they have a
lot of trouble gettingcandidates actually open or
getting locations open.
So we have a whole division thatfocuses on that.
Grow is what we call sort of thefranchise sales division, where
we help to connect brands withpotential candidates who are the
right fit for not just kinda thefinancial profile, but also the
(04:16):
culture and the lifestyle goalsof the candidate.
And then I run what is calledthe scale division.
So we provide operationalconsulting some resource sharing
best practices to the brandsthat we work with.
So I'm typically not candidatefacing.
I don't really work withfranchisees very often.
I work directly with the brands.
And we work to try to make surethat they have all of the
(04:37):
operational tools and, theresources in place to really be
able to support their next phaseof growth and to support their
franchisees.
Especially if we're gonna add ona whole bunch of new
franchisees.
We wanna make sure the brandsare ready for that scale.
So that's actually the side thatI do is kind of that operational
consulting side, and that waswhat my background was
previously.
I was in operations prior.
(04:58):
I like that.
Yeah.
I mean it's it's one thing toobviously, franchise is awarded,
but it's like, okay, now there'sa whole process.
There may be some real estateinvolved.
It's the branding, it's themarketing, so, it's nice that
you kind of divvied up with thevarious divisions.
the beginning part of theconversation would be on the
franchisor side.
Where does a franchisor start?
So someone has an idea for afranchise, maybe they have their
(05:19):
business and they're thinkingabout the option of franchising.
Where do they start?
And then by the way.
The next part would be let'stalk about, okay, these are,
we're looking at people that arelooking to ex actually invest in
the existing franchise.
Sure.
But on the franchisor side,where do people start?
I have a great concept.
I'm thinking of franchising.
Can you talk us through highlevel of things people should
think about if they areinterested in that route.
(05:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think most often we talk toa lot of potential kind of
either emerging franchisors whoeither have not franchised yet
and are just looking potentiallyto get into it or are right at
the beginning of their journeyas a brand.
And so there are certainly a lotof legal check marks and things
that you're gonna have to get.
That's not what we do.
You're gonna need an FDD, you'regonna need to kind of go through
some of those sort of legal andentity forming hoops and those
(06:05):
kind of things.
But I would say the bigger setof questions for me when I'm
talking to a new brand arereally about.
Why are they franchising and dothey understand what it is that
franchising is about?
Because it's not for everyone.
And I think if you don't comefrom that world, and I didn't
originally, you just don'tnecessarily understand like what
are the advantages anddisadvantages, what are the
differences between expandingthrough franchising and
(06:27):
expanding corporately and notjust if you have a successful
business and it's going well,you end up with a customer, a
brother-in-law, someone whosays, gosh, you should really
franchise this.
And kind of a lot of people cometo it with, honestly no more
than that.
I think the next phase really isto understand not just why does
a brand franchise and what arethose pluses and minuses, but
also think, do you have aconcept that is franchisable and
(06:50):
that is built for success inthis world?
Because not every industry iswell suited for franchising,
honestly, right?
Certainly not every individualconcept, like there are certain
factors around the uniteconomics that really need to
make sense in a franchiseconcept.
Gotta understand the potentialadvantages that franchising can
bring both to franchisees andfranchisors.
And see if your brand, I thinkis a good fit.
(07:10):
And then the hardest part andthe hardest part for people I
think to really look inward onis to understand whether what
they have is a great idea or asuccessful company, or whether
they have a real franchisablemodel and system.
Because there's such adifference between, Hey, my
company does well and we make aprofit every year.
And things have gone great.
We even have a few locations.
That's so different from havinga system that is built to scale
(07:33):
across the country by peoplewith no background in the
industry by, folks who havenever heard of that brand, who
are not your friends when theycome in to be customers.
Like, that's the kind of hardintrospection that frankly a lot
of brands don't necessarily do.
But that often is the dividingline for me between what's gonna
make a great franchise brand andmaybe one that is gonna
franchise, but they're not gonnago very far.
(07:54):
No, that makes a lot of sense.
And and those are the things tothink about.
It's not if franchising isbetter, is licensing better?
Is owning corporate storesbetter?
It's what are you trying toaccomplish?
This is not an overnight thing.
If you're looking to retire in afew years, will the franchise
model work?
Well, someone else is gonna haveto take over, but it's gonna
take time to really grow thatbrand and just because you have
(08:14):
a franchise doesn't mean thatpeople are gonna be necessarily
investing.
Absolutely.
one other piece that, I mean, Ithink so, I think you're exactly
right, right?
There is no one right answer.
It's not for everybody.
It's not for every brand.
But I think it's alsointeresting people really, you
have to think about, and thiswill extend to the candidates
too when we get there, but whatis it that you actually wanna be
doing all day?
Because I think the reality oflife, you talk to chefs who go
(08:35):
like, gosh, ever since I startedowning restaurants, I don't
spend my time cooking anymore,which is the thing I love.
I spend my time running akitchen and that means, managing
vendor costs or whatever.
And to some extent, I think thesame thing is true for folks who
get into franchising, which isto say like, your life looks
different and the kinds ofthings that take up your time
and your focus and hopefullyyour passion are maybe not the
same things that you have beendoing and the things that have
(08:56):
made you successful up untilthis point.
And so it's also anunderstanding of.
What are the sets of skills thatare required and the kind of
time and energy and focus thatit's gonna take to grow and
support a franchise brand?
And are those the same things Ibring to the table in my own
business?
And is that kind of what I wannabe doing with my time?
'cause I think, and for a lot ofpeople, like it's possible, but
it's maybe not a trade off thatthey ultimately wanna make.
(09:18):
And there's no problem withthat, but it really takes that
introspection to be ready forwhat's ahead.
No, I like that.
And yeah, you're right.
I mean, your role is gonna becompletely different.
You're, you now have a nationalfranchise assuming that's how
you're expanding.
And your role's different.
You're a coach, you're bringingon franchisees, you're.
Cleaning up systems, creatingsystems, and putting those in
place to work anywhere in thecountry.
(09:39):
So that's a very good point.
The other thing I advise peopleon, and I'm definitely not an
expert in this area, is thatsome people get really excited.
They have a, an idea that theywanna franchise and they go and
create an FDD.
A franchise disclosure documentfor anyone listening new
listeners, as we've we've talkedabout the document we had.
kit Higgs on the other day.
Houston Barnes.
Two franchise attorneys talkingabout the FDD.
(10:02):
Is that they were going tocreate that.
And I said, maybe it makesbetter sense to, to speak with
the company to see if it issomething franchisable maybe the
the model needs to be tweaked alittle bit before that agreement
is put in place.
So not saying that agreement isnot important, but maybe taking
a step back to, to talk toothers.
Like a Rep'M group to see, hey,is this even a franchisable
business?
And then going out and creatingthat document.
(10:24):
So would you agree there?
I think that's totally true.
I mean, the FDD is so critical,I think, and you had some of the
great players, like these arethe guys that, that certainly
wanna talk to.
So.
Your listeners are getting theadvantage of getting all the
good voices in the room.
But look, that document iscritical.
It's a huge piece of what we dois work with our brands to shape
their FDD.
But a thing that you wouldn'tknow coming in if, again, your
experiences with your company,it's with your industry, it's
(10:46):
your corner of the world, iswhat does the landscape actually
look like out there.
And I've talked to brands whomaybe they thought they were the
first person in the world toinvent, a company that does X
particular thing.
And then you find out, oh,actually.
There are 10 other brandsalready franchising that, or
you've only set up, what youknow, and you know the way that,
that your company has run, butmaybe the way that you structure
your vendors or what you'respending in a particular area is
(11:08):
actually not necessarily in linewith what the industry is doing
or what folks are gonna findelsewhere.
So I think you're totally rightlike that, that FTD is so
important and it's not cheap toproduce.
So it's worth really thinkingabout the model and
understanding, right, how is itdifferentiated?
How is it gonna play againstother brands that are in the
space and other opportunitiesthat potential franchisees are
(11:28):
gonna have.
Like, you wanna make sure thatyou're built to go out there on
the field before you go out andspend the time and the money to
create that.
For sure.
I like that.
No, that, that's yeah, I just Ihate to see people, spend money
when they're not ready,especially when they're.
Maybe have limited funds in thebeginning.
So I think that foundation isreally helpful.
So, cool.
Let's switch gears a little bit.
Since Mo most of the peoplelistening in are, corporate
(11:49):
execs looking to make the switchswitch over to hiring
themselves, owning a business.
So we're gonna bounce aroundwith some questions.
Obviously we talk about ourprocess all the time being very
thorough with due diligence, butI wanted to tackle some kind of
key areas.
What would you consider redflags for candidates looking to
invest in a franchise?
I think this is such a goodquestion.
So, and I would say assumingsomeone is kind of a little bit
(12:12):
down the road they've spent sometime thinking about the type of
brand that they are interestedin, what their financial kind of
profile is gonna be.
So they've got it narrowed downand they're starting to really
look at a brand.
I think a couple of things thatcome to mind, one of them is if
current locations or currentfranchisees.
Can't validate what the brand isselling.
So often you'll have folks whogo, absolutely, here's what we
(12:33):
do, here's what we sell.
Here's our marketing plan.
Like it all sounds fan,fantastic.
It's almost too good to be true.
And you go great.
Like, how are you doing this inyour current stores?
And they go, well.
No, but we're going to be, wehaven't done it so far, but this
is our 2.0 model, or, the futureis gonna be so much brighter
than the past, or, we don't haveany franchisees yet who are
doing this new system, workingwith this new vendor.
(12:54):
But we're planning on it.
And again, like there'sdefinitely a role for people who
are ready to be the Guinea pig,the first mover.
You'll know if you're thatperson and if you wanna be a
trailblazer.
But for other folks you, who areout there looking, one of the
most critical pieces is once youunderstand the model, how does
this business make money?
How do they get customers?
Can they validate that?
Can you look at their existinglocations, talk to their
(13:16):
existing franchisees if theyhave any, and see that what
they're selling you is somethingthat is already working.
And to me, for most franchiseinvestors, that piece is really
critical.
So that's one.
If all the promises are whatwill happen and not actually
what has been working, right?
One other red flag I would sayis, item two is the part of the
FDD that's right up front andit's gonna have information
(13:36):
about the senior leadership ofthe franchise team.
And to me, not everyone is gonnaback me on this, but to me one
red flag is if everyone on theleadership team is brand new and
is really new to that particularcompany and that particular
industry, and you see thisoften, for example, if you have
a brand that has recentlytransacted now that's great.
That's often a sign of success.
(13:56):
But if then everyone else whowas part of the original brand
goes away, and all the new folkswho are running the company have
all been there for, two months,eight months, and there's no one
who actually understands theculture.
What really made that businessspecial to begin with, the DNA
of the brand and the businessand the operations.
I.
That's gonna be a red flag.
And often that's when it doesn'tnecessarily mean you don't wanna
make that investment, but Iwould be asking a lot more
(14:19):
questions if I see that everyoneon that team is brand new,
especially if the brand itselfhas been around a while.
And then just one more, I wouldsay there is a section of the
FTD called item 20 and it'sgonna talk about how many units
that franchisee or thatfranchise brand has, how many
have been sold, how many havebeen transferred, how many have
opened and closed.
It gives you a lot of goodinformation.
(14:39):
You know where in the countrythey are.
So it's gonna tell you, has thisbrand been experiencing fast
growth?
Has it been experiencing fastshrinkage?
And one of the things that Iwould look for always in any
brand that I was looking toacquire is have there been a lot
of units recently that haveeither closed down, been
transferred, or resold orterminated?
Now again, it doesn'tnecessarily mean that there's
(15:01):
not a great story for it.
There are a lot of brands outthere that.
Realize at a certain point inhistory, hey, it's time to
really crack down and raise ourstandards.
But it's something you alwayswanna ask more questions about.
If you're seeing more than,let's say even 5% of the system
turning over on a regular basis,either transferring their units
or closing or terminating,reselling on an annual basis,
(15:21):
that's something that you'regonna wanna ask about.
So that's just one more placethat I'm always gonna look and I
would always tell your listenersto look before they're willing
to sign anything.
Yeah, you have full access.
The the FDD gets as we mentionedthe previous episode updated
every year.
So you'll have the up to dateinformation from the previous
year.
You'll have all the informationcurrent franchisees, previous
(15:41):
franchisees.
If there's a question there, ifthere's any, why couple
terminations, did these peopleclose down?
what were the reasons you havethe right as the franchisee or
the prospective franchisee toask those questions?
So I always say ask away.
Bring on if more comfortable, afranchise attorney will, which
will also specialize in thespace reviewing.
(16:01):
Is this normal language, I amnot an attorney by any means.
So, is this normal language?
Is this is this something thatcould be negotiated on occasion,
parts of the agreement?
Not necessarily.
Most of it, but on occasion,maybe there is a delayed opening
or some type of change in the inthe territory, whatever the case
may be.
So, definitely definitely ask.
You need to be comfortable withthat agreement.
(16:22):
you definitely do.
And so I think you bring up agood point too, which is to ask
someone who knows.
So if they're working with aconsultant, I think this is a
great way to use thatconsultant.
A lawyer is another good optionbecause again, if you are not an
experienced franchise investor,a lot of the elements of that
agreement.
Might seem like they're unusual,but it turns out actually
they're very standard.
They're every agreement andthey're no cause for concern.
But also you might findsomewhere someone who has an eye
(16:44):
out, it goes, oh, actuallythat's pretty unusual and I
would push back on that if Iwere you.
So I do think having theexpertise of, whether it's
someone like you or an attorneywho can look at it and who sees
a lot of these and understandswhat's more typical and what's
atypical can help you.
And it's good then tounderstand, right?
If the brand can't answer aquestion or doesn't answer a
question, you just have to makesure, are you okay with that?
(17:05):
Do you feel good?
Do you trust your gut?
And you feel like, yes, this isstill something that I wanna
move forward with?
Yeah.
ultimately, and I had thisconversation with someone
earlier today.
The decision is on you.
You need to do your own duediligence.
You can work with a consultantlike myself.
We can make suggestions.
You need to, visit thefranchisor.
You need to speak withfranchisees.
Which is actually a ne nexttopic here, but you need to do
(17:26):
your own due diligence, butultimately, it's, it, is there a
risk?
Absolutely.
Is it a business?
Yes.
There's upside there.
There could be downside.
You need to be informed and youneed to make that decision for
yourself.
No one can make that decision.
I.
You'll never have, I always saya hundred percent of the
information.
It's this leap you're gonna takein any new venture.
And I know when I took my firstleap 25 years ago 20 years in
(17:48):
franchising, 25 with a, goinginto another business it was not
easy.
So even with all the homeworkand I.
The due diligence, you stillyour nerves are still there.
And I always jokingly say, yourexcitement and anxiety feel the
same.
yes, they really do.
But hopefully, if you've chosenthe right thing, then from
there, it starts to get betteralong the way as you get closer
to opening and not, like you'retalking about some of those
brands where you invest andthen, oh man, it gets worse and
(18:11):
worse from there.
Right.
That's a bad sign.
You wanna, you do, you want thatexcitement to turn into, like,
oh man I'm nervous, I'm scared,but I'm so glad I did this.
Yes.
I agree.
And that brings us to, to thearea of validation, the
importance of talking withexisting franchisees, which, in
my opinion, just seems like,well, that's natural, right?
You're gonna look at afranchise, you're gonna speak
(18:31):
with franchisees.
But I've talked to people overthe years not necessarily people
I've worked with people thathave just said, well, the
experience was.
Was good.
It wasn't great.
And and I said, well, beforemaking that decision, did you
speak with franchisees?
And they said, no, I didn't knowyou were supposed to do that.
So, so it's things like thatwhere you assume, people are
knowing to speak withfranchisees.
(18:52):
So I actually have an entirestep in the process, says, okay,
great, you got all theinformation from the franchise
company.
So naturally let's talk topeople.
Let's talk to people that are.
running it semi absentee the wayyou wanna run it, or let's talk
to people running it full-timeand sometimes both.
So, what are good questions tobe bringing up on these calls
because this is a crucial step.
(19:13):
I see a lot of people missing.
I agree with you.
Our whole system is built onvalidation at Rev.
This is like, there is nocandidate who even makes it to
Discovery Day without stoppinginvalidation to talk to, if
possible, both the leadershipteam on the brand and existing
franchisees.
And so I think it's critical.
So I would say just inpreparation for those calls, one
thing to really, keep in mind isyou're not gonna talk to.
(19:35):
A hundred percent of people whohave been successful or a
hundred percent of people wholove it, that itself is not a
red flag necessarily.
There are lots of people who,for example, would tell you
themselves, Hey, I am not a goodfit for this brand.
Or you talk to them and you go,oh man, that person's not
following the system at all.
No wonder he is failing.
Like, so I think some of thatis.
You have to be as a potentialinvestor to someone coming in.
(19:56):
You have to know what to listenfor, and it's almost never going
to be across the board.
This is perfect.
Nothing's wrong with this.
Like everything about thissystem is sunshine and roses.
That's not what business islike.
That's not what franchising islike, but I do think you have to
come with an open mind tounderstand.
When you're hearing about eitherpeople who say, this isn't
working, it didn't work, or, I'mnot happy here, whatever.
(20:16):
You have to be willing tounderstand how that compares to
your situation and why that'shappening for them.
Just like if you do hear someonewho says, this is awesome and I
love it, you compare yourself tothat person too and go, man,
like, is this are they doing thesame thing that I would wanna
do?
Right.
So in terms of the actualquestions.
And, there are gonna be a lot ofdifferent kind of themes you can
take.
And some of them have to dowith, hey, how hard was it to
(20:38):
find your, staff that you neededto hire?
Or, what do you spend your daysdoing?
I think those things are reallyimportant and those, I think are
pretty typical.
You're gonna hear those a lot.
A lot of the financial questionsthat you can't necessarily ask
of the brand, they can't legallyanswer, but you can ask a
franchisee.
under the radar things that Ialways ask, and even when we're
doing diligence with a new brandto see if we wanna work with
(20:58):
them.
And I'm, talking to franchisees,I say, what surprised you?
What was different once you gotup and running than what you
expected, before you actuallysigned off.
I like that one.
Oh, it's huge and I always getsomething good out of it.
Like, sometimes you learn a hugeamount and sometimes it's kind
of a fun surprise.
But yeah.
What was different?
What was surprising?
What was harder than you thoughtit was going to be and what
(21:19):
actually works better than youthought it would?
One, to never, ever leave offyour list.
It seems obvious, but again,you'd be amazed how many people
don't ask is.
Would you do this again?
So sometimes you get people andthey say like, no, I'm not
making money, or Things haven'tgone well, but I love this brand
and the reason I'm not makingmoney is X, Y, and Z, and I
would totally do this again, andI know I could even do it
(21:41):
better.
On the other hand you'll findpeople who say they are making
money, but they would never dothis again, and it wasn't worth
it.
Like you're gonna get.
For the most part, the honesttruth out of people.
If you wanna hear it.
And I think, would you do thisagain?
And would you recommend tosomeone you like not your worst
enemy, right?
But would you recommend tosomeone you care about that they
do this?
I think those are reallyimportant.
(22:01):
The one other question I willsay, I could go on about this
for an hour, but the one otherthing that I think is really
important is to essentially ask.
Who is a good fit for this kindof business and who might not be
a good fit.
So perfect example here,especially'cause you have a lot
of executives, there are somebusinesses where you know, even
as the owner, even if you're notmanaging day to day, the role of
(22:22):
that business.
Now one that comes to my, itmight be a pet grooming business
or a hair salon or, I came fromthe car business, so it was
working in auto repair.
And, and you can have had ac-level job for 20 years before
this and have never had to workwith artistic professionals or
auto technicians, right?
And on the one hand you go, I'msmart, I understand this
business.
But you have to really be ableand willing to kind of work
(22:44):
inside the culture that you'rein.
And so sometimes that validationprocess is where you're gonna
find out.
Man, I had no idea.
Like, it turns out stylists areman, they are a type of their
own.
And if you don't like workingwith stylists, this is not the
business for you.
And you'd never know that inadvance, especially if you don't
come from that industry.
So there are some of those kindof things that you might not
think to ask necessarily.
(23:05):
And the brand is not necessarilygonna think to tell you'cause
the brand has been working withstylists forever.
But you know, it's kind of thatlike.
Who would be a good fit andmaybe who would not be a great
fit.
And I think the people who wentbefore you, who made a similar
decision and came from outsidethe industry, they're gonna be
the ones who have really goodinsight on like, oh, it turns
out if you don't love kids, thisbusiness isn't for you.
(23:26):
Right.
Or, like if you don't wannaspend all day on cold calls,
like this is not the businessfor you.
Yeah.
That role what is your role inthe business?
Yeah, that's a good point.
And.
I will say this, in franchisingfor a while, lots of, thousands,
four, 4,000 franchises I thinkare out there.
And I will say they are not allbuilt the same, but the sign of
a strong franchise and if theyare emerging, they are still
(23:48):
figuring things out.
Depending how many units theyhave or territories.
But you know, they have thatfranchise avatar, they know
that.
Okay.
To be a good franchisee, youneed to follow systems.
But to your point if it is an,you need to be an extrovert and
you need to be cold callingspecifically and you are the
complete opposite, well thatshould really be tackled in that
first or second call.
(24:08):
You should not be going into adiscovery kind of final decision
stage.
They should really kind of comeback and say unless you find a
person to handle sales thisprobably isn't gonna work.
So I think those are signs of a.
Of a more established franchiseor a franchise that really knows
who their avatar is, that knowswho they're after.
Yeah.
And because I think it, for alot of brands, it only takes one
(24:28):
or two folks who you think isgonna be a great fit, and then
they come in and it's like boiland water to realize this didn't
work.
One of the brands we work with,and I won't name names right
now, but.
I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot
of executive types who come inand one of the things they say
right up front is they say, looklike you are gonna be doing work
that you thought you were like,too good for 20 years ago.
You haven't been doing this kindof work in a long time.
(24:51):
Right.
But we are not interested in youif you're not willing to come in
and do some of that work rightup front.
Like we are not a hands offbusiness, so we're not gonna be
fully absentee.
That's not a thing.
You have to be willing to getyour hands dirty.
And that's scary and it'sembarrassing and it's these kind
of things that often likeexecutives are not ready for if
you are thinking like, gosh,I'll be able to come in and do
(25:11):
everything at arms length.
So I think you're dead on, likethe brand often knows the answer
to who they are looking for.
And it's worth pressing on that'cause I think there are.
Brands love to get qualified,awesome.
Smart people.
And so, there's a competition tosay, of course, like, we love a
semi-absentee model, or Yes.
You can definitely just be aninvestor, but it's really worth
(25:31):
pushing on that to understandand to know like, hey, what is
the actual thing I'll be doingday to day and is it something
that I can really get behind?
I couldn't agree more.
this is a five.
10 year when I sign 20 yearfranchise agreement.
So this is a long-termrelationship, so it's gonna be
really painful.
It's not gonna be enjoyable ifit's something that you're not
gonna en enjoy doing and thematch isn't there.
(25:52):
when people say to me sometimes,oh, I haven't made much
progress, this brand maybe isn'tthe best fit, I go, no, it is a
fit.
You're getting closer and closerto what that ideal.
A franchise model is, you don'treally necessarily need the
experience in the industry, butyou need this, the transferable
skillset.
So if you're going from WallStreet to, to cleaning I'm
trying to think of a, twobusinesses that could be so, so
(26:12):
different.
Yeah.
You may need managementexperience, you're gonna need
networking experience, going tomaybe property managers.
It's a commercial cleaningbusiness, that type of business.
So, you definitely wanna do kindof a self-assessment.
What are you good at?
Not in the industry, but what doyou get at in general?
Are you a people person?
Yeah.
What are your skills?
Yeah.
It's really that, it's reallythat simple.
And then you can start andscaling down.
(26:33):
Are you able to run the businessfull-time?
In that kind of role?
Is it just nights and weekendsoverseeing a manager?
That's gonna make a differencebecause not all brands allow to
run the business semi-absentee.
and some of them saysemi-absentee.
I will tell you this is like, Iwill drive this one home
forever.
But what they mean is, it can bepart-time, but it doesn't mean
that's the time you have.
(26:54):
And I think for your listenersespecially, this is critical.
Like if what you have is 20hours a week, but to your point,
it's all nights and weekends andyou're gonna keep a full-time
job that might not work with abrand that says, absolutely you
can do this in 10 or 20 hours aweek.
But it has to be the middle ofthe afternoon so you can be out,
like, networking in thecommunity like it is, the semi
ity doesn't mean the same thingto everyone.
And some of those like lifestyleand part-time, those don't
(27:16):
always mean the same thing.
And I think that's, that isreally good to know in advance.
Agreed.
Absolutely.
And no, no passive stuff.
I always say there's no there'sno such thing.
There's no, I said there's otherin investments you could make
that are definitely morepassive, stock market, real
estate.
Depending on, real estatesyndication I'll call it that.
But yeah, this is definitelyyou.
You're definitely gonna be handson.
(27:36):
There's definitely a lot of workto get the business launch.
1000% I tell people that all thetime.
Yeah, there's no such thing aspassive.
I almost would say there islike, there is hardly such a
thing as semi absentee.
I'm willing to say part-time,but.
If you want to own a business,you gotta actually wanna own
that business.
And I think that has come downto it, right?
The more arms length it is,typically the more red flags
that you're gonna get and theharder that's gonna be.
(27:57):
But I do think you're right whenit comes to the long-term
relationship and fit piece Ijust wanna come back to this,
is, I used to joke about how, itis, it's like a marriage and
just because a brand is a greatbrand does not mean it's a great
fit for you.
And there's lot of fish in thesea when it comes to brands, the
dating pool, all those things.
But like, you wanna be in aplace where not just you like
the brand and you know you likewhat they stand for and you're,
(28:19):
financially qualified, whateveryou think you can make money,
but where you like the peopleand you can envision yourself
being a part of the family and apart of the culture and being
willing to have a fight withthem or a hard conversation and
being able to then get overthat, like transparency,
accountability, like yourability to come in and connect
with other franchisees like.
Those things become important.
(28:40):
It is not just, hey, I thinkthis can make money.
There are a lot of businessesout there that can make money,
but if you don't actually likeit and it's not a good culture
fit you can sign yourself up fora very long 10 years.
And so I think that piece isreally critical.
That's where, some of thoseD-Day and validation and some of
those things come in as well asit's gotta feel like something
that you wanna be a part of.
Culturally 100% you definitelynailed that.
(29:00):
and you get a feel for that whenyou do the validation calls and.
You know the topics that they'regoing over and the full
transparency, because guesswhat, in a couple years or maybe
in a year, you buy thatfranchise, you're gonna be
asked.
To potentially do the exact samecalls and help out your fellow
future franchisees?
Oh, absolutely.
Neighboring franchisees.
Of course.
It's so funny to me, like wehave, we probably have 15
(29:21):
different brands that we do cutfull service work with right
now, and when you go to twodifferent discovery days.
It's wild how different thoseexperiences are, even though the
agenda is roughly the same andthe topics covered are the same,
but you can tell right away bythe time you get to D-Day, the
candidates look different.
The vibes are different.
Some of them, it's like a partythe whole time.
Others, it's a more buttoned upkind of a serious group and
(29:43):
everyone's sitting there andthey've got their, computers out
and they're taking notes andthey're in business outfit.
Like it really the culturaldifferences come to the
forefront so quickly and itreally is and should be.
It's a diverse community, butit's a reflection of the culture
of what that brand is gonna be.
So having those things feel goodtoo.
Like they, they really do mattera lot.
And you can tell the difference,man, you sometimes everything on
(30:04):
paper looks good and you walk inthe door and go, Nope, I don't
think this is for me.
And that's honestly, that's agood thing to your point.
Right.
That's great to get to thatpoint better then than before
you signed the, 10 years of yourlife.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
My, you gotta figure it out nowand then you make progress and
hey.
I like, loved everything aboutthis business.
It's just the the clientacquisition piece is B2B I
prefer more of a B2C approach.
(30:24):
That's okay.
You, and now you know what tolook for.
Right.
Then you can go look for anotherbrand that's a better fit.
Oh, a thousand percent.
Yeah.
especially if it's a parentcompany or a company working
with multiple brands, they canhelp you say, Hey, well we can
pivot and look at the exact samemodel, but on a B2C approach or
an exact same model that.
Has a 10 99 labor, 10 99technicians versus W2.
(30:44):
These are just more preferences.
Not what's better, but maybethis, that's the preference.
A better style for you.
Yeah.
As we're coming toward, towardsthe end of the show what would
be a couple things.
The first would be what would beanything we didn't talk about
today?
Piece of advice for someonethat.
Just in general is looking toleave the corporate rat race
looking for something differentadvice you would give to them.
(31:06):
And before you answer that, thereason I ask this quite a bit is
because there was an interviewwith the president of the IFAA
couple months ago, beginning ofthe year, and he said that 75%
of individuals have expressedinterest at some point in their
lives of starting a business.
And 75% of those people nevermove forward.
(31:27):
Simply because they don't knowwhere to start, which I found
shocking, right.
With the, with the internet andAbsolutely.
Tech and ai.
You can just ask chat, GPTIguess where to start, but what
piece of advice would you giveto people that are on the
sideline?
Maybe they don't know where tostart, or they're debating like,
wow, leaving my job to, toinvest and hopefully make a
profit.
What advice would you give tothose people?
(31:49):
I would say two things.
The first one, not to toot yourhorn here, but I think for so
many people using a consultantis such a better way than trying
to dive in alone.
Like, we get lots of leads offof random Google searches for
like, hey, a franchise in.
Yogurt or, whatever it is.
But I think, but really it, itmakes sense for a lot of people,
especially if you are a firsttime franchise investor or
(32:10):
you've thought about owning yourown business, but you wanna
understand kind of the plusesand minuses of this model to
talk to someone, and especiallysomeone where you know, hey, if
you ultimately decide eitherthis isn't for me or it's not a
great fit, you're not gonna beout a huge amount of money or
anything, but it's just someonewho understands the space and
who knows how to ask the rightquestions to potentially go.
Hey, I actually think you mightbe a good fit for this.
Or, here's something you mightnot have looked at, but it's
(32:33):
really exciting and it'shappening right now.
So I do think that for a lot ofpeople, I won't say for
everyone, there are a lot ofdifferent ways to come to
franchise ownership, but forpeople who are toying with it
and are feeling a little bitoverwhelmed, I would say talking
to a consultant, a goodconsultant is a really good
place to start.
In terms of what's the piece ofadvice that I would give to
someone in what they're lookingfor?
(32:54):
I think, like I'm an operationsperson, so I'm, I come back so
much to, I.
The fundamentals, the businessfundamentals, and I think for
me, some of my best advice isdon't get caught up with the
fancy trimmings or the flash inthe pan, or news that a brand is
hot or selling a lot of units oroh, the territory might go fast.
Whatever that is.
Like, it really is about thefundamentals of the business and
(33:16):
trusting your gut, becausewhether or not you know,
franchising, you can understandsome basics.
Do you understand?
Not what they tell you, but doyou understand?
Why does this brand exist?
Like why do customers choose it?
Why is it differentiated?
Do you actually believe thatwhat they offer is better?
Or do you understand how theyget customers and how they make
money?
If you can't explain like,here's here are the main
expenses, here's actually how itmakes money.
(33:38):
This stuff sounds veryrudimentary, but I will tell you
like it's easy to get caught upin, especially things that are
kinda.
They're trendy.
There's a lot of news aboutthem, a lot of slick discovery
days where there's a fast movingfootwork that kind of covers up
the fact, and you go like, wait,that emperor had no close.
Like, if the ultimate customeracquisition strategy is question
(33:58):
mark, like open the doors andhope they come in.
That's not great.
So I think for me, so much of itcomes down to there are a lot of
people, a lot of resources thatare around kind of, right.
What should you be asking?
What's the right fit?
Making sure you get somethingthat's a good fit.
But so much of this is about thereal fundamentals.
Is it a business that makesmoney?
Do you believe that it'sdifferent, jaded and has the
(34:18):
power to stay differentiated for10 or 20 years?
It's a space that even if youdon't come to it naturally, you
don't feel like it's a blackbox.
Like, you feel like youunderstand it.
Those, to me are the very firststeps to make sure that this is
a good fit for you.
Love it.
No, that's awesome.
I really appreciate that.
Last question.
Fun fact.
(34:39):
There's some interesting stuffover here.
I wanna see what see if youremember what you put down.
Oh, man.
Oh boy.
Let's see.
I'll let I'll say it like I'llone So something with potatoes.
Oh, yes.
Oh, that's right.
All right.
So, potato related.
So I am, I grew up in ruralOregon, middle of nowhere.
I am Philadelphia now and havebeen on the, in the northeast
for 25 years.
But I grew up in rural Oregon.
(35:00):
And yes, fun fact is that I wasonce a.
Potato festival princess, so itinvolved a tiara and riding in a
parade on a float and like, wow.
I do the wave.
Like it's not really my vibethese days if you knew me now,
but you know, if 30 years agothere I was as a potato festival
princess, maybe we can add thatgraphic.
We'll ask the editors.
To that's funny.
(35:20):
I always, like, I get some funnystuff.
We've had some people related tocelebrities.
It was pretty cool.
And yeah, they're like, distantcousins and all this cool stuff.
But yeah, it's it's alwaysfunny.
I always like to.
Some people forget sometimeswhat they put down.
It's like, I'm glad you hintedbecause I would've given you
away like an extra one there.
Like, yeah.
So there's a lot of random ones.
Awesome.
No that's funny.
I enjoy that one.
So that's something we startedasking recently, I really
(35:42):
appreciate you coming on theshow.
This was a lot of fun and I likethese, they're very
conversational.
We, we keep it less structuredbecause we like to incorporate
just conversation, but just thestuff we're hearing it's the
stuff that people want to hearpeople.
Need a, certain questionsanswered or stuck in certain
places.
Not sure where to start.
So I'm hoping theseconversations inspire you to at
(36:02):
least move forward.
Even just.
Putting the not making a phonecall, but just starting the
search on your own.
And we try to give a blueprint.
We we launched and wrote a bookduring covid not playing.
They just kind of worked thatway.
Had a little time on your hands.
Yeah.
It was just, we were just like,okay, let's let's just run with
it, because no one was aroundanyway, so everyone was home
trying to figure out how to useZoom, But yeah, just things to
(36:24):
think about a self-assessment.
Like we talked about what areyour strengths?
What do you, what's an averageday in a life for you?
And keep it in mind, and Iforget to mention this, but your
average day in a life day one,and then maybe six months to a
year later, maybe differentsince you're very different
launching that business.
what does that look like?
What do you enjoy doing?
What are the things you don'tenjoy doing?
What are the industries you wantto avoid?
(36:46):
Just because you just don't likethe industry.
Maybe you just.
That industry is frowned uponfor whatever reason.
I'm not gonna name industries,but there are certain industries
that people just are notcomfortable with, just don't
wanna be in.
Absolutely.
And that's okay.
The more specific you get, youcan really kind of drill down.
But yeah.
Hope, hope you guys found this,educational, informative, drop
your comments dms, whatever,however you wanna communicate.
(37:08):
We're looking for feedback and,topics for future calls.
So if you have any any ideas orif there's a topic we haven't
maybe, done a deep diverecently, let us know and
that'll be the topic hopefullyin the next couple months.
So thanks again for yoursupport, Rebekah.
Thanks again and we'll we'lldefinitely talk soon.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
(37:28):
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.
it was a total 180 from theextremely kind of tightly
(00:04):
managed, tightly controlledpublic company world where I
was, it felt like the wild westwhen I got there.
And kind of been thrown into thedeep end, but met a lot of
really fantastic people and itcompletely changed the
trajectory of my career and mylife.
I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot
of executive types who come inand one of the things they say
right up front is they say, looklike you are gonna be doing work
(00:25):
that you thought you were like,too good for 20 years ago.
You have to be willing to getyour hands dirty.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:46):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatical, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom.
Exciting show for you today.
We had some technicaldifficulties, so my guest is,
help me we're recording on a newplatform, Fingers crossed
everything is working today.
We have Rebekah Horowitz fromthe Rep'M Group on the show.
Rebekah, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
(01:06):
I appreciate your patience.
We're gonna make things work,we've been trying to get you on
the show for a while.
I'm glad we were able to connectand looking forward to chatting.
But before we dive into the showtoday tell the audience typical
audience or listener, I shouldsay, is someone that is looking
to explore franchise ownership,leave the corporate grind.
So if you can give us a littlebit of background as to how you
got into franchising.
(01:27):
Absolutely.
I actually came a little fromthe corporate grind myself.
My entry into franchising wasprobably somewhere 12, 15 years
ago.
I was actually working atJohnson and Johnson right before
then.
A complete horse of a differentcolor.
But I ended up with some closefriends who were actually
working for a large franchisorin North Carolina driven brands
and.
Met the leadership team therewas really impressed as they had
(01:49):
some close relationships andended up really unexpectedly
kind of taking a flyer intofranchise operations.
And it was a total 180 from theextremely kind of tightly
managed, tightly controlledpublic company world where I
was, it felt like the wild westwhen I got there.
And kind of been thrown into thedeep end, but met a lot of
really fantastic people and itcompletely changed the
(02:10):
trajectory of my career and mylife.
And I have stayed in franchisingever since.
I love that you never know whatlife will throw at you, what
direction don't you go in.
I was just talking to my parentsthe other day.
My, my son's going to college.
He is got another year of highschool, and it's just like,
well, what is one looking tostudy?
What is he looking to study?
And then what they're gonna endup doing.
Sometimes they confirm.
Oh, right.
I mean, yeah.
(02:30):
Who among us, like has ouractual college major have
anything to do with what we dotoday?
Right.
It's gotta be a minority.
Yeah.
I was computer science that tookme two years to realize I am not
a, I'm not a computerprogrammer.
So, but you kept just enough tobe tech support.
That's good.
Yes.
Tech support, which we utilizetoday.
And when all else fails, restartthe program.
Restart your computer.
And that's as far as that'sright.
(02:51):
As far as I got, plug it backin.
Yeah.
And we've been on a lot of thosecalls.
So I guess talk to us becauseyou're in, in Rep'M group
there's different divisions, soI guess, we'll start there.
Who is Rep'M and then maybetalk, if you can touch on the
divisions of Rep'M and then thedivision that you focus in on.
Absolutely.
if you've heard of Rep'M, a lotof people, their first entry
into hearing about us is aboutthat we sell franchises.
(03:13):
Sometimes there's an expressioncalled an FSO, like a franchise
sales organization.
And we do actually have a partof the company that does that.
So for a lot of people, that'skind of what they've heard of,
but that is just one of fourpillars of what Rep'M is.
So we have four divisions.
So they're called Brando, buildthem, grow'em, and Scale'em.
So Brando essentially helpsemerging brands to create
(03:33):
marketing collateral andcommunication campaigns to drive
leads and to try to connect themwith the right franchise
candidates.
Build them works on real estateand construction.
So we work with franchisors.
And then with individualfranchisees to try to get
locations open on time and onbudget.
This is a major headache withinfranchising.
And one that, those of us whohave been at the company for a
(03:55):
while have been in franchising,really see this a lot, where you
have companies that selllicenses and then they have a
lot of trouble gettingcandidates actually open or
getting locations open.
So we have a whole division thatfocuses on that.
Grow is what we call sort of thefranchise sales division, where
we help to connect brands withpotential candidates who are the
right fit for not just kinda thefinancial profile, but also the
(04:16):
culture and the lifestyle goalsof the candidate.
And then I run what is calledthe scale division.
So we provide operationalconsulting some resource sharing
best practices to the brandsthat we work with.
So I'm typically not candidatefacing.
I don't really work withfranchisees very often.
I work directly with the brands.
And we work to try to make surethat they have all of the
(04:37):
operational tools and, theresources in place to really be
able to support their next phaseof growth and to support their
franchisees.
Especially if we're gonna add ona whole bunch of new
franchisees.
We wanna make sure the brandsare ready for that scale.
So that's actually the side thatI do is kind of that operational
consulting side, and that waswhat my background was
previously.
I was in operations prior.
(04:58):
I like that.
Yeah.
I mean it's it's one thing toobviously, franchise is awarded,
but it's like, okay, now there'sa whole process.
There may be some real estateinvolved.
It's the branding, it's themarketing, so, it's nice that
you kind of divvied up with thevarious divisions.
the beginning part of theconversation would be on the
franchisor side.
Where does a franchisor start?
So someone has an idea for afranchise, maybe they have their
(05:19):
business and they're thinkingabout the option of franchising.
Where do they start?
And then by the way.
The next part would be let'stalk about, okay, these are,
we're looking at people that arelooking to ex actually invest in
the existing franchise.
Sure.
But on the franchisor side,where do people start?
I have a great concept.
I'm thinking of franchising.
Can you talk us through highlevel of things people should
think about if they areinterested in that route.
(05:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I think most often we talk toa lot of potential kind of
either emerging franchisors whoeither have not franchised yet
and are just looking potentiallyto get into it or are right at
the beginning of their journeyas a brand.
And so there are certainly a lotof legal check marks and things
that you're gonna have to get.
That's not what we do.
You're gonna need an FDD, you'regonna need to kind of go through
some of those sort of legal andentity forming hoops and those
(06:05):
kind of things.
But I would say the bigger setof questions for me when I'm
talking to a new brand arereally about.
Why are they franchising and dothey understand what it is that
franchising is about?
Because it's not for everyone.
And I think if you don't comefrom that world, and I didn't
originally, you just don'tnecessarily understand like what
are the advantages anddisadvantages, what are the
differences between expandingthrough franchising and
(06:27):
expanding corporately and notjust if you have a successful
business and it's going well,you end up with a customer, a
brother-in-law, someone whosays, gosh, you should really
franchise this.
And kind of a lot of people cometo it with, honestly no more
than that.
I think the next phase really isto understand not just why does
a brand franchise and what arethose pluses and minuses, but
also think, do you have aconcept that is franchisable and
(06:50):
that is built for success inthis world?
Because not every industry iswell suited for franchising,
honestly, right?
Certainly not every individualconcept, like there are certain
factors around the uniteconomics that really need to
make sense in a franchiseconcept.
Gotta understand the potentialadvantages that franchising can
bring both to franchisees andfranchisors.
And see if your brand, I thinkis a good fit.
(07:10):
And then the hardest part andthe hardest part for people I
think to really look inward onis to understand whether what
they have is a great idea or asuccessful company, or whether
they have a real franchisablemodel and system.
Because there's such adifference between, Hey, my
company does well and we make aprofit every year.
And things have gone great.
We even have a few locations.
That's so different from havinga system that is built to scale
(07:33):
across the country by peoplewith no background in the
industry by, folks who havenever heard of that brand, who
are not your friends when theycome in to be customers.
Like, that's the kind of hardintrospection that frankly a lot
of brands don't necessarily do.
But that often is the dividingline for me between what's gonna
make a great franchise brand andmaybe one that is gonna
franchise, but they're not gonnago very far.
(07:54):
No, that makes a lot of sense.
And and those are the things tothink about.
It's not if franchising isbetter, is licensing better?
Is owning corporate storesbetter?
It's what are you trying toaccomplish?
This is not an overnight thing.
If you're looking to retire in afew years, will the franchise
model work?
Well, someone else is gonna haveto take over, but it's gonna
take time to really grow thatbrand and just because you have
(08:14):
a franchise doesn't mean thatpeople are gonna be necessarily
investing.
Absolutely.
one other piece that, I mean, Ithink so, I think you're exactly
right, right?
There is no one right answer.
It's not for everybody.
It's not for every brand.
But I think it's alsointeresting people really, you
have to think about, and thiswill extend to the candidates
too when we get there, but whatis it that you actually wanna be
doing all day?
Because I think the reality oflife, you talk to chefs who go
(08:35):
like, gosh, ever since I startedowning restaurants, I don't
spend my time cooking anymore,which is the thing I love.
I spend my time running akitchen and that means, managing
vendor costs or whatever.
And to some extent, I think thesame thing is true for folks who
get into franchising, which isto say like, your life looks
different and the kinds ofthings that take up your time
and your focus and hopefullyyour passion are maybe not the
same things that you have beendoing and the things that have
(08:56):
made you successful up untilthis point.
And so it's also anunderstanding of.
What are the sets of skills thatare required and the kind of
time and energy and focus thatit's gonna take to grow and
support a franchise brand?
And are those the same things Ibring to the table in my own
business?
And is that kind of what I wannabe doing with my time?
'cause I think, and for a lot ofpeople, like it's possible, but
it's maybe not a trade off thatthey ultimately wanna make.
(09:18):
And there's no problem withthat, but it really takes that
introspection to be ready forwhat's ahead.
No, I like that.
And yeah, you're right.
I mean, your role is gonna becompletely different.
You're, you now have a nationalfranchise assuming that's how
you're expanding.
And your role's different.
You're a coach, you're bringingon franchisees, you're.
Cleaning up systems, creatingsystems, and putting those in
place to work anywhere in thecountry.
(09:39):
So that's a very good point.
The other thing I advise peopleon, and I'm definitely not an
expert in this area, is thatsome people get really excited.
They have a, an idea that theywanna franchise and they go and
create an FDD.
A franchise disclosure documentfor anyone listening new
listeners, as we've we've talkedabout the document we had.
kit Higgs on the other day.
Houston Barnes.
Two franchise attorneys talkingabout the FDD.
(10:02):
Is that they were going tocreate that.
And I said, maybe it makesbetter sense to, to speak with
the company to see if it issomething franchisable maybe the
the model needs to be tweaked alittle bit before that agreement
is put in place.
So not saying that agreement isnot important, but maybe taking
a step back to, to talk toothers.
Like a Rep'M group to see, hey,is this even a franchisable
business?
And then going out and creatingthat document.
(10:24):
So would you agree there?
I think that's totally true.
I mean, the FDD is so critical,I think, and you had some of the
great players, like these arethe guys that, that certainly
wanna talk to.
So.
Your listeners are getting theadvantage of getting all the
good voices in the room.
But look, that document iscritical.
It's a huge piece of what we dois work with our brands to shape
their FDD.
But a thing that you wouldn'tknow coming in if, again, your
experiences with your company,it's with your industry, it's
(10:46):
your corner of the world, iswhat does the landscape actually
look like out there.
And I've talked to brands whomaybe they thought they were the
first person in the world toinvent, a company that does X
particular thing.
And then you find out, oh,actually.
There are 10 other brandsalready franchising that, or
you've only set up, what youknow, and you know the way that,
that your company has run, butmaybe the way that you structure
your vendors or what you'respending in a particular area is
(11:08):
actually not necessarily in linewith what the industry is doing
or what folks are gonna findelsewhere.
So I think you're totally rightlike that, that FTD is so
important and it's not cheap toproduce.
So it's worth really thinkingabout the model and
understanding, right, how is itdifferentiated?
How is it gonna play againstother brands that are in the
space and other opportunitiesthat potential franchisees are
(11:28):
gonna have.
Like, you wanna make sure thatyou're built to go out there on
the field before you go out andspend the time and the money to
create that.
For sure.
I like that.
No, that, that's yeah, I just Ihate to see people, spend money
when they're not ready,especially when they're.
Maybe have limited funds in thebeginning.
So I think that foundation isreally helpful.
So, cool.
Let's switch gears a little bit.
Since Mo most of the peoplelistening in are, corporate
(11:49):
execs looking to make the switchswitch over to hiring
themselves, owning a business.
So we're gonna bounce aroundwith some questions.
Obviously we talk about ourprocess all the time being very
thorough with due diligence, butI wanted to tackle some kind of
key areas.
What would you consider redflags for candidates looking to
invest in a franchise?
I think this is such a goodquestion.
So, and I would say assumingsomeone is kind of a little bit
(12:12):
down the road they've spent sometime thinking about the type of
brand that they are interestedin, what their financial kind of
profile is gonna be.
So they've got it narrowed downand they're starting to really
look at a brand.
I think a couple of things thatcome to mind, one of them is if
current locations or currentfranchisees.
Can't validate what the brand isselling.
So often you'll have folks whogo, absolutely, here's what we
(12:33):
do, here's what we sell.
Here's our marketing plan.
Like it all sounds fan,fantastic.
It's almost too good to be true.
And you go great.
Like, how are you doing this inyour current stores?
And they go, well.
No, but we're going to be, wehaven't done it so far, but this
is our 2.0 model, or, the futureis gonna be so much brighter
than the past, or, we don't haveany franchisees yet who are
doing this new system, workingwith this new vendor.
(12:54):
But we're planning on it.
And again, like there'sdefinitely a role for people who
are ready to be the Guinea pig,the first mover.
You'll know if you're thatperson and if you wanna be a
trailblazer.
But for other folks you, who areout there looking, one of the
most critical pieces is once youunderstand the model, how does
this business make money?
How do they get customers?
Can they validate that?
Can you look at their existinglocations, talk to their
(13:16):
existing franchisees if theyhave any, and see that what
they're selling you is somethingthat is already working.
And to me, for most franchiseinvestors, that piece is really
critical.
So that's one.
If all the promises are whatwill happen and not actually
what has been working, right?
One other red flag I would sayis, item two is the part of the
FDD that's right up front andit's gonna have information
(13:36):
about the senior leadership ofthe franchise team.
And to me, not everyone is gonnaback me on this, but to me one
red flag is if everyone on theleadership team is brand new and
is really new to that particularcompany and that particular
industry, and you see thisoften, for example, if you have
a brand that has recentlytransacted now that's great.
That's often a sign of success.
(13:56):
But if then everyone else whowas part of the original brand
goes away, and all the new folkswho are running the company have
all been there for, two months,eight months, and there's no one
who actually understands theculture.
What really made that businessspecial to begin with, the DNA
of the brand and the businessand the operations.
I.
That's gonna be a red flag.
And often that's when it doesn'tnecessarily mean you don't wanna
make that investment, but Iwould be asking a lot more
(14:19):
questions if I see that everyoneon that team is brand new,
especially if the brand itselfhas been around a while.
And then just one more, I wouldsay there is a section of the
FTD called item 20 and it'sgonna talk about how many units
that franchisee or thatfranchise brand has, how many
have been sold, how many havebeen transferred, how many have
opened and closed.
It gives you a lot of goodinformation.
(14:39):
You know where in the countrythey are.
So it's gonna tell you, has thisbrand been experiencing fast
growth?
Has it been experiencing fastshrinkage?
And one of the things that Iwould look for always in any
brand that I was looking toacquire is have there been a lot
of units recently that haveeither closed down, been
transferred, or resold orterminated?
Now again, it doesn'tnecessarily mean that there's
(15:01):
not a great story for it.
There are a lot of brands outthere that.
Realize at a certain point inhistory, hey, it's time to
really crack down and raise ourstandards.
But it's something you alwayswanna ask more questions about.
If you're seeing more than,let's say even 5% of the system
turning over on a regular basis,either transferring their units
or closing or terminating,reselling on an annual basis,
(15:21):
that's something that you'regonna wanna ask about.
So that's just one more placethat I'm always gonna look and I
would always tell your listenersto look before they're willing
to sign anything.
Yeah, you have full access.
The the FDD gets as we mentionedthe previous episode updated
every year.
So you'll have the up to dateinformation from the previous
year.
You'll have all the informationcurrent franchisees, previous
(15:41):
franchisees.
If there's a question there, ifthere's any, why couple
terminations, did these peopleclose down?
what were the reasons you havethe right as the franchisee or
the prospective franchisee toask those questions?
So I always say ask away.
Bring on if more comfortable, afranchise attorney will, which
will also specialize in thespace reviewing.
(16:01):
Is this normal language, I amnot an attorney by any means.
So, is this normal language?
Is this is this something thatcould be negotiated on occasion,
parts of the agreement?
Not necessarily.
Most of it, but on occasion,maybe there is a delayed opening
or some type of change in the inthe territory, whatever the case
may be.
So, definitely definitely ask.
You need to be comfortable withthat agreement.
(16:22):
you definitely do.
And so I think you bring up agood point too, which is to ask
someone who knows.
So if they're working with aconsultant, I think this is a
great way to use thatconsultant.
A lawyer is another good optionbecause again, if you are not an
experienced franchise investor,a lot of the elements of that
agreement.
Might seem like they're unusual,but it turns out actually
they're very standard.
They're every agreement andthey're no cause for concern.
But also you might findsomewhere someone who has an eye
(16:44):
out, it goes, oh, actuallythat's pretty unusual and I
would push back on that if Iwere you.
So I do think having theexpertise of, whether it's
someone like you or an attorneywho can look at it and who sees
a lot of these and understandswhat's more typical and what's
atypical can help you.
And it's good then tounderstand, right?
If the brand can't answer aquestion or doesn't answer a
question, you just have to makesure, are you okay with that?
(17:05):
Do you feel good?
Do you trust your gut?
And you feel like, yes, this isstill something that I wanna
move forward with?
Yeah.
ultimately, and I had thisconversation with someone
earlier today.
The decision is on you.
You need to do your own duediligence.
You can work with a consultantlike myself.
We can make suggestions.
You need to, visit thefranchisor.
You need to speak withfranchisees.
Which is actually a ne nexttopic here, but you need to do
(17:26):
your own due diligence, butultimately, it's, it, is there a
risk?
Absolutely.
Is it a business?
Yes.
There's upside there.
There could be downside.
You need to be informed and youneed to make that decision for
yourself.
No one can make that decision.
I.
You'll never have, I always saya hundred percent of the
information.
It's this leap you're gonna takein any new venture.
And I know when I took my firstleap 25 years ago 20 years in
(17:48):
franchising, 25 with a, goinginto another business it was not
easy.
So even with all the homeworkand I.
The due diligence, you stillyour nerves are still there.
And I always jokingly say, yourexcitement and anxiety feel the
same.
yes, they really do.
But hopefully, if you've chosenthe right thing, then from
there, it starts to get betteralong the way as you get closer
to opening and not, like you'retalking about some of those
brands where you invest andthen, oh man, it gets worse and
(18:11):
worse from there.
Right.
That's a bad sign.
You wanna, you do, you want thatexcitement to turn into, like,
oh man I'm nervous, I'm scared,but I'm so glad I did this.
Yes.
I agree.
And that brings us to, to thearea of validation, the
importance of talking withexisting franchisees, which, in
my opinion, just seems like,well, that's natural, right?
You're gonna look at afranchise, you're gonna speak
(18:31):
with franchisees.
But I've talked to people overthe years not necessarily people
I've worked with people thathave just said, well, the
experience was.
Was good.
It wasn't great.
And and I said, well, beforemaking that decision, did you
speak with franchisees?
And they said, no, I didn't knowyou were supposed to do that.
So, so it's things like thatwhere you assume, people are
knowing to speak withfranchisees.
(18:52):
So I actually have an entirestep in the process, says, okay,
great, you got all theinformation from the franchise
company.
So naturally let's talk topeople.
Let's talk to people that are.
running it semi absentee the wayyou wanna run it, or let's talk
to people running it full-timeand sometimes both.
So, what are good questions tobe bringing up on these calls
because this is a crucial step.
(19:13):
I see a lot of people missing.
I agree with you.
Our whole system is built onvalidation at Rev.
This is like, there is nocandidate who even makes it to
Discovery Day without stoppinginvalidation to talk to, if
possible, both the leadershipteam on the brand and existing
franchisees.
And so I think it's critical.
So I would say just inpreparation for those calls, one
thing to really, keep in mind isyou're not gonna talk to.
(19:35):
A hundred percent of people whohave been successful or a
hundred percent of people wholove it, that itself is not a
red flag necessarily.
There are lots of people who,for example, would tell you
themselves, Hey, I am not a goodfit for this brand.
Or you talk to them and you go,oh man, that person's not
following the system at all.
No wonder he is failing.
Like, so I think some of thatis.
You have to be as a potentialinvestor to someone coming in.
(19:56):
You have to know what to listenfor, and it's almost never going
to be across the board.
This is perfect.
Nothing's wrong with this.
Like everything about thissystem is sunshine and roses.
That's not what business islike.
That's not what franchising islike, but I do think you have to
come with an open mind tounderstand.
When you're hearing about eitherpeople who say, this isn't
working, it didn't work, or, I'mnot happy here, whatever.
(20:16):
You have to be willing tounderstand how that compares to
your situation and why that'shappening for them.
Just like if you do hear someonewho says, this is awesome and I
love it, you compare yourself tothat person too and go, man,
like, is this are they doing thesame thing that I would wanna
do?
Right.
So in terms of the actualquestions.
And, there are gonna be a lot ofdifferent kind of themes you can
take.
And some of them have to dowith, hey, how hard was it to
(20:38):
find your, staff that you neededto hire?
Or, what do you spend your daysdoing?
I think those things are reallyimportant and those, I think are
pretty typical.
You're gonna hear those a lot.
A lot of the financial questionsthat you can't necessarily ask
of the brand, they can't legallyanswer, but you can ask a
franchisee.
under the radar things that Ialways ask, and even when we're
doing diligence with a new brandto see if we wanna work with
(20:58):
them.
And I'm, talking to franchisees,I say, what surprised you?
What was different once you gotup and running than what you
expected, before you actuallysigned off.
I like that one.
Oh, it's huge and I always getsomething good out of it.
Like, sometimes you learn a hugeamount and sometimes it's kind
of a fun surprise.
But yeah.
What was different?
What was surprising?
What was harder than you thoughtit was going to be and what
(21:19):
actually works better than youthought it would?
One, to never, ever leave offyour list.
It seems obvious, but again,you'd be amazed how many people
don't ask is.
Would you do this again?
So sometimes you get people andthey say like, no, I'm not
making money, or Things haven'tgone well, but I love this brand
and the reason I'm not makingmoney is X, Y, and Z, and I
would totally do this again, andI know I could even do it
(21:41):
better.
On the other hand you'll findpeople who say they are making
money, but they would never dothis again, and it wasn't worth
it.
Like you're gonna get.
For the most part, the honesttruth out of people.
If you wanna hear it.
And I think, would you do thisagain?
And would you recommend tosomeone you like not your worst
enemy, right?
But would you recommend tosomeone you care about that they
do this?
I think those are reallyimportant.
(22:01):
The one other question I willsay, I could go on about this
for an hour, but the one otherthing that I think is really
important is to essentially ask.
Who is a good fit for this kindof business and who might not be
a good fit.
So perfect example here,especially'cause you have a lot
of executives, there are somebusinesses where you know, even
as the owner, even if you're notmanaging day to day, the role of
(22:22):
that business.
Now one that comes to my, itmight be a pet grooming business
or a hair salon or, I came fromthe car business, so it was
working in auto repair.
And, and you can have had ac-level job for 20 years before
this and have never had to workwith artistic professionals or
auto technicians, right?
And on the one hand you go, I'msmart, I understand this
business.
But you have to really be ableand willing to kind of work
(22:44):
inside the culture that you'rein.
And so sometimes that validationprocess is where you're gonna
find out.
Man, I had no idea.
Like, it turns out stylists areman, they are a type of their
own.
And if you don't like workingwith stylists, this is not the
business for you.
And you'd never know that inadvance, especially if you don't
come from that industry.
So there are some of those kindof things that you might not
think to ask necessarily.
(23:05):
And the brand is not necessarilygonna think to tell you'cause
the brand has been working withstylists forever.
But you know, it's kind of thatlike.
Who would be a good fit andmaybe who would not be a great
fit.
And I think the people who wentbefore you, who made a similar
decision and came from outsidethe industry, they're gonna be
the ones who have really goodinsight on like, oh, it turns
out if you don't love kids, thisbusiness isn't for you.
(23:26):
Right.
Or, like if you don't wannaspend all day on cold calls,
like this is not the businessfor you.
Yeah.
That role what is your role inthe business?
Yeah, that's a good point.
And.
I will say this, in franchisingfor a while, lots of, thousands,
four, 4,000 franchises I thinkare out there.
And I will say they are not allbuilt the same, but the sign of
a strong franchise and if theyare emerging, they are still
(23:48):
figuring things out.
Depending how many units theyhave or territories.
But you know, they have thatfranchise avatar, they know
that.
Okay.
To be a good franchisee, youneed to follow systems.
But to your point if it is an,you need to be an extrovert and
you need to be cold callingspecifically and you are the
complete opposite, well thatshould really be tackled in that
first or second call.
(24:08):
You should not be going into adiscovery kind of final decision
stage.
They should really kind of comeback and say unless you find a
person to handle sales thisprobably isn't gonna work.
So I think those are signs of a.
Of a more established franchiseor a franchise that really knows
who their avatar is, that knowswho they're after.
Yeah.
And because I think it, for alot of brands, it only takes one
(24:28):
or two folks who you think isgonna be a great fit, and then
they come in and it's like boiland water to realize this didn't
work.
One of the brands we work with,and I won't name names right
now, but.
I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot
of executive types who come inand one of the things they say
right up front is they say, looklike you are gonna be doing work
that you thought you were like,too good for 20 years ago.
You haven't been doing this kindof work in a long time.
(24:51):
Right.
But we are not interested in youif you're not willing to come in
and do some of that work rightup front.
Like we are not a hands offbusiness, so we're not gonna be
fully absentee.
That's not a thing.
You have to be willing to getyour hands dirty.
And that's scary and it'sembarrassing and it's these kind
of things that often likeexecutives are not ready for if
you are thinking like, gosh,I'll be able to come in and do
(25:11):
everything at arms length.
So I think you're dead on, likethe brand often knows the answer
to who they are looking for.
And it's worth pressing on that'cause I think there are.
Brands love to get qualified,awesome.
Smart people.
And so, there's a competition tosay, of course, like, we love a
semi-absentee model, or Yes.
You can definitely just be aninvestor, but it's really worth
(25:31):
pushing on that to understandand to know like, hey, what is
the actual thing I'll be doingday to day and is it something
that I can really get behind?
I couldn't agree more.
this is a five.
10 year when I sign 20 yearfranchise agreement.
So this is a long-termrelationship, so it's gonna be
really painful.
It's not gonna be enjoyable ifit's something that you're not
gonna en enjoy doing and thematch isn't there.
(25:52):
when people say to me sometimes,oh, I haven't made much
progress, this brand maybe isn'tthe best fit, I go, no, it is a
fit.
You're getting closer and closerto what that ideal.
A franchise model is, you don'treally necessarily need the
experience in the industry, butyou need this, the transferable
skillset.
So if you're going from WallStreet to, to cleaning I'm
trying to think of a, twobusinesses that could be so, so
(26:12):
different.
Yeah.
You may need managementexperience, you're gonna need
networking experience, going tomaybe property managers.
It's a commercial cleaningbusiness, that type of business.
So, you definitely wanna do kindof a self-assessment.
What are you good at?
Not in the industry, but what doyou get at in general?
Are you a people person?
Yeah.
What are your skills?
Yeah.
It's really that, it's reallythat simple.
And then you can start andscaling down.
(26:33):
Are you able to run the businessfull-time?
In that kind of role?
Is it just nights and weekendsoverseeing a manager?
That's gonna make a differencebecause not all brands allow to
run the business semi-absentee.
and some of them saysemi-absentee.
I will tell you this is like, Iwill drive this one home
forever.
But what they mean is, it can bepart-time, but it doesn't mean
that's the time you have.
(26:54):
And I think for your listenersespecially, this is critical.
Like if what you have is 20hours a week, but to your point,
it's all nights and weekends andyou're gonna keep a full-time
job that might not work with abrand that says, absolutely you
can do this in 10 or 20 hours aweek.
But it has to be the middle ofthe afternoon so you can be out,
like, networking in thecommunity like it is, the semi
ity doesn't mean the same thingto everyone.
And some of those like lifestyleand part-time, those don't
(27:16):
always mean the same thing.
And I think that's, that isreally good to know in advance.
Agreed.
Absolutely.
And no, no passive stuff.
I always say there's no there'sno such thing.
There's no, I said there's otherin investments you could make
that are definitely morepassive, stock market, real
estate.
Depending on, real estatesyndication I'll call it that.
But yeah, this is definitelyyou.
You're definitely gonna be handson.
(27:36):
There's definitely a lot of workto get the business launch.
1000% I tell people that all thetime.
Yeah, there's no such thing aspassive.
I almost would say there islike, there is hardly such a
thing as semi absentee.
I'm willing to say part-time,but.
If you want to own a business,you gotta actually wanna own
that business.
And I think that has come downto it, right?
The more arms length it is,typically the more red flags
that you're gonna get and theharder that's gonna be.
(27:57):
But I do think you're right whenit comes to the long-term
relationship and fit piece Ijust wanna come back to this,
is, I used to joke about how, itis, it's like a marriage and
just because a brand is a greatbrand does not mean it's a great
fit for you.
And there's lot of fish in thesea when it comes to brands, the
dating pool, all those things.
But like, you wanna be in aplace where not just you like
the brand and you know you likewhat they stand for and you're,
(28:19):
financially qualified, whateveryou think you can make money,
but where you like the peopleand you can envision yourself
being a part of the family and apart of the culture and being
willing to have a fight withthem or a hard conversation and
being able to then get overthat, like transparency,
accountability, like yourability to come in and connect
with other franchisees like.
Those things become important.
(28:40):
It is not just, hey, I thinkthis can make money.
There are a lot of businessesout there that can make money,
but if you don't actually likeit and it's not a good culture
fit you can sign yourself up fora very long 10 years.
And so I think that piece isreally critical.
That's where, some of thoseD-Day and validation and some of
those things come in as well asit's gotta feel like something
that you wanna be a part of.
Culturally 100% you definitelynailed that.
(29:00):
and you get a feel for that whenyou do the validation calls and.
You know the topics that they'regoing over and the full
transparency, because guesswhat, in a couple years or maybe
in a year, you buy thatfranchise, you're gonna be
asked.
To potentially do the exact samecalls and help out your fellow
future franchisees?
Oh, absolutely.
Neighboring franchisees.
Of course.
It's so funny to me, like wehave, we probably have 15
(29:21):
different brands that we do cutfull service work with right
now, and when you go to twodifferent discovery days.
It's wild how different thoseexperiences are, even though the
agenda is roughly the same andthe topics covered are the same,
but you can tell right away bythe time you get to D-Day, the
candidates look different.
The vibes are different.
Some of them, it's like a partythe whole time.
Others, it's a more buttoned upkind of a serious group and
(29:43):
everyone's sitting there andthey've got their, computers out
and they're taking notes andthey're in business outfit.
Like it really the culturaldifferences come to the
forefront so quickly and itreally is and should be.
It's a diverse community, butit's a reflection of the culture
of what that brand is gonna be.
So having those things feel goodtoo.
Like they, they really do mattera lot.
And you can tell the difference,man, you sometimes everything on
(30:04):
paper looks good and you walk inthe door and go, Nope, I don't
think this is for me.
And that's honestly, that's agood thing to your point.
Right.
That's great to get to thatpoint better then than before
you signed the, 10 years of yourlife.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
My, you gotta figure it out nowand then you make progress and
hey.
I like, loved everything aboutthis business.
It's just the the clientacquisition piece is B2B I
prefer more of a B2C approach.
(30:24):
That's okay.
You, and now you know what tolook for.
Right.
Then you can go look for anotherbrand that's a better fit.
Oh, a thousand percent.
Yeah.
especially if it's a parentcompany or a company working
with multiple brands, they canhelp you say, Hey, well we can
pivot and look at the exact samemodel, but on a B2C approach or
an exact same model that.
Has a 10 99 labor, 10 99technicians versus W2.
(30:44):
These are just more preferences.
Not what's better, but maybethis, that's the preference.
A better style for you.
Yeah.
As we're coming toward, towardsthe end of the show what would
be a couple things.
The first would be what would beanything we didn't talk about
today?
Piece of advice for someonethat.
Just in general is looking toleave the corporate rat race
looking for something differentadvice you would give to them.
(31:06):
And before you answer that, thereason I ask this quite a bit is
because there was an interviewwith the president of the IFAA
couple months ago, beginning ofthe year, and he said that 75%
of individuals have expressedinterest at some point in their
lives of starting a business.
And 75% of those people nevermove forward.
(31:27):
Simply because they don't knowwhere to start, which I found
shocking, right.
With the, with the internet andAbsolutely.
Tech and ai.
You can just ask chat, GPTIguess where to start, but what
piece of advice would you giveto people that are on the
sideline?
Maybe they don't know where tostart, or they're debating like,
wow, leaving my job to, toinvest and hopefully make a
profit.
What advice would you give tothose people?
(31:49):
I would say two things.
The first one, not to toot yourhorn here, but I think for so
many people using a consultantis such a better way than trying
to dive in alone.
Like, we get lots of leads offof random Google searches for
like, hey, a franchise in.
Yogurt or, whatever it is.
But I think, but really it, itmakes sense for a lot of people,
especially if you are a firsttime franchise investor or
(32:10):
you've thought about owning yourown business, but you wanna
understand kind of the plusesand minuses of this model to
talk to someone, and especiallysomeone where you know, hey, if
you ultimately decide eitherthis isn't for me or it's not a
great fit, you're not gonna beout a huge amount of money or
anything, but it's just someonewho understands the space and
who knows how to ask the rightquestions to potentially go.
Hey, I actually think you mightbe a good fit for this.
Or, here's something you mightnot have looked at, but it's
(32:33):
really exciting and it'shappening right now.
So I do think that for a lot ofpeople, I won't say for
everyone, there are a lot ofdifferent ways to come to
franchise ownership, but forpeople who are toying with it
and are feeling a little bitoverwhelmed, I would say talking
to a consultant, a goodconsultant is a really good
place to start.
In terms of what's the piece ofadvice that I would give to
someone in what they're lookingfor?
(32:54):
I think, like I'm an operationsperson, so I'm, I come back so
much to, I.
The fundamentals, the businessfundamentals, and I think for
me, some of my best advice isdon't get caught up with the
fancy trimmings or the flash inthe pan, or news that a brand is
hot or selling a lot of units oroh, the territory might go fast.
Whatever that is.
Like, it really is about thefundamentals of the business and
(33:16):
trusting your gut, becausewhether or not you know,
franchising, you can understandsome basics.
Do you understand?
Not what they tell you, but doyou understand?
Why does this brand exist?
Like why do customers choose it?
Why is it differentiated?
Do you actually believe thatwhat they offer is better?
Or do you understand how theyget customers and how they make
money?
If you can't explain like,here's here are the main
expenses, here's actually how itmakes money.
(33:38):
This stuff sounds veryrudimentary, but I will tell you
like it's easy to get caught upin, especially things that are
kinda.
They're trendy.
There's a lot of news aboutthem, a lot of slick discovery
days where there's a fast movingfootwork that kind of covers up
the fact, and you go like, wait,that emperor had no close.
Like, if the ultimate customeracquisition strategy is question
(33:58):
mark, like open the doors andhope they come in.
That's not great.
So I think for me, so much of itcomes down to there are a lot of
people, a lot of resources thatare around kind of, right.
What should you be asking?
What's the right fit?
Making sure you get somethingthat's a good fit.
But so much of this is about thereal fundamentals.
Is it a business that makesmoney?
Do you believe that it'sdifferent, jaded and has the
(34:18):
power to stay differentiated for10 or 20 years?
It's a space that even if youdon't come to it naturally, you
don't feel like it's a blackbox.
Like, you feel like youunderstand it.
Those, to me are the very firststeps to make sure that this is
a good fit for you.
Love it.
No, that's awesome.
I really appreciate that.
Last question.
Fun fact.
(34:39):
There's some interesting stuffover here.
I wanna see what see if youremember what you put down.
Oh, man.
Oh boy.
Let's see.
I'll let I'll say it like I'llone So something with potatoes.
Oh, yes.
Oh, that's right.
All right.
So, potato related.
So I am, I grew up in ruralOregon, middle of nowhere.
I am Philadelphia now and havebeen on the, in the northeast
for 25 years.
But I grew up in rural Oregon.
(35:00):
And yes, fun fact is that I wasonce a.
Potato festival princess, so itinvolved a tiara and riding in a
parade on a float and like, wow.
I do the wave.
Like it's not really my vibethese days if you knew me now,
but you know, if 30 years agothere I was as a potato festival
princess, maybe we can add thatgraphic.
We'll ask the editors.
To that's funny.
(35:20):
I always, like, I get some funnystuff.
We've had some people related tocelebrities.
It was pretty cool.
And yeah, they're like, distantcousins and all this cool stuff.
But yeah, it's it's alwaysfunny.
I always like to.
Some people forget sometimeswhat they put down.
It's like, I'm glad you hintedbecause I would've given you
away like an extra one there.
Like, yeah.
So there's a lot of random ones.
Awesome.
No that's funny.
I enjoy that one.
So that's something we startedasking recently, I really
(35:42):
appreciate you coming on theshow.
This was a lot of fun and I likethese, they're very
conversational.
We, we keep it less structuredbecause we like to incorporate
just conversation, but just thestuff we're hearing it's the
stuff that people want to hearpeople.
Need a, certain questionsanswered or stuck in certain
places.
Not sure where to start.
So I'm hoping theseconversations inspire you to at
(36:02):
least move forward.
Even just.
Putting the not making a phonecall, but just starting the
search on your own.
And we try to give a blueprint.
We we launched and wrote a bookduring covid not playing.
They just kind of worked thatway.
Had a little time on your hands.
Yeah.
It was just, we were just like,okay, let's let's just run with
it, because no one was aroundanyway, so everyone was home
trying to figure out how to useZoom, But yeah, just things to
(36:24):
think about a self-assessment.
Like we talked about what areyour strengths?
What do you, what's an averageday in a life for you?
And keep it in mind, and Iforget to mention this, but your
average day in a life day one,and then maybe six months to a
year later, maybe differentsince you're very different
launching that business.
what does that look like?
What do you enjoy doing?
What are the things you don'tenjoy doing?
What are the industries you wantto avoid?
(36:46):
Just because you just don't likethe industry.
Maybe you just.
That industry is frowned uponfor whatever reason.
I'm not gonna name industries,but there are certain industries
that people just are notcomfortable with, just don't
wanna be in.
Absolutely.
And that's okay.
The more specific you get, youcan really kind of drill down.
But yeah.
Hope, hope you guys found this,educational, informative, drop
your comments dms, whatever,however you wanna communicate.
(37:08):
We're looking for feedback and,topics for future calls.
So if you have any any ideas orif there's a topic we haven't
maybe, done a deep diverecently, let us know and
that'll be the topic hopefullyin the next couple months.
So thanks again for yoursupport, Rebekah.
Thanks again and we'll we'lldefinitely talk soon.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
(37:28):
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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