February 3, 2025 • 52 mins
🚀 Thinking about investing in a home care franchise? Wondering what it’s like to be a first-year franchise owner? This episode is packed with insights for aspiring senior care franchise owners!
💡 Meet Alanna Clark, a first-year HomeWell Care Services franchise owner who transitioned from finance to home care entrepreneurship. She’s joined by Mike Condon, VP of Franchise Development at HomeWell, to break down what it takes to thrive in this high-demand, recession-resistant industry.
🔹 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
✅ The realities of first-year franchise ownership – How Alanna grew to 12 clients in under a year
✅ Why compassion + business acumen = success in home care franchising
✅ How franchise support systems like HomeWell help new owners navigate challenges
✅ The importance of competitive employee pay in building a thriving team
✅ Why senior care franchises like Senior Helpers franchise, HomeWell, and Visiting Angels are in such high demand
✅ How franchise flexibility & operational systems empower new business owners
✅ The role of AI & technology in senior care – innovation without losing the human touch
✅ Why working with franchise consultants can help you choose the right home care franchise
💼 Considering a Home Care Franchise? Let’s Talk!
📩 info@thefranchiseinsiders.com
Text: 305-710-0050
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to the we Bought aFranchise podcast.
I'm Jack Johnson.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Jill Johnson.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
And today we have two very exciting guests from
HomeWell.
We have franchise owner AlanaClark, and we also have the VP
of Franchise Development, MikeCondon.
Hi guys, Welcome to the show.
Hello Happy to be here Goodmorning.
So for those of you tuning infor the first time, here's the
whole point of our show.
Jill and I are franchise ownersof a franchise called Pink's
(00:29):
Window Services.
The whole point of this is tosort of document our journey in
growing our franchise, which weopened last March and which, I'm
happy to say, we grew to thetop performing Pink's location
at the end of last year.
As of now we're getting ourbutts kicked by Sarasota in the
month of January, so we've gotto get back up to speed.
What we like to do, guys, isinterview fellow franchise
(00:50):
owners, fellow franchiseexecutives.
So for all of you out there whoare thinking about becoming
franchise owners or maybe youare franchise owners and just
looking for a little bit moresort of I don't know just
guidance and a kick in the butt,here we are to help you do it.
And, guys, let's start off.
Alana, let's talk about yourjourney.
We hear great things about you.
(01:11):
Maybe share who you are andwhat led you to franchise
ownership.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Absolutely Well.
First, thank you so much forhaving me.
I'm excited to chat with youtoday.
As a reminder, my name is AlanaClark and a little bit about me
.
So I graduated with a financedegree.
I started my career incorporate America finance and I
loved it.
I learned lots of valuableskills but I just knew it wasn't
wasn't the final thing for me.
I didn't really enjoy sittingbehind a computer all day
(01:36):
crunching numbers.
I thought there was a littlebit more out there for me.
So what led me to open up afranchise is a little bit
twofold One I've always had anentrepreneurial mindset.
I grew up in Las Vegas and LosAngeles and I watched my
great-grandmother live until shewas almost 102 years old and I
watched my grandma be herprimary caregiver.
(01:58):
We saw the challenges, the bumpsin the road, the highs, the
lows and ultimately my grandmadecided to hire a service which
bringing in a caregiving serviceinto the home.
Again, lots of highs, lots oflows, but it just really wasn't
the right fit for my family.
I kind of had that in the backof my mind of like how could I
bring something valuable towhatever city I end up in?
(02:18):
And then, on the flip side, myfather-in-law.
He actually owns a home well aswell, so I've been shadowing
him for the last three years.
So once I was at a breakingpoint with my financial career,
I said you know what?
I think it is the time for meto open up my own business and
what I mean.
This is the best world to be in, giving back to the community
but also kind of thinking aboutmy great grandmother in the back
(02:41):
of my head throughout thisentire process.
So August of this year, we tookour first client and we are
growing fast.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, so you're not even a year into your business
yet.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
No, we're not.
No, but it's felt like that alittle bit, but it's also gone
by so fast yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Lana, there's so much to talk about, and, mike, I
want to hear from you in onesecond, but sometimes, as Jill
knows, I've got to say thesethings before.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I forget he's got to get it out.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, so what got Jill and I started in this
franchise world is that myfamily had a company called Home
Care Assistance, which now isknown as the Key, and so I kind
of came on very early when wehad just like one location and
helped grow that to 100 plusfranchises, doing something very
similar to what Mike does.
And along the way I got to seefranchise owners like you grow
(03:31):
these extraordinary businesses.
It's such a home care is such agreat business.
So my question, my firstquestion for you is how many
clients do you have currently?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
We have about 12 clients right now and it's busy.
Some of our clients are onlyabout 12 hours a week, some are
24 hour around the clock, so weat all times have caregivers
working, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Clients is a good number.
I mean that's you know, that'samazing.
It's like some people may hearthat and say 12, but in the home
care world that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So beauty of home care.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, Jill, you brought up a great point.
I just the opportunity you talkabout.
You don't need thousands ofclients in this industry to
start and run a very successfulbusiness, as Alana has proven,
and she's done it very quickly,which I think is the that's one
of the reasons why I think herstory is very fascinating, how
quickly you can get there.
But I tell you she works herbutt off and I think, yeah, as
(04:27):
you guys know, a franchiseownership is not easy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It's hard work and she's living proof that if you
do it day in and day out, youcan have success, and she's
showing that, yeah, I mean, andit's such great work too, and
we're next week we're going togo out to Seattle to see Jill's
mom and you know we battle um tosee Jill's mom and you know
we're going through it now andI'll let Jill kind of dive into
it.
But um, jill's mom is nowstruggling with dementia and, uh
, it's, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean it takes a special person to do it and
it's it's one of thosebusinesses, you know, anytime my
mom's in memory care, so it'svery different.
But she didn't have caregiversprior to that and we come from a
family where both mygrandparents had caregivers, so
it's been in my family, you know, as a client for as long as I
can remember.
But you know it takes a veryspecial person and it really is
(05:13):
such, like I think you said, tojust it's just giving back.
You know it's taking care ofthese people, you know at the
end of their life.
You know it's just it's it'ssuch a good feeling that you're
part of that, because so many ofthese people, they just they're
wonderful people and they needthat extra help and to be able
to give it to them, just it justfeels really good to do that.
So I love this business forthat too, from as a daughter,
(05:36):
you know, going through it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And I think you mentioned something very
important that it does take aspecial individual and I'm sure
we'll talk about our staffing ina little bit but really what we
look for is somebody that has acaregiver heart.
You can always train the skillswe have a fantastic training
room but you need to have thatcaregiver heart in order to
succeed in this industry.
If you don't have that it'llit'll scare you away and you
(06:00):
just need to have that caregiverheart and that drive to help
people, and that's where wefound the best.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Would you say Alana, I mean again to be where you are
.
As fast as you've gotten there,I mean again I think that's
it's, it's awesome and againyou've got the right people
behind you.
We've been working withHomeWell since 2017.
So, again talking about a supersolid franchise HomeWell is it?
Maybe talk about how do you thetransition right, because it's
(06:27):
still pretty fresh in your mindhow do you transition from the
corporate career that you hadinto home care?
Maybe talk a little bit aboutthat and how that transition's
been for you.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, corporate America in my mind was really a
job.
It was kind of nine to five,maybe a little earlier, maybe a
little later, but you can closeyour computer and kind of walk
away.
When you open up a franchise itreally becomes more so your
lifestyle than a job and youneed to love what you do in
order to succeed there.
So this is not by any means atraditional nine to five.
(06:58):
This is really around the clock, but it's something that I love
doing.
So it doesn't feel like a job.
It didn't really feel like areally hard transition because
it was something I was enjoying,especially as the owner, having
control over really everyaspect of the business.
You can run with it reallyhowever you want.
You can grow exponentiallyquickly or if you want to take
(07:19):
your time, you can.
And the beauty about thisspecific franchise is that
HomeWell is willing to hold yourhand as much as you really need
.
They always say trust theprocess.
They give you a fantasticonboarding process where they
train you again really as muchas you want and need.
But they set you up for successand once they see fit they kind
(07:40):
of let you go and run it as youwish.
So we always sell that to ourclients, that while we're backed
by a fantastic franchise, werun and operate like a family
owned business.
So back to answer your question.
The transition really wasn'ttough.
It really was just kind ofaround the clock really deciding
how we want to kind of plan outour future.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, and I think, following on to that, you know
know, we were talking last weekwith another home services owner
.
So what our business does is we, our guys, wash windows and
power wash and we clean guttersand do those types of things we
don't do it.
We don't know how to do it, butwe've got a great team that does
and we were speaking to anotherfranchise called rolling sides,
which also does power washing,and they do kind of heavy duty
(08:24):
power washing, and so we bothwere kind of talking about how,
as new franchise owners, when wewould close bigger like
commercial deals, it's like ohhey, awesome, we just landed
this big contract.
Okay, let's go to work.
Oh, wait a second.
The accounts receivable isgoing to be 30 to 60 days and
we're fronting payroll.
Maybe talk about how home careis a little different, you and
(08:48):
we're fronting payroll.
Maybe talk about how home careis a little different, you guys.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I don't think struggle with that.
I think you guys probably aregetting paid on a weekly basis,
but maybe speak to that if youwould.
Sure, billing and payroll areon two different schedules.
Payroll we do every two weeks,billing we do weekly.
So every week Mondays orTuesdays is when I run billing.
So it's kind of just a nicelittle buffer to have for the
every two weeks that comes upwith payroll, and I'm not sure
(09:10):
if we want to talk exactfinancials, but it's really from
a contribution marginperspective.
So it's really just revenueminus labor.
It's about a 50% margin.
So another thing that reallysets us apart is that we really
try to pay our people on thehigher end than some of our
competitors, because money talksand you get quality folks if
you pay them what they deserve.
(09:31):
So that's a little bit about it.
I'm happy to go into deeperdetail as well.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Well, and just for clarification, and Mike, maybe
you can chime in, but we're notmaking this podcast is not
making any type of offer oranything like that podcast is
not making any type of offer oranything like that.
Any of you who want to explorethe HomeWell franchise
opportunity will want to speakto Mike and make sure you look
at the franchise disclosuredocument, which includes the
item six, which talks about theinvestment, as well as the item
19, which will show averagereturns for franchisees.
(09:56):
Now that that's out of the way,mike.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
any other yeah, just the disclosure running across
the bottom of the box.
No, I think to her point.
It's what she said aboutfinding people that care.
I think in this industry, whenyou're looking at a business
opportunity, as you guys arewell aware, it's got to match
(10:20):
the person and there has to beintention with that.
I think a lot of people look atindustries and businesses and
say I could do that and I couldmake money at doing that.
But the third component of thatis will I be happy doing that?
Because when you're a businessowner, it doesn't stop.
When you shut off your phone atfive o'clock or when you're at
your kid's soccer game, or whenyour mom calls or dad calls and
(10:42):
you have to do some family stuff, you have to be available and
you have to be okay with that.
And I think to Alana's point,the differences between a
corporate job and running yourown business.
While there's a lot of benefitof running your own business,
you have to accept some of theother side of that challenge,
which is it is on you to help itbe successful and your team.
And I think that balance ofthat is fantastic and that's
(11:06):
what we really try to helppeople go through and when they
start learning about thisopportunity is, while there's a
lot of upside to it, anybusiness is going to have its
challenges.
Let's talk about those and howdo we address those and how you
feel about those, in order tofind out if this is the right
space for you, and I thinkthat's a very distinctive,
distinct conversation that welike to have with everybody that
(11:26):
wants to learn about theopportunity.
It was no different, and Alanahad a little bit of an inside
track with her father-in-law,but at the end of the day, too,
he's not there running thebusiness.
She has to do it, and she hastaken that on and taken the bull
by the horns and has reallydone a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So the fact that you were still able to nag carmel.
Last year we had a client withhomewell, by the way, I should
just mention this.
So we've helped three peoplebecome homewell franchise owners
for the past three months.
The most recent got del mar,california, which a lot of we
know.
I mean he not only he got likedel mar, what else he got?
La jolla, did he?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Almost all the way up to Carlsbad.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, a great area in Southern California.
We've got enough.
Yeah, I love what you said,mike, because I was thinking
about Jill and I were talkingabout this last night when we
went to bed last night.
We have a nine-year-old, sothat's part of this too.
I I was mentally exhausted, butthe work that I, that we do
(12:27):
with franchise insiders andpinks, it's like it's so, it's
all it's fun I love and we loveworking and it's all for you.
You kind of have to shut it offright.
Okay, it's time to go.
We want family time, butthere's so much going on and
when it's your business andyou're charting your future and
you're leading your team, to meit's like so fulfilling, and
(12:48):
maybe you guys can speak to thattoo.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, this business is so incredibly fulfilling for
two specific reasons.
One, the client's perspective.
I mean, we are providing aclient with that extra level of
security, safety, reassurancethat we are keeping their family
members safe.
So that's one thing that allowsme to sleep easy at night.
But then, two, we opened up somany jobs to the indie market.
(13:13):
We have so many caregivers thatare working for us, whether
it's part-time or 40 hours plusa week, and that's helping
provide financial security forour caregivers as well.
So just knowing that we'regiving back to two separate
communities at the same timemakes me really happy.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, and you hit on it as an owner.
If you look at it from thatperspective, that's why people
want to work for you, right?
Everybody talks about in thelabor market how hard it is, and
I know you guys experience itat Pink's.
You got to find the labor tohelp you execute the business
model.
But if you care about thepeople that are helping you,
that's what's going to make yousuccessful, and that's no
(13:52):
different in home care.
I think that's the secret sauce,as everybody always says is
like what's the?
You know getting employees andhow do I, how do I keep them?
I just care about them, careabout their future, care about
their future, care about theirfamilies, get to know them.
And when you do that, theemployees show up and they work
really hard because they careabout what they do.
(14:13):
And that's a great example ofthat in practice.
Jack and Jill, I'm sure youguys see that with your business
right, I mean you guys havesome great employees.
I see you guys posting aboutthem all the time.
I mean you guys, you couldn'tdo it without them, and I think
that that mentality goes a longway in franchising.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah, I mean.
I think it's the hardest thingto do.
It's the key to success as abusiness owner is the employee
side of it.
We have a great GM.
I always like to say I'm notperfect.
We have a great GM.
I always like to say I'm notperfect.
Maybe, Jill's perfect.
He's not perfect, but we knowwhere each other's strengths are
(14:50):
and it's my job and it's Jill'sjob to help him right If
they're.
As a leader, every day we'regoing to find challenges and, as
the leaders of the franchise,we have to lead and we have to
help solve the puzzle.
Like it feels like every daythere's a new challenge kind of
thrown at us with with pinks,and we try to to lead the team
and help the team and reallyguide them.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and I think we've talked about this too that
sometimes you also have to bewilling to change a little bit.
You know, because now we'reworking.
You know we work with our GMJackson.
He's amazing, but differentwork styles, so kind of learning
each other's styles and how towork together and then also
listening to him, because he'saround the guys all day and so
making sure that thecommunication is being passed
(15:32):
through him to us and that's.
You know, it seems simple butit's not, because you know he's
in front of them all day.
He's working day in and day outwith them and we don't have as
much contact with them.
So it's really important forhim to make sure he communicates
with us.
You know what they're seeingand feeling and that we
understand so we can help himand help them.
So you know, it's just it's awhole different like nature, and
(15:54):
it's something that I thinkwe're all learning to get better
.
But again, it's reallyimportant to have that in 100%.
We've learned.
You know we need to keep theemployees happy and have that in
a hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We've learned.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You know we need to keep the employees happy, and if
they're, happy and they feelwell taken care of, they'll go
the extra step in the extra mile.
Yeah, yeah, it's building thatstrong culture and I think, jill
, you mentioned something that'sreally important is being
willing to adapt and change withnew perspective.
We just recently hired on acare coordinator and she has
absolutely fantastic, but shecame in with 15 different ideas
to change and grow the businessand I will say that has allowed
(16:32):
us to scale and grow.
If I didn't implement and Ididn't listen to her, we'd not
only been beneficial to theclients but also the caregivers.
So it's building the culture,but also being willing to change
and adapt.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I mean, it sounds like you've.
Delegation is such a great,it's such a key part of building
a business and it sounds likeyou've just you've nailed that
already.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I will say it was hard at first.
I have a very type Apersonality I like to control
everything, but I've learnedthat I need to kind of take a
step back, put the right peoplethat have the right experience
in the right places.
I mean, I didn't come into thisfield with a background in
healthcare by any means, andthat's why I hired the right
people that have been in thehealthcare industry and
(17:24):
specifically the home careindustry, that are kind of the
subject matter experts and Ishould just trust them.
Mike, I'm sure you rememberwhen I first started with
HomeWell I was like I've got toget everything done.
It needs to be perfect, itneeds to be on time, it needs to
be early.
But I've learned to take a stepback and breathe and just trust
that others will probably dobetter than me.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Yeah, she was great when she came in.
Exactly what you look for in acandidate that's exploring a
franchise opportunity.
Like always, on time, hadeverything done right away, like
step you know, drop by drop.
Everything was done perfectlyand while from my position
that's great, but, to her credit, you can't run a business like
that, especially a home carebusiness.
(18:04):
You just can't.
It takes people and you have todelegate, so that is hard for a
lot of people and some peopleget it faster than others and,
to Alana's credit, she figuredthat out relatively quickly in
the process and it has allowedher to be successful as fast as
she's grown.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know it's interesting when I was at Home
Care Assistance, when we firststarted awarding franchises, we
targeted nurses.
We felt like their experiencewould help to grow franchises,
and what we found out is we wereexactly wrong.
They were too clinical, theywere prescribing an hour here,
an hour there, and we found ourmost successful franchisees came
with executive salesbackgrounds and they were like
(18:42):
if your mom's got dementia, ifyour dad's got mobility
challenges, you need as muchhome care as possible, and it's
not doing them wrong by sayingyou need 24 hour care.
Your mom has dementia, sheneeds someone with her at all
times, and so our mostsuccessful franchisees they came
from backgrounds that hadnothing to do with home care.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Yeah, I would agree.
Go ahead, Alana with home care.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, I would agree.
Go ahead, alana.
No, I was just going to say Iagree with that and really.
But the basics of this industryis customer service.
I mean, if you again treatingyour people right but treating
your clients right, being thereto answer the phone, being there
to show up and check in on boththe clients and the caregivers,
that's what really createssuccess and trust.
(19:27):
Because I mean, for anyonelistening, having someone
external come into your homethat you've maybe never met, or
something new.
I mean that's change and that'stough change.
But if you build that trust andyou build that credibility,
both from the caregiver side butalso the team, like our care
coordinator and myself, itallows everybody to be on the
(19:49):
same page.
It provides that level ofcustomer service and that's
where things can really grow andbe successful.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, I remember when my mom first had the caregiver
come in and her Alzheimer'swasn't fully advanced at that
point, so she was very awarethat someone was there and I
loved how the caregiver came inand really just felt like a
companion you know, she, she andthat was the doing of the
franchise, right, they, theyworked with them to talk to her.
(20:18):
You know this, this lady's alittle resistant.
She's, you know.
She's well enough that sheunderstands why you're here and
feels like she doesn't need you.
So she came in and they playedgames.
You know she just said I justwant to hang.
She almost made it feel like tomy mom that no one was paying
her.
She just really loved my momand wanted to provide that
companionship and my mom warmedup to it.
(20:40):
She didn't feel like I havesomeone here and that's so
important.
You know that's up to it.
You know she didn't feel like Ihave someone here and that's so
important.
You know that's it's.
It's the training of thatcaregiver to do that and to
recognize the situation and actvery differently than a nurse or
an actual caregiver.
And I really, really admiredthat.
My mom did too.
So you know, looking at that,that's really important.
You know, from your guys' endtoo, is to make sure that you
(21:02):
know you are doing the propertraining and working with the
caregivers to give your clientsthe you know, best experience
possible.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
You know what else, like, I remember, like the
caregivers, they were such cool.
They're cool people Like they.
So our pilot location was inPalo Alto and we had, for
whatever reason, most of ourcaregivers wereipino I'm not
saying all of them, but a largepopulation of them were and
every week they were bringing inlike these filipino, like
(21:31):
treats, do you remember?
And, um, we would have freelunch for them every friday.
It just what it lumped was, andthis is something that, as I
speak to, as jill and I speak topotential franchise owners, so
many people say to us like wehave people who come out of
private equity and they're likedude, I'm just tired of this,
I'm tired of the grind.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I want to get out there.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I want to do something like pink, so I want
to go out there with my team.
I want to do something likeHallwell, where I'm doing
something, I'm giving back tothe community, I'm a part of
something and, with a team ofcaregivers, that sort of just
genuine do well by doing goodmentality, I think it does
really good things for your for.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Yeah, you know what's it's interesting with the
caregivers.
One of the biggest questionsthat we get and, jack, I'm sure
you got the same thing was why?
Why are people?
You know, people that areunfamiliar with this business
model are why are caregivers inthis space?
Why don't they go worksomewhere else?
They could probably make moremoney, right, it always comes
(22:31):
down to money and a lot of yousaid it, you know.
Yeah, there's a lot of differentoptions comes down to money and
a lot of you said it, you know.
Yeah, there's a lot ofdifferent options.
It's because they have apassion to help people, right?
It's the why and I think, asboth an owner and a caregiver or
whoever you have working onyour staff, they're not there
just because it's a paycheck.
They're there because of thepeople, and I think that is a
(22:52):
very unique nuance to thisindustry is the employee side of
it.
They're there because they wantto be there, not because they
have to be there.
Alana, speak to that a littlebit, and you're learning about
that as you've gone throughhiring many caregivers now,
because that's a big part of thebusiness model.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Absolutely.
Again back to the point ofwe're looking for people with
that caregiver heart.
So we start our process bydoing an in-person interview.
A lot of the questions arereally just about their drive,
their why behind joining thisindustry.
Tell us about your personality,what makes you a good caregiver
, and you can hear a lot aboutsomeone just basically saying
(23:37):
hear a lot about someone justbasically saying you know, my
mom had Alzheimer's dementia andI took her.
I took care of her for fouryears and I was with her day in
and day out and that experiencegave me the drive to want to go
help others.
Or maybe it's somebody that usedto be a nurse and is now a
retired nurse and just stillloves caring for people.
Or maybe it's somebody that isa nursing student, who is going
(23:59):
through school but really seesthe value in giving back to the
community.
You can really see people comefrom all different avenues, all
different walks of life, but thebasic of all of it is that they
have that caregiver heart andthey're willing to give back to
people.
And really those first twoquestions that we ask people to
really get to see if they havethat caregiver heart.
It sets them up whether or not.
(24:21):
They're going to succeed or notsucceed with us.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I mean again, you nailed this.
I mean our trainer again, tokeep going back to my home care
days, the person who we hadcharged training our franchisees
.
She would always say you haveto lead with your heart If
you're going to succeed in thisbusiness.
It has to be genuine.
If you're going to join thatlocal Rotary Club, if you go in
looking for business, you'renever going to get it.
(24:46):
You have to go in looking tohelp others first.
You have to have, you've got tolead with your heart especially
.
I mean, I think in any businessyou can't just be the world.
It feels to me like the worldhas changed so much in the last
four years, five years.
The slick salespeople that areout there those days are done.
(25:08):
Nobody wants to be soldanything anymore.
People want transparency, theywant honesty, they want, they
don't want, perfection.
They want to know that you'relike them and they're like you,
and that's why formats like thispodcasts this is what people
want to learn about what.
What is it really like?
Is it?
Is it, you know?
And so, alana, let's maybe gothere for a second.
(25:30):
Here you are, you're not a yearin yet.
What has been your hardestpoint in growing the business
maybe talk.
Talk about that just so peoplewho are thinking about branches
ownership it ain't allbutterflies and rainbows.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Right, it's why we actually started this podcast.
We were like we're bringing youthe good, bad and the ugly, we
will tell you when we havebackbeat.
Or, like Jack said, we'regetting our butt kicked right
now and that's just real lifeand we're going through it.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
So, yeah, if you could share some of those maybe
pain points or something,because, again, we're real, yes,
absolutely Well, I will say inthe beginning and I mean it's
really every day scheduling istough right, especially with
people work in multiple clients,kind of all around different
towns and people being reliable,showing up on time.
(26:16):
Those are definitely somechallenges.
That is also part of ourinterview process now, just
asking when is it okay to belate for work, stressing the
importance that they must be ontime because there's a family
member behind that door waitingfor you.
But in the beginning there weredefinitely some late nights
where I went and had to step in,cover some shifts.
Same with our director ofbusiness development and our now
(26:37):
care coordinator.
We say that everybody on ourteam is a caregiver because of
those scheduling hiccups thatdefinitely occur.
I mean, everybody's human Carsdo truly break down Weather
impacts, sicknesses happen, andyou just have to be able to
adapt and change and really maketough decisions in real time.
(26:59):
I think that, honestly, was ourtoughest lesson learned is that
, of course, we can build out anabsolute perfect schedule, but
there are going to be hiccups,there are going to be times
where you're going to have tostep in and you may have to work
a four, eight, 12 hour shift.
And you just got to do itbecause you're going to have to
step in and you may have to worka four, eight, 12 hour shift,
and you just got to do itbecause you've got to provide
(27:19):
that consistency to the client.
I would say that's probably,that was probably the toughest
and probably will forever be thetoughest part about this
industry.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
We had our GM.
We've had it where our GM hadto step in and work a job till
10 o'clock at night because guysjust full transparency we had a
couple guys walk off our jobsite.
We learned early on.
So we had two big jobs in aweek.
We had a big, huge job that wedid.
It was a great job for us.
And then we immediately went toanother big job and we burned
(27:49):
our guys out.
We worked them too hard.
Two of them just got pissed andthey said in it you know, it's
south florida, it's hot, andthey're like we can't do this.
And our GM and our lead tech,they stayed and they had to work
probably five X stars.
We made sure we paid them themover time to cover it.
But yeah, that's exactly right.
And then to your point.
We had our client, matt Zastrow,who owns a another home care
(28:10):
company, on our podcast midwaythrough last year.
He's now built a great, youknow big home care agency in
Coeur d'Alene, idaho, all places.
He's, you know, doing multimillions of dollars.
But he said the same thing asyou in the first year he and his
partner had to go get someshifts.
And now he says his work lifebalance is the best it's ever
been.
He has more free time.
So for those of you out therelistening to Alana, she's what
(28:32):
she's saying is right.
But the nice thing is, whenyou're building a business, it's
like building a house, andevery brick that you lay is
building the foundation towardsa business that's going to give
you more freedom.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that we
try to stress and, again, Alanahad a little bit of an inside
track with her father-in-law.
But for everybody coming in,the first couple of years are
really, really hard.
They can be hard and that'sokay.
It's supposed to be hard orelse everybody would do it.
Be prepared for that mentally.
But once you get there and onceyou and a lot of starting to
(29:06):
see that, I'm sure you arestarting to feel it a little bit
and you're never going to takethe foot off the gas, because I
know your personality and I knowthe things you want to
accomplish, which is one of thereasons why we're so happy to
have you.
But just continue to work thatprocess and you'll look back in
two, three, four years whateverthat time frame is for you and
say, wow, I've done somethingreally cool and, to your point,
(29:27):
I'm able now to really achievewhat I wanted to.
And the question I always askcandidates as they go through
our education process is whatare your goals?
What do you want it to looklike eventually?
With the understanding thatit's not going to look like that
day one or or day 100.
Right, but, but let's look atwhat that could look like and
how do we help get you there anddoes that align with what your
(29:51):
goals are?
And so I think that's a veryimportant piece of understanding
a business, no matter whatbusiness it is.
In franchising, we use a lot ofterm semi-absentee.
I personally hate it.
I think it's very misleadingbecause, to your point, yeah,
you guys might not have to be onyour job site every single day,
12 hours a day, but I guaranteeyou're not semi-absentee in
(30:12):
your business.
You're working your businessevery single day but it's on
your time.
And I think enfranchising themisconception of semi-absentee
of I'm going to do it 10 hours aweek is not realistic or 20
hours a week.
So to me it's such a misleadingconcept in franchising, no
(30:33):
matter what business you're in.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Agreed.
I actually wrote a blog postyesterday called Absentee
Franchising Factor Fantasy.
I stole from.
We are on the board of the PalmBeach Atlantic, which has a
whole franchising university andit was a topic that they had a
couple months ago.
So I put it on a blog post andI said in my mind and we've
helped enough clients becomebusiness owners who were
promised absentee franchises andit's not what they got.
(30:57):
It's an absolute fantasy and Ithink that the the real term is
semi-involved.
But, like you said, you can't.
You can't put guardrails up andsay it's two hours a week or
it's this or that.
I can tell you, yeah, weprobably each average about an
hour per day in our business,but do you know why?
That's Because we pay a GM$75,000 a year, right Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
And we say average, average one, which means that
there is a day with multipledisasters, that's a flooring day
, and then there's maybe one ortwo days that are quieter.
So it is, but it doesn't meanthat it's, you know, from three
to four, every single day iswhen we're focusing on paints.
That it's, you know, from threeto four, every single day, is
when we're focusing on paints.
It's whenever we can, when wecan fit it in, and then we have
to be reactive to quite a bit ofthings.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So and guess what we talk about at the dinner table
and at the breakfast tableworking hour, then it's more.
But the other thing is thisguess who also hears us talking
about this at the dinner tableand the breakfast table?
So our son trained and we'redriving to school, so so one of
my favorite things, what I loveabout being an entrepreneur, is
that you know, I can be therefor, and Jill can be there for,
(32:03):
car line, car pickup, cardrop-off, and as we're driving
to school, we're talking aboutthings like setting goals.
We're talking about how do weget to where we want to go.
Why do we go to school?
This is the conversation Treyand I had yesterday.
Trey, why do we go to school?
Why do we work hard?
What's our goal?
Trying to paint that picturelike a good franchisor would and
this is another thing too, andI'll let you guys speak to this.
(32:24):
I think one of the best partsabout becoming a franchisee is
it makes you a better businessperson, because you get to learn
from great business people.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Absolutely.
And as a business owner, youhave a little bit of ownership
in every type, every part of thebusiness.
Right and back to those goals.
If your goal truly is to notwork that many hours a week and
kind of take that step away, youhave the beauty of structuring
your business how you want,right?
I mean, one pain point that wehad was the weekend scheduling.
(32:57):
So the way that we fix that iswe put someone on call for
weekends.
That gives us, as salariedfolks, just a little bit of a
breather on the weekends.
We were able to design thatjust because we can do what we
want to do and we can fill thosegaps as we see need.
So there's flexibility in beinga franchise owner, which is
fantastic, but it allows you toreally develop that roadmap of
(33:21):
okay, my end goal is X.
How do we get there in areasonable manner?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I'll pick up a quick question, mike, and this is for
you, because we're adding on forPinks an AI sort of system
where when you call us or youfill out a form, it's going to
be an AI agent that calls youand basically what she says is
she'll say hi, it's, you know,it's Jill from PINX, and we got
your inquiry and we'd like to goahead and get you scheduled for
an estimate.
What were you looking for?
(33:47):
And you can say something like,well, I want to get my windows
washed.
And it'll say, okay, great, howmany windows do you want to get
washed and where are theylocated?
And they'll say that.
And they'll say, okay, great,what else?
Well, I want to get powerwashing, and we're training it
right now so it can go deep onall this stuff.
But if it can't, if it gets toa point where someone's just
swearing at it or something, itwill then kick it over to
(34:08):
someone who can handle it.
But I wonder for you guys, mike, is that something you guys
have talked about incorporatingfor situations like what Alana
just mentioned?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, I think and Alana is probably more of an
expert on it than I am but Ithink a lot of the technology
and tools we look at it's alittle bit twofold, because
while technology and AI is great, you can also lose that
personal touch, right.
So it's a balancing act, as youguys know, I think in our
industry, trying to help maybefrom a scheduling standpoint, I
know WellSky, our platform, isreally incorporating a lot of AI
(34:41):
into what they're doing inallowing our owners, because
it's about time and it's aboutefficiency.
So how do we incorporate thosetools for our owners to do that
without losing that human touch?
So, alana, I'd love to hearyour perspective, because this
is stuff that we're working ondaily and you're living it.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour side of that.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, there's actually a whole part of our
business that's totally AI.
So that process is caregiversapplying for the role that's
through Indeed and then, oncethey apply, if they answer the
right answers to the questions,ai actually prompts them to fill
out an additional applicationand then actually schedules them
for us, because, if you canimagine, I mean we have probably
(35:24):
anywhere between 10 and 60interviews a week.
We are constantly hiring, but Iam able to step away from the
actual scheduling of the hiringprocess and people just show up
at my door whenever I block offthose times that I'm available
for interviews.
So that has reduced a lot oftime, stress and labor where we
can just have AI do it.
(35:45):
I think back to Mike's point,though really, everything that's
client facing, it's hard to putAI in those shoes just because
you don't want to remove thatpersonal touch.
There's so much emotion.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, there's so much emotion.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Everything's really situational.
You've really got to show thatcompassion, and maybe one day AI
will be able to show that, butright now we really like the
face-to-face personality of it.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
You're right.
I mean, our business is so muchmore transactional right.
I want to get my windows washedversus my mom fell down and I'm
really freaked out.
Um, yeah, you guys have toreally help.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Be a person that can solve a problem yeah, but on the
caregiver side that makes sense, you know, for scheduling
interviews and bypassing thatbeginning part.
You know, I think that's agreat use for it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Our concern has been that we get form fill outs late
at night on a Saturday and welove our G.
We don't want to do that to ourDM.
So if we can immediately callwithin seconds, text and email
within seconds, hey, let's getyou scheduled.
Then that's going to helpimprove our close rate, which
has been going up Like we saw.
Our close rate right now sitsat about 55%, which is for our
(36:52):
business.
It's pretty good.
Okay, but we'd love to increaseit anyways.
Those are, those are.
That's again, the fun of beinga business owner, especially in
this time, is that there are somany new ways to add efficiency
to a business and reduce costs.
So it's, it's, it's a.
I think we're going to see somuch advancement over the next
few years.
(37:12):
I don't know if you guys heardwhat larry ell was saying about.
You know, trump just approved,like I don't know, 800 billion
towards AI efforts.
Yes, ellison was like we'regoing to use AI to help cancer
treatments and essentially again, I'm not an expert on this, but
we're going to take the genomefor your specific cancer and
create a vaccine to attack it.
I mean, it's insane where weare right now.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Yeah, yeah, I will say something also.
We use well, I use personallyevery single day is chat GPT, I
mean.
I ask questions.
I get chat GPT's opinion.
I say hey, can you summarizethis really really long email?
Can you respond to that emailfor me?
That gives me some free time,so I'm not actually there doing
(37:56):
all that manual labor.
Chatgpt is truly one of my bestfriends.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Have you tried perplexity AI yet?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Nope, but I'm writing it down because I love AI.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I am the same thing I actually asked Jack if he still
uses his brain anymore theother day, because every time,
whether we're talking about workor something, he says well,
chat, gbt set.
I'm like, oh my god, do youjust?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
and then then I started well, but it's, it's the
user right again.
It's like I was trying todescribe this to a friend the
other day about how you use it.
He's a songwriter and he says Ican't just have it write songs.
I'm like, no, you don't have itwrite songs.
You say this is what I'm tryingto do, can you help me?
And so, like today I was usingit.
I said and this is when I wasin college we read a book called
(38:41):
ogilvy on advertising, whichwas created in the 60s.
But david ogilvy had a verydistinct style of writing.
And so today, for the heck ofit, in perplexity, I said help
me write an ad for franchiseinsiders in the vein of david og
.
And it came up with it.
It pulled like all his old adsup and it came up with a
headline that was like.
I was like wow, so it is crazyhow this can help us.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Well, I think, yeah, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Jill Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Oh no, I was going to say even Jax mentioned to me
too.
You know, we're still involvedin it, we, you know we're still
involved in it.
We still have to keep askingquestions and teaching.
So, yes, it's not rotting ourbrains yet and it's very helpful
to make it smarter.
But yeah, no, but it does.
Well, it's like you know, I Iuse it for something silly, like
asking about trace top schoolsin florida.
Right, his school didn't comeup.
(39:29):
So I told jack.
I was like look, his schooldidn't come up.
He said ask it why, why didthis school not show up?
And then it came back with oh,actually I'm sorry, it should
have been included and here'swhy it's a top school.
But again, it's like I had toask that question as soon as I
asked that question.
Hopefully the next time someoneasks the top school's questions
it's going to consider thatbecause it realized it missed
that.
So there's still a lot of brainwork and a lot of human
(39:53):
interactions.
It needs us to help it advance.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
It needs us to perplexity is better, for, if
you want specific information,perplexity uses a different
engine than chat gpt it uses Iforget the name of it, but yeah
so, but chat gpt is the bestoverall, so it will lie to you I
don't know if it lies.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I mean, we have to teach it the answer.
So maybe how great the schoolis, it's not everything on the
internet is true, guys.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
That's, I mean, that's the reality, right?
That's what my kids tell methat everything on tiktok is
real.
And I'm like oh yeah, right, Idon't know I think with with ai
and when you're talking aboutbusiness ownership, there's a
lot of advantages and I thinkwe're all using it in different
ways to help advance.
And Alana is younger and I'mokay to say it, I know she's
(40:47):
younger than me.
She's younger than probably allof us on this call.
I think the adaptability of usas people to be able to use it
to our advantage is where we canget ahead as business owners.
Looking at it and how can I useit to help me not necessarily is
it going to solve my problemsit's not going to solve my
problems but to Alana's point ofI use it to help me be more
(41:08):
efficient when replying toemails or summarizing data so I
can make a better decision in mybusiness is a great application
of how to use AI, and I think,as franchisors, it's our
responsibility to help educateour owners on the tools that are
out there in order to help themuse it.
That's going to help themadvance their business and I
think finding ways to apply thatway will be the key to how
(41:30):
franchising moves forward withAI to that point.
So we're looking at it in thatcontext of it's not going to
replace our owners.
It's not going to replace thecaregivers or how they do their
work, but can it make them moreefficient so they don't need to
hire maybe as many people inorder to get the same amount of
production, which is going tolower their costs, which is
(41:51):
going to put more money in theirpocket, which is the point of
owning a business.
So, again, trying to look at itin a holistic type way, I think
is is a great way to do it, andwe're just at the cusp of what
this technology is going to beable to provide in the future.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, I mean, that's why people are.
I mean it's AI.
There are certain jobs that,let's face it, ai is more
efficient at, and that's whywe're seeing a big shift in
white collar jobs being lost toAI, and that's where franchising
can be such a solution, becauseyou can't have AI provide
(42:26):
caregiving services, you can'thave AI washing windows, and
that's where we're seeing thesesimple businesses that people
need every single day boomingbecause they're heavy need
businesses.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, especially in these, like you said, heavy need
industries, the people aregoing to be the ones that always
execute, but it's how youleverage those tools to just
streamline it.
Even if you say ChatGPT, I havea goal of X, y, z by this date,
give me 10 different options onhow to get there.
They provide differentperspectives that maybe you
(43:01):
didn't think of before, and it'spulling from all these
different databases of otherpeople that have maybe have been
successful and it cancompletely change your mindset
on how you run the business.
But at the end of the day, you,as the people, are still the
ones executing.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, I mean, we threw it into for pinks.
We know what our average job is, we know what our conversion
rates are and throw it in there.
Hey, help me figure out, basedupon my current burn rate, what
my growth rate looks like on atrue and it will.
So, yeah, I mean, again, Ithink there's lots to be excited
about, okay?
So, alana, here's the questionfor you, here's the million
(43:34):
dollar question.
Would you do it again?
Speaker 3 (43:41):
A million percent yes .
Back to the piece of howrewarding this industry is and
just owning a business ingeneral.
Again, I can go to sleepcontent with the work I'm doing.
I'm not behind a computercrunching numbers all day.
I am actually giving back tothe community.
So, yes, and I am still herefor the ride of the challenges,
the roller coaster of owning abusiness, but I don't ever
foresee myself in the nearfuture saying this isn't for me.
(44:05):
I would a million times do thisover again.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yes, Love it.
Would you do it again?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
yes, it would do it again.
Um, I, I would, for thelearning experience.
I mean, it's been fun, I'll youknow, I'll say that too, but it
really has kind of opened oureyes and, like jack said at the
beginning, I think it makes usall better, you know,
entrepreneurs and businessowners because we're we're in it
, we're in it and we're doing it, and we're learning and we're
improving it well, you know,again, I've been accused of
(44:36):
having the worst sales pitch ofany franchise consultant out
there, because when I talk topeople on a first call, I say
this is going to be hard.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
It's going to be hard before it gets easy.
You're going to spend a lot ofmoney growing your business.
It's not going to getprofitable as fast as you want
it to.
You're going to have something.
Someone's going to quit at thewrong time.
These things are going tohappen.
So buckle up and get ready andwhatever you think you're going
to spend, no, you're probablygoing to spend a little bit more
.
And the reason I say thosethings to people is that I'd
much rather prepare someone.
(45:03):
You can't sell a franchise.
You can only point someone inthe right direction and connect
them to the right franchise, andthe better prepared they are,
the more successful.
And this is what Jill and Ireally have decided we want to
do in our business.
We want to help people becomestar franchise owners, top
franchise owners like you, alana.
You know it's.
What are the things that topfranchise owners do?
(45:24):
What are the lessons?
And the lesson is this you staywith it.
You have your goal in mind.
You work towards it.
You don't blame other people,you keep grinding and building
until you build that asset towhere you want it to go.
And I think if you can havethat mindset and you have the
right amount of capital to dothe business, you're in a good
(45:44):
position to succeed.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
That's it, and we talk about that through our
education process, whether youhave an inside track, like Alana
did with that or not.
I mean that's the goals.
How do you get there?
How are we going to help you?
But what are you going to bringto the table?
I always tell people,especially in this industry, we
can teach you everything thereis to know about home care.
I can't teach you to get up,put your pants on and go to work
.
I can't do that, and I thinkthat is a very real statement
(46:07):
that if you're not willing tobring that to the table, why are
we talking?
On our team, on our developmentteam?
Every one of us has owned afranchise or currently own a
franchise.
I own multiple and it's hardwork every day, but it's
rewarding work and we get to dothis every day.
And that education process toyour guys' point allows you to
(46:29):
see different perspectives.
And the first time I had aconversation with Alana I was
like she's going to be a rockstar.
We just got to get her pointedin the right direction and give
her the tools to be successful.
And that's what goodfranchisors should do Give them
the tools and then help themfind a way to be successful and,
to her credit, she's doingeverything we've ever asked, and
(46:50):
more.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Another beauty of being a part of a franchise is
the people connections you canmake as well.
If there's ever something thatyou know, how could I do this
better?
Or I'm really struggling with X, Y, Z.
From my experience, at least,Homewell does.
They connect you with someonethat's succeeding really great
in that area, so you're able tolearn from other people that
(47:11):
have done it for years, if notlonger.
So that's another thing Ireally like about being a part
of a franchise is that you havenot only the tools, the
education, but you also have thepeople to learn from as well.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, a lot of people who come to us say I want to be
a multi-unit franchise owner, Iwant to own five units.
And our guidance is look, we'veseen people start with five,
with 20, with 10.
Is that?
We've seen people start withfive, with 20, with 10.
And I think that here's thereality of it is that in
franchising, not everyone'sgoing to succeed and generally,
(47:45):
what happens is that you don'tclose up shop If it's not for
you.
You go to Mike and you say Mike, help me sell my business.
And Mike, this is something Iwant to transition to and I know
we only have a few minutes left.
But the way to grow is by yougrow your franchise and become
successful at it.
Inevitably, someone else inyour system wants to sell their
franchise and you can help themby helping them get out of the
(48:07):
business and you can acquiretheir location.
Mike, in franchising, a bigchange has happened.
I think a lot has had to dowith Cody Sanchez.
People love what she says aboutfinding existing businesses for
mom and pops who are just goingto hand it to you for pennies
on the dollar and sellerfinancing with pipe dream.
Be that as it may, we see a lotof people who come to us for
(48:27):
existing businesses.
My question to you is doesHomewell currently have, in
addition to new franchise,territories for sale?
Do you guys have existingterritories for sale as well?
Speaker 4 (48:37):
We do.
Yeah, we have a few For us.
We're, let's say, we've beendoing this for over 20 years,
but we have a young system.
We have a lot.
We've had explosive growth overthe last two and a half years,
so we're fortunate to have a lotof newer franchisees that are
really just now hitting theground running.
But to it, there's alwaysexceptions to that and
absolutely we do.
(48:58):
We have probably a handful ofowners right now that are either
looking at selling orcontemplating selling within the
next 12 months, and one of thefirst questions we like to talk
to them about is what are yourgoals with selling?
And then we look and say isthere somebody around you that
would make sense to sell to?
Because I think to your point,we're looking at a franchise.
Ownership.
Acquisition in the space is agreat way to grow because, one,
(49:21):
you're getting that revenue but,two, you're already in the
market, you already know thebusiness and it's a great way to
continue that growth.
But yeah, we have a handful ofthem around the country that are
probably either up for sale orgoing up for sale shortly, but
not as many as you would think,just because of where we're at
in our growth stage.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Sure, Well, franchise owners are always going to have
the inside track, like Mikesaid.
But for those of you that arethinking about you want to buy
an existing business, if you'dlike our help exploring if
Homewell happens to have aterritory for you.
You know the drill.
The easiest thing to do is textJill and me at 305-7100-50 for
more information on gettingconnected with Homewell or new
(50:00):
or even existing franchiseopportunities for sale.
Guys, this has been fabulous.
I think we've gone in a milliondifferent places.
Any last thoughts that you guyswant to just share with the
folks out there who are thinkingabout franchise ownership?
Speaker 3 (50:13):
I say, if you have the drive, you have the capital,
give it a try.
I mean, you can always fallback on your previous career,
and that's something that Ialways have as a level of
comfort is, I could alwaysrejoin corporate America if I
really wanted to but give it atry.
You'll learn so much, You'llgrow as an individual so quickly
Um, and you'll set yourself upfor for financial success as
(50:35):
well.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I always say there's what?
Over 4,000 different types offranchises out there.
Please work with a professionalwhen trying to find the right
one.
It is really hard and that'sjust not a plug for you guys.
I firmly believe that Going onGoogle and searching for top
franchises it doesn't work.
Please work with a professionallike Jack and Jill.
(50:59):
They're going to steer you inthe right direction.
They're going to make sure thatyou're set for success.
I'm a firm believer in that.
I tell everybody please workwith somebody that you know like
and trust that they're going tosteer you in the right
direction.
So that would be my advice toanybody.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, great advice.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Wonderful advice?
Yeah, I think.
Yeah, great advice.
Wonderful advice?
Yes, I think.
Even if it's if whether it'sjill and I or it's anyone else
work with a franchise consultantthat has experience running a
franchise, work with thefranchise.
Ask the questions do you havefranchise attorneys?
Do you have a cpa, um, do youhave financing resources?
You can connect me to?
How long have you been workingwith them?
(51:35):
Because that's part of what agood franchise consultant will
do whether it's us or any of theother great ones out there is
make your journey so much easier.
It's like when you work with agood real estate agent they're
going to connect you to the topbroker in terms of getting your
mortgage.
You want the same thing.
So, you guys, this has beenfabulous.
We appreciate you so much.
Thank you for your time and forbeing on our show today.
Speaker 4 (51:56):
Yeah.
Hi everyone.
Welcome back to the we Bought aFranchise podcast.
I'm Jack Johnson.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Jill Johnson.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
And today we have two very exciting guests from
HomeWell.
We have franchise owner AlanaClark, and we also have the VP
of Franchise Development, MikeCondon.
Hi guys, Welcome to the show.
Hello Happy to be here Goodmorning.
So for those of you tuning infor the first time, here's the
whole point of our show.
Jill and I are franchise ownersof a franchise called Pink's
(00:29):
Window Services.
The whole point of this is tosort of document our journey in
growing our franchise, which weopened last March and which, I'm
happy to say, we grew to thetop performing Pink's location
at the end of last year.
As of now we're getting ourbutts kicked by Sarasota in the
month of January, so we've gotto get back up to speed.
What we like to do, guys, isinterview fellow franchise
(00:50):
owners, fellow franchiseexecutives.
So for all of you out there whoare thinking about becoming
franchise owners or maybe youare franchise owners and just
looking for a little bit moresort of I don't know just
guidance and a kick in the butt,here we are to help you do it.
And, guys, let's start off.
Alana, let's talk about yourjourney.
We hear great things about you.
(01:11):
Maybe share who you are andwhat led you to franchise
ownership.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Absolutely Well.
First, thank you so much forhaving me.
I'm excited to chat with youtoday.
As a reminder, my name is AlanaClark and a little bit about me
.
So I graduated with a financedegree.
I started my career incorporate America finance and I
loved it.
I learned lots of valuableskills but I just knew it wasn't
wasn't the final thing for me.
I didn't really enjoy sittingbehind a computer all day
(01:36):
crunching numbers.
I thought there was a littlebit more out there for me.
So what led me to open up afranchise is a little bit
twofold One I've always had anentrepreneurial mindset.
I grew up in Las Vegas and LosAngeles and I watched my
great-grandmother live until shewas almost 102 years old and I
watched my grandma be herprimary caregiver.
(01:58):
We saw the challenges, the bumpsin the road, the highs, the
lows and ultimately my grandmadecided to hire a service which
bringing in a caregiving serviceinto the home.
Again, lots of highs, lots oflows, but it just really wasn't
the right fit for my family.
I kind of had that in the backof my mind of like how could I
bring something valuable towhatever city I end up in?
(02:18):
And then, on the flip side, myfather-in-law.
He actually owns a home well aswell, so I've been shadowing
him for the last three years.
So once I was at a breakingpoint with my financial career,
I said you know what?
I think it is the time for meto open up my own business and
what I mean.
This is the best world to be in, giving back to the community
but also kind of thinking aboutmy great grandmother in the back
(02:41):
of my head throughout thisentire process.
So August of this year, we tookour first client and we are
growing fast.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Wow, so you're not even a year into your business
yet.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
No, we're not.
No, but it's felt like that alittle bit, but it's also gone
by so fast yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Lana, there's so much to talk about, and, mike, I
want to hear from you in onesecond, but sometimes, as Jill
knows, I've got to say thesethings before.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I forget he's got to get it out.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, so what got Jill and I started in this
franchise world is that myfamily had a company called Home
Care Assistance, which now isknown as the Key, and so I kind
of came on very early when wehad just like one location and
helped grow that to 100 plusfranchises, doing something very
similar to what Mike does.
And along the way I got to seefranchise owners like you grow
(03:31):
these extraordinary businesses.
It's such a home care is such agreat business.
So my question, my firstquestion for you is how many
clients do you have currently?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
We have about 12 clients right now and it's busy.
Some of our clients are onlyabout 12 hours a week, some are
24 hour around the clock, so weat all times have caregivers
working, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Clients is a good number.
I mean that's you know, that'samazing.
It's like some people may hearthat and say 12, but in the home
care world that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So beauty of home care.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, Jill, you brought up a great point.
I just the opportunity you talkabout.
You don't need thousands ofclients in this industry to
start and run a very successfulbusiness, as Alana has proven,
and she's done it very quickly,which I think is the that's one
of the reasons why I think herstory is very fascinating, how
quickly you can get there.
But I tell you she works herbutt off and I think, yeah, as
(04:27):
you guys know, a franchiseownership is not easy.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
It's hard work and she's living proof that if you
do it day in and day out, youcan have success, and she's
showing that, yeah, I mean, andit's such great work too, and
we're next week we're going togo out to Seattle to see Jill's
mom and you know we battle um tosee Jill's mom and you know
we're going through it now andI'll let Jill kind of dive into
it.
But um, jill's mom is nowstruggling with dementia and, uh
, it's, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean it takes a special person to do it and
it's it's one of thosebusinesses, you know, anytime my
mom's in memory care, so it'svery different.
But she didn't have caregiversprior to that and we come from a
family where both mygrandparents had caregivers, so
it's been in my family, you know, as a client for as long as I
can remember.
But you know it takes a veryspecial person and it really is
(05:13):
such, like I think you said, tojust it's just giving back.
You know it's taking care ofthese people, you know at the
end of their life.
You know it's just it's it'ssuch a good feeling that you're
part of that, because so many ofthese people, they just they're
wonderful people and they needthat extra help and to be able
to give it to them, just it justfeels really good to do that.
So I love this business forthat too, from as a daughter,
(05:36):
you know, going through it.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And I think you mentioned something very
important that it does take aspecial individual and I'm sure
we'll talk about our staffing ina little bit but really what we
look for is somebody that has acaregiver heart.
You can always train the skillswe have a fantastic training
room but you need to have thatcaregiver heart in order to
succeed in this industry.
If you don't have that it'llit'll scare you away and you
(06:00):
just need to have that caregiverheart and that drive to help
people, and that's where wefound the best.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Would you say Alana, I mean again to be where you are
.
As fast as you've gotten there,I mean again I think that's
it's, it's awesome and againyou've got the right people
behind you.
We've been working withHomeWell since 2017.
So, again talking about a supersolid franchise HomeWell is it?
Maybe talk about how do you thetransition right, because it's
(06:27):
still pretty fresh in your mindhow do you transition from the
corporate career that you hadinto home care?
Maybe talk a little bit aboutthat and how that transition's
been for you.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, corporate America in my mind was really a
job.
It was kind of nine to five,maybe a little earlier, maybe a
little later, but you can closeyour computer and kind of walk
away.
When you open up a franchise itreally becomes more so your
lifestyle than a job and youneed to love what you do in
order to succeed there.
So this is not by any means atraditional nine to five.
(06:58):
This is really around the clock, but it's something that I love
doing.
So it doesn't feel like a job.
It didn't really feel like areally hard transition because
it was something I was enjoying,especially as the owner, having
control over really everyaspect of the business.
You can run with it reallyhowever you want.
You can grow exponentiallyquickly or if you want to take
(07:19):
your time, you can.
And the beauty about thisspecific franchise is that
HomeWell is willing to hold yourhand as much as you really need
.
They always say trust theprocess.
They give you a fantasticonboarding process where they
train you again really as muchas you want and need.
But they set you up for successand once they see fit they kind
(07:40):
of let you go and run it as youwish.
So we always sell that to ourclients, that while we're backed
by a fantastic franchise, werun and operate like a family
owned business.
So back to answer your question.
The transition really wasn'ttough.
It really was just kind ofaround the clock really deciding
how we want to kind of plan outour future.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, and I think, following on to that, you know
know, we were talking last weekwith another home services owner
.
So what our business does is we, our guys, wash windows and
power wash and we clean guttersand do those types of things we
don't do it.
We don't know how to do it, butwe've got a great team that does
and we were speaking to anotherfranchise called rolling sides,
which also does power washing,and they do kind of heavy duty
(08:24):
power washing, and so we bothwere kind of talking about how,
as new franchise owners, when wewould close bigger like
commercial deals, it's like ohhey, awesome, we just landed
this big contract.
Okay, let's go to work.
Oh, wait a second.
The accounts receivable isgoing to be 30 to 60 days and
we're fronting payroll.
Maybe talk about how home careis a little different, you and
(08:48):
we're fronting payroll.
Maybe talk about how home careis a little different, you guys.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I don't think struggle with that.
I think you guys probably aregetting paid on a weekly basis,
but maybe speak to that if youwould.
Sure, billing and payroll areon two different schedules.
Payroll we do every two weeks,billing we do weekly.
So every week Mondays orTuesdays is when I run billing.
So it's kind of just a nicelittle buffer to have for the
every two weeks that comes upwith payroll, and I'm not sure
(09:10):
if we want to talk exactfinancials, but it's really from
a contribution marginperspective.
So it's really just revenueminus labor.
It's about a 50% margin.
So another thing that reallysets us apart is that we really
try to pay our people on thehigher end than some of our
competitors, because money talksand you get quality folks if
you pay them what they deserve.
(09:31):
So that's a little bit about it.
I'm happy to go into deeperdetail as well.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Well, and just for clarification, and Mike, maybe
you can chime in, but we're notmaking this podcast is not
making any type of offer oranything like that podcast is
not making any type of offer oranything like that.
Any of you who want to explorethe HomeWell franchise
opportunity will want to speakto Mike and make sure you look
at the franchise disclosuredocument, which includes the
item six, which talks about theinvestment, as well as the item
19, which will show averagereturns for franchisees.
(09:56):
Now that that's out of the way,mike.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
any other yeah, just the disclosure running across
the bottom of the box.
No, I think to her point.
It's what she said aboutfinding people that care.
I think in this industry, whenyou're looking at a business
opportunity, as you guys arewell aware, it's got to match
(10:20):
the person and there has to beintention with that.
I think a lot of people look atindustries and businesses and
say I could do that and I couldmake money at doing that.
But the third component of thatis will I be happy doing that?
Because when you're a businessowner, it doesn't stop.
When you shut off your phone atfive o'clock or when you're at
your kid's soccer game, or whenyour mom calls or dad calls and
(10:42):
you have to do some family stuff, you have to be available and
you have to be okay with that.
And I think to Alana's point,the differences between a
corporate job and running yourown business.
While there's a lot of benefitof running your own business,
you have to accept some of theother side of that challenge,
which is it is on you to help itbe successful and your team.
And I think that balance ofthat is fantastic and that's
(11:06):
what we really try to helppeople go through and when they
start learning about thisopportunity is, while there's a
lot of upside to it, anybusiness is going to have its
challenges.
Let's talk about those and howdo we address those and how you
feel about those, in order tofind out if this is the right
space for you, and I thinkthat's a very distinctive,
distinct conversation that welike to have with everybody that
(11:26):
wants to learn about theopportunity.
It was no different, and Alanahad a little bit of an inside
track with her father-in-law,but at the end of the day, too,
he's not there running thebusiness.
She has to do it, and she hastaken that on and taken the bull
by the horns and has reallydone a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So the fact that you were still able to nag carmel.
Last year we had a client withhomewell, by the way, I should
just mention this.
So we've helped three peoplebecome homewell franchise owners
for the past three months.
The most recent got del mar,california, which a lot of we
know.
I mean he not only he got likedel mar, what else he got?
La jolla, did he?
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Almost all the way up to Carlsbad.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, a great area in Southern California.
We've got enough.
Yeah, I love what you said,mike, because I was thinking
about Jill and I were talkingabout this last night when we
went to bed last night.
We have a nine-year-old, sothat's part of this too.
I I was mentally exhausted, butthe work that I, that we do
(12:27):
with franchise insiders andpinks, it's like it's so, it's
all it's fun I love and we loveworking and it's all for you.
You kind of have to shut it offright.
Okay, it's time to go.
We want family time, butthere's so much going on and
when it's your business andyou're charting your future and
you're leading your team, to meit's like so fulfilling, and
(12:48):
maybe you guys can speak to thattoo.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, this business is so incredibly fulfilling for
two specific reasons.
One, the client's perspective.
I mean, we are providing aclient with that extra level of
security, safety, reassurancethat we are keeping their family
members safe.
So that's one thing that allowsme to sleep easy at night.
But then, two, we opened up somany jobs to the indie market.
(13:13):
We have so many caregivers thatare working for us, whether
it's part-time or 40 hours plusa week, and that's helping
provide financial security forour caregivers as well.
So just knowing that we'regiving back to two separate
communities at the same timemakes me really happy.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Yeah, and you hit on it as an owner.
If you look at it from thatperspective, that's why people
want to work for you, right?
Everybody talks about in thelabor market how hard it is, and
I know you guys experience itat Pink's.
You got to find the labor tohelp you execute the business
model.
But if you care about thepeople that are helping you,
that's what's going to make yousuccessful, and that's no
(13:52):
different in home care.
I think that's the secret sauce,as everybody always says is
like what's the?
You know getting employees andhow do I, how do I keep them?
I just care about them, careabout their future, care about
their future, care about theirfamilies, get to know them.
And when you do that, theemployees show up and they work
really hard because they careabout what they do.
(14:13):
And that's a great example ofthat in practice.
Jack and Jill, I'm sure youguys see that with your business
right, I mean you guys havesome great employees.
I see you guys posting aboutthem all the time.
I mean you guys, you couldn'tdo it without them, and I think
that that mentality goes a longway in franchising.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yeah, I mean.
I think it's the hardest thingto do.
It's the key to success as abusiness owner is the employee
side of it.
We have a great GM.
I always like to say I'm notperfect.
We have a great GM.
I always like to say I'm notperfect.
Maybe, Jill's perfect.
He's not perfect, but we knowwhere each other's strengths are
(14:50):
and it's my job and it's Jill'sjob to help him right If
they're.
As a leader, every day we'regoing to find challenges and, as
the leaders of the franchise,we have to lead and we have to
help solve the puzzle.
Like it feels like every daythere's a new challenge kind of
thrown at us with with pinks,and we try to to lead the team
and help the team and reallyguide them.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and I think we've talked about this too that
sometimes you also have to bewilling to change a little bit.
You know, because now we'reworking.
You know we work with our GMJackson.
He's amazing, but differentwork styles, so kind of learning
each other's styles and how towork together and then also
listening to him, because he'saround the guys all day and so
making sure that thecommunication is being passed
(15:32):
through him to us and that's.
You know, it seems simple butit's not, because you know he's
in front of them all day.
He's working day in and day outwith them and we don't have as
much contact with them.
So it's really important forhim to make sure he communicates
with us.
You know what they're seeingand feeling and that we
understand so we can help himand help them.
So you know, it's just it's awhole different like nature, and
(15:54):
it's something that I thinkwe're all learning to get better
.
But again, it's reallyimportant to have that in 100%.
We've learned.
You know we need to keep theemployees happy and have that in
a hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We've learned.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You know we need to keep the employees happy, and if
they're, happy and they feelwell taken care of, they'll go
the extra step in the extra mile.
Yeah, yeah, it's building thatstrong culture and I think, jill
, you mentioned something that'sreally important is being
willing to adapt and change withnew perspective.
We just recently hired on acare coordinator and she has
absolutely fantastic, but shecame in with 15 different ideas
to change and grow the businessand I will say that has allowed
(16:32):
us to scale and grow.
If I didn't implement and Ididn't listen to her, we'd not
only been beneficial to theclients but also the caregivers.
So it's building the culture,but also being willing to change
and adapt.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I mean, it sounds like you've.
Delegation is such a great,it's such a key part of building
a business and it sounds likeyou've just you've nailed that
already.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I will say it was hard at first.
I have a very type Apersonality I like to control
everything, but I've learnedthat I need to kind of take a
step back, put the right peoplethat have the right experience
in the right places.
I mean, I didn't come into thisfield with a background in
healthcare by any means, andthat's why I hired the right
people that have been in thehealthcare industry and
(17:24):
specifically the home careindustry, that are kind of the
subject matter experts and Ishould just trust them.
Mike, I'm sure you rememberwhen I first started with
HomeWell I was like I've got toget everything done.
It needs to be perfect, itneeds to be on time, it needs to
be early.
But I've learned to take a stepback and breathe and just trust
that others will probably dobetter than me.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Yeah, she was great when she came in.
Exactly what you look for in acandidate that's exploring a
franchise opportunity.
Like always, on time, hadeverything done right away, like
step you know, drop by drop.
Everything was done perfectlyand while from my position
that's great, but, to her credit, you can't run a business like
that, especially a home carebusiness.
(18:04):
You just can't.
It takes people and you have todelegate, so that is hard for a
lot of people and some peopleget it faster than others and,
to Alana's credit, she figuredthat out relatively quickly in
the process and it has allowedher to be successful as fast as
she's grown.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know it's interesting when I was at Home
Care Assistance, when we firststarted awarding franchises, we
targeted nurses.
We felt like their experiencewould help to grow franchises,
and what we found out is we wereexactly wrong.
They were too clinical, theywere prescribing an hour here,
an hour there, and we found ourmost successful franchisees came
with executive salesbackgrounds and they were like
(18:42):
if your mom's got dementia, ifyour dad's got mobility
challenges, you need as muchhome care as possible, and it's
not doing them wrong by sayingyou need 24 hour care.
Your mom has dementia, sheneeds someone with her at all
times, and so our mostsuccessful franchisees they came
from backgrounds that hadnothing to do with home care.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Yeah, I would agree.
Go ahead, Alana with home care.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, I would agree.
Go ahead, alana.
No, I was just going to say Iagree with that and really.
But the basics of this industryis customer service.
I mean, if you again treatingyour people right but treating
your clients right, being thereto answer the phone, being there
to show up and check in on boththe clients and the caregivers,
that's what really createssuccess and trust.
(19:27):
Because I mean, for anyonelistening, having someone
external come into your homethat you've maybe never met, or
something new.
I mean that's change and that'stough change.
But if you build that trust andyou build that credibility,
both from the caregiver side butalso the team, like our care
coordinator and myself, itallows everybody to be on the
(19:49):
same page.
It provides that level ofcustomer service and that's
where things can really grow andbe successful.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, I remember when my mom first had the caregiver
come in and her Alzheimer'swasn't fully advanced at that
point, so she was very awarethat someone was there and I
loved how the caregiver came inand really just felt like a
companion you know, she, she andthat was the doing of the
franchise, right, they, theyworked with them to talk to her.
(20:18):
You know this, this lady's alittle resistant.
She's, you know.
She's well enough that sheunderstands why you're here and
feels like she doesn't need you.
So she came in and they playedgames.
You know she just said I justwant to hang.
She almost made it feel like tomy mom that no one was paying
her.
She just really loved my momand wanted to provide that
companionship and my mom warmedup to it.
(20:40):
She didn't feel like I havesomeone here and that's so
important.
You know that's up to it.
You know she didn't feel like Ihave someone here and that's so
important.
You know that's it's.
It's the training of thatcaregiver to do that and to
recognize the situation and actvery differently than a nurse or
an actual caregiver.
And I really, really admiredthat.
My mom did too.
So you know, looking at that,that's really important.
You know, from your guys' endtoo, is to make sure that you
(21:02):
know you are doing the propertraining and working with the
caregivers to give your clientsthe you know, best experience
possible.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
You know what else, like, I remember, like the
caregivers, they were such cool.
They're cool people Like they.
So our pilot location was inPalo Alto and we had, for
whatever reason, most of ourcaregivers wereipino I'm not
saying all of them, but a largepopulation of them were and
every week they were bringing inlike these filipino, like
(21:31):
treats, do you remember?
And, um, we would have freelunch for them every friday.
It just what it lumped was, andthis is something that, as I
speak to, as jill and I speak topotential franchise owners, so
many people say to us like wehave people who come out of
private equity and they're likedude, I'm just tired of this,
I'm tired of the grind.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I want to get out there.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I want to do something like pink, so I want
to go out there with my team.
I want to do something likeHallwell, where I'm doing
something, I'm giving back tothe community, I'm a part of
something and, with a team ofcaregivers, that sort of just
genuine do well by doing goodmentality, I think it does
really good things for your for.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Yeah, you know what's it's interesting with the
caregivers.
One of the biggest questionsthat we get and, jack, I'm sure
you got the same thing was why?
Why are people?
You know, people that areunfamiliar with this business
model are why are caregivers inthis space?
Why don't they go worksomewhere else?
They could probably make moremoney, right, it always comes
(22:31):
down to money and a lot of yousaid it, you know.
Yeah, there's a lot of differentoptions comes down to money and
a lot of you said it, you know.
Yeah, there's a lot ofdifferent options.
It's because they have apassion to help people, right?
It's the why and I think, asboth an owner and a caregiver or
whoever you have working onyour staff, they're not there
just because it's a paycheck.
They're there because of thepeople, and I think that is a
(22:52):
very unique nuance to thisindustry is the employee side of
it.
They're there because they wantto be there, not because they
have to be there.
Alana, speak to that a littlebit, and you're learning about
that as you've gone throughhiring many caregivers now,
because that's a big part of thebusiness model.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Absolutely.
Again back to the point ofwe're looking for people with
that caregiver heart.
So we start our process bydoing an in-person interview.
A lot of the questions arereally just about their drive,
their why behind joining thisindustry.
Tell us about your personality,what makes you a good caregiver
, and you can hear a lot aboutsomeone just basically saying
(23:37):
hear a lot about someone justbasically saying you know, my
mom had Alzheimer's dementia andI took her.
I took care of her for fouryears and I was with her day in
and day out and that experiencegave me the drive to want to go
help others.
Or maybe it's somebody that usedto be a nurse and is now a
retired nurse and just stillloves caring for people.
Or maybe it's somebody that isa nursing student, who is going
(23:59):
through school but really seesthe value in giving back to the
community.
You can really see people comefrom all different avenues, all
different walks of life, but thebasic of all of it is that they
have that caregiver heart andthey're willing to give back to
people.
And really those first twoquestions that we ask people to
really get to see if they havethat caregiver heart.
It sets them up whether or not.
(24:21):
They're going to succeed or notsucceed with us.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I mean again, you nailed this.
I mean our trainer again, tokeep going back to my home care
days, the person who we hadcharged training our franchisees
.
She would always say you haveto lead with your heart If
you're going to succeed in thisbusiness.
It has to be genuine.
If you're going to join thatlocal Rotary Club, if you go in
looking for business, you'renever going to get it.
(24:46):
You have to go in looking tohelp others first.
You have to have, you've got tolead with your heart especially
.
I mean, I think in any businessyou can't just be the world.
It feels to me like the worldhas changed so much in the last
four years, five years.
The slick salespeople that areout there those days are done.
(25:08):
Nobody wants to be soldanything anymore.
People want transparency, theywant honesty, they want, they
don't want, perfection.
They want to know that you'relike them and they're like you,
and that's why formats like thispodcasts this is what people
want to learn about what.
What is it really like?
Is it?
Is it, you know?
And so, alana, let's maybe gothere for a second.
(25:30):
Here you are, you're not a yearin yet.
What has been your hardestpoint in growing the business
maybe talk.
Talk about that just so peoplewho are thinking about branches
ownership it ain't allbutterflies and rainbows.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Right, it's why we actually started this podcast.
We were like we're bringing youthe good, bad and the ugly, we
will tell you when we havebackbeat.
Or, like Jack said, we'regetting our butt kicked right
now and that's just real lifeand we're going through it.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
So, yeah, if you could share some of those maybe
pain points or something,because, again, we're real, yes,
absolutely Well, I will say inthe beginning and I mean it's
really every day scheduling istough right, especially with
people work in multiple clients,kind of all around different
towns and people being reliable,showing up on time.
(26:16):
Those are definitely somechallenges.
That is also part of ourinterview process now, just
asking when is it okay to belate for work, stressing the
importance that they must be ontime because there's a family
member behind that door waitingfor you.
But in the beginning there weredefinitely some late nights
where I went and had to step in,cover some shifts.
Same with our director ofbusiness development and our now
(26:37):
care coordinator.
We say that everybody on ourteam is a caregiver because of
those scheduling hiccups thatdefinitely occur.
I mean, everybody's human Carsdo truly break down Weather
impacts, sicknesses happen, andyou just have to be able to
adapt and change and really maketough decisions in real time.
(26:59):
I think that, honestly, was ourtoughest lesson learned is that
, of course, we can build out anabsolute perfect schedule, but
there are going to be hiccups,there are going to be times
where you're going to have tostep in and you may have to work
a four, eight, 12 hour shift.
And you just got to do itbecause you're going to have to
step in and you may have to worka four, eight, 12 hour shift,
and you just got to do itbecause you've got to provide
(27:19):
that consistency to the client.
I would say that's probably,that was probably the toughest
and probably will forever be thetoughest part about this
industry.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
We had our GM.
We've had it where our GM hadto step in and work a job till
10 o'clock at night because guysjust full transparency we had a
couple guys walk off our jobsite.
We learned early on.
So we had two big jobs in aweek.
We had a big, huge job that wedid.
It was a great job for us.
And then we immediately went toanother big job and we burned
(27:49):
our guys out.
We worked them too hard.
Two of them just got pissed andthey said in it you know, it's
south florida, it's hot, andthey're like we can't do this.
And our GM and our lead tech,they stayed and they had to work
probably five X stars.
We made sure we paid them themover time to cover it.
But yeah, that's exactly right.
And then to your point.
We had our client, matt Zastrow,who owns a another home care
(28:10):
company, on our podcast midwaythrough last year.
He's now built a great, youknow big home care agency in
Coeur d'Alene, idaho, all places.
He's, you know, doing multimillions of dollars.
But he said the same thing asyou in the first year he and his
partner had to go get someshifts.
And now he says his work lifebalance is the best it's ever
been.
He has more free time.
So for those of you out therelistening to Alana, she's what
(28:32):
she's saying is right.
But the nice thing is, whenyou're building a business, it's
like building a house, andevery brick that you lay is
building the foundation towardsa business that's going to give
you more freedom.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing that we
try to stress and, again, Alanahad a little bit of an inside
track with her father-in-law.
But for everybody coming in,the first couple of years are
really, really hard.
They can be hard and that'sokay.
It's supposed to be hard orelse everybody would do it.
Be prepared for that mentally.
But once you get there and onceyou and a lot of starting to
(29:06):
see that, I'm sure you arestarting to feel it a little bit
and you're never going to takethe foot off the gas, because I
know your personality and I knowthe things you want to
accomplish, which is one of thereasons why we're so happy to
have you.
But just continue to work thatprocess and you'll look back in
two, three, four years whateverthat time frame is for you and
say, wow, I've done somethingreally cool and, to your point,
(29:27):
I'm able now to really achievewhat I wanted to.
And the question I always askcandidates as they go through
our education process is whatare your goals?
What do you want it to looklike eventually?
With the understanding thatit's not going to look like that
day one or or day 100.
Right, but, but let's look atwhat that could look like and
how do we help get you there anddoes that align with what your
(29:51):
goals are?
And so I think that's a veryimportant piece of understanding
a business, no matter whatbusiness it is.
In franchising, we use a lot ofterm semi-absentee.
I personally hate it.
I think it's very misleadingbecause, to your point, yeah,
you guys might not have to be onyour job site every single day,
12 hours a day, but I guaranteeyou're not semi-absentee in
(30:12):
your business.
You're working your businessevery single day but it's on
your time.
And I think enfranchising themisconception of semi-absentee
of I'm going to do it 10 hours aweek is not realistic or 20
hours a week.
So to me it's such a misleadingconcept in franchising, no
(30:33):
matter what business you're in.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Agreed.
I actually wrote a blog postyesterday called Absentee
Franchising Factor Fantasy.
I stole from.
We are on the board of the PalmBeach Atlantic, which has a
whole franchising university andit was a topic that they had a
couple months ago.
So I put it on a blog post andI said in my mind and we've
helped enough clients becomebusiness owners who were
promised absentee franchises andit's not what they got.
(30:57):
It's an absolute fantasy and Ithink that the the real term is
semi-involved.
But, like you said, you can't.
You can't put guardrails up andsay it's two hours a week or
it's this or that.
I can tell you, yeah, weprobably each average about an
hour per day in our business,but do you know why?
That's Because we pay a GM$75,000 a year, right Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
And we say average, average one, which means that
there is a day with multipledisasters, that's a flooring day
, and then there's maybe one ortwo days that are quieter.
So it is, but it doesn't meanthat it's, you know, from three
to four, every single day iswhen we're focusing on paints.
That it's, you know, from threeto four, every single day, is
when we're focusing on paints.
It's whenever we can, when wecan fit it in, and then we have
to be reactive to quite a bit ofthings.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So and guess what we talk about at the dinner table
and at the breakfast tableworking hour, then it's more.
But the other thing is thisguess who also hears us talking
about this at the dinner tableand the breakfast table?
So our son trained and we'redriving to school, so so one of
my favorite things, what I loveabout being an entrepreneur, is
that you know, I can be therefor, and Jill can be there for,
(32:03):
car line, car pickup, cardrop-off, and as we're driving
to school, we're talking aboutthings like setting goals.
We're talking about how do weget to where we want to go.
Why do we go to school?
This is the conversation Treyand I had yesterday.
Trey, why do we go to school?
Why do we work hard?
What's our goal?
Trying to paint that picturelike a good franchisor would and
this is another thing too, andI'll let you guys speak to this.
(32:24):
I think one of the best partsabout becoming a franchisee is
it makes you a better businessperson, because you get to learn
from great business people.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Absolutely.
And as a business owner, youhave a little bit of ownership
in every type, every part of thebusiness.
Right and back to those goals.
If your goal truly is to notwork that many hours a week and
kind of take that step away, youhave the beauty of structuring
your business how you want,right?
I mean, one pain point that wehad was the weekend scheduling.
(32:57):
So the way that we fix that iswe put someone on call for
weekends.
That gives us, as salariedfolks, just a little bit of a
breather on the weekends.
We were able to design thatjust because we can do what we
want to do and we can fill thosegaps as we see need.
So there's flexibility in beinga franchise owner, which is
fantastic, but it allows you toreally develop that roadmap of
(33:21):
okay, my end goal is X.
How do we get there in areasonable manner?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
I'll pick up a quick question, mike, and this is for
you, because we're adding on forPinks an AI sort of system
where when you call us or youfill out a form, it's going to
be an AI agent that calls youand basically what she says is
she'll say hi, it's, you know,it's Jill from PINX, and we got
your inquiry and we'd like to goahead and get you scheduled for
an estimate.
What were you looking for?
(33:47):
And you can say something like,well, I want to get my windows
washed.
And it'll say, okay, great, howmany windows do you want to get
washed and where are theylocated?
And they'll say that.
And they'll say, okay, great,what else?
Well, I want to get powerwashing, and we're training it
right now so it can go deep onall this stuff.
But if it can't, if it gets toa point where someone's just
swearing at it or something, itwill then kick it over to
(34:08):
someone who can handle it.
But I wonder for you guys, mike, is that something you guys
have talked about incorporatingfor situations like what Alana
just mentioned?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, I think and Alana is probably more of an
expert on it than I am but Ithink a lot of the technology
and tools we look at it's alittle bit twofold, because
while technology and AI is great, you can also lose that
personal touch, right.
So it's a balancing act, as youguys know, I think in our
industry, trying to help maybefrom a scheduling standpoint, I
know WellSky, our platform, isreally incorporating a lot of AI
(34:41):
into what they're doing inallowing our owners, because
it's about time and it's aboutefficiency.
So how do we incorporate thosetools for our owners to do that
without losing that human touch?
So, alana, I'd love to hearyour perspective, because this
is stuff that we're working ondaily and you're living it.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour side of that.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, there's actually a whole part of our
business that's totally AI.
So that process is caregiversapplying for the role that's
through Indeed and then, oncethey apply, if they answer the
right answers to the questions,ai actually prompts them to fill
out an additional applicationand then actually schedules them
for us, because, if you canimagine, I mean we have probably
(35:24):
anywhere between 10 and 60interviews a week.
We are constantly hiring, but Iam able to step away from the
actual scheduling of the hiringprocess and people just show up
at my door whenever I block offthose times that I'm available
for interviews.
So that has reduced a lot oftime, stress and labor where we
can just have AI do it.
(35:45):
I think back to Mike's point,though really, everything that's
client facing, it's hard to putAI in those shoes just because
you don't want to remove thatpersonal touch.
There's so much emotion.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, there's so much emotion.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Everything's really situational.
You've really got to show thatcompassion, and maybe one day AI
will be able to show that, butright now we really like the
face-to-face personality of it.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
You're right.
I mean, our business is so muchmore transactional right.
I want to get my windows washedversus my mom fell down and I'm
really freaked out.
Um, yeah, you guys have toreally help.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Be a person that can solve a problem yeah, but on the
caregiver side that makes sense, you know, for scheduling
interviews and bypassing thatbeginning part.
You know, I think that's agreat use for it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Our concern has been that we get form fill outs late
at night on a Saturday and welove our G.
We don't want to do that to ourDM.
So if we can immediately callwithin seconds, text and email
within seconds, hey, let's getyou scheduled.
Then that's going to helpimprove our close rate, which
has been going up Like we saw.
Our close rate right now sitsat about 55%, which is for our
(36:52):
business.
It's pretty good.
Okay, but we'd love to increaseit anyways.
Those are, those are.
That's again, the fun of beinga business owner, especially in
this time, is that there are somany new ways to add efficiency
to a business and reduce costs.
So it's, it's, it's a.
I think we're going to see somuch advancement over the next
few years.
(37:12):
I don't know if you guys heardwhat larry ell was saying about.
You know, trump just approved,like I don't know, 800 billion
towards AI efforts.
Yes, ellison was like we'regoing to use AI to help cancer
treatments and essentially again, I'm not an expert on this, but
we're going to take the genomefor your specific cancer and
create a vaccine to attack it.
I mean, it's insane where weare right now.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Yeah, yeah, I will say something also.
We use well, I use personallyevery single day is chat GPT, I
mean.
I ask questions.
I get chat GPT's opinion.
I say hey, can you summarizethis really really long email?
Can you respond to that emailfor me?
That gives me some free time,so I'm not actually there doing
(37:56):
all that manual labor.
Chatgpt is truly one of my bestfriends.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Have you tried perplexity AI yet?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Nope, but I'm writing it down because I love AI.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I am the same thing I actually asked Jack if he still
uses his brain anymore theother day, because every time,
whether we're talking about workor something, he says well,
chat, gbt set.
I'm like, oh my god, do youjust?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
and then then I started well, but it's, it's the
user right again.
It's like I was trying todescribe this to a friend the
other day about how you use it.
He's a songwriter and he says Ican't just have it write songs.
I'm like, no, you don't have itwrite songs.
You say this is what I'm tryingto do, can you help me?
And so, like today I was usingit.
I said and this is when I wasin college we read a book called
(38:41):
ogilvy on advertising, whichwas created in the 60s.
But david ogilvy had a verydistinct style of writing.
And so today, for the heck ofit, in perplexity, I said help
me write an ad for franchiseinsiders in the vein of david og
.
And it came up with it.
It pulled like all his old adsup and it came up with a
headline that was like.
I was like wow, so it is crazyhow this can help us.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Well, I think, yeah, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
Jill Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Oh no, I was going to say even Jax mentioned to me
too.
You know, we're still involvedin it, we, you know we're still
involved in it.
We still have to keep askingquestions and teaching.
So, yes, it's not rotting ourbrains yet and it's very helpful
to make it smarter.
But yeah, no, but it does.
Well, it's like you know, I Iuse it for something silly, like
asking about trace top schoolsin florida.
Right, his school didn't comeup.
(39:29):
So I told jack.
I was like look, his schooldidn't come up.
He said ask it why, why didthis school not show up?
And then it came back with oh,actually I'm sorry, it should
have been included and here'swhy it's a top school.
But again, it's like I had toask that question as soon as I
asked that question.
Hopefully the next time someoneasks the top school's questions
it's going to consider thatbecause it realized it missed
that.
So there's still a lot of brainwork and a lot of human
(39:53):
interactions.
It needs us to help it advance.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
It needs us to perplexity is better, for, if
you want specific information,perplexity uses a different
engine than chat gpt it uses Iforget the name of it, but yeah
so, but chat gpt is the bestoverall, so it will lie to you I
don't know if it lies.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I mean, we have to teach it the answer.
So maybe how great the schoolis, it's not everything on the
internet is true, guys.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
That's, I mean, that's the reality, right?
That's what my kids tell methat everything on tiktok is
real.
And I'm like oh yeah, right, Idon't know I think with with ai
and when you're talking aboutbusiness ownership, there's a
lot of advantages and I thinkwe're all using it in different
ways to help advance.
And Alana is younger and I'mokay to say it, I know she's
(40:47):
younger than me.
She's younger than probably allof us on this call.
I think the adaptability of usas people to be able to use it
to our advantage is where we canget ahead as business owners.
Looking at it and how can I useit to help me not necessarily is
it going to solve my problemsit's not going to solve my
problems but to Alana's point ofI use it to help me be more
(41:08):
efficient when replying toemails or summarizing data so I
can make a better decision in mybusiness is a great application
of how to use AI, and I think,as franchisors, it's our
responsibility to help educateour owners on the tools that are
out there in order to help themuse it.
That's going to help themadvance their business and I
think finding ways to apply thatway will be the key to how
(41:30):
franchising moves forward withAI to that point.
So we're looking at it in thatcontext of it's not going to
replace our owners.
It's not going to replace thecaregivers or how they do their
work, but can it make them moreefficient so they don't need to
hire maybe as many people inorder to get the same amount of
production, which is going tolower their costs, which is
(41:51):
going to put more money in theirpocket, which is the point of
owning a business.
So, again, trying to look at itin a holistic type way, I think
is is a great way to do it, andwe're just at the cusp of what
this technology is going to beable to provide in the future.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, I mean, that's why people are.
I mean it's AI.
There are certain jobs that,let's face it, ai is more
efficient at, and that's whywe're seeing a big shift in
white collar jobs being lost toAI, and that's where franchising
can be such a solution, becauseyou can't have AI provide
(42:26):
caregiving services, you can'thave AI washing windows, and
that's where we're seeing thesesimple businesses that people
need every single day boomingbecause they're heavy need
businesses.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, especially in these, like you said, heavy need
industries, the people aregoing to be the ones that always
execute, but it's how youleverage those tools to just
streamline it.
Even if you say ChatGPT, I havea goal of X, y, z by this date,
give me 10 different options onhow to get there.
They provide differentperspectives that maybe you
(43:01):
didn't think of before, and it'spulling from all these
different databases of otherpeople that have maybe have been
successful and it cancompletely change your mindset
on how you run the business.
But at the end of the day, you,as the people, are still the
ones executing.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, I mean, we threw it into for pinks.
We know what our average job is, we know what our conversion
rates are and throw it in there.
Hey, help me figure out, basedupon my current burn rate, what
my growth rate looks like on atrue and it will.
So, yeah, I mean, again, Ithink there's lots to be excited
about, okay?
So, alana, here's the questionfor you, here's the million
(43:34):
dollar question.
Would you do it again?
Speaker 3 (43:41):
A million percent yes .
Back to the piece of howrewarding this industry is and
just owning a business ingeneral.
Again, I can go to sleepcontent with the work I'm doing.
I'm not behind a computercrunching numbers all day.
I am actually giving back tothe community.
So, yes, and I am still herefor the ride of the challenges,
the roller coaster of owning abusiness, but I don't ever
foresee myself in the nearfuture saying this isn't for me.
(44:05):
I would a million times do thisover again.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Yes, Love it.
Would you do it again?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
yes, it would do it again.
Um, I, I would, for thelearning experience.
I mean, it's been fun, I'll youknow, I'll say that too, but it
really has kind of opened oureyes and, like jack said at the
beginning, I think it makes usall better, you know,
entrepreneurs and businessowners because we're we're in it
, we're in it and we're doing it, and we're learning and we're
improving it well, you know,again, I've been accused of
(44:36):
having the worst sales pitch ofany franchise consultant out
there, because when I talk topeople on a first call, I say
this is going to be hard.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
It's going to be hard before it gets easy.
You're going to spend a lot ofmoney growing your business.
It's not going to getprofitable as fast as you want
it to.
You're going to have something.
Someone's going to quit at thewrong time.
These things are going tohappen.
So buckle up and get ready andwhatever you think you're going
to spend, no, you're probablygoing to spend a little bit more
.
And the reason I say thosethings to people is that I'd
much rather prepare someone.
(45:03):
You can't sell a franchise.
You can only point someone inthe right direction and connect
them to the right franchise, andthe better prepared they are,
the more successful.
And this is what Jill and Ireally have decided we want to
do in our business.
We want to help people becomestar franchise owners, top
franchise owners like you, alana.
You know it's.
What are the things that topfranchise owners do?
(45:24):
What are the lessons?
And the lesson is this you staywith it.
You have your goal in mind.
You work towards it.
You don't blame other people,you keep grinding and building
until you build that asset towhere you want it to go.
And I think if you can havethat mindset and you have the
right amount of capital to dothe business, you're in a good
(45:44):
position to succeed.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
That's it, and we talk about that through our
education process, whether youhave an inside track, like Alana
did with that or not.
I mean that's the goals.
How do you get there?
How are we going to help you?
But what are you going to bringto the table?
I always tell people,especially in this industry, we
can teach you everything thereis to know about home care.
I can't teach you to get up,put your pants on and go to work
.
I can't do that, and I thinkthat is a very real statement
(46:07):
that if you're not willing tobring that to the table, why are
we talking?
On our team, on our developmentteam?
Every one of us has owned afranchise or currently own a
franchise.
I own multiple and it's hardwork every day, but it's
rewarding work and we get to dothis every day.
And that education process toyour guys' point allows you to
(46:29):
see different perspectives.
And the first time I had aconversation with Alana I was
like she's going to be a rockstar.
We just got to get her pointedin the right direction and give
her the tools to be successful.
And that's what goodfranchisors should do Give them
the tools and then help themfind a way to be successful and,
to her credit, she's doingeverything we've ever asked, and
(46:50):
more.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Another beauty of being a part of a franchise is
the people connections you canmake as well.
If there's ever something thatyou know, how could I do this
better?
Or I'm really struggling with X, Y, Z.
From my experience, at least,Homewell does.
They connect you with someonethat's succeeding really great
in that area, so you're able tolearn from other people that
(47:11):
have done it for years, if notlonger.
So that's another thing Ireally like about being a part
of a franchise is that you havenot only the tools, the
education, but you also have thepeople to learn from as well.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, a lot of people who come to us say I want to be
a multi-unit franchise owner, Iwant to own five units.
And our guidance is look, we'veseen people start with five,
with 20, with 10.
Is that?
We've seen people start withfive, with 20, with 10.
And I think that here's thereality of it is that in
franchising, not everyone'sgoing to succeed and generally,
(47:45):
what happens is that you don'tclose up shop If it's not for
you.
You go to Mike and you say Mike, help me sell my business.
And Mike, this is something Iwant to transition to and I know
we only have a few minutes left.
But the way to grow is by yougrow your franchise and become
successful at it.
Inevitably, someone else inyour system wants to sell their
franchise and you can help themby helping them get out of the
(48:07):
business and you can acquiretheir location.
Mike, in franchising, a bigchange has happened.
I think a lot has had to dowith Cody Sanchez.
People love what she says aboutfinding existing businesses for
mom and pops who are just goingto hand it to you for pennies
on the dollar and sellerfinancing with pipe dream.
Be that as it may, we see a lotof people who come to us for
(48:27):
existing businesses.
My question to you is doesHomewell currently have, in
addition to new franchise,territories for sale?
Do you guys have existingterritories for sale as well?
Speaker 4 (48:37):
We do.
Yeah, we have a few For us.
We're, let's say, we've beendoing this for over 20 years,
but we have a young system.
We have a lot.
We've had explosive growth overthe last two and a half years,
so we're fortunate to have a lotof newer franchisees that are
really just now hitting theground running.
But to it, there's alwaysexceptions to that and
absolutely we do.
(48:58):
We have probably a handful ofowners right now that are either
looking at selling orcontemplating selling within the
next 12 months, and one of thefirst questions we like to talk
to them about is what are yourgoals with selling?
And then we look and say isthere somebody around you that
would make sense to sell to?
Because I think to your point,we're looking at a franchise.
Ownership.
Acquisition in the space is agreat way to grow because, one,
(49:21):
you're getting that revenue but,two, you're already in the
market, you already know thebusiness and it's a great way to
continue that growth.
But yeah, we have a handful ofthem around the country that are
probably either up for sale orgoing up for sale shortly, but
not as many as you would think,just because of where we're at
in our growth stage.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Sure, Well, franchise owners are always going to have
the inside track, like Mikesaid.
But for those of you that arethinking about you want to buy
an existing business, if you'dlike our help exploring if
Homewell happens to have aterritory for you.
You know the drill.
The easiest thing to do is textJill and me at 305-7100-50 for
more information on gettingconnected with Homewell or new
(50:00):
or even existing franchiseopportunities for sale.
Guys, this has been fabulous.
I think we've gone in a milliondifferent places.
Any last thoughts that you guyswant to just share with the
folks out there who are thinkingabout franchise ownership?
Speaker 3 (50:13):
I say, if you have the drive, you have the capital,
give it a try.
I mean, you can always fallback on your previous career,
and that's something that Ialways have as a level of
comfort is, I could alwaysrejoin corporate America if I
really wanted to but give it atry.
You'll learn so much, You'llgrow as an individual so quickly
Um, and you'll set yourself upfor for financial success as
(50:35):
well.
Speaker 4 (50:36):
Yeah, that's a great point.
I always say there's what?
Over 4,000 different types offranchises out there.
Please work with a professionalwhen trying to find the right
one.
It is really hard and that'sjust not a plug for you guys.
I firmly believe that Going onGoogle and searching for top
franchises it doesn't work.
Please work with a professionallike Jack and Jill.
(50:59):
They're going to steer you inthe right direction.
They're going to make sure thatyou're set for success.
I'm a firm believer in that.
I tell everybody please workwith somebody that you know like
and trust that they're going tosteer you in the right
direction.
So that would be my advice toanybody.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, great advice.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Wonderful advice?
Yeah, I think.
Yeah, great advice.
Wonderful advice?
Yes, I think.
Even if it's if whether it'sjill and I or it's anyone else
work with a franchise consultantthat has experience running a
franchise, work with thefranchise.
Ask the questions do you havefranchise attorneys?
Do you have a cpa, um, do youhave financing resources?
You can connect me to?
How long have you been workingwith them?
(51:35):
Because that's part of what agood franchise consultant will
do whether it's us or any of theother great ones out there is
make your journey so much easier.
It's like when you work with agood real estate agent they're
going to connect you to the topbroker in terms of getting your
mortgage.
You want the same thing.
So, you guys, this has beenfabulous.
We appreciate you so much.
Thank you for your time and forbeing on our show today.
Speaker 4 (51:56):
Yeah.
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