February 15, 2023 • 39 mins
In this episode with Melissa Pang and April Porter: Business Growth Strategist, Founder and CEO of Ask April Porter
Read more: https://futureoffranchising.com/podcast/franchise-friday-episode-212-with-april-porter-of-ask-april-porter/
As an award-winning entrepreneur with a proven record of success in growth strategy through lead generation, sales training, and employee performance, I have experienced first-hand the joy of building a business that creates a dream life.
I am fulfilling my mission of teaching franchisees how to fill the gap between the franchise model and the executive-level know-how needed to increase revenues, build a reliable team, and scale to multiple locations.
When I started as a first-time business owner, I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of responsibilities in areas that I was unfamiliar with (marketing, sales, employee development and financial management), so I fully immersed myself in learning how executives think, strategize, and execute.
My approach to franchise ownership created explosive growth. We expanded to four locations in record time by cultivating a team of employees personally invested in exceeding expectations and maximizing performance. We used a strategic plan to motivate and empower everyone to drive toward the mission of reaching our BHAG, allowing me to delegate the daily operational tasks and become an absentee owner.
With a passion for mentoring Franchisees, Entrepreneurs, and Small Business Owners, I began teaching the formula to multi-unit success – an evolution from an employee role inside the business into an Entrepreneur overseeing growth and expansion.
I am dedicated to mentoring franchisees that want to enjoy life, enhance their impact on the world and crush the competition.
Franchisees come to us when they are ready to scale into higher profits, a larger team, multiple locations, or additional industries. We understand the opportunities and limitations of being in a franchise agreement, so we teach the executive tactics and strategies for massive growth that complement the franchise model. With a CEO who is an experienced attorney and award-winning (former) multi-unit franchisee, we offer a holistic approach to business ownership development.
April Porter has always BEEN A CHAMPION FOR THE UNDERDOG
She sold her franchise locations during the pandemic and founded "Ask April Porter" to dedicate her attention to creating more opportunities for franchisees and franchisors through advanced business education. Applying the same growth strategies used to expand her franchise locations that grew her new company from zero to six-figures in just four months. April Porter has a team of franchising experts who have experience as franchisor corporate team members, franchisees, franchise sales brokers and franchise marketing specialists.
April hosts the #1 franchisee podcast, Infinite Franchisee and the only Facebook community dedicated to franchisees. She also moderates the Clubhouse Infinite Franchisee Club.
Finally, I'm a #1 Amazon International Best-Selling Author through my involvement in the anthology "Fearless and Fabulous: Finding Your Way Through Change and Beyond" and an inductee of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Franchise Friday, where you can watch or listen as we explore franchising, entrepreneurship, and small business ownership, speaking with the franchise industry thought leaders and subject matter experts that shape the Future Of Franchising. #FranchiseFriday – For more about our podcast, visit our website: https://futureoffranchising.com/ Produced by Franchise Source Brands International and The Entrepreneur’s Source.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:14):
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of
franchise Friday. I am MelissaPang with the entrepreneur
source and I am joined by thelovely fabulous Rockstar April
Porter of ask April Porter andApril, started as a lawyer, I
(00:35):
then became a top performingfranchisee at a very well known
franchise brand, and now is theowner of her own company. That's
really helping franchisors andfranchisees just create better
success and actually understandhow to create that success.
(00:57):
She's filling in the blanks,where we don't see a lot of
conversation happening. So,April, welcome. So happy to have
you.
Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
This like a party.
I know. What did I do make acocktail? No, but I will for
next time. Um, so if you want tofill in a little bit more about
your background? I'd love tohear a little bit about that
(01:20):
before we jump in.
Yeah, absolutely. So I startedmy career, as you said, as an
attorney, I was actually a trialattorney, a prosecutor I
prosecuted homicides, domesticviolence. And am I frozen? There
we go. Hello. We're workinghomicides, domestic violence and
(01:44):
sexual assault. It is nowyou're gonna be good.
Okay, great. So either We'lledit that out, or it'll be to
some nice color in the in theoverall video. This isn't the
joys of the podcasting videoworld. Which is fine either way
(02:06):
to be. Um, so yeah, so that wasmy I did that for 10 years, and
it was high intensity, it waskind of dark at times. But most
of all, it was extraordinarilystrategic, because you got to be
really strategic to get juries12 strangers to agree to send
someone to prison for the restof their life. You know, you
can't get your family to agreeon what to have for dinner. So
(02:29):
it's not an easy thing to do.
But I did that for 10 years, andthen decided I wanted to try
something maybe lighter and fun.
And so I ended up investing in afranchise. And it was a
kickboxing franchise, I grew tofour locations in less than
three years, and got it to whereI was only working five hours a
(02:50):
week on the business meetingwith my team members, they were
growing the revenues, theydoubled the revenues in six
months, without me being in thein the business. And then of
course, everybody wanted toknow, what are you doing? So I
was getting phone calls fromaround the country, people
asking me to help them and Ibegan consulting one on one,
(03:12):
which I kept doing until I soldall of my locations in 2020. And
had had really great successwith the consulting and helping
other franchisees and could seethat there's this gap in the
industry that really, there'snobody filling it and said, You
know what, I'm going to rebrand,I'm going to make it so I can
(03:35):
help groups of franchiseesinstead of one on one so I can
help more people. And that's howwe came up with ask a reporter.
And even after this, I'm sureyou're gonna get calls from
people going, Okay, well, I too,would love to be working five
hours in my business and seeing,you know, year over year extreme
growth. So and I think to what'sreally interesting is just Yes,
(04:01):
you've had that varied career,you know, from attorney to
franchisee, and then intoentrepreneur, startup business
owner. But the word strategy foryou is what ties it all
together. When it comes tostrategy around around those
things. Where do you focus onwith your clients, like, Who do
(04:26):
you focus on could be multipleaudiences, and what do you focus
on with them?
Right, our actual clients, thepeople that we're working with
on a daily basis arefranchisees, and what we're
helping franchisees with, werefer to it as the franchise
gap. So the franchisor isresponsible for bringing for
(04:49):
teaching the franchiseeeverything they need to know
about the model. And thatincludes the product and service
what makes it special How do youcommunicate to the to the
potential customers about theproduct and service? And then
how do you get it in theirhands? Whether it's like a POS
system? How do you bring it up?
How do you track things thosedays those operations as they
(05:10):
relate to the model. But whatthe franchisee needs to scale is
they need to bring a certainlevel of business acumen,
emotional intelligence,leadership skills, mindset for
growth, and they need tounderstand how the different
areas of business relatetogether, right? So many
(05:31):
franchisees come in, and theyare so psyched about the product
or service. And they're superpassionate about it, right?
They're passionate aboutanimals, they buy a dog grooming
business, but they don't reallyknow a lot about financials,
they don't know a lot aboutlegal liabilities, or what they
should be thinking about as theymake different moves in their
business. When it comes to thelegal side of things. They don't
(05:52):
necessarily know about marketingstrategy and how to move someone
through a pipeline. They justkind of throw spaghetti at the
wall and hope that it sticks. Sowe fill them in on all of those
things, the strategy, themindset, leadership skills, and
really understanding how theyhave to look at their business
(06:12):
holistically. And take all ofthat and apply it to the model.
Absolutely. And you know, what Ithink is so interesting about
what you do is I talk tofranchisors all day long, and we
really focus on Okay, whenyou're bringing in franchisees
(06:32):
looking for those, you want tofind the right people, you're,
you want to create an experiencefor them upfront so that they
can see themselves in yourbrand. And it's all about the
dream and the vision. And let'slet's get them on board because
you want great franchisees foryour system. But what you're
talking about, and again, I liketo call the franchise gap
(06:53):
because there is somethingmissing there is you're then
talking about you're afranchisee you have the product,
you have the service you kind ofhave you have the ops manual,
you know, you have all thesethings, but then how are you
putting that as a franchisee?
How are you putting that intoplay into practice in a way
that's getting you to yourgoals, that the goals that you
(07:17):
want to get to that was thereason you joined the franchise
so you can achieve these goals.
But now that you're actually init, like how you know, and it's
that part of it that I think youbring phenomenal, that's where
you're bringing the value tothese franchisees
100%. And that that vision thatyou're talking about, you know,
(07:37):
everybody, a lot of these firsttime business owners, they're
coming from employment thatthey're unsatisfied with, right,
so they're coming from being anemployee for someone else, into
owning their own business. Andthey're doing it because they
have this like dream, thisvision in their mind of how
their life could be different ifthey are in control of their own
(07:58):
destiny as a business owner,instead of stuck working for
somebody else's vision or dream.
And so we like to refer to thatvision as swag, sanity, wealth
and gratitude. Because it alwaysinvolves, from the business
owner perspective, some form ofsanity they don't have now. So
that usually means working fewerhours, having more freedom of
(08:20):
time, being able to takevacations, you know more often
longer do other experiences withtheir families, and involves a
level of wealth that they don'tthink they can, they can attain
with just weekly or bi weekly,paycheck. And then it usually
involves gratitude, which reallymeans living in peace of mind,
being able to give back, maybebeing able to be more
(08:45):
charitable, because of thatwealth, right? Being able to
spend their time doing thethings that bring them joy, like
spending time with their familyinstead of just, you know,
working and grinding away sothat no matter what the
specifics are, that visionreally is about attaining swag,
that's how we talk about it. Soto attain swag, you have to be
(09:10):
able to transition out of thehabits and the programming, the
subconscious programming thatwe've all had since honestly,
since we started school, to showup at a certain time, get a
certain amount of work done andthen clock out. That's being an
employee and it takes acompletely different skill set a
(09:32):
completely different mindset anda completely different way of
communicating and leading thenext generation which are going
to be your employees in order tobe able to attain that vision
that you have.
Right it's so much more and it'sso interesting you guys call it
(09:52):
swag and when we're kind ofagain in those beginning stages
before someone becomes afranchisee we're talking to them
about what we call it Are we isthat how cool but income,
lifestyle, wealth and equity,which covers all of those
pieces. And so what I do thinkis interesting as well, and this
is so important is we're talkingabout the why before they become
(10:16):
the franchise, because that'swhat's fueling them to take that
leap of faith and become afranchisee, and then you're
talking about it on once they'reon the other side. But, again,
that why that's going to drivethem to find those strategies.
And, and you can probably talkabout it a little bit better
(10:37):
than I can but, you know, drivethem to want to get to those,
that they're not stuck in the inthe, it's still in the employee
mindset, you know, taking it tothe next level, they do have to
change some things to get there.
Well, and the reality is, let'stake it from the franchisor
perspective for a second,franchisors are looking at this
(10:59):
and saying, I'm given the samething to all of my franchisees,
all of them got the sametraining manual, they all got
the same operations manual, theyall got the same model, we're
offering the same support to allof these franchisees. And still,
I have people at the very topthat are killing it. I've got
people that at the bottom thatare like, struggling, and
(11:23):
they're getting dissatisfied andbecoming disgruntled. And then
I've got all these people thatare hanging out in the middle
that are doing, they're doingjust fine. So as a franchisor,
you need to ask yourself, if ifit's apples to apples, why are
they all having a differentexperience, and it's because of
what they're bringing to thetable to complement the model
(11:44):
with. And they have variousdegrees of these have the
strategy, the mindset, all thethings we've talked about. And
and the difference between thetop and the middle. And the
bottom, honestly, probably isnot what they bring to your
system. But it's how fast theyrealize that they have to
(12:07):
supplement what you're givingthem with some kind of outside
learning. And they realizedquicker than the rest of your
system that they have topersonally evolve. If they want
to be able to take the brand towhere to where it could possibly
go. That was me, right? Like Igot in, I learned everything the
franchisor had to teach me bythree months in, we were
(12:29):
profitable. And we were runninglike clockwork, according to the
model. And I'm sitting therelike, Well, alright, things are
good. But this isn't my vision,I don't want to be working in
the gym, and I can't be in fourplaces at once. So what do I
need to do. And so I realized Ineed to go out and figure it out
and supplement the model withmy, my own potential, I need to
(12:52):
reach my own potential and thensupplement the model, not expect
the model to just take me to mypotential.
I saw a lot of different thingshere, where, again, you're
talking about experience, whichis amazing, because you were
talking about that before, it'sall about experience the whole
way through. But then also, youcan't cookie cutter candidates
(13:15):
before they become franchisees,you can't just like push them
through a process becausethey're all at different spots
of life. Some have jobs, somedon't, some are retiring, some
have young kids, you know, aretraveling to a 24/7 they're all
at different places, they're allin different mindsets. Why would
that change once someone becomesa franchisee they don't all of a
sudden just fit the mold and youcan give all of these things? I
(13:38):
don't think it's necessarilyobviously as a franchise, you
have to the guidelines, you havethe set structures, but what do
you see as especially just goinginto this year, the next 12
months, what do you see isreally important for and you can
(13:59):
speak to it from the franchisorside or and or the franchisee
side as something to focus on,be aware of and kind and then be
able to do what you're sayingwhich is create customize that
experience? How can you get moreof your franchisees aware that
(14:19):
they need to evolve personally,to get to the next level and
actually achieve the goal thatthey they started with?
Right? Well the number onerecommendation I would make to
every franchise system andultimately this is one of our
true missions of our company isto change the conversation
that's happening when people aregoing through the the validation
(14:42):
process before they sign theirfranchise agreements. And that
conversation really needs toinclude well first of all, it
needs to stop people need tostop saying we give you
everything you need to besuccessful. Because franchise
franchisees hear that And theylike they get really literal
(15:02):
about it right, because theybelieve I'm buying the franchise
so that you will show me how tobecome a business owner. And
that's not really what you'rewhat you're promising to show
them, you're promising to showthem how to operate this
particular model. And, but whenthey hear everything, that's
(15:23):
what they believe. And so they,you'll have franchisees who get
upset when they're notsuccessful, because they took it
to mean that they would be itwas a guarantee of success. Or
you'll get franchisees, likethose middle ones who are doing
fine. But they're not going totake initiative to do better,
they're sitting there andwaiting for you to give them the
(15:44):
next step in their evolution,because you're supposed to be
giving them everything to besuccessful. So let's stop saying
things like that. And instead,let's be really clear from the
beginning, we are providing youthe model. And we know that when
you use the model, it works, butyou have obligations as a
(16:04):
franchisee. And what you need tobe bringing to the table is an
entrepreneur mindset. You needto bring strategies, both in
marketing strategies, growthstrategies, and reach
recruitment and retentionstrategies for your employees.
You need to also bringleadership skills to develop
those employees and delegate tothem so that they can help you
(16:28):
build the business. And that'show you're going to scale. But
that's your obligation to bringthose things. And if you don't
know how to do those things,because you've been an employee
somewhere, then you need to beprepared to invest in
professional developmentalongside the other investments
you're making to grow thisbusiness. So put a line item in
(16:52):
your budget right now you've gotHow much are you spending each
month on marketing? How much areyou spending each month on
professional development, itneeds to be an expectation. And
that's how you're going to getyour brand to grow faster,
because your franchisees aregoing to be growing. And then
franchisees that can change thatmindset, they're your hottest
leads for your next locations,right, so you want every
(17:15):
franchisee capable of opening234 locations, that's a much
better growth plan than findinganother person that's just
totally green on the streets toopen one.
And you're also going to have onthe validation side, I mean,
(17:35):
they're just so tied both sidesto the growth of the franchise,
you have the internal growthfrom franchisees year over year,
and then also the growth ofbringing in new but then your
validation is going to be somuch better, as well. And, and
at the end of the day, it's allabout the long term growth, like
you don't want to do this flashin the pan. If you are serious
(17:57):
about franchising, you don'twant to do the flash in the pan,
you want to franchisees who aregoing to renew their 10 years,
you know, after 10 years,they're going to renew, they're
going to go into more locations.
And it's not just the statusquo. They're aiming to get, you
know, higher and higher. But Ithink it's really interesting
that you bring in theprofessional development piece
of it, because again, yeah, wedon't really don't really talk
(18:18):
about that at all on thefranchisee side.
Right? And that's, that's whatyou really see it a lot. A lot
of times you see franchiseesthey're like overconfident that
they're going to be successful,right? Because because they
generally pick a brand they'repassionate about. And because
they're high achievers, they'relike, I've got this right, I've
(18:40):
worked, you know, with dogs mywhole life. So yeah, they're
gonna teach me how to do a doghair cut. But I'm great with
dogs, I love dogs. And I'm alsoa people person. And so I'm
going to be successful. And it'slike, you're going to be a
successful dog groomer. But youneed to be a successful business
owner. And you need to be if youwant to be you know, if you're
(19:02):
if your vision if your vision ofswag includes spending weekends
on your boat, then you need toprobably own more than one
location. And you can't be greatwith the dogs cutting hair and
own multiple locations becauseyou can't be in two places at
once.
Exactly the whole mindset thingand it's funny like here at the
entrepreneur stores we have likeyou have your coaching hat and
(19:24):
then you have your businessowner hat you know, you're
wearing these different hats andthat's when as you're like
you're going in with theemployee mindset or that you
know, the almost like the man inthe van type type of mindset.
And then how do you put on yourboard of directors hat or your
owner hat, you know, like andswitch from one to the other.
(19:44):
So, on the franchisor side, howwas that? How can they start
fostering that? Okay, we talkedabout invalidation. Starting to
have those conversations withtheir potential franchisees what
happens on the other side Thento get franchisees into that
place?
(20:04):
Well, I mean, the reality is, isthat this type filling the
franchise gap I've hadfranchisors asked me before,
well, why don't we just add itto our it's the support we're
giving to franchisees. And thereality is, is you can't, and
that's not a dig, stay with mehere. You don't have the
(20:25):
bandwidth or the budget, to dowhat is necessary to teach these
individuals at these differentlevels. Like, you know, like you
said, it's, you have some peoplecoming in with small kids, some
people who are retired, like allthese different life
experiences, well, that feedsinto their own limiting beliefs,
their own limiting beliefs, areaffecting the way that they lead
(20:47):
their team, the way that theyinteract with customers, the
decisions that they makeregarding investments in
marketing, or other tools thatcan make them more efficient.
And so you have to be able togive them a significant amount
of personal attention, toidentify what those subconscious
patterns are, and to help themovercome them. And if you as a
(21:12):
franchisor, start spending yourtime and energy doing that one,
you're going to have to hire alot more personnel, just because
there aren't enough hours in theday to get everybody as often as
you need to. And to you're goingto have to hire very skilled
franchise business coaches thatcan get into all of this
(21:33):
emotional intelligence andpsychology and do a lot more
training. But three, you've needto be focusing on the brand and
growing the brand you should befocusing on how are you going to
sell more locations? How are yougoing? How are you keeping your
eye on the competition so thatyou can evolve your product and
services to always stay ahead ofthe game? What new technologies
(21:56):
are coming out that can makeyour brand more efficient, and
that could do a cost savings foryour franchisees? Those are the
things you should be focusingyour time energy and your money
on not helping, you know, BillyJoe get over his childhood
trauma that has made him notwant to spend a dime, more, you
know, like only I'm only payingemployees $12 An hour no more no
(22:18):
matter what. Okay, well, you'renot gonna find employees, right.
So we got to get over thatthought process. And there's a
huge process to doing it. So forus, like when we work with
franchisees, they have eightopportunities every month to
meet with us in a face to facecoaching group setting. They're
(22:38):
doing assignments where we canreview what they've done, and we
can identify where they'rewhere, where their beliefs are,
where the the road bumps are,that are holding them back. The
things that are coming up thatthat show us, okay, I see where
I see where your line ofthinking is. Now let's introduce
some other perspectives. Andlet's talk that through and we
(23:00):
can help them make thoseswitches. But it's because we
that's all we do. So we put allof our bandwidth and all of our
time and money into that type ofsupport. So So yeah, so I would
say franchisors don't try to doit yourselves, find someone to
(23:20):
support your franchisees like usor, you know, there's other
business coaches out there forthe past, but no, no, but, but
just you acknowledge that theyneed, they need that additional
support. And to be quite honest,you encourage them, franchisees
don't have to use us, they couldeven just have, honestly a
(23:42):
therapist, somebody helping themwork on becoming the person that
can run a franchise empire,instead of becoming the person
that can operate a singlelocation.
Not just their business, and thethe numbers and all of those
strategies that go along withthat. But there's this whole
(24:02):
other side to things. And havingboth you're going to see that
growth that you saw in yourbusiness. And then I'm sure you
see with client to kind of getthose things clicked in
together.
Yeah. And you asked me for anexample and one of our clients
said, I think you saved mymarriage. I mean, yeah, he'd
been he's been a friend. He'sbeen a franchisee for 30 years.
(24:26):
He started out as an employee inhis franchise and he was an
employee for five years and thefranchisor sold him a location.
And this is his 30th anniversaryas a franchisee. He's got two
locations. And he startedworking with us officially like
a year and a half ago. And hewas still he was still working
(24:47):
so many hours that at times hewould sleep in his store.
Because he was working so manyhours when he came to us, and I
was like, No, we're not doingthis. This is not a way to live.
You literally been doing thisfor 30 years like, this is not
the dream that you had, that youwould be sleeping in your store
after 30 years of businessownership. And so we put him
(25:09):
through, like the structured,the program that we put people
through originally is extremelystructured, you have to go in
order, because it layers, thelessons layer on top of each
other as we make these shifts.
And he's completely out ofworking in his business. He's
not on the schedule at all. He,his focus is on developing his
team, and they're the onesgrowing the locations. He in
(25:32):
2022, they had their biggestrevenue years ever. And he is
now looking to acquire his thirdlocation and in talks to acquire
the third location with no plansof working in it, but to be the
one developing it. So I mean,like, it's amazing, you know,
(25:54):
it's truly life changing.
I love that so much like someonefor 30 years, just plugging away
and thinking, Okay, this is it.
And then in a year and a halfsees that switch that
transition. So tell us the magicsecrets. Because all of them
(26:17):
here a fall. But I think too, itdoes come down to again, the I
really like you're you hadmentioned this before the
example of you know, you have akindergartener and you're not
going to move them up to seventhgrade, you're not going to have
your middle schooler and putthem in preschool, you know,
(26:41):
like there's that customized,tailored experience doesn't just
exist for your candidates, yourfranchise candidates,
potentials, it's 100%, just asmuch true on the other side, and
I think maybe as a franchisor,we can think, well, I don't
think my friendship myfranchisees are working, you
(27:02):
know, they're not sleeping intheir store. They're not doing
all those things, but how welldo we as franchisors actually
know what's going on in thelives of our franchisees to the
level to that level, you know,where you, you actually can, if
you get in on that more granularlevel, you can see massive
changes, and imagine that, andyou, whatever, 10, exit 100 You
(27:27):
know, 100, exit across all yourfranchisees, oh my gosh, now
your system is on a whole notherlevel. And it affects
everything.
Well, and I have franchisors whowill sometimes say to me, like,
Oh, my franchisees won't investin that. They're not going to
(27:48):
invest in that they're not goingto pay any money, you know, for
coaching or whatever it is. Andit's so interesting to me,
because it does really showexactly what you're talking
about is like how well do wereally know what's going on in
their in their heads. And thereality is, is the example I
gave about a franchisee tellingtheir, their franchise business
coach, like I need moreemployees, so my wife doesn't
(28:10):
divorce me, they're never goingto tell you that because it's
shameful. It's hurtful to sayout loud, like I've put myself
in a position now where I couldlose my family, you know, so
most of the time, franchiseesare not going to actually tell
you their biggest pain points asthe franchisor because it's
shameful, and because they don'twant you to be disappointed in
(28:32):
them. You believed in them tooffer them a franchise and they
don't want to admit that theyfeel like they're failing, even
if the numbers say that they'renot. So they're gonna play the
game of like, yeah, it's good.
Everything's good, you know, andmeanwhile, they're dying on the
inside. A lot of them a lot ofthem really are. And that's kind
of the beauty of the fact thatI've been a franchisee I've seen
(28:53):
it. I know it. I've there'stimes in my franchise journey
where I felt that way. And sowhen I can talk to those things
about people, they're like, Oh,my God, I didn't have to say it
out loud. And yet, you knew whatI was thinking. And it and you
were able to get out of thatlife. That's not That's not who
(29:14):
you are. That's not your life.
You've been successful. And theninstantly, it changes from this
despair to hope like, oh mygosh, well, then how is it
possible? So even thoughfranchisors are like my people
won't even invest in themarketing that's going to grow
their business? Well, whymarketing isn't gonna save their
marriage,right? They Well, once they get
there once the marriage is, yes,the cure? Oh, yeah, I'll invest
(29:38):
in the marketing.
And they have a totallydifferent mindset, then then
they're like, I see why I needto make this investment because
I'm thinking like anentrepreneur and I, and I see
where I was wrong before and Iwas in scarcity mode, and I was
in protection mode. And really,I have to be open to see seizing
(30:00):
opportunities and that requiresinvestments. And it's just a
complete switch.
And what I love about all ofthis is the word like just
humanizing franchising, and thisis about people, it like on so
many different levels. And I'mnot seeing anything earth
shattering here. But I thinkit's a really good reminder that
(30:25):
as you get into this, the raceor you get into the that kind of
journey of bringing infranchisees getting the numbers,
we're looking at KPIs, I wantyear over year growth, I want X
dollars in revenue, and, youknow, customers and marketing
spend, and we can sometimes losesight of the fact that these are
(30:46):
people, and we brought peopleinto our business, and how do we
connect with them, make themsuccessful, and allow them to
actually achieve like, you'retalking about empowering people.
That's what we talk about aswell. But I think science, we
can lose sight of that in allthe stuff, which is awesome.
(31:07):
Yeah. And I know you guysgo through the ill we but I
would challenge the franchisorsthat are watching how many of
you actually know what eachfranchisees definition of
success is in your system? Like,have you asked them to fill out
a vision board? Have you askedthem when you reach the level of
success you hope to reach usingthis model? What will your life
(31:29):
look like? Because the realityis, if you did that, just in my
brain, I just had this flash oflike, you know, kids projects on
a string and a teacher's class.
But if you put them side byside, they're all going to look
different. They all have a verydifferent definition of what
(31:50):
that swag is for them. And sothe model is designed to get
everybody to, like you said thesame spot, which is really the
franchisors definition ofsuccess, which is let's get you
profitable, we'll have somepeople who kind of hang out
there, we'll have some peoplewho who exceed it. And we'll
have some people whounfortunately come in underneath
(32:10):
it. But if we put if we giveeverybody the tools to get to
profitability, then we'vedelivered on our promise, right.
And that's your vision ofsuccess, and it works for your
business model, because yourbusiness is selling franchises.
And there's nothing wrong withthat I don't want anyone to
think I'm criticizing that.
That's not what I'm saying. Butthose individual franchisees,
their their vision of success isdifferent. And for some of them,
(32:34):
it does it is profitability andgrooming the dogs, that is what
I want out of life, I just wantto every day I want to spend
around dogs, and I want to buymyself a job. And if I'm making
money at it, and I'm happy, it'sbetter than whatever I was doing
before. And that that's myvision of success. And that's
beautiful. But for other people,they're dreaming of taking three
(32:56):
vacations a year with theirfamily, and they find themselves
sleeping on the floor of thestore, never taking a vacation
and not even making a home fordinner. And that's where that's
where you're going to start toreally see some breakdowns, not
just in the numbers and theoverall health of the system.
But that's where thatrelationship between franchisee
and franchisor starts to breakdown. Because people feel like,
(33:17):
this doesn't matching myexpectations. This isn't what I
was sold. Yeah.
10 I just love that we'retalking about this. You know, we
could talk about this for likehours. Because it's so it's so
(33:39):
interesting to me because it'sso crucial to the health of the
business. But it's again, thatgap that that's missing. So,
okay, as we get we asked, wecould talk for, you know, 10
more hours here. As we wrap upto two things. One is in 2023,
(34:00):
what should people focus on? Inand then number two, where can
people find you?
Okay, 100%. So 2023 This is notwhat I'm about to say, if you've
been listening so far, it's notgoing to come as any surprise to
you. But 2023 We all know thatthere we're bracing for a
(34:22):
recession, right? Andfranchisees, this for your
franchisees this is going tobring a lot of fear up, they're
going to be fearful that due toa recession, less money will be
coming in. Now one you don'twant them to have that mindset
because we all know thatthoughts become actions and
(34:42):
actions become results. So ifthey believe that less money is
coming in their actions aregoing to fall right in line with
that belief, which for most ofthem means they're going to stop
investing in things. They'regoing to start trying to save
money by. Okay, I'm going to cutmy marketing I I'm gonna, you
know, maybe I'm gonna get rid ofa couple of the software systems
(35:03):
that make me more efficient, butit's costing me money. So now
we're spending more hours we'reless efficient, we're less
productive, we're doing lessmarketing, guess what less
people are coming through thedoor. That means less money is
coming through the door, we'veobviously created our own
reality. So franchisors, youneed to be prepared to support
(35:27):
your franchisees at a higherlevel, you need to be prepared
for these beliefs and thoughtsstarting to interfere with their
ability to thrive. And you needto be out in front of it and
having these conversations withthem about about this. Also, I
(35:48):
would say focus on as afranchisor is going to bring
your freedom franchisees morecompetence if you're focused on
something that is directlyrelated to increasing their
revenue, but they have tobelieve it. So if you come out
of the gate and you saysomething like, Okay, guys,
we're going to raise prices.
franchisees are going to sayraise prices, were coming out of
(36:11):
recession, people are going tobe spending less money on things
if we raise prices, that's goingto drive even more customers
away. So you really need to becognizant about that that
franchisee perspective and theconclusions that they're going
to draw from the initiativesthat you put out there that
maybe you didn't intend, and andjust be ready to, to invest in
(36:33):
higher level of support to helpthem get through and help them
overcome what's happening in therest in the recession. I mean, I
believe, I know Warren Buffettsaid it and I saw a TED talk on
it as well. But there was sometype of case study done in 2000,
after the 2008 recession, thatshowed what did the businesses
(36:55):
that made it through therecession without closing? What
did they do differently from theones that closed, and across the
board, it was that theyinvested, they actually made an
vestments, and we're focused onspending and growing instead of
trying to save and survive.
(37:16):
And I think we saw that too,coming out of 2020 where I know
they're the ones that just shutdown stopped and stopped all
momentum. Let's just hold on toour reserves. And coming out of
it. They had to build up again,so much more than those who said
you know what, we're going tokeep on we're going to power
(37:36):
through this, here's thestrategy that we're going to
take, we can get through this,here's how and then they came
out on top and they actuallycame through better than
expected better than the yearprevious and just had a lot of
momentum. So 100% get ahead ofget ahead of the fear and
(37:57):
support your franchisees wherecan people find you April?
Well, I'm you can connect withme on LinkedIn, just let's
connect but um, check out ourwebsite, ask April porter.com.
And you can find out all of thedetails about how we help
franchisees on a daily basis andhow we work with franchisors to
(38:19):
do so. In addition, we have abig conference, we are holding
the only franchisee business anddevelopment conference Business
Education and DevelopmentConference that is mixed
industry in the franchisingindustry. And it's an April here
in St. Louis, and we're superexcited about that. So we'd love
to see franchisees coming andlearning about some of these
(38:41):
advanced marketing strategies,exit strategies, how to value a
business and wealth, wealthstrategies, growth all the all
the things soamazing. You can see APR and
APR, if you would so if you sodesire, so, and we'll put that
information too in the Kimberleythe same as we're gonna put it
(39:03):
in the show notes. Okay. Who amI? Someone stopped anyways,
April, thank you so much. Icovered so many different topics
and I love that we are alignedin our approach even though we
do different things. Again, it'sthat that person, the individual
(39:23):
is is at the center of it all.
So thank you so much for joiningme today and I look forward to
chatting more at a later date.
Me too.
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of
franchise Friday. I am MelissaPang with the entrepreneur
source and I am joined by thelovely fabulous Rockstar April
Porter of ask April Porter andApril, started as a lawyer, I
(00:35):
then became a top performingfranchisee at a very well known
franchise brand, and now is theowner of her own company. That's
really helping franchisors andfranchisees just create better
success and actually understandhow to create that success.
(00:57):
She's filling in the blanks,where we don't see a lot of
conversation happening. So,April, welcome. So happy to have
you.
Oh, I'm so excited to be here.
This like a party.
I know. What did I do make acocktail? No, but I will for
next time. Um, so if you want tofill in a little bit more about
your background? I'd love tohear a little bit about that
(01:20):
before we jump in.
Yeah, absolutely. So I startedmy career, as you said, as an
attorney, I was actually a trialattorney, a prosecutor I
prosecuted homicides, domesticviolence. And am I frozen? There
we go. Hello. We're workinghomicides, domestic violence and
(01:44):
sexual assault. It is nowyou're gonna be good.
Okay, great. So either We'lledit that out, or it'll be to
some nice color in the in theoverall video. This isn't the
joys of the podcasting videoworld. Which is fine either way
(02:06):
to be. Um, so yeah, so that wasmy I did that for 10 years, and
it was high intensity, it waskind of dark at times. But most
of all, it was extraordinarilystrategic, because you got to be
really strategic to get juries12 strangers to agree to send
someone to prison for the restof their life. You know, you
can't get your family to agreeon what to have for dinner. So
(02:29):
it's not an easy thing to do.
But I did that for 10 years, andthen decided I wanted to try
something maybe lighter and fun.
And so I ended up investing in afranchise. And it was a
kickboxing franchise, I grew tofour locations in less than
three years, and got it to whereI was only working five hours a
(02:50):
week on the business meetingwith my team members, they were
growing the revenues, theydoubled the revenues in six
months, without me being in thein the business. And then of
course, everybody wanted toknow, what are you doing? So I
was getting phone calls fromaround the country, people
asking me to help them and Ibegan consulting one on one,
(03:12):
which I kept doing until I soldall of my locations in 2020. And
had had really great successwith the consulting and helping
other franchisees and could seethat there's this gap in the
industry that really, there'snobody filling it and said, You
know what, I'm going to rebrand,I'm going to make it so I can
(03:35):
help groups of franchiseesinstead of one on one so I can
help more people. And that's howwe came up with ask a reporter.
And even after this, I'm sureyou're gonna get calls from
people going, Okay, well, I too,would love to be working five
hours in my business and seeing,you know, year over year extreme
growth. So and I think to what'sreally interesting is just Yes,
(04:01):
you've had that varied career,you know, from attorney to
franchisee, and then intoentrepreneur, startup business
owner. But the word strategy foryou is what ties it all
together. When it comes tostrategy around around those
things. Where do you focus onwith your clients, like, Who do
(04:26):
you focus on could be multipleaudiences, and what do you focus
on with them?
Right, our actual clients, thepeople that we're working with
on a daily basis arefranchisees, and what we're
helping franchisees with, werefer to it as the franchise
gap. So the franchisor isresponsible for bringing for
(04:49):
teaching the franchiseeeverything they need to know
about the model. And thatincludes the product and service
what makes it special How do youcommunicate to the to the
potential customers about theproduct and service? And then
how do you get it in theirhands? Whether it's like a POS
system? How do you bring it up?
How do you track things thosedays those operations as they
(05:10):
relate to the model. But whatthe franchisee needs to scale is
they need to bring a certainlevel of business acumen,
emotional intelligence,leadership skills, mindset for
growth, and they need tounderstand how the different
areas of business relatetogether, right? So many
(05:31):
franchisees come in, and theyare so psyched about the product
or service. And they're superpassionate about it, right?
They're passionate aboutanimals, they buy a dog grooming
business, but they don't reallyknow a lot about financials,
they don't know a lot aboutlegal liabilities, or what they
should be thinking about as theymake different moves in their
business. When it comes to thelegal side of things. They don't
(05:52):
necessarily know about marketingstrategy and how to move someone
through a pipeline. They justkind of throw spaghetti at the
wall and hope that it sticks. Sowe fill them in on all of those
things, the strategy, themindset, leadership skills, and
really understanding how theyhave to look at their business
(06:12):
holistically. And take all ofthat and apply it to the model.
Absolutely. And you know, what Ithink is so interesting about
what you do is I talk tofranchisors all day long, and we
really focus on Okay, whenyou're bringing in franchisees
(06:32):
looking for those, you want tofind the right people, you're,
you want to create an experiencefor them upfront so that they
can see themselves in yourbrand. And it's all about the
dream and the vision. And let'slet's get them on board because
you want great franchisees foryour system. But what you're
talking about, and again, I liketo call the franchise gap
(06:53):
because there is somethingmissing there is you're then
talking about you're afranchisee you have the product,
you have the service you kind ofhave you have the ops manual,
you know, you have all thesethings, but then how are you
putting that as a franchisee?
How are you putting that intoplay into practice in a way
that's getting you to yourgoals, that the goals that you
(07:17):
want to get to that was thereason you joined the franchise
so you can achieve these goals.
But now that you're actually init, like how you know, and it's
that part of it that I think youbring phenomenal, that's where
you're bringing the value tothese franchisees
100%. And that that vision thatyou're talking about, you know,
(07:37):
everybody, a lot of these firsttime business owners, they're
coming from employment thatthey're unsatisfied with, right,
so they're coming from being anemployee for someone else, into
owning their own business. Andthey're doing it because they
have this like dream, thisvision in their mind of how
their life could be different ifthey are in control of their own
(07:58):
destiny as a business owner,instead of stuck working for
somebody else's vision or dream.
And so we like to refer to thatvision as swag, sanity, wealth
and gratitude. Because it alwaysinvolves, from the business
owner perspective, some form ofsanity they don't have now. So
that usually means working fewerhours, having more freedom of
(08:20):
time, being able to takevacations, you know more often
longer do other experiences withtheir families, and involves a
level of wealth that they don'tthink they can, they can attain
with just weekly or bi weekly,paycheck. And then it usually
involves gratitude, which reallymeans living in peace of mind,
being able to give back, maybebeing able to be more
(08:45):
charitable, because of thatwealth, right? Being able to
spend their time doing thethings that bring them joy, like
spending time with their familyinstead of just, you know,
working and grinding away sothat no matter what the
specifics are, that visionreally is about attaining swag,
that's how we talk about it. Soto attain swag, you have to be
(09:10):
able to transition out of thehabits and the programming, the
subconscious programming thatwe've all had since honestly,
since we started school, to showup at a certain time, get a
certain amount of work done andthen clock out. That's being an
employee and it takes acompletely different skill set a
(09:32):
completely different mindset anda completely different way of
communicating and leading thenext generation which are going
to be your employees in order tobe able to attain that vision
that you have.
Right it's so much more and it'sso interesting you guys call it
(09:52):
swag and when we're kind ofagain in those beginning stages
before someone becomes afranchisee we're talking to them
about what we call it Are we isthat how cool but income,
lifestyle, wealth and equity,which covers all of those
pieces. And so what I do thinkis interesting as well, and this
is so important is we're talkingabout the why before they become
(10:16):
the franchise, because that'swhat's fueling them to take that
leap of faith and become afranchisee, and then you're
talking about it on once they'reon the other side. But, again,
that why that's going to drivethem to find those strategies.
And, and you can probably talkabout it a little bit better
(10:37):
than I can but, you know, drivethem to want to get to those,
that they're not stuck in the inthe, it's still in the employee
mindset, you know, taking it tothe next level, they do have to
change some things to get there.
Well, and the reality is, let'stake it from the franchisor
perspective for a second,franchisors are looking at this
(10:59):
and saying, I'm given the samething to all of my franchisees,
all of them got the sametraining manual, they all got
the same operations manual, theyall got the same model, we're
offering the same support to allof these franchisees. And still,
I have people at the very topthat are killing it. I've got
people that at the bottom thatare like, struggling, and
(11:23):
they're getting dissatisfied andbecoming disgruntled. And then
I've got all these people thatare hanging out in the middle
that are doing, they're doingjust fine. So as a franchisor,
you need to ask yourself, if ifit's apples to apples, why are
they all having a differentexperience, and it's because of
what they're bringing to thetable to complement the model
(11:44):
with. And they have variousdegrees of these have the
strategy, the mindset, all thethings we've talked about. And
and the difference between thetop and the middle. And the
bottom, honestly, probably isnot what they bring to your
system. But it's how fast theyrealize that they have to
(12:07):
supplement what you're givingthem with some kind of outside
learning. And they realizedquicker than the rest of your
system that they have topersonally evolve. If they want
to be able to take the brand towhere to where it could possibly
go. That was me, right? Like Igot in, I learned everything the
franchisor had to teach me bythree months in, we were
(12:29):
profitable. And we were runninglike clockwork, according to the
model. And I'm sitting therelike, Well, alright, things are
good. But this isn't my vision,I don't want to be working in
the gym, and I can't be in fourplaces at once. So what do I
need to do. And so I realized Ineed to go out and figure it out
and supplement the model withmy, my own potential, I need to
(12:52):
reach my own potential and thensupplement the model, not expect
the model to just take me to mypotential.
I saw a lot of different thingshere, where, again, you're
talking about experience, whichis amazing, because you were
talking about that before, it'sall about experience the whole
way through. But then also, youcan't cookie cutter candidates
(13:15):
before they become franchisees,you can't just like push them
through a process becausethey're all at different spots
of life. Some have jobs, somedon't, some are retiring, some
have young kids, you know, aretraveling to a 24/7 they're all
at different places, they're allin different mindsets. Why would
that change once someone becomesa franchisee they don't all of a
sudden just fit the mold and youcan give all of these things? I
(13:38):
don't think it's necessarilyobviously as a franchise, you
have to the guidelines, you havethe set structures, but what do
you see as especially just goinginto this year, the next 12
months, what do you see isreally important for and you can
(13:59):
speak to it from the franchisorside or and or the franchisee
side as something to focus on,be aware of and kind and then be
able to do what you're sayingwhich is create customize that
experience? How can you get moreof your franchisees aware that
(14:19):
they need to evolve personally,to get to the next level and
actually achieve the goal thatthey they started with?
Right? Well the number onerecommendation I would make to
every franchise system andultimately this is one of our
true missions of our company isto change the conversation
that's happening when people aregoing through the the validation
(14:42):
process before they sign theirfranchise agreements. And that
conversation really needs toinclude well first of all, it
needs to stop people need tostop saying we give you
everything you need to besuccessful. Because franchise
franchisees hear that And theylike they get really literal
(15:02):
about it right, because theybelieve I'm buying the franchise
so that you will show me how tobecome a business owner. And
that's not really what you'rewhat you're promising to show
them, you're promising to showthem how to operate this
particular model. And, but whenthey hear everything, that's
(15:23):
what they believe. And so they,you'll have franchisees who get
upset when they're notsuccessful, because they took it
to mean that they would be itwas a guarantee of success. Or
you'll get franchisees, likethose middle ones who are doing
fine. But they're not going totake initiative to do better,
they're sitting there andwaiting for you to give them the
(15:44):
next step in their evolution,because you're supposed to be
giving them everything to besuccessful. So let's stop saying
things like that. And instead,let's be really clear from the
beginning, we are providing youthe model. And we know that when
you use the model, it works, butyou have obligations as a
(16:04):
franchisee. And what you need tobe bringing to the table is an
entrepreneur mindset. You needto bring strategies, both in
marketing strategies, growthstrategies, and reach
recruitment and retentionstrategies for your employees.
You need to also bringleadership skills to develop
those employees and delegate tothem so that they can help you
(16:28):
build the business. And that'show you're going to scale. But
that's your obligation to bringthose things. And if you don't
know how to do those things,because you've been an employee
somewhere, then you need to beprepared to invest in
professional developmentalongside the other investments
you're making to grow thisbusiness. So put a line item in
(16:52):
your budget right now you've gotHow much are you spending each
month on marketing? How much areyou spending each month on
professional development, itneeds to be an expectation. And
that's how you're going to getyour brand to grow faster,
because your franchisees aregoing to be growing. And then
franchisees that can change thatmindset, they're your hottest
leads for your next locations,right, so you want every
(17:15):
franchisee capable of opening234 locations, that's a much
better growth plan than findinganother person that's just
totally green on the streets toopen one.
And you're also going to have onthe validation side, I mean,
(17:35):
they're just so tied both sidesto the growth of the franchise,
you have the internal growthfrom franchisees year over year,
and then also the growth ofbringing in new but then your
validation is going to be somuch better, as well. And, and
at the end of the day, it's allabout the long term growth, like
you don't want to do this flashin the pan. If you are serious
(17:57):
about franchising, you don'twant to do the flash in the pan,
you want to franchisees who aregoing to renew their 10 years,
you know, after 10 years,they're going to renew, they're
going to go into more locations.
And it's not just the statusquo. They're aiming to get, you
know, higher and higher. But Ithink it's really interesting
that you bring in theprofessional development piece
of it, because again, yeah, wedon't really don't really talk
(18:18):
about that at all on thefranchisee side.
Right? And that's, that's whatyou really see it a lot. A lot
of times you see franchiseesthey're like overconfident that
they're going to be successful,right? Because because they
generally pick a brand they'repassionate about. And because
they're high achievers, they'relike, I've got this right, I've
(18:40):
worked, you know, with dogs mywhole life. So yeah, they're
gonna teach me how to do a doghair cut. But I'm great with
dogs, I love dogs. And I'm alsoa people person. And so I'm
going to be successful. And it'slike, you're going to be a
successful dog groomer. But youneed to be a successful business
owner. And you need to be if youwant to be you know, if you're
(19:02):
if your vision if your vision ofswag includes spending weekends
on your boat, then you need toprobably own more than one
location. And you can't be greatwith the dogs cutting hair and
own multiple locations becauseyou can't be in two places at
once.
Exactly the whole mindset thingand it's funny like here at the
entrepreneur stores we have likeyou have your coaching hat and
(19:24):
then you have your businessowner hat you know, you're
wearing these different hats andthat's when as you're like
you're going in with theemployee mindset or that you
know, the almost like the man inthe van type type of mindset.
And then how do you put on yourboard of directors hat or your
owner hat, you know, like andswitch from one to the other.
(19:44):
So, on the franchisor side, howwas that? How can they start
fostering that? Okay, we talkedabout invalidation. Starting to
have those conversations withtheir potential franchisees what
happens on the other side Thento get franchisees into that
place?
(20:04):
Well, I mean, the reality is, isthat this type filling the
franchise gap I've hadfranchisors asked me before,
well, why don't we just add itto our it's the support we're
giving to franchisees. And thereality is, is you can't, and
that's not a dig, stay with mehere. You don't have the
(20:25):
bandwidth or the budget, to dowhat is necessary to teach these
individuals at these differentlevels. Like, you know, like you
said, it's, you have some peoplecoming in with small kids, some
people who are retired, like allthese different life
experiences, well, that feedsinto their own limiting beliefs,
their own limiting beliefs, areaffecting the way that they lead
(20:47):
their team, the way that theyinteract with customers, the
decisions that they makeregarding investments in
marketing, or other tools thatcan make them more efficient.
And so you have to be able togive them a significant amount
of personal attention, toidentify what those subconscious
patterns are, and to help themovercome them. And if you as a
(21:12):
franchisor, start spending yourtime and energy doing that one,
you're going to have to hire alot more personnel, just because
there aren't enough hours in theday to get everybody as often as
you need to. And to you're goingto have to hire very skilled
franchise business coaches thatcan get into all of this
(21:33):
emotional intelligence andpsychology and do a lot more
training. But three, you've needto be focusing on the brand and
growing the brand you should befocusing on how are you going to
sell more locations? How are yougoing? How are you keeping your
eye on the competition so thatyou can evolve your product and
services to always stay ahead ofthe game? What new technologies
(21:56):
are coming out that can makeyour brand more efficient, and
that could do a cost savings foryour franchisees? Those are the
things you should be focusingyour time energy and your money
on not helping, you know, BillyJoe get over his childhood
trauma that has made him notwant to spend a dime, more, you
know, like only I'm only payingemployees $12 An hour no more no
(22:18):
matter what. Okay, well, you'renot gonna find employees, right.
So we got to get over thatthought process. And there's a
huge process to doing it. So forus, like when we work with
franchisees, they have eightopportunities every month to
meet with us in a face to facecoaching group setting. They're
(22:38):
doing assignments where we canreview what they've done, and we
can identify where they'rewhere, where their beliefs are,
where the the road bumps are,that are holding them back. The
things that are coming up thatthat show us, okay, I see where
I see where your line ofthinking is. Now let's introduce
some other perspectives. Andlet's talk that through and we
(23:00):
can help them make thoseswitches. But it's because we
that's all we do. So we put allof our bandwidth and all of our
time and money into that type ofsupport. So So yeah, so I would
say franchisors don't try to doit yourselves, find someone to
(23:20):
support your franchisees like usor, you know, there's other
business coaches out there forthe past, but no, no, but, but
just you acknowledge that theyneed, they need that additional
support. And to be quite honest,you encourage them, franchisees
don't have to use us, they couldeven just have, honestly a
(23:42):
therapist, somebody helping themwork on becoming the person that
can run a franchise empire,instead of becoming the person
that can operate a singlelocation.
Not just their business, and thethe numbers and all of those
strategies that go along withthat. But there's this whole
(24:02):
other side to things. And havingboth you're going to see that
growth that you saw in yourbusiness. And then I'm sure you
see with client to kind of getthose things clicked in
together.
Yeah. And you asked me for anexample and one of our clients
said, I think you saved mymarriage. I mean, yeah, he'd
been he's been a friend. He'sbeen a franchisee for 30 years.
(24:26):
He started out as an employee inhis franchise and he was an
employee for five years and thefranchisor sold him a location.
And this is his 30th anniversaryas a franchisee. He's got two
locations. And he startedworking with us officially like
a year and a half ago. And hewas still he was still working
(24:47):
so many hours that at times hewould sleep in his store.
Because he was working so manyhours when he came to us, and I
was like, No, we're not doingthis. This is not a way to live.
You literally been doing thisfor 30 years like, this is not
the dream that you had, that youwould be sleeping in your store
after 30 years of businessownership. And so we put him
(25:09):
through, like the structured,the program that we put people
through originally is extremelystructured, you have to go in
order, because it layers, thelessons layer on top of each
other as we make these shifts.
And he's completely out ofworking in his business. He's
not on the schedule at all. He,his focus is on developing his
team, and they're the onesgrowing the locations. He in
(25:32):
2022, they had their biggestrevenue years ever. And he is
now looking to acquire his thirdlocation and in talks to acquire
the third location with no plansof working in it, but to be the
one developing it. So I mean,like, it's amazing, you know,
(25:54):
it's truly life changing.
I love that so much like someonefor 30 years, just plugging away
and thinking, Okay, this is it.
And then in a year and a halfsees that switch that
transition. So tell us the magicsecrets. Because all of them
(26:17):
here a fall. But I think too, itdoes come down to again, the I
really like you're you hadmentioned this before the
example of you know, you have akindergartener and you're not
going to move them up to seventhgrade, you're not going to have
your middle schooler and putthem in preschool, you know,
(26:41):
like there's that customized,tailored experience doesn't just
exist for your candidates, yourfranchise candidates,
potentials, it's 100%, just asmuch true on the other side, and
I think maybe as a franchisor,we can think, well, I don't
think my friendship myfranchisees are working, you
(27:02):
know, they're not sleeping intheir store. They're not doing
all those things, but how welldo we as franchisors actually
know what's going on in thelives of our franchisees to the
level to that level, you know,where you, you actually can, if
you get in on that more granularlevel, you can see massive
changes, and imagine that, andyou, whatever, 10, exit 100 You
(27:27):
know, 100, exit across all yourfranchisees, oh my gosh, now
your system is on a whole notherlevel. And it affects
everything.
Well, and I have franchisors whowill sometimes say to me, like,
Oh, my franchisees won't investin that. They're not going to
(27:48):
invest in that they're not goingto pay any money, you know, for
coaching or whatever it is. Andit's so interesting to me,
because it does really showexactly what you're talking
about is like how well do wereally know what's going on in
their in their heads. And thereality is, is the example I
gave about a franchisee tellingtheir, their franchise business
coach, like I need moreemployees, so my wife doesn't
(28:10):
divorce me, they're never goingto tell you that because it's
shameful. It's hurtful to sayout loud, like I've put myself
in a position now where I couldlose my family, you know, so
most of the time, franchiseesare not going to actually tell
you their biggest pain points asthe franchisor because it's
shameful, and because they don'twant you to be disappointed in
(28:32):
them. You believed in them tooffer them a franchise and they
don't want to admit that theyfeel like they're failing, even
if the numbers say that they'renot. So they're gonna play the
game of like, yeah, it's good.
Everything's good, you know, andmeanwhile, they're dying on the
inside. A lot of them a lot ofthem really are. And that's kind
of the beauty of the fact thatI've been a franchisee I've seen
(28:53):
it. I know it. I've there'stimes in my franchise journey
where I felt that way. And sowhen I can talk to those things
about people, they're like, Oh,my God, I didn't have to say it
out loud. And yet, you knew whatI was thinking. And it and you
were able to get out of thatlife. That's not That's not who
(29:14):
you are. That's not your life.
You've been successful. And theninstantly, it changes from this
despair to hope like, oh mygosh, well, then how is it
possible? So even thoughfranchisors are like my people
won't even invest in themarketing that's going to grow
their business? Well, whymarketing isn't gonna save their
marriage,right? They Well, once they get
there once the marriage is, yes,the cure? Oh, yeah, I'll invest
(29:38):
in the marketing.
And they have a totallydifferent mindset, then then
they're like, I see why I needto make this investment because
I'm thinking like anentrepreneur and I, and I see
where I was wrong before and Iwas in scarcity mode, and I was
in protection mode. And really,I have to be open to see seizing
(30:00):
opportunities and that requiresinvestments. And it's just a
complete switch.
And what I love about all ofthis is the word like just
humanizing franchising, and thisis about people, it like on so
many different levels. And I'mnot seeing anything earth
shattering here. But I thinkit's a really good reminder that
(30:25):
as you get into this, the raceor you get into the that kind of
journey of bringing infranchisees getting the numbers,
we're looking at KPIs, I wantyear over year growth, I want X
dollars in revenue, and, youknow, customers and marketing
spend, and we can sometimes losesight of the fact that these are
(30:46):
people, and we brought peopleinto our business, and how do we
connect with them, make themsuccessful, and allow them to
actually achieve like, you'retalking about empowering people.
That's what we talk about aswell. But I think science, we
can lose sight of that in allthe stuff, which is awesome.
(31:07):
Yeah. And I know you guysgo through the ill we but I
would challenge the franchisorsthat are watching how many of
you actually know what eachfranchisees definition of
success is in your system? Like,have you asked them to fill out
a vision board? Have you askedthem when you reach the level of
success you hope to reach usingthis model? What will your life
(31:29):
look like? Because the realityis, if you did that, just in my
brain, I just had this flash oflike, you know, kids projects on
a string and a teacher's class.
But if you put them side byside, they're all going to look
different. They all have a verydifferent definition of what
(31:50):
that swag is for them. And sothe model is designed to get
everybody to, like you said thesame spot, which is really the
franchisors definition ofsuccess, which is let's get you
profitable, we'll have somepeople who kind of hang out
there, we'll have some peoplewho who exceed it. And we'll
have some people whounfortunately come in underneath
(32:10):
it. But if we put if we giveeverybody the tools to get to
profitability, then we'vedelivered on our promise, right.
And that's your vision ofsuccess, and it works for your
business model, because yourbusiness is selling franchises.
And there's nothing wrong withthat I don't want anyone to
think I'm criticizing that.
That's not what I'm saying. Butthose individual franchisees,
their their vision of success isdifferent. And for some of them,
(32:34):
it does it is profitability andgrooming the dogs, that is what
I want out of life, I just wantto every day I want to spend
around dogs, and I want to buymyself a job. And if I'm making
money at it, and I'm happy, it'sbetter than whatever I was doing
before. And that that's myvision of success. And that's
beautiful. But for other people,they're dreaming of taking three
(32:56):
vacations a year with theirfamily, and they find themselves
sleeping on the floor of thestore, never taking a vacation
and not even making a home fordinner. And that's where that's
where you're going to start toreally see some breakdowns, not
just in the numbers and theoverall health of the system.
But that's where thatrelationship between franchisee
and franchisor starts to breakdown. Because people feel like,
(33:17):
this doesn't matching myexpectations. This isn't what I
was sold. Yeah.
10 I just love that we'retalking about this. You know, we
could talk about this for likehours. Because it's so it's so
(33:39):
interesting to me because it'sso crucial to the health of the
business. But it's again, thatgap that that's missing. So,
okay, as we get we asked, wecould talk for, you know, 10
more hours here. As we wrap upto two things. One is in 2023,
(34:00):
what should people focus on? Inand then number two, where can
people find you?
Okay, 100%. So 2023 This is notwhat I'm about to say, if you've
been listening so far, it's notgoing to come as any surprise to
you. But 2023 We all know thatthere we're bracing for a
(34:22):
recession, right? Andfranchisees, this for your
franchisees this is going tobring a lot of fear up, they're
going to be fearful that due toa recession, less money will be
coming in. Now one you don'twant them to have that mindset
because we all know thatthoughts become actions and
(34:42):
actions become results. So ifthey believe that less money is
coming in their actions aregoing to fall right in line with
that belief, which for most ofthem means they're going to stop
investing in things. They'regoing to start trying to save
money by. Okay, I'm going to cutmy marketing I I'm gonna, you
know, maybe I'm gonna get rid ofa couple of the software systems
(35:03):
that make me more efficient, butit's costing me money. So now
we're spending more hours we'reless efficient, we're less
productive, we're doing lessmarketing, guess what less
people are coming through thedoor. That means less money is
coming through the door, we'veobviously created our own
reality. So franchisors, youneed to be prepared to support
(35:27):
your franchisees at a higherlevel, you need to be prepared
for these beliefs and thoughtsstarting to interfere with their
ability to thrive. And you needto be out in front of it and
having these conversations withthem about about this. Also, I
(35:48):
would say focus on as afranchisor is going to bring
your freedom franchisees morecompetence if you're focused on
something that is directlyrelated to increasing their
revenue, but they have tobelieve it. So if you come out
of the gate and you saysomething like, Okay, guys,
we're going to raise prices.
franchisees are going to sayraise prices, were coming out of
(36:11):
recession, people are going tobe spending less money on things
if we raise prices, that's goingto drive even more customers
away. So you really need to becognizant about that that
franchisee perspective and theconclusions that they're going
to draw from the initiativesthat you put out there that
maybe you didn't intend, and andjust be ready to, to invest in
(36:33):
higher level of support to helpthem get through and help them
overcome what's happening in therest in the recession. I mean, I
believe, I know Warren Buffettsaid it and I saw a TED talk on
it as well. But there was sometype of case study done in 2000,
after the 2008 recession, thatshowed what did the businesses
(36:55):
that made it through therecession without closing? What
did they do differently from theones that closed, and across the
board, it was that theyinvested, they actually made an
vestments, and we're focused onspending and growing instead of
trying to save and survive.
(37:16):
And I think we saw that too,coming out of 2020 where I know
they're the ones that just shutdown stopped and stopped all
momentum. Let's just hold on toour reserves. And coming out of
it. They had to build up again,so much more than those who said
you know what, we're going tokeep on we're going to power
(37:36):
through this, here's thestrategy that we're going to
take, we can get through this,here's how and then they came
out on top and they actuallycame through better than
expected better than the yearprevious and just had a lot of
momentum. So 100% get ahead ofget ahead of the fear and
(37:57):
support your franchisees wherecan people find you April?
Well, I'm you can connect withme on LinkedIn, just let's
connect but um, check out ourwebsite, ask April porter.com.
And you can find out all of thedetails about how we help
franchisees on a daily basis andhow we work with franchisors to
(38:19):
do so. In addition, we have abig conference, we are holding
the only franchisee business anddevelopment conference Business
Education and DevelopmentConference that is mixed
industry in the franchisingindustry. And it's an April here
in St. Louis, and we're superexcited about that. So we'd love
to see franchisees coming andlearning about some of these
(38:41):
advanced marketing strategies,exit strategies, how to value a
business and wealth, wealthstrategies, growth all the all
the things soamazing. You can see APR and
APR, if you would so if you sodesire, so, and we'll put that
information too in the Kimberleythe same as we're gonna put it
(39:03):
in the show notes. Okay. Who amI? Someone stopped anyways,
April, thank you so much. Icovered so many different topics
and I love that we are alignedin our approach even though we
do different things. Again, it'sthat that person, the individual
(39:23):
is is at the center of it all.
So thank you so much for joiningme today and I look forward to
chatting more at a later date.
Me too.
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