March 30, 2025 • 41 mins
In this full episode of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, Giuseppe Grammatico welcomes back Carmelo Marsala, founder of Spray-Net! Dive deep into Spray-Net's innovative franchise model, from patented technology and AI-powered support to its commitment to community impact and franchisee success. Learn about service expansion, economic resilience, and Carmelo's invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. This is a must-listen for anyone considering a franchise in the home services industry! Choose the right path at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com
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YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0VPYiZ-X2NmWeTB7MojKYw
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We're really looking for peoplewho are not looking for that
(00:01):
boring business, that businessthat anybody else can do,
something that's actuallydifferent.
But really it's a no brainerbecause.
You paint something.
It's not going to last verylong.
It's going to scratch.
You do this last 15 years, won'tscratch, won't peel.
It looks brand new.
You can wash it.
but at the end of the day Wouldyou rather just live with regret
thinking like I should have or Icould have just try I mean I
(00:23):
mean, I know it's easy to sayI'm an entrepreneur and that's
just the way i'm wired Welcometo the Franchise Freedom
Podcast, where you can escapethe corporate trap through
franchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, 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 a two timer, CarmeloMarsala from SprayNet.
Carmelo, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me again.
It's it's awesome.
If you watch SNL, I got to getyou a robe soon.
(01:04):
I don't know if it's the SNLrobe for it.
It's either three times or fivetimes, but I know Tom, Tom
Hanks, I think started that.
So we'll, we'll get you a robefor the for the next appearance,
but wanted to invite you back.
It's been, it's been a while.
I think we had you on the showseveral years ago and I wanted
to bring you back on and, youknow, talk about kind of what's
going on with spraying up.
But for those that.
(01:24):
Missed the first episode givethe audience a little background
who Carmelo is, and then we'lldive into us right now.
Yeah, sure.
Um, I mean, I founded SprayNetin 2010.
We actually manufacture our ownproprietary coatings.
You'll see behind me here, Idon't know if you can see this,
Cousin Chemistry for SmarterPainting.
So basically, we have thesesurface tailored coatings that
(01:45):
we apply to exterior andinterior surfaces, like vinyl,
vinyl windows siding.
Kitchen cabinets and we actuallyhave four patents on our process
And chemistry in order to beable to give that 15 year
warranty that we give so startedthat in 2010 started franchising
in 2014.
Actually, it's been over 10years now and expanded to the u.
s.
Originally from canada expandedto the u.
s.
(02:05):
In 2022 And we actually now havemore u.
s locations than we do canadianones.
So that's kind of it in anutshell Oh, wow.
So more, I did not realize thatsome more, more locations in the
U S wow.
you know, it would spray net.
I know it started off with withsiding, right?
I believe it was painting asiding.
So talk to us about theevolution, because, you know,
when I talk to people, theyalways ask, it's like, okay, do
(02:27):
I.
Have to expand and add maybe acomplimentary business.
We call it brand stacking.
And then in some cases, brandswill add on additional services.
So talk to us kind of where youstarted and where you are today,
as far as the, maybe if youcould list out the services you
offer.
Well, it's funny that you talkabout brass sacking because
initially we only did exteriorsand in the seasonal markets We
(02:47):
basically operated from May toend of October And that was
enough for most franchisees tokind of make a living for the
whole year and be happy with itBut you know a lot of people
wanted more so then we stackedand layered in kitchen cabinet
refinishing kind of justcomplement the seasonality of
our business and then We're notactually now a kitchen cabinets
(03:08):
is almost 50 percent of ourbusiness in the US which is
huge.
It actually took off like crazyand what's amazing about kitchen
cabinets is when people do thecabinets do the exterior and
vice versa And now we're addingon another business.
We actually save, you know,sprain and fringes three
business one We actually have anew roofing business that I can
get into if you'd like but Yeah.
So, this actually started in2016.
(03:30):
So we were doing exteriors.
People would, would often belike, well, you know, I'm not
going to do the outside of myhouse because my roof is not
going to match.
I don't want to spend 20 K tochange the color of my roof.
So, you know, we sought out tokind of find a way to change the
color of the roof.
And like everything we do.
We didn't want it to lookrepainted.
So we said, how can we actuallyjust replace these granules?
It took us years.
In 2019, we actually had ourfirst iteration of a product
(03:51):
where it will spread granules ontop of a roof.
We did that and we realized thishad a whole bunch of other
benefits.
The roofing has increased impactresistance, wind resistance.
Long story short, we applied fora patent in 2019.
We actually were just grantedthis patent two months ago in
the U S.
So we actually have a patent onour root coding too.
So we're really like threebusinesses in one.
So there's no need to stackanything else.
(04:11):
Our franchisees have troublekeeping up already with what we
have.
I congrats.
So that's awesome.
So, so with the patent, thatthat's great.
And now, you know, with thedifferent, different services in
a way, it's almost a reoccurringservice, right?
I mean, it's, people are comingin, you know, coming in for one
service, like the siding Thenthe cabinets don't go into the
roof if not doing it all at onetime But you know people always
(04:31):
ask what's what's reoccurringand what's not it seems like
people are You know, maybetesting you out on the and the
exterior bringing you inside.
I mean, what's your experiencebeen with that?
Well, it's funny.
So we we finally had our firstcustomer who did all three of
our services, right?
Which is amazing because youknow, I did the exterior they
did the the cabins and we wentback to do the roof And we're
starting to see that more andmore and more.
Right.
If you, if you like, if you likeyour vendor or your supplier or
(04:53):
whoever, someone's coming toyour house and you trust them,
well, obviously it was in frontof the services, but the whole,
the whole recurring revenuething, it's funny because a lot
of the recurring revenue issmall.
You know, you get, you get thesepest control or whatnot.
I have a job size, almost 6,000.
So, you know, to have thatrecurring revenue over 10 years
or have it right, right away, Imean, I'd rather have it right
away and then.
(05:14):
You know, we tell ourfranchisees are recurring
revenue.
Like you mentioned is now let'stry to get the other services on
that house.
And we just leverage thatcustomer and that, that customer
acquisition costs.
Right.
You get that, that, that ROI.
That, that makes a lot of sense.
You're right.
Re reoccurring, like mosquitospraying, maybe a hundred bucks
or a couple hundred bucks amonth.
So what does that annualizedassume you can even spray all 12
(05:34):
months.
So that, that, that is a reallygood point when you kind of look
at.
The total, the total job size.
So, awesome.
There was a question I was goingto ask.
I lost my, I started thinking ofthat, that, that got me into a
different I was going to go in adifferent direction there.
Go.
All right.
So kind of going back to spraynet, you know, we bring on,
we've been, you know, we createda series, we're bringing on
founders of various franchisecompanies and all different
(05:57):
industries and.
The reason we're doing that isto really to educate not every
brand is going to fit whatyou're looking for.
And really what it comes down tois not the widget, not the
service, but really thecharacteristics of who does well
in the business based off yourexperience based off of the,
that franchise avatar.
So, talk to anyone that's maybelooking into something like a
(06:19):
company like spray net in thehome services space.
What are the, the keycharacteristics?
Who, who is that person thatyou're looking for that will do
well in this type of business?
Yeah, I'll tell you especiallyfor a long long time.
We are not the right fit foreveryone.
I mean That's just the realityof it.
We're not a simple business.
You know, we've got threeservices We've got multiple
spray guns.
(06:39):
We've got all of this cool stuffBut the reality is it makes for
a less simple business, but onthe flip side We've got this
higher barrier to entry, veryunique, high margin.
So someone who's looking forsomething, something simple you
know, not having to spend thatmuch time, you know, building
the business or whatnot,probably not the right fit for
them.
We're really looking for peoplewho are not looking for that
(07:01):
boring business, that businessthat anybody else can do,
something that's actuallydifferent.
You know, the flip side of that,like I tell people is it's
great.
You're excited about theservice.
It is really cool.
Trust me.
I know I've been doing this fora long time.
Customers are ecstatic about it,but.
But the flip side is people areskeptical that it's possible,
right?
So it takes some time to getthat awareness and get your
business off the ground So it isa bit of a steeper ramp, right?
(07:23):
Like it takes a bit of time toget ramped up But once you get
ramped up, you know, we've done13 houses on the same street,
right?
People love it, but it's notlike roofing everybody knows for
example That I need to replacemy roof or a plumber or whatnot
Not everybody knows you canspray your vinyl windows or your
vinyl siding or finish yourcabinets in this way Or do your
roof in this way.
It's an awareness thing on ouron our end Yeah.
(07:44):
Education is is key because I, Ididn't know until we met several
years ago that you can actuallydo that.
And I go, wow, that's, I alreadyhave a fading on one side of the
home.
So we got, we got a quote toreplace that.
And that was, that was prettyscary given the home is just
just over 10 years old.
So, so, so, so in actuality,you're not really competing and
(08:04):
correct me if I'm wrong, you'renot really competing with.
Painting companies, you'recompeting with contractors
looking to replace the roof.
Contractors looking to replacesiding or even cabinets, if, if
I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, we're, we're, we're luckybecause we fit nicely in
between.
So like painters don't do a lotof the stuff that we do.
So we actually refer them wherewe don't, we don't paint walls,
(08:25):
right?
Like we don't, we don't do likea decks or peeling paint or
whatnot.
So we'll refer them work andthey'll refer us back somewhere,
right?
There are some overlays, butgenerally that's how it works
with contractors often.
They'll refer us to becauseinstead of losing the customer
or not getting the job anyways,they'll be like, well, you know
what?
Like there's no, there's no needto replace this.
Like, for example, in your case,there's no need to replace this.
(08:46):
It just needs, it just needs tobe freshened up.
Here's a company that can dothis properly.
So we, and then vice versa, werefer them when the siding is
just destroyed and it's like,Hey, so we're kind of nicely,
nicely nestled in the middlewhere we get referrals and we
can refer them out.
So yeah, I guess we're analternative to replacement in
some cases.
That'd be probably the mostaccurate way to depict it.
(09:07):
That that's a good point, right?
Because even with the roof andthe siding, sometimes it just,
it needs to be replaced.
There's there's shinglesmissing, there's leaks, there's.
Right.
Nothing you can really do.
So what do you have an idea?
So compared to traditional pastepaint, because I'm sure people
have tried painting theirkitchen cabinets with the roller
and just regular paint.
So you know, is how much, howmuch of a premium, I guess is
(09:29):
the question over pain and onthe flip side, what are people
saving versus replacing cabinetsor, or siding if, I don't know
if you have.
Kind of estimates.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So typically wherever there isoverlap in us with conventional
painters, we we're generallyabout 25 to 30%, maybe more
expensive.
So like, okay, not a hugeamount.
And you know, obviously versusreplacement, we're probably a
(09:51):
quarter of the price, sometimeseven a fifth of the price.
But really it's a no brainerbecause.
You paint something.
It's not going to last verylong.
It's going to scratch.
You do this last 15 years, won'tscratch, won't peel.
It looks brand new.
You can wash it.
Like actually I convention thisyear I launched our new version
of our kitchen coating and oneof my, one of my party tricks.
(10:12):
I like to call it was I actuallystarted my presentation with a
piece of our side, a piece ofour, our cabinet.
I put wine on it.
I put coffee on it at the end ofit.
I just wiped it and showedeverybody how it was.
One of those infomercials.
Yeah.
I like that.
I was like, this better workthough.
Imagine like I would pull, youknow, a musk where he throws, he
(10:32):
throws that, that ball and itbreaks, it breaks the glass.
And it's true.
I mean, that's a.
Stuff that happens, right?
I mean, let's, let's talk reallife examples of what actually
goes on in a, in a kitchen.
So I love that.
And you know, what, what is,what does it look like for
someone?
So someone someone just ends up,you know, they buy a spray net
franchise in the, in theterritory they live.
(10:54):
What is the initial kind of teamlook like?
And what does that franchiseedoing?
So we're from, from kind of thatfirst month to maybe month 12,
what are they doing just to givethe audience a little idea as
far as their role?
Yeah, so I mean We startedtraining, right?
So training, we've got onlinetraining.
Then we get into actual virtualtraining and then we have our
(11:16):
hands on training at our Miamioffice.
So that's, that has to do withsales, financial planning, how
to hire people, you know, all,all of that fun stuff, all the
basics of business, you know,how do you spray guns, et
cetera, which is fun.
People love spring actually.
And then.
From there you get your firstquotes, right?
Those go to our call center.
We schedule the quotes, we sendout a sales trainer to the first
quotes with the franchisee.
(11:37):
They signed, they signed abacklog.
So once we hit, you know, atleast 10 jobs backlog, then we
start producing those jobs.
So at that point you'll havehired a crew, a crew of four to
five people.
And then we'll come in and we'lldo those first jobs with you too
with your crew and train you andyour crew.
So that's typically how it goes.
I mean, that whole process fromtraining to starting your first
(11:57):
job.
Yeah, probably about 60, 60days, 60 to 90 days, depending
on how quickly you're able toassign jobs.
And that, and that's, and that'shuge.
I mean, not only you're offeringtraining, but you're actually
doing the first couple of jobswith them.
And that's where.
You know, I own franchises and,and we talk about support and
every franchise you can't lookat, okay, this, this industry,
(12:19):
and this is a sport I get everyfranchise is going to be
different as their approach, whothey're looking for.
And a big part of training isthat, that hands on training,
the travel, because you go totraining, you know, at a remote
location.
At the headquarters, you comeback, you're, you're super
excited.
And it's like, okay, what do I,what do I do now?
They almost need that, thatextra push.
Like, okay, let's, let's applyit firsthand in a directly in
(12:41):
front of customers.
Let's do a job.
Let's, let's come across all theissues that we, you know, that
you're going to come across onthese jobs.
So.
Training is and support havebeen kind of the, the number one
question.
It used to be, well, how muchmoney can I make?
Right?
Joke.
I mean, it's like, well, it'sjust like any business, you
know, you're going to do your,run your pro formas and things
like that, but now it's kind oflike, I've never owned a
(13:02):
business.
I don't know what, what I, whatI don't know.
You know, I really need thatsupport.
So can you go into a little bitmore on the training and maybe
even touch on you know,utilizing AI?
Yeah.
Well, like, honestly, you know,I spoke about it a bit before.
What we do is a bit morecomplicated.
So like, as a result, we have,we overcompensate on training.
Right.
Because we want to make surethat people can actually
(13:23):
actually, once you get it, Imean, it doesn't, doesn't stay
calm, but like for us it's easynow.
Right.
But like, you know, there's asteeper learning curve.
So like on top of the hands ontraining, we've got our internal
social media.
So like we've got an internalsocial media where, where, where
rookies, we have a rookiechannel and all company channel,
we have a production channel,sales channel, people are asking
questions to other franchises.
(13:44):
Honestly, it's an amazingcommunity.
We're almost 70 franchisees andlike the veterans are answering
the rookies.
I'm getting in there.
I, you know, people always joke.
I love being on Viva Engage,which is our internal social
media.
I'm like literally there fivetimes a day.
Just answering questions becauseI love to be able to answer a
question that every, the wholesystem can see.
Right.
And then what's even betterabout that is.
(14:05):
We've got an AI bot.
So, chat GPT, basically API thatgoes in and crawls all of that,
including all of our trainingmaterials, including all of our
any webinar that we've evergiven.
It goes through the transcriptsso that a franchisee or their
staff can literally ask it aquestion.
And it's got all this brain atknowledge.
So again, answer question 24 7.
We're always in the back end.
(14:25):
There are single questions areanswered.
If there's not a documentation,we supplement it, but it's
crazy.
Like it's answered over athousand questions this month
alone.
Like, and we're like, what day12.
So, so like of staff offranchisees.
So like AI is just an amazingtool to supplement all the
coaching that we can get.
I love that now they, and takingadvantage of it's learning and
(14:46):
people, I'm sure a lot of peoplehave the exact same questions,
especially when they firststart.
So.
I love that switch, switchinggears a little bit.
So you guys were based atoriginally based out of Canada.
So.
This is more educational becauseI just received this question.
So, since you're basing inCanada, I wanted to talk if you
can just kind of briefly FDDsfranchise disclosure documents,
(15:08):
we did a show with HoustonBarnes a while back and, and how
to review an FDD, but going backto, if you are, since you are
based in Canada, is there aseparate FDD in Canada as, as
you have in the U S and.
Do they merge that, thatinformation together?
I guess if, if the audience has,doesn't know, can you explain
the differences between the two?
Oddly enough everything seems tobe way more regulated in Canada,
(15:31):
except for franchising is waymore regulated in the U S we
actually, yeah, it's like, it's,it's way, it's actually way
better structures because somany more franchises in the U S.
So basically we start with our US FPD because that's the most
stringent.
And then we update our Canadianone, but like a U S FDD.
Needs to be updated every year.
Canadian one doesn'tnecessarily, just if there's a
material change.
(15:51):
So, really our, our source oftruth, where the most
information is, is actually inour USFDD.
And does that combine the databetween the two or is that, does
it keep it separate?
So if you want to look at, youknow, Canadian number of
Canadian franchisees, is thatincluded in the U.
S.
FDD?
So it's all outlined.
So it is, it's not, you can, youcan look at it however you'd
like.
(16:11):
So the way that we do it in ouritem 19, which is where the
numbers are shown.
So I'm assuming you're referringa little bit about a little bit
to that.
Now, the reason we do it thatway is because most of our U.
S.
franchises are new and ourCanadian franchisees have been
operating for longer.
So we say, Hey.
Here's what our new usfranchisees are doing.
Here's what our veterans aredoing just so that us branches
can extrapolate in time whatthey could potentially be doing.
(16:34):
What's cool actually is peoplealways ask, well, yeah, but
that's in Canadian dollars.
Our average job size is actuallyhigher in the U S and it is in
Canada.
So we're not charging less inthe U S we're charging dollar
for dollar, the same thing,actually a little bit higher.
So the dollar amounts that theysee in Canada are very easily,
you can easily extrapolate thatto create a sound business fund.
Wow.
Okay.
(16:54):
No, that's interesting.
So I learned, I learned somestuff there.
So I asked these questions for,you know, to educate, but in the
process I, I I learned as well.
So that's awesome.
What a lot of exciting stuffgot, got a, got a new patent,
but also, you know, when, whenwe talk with with candidates,
people looking to exploredifferent franchises, they look
for differentiators and.
(17:14):
There's a lot of great companiesout there.
They offer great products, greattraining, but it's like, how do
we, how do we get the word outto the masses as far as national
exposure?
Uh, talk to us a little bitabout that.
Cause I I've seen you online andwe've seen videos.
I think you teamed up with somelarger companies.
Talk to us about.
Maybe national accounts and justhow you've, you've gained some
national exposure.
(17:35):
Yeah.
So we actually are in Lowe'swhich is, which is amazing,
right?
Our franchisees get to have akiosk in Lowe's the Lowe's
associates talk about ourservice.
You know, they sell our kitchencabinet refinishing service.
That's just one of the ways.
I mean, I think like mostfranchisors, it's how do you
leverage your brand fund?
So brand fund for those that arefamiliar with it is, you know,
one of the I think probably thebest thing about being in a
(17:57):
franchise is a brand fundbecause everybody can kind of
contribute a little bit to thisbig fund that goes a longer way
that you couldn't be able to doon your own.
So, you know, this year, forexample, we're exploring HGTV,
right?
You know, if you're startingyour own business by yourself.
You may not be able to affordHGTV, but now if we've got this
combined purchasing power, wecan, right?
And we can do a lot of reallycool things with this, with this
(18:18):
brand fund.
So really, I think, I thinkutilizing the brand fund dollars
to maximize exposure isprobably, I guess, the
responsibility of mostfranchisors.
We're lucky.
We have a great team.
We're also lucky that we have aservice.
That is somewhat sexy, right?
Because it's different becausewe've got patents because we've
got differentiators.
It's a little bit easier for usto get influencers, a little bit
easier for us to get exposurethrough PR.
(18:39):
So, you know, I said I wasfortunate before I I'm saying it
again.
The fact that we'd havesomething different really helps
us with that exposure.
Right.
I love that.
Switching gears.
This is just something relevantin the news today with
everything going on.
Big, big secret, but, Talk to usabout the effect on, on tariffs.
You know, that was somethingthat actually came up in
(19:01):
conversation with a family I wasworking with last week.
And I know the answer to this,you guys did a great job in
response, but I wanted to hearit.
Directly from you.
So how, how, how will terroristsaffect the business?
Will, will there be any effect?
Talk to us a little bit aboutthat.
Yeah, well, I, I, I'm assumingGab is, is Gab, our friend of
guys who helped you out, but,but let, let me dive into that
(19:23):
one.
Cause there's a lot of pieces toit.
So, number one.
You know, I spoke about how ouraverage job size is actually
higher in the U.
S.
And as in Canada I don't know ifyou, I don't know if you check
the exchange rate, but oneCanadian dollar is 1.
45 U.
S.
dollars.
Yeah.
Which is crazy, right?
Which means, yeah, which meansthat we're basically cheap labor
for America at this point.
(19:44):
So manufacturing in Canada.
Actually is a huge benefit forour U.
S.
Franchisees.
We do distribute through our,our, our, our, our, our U.
S.
Location, but manufacturinglabor cost is almost 50 percent
cheaper.
Everything is just much, muchcheaper.
So if you're charging As theyare in the U S the same or more,
(20:04):
but you're paying almost 30 to40 percent less for the product,
but you can imagine theprofitability for us franchise
actually higher than ourCanadian franchisees.
And I've said this to them, sothere's no secret.
Everybody knows, unfortunately,the Canadians pay more for
products, right?
Just because of the realityexchange rate.
Now let's say we layer on a 25percent tariff that wouldn't
increase the price of theproduct by 25%, obviously,
(20:25):
because you know what it costsus, what we sell it are two
different things we distributethrough our us location.
It would probably increase theprice to the customer at the end
of the day.
If the franchisees were tomaintain their same margin,
let's say they wouldn't want toabsorb the difference.
It would increase the price ofthe customer by two to 3%.
Which is negligible.
You're talking about, you know,let's even know it was 5 percent
(20:46):
just to make the math easy on a5, 000 job.
You're talking about 250.
Like it's not like for theadditional value that we have
versus You know, conventionalproducts or whatnot at 250.
We're not that price sensitive.
It's not going to make much of adifference.
Right?
So, so, you know, I get it.
It's scary because everythingelse will go up in price, but
for us specifically for ourservice, the fact that we
(21:09):
distribute through our us, yourcenter, the fact that we have
cheaper Canadian labor, I guess,if you will, it's an advantage,
this, this, this kind of justhelps bridge that gap a little
bit.
But anyways, we'll even see ifit, if it actually happened or
not.
Right.
It's good.
You know, it's good to talkabout because people, people
panic.
They, they see the news and theydon't know the actual true
effect of what that will looklike.
(21:29):
So I, I appreciate that.
I'm sure that's come up in yourorganization and it's good.
It's great to stay ahead of itand just put everyone's mind at
ease.
So it's funny.
Cause I thought the U Sfranchisees would panic a little
bit more about it, but they'vebeen so great about it.
Like they're like, look, even ifit were to go up 25%.
Which it won't like our productcosts will never go up 25
percent just because wedistribute through the U.
S.
Let's say it increases by Idon't know five to ten percent
(21:51):
They're like our product cost is15 of what we're selling right
labor is really the big part,right?
Yep.
So so the increase of thecustomer is really what we're
looking at and it's it's it'salmost negligible Yeah, I was
going to bring that up.
It's mostly labor, right?
Pain, pain is one aspect, right?
But labor is going to be most ofit.
So very, very good point.
I'm glad, I'm glad you broughtthat up and wanted to cover it.
I like to cover the issues athand because people panic.
(22:14):
They don't, they don't know whatquestions to ask.
So it's good to address.
And every business is going tobe different.
You know, some people may bemanufacturing in their home
state or they may be makingchanges.
So it's good to ask thesequestions.
Should be part of your duediligence when you're speaking
with each and every one of thefranchise companies.
So, sorry, I don't want to talkcause I don't want to lose my
train of thought, but that beingsaid, it has always been our
(22:35):
plan to manufacture in the U Swe manufacture a small portion
in the U S we're going tocontinue to manufacture more and
more in the U S.
The reason why we haven't doneit yet is because it's actually
more expensive.
So, you know, the, we actuallyjust manufacture here,
distribute to our U.
S.
center and then distribute fromthere.
But to manufacture in the U.
S.
would actually cost us more.
(22:55):
So that's the reason why wedon't do it.
We don't want to increase theprice but it is in the plans to
do it just from an efficiencystandpoint.
Gotcha.
Okay.
No, that makes sense.
Let's see.
I was listening to it was apodcast.
I don't remember.
Where this podcast was, but itwas interesting podcast.
It was president of the IFA andthey and I talked about this on
previous episodes and he hadmentioned that this was
(23:18):
interesting, 75 percent ofpeople.
That they've pulled show thatthey had interest in owning a
business, which I thought wasinteresting.
So 75 percent of that, thatgroup of that 75%, three
quarters gave the reason thatthey never actually had moved
forward with a had gone movingforward with a business was they
didn't know where to start whichwas actually pretty interesting.
(23:41):
I always thought it was going tobe a wall.
It's money.
They just felt like you neededmillions of dollars like you do
with.
Some of the bigger brick andmortar fast food chains.
Um, what advice would you giveto someone that, that's kind of
starting out, given that they'repulling people and that seems to
be the biggest thing, they haveno idea where to start.
That's actually a surprisingstat.
Like, if that's really thereason, well, obviously contact
(24:03):
someone like you, right?
I mean, you, you, you know, thebusiness landscape, you know,
like obviously franchise, look,it sounds biased.
But the reality is I speak tofriends and I was like, well,
you know, you're lucky you hadthis great idea.
And he started this business, Idon't have this great idea.
I'm like, okay, you don't needthe idea.
Right.
You can get a franchise.
That's the whole point of afranchise.
Right.
And if you don't know whatfranchise to get, well, hire
(24:24):
someone like Giuseppe, right.
He's, he's seen the landscapebecause you know, you may meet
someone, you'd be like, well,that person may not be the right
fit for SprayNet and maybe forsomething else and you'll put
them in that direction, butlike.
If you don't know where tostart, I mean, obviously hire
someone like you to help youkind of navigate that landscape.
And, and I, and I appreciatethat.
But you know, if, if they're notready to speak with someone, you
(24:46):
know, I always say kind of takea step back and just figure out
whatever that business is.
Don't even worry about theservice, but figure out what the
business looks like.
And I always have people exploreand stand like, what, what's
your role?
Are you keeping your job?
Are you running it full time?
I always say, if you have theability to run it full time, no
one's going to run that businessbetter than yourself.
You know, that's how Iapproached it.
(25:07):
Some franchises will allow youto run part time.
Some prefer you to be full timeupfront, but there's a major
benefit of running the businessfull time.
You get a better appreciation.
And not only that, you canfigure out what role you want to
play down the road.
And, and, you know, and, and.
Part of that too is samplingdifferent things.
So just because you have a salesbackground doesn't mean Maybe
(25:28):
you want to be head of sales andgoing on appointments.
Maybe you're networking at thechamber of commerce.
So anything you wanted to add tothat because I I always
encourage people like it's notthat complicated.
I think they're Looking at the4, 000 franchises in North
America and getting overwhelmed.
I always say, don't worry aboutthe franchise.
Don't worry about the top 500lists.
(25:48):
Worry about, you know, whatyour, what your role is, what
you want to do and what, what'syour timeframe.
So anything you would like toadd to that, because this is
something that comes up over andover again.
Yeah.
Also, I know everybody sayslike, don't get into business
based on what you like.
I agree with that because if youhate what you're doing, if
you're not passionate a littlebit about what you're doing,
(26:10):
like, look, I, I like homeimprovement.
I got, I'll be honest.
Like I love doing rentals.
I love getting hands on.
I love seeing that finalproduct.
Like, wow, what a difference.
If that doesn't speak to you atall.
I mean, see if there's somethingthat does, right?
Like, I guess like choose yourindustry.
And I wouldn't say like, youknow, have tunnel vision on
(26:31):
like, this is the industry,like, you know, look at other
stuff, but make sure you feelgood about what you're doing.
Like, you know, when I speak toour top performing franchisees,
they almost always tell me thesame thing.
They're like, I didn't want aboring business.
I wanted something that had animpact on the community.
I wanted something that putsmiles on people's faces and,
you know, create good jobs forpeople.
Right.
And they're like, I'm happy thatI did this.
(26:51):
Right.
So make sure that it checks theboxes that you want to take off.
Like for me, creating jobs andcreating a good culture was, was
key to me.
Right.
Impact on community.
Honestly, I never even thoughtof that, but that's a huge one.
I didn't even realize, but thatis a huge one, right?
Like some services are cool, butare you really having the impact
on the community that you'd liketo have?
(27:12):
Right.
So anyways, I'd say like.
Everybody talks about boringbusinesses and everybody talks
about, you know, you don't haveto follow your passion.
And I agree with that a littlebit to some extent, but to some
degree you should.
Right.
Yeah, no, that that's, listen,that, you know, people like the
before and after that's, that'swhat home service is all about.
Redoing a bathroom spray net,you know, redoing the roof, the
exterior colors of the home.
(27:34):
So, people really enjoy that.
And, you know, really figureout, you know, one of the
questions, if we're not workingtogether to ask the franchise
company, the franchise, or.
Is, Hey, what, what is a day inthe life of a franchisee?
What does that look like?
Because you want to make sureyou'll, you'll notice in many
cases, the roles are going to besimilar, similar than many
brands.
(27:54):
But are you going to be excited?
Are you going to be enjoyingtalking about it?
Is it something that's justgoing to be a grind?
Well, you got options.
That's why we, we try to figureout a model.
Let's look at kind of the behindthe scenes, what you're doing on
a daily basis, because, becausethat's the thing, all things
equal, no matter what.
you're going to be grinding yearone, right?
You know, like let's assumeeverybody gives great support
(28:15):
and you've got a good model anda good community, whatnot.
You're going to be grinding yearone.
It's going to suck a little bit,but at the end of the day, are
you being fulfilled by whatyou're doing to a certain
extent?
Because, because then it's justlike, feels like, why am I even
doing this?
Right.
Like beyond the money.
You know, there needs to besomething beyond them.
I know the money is veryimportant, but there needs to be
something a little bit beyondthe money to keep you going
(28:37):
because it gets tough and, andthose, those, those dark days
get really dark.
They do.
They, the it's, it's just likethe stock market.
It's a rollercoaster ride.
It's ups and downs.
It's cyclical.
So I always say, you know, goback, go back to the why, you
know, that to me is why that.
Why we started this.
Sometimes we need that, thatreminder when things aren't
going as planned.
And I think we've allexperienced that me included in
(28:59):
my past businesses, currentbusinesses, something, you know,
it's cyclical.
So, but absolutely, I, I thinkthat's that's really important
and not, not to lose sight ofthat.
So kind of, I would say reverseengineer, you know, don't look
at the brands to start, look atkind of what the model looks
like.
What you want to be doing.
What's the average day in alife?
What are your strengths?
You know, do you want a bigstaff?
Do you want a brick and mortarlocation?
(29:20):
Figure all that out beforestarting to look at brands.
Why?
Because when you look at thebrand initially, in my opinion.
And just like I did, and I won'tname names, but in the, in the
restaurant business, you startto settle.
You know, I don't want to worknights and weekends, but I'll,
I'll settle because I have towork nights and weekends.
I don't want lots of staff, butI'll settle.
So I kept settling, settling tothe point where, you know, the,
(29:42):
the business looked nowhere nearwhat my ideal business looked
like.
So figure that out.
You know, I definitely help andspent a lot of time there.
But you don't need me to, toinitiate that.
Start, start with that shortlist, get your financials
together.
That's a good start.
Reach out and we can absolutelyhelp and figure out what the
brands are.
And sometimes we find theperfect branding and guess what?
You know, franchises areterritory based, maybe the area
(30:04):
isn't available.
So if you really like a brand,are you open to exploring?
You know, 30 minutes away, 45minutes away.
These are the things that comeup in franchising.
And this is what I like toprepare people for.
So, that's awesome.
I, what, yeah, go ahead.
No, sorry.
Cause just to add on that, likeI've been doing this for almost
15 years now.
And it's funny.
(30:25):
What lights me up is testimonialTuesdays and before now pictures
that people post on our internalsocial, like you should see, and
I may have sent you some, butlike.
So our franchisees are like thecustomer was thrilled in caps
and then they put the review andthe customer's review is just
glowing and it's like that fuelsyou right that keeps you going
like to be able to provide thatservice to people make them that
(30:46):
happy and then and then you getwe've even had staff say like I
asked staff like why do you whydo you keep coming to work and
they're like The smile oncustomers faces, like it's a
different project, differentchallenge every day.
Anyways, I'm not here to justtoot my own horn here about
spraying it, but it's just,that's what keeps me going.
So it's fine.
That thing that keeps you going.
Right.
So anyways, yeah, I guess I,yeah, you got, you got to give
(31:06):
that some thought and, and, andreflect.
And sometimes I always say like,when do you do all this?
You got family, you got work.
I always say, you know, duringthe week, it's busy.
Take time on the weekend, sleepin a little bit, spend some time
there.
That's where I did a lot of my,my deep thinking, because during
the week you got a millionthings going on, but really.
Set aside an hour, you know,figuring that out, let the
family know if you're, if you'remarried, let your spouse know,
(31:28):
let the kids know why you'redoing all this.
I talk about this quite a bit.
I think that's crucial, youknow, going to be mom and dad
are going to be working a lotlonger, you know, you know,
maybe no vacation this year aswe launch the business, but
we're doing it.
To obviously, you know, createsome, some, some time freedom.
So we can spend a lot more timewith you guys have a flexible
schedule.
(31:49):
Just like I do, you know, we'rebig soccer fans and I don't miss
my son's soccer matches youknow, whatsoever we go to
practices, we record with thoseAI cameras.
I'm, I'm the guy in charge ofthat.
And I really enjoy doing that.
So sometimes.
That time freedom is really whatpeople are trying.
You know, there's only 24 hours.
We have the same equal even incanada You guys have the same
amount of time.
(32:09):
So, uh You know, so it's like,you know, you know in all
seriousness we have the sameamount of time So, how do we how
do we free it up so we canreally spend the days?
Uh as we uh as we see fit, youknow as we want to spend them
best piece of advice you haveever received It's a Ted talk.
Actually, you know, I changethis every time someone asks me
a question, depending on what'sgoing on.
(32:31):
What did you say in the lastshow?
But, but, but just, just basedon this week, based on, on, on
something that just came to mindthis morning is, is be a giver.
You know, there's a TED talk byAdam Grant, Givers vs.
Takers.
If you haven't seen it, I was, Iwas drunk.
This is just watching it.
Give give to the world.
Give to others.
Be generous of your time.
You know, be a giver, not ataker.
(32:52):
And that, that ties into whatI've been talking about the
whole time.
Like, you know, something thatyou could, you see yourself, not
just taking cash, not just beinga giver to society, to
community, creating jobs.
If I feel, I strongly believethat if you're a giver in the
long run, maybe not in the shortterm, that's not always the way,
but in the long run, it'll comeback to you.
So just, just, just be a giverand not a taker.
And that's Adam Graham, TEDtalk, you said?
(33:14):
Adam Grant.
Yeah.
A grant.
Yeah.
There's a 15 minute TED talk.
I strongly suggest watching it.
I, I talk about it all the timebecause it's just so true and
you feel it when people are justtaking, when people are giving.
So be generous with your time,with everything, right?
And it'll come back to you.
Love that.
We're gonna, I'm going to lookthat up and we'll, we'll put the
the YouTube link on the in theshow notes.
(33:35):
Anything else we didn't talkabout?
Sorry, I got a little feedback.
Any, anything else we didn'ttalk about?
Um, you know, got a lot of firsttime entrepreneurs or people
looking to, you know, lead thecorporate grind to, to start
their own business.
Any other pieces of advice thatyou would like to leave the
audience with?
I know it was cliche, but likeIf you're thinking about all the
(33:55):
time just do something about itYou don't want to like wake up
10 years from now and just beregretting it you know, is it
going to be the right choice?
Maybe maybe not like it may beharder than you think it, you
know um but at the end of theday Would you rather just live
with regret thinking like Ishould have or I could have just
try I mean I mean, I know it'seasy to say I'm an entrepreneur
(34:15):
and that's just the way i'mwired but And we all took risks.
I mean, there's, there's, thereis no guarantees that we'll have
our job.
There's no guarantees.
The business will succeed.
But going back to Ted talks andI, and I forget the speaker, but
a grit.
There was a Ted talk on grit andit talks about just this
unwavering persistence to justmake things happen.
(34:37):
Understanding there's going tobe the ups and downs like we,
you know, the, the, the beingcyclical and that kind of stuff.
But just, you know, making, youknow, this is, this is the life
I want.
These are the changes in orderfor me to have these changes.
I need to really take control ofmy career.
So.
It definitely won't be easy.
It's going to be a lot of hours.
As I tell everyone, I don't liketo paint a, a picture where you
just buy a franchise and what isit?
(34:59):
And I don't know if you rememberback in the day that Ron Popeil
said it and forget it, you just,you just throw this stuff in the
machine and it makes a sausagelinks for you.
It's, it's nothing like that,that you have to be involved.
It's not just, you pay thefranchise fee, the franchise,
or.
Runs a business they would needyou for that, right?
They need you to have that gritand really to, to, to work the
business, follow the system.
So, but I encourage everyone toexplore it, you know, start
(35:22):
talking other franchise owners,entrepreneurs, not people that
never owned the business.
Talk to people that own thebusiness.
You want to know how it's theups and downs.
How does it feel not payingyourself?
Maybe the first month, how doesit feel two years later when
you're never missing?
You know, I don't know, a dancerecital, a soccer event and
things like that.
So talk, talk to those people atdifferent stages in life.
I think that's super helpful,but ultimately it's what you
(35:44):
make of it.
You got to do your duediligence, but you got to start
somewhere.
And to your point don't want tolive with, with any regrets.
And I see a lot of people comingback to me year, 20, 30 years of
looking into it.
Maybe they're fearing losingtheir job.
Now they're in their fifties andsixties saying.
You may, is this the right timeto own a, to own a business?
Because I feel like, you know,the end is near with the job I
(36:05):
have.
So, so absolutely.
No, that, that's awesome.
I really appreciate that.
I'm going to put that in theshow notes.
Look at the end of the day,there is no magic bullet.
It's just about trying somethinglike we've been franchising for
so long now that like, we'vegotten a bit more selective on
who we want to let in.
Just because like you should do,like, let's say you're exploring
a franchise or whatnot.
(36:27):
Do I feel comfortable workingwith these people?
And actually, my litmus test is,do I feel like, if times get
really tough, that I can have areasonable conversation with
this person?
And if the answer is not withouta doubt, no yes, then maybe,
maybe it's not a fit, right?
And it goes both ways.
Like, I always, I always tellpeople, like, yes, we're
(36:48):
exploring if you're the rightfit, but you also need to be
exploring if we're the right fitfor you, right?
Like, we gotta see ourselvesworking together for 10 years.
Two, two way, I always say it'sa two way interview, it's a two
way street.
And big part of any franchise oras you want to speak directly,
whether it's in person or it'svirtually with the founder.
So that would be Carmelo in thiscase.
But talk to the, I always saythat the way I explain is talk
(37:08):
to the captain steering the shipbecause, you know, spray net,
whatever the franchise is, youkind of know historically what
has been done.
You have the franchiseagreements.
This is our system, but where isthis business going?
What do you anticipate?
Challenges, additional services,whatever the, whatever the case
may be, maybe changes tomarketing, working with another
(37:30):
company like Lowe's, it's goodto know and speak directly with
the founders.
And I actually, yeah, I actuallyhost.
Calls every two weeks withpotential candidates.
We actually had a really goodcall last week.
It was, I think we're eightpeople on the call and it's,
it's actually fun because, youknow, some people piggyback off
each other's questions.
We have a good conversation andhonestly, it's, it creates
content for us too.
Like, Oh, I didn't think people.
(37:51):
Had a question about that,right?
Like maybe you should putcontent out about that because a
lot of people have questionsabout that.
So it's actually fun for me, funfor the group.
And we kind of get to see whatdo you connect with?
What do you not connect with?
And that's, you know, and that'show we invite people to the next
stage in our process.
I think, I think it's hugebecause you know, I know other,
there have been other companieswhere the founder, basically you
meet them at the very end, youdon't speak with them, you meet
(38:12):
them at the very end.
And at that point, it's like,that's kind of decision time,
right?
Either you get accepted.
You obviously have to agree tothe, to the award letter, a
number, a number of territories,locations, whatever the
franchise is.
So I think that's crucial in theprocess to be for the founders
to be involved.
And not wait till the very endto say, yeah, maybe, maybe you
weren't a good fit.
And I probably could have toldyou this two calls in and vice
(38:35):
versa, you know, that the personexploring may say, love the
brand, love everything about it.
But the, the founder, I think wejust.
Differences of opinion.
Maybe I kind of feel like itshould go in this direction.
They're going in a different andthat's fine It's not about right
or wrong.
It's about it's about the match.
So I love that So that's I thinkthat's what we're seeing more
and more of that where foundersare involved earlier on in the
process And when people say wellWhat are the odds of getting
(38:58):
approved now?
we say the odds in my in mypersonal opinion should be
pretty high because At thatpoint if you've made it that far
to get you know, invited to adiscovery virtual or in person
discovery day.
Then, you know, you've, you've,you've checked off boxes on both
ends and there usually is ahigher approval process as
opposed to never talking to thefounder and going in blind, not
(39:20):
knowing.
So, not that it's guaranteed,but you are at the end of the
day, awarded a franchise.
You are awarded a select numberof territories.
So, you know, keep, keep that inmind as well.
You know, you want to speak withfounders or maybe even requests.
To speak with the founder ormaybe it's like like in a group
setting like you guys were doingso I think that's I think it's a
big plus.
So, and last thing, I, I, I, Ithink I forgot this on, on, on
(39:43):
our first one.
Fun fact, Bobby, you rememberwhat you put down?
I did not but I mean, it ispretty fun.
I've got four kids, so that'skind of fun.
It's a party in my house.
Did I say that the first time?
No, I didn't even have four kidsback then.
No, I don't think you did.
Yeah, they were, they wereyounger.
So I think, yeah, you did not.
(40:04):
Cause I think it was, it wastwo, two and a half years ago.
I think is when.
It was when the last show aired.
I may have.
Yeah.
We, we got a surprise two forone special.
We've got twins trying for ourthird.
So yeah, we went from two tofour.
So that's it.
That's even more motivation thatyou know, to, to, to stay in the
business.
So, and and, and we're, we'rehardcore soccer fans.
So that's You know, we, we, weyou know, we, we definitely
(40:26):
enjoy the sport, but cool.
Listen, I, Carmine, I reallyappreciate it.
Looking forward to having youback on the show.
If there's anything I alwaystell the guests that we didn't
talk about or something even alink or something you'd
recommend the audience to checkout, shoot me an email, we
always include a blog and shownotes with some additional
information.
So you'll find all the links,spray net.
(40:47):
You know, the Ted talk hereabout being don't be just being
a giver grit.
We'll, we'll include all thoselinks in the show notes and
we'll we'll definitely talksoon.
Thanks again.
Thanks, sir.
Talk soon.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
(41:07):
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
We're really looking for peoplewho are not looking for that
(00:01):
boring business, that businessthat anybody else can do,
something that's actuallydifferent.
But really it's a no brainerbecause.
You paint something.
It's not going to last verylong.
It's going to scratch.
You do this last 15 years, won'tscratch, won't peel.
It looks brand new.
You can wash it.
but at the end of the day Wouldyou rather just live with regret
thinking like I should have or Icould have just try I mean I
(00:23):
mean, I know it's easy to sayI'm an entrepreneur and that's
just the way i'm wired Welcometo the Franchise Freedom
Podcast, where you can escapethe corporate trap through
franchise ownership.
Here's your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, The Franchise Guide.
Welcome to the Franchise FreedomPodcast.
(00:43):
I'm your host, GiuseppeGrammatico, 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 a two timer, CarmeloMarsala from SprayNet.
Carmelo, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me again.
It's it's awesome.
If you watch SNL, I got to getyou a robe soon.
(01:04):
I don't know if it's the SNLrobe for it.
It's either three times or fivetimes, but I know Tom, Tom
Hanks, I think started that.
So we'll, we'll get you a robefor the for the next appearance,
but wanted to invite you back.
It's been, it's been a while.
I think we had you on the showseveral years ago and I wanted
to bring you back on and, youknow, talk about kind of what's
going on with spraying up.
But for those that.
(01:24):
Missed the first episode givethe audience a little background
who Carmelo is, and then we'lldive into us right now.
Yeah, sure.
Um, I mean, I founded SprayNetin 2010.
We actually manufacture our ownproprietary coatings.
You'll see behind me here, Idon't know if you can see this,
Cousin Chemistry for SmarterPainting.
So basically, we have thesesurface tailored coatings that
(01:45):
we apply to exterior andinterior surfaces, like vinyl,
vinyl windows siding.
Kitchen cabinets and we actuallyhave four patents on our process
And chemistry in order to beable to give that 15 year
warranty that we give so startedthat in 2010 started franchising
in 2014.
Actually, it's been over 10years now and expanded to the u.
s.
Originally from canada expandedto the u.
s.
(02:05):
In 2022 And we actually now havemore u.
s locations than we do canadianones.
So that's kind of it in anutshell Oh, wow.
So more, I did not realize thatsome more, more locations in the
U S wow.
you know, it would spray net.
I know it started off with withsiding, right?
I believe it was painting asiding.
So talk to us about theevolution, because, you know,
when I talk to people, theyalways ask, it's like, okay, do
(02:27):
I.
Have to expand and add maybe acomplimentary business.
We call it brand stacking.
And then in some cases, brandswill add on additional services.
So talk to us kind of where youstarted and where you are today,
as far as the, maybe if youcould list out the services you
offer.
Well, it's funny that you talkabout brass sacking because
initially we only did exteriorsand in the seasonal markets We
(02:47):
basically operated from May toend of October And that was
enough for most franchisees tokind of make a living for the
whole year and be happy with itBut you know a lot of people
wanted more so then we stackedand layered in kitchen cabinet
refinishing kind of justcomplement the seasonality of
our business and then We're notactually now a kitchen cabinets
(03:08):
is almost 50 percent of ourbusiness in the US which is
huge.
It actually took off like crazyand what's amazing about kitchen
cabinets is when people do thecabinets do the exterior and
vice versa And now we're addingon another business.
We actually save, you know,sprain and fringes three
business one We actually have anew roofing business that I can
get into if you'd like but Yeah.
So, this actually started in2016.
(03:30):
So we were doing exteriors.
People would, would often belike, well, you know, I'm not
going to do the outside of myhouse because my roof is not
going to match.
I don't want to spend 20 K tochange the color of my roof.
So, you know, we sought out tokind of find a way to change the
color of the roof.
And like everything we do.
We didn't want it to lookrepainted.
So we said, how can we actuallyjust replace these granules?
It took us years.
In 2019, we actually had ourfirst iteration of a product
(03:51):
where it will spread granules ontop of a roof.
We did that and we realized thishad a whole bunch of other
benefits.
The roofing has increased impactresistance, wind resistance.
Long story short, we applied fora patent in 2019.
We actually were just grantedthis patent two months ago in
the U S.
So we actually have a patent onour root coding too.
So we're really like threebusinesses in one.
So there's no need to stackanything else.
(04:11):
Our franchisees have troublekeeping up already with what we
have.
I congrats.
So that's awesome.
So, so with the patent, thatthat's great.
And now, you know, with thedifferent, different services in
a way, it's almost a reoccurringservice, right?
I mean, it's, people are comingin, you know, coming in for one
service, like the siding Thenthe cabinets don't go into the
roof if not doing it all at onetime But you know people always
(04:31):
ask what's what's reoccurringand what's not it seems like
people are You know, maybetesting you out on the and the
exterior bringing you inside.
I mean, what's your experiencebeen with that?
Well, it's funny.
So we we finally had our firstcustomer who did all three of
our services, right?
Which is amazing because youknow, I did the exterior they
did the the cabins and we wentback to do the roof And we're
starting to see that more andmore and more.
Right.
If you, if you like, if you likeyour vendor or your supplier or
(04:53):
whoever, someone's coming toyour house and you trust them,
well, obviously it was in frontof the services, but the whole,
the whole recurring revenuething, it's funny because a lot
of the recurring revenue issmall.
You know, you get, you get thesepest control or whatnot.
I have a job size, almost 6,000.
So, you know, to have thatrecurring revenue over 10 years
or have it right, right away, Imean, I'd rather have it right
away and then.
(05:14):
You know, we tell ourfranchisees are recurring
revenue.
Like you mentioned is now let'stry to get the other services on
that house.
And we just leverage thatcustomer and that, that customer
acquisition costs.
Right.
You get that, that, that ROI.
That, that makes a lot of sense.
You're right.
Re reoccurring, like mosquitospraying, maybe a hundred bucks
or a couple hundred bucks amonth.
So what does that annualizedassume you can even spray all 12
(05:34):
months.
So that, that, that is a reallygood point when you kind of look
at.
The total, the total job size.
So, awesome.
There was a question I was goingto ask.
I lost my, I started thinking ofthat, that, that got me into a
different I was going to go in adifferent direction there.
Go.
All right.
So kind of going back to spraynet, you know, we bring on,
we've been, you know, we createda series, we're bringing on
founders of various franchisecompanies and all different
(05:57):
industries and.
The reason we're doing that isto really to educate not every
brand is going to fit whatyou're looking for.
And really what it comes down tois not the widget, not the
service, but really thecharacteristics of who does well
in the business based off yourexperience based off of the,
that franchise avatar.
So, talk to anyone that's maybelooking into something like a
(06:19):
company like spray net in thehome services space.
What are the, the keycharacteristics?
Who, who is that person thatyou're looking for that will do
well in this type of business?
Yeah, I'll tell you especiallyfor a long long time.
We are not the right fit foreveryone.
I mean That's just the realityof it.
We're not a simple business.
You know, we've got threeservices We've got multiple
spray guns.
(06:39):
We've got all of this cool stuffBut the reality is it makes for
a less simple business, but onthe flip side We've got this
higher barrier to entry, veryunique, high margin.
So someone who's looking forsomething, something simple you
know, not having to spend thatmuch time, you know, building
the business or whatnot,probably not the right fit for
them.
We're really looking for peoplewho are not looking for that
(07:01):
boring business, that businessthat anybody else can do,
something that's actuallydifferent.
You know, the flip side of that,like I tell people is it's
great.
You're excited about theservice.
It is really cool.
Trust me.
I know I've been doing this fora long time.
Customers are ecstatic about it,but.
But the flip side is people areskeptical that it's possible,
right?
So it takes some time to getthat awareness and get your
business off the ground So it isa bit of a steeper ramp, right?
(07:23):
Like it takes a bit of time toget ramped up But once you get
ramped up, you know, we've done13 houses on the same street,
right?
People love it, but it's notlike roofing everybody knows for
example That I need to replacemy roof or a plumber or whatnot
Not everybody knows you canspray your vinyl windows or your
vinyl siding or finish yourcabinets in this way Or do your
roof in this way.
It's an awareness thing on ouron our end Yeah.
(07:44):
Education is is key because I, Ididn't know until we met several
years ago that you can actuallydo that.
And I go, wow, that's, I alreadyhave a fading on one side of the
home.
So we got, we got a quote toreplace that.
And that was, that was prettyscary given the home is just
just over 10 years old.
So, so, so, so in actuality,you're not really competing and
(08:04):
correct me if I'm wrong, you'renot really competing with.
Painting companies, you'recompeting with contractors
looking to replace the roof.
Contractors looking to replacesiding or even cabinets, if, if
I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, we're, we're, we're luckybecause we fit nicely in
between.
So like painters don't do a lotof the stuff that we do.
So we actually refer them wherewe don't, we don't paint walls,
(08:25):
right?
Like we don't, we don't do likea decks or peeling paint or
whatnot.
So we'll refer them work andthey'll refer us back somewhere,
right?
There are some overlays, butgenerally that's how it works
with contractors often.
They'll refer us to becauseinstead of losing the customer
or not getting the job anyways,they'll be like, well, you know
what?
Like there's no, there's no needto replace this.
Like, for example, in your case,there's no need to replace this.
(08:46):
It just needs, it just needs tobe freshened up.
Here's a company that can dothis properly.
So we, and then vice versa, werefer them when the siding is
just destroyed and it's like,Hey, so we're kind of nicely,
nicely nestled in the middlewhere we get referrals and we
can refer them out.
So yeah, I guess we're analternative to replacement in
some cases.
That'd be probably the mostaccurate way to depict it.
(09:07):
That that's a good point, right?
Because even with the roof andthe siding, sometimes it just,
it needs to be replaced.
There's there's shinglesmissing, there's leaks, there's.
Right.
Nothing you can really do.
So what do you have an idea?
So compared to traditional pastepaint, because I'm sure people
have tried painting theirkitchen cabinets with the roller
and just regular paint.
So you know, is how much, howmuch of a premium, I guess is
(09:29):
the question over pain and onthe flip side, what are people
saving versus replacing cabinetsor, or siding if, I don't know
if you have.
Kind of estimates.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So typically wherever there isoverlap in us with conventional
painters, we we're generallyabout 25 to 30%, maybe more
expensive.
So like, okay, not a hugeamount.
And you know, obviously versusreplacement, we're probably a
(09:51):
quarter of the price, sometimeseven a fifth of the price.
But really it's a no brainerbecause.
You paint something.
It's not going to last verylong.
It's going to scratch.
You do this last 15 years, won'tscratch, won't peel.
It looks brand new.
You can wash it.
Like actually I convention thisyear I launched our new version
of our kitchen coating and oneof my, one of my party tricks.
(10:12):
I like to call it was I actuallystarted my presentation with a
piece of our side, a piece ofour, our cabinet.
I put wine on it.
I put coffee on it at the end ofit.
I just wiped it and showedeverybody how it was.
One of those infomercials.
Yeah.
I like that.
I was like, this better workthough.
Imagine like I would pull, youknow, a musk where he throws, he
(10:32):
throws that, that ball and itbreaks, it breaks the glass.
And it's true.
I mean, that's a.
Stuff that happens, right?
I mean, let's, let's talk reallife examples of what actually
goes on in a, in a kitchen.
So I love that.
And you know, what, what is,what does it look like for
someone?
So someone someone just ends up,you know, they buy a spray net
franchise in the, in theterritory they live.
(10:54):
What is the initial kind of teamlook like?
And what does that franchiseedoing?
So we're from, from kind of thatfirst month to maybe month 12,
what are they doing just to givethe audience a little idea as
far as their role?
Yeah, so I mean We startedtraining, right?
So training, we've got onlinetraining.
Then we get into actual virtualtraining and then we have our
(11:16):
hands on training at our Miamioffice.
So that's, that has to do withsales, financial planning, how
to hire people, you know, all,all of that fun stuff, all the
basics of business, you know,how do you spray guns, et
cetera, which is fun.
People love spring actually.
And then.
From there you get your firstquotes, right?
Those go to our call center.
We schedule the quotes, we sendout a sales trainer to the first
quotes with the franchisee.
(11:37):
They signed, they signed abacklog.
So once we hit, you know, atleast 10 jobs backlog, then we
start producing those jobs.
So at that point you'll havehired a crew, a crew of four to
five people.
And then we'll come in and we'lldo those first jobs with you too
with your crew and train you andyour crew.
So that's typically how it goes.
I mean, that whole process fromtraining to starting your first
(11:57):
job.
Yeah, probably about 60, 60days, 60 to 90 days, depending
on how quickly you're able toassign jobs.
And that, and that's, and that'shuge.
I mean, not only you're offeringtraining, but you're actually
doing the first couple of jobswith them.
And that's where.
You know, I own franchises and,and we talk about support and
every franchise you can't lookat, okay, this, this industry,
(12:19):
and this is a sport I get everyfranchise is going to be
different as their approach, whothey're looking for.
And a big part of training isthat, that hands on training,
the travel, because you go totraining, you know, at a remote
location.
At the headquarters, you comeback, you're, you're super
excited.
And it's like, okay, what do I,what do I do now?
They almost need that, thatextra push.
Like, okay, let's, let's applyit firsthand in a directly in
(12:41):
front of customers.
Let's do a job.
Let's, let's come across all theissues that we, you know, that
you're going to come across onthese jobs.
So.
Training is and support havebeen kind of the, the number one
question.
It used to be, well, how muchmoney can I make?
Right?
Joke.
I mean, it's like, well, it'sjust like any business, you
know, you're going to do your,run your pro formas and things
like that, but now it's kind oflike, I've never owned a
(13:02):
business.
I don't know what, what I, whatI don't know.
You know, I really need thatsupport.
So can you go into a little bitmore on the training and maybe
even touch on you know,utilizing AI?
Yeah.
Well, like, honestly, you know,I spoke about it a bit before.
What we do is a bit morecomplicated.
So like, as a result, we have,we overcompensate on training.
Right.
Because we want to make surethat people can actually
(13:23):
actually, once you get it, Imean, it doesn't, doesn't stay
calm, but like for us it's easynow.
Right.
But like, you know, there's asteeper learning curve.
So like on top of the hands ontraining, we've got our internal
social media.
So like we've got an internalsocial media where, where, where
rookies, we have a rookiechannel and all company channel,
we have a production channel,sales channel, people are asking
questions to other franchises.
(13:44):
Honestly, it's an amazingcommunity.
We're almost 70 franchisees andlike the veterans are answering
the rookies.
I'm getting in there.
I, you know, people always joke.
I love being on Viva Engage,which is our internal social
media.
I'm like literally there fivetimes a day.
Just answering questions becauseI love to be able to answer a
question that every, the wholesystem can see.
Right.
And then what's even betterabout that is.
(14:05):
We've got an AI bot.
So, chat GPT, basically API thatgoes in and crawls all of that,
including all of our trainingmaterials, including all of our
any webinar that we've evergiven.
It goes through the transcriptsso that a franchisee or their
staff can literally ask it aquestion.
And it's got all this brain atknowledge.
So again, answer question 24 7.
We're always in the back end.
(14:25):
There are single questions areanswered.
If there's not a documentation,we supplement it, but it's
crazy.
Like it's answered over athousand questions this month
alone.
Like, and we're like, what day12.
So, so like of staff offranchisees.
So like AI is just an amazingtool to supplement all the
coaching that we can get.
I love that now they, and takingadvantage of it's learning and
(14:46):
people, I'm sure a lot of peoplehave the exact same questions,
especially when they firststart.
So.
I love that switch, switchinggears a little bit.
So you guys were based atoriginally based out of Canada.
So.
This is more educational becauseI just received this question.
So, since you're basing inCanada, I wanted to talk if you
can just kind of briefly FDDsfranchise disclosure documents,
(15:08):
we did a show with HoustonBarnes a while back and, and how
to review an FDD, but going backto, if you are, since you are
based in Canada, is there aseparate FDD in Canada as, as
you have in the U S and.
Do they merge that, thatinformation together?
I guess if, if the audience has,doesn't know, can you explain
the differences between the two?
Oddly enough everything seems tobe way more regulated in Canada,
(15:31):
except for franchising is waymore regulated in the U S we
actually, yeah, it's like, it's,it's way, it's actually way
better structures because somany more franchises in the U S.
So basically we start with our US FPD because that's the most
stringent.
And then we update our Canadianone, but like a U S FDD.
Needs to be updated every year.
Canadian one doesn'tnecessarily, just if there's a
material change.
(15:51):
So, really our, our source oftruth, where the most
information is, is actually inour USFDD.
And does that combine the databetween the two or is that, does
it keep it separate?
So if you want to look at, youknow, Canadian number of
Canadian franchisees, is thatincluded in the U.
S.
FDD?
So it's all outlined.
So it is, it's not, you can, youcan look at it however you'd
like.
(16:11):
So the way that we do it in ouritem 19, which is where the
numbers are shown.
So I'm assuming you're referringa little bit about a little bit
to that.
Now, the reason we do it thatway is because most of our U.
S.
franchises are new and ourCanadian franchisees have been
operating for longer.
So we say, Hey.
Here's what our new usfranchisees are doing.
Here's what our veterans aredoing just so that us branches
can extrapolate in time whatthey could potentially be doing.
(16:34):
What's cool actually is peoplealways ask, well, yeah, but
that's in Canadian dollars.
Our average job size is actuallyhigher in the U S and it is in
Canada.
So we're not charging less inthe U S we're charging dollar
for dollar, the same thing,actually a little bit higher.
So the dollar amounts that theysee in Canada are very easily,
you can easily extrapolate thatto create a sound business fund.
Wow.
Okay.
(16:54):
No, that's interesting.
So I learned, I learned somestuff there.
So I asked these questions for,you know, to educate, but in the
process I, I I learned as well.
So that's awesome.
What a lot of exciting stuffgot, got a, got a new patent,
but also, you know, when, whenwe talk with with candidates,
people looking to exploredifferent franchises, they look
for differentiators and.
(17:14):
There's a lot of great companiesout there.
They offer great products, greattraining, but it's like, how do
we, how do we get the word outto the masses as far as national
exposure?
Uh, talk to us a little bitabout that.
Cause I I've seen you online andwe've seen videos.
I think you teamed up with somelarger companies.
Talk to us about.
Maybe national accounts and justhow you've, you've gained some
national exposure.
(17:35):
Yeah.
So we actually are in Lowe'swhich is, which is amazing,
right?
Our franchisees get to have akiosk in Lowe's the Lowe's
associates talk about ourservice.
You know, they sell our kitchencabinet refinishing service.
That's just one of the ways.
I mean, I think like mostfranchisors, it's how do you
leverage your brand fund?
So brand fund for those that arefamiliar with it is, you know,
one of the I think probably thebest thing about being in a
(17:57):
franchise is a brand fundbecause everybody can kind of
contribute a little bit to thisbig fund that goes a longer way
that you couldn't be able to doon your own.
So, you know, this year, forexample, we're exploring HGTV,
right?
You know, if you're startingyour own business by yourself.
You may not be able to affordHGTV, but now if we've got this
combined purchasing power, wecan, right?
And we can do a lot of reallycool things with this, with this
(18:18):
brand fund.
So really, I think, I thinkutilizing the brand fund dollars
to maximize exposure isprobably, I guess, the
responsibility of mostfranchisors.
We're lucky.
We have a great team.
We're also lucky that we have aservice.
That is somewhat sexy, right?
Because it's different becausewe've got patents because we've
got differentiators.
It's a little bit easier for usto get influencers, a little bit
easier for us to get exposurethrough PR.
(18:39):
So, you know, I said I wasfortunate before I I'm saying it
again.
The fact that we'd havesomething different really helps
us with that exposure.
Right.
I love that.
Switching gears.
This is just something relevantin the news today with
everything going on.
Big, big secret, but, Talk to usabout the effect on, on tariffs.
You know, that was somethingthat actually came up in
(19:01):
conversation with a family I wasworking with last week.
And I know the answer to this,you guys did a great job in
response, but I wanted to hearit.
Directly from you.
So how, how, how will terroristsaffect the business?
Will, will there be any effect?
Talk to us a little bit aboutthat.
Yeah, well, I, I, I'm assumingGab is, is Gab, our friend of
guys who helped you out, but,but let, let me dive into that
(19:23):
one.
Cause there's a lot of pieces toit.
So, number one.
You know, I spoke about how ouraverage job size is actually
higher in the U.
S.
And as in Canada I don't know ifyou, I don't know if you check
the exchange rate, but oneCanadian dollar is 1.
45 U.
S.
dollars.
Yeah.
Which is crazy, right?
Which means, yeah, which meansthat we're basically cheap labor
for America at this point.
(19:44):
So manufacturing in Canada.
Actually is a huge benefit forour U.
S.
Franchisees.
We do distribute through our,our, our, our, our, our U.
S.
Location, but manufacturinglabor cost is almost 50 percent
cheaper.
Everything is just much, muchcheaper.
So if you're charging As theyare in the U S the same or more,
(20:04):
but you're paying almost 30 to40 percent less for the product,
but you can imagine theprofitability for us franchise
actually higher than ourCanadian franchisees.
And I've said this to them, sothere's no secret.
Everybody knows, unfortunately,the Canadians pay more for
products, right?
Just because of the realityexchange rate.
Now let's say we layer on a 25percent tariff that wouldn't
increase the price of theproduct by 25%, obviously,
(20:25):
because you know what it costsus, what we sell it are two
different things we distributethrough our us location.
It would probably increase theprice to the customer at the end
of the day.
If the franchisees were tomaintain their same margin,
let's say they wouldn't want toabsorb the difference.
It would increase the price ofthe customer by two to 3%.
Which is negligible.
You're talking about, you know,let's even know it was 5 percent
(20:46):
just to make the math easy on a5, 000 job.
You're talking about 250.
Like it's not like for theadditional value that we have
versus You know, conventionalproducts or whatnot at 250.
We're not that price sensitive.
It's not going to make much of adifference.
Right?
So, so, you know, I get it.
It's scary because everythingelse will go up in price, but
for us specifically for ourservice, the fact that we
(21:09):
distribute through our us, yourcenter, the fact that we have
cheaper Canadian labor, I guess,if you will, it's an advantage,
this, this, this kind of justhelps bridge that gap a little
bit.
But anyways, we'll even see ifit, if it actually happened or
not.
Right.
It's good.
You know, it's good to talkabout because people, people
panic.
They, they see the news and theydon't know the actual true
effect of what that will looklike.
(21:29):
So I, I appreciate that.
I'm sure that's come up in yourorganization and it's good.
It's great to stay ahead of itand just put everyone's mind at
ease.
So it's funny.
Cause I thought the U Sfranchisees would panic a little
bit more about it, but they'vebeen so great about it.
Like they're like, look, even ifit were to go up 25%.
Which it won't like our productcosts will never go up 25
percent just because wedistribute through the U.
S.
Let's say it increases by Idon't know five to ten percent
(21:51):
They're like our product cost is15 of what we're selling right
labor is really the big part,right?
Yep.
So so the increase of thecustomer is really what we're
looking at and it's it's it'salmost negligible Yeah, I was
going to bring that up.
It's mostly labor, right?
Pain, pain is one aspect, right?
But labor is going to be most ofit.
So very, very good point.
I'm glad, I'm glad you broughtthat up and wanted to cover it.
I like to cover the issues athand because people panic.
(22:14):
They don't, they don't know whatquestions to ask.
So it's good to address.
And every business is going tobe different.
You know, some people may bemanufacturing in their home
state or they may be makingchanges.
So it's good to ask thesequestions.
Should be part of your duediligence when you're speaking
with each and every one of thefranchise companies.
So, sorry, I don't want to talkcause I don't want to lose my
train of thought, but that beingsaid, it has always been our
(22:35):
plan to manufacture in the U Swe manufacture a small portion
in the U S we're going tocontinue to manufacture more and
more in the U S.
The reason why we haven't doneit yet is because it's actually
more expensive.
So, you know, the, we actuallyjust manufacture here,
distribute to our U.
S.
center and then distribute fromthere.
But to manufacture in the U.
S.
would actually cost us more.
(22:55):
So that's the reason why wedon't do it.
We don't want to increase theprice but it is in the plans to
do it just from an efficiencystandpoint.
Gotcha.
Okay.
No, that makes sense.
Let's see.
I was listening to it was apodcast.
I don't remember.
Where this podcast was, but itwas interesting podcast.
It was president of the IFA andthey and I talked about this on
previous episodes and he hadmentioned that this was
(23:18):
interesting, 75 percent ofpeople.
That they've pulled show thatthey had interest in owning a
business, which I thought wasinteresting.
So 75 percent of that, thatgroup of that 75%, three
quarters gave the reason thatthey never actually had moved
forward with a had gone movingforward with a business was they
didn't know where to start whichwas actually pretty interesting.
(23:41):
I always thought it was going tobe a wall.
It's money.
They just felt like you neededmillions of dollars like you do
with.
Some of the bigger brick andmortar fast food chains.
Um, what advice would you giveto someone that, that's kind of
starting out, given that they'repulling people and that seems to
be the biggest thing, they haveno idea where to start.
That's actually a surprisingstat.
Like, if that's really thereason, well, obviously contact
(24:03):
someone like you, right?
I mean, you, you, you know, thebusiness landscape, you know,
like obviously franchise, look,it sounds biased.
But the reality is I speak tofriends and I was like, well,
you know, you're lucky you hadthis great idea.
And he started this business, Idon't have this great idea.
I'm like, okay, you don't needthe idea.
Right.
You can get a franchise.
That's the whole point of afranchise.
Right.
And if you don't know whatfranchise to get, well, hire
(24:24):
someone like Giuseppe, right.
He's, he's seen the landscapebecause you know, you may meet
someone, you'd be like, well,that person may not be the right
fit for SprayNet and maybe forsomething else and you'll put
them in that direction, butlike.
If you don't know where tostart, I mean, obviously hire
someone like you to help youkind of navigate that landscape.
And, and I, and I appreciatethat.
But you know, if, if they're notready to speak with someone, you
(24:46):
know, I always say kind of takea step back and just figure out
whatever that business is.
Don't even worry about theservice, but figure out what the
business looks like.
And I always have people exploreand stand like, what, what's
your role?
Are you keeping your job?
Are you running it full time?
I always say, if you have theability to run it full time, no
one's going to run that businessbetter than yourself.
You know, that's how Iapproached it.
(25:07):
Some franchises will allow youto run part time.
Some prefer you to be full timeupfront, but there's a major
benefit of running the businessfull time.
You get a better appreciation.
And not only that, you canfigure out what role you want to
play down the road.
And, and, you know, and, and.
Part of that too is samplingdifferent things.
So just because you have a salesbackground doesn't mean Maybe
(25:28):
you want to be head of sales andgoing on appointments.
Maybe you're networking at thechamber of commerce.
So anything you wanted to add tothat because I I always
encourage people like it's notthat complicated.
I think they're Looking at the4, 000 franchises in North
America and getting overwhelmed.
I always say, don't worry aboutthe franchise.
Don't worry about the top 500lists.
(25:48):
Worry about, you know, whatyour, what your role is, what
you want to do and what, what'syour timeframe.
So anything you would like toadd to that, because this is
something that comes up over andover again.
Yeah.
Also, I know everybody sayslike, don't get into business
based on what you like.
I agree with that because if youhate what you're doing, if
you're not passionate a littlebit about what you're doing,
(26:10):
like, look, I, I like homeimprovement.
I got, I'll be honest.
Like I love doing rentals.
I love getting hands on.
I love seeing that finalproduct.
Like, wow, what a difference.
If that doesn't speak to you atall.
I mean, see if there's somethingthat does, right?
Like, I guess like choose yourindustry.
And I wouldn't say like, youknow, have tunnel vision on
(26:31):
like, this is the industry,like, you know, look at other
stuff, but make sure you feelgood about what you're doing.
Like, you know, when I speak toour top performing franchisees,
they almost always tell me thesame thing.
They're like, I didn't want aboring business.
I wanted something that had animpact on the community.
I wanted something that putsmiles on people's faces and,
you know, create good jobs forpeople.
Right.
And they're like, I'm happy thatI did this.
(26:51):
Right.
So make sure that it checks theboxes that you want to take off.
Like for me, creating jobs andcreating a good culture was, was
key to me.
Right.
Impact on community.
Honestly, I never even thoughtof that, but that's a huge one.
I didn't even realize, but thatis a huge one, right?
Like some services are cool, butare you really having the impact
on the community that you'd liketo have?
(27:12):
Right.
So anyways, I'd say like.
Everybody talks about boringbusinesses and everybody talks
about, you know, you don't haveto follow your passion.
And I agree with that a littlebit to some extent, but to some
degree you should.
Right.
Yeah, no, that that's, listen,that, you know, people like the
before and after that's, that'swhat home service is all about.
Redoing a bathroom spray net,you know, redoing the roof, the
exterior colors of the home.
(27:34):
So, people really enjoy that.
And, you know, really figureout, you know, one of the
questions, if we're not workingtogether to ask the franchise
company, the franchise, or.
Is, Hey, what, what is a day inthe life of a franchisee?
What does that look like?
Because you want to make sureyou'll, you'll notice in many
cases, the roles are going to besimilar, similar than many
brands.
(27:54):
But are you going to be excited?
Are you going to be enjoyingtalking about it?
Is it something that's justgoing to be a grind?
Well, you got options.
That's why we, we try to figureout a model.
Let's look at kind of the behindthe scenes, what you're doing on
a daily basis, because, becausethat's the thing, all things
equal, no matter what.
you're going to be grinding yearone, right?
You know, like let's assumeeverybody gives great support
(28:15):
and you've got a good model anda good community, whatnot.
You're going to be grinding yearone.
It's going to suck a little bit,but at the end of the day, are
you being fulfilled by whatyou're doing to a certain
extent?
Because, because then it's justlike, feels like, why am I even
doing this?
Right.
Like beyond the money.
You know, there needs to besomething beyond them.
I know the money is veryimportant, but there needs to be
something a little bit beyondthe money to keep you going
(28:37):
because it gets tough and, andthose, those, those dark days
get really dark.
They do.
They, the it's, it's just likethe stock market.
It's a rollercoaster ride.
It's ups and downs.
It's cyclical.
So I always say, you know, goback, go back to the why, you
know, that to me is why that.
Why we started this.
Sometimes we need that, thatreminder when things aren't
going as planned.
And I think we've allexperienced that me included in
(28:59):
my past businesses, currentbusinesses, something, you know,
it's cyclical.
So, but absolutely, I, I thinkthat's that's really important
and not, not to lose sight ofthat.
So kind of, I would say reverseengineer, you know, don't look
at the brands to start, look atkind of what the model looks
like.
What you want to be doing.
What's the average day in alife?
What are your strengths?
You know, do you want a bigstaff?
Do you want a brick and mortarlocation?
(29:20):
Figure all that out beforestarting to look at brands.
Why?
Because when you look at thebrand initially, in my opinion.
And just like I did, and I won'tname names, but in the, in the
restaurant business, you startto settle.
You know, I don't want to worknights and weekends, but I'll,
I'll settle because I have towork nights and weekends.
I don't want lots of staff, butI'll settle.
So I kept settling, settling tothe point where, you know, the,
(29:42):
the business looked nowhere nearwhat my ideal business looked
like.
So figure that out.
You know, I definitely help andspent a lot of time there.
But you don't need me to, toinitiate that.
Start, start with that shortlist, get your financials
together.
That's a good start.
Reach out and we can absolutelyhelp and figure out what the
brands are.
And sometimes we find theperfect branding and guess what?
You know, franchises areterritory based, maybe the area
(30:04):
isn't available.
So if you really like a brand,are you open to exploring?
You know, 30 minutes away, 45minutes away.
These are the things that comeup in franchising.
And this is what I like toprepare people for.
So, that's awesome.
I, what, yeah, go ahead.
No, sorry.
Cause just to add on that, likeI've been doing this for almost
15 years now.
And it's funny.
(30:25):
What lights me up is testimonialTuesdays and before now pictures
that people post on our internalsocial, like you should see, and
I may have sent you some, butlike.
So our franchisees are like thecustomer was thrilled in caps
and then they put the review andthe customer's review is just
glowing and it's like that fuelsyou right that keeps you going
like to be able to provide thatservice to people make them that
(30:46):
happy and then and then you getwe've even had staff say like I
asked staff like why do you whydo you keep coming to work and
they're like The smile oncustomers faces, like it's a
different project, differentchallenge every day.
Anyways, I'm not here to justtoot my own horn here about
spraying it, but it's just,that's what keeps me going.
So it's fine.
That thing that keeps you going.
Right.
So anyways, yeah, I guess I,yeah, you got, you got to give
(31:06):
that some thought and, and, andreflect.
And sometimes I always say like,when do you do all this?
You got family, you got work.
I always say, you know, duringthe week, it's busy.
Take time on the weekend, sleepin a little bit, spend some time
there.
That's where I did a lot of my,my deep thinking, because during
the week you got a millionthings going on, but really.
Set aside an hour, you know,figuring that out, let the
family know if you're, if you'remarried, let your spouse know,
(31:28):
let the kids know why you'redoing all this.
I talk about this quite a bit.
I think that's crucial, youknow, going to be mom and dad
are going to be working a lotlonger, you know, you know,
maybe no vacation this year aswe launch the business, but
we're doing it.
To obviously, you know, createsome, some, some time freedom.
So we can spend a lot more timewith you guys have a flexible
schedule.
(31:49):
Just like I do, you know, we'rebig soccer fans and I don't miss
my son's soccer matches youknow, whatsoever we go to
practices, we record with thoseAI cameras.
I'm, I'm the guy in charge ofthat.
And I really enjoy doing that.
So sometimes.
That time freedom is really whatpeople are trying.
You know, there's only 24 hours.
We have the same equal even incanada You guys have the same
amount of time.
(32:09):
So, uh You know, so it's like,you know, you know in all
seriousness we have the sameamount of time So, how do we how
do we free it up so we canreally spend the days?
Uh as we uh as we see fit, youknow as we want to spend them
best piece of advice you haveever received It's a Ted talk.
Actually, you know, I changethis every time someone asks me
a question, depending on what'sgoing on.
(32:31):
What did you say in the lastshow?
But, but, but just, just basedon this week, based on, on, on
something that just came to mindthis morning is, is be a giver.
You know, there's a TED talk byAdam Grant, Givers vs.
Takers.
If you haven't seen it, I was, Iwas drunk.
This is just watching it.
Give give to the world.
Give to others.
Be generous of your time.
You know, be a giver, not ataker.
(32:52):
And that, that ties into whatI've been talking about the
whole time.
Like, you know, something thatyou could, you see yourself, not
just taking cash, not just beinga giver to society, to
community, creating jobs.
If I feel, I strongly believethat if you're a giver in the
long run, maybe not in the shortterm, that's not always the way,
but in the long run, it'll comeback to you.
So just, just, just be a giverand not a taker.
And that's Adam Graham, TEDtalk, you said?
(33:14):
Adam Grant.
Yeah.
A grant.
Yeah.
There's a 15 minute TED talk.
I strongly suggest watching it.
I, I talk about it all the timebecause it's just so true and
you feel it when people are justtaking, when people are giving.
So be generous with your time,with everything, right?
And it'll come back to you.
Love that.
We're gonna, I'm going to lookthat up and we'll, we'll put the
the YouTube link on the in theshow notes.
(33:35):
Anything else we didn't talkabout?
Sorry, I got a little feedback.
Any, anything else we didn'ttalk about?
Um, you know, got a lot of firsttime entrepreneurs or people
looking to, you know, lead thecorporate grind to, to start
their own business.
Any other pieces of advice thatyou would like to leave the
audience with?
I know it was cliche, but likeIf you're thinking about all the
(33:55):
time just do something about itYou don't want to like wake up
10 years from now and just beregretting it you know, is it
going to be the right choice?
Maybe maybe not like it may beharder than you think it, you
know um but at the end of theday Would you rather just live
with regret thinking like Ishould have or I could have just
try I mean I mean, I know it'seasy to say I'm an entrepreneur
(34:15):
and that's just the way i'mwired but And we all took risks.
I mean, there's, there's, thereis no guarantees that we'll have
our job.
There's no guarantees.
The business will succeed.
But going back to Ted talks andI, and I forget the speaker, but
a grit.
There was a Ted talk on grit andit talks about just this
unwavering persistence to justmake things happen.
(34:37):
Understanding there's going tobe the ups and downs like we,
you know, the, the, the beingcyclical and that kind of stuff.
But just, you know, making, youknow, this is, this is the life
I want.
These are the changes in orderfor me to have these changes.
I need to really take control ofmy career.
So.
It definitely won't be easy.
It's going to be a lot of hours.
As I tell everyone, I don't liketo paint a, a picture where you
just buy a franchise and what isit?
(34:59):
And I don't know if you rememberback in the day that Ron Popeil
said it and forget it, you just,you just throw this stuff in the
machine and it makes a sausagelinks for you.
It's, it's nothing like that,that you have to be involved.
It's not just, you pay thefranchise fee, the franchise,
or.
Runs a business they would needyou for that, right?
They need you to have that gritand really to, to, to work the
business, follow the system.
So, but I encourage everyone toexplore it, you know, start
(35:22):
talking other franchise owners,entrepreneurs, not people that
never owned the business.
Talk to people that own thebusiness.
You want to know how it's theups and downs.
How does it feel not payingyourself?
Maybe the first month, how doesit feel two years later when
you're never missing?
You know, I don't know, a dancerecital, a soccer event and
things like that.
So talk, talk to those people atdifferent stages in life.
I think that's super helpful,but ultimately it's what you
(35:44):
make of it.
You got to do your duediligence, but you got to start
somewhere.
And to your point don't want tolive with, with any regrets.
And I see a lot of people comingback to me year, 20, 30 years of
looking into it.
Maybe they're fearing losingtheir job.
Now they're in their fifties andsixties saying.
You may, is this the right timeto own a, to own a business?
Because I feel like, you know,the end is near with the job I
(36:05):
have.
So, so absolutely.
No, that, that's awesome.
I really appreciate that.
I'm going to put that in theshow notes.
Look at the end of the day,there is no magic bullet.
It's just about trying somethinglike we've been franchising for
so long now that like, we'vegotten a bit more selective on
who we want to let in.
Just because like you should do,like, let's say you're exploring
a franchise or whatnot.
(36:27):
Do I feel comfortable workingwith these people?
And actually, my litmus test is,do I feel like, if times get
really tough, that I can have areasonable conversation with
this person?
And if the answer is not withouta doubt, no yes, then maybe,
maybe it's not a fit, right?
And it goes both ways.
Like, I always, I always tellpeople, like, yes, we're
(36:48):
exploring if you're the rightfit, but you also need to be
exploring if we're the right fitfor you, right?
Like, we gotta see ourselvesworking together for 10 years.
Two, two way, I always say it'sa two way interview, it's a two
way street.
And big part of any franchise oras you want to speak directly,
whether it's in person or it'svirtually with the founder.
So that would be Carmelo in thiscase.
But talk to the, I always saythat the way I explain is talk
(37:08):
to the captain steering the shipbecause, you know, spray net,
whatever the franchise is, youkind of know historically what
has been done.
You have the franchiseagreements.
This is our system, but where isthis business going?
What do you anticipate?
Challenges, additional services,whatever the, whatever the case
may be, maybe changes tomarketing, working with another
(37:30):
company like Lowe's, it's goodto know and speak directly with
the founders.
And I actually, yeah, I actuallyhost.
Calls every two weeks withpotential candidates.
We actually had a really goodcall last week.
It was, I think we're eightpeople on the call and it's,
it's actually fun because, youknow, some people piggyback off
each other's questions.
We have a good conversation andhonestly, it's, it creates
content for us too.
Like, Oh, I didn't think people.
(37:51):
Had a question about that,right?
Like maybe you should putcontent out about that because a
lot of people have questionsabout that.
So it's actually fun for me, funfor the group.
And we kind of get to see whatdo you connect with?
What do you not connect with?
And that's, you know, and that'show we invite people to the next
stage in our process.
I think, I think it's hugebecause you know, I know other,
there have been other companieswhere the founder, basically you
meet them at the very end, youdon't speak with them, you meet
(38:12):
them at the very end.
And at that point, it's like,that's kind of decision time,
right?
Either you get accepted.
You obviously have to agree tothe, to the award letter, a
number, a number of territories,locations, whatever the
franchise is.
So I think that's crucial in theprocess to be for the founders
to be involved.
And not wait till the very endto say, yeah, maybe, maybe you
weren't a good fit.
And I probably could have toldyou this two calls in and vice
(38:35):
versa, you know, that the personexploring may say, love the
brand, love everything about it.
But the, the founder, I think wejust.
Differences of opinion.
Maybe I kind of feel like itshould go in this direction.
They're going in a different andthat's fine It's not about right
or wrong.
It's about it's about the match.
So I love that So that's I thinkthat's what we're seeing more
and more of that where foundersare involved earlier on in the
process And when people say wellWhat are the odds of getting
(38:58):
approved now?
we say the odds in my in mypersonal opinion should be
pretty high because At thatpoint if you've made it that far
to get you know, invited to adiscovery virtual or in person
discovery day.
Then, you know, you've, you've,you've checked off boxes on both
ends and there usually is ahigher approval process as
opposed to never talking to thefounder and going in blind, not
(39:20):
knowing.
So, not that it's guaranteed,but you are at the end of the
day, awarded a franchise.
You are awarded a select numberof territories.
So, you know, keep, keep that inmind as well.
You know, you want to speak withfounders or maybe even requests.
To speak with the founder ormaybe it's like like in a group
setting like you guys were doingso I think that's I think it's a
big plus.
So, and last thing, I, I, I, Ithink I forgot this on, on, on
(39:43):
our first one.
Fun fact, Bobby, you rememberwhat you put down?
I did not but I mean, it ispretty fun.
I've got four kids, so that'skind of fun.
It's a party in my house.
Did I say that the first time?
No, I didn't even have four kidsback then.
No, I don't think you did.
Yeah, they were, they wereyounger.
So I think, yeah, you did not.
(40:04):
Cause I think it was, it wastwo, two and a half years ago.
I think is when.
It was when the last show aired.
I may have.
Yeah.
We, we got a surprise two forone special.
We've got twins trying for ourthird.
So yeah, we went from two tofour.
So that's it.
That's even more motivation thatyou know, to, to, to stay in the
business.
So, and and, and we're, we'rehardcore soccer fans.
So that's You know, we, we, weyou know, we, we definitely
(40:26):
enjoy the sport, but cool.
Listen, I, Carmine, I reallyappreciate it.
Looking forward to having youback on the show.
If there's anything I alwaystell the guests that we didn't
talk about or something even alink or something you'd
recommend the audience to checkout, shoot me an email, we
always include a blog and shownotes with some additional
information.
So you'll find all the links,spray net.
(40:47):
You know, the Ted talk hereabout being don't be just being
a giver grit.
We'll, we'll include all thoselinks in the show notes and
we'll we'll definitely talksoon.
Thanks again.
Thanks, sir.
Talk soon.
If you want to learn how to makethe transition from corporate to
owning your franchise, joinGiuseppe on the next episode.
(41:07):
You can also follow on allsocial media platforms and
achieve financial and timefreedom today.
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