April 26, 2025 • 34 mins
A MUST-LISTEN for corporate execs exploring franchising! 🚀 Hear the full journey of Ryan Parsons, from co-founding Brothers Gutters to CEO of Evive Brands. Get REAL TALK on evaluating opportunities, leadership, transition challenges, scaling, the power of platforms, finding your 'why', and the rewards of ownership.Â
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
the number one thing that theyshould look at is themselves in
(00:02):
a mirror.
The biggest disappointment willbe their own leadership.
It really comes down to it.
If you're thinking about afranchise and you're thinking
about maybe part-time or it cankind of do it like this, if you
treat your business like ahobby, it will pay you like a
hobby.
It's like being, it's likestarving and going to a buffet.
(00:23):
You fill up your plate, youthink you're gonna eat all this
stuff, and then, you know, mostof it goes in the garbage.
Same thing happens tofranchisees when they want more
territory.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
(00:46):
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatically, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
We have a very exciting show foryou today.
We have Ryan Parsons on the showfrom Evie Brands.
Ryan, welcome to the show.
Thanks so much for having me,Giuseppe.
Appreciate it.
Yeah I'm excited.
We were just talking how longago We met at one of the,
(01:07):
holiday functions way back inthe day.
And looking forward to havingyou on.
And I was really impressed.
We were just talking about evenjust topics and ideas and things
like that.
But before we, we dive in tellus give the audience a little
bit of background.
Who is Ryan and you know, ha howwell that, that may be has shown
in and of itself, but whoRyan's, you know, your
background and how you got intofranchising.
(01:28):
All right.
I'll give you the short versionif you're interested.
There's other videos out there.
But shoot.
Starts back in 1999.
My brother started a guttercompany just by himself.
In 2002, I joined him'cause Iwas working for a.com that
became a dot bomb.
And us two knuckleheads are on agutter, gutter truck just
slinging up gutter and trying tomake a living.
(01:50):
And the idea or the dream offranchising it was born.
And we worked for many yearsthat, that idea was born around
2007, eight.
And we didn't feel like we wereready.
Actually, in 2010, we launchedtwo pilot locations and half of
our systems worked and theybroke the other half on the
first day, I think pretty much.
And then we realized we weren'tquite ready for prime time.
(02:12):
Spent a few more years buildingout the franchise system and
this is the brothers that justdo gutters and built it up got
ready to franchise.
We franchised it in 2015 and at,and then around in 2023.
We had over a hundred locationsor franchisees, over 300
territories we sold toRiverside.
(02:34):
I'm in the platform called andBrothers is in the platform of
Evie Brands and I was fortunateenough to be offered to be the
CEO of the platform.
So not only do I continue to getto work with the brand that we
built and love so much, I'mgetting to work with other
franchisors, other concepts, andeven looking to acquire other
franchises to continue to buildthis out.
(02:55):
So.
I hope that was good for about aminute of a running start.
That was awesome.
I, and that's very interesting.
So I guess, you know, fill usin.
So, Evie brands, so tell us alittle bit more about, you know,
the brand, you know, what brandsare associated maybe even some
advantages of being part of aparent company like, like Evie
Brands.
Oh, it's awesome.
It's, so the before, beforebrothers got there, it was three
(03:18):
brands in senior services.
Okay.
So you've got assisted livinglocators who places people in
assisted living facilities.
We've got Grayson's, which is astate sale and liquidation, and
then we have executive homecare, which is non-medical
in-home care.
And so now with the brothers atjust do gutters, we're building
out the service side.
So basically the goal of theplatform is that if you're a
(03:41):
homeowner.
We wanna be able to haveservices for you, you know, from
the time you purchase a hometill maybe the time you're
called home.
I don't know if that'spolitically correct, but you
know, that's the platform thatwe are building.
And there, there definitely, wecan get into it if you want, but
there are a lot of advantages tobeing part of a platform and
there's advantages of just beingpart of a franchise, right?
(04:03):
That there's a ton of advantagesthere.
And then there's another host ofadvantages of being part of a
bigger platform as well.
Actually that, you know, that,that is interesting and I wanna
talk about that because a lot ofthe brands are maybe just an
individual brand.
They're not part of the parentcompany.
So, two part question.
I mean, you know, you know, wecan focus on the parent company
first, but what are theadvantages of the parent
(04:26):
company, you know, as, as far asin a franchise company?
And then we could talk about theadvantages of a franchise you
know, to a franchisee thatthey'll benefit from.
I mean, on the outset, I mean,obviously deep pockets, right?
They have the money to invest ininfrastructure, all the things
that are on a youngfranchisor's, wishlist, all
these technology things,compliance things, coaching
(04:46):
help, anything that you could doto provide better service to
your franchisees.
Frankly, a lot of people whofranchise their business, the
brothers included, we didn'thave.
Million dollars on the side,right?
We were scraping by to get thisdream done.
So you do have the resources andyou have to know how, it's
amazing when you're, when youjust, things like your tech
(05:08):
stack, what are you using forthis and how are you doing that?
Compliance, legal, you name it,whatever it is, you've got a
host of people that have beenthere, done that and can help
you and have a vested interestin.
Helping you achieve that.
And ultimately, what I loveabout franchising, it's a
win-win.
You know, if the franchisee isdoing well, then their revenue's
(05:32):
high.
And that means royalties arehigh, right?
Means we can continue to domore.
And that's what's like reallycool about franchising.
It's you know, you can't reallyfind a partner that's, you know,
wants to do something to hurtthe franchise.
It's only to improve it.
I like that.
It's and it's almost like you'rebuilding from the franchisee
standpoint kind of an ecosystem,right?
(05:52):
You're in markets referring, youknow, may, maybe you can
leverage certain resources,certain employees, contractors,
marketing.
Correct.
Talk to us a little bit aboutthat, because that's something
that, that came up in a previousepisode you know, how to
leverage the ecosystem and kindof everyone referring to one
another.
Absolutely.
And that's so when my brotherand I were thinking it was time
to partner up and take thisthing to the next level, we were
(06:15):
not even interested remotely inanybody other than a platform.
Type of a brand where we wouldbe in a platform with other
brands.
We didn't wanna be part of aprivate equity that this is the
only franchise or guttercompany.
'cause of exactly that.
So at EI, you know, we have ashared services of marketing.
So, you know, the size of thebrands vary, but what's so
(06:37):
amazing is there's like a teamof 11 marketers, right on the
EVI team, plus thesubcontractors and the partners
we have.
Our smallest brand has access toall that knowledge.
All that like, so they'regetting like, you know, they
would've not been able toafford.
Being on their own to get thekind of attention and access to
(06:58):
the type of marketing we're ableto do.
That's one small example.
The tech stack utilizing a lotof the same things, driving down
pricing for things that we alluse, like, you know, things as
simple as, you know, your GoogleSuite or your Microsoft Suite or
use it monday.com or any of thetools that any of us use on any
given day.
So, really.
(07:20):
Just scratching the surfacethere and then it gets to the
bigger, more fun stuff.
How can we cross reference,refer?
We've got three brands in theportfolio that work so good
together.
Now you've got franchisees.
Imagine having a franchisee inHouston, right?
And we have all three brands inHouston, and now they can refer
each other business.
(07:41):
And on top of that, one thingthat can happen in any business
you do and in a franchise, let'ssay you buy one territory or
two.
After 5, 6, 7 years, you get itto like, all right, we're not
growing 40, 50% a year anymore.
We're growing five six.
I might have hit a saturationlevel.
I love the idea that ourfranchisees at some point could
(08:02):
become multi-brand owners andthey can continue to dominate
their market and their area.
They've made all theserelationships and inroads.
I hate when somebody canpossibly get landlocked.
Great.
Grab another brand that, youknow, has a symbiotic
relationship.
So now you can, you're referringyourself now and then you can
co-market, co-brand.
(08:23):
So many cool things on thatlevel.
I love that.
Yeah.
It's yeah, you're right.
You're referring to yourself andyour client acquisition really
drops.
'cause now the home, you go tothe homeowner and say, now
instead of offering these fiveservices, we offer 15 services.
So, you really can upsell justabout every customer that you
have and create thatrelationship and just and
potentially add more brands andjust correct eventually own the
(08:44):
home.
So that I like that.
Taking one step back.
I talk I talk about this all thetime, and it's good to hear
different perspectives from fromindividuals like yourself.
You've been in the franchiseworld for, you know, 20 plus
years, so what do you recommendfor someone?
You have a lot of corporate execexecutives listening in.
They're looking to.
(09:06):
They wanna change they want tokind of, you know, take
ownership of their future andlook into their first franchise.
So aside from the numbers we allwanna make money and that's
obvious.
That's one of the reasons to getinto business ownership.
We call it financial freedom,but, you know, what else, what
do you recommend people shouldstart looking at goal wise and
things like that, because that'ssomething where.
(09:27):
I think people get the shinyobject syndrome and they want
the shiny object the productservice they use.
So yeah, the number one thingthat they should look at is
themselves in a mirror.
The biggest disappointment willbe their own leadership.
It really comes down to it.
It's it's been.
Quite a journey.
And it's really sad to see somepeople that they look at the
(09:49):
item 19 that's published in thething and they're like, oh, I
can make this and this is greatand this sounds easy.
And you know, I've managedemployees before and you know,
they hire people and people quitbecause they're not a good boss
that they don't know how tolead.
You know, I'd say the number onething they should be reading and
devour devouring is anything onleadership.
(10:11):
Anything on running a team.
And it was, it's kind ofinteresting.
A lot of people say, oh no, Irun a team at work.
It's like, okay, did you everbuild a team from scratch?
It's one thing to kind of walkin as a manager.
You got all these white collaremployees that, you know, have
degrees and, you know, there's alevel of it's different.
It's much different than whenyou.
(10:33):
You're selling the vision forit.
Your first few employees, youdon't necessarily have a grant
depending on the franchiseyou're buying.
Of course, you know, if it'sbrick and mortar and you got
this, you know, pizza Hut, Imean, you kept something to walk
into, but a lot of it, it'sconceptual and you're selling
your vision and it's yourleadership.
You know, you, you're notoffering necessarily outta the
(10:54):
gate 401k and health insuranceand all these things that we
have in this corporate life.
I think that is the biggestsmack in the face for some of
some people that, and theyalways look at like the people
that are doing the best, whichyou should, you know, I don't
like when people look, peopleare doing the worst and they
think, well, you know, if theycan do it, I'm better than them.
(11:15):
You know?
Right.
I've got this whole corporatething and all these things I've
been doing, you know, startingyour own business, whether a
franchise or from scratch.
It's, you know, it reminds me ofthat famous Mike Tyson saying,
you know, everyone's got a planuntil they get punched in the
face.
Punched in the face.
Yep.
I have a shirt that says that.
Yeah.
And you'll get punched in theface.
And the gut, I don't care whatfranchise you buy, I don't care
(11:37):
how buttoned up or perfect, youwill get punched in the face.
Yes.
And other areas.
Yes.
It's a constant and you and youare right.
A absolutely as a franchisee.
I, when I had employees come in,you're always competing.
Well, so and so gave me thesebenefits and we said we're a
small organization.
There's so much upside here asthe business expands.
(12:00):
We talked about phantom fanphantom equity, you know, you
know, getting some, you know,percentage of the profits at the
end of the day.
And some people like that and itwasn't for others.
And that and that was fine aswell.
But you're a hundred percentright.
Most people, they, they'll grabon a vision.
Yep.
When you say, Hey listen, we'regonna grow this thing.
And you can be part of that.
And yes, I'm hiring you heretoday.
(12:20):
You might be doing intakes forin-home care, but at some point
you can be a general manager.
Heck.
You can buy your own franchise.
There's six people in thissystem that started out at the
lowest level that ownfranchises, right?
That's what people grab to.
And I think, you know, like youjust said, in the corporate
environment, we think we onlyhave pay Healthcare 401k like
(12:42):
that.
We think that's tool that keepspeople.
Why are, why is everyone leavingcorporate America that has those
things?
They all have it.
Why are they raising their handto say, I want to do my own
thing.
Right.
Because there's, it's dead.
For a lot of'em, it doesn't.
So we definitely have to getthat out of our head.
That's not why people stay, andthat's not necessarily why
people come.
It might be why they look at us.
(13:04):
But at the end of the day,people wanna do something
meaningful and they want to bemoving ahead in their own life.
And if we can provide thatthrough a franchise, then that
is awesome.
But we gotta believe in it.
We gotta have the passion andpeople will follow you.
Love it.
I mean, you nailed it.
I liked that.
I like that.
And looking in the mirror isstep number one.
That's so true.
(13:24):
And some people just get overlyexcited, you know, jump over all
the important stuff.
And it's like, okay what are theproducts that I use every day?
I'm gonna buy a franchise there.
And I go, well, that's probablynot the best way to approach it.
You can own any other businessand buy all the coffee and
burgers that you want, butultimately let's figure out what
it looks like.
Let's figure out if it's evenavailable.
(13:45):
In your market or even if youcan even run it part-time, if
that's something that you'reinterested in doing.
So, I learned a lot.
I grew up in the familybusiness.
My, my family owned an Italianrestaurant, but got into the
franchise business.
What are things that, you know,from when you're going from a
corporate executive to owning afranchise?
You know, what are the thingsthat no one tells you?
Because.
(14:06):
This journey is really settingthe expectation of what's to
come.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
What is it that nobody tellsyou?
So, you know, along the linesthat I.
This is not, just because it isa franchise doesn't mean, you
know, you'll open up and therevenue and profits start
(14:26):
flowing right away.
May not get a check a paycheck,you know, the first week you're
open.
That's correct.
You know, what are the thingsthat, that really, and this
really applies for, you know,any business, but that people
don't tell you that, you know,it sounds like this is a great
deal, but you have to understandthere's gonna be some swings.
You may have to find absolutelythe right employees and things
like that.
(14:46):
Yeah I think one of the thingsthat most people don't realize
that, that buy a franchise isthat when you look at the item
19 that's published, I can speakfor the brands we have, but I
believe most brands they onlypublish after someone's first
full year in business.
Yep.
So you might have started inlike February, you know, that
(15:07):
year doesn't get published.
Then you're, you know, that nextyear, so the first time you're
seeing financials, these arepeople that, that are almost at
the two year mark and people canget pretty discouraged.
They might be in year, not year,month three or four and go, what
the heck?
I thought I'd be making moremoney.
The item 19 said, this is like,whoa.
Like you're looking at peoplethat have made it over that,
(15:29):
that crazy come to Jesus, like,you know, you're super high.
I bought a business.
You told all your friends, yougo to training, and then you
open up.
And you know, get punched in theface maybe, and you go, oh crap,
what the heck did I do?
Right.
Right.
That crisis of meaning and thenyou get through that right.
In the business.
So I think that's one thingthat's important.
What I like about franchising,if the franchisors are doing it
(15:51):
right, there should really benothing that's not un, that's
not said.
Or that's a surprise I wouldsay.
You're validating.
You're validating withfranchisees, right?
So you get to ask franchiseeanything.
If you were to ask me as afranchisor, how much money can I
make, I am legally not allowedto tell you.
(16:12):
But if you get on with afranchisee and say, how much
money did you make last year?
They are allowed to tell youwhatever they feel comfortable
with, and I highly recommendnever skip that.
Look at the item nineteens.
A lot of franchisors can playgames with numbers.
You wanna make sure and validatewith the Fran, the franchisees.
And I think you hit it right oneveryone.
(16:32):
They know what's tough.
People have said it.
Oh man.
Getting your first few goodemployees is really tough.
You know, finding a shot mightbe tough.
Right.
It's a hard work I've heard thisa couple different times.
You guys said it was gonna behard work.
I didn't realize it was gonna bethis hard.
Right.
So as much as you might behearing some things, I would say
just listen and, you know,'causeI think depending on how bad you
(16:55):
wanna do it, it's a glass halffull goggles that you might be
wearing.
Right.
And I just because something'shard doesn't mean you wouldn't
do it.
It just means you're, you gottaprep like anything worth doing
is hard.
I think about like, people thatwanna lose 50 pounds, you know?
You know exactly what you wannalook like.
You know what you look like now.
I wanna look like Mark Wahlbergwith my shirt off.
Okay.
(17:16):
Well.
I got some work to do and that'sa franchise.
You wanna, that guy that youvalidated with, that's three,
four years in, who's, you know,oh, I just bought a boat and we
went on vacation.
Like, that's why I want abusiness.
Great.
Don't forget the crazy time thathe went through to go from where
he was to where he is today andbe ready.
(17:38):
That part is so worth it.
It's harder than I think peoplethink.
Yeah.
I yeah I cannot agree more.
I think someone said, and hisname is escaping me who who said
this, but he is like, I'm anovernight success.
It only took me 20 years.
So Yeah, 20 years.
Have you people look at us likethat?
(17:59):
Oh, look at what you, oh man.
You got it made.
I'm like.
Do what I do.
You know, like there was a timein business as we were growing
the gutter company that wemissed 11 paychecks in a row to
make sure that we could pay theYeah.
You know, this was beforefranchising.
This was when we were trying tofigure out just a one up
corporate store, like thesacrifices that we made, the
cars that we drive, drove ordidn't drive.
(18:21):
The way we lived, the way wesacrificed, I mean, it was.
Ridiculous.
There's a reason why not a lotof people franchise their
business or why a lot offranchisors never get past five.
Franchisees.
It's freaking hard.
It's very hard.
And you're right, people just,they look at kind of the end
result.
But I tell everyone it's a lotof work.
There's no such thing as apassive franchise, at least that
(18:44):
I know of.
Not truly passive f you know,that's what you call like, the
stock market.
You know, it's that's passive.
You throw your some money inthere and you hope to make some.
And you have no really no set.
You can I guess vote yourproxies, but at the end of the
day that, that to me, you know,to your point, is passive.
A franchise is a lot of work.
Yeah.
And I will say this.
If you're thinking about afranchise and you're thinking
(19:05):
about maybe part-time or it cankind of do it like this, if you
treat your business like ahobby, it will pay you like a
hobby.
Your business is a reflection ofyou and your leadership and of
what you're putting into it.
So if you're getting goodresults, you're looking good in
the mirror.
If you're getting bad resultsit's 99% of the time it's on the
franchisee.
It's very rare that you see, Iwouldn't say rare, I wouldn't
(19:28):
wanna say it that much, butyeah, some franchisors over
promise, under deliver.
You, they, you know, you thoughtit was gonna be more support.
It's not.
But for the most part, I'veseen.
You know, it's amazing.
Like you can have, you know,five franchisees sign on the
same day, go to the same exacttraining, being very similar
markets and have completelydifferent results.
(19:51):
I see that all the time.
We we work the entire countryand it's funny to hear feedback,
oh, it doesn't work in mymarket.
You know, it, there, there's adifference here.
And it's like, I don't thinkthat's the case, you know,
really.
Are you putting in the time andthe effort as you mentioned, is
this.
A part-time hobby.
And I will say from personalexperience and luck luckily my
wife was working at the time, sowe did have an income coming in.
(20:13):
But as a young, you know,basically my mid twenties, I
quit my job to run it full-time.
I.
I don't think anyone else isgonna run the business like,
like yourself.
You may find a great generalmanager and I don't knock that
and there's plenty of peoplethat are successful, but
Correct.
Run it on your own with on yourown dime.
You're gonna learn that businessfast, you're gonna launch it
even faster.
And you're just gonna get abetter appreciation because
(20:35):
you're gonna wear every hat.
You're gonna figure out the rolethat you wanna play in the
business and then fast forward ayear, then decide kind of the
direction you wanna move in.
But I think there's some, it'snot.
I'm not saying it's mandatoryfor many brands it is, but
there's definitely someadvantages of running it
full-time.
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Talking about, and we touched onthis a a little bit, a little
(20:56):
while ago, but even you know,you buy the one, just assume you
buy the a territory, invest in aterritory, and you decide you
wanna expand it and there issome opportunities.
Talk to us about some strategiesto scale some things for people
to think about.
Do you recommend they look atmore than one oppor one
territory upfront?
What are the advantages there insomething maybe that is you
(21:16):
know, service-based non nonbrick and mortar type of
business?
Yeah, it's, you know, I alwayslook at it like, you know, if
you were to buy a piece ofproperty and put a house on it.
And, you know, and there's apiece of property for sale right
next to it.
You know, you're gonna alwaysregret not buying it because
someone's gonna put up a houseat some point.
Like, oh, I wanted to buy that.
(21:37):
And I was, you know, it would'vebeen great for this or that.
If it's in your budget, youknow, and you gotta look at the
franchise.
Some franchise have bigterritories because they don't
want you to not, like, I don't,they don't want you to get
landlocked.
Only hit like, oh shoot, I canonly do$500,000 a year in this
franchise and crap, I'm in mythird year.
(21:58):
I'm all surrounded and I'm notputting the money I was hoping
to in my pocket.
So you gotta look at that.
You gotta look at historically,what are people in that
franchise doing with one, two,or three territories?
But you do want something to beable to grow into.
So that is something to look at.
So yes, if possible.
Yeah, always, you know, go foranother territory.
(22:20):
However, it, you know, as afranchisor, I've sold somebody
too much territory.
Great franchisees doing plentyof business for one or two, but
that third one's not doinganything right.
They put a completely newfranchisee in there and
quadruple.
The revenue and output of that.
So there is limited space whenyou're selling it and when
(22:41):
you're buying it.
And a lot of franchisers putclauses in there.
It's called a clawback.
If you don't develop, you know,your second territory by X date,
then we can, you know, you endup forfeiting or they buy it
back or something.
And that could, you know, thatcan cause unnecessary pressure
for the new franchisee.
You buy two territories andyou're like, oh yeah, year two,
(23:01):
I gotta get another truck.
And that should be no problem.
But year two might come and yearone was really hard, right?
And now you're paying minimums,or you gotta buy that truck that
you're not even using to fulfillsome sort of an FD, D
requirement and it couldactually make it harder for you.
So I, I don't know if there's aright answer.
It's gotta be right for you.
But I've got some, the one thingI do know is most people hardly
(23:26):
ever saturate their territoriesanyway.
Correct?
Yes.
So I'm a big believer in deepverse wide that you think you
need all this.
It's like being, it's likestarving and going to a buffet.
You fill up your plate, youthink you're gonna eat all this
stuff, and then, you know, mostof it goes in the garbage.
Same thing happens tofranchisees when they want more
territory.
And a lot of franchisers arehappy to sell it to'em.
(23:48):
Oh, we sold a three pack, we hita goal.
Right.
But it doesn't necessarily meanin the long run it's good for
either one.
I I like that.
And you're, and you are.
Right.
You know, some people come to meand say, I just wanna own the
entire state.
And it's like, well, dependingon your state, that could be
2030 different territories.
How are you actively gonna, youknow, how can you possibly
manage and really go as deep aspossible in all these
(24:09):
territories?
You don't need.
All these territories to make agood living, really figure out,
you know, what that investmentlooks like, the total
investment, what, you know, whatthe development schedule looks
like.
Correct.
Kind of what are theexpectations.
So that's a great conversationto be had as you're reviewing
the territories to see what'savailable.
Yeah.
You know, there's a word outthere, responsible franchising
and all that stuff.
(24:30):
I think most franchises theywant you to make, be able to
make a good living on the oneterritory.
You know, that it's designed sothat you can hopefully, again,
everyone's financial goals aredifferent.
Some people are like, I wannabuy a franchise that I put a
million dollars a year in mypocket.
Okay, well I'm sure there'sbrands out there, but those
probably cost four or 5 million,you know?
(24:52):
Right, right.
But there, it's all differentdepending on the brand.
So one territory, I would say,if you can get the second go for
it, third and fourth, you betterbe exceptional.
Make sure, you know, and look atthe financial requirements.
Some franchise will say, youknow, you have to double the net
worth number, the liquiditynumber in order to be approved.
(25:13):
And that's part of the approvalprocess getting approved and
what that approval looks like.
So, yeah, it's definitely aconversation to be had early I.
Kind of figuring out what thenext five to 10 years look like,
but a great conversation to behad and not waiting till the
last minute to figure out whatyou know, what the strategy
looks like.
So, and most franchisors willnot do, and they shouldn't do,
(25:34):
like, first refusal, the rightof first refusal.
Well, hey, let me know if you'regonna sell it.
It's completely unfair to theFran Dev people and the person
that went all the way down theline was ready to buy a Fran,
like the territory next to you.
And then right at the end you'relike, oh no, I'm gonna buy it.
Right.
So most franchisees should notbe offering that to franchisees.
(25:55):
Unless it's like you're thefirst three or four franchisees,
then Yeah, right.
They could probably saysomething like that, but I'd be
weary.
Of, I would never say that.
It just gets you in trouble.
It's a good No, that's a goodpoint.
You know, you don't you don'tknow, you don't know what's
available.
Then basically, if everyone hasthese right of first refusal,
so, I agree.
What other advice?
There's a lot, there's a lot ofpeople listening in.
(26:17):
You know, we talked about threeor four weeks ago, there was a
the IFA president.
Talking about why, you know,three quarters of people, three
quarters of people out there, so75% have thought of owning a
business before of the, of that75%, that 75% of that 75%
basically did not move forwardbecause they didn't know where
(26:37):
to start.
So we talked about kind of, youknow, strategies and things like
that.
What did, what other advice whatdidn't we talk about today that
you would offer to someonelooking.
To make that leap to, to leavethe job.
Maybe they're expecting alayoff, maybe they're just not
happy.
They want, they wanna get outtathe, out of the W2.
What advice would you give tothat person you know, looking to
(26:57):
make the leap have a reallystrong why.
I mean, at the end of it,because you're gonna need grit
to get through starting abusiness, whether you start your
own, you buy a franchise, yourwhy has to be bigger than the
pain and the, and thedifficulty.
Right.
So if it's, I want a legacy formy kids, I wanna make a better
impact in the community.
(27:18):
You know, what's great about,you know, executive home care
and assisted living locators,these are passion plays.
I'd say 90, 95% of ourfranchisees literally start in
EHC or in a LL because like.
Their mother or dad had a reallybad experience, you know, in
within home care or, you know,in that stage of their life.
And they're like, I wanna helppeople and how cool that this
(27:40):
business can help me do that.
Right?
And so at the end of it.
You know, a lot of people wannaget outta corporate America, but
corporate America can startlooking pretty good again.
When you know, you had a steadypaycheck, you had healthcare,
you had 401k, but there wassomething missing.
And I think for a lot of people,like they wanna be able to
control their destiny.
(28:01):
Business and business ownershipgives you the illusion of you're
gonna have both time and money.
Right?
Oh my gosh.
I own my own business.
I can do what I want, my buddydoes.
He's away all the time.
He golfs every day.
Take, there's a big gap betweenwhere you are when you start a
business and to get to that andhaving gotten to that side of
the business, it's so much fun,right?
(28:22):
To build a business that can runwithout you, that you've got
great leaders in place and youcan tap that flywheel.
You can be, you know, RobertKiyosaki defines a business
owner as somebody who can leavetheir business for six months
and it runs without them, youknow, so there's a, you know, a
cashflow quadrant.
Read that book.
That's a highly recommended bookby Robert Kiyosaki.
It talks about the differencebetween, there's four quadrants.
(28:44):
We find ourselves in either anemployee, self-employed,
business owner or investor.
Any of us, you know, if you'relistening, you're an employee.
Any one of you by tomorrow canbe self-employed.
You can just wake up in themorning, quit your job and say,
I'm gonna walk dogs and go knockon doors, and you are now
(29:05):
self-employed.
Right.
And now to go from self-employedwhere you're doing and running
all the system to businessowner, where you've built
something that can run withoutyou, that's a big difference.
And then investor, now you'reinvesting in businesses and
things that you're not part of.
So I would highly recommend thatbook.
I think it's a really good placeto start.
(29:25):
If you're thinking about thisjourney, it really helps you
understand if what you, whatpart of the quadrant you wanna
be on.
I.
What are you willing to do toget there?
Right?
And that's, you nailed it.
That's the piece, right?
It's, this is not an overnightthing.
It's gonna take years.
You gotta build, nothing is everperfect.
Nothing is, you know, they talkabout a straight line.
You go, you start here, you endup there.
(29:47):
Well, it's kind of a squigglyline.
There's some setbacks.
There's some people that leave.
There's customers that cancel.
But ultimately, if you stickwith it, but I think that's the
missing piece.
I feel like.
I don't know if it's this dayand age, if I could, if I should
say that, if that's appropriate.
But it's the quick, you know, Istart the business and all of a
sudden I'm on I'm doing this sixmonths away and the business is
(30:07):
on autopilot.
Yeah, maybe that exists rarely,but I have not figured that out.
I've only met like one or twopeople in my life that just
like, it just came to them.
Right.
They didn't even read a lot ofbooks.
They didn't have mentors, theyjust figured out business.
They were exceptional.
But for everyone else.
It was a longer journey, andthat's what I love about
franchising.
(30:28):
You know, it, it took my brotherand I to, it took us like 10
years to hit a million dollarsin revenue.
The average franchisee inBrothers Gutters, you know, is
hitting that.
I don't wanna make any kind ofearnings claims, but very
quickly.
And hit that type of revenue.
So you're leveraging somebodywho's done it forever and now
you're getting those resultsfaster.
(30:49):
It doesn't necessarily, I feellike it's.
It's not as painful as long,there's still pain.
Sure, absolutely.
Yeah.
Any business franchise or notyou gotta put the time in, you
gotta put the reps.
So, I always like to end theseshows.
The show is awesome, by the way.
Fun fact you left a fun fact.
It was family related.
I'll give you a clue.
I dunno if you remember.
Oh, is it the one that I havesix kids?
(31:11):
Yeah, six kids.
Oh man, that's a, yeah that's ahouse full Wow.
From one and a half to 15.
Oh, wow.
It's quite, quite the activehousehold.
So you got, all right.
So the 15 year olds could watchthe the one and a half year old,
so, right.
So yes.
Yes.
We all pitch in and help, andI'm very amazed that not one of
(31:31):
them had barged in today.
Yeah, I was looking forward tothat.
We set you up.
So that, that, that's awesome.
No I appreciate that.
Now, this is great.
I think you know, these are theconversations to be had.
These are, the conversationssometimes aren't.
Talked about, right?
You get so excited, you kind ofstart ignoring certain things.
You really have to have theright mindset going into it.
And my personal recommendation,and this will save a lot of
(31:51):
marriages is that whatever youdo involve your spouse, your,
you know, whoever's gonna,whoever in the household should
be involved.
My kids were.
Actually, my son wasn't evenborn.
We found out my wife waspregnant a few days after
launching my first business.
But yeah, you know, I hearpeople saying, well, I have
teenage kid.
Let them know what's going on.
Because that first year inbusiness.
(32:13):
Depending how you're running it,if it's part-time or even
full-time, there's gonna bemaybe tightening of the of the
wallet.
You know, maybe no.
Correct.
No vacation that first year, oryou're gonna be working around
the clock to launch it.
But the reason, going back towhat you said earlier, is that
why I'm doing it too, I.
What what my why was to become asoccer coach and never miss a
game.
(32:33):
And I was I got that, yeah, itwas a little bit late a few
times, but I had never missed asoccer game and became a coach.
So my son is 17 and ready forcollege.
So, those are the things, youknow, to prepare for and those
will get you.
Pass the ups and downs inbusiness ownership.
Oh, yeah.
Like anything else, there's somehighs and there's some lows and
Yeah.
You need that to get past thelow.
(32:53):
And don't get me wrong, I knowwe talked a little bit about
the, you know, what to look outfor.
It is the most rewarding thingyou'll ever do.
Is to grow a business, have itrunning and successful, and
create opportunity for otherhumans to strive and hit their
dreams through what you'redoing.
It is the most rewarding thingthat you can, that I've ever
done, you know, outside of, youknow, getting married, having a
(33:16):
family, but when you, I think ofmy professional side, there's
nothing I'm more proud of thanbuilding a business that people.
Thrive in, and I've changedthousands of lives at this
point.
And that, that is not manythings can top that feeling.
That's a great feeling.
So by the way, you have sevenkids, right?
This is your seventh, this isthe the other baby.
(33:37):
Absolutely.
That's awesome.
Listen, Ryan, I, I reallyappreciate it.
This was fun.
I'm glad we we got to chattoday.
Really appreciate all yourfeedback.
We're gonna share all Ryan'sinformation website right on the
blog.
We'll be sharing every Saturdaymorning we launch a new show.
And again, I really appreciateyou coming on the show and
looking forward to chattingsoon.
My pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
Thanks again.
(34:12):
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
transition from corporate toowning your franchise.
Join Giuseppe on the nextepisode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
the number one thing that theyshould look at is themselves in
(00:02):
a mirror.
The biggest disappointment willbe their own leadership.
It really comes down to it.
If you're thinking about afranchise and you're thinking
about maybe part-time or it cankind of do it like this, if you
treat your business like ahobby, it will pay you like a
hobby.
It's like being, it's likestarving and going to a buffet.
(00:23):
You fill up your plate, youthink you're gonna eat all this
stuff, and then, you know, mostof it goes in the garbage.
Same thing happens tofranchisees when they want more
territory.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast, where you can escape
the corporate trap throughfranchise ownership.
Here's your host, Giuseppe gr,the franchise guide.
(00:46):
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatically, your franchise
guide, the show where we helpcorporate executives experience
time and financial freedom viafranchising.
We have a very exciting show foryou today.
We have Ryan Parsons on the showfrom Evie Brands.
Ryan, welcome to the show.
Thanks so much for having me,Giuseppe.
Appreciate it.
Yeah I'm excited.
We were just talking how longago We met at one of the,
(01:07):
holiday functions way back inthe day.
And looking forward to havingyou on.
And I was really impressed.
We were just talking about evenjust topics and ideas and things
like that.
But before we, we dive in tellus give the audience a little
bit of background.
Who is Ryan and you know, ha howwell that, that may be has shown
in and of itself, but whoRyan's, you know, your
background and how you got intofranchising.
(01:28):
All right.
I'll give you the short versionif you're interested.
There's other videos out there.
But shoot.
Starts back in 1999.
My brother started a guttercompany just by himself.
In 2002, I joined him'cause Iwas working for a.com that
became a dot bomb.
And us two knuckleheads are on agutter, gutter truck just
slinging up gutter and trying tomake a living.
(01:50):
And the idea or the dream offranchising it was born.
And we worked for many yearsthat, that idea was born around
2007, eight.
And we didn't feel like we wereready.
Actually, in 2010, we launchedtwo pilot locations and half of
our systems worked and theybroke the other half on the
first day, I think pretty much.
And then we realized we weren'tquite ready for prime time.
(02:12):
Spent a few more years buildingout the franchise system and
this is the brothers that justdo gutters and built it up got
ready to franchise.
We franchised it in 2015 and at,and then around in 2023.
We had over a hundred locationsor franchisees, over 300
territories we sold toRiverside.
(02:34):
I'm in the platform called andBrothers is in the platform of
Evie Brands and I was fortunateenough to be offered to be the
CEO of the platform.
So not only do I continue to getto work with the brand that we
built and love so much, I'mgetting to work with other
franchisors, other concepts, andeven looking to acquire other
franchises to continue to buildthis out.
(02:55):
So.
I hope that was good for about aminute of a running start.
That was awesome.
I, and that's very interesting.
So I guess, you know, fill usin.
So, Evie brands, so tell us alittle bit more about, you know,
the brand, you know, what brandsare associated maybe even some
advantages of being part of aparent company like, like Evie
Brands.
Oh, it's awesome.
It's, so the before, beforebrothers got there, it was three
(03:18):
brands in senior services.
Okay.
So you've got assisted livinglocators who places people in
assisted living facilities.
We've got Grayson's, which is astate sale and liquidation, and
then we have executive homecare, which is non-medical
in-home care.
And so now with the brothers atjust do gutters, we're building
out the service side.
So basically the goal of theplatform is that if you're a
(03:41):
homeowner.
We wanna be able to haveservices for you, you know, from
the time you purchase a hometill maybe the time you're
called home.
I don't know if that'spolitically correct, but you
know, that's the platform thatwe are building.
And there, there definitely, wecan get into it if you want, but
there are a lot of advantages tobeing part of a platform and
there's advantages of just beingpart of a franchise, right?
(04:03):
That there's a ton of advantagesthere.
And then there's another host ofadvantages of being part of a
bigger platform as well.
Actually that, you know, that,that is interesting and I wanna
talk about that because a lot ofthe brands are maybe just an
individual brand.
They're not part of the parentcompany.
So, two part question.
I mean, you know, you know, wecan focus on the parent company
first, but what are theadvantages of the parent
(04:26):
company, you know, as, as far asin a franchise company?
And then we could talk about theadvantages of a franchise you
know, to a franchisee thatthey'll benefit from.
I mean, on the outset, I mean,obviously deep pockets, right?
They have the money to invest ininfrastructure, all the things
that are on a youngfranchisor's, wishlist, all
these technology things,compliance things, coaching
(04:46):
help, anything that you could doto provide better service to
your franchisees.
Frankly, a lot of people whofranchise their business, the
brothers included, we didn'thave.
Million dollars on the side,right?
We were scraping by to get thisdream done.
So you do have the resources andyou have to know how, it's
amazing when you're, when youjust, things like your tech
(05:08):
stack, what are you using forthis and how are you doing that?
Compliance, legal, you name it,whatever it is, you've got a
host of people that have beenthere, done that and can help
you and have a vested interestin.
Helping you achieve that.
And ultimately, what I loveabout franchising, it's a
win-win.
You know, if the franchisee isdoing well, then their revenue's
(05:32):
high.
And that means royalties arehigh, right?
Means we can continue to domore.
And that's what's like reallycool about franchising.
It's you know, you can't reallyfind a partner that's, you know,
wants to do something to hurtthe franchise.
It's only to improve it.
I like that.
It's and it's almost like you'rebuilding from the franchisee
standpoint kind of an ecosystem,right?
(05:52):
You're in markets referring, youknow, may, maybe you can
leverage certain resources,certain employees, contractors,
marketing.
Correct.
Talk to us a little bit aboutthat, because that's something
that, that came up in a previousepisode you know, how to
leverage the ecosystem and kindof everyone referring to one
another.
Absolutely.
And that's so when my brotherand I were thinking it was time
to partner up and take thisthing to the next level, we were
(06:15):
not even interested remotely inanybody other than a platform.
Type of a brand where we wouldbe in a platform with other
brands.
We didn't wanna be part of aprivate equity that this is the
only franchise or guttercompany.
'cause of exactly that.
So at EI, you know, we have ashared services of marketing.
So, you know, the size of thebrands vary, but what's so
(06:37):
amazing is there's like a teamof 11 marketers, right on the
EVI team, plus thesubcontractors and the partners
we have.
Our smallest brand has access toall that knowledge.
All that like, so they'regetting like, you know, they
would've not been able toafford.
Being on their own to get thekind of attention and access to
(06:58):
the type of marketing we're ableto do.
That's one small example.
The tech stack utilizing a lotof the same things, driving down
pricing for things that we alluse, like, you know, things as
simple as, you know, your GoogleSuite or your Microsoft Suite or
use it monday.com or any of thetools that any of us use on any
given day.
So, really.
(07:20):
Just scratching the surfacethere and then it gets to the
bigger, more fun stuff.
How can we cross reference,refer?
We've got three brands in theportfolio that work so good
together.
Now you've got franchisees.
Imagine having a franchisee inHouston, right?
And we have all three brands inHouston, and now they can refer
each other business.
(07:41):
And on top of that, one thingthat can happen in any business
you do and in a franchise, let'ssay you buy one territory or
two.
After 5, 6, 7 years, you get itto like, all right, we're not
growing 40, 50% a year anymore.
We're growing five six.
I might have hit a saturationlevel.
I love the idea that ourfranchisees at some point could
(08:02):
become multi-brand owners andthey can continue to dominate
their market and their area.
They've made all theserelationships and inroads.
I hate when somebody canpossibly get landlocked.
Great.
Grab another brand that, youknow, has a symbiotic
relationship.
So now you can, you're referringyourself now and then you can
co-market, co-brand.
(08:23):
So many cool things on thatlevel.
I love that.
Yeah.
It's yeah, you're right.
You're referring to yourself andyour client acquisition really
drops.
'cause now the home, you go tothe homeowner and say, now
instead of offering these fiveservices, we offer 15 services.
So, you really can upsell justabout every customer that you
have and create thatrelationship and just and
potentially add more brands andjust correct eventually own the
(08:44):
home.
So that I like that.
Taking one step back.
I talk I talk about this all thetime, and it's good to hear
different perspectives from fromindividuals like yourself.
You've been in the franchiseworld for, you know, 20 plus
years, so what do you recommendfor someone?
You have a lot of corporate execexecutives listening in.
They're looking to.
(09:06):
They wanna change they want tokind of, you know, take
ownership of their future andlook into their first franchise.
So aside from the numbers we allwanna make money and that's
obvious.
That's one of the reasons to getinto business ownership.
We call it financial freedom,but, you know, what else, what
do you recommend people shouldstart looking at goal wise and
things like that, because that'ssomething where.
(09:27):
I think people get the shinyobject syndrome and they want
the shiny object the productservice they use.
So yeah, the number one thingthat they should look at is
themselves in a mirror.
The biggest disappointment willbe their own leadership.
It really comes down to it.
It's it's been.
Quite a journey.
And it's really sad to see somepeople that they look at the
(09:49):
item 19 that's published in thething and they're like, oh, I
can make this and this is greatand this sounds easy.
And you know, I've managedemployees before and you know,
they hire people and people quitbecause they're not a good boss
that they don't know how tolead.
You know, I'd say the number onething they should be reading and
devour devouring is anything onleadership.
(10:11):
Anything on running a team.
And it was, it's kind ofinteresting.
A lot of people say, oh no, Irun a team at work.
It's like, okay, did you everbuild a team from scratch?
It's one thing to kind of walkin as a manager.
You got all these white collaremployees that, you know, have
degrees and, you know, there's alevel of it's different.
It's much different than whenyou.
(10:33):
You're selling the vision forit.
Your first few employees, youdon't necessarily have a grant
depending on the franchiseyou're buying.
Of course, you know, if it'sbrick and mortar and you got
this, you know, pizza Hut, Imean, you kept something to walk
into, but a lot of it, it'sconceptual and you're selling
your vision and it's yourleadership.
You know, you, you're notoffering necessarily outta the
(10:54):
gate 401k and health insuranceand all these things that we
have in this corporate life.
I think that is the biggestsmack in the face for some of
some people that, and theyalways look at like the people
that are doing the best, whichyou should, you know, I don't
like when people look, peopleare doing the worst and they
think, well, you know, if theycan do it, I'm better than them.
(11:15):
You know?
Right.
I've got this whole corporatething and all these things I've
been doing, you know, startingyour own business, whether a
franchise or from scratch.
It's, you know, it reminds me ofthat famous Mike Tyson saying,
you know, everyone's got a planuntil they get punched in the
face.
Punched in the face.
Yep.
I have a shirt that says that.
Yeah.
And you'll get punched in theface.
And the gut, I don't care whatfranchise you buy, I don't care
(11:37):
how buttoned up or perfect, youwill get punched in the face.
Yes.
And other areas.
Yes.
It's a constant and you and youare right.
A absolutely as a franchisee.
I, when I had employees come in,you're always competing.
Well, so and so gave me thesebenefits and we said we're a
small organization.
There's so much upside here asthe business expands.
(12:00):
We talked about phantom fanphantom equity, you know, you
know, getting some, you know,percentage of the profits at the
end of the day.
And some people like that and itwasn't for others.
And that and that was fine aswell.
But you're a hundred percentright.
Most people, they, they'll grabon a vision.
Yep.
When you say, Hey listen, we'regonna grow this thing.
And you can be part of that.
And yes, I'm hiring you heretoday.
(12:20):
You might be doing intakes forin-home care, but at some point
you can be a general manager.
Heck.
You can buy your own franchise.
There's six people in thissystem that started out at the
lowest level that ownfranchises, right?
That's what people grab to.
And I think, you know, like youjust said, in the corporate
environment, we think we onlyhave pay Healthcare 401k like
(12:42):
that.
We think that's tool that keepspeople.
Why are, why is everyone leavingcorporate America that has those
things?
They all have it.
Why are they raising their handto say, I want to do my own
thing.
Right.
Because there's, it's dead.
For a lot of'em, it doesn't.
So we definitely have to getthat out of our head.
That's not why people stay, andthat's not necessarily why
people come.
It might be why they look at us.
(13:04):
But at the end of the day,people wanna do something
meaningful and they want to bemoving ahead in their own life.
And if we can provide thatthrough a franchise, then that
is awesome.
But we gotta believe in it.
We gotta have the passion andpeople will follow you.
Love it.
I mean, you nailed it.
I liked that.
I like that.
And looking in the mirror isstep number one.
That's so true.
(13:24):
And some people just get overlyexcited, you know, jump over all
the important stuff.
And it's like, okay what are theproducts that I use every day?
I'm gonna buy a franchise there.
And I go, well, that's probablynot the best way to approach it.
You can own any other businessand buy all the coffee and
burgers that you want, butultimately let's figure out what
it looks like.
Let's figure out if it's evenavailable.
(13:45):
In your market or even if youcan even run it part-time, if
that's something that you'reinterested in doing.
So, I learned a lot.
I grew up in the familybusiness.
My, my family owned an Italianrestaurant, but got into the
franchise business.
What are things that, you know,from when you're going from a
corporate executive to owning afranchise?
You know, what are the thingsthat no one tells you?
Because.
(14:06):
This journey is really settingthe expectation of what's to
come.
So can you talk a little bitabout that?
What is it that nobody tellsyou?
So, you know, along the linesthat I.
This is not, just because it isa franchise doesn't mean, you
know, you'll open up and therevenue and profits start
(14:26):
flowing right away.
May not get a check a paycheck,you know, the first week you're
open.
That's correct.
You know, what are the thingsthat, that really, and this
really applies for, you know,any business, but that people
don't tell you that, you know,it sounds like this is a great
deal, but you have to understandthere's gonna be some swings.
You may have to find absolutelythe right employees and things
like that.
(14:46):
Yeah I think one of the thingsthat most people don't realize
that, that buy a franchise isthat when you look at the item
19 that's published, I can speakfor the brands we have, but I
believe most brands they onlypublish after someone's first
full year in business.
Yep.
So you might have started inlike February, you know, that
(15:07):
year doesn't get published.
Then you're, you know, that nextyear, so the first time you're
seeing financials, these arepeople that, that are almost at
the two year mark and people canget pretty discouraged.
They might be in year, not year,month three or four and go, what
the heck?
I thought I'd be making moremoney.
The item 19 said, this is like,whoa.
Like you're looking at peoplethat have made it over that,
(15:29):
that crazy come to Jesus, like,you know, you're super high.
I bought a business.
You told all your friends, yougo to training, and then you
open up.
And you know, get punched in theface maybe, and you go, oh crap,
what the heck did I do?
Right.
Right.
That crisis of meaning and thenyou get through that right.
In the business.
So I think that's one thingthat's important.
What I like about franchising,if the franchisors are doing it
(15:51):
right, there should really benothing that's not un, that's
not said.
Or that's a surprise I wouldsay.
You're validating.
You're validating withfranchisees, right?
So you get to ask franchiseeanything.
If you were to ask me as afranchisor, how much money can I
make, I am legally not allowedto tell you.
(16:12):
But if you get on with afranchisee and say, how much
money did you make last year?
They are allowed to tell youwhatever they feel comfortable
with, and I highly recommendnever skip that.
Look at the item nineteens.
A lot of franchisors can playgames with numbers.
You wanna make sure and validatewith the Fran, the franchisees.
And I think you hit it right oneveryone.
(16:32):
They know what's tough.
People have said it.
Oh man.
Getting your first few goodemployees is really tough.
You know, finding a shot mightbe tough.
Right.
It's a hard work I've heard thisa couple different times.
You guys said it was gonna behard work.
I didn't realize it was gonna bethis hard.
Right.
So as much as you might behearing some things, I would say
just listen and, you know,'causeI think depending on how bad you
(16:55):
wanna do it, it's a glass halffull goggles that you might be
wearing.
Right.
And I just because something'shard doesn't mean you wouldn't
do it.
It just means you're, you gottaprep like anything worth doing
is hard.
I think about like, people thatwanna lose 50 pounds, you know?
You know exactly what you wannalook like.
You know what you look like now.
I wanna look like Mark Wahlbergwith my shirt off.
Okay.
(17:16):
Well.
I got some work to do and that'sa franchise.
You wanna, that guy that youvalidated with, that's three,
four years in, who's, you know,oh, I just bought a boat and we
went on vacation.
Like, that's why I want abusiness.
Great.
Don't forget the crazy time thathe went through to go from where
he was to where he is today andbe ready.
(17:38):
That part is so worth it.
It's harder than I think peoplethink.
Yeah.
I yeah I cannot agree more.
I think someone said, and hisname is escaping me who who said
this, but he is like, I'm anovernight success.
It only took me 20 years.
So Yeah, 20 years.
Have you people look at us likethat?
(17:59):
Oh, look at what you, oh man.
You got it made.
I'm like.
Do what I do.
You know, like there was a timein business as we were growing
the gutter company that wemissed 11 paychecks in a row to
make sure that we could pay theYeah.
You know, this was beforefranchising.
This was when we were trying tofigure out just a one up
corporate store, like thesacrifices that we made, the
cars that we drive, drove ordidn't drive.
(18:21):
The way we lived, the way wesacrificed, I mean, it was.
Ridiculous.
There's a reason why not a lotof people franchise their
business or why a lot offranchisors never get past five.
Franchisees.
It's freaking hard.
It's very hard.
And you're right, people just,they look at kind of the end
result.
But I tell everyone it's a lotof work.
There's no such thing as apassive franchise, at least that
(18:44):
I know of.
Not truly passive f you know,that's what you call like, the
stock market.
You know, it's that's passive.
You throw your some money inthere and you hope to make some.
And you have no really no set.
You can I guess vote yourproxies, but at the end of the
day that, that to me, you know,to your point, is passive.
A franchise is a lot of work.
Yeah.
And I will say this.
If you're thinking about afranchise and you're thinking
(19:05):
about maybe part-time or it cankind of do it like this, if you
treat your business like ahobby, it will pay you like a
hobby.
Your business is a reflection ofyou and your leadership and of
what you're putting into it.
So if you're getting goodresults, you're looking good in
the mirror.
If you're getting bad resultsit's 99% of the time it's on the
franchisee.
It's very rare that you see, Iwouldn't say rare, I wouldn't
(19:28):
wanna say it that much, butyeah, some franchisors over
promise, under deliver.
You, they, you know, you thoughtit was gonna be more support.
It's not.
But for the most part, I'veseen.
You know, it's amazing.
Like you can have, you know,five franchisees sign on the
same day, go to the same exacttraining, being very similar
markets and have completelydifferent results.
(19:51):
I see that all the time.
We we work the entire countryand it's funny to hear feedback,
oh, it doesn't work in mymarket.
You know, it, there, there's adifference here.
And it's like, I don't thinkthat's the case, you know,
really.
Are you putting in the time andthe effort as you mentioned, is
this.
A part-time hobby.
And I will say from personalexperience and luck luckily my
wife was working at the time, sowe did have an income coming in.
(20:13):
But as a young, you know,basically my mid twenties, I
quit my job to run it full-time.
I.
I don't think anyone else isgonna run the business like,
like yourself.
You may find a great generalmanager and I don't knock that
and there's plenty of peoplethat are successful, but
Correct.
Run it on your own with on yourown dime.
You're gonna learn that businessfast, you're gonna launch it
even faster.
And you're just gonna get abetter appreciation because
(20:35):
you're gonna wear every hat.
You're gonna figure out the rolethat you wanna play in the
business and then fast forward ayear, then decide kind of the
direction you wanna move in.
But I think there's some, it'snot.
I'm not saying it's mandatoryfor many brands it is, but
there's definitely someadvantages of running it
full-time.
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
Talking about, and we touched onthis a a little bit, a little
(20:56):
while ago, but even you know,you buy the one, just assume you
buy the a territory, invest in aterritory, and you decide you
wanna expand it and there issome opportunities.
Talk to us about some strategiesto scale some things for people
to think about.
Do you recommend they look atmore than one oppor one
territory upfront?
What are the advantages there insomething maybe that is you
(21:16):
know, service-based non nonbrick and mortar type of
business?
Yeah, it's, you know, I alwayslook at it like, you know, if
you were to buy a piece ofproperty and put a house on it.
And, you know, and there's apiece of property for sale right
next to it.
You know, you're gonna alwaysregret not buying it because
someone's gonna put up a houseat some point.
Like, oh, I wanted to buy that.
(21:37):
And I was, you know, it would'vebeen great for this or that.
If it's in your budget, youknow, and you gotta look at the
franchise.
Some franchise have bigterritories because they don't
want you to not, like, I don't,they don't want you to get
landlocked.
Only hit like, oh shoot, I canonly do$500,000 a year in this
franchise and crap, I'm in mythird year.
(21:58):
I'm all surrounded and I'm notputting the money I was hoping
to in my pocket.
So you gotta look at that.
You gotta look at historically,what are people in that
franchise doing with one, two,or three territories?
But you do want something to beable to grow into.
So that is something to look at.
So yes, if possible.
Yeah, always, you know, go foranother territory.
(22:20):
However, it, you know, as afranchisor, I've sold somebody
too much territory.
Great franchisees doing plentyof business for one or two, but
that third one's not doinganything right.
They put a completely newfranchisee in there and
quadruple.
The revenue and output of that.
So there is limited space whenyou're selling it and when
(22:41):
you're buying it.
And a lot of franchisers putclauses in there.
It's called a clawback.
If you don't develop, you know,your second territory by X date,
then we can, you know, you endup forfeiting or they buy it
back or something.
And that could, you know, thatcan cause unnecessary pressure
for the new franchisee.
You buy two territories andyou're like, oh yeah, year two,
(23:01):
I gotta get another truck.
And that should be no problem.
But year two might come and yearone was really hard, right?
And now you're paying minimums,or you gotta buy that truck that
you're not even using to fulfillsome sort of an FD, D
requirement and it couldactually make it harder for you.
So I, I don't know if there's aright answer.
It's gotta be right for you.
But I've got some, the one thingI do know is most people hardly
(23:26):
ever saturate their territoriesanyway.
Correct?
Yes.
So I'm a big believer in deepverse wide that you think you
need all this.
It's like being, it's likestarving and going to a buffet.
You fill up your plate, youthink you're gonna eat all this
stuff, and then, you know, mostof it goes in the garbage.
Same thing happens tofranchisees when they want more
territory.
And a lot of franchisers arehappy to sell it to'em.
(23:48):
Oh, we sold a three pack, we hita goal.
Right.
But it doesn't necessarily meanin the long run it's good for
either one.
I I like that.
And you're, and you are.
Right.
You know, some people come to meand say, I just wanna own the
entire state.
And it's like, well, dependingon your state, that could be
2030 different territories.
How are you actively gonna, youknow, how can you possibly
manage and really go as deep aspossible in all these
(24:09):
territories?
You don't need.
All these territories to make agood living, really figure out,
you know, what that investmentlooks like, the total
investment, what, you know, whatthe development schedule looks
like.
Correct.
Kind of what are theexpectations.
So that's a great conversationto be had as you're reviewing
the territories to see what'savailable.
Yeah.
You know, there's a word outthere, responsible franchising
and all that stuff.
(24:30):
I think most franchises theywant you to make, be able to
make a good living on the oneterritory.
You know, that it's designed sothat you can hopefully, again,
everyone's financial goals aredifferent.
Some people are like, I wannabuy a franchise that I put a
million dollars a year in mypocket.
Okay, well I'm sure there'sbrands out there, but those
probably cost four or 5 million,you know?
(24:52):
Right, right.
But there, it's all differentdepending on the brand.
So one territory, I would say,if you can get the second go for
it, third and fourth, you betterbe exceptional.
Make sure, you know, and look atthe financial requirements.
Some franchise will say, youknow, you have to double the net
worth number, the liquiditynumber in order to be approved.
(25:13):
And that's part of the approvalprocess getting approved and
what that approval looks like.
So, yeah, it's definitely aconversation to be had early I.
Kind of figuring out what thenext five to 10 years look like,
but a great conversation to behad and not waiting till the
last minute to figure out whatyou know, what the strategy
looks like.
So, and most franchisors willnot do, and they shouldn't do,
(25:34):
like, first refusal, the rightof first refusal.
Well, hey, let me know if you'regonna sell it.
It's completely unfair to theFran Dev people and the person
that went all the way down theline was ready to buy a Fran,
like the territory next to you.
And then right at the end you'relike, oh no, I'm gonna buy it.
Right.
So most franchisees should notbe offering that to franchisees.
(25:55):
Unless it's like you're thefirst three or four franchisees,
then Yeah, right.
They could probably saysomething like that, but I'd be
weary.
Of, I would never say that.
It just gets you in trouble.
It's a good No, that's a goodpoint.
You know, you don't you don'tknow, you don't know what's
available.
Then basically, if everyone hasthese right of first refusal,
so, I agree.
What other advice?
There's a lot, there's a lot ofpeople listening in.
(26:17):
You know, we talked about threeor four weeks ago, there was a
the IFA president.
Talking about why, you know,three quarters of people, three
quarters of people out there, so75% have thought of owning a
business before of the, of that75%, that 75% of that 75%
basically did not move forwardbecause they didn't know where
(26:37):
to start.
So we talked about kind of, youknow, strategies and things like
that.
What did, what other advice whatdidn't we talk about today that
you would offer to someonelooking.
To make that leap to, to leavethe job.
Maybe they're expecting alayoff, maybe they're just not
happy.
They want, they wanna get outtathe, out of the W2.
What advice would you give tothat person you know, looking to
(26:57):
make the leap have a reallystrong why.
I mean, at the end of it,because you're gonna need grit
to get through starting abusiness, whether you start your
own, you buy a franchise, yourwhy has to be bigger than the
pain and the, and thedifficulty.
Right.
So if it's, I want a legacy formy kids, I wanna make a better
impact in the community.
(27:18):
You know, what's great about,you know, executive home care
and assisted living locators,these are passion plays.
I'd say 90, 95% of ourfranchisees literally start in
EHC or in a LL because like.
Their mother or dad had a reallybad experience, you know, in
within home care or, you know,in that stage of their life.
And they're like, I wanna helppeople and how cool that this
(27:40):
business can help me do that.
Right?
And so at the end of it.
You know, a lot of people wannaget outta corporate America, but
corporate America can startlooking pretty good again.
When you know, you had a steadypaycheck, you had healthcare,
you had 401k, but there wassomething missing.
And I think for a lot of people,like they wanna be able to
control their destiny.
(28:01):
Business and business ownershipgives you the illusion of you're
gonna have both time and money.
Right?
Oh my gosh.
I own my own business.
I can do what I want, my buddydoes.
He's away all the time.
He golfs every day.
Take, there's a big gap betweenwhere you are when you start a
business and to get to that andhaving gotten to that side of
the business, it's so much fun,right?
(28:22):
To build a business that can runwithout you, that you've got
great leaders in place and youcan tap that flywheel.
You can be, you know, RobertKiyosaki defines a business
owner as somebody who can leavetheir business for six months
and it runs without them, youknow, so there's a, you know, a
cashflow quadrant.
Read that book.
That's a highly recommended bookby Robert Kiyosaki.
It talks about the differencebetween, there's four quadrants.
(28:44):
We find ourselves in either anemployee, self-employed,
business owner or investor.
Any of us, you know, if you'relistening, you're an employee.
Any one of you by tomorrow canbe self-employed.
You can just wake up in themorning, quit your job and say,
I'm gonna walk dogs and go knockon doors, and you are now
(29:05):
self-employed.
Right.
And now to go from self-employedwhere you're doing and running
all the system to businessowner, where you've built
something that can run withoutyou, that's a big difference.
And then investor, now you'reinvesting in businesses and
things that you're not part of.
So I would highly recommend thatbook.
I think it's a really good placeto start.
(29:25):
If you're thinking about thisjourney, it really helps you
understand if what you, whatpart of the quadrant you wanna
be on.
I.
What are you willing to do toget there?
Right?
And that's, you nailed it.
That's the piece, right?
It's, this is not an overnightthing.
It's gonna take years.
You gotta build, nothing is everperfect.
Nothing is, you know, they talkabout a straight line.
You go, you start here, you endup there.
(29:47):
Well, it's kind of a squigglyline.
There's some setbacks.
There's some people that leave.
There's customers that cancel.
But ultimately, if you stickwith it, but I think that's the
missing piece.
I feel like.
I don't know if it's this dayand age, if I could, if I should
say that, if that's appropriate.
But it's the quick, you know, Istart the business and all of a
sudden I'm on I'm doing this sixmonths away and the business is
(30:07):
on autopilot.
Yeah, maybe that exists rarely,but I have not figured that out.
I've only met like one or twopeople in my life that just
like, it just came to them.
Right.
They didn't even read a lot ofbooks.
They didn't have mentors, theyjust figured out business.
They were exceptional.
But for everyone else.
It was a longer journey, andthat's what I love about
franchising.
(30:28):
You know, it, it took my brotherand I to, it took us like 10
years to hit a million dollarsin revenue.
The average franchisee inBrothers Gutters, you know, is
hitting that.
I don't wanna make any kind ofearnings claims, but very
quickly.
And hit that type of revenue.
So you're leveraging somebodywho's done it forever and now
you're getting those resultsfaster.
(30:49):
It doesn't necessarily, I feellike it's.
It's not as painful as long,there's still pain.
Sure, absolutely.
Yeah.
Any business franchise or notyou gotta put the time in, you
gotta put the reps.
So, I always like to end theseshows.
The show is awesome, by the way.
Fun fact you left a fun fact.
It was family related.
I'll give you a clue.
I dunno if you remember.
Oh, is it the one that I havesix kids?
(31:11):
Yeah, six kids.
Oh man, that's a, yeah that's ahouse full Wow.
From one and a half to 15.
Oh, wow.
It's quite, quite the activehousehold.
So you got, all right.
So the 15 year olds could watchthe the one and a half year old,
so, right.
So yes.
Yes.
We all pitch in and help, andI'm very amazed that not one of
(31:31):
them had barged in today.
Yeah, I was looking forward tothat.
We set you up.
So that, that, that's awesome.
No I appreciate that.
Now, this is great.
I think you know, these are theconversations to be had.
These are, the conversationssometimes aren't.
Talked about, right?
You get so excited, you kind ofstart ignoring certain things.
You really have to have theright mindset going into it.
And my personal recommendation,and this will save a lot of
(31:51):
marriages is that whatever youdo involve your spouse, your,
you know, whoever's gonna,whoever in the household should
be involved.
My kids were.
Actually, my son wasn't evenborn.
We found out my wife waspregnant a few days after
launching my first business.
But yeah, you know, I hearpeople saying, well, I have
teenage kid.
Let them know what's going on.
Because that first year inbusiness.
(32:13):
Depending how you're running it,if it's part-time or even
full-time, there's gonna bemaybe tightening of the of the
wallet.
You know, maybe no.
Correct.
No vacation that first year, oryou're gonna be working around
the clock to launch it.
But the reason, going back towhat you said earlier, is that
why I'm doing it too, I.
What what my why was to become asoccer coach and never miss a
game.
(32:33):
And I was I got that, yeah, itwas a little bit late a few
times, but I had never missed asoccer game and became a coach.
So my son is 17 and ready forcollege.
So, those are the things, youknow, to prepare for and those
will get you.
Pass the ups and downs inbusiness ownership.
Oh, yeah.
Like anything else, there's somehighs and there's some lows and
Yeah.
You need that to get past thelow.
(32:53):
And don't get me wrong, I knowwe talked a little bit about
the, you know, what to look outfor.
It is the most rewarding thingyou'll ever do.
Is to grow a business, have itrunning and successful, and
create opportunity for otherhumans to strive and hit their
dreams through what you'redoing.
It is the most rewarding thingthat you can, that I've ever
done, you know, outside of, youknow, getting married, having a
(33:16):
family, but when you, I think ofmy professional side, there's
nothing I'm more proud of thanbuilding a business that people.
Thrive in, and I've changedthousands of lives at this
point.
And that, that is not manythings can top that feeling.
That's a great feeling.
So by the way, you have sevenkids, right?
This is your seventh, this isthe the other baby.
(33:37):
Absolutely.
That's awesome.
Listen, Ryan, I, I reallyappreciate it.
This was fun.
I'm glad we we got to chattoday.
Really appreciate all yourfeedback.
We're gonna share all Ryan'sinformation website right on the
blog.
We'll be sharing every Saturdaymorning we launch a new show.
And again, I really appreciateyou coming on the show and
looking forward to chattingsoon.
My pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
Thanks again.
(34:12):
Thanks for tuning in if you wantto learn how to make the
transition from corporate toowning your franchise.
Join Giuseppe on the nextepisode.
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
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