May 1, 2023 • 52 mins
Running the Bases today with AJ Titus, President of Signarama and Starpoint Brands at United Franchise Group. Signarama is the world’s largest sign and graphics franchise. A.J. is the son of United Franchise Group CEO Ray Titus and grandson of franchise mainstay, Roy Titus.
AJ explains how his family started the Minuteman Press franchise 40 years ago and Signorama 37 years ago, and now owns various brands and companies such as shared office space, business brokerage, signage graphics, embroidery, screen printing, food and charcuterie under the United Franchise Group umbrella. He also advises other working parents about staying in touch with their families and shares the lessons he learned from his father about values such as honesty, hard work, and respect. AJ emphasizes the importance of research, passion, and hard work for entrepreneurs looking to enter franchising and reminds us that even small businesses can make a difference in their communities.
Key Lessons
- A third-generation entrepreneur can own and manage multiple businesses and brands.
- Working parents can stay in touch with their families by setting aside time for them.
- Even small businesses can make a difference in their communities by following core values such as honesty, hard work, and respect.
To learn more about AJ and Starpoint Brands visit: www.starpointbrands.com
Grab AJ’s Book - The List: Lessons From a Father
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I'm fascinated with entrepreneursand small business owners.
Plus, I love baseball.
Every show I sit down with a smallbusiness owner and we discuss
their running the bases ofentrepreneurship.
We throw the ball around onstrategy, management, execution
and innovation.
(00:21):
Plus, a little fun baseball tug.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
Settelain, grab your cracker jacksand you know what they say.
Play ball.
And it's a great day for a ballgame.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
I'm Randy Rohde and you arelistening to running the bases
with small businesses and today'sguest comes from a long line of
(00:45):
entrepreneurs.
One might say it is truly in hisbloodline.
A third generation family businesswith over a dozen brands and 1600
franchise locations worldwide.
Our guest grew up in the franchisebusiness and as he says,
franchising is all I knew.
(01:06):
His work experience has humblebeginnings.
His parents had him working at thelocal franchise locations doing
all of the jobs, cleaning,sweeping floors, answering phones,
learning all of the equipment, allof the fun stuff.
After graduating with his MBA fromthe University of Miami, he moved
into a leadership role in thefamily business.
(01:27):
And today you can find him at thehelm of the largest franchise
business in his family'sportfolio.
Sinorama overseeing 750 franchisesacross the globe.
That number could even be moretoday.
I'm not sure.
Sinorama has been named toentrepreneur magazines top global
(01:49):
Very impressive.
So welcome to the show today.
AJ Titus, the president ofSinorama and Starpoint brands, the
world's largest sign and graphicsbusiness.
AJ, welcome to the Thank you somuch, Randy.
Appreciate on.
Yeah.
We get into all of the fun stuffwe're going to hit on today.
(02:15):
I do have to say I understandcongratulations.
You're a new dad.
Is that Yes.
So I have a 10 month old at home.
So I'm well rested for those otherdads that are listening, but they
know what I mean.
But yeah, that's it's been a greatblessing.
It's been Oh, that is great.
Is first first baby?
(02:35):
Good for you.
That's always fun.
Boy, girl.
Girl.
Yeah, there you go.
That is always how do younavigate?
I know when my kids were babieslike that, I was traveling a lot.
How do you kind of balance that,Rick, life balance with the baby?
Because I can't imagine you'vegot, you know, sites all over the
world.
So I do, you know, I'm sure youtravel a Girl.
(02:58):
So actually, I just got back fromSouth Africa yesterday.
So I was in South Africa with ourfranchise owners there for our
conference.
And so if I look a little jet lagor sound a little jet lag, I might
be.
But no, it's, I'm still navigatingbeing a new dad and doing that.
But I think the best advice I evergot was from my grandfather where
it's talk to your spouse and yourkids first before you get into
(03:21):
anything.
And so before the day starts, ifthe time difference works, call
your spouse, call your kids, talkto them, tell them you love them
and then go on with your day.
Don't be the one who forgets tocall them every day.
Well, that is good advice.
And it's hard, especially whenyou're on time differences, time
zone changes and such.
But I don't know what it was likein South Africa, but I know I've
been on the west coast and, youknow, three hours back and on the
(03:44):
east coast time.
And, you know, by the time gettingup or whatever, my kids are
already off to school or whatever.
But yeah, that's great advice.
That's good.
We also probably have some other,I will say connection, not really,
kind of remotely, I guess, becausewe're outside of Cleveland.
And I know you're a big Miamisports fan, right?
Dolphin.
Huge heat.
Yeah.
You like baseball?
We were chatting a little bitabout the Marlins.
(04:06):
And so, unfortunately.
Yes.
And so I'm not going to get intothe LeBron James Miami heat
Cleveland, you know, Cavalierswinning the championship.
That was great.
But also, my office is just kindof down the road, so to speak,
from the Don Chula Stadium,because Don Chula went to John
Carroll University right here inCleveland.
(04:29):
great Huge so, in Cleveland.
Yes.
So, you had to open up that verypainful past, right?
But I would respond to that as theheat got two championships,
Cleveland only got one.
So, you know, that one should havebeen the heats, but you can have
one.
I think that was good for you all.
(04:51):
And then it's great for us.
Yes.
Oh, I'm sure.
And it's, yeah.
So that was awesome.
But no, I'm a, my dolphins fandomgoes deep.
So I'm a huge Miami dolphins.
They would be my number one team.
But all the Miami sports, I havea, you know, my wife jokes that I
have a mild sports addiction.
So all the Miami teams are who Isupport.
(05:12):
So yeah, the heat So, you know,that one only And then it's great
the Miami teams are who I support.
So yeah, that's okay.
I'm a Cubs like diehard fans.
So, you know, I know the, I knowthe feeling.
So does my wife, at least my wifelikes baseball and likes the Cubs
as well.
So, you know, it was not aprerequisite for our marriage.
It certainly works for us.
All right.
Well, let's get into a little bitof your background.
What you're doing today andbecause I'm so fascinating, I
think your history.
And I'm, I love, and readingthrough our notes.
(05:33):
I love the background, the growthof your family business.
And I'm going to call it a familybusiness.
Obviously, you've got, you know, avery large footprint now.
But maybe just run our audiencekind of through the background of
kind of the, the roots of yourWell, it's, it's a long story, but
I'll, I'll summarize it into, youknow, bite-sized package.
(05:57):
But my grandfather, Roy Titus, heactually started Minuteman Press,
which is a printing franchise thatstill exists.
It's over 40 years in existence.
So, it exists to this day.
My dad actually grew up in thatbusiness and he, you know, know
anything, but franchising like Itold you from my experience, but
(06:17):
he really did the same thing.
And then he wanted to start hisown business.
And with my grandfather's helpstarted Sinorama in New York, 37
years ago.
And so from there, built thebusiness, moved the company down
to South Florida because hey, whowould want to not live in South
Florida?
And then has built it ever sinceand has added brands and
(06:39):
franchising's just been a part ofour dinner table conversation my
entire life.
So I have two brothers that are inthe business full time.
I have three cousins in thebusiness full time.
And, you know, we're very active.
So it's one of those things wherewe didn't think of doing anything
else, but it's really mygrandfather Roy and my dad Ray who
have really laid the foundationfor us really take over and to
(07:00):
move forward.
And so, but my dad's not going,he's not retired or anything, but
it's, it's definitely been a partof us.
Ray who been a part of us.
Well, that, that is fabulous.
So just to be sure I want to kindof understand.
So it all started though with yourgrandfather and starting with one
business, right?
With one minute man press.
Was that always called minute maneven I was.
(07:23):
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
And it man pressed.
Yeah.
That was great.
It's a great brand.
I mean, I've known minute manpress for probably the 40 years.
I don't know.
Since I've been in business.
Yeah, they're probably close to 50now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All the exact numbers.
But yeah.
So, and then at some point, youknow, they grew, they grew, they
grew, they grew.
And now you have, and maybeexplain star point brands.
(07:47):
How does that, is that more of anumbrella company for other brands
besides Sinorama?
How does that kind of dove down?
know.
Since I've been in business.
Yeah, they're probably close to 50now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All Yeah.
So when my dad started Sinorama,the majority of our history was
only Sinorama.
And then we added brandsthroughout that time.
And so at some point, my dadlooked at everyone's shirts and
everyone looked like NASCAR racersand had all these different brands
(08:10):
on their shirt.
So he created an umbrella namecalled United Franchise Group.
And we started with that as aname, but as we've continued to
expand and add companies andbusinesses that are in a part of
franchising, we wanted todistinguish our franchise brands
between United Franchise Group.
And so, star point brands camefrom that.
So all of our brands that havefranchise owners are under star
point brands.
And the ultimate vision for starpoint brands is to create a brand
that customers know.
(08:30):
Because customers really don'tknow United Franchise Group
because it's a franchisingbusiness, right?
So we want to create a brand thatpeople know when they trust and
has the brands underneath that.
And so And so that's what we'reworking on.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think I'm going to try totease out something that I think
you just said quickly, but I'mlike, huh, do you have some brands
(08:52):
under your umbrella that are notSo we have everything is connected
to franchising.
Okay.
So, but they don't havenecessarily franchises.
Some of them don't have asmajority of them do, right?
But we do have a handful of themthat are more franchise services
or business services.
Okay.
And so we're looking to expandthat and build that Uh, that is
fascinating.
Somewhere in my notes and, God,I'm horrible that I don't have
(09:14):
these better organized, I guessthat's my fault because my team
does a great job with this stuff.
Somewhere I had seen.
a list of like all of thedifferent businesses and such in
your, I think portfolio will callit.
It was like business, but you'vegot restaurants, right?
And we're very diversified.
(09:35):
So yeah, so everything from, verydiversified.
So yeah, so everything from, youknow, shared office space to
business brokerage, signinggraphics, embroidery screen
printing, food, charcuterie,Greek.
So we're all over.
We're very diverse.
Yeah.
So Yeah.
So I guess a question that when Iwas looking through the notes and
I saw that I was like, are thosebrands that you either created,
(09:56):
right?
So it was like, hey, here's the AJout to her and around like, I like
that business.
going to go start one for ourfamily portfolio.
Or did you see a business?
And I think I remember seeing onewas like a Greek restaurant or
(10:19):
something like that.
There seemed like it was a Greekrestaurant the way that the name
of it was.
And like, did you see it and thensay, we would like to have that
and then you go buy that brand orit was at a mixture of kind of all
of those things.
I don't know.
The answer is yes to all thosequestions.
(10:41):
So it's The answer is yes to allthose questions.
So it's all, it depends.
So we've done joint ventures withpeople.
We've purchased businesses.
We've started them from the groundup.
Yeah.
And everything in between.
So yes, the answer to all yourwere yes.
Yeah.
That is restaurants and foodbusinesses, quite a departure from
sign and graphics business,printing business.
Who in your family had theinterest in that area and food?
(11:03):
So the funny, the the funny storybehind that is for most of the
businesses life, my dad wouldstand on stage and say, I'm never
going to own a food business.
And he literally said that fordecades.
Okay.
never going to own food for allthe reasons that you wouldn't want
to own food.
Right.
And then actually before I wentinto Sinorama, I met with a client
who with the business that we nolonger own.
since sold the business.
But it was a food business.
(11:24):
And I brought it to my dad andhe's like, oh, let's take a look.
You know, let's and he was moreopen to it.
And that's what kind of opened thedoor being more involved with
food.
But it's not my it's I'm nottrying to take the credit for it.
(11:45):
But just his mindset has changedover the years.
And we have some great partnersthat we work with now moving
forward.
So I mean, it's I guess it's justevolved.
And it's hard to be a bigfranchise company when most of the
franchise businesses are in thefood space.
So it's hard to be a big franchisecompany without having some food
brands.
Yeah.
he brands.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I love diversity like thatin business.
(12:07):
So you know, applaud your effortsin that.
Let me want to switch over andtalk a minute about or more,
obviously about Sinorama.
So I said, currently, and I'm notsure, hopefully this was accurate
about 750 franchises.
Yeah, about right.
Yeah.
Crizies is out of pride.
13 countries.
Is that sound about right?
Are you?
We're a little bit more than 13.
So I think right.
Yeah.
Crizies is out of bit more than13.
So I think we're about 25 30countries, something like that.
(12:28):
Yeah.
So like, for instance, we havejust was in South Africa.
So at that conference, we hadSouth Africa, Namibia, Botswana,
and Zimbabwe.
That all were represented.
All right.
And I Yeah.
So like, for represented.
All right.
And I think the researcher said,hey, be sure to ask him about
Oregon and give a plug.
So do you currently still don'thave stores in Oregon for a sign
(12:50):
or you were were just liking todig a knife in an empty.
I was actually trying to help him.
Yes, the answer.
The answer is yes.
Unfortunately, we don't havesomeone in an Oregon.
And if you know someone, Randy,we'd love to have the first store
in Oregon for Sinorama.
That would be great.
Yeah.
All right.
So actually trying to help him.
(13:10):
Yes, the answer.
The answer is in Oregon forSinorama.
That would be great.
Yeah.
right.
So you can, if you're in Oregonand you want to look into
Sinorama, go reach out to a J.
It's me a call star pointsbrands.com and you'll get
connected there.
All right.
So I'm trying to help a brotherout here.
I it.
All right.
So tell us about Sinorama.
(13:31):
I it's a fascinating business.
And from the notes that I've readjust about the model itself, I, if
I were looking at franchising, Iwould like, wow, this is really
great opportunity.
It seems like so.
folks, I'm not trying to pitchSinorama.
So don't, you know, like send meall your whatever email.
Your checks in the mail, Randy.
But I am really the way that it'sstructured in the what I would say
the autonomy.
And I'm not going to go too deepinto this.
I'll let you go on with it.
(13:51):
It would be very appealing, Ithink.
me a call star appreciate it.
All send me all your whateveremail.
Your checks in the mail, Randy.
But I am I mean, we're a fullessentially the business model is
where a full customizable, fullservice sign and graphics
franchise.
So we do everything from the smallindoor, ADA signage to large
outdoor electrical signs, vehiclegraphics and everything in
between.
(14:12):
Pretty much anything that has yourbrand on it in your business.
as can do.
And that's what sets us apart fromother sign competitors because
there's sign companies that focusin on certain things.
They might be, I fabricate channelletters or I'm good with interior
signage or lit signage or thingslike that.
We do everything in between.
And we've been around 37 years aswell.
(14:33):
So we have the history, we havethe network as well.
And so, and we do give, I mean,there's varying degrees of
franchise control.
You can go from one end of thespectrum where you buy the food,
you buy the cardboard, the paper,you lease your land from the
franchise or to, hey, I'm justlicensing the name.
And then everything in between, wegive a lot of flexibility because
it's a fully customizablebusiness.
You're brandy.
If you needed signs for yourbusiness, I can't just go around
(14:56):
the corner and say, oh, Randyneeds some signs for his business.
Let me just take that off theshelf, right?
We have to design it, create it,print it, apply it, there's more
to it.
And so it's hard to have thecontrols that other franchises
have or try to have where it'sfully customizable.
And we want the entrepreneur toflourish.
Like we want each one of ourfranchise owners to be
(15:17):
entrepreneurial and flourish.
And so we try to make a system anda culture that they can flourish
in and give them that flexibility.
I and give it.
I will say If I could, I wouldtilt my camera over and show you
but in our office on one of themain walls, we actually have our
logo in some vinyl print lettersand stuff.
(15:39):
We use Sinorama, a franchise localin here too.
Very good to do the cut and theycame out of the store.
Is he on the east side of town?
Yes, actually on the east side anda little bit north of us of where
we are.
Very good store.
Is he on the east Okay, I think Iknow which franchise owner that
is.
It's probably Sam.
So do you work with the guy or no?
(15:59):
was here when they came in andtold me.
Okay, when they did it.
Okay, I don't know who that's.
So if Sam's listening, then maybe,you know, it'll be good.
Very funny.
So your business, so especially Ithink, is 37 years.
That's a long time.
And we have come through likeleaps and bounds and technology.
How has technology changed the waythat you guys, not only Okay, when
(16:22):
they did it.
Okay, I don't know who that's.
So if Sam's listening, then maybe,you know, it'll be good.
Very do business, but as well eventhe types of business and or
delivery of business.
How has that It's changed rapidly,but it's also stayed the same.
And that's the beauty of designbusiness.
So our core products from 37 yearsago are pretty much the same.
(16:44):
I mean, we cut vinyl, we printvinyl, we do a lot of different
things.
But just to give you aperspective, 37 years ago, there
was a dark room in the originalstore where they developed film.
There was a painter on staff thatpainted signs, okay?
But we still had a plotter in thestore.
And stores still have a plotter tothis day in the store.
And so at the end of the day, theway in which we've made products,
(17:04):
the equipment has changed andadvanced quite rapidly, the way in
which you market has changed quiterapidly, our website has changed.
I mean, when we first started,there was no website 37 years ago.
To now, you know, there's so manythings we can do with our website.
So we've invested a lot in ourtechnology.
But the cool part is we're stillselling signs.
We're still using some of the samepieces of equipment.
(17:26):
We used 37 years ago, but it'sjust advanced a little further.
And I think there's going to be alot of other changes, exciting
changes around the corner from anelectrical signage point of view,
digital signage, and 3D printing.
I also think that at some point,3D printing will be applicable to
our Right, right.
I'll tell you, just for my ownexperience, it was so easy to kind
(17:47):
of deal with, you know, here's,I'll show you if you can see.
Oh, it looks good.
OK. I'm trying to get it to, yeah,it was unbluried for a second, but
yeah, looks good.
There we go.
Nice.
OK, great.
So because I just said, like,well, here's my logo, right?
And I took the logoelectronically.
I sent them the image and I wantedto be X tall and X wide.
(18:08):
And boom, they just came out witha letter.
It was fabulous.
And I think I read somewhere inthe notes as well, though, and
talking about this technology.
This is where it kind of triggeredme.
It was that so you can evenactually go and print directly
onto items and nuts.
I said, you are.
I'm going to read this quote, Ithink, because I thought, really,
you can do that.
(18:28):
Were you printing directly on thepiece of what you call this?
I'm going to read this.
I think this is it.
Yes.
There's flat bed printing whereyou can print directly to a
material instead of printing on apiece of vinyl and then placing it
onto something.
You can take a door off the hingesand print on the door Oh, it looks
good.
OK. I'm trying to get it wasunbluried for a second, but yeah,
(18:49):
looks Nice.
So That's a funny story youactually bring up.
So yeah, so to answer yourquestion, flatbed printing a lot
of our stores, not every store,but most of our stores at this
point have had some sort offlatbed printing into their shop.
And there's even some sort ofprinting, the printer direct is
called DCS printing.
(19:09):
And so they actually printsBraille.
So it actually raises off of thesubstrate.
So you can actually print Braillein some letters with texture and
things of that nature.
So there's some really cool thingsthat stores are doing with
interior design.
But flatbed printing, you canprint on a lot of different
substrates and different types ofthings.
But when flatbed printing became athing, the HP rep came to our head
(19:30):
office and he said, hey, we can dothis and we can print on this and
we can print on a door.
And so Jim Tatum, who was mypredecessor, said, show me.
And we literally took his door offof the hinges and brought it into
(19:51):
the back.
And we printed on his door and thedoor that my vice president has is
that original door.
We painted over it white, but itwas a picture of Jim on the door
that we printed as like the as thesample.
So yes, so if you did want toprint on a door, you can print on
a door.
They proved that right.
can but it was a is bad.
When I read that, I thought, wow,that is great.
Because I've always thought aboutmaybe taking one of our vehicles
and wrapping it with our logo andsuch and drive it around, you
(20:15):
know, the promoter agency and Iwonder if I could just like drive
my car.
They just print right onto myvehicle.
So, but can't do that yet.
I don't know if you want us to dothat.
do that yet.
I don't know if you want us to dothat.
Can't do that yet, but I'm surethat technology might be there
(20:35):
somewhere.
Oh, yeah.
That's I want to get into thewhole concept around franchise and
what makes a good franchisee andall of that and maybe we'll do
that after the 17th and stretch.
But before we do that, how aboutgive us, I guess, your insights on
the current state of franchisingand the franchising industry.
Obviously, you're a very largefranchise or so I would expect to
hear, you know, good things aboutit.
(20:56):
From your insights, though, whatdo you, how do you see the
industry today and where do yousee it going in the next three to
10 years?
Is it recessionary proof?
You know, there's all thisconversation about recession.
Well, there's nothing.
I wouldn't say there's anythingthat's recession proof.
I would say Sinorama speakingselfishly is very recession
resilient because we have so manydifferent types of products and
people still need to market theirbusiness.
So our product mix is going tochange during a recessionary time
(21:16):
and we've seen that because we'vebeen through a couple of
recessions in our 37 years, eitherpandemic related or financial
related or whatever the case maybe.
So we've seen that prove out overtime.
But the thing with franchising, Iwould say there's no better model
in the world that helps peoplegenerate wealth and helps them own
their own business because thereare many franchisees that could
never start their own business ontheir own.
But the guidance that franchisinggives them and the training and
(21:37):
the support and the network thatthey get helps them to be
successful there where theywouldn't be where they would be
kind of on an island startingtheir own business.
And I like the joke that we'vemade all the mistakes so that
other people don't have to makethe mistakes.
And so that's what we have.
(21:59):
We have that 37 years ofexperience and the stats prove out
that a franchise business is waymore successful than someone that
just starts by themselves.
And so I think, and again, I'vegrown up in franchising.
It's one of the greatest economicdrivers in the history of the
(22:20):
world.
Now the industry itself is strongand really good.
You do have some politicians wholike to get involved in
franchising and like to speak onthings that they don't necessarily
know about.
And I think their intentions arepure.
Honestly, I think their intentionsare in the right spot.
But I think that at the end of theday, they're not really digging
into franchising and understandingwhat franchising is and they don't
(22:42):
get what the model is and theycould end up really hurting it.
So there are some threats tofranchising that we work with and
then there's some people who areworking on that as well to educate
people and help them understand onwhat franchising is.
But overall the industry is verystrong.
It continues to grow.
There are a lot of franchises thatyou wouldn't even think of
franchises.
You could be in your shoppingcenter and you may look think, oh,
(23:06):
that's mom and pop business, butit's actually a franchise.
So it's a huge part of thepandemic the things that I love
about Sinorama again is kind ofthe autonomy.
You allow your franchisees tooffer this service or that service
or a lot of services, how theyprobably structure their shop
itself, meaning managementstructure.
They operated what's the staffingmodels look like things like that.
But I'd saw it as well.
And this, only because I amsomewhat familiar with franchising
(23:26):
and... loved this scalingroyalties kind of concept.
Do you guys still do that andmaybe explain what that is?
So we So we do and it's rare infranchising.
Usually it's just a 6% flat or an8% flat of gross sales.
We actually scale it down.
So it's 6% up to 600,000 in sales,4% to a million and then 2%
(23:49):
thereafter for however long thefranchise or much the franchise
owner grows.
So the better that the franchiseowner does, the better that they
do.
They actually get a discount fordoing better because we want to
encourage sales.
We want to encourage growth andwe're partners in this.
We're a 6% partner.
The franchise owner is 94%.
So they got to run their businessand run the system the right way
and hire and fire their employees.
(24:09):
But we're going to do what our 6%is and a lot of our franchise
owners who grow and get to those2% is actually totally not at 6%
is actually totally less.
And if you were to do math so.
Wow.
It is rare and that's why I wantedto be sure to kind of call it out
because when I came across thatand then know it's like I've not
heard of that in the franchiseworld.
Scaling royalties because as anentrepreneur it makes sense to me
(24:29):
but from a franchise or aperspective is like you're kind of
just giving money away a littlebit versus right.
And then the way for you tocontinue to incentivize your
franchise is like go out go getit.
(24:50):
Well it's also a Well it's also adifferent mindset because we're a
family run business.
So I'm not building this businessto sell to a private equity
company or go publicly traded oranything like that.
Like I'm helping to build thiscompany because I want my daughter
to take over in 20, 30 years whenshe's old enough to do it.
(25:12):
So we want long term relationshipswith our franchise owner.
So of course everyone wants tomake money and we like to make
money too just like the nextperson but we also want that long
term relationship with ourfranchisees.
Yeah, that's terrific.
All right.
So we're going to come back to allof that fun stuff in a second.
But here we go.
And time for the seventh inningstretch.
(25:33):
right, AJ.
Now is the time.
We're going to get into theseventh inning stretch here.
And before we kind of hit therecord button was, hey do you like
baseball ball?
We have a lot of guests.
Our current show that justreleased on Monday, you know, the
case from Scotland.
And he's like, I don't knowanything about baseball.
So we get all kinds.
And I'm assuming all kinds.
And I'm assuming you don't haveany Bartman questions as I'm a
(25:55):
Morales fan.
You're a Cubs fan.
fan.
No, no Bartman question.
Okay.
So here we go.
We actually, my researcher waslike, hey, she thought she was on
the line of a great question, agreat pursuit.
And then after spent about an hourinto it, she's like, I just can't
find anything.
Cannot find.
She wanted to do some kind of aquestion and get some hard
(26:16):
information on signage in the Butthere's a ton of signage right in
the ass throughout stadiums.
But she's like, I cannot findanything on pricing.
So there's certainly no shortage.
We have opportunities to have asign in a stadium.
And then she listed all of thisbanner ads on walls and sidelines,
ivy screens, different kinds ofscreens, restroom ads, on field
branding, scoreboard, concoursesignage.
I mean, there's all kinds ofstuff, right?
And Cubs and cup holders andstairways.
(26:37):
And she's like, it is, she goes,and there's no pricing.
She had this great idea.
Like, I'm going to what's the mostexpensive sign or something?
You know, I ass like it.
That's the beauty of ourbusinesses because everything's
custom.
So the price, you know, that'ssomething that we always discuss
with our franchise owners becauseprice is kind of up in the air.
I mean, you can get it kind of afeel, but you can charge what you
want.
(26:58):
And there's some very famous signsin baseball too.
I mean, like, I think of the UTSpretzel sign and Yankee Stadium.
There's the, is it sit-go?
The big sign that's outside ofFenway Park.
Yes, yes.
So that's a famous one, but that'snot even in Fenway Park.
(27:19):
They kind of cheated the system byfacing it the other way, but it
still kind of goes on the Fenwayanyway.
but that's not even in FenwayPark.
They kind of cheated the system byIt gets a lot of eyeballs on it.
Yeah, the only thing that we couldfind, why I say she could find
was, and I'll just throw this outbecause I really don't have a
(27:41):
question.
So you're getting, okay, we'regetting a real softball lob to you
to knock it out.
The only thing that even is arelative question is, I'm going to
couch it this way.
What is the cost of a logo patchon a follow up questions.
So is it the actual cost toadvertise a logo patch on a
uniform or the actual cost touniform or the actual cost to make
(28:08):
it star point brands wanted to putyour logo patch on a Oh, And this
is in MLB, baby.
That's all.
That's all we talk about.
Okay.
Cause the all.
That's all we talk about.
Okay.
Cause the Marlins, they might bebegging you just to stick it on
(28:33):
the thing.
I mean, that's what they might bedoing.
It I mean, that's what they mightbe doing.
It could be an for you, right?
It might be.
I'm sorry.
I'm so cynical about my team.
I'll still watch them all, butthey just, I'm just so cynical.
I don't mean to be like that.
(28:53):
But all right.
long a a year?
You know, actually, I don't evenknow what it's probably.
I'm just going to guess $10million.
It's got to be a multi.
It's got to be a multi year.
what it's probably.
I'm just going to guess $10million.
It's got to be a I'm going toguess $10 million.
I don't even know the hard number.
She just has written down eightfigures eight figures.
Okay.
(29:13):
So, all right.
Yeah.
So I guess eight figures.
Yeah.
It's quite expensive.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's expensive.
Yeah.
Yes.
So that's that's the question.
Anyway.
And and that was the honest seventhinning we've had for a while.
Very good.
There we go.
Let's get back into it.
Playball.
Okay.
So, all right.
Yeah.
So I guess eight figures.
Yeah.
It's that's expensive.
Yeah.
Yes.
So back into it.
I wanted to talk with you.
And really, I think I read a quoteagain or somewhere.
(29:34):
And maybe she pulled this out of apodcast.
I think that you're on earlier atsome point.
And you have this viewpoint ofyour role, which is helping
businesses grow and be successful.
I don't know if that's a directquote or not, but that was kind of
your viewpoint.
Anyway, that you were expressing.
(30:00):
I love that as a franchise or andin your role.
I mean, you're you're the top topman there.
You're the top franchise or.
So how do you do that?
So kind of maintain thatviewpoint, pursue that kind of
mindset in a day to day basis.
How do you do that as a CEO?
Well, so it's a a go back to whatI said earlier about being the
(30:22):
best economic one of the besteconomic creations of our time in
the world.
It's because of the symbioticrelationship with it.
And so if our franchise owners doreally well, we make money.
If the brand is really valuableand does a good job, our franchise
owners make money and it workstogether and one can't work by
itself.
You got to work together and theonly way you can motivate
franchisees and the only way youcan motivate people is to have
(30:42):
relationships with them and tocare about them and to care about
their lives and what they want todo.
At the end of the day, I love whenI hear franchise owners tell me,
hey, this business has helped meput my kids through college.
This this franchise has helped meafford a great retirement.
This franchise has helped me putmy kids into business.
And they take over for me andthere's longevity there.
so that's what gets me up in themorning and that's what makes me
(31:05):
happy.
And so if you don't have your thatmindset, you can't be a successful
franchise or I mean, my cell phoneis given out to all our franchise
owners.
If anyone wants to talk to me,they can talk to me.
can shoot me an email, shoot me atext.
I have a 10 month old at home, soI don't sleep all that much.
So it doesn't matter what timezone you're in.
(31:29):
Look, that's that's the way yougot to be.
You got to live it.
You have to be involved with itbecause as soon as you don't live
it, then the quality starts to godown.
The relationship starts to go awayand you're not going to be as
(31:49):
successful.
And so, you know, when I not todigress Randy, but when I was
dating my now wife, she saw mebeing in the franchising business.
So I there was a point where wewere dating for I don't know, it
was like a year or something,whatever it was.
(32:10):
I just had this conversation withher to say, look, you know, I
really like you and I'd like tomarry you someday, but you got to
know that I'm going to travel alot.
I'm going to be very involved withour franchise owners.
And this is going to be your lifetoo.
And so if you're cool with that,then great.
I'm going to make me very happy.
(32:32):
But if you're not, you're not coolwith that, then we got a split.
You know, we got to do ourseparate ways.
So I'm happy she chose to stay,hang around.
But that's just how serious wetake it.
It's just the part of our lives.
good.
Good advice.
Good relationship advice as well.
That wasn't a proposal either.
That was one of either.
That was one of just, hey, it'ssome day, it won't be a proposal.
some day, it is, you know, wemight as well cut it off now.
(32:55):
I was hoping, buddy, that that wasnot the proposal because I'm like,
that really wasn't all thatromantic.
I did a little, put a little moreeffort into it than that.
So when you have a new franchiseeor just somebody new in business,
maybe what and kind of back tothis mindset that you have, which
is helping businesses grow and besuccessful.
Are there some first kind offundamental steps or things that
(33:16):
you want to cover or as anoverview with I'm wondering about
that romantic.
I did a little, put a little moreeffort into it Well, I mean, for
each franchise, each franchise hastheir system.
So there's a system that works.
So when you look for a franchisee,you want someone who listens and
follows a system.
And so, and that's been proven outover years.
And it's been tweaked and addedto.
And, you know, we adjust over thetime based on what happens in the
world and advice and things ofthat nature.
(33:39):
So you want someone who's focusedon the system.
So I always point back to ifsomething's not going right, one
of two things is going wrong.
Either they're not following thefranchise system that we have or
they're not working hard enough.
There's nothing in between, right?
So they're either, and again, notbeing, I'm not being facetious,
there could be things happening intheir life to not make them follow
the system.
Like, you know, there could be anumber of different things.
(34:00):
But usually when that, whensomething's going wrong, it's
those two things.
And so I always point back andtrain on, what does the system
say?
What does the system say?
And are you doing that?
So those are really the twoquestions that when I was in
support, I would do.
And that same thing when I talk tofranchisee now, and it doesn't
matter if the franchisee is doinga half million dollars in sales or
seven million dollars in sales andeverything in between, it's
usually those two things.
That's good.
(34:21):
are, don't we talk about thisbefore, but you're really a family
business and goes all the waythrough and I'm curious.
I mean, just earlier, thebeginning with the introduction,
talked about your uncle and yourcousins all involved in the
business in different parts of theportfolio.
How does that work?
I mean, in the sense of, well,you're already plus years, you've
three generations, you got a lotof hands, a lot of opinions.
(34:43):
Yep.
How does that all kind of staytogether and keep going in the
right direction?
I'm sure sometimes doesn't feellike it's going in the right
directions.
I mean, I know family dynamics andsure.
How do you guys keep it all IWell, we're, it's all my dad.
(35:06):
You get to be honest with you.
It's all my dad laying thefoundation and speaking truth into
all of us.
Like he's been very clear with me.
Like you're not the president ofSinorama because you're my son.
You're the president becauseyou're working hard and you're the
best person for the job.
But if I cease to become the bestperson for Sinorama, he has your
problem telling me that and firingme as well.
And so there's a clear cutcommunication in that regard
because it's not about enrichingthe family.
It's about our franchise ownersand growing the business.
(35:27):
That's what it's about.
And so that's the first thing isthat my dad has laid a great
foundation.
The second thing is he's made asvery aware of the statistics
because first generation, thesecond generation, it's high.
It's maybe 60, 70%.
And I'm going to watch the numbersdirectly.
But successful.
Successful.
Pass on the business continues tobe successful.
Second to third generation, it'sprobably like 20%, 15%.
It goes down pretty much.
(35:48):
Third generation, the fourthgeneration, you might as well buy
a lottery ticket.
It's like low single digits.
And so the joke is the firstgeneration works really hard,
builds it.
Second generation maintains it.
The third generation spends allthe money and the fourth
generation closes it.
And I hate to say it like that,but that's what the statistics
tell us.
And so we don't want to be astatistic and we don't want to be
part of that.
And we have a plan in place and mydad has done an amazing job at
(36:10):
being clear and honest with all ofus and have our mindset on the
right way because of course, wherethere's times where we disagree
and of course there's times wherewe might not see eye to eye on
certain things, but it always goesback to, what's the best thing our
(36:30):
franchise owners?
What's the best thing for ourcompany as a whole?
And we move forward.
But it's not about AJ or mybrother or my cousin or ever.
It's about our business as a Well,first I applaud that because I
(36:51):
think that would still be verydifficult to pull personalities
out of the mix.
And I'm sure your family's got ahandful of personalities.
And to stay focused on the overallobjective of the company and
success of the company and yourfranchise ease.
And I'm probably gonna harken backbecause you mentioned and
(37:12):
certainly want to give credit toyour father and I understand that,
and I don't have a lot of facts onthis.
And so I wanted your, really yourinsights on that.
So I understand you wrote a bookabout your dad and the lessons
Tell us about that and give usmaybe a taste of some of the
lessons.
you Well, there's the other callto action is my books on Amazon.
(37:33):
If you all want to read it, it'svery cheap.
So I'm not making a ton of moneyfrom it.
It's really just to get out there.
your But the book is called TheList Lessons from a Father by AJ
Titus.
And it's on Amazon.
But the story goes is my dad, hetraveled a lot growing up.
He traveled a lot more than even Itraveled now because every trade
(37:54):
show was out of town.
And he had people all over everycontinent and things of that
nature.
But my dad took two things veryseriously.
When he was home, he drove us toschool.
And he had that time with us inthe car.
And then the other thing waseveryone eats at the dinner table.
So he was home at 6.30 almostevery day.
(38:17):
And we ate at the dinner table.
And we talked.
Okay.
so that's where a lot of theteaching happened.
And with my dad.
And so one of the things he diddriving to school is he made us
memorize and recite what he calledthe list.
And it was 15, 16.
I wrote the book.
I should know.
But multiple facts on Lessons tothe Bible.
(38:39):
So like one of them is honesty.
Always tell the truth.
Another one is hard work.
Work harder than other people.
Respect.
Respect other people.
Dedication.
Dedicate yourself to good.
And we go down this and we had tomemorize that.
And say it back to him when wewere kids.
When we were eight years old, nineyears old, 10 years old.
And then once we've memorized it,the lesson changed from, okay, you
memorized it.
Now are you living by the list?
Are you living by these lessonsthat were given you?
(39:02):
And so going through the processof having a child and for the
first time, you think aboutthings.
You didn't even think aboutbefore.
Right?
So one of those things is how am Igoing to parent my daughter?
And so my best example that I haveis the people who parented me.
(39:25):
And so I thought back and Ithought, you know, this is a good
thing that I should share witheverybody.
And that's why I did it.
You know, I don't, don't make anymoney on it.
It's just one of those thingswhere it's out there.
And if you want to read it greatand I gave it to our franchise
(39:48):
owners.
And if it helps someone, thenthat's what makes me smile.
So that's the whole purpose.
purpose.
What a great gift to give to yourfather as well as well as your,
your own kids, your own daughter.
Yeah.
Just to continue to sharemeaningful lessons from your
(40:09):
father.
I love it.
I'm going to go check it out.
The list.
Yeah.
The list lessons.
It's a quick book.
Yeah.
Quick read.
Yeah.
Nice.
So let's get in a little bitabout, It's a quick book.
Yeah.
you mentioned some things about,you know, what makes a good
franchise, the E. And I'm kind ofcurious because you do have all of
these different brands.
And I did find, no, I probablylost it.
(40:29):
I did find the list of, of thevarious, of the various different
franchise or groups and thingsthat you have.
probably going to say this.
And this is probably a dumbquestion, I guess.
But does a franchisee prospect inSinorama look different than a
franchisee prospect in theMediterranean grill?
I think was one of your friends.
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
Yes.
The answer is yes.
So, I mean, each business needsdifferent, you know, mindset
(40:52):
behind a different skill set.
What we generally find though is,you know, for instance, for
Sinorama, someone has to haveeither sales, marketing, or
management background of some,some regards.
So they have to know how to managesystems and processes.
They have to have an open mind.
They have to have a positiveattitude.
But we have franchise ownersbetween all walks of life.
(41:13):
I mean, someone who is anoperational person to a
sales-minded person, but they gotto hire their weakness, you know.
So if they're an operationalperson, you got to hire a sales
person.
If you're more of a sales person,you got to make sure you have a
strong operational person.
And each brand is a littledifferent, right?
And the investment level is alittle different for each brand
too.
So we have some brands that aremore absentee ownership, where
Sinorama is really not an absenteemodel.
(41:35):
You have owner operator who's inthe business.
And so, yeah, there are definitelydifferences between each one, but
really the attitude piece and themindset piece stays the same.
You got to be able to follow asystem.
You got to be able to be positive.
You got to be able to beopen-minded.
I mean, there are some people whoflat out cannot be in the
(41:56):
franchising business.
You know, and I've told people onDiscovery Day tour, this might not
be for you because you don't wantto change everything to suit you,
where we have the blueprint tomove forward.
And you'll have flexibility andentrepreneurial ship within the
blueprint, but you got to followthe blueprint.
You can't have a blueprint for ahouse, and then there's a canoe
sitting there.
But if you want to color yourhouse blue and have a pool, and
the model pooled and great, that'sawesome.
So have the blue or the blue.
anyway, that's good.
All right.
(42:18):
So as a question.
So we have a lot of small businessowners listening to the podcast.
That's primarily what do they needto know if they're considering
franchising their Well, so numberone, they should first call
accurate franchising, which is oneof our consulting firms that we
help people turn their businessinto a franchise.
So thank you for that plug.
(42:38):
I didn't even know that.
So yeah, so accuratefranchising.com.
But besides that piece, there areas I kind of alluded to earlier,
there's a lot of legal, legal easein franchising.
And so the FTC and whatnot, youhave to have a franchise
disclosure document and all thatfun stuff.
And so that's something to keep inmind.
(42:59):
But before you even get to thelegal side, the things I would be
asking myself is number one, isthis a replicable model?
So franchising is successful overmany states and many countries.
So is this something that iswidely replicable?
The first thing, number two, doyou have a written down system?
Or is this just all in your brain?
Would the business completely fallapart if you got hit by a bus?
(43:25):
Or can this be written down andpassed to someone and talked to
someone else?
And then number three, I would sayis are these products and
services?
You know, can you get these tothese different places?
So like, you know, there might bea regional thing.
Like, for instance, I married aTexan.
So the girl I told that was goingto be in franchising.
(43:48):
She's a Texan.
And so they eat things calledcollaches in Texas.
I had no idea what the hell thatwas.
A collache.
Okay.
I since now know what it is andit's delicious.
But if you rolled out collaches inSouth Florida, people would think
you are nuts.
Now, again, I'll eat my own wordsbecause there are many brands that
have done a great job in rollingthings out in other countries and
areas that was never there before.
But in the same breath, is thissomething that is easily
(44:09):
explainable?
So anyway, I didn't even knowthat.
that's good.
I know what collaches are.
You are.
Okay.
I think I know what it is now.
Cleveland even.
So here we are.
We're going to roll into thebottom of the ninth.
And generally we have a kind of aset question in regards to the
bottom of the ninth when we askfor your advice for those starting
out in business or maybe alreadyare in business.
(44:31):
But I'm going to fine tune thequestion a little bit closer to
your niche here, which is, are.
Okay.
I think I know what it is now.
you have any tips or advice youcan give to entrepreneurs thinking
about getting into franchising?
So that's a good question.
I mean, big things for me is youwant to know the people you're
going into business with becausethis is a partner type of
(44:52):
partnership.
It's not a true partnership, butit is a type of partnership.
And so where the brand goes reallyis where your business will go.
Even if you run the system theright way and you work really
hard, the brand as a whole, ifthey're growing and successful,
(45:13):
it's really going to determine alot of your success.
So, you know, number one is thefranchise been around for a long
time.
Do they have that longevity, thathistory of success?
Number two, who are the businesspartners, the businesses, the
people in charge?
So is it a family run businesslike us?
Do they have the same owners for10 or more years?
(45:37):
Is this a stable ownership groupor is just as being passed to
different people?
And is it an industry that you'reexcited about?
There's a lot of great businessesand a lot of great franchises and
a lot of great industries.
Is this something that you'reexcited about because again, like
I tell this franchise prospectsall the time because they're all
about making money, making money,making money.
And that's great.
Again, as I said, everyone shouldwant to make money.
(46:00):
We're a capitalistic world, makingmoney is not a bad thing.
It's not a dirty thing.
Okay.
But you got to enjoy what you do.
You got to enjoy waking up in themorning and you got to enjoy going
into work and you got to enjoybeing passionate about the
products you sell.
And so are you going to bepassionate about flipping burgers?
Are you going to be passionateabout helping people grow their
(46:21):
businesses, what sign around withthis?
And so again, that's my spin onit.
But again, some people aren'tpassionate about signs and that's
fine.
That's no problem.
I want people who are passionateabout the business, right?
And so those are the things Iwould say from a franchising what
you're looking at.
at.
Yeah.
Oh, good advice.
Good advice.
How about just in general, becauseI still want to get that, yeah, so
(46:42):
it's such great experience and yousee all different types of
businesses and operators.
What advice though do you havejust in general, not kind of
taking out the model of franchise,but just advice in the general
work hard.
There's no such thing as luck.
I mean, at the end of the day, IHey, there is let me take a step
back.
at the end of the day, I'm goingto be a I definitely would sit
(47:05):
here and say, I'm extremely luckyto be born to the family that I
was born to and have the mentorsaround me that I have mentored me
and helped me.
But in the same breath, I havealso worked very hard and I've
earned it.
Same thing with everyone listeningto this podcast.
There's some things you're goingto be lucky about.
There's some things you're notgoing to be lucky about, but you
(47:27):
can choose how you can react tothat luck and create your own luck
in a lot of ways.
So the people who grind and workreally hard, they're usually
successful.
Now there's more nuance to that,okay?
But at the end of the day, it'sreally, are you working hard?
Are you passionate about whatyou're doing and do you want to
(47:50):
make a difference?
Because I tell our franchiseowners all the time, hey, you
think if you don't think you'remaking a difference by selling
signs, you're wrong.
You're making a huge difference inyour community.
And there's a ton of people whohave helped people become
entrepreneurs with sign andgraphics and have donated to
nonprofits and have done things tomake a difference.
And so, you know, care, work hard,make a difference, and you'll be
(48:10):
successful.
Yeah, yeah.
I love it.
That's great advice too.
And I love, wish I knew who saidthis quote, but I think it
dovetails directly with what yousaid is something like luck or
success is when preparation,substitute, hard work meets
opportunity.
And I think, you know, what youstated as well, just really just
echoes that same sentiment.
So listen, AJ, thanks for being onthe show.
(48:31):
It's been great to get to know youand understand our point brands
and folks, you can go check outthe show notes.
We will have a link where you canget in touch with AJ if you'd
like.
Talk to him more about business,about family business, about
franchising.
And start point brands.com.
Well, also I have a link to hisbook.
I'm going to go check that out.
(48:51):
That'll be fun.
And yeah, it's just been funhaving you on the show.
Appreciate Randy, the pleasure hasbeen mine.
I really appreciate theconversation.
yeah.
All right.
Hey folks, that's the ball game.
Thanks for joining us today.
And if you like our show, pleasetell your friends, subscribe and
review.
And we'll see you around theballpark.
Joining the bases with smallbusinesses is brought to you by 38
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(49:14):
Connect
I'm fascinated with entrepreneursand small business owners.
Plus, I love baseball.
Every show I sit down with a smallbusiness owner and we discuss
their running the bases ofentrepreneurship.
We throw the ball around onstrategy, management, execution
and innovation.
(00:21):
Plus, a little fun baseball tug.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
Settelain, grab your cracker jacksand you know what they say.
Play ball.
And it's a great day for a ballgame.
Hey, thanks for joining us today.
I'm Randy Rohde and you arelistening to running the bases
with small businesses and today'sguest comes from a long line of
(00:45):
entrepreneurs.
One might say it is truly in hisbloodline.
A third generation family businesswith over a dozen brands and 1600
franchise locations worldwide.
Our guest grew up in the franchisebusiness and as he says,
franchising is all I knew.
(01:06):
His work experience has humblebeginnings.
His parents had him working at thelocal franchise locations doing
all of the jobs, cleaning,sweeping floors, answering phones,
learning all of the equipment, allof the fun stuff.
After graduating with his MBA fromthe University of Miami, he moved
into a leadership role in thefamily business.
(01:27):
And today you can find him at thehelm of the largest franchise
business in his family'sportfolio.
Sinorama overseeing 750 franchisesacross the globe.
That number could even be moretoday.
I'm not sure.
Sinorama has been named toentrepreneur magazines top global
(01:49):
Very impressive.
So welcome to the show today.
AJ Titus, the president ofSinorama and Starpoint brands, the
world's largest sign and graphicsbusiness.
AJ, welcome to the Thank you somuch, Randy.
Appreciate on.
Yeah.
We get into all of the fun stuffwe're going to hit on today.
(02:15):
I do have to say I understandcongratulations.
You're a new dad.
Is that Yes.
So I have a 10 month old at home.
So I'm well rested for those otherdads that are listening, but they
know what I mean.
But yeah, that's it's been a greatblessing.
It's been Oh, that is great.
Is first first baby?
(02:35):
Good for you.
That's always fun.
Boy, girl.
Girl.
Yeah, there you go.
That is always how do younavigate?
I know when my kids were babieslike that, I was traveling a lot.
How do you kind of balance that,Rick, life balance with the baby?
Because I can't imagine you'vegot, you know, sites all over the
world.
So I do, you know, I'm sure youtravel a Girl.
(02:58):
So actually, I just got back fromSouth Africa yesterday.
So I was in South Africa with ourfranchise owners there for our
conference.
And so if I look a little jet lagor sound a little jet lag, I might
be.
But no, it's, I'm still navigatingbeing a new dad and doing that.
But I think the best advice I evergot was from my grandfather where
it's talk to your spouse and yourkids first before you get into
(03:21):
anything.
And so before the day starts, ifthe time difference works, call
your spouse, call your kids, talkto them, tell them you love them
and then go on with your day.
Don't be the one who forgets tocall them every day.
Well, that is good advice.
And it's hard, especially whenyou're on time differences, time
zone changes and such.
But I don't know what it was likein South Africa, but I know I've
been on the west coast and, youknow, three hours back and on the
(03:44):
east coast time.
And, you know, by the time gettingup or whatever, my kids are
already off to school or whatever.
But yeah, that's great advice.
That's good.
We also probably have some other,I will say connection, not really,
kind of remotely, I guess, becausewe're outside of Cleveland.
And I know you're a big Miamisports fan, right?
Dolphin.
Huge heat.
Yeah.
You like baseball?
We were chatting a little bitabout the Marlins.
(04:06):
And so, unfortunately.
Yes.
And so I'm not going to get intothe LeBron James Miami heat
Cleveland, you know, Cavalierswinning the championship.
That was great.
But also, my office is just kindof down the road, so to speak,
from the Don Chula Stadium,because Don Chula went to John
Carroll University right here inCleveland.
(04:29):
great Huge so, in Cleveland.
Yes.
So, you had to open up that verypainful past, right?
But I would respond to that as theheat got two championships,
Cleveland only got one.
So, you know, that one should havebeen the heats, but you can have
one.
I think that was good for you all.
(04:51):
And then it's great for us.
Yes.
Oh, I'm sure.
And it's, yeah.
So that was awesome.
But no, I'm a, my dolphins fandomgoes deep.
So I'm a huge Miami dolphins.
They would be my number one team.
But all the Miami sports, I havea, you know, my wife jokes that I
have a mild sports addiction.
So all the Miami teams are who Isupport.
(05:12):
So yeah, the heat So, you know,that one only And then it's great
the Miami teams are who I support.
So yeah, that's okay.
I'm a Cubs like diehard fans.
So, you know, I know the, I knowthe feeling.
So does my wife, at least my wifelikes baseball and likes the Cubs
as well.
So, you know, it was not aprerequisite for our marriage.
It certainly works for us.
All right.
Well, let's get into a little bitof your background.
What you're doing today andbecause I'm so fascinating, I
think your history.
And I'm, I love, and readingthrough our notes.
(05:33):
I love the background, the growthof your family business.
And I'm going to call it a familybusiness.
Obviously, you've got, you know, avery large footprint now.
But maybe just run our audiencekind of through the background of
kind of the, the roots of yourWell, it's, it's a long story, but
I'll, I'll summarize it into, youknow, bite-sized package.
(05:57):
But my grandfather, Roy Titus, heactually started Minuteman Press,
which is a printing franchise thatstill exists.
It's over 40 years in existence.
So, it exists to this day.
My dad actually grew up in thatbusiness and he, you know, know
anything, but franchising like Itold you from my experience, but
(06:17):
he really did the same thing.
And then he wanted to start hisown business.
And with my grandfather's helpstarted Sinorama in New York, 37
years ago.
And so from there, built thebusiness, moved the company down
to South Florida because hey, whowould want to not live in South
Florida?
And then has built it ever sinceand has added brands and
(06:39):
franchising's just been a part ofour dinner table conversation my
entire life.
So I have two brothers that are inthe business full time.
I have three cousins in thebusiness full time.
And, you know, we're very active.
So it's one of those things wherewe didn't think of doing anything
else, but it's really mygrandfather Roy and my dad Ray who
have really laid the foundationfor us really take over and to
(07:00):
move forward.
And so, but my dad's not going,he's not retired or anything, but
it's, it's definitely been a partof us.
Ray who been a part of us.
Well, that, that is fabulous.
So just to be sure I want to kindof understand.
So it all started though with yourgrandfather and starting with one
business, right?
With one minute man press.
Was that always called minute maneven I was.
(07:23):
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Wow.
And it man pressed.
Yeah.
That was great.
It's a great brand.
I mean, I've known minute manpress for probably the 40 years.
I don't know.
Since I've been in business.
Yeah, they're probably close to 50now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All the exact numbers.
But yeah.
So, and then at some point, youknow, they grew, they grew, they
grew, they grew.
And now you have, and maybeexplain star point brands.
(07:47):
How does that, is that more of anumbrella company for other brands
besides Sinorama?
How does that kind of dove down?
know.
Since I've been in business.
Yeah, they're probably close to 50now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All Yeah.
So when my dad started Sinorama,the majority of our history was
only Sinorama.
And then we added brandsthroughout that time.
And so at some point, my dadlooked at everyone's shirts and
everyone looked like NASCAR racersand had all these different brands
(08:10):
on their shirt.
So he created an umbrella namecalled United Franchise Group.
And we started with that as aname, but as we've continued to
expand and add companies andbusinesses that are in a part of
franchising, we wanted todistinguish our franchise brands
between United Franchise Group.
And so, star point brands camefrom that.
So all of our brands that havefranchise owners are under star
point brands.
And the ultimate vision for starpoint brands is to create a brand
that customers know.
(08:30):
Because customers really don'tknow United Franchise Group
because it's a franchisingbusiness, right?
So we want to create a brand thatpeople know when they trust and
has the brands underneath that.
And so And so that's what we'reworking on.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think I'm going to try totease out something that I think
you just said quickly, but I'mlike, huh, do you have some brands
(08:52):
under your umbrella that are notSo we have everything is connected
to franchising.
Okay.
So, but they don't havenecessarily franchises.
Some of them don't have asmajority of them do, right?
But we do have a handful of themthat are more franchise services
or business services.
Okay.
And so we're looking to expandthat and build that Uh, that is
fascinating.
Somewhere in my notes and, God,I'm horrible that I don't have
(09:14):
these better organized, I guessthat's my fault because my team
does a great job with this stuff.
Somewhere I had seen.
a list of like all of thedifferent businesses and such in
your, I think portfolio will callit.
It was like business, but you'vegot restaurants, right?
And we're very diversified.
(09:35):
So yeah, so everything from, verydiversified.
So yeah, so everything from, youknow, shared office space to
business brokerage, signinggraphics, embroidery screen
printing, food, charcuterie,Greek.
So we're all over.
We're very diverse.
Yeah.
So Yeah.
So I guess a question that when Iwas looking through the notes and
I saw that I was like, are thosebrands that you either created,
(09:56):
right?
So it was like, hey, here's the AJout to her and around like, I like
that business.
going to go start one for ourfamily portfolio.
Or did you see a business?
And I think I remember seeing onewas like a Greek restaurant or
(10:19):
something like that.
There seemed like it was a Greekrestaurant the way that the name
of it was.
And like, did you see it and thensay, we would like to have that
and then you go buy that brand orit was at a mixture of kind of all
of those things.
I don't know.
The answer is yes to all thosequestions.
(10:41):
So it's The answer is yes to allthose questions.
So it's all, it depends.
So we've done joint ventures withpeople.
We've purchased businesses.
We've started them from the groundup.
Yeah.
And everything in between.
So yes, the answer to all yourwere yes.
Yeah.
That is restaurants and foodbusinesses, quite a departure from
sign and graphics business,printing business.
Who in your family had theinterest in that area and food?
(11:03):
So the funny, the the funny storybehind that is for most of the
businesses life, my dad wouldstand on stage and say, I'm never
going to own a food business.
And he literally said that fordecades.
Okay.
never going to own food for allthe reasons that you wouldn't want
to own food.
Right.
And then actually before I wentinto Sinorama, I met with a client
who with the business that we nolonger own.
since sold the business.
But it was a food business.
(11:24):
And I brought it to my dad andhe's like, oh, let's take a look.
You know, let's and he was moreopen to it.
And that's what kind of opened thedoor being more involved with
food.
But it's not my it's I'm nottrying to take the credit for it.
(11:45):
But just his mindset has changedover the years.
And we have some great partnersthat we work with now moving
forward.
So I mean, it's I guess it's justevolved.
And it's hard to be a bigfranchise company when most of the
franchise businesses are in thefood space.
So it's hard to be a big franchisecompany without having some food
brands.
Yeah.
he brands.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I love diversity like thatin business.
(12:07):
So you know, applaud your effortsin that.
Let me want to switch over andtalk a minute about or more,
obviously about Sinorama.
So I said, currently, and I'm notsure, hopefully this was accurate
about 750 franchises.
Yeah, about right.
Yeah.
Crizies is out of pride.
13 countries.
Is that sound about right?
Are you?
We're a little bit more than 13.
So I think right.
Yeah.
Crizies is out of bit more than13.
So I think we're about 25 30countries, something like that.
(12:28):
Yeah.
So like, for instance, we havejust was in South Africa.
So at that conference, we hadSouth Africa, Namibia, Botswana,
and Zimbabwe.
That all were represented.
All right.
And I Yeah.
So like, for represented.
All right.
And I think the researcher said,hey, be sure to ask him about
Oregon and give a plug.
So do you currently still don'thave stores in Oregon for a sign
(12:50):
or you were were just liking todig a knife in an empty.
I was actually trying to help him.
Yes, the answer.
The answer is yes.
Unfortunately, we don't havesomeone in an Oregon.
And if you know someone, Randy,we'd love to have the first store
in Oregon for Sinorama.
That would be great.
Yeah.
All right.
So actually trying to help him.
(13:10):
Yes, the answer.
The answer is in Oregon forSinorama.
That would be great.
Yeah.
right.
So you can, if you're in Oregonand you want to look into
Sinorama, go reach out to a J.
It's me a call star pointsbrands.com and you'll get
connected there.
All right.
So I'm trying to help a brotherout here.
I it.
All right.
So tell us about Sinorama.
(13:31):
I it's a fascinating business.
And from the notes that I've readjust about the model itself, I, if
I were looking at franchising, Iwould like, wow, this is really
great opportunity.
It seems like so.
folks, I'm not trying to pitchSinorama.
So don't, you know, like send meall your whatever email.
Your checks in the mail, Randy.
But I am really the way that it'sstructured in the what I would say
the autonomy.
And I'm not going to go too deepinto this.
I'll let you go on with it.
(13:51):
It would be very appealing, Ithink.
me a call star appreciate it.
All send me all your whateveremail.
Your checks in the mail, Randy.
But I am I mean, we're a fullessentially the business model is
where a full customizable, fullservice sign and graphics
franchise.
So we do everything from the smallindoor, ADA signage to large
outdoor electrical signs, vehiclegraphics and everything in
between.
(14:12):
Pretty much anything that has yourbrand on it in your business.
as can do.
And that's what sets us apart fromother sign competitors because
there's sign companies that focusin on certain things.
They might be, I fabricate channelletters or I'm good with interior
signage or lit signage or thingslike that.
We do everything in between.
And we've been around 37 years aswell.
(14:33):
So we have the history, we havethe network as well.
And so, and we do give, I mean,there's varying degrees of
franchise control.
You can go from one end of thespectrum where you buy the food,
you buy the cardboard, the paper,you lease your land from the
franchise or to, hey, I'm justlicensing the name.
And then everything in between, wegive a lot of flexibility because
it's a fully customizablebusiness.
You're brandy.
If you needed signs for yourbusiness, I can't just go around
(14:56):
the corner and say, oh, Randyneeds some signs for his business.
Let me just take that off theshelf, right?
We have to design it, create it,print it, apply it, there's more
to it.
And so it's hard to have thecontrols that other franchises
have or try to have where it'sfully customizable.
And we want the entrepreneur toflourish.
Like we want each one of ourfranchise owners to be
(15:17):
entrepreneurial and flourish.
And so we try to make a system anda culture that they can flourish
in and give them that flexibility.
I and give it.
I will say If I could, I wouldtilt my camera over and show you
but in our office on one of themain walls, we actually have our
logo in some vinyl print lettersand stuff.
(15:39):
We use Sinorama, a franchise localin here too.
Very good to do the cut and theycame out of the store.
Is he on the east side of town?
Yes, actually on the east side anda little bit north of us of where
we are.
Very good store.
Is he on the east Okay, I think Iknow which franchise owner that
is.
It's probably Sam.
So do you work with the guy or no?
(15:59):
was here when they came in andtold me.
Okay, when they did it.
Okay, I don't know who that's.
So if Sam's listening, then maybe,you know, it'll be good.
Very funny.
So your business, so especially Ithink, is 37 years.
That's a long time.
And we have come through likeleaps and bounds and technology.
How has technology changed the waythat you guys, not only Okay, when
(16:22):
they did it.
Okay, I don't know who that's.
So if Sam's listening, then maybe,you know, it'll be good.
Very do business, but as well eventhe types of business and or
delivery of business.
How has that It's changed rapidly,but it's also stayed the same.
And that's the beauty of designbusiness.
So our core products from 37 yearsago are pretty much the same.
(16:44):
I mean, we cut vinyl, we printvinyl, we do a lot of different
things.
But just to give you aperspective, 37 years ago, there
was a dark room in the originalstore where they developed film.
There was a painter on staff thatpainted signs, okay?
But we still had a plotter in thestore.
And stores still have a plotter tothis day in the store.
And so at the end of the day, theway in which we've made products,
(17:04):
the equipment has changed andadvanced quite rapidly, the way in
which you market has changed quiterapidly, our website has changed.
I mean, when we first started,there was no website 37 years ago.
To now, you know, there's so manythings we can do with our website.
So we've invested a lot in ourtechnology.
But the cool part is we're stillselling signs.
We're still using some of the samepieces of equipment.
(17:26):
We used 37 years ago, but it'sjust advanced a little further.
And I think there's going to be alot of other changes, exciting
changes around the corner from anelectrical signage point of view,
digital signage, and 3D printing.
I also think that at some point,3D printing will be applicable to
our Right, right.
I'll tell you, just for my ownexperience, it was so easy to kind
(17:47):
of deal with, you know, here's,I'll show you if you can see.
Oh, it looks good.
OK. I'm trying to get it to, yeah,it was unbluried for a second, but
yeah, looks good.
There we go.
Nice.
OK, great.
So because I just said, like,well, here's my logo, right?
And I took the logoelectronically.
I sent them the image and I wantedto be X tall and X wide.
(18:08):
And boom, they just came out witha letter.
It was fabulous.
And I think I read somewhere inthe notes as well, though, and
talking about this technology.
This is where it kind of triggeredme.
It was that so you can evenactually go and print directly
onto items and nuts.
I said, you are.
I'm going to read this quote, Ithink, because I thought, really,
you can do that.
(18:28):
Were you printing directly on thepiece of what you call this?
I'm going to read this.
I think this is it.
Yes.
There's flat bed printing whereyou can print directly to a
material instead of printing on apiece of vinyl and then placing it
onto something.
You can take a door off the hingesand print on the door Oh, it looks
good.
OK. I'm trying to get it wasunbluried for a second, but yeah,
(18:49):
looks Nice.
So That's a funny story youactually bring up.
So yeah, so to answer yourquestion, flatbed printing a lot
of our stores, not every store,but most of our stores at this
point have had some sort offlatbed printing into their shop.
And there's even some sort ofprinting, the printer direct is
called DCS printing.
(19:09):
And so they actually printsBraille.
So it actually raises off of thesubstrate.
So you can actually print Braillein some letters with texture and
things of that nature.
So there's some really cool thingsthat stores are doing with
interior design.
But flatbed printing, you canprint on a lot of different
substrates and different types ofthings.
But when flatbed printing became athing, the HP rep came to our head
(19:30):
office and he said, hey, we can dothis and we can print on this and
we can print on a door.
And so Jim Tatum, who was mypredecessor, said, show me.
And we literally took his door offof the hinges and brought it into
(19:51):
the back.
And we printed on his door and thedoor that my vice president has is
that original door.
We painted over it white, but itwas a picture of Jim on the door
that we printed as like the as thesample.
So yes, so if you did want toprint on a door, you can print on
a door.
They proved that right.
can but it was a is bad.
When I read that, I thought, wow,that is great.
Because I've always thought aboutmaybe taking one of our vehicles
and wrapping it with our logo andsuch and drive it around, you
(20:15):
know, the promoter agency and Iwonder if I could just like drive
my car.
They just print right onto myvehicle.
So, but can't do that yet.
I don't know if you want us to dothat.
do that yet.
I don't know if you want us to dothat.
Can't do that yet, but I'm surethat technology might be there
(20:35):
somewhere.
Oh, yeah.
That's I want to get into thewhole concept around franchise and
what makes a good franchisee andall of that and maybe we'll do
that after the 17th and stretch.
But before we do that, how aboutgive us, I guess, your insights on
the current state of franchisingand the franchising industry.
Obviously, you're a very largefranchise or so I would expect to
hear, you know, good things aboutit.
(20:56):
From your insights, though, whatdo you, how do you see the
industry today and where do yousee it going in the next three to
10 years?
Is it recessionary proof?
You know, there's all thisconversation about recession.
Well, there's nothing.
I wouldn't say there's anythingthat's recession proof.
I would say Sinorama speakingselfishly is very recession
resilient because we have so manydifferent types of products and
people still need to market theirbusiness.
So our product mix is going tochange during a recessionary time
(21:16):
and we've seen that because we'vebeen through a couple of
recessions in our 37 years, eitherpandemic related or financial
related or whatever the case maybe.
So we've seen that prove out overtime.
But the thing with franchising, Iwould say there's no better model
in the world that helps peoplegenerate wealth and helps them own
their own business because thereare many franchisees that could
never start their own business ontheir own.
But the guidance that franchisinggives them and the training and
(21:37):
the support and the network thatthey get helps them to be
successful there where theywouldn't be where they would be
kind of on an island startingtheir own business.
And I like the joke that we'vemade all the mistakes so that
other people don't have to makethe mistakes.
And so that's what we have.
(21:59):
We have that 37 years ofexperience and the stats prove out
that a franchise business is waymore successful than someone that
just starts by themselves.
And so I think, and again, I'vegrown up in franchising.
It's one of the greatest economicdrivers in the history of the
(22:20):
world.
Now the industry itself is strongand really good.
You do have some politicians wholike to get involved in
franchising and like to speak onthings that they don't necessarily
know about.
And I think their intentions arepure.
Honestly, I think their intentionsare in the right spot.
But I think that at the end of theday, they're not really digging
into franchising and understandingwhat franchising is and they don't
(22:42):
get what the model is and theycould end up really hurting it.
So there are some threats tofranchising that we work with and
then there's some people who areworking on that as well to educate
people and help them understand onwhat franchising is.
But overall the industry is verystrong.
It continues to grow.
There are a lot of franchises thatyou wouldn't even think of
franchises.
You could be in your shoppingcenter and you may look think, oh,
(23:06):
that's mom and pop business, butit's actually a franchise.
So it's a huge part of thepandemic the things that I love
about Sinorama again is kind ofthe autonomy.
You allow your franchisees tooffer this service or that service
or a lot of services, how theyprobably structure their shop
itself, meaning managementstructure.
They operated what's the staffingmodels look like things like that.
But I'd saw it as well.
And this, only because I amsomewhat familiar with franchising
(23:26):
and... loved this scalingroyalties kind of concept.
Do you guys still do that andmaybe explain what that is?
So we So we do and it's rare infranchising.
Usually it's just a 6% flat or an8% flat of gross sales.
We actually scale it down.
So it's 6% up to 600,000 in sales,4% to a million and then 2%
(23:49):
thereafter for however long thefranchise or much the franchise
owner grows.
So the better that the franchiseowner does, the better that they
do.
They actually get a discount fordoing better because we want to
encourage sales.
We want to encourage growth andwe're partners in this.
We're a 6% partner.
The franchise owner is 94%.
So they got to run their businessand run the system the right way
and hire and fire their employees.
(24:09):
But we're going to do what our 6%is and a lot of our franchise
owners who grow and get to those2% is actually totally not at 6%
is actually totally less.
And if you were to do math so.
Wow.
It is rare and that's why I wantedto be sure to kind of call it out
because when I came across thatand then know it's like I've not
heard of that in the franchiseworld.
Scaling royalties because as anentrepreneur it makes sense to me
(24:29):
but from a franchise or aperspective is like you're kind of
just giving money away a littlebit versus right.
And then the way for you tocontinue to incentivize your
franchise is like go out go getit.
(24:50):
Well it's also a Well it's also adifferent mindset because we're a
family run business.
So I'm not building this businessto sell to a private equity
company or go publicly traded oranything like that.
Like I'm helping to build thiscompany because I want my daughter
to take over in 20, 30 years whenshe's old enough to do it.
(25:12):
So we want long term relationshipswith our franchise owner.
So of course everyone wants tomake money and we like to make
money too just like the nextperson but we also want that long
term relationship with ourfranchisees.
Yeah, that's terrific.
All right.
So we're going to come back to allof that fun stuff in a second.
But here we go.
And time for the seventh inningstretch.
(25:33):
right, AJ.
Now is the time.
We're going to get into theseventh inning stretch here.
And before we kind of hit therecord button was, hey do you like
baseball ball?
We have a lot of guests.
Our current show that justreleased on Monday, you know, the
case from Scotland.
And he's like, I don't knowanything about baseball.
So we get all kinds.
And I'm assuming all kinds.
And I'm assuming you don't haveany Bartman questions as I'm a
(25:55):
Morales fan.
You're a Cubs fan.
fan.
No, no Bartman question.
Okay.
So here we go.
We actually, my researcher waslike, hey, she thought she was on
the line of a great question, agreat pursuit.
And then after spent about an hourinto it, she's like, I just can't
find anything.
Cannot find.
She wanted to do some kind of aquestion and get some hard
(26:16):
information on signage in the Butthere's a ton of signage right in
the ass throughout stadiums.
But she's like, I cannot findanything on pricing.
So there's certainly no shortage.
We have opportunities to have asign in a stadium.
And then she listed all of thisbanner ads on walls and sidelines,
ivy screens, different kinds ofscreens, restroom ads, on field
branding, scoreboard, concoursesignage.
I mean, there's all kinds ofstuff, right?
And Cubs and cup holders andstairways.
(26:37):
And she's like, it is, she goes,and there's no pricing.
She had this great idea.
Like, I'm going to what's the mostexpensive sign or something?
You know, I ass like it.
That's the beauty of ourbusinesses because everything's
custom.
So the price, you know, that'ssomething that we always discuss
with our franchise owners becauseprice is kind of up in the air.
I mean, you can get it kind of afeel, but you can charge what you
want.
(26:58):
And there's some very famous signsin baseball too.
I mean, like, I think of the UTSpretzel sign and Yankee Stadium.
There's the, is it sit-go?
The big sign that's outside ofFenway Park.
Yes, yes.
So that's a famous one, but that'snot even in Fenway Park.
(27:19):
They kind of cheated the system byfacing it the other way, but it
still kind of goes on the Fenwayanyway.
but that's not even in FenwayPark.
They kind of cheated the system byIt gets a lot of eyeballs on it.
Yeah, the only thing that we couldfind, why I say she could find
was, and I'll just throw this outbecause I really don't have a
(27:41):
question.
So you're getting, okay, we'regetting a real softball lob to you
to knock it out.
The only thing that even is arelative question is, I'm going to
couch it this way.
What is the cost of a logo patchon a follow up questions.
So is it the actual cost toadvertise a logo patch on a
uniform or the actual cost touniform or the actual cost to make
(28:08):
it star point brands wanted to putyour logo patch on a Oh, And this
is in MLB, baby.
That's all.
That's all we talk about.
Okay.
Cause the all.
That's all we talk about.
Okay.
Cause the Marlins, they might bebegging you just to stick it on
(28:33):
the thing.
I mean, that's what they might bedoing.
It I mean, that's what they mightbe doing.
It could be an for you, right?
It might be.
I'm sorry.
I'm so cynical about my team.
I'll still watch them all, butthey just, I'm just so cynical.
I don't mean to be like that.
(28:53):
But all right.
long a a year?
You know, actually, I don't evenknow what it's probably.
I'm just going to guess $10million.
It's got to be a multi.
It's got to be a multi year.
what it's probably.
I'm just going to guess $10million.
It's got to be a I'm going toguess $10 million.
I don't even know the hard number.
She just has written down eightfigures eight figures.
Okay.
(29:13):
So, all right.
Yeah.
So I guess eight figures.
Yeah.
It's quite expensive.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's expensive.
Yeah.
Yes.
So that's that's the question.
Anyway.
And and that was the honest seventhinning we've had for a while.
Very good.
There we go.
Let's get back into it.
Playball.
Okay.
So, all right.
Yeah.
So I guess eight figures.
Yeah.
It's that's expensive.
Yeah.
Yes.
So back into it.
I wanted to talk with you.
And really, I think I read a quoteagain or somewhere.
(29:34):
And maybe she pulled this out of apodcast.
I think that you're on earlier atsome point.
And you have this viewpoint ofyour role, which is helping
businesses grow and be successful.
I don't know if that's a directquote or not, but that was kind of
your viewpoint.
Anyway, that you were expressing.
(30:00):
I love that as a franchise or andin your role.
I mean, you're you're the top topman there.
You're the top franchise or.
So how do you do that?
So kind of maintain thatviewpoint, pursue that kind of
mindset in a day to day basis.
How do you do that as a CEO?
Well, so it's a a go back to whatI said earlier about being the
(30:22):
best economic one of the besteconomic creations of our time in
the world.
It's because of the symbioticrelationship with it.
And so if our franchise owners doreally well, we make money.
If the brand is really valuableand does a good job, our franchise
owners make money and it workstogether and one can't work by
itself.
You got to work together and theonly way you can motivate
franchisees and the only way youcan motivate people is to have
(30:42):
relationships with them and tocare about them and to care about
their lives and what they want todo.
At the end of the day, I love whenI hear franchise owners tell me,
hey, this business has helped meput my kids through college.
This this franchise has helped meafford a great retirement.
This franchise has helped me putmy kids into business.
And they take over for me andthere's longevity there.
so that's what gets me up in themorning and that's what makes me
(31:05):
happy.
And so if you don't have your thatmindset, you can't be a successful
franchise or I mean, my cell phoneis given out to all our franchise
owners.
If anyone wants to talk to me,they can talk to me.
can shoot me an email, shoot me atext.
I have a 10 month old at home, soI don't sleep all that much.
So it doesn't matter what timezone you're in.
(31:29):
Look, that's that's the way yougot to be.
You got to live it.
You have to be involved with itbecause as soon as you don't live
it, then the quality starts to godown.
The relationship starts to go awayand you're not going to be as
(31:49):
successful.
And so, you know, when I not todigress Randy, but when I was
dating my now wife, she saw mebeing in the franchising business.
So I there was a point where wewere dating for I don't know, it
was like a year or something,whatever it was.
(32:10):
I just had this conversation withher to say, look, you know, I
really like you and I'd like tomarry you someday, but you got to
know that I'm going to travel alot.
I'm going to be very involved withour franchise owners.
And this is going to be your lifetoo.
And so if you're cool with that,then great.
I'm going to make me very happy.
(32:32):
But if you're not, you're not coolwith that, then we got a split.
You know, we got to do ourseparate ways.
So I'm happy she chose to stay,hang around.
But that's just how serious wetake it.
It's just the part of our lives.
good.
Good advice.
Good relationship advice as well.
That wasn't a proposal either.
That was one of either.
That was one of just, hey, it'ssome day, it won't be a proposal.
some day, it is, you know, wemight as well cut it off now.
(32:55):
I was hoping, buddy, that that wasnot the proposal because I'm like,
that really wasn't all thatromantic.
I did a little, put a little moreeffort into it than that.
So when you have a new franchiseeor just somebody new in business,
maybe what and kind of back tothis mindset that you have, which
is helping businesses grow and besuccessful.
Are there some first kind offundamental steps or things that
(33:16):
you want to cover or as anoverview with I'm wondering about
that romantic.
I did a little, put a little moreeffort into it Well, I mean, for
each franchise, each franchise hastheir system.
So there's a system that works.
So when you look for a franchisee,you want someone who listens and
follows a system.
And so, and that's been proven outover years.
And it's been tweaked and addedto.
And, you know, we adjust over thetime based on what happens in the
world and advice and things ofthat nature.
(33:39):
So you want someone who's focusedon the system.
So I always point back to ifsomething's not going right, one
of two things is going wrong.
Either they're not following thefranchise system that we have or
they're not working hard enough.
There's nothing in between, right?
So they're either, and again, notbeing, I'm not being facetious,
there could be things happening intheir life to not make them follow
the system.
Like, you know, there could be anumber of different things.
(34:00):
But usually when that, whensomething's going wrong, it's
those two things.
And so I always point back andtrain on, what does the system
say?
What does the system say?
And are you doing that?
So those are really the twoquestions that when I was in
support, I would do.
And that same thing when I talk tofranchisee now, and it doesn't
matter if the franchisee is doinga half million dollars in sales or
seven million dollars in sales andeverything in between, it's
usually those two things.
That's good.
(34:21):
are, don't we talk about thisbefore, but you're really a family
business and goes all the waythrough and I'm curious.
I mean, just earlier, thebeginning with the introduction,
talked about your uncle and yourcousins all involved in the
business in different parts of theportfolio.
How does that work?
I mean, in the sense of, well,you're already plus years, you've
three generations, you got a lotof hands, a lot of opinions.
(34:43):
Yep.
How does that all kind of staytogether and keep going in the
right direction?
I'm sure sometimes doesn't feellike it's going in the right
directions.
I mean, I know family dynamics andsure.
How do you guys keep it all IWell, we're, it's all my dad.
(35:06):
You get to be honest with you.
It's all my dad laying thefoundation and speaking truth into
all of us.
Like he's been very clear with me.
Like you're not the president ofSinorama because you're my son.
You're the president becauseyou're working hard and you're the
best person for the job.
But if I cease to become the bestperson for Sinorama, he has your
problem telling me that and firingme as well.
And so there's a clear cutcommunication in that regard
because it's not about enrichingthe family.
It's about our franchise ownersand growing the business.
(35:27):
That's what it's about.
And so that's the first thing isthat my dad has laid a great
foundation.
The second thing is he's made asvery aware of the statistics
because first generation, thesecond generation, it's high.
It's maybe 60, 70%.
And I'm going to watch the numbersdirectly.
But successful.
Successful.
Pass on the business continues tobe successful.
Second to third generation, it'sprobably like 20%, 15%.
It goes down pretty much.
(35:48):
Third generation, the fourthgeneration, you might as well buy
a lottery ticket.
It's like low single digits.
And so the joke is the firstgeneration works really hard,
builds it.
Second generation maintains it.
The third generation spends allthe money and the fourth
generation closes it.
And I hate to say it like that,but that's what the statistics
tell us.
And so we don't want to be astatistic and we don't want to be
part of that.
And we have a plan in place and mydad has done an amazing job at
(36:10):
being clear and honest with all ofus and have our mindset on the
right way because of course, wherethere's times where we disagree
and of course there's times wherewe might not see eye to eye on
certain things, but it always goesback to, what's the best thing our
(36:30):
franchise owners?
What's the best thing for ourcompany as a whole?
And we move forward.
But it's not about AJ or mybrother or my cousin or ever.
It's about our business as a Well,first I applaud that because I
(36:51):
think that would still be verydifficult to pull personalities
out of the mix.
And I'm sure your family's got ahandful of personalities.
And to stay focused on the overallobjective of the company and
success of the company and yourfranchise ease.
And I'm probably gonna harken backbecause you mentioned and
(37:12):
certainly want to give credit toyour father and I understand that,
and I don't have a lot of facts onthis.
And so I wanted your, really yourinsights on that.
So I understand you wrote a bookabout your dad and the lessons
Tell us about that and give usmaybe a taste of some of the
lessons.
you Well, there's the other callto action is my books on Amazon.
(37:33):
If you all want to read it, it'svery cheap.
So I'm not making a ton of moneyfrom it.
It's really just to get out there.
your But the book is called TheList Lessons from a Father by AJ
Titus.
And it's on Amazon.
But the story goes is my dad, hetraveled a lot growing up.
He traveled a lot more than even Itraveled now because every trade
(37:54):
show was out of town.
And he had people all over everycontinent and things of that
nature.
But my dad took two things veryseriously.
When he was home, he drove us toschool.
And he had that time with us inthe car.
And then the other thing waseveryone eats at the dinner table.
So he was home at 6.30 almostevery day.
(38:17):
And we ate at the dinner table.
And we talked.
Okay.
so that's where a lot of theteaching happened.
And with my dad.
And so one of the things he diddriving to school is he made us
memorize and recite what he calledthe list.
And it was 15, 16.
I wrote the book.
I should know.
But multiple facts on Lessons tothe Bible.
(38:39):
So like one of them is honesty.
Always tell the truth.
Another one is hard work.
Work harder than other people.
Respect.
Respect other people.
Dedication.
Dedicate yourself to good.
And we go down this and we had tomemorize that.
And say it back to him when wewere kids.
When we were eight years old, nineyears old, 10 years old.
And then once we've memorized it,the lesson changed from, okay, you
memorized it.
Now are you living by the list?
Are you living by these lessonsthat were given you?
(39:02):
And so going through the processof having a child and for the
first time, you think aboutthings.
You didn't even think aboutbefore.
Right?
So one of those things is how am Igoing to parent my daughter?
And so my best example that I haveis the people who parented me.
(39:25):
And so I thought back and Ithought, you know, this is a good
thing that I should share witheverybody.
And that's why I did it.
You know, I don't, don't make anymoney on it.
It's just one of those thingswhere it's out there.
And if you want to read it greatand I gave it to our franchise
(39:48):
owners.
And if it helps someone, thenthat's what makes me smile.
So that's the whole purpose.
purpose.
What a great gift to give to yourfather as well as well as your,
your own kids, your own daughter.
Yeah.
Just to continue to sharemeaningful lessons from your
(40:09):
father.
I love it.
I'm going to go check it out.
The list.
Yeah.
The list lessons.
It's a quick book.
Yeah.
Quick read.
Yeah.
Nice.
So let's get in a little bitabout, It's a quick book.
Yeah.
you mentioned some things about,you know, what makes a good
franchise, the E. And I'm kind ofcurious because you do have all of
these different brands.
And I did find, no, I probablylost it.
(40:29):
I did find the list of, of thevarious, of the various different
franchise or groups and thingsthat you have.
probably going to say this.
And this is probably a dumbquestion, I guess.
But does a franchisee prospect inSinorama look different than a
franchisee prospect in theMediterranean grill?
I think was one of your friends.
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
Yes.
The answer is yes.
So, I mean, each business needsdifferent, you know, mindset
(40:52):
behind a different skill set.
What we generally find though is,you know, for instance, for
Sinorama, someone has to haveeither sales, marketing, or
management background of some,some regards.
So they have to know how to managesystems and processes.
They have to have an open mind.
They have to have a positiveattitude.
But we have franchise ownersbetween all walks of life.
(41:13):
I mean, someone who is anoperational person to a
sales-minded person, but they gotto hire their weakness, you know.
So if they're an operationalperson, you got to hire a sales
person.
If you're more of a sales person,you got to make sure you have a
strong operational person.
And each brand is a littledifferent, right?
And the investment level is alittle different for each brand
too.
So we have some brands that aremore absentee ownership, where
Sinorama is really not an absenteemodel.
(41:35):
You have owner operator who's inthe business.
And so, yeah, there are definitelydifferences between each one, but
really the attitude piece and themindset piece stays the same.
You got to be able to follow asystem.
You got to be able to be positive.
You got to be able to beopen-minded.
I mean, there are some people whoflat out cannot be in the
(41:56):
franchising business.
You know, and I've told people onDiscovery Day tour, this might not
be for you because you don't wantto change everything to suit you,
where we have the blueprint tomove forward.
And you'll have flexibility andentrepreneurial ship within the
blueprint, but you got to followthe blueprint.
You can't have a blueprint for ahouse, and then there's a canoe
sitting there.
But if you want to color yourhouse blue and have a pool, and
the model pooled and great, that'sawesome.
So have the blue or the blue.
anyway, that's good.
All right.
(42:18):
So as a question.
So we have a lot of small businessowners listening to the podcast.
That's primarily what do they needto know if they're considering
franchising their Well, so numberone, they should first call
accurate franchising, which is oneof our consulting firms that we
help people turn their businessinto a franchise.
So thank you for that plug.
(42:38):
I didn't even know that.
So yeah, so accuratefranchising.com.
But besides that piece, there areas I kind of alluded to earlier,
there's a lot of legal, legal easein franchising.
And so the FTC and whatnot, youhave to have a franchise
disclosure document and all thatfun stuff.
And so that's something to keep inmind.
(42:59):
But before you even get to thelegal side, the things I would be
asking myself is number one, isthis a replicable model?
So franchising is successful overmany states and many countries.
So is this something that iswidely replicable?
The first thing, number two, doyou have a written down system?
Or is this just all in your brain?
Would the business completely fallapart if you got hit by a bus?
(43:25):
Or can this be written down andpassed to someone and talked to
someone else?
And then number three, I would sayis are these products and
services?
You know, can you get these tothese different places?
So like, you know, there might bea regional thing.
Like, for instance, I married aTexan.
So the girl I told that was goingto be in franchising.
(43:48):
She's a Texan.
And so they eat things calledcollaches in Texas.
I had no idea what the hell thatwas.
A collache.
Okay.
I since now know what it is andit's delicious.
But if you rolled out collaches inSouth Florida, people would think
you are nuts.
Now, again, I'll eat my own wordsbecause there are many brands that
have done a great job in rollingthings out in other countries and
areas that was never there before.
But in the same breath, is thissomething that is easily
(44:09):
explainable?
So anyway, I didn't even knowthat.
that's good.
I know what collaches are.
You are.
Okay.
I think I know what it is now.
Cleveland even.
So here we are.
We're going to roll into thebottom of the ninth.
And generally we have a kind of aset question in regards to the
bottom of the ninth when we askfor your advice for those starting
out in business or maybe alreadyare in business.
(44:31):
But I'm going to fine tune thequestion a little bit closer to
your niche here, which is, are.
Okay.
I think I know what it is now.
you have any tips or advice youcan give to entrepreneurs thinking
about getting into franchising?
So that's a good question.
I mean, big things for me is youwant to know the people you're
going into business with becausethis is a partner type of
(44:52):
partnership.
It's not a true partnership, butit is a type of partnership.
And so where the brand goes reallyis where your business will go.
Even if you run the system theright way and you work really
hard, the brand as a whole, ifthey're growing and successful,
(45:13):
it's really going to determine alot of your success.
So, you know, number one is thefranchise been around for a long
time.
Do they have that longevity, thathistory of success?
Number two, who are the businesspartners, the businesses, the
people in charge?
So is it a family run businesslike us?
Do they have the same owners for10 or more years?
(45:37):
Is this a stable ownership groupor is just as being passed to
different people?
And is it an industry that you'reexcited about?
There's a lot of great businessesand a lot of great franchises and
a lot of great industries.
Is this something that you'reexcited about because again, like
I tell this franchise prospectsall the time because they're all
about making money, making money,making money.
And that's great.
Again, as I said, everyone shouldwant to make money.
(46:00):
We're a capitalistic world, makingmoney is not a bad thing.
It's not a dirty thing.
Okay.
But you got to enjoy what you do.
You got to enjoy waking up in themorning and you got to enjoy going
into work and you got to enjoybeing passionate about the
products you sell.
And so are you going to bepassionate about flipping burgers?
Are you going to be passionateabout helping people grow their
(46:21):
businesses, what sign around withthis?
And so again, that's my spin onit.
But again, some people aren'tpassionate about signs and that's
fine.
That's no problem.
I want people who are passionateabout the business, right?
And so those are the things Iwould say from a franchising what
you're looking at.
at.
Yeah.
Oh, good advice.
Good advice.
How about just in general, becauseI still want to get that, yeah, so
(46:42):
it's such great experience and yousee all different types of
businesses and operators.
What advice though do you havejust in general, not kind of
taking out the model of franchise,but just advice in the general
work hard.
There's no such thing as luck.
I mean, at the end of the day, IHey, there is let me take a step
back.
at the end of the day, I'm goingto be a I definitely would sit
(47:05):
here and say, I'm extremely luckyto be born to the family that I
was born to and have the mentorsaround me that I have mentored me
and helped me.
But in the same breath, I havealso worked very hard and I've
earned it.
Same thing with everyone listeningto this podcast.
There's some things you're goingto be lucky about.
There's some things you're notgoing to be lucky about, but you
(47:27):
can choose how you can react tothat luck and create your own luck
in a lot of ways.
So the people who grind and workreally hard, they're usually
successful.
Now there's more nuance to that,okay?
But at the end of the day, it'sreally, are you working hard?
Are you passionate about whatyou're doing and do you want to
(47:50):
make a difference?
Because I tell our franchiseowners all the time, hey, you
think if you don't think you'remaking a difference by selling
signs, you're wrong.
You're making a huge difference inyour community.
And there's a ton of people whohave helped people become
entrepreneurs with sign andgraphics and have donated to
nonprofits and have done things tomake a difference.
And so, you know, care, work hard,make a difference, and you'll be
(48:10):
successful.
Yeah, yeah.
I love it.
That's great advice too.
And I love, wish I knew who saidthis quote, but I think it
dovetails directly with what yousaid is something like luck or
success is when preparation,substitute, hard work meets
opportunity.
And I think, you know, what youstated as well, just really just
echoes that same sentiment.
So listen, AJ, thanks for being onthe show.
(48:31):
It's been great to get to know youand understand our point brands
and folks, you can go check outthe show notes.
We will have a link where you canget in touch with AJ if you'd
like.
Talk to him more about business,about family business, about
franchising.
And start point brands.com.
Well, also I have a link to hisbook.
I'm going to go check that out.
(48:51):
That'll be fun.
And yeah, it's just been funhaving you on the show.
Appreciate Randy, the pleasure hasbeen mine.
I really appreciate theconversation.
yeah.
All right.
Hey folks, that's the ball game.
Thanks for joining us today.
And if you like our show, pleasetell your friends, subscribe and
review.
And we'll see you around theballpark.
Joining the bases with smallbusinesses is brought to you by 38
digital market.
A digital marketing agencycommitted to client growth with
lead generation, higherconversions and increased sales.
(49:14):
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