February 22, 2025 • 34 mins
Is fear holding you back from pursuing your franchise dreams? In this powerful episode of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, franchise expert Giuseppe Grammatico dives deep into the psychology of fear and how it impacts your decision-making process. Learn how to reframe fear, identify your "why," and take confident steps towards building the life you desire.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
At the end of the day, my adviceto you, if there's one takeaway
(00:03):
is get out of your head, figureout what you want and have a
strong enough.
Why, burn the boats, no plan Bbecause then that's an excuse
you're waiting for that plan B.
So for me, I left my job and Isaid, I'm never coming back.
the idea of fear is somethingthat we manifest.
It's something we create.
You have two people, samesituation.
One's fearful, one jumps inwithout any fear.
(00:24):
The owning a franchise is notfearful on starting is not
fearful.
It's what you make of it.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:46):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
Thanks for joining us today.
Why don't we switch gears alittle bit?
I thought you know what, whilewe're on on various topics, I've
been answering a lot ofquestions.
I wanted to record a quick showtalking about, my experience
(01:06):
buying a, my first franchise, myfirst business, as well as what
I observe.
From the candidates that we workwith on a daily basis.
So I hope you find this superhelpful.
I wish someone had explainedthis to me when I started my
journey over two decades ago.
And I don't think in this is, Ithink episode 229.
This will be our fifth year withthe show and something I don't
(01:30):
think we've really talked toomuch about.
I think it's been maybe asubject.
Or a topic that came up within,a kind of a bigger theme.
But that so that the topic fortoday is fear.
Addressing fear.
What is fear?
And whether that's good or badand specifically, how to get
through.
I did a quick search and lookedat, read a couple of blogs and a
(01:51):
couple of stories and Zig Ziglarhad a, and we're going to post
the link to the article.
Give him credit obviously forthis, but fear, the acronym F E
A R is either forget everythingand run.
Yep.
And run that, that, that's it.
Our face everything and rise,which I have never heard of.
(02:11):
That was actually.
Really interesting.
And at the bottom, he wrote, thechoice is yours.
Really you have the option.
Are you going to forgeteverything and run or face
everything and rise?
So that really struck a chordthat really hit home.
And I said, wow, that's, that,that is very interesting
because, everyone deals withfear differently.
Another acronym that I knowgoing back in the day that
(02:34):
people would share with me isfalse evidence appearing real.
Fear, the topic of fear comes upa lot because people don't, when
looking at a franchise,including myself be, completely
honest when I'm, when I waslooking at my first business
went well over two decades ago,actually 25 years ago, I had
launched a little automotivedetailing business on the side.
(02:55):
That was my first.
Kind of side hustle.
Actually going back even furtherselling selling candy.
I remember purchasing a 20 worthof candy at a nickel and I think
selling it for a quarter back ingrade school.
I forget the exact amounts, butI always had that.
That entrepreneurial spiritputting out a lot of my own
money, 20 bucks out as a, ingrade school, elementary school
(03:18):
was quite a bit of money.
But you know, the whole idea offear is interesting because
sometimes it manifests assomething else.
So it manifests into things likeI need to think about it.
It manifests into things like,well, I need to ask my partner,
my spouse, my, whoever'sinvolved going to be involved in
the business.
And it almost becomes similar toan excuse.
(03:42):
Not to say, by the way, youshouldn't involve your spouse,
your partner, anyone involved inthe business.
I talk about that in my bookthat's really important and they
should really be on any of yourinitial calls to really
understand the process of what'sgoing on.
But.
I've noticed people understandI'm scared.
I didn't say that I rememberworking with my franchise coach
(04:02):
and consultant back in no fiveOh six, it came to, just buying
time, you need to think a littlebit, not ready for a a call.
This is, can lose all my entireinvestment.
What about if it doesn't workout and things like that?
Fear for many people it's it'snegative, right?
It's about, okay, I'm sofearful.
What do I do?
(04:23):
It's this really strong emotion.
And then they kind of shut downand then do nothing about it.
Working with.
various coaches and individuals.
I learned that, actually perfectexample, John Allen Molenhauer
had him on the show.
We'll link that show as well.
I'm going to make a quick littlenote or I'm going to forget.
So part of what I do is I keep aword document open and I make
(04:46):
sure that our marketing companyand editors, they can insert
that as a quick reference.
You don't have to remember this,especially.
If you're coming back or you'redriving and you want to come
back and just click on the link.
So talked about, he specializesin, healing the body naturally.
Light therapies and things likethat.
But his big thing when we workedtogether was energy, just
(05:07):
because you're sleeping foreight hours a day, you could
still feel drained.
So what is depleting the energyand.
The idea of fear, number one,depletes your energy.
Constantly thinking of worstcase scenario, putting you in a
a negative spot.
When you're in a negative spot,you're tired, right?
You're looking at worst casescenarios.
But I think it was Jim Carreydid a speech years ago.
(05:30):
I forget the university that'llcome to me, but he talked about,
just this idea of, Obviouslyhaving that internal story, but
but also it projects our viewson things.
And, when you're in fear whenyou're lack of energy, you're
really down, you're kind oflooking out there and everything
is kind of negative and you kindof start to miss the
opportunities because you'reviewing everything in a negative
(05:53):
light.
Go.
So John Allen Mollenhauer thingswe work on is.
Different mindsets, differentways of looking at things making
certain decisions.
This was a big one for me maybenot during the week back in the
day this is actually I was stillat my W 2 when we had first
started working together.
So I had a five hour commute,worked for eight hours, ready to
(06:14):
start a family, just bought ahome, got just recently got
married.
I was exhausted.
Monday to Friday was not thetime to be making any decisions
or looking at anything.
It was really, I did a lot of myresearch initially, about
starting my own business was onthe weekends.
On the weekend I got to, insteadof get up, getting up at 5 30.
Or 5 a.
m.
(06:35):
to get to work.
I got up at eight or nine.
So the extra hours of sleep, Iwas in a different state, a
different mindset, just wasrested much more positive and
willing to look at things andnot depleted when the energy is
depleted.
Sometimes you just have to stopwhat you're doing, step away,
get some additional rest.
Working more hours doesn'tnecessarily equate to any
(06:56):
additional efficiencies oroutcomes.
A 15 minute task can drag on fortwo or three hours.
But so going back to this ideaof fear is that, this is
something that we make up in ourheads and say, okay I'm fearful
of this.
So in the case of owning abusiness, the fear is natural.
Yes, I can, there's a riskinvolved and I can lose my
(07:18):
business and I can lose myinvestment.
And naturally as humans, we'rewired to think of the worst,
right?
It's this this idea of being inprotection way back when as
humans evolved and always,trying to protect and go to
safety and people willprioritize safety over the flip
side and prosperity.
(07:39):
So they're like, you know what,the pain is too much there of
the loss.
It outweighs the gain or thesuccess.
So I'm not going to move forwardwith that business or any
business.
I'm going to keep my safe job.
And what I tell people is,again, in a rested state, when
your mind is clear and you'rekind of away from distraction is
really taking a step back andjotting things down, getting
(08:02):
things out of your head tofigure out what the true fear
is.
This individual I work with, andthis is the exact same.
Process that I used in figuringout if I wanted to own a
business was jotting thingsdown.
Like, okay, what is the worstcase scenario in a business?
Well, the investment was ahundred thousand.
I can lose that.
I can go out of business and mayhave to go back and find a job
(08:23):
afterwards if I had failed.
But then, that coach said to me,well, what about if you don't
fail?
What if you succeed?
The why and why you're doingthis was to spend time with your
family at that current job,you're not going to have any
time to spend with the kids andyour future family.
What happens if you succeed yourhome every day and not miss any
(08:44):
events.
Okay.
Maybe you're not making millionsof dollars, but you're making
the same, if not better money.
With some huge tax benefits asthe business increases, you can
get into other businesses, maybeeven scale back the hours even
more because now you have ageneral manager in place.
Now you start to build the timefreedom, the financial freedom
(09:06):
the freedom of purpose, doingsomething that can help other
individuals.
Maybe that's.
Helping someone, hiring them anddonating, we, we started
donating more, maybe you want tostart your own charity Dan
Sullivan talks about the freedomof working with people you enjoy
working with not being stuck ata job and working with 20
different managers physicalfreedom physical location.
(09:29):
Getting to work from home andavoiding a five hour times five,
25 hour commute.
Whereas now you're walking 10feet to the next bedroom because
you're working from home.
What is the best case scenariowhen they outlined it like that?
I said, okay, great.
These are my options.
I personally had so much pain.
I had a lot of fear.
(09:49):
Let's be honest.
But I also had a lot of pain andsaid, you know what?
I hated my job.
I dislike my job.
I shouldn't say hate.
I dislike my job and hated.
I will say hated on the commute.
The pain was there.
And the idea of not seeing.
My kids grow up.
My father we own the restaurant.
We, we hardly saw him.
We actually saw him as we gotolder more and more because we
(10:10):
ended up working at ourrestaurant.
So those are the things welooked at.
We looked at differentscenarios.
We wrote them down because oncethey're in your head, they start
to kind of spiral out ofcontrol.
Now it's fears turning into moreconfusion.
Fear has, it has its positiveeffects, right?
It wants to keep you safe.
Yeah.
Wants to make sure you're doingyour homework, but you know, you
got to do the homework not justsay worst case What about best
(10:33):
case what about if you'reaverage in a franchise you have
the franchise or built thesystem?
They took on a lot of the riskand obviously there was tons of
fear there But they took on therisk they figured out the brand
the model The best way to marketwho the who the ideal franchise
avatar is, what skillset do theyneed?
(10:53):
They've done all that for you.
And I'm not saying there's norisk involved with the
franchise, but they're doing alot of the heavy lifting for
you.
You pay the one time franchisefee and you have access to the
entire system day one.
And you're able, franchisecompanies will talk all the
time, corporate location, ittook us 10 years to hit a
million in revenue.
And, our job is to.
(11:15):
Get you to hit those revenuenumbers in a fraction of the
time.
Maybe it's a couple of years,maybe it's a year because we
took our time figuring out thebest ways of going about
business, where to getcustomers, how to, more
importantly, how to keep thosecustomers on and they're
figuring all that out.
So when you're running theseexercises and looking at
businesses, look at the worstcase and the best case.
(11:36):
Writing down on top your why atthe end of the day, businesses
have ups and downs and you wantthat.
Why to get you through the,especially those down periods
when maybe the import employeeleft a customer, our client
cancels and things like that.
I believe fear and excitement.
Are similar in how they make youfeel and even anxiety.
(11:56):
We'll throw that one in there,start to sweat, start to your
heart starts to beat muchfaster, your mind's kind of
racing.
And I remember signing my firstfranchise agreement.
Basically this is my it'sFebruary 5th.
So this is actually my I gotinto franchising February 5th of
20 of 2007, excuse me, 2007.
We're approaching was at 18years.
(12:18):
And we'll be at 20 very soonhere.
And then looking back at, 18years of owning businesses, just
because you bought the businessdoesn't mean fear goes away.
There there's also fear inrunning a business, what happens
if the new employee doesn't workout, what happens if the double
in marketing spend doesn't.
Increase my sales, my revenue,my profitability by so much.
(12:39):
So it's really figuring out,okay, let's gather all the
information.
And one interesting thing that Ijust heard, it was the president
of the IFA.
They did a webinar with Ibelieve the company was with a
partner with floor coveringsinternational.
He had said that two thirds ofindividuals that they've
interviewed had shown interestin owning a business of
(13:01):
Americans, two thirds.
That's 67%.
And then of that 67% two thirdsof that group, another 67
percent said the reason they didnot move forward with the
business is they didn't knowwhere to start.
I think that is part of it.
I think it's not knowing whereto start and the fear and having
a clear path is helpful.
(13:21):
But with that clear path, youneed to make sure to document,
you need to make sure toDocument and jot everything down
so you can compare the pros onthe left, the cons on the right.
What is your why up top?
What are the fears and concerns?
Jot them down.
If you're working with afranchise company, you may have
them address.
Well, worst case my, my businessdoesn't work.
(13:43):
Brand, the brand may come backand say, well, You can sell
your, you could sell yourbusiness.
Maybe it's a break even.
Maybe you lose a few bucks.
Maybe the all the equipment ispurchased back at the, from the,
by the franchise or at the costthat you paid offsetting some of
the risk, whatever the case maybe, you want to address those.
And so write the concerns downand ask them and no one can
(14:04):
guarantee your success.
Obviously, when you go into anytype of business.
I always say burn the boats, noplan B because then that's an
excuse you're waiting for thatplan B.
So for me, I left my job and Isaid, I'm never coming back.
I'm going to be unhirable.
No, you can never hire no onecan ever hire me again.
And that's 20 years ago.
And I kept to that commitment.
(14:26):
Because I was dedicated and Iknew there was going to be ups
and downs.
I had grit.
I knew that I was just going tomake the best of it.
I knew times were going to begood and times were going to be
met bad.
And sure enough, I candefinitely vouch for that.
We've had some interesting timesdealing with COVID dealing with
the markets collapse in 2008.
And some other stuff, variousselections and interest rates up
(14:48):
and down.
So it's we've experienced a lot,but, again, going back to the
fear, really addressing what theissues are and also with fear
and information gathering, youwant to make sure that you're
talking with people Not just allsuccessful business owners, but
you don't want to get into thetrap of talking with people that
will give you advice on notowning a business, which I
(15:09):
personally did.
And a majority of those peoplewere giving me kind of insights
from friends or family orsomeone they knew that.
Lost everything in a business orlost her investment yet.
The person I'm speaking withnever owned the business.
And I'm not saying you can'ttalk to people that had never
owned a franchise or a business,but be careful of who you ask.
(15:29):
Don't start talking to peopleand then you start getting,
we'll talk, let me talk to otherpeople that, that failed.
You want to hear some key themesexactly what caused them to
fail?
Was it.
Did they give up?
Was that a Frank?
Was that the franchisor's fault?
Was that a company that stoppedsupporting them?
Did they not follow the system?
If it was something nonfranchise, what exactly about,
(15:49):
what was the cause?
Was it just bad timing?
Was it an industry that, wasbeing taken over by AI or
technology?
So really diving deep to say,okay, that, that business
failed.
I lost a lot of money, but Ididn't move with the times.
I didn't, go to utilizing AI ordoing virtual meetings and
things like that.
(16:10):
I just decided to dig my feetinto the ground and not change.
You want to talk to variouspeople, but the concerns, I
found that the biggest thing forme was fear and anxiety and
jotting down my questions andconcerns and then checking them
off and saying, okay, I'm goingto ask.
My franchise consultant aboutthese three areas worst case
scenario.
If the business fails, how can Isell my business?
(16:33):
What other expenses areinvolved?
I want to Guarantee success andkeep the costs low How do I
increase my odds?
I decided to leave my job andrun the business full time.
I wanted full control of thebusiness.
I wanted to learn every aspectof the business before start
starting to hire.
Looking back, I did wait alittle bit too long there.
Didn't have to be an expert inall areas.
(16:54):
I definitely wanted to touch allareas, which I did and I don't
regret but could have made thedecision to bring on people
sooner and scale a little bitmore faster.
That would be kind of, lookingback and nothing is ever
perfect.
If you had a crystal ball, you'dmake some changes.
But again, going into fear,you'll notice that in different
situations, we created this hugething in our head of fear of.
(17:18):
There's examples of riding abike for the first time.
What do, what about if I fall?
What about if I hit my head orfor me, it was public speaking.
I was extremely fearful.
What was the worst case?
I'm at, I'm in college.
I remember talking with a groupof 15 people, half of them.
I don't think we're even payingattention.
What was the worst casescenario?
(17:39):
I screwed up.
I forgot the topic I was talkingabout, which happened.
I had index cards.
I picked up just where it wasleft off.
I wasn't giving a presidentialspeech or speech in front of
thousands of people.
It was just my professor and 15other students.
And once you start breakingthat, what the fear is and the
worst case scenario, like, youknow what, this isn't so bad.
You have two, two people, twodifferent people, same
(18:01):
situation.
One person dives in and theother person will never ride
that bike or ever speak inpublic.
And they may be a phenomenalspeaker because they let fear
take over.
So I think the writing thingsout is super helpful.
Doing it on the weekends, maybewhen you're a little bit more
rested, you don't have thephones ringing, you don't have
distractions and school andpickup and all that kind of
(18:23):
stuff going on.
And I think that's that to me issomething that is made up in our
minds.
If we want change, there's goingto be some discomfort, right?
We don't know kind of what toexpect.
There's the fear of the unknown,not knowing what the unknown is.
And when you map it up as muchas you can by asking the
questions, addressing theconcerns, speaking with fellow
(18:44):
franchisees, that's a benefit ofa franchise.
You're talking with people thatkind of went through it.
Maybe it's an emerging brand andthe first year of franchisees,
they said, yes, this is a greatbusiness model.
The franchise took a little bitlonger with the marketing as
they.
We're tweaking some things maybethey were figuring things out,
but that's all been ironed out.
So by the time you come onboard, we feel like that's all
(19:07):
been figured out and that won'tbe an issue going forward.
You can also address that withthe record, with the franchise
or, Hey, what have you done inthe past?
I've heard some issues with themarketing.
Are there going to be anychanges?
So addressing this stuff, nothiding behind excuses.
At the end of the day, I willtell you this with 100 percent
certainty.
A business is not for everyone.
(19:28):
A franchise business is not foreveryone.
It's up to you to really have afull understanding of the
business model.
Not be so fearful to say,finally, I just give up on this.
Well, maybe, maybe you shouldstay with your job.
Maybe it's a hybrid approach.
Someone said to me, well, myonly fear is the income I've run
the pro forma.
I've run the scenarios.
(19:49):
I've, I have all thatinformation.
The business just takes twice aslong to get up and running.
And I'll say, great.
If, at the end of the day, noone can create that proforma.
The franchisor's role is to giveyou some information, talk to
the franchisees, put togetheryour own proforma.
They'll kind of list out.
The potential expenses you canincur, but ultimately if that is
(20:10):
the one thing like narrowing itdown, you like the business, you
want to move forward, you wanttime freedom, you want financial
freedom, you love everythingabout it, but that, then you
say, well, what are other ways Ican run this business?
And in some cases it's keepingyour job the first year.
And hiring a key employee orgeneral manager to run the
business.
Nothing wrong with that, butwhen you do that, you have to
(20:31):
set the expectation.
Great.
No, no one's going to run thebusiness like you, you hire a
general manager, you're going tohave to stay close to them.
So it's not just set it andforget it.
And hopefully they they make thebusiness profitable in the very
beginning, you're going to haveto find the right person.
You're going to go to trainingtogether and you're going to
touch base.
It may be a daily call at thestart, then that changes to
weekly.
(20:51):
Maybe it's a dinner once once aweek whatever the case may be,
but at least once a week.
Check in call, what's going on,what are the wins what are the
losses, were there anycancellations, where are the
opportunities and that kind ofdeal and staying very close to
them, keeping in mind yourinvestment is going to, and your
monthly amount, your expenseswill be increased.
(21:13):
Because if you have a, I gavethis example on the last show, a
general manager, maybe they get,$50,000 or$60,000 to make an
even number of salary.
So in your initial franchiseinvestment, that's 5k a month
times three.
So with fees, payroll insurance,you're looking at an additional
$20,000 but just to keep itsimple,$6,000,$7,000 a month in
(21:33):
additional expense.
But you are keeping your fulltime salary.
So, keeping that in mind andhaving the, okay, I have the,
that one week period, that oneyear period.
So I know that today's February1st, 2025 by February 5th 2026.
Or February 4th will be the daybefore I'm going to quit my job.
Obviously give the appropriatenotice and dive in full time.
(21:57):
Whether that's, running it fulltime or not needing, maybe it's
only kind of part time, butthere are different ways of
addressing it.
But ultimately I think fear hasa lot to do with education,
getting informed of every aspectof the business, the worst case,
the best case, what is theaverage franchisee do?
Talking with the franchise, he'swriting out the concerns and
(22:17):
asking.
Some people are embarrassed thatthey asked a question.
I always say we, I worktogether, no silly questions,
no, no stupid questions, allgreat questions.
I had someone this person was Ibelieve just graduating college
and he had set up a call andthat individual said, well, I
heard on a podcast, I don't knowwhat podcast.
(22:38):
But when you buy a franchise,you can't lose money.
You can't lose your investment.
And I said, well, that'sabsolutely false.
There's always going to be arisk regardless of the brand,
regardless of the opportunity,there's ways to minimize risk.
With a franchise, if you'relaunching a business, sometimes,
as I mentioned, the franchisorcan help you sell that business
for a fee.
(22:59):
They may guarantee to buy backyour equipment, whatever the
case may be.
There's always going to be valuein the business, depending for
the right person.
If you're able to sell it.
Maybe you grow it for a year,don't like it, you can go to
sell.
You want to cover all thesedifferent scenarios, but again,
we can't predict the, what thefuture will bring.
So really keep everything inperspective.
If you really want a change,there's going to be some
(23:20):
discomfort.
We're going to call itdiscomfort.
We can call it fear.
We can call it anxiety and wecan call it excitement.
I was, I remember signing myfranchise agreement and I was I
was sweating and my heart wasbeating really quick.
I remember that day, like, itwas yesterday, that's 18 years
ago.
And yeah, that was excitementand it was a little bit of
anxiety.
(23:41):
I did all my homework.
I just wanted to get up andrunning.
And we went to training 30 dayslater, I think it was a 31st
day.
We went out on the first salesappointment with our coach,
landed our first salesappointment.
We closed our first deal and itwas a success.
What did it make us?
A ton of money?
Absolutely not.
It was a very small account, butit helped with alleviate some of
(24:03):
that fear and that unknown andcreated some momentum.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, my adviceto you, if there's one takeaway
is get out of your head, figureout what you want and have a
strong enough.
Why, if you just want to make afew extra bucks and and there's
various side hustles, that'sgreat.
But if you really want change,you want to grow something,
build an enterprise, build abusiness, figure out why you
(24:27):
want to do it, figure out whatthe ideal business looks like.
Let's look at the worst casescenario.
Best case scenarios, kind of inbetween.
Talk to your fellow franchiseesand business owners, both in and
outside of your area and puttogether, that, that put
everything together, involveyour partner, spouse, anyone
(24:48):
else involved in the business,make sure they're on calls.
You may be missing something.
We talked about in the previousepisode, someone was looking at
a resale franchise owner wasnetting$200,000 taking$200,000 a
year.
They were going to buy thatbusiness for three X.
So$600,000.
And right off the bat, they weregoing to take home$200,000.
And I said, well, one thingyou're missing is that owner did
(25:11):
not have any debt.
They've had that business over adecade.
What are you netting?
You're not netting$200,000.
And this is everything sayingconsistent, all the customers
stay on.
There's no change.
Everything stays exactly thesame, but who is servicing your
debt.
And if that debt service to debtis a$100,000 a year you're only
walking away with a$100,000 nowyou're growing and there's,
enterprise value that there'svalue that you're building
(25:33):
within the business and taxbenefits, I'm not, that's a
whole nother conversation, but.
That person is not taking home ahundred 200 K they've taken home
a$100,000 because they have toservice their debt.
And then obviously with avariable SBA loan, you want to
factor in, okay, how much isthat if rates are going down,
how much does that affect me?
Best thing I'm actually, and aswe're talking, I jotted the note
down to reference a show.
(25:54):
Get a word document, actually aGoogle doc, I think is best.
That way, if you are working andexploring franchises and you and
your spouse are going to do thistogether, jot it down.
It's live.
You can tell who edited thedocument.
Writing all your fears, yourspouse can add additional fears
or say, these are some questionsI think that, at the end of the
(26:15):
day will help alleviate as muchof that as possible.
And starting with why, and thenall the questions you have, and
maybe it's not concerns orfears, but they're questions,
jot them down, that, thatinformation will ease a lot of
this.
Some people say, well, I'mlooking at this franchise, but I
don't know if it's a good fit.
And I'll say, well, why do youfeel that way?
Well, I don't have enoughinformation.
(26:36):
I don't know how much money Ican truly make.
And I said, well, at the end ofthe day, this is a business.
They can give you somehistorical information and
that's usually an item 19.
It's a financial representation.
But ultimately you're right.
You don't have that informationbecause you've only had one call
with the franchise company.
Their second and third callsdive into financials.
(26:56):
Your fourth and fifth calls willbe speaking directly with
franchise owners and asking themdirectly.
So absolutely, information iswhere the fear is coming up and
making you uncertain anduncomfortable.
You want to get that informationand a proper timeline or a usual
timeline, I should say is justdo a quick little, two way
interview and intro call.
Second call, go into financials.
(27:18):
Maybe you'll get the franchisedocument, go into territories
and pro formas and things likethat.
And by fourth, fifth call, nowyou're talking with franchisees.
You got the data in thefranchise disclosure document.
Now you have the franchiseesthat you can speak with, learn
about the rookies and what theircosts are.
And the guys that have beendoing it for a while, what are
the fixed costs, what are thevariables and really get
(27:39):
educated.
So yes, having one call with thefranchise, is that going to
answer all your questions?
No.
It's going to take a handful ofcalls to really learn the
business factor in a brand thatis a good fit and assuming
you're doing this the right way.
And talking to brands where youcreate that model.
So again to alleviate the fear,this is the model.
(28:00):
I want something that has lowoverhead.
Great.
No brick and mortar locationbecause I don't want to deal
with a landlord and leases.
Great.
Okay.
Well, that's in the model,right?
I want something that has veryfew employees.
We'll jot that down.
The investment all in.
On a single territory is goingto be, I want it to be under
$200,000 where I can get a loanand for put down as little as
(28:23):
possible.
Great.
Now, when you're puttingtogether that, that model,
that's also going to alleviatealleviate the the the fears and
the concerns, because now you'resaying.
I want something, that, thathits checks off, not some, but
all of these boxes, I don't wantbrick and mortar.
Okay, great.
I can get up, I can get up andrunning much faster.
Don't have to worry about alandlord or the building being
(28:44):
sold.
And I have to relocate.
I can start off with myself asthe only employee in the
business or one employee keepingthe costs low.
I don't know how to domarketing.
I want the company to do that.
Great.
We look at brands that willhandle marketing and even most
cases provide a call center toall franchises provide that.
Absolutely not.
Do many yes.
And we can look at, one again,checking off all the boxes, not
(29:07):
just turnkey marketing and not acall center, but they're going
to have both.
So we'll look at that.
We'll look at brands What elseis out there?
We looked at the differentroles.
We looked at the investment.
So essentially once you haveeverything checked, Oh, it may
be something, another thing thatworks regular business hours.
I don't want to be called oncall nights and weekends, even
though that may be a keyemployee maybe that key employee
(29:29):
leaves and you're in that role,maybe you have to make an
overnight call or meeting oncein a blue moon.
But if you want to avoid that,just a business that maybe works
with schools within regularschool hours when the schools
closed.
There's no need for yourservice.
And that works in line directlywith your kid's school.
Public school, things like that.
We put the jot those on and onlylook for brands that again,
(29:51):
check off not eight of the 10boxes, but all 10 boxes.
So now you're dictating whatthis business looks like.
No nights and weekends, smallerinvestment service.
I can get up and running in 90days or less.
Now we're working off a modeland saying, okay this universe
of 4, 000 franchises and 75 plusindustries.
Now I'm going to shrink thatdown to maybe three brands that
(30:13):
check off all the boxes.
And Hey, guess what?
Just because they check off theboxes I'm left with just say 20.
Only three of those areavailable in my territory.
That's the other thing, right?
So we want to make sure we lookfor brands that check off all
the boxes, but also areavailable in your market.
Maybe there's a resale in yourmarket that, that increases the
number of brands and it goesfrom three to five, we can help
(30:35):
you in both cases.
So when you start dictating,okay, this is exactly what my
business looks like.
Okay.
Now we have something.
So all my fears of workingnights and weekends.
Don't have to worry about it.
No landlord.
Don't have to worry about it.
200 is the most I want toinvest, maybe putting 20 or 30
percent down in an SBA.
That's within my comfort zone.
I have plenty of money to fund amillion dollar brick and mortar
(30:58):
project.
I am not there yet.
I want to start off a little bitsmaller investment.
Great.
Once we whittle it down, nowthat we have that ideal
business, now we're working offyour criteria, your ideal
business, and.
Maybe, it changes for whateverreason, a partner gets involved.
Maybe a spouse that wasn'twilling to leave their job is
now interested in joining thebusiness.
(31:19):
So we changed it up, we put iton a Google doc and that's
something we can change up.
So I think these are, I didn'thave a real, like I normally do.
These are five things to avoidin a franchise or five things to
look for.
I wanted just to have thisconversation around fear
because, very few people in thethousands of people we've helped
and not everyone.
Has purchased franchises.
(31:40):
Many of them just, it wasinitial education timing wasn't
right, but of all the people, noone, very few people, I
shouldn't say no.
And very few have come backsaying, I'm fearful.
I'm scared.
They're coming back with aghosting, not returning email or
calls because they're, they justcan't get out of their heads.
They don't realize just like afranchise is a process.
There's a process of finding abusiness, right?
(32:00):
And if we had the opportunity tohave a second call and outline
exactly what their business is,eliminating 90 percent of their
fears that it just makes theprocess so much more enjoyable.
Not saying fear never creeps up,makes it much more enjoyable and
you're willing to go through thethe process.
And again, this is, the idea offear is something that we
manifest.
(32:21):
It's something we create.
You have two people, samesituation.
One's fearful, one jumps inwithout any fear.
The owning a franchise is notfearful on starting is not
fearful.
It's what you make of it.
But ultimately what that canturn into, can a job ever create
time and financial freedom?
Well, it may give you somefinancials, but i'm always, I
got to show up, nine to fiveevery single day.
(32:42):
I need to be in the office.
I only get two weeks vacation,whereas a business may have you
working a lot more hours to getstarted, but will it, can it
create that financial freedom?
Yeah, I can sell my business.
We gave the example of threemultiple, it could be a lot
more, it could be less.
Three to five is, is where wesee a lot of businesses.
But that number really dependson the buyer and the situation
(33:03):
and the time freedom.
I've never missed a kid kids'events, girl scouts dance or
soccer.
Those are the things, that's thetime freedom that if you have to
report to an office and only gettwo weeks vacation, you don't
have that location freedom.
You don't have that timefreedom.
Look for the things that youreally want to create.
The people that just thatuncertainty is there.
(33:24):
And, I always tell peoplethere's the hybrid approach,
start the business, keep thejob, hire a key employee with
the goal I'd say in 12 months,six months, whatever the case
may be.
Put it on the calendar.
You're going to be involved.
You're going to leave that joband you're going to be involved
full time.
I know I've been rambling there.
I'm going to put the link, theZig Ziglar I'll link a show a
(33:45):
jam was we call him John AllenMullenhauer.
We talk about energy depletion,recharging the batteries.
Just some great suggestions.
You can check them out as faras.
Just getting your energy levelthere, exercise, sleep.
He specialized in that area.
Really great episode.
We try to incorporate somewellness and some value at
outside of a franchise andbusiness.
(34:06):
So anyone that's listening canbenefit from there and love to
hear your feedback agreed,disagree.
I'm open to it.
I know this is a sensitivetopic, but love to hear your
comments and I'll see you guyson the other side.
If you're ready to chat, GG, thefranchise guide.
The website, hit contact,schedule a call, love to, or
just leave me a comment onwhatever platform you're seeing
(34:27):
the show and I'll talk to youguys soon.
See ya.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
At the end of the day, my adviceto you, if there's one takeaway
(00:03):
is get out of your head, figureout what you want and have a
strong enough.
Why, burn the boats, no plan Bbecause then that's an excuse
you're waiting for that plan B.
So for me, I left my job and Isaid, I'm never coming back.
the idea of fear is somethingthat we manifest.
It's something we create.
You have two people, samesituation.
One's fearful, one jumps inwithout any fear.
(00:24):
The owning a franchise is notfearful on starting is not
fearful.
It's what you make of it.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:46):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
Thanks for joining us today.
Why don't we switch gears alittle bit?
I thought you know what, whilewe're on on various topics, I've
been answering a lot ofquestions.
I wanted to record a quick showtalking about, my experience
(01:06):
buying a, my first franchise, myfirst business, as well as what
I observe.
From the candidates that we workwith on a daily basis.
So I hope you find this superhelpful.
I wish someone had explainedthis to me when I started my
journey over two decades ago.
And I don't think in this is, Ithink episode 229.
This will be our fifth year withthe show and something I don't
(01:30):
think we've really talked toomuch about.
I think it's been maybe asubject.
Or a topic that came up within,a kind of a bigger theme.
But that so that the topic fortoday is fear.
Addressing fear.
What is fear?
And whether that's good or badand specifically, how to get
through.
I did a quick search and lookedat, read a couple of blogs and a
(01:51):
couple of stories and Zig Ziglarhad a, and we're going to post
the link to the article.
Give him credit obviously forthis, but fear, the acronym F E
A R is either forget everythingand run.
Yep.
And run that, that, that's it.
Our face everything and rise,which I have never heard of.
(02:11):
That was actually.
Really interesting.
And at the bottom, he wrote, thechoice is yours.
Really you have the option.
Are you going to forgeteverything and run or face
everything and rise?
So that really struck a chordthat really hit home.
And I said, wow, that's, that,that is very interesting
because, everyone deals withfear differently.
Another acronym that I knowgoing back in the day that
(02:34):
people would share with me isfalse evidence appearing real.
Fear, the topic of fear comes upa lot because people don't, when
looking at a franchise,including myself be, completely
honest when I'm, when I waslooking at my first business
went well over two decades ago,actually 25 years ago, I had
launched a little automotivedetailing business on the side.
(02:55):
That was my first.
Kind of side hustle.
Actually going back even furtherselling selling candy.
I remember purchasing a 20 worthof candy at a nickel and I think
selling it for a quarter back ingrade school.
I forget the exact amounts, butI always had that.
That entrepreneurial spiritputting out a lot of my own
money, 20 bucks out as a, ingrade school, elementary school
(03:18):
was quite a bit of money.
But you know, the whole idea offear is interesting because
sometimes it manifests assomething else.
So it manifests into things likeI need to think about it.
It manifests into things like,well, I need to ask my partner,
my spouse, my, whoever'sinvolved going to be involved in
the business.
And it almost becomes similar toan excuse.
(03:42):
Not to say, by the way, youshouldn't involve your spouse,
your partner, anyone involved inthe business.
I talk about that in my bookthat's really important and they
should really be on any of yourinitial calls to really
understand the process of what'sgoing on.
But.
I've noticed people understandI'm scared.
I didn't say that I rememberworking with my franchise coach
(04:02):
and consultant back in no fiveOh six, it came to, just buying
time, you need to think a littlebit, not ready for a a call.
This is, can lose all my entireinvestment.
What about if it doesn't workout and things like that?
Fear for many people it's it'snegative, right?
It's about, okay, I'm sofearful.
What do I do?
(04:23):
It's this really strong emotion.
And then they kind of shut downand then do nothing about it.
Working with.
various coaches and individuals.
I learned that, actually perfectexample, John Allen Molenhauer
had him on the show.
We'll link that show as well.
I'm going to make a quick littlenote or I'm going to forget.
So part of what I do is I keep aword document open and I make
(04:46):
sure that our marketing companyand editors, they can insert
that as a quick reference.
You don't have to remember this,especially.
If you're coming back or you'redriving and you want to come
back and just click on the link.
So talked about, he specializesin, healing the body naturally.
Light therapies and things likethat.
But his big thing when we workedtogether was energy, just
(05:07):
because you're sleeping foreight hours a day, you could
still feel drained.
So what is depleting the energyand.
The idea of fear, number one,depletes your energy.
Constantly thinking of worstcase scenario, putting you in a
a negative spot.
When you're in a negative spot,you're tired, right?
You're looking at worst casescenarios.
But I think it was Jim Carreydid a speech years ago.
(05:30):
I forget the university that'llcome to me, but he talked about,
just this idea of, Obviouslyhaving that internal story, but
but also it projects our viewson things.
And, when you're in fear whenyou're lack of energy, you're
really down, you're kind oflooking out there and everything
is kind of negative and you kindof start to miss the
opportunities because you'reviewing everything in a negative
(05:53):
light.
Go.
So John Allen Mollenhauer thingswe work on is.
Different mindsets, differentways of looking at things making
certain decisions.
This was a big one for me maybenot during the week back in the
day this is actually I was stillat my W 2 when we had first
started working together.
So I had a five hour commute,worked for eight hours, ready to
(06:14):
start a family, just bought ahome, got just recently got
married.
I was exhausted.
Monday to Friday was not thetime to be making any decisions
or looking at anything.
It was really, I did a lot of myresearch initially, about
starting my own business was onthe weekends.
On the weekend I got to, insteadof get up, getting up at 5 30.
Or 5 a.
m.
(06:35):
to get to work.
I got up at eight or nine.
So the extra hours of sleep, Iwas in a different state, a
different mindset, just wasrested much more positive and
willing to look at things andnot depleted when the energy is
depleted.
Sometimes you just have to stopwhat you're doing, step away,
get some additional rest.
Working more hours doesn'tnecessarily equate to any
(06:56):
additional efficiencies oroutcomes.
A 15 minute task can drag on fortwo or three hours.
But so going back to this ideaof fear is that, this is
something that we make up in ourheads and say, okay I'm fearful
of this.
So in the case of owning abusiness, the fear is natural.
Yes, I can, there's a riskinvolved and I can lose my
(07:18):
business and I can lose myinvestment.
And naturally as humans, we'rewired to think of the worst,
right?
It's this this idea of being inprotection way back when as
humans evolved and always,trying to protect and go to
safety and people willprioritize safety over the flip
side and prosperity.
(07:39):
So they're like, you know what,the pain is too much there of
the loss.
It outweighs the gain or thesuccess.
So I'm not going to move forwardwith that business or any
business.
I'm going to keep my safe job.
And what I tell people is,again, in a rested state, when
your mind is clear and you'rekind of away from distraction is
really taking a step back andjotting things down, getting
(08:02):
things out of your head tofigure out what the true fear
is.
This individual I work with, andthis is the exact same.
Process that I used in figuringout if I wanted to own a
business was jotting thingsdown.
Like, okay, what is the worstcase scenario in a business?
Well, the investment was ahundred thousand.
I can lose that.
I can go out of business and mayhave to go back and find a job
(08:23):
afterwards if I had failed.
But then, that coach said to me,well, what about if you don't
fail?
What if you succeed?
The why and why you're doingthis was to spend time with your
family at that current job,you're not going to have any
time to spend with the kids andyour future family.
What happens if you succeed yourhome every day and not miss any
(08:44):
events.
Okay.
Maybe you're not making millionsof dollars, but you're making
the same, if not better money.
With some huge tax benefits asthe business increases, you can
get into other businesses, maybeeven scale back the hours even
more because now you have ageneral manager in place.
Now you start to build the timefreedom, the financial freedom
(09:06):
the freedom of purpose, doingsomething that can help other
individuals.
Maybe that's.
Helping someone, hiring them anddonating, we, we started
donating more, maybe you want tostart your own charity Dan
Sullivan talks about the freedomof working with people you enjoy
working with not being stuck ata job and working with 20
different managers physicalfreedom physical location.
(09:29):
Getting to work from home andavoiding a five hour times five,
25 hour commute.
Whereas now you're walking 10feet to the next bedroom because
you're working from home.
What is the best case scenariowhen they outlined it like that?
I said, okay, great.
These are my options.
I personally had so much pain.
I had a lot of fear.
(09:49):
Let's be honest.
But I also had a lot of pain andsaid, you know what?
I hated my job.
I dislike my job.
I shouldn't say hate.
I dislike my job and hated.
I will say hated on the commute.
The pain was there.
And the idea of not seeing.
My kids grow up.
My father we own the restaurant.
We, we hardly saw him.
We actually saw him as we gotolder more and more because we
(10:10):
ended up working at ourrestaurant.
So those are the things welooked at.
We looked at differentscenarios.
We wrote them down because oncethey're in your head, they start
to kind of spiral out ofcontrol.
Now it's fears turning into moreconfusion.
Fear has, it has its positiveeffects, right?
It wants to keep you safe.
Yeah.
Wants to make sure you're doingyour homework, but you know, you
got to do the homework not justsay worst case What about best
(10:33):
case what about if you'reaverage in a franchise you have
the franchise or built thesystem?
They took on a lot of the riskand obviously there was tons of
fear there But they took on therisk they figured out the brand
the model The best way to marketwho the who the ideal franchise
avatar is, what skillset do theyneed?
(10:53):
They've done all that for you.
And I'm not saying there's norisk involved with the
franchise, but they're doing alot of the heavy lifting for
you.
You pay the one time franchisefee and you have access to the
entire system day one.
And you're able, franchisecompanies will talk all the
time, corporate location, ittook us 10 years to hit a
million in revenue.
And, our job is to.
(11:15):
Get you to hit those revenuenumbers in a fraction of the
time.
Maybe it's a couple of years,maybe it's a year because we
took our time figuring out thebest ways of going about
business, where to getcustomers, how to, more
importantly, how to keep thosecustomers on and they're
figuring all that out.
So when you're running theseexercises and looking at
businesses, look at the worstcase and the best case.
(11:36):
Writing down on top your why atthe end of the day, businesses
have ups and downs and you wantthat.
Why to get you through the,especially those down periods
when maybe the import employeeleft a customer, our client
cancels and things like that.
I believe fear and excitement.
Are similar in how they make youfeel and even anxiety.
(11:56):
We'll throw that one in there,start to sweat, start to your
heart starts to beat muchfaster, your mind's kind of
racing.
And I remember signing my firstfranchise agreement.
Basically this is my it'sFebruary 5th.
So this is actually my I gotinto franchising February 5th of
20 of 2007, excuse me, 2007.
We're approaching was at 18years.
(12:18):
And we'll be at 20 very soonhere.
And then looking back at, 18years of owning businesses, just
because you bought the businessdoesn't mean fear goes away.
There there's also fear inrunning a business, what happens
if the new employee doesn't workout, what happens if the double
in marketing spend doesn't.
Increase my sales, my revenue,my profitability by so much.
(12:39):
So it's really figuring out,okay, let's gather all the
information.
And one interesting thing that Ijust heard, it was the president
of the IFA.
They did a webinar with Ibelieve the company was with a
partner with floor coveringsinternational.
He had said that two thirds ofindividuals that they've
interviewed had shown interestin owning a business of
(13:01):
Americans, two thirds.
That's 67%.
And then of that 67% two thirdsof that group, another 67
percent said the reason they didnot move forward with the
business is they didn't knowwhere to start.
I think that is part of it.
I think it's not knowing whereto start and the fear and having
a clear path is helpful.
(13:21):
But with that clear path, youneed to make sure to document,
you need to make sure toDocument and jot everything down
so you can compare the pros onthe left, the cons on the right.
What is your why up top?
What are the fears and concerns?
Jot them down.
If you're working with afranchise company, you may have
them address.
Well, worst case my, my businessdoesn't work.
(13:43):
Brand, the brand may come backand say, well, You can sell
your, you could sell yourbusiness.
Maybe it's a break even.
Maybe you lose a few bucks.
Maybe the all the equipment ispurchased back at the, from the,
by the franchise or at the costthat you paid offsetting some of
the risk, whatever the case maybe, you want to address those.
And so write the concerns downand ask them and no one can
(14:04):
guarantee your success.
Obviously, when you go into anytype of business.
I always say burn the boats, noplan B because then that's an
excuse you're waiting for thatplan B.
So for me, I left my job and Isaid, I'm never coming back.
I'm going to be unhirable.
No, you can never hire no onecan ever hire me again.
And that's 20 years ago.
And I kept to that commitment.
(14:26):
Because I was dedicated and Iknew there was going to be ups
and downs.
I had grit.
I knew that I was just going tomake the best of it.
I knew times were going to begood and times were going to be
met bad.
And sure enough, I candefinitely vouch for that.
We've had some interesting timesdealing with COVID dealing with
the markets collapse in 2008.
And some other stuff, variousselections and interest rates up
(14:48):
and down.
So it's we've experienced a lot,but, again, going back to the
fear, really addressing what theissues are and also with fear
and information gathering, youwant to make sure that you're
talking with people Not just allsuccessful business owners, but
you don't want to get into thetrap of talking with people that
will give you advice on notowning a business, which I
(15:09):
personally did.
And a majority of those peoplewere giving me kind of insights
from friends or family orsomeone they knew that.
Lost everything in a business orlost her investment yet.
The person I'm speaking withnever owned the business.
And I'm not saying you can'ttalk to people that had never
owned a franchise or a business,but be careful of who you ask.
(15:29):
Don't start talking to peopleand then you start getting,
we'll talk, let me talk to otherpeople that, that failed.
You want to hear some key themesexactly what caused them to
fail?
Was it.
Did they give up?
Was that a Frank?
Was that the franchisor's fault?
Was that a company that stoppedsupporting them?
Did they not follow the system?
If it was something nonfranchise, what exactly about,
(15:49):
what was the cause?
Was it just bad timing?
Was it an industry that, wasbeing taken over by AI or
technology?
So really diving deep to say,okay, that, that business
failed.
I lost a lot of money, but Ididn't move with the times.
I didn't, go to utilizing AI ordoing virtual meetings and
things like that.
(16:10):
I just decided to dig my feetinto the ground and not change.
You want to talk to variouspeople, but the concerns, I
found that the biggest thing forme was fear and anxiety and
jotting down my questions andconcerns and then checking them
off and saying, okay, I'm goingto ask.
My franchise consultant aboutthese three areas worst case
scenario.
If the business fails, how can Isell my business?
(16:33):
What other expenses areinvolved?
I want to Guarantee success andkeep the costs low How do I
increase my odds?
I decided to leave my job andrun the business full time.
I wanted full control of thebusiness.
I wanted to learn every aspectof the business before start
starting to hire.
Looking back, I did wait alittle bit too long there.
Didn't have to be an expert inall areas.
(16:54):
I definitely wanted to touch allareas, which I did and I don't
regret but could have made thedecision to bring on people
sooner and scale a little bitmore faster.
That would be kind of, lookingback and nothing is ever
perfect.
If you had a crystal ball, you'dmake some changes.
But again, going into fear,you'll notice that in different
situations, we created this hugething in our head of fear of.
(17:18):
There's examples of riding abike for the first time.
What do, what about if I fall?
What about if I hit my head orfor me, it was public speaking.
I was extremely fearful.
What was the worst case?
I'm at, I'm in college.
I remember talking with a groupof 15 people, half of them.
I don't think we're even payingattention.
What was the worst casescenario?
(17:39):
I screwed up.
I forgot the topic I was talkingabout, which happened.
I had index cards.
I picked up just where it wasleft off.
I wasn't giving a presidentialspeech or speech in front of
thousands of people.
It was just my professor and 15other students.
And once you start breakingthat, what the fear is and the
worst case scenario, like, youknow what, this isn't so bad.
You have two, two people, twodifferent people, same
(18:01):
situation.
One person dives in and theother person will never ride
that bike or ever speak inpublic.
And they may be a phenomenalspeaker because they let fear
take over.
So I think the writing thingsout is super helpful.
Doing it on the weekends, maybewhen you're a little bit more
rested, you don't have thephones ringing, you don't have
distractions and school andpickup and all that kind of
(18:23):
stuff going on.
And I think that's that to me issomething that is made up in our
minds.
If we want change, there's goingto be some discomfort, right?
We don't know kind of what toexpect.
There's the fear of the unknown,not knowing what the unknown is.
And when you map it up as muchas you can by asking the
questions, addressing theconcerns, speaking with fellow
(18:44):
franchisees, that's a benefit ofa franchise.
You're talking with people thatkind of went through it.
Maybe it's an emerging brand andthe first year of franchisees,
they said, yes, this is a greatbusiness model.
The franchise took a little bitlonger with the marketing as
they.
We're tweaking some things maybethey were figuring things out,
but that's all been ironed out.
So by the time you come onboard, we feel like that's all
(19:07):
been figured out and that won'tbe an issue going forward.
You can also address that withthe record, with the franchise
or, Hey, what have you done inthe past?
I've heard some issues with themarketing.
Are there going to be anychanges?
So addressing this stuff, nothiding behind excuses.
At the end of the day, I willtell you this with 100 percent
certainty.
A business is not for everyone.
(19:28):
A franchise business is not foreveryone.
It's up to you to really have afull understanding of the
business model.
Not be so fearful to say,finally, I just give up on this.
Well, maybe, maybe you shouldstay with your job.
Maybe it's a hybrid approach.
Someone said to me, well, myonly fear is the income I've run
the pro forma.
I've run the scenarios.
(19:49):
I've, I have all thatinformation.
The business just takes twice aslong to get up and running.
And I'll say, great.
If, at the end of the day, noone can create that proforma.
The franchisor's role is to giveyou some information, talk to
the franchisees, put togetheryour own proforma.
They'll kind of list out.
The potential expenses you canincur, but ultimately if that is
(20:10):
the one thing like narrowing itdown, you like the business, you
want to move forward, you wanttime freedom, you want financial
freedom, you love everythingabout it, but that, then you
say, well, what are other ways Ican run this business?
And in some cases it's keepingyour job the first year.
And hiring a key employee orgeneral manager to run the
business.
Nothing wrong with that, butwhen you do that, you have to
(20:31):
set the expectation.
Great.
No, no one's going to run thebusiness like you, you hire a
general manager, you're going tohave to stay close to them.
So it's not just set it andforget it.
And hopefully they they make thebusiness profitable in the very
beginning, you're going to haveto find the right person.
You're going to go to trainingtogether and you're going to
touch base.
It may be a daily call at thestart, then that changes to
weekly.
(20:51):
Maybe it's a dinner once once aweek whatever the case may be,
but at least once a week.
Check in call, what's going on,what are the wins what are the
losses, were there anycancellations, where are the
opportunities and that kind ofdeal and staying very close to
them, keeping in mind yourinvestment is going to, and your
monthly amount, your expenseswill be increased.
(21:13):
Because if you have a, I gavethis example on the last show, a
general manager, maybe they get,$50,000 or$60,000 to make an
even number of salary.
So in your initial franchiseinvestment, that's 5k a month
times three.
So with fees, payroll insurance,you're looking at an additional
$20,000 but just to keep itsimple,$6,000,$7,000 a month in
(21:33):
additional expense.
But you are keeping your fulltime salary.
So, keeping that in mind andhaving the, okay, I have the,
that one week period, that oneyear period.
So I know that today's February1st, 2025 by February 5th 2026.
Or February 4th will be the daybefore I'm going to quit my job.
Obviously give the appropriatenotice and dive in full time.
(21:57):
Whether that's, running it fulltime or not needing, maybe it's
only kind of part time, butthere are different ways of
addressing it.
But ultimately I think fear hasa lot to do with education,
getting informed of every aspectof the business, the worst case,
the best case, what is theaverage franchisee do?
Talking with the franchise, he'swriting out the concerns and
(22:17):
asking.
Some people are embarrassed thatthey asked a question.
I always say we, I worktogether, no silly questions,
no, no stupid questions, allgreat questions.
I had someone this person was Ibelieve just graduating college
and he had set up a call andthat individual said, well, I
heard on a podcast, I don't knowwhat podcast.
(22:38):
But when you buy a franchise,you can't lose money.
You can't lose your investment.
And I said, well, that'sabsolutely false.
There's always going to be arisk regardless of the brand,
regardless of the opportunity,there's ways to minimize risk.
With a franchise, if you'relaunching a business, sometimes,
as I mentioned, the franchisorcan help you sell that business
for a fee.
(22:59):
They may guarantee to buy backyour equipment, whatever the
case may be.
There's always going to be valuein the business, depending for
the right person.
If you're able to sell it.
Maybe you grow it for a year,don't like it, you can go to
sell.
You want to cover all thesedifferent scenarios, but again,
we can't predict the, what thefuture will bring.
So really keep everything inperspective.
If you really want a change,there's going to be some
(23:20):
discomfort.
We're going to call itdiscomfort.
We can call it fear.
We can call it anxiety and wecan call it excitement.
I was, I remember signing myfranchise agreement and I was I
was sweating and my heart wasbeating really quick.
I remember that day, like, itwas yesterday, that's 18 years
ago.
And yeah, that was excitementand it was a little bit of
anxiety.
(23:41):
I did all my homework.
I just wanted to get up andrunning.
And we went to training 30 dayslater, I think it was a 31st
day.
We went out on the first salesappointment with our coach,
landed our first salesappointment.
We closed our first deal and itwas a success.
What did it make us?
A ton of money?
Absolutely not.
It was a very small account, butit helped with alleviate some of
(24:03):
that fear and that unknown andcreated some momentum.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, my adviceto you, if there's one takeaway
is get out of your head, figureout what you want and have a
strong enough.
Why, if you just want to make afew extra bucks and and there's
various side hustles, that'sgreat.
But if you really want change,you want to grow something,
build an enterprise, build abusiness, figure out why you
(24:27):
want to do it, figure out whatthe ideal business looks like.
Let's look at the worst casescenario.
Best case scenarios, kind of inbetween.
Talk to your fellow franchiseesand business owners, both in and
outside of your area and puttogether, that, that put
everything together, involveyour partner, spouse, anyone
(24:48):
else involved in the business,make sure they're on calls.
You may be missing something.
We talked about in the previousepisode, someone was looking at
a resale franchise owner wasnetting$200,000 taking$200,000 a
year.
They were going to buy thatbusiness for three X.
So$600,000.
And right off the bat, they weregoing to take home$200,000.
And I said, well, one thingyou're missing is that owner did
(25:11):
not have any debt.
They've had that business over adecade.
What are you netting?
You're not netting$200,000.
And this is everything sayingconsistent, all the customers
stay on.
There's no change.
Everything stays exactly thesame, but who is servicing your
debt.
And if that debt service to debtis a$100,000 a year you're only
walking away with a$100,000 nowyou're growing and there's,
enterprise value that there'svalue that you're building
(25:33):
within the business and taxbenefits, I'm not, that's a
whole nother conversation, but.
That person is not taking home ahundred 200 K they've taken home
a$100,000 because they have toservice their debt.
And then obviously with avariable SBA loan, you want to
factor in, okay, how much isthat if rates are going down,
how much does that affect me?
Best thing I'm actually, and aswe're talking, I jotted the note
down to reference a show.
(25:54):
Get a word document, actually aGoogle doc, I think is best.
That way, if you are working andexploring franchises and you and
your spouse are going to do thistogether, jot it down.
It's live.
You can tell who edited thedocument.
Writing all your fears, yourspouse can add additional fears
or say, these are some questionsI think that, at the end of the
(26:15):
day will help alleviate as muchof that as possible.
And starting with why, and thenall the questions you have, and
maybe it's not concerns orfears, but they're questions,
jot them down, that, thatinformation will ease a lot of
this.
Some people say, well, I'mlooking at this franchise, but I
don't know if it's a good fit.
And I'll say, well, why do youfeel that way?
Well, I don't have enoughinformation.
(26:36):
I don't know how much money Ican truly make.
And I said, well, at the end ofthe day, this is a business.
They can give you somehistorical information and
that's usually an item 19.
It's a financial representation.
But ultimately you're right.
You don't have that informationbecause you've only had one call
with the franchise company.
Their second and third callsdive into financials.
(26:56):
Your fourth and fifth calls willbe speaking directly with
franchise owners and asking themdirectly.
So absolutely, information iswhere the fear is coming up and
making you uncertain anduncomfortable.
You want to get that informationand a proper timeline or a usual
timeline, I should say is justdo a quick little, two way
interview and intro call.
Second call, go into financials.
(27:18):
Maybe you'll get the franchisedocument, go into territories
and pro formas and things likethat.
And by fourth, fifth call, nowyou're talking with franchisees.
You got the data in thefranchise disclosure document.
Now you have the franchiseesthat you can speak with, learn
about the rookies and what theircosts are.
And the guys that have beendoing it for a while, what are
the fixed costs, what are thevariables and really get
(27:39):
educated.
So yes, having one call with thefranchise, is that going to
answer all your questions?
No.
It's going to take a handful ofcalls to really learn the
business factor in a brand thatis a good fit and assuming
you're doing this the right way.
And talking to brands where youcreate that model.
So again to alleviate the fear,this is the model.
(28:00):
I want something that has lowoverhead.
Great.
No brick and mortar locationbecause I don't want to deal
with a landlord and leases.
Great.
Okay.
Well, that's in the model,right?
I want something that has veryfew employees.
We'll jot that down.
The investment all in.
On a single territory is goingto be, I want it to be under
$200,000 where I can get a loanand for put down as little as
(28:23):
possible.
Great.
Now, when you're puttingtogether that, that model,
that's also going to alleviatealleviate the the the fears and
the concerns, because now you'resaying.
I want something, that, thathits checks off, not some, but
all of these boxes, I don't wantbrick and mortar.
Okay, great.
I can get up, I can get up andrunning much faster.
Don't have to worry about alandlord or the building being
(28:44):
sold.
And I have to relocate.
I can start off with myself asthe only employee in the
business or one employee keepingthe costs low.
I don't know how to domarketing.
I want the company to do that.
Great.
We look at brands that willhandle marketing and even most
cases provide a call center toall franchises provide that.
Absolutely not.
Do many yes.
And we can look at, one again,checking off all the boxes, not
(29:07):
just turnkey marketing and not acall center, but they're going
to have both.
So we'll look at that.
We'll look at brands What elseis out there?
We looked at the differentroles.
We looked at the investment.
So essentially once you haveeverything checked, Oh, it may
be something, another thing thatworks regular business hours.
I don't want to be called oncall nights and weekends, even
though that may be a keyemployee maybe that key employee
(29:29):
leaves and you're in that role,maybe you have to make an
overnight call or meeting oncein a blue moon.
But if you want to avoid that,just a business that maybe works
with schools within regularschool hours when the schools
closed.
There's no need for yourservice.
And that works in line directlywith your kid's school.
Public school, things like that.
We put the jot those on and onlylook for brands that again,
(29:51):
check off not eight of the 10boxes, but all 10 boxes.
So now you're dictating whatthis business looks like.
No nights and weekends, smallerinvestment service.
I can get up and running in 90days or less.
Now we're working off a modeland saying, okay this universe
of 4, 000 franchises and 75 plusindustries.
Now I'm going to shrink thatdown to maybe three brands that
(30:13):
check off all the boxes.
And Hey, guess what?
Just because they check off theboxes I'm left with just say 20.
Only three of those areavailable in my territory.
That's the other thing, right?
So we want to make sure we lookfor brands that check off all
the boxes, but also areavailable in your market.
Maybe there's a resale in yourmarket that, that increases the
number of brands and it goesfrom three to five, we can help
(30:35):
you in both cases.
So when you start dictating,okay, this is exactly what my
business looks like.
Okay.
Now we have something.
So all my fears of workingnights and weekends.
Don't have to worry about it.
No landlord.
Don't have to worry about it.
200 is the most I want toinvest, maybe putting 20 or 30
percent down in an SBA.
That's within my comfort zone.
I have plenty of money to fund amillion dollar brick and mortar
(30:58):
project.
I am not there yet.
I want to start off a little bitsmaller investment.
Great.
Once we whittle it down, nowthat we have that ideal
business, now we're working offyour criteria, your ideal
business, and.
Maybe, it changes for whateverreason, a partner gets involved.
Maybe a spouse that wasn'twilling to leave their job is
now interested in joining thebusiness.
(31:19):
So we changed it up, we put iton a Google doc and that's
something we can change up.
So I think these are, I didn'thave a real, like I normally do.
These are five things to avoidin a franchise or five things to
look for.
I wanted just to have thisconversation around fear
because, very few people in thethousands of people we've helped
and not everyone.
Has purchased franchises.
(31:40):
Many of them just, it wasinitial education timing wasn't
right, but of all the people, noone, very few people, I
shouldn't say no.
And very few have come backsaying, I'm fearful.
I'm scared.
They're coming back with aghosting, not returning email or
calls because they're, they justcan't get out of their heads.
They don't realize just like afranchise is a process.
There's a process of finding abusiness, right?
(32:00):
And if we had the opportunity tohave a second call and outline
exactly what their business is,eliminating 90 percent of their
fears that it just makes theprocess so much more enjoyable.
Not saying fear never creeps up,makes it much more enjoyable and
you're willing to go through thethe process.
And again, this is, the idea offear is something that we
manifest.
(32:21):
It's something we create.
You have two people, samesituation.
One's fearful, one jumps inwithout any fear.
The owning a franchise is notfearful on starting is not
fearful.
It's what you make of it.
But ultimately what that canturn into, can a job ever create
time and financial freedom?
Well, it may give you somefinancials, but i'm always, I
got to show up, nine to fiveevery single day.
(32:42):
I need to be in the office.
I only get two weeks vacation,whereas a business may have you
working a lot more hours to getstarted, but will it, can it
create that financial freedom?
Yeah, I can sell my business.
We gave the example of threemultiple, it could be a lot
more, it could be less.
Three to five is, is where wesee a lot of businesses.
But that number really dependson the buyer and the situation
(33:03):
and the time freedom.
I've never missed a kid kids'events, girl scouts dance or
soccer.
Those are the things, that's thetime freedom that if you have to
report to an office and only gettwo weeks vacation, you don't
have that location freedom.
You don't have that timefreedom.
Look for the things that youreally want to create.
The people that just thatuncertainty is there.
(33:24):
And, I always tell peoplethere's the hybrid approach,
start the business, keep thejob, hire a key employee with
the goal I'd say in 12 months,six months, whatever the case
may be.
Put it on the calendar.
You're going to be involved.
You're going to leave that joband you're going to be involved
full time.
I know I've been rambling there.
I'm going to put the link, theZig Ziglar I'll link a show a
(33:45):
jam was we call him John AllenMullenhauer.
We talk about energy depletion,recharging the batteries.
Just some great suggestions.
You can check them out as faras.
Just getting your energy levelthere, exercise, sleep.
He specialized in that area.
Really great episode.
We try to incorporate somewellness and some value at
outside of a franchise andbusiness.
(34:06):
So anyone that's listening canbenefit from there and love to
hear your feedback agreed,disagree.
I'm open to it.
I know this is a sensitivetopic, but love to hear your
comments and I'll see you guyson the other side.
If you're ready to chat, GG, thefranchise guide.
The website, hit contact,schedule a call, love to, or
just leave me a comment onwhatever platform you're seeing
(34:27):
the show and I'll talk to youguys soon.
See ya.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
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