July 2, 2025 • 49 mins
Could your successful business become a franchise? Or better yet—should it?
In this insightful episode of Small Business Pivots, Dr. Tom Dufore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team, breaks down what it really takes to franchise your business—and why franchising isn’t the right fit for everyone.
With over 21 years of experience in franchise development as both a franchisor and franchisee, Tom shares the three must-haves every business needs before considering franchising:
- Profitability that’s more than just tax-return deep
- Teachable systems that don’t rely on the owner as the hero
- Scalable market potential beyond your current location
But it doesn’t stop at “Can you franchise?”—Tom pushes deeper to ask: “Is franchising aligned with the life and business you actually want?” If you've ever chased a vision because it looked good on paper—or Instagram—this conversation will help you recenter.
From simplifying systems with 80/20 checklists to honoring core values in tough moments (like when COVID hit and half his clients had to pause), Tom reveals how clarity, documentation, and integrity create long-term success—franchise or not.
Whether you're serious about franchising or just want a business that runs without you, this episode is packed with wisdom that could save you years of wasted effort.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to know if your business is franchisable (and what that really means)
- Why simple documentation can transform your business systems
- The difference between vision and shoulds in business growth
- How honoring your values builds loyalty—even during crisis
- What to do if your business runs on your charisma instead of systems
Take the free Franchisability Quiz at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchise-quiz/
Dr. Tom Dufore: CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team
Website: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomdufore/
Blog: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/blog/
Podcast: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/category/podcast/
#TomDufore #BigSkyFranchiseTeam #FranchisingTips #FranchiseYourBusiness #BusinessGrowth #SmallBusinessPivots #MichaelDMorrison #BusinessPodcast #EntrepreneurPodcast #ScaleYourBusiness #FranchiseDevelopment #FranchiseCoach #SystematizeYourBusiness #OklahomaBusiness #BOSS #FranchiseExpert #FranchisingSuccess #BusinessExpansion #BusinessOwnerTips #FranchiseStrategy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
We have another special guest,as we do week to week, but I
know that only the businessowner can pronounce their name
and their business like they can, so I let you have the floor.
Go ahead and introduce yourself, your business and just a tad
bit about yourself before we getstarted for having me Really
(00:25):
really appreciate being here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
My name is Tom Dufour and I'm the founder and CEO of
Big Sky Franchise Team and, inshort, we work primarily with
entrepreneurs small to mid-sizedbusinesses and help them
actually turn their businessinto a franchise so that they
can sell it to someone else.
And I've been doing that forroughly just over 21 years now,
so pretty much my whole careerI've been doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So you got a little experience under your belt.
Yes, that's right.
Well, as a business coach, I'msure some of the things you're
going to talk about align withhow we coach and what every
business owner really needs toknow.
But how do you think what isone thing that you really want
to get across today?
How do you think we're going tohelp our listeners?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So the main thing I would say for anyone listening
in especially some of yourclients, small businesses that
tune into this is that whetheryou are at any stage of growth,
especially for an independentbusiness, they likely have
thought about franchising, andso my goal is for you to
understand how franchising worksand why a business have thought
(01:25):
about franchising, and so mygoal is for you to understand
how franchising works and why abusiness might end up
franchising maybe some things tobe aware of.
And if it's someone tuning inwho maybe owns a franchise or is
thinking of buying a franchise,you're going to get the vantage
point of what the franchisormindset is thinking about to see
if that might align with yourown interests or goals.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Fantastic.
Well, let's introduce the showand we'll be right back.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast produced for
small business owners.
I'm your host, Michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where
we make business ownershipsimplified for success.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
(02:09):
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
Atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(02:29):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots.
You've got 21 years ofexperience, but I'm sure that's
not when you were born.
You probably have some otherexperiences as well, and I know
for a lot of our listeners theycan connect through stories.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour upbringing so we can get
caught up to date how you gothere.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Sure, Well, I guess from my upbringing.
I was born and raised in thefar stretching Chicago suburbs
is what I would describe it as.
Really, it was a border town inbetween Illinois and Wisconsin,
and so the community I grew upin was a farming community that
was converting into more of asuburb as I was growing up, so
(03:11):
it was kind of interesting.
In fact, my first job was atthe local grocery store, just an
independent grocery store andtwo of the clerks that worked
there I went to school withtheir son actually, and they
worked that job and they alsoowned a farm in town and they
were the final farm in citylimits and I remember it so
(03:32):
vividly.
I was just a bagger at thegrocery store.
I was 15 or 16 years old andthey had one of these.
It's just one of those corememories that kind of sticks out
.
You think about it.
And I remember coming in andthey were crying, they were just
sobbing.
There's a husband, wife, andshe said.
I said, oh, you know what'swrong.
I said, Donna, what's going on?
(03:52):
And she said well, we finallyhad to close the farm.
We just couldn't sustain it.
So they were working the job tokeep the farm alive, because
the farm wasn't able to produceenough income so they ended up
selling it.
So it's just one of thoseinteresting moments that I just
happened to be there and see andsee what was going on and kind
(04:13):
of a microcosm of what I livedthrough growing up in the town.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, you know that story is so typical with a lot
of business owners.
They're so vested in thebusiness they own They've got
liabilities and they got to goget a second job just to support
it.
So this is going to be greatinformation for us.
So did you come out?
You said you have 21 years ofexperience.
Did you start this business ordid you have others along the
(04:40):
way?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, great question.
So I went to college and got abusiness degree and graduated
early and I was an overlyinvolved student in all kinds of
student activities.
I went to a small Division IIIschool so you could be involved
in a hundred things if youwanted to be.
You know your classmates, youknow the teachers and so on.
(05:01):
And so after I graduated I knewI wanted to be in management
consulting and so I thought,well, I don't know what that
means, but I'm going to pursueit.
And my first opportunityhappened to be at a company that
does what I do today, which isworks with businesses and owners
and helps them franchise theirbusiness.
(05:22):
And while I was there, ownersand helps them franchise their
business, and while I was there,it just clicked, it resonated,
it married these ideas that Ilove.
I love the American dream, Ilove entrepreneurship, I love
encouraging people to pursuetheir own version and capturing
their own piece of the Americandream.
And I think that what I sawthere was I get to work with
(05:45):
entrepreneurs to help them growtheir dream by helping other
budding entrepreneurs realizetheir dream in business
ownership just throughfranchising.
But just because they buy afranchise doesn't mean they're
not an entrepreneur.
They absolutely are, and, as wewere talking pre-show about some
of your own experiences incoaching franchisees, they for
(06:06):
certain are entrepreneurs andbusiness owners running their
own business, and so thismarried these ideas that I just
loved of helping entrepreneursdo well and succeed or achieve
the goals that they have set.
And so I worked at that company, started an entry-level role
(06:27):
and eventually worked my way upto executive vice president of
the organization, and then I wasrecruited away by a client and,
as any good consultant knows,if you're not getting job offers
from your clients, you may notbe that great of a consultant,
right?
Yep, little tongue-in-cheekthere, but there's some truth
(06:49):
behind that Absolutely.
Yeah, someone told me that once.
I thought I think you're ontosomething.
So, anyway, from there I wentto work in the commercial paving
and commercial roofingindustries and it was a 30
something year old, family runbusiness.
They were about $125 million ayear business and they were.
(07:10):
They paved parking lots and didrooftops on commercial
buildings, commercial properties.
That was their big thing, notroads or driveways kind of those
in between things.
And so I was brought in astheir head of sales and
marketing and helped grow thebusiness by about $60 million
over a two, two and a half yeartimeframe by growing from
(07:32):
regional to national, securingnational accounts.
I managed a large sales teamand marketing team and what I
always like to describe for thatgrowth is that the growth we
achieved there was largelydriven, or exclusively driven,
through new customer developmentor acquiring new clients, not
(07:53):
buying companies.
Sometimes you hear rapid growthand they're well, they're just
buying businesses and kind ofthis hodgepodge of a patchwork
quilt of a company.
That's not how they did it.
So it was much more sustainable.
They did it with their ownstaff and team as they started
to build and grow.
And then from there I had theitch to get back into business
and I knew that I would likelynot own that company and so I
(08:17):
wanted to be.
I had this vision of being myown entrepreneur, being my own
boss, being an entrepreneur, andhad an opportunity with an old
colleague to join his company asa partner and did that for
about four years and as manypartnerships go it just we had a
difference in vision and valuesand, long story short, you know
(08:37):
, separated amicably.
But and then that's when Istarted Big Sky here, just not
just over nine years ago, so Iguess we're in our 10th year of
business already Funny howquickly that happens.
And along the way have been afranchisee, so I've been a
multi-unit franchisee.
I actually bought into abusiness that I helped franchise
(08:57):
when he had one unit.
I was franchisee number 30 orso, right around 30.
And they've got about 300 unitsnow and it was interesting to
put the shoe on the other footand I would say probably my
fastest learning and greatestlearning lesson in franchising
was being a franchisee and goingthrough rapid growth, a couple
(09:20):
of different investments andacquisitions where other by the,
where other investment groupscame in and bought the franchise
or and management staff changesand leadership changes and kind
of going through that wholeprocess over a six year or so
period and, uh, that that wasvery, very interesting and fun
(09:40):
and dynamic.
And one of my favorite storiesis that we were fun and dynamic.
And one of my favorite storiesis that we were.
My franchise that I owned was a.
We were 50th percentile in oursystem.
We were around half a milliondollar a year business.
I was not an owner operator.
My consulting company is mybaby.
I am no longer a bashful owneroperator.
(10:00):
I love my craft, I love what Ido and I enjoy that.
But on the franchise side I hadstaff and managers and leaders,
admin, who would come in andsupport that.
Well, a very interesting thinghappened my operations manager
who had been with me for threeyears, we worked together, grew
the business, et cetera.
I ended up selling the businessto him.
(10:21):
Well, he takes manager hat offand puts that owner hat on and,
lo and behold, he ends up takingthat business.
In his first year he does closeto almost $2 million.
The next year he does close to$4 million.
The year after he's pacing to$5 or $6 million and last I
(10:42):
spoke with him he's in aposition now.
He just recruited someone inhis industry, this sales leader
he's.
We're based, I'm in Georgia,he's based in the state of
Georgia.
He's recruited someone fromTexas and moving his family out,
that helped grow a similar typeof business to very big numbers
, and so he's doing all thesewonderful things.
And I thought, boy, what adifference from being manager
(11:03):
versus owner.
He's doing all these wonderfulthings and I thought, boy, what
a what a difference from beingmanager versus owner.
And just a great.
You know, I think.
Well, I think the wise thing Ishould have done is probably
have partnered him in yeah, Well, learn to earn right.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Yep, yep, they don't haveclarity.
And you said something just afew minutes ago about the
partnership and you mentionedour vision and our values did
not align.
We decided we left amicablyright.
But if you hadn't had those,there's no telling where you'd
(11:59):
be today probably in court,because you didn't have clarity.
Can you talk about the claritythat a business must have and
how that helps in situationslike what you went through?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, clarity is key.
I mean it stems from theclarity of the direction you're
taking the business.
Why are you doing this?
What's the point?
I mean, if you don't know whyyou're doing this, why go
through the pain and anguish ofleading building?
And they, they were not.
They were not necessarily, theyjust weren't in sync.
(12:48):
They were close but they werefar enough apart that I always
describe it as in a, over thecourse of a year or two, we're
still close enough that we'rekind of heading in the right
direction, but over time yearthree, year four, year five all
of a sudden the distance startsgetting pretty far apart.
And so I recognized that andthought, you know, this could
(13:09):
end up exactly what you saidthere, michael, in court could
be ugly messy.
Every not every, but mostpartner breakups I've heard of
oftentimes end up kind of like anasty divorce, unfortunately,
and neither partner wins out.
It costs the business money, itjust it becomes a problem.
(13:29):
And so we decided to talkthrough it and ultimately
concluded it made sense.
Just to, you know, go go in adifferent direction and and it's
been.
You know I would say it'sworked out for both of us.
You know, I, I wish, but stillwish him well, that he continues
to do well in his business andoperation.
So the clarity in and syncingup on that is great.
(13:52):
And I would say, behind closeddoors you can disagree and if
you can't get on board once yougo out of those closed doors and
into the public realm with yourstaff, with your team, with
your customers, that's probablyan indication that it's time for
you to leave, because you allhave to be on the same page,
(14:13):
singing the same song, rowing inthe same direction.
Whichever analogy you want touse to sync up, that's just been
my experience.
I'm sure you help your clientsand coach through similar
procedures there.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah Well, it's just interesting.
We've all heard the statisticsof divorce in a marriage and
that's you know, half ofmarriages don't last.
I mean, we've all heard that,but in business partnerships
almost 80% don't last.
So if that kind of brings it tothe realm and it's usually
because they don't have vision,values, all these things the
(14:48):
foundation's established.
And so I love this topic aboutfranchising because you got to
know where you're going, right,and so let's get to your your
big sky friend franchise team,because you help a lot of people
and so a lot of that is clarity.
I'm looking at your website.
You kind of ask the questionsare you profitable?
(15:10):
Will it work other places?
Can you train someone what todo?
And that's all clarity, right?
Without a plan, we don't knowwhere to go.
So can you kind of explain howyou help people in your business
?
And then also for someonethat's considering a franchise,
yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Our first step whenever we interface with any
business owner or leader that'sthinking about franchising, is
to help give just a simplebreakdown of what makes a
business franchisable.
Very often that's a questionwell, how do I even know if my
business can be franchised?
I mean what owners will usuallytell me?
They'll say, well, I'm notMcDonald's.
And say, well, mcdonald'swasn't, you know, didn't have
(15:51):
20,000 plus locations overnight.
You know they didn't have that.
And then franchise.
At most franchises start withone or two or three of something
.
That's the reality of it, andso we've broken it down into
three check boxes that if youcan check these three pieces off
(16:12):
, then chances are your businessis franchisable.
Now, should you franchise?
That's another question.
Or do you want to franchise?
That's another.
Certainly those are otherquestions.
But those three items we look atis what you just said.
Number one is the businessprofitable?
And oftentimes owners will say,well, my tax return shows I
didn't make any money.
I say, okay, well, I'm nottalking about what your tax
(16:33):
return says, I'm talking aboutowner benefit.
How do you take money out ofthe business?
If you're an owner operator,are you paying for your
lifestyle out of the business?
Essentially, that's kind of aquick summary of that.
There are deeper factors we canget into, but for the sake of
the conversation, that's a goodbenchmark.
Number two is can you teachsomeone how to do it?
And for a lot of owners it'snot just can you, but are you
(16:54):
willing to teach someone how torun your business?
And think of it as if you weretraining a general manager to
take over and run your businessfor a month or two months or
three months, while you decidedto go on a European vacation and
backpack across Europe and nothave access to your phone or
email during that window?
(17:15):
So that's one way to thinkabout it.
And then the third piece we liketo look at is do you have
customers or potential customersin other markets outside of
where you are?
Preferably on a national basis,because that allows you to grow
at minimum regional and ideallyinternational, because you
never know where the businessmight end up going.
(17:38):
And so those are the three bigcheck boxes that we look to see
in a business that's consideringfranchising.
Now, if we check those boxes,most businesses that do that are
likely franchisable, but thatdoesn't mean that they should
and it doesn't mean that theowner ought to, given their
circumstance, life, what they'reinterested in, et cetera.
(18:00):
There are a lot of otherfactors, so that starts to get
in some of the color of whetheror not it's the right move.
And then your question aboutthe franchisees.
And just to clarify on that,michael, are you interested in
talking a little bit more aboutpeople buying into a franchise,
maybe some things they should bethinking about or looking into,
(18:21):
or I just want to make sure Iaddress that correctly.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We have our owners that areconsidering franchising, but
then we also have peopleconsidering a franchise as their
business, and so what are someof those red flags and the goods
and the bads and the uglies ofall the franchise side of the
business?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, I tend to look at this when I talk to people
about it.
In a few areas, Having been afranchisee and gone through the
startup or in franchise speak,we call it an emerging franchise
brand and so we look at a brand.
Understanding your risktolerance and interest, Do I
(19:03):
want to be part of a smallsystem where you could
potentially be the firstfranchisee?
Most brands we work withthey're bringing on board their
first, their second, their thirdfranchise.
Well, that's a very differentdynamic than being franchisee
number 400 in a system andfranchisee number 400, the
system is set in stone for sure.
(19:24):
At that point there's verylittle tweaking that's going on
and if there is, it's goingthrough a whole rigmarole
process at corporateheadquarters and approvals et
cetera, versus being numberfranchisee, number four in a
system and you're going to belikely working directly with the
founder.
You're going to be discoveringnew things that the founder may
have never bumped into and soyour fingerprint or thumbprint
(19:49):
will be left on the business forthe early on franchisees.
But it is a differentexperience.
You will likely need to be alittle more entrepreneurial and
extend some grace to yourfranchisor.
Entrepreneurial and a littlehave.
Extend some grace to yourfranchisor and the franchisor
(20:10):
should be doing the same to youas you're working and learning
together through that.
So it's kind of this newfranchise or a small franchise
system, a midsize franchisesystem or a large franchise
system for just kind of ablanket look at that.
And then the other piece I wouldsay is talk to franchisees.
That is by far the number onething.
(20:30):
Talk to franchisees, talk to abunch of them.
You'll get the good, the badand the ugly.
That is the best way tounderstand what the franchisor
is going to do.
And for you as the franchiseecoming in, understand your
weaknesses.
Where do you struggle?
If you're really great at salesand marketing, recognize you're
not going to likely be able totweak the sales and marketing
(20:52):
all that much.
So you're not able to innovate.
But if you're willing toexecute the plan, it'll work.
But maybe you're not great atoperations or maybe you're not
great at executing the systems.
If it's a sandwich franchise,Maybe you don't want to be
making the sandwiches, Okay,that's fine.
But understand, does corporateprovide that kind of training
that you would likely beexpecting or that you would need
(21:14):
?
And the franchisees will giveit to you straight.
And so talk to as many asyou're willing to, and many
people don't realize that theFDD and the franchise and
franchising.
Every franchisee has to getwhat's called the franchise
disclosure document or uniformfranchise disclosure document.
Every franchisee that's everbeen a part of that system, that
is a current franchisee or not,must be listed and the
(21:38):
franchisor is under theirobligation for franchisees that
are no longer in the system isthat they have to at least have
it with their best or last knowncontact information, a phone
number or an email or some kindof way to get in contact.
So it is available to you asyou seriously start to consider
(21:58):
going into a franchise.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I have so many questions now.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
But so for our listeners, I'm going to try to
narrow it down.
Let's start with so the name ofthe show is Small Business
Pivots, and so I know, when weown businesses, we kind of get
stuck in our own ways and we'relike we got this figured out.
I don't want to go to theeffort of figuring something
else out, but what would you sayare the essentials to a solid
(22:26):
business we talked about, is itprofitable, and some of the
things that you look at?
But what are the essentials ofa business?
Is it systems?
Is it sales?
Is it leads?
Is it everything?
Is it persistence?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Well, one thing we'd like to look at is it is You're
listening to Small BusinessPivots.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
This podcast is produced by my company, boss.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
(23:09):
subscribe button and share it aswell.
Now let's get back to ourspecial guest.
What are the essentials of abusiness?
Is it systems?
Is it sales?
Is it leads?
Is it everything?
Is it persistence?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, one thing we like to look at is the owner a
superstar, meaning?
Does the business only workbecause the owner is literally a
superstar?
They are a superhero and theyare the person doing all things,
everything all the time.
In those instances it becomesdifficult to franchise for a lot
(23:46):
of reasons.
But this is really getting backto our pre-show conversation
about systems and processes.
There need to be some kind ofsystems in place Now, as an
owner-operator, you may enjoyexecuting on those systems.
That's great.
I'm an owner-operator, I love mycraft, and that may change over
time, but my lifestyle as it is, I've got three kids that are
(24:07):
active.
My craft, and that may changeover time, but my lifestyle as
it is, I've got three kids thatare active in sports and music
and all kinds of stuff, and itallows me the ability to go in
and participate in that at thisstage of my life.
But for owners that arethinking well, maybe I want to
franchise, maybe I want toexpand, or even just maybe I
want to eventually sell mybusiness.
Maybe I want my manager to takeit over.
Maybe I want to expand, or evenjust maybe I want to eventually
sell my business.
Maybe I want my manager to takeit over.
(24:27):
Maybe I want to open up one ortwo more in my area and kind of
take it a little bit easier,slow down just a little bit.
Those systems are going to beimportant and it reminds me of
the E-Myth revisited by MichaelGerber, which is referenced all
the time in business communities, and I just read it again, for
(24:48):
I hadn't read it in I don't know15 or 20 years and I read it
again recently just to see andit's a great, it stands up, it
holds up I wasn't sure it'sfantastic and the reinforcement
of just having some consistentprocesses.
Sometimes those processes aredocumented.
At a lot of small businessesthey are not documented yet, but
(25:11):
the process still exists, it'spresent, where it's just
transferred in a different wayinstead of a written form, and
it's transferred throughteaching and those kinds of
mechanisms.
Now, if you're the one alwaysteaching over and over again and
you have turnover, that becomesproblematic in terms of time
consuming.
But that's why organizationslike ours that help document
(25:31):
these things through manuals andsuch exist, or technical
writers or coaches and peoplewho help entrepreneurs.
Oftentimes paperwork is.
For many entrepreneurs I workwith, paperwork is not a
favorite thing.
It tends to fall on the bottom.
So documenting and doing thosethings can be challenging.
So working with others who canhelp, or even assigning it as a
(25:52):
task, as an example, to anassistant manager, a quality
support person, an adminassistant, can start you on a
pathway to getting some of thoseprocesses documented, you on a
pathway to getting some of thoseprocesses documented.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, that's fantastic information.
So, on your business, since itis small business pivots, what's
one pivot that you found reallymoved the needle in your
business, or have you just kindof always made the right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
decisions.
Oh right, yeah, I wish I couldsay I always made the right
decision.
I was going to say your nose isfixing to grow.
Wish I could say I always madethe right decision.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I was going to say your nose is fixing to grow.
If you say I've always made theright decisions.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Oh my goodness, I feel like every day I'm
wondering did I make the rightdecision today on whatever it
was?
It's just, it's a daily thoughtprocess but hopefully over time
we make enough of the rightdecisions that they eventually
add up over time right.
And so one big pivot for ourbusiness is and it's one that is
(26:53):
probably folks talk a lot aboutit's hard not to have done the
pivot through COVID.
But when COVID hit and we losthalf our revenue, half our
clients, in three weeks of COVIDnot unlike probably a lot of
businesses I always joke.
It's always tongue in cheek,but there's truth in it.
And I'd always tell our clientslook, if things get tight or
(27:14):
times get rough, the first guyto go is your favorite franchise
consultant.
I said we're the first one togo.
I said we're an expensiveconsultant that's disposable,
it's not a must-have to survive.
And so that happened.
And at that moment I had achoice on what I was going to do
.
I could.
My choice was do I change someof my overall business
(27:41):
philosophies and really crankdown and enforce the terms of my
contract and go after myclients and say no, you can't
just stop midstream.
We signed a contract, here'sthe deal and I thought a lot
about it, and what I decided todo was I said no, every client
(28:03):
that calls emails says anything.
We're going to let them out oftheir contract.
If they want to, we're going tolet them stop payment.
We're going to let them pauseWhatever they ask, we're going
to say yes and we're just goingto pause that and stop projects,
cancel projects, whatever wesaid.
Our line was we're not going togo backwards, but we're going
(28:25):
to pause so that, if they wantto, just stop so that they can
take care of their business.
I said our clients are hurtingtoo.
We're hurting, but they'rehurting.
And so, within two weeks ofthat happening, we launched our
webinar series that we calledNavigating the Coronavirus
Economy Series.
That's how old you know it is.
(28:46):
We called it the coronaviruseconomy series.
That's how old you know it is.
We called it the coronavirus.
And so we said our clients arehurting.
We're hurting, but our clientsare really hurting.
How can we help them right now?
Our number one value at ourcompany is win-win relationships
.
I said we've got to find a winfor our clients right now.
What can we do to help them?
And so we scoured the internetand searched around and we just
(29:07):
found anyone who knew somethingabout what was going on,
sometimes just a few days or aweek or two ahead of what went,
before it hit the mass masses.
And so we'd bring these guestsin and we'd have 60 attendees,
100 attendees, and for our westill have never had sessions
that large in terms of liveattendance, all the things that
(29:29):
were going on, and that was away that we served them during
that window, which ultimatelyled to us launching our own
podcast five years ago actually,next week's our five-week
anniversary to continue that wayof giving, to support and serve
and help our clients.
And so that was a big, bigchange for us.
(29:51):
And really I think the pivotwas saying are we really going
to, are we going to live ourvalues or are we just going to
talk about our values?
How are we actually?
What are we actually going todo?
And that was really a momentwhere the rubber meets the road,
where you have to say am Ireally going to stand on what I
(30:15):
say I'm going to do?
What are we going to do rightnow?
It's easy when times are goodand cash is coming in, but it's
hard when things get reallyrough, and that's the test of
character, right, and so thatfor us was a pivotal moment.
And what is interesting, duringthat window, you know, we feel
(30:37):
super fortunate and blessed that, you know, through really God's
grace, we didn't lay anyone off, we never missed a payroll.
We somehow found a way tosurvive and make it through and
come through and thrive now andbe in a great position.
It's ironic we're recording andtalking about this today
because a client who we let outof this agreement literally
(31:00):
almost five and a half years ago, reached out to us last week
and said hey, tom, we've got anew project, we'd like to get
started, and so it's interesting, and had I not done that,
there's no way he calls us backfive years later.
So anyway, just thought I'dshare that.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
No, that's powerful and it shows the power of having
those essentials, like the corevalues, the statements.
I've had a client recently thatwas considering going, with his
emotions, his gut, on anemployee and he said what are
your thoughts?
(31:38):
And I said I don't know, Idon't really have any, but I
suggest you go look at your corevalues, because I knew what his
core values were for thebusiness and he immediately made
a decision like that versus.
He was like I can't sleep atnight.
I'm like I just want to do thisand I'm like go go revisit
those core values, because whenthose are usually established,
(31:59):
they're not established in amoment.
You need to use them Right.
Yeah, so, like you said, it'slike are we a win-win partner,
you know, or are we not?
And if we are, then we need andlook at you being rewarded down
the road for going with yourstatements Right.
Obviously process dependent,not people dependent or
(32:21):
emotional dependent.
So what are the best ways tofollow you, learn more about you
?
You mentioned a podcast.
You want to share that a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Sure, yeah, our podcast is Multiply your Success
.
It's Multiply your Success andwe have an emphasis on really
growth-minded entrepreneurs andthat precipice in between an
entrepreneur franchising theirbusiness and then an emerging
franchise brand.
So that's where a lot of thecontent and focus tends to be on
in that.
And then our website is great.
(32:53):
We've got a weekly newsletterwe produce and we have a free
franchisability quiz.
So if you're curious, say, well, am I franchisable?
We've got a free quiz.
We've got a free white papercalled Nine Pitfalls to Avoid
when Franchising your Business.
It's available atninepitfallscom and all of
that's available for free.
So if your audience is just kindof curious or want to get an
(33:14):
entry point, and then we alwaysoffer a free consultation for
anyone who says, hey, I'd liketo learn just a little bit more,
learn just a little bit more.
No strings attached, no cost.
I always say we don't chargeanything until we both say we
agree to do business together.
So there's no hourly billing orany funny business and that's
at our website.
You can just go toBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
(33:35):
Bigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Fantastic If you were to start a business today, kind
of, what are the first five to10 things that you would do?
Because I know a lot ofbusiness owners have this dream
of an empire.
They get into it, it's all fununtil it's not, and then they
hear episodes like this.
And so that's why I'm askingthe question, because I hear
(33:59):
episodes like this and they hearme say it all the time you need
to do this, this, then this,and they're like yeah, but I got
to take care of today.
Also, I got to get sales, I gotto do and I got to do the job
because I can't afford.
So what are those steps thatyou would suggest, having worked
with so many businesses thatyou're like, if I were to start
a brand new business today,here's what I would do.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, number one, I'd make sure I'm solving a real
problem, whatever that problemmight be.
Am I solving a problem that Ithink other people also have?
That I'm not the only one, andusually the innovation and
entrepreneurship is spurred.
Most often Most clients I'veworked with it's been spurred
from that.
The second thing is what we'vetalked a lot about today.
(34:39):
What is your vision and valuesand, essentially, what do you
want to be when you grow up?
Where is this going?
And having a plan?
Do you want to sell this?
Do you intend to bring onpartners?
Is it just to pay your billsfor right now and get your kids
through college?
That's okay.
But just be real about that.
Accept that.
That is okay.
(35:00):
It's okay to say I just want tomake a living doing something I
like to do and showing my kidsthat they can chase after their
dreams.
Because that's what I didAwesome.
Do it, go for it, but put thatdown as your vision or your goal
.
It doesn't have to be somethingthat I'm going to have a
billion dollar empire and I'mgoing to change the world and so
(35:23):
on.
Empire and I'm going to changethe world and so on.
And I've recently been readingsome of the writings of St
Augustine de Hippo, or I forgethow to say that, but essentially
he talked about, as you'relooking to make an impact, the
people that just by chance orcircumstance happen to be placed
(35:44):
around you.
Think about how you're impactingthose, because those are the
people that you have thegreatest ability to impact.
So sometimes it's to stoplooking out to say I want to
change the world and startthinking about what's the world
of the people who I'm closest to, that I can really help them?
How can I help these people?
The world that I'm living inthat's closest to me, and just
(36:08):
sometimes, literally byproximity or the community you
happen to be a part of, and sothat's just been a nice turn.
So I like to think of things inthat regard, because I meet
with entrepreneurs a lot oftimes.
They have this huge vision,which I love big vision.
You have to have a big vision,but their actions and what
(36:29):
they're actually doing itdoesn't match up.
And so is it your vision, or isit the vision that you think
you're supposed to have becauseyou've seen it in other movies
or newspapers or business showsor people you've met within
networking groups?
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Wow, that one's deep, because I don't know that
anyone on our approximately 100episodes has ever said it like
that.
It's usually like a dollaramount.
It's usually like I want fivefranchises, or I want to hire
100 employees Well just, are yousure that's what you really
want?
Or I want to hire 100 employeesWell, just, are you sure that's
what you really want?
Or is it just so you can be astay-at-home parent and be able
(37:09):
to pay the bills?
It doesn't have to be thisgrand picture or Picasso, if you
will.
So, after we think about thosethings, kind of, what are those
next steps?
Is it because I see so manybusiness owners they're focused
on TikTok and I'm like, if youonly knew that's so long term
play.
Yes, you got to have thosethings eventually.
(37:29):
But what are those things?
Because we work with businessesthat have been in business
three to five years and they'restill tweaking their website,
they're still making video,they're still trying to be a
viral sensation, you know.
So what would be the next thingyou would suggest?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah.
So once you have that clarityand part of my curiosity in that
question, by the way, in ourpodcast I ask every guest the
last question I ask everyone iswhat does success mean to you?
Because I had a hunch that mostpeople would not have a
monetary number, it would not bea dollar amount, and I think
out of the 260, some episodeswe're on now, there have been, I
(38:08):
think, five or fewer thatactually said something, that it
was money related, not sayingmoney isn't part of the equation
, but it wasn't the majority ofthe equation.
So I find that interesting.
So after you have that clarityon things, then you obviously
need to gain clarity on who thatcustomer is Now and when you're
(38:29):
in a startup, you're kind offiguring that out.
In many cases you're giving yourbest guess on who you're going
after and then how to fulfill it.
Certainly so most smallbusinesses that I see know they
get some sales and then figureout how to fulfill afterwards.
And you know, I totallyunderstand and that's okay as
(38:49):
you're launching.
But after you get through thatstartup phase and you need to
evolve and I think, michael,that's what sounds like some of
these folks that are three'retinkering, they're changing,
they're chasing every dollarthat they can possibly get,
because their fear of survivalis that they haven't left that.
(39:10):
Because they've, even thoughthe business has moved past it,
they're still stuck mentally inthat, in that space, feeling
like they have to do that.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, and and I've seen that a lot as well, and
folks I've met with over theyears too and if you can't move
past that, even though yourbusiness has, it's going to be a
challenge, it's going to behard.
And so I was like gain clarity,gain clarity on your messaging.
Who are you serving?
What are you selling?
Clear is better than clever.
(39:40):
I worked with a consultant.
That was his motto.
He said clear is better thanclever.
I worked with a consultant.
That was his motto.
He said clear is better thanclever.
And so, being very clear, hereare the three things you need to
do.
Here's how much it costs andhere's how you start.
You send me a check and yousign this paperwork and I do
this.
It doesn't have to be any morecomplicated than that.
(40:01):
People don't want to have tothink about how to do business
with you or how to hire you orhow to find your location.
I see it all the time onrestaurants and other businesses
.
I'm trying to figure out how doI place an online order?
How do I get to your restaurant?
There's no directions, there'sno easy button on the website or
wherever Like.
How do I get here?
I don't know.
(40:22):
Yeah, I'm with you Simple thingslike that and then, as you
start to grow and the businessstarts to mature, you need to
start to recognize and thinkabout what happens if I slip on
a banana peel or I win thelottery.
What do I do with this business?
Does it just shut down and itjust dies without me?
Or do I have some processes andsome systems and things in
(40:46):
place that someone who'smotivated could pick up and
execute and build and run thatcompany?
And look, I fall victim to thismyself where sometimes I think,
well, the only person who cando some of these things is me.
I am not excluded from that listof owners that have thought
that Guilty, yeah, but it'seasier to give the advice and
(41:10):
you know, the shoemaker's kidshave holes in their shoes, kind
of an idea.
But it is something that'sreally important to have those
systems, documented, processesin place and it makes your life
a lot easier so that you cantake a vacation and not have to
think about it.
I mean, sometimes it's justbeing able to take a three-day
vacation while your kids are outof school and not have to
(41:32):
really think about the business,because it's going to be okay,
it will be fine.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And then that leads to four days and then a week,
and then you can go to Europefor 10 days or two weeks with
your family, if that's whatinterests you, could you
simplify or dumb down how tocreate these processes, because
I know that business owners arelike yeah, I've heard this, I
know I need to do it, but thatsounds like a lot of work and a
(41:59):
lot of time.
But you, working withfranchises, you know how those
should be written to be used,actually you know, and not some
big document that no one's evergoing to use.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yes, that's right.
So I get this a lot.
Most owners I meet with, mostclients I've worked with my
whole career.
In their mind they have thisvision of a military grade
handbook that's a thousand pages, single space, small print, to
your point.
No one in their right mind isever going to read this.
(42:30):
And I base how I prefer to buildout manuals, document processes
.
There's a really great bookcalled the Checklist Manifesto
by Atul Gawande and essentiallyhe scientifically validated that
the best approach to processdocumentation is checklists
(42:54):
period, step one, step two, stepthree, step four, step five,
step 10, all the way down tohowever many steps.
And then to try, once you putthe steps down, try to simplify
the steps and put it on a onepage.
That is your secret sauce.
And what I like to look at is Iapply the Pareto principle and
look at the 80-20 rule and I saywhat are the?
(43:17):
In most businesses, 20% of yourday-to-day activities is what
drives 80% of your results.
So the easiest comparison is arestaurant, most restaurants,
20% of their menu generates 80%of their sales.
Well, that 20% of the menu,that's the menu part that I want
(43:37):
documented.
I want everyone to be able toknow how to do to execute, to
train.
The other stuff is, while itmight have an importance, it's
not the most important thing.
And sometimes owners, myselfincluded we have a hard time
with our baby and our businessto prioritize what is most
important.
(43:58):
And so we have to force rankand literally I mean kind of
keep think of it as acompetition.
You know it's the besthamburger place in town as a
competition.
You know it's a um, you knowthe the best hamburger place in
town.
And they rank.
You know they do a square offand they vote and eventually get
to the number one.
Right, and it's no differentthan that.
You take all these competingpriorities and you rank them.
Which one is actually moreimportant?
Eventually you'll get a listOne, two, three, four, five, six
(44:19):
.
Okay, now we know where this isgoing to go and how to
prioritize what is actually mostimportant.
So I like to document the 20% ofthe processes that produce 80%
of your results.
That's where you start and ifyou only did that, your business
will.
It will change, it willabsolutely change, and then you
(44:40):
can get more granular beyondthat change and then you can get
more granular beyond that.
But any owner who's been inoperation for a year, two years,
three years.
All of their businesses havechanged from two years ago.
They're doing thingsdifferently.
It changes constantly.
So your manual, it's a living,breathing document.
So I guess to get very specific, very technical on some of that
(45:03):
, that's how I recommend.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's very helpful and you're right, a lot of them
think of it.
The first thing they think ofis this big old, thick book and
they're like I don't even havetime to read a small book.
How am I going to create a bigbook, you know?
So no, that's great, and I lovethe steps.
I love the steps because that'sreally all it is is that they
probably know how to do whatthey're supposed to do, but they
(45:25):
don't know the order to do themin, and they probably forget a
step from here or there, youknow, and so it gets messed up.
So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Anything else you can share that maybe we haven't
addressed today that you feellike would be important for our
listeners to know.
You know, the one thing Ialways like to leave to an owner
that has thought aboutfranchising or just expanding in
general, I consider to yourself, in my opinion, to explore it,
consider it so that you can ruleit out or rule it in.
I've met with so many ownerswho come to me and say, tom,
(46:14):
I've been thinking about thisfor eight years, for 10 years,
and it's just been sticking intheir mind.
And then they realize, after wespend 30 minutes an hour
together, they come to one ofour seminars or one of our
sessions.
They say I'm glad I came, Idon't want to do this, I have no
interest in franchising, andmeanwhile it's kind of been
lingering in there.
So most people we meet withdon't franchise.
(46:35):
They figure out that it's notfor them and I love that outcome
because they have like we'vetalked about today clarity.
They have clarity on thedirection they want to go them
because they have like we'vetalked about today clarity.
They have clarity on thedirection they want to go.
They can rule this out and moveon to the next, or maybe they
rule it in.
But whatever the decision is,it's gaining that clarity and
direction for where they want totake their business.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Fantastic.
Well, where is the best socialmedia to follow you on?
We talked about your podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, the best is LinkedIn.
Just Tom Dufour D-U-F, as inFrank O-R-E, Tom Dufour.
On LinkedIn, I'm super active.
That's my social platform.
If you reach out to me onanything else, I have handles on
most, but I don't even know howto log into most of them.
So LinkedIn, though, I'm onjust about every day.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well, you said Tom, but you didn't say Dr Tom, where
did the doctor come from?
You're the specialist.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yes, so I earned my doctorate degree in business
administration actually inbusiness, and earned that about
two and a half years ago.
It's been, and my thesis was mydoctoral thesis centered around
this idea of virtue, ethics orvirtue, and in business.
And so it was built around thisframework called the virtuous
business model to say, well, howcan an organization be virtuous
(47:49):
?
And, if so, how would youmeasure that?
Because if you can't measure itor have a way to track it,
businesses are never gonnaimplement something like that.
So how can you quantify virtue?
How can you apply that?
And so, ultimately, that's whatI investigated and researched
and I developed a virtuousorganization scorecard was kind
of the big takeaway that I endedup creating out of that.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Very cool, very cool.
Well, I encourage our listenersto go follow you, reach out to
you.
You've been a blessing to manyand a wealth of information.
I thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it, mypleasure.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Thank you for listening to Small Business
Pivots.
This podcast is created andproduced by my company, boss.
Our business is growing.
Yours, boss, offers flexiblebusiness loans with business
coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(48:48):
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
subscribe button and share it aswell.
If you need help growing yourbusiness, email me at michael at
michaeldmorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots.
We have another special guest,as we do week to week, but I
know that only the businessowner can pronounce their name
and their business like they can, so I let you have the floor.
Go ahead and introduce yourself, your business and just a tad
bit about yourself before we getstarted for having me Really
(00:25):
really appreciate being here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
My name is Tom Dufour and I'm the founder and CEO of
Big Sky Franchise Team and, inshort, we work primarily with
entrepreneurs small to mid-sizedbusinesses and help them
actually turn their businessinto a franchise so that they
can sell it to someone else.
And I've been doing that forroughly just over 21 years now,
so pretty much my whole careerI've been doing that.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So you got a little experience under your belt.
Yes, that's right.
Well, as a business coach, I'msure some of the things you're
going to talk about align withhow we coach and what every
business owner really needs toknow.
But how do you think what isone thing that you really want
to get across today?
How do you think we're going tohelp our listeners?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
So the main thing I would say for anyone listening
in especially some of yourclients, small businesses that
tune into this is that whetheryou are at any stage of growth,
especially for an independentbusiness, they likely have
thought about franchising, andso my goal is for you to
understand how franchising worksand why a business have thought
(01:25):
about franchising, and so mygoal is for you to understand
how franchising works and why abusiness might end up
franchising maybe some things tobe aware of.
And if it's someone tuning inwho maybe owns a franchise or is
thinking of buying a franchise,you're going to get the vantage
point of what the franchisormindset is thinking about to see
if that might align with yourown interests or goals.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Fantastic.
Well, let's introduce the showand we'll be right back.
Welcome to Small BusinessPivots, a podcast produced for
small business owners.
I'm your host, Michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where
we make business ownershipsimplified for success.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
(02:09):
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
Atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(02:29):
All right, welcome back toSmall Business Pivots.
You've got 21 years ofexperience, but I'm sure that's
not when you were born.
You probably have some otherexperiences as well, and I know
for a lot of our listeners theycan connect through stories.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour upbringing so we can get
caught up to date how you gothere.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Sure, Well, I guess from my upbringing.
I was born and raised in thefar stretching Chicago suburbs
is what I would describe it as.
Really, it was a border town inbetween Illinois and Wisconsin,
and so the community I grew upin was a farming community that
was converting into more of asuburb as I was growing up, so
(03:11):
it was kind of interesting.
In fact, my first job was atthe local grocery store, just an
independent grocery store andtwo of the clerks that worked
there I went to school withtheir son actually, and they
worked that job and they alsoowned a farm in town and they
were the final farm in citylimits and I remember it so
(03:32):
vividly.
I was just a bagger at thegrocery store.
I was 15 or 16 years old andthey had one of these.
It's just one of those corememories that kind of sticks out
.
You think about it.
And I remember coming in andthey were crying, they were just
sobbing.
There's a husband, wife, andshe said.
I said, oh, you know what'swrong.
I said, Donna, what's going on?
(03:52):
And she said well, we finallyhad to close the farm.
We just couldn't sustain it.
So they were working the job tokeep the farm alive, because
the farm wasn't able to produceenough income so they ended up
selling it.
So it's just one of thoseinteresting moments that I just
happened to be there and see andsee what was going on and kind
(04:13):
of a microcosm of what I livedthrough growing up in the town.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, you know that story is so typical with a lot
of business owners.
They're so vested in thebusiness they own They've got
liabilities and they got to goget a second job just to support
it.
So this is going to be greatinformation for us.
So did you come out?
You said you have 21 years ofexperience.
Did you start this business ordid you have others along the
(04:40):
way?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, great question.
So I went to college and got abusiness degree and graduated
early and I was an overlyinvolved student in all kinds of
student activities.
I went to a small Division IIIschool so you could be involved
in a hundred things if youwanted to be.
You know your classmates, youknow the teachers and so on.
(05:01):
And so after I graduated I knewI wanted to be in management
consulting and so I thought,well, I don't know what that
means, but I'm going to pursueit.
And my first opportunityhappened to be at a company that
does what I do today, which isworks with businesses and owners
and helps them franchise theirbusiness.
(05:22):
And while I was there, ownersand helps them franchise their
business, and while I was there,it just clicked, it resonated,
it married these ideas that Ilove.
I love the American dream, Ilove entrepreneurship, I love
encouraging people to pursuetheir own version and capturing
their own piece of the Americandream.
And I think that what I sawthere was I get to work with
(05:45):
entrepreneurs to help them growtheir dream by helping other
budding entrepreneurs realizetheir dream in business
ownership just throughfranchising.
But just because they buy afranchise doesn't mean they're
not an entrepreneur.
They absolutely are, and, as wewere talking pre-show about some
of your own experiences incoaching franchisees, they for
(06:06):
certain are entrepreneurs andbusiness owners running their
own business, and so thismarried these ideas that I just
loved of helping entrepreneursdo well and succeed or achieve
the goals that they have set.
And so I worked at that company, started an entry-level role
(06:27):
and eventually worked my way upto executive vice president of
the organization, and then I wasrecruited away by a client and,
as any good consultant knows,if you're not getting job offers
from your clients, you may notbe that great of a consultant,
right?
Yep, little tongue-in-cheekthere, but there's some truth
(06:49):
behind that Absolutely.
Yeah, someone told me that once.
I thought I think you're ontosomething.
So, anyway, from there I wentto work in the commercial paving
and commercial roofingindustries and it was a 30
something year old, family runbusiness.
They were about $125 million ayear business and they were.
(07:10):
They paved parking lots and didrooftops on commercial
buildings, commercial properties.
That was their big thing, notroads or driveways kind of those
in between things.
And so I was brought in astheir head of sales and
marketing and helped grow thebusiness by about $60 million
over a two, two and a half yeartimeframe by growing from
(07:32):
regional to national, securingnational accounts.
I managed a large sales teamand marketing team and what I
always like to describe for thatgrowth is that the growth we
achieved there was largelydriven, or exclusively driven,
through new customer developmentor acquiring new clients, not
(07:53):
buying companies.
Sometimes you hear rapid growthand they're well, they're just
buying businesses and kind ofthis hodgepodge of a patchwork
quilt of a company.
That's not how they did it.
So it was much more sustainable.
They did it with their ownstaff and team as they started
to build and grow.
And then from there I had theitch to get back into business
and I knew that I would likelynot own that company and so I
(08:17):
wanted to be.
I had this vision of being myown entrepreneur, being my own
boss, being an entrepreneur, andhad an opportunity with an old
colleague to join his company asa partner and did that for
about four years and as manypartnerships go it just we had a
difference in vision and valuesand, long story short, you know
(08:37):
, separated amicably.
But and then that's when Istarted Big Sky here, just not
just over nine years ago, so Iguess we're in our 10th year of
business already Funny howquickly that happens.
And along the way have been afranchisee, so I've been a
multi-unit franchisee.
I actually bought into abusiness that I helped franchise
(08:57):
when he had one unit.
I was franchisee number 30 orso, right around 30.
And they've got about 300 unitsnow and it was interesting to
put the shoe on the other footand I would say probably my
fastest learning and greatestlearning lesson in franchising
was being a franchisee and goingthrough rapid growth, a couple
(09:20):
of different investments andacquisitions where other by the,
where other investment groupscame in and bought the franchise
or and management staff changesand leadership changes and kind
of going through that wholeprocess over a six year or so
period and, uh, that that wasvery, very interesting and fun
(09:40):
and dynamic.
And one of my favorite storiesis that we were fun and dynamic.
And one of my favorite storiesis that we were.
My franchise that I owned was a.
We were 50th percentile in oursystem.
We were around half a milliondollar a year business.
I was not an owner operator.
My consulting company is mybaby.
I am no longer a bashful owneroperator.
(10:00):
I love my craft, I love what Ido and I enjoy that.
But on the franchise side I hadstaff and managers and leaders,
admin, who would come in andsupport that.
Well, a very interesting thinghappened my operations manager
who had been with me for threeyears, we worked together, grew
the business, et cetera.
I ended up selling the businessto him.
(10:21):
Well, he takes manager hat offand puts that owner hat on and,
lo and behold, he ends up takingthat business.
In his first year he does closeto almost $2 million.
The next year he does close to$4 million.
The year after he's pacing to$5 or $6 million and last I
(10:42):
spoke with him he's in aposition now.
He just recruited someone inhis industry, this sales leader
he's.
We're based, I'm in Georgia,he's based in the state of
Georgia.
He's recruited someone fromTexas and moving his family out,
that helped grow a similar typeof business to very big numbers
, and so he's doing all thesewonderful things.
And I thought, boy, what adifference from being manager
(11:03):
versus owner.
He's doing all these wonderfulthings and I thought, boy, what
a what a difference from beingmanager versus owner.
And just a great.
You know, I think.
Well, I think the wise thing Ishould have done is probably
have partnered him in yeah, Well, learn to earn right.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Yep, yep, they don't haveclarity.
And you said something just afew minutes ago about the
partnership and you mentionedour vision and our values did
not align.
We decided we left amicablyright.
But if you hadn't had those,there's no telling where you'd
(11:59):
be today probably in court,because you didn't have clarity.
Can you talk about the claritythat a business must have and
how that helps in situationslike what you went through?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, clarity is key.
I mean it stems from theclarity of the direction you're
taking the business.
Why are you doing this?
What's the point?
I mean, if you don't know whyyou're doing this, why go
through the pain and anguish ofleading building?
And they, they were not.
They were not necessarily, theyjust weren't in sync.
(12:48):
They were close but they werefar enough apart that I always
describe it as in a, over thecourse of a year or two, we're
still close enough that we'rekind of heading in the right
direction, but over time yearthree, year four, year five all
of a sudden the distance startsgetting pretty far apart.
And so I recognized that andthought, you know, this could
(13:09):
end up exactly what you saidthere, michael, in court could
be ugly messy.
Every not every, but mostpartner breakups I've heard of
oftentimes end up kind of like anasty divorce, unfortunately,
and neither partner wins out.
It costs the business money, itjust it becomes a problem.
(13:29):
And so we decided to talkthrough it and ultimately
concluded it made sense.
Just to, you know, go go in adifferent direction and and it's
been.
You know I would say it'sworked out for both of us.
You know, I, I wish, but stillwish him well, that he continues
to do well in his business andoperation.
So the clarity in and syncingup on that is great.
(13:52):
And I would say, behind closeddoors you can disagree and if
you can't get on board once yougo out of those closed doors and
into the public realm with yourstaff, with your team, with
your customers, that's probablyan indication that it's time for
you to leave, because you allhave to be on the same page,
(14:13):
singing the same song, rowing inthe same direction.
Whichever analogy you want touse to sync up, that's just been
my experience.
I'm sure you help your clientsand coach through similar
procedures there.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah Well, it's just interesting.
We've all heard the statisticsof divorce in a marriage and
that's you know, half ofmarriages don't last.
I mean, we've all heard that,but in business partnerships
almost 80% don't last.
So if that kind of brings it tothe realm and it's usually
because they don't have vision,values, all these things the
(14:48):
foundation's established.
And so I love this topic aboutfranchising because you got to
know where you're going, right,and so let's get to your your
big sky friend franchise team,because you help a lot of people
and so a lot of that is clarity.
I'm looking at your website.
You kind of ask the questionsare you profitable?
(15:10):
Will it work other places?
Can you train someone what todo?
And that's all clarity, right?
Without a plan, we don't knowwhere to go.
So can you kind of explain howyou help people in your business
?
And then also for someonethat's considering a franchise,
yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Our first step whenever we interface with any
business owner or leader that'sthinking about franchising, is
to help give just a simplebreakdown of what makes a
business franchisable.
Very often that's a questionwell, how do I even know if my
business can be franchised?
I mean what owners will usuallytell me?
They'll say, well, I'm notMcDonald's.
And say, well, mcdonald'swasn't, you know, didn't have
(15:51):
20,000 plus locations overnight.
You know they didn't have that.
And then franchise.
At most franchises start withone or two or three of something
.
That's the reality of it, andso we've broken it down into
three check boxes that if youcan check these three pieces off
(16:12):
, then chances are your businessis franchisable.
Now, should you franchise?
That's another question.
Or do you want to franchise?
That's another.
Certainly those are otherquestions.
But those three items we look atis what you just said.
Number one is the businessprofitable?
And oftentimes owners will say,well, my tax return shows I
didn't make any money.
I say, okay, well, I'm nottalking about what your tax
(16:33):
return says, I'm talking aboutowner benefit.
How do you take money out ofthe business?
If you're an owner operator,are you paying for your
lifestyle out of the business?
Essentially, that's kind of aquick summary of that.
There are deeper factors we canget into, but for the sake of
the conversation, that's a goodbenchmark.
Number two is can you teachsomeone how to do it?
And for a lot of owners it'snot just can you, but are you
(16:54):
willing to teach someone how torun your business?
And think of it as if you weretraining a general manager to
take over and run your businessfor a month or two months or
three months, while you decidedto go on a European vacation and
backpack across Europe and nothave access to your phone or
email during that window?
(17:15):
So that's one way to thinkabout it.
And then the third piece we liketo look at is do you have
customers or potential customersin other markets outside of
where you are?
Preferably on a national basis,because that allows you to grow
at minimum regional and ideallyinternational, because you
never know where the businessmight end up going.
(17:38):
And so those are the three bigcheck boxes that we look to see
in a business that's consideringfranchising.
Now, if we check those boxes,most businesses that do that are
likely franchisable, but thatdoesn't mean that they should
and it doesn't mean that theowner ought to, given their
circumstance, life, what they'reinterested in, et cetera.
(18:00):
There are a lot of otherfactors, so that starts to get
in some of the color of whetheror not it's the right move.
And then your question aboutthe franchisees.
And just to clarify on that,michael, are you interested in
talking a little bit more aboutpeople buying into a franchise,
maybe some things they should bethinking about or looking into,
(18:21):
or I just want to make sure Iaddress that correctly.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, absolutely so.
We have our owners that areconsidering franchising, but
then we also have peopleconsidering a franchise as their
business, and so what are someof those red flags and the goods
and the bads and the uglies ofall the franchise side of the
business?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, I tend to look at this when I talk to people
about it.
In a few areas, Having been afranchisee and gone through the
startup or in franchise speak,we call it an emerging franchise
brand and so we look at a brand.
Understanding your risktolerance and interest, Do I
(19:03):
want to be part of a smallsystem where you could
potentially be the firstfranchisee?
Most brands we work withthey're bringing on board their
first, their second, their thirdfranchise.
Well, that's a very differentdynamic than being franchisee
number 400 in a system andfranchisee number 400, the
system is set in stone for sure.
(19:24):
At that point there's verylittle tweaking that's going on
and if there is, it's goingthrough a whole rigmarole
process at corporateheadquarters and approvals et
cetera, versus being numberfranchisee, number four in a
system and you're going to belikely working directly with the
founder.
You're going to be discoveringnew things that the founder may
have never bumped into and soyour fingerprint or thumbprint
(19:49):
will be left on the business forthe early on franchisees.
But it is a differentexperience.
You will likely need to be alittle more entrepreneurial and
extend some grace to yourfranchisor.
Entrepreneurial and a littlehave.
Extend some grace to yourfranchisor and the franchisor
(20:10):
should be doing the same to youas you're working and learning
together through that.
So it's kind of this newfranchise or a small franchise
system, a midsize franchisesystem or a large franchise
system for just kind of ablanket look at that.
And then the other piece I wouldsay is talk to franchisees.
That is by far the number onething.
(20:30):
Talk to franchisees, talk to abunch of them.
You'll get the good, the badand the ugly.
That is the best way tounderstand what the franchisor
is going to do.
And for you as the franchiseecoming in, understand your
weaknesses.
Where do you struggle?
If you're really great at salesand marketing, recognize you're
not going to likely be able totweak the sales and marketing
(20:52):
all that much.
So you're not able to innovate.
But if you're willing toexecute the plan, it'll work.
But maybe you're not great atoperations or maybe you're not
great at executing the systems.
If it's a sandwich franchise,Maybe you don't want to be
making the sandwiches, Okay,that's fine.
But understand, does corporateprovide that kind of training
that you would likely beexpecting or that you would need
(21:14):
?
And the franchisees will giveit to you straight.
And so talk to as many asyou're willing to, and many
people don't realize that theFDD and the franchise and
franchising.
Every franchisee has to getwhat's called the franchise
disclosure document or uniformfranchise disclosure document.
Every franchisee that's everbeen a part of that system, that
is a current franchisee or not,must be listed and the
(21:38):
franchisor is under theirobligation for franchisees that
are no longer in the system isthat they have to at least have
it with their best or last knowncontact information, a phone
number or an email or some kindof way to get in contact.
So it is available to you asyou seriously start to consider
(21:58):
going into a franchise.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I have so many questions now.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
But so for our listeners, I'm going to try to
narrow it down.
Let's start with so the name ofthe show is Small Business
Pivots, and so I know, when weown businesses, we kind of get
stuck in our own ways and we'relike we got this figured out.
I don't want to go to theeffort of figuring something
else out, but what would you sayare the essentials to a solid
(22:26):
business we talked about, is itprofitable, and some of the
things that you look at?
But what are the essentials ofa business?
Is it systems?
Is it sales?
Is it leads?
Is it everything?
Is it persistence?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Well, one thing we'd like to look at is it is You're
listening to Small BusinessPivots.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
This podcast is produced by my company, boss.
Our business is helping yoursgrow.
Boss offers business loans withbusiness coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
(23:09):
subscribe button and share it aswell.
Now let's get back to ourspecial guest.
What are the essentials of abusiness?
Is it systems?
Is it sales?
Is it leads?
Is it everything?
Is it persistence?
You know all those things.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, one thing we like to look at is the owner a
superstar, meaning?
Does the business only workbecause the owner is literally a
superstar?
They are a superhero and theyare the person doing all things,
everything all the time.
In those instances it becomesdifficult to franchise for a lot
(23:46):
of reasons.
But this is really getting backto our pre-show conversation
about systems and processes.
There need to be some kind ofsystems in place Now, as an
owner-operator, you may enjoyexecuting on those systems.
That's great.
I'm an owner-operator, I love mycraft, and that may change over
time, but my lifestyle as it is, I've got three kids that are
(24:07):
active.
My craft, and that may changeover time, but my lifestyle as
it is, I've got three kids thatare active in sports and music
and all kinds of stuff, and itallows me the ability to go in
and participate in that at thisstage of my life.
But for owners that arethinking well, maybe I want to
franchise, maybe I want toexpand, or even just maybe I
want to eventually sell mybusiness.
Maybe I want my manager to takeit over.
Maybe I want to expand, or evenjust maybe I want to eventually
sell my business.
Maybe I want my manager to takeit over.
(24:27):
Maybe I want to open up one ortwo more in my area and kind of
take it a little bit easier,slow down just a little bit.
Those systems are going to beimportant and it reminds me of
the E-Myth revisited by MichaelGerber, which is referenced all
the time in business communities, and I just read it again, for
(24:48):
I hadn't read it in I don't know15 or 20 years and I read it
again recently just to see andit's a great, it stands up, it
holds up I wasn't sure it'sfantastic and the reinforcement
of just having some consistentprocesses.
Sometimes those processes aredocumented.
At a lot of small businessesthey are not documented yet, but
(25:11):
the process still exists, it'spresent, where it's just
transferred in a different wayinstead of a written form, and
it's transferred throughteaching and those kinds of
mechanisms.
Now, if you're the one alwaysteaching over and over again and
you have turnover, that becomesproblematic in terms of time
consuming.
But that's why organizationslike ours that help document
(25:31):
these things through manuals andsuch exist, or technical
writers or coaches and peoplewho help entrepreneurs.
Oftentimes paperwork is.
For many entrepreneurs I workwith, paperwork is not a
favorite thing.
It tends to fall on the bottom.
So documenting and doing thosethings can be challenging.
So working with others who canhelp, or even assigning it as a
(25:52):
task, as an example, to anassistant manager, a quality
support person, an adminassistant, can start you on a
pathway to getting some of thoseprocesses documented, you on a
pathway to getting some of thoseprocesses documented.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah, that's fantastic information.
So, on your business, since itis small business pivots, what's
one pivot that you found reallymoved the needle in your
business, or have you just kindof always made the right?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
decisions.
Oh right, yeah, I wish I couldsay I always made the right
decision.
I was going to say your nose isfixing to grow.
Wish I could say I always madethe right decision.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I was going to say your nose is fixing to grow.
If you say I've always made theright decisions.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Oh my goodness, I feel like every day I'm
wondering did I make the rightdecision today on whatever it
was?
It's just, it's a daily thoughtprocess but hopefully over time
we make enough of the rightdecisions that they eventually
add up over time right.
And so one big pivot for ourbusiness is and it's one that is
(26:53):
probably folks talk a lot aboutit's hard not to have done the
pivot through COVID.
But when COVID hit and we losthalf our revenue, half our
clients, in three weeks of COVIDnot unlike probably a lot of
businesses I always joke.
It's always tongue in cheek,but there's truth in it.
And I'd always tell our clientslook, if things get tight or
(27:14):
times get rough, the first guyto go is your favorite franchise
consultant.
I said we're the first one togo.
I said we're an expensiveconsultant that's disposable,
it's not a must-have to survive.
And so that happened.
And at that moment I had achoice on what I was going to do
.
I could.
My choice was do I change someof my overall business
(27:41):
philosophies and really crankdown and enforce the terms of my
contract and go after myclients and say no, you can't
just stop midstream.
We signed a contract, here'sthe deal and I thought a lot
about it, and what I decided todo was I said no, every client
(28:03):
that calls emails says anything.
We're going to let them out oftheir contract.
If they want to, we're going tolet them stop payment.
We're going to let them pauseWhatever they ask, we're going
to say yes and we're just goingto pause that and stop projects,
cancel projects, whatever wesaid.
Our line was we're not going togo backwards, but we're going
(28:25):
to pause so that, if they wantto, just stop so that they can
take care of their business.
I said our clients are hurtingtoo.
We're hurting, but they'rehurting.
And so, within two weeks ofthat happening, we launched our
webinar series that we calledNavigating the Coronavirus
Economy Series.
That's how old you know it is.
(28:46):
We called it the coronaviruseconomy series.
That's how old you know it is.
We called it the coronavirus.
And so we said our clients arehurting.
We're hurting, but our clientsare really hurting.
How can we help them right now?
Our number one value at ourcompany is win-win relationships
.
I said we've got to find a winfor our clients right now.
What can we do to help them?
And so we scoured the internetand searched around and we just
(29:07):
found anyone who knew somethingabout what was going on,
sometimes just a few days or aweek or two ahead of what went,
before it hit the mass masses.
And so we'd bring these guestsin and we'd have 60 attendees,
100 attendees, and for our westill have never had sessions
that large in terms of liveattendance, all the things that
(29:29):
were going on, and that was away that we served them during
that window, which ultimatelyled to us launching our own
podcast five years ago actually,next week's our five-week
anniversary to continue that wayof giving, to support and serve
and help our clients.
And so that was a big, bigchange for us.
(29:51):
And really I think the pivotwas saying are we really going
to, are we going to live ourvalues or are we just going to
talk about our values?
How are we actually?
What are we actually going todo?
And that was really a momentwhere the rubber meets the road,
where you have to say am Ireally going to stand on what I
(30:15):
say I'm going to do?
What are we going to do rightnow?
It's easy when times are goodand cash is coming in, but it's
hard when things get reallyrough, and that's the test of
character, right, and so thatfor us was a pivotal moment.
And what is interesting, duringthat window, you know, we feel
(30:37):
super fortunate and blessed that, you know, through really God's
grace, we didn't lay anyone off, we never missed a payroll.
We somehow found a way tosurvive and make it through and
come through and thrive now andbe in a great position.
It's ironic we're recording andtalking about this today
because a client who we let outof this agreement literally
(31:00):
almost five and a half years ago, reached out to us last week
and said hey, tom, we've got anew project, we'd like to get
started, and so it's interesting, and had I not done that,
there's no way he calls us backfive years later.
So anyway, just thought I'dshare that.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
No, that's powerful and it shows the power of having
those essentials, like the corevalues, the statements.
I've had a client recently thatwas considering going, with his
emotions, his gut, on anemployee and he said what are
your thoughts?
(31:38):
And I said I don't know, Idon't really have any, but I
suggest you go look at your corevalues, because I knew what his
core values were for thebusiness and he immediately made
a decision like that versus.
He was like I can't sleep atnight.
I'm like I just want to do thisand I'm like go go revisit
those core values, because whenthose are usually established,
(31:59):
they're not established in amoment.
You need to use them Right.
Yeah, so, like you said, it'slike are we a win-win partner,
you know, or are we not?
And if we are, then we need andlook at you being rewarded down
the road for going with yourstatements Right.
Obviously process dependent,not people dependent or
(32:21):
emotional dependent.
So what are the best ways tofollow you, learn more about you
?
You mentioned a podcast.
You want to share that a littlebit.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
Sure, yeah, our podcast is Multiply your Success
.
It's Multiply your Success andwe have an emphasis on really
growth-minded entrepreneurs andthat precipice in between an
entrepreneur franchising theirbusiness and then an emerging
franchise brand.
So that's where a lot of thecontent and focus tends to be on
in that.
And then our website is great.
(32:53):
We've got a weekly newsletterwe produce and we have a free
franchisability quiz.
So if you're curious, say, well, am I franchisable?
We've got a free quiz.
We've got a free white papercalled Nine Pitfalls to Avoid
when Franchising your Business.
It's available atninepitfallscom and all of
that's available for free.
So if your audience is just kindof curious or want to get an
(33:14):
entry point, and then we alwaysoffer a free consultation for
anyone who says, hey, I'd liketo learn just a little bit more,
learn just a little bit more.
No strings attached, no cost.
I always say we don't chargeanything until we both say we
agree to do business together.
So there's no hourly billing orany funny business and that's
at our website.
You can just go toBigSkyFranchiseTeamcom.
(33:35):
Bigskyfranchiseteamcom.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Fantastic If you were to start a business today, kind
of, what are the first five to10 things that you would do?
Because I know a lot ofbusiness owners have this dream
of an empire.
They get into it, it's all fununtil it's not, and then they
hear episodes like this.
And so that's why I'm askingthe question, because I hear
(33:59):
episodes like this and they hearme say it all the time you need
to do this, this, then this,and they're like yeah, but I got
to take care of today.
Also, I got to get sales, I gotto do and I got to do the job
because I can't afford.
So what are those steps thatyou would suggest, having worked
with so many businesses thatyou're like, if I were to start
a brand new business today,here's what I would do.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, number one, I'd make sure I'm solving a real
problem, whatever that problemmight be.
Am I solving a problem that Ithink other people also have?
That I'm not the only one, andusually the innovation and
entrepreneurship is spurred.
Most often Most clients I'veworked with it's been spurred
from that.
The second thing is what we'vetalked a lot about today.
(34:39):
What is your vision and valuesand, essentially, what do you
want to be when you grow up?
Where is this going?
And having a plan?
Do you want to sell this?
Do you intend to bring onpartners?
Is it just to pay your billsfor right now and get your kids
through college?
That's okay.
But just be real about that.
Accept that.
That is okay.
(35:00):
It's okay to say I just want tomake a living doing something I
like to do and showing my kidsthat they can chase after their
dreams.
Because that's what I didAwesome.
Do it, go for it, but put thatdown as your vision or your goal
.
It doesn't have to be somethingthat I'm going to have a
billion dollar empire and I'mgoing to change the world and so
(35:23):
on.
Empire and I'm going to changethe world and so on.
And I've recently been readingsome of the writings of St
Augustine de Hippo, or I forgethow to say that, but essentially
he talked about, as you'relooking to make an impact, the
people that just by chance orcircumstance happen to be placed
(35:44):
around you.
Think about how you're impactingthose, because those are the
people that you have thegreatest ability to impact.
So sometimes it's to stoplooking out to say I want to
change the world and startthinking about what's the world
of the people who I'm closest to, that I can really help them?
How can I help these people?
The world that I'm living inthat's closest to me, and just
(36:08):
sometimes, literally byproximity or the community you
happen to be a part of, and sothat's just been a nice turn.
So I like to think of things inthat regard, because I meet
with entrepreneurs a lot oftimes.
They have this huge vision,which I love big vision.
You have to have a big vision,but their actions and what
(36:29):
they're actually doing itdoesn't match up.
And so is it your vision, or isit the vision that you think
you're supposed to have becauseyou've seen it in other movies
or newspapers or business showsor people you've met within
networking groups?
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Wow, that one's deep, because I don't know that
anyone on our approximately 100episodes has ever said it like
that.
It's usually like a dollaramount.
It's usually like I want fivefranchises, or I want to hire
100 employees Well just, are yousure that's what you really
want?
Or I want to hire 100 employeesWell, just, are you sure that's
what you really want?
Or is it just so you can be astay-at-home parent and be able
(37:09):
to pay the bills?
It doesn't have to be thisgrand picture or Picasso, if you
will.
So, after we think about thosethings, kind of, what are those
next steps?
Is it because I see so manybusiness owners they're focused
on TikTok and I'm like, if youonly knew that's so long term
play.
Yes, you got to have thosethings eventually.
(37:29):
But what are those things?
Because we work with businessesthat have been in business
three to five years and they'restill tweaking their website,
they're still making video,they're still trying to be a
viral sensation, you know.
So what would be the next thingyou would suggest?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah.
So once you have that clarityand part of my curiosity in that
question, by the way, in ourpodcast I ask every guest the
last question I ask everyone iswhat does success mean to you?
Because I had a hunch that mostpeople would not have a
monetary number, it would not bea dollar amount, and I think
out of the 260, some episodeswe're on now, there have been, I
(38:08):
think, five or fewer thatactually said something, that it
was money related, not sayingmoney isn't part of the equation
, but it wasn't the majority ofthe equation.
So I find that interesting.
So after you have that clarityon things, then you obviously
need to gain clarity on who thatcustomer is Now and when you're
(38:29):
in a startup, you're kind offiguring that out.
In many cases you're giving yourbest guess on who you're going
after and then how to fulfill it.
Certainly so most smallbusinesses that I see know they
get some sales and then figureout how to fulfill afterwards.
And you know, I totallyunderstand and that's okay as
(38:49):
you're launching.
But after you get through thatstartup phase and you need to
evolve and I think, michael,that's what sounds like some of
these folks that are three'retinkering, they're changing,
they're chasing every dollarthat they can possibly get,
because their fear of survivalis that they haven't left that.
(39:10):
Because they've, even thoughthe business has moved past it,
they're still stuck mentally inthat, in that space, feeling
like they have to do that.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, and and I've seen that a lot as well, and
folks I've met with over theyears too and if you can't move
past that, even though yourbusiness has, it's going to be a
challenge, it's going to behard.
And so I was like gain clarity,gain clarity on your messaging.
Who are you serving?
What are you selling?
Clear is better than clever.
(39:40):
I worked with a consultant.
That was his motto.
He said clear is better thanclever.
I worked with a consultant.
That was his motto.
He said clear is better thanclever.
And so, being very clear, hereare the three things you need to
do.
Here's how much it costs andhere's how you start.
You send me a check and yousign this paperwork and I do
this.
It doesn't have to be any morecomplicated than that.
(40:01):
People don't want to have tothink about how to do business
with you or how to hire you orhow to find your location.
I see it all the time onrestaurants and other businesses
.
I'm trying to figure out how doI place an online order?
How do I get to your restaurant?
There's no directions, there'sno easy button on the website or
wherever Like.
How do I get here?
I don't know.
(40:22):
Yeah, I'm with you Simple thingslike that and then, as you
start to grow and the businessstarts to mature, you need to
start to recognize and thinkabout what happens if I slip on
a banana peel or I win thelottery.
What do I do with this business?
Does it just shut down and itjust dies without me?
Or do I have some processes andsome systems and things in
(40:46):
place that someone who'smotivated could pick up and
execute and build and run thatcompany?
And look, I fall victim to thismyself where sometimes I think,
well, the only person who cando some of these things is me.
I am not excluded from that listof owners that have thought
that Guilty, yeah, but it'seasier to give the advice and
(41:10):
you know, the shoemaker's kidshave holes in their shoes, kind
of an idea.
But it is something that'sreally important to have those
systems, documented, processesin place and it makes your life
a lot easier so that you cantake a vacation and not have to
think about it.
I mean, sometimes it's justbeing able to take a three-day
vacation while your kids are outof school and not have to
(41:32):
really think about the business,because it's going to be okay,
it will be fine.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And then that leads to four days and then a week,
and then you can go to Europefor 10 days or two weeks with
your family, if that's whatinterests you, could you
simplify or dumb down how tocreate these processes, because
I know that business owners arelike yeah, I've heard this, I
know I need to do it, but thatsounds like a lot of work and a
(41:59):
lot of time.
But you, working withfranchises, you know how those
should be written to be used,actually you know, and not some
big document that no one's evergoing to use.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yes, that's right.
So I get this a lot.
Most owners I meet with, mostclients I've worked with my
whole career.
In their mind they have thisvision of a military grade
handbook that's a thousand pages, single space, small print, to
your point.
No one in their right mind isever going to read this.
(42:30):
And I base how I prefer to buildout manuals, document processes
.
There's a really great bookcalled the Checklist Manifesto
by Atul Gawande and essentiallyhe scientifically validated that
the best approach to processdocumentation is checklists
(42:54):
period, step one, step two, stepthree, step four, step five,
step 10, all the way down tohowever many steps.
And then to try, once you putthe steps down, try to simplify
the steps and put it on a onepage.
That is your secret sauce.
And what I like to look at is Iapply the Pareto principle and
look at the 80-20 rule and I saywhat are the?
(43:17):
In most businesses, 20% of yourday-to-day activities is what
drives 80% of your results.
So the easiest comparison is arestaurant, most restaurants,
20% of their menu generates 80%of their sales.
Well, that 20% of the menu,that's the menu part that I want
(43:37):
documented.
I want everyone to be able toknow how to do to execute, to
train.
The other stuff is, while itmight have an importance, it's
not the most important thing.
And sometimes owners, myselfincluded we have a hard time
with our baby and our businessto prioritize what is most
important.
(43:58):
And so we have to force rankand literally I mean kind of
keep think of it as acompetition.
You know it's the besthamburger place in town as a
competition.
You know it's a um, you knowthe the best hamburger place in
town.
And they rank.
You know they do a square offand they vote and eventually get
to the number one.
Right, and it's no differentthan that.
You take all these competingpriorities and you rank them.
Which one is actually moreimportant?
Eventually you'll get a listOne, two, three, four, five, six
(44:19):
.
Okay, now we know where this isgoing to go and how to
prioritize what is actually mostimportant.
So I like to document the 20% ofthe processes that produce 80%
of your results.
That's where you start and ifyou only did that, your business
will.
It will change, it willabsolutely change, and then you
(44:40):
can get more granular beyondthat change and then you can get
more granular beyond that.
But any owner who's been inoperation for a year, two years,
three years.
All of their businesses havechanged from two years ago.
They're doing thingsdifferently.
It changes constantly.
So your manual, it's a living,breathing document.
So I guess to get very specific, very technical on some of that
(45:03):
, that's how I recommend.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
That's very helpful and you're right, a lot of them
think of it.
The first thing they think ofis this big old, thick book and
they're like I don't even havetime to read a small book.
How am I going to create a bigbook, you know?
So no, that's great, and I lovethe steps.
I love the steps because that'sreally all it is is that they
probably know how to do whatthey're supposed to do, but they
(45:25):
don't know the order to do themin, and they probably forget a
step from here or there, youknow, and so it gets messed up.
So, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Anything else you can share that maybe we haven't
addressed today that you feellike would be important for our
listeners to know.
You know, the one thing Ialways like to leave to an owner
that has thought aboutfranchising or just expanding in
general, I consider to yourself, in my opinion, to explore it,
consider it so that you can ruleit out or rule it in.
I've met with so many ownerswho come to me and say, tom,
(46:14):
I've been thinking about thisfor eight years, for 10 years,
and it's just been sticking intheir mind.
And then they realize, after wespend 30 minutes an hour
together, they come to one ofour seminars or one of our
sessions.
They say I'm glad I came, Idon't want to do this, I have no
interest in franchising, andmeanwhile it's kind of been
lingering in there.
So most people we meet withdon't franchise.
(46:35):
They figure out that it's notfor them and I love that outcome
because they have like we'vetalked about today clarity.
They have clarity on thedirection they want to go them
because they have like we'vetalked about today clarity.
They have clarity on thedirection they want to go.
They can rule this out and moveon to the next, or maybe they
rule it in.
But whatever the decision is,it's gaining that clarity and
direction for where they want totake their business.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Fantastic.
Well, where is the best socialmedia to follow you on?
We talked about your podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, the best is LinkedIn.
Just Tom Dufour D-U-F, as inFrank O-R-E, Tom Dufour.
On LinkedIn, I'm super active.
That's my social platform.
If you reach out to me onanything else, I have handles on
most, but I don't even know howto log into most of them.
So LinkedIn, though, I'm onjust about every day.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well, you said Tom, but you didn't say Dr Tom, where
did the doctor come from?
You're the specialist.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Yes, so I earned my doctorate degree in business
administration actually inbusiness, and earned that about
two and a half years ago.
It's been, and my thesis was mydoctoral thesis centered around
this idea of virtue, ethics orvirtue, and in business.
And so it was built around thisframework called the virtuous
business model to say, well, howcan an organization be virtuous
(47:49):
?
And, if so, how would youmeasure that?
Because if you can't measure itor have a way to track it,
businesses are never gonnaimplement something like that.
So how can you quantify virtue?
How can you apply that?
And so, ultimately, that's whatI investigated and researched
and I developed a virtuousorganization scorecard was kind
of the big takeaway that I endedup creating out of that.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Very cool, very cool.
Well, I encourage our listenersto go follow you, reach out to
you.
You've been a blessing to manyand a wealth of information.
I thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it, mypleasure.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Thank you for listening to Small Business
Pivots.
This podcast is created andproduced by my company, boss.
Our business is growing.
Yours, boss, offers flexiblebusiness loans with business
coaching support.
Apply in minutes and getapproved and funded in as little
as 24 to 48 hours atbusinessownershipsimplifiedcom.
(48:48):
If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the
subscribe button and share it aswell.
If you need help growing yourbusiness, email me at michael at
michaeldmorrisoncom.
We'll see you next time onSmall Business Pivots.
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