The Reality of Buying a Franchise: Brandon Beachy on FDDs and Territories

Hello, and welcome again to another episode of Still Searching with Jed Morris. Today, I've got Brandon Beachy. He's a former professional baseball player who has transitioned into franchising, and he's kind of a franchising expert. And I'm excited to have him here because he's going to help explain the difference between franchising and just regular acquisition through entrepreneurship or owning a business in general, as well as some of the opportunities and some of the risks involved for new franchise owners. So if you've ever considered being a franchise owner, this is the episode for you. So, Brandon, thanks for coming. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me, Jed. I've been looking forward to this for a while. Yeah, I'm super excited about it because, like I told you before, I know very little about franchising. Yeah, I know the basics, the differentiating pieces between franchising and typical small business ownership that's not franchised. But I'm really excited here because I don't know a whole lot about how normal people really get into franchising. Who's the right person for this type of business model? And I mean, the question I get the most is, is it safer to go

franchise as opposed to buying a non-franchised business? And I always tell people, you know, there's pros and cons to both, but honestly, I don't really know. So I'm excited to have the expert in town. Yeah, yeah. Again, thanks for having me. Yeah, those are all good questions. And, you know, just taking it back, I didn't know the answer to any of them, you know, five, six years ago. You know, when I, when I was getting done playing baseball, all I knew about franchising was, you know, Papa John's, Taco Bell, McDonald's. I knew fast food. That's all I associated with it. And I thought you had to, you know, have millions of dollars to invest in them, to have several, because the margins are super thin. And it's more of a, you know, you've already got to be rich to get rich in franchising kind of play. Yeah, we hear about Shaq and he's like, okay, well, he made all that money. And now he's just bought a bunch of franchises to this, you know, distribute his portfolio well, so to speak. Yeah, yeah. And to answer part, one of the questions you rattled off there was, who is this for? That's a viable answer. If you're

someone with the ultra high network, adding these, these portfolio businesses in a franchise setting is a little safer than, than just investing in a bunch of startups and smaller businesses. So that's, that's absolutely a viable route. And one of the reasons, you know, that it exists, but that's, that's a small percentage, I think of franchisees and that make up, you know, the whole the industry. All right, well, we're going to dive into it. But before we do, a lot of people aren't familiar with you. So why don't you give us a little bit of your background and kind of what you've been through and a little bit of, you know, how you got into franchising. Yeah, yeah. So I grew up in Indiana, you know, we played sports, you know, it was pretty good, not awesome. And, but I got a, I got an opportunity to go to play college baseball and get my school paid for at a little Christian school near me called Indian Wesley University. It was great. You know, I interned with the prosecutor's office, was studying criminal justice and pre law, always

kind of, you know, going back to watching Matlock with my mom and law and order, I wanted to be a lawyer. And then after my junior year, I went and played in a college summer league and I had a, had a scout randomly show up and see me throw an inning and told me he wanted to sign me, you know, came back the next night through one more and shook his hand and I off I went to join the Atlanta Braves minor leagues and a couple years later, I got called up to the big leagues and, but you make it, you make it sound like you weren't actually trying to get into the big leagues. Like this just kind of happened by accident. You know, it was by accident. It was, it was always a dream, but it was never, I was not nearly good enough to have it be like a plane or anything. And then not until it, not until it happened, honestly, not until I was there. And then once I was there, it was about staying. And then, and then I was having success and got good. And, and then I blew out my elbow and then came back a little over a year later, blew it out again.

And then, you know, I had been good enough at this point that I got a couple one year deals with the Dodgers, but, you know, I hurt my elbow again. And then I should have, I knew my body was done. I knew it was over. And I spent three more years having another surgery, doing rehab, couple minor league, independent ball things purely because I was scared of what was next. You know, we just, just had our, we had our second, our second child. And I'm, you know, riding the bus around the country with a bunch of 22 year olds and minor leagues sitting here in my 30s. And I'm like, I can't do this anymore. What am I doing? So then, you know, I went through MOB's transition program. You know, somebody helped me, you know, take the 45 seconds to write out a resume because there was nothing to put on it. And I just, I sat down and this is something I help people do now is, you know, I sat down with my wife. What do we want our life to look at?

Who has that life? And I started reaching out to him, getting coffee, lunch, whatever. And, and pretty quickly I figured out that I wanted to control my time. That's something that I desired that these people had and they were all entrepreneurial as well. And that's how they afforded to have, have that time and, and not miss their, their kids events and those kinds of things. That's something, you know, had I stayed in baseball, I would have still been traveling and been away from my family. That's not what I wanted to do. But I, I didn't have any ideas or experience, obviously. So, you know, hanging out with a friend of mine around this time talking about things. He said, Hey, you should, you should talk to this guy. I spoke to a couple of years ago. I looked at some franchises. It sounds like it might be something you want to look into. And again, at this time, like, you know, he told me that and I was like, well, I can't afford to buy McDonald's. You know, everybody wants to open a Chick-fil-A, but I don't, I don't think I can,

you know, do, do these things. But I took that phone call with the guy and I realized a couple things right away. I realized, Hey, this, this actually makes sense. There's a, there's a lot more than I thought, you know, just going off on a tangent. It's like, if you go drive down the highway, you know, three quarters of the wrapped trucks and, and, you know, fitness, beauty, any, anything, anything you go do or see out there on the road, three quarters of them are probably franchises. And we just don't, we just don't know from your, you know, your kid's education to your, you know, who cuts your pet's hair and washes them to, I mean, anything, anything you're doing health and beauty wise, anybody that's coming and giving me a quote on anything inside or outside at home, these are, these are all, you know, all, you know, franchised. But I, there's a couple things you mentioned that I really, I want to touch on real fast because you said, you know, when you realized this wasn't, the baseball was no longer the option for you, you know, it's funny,

the way you're describing it, it, it parallels really well to military members. A lot of the ones that I know, the transition through, and it's not that they're not talented or skilled or have experience. It's that, I mean, you're just scared, you're scared of what life is like on the other side, you know, you've, you've, you've been in an environment for so long that it's like, it's not that you don't believe you can succeed, you're just, you've almost forgotten what opportunities are out there. And you're really worried about like, hey, you know, what is there, is it anything I can do? Am I going to be able to be successful? And the most important step that I usually tell transition veterans, which is what you and your wife did was like, sit down and think, hey, you know, regardless of the job or the career, what do we want our lives to look like? That's a huge piece, like that most people don't do. They're just, you know, obviously, because we're, you know, we're scared, we're nervous. And so we just jumped at the first, you know, paid opportunity. But taking the time to think about like, hey, where do we want to live? What do we want our days to look like? And then that kind of led you naturally down the road and say, hey, entrepreneurship, maybe franchising, he took a chance on a phone call that you

probably wouldn't have done otherwise. So that's, that's, that's really great. That's like, that's really good job of like recognizing growth potential. That's exactly right. And then, you know, on that phone call, I realized a few things I realized, you know, hey, I, even though I couldn't write these things down on my resume, I do have a lot of qualities that, that I believe will translate. You know, I can, I've been a teammate my whole life. I can, I can be a teammate. I can lead people with servant leadership and, and be reliable for them. I can, I have the, the dry and the, that self starter inner motivation that it's going to take. And I, I definitely have resiliency. All I've done is, you know, getting lost constantly. I'm like, you know, with a few wins mixed in and sports, but it's a lot of losing and managing. And that's, I think that translates well to business. So I realized I had these things and it just made sense theoretically. Well, if I find the right vehicle, you know, for me that has the guide

rails and support, I can, I can fuel it with these qualities that I, that I possess. And it's a way where I can, I can bet on myself and again, because that's what I had done through, through my base locker room. It's just betting on myself and, and, and, you know, hopefully be able to provide and achieve the things that I want to want to do. That is so good. Find the right vehicle, like assessing where your strengths and weaknesses are. And then you're like, Hey, there's a lot of different paths, a lot of different vehicles. Find the one that's right for me that I know that I can fuel. That is going to be my best chance for success. It's going to get me to the destination that, you know, we've already decided on is where we want to be anyway. That's right. And that, and that's the order. You have to do it. You have to figure out where you're trying to get. What's your destination? And then you have to figure out what, what is, you know, what your fuel is and what kind of, what kind of vehicle that fuel applies to and works with. And I think, you know, jump, jump in way ahead in this conversation. I think where it goes wrong.

I think a lot of people, they choose a vehicle because it's shiny or pretty or cool and not necessarily because of where it's going to take them or what kind of fuel you're using to, to make it run. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. And we see it all over the social media today, you know, go buy a business, you know, it's a shiny vehicle that'll take you straight from, you know, nine to five job of poverty to wealth and not having to work in the business. So, yeah, we'll definitely touch on some of that. All right, so you, you discover franchising, you discover that it's, it's more than just buying a McDonald's, or if you're that lucky individual, maybe a Chick-fil-A. So, what about franchising really spoke to you and then how did you, how did you end up tangentially moving into it and, and seeing some success or, or even some failure? Yeah, so I, I, I worked with this, with this consultant who's, you know, a colleague and friend of mine to this day. And, and, you know, he, he helped me kind of go through and figure out,

you know, and that's, and that's something I like doing now. So I got into the consultant side, you know, this again, this is jumping ahead because on that phone call, I realized, well, hey, why didn't someone in baseball tell me about this? And I said, well, hey, first I'm going to do it. I'm going to be successful at it and do it well. And then, and then I'm going to bridge that gap. I'm going to be that resource for other guys that were in my shoes to do that. And so, so he took me through process kind of figuring out what I wanted, what, what skills did I have? What were my likes and dislikes? And as someone that was hadn't been in the corporate world or anywhere other than, you know, a baseball field, I didn't know on a lot of them. I just didn't know what kind of employees I wanted to work with or kind of, you know, structures or setups or anything like that, whether, you know, my marketing was a strength or weakness, for instance. So, so a lot of it was, like, hey, let's just, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to look at these things and I'm going to, I'm going to learn. So that's what I did. I went through and I looked at three or four brands and

went through their process with them and, and then ultimately kind of hit pause for a little bit and came back a few months later and said, Hey, let's, let's look at this at this. I think I've learned these things about myself. And for me, that was service. I wanted a service industry business. And that's, you know, it really spoke to me as, as my first business, as, you know, something I wanted to grow to be a primary source of income. I wanted kind of the uncapped potential to scale, as opposed to having a brick and mortar that I needed to, you know, spend, spend more to build out the first one. And then once I get that up and run in, I got to reinvest in a significant way to build out a second one and a third now. So it just made more sense to me at that time. Hey, I, I can just buy another F 250 and hire two more guys if the sales dictated. So that's, that's what I was looking at. And ultimately, Kuala Insulation is a franchise that I,

I chose. It was, it was new. It was pretty new at the time. I was early and early adopter. I got the whole Nashville market and it, you know, it's, it's worked out. I jumped all in. I worked it really hard for a little over a year where I was in it every single day. I was, you know, I wasn't installing it or selling it in homes. I did both of those things, but, you know, neither of those were my primary goals. But at about that year, year plus mark, I was able to hire another manager, hire someone to answer the phones full time and kind of scale myself back from, from the day to day of that business. All right. So that's your first franchise. What was the name of it again? Kuala Insulation. Kuala installation. So for, for those of us who, like myself, who have never acquired a franchise before, what was that process like of actually buying the franchise? Yeah. So, so going through, you know, going, going all the way back to when

I'm introduced to them, you know, I'm going through and getting on a call with them and then I'm going over what, here's our brain. Here's the, the 10,000 foot view. Here's what we do. Then, you know, you go through another call where they kind of, well, here's our FDD, which is franchise disclosure document. Here's, here's the numbers. Here's the initial investment. Here's the return that we're seeing from our existing locations. And then, and then I went through validation. That's where you, you get to talk to some existing franchise. Say, hey, you know, you've got your pro forma at this point. I'm plugging things in for what I want to do. And now I'm talking to existing franchisees about what they're, but they're actually seeing whether, you know, that, that FDD, you know, the brand is limited to the FDD. They can't tell you anything that's not represented in there. You know, it's super regulated by the FTC. So to get the, you know, the real scoop, you got to talk to the real franchisees too. So that's, that's really the key. It's, it's,

you have to do your due diligence ahead of time, but you have to go out there and find, you know, franchisees who are actually working it and how those conversations go like, hey, honestly, what is this really like? Yeah. Yeah. For me, that whole process, the discovery process is about painting a picture, painting a picture of you in that business. And, and you need a lot of data points to get the more information you get, the clearer that picture gets. And you can, you know, once it gets clear, you can decide whether you like what you see or not, but you got to make that picture clear or you're just going in blind. Yeah. So, so for me, you know, I did that. I was talking to franchisees. We mapped out territory. Now that territory, I think that that's pretty common with franchises. You'll, you know, distinguish how much space is like your space. So another franchise doesn't get that piece. That's, that's right. So it'll be different, you know, depending on the model. If you're talking like a brick and mortar model, a fitness brand or a food brand, they might, they might go with mileage, right? They might drop it,

drop a dot on the map and say, you get a, you know, five, five mile radius of this. This is protected. No one else can move in and we're not going to cannibalize each other here. Whereas at a service brand, it might be, you know, just pure population. Okay. We might split up these zip codes to be around 250,000 people. You know, it might be, they might go households. There's a bunch of different metrics and different brands we use, but you're going to have some sort of protected territory. So I went through that process, you know, and basically carved out all of Nashville. It just, at that time, it, you know, not right or wrong. It made sense to me like, hey, this is my thing. I'm going to jump all in. I'd rather have the whole area protected where I'm not, you know, at the mercy, if you will, of somebody else who I don't know, starting a business whose name, performance might affect mine. Well, that makes sense. You're in a major, you know, a major city

in the region. And perhaps it's because your friend, you bought into a franchise that was relatively new, but you had the opportunity to kind of, you know, block off that whole metro area and say, Hey, you know, I'm taking a bet, not just on me in this franchise, but this whole metro area, you know, there's, you know, I'm not sure what the population of Nashville is, but there's definitely more than one or two million people. So you're saying, Hey, in this area, like if I can just get like half percent of these people to call up and become a customer, I'll be doing just fine. Yeah. Yes. That was my line of thinking. Again, and that's not right or wrong. And it definitely varies based on who it is and what they're trying to accomplish and the market and the business model. I mean, a million different, different factors. I mean, I want to make that clear. The way I did things or do things is not right for everybody. And I don't, I definitely don't try to push that, if you will. But then ultimately, you know, I went through all the calls with the team, the operations, the founder. And then, and then I went to, you know,

what they call discovery day, confirmation day. And that's where you fly out to spend a couple days at their headquarters, meeting their team face to face. And, you know, and I advise people on this now for me, that's the, that's the one yard line. I'm, I'm, I like everything about this. I'm not really going there to learn anything new. I'm, I'm going there to, to shake their hand and look them in the eye and see if I get a good feeling. Are these people that I want to be in business with? Are these the people that I, I see as partners to meet? Because that's what you want. And honestly, they're, they're doing the same thing. Because for them, especially, you know, a newer brand at the time, they would want to be selective. They'd be smart to be selective, right? Because they're going to sell a whole lot more territories in the next five years, if those first 50 crushing and have great businesses and are telling everybody else how great those businesses are. So you're more selective directly going to impact that FDD. And so the next, you know, the next franchise buyer and so on and so forth, they're going to look

at that and they're just, your performance can be involved involved in that. And they're going to think, you know, is this worth my time? So yeah, it's an investment on your end, but it's also investment on headquarters and on the actual franchise or to make sure that they're picking quality owners that they believe can actually be successful in those areas. Yeah. And the better the franchise or the more picky they are. I, I, I believe, you know, I think it's, you can look up a franchise and go wrong. And usually there's a trend of just if, if you've got a, if you've got a bank account that can meet our minimum requirements and you can physically sign this dotted line, we'll take it. And I think that's, that's short-sighted and doesn't usually go. Yeah. I mean, obviously I'm completely out of the space. So this is just the impressions I get through the rumor, through the rumor mill. But to me, looking from the outside and it feels like anybody with a couple bucks can buy a subway, but almost nobody can buy a Chick-fil-A. Like you have to wait in line, you have to pay a ton of money, you have to agree to like work there for like

60 hours a week and, you know, maybe sign away the rights to your firstborn child. I don't know, like everybody's like trying to put themselves and get into a Chick-fil-A. Yeah. That's accurate. I mean, you know, I don't know about the firstborn, but no, it's, it's, it's true. And that's, that's why, you know, that's part of why they are so successful is they are so selective and they, they really, you know, forcibly make sure you're upholding their, their high level of customer service and all that they do. And they're, you know, they're the gold standard for sure. All right. So from just a tactical perspective, you do your diligence on different types of franchises. You find one that you're interested in. You're looking at their data, you're looking at their FDD, you're looking at their performance, things kind of check out. So then you reach out to owners, those conversations go well. Then you finally have this one yard line meeting with the headquarters. Everybody gets the warm fuzzies. And then from you, it just, and everyone signs off.

So at that point, it just comes down to you making your franchise fee, signing on the dotted line, then just getting going, right? Yeah, that's right. You know, you, you have a signing call, you know, make that big transfer that's, that's awfully painful with any, any large, large purchase where you sign those over and then you, you hit the onboarding process. And for, for a service business like this, you know, it's, it's about, about 90 days or so, you know, getting you up to speed on all the softwares that they, that they use. And that, and that is part of the, you know, it's, it's a transaction where I'm paying franchise fees and upfront cost. And what I, in my view, what I'm getting for that is, is my time. So I'm, you know, could, could I have started an installation business with zero knowledge on my own? Yeah, I could have. Now it would have taken me years to get where I got in two months, I think, you know, just, just, you know,

I've got it as soon as I sign, I've got a website built for me and launched in my, in my market, you know, all the softwares, you know, having vendors for bookkeeping, you know, marketing, all those things, just, you know, recommended and there and making it really easy. And some things, you know, with franchises, you know, it can be, they can be awesome. Sometimes they don't work out so great, but, but still just having it there as a first time, a first time business owner was, was super helpful. So I went, I went through that onboarding process and then, and then went to train, did a full week of training down in, down to headquarters, and then came back and we launched where, hey, we're turning on the market or we're got a Google presence, you know, we're going after, you know, being a home service business, we kind of go after the breadcrumbs, you go after the, the Angie's list, home advisor, those, those kinds of, of, of home service needs and, yeah, really, you know, figure things out for a couple

months, kind of struggle through and, you know, for me personally, during that time, I was, I was on the phone all day, every day, but wasn't with a customer most of the time. It was with, with other franchises, with other people in the industry, where I'm, you know, how quickly can I become an expert in, in this, in this business, in attic installation, something I've never thought about in my life until a few months before, you know, so that's, that's what I did. So you're actually, you're referring to one of the things that, that I see, and that a lot of people kind of see when they're walking into a franchise situation, which is, like you said, especially if you're coming into an industry where you have no experience and everything's brand new, you know, you could, on your own, decide, I'm going to open an attic installation service business, and then you could spend time getting in the industry, you know, learning everything there is to know about how you could physically yourself install that installation, the vendors to work with, the suppliers, all the software, all the things that go and go into building out that business. But the difference with a franchise is that, yes, while you have to

play by their rules, they're giving you the playbook. And so, yeah, like right from the beginning, they're telling you, you know, here's your website, here's your SEO, we're gonna help set you up to be able so customers can find you. And then here's the vendors you work with, here's your suppliers, here's your pricing, like they just, they give you all of it. And it's more on you to just learn the playbook, which must have felt really good coming from a sports background, as opposed to like, hey, I figured this all out by own, I could just figure out what like you said, they compiled two years of knowledge for you. And yeah, you have to do it their way, but I mean, you're getting 90% of the way there of learning how to do it at all. Yeah, I mean, I would, I would, it's a lot like what I would imagine a military operation briefing would be like here, we're going to walk through here, and you just you go out and execute. But we're telling you, you know, there's variables, obviously, there's going to be things that that we haven't thought of, or that, you know, issues that come up. But for the most part, you said you're 90% there, it's just about execution. Yeah, so that's that's kind of,

that's what I did in and just grew over time and things snowballed. And, and then, you know, like I said, I hired some other people, while I was franchisee of the year and that in my first full year, really my second year in business. Thank you. And then, and then that that's kind of when I was like, Hey, I've got things to this point, I can take a step back. And I went through training with this group called franchise on how to to help other people kind of look at this. And that's when you bought the franchise, all you like all you did was buy the actual franchise, the legal right. So when you started, it was just you. And so that's what you're talking about, how you're learning the software, you're on the phones, it's just you. And then you start off by like hiring one of the person to work with you. And then after the first year, you've built that into being able to hire a manager, now you've got a team. And now you're, this thing is running, and you can step back a little bit, be more like the franchise operator as opposed to the implementer. That's right. That's right. So I, and it's all strategy, right? Because, because you're gonna,

you know, if you're looking at franchise brains, they're going to tell you, well, yeah, it's possible to do it this way, it's possible to do it that way. But what they can't tell you, because it's not in FDD, and they have to stick to that is, what's it going to cost you to do it, you know, path A, or path B, or path C? Yeah, if you're an owner of operator, you can look at that out of seven, and, and you can assume that that's going to be pretty quick. If you want to hire a salesperson, somebody else from the start, because that's what you need to do for what you're trying to accomplish, you got to build all those things in. So I don't know, I had the, I had the foresight, I started with, I started with an operations manager, and a sales guy, and then we hired two, two crew members, fired the, fired the sales guy within about two weeks, we didn't need him. And, and my, my operations manager came from the sales background, and that was kind of the plan, okay, I'll hire you for both of these, but I, I want you to learn the operations so you can be

the GM one day. And it just happened a little quicker than we thought. And then, and then I hired someone else to do the operations about a year in. So I had that, you know, that plan from the start to build that infrastructure, and it worked out well. I've got some great people, I've been very fortunate in that, and that, that is, that's a key to any small business that you don't want to be, you know, in it completely, obviously. Yeah, you know, you hit it right on the head too, because, you know, with small business, you know, a lot of people look at and they're thinking, Hey, how can I work on the business and not in the business? And especially with all the further we see online, you see a lot of people thinking, Hey, I can buy a business, and then I can, how do I not be actively involved in that business? And I think what a lot of people who have not bought a business don't realize is that it's the goal of almost every business for the owner not to be involved in the business. That's what that's, that's what we're all looking for. The difference, though, is that you have to, and that's what builds value in the business, you're building a tangible asset. But the difference is that you have to build those systems in place,

you know, people systems and physical systems and technology systems and sales systems, so that the, so the asset can run without you as the owner physically in the building or on the sales calls. That's super important. And one of the great things with the franchise is it gets you, like we said, a lot of those systems right out the door. Yeah, there should be, there should be a cap. Whatever you're looking to accomplish, you know, you should be, you should be have a fairly, fairly high level of confidence that you're going to be able to do that if you follow the playbook. That's the whole reason to look at a franchise. And going back to one of the original questions you rattled off, you know, is the success rate higher? Yeah, it is, doesn't guarantee success. But I mean, if you think about it, what is it, 90 some percent of businesses fail before the 24 month mark or whatever it is. Well, the idea is, well, here's a business that already made it well beyond that. And that's why they started franchise. So you have the playbook of someone who has been successful. And it's about implementing. And yeah, there's a lot of other

variables that that can go into and franchises are perfect. You're still going to have it's still going to look like a belt. You're still going to have a top third, it's crushing it, a middle third doing, doing okay. You're still going to have a bottom third. Now it's about figuring out, well, hey, now, what, why is this person in the bottom third as opposed to the top third? What are we doing? What's causing that? And I'll be the first person to tell you that 95 plus percent of the time it's the operating. It's, it is. And I mean, I think that's, you know, franchises or not, that's pretty true of any business. Yeah, like with so many things, it really does fall on the operator slash the owner. Take a quick pause. Here you go. I started had the dog in here with me, he's just like, oh, it starts whining. It's all right. I got the forgot today was a holiday. So the kids are home. So I, I half expect to be interrupted at some point. I know I was thinking

over here like inauguration days, a holiday now, and it's like, Oh, right. I'm okay. Got you. Okay. Okay. Well, hey, thanks for walking me through your first year as an operator, as a franchisee. And it sounds like things won't really well for you. And I'm really grateful that you broke down how, you know, yes, it went well for you. Yes, you planned it. But at the same time, you know, that doesn't mean it goes well for everyone. And sometimes, you know, there's a lot of factors there, you know, it's buying into the right franchise, like making sure you've got the right support. A lot of it comes down to the operator. Can you execute the playbook? Maybe it's the right franchise, but maybe it's not the right franchise for you. You know, it's not the playbook. Like we said, the vehicle that you can fuel and drive. And so there's a lot of factors that go into there. But it's very, it's very interesting, especially for somebody like myself, I've never considered buying a franchise. But hearing the way you describe it, I'm like, wow, that really does make a lot of sense, you know, for a lot of people, especially if I think of a lot of veterans

that I've had this exact conversation with. And I don't know what to tell them, because I don't have the expertise with franchises, but I, you know, they'll tell, they'll say, is it safer, you know, to have a franchise? I'm like, I think statistically it is safer. I think the numbers bear that out. But at the end of the day, it's really about can you execute the playbook of the franchise is not so much, you know, whether or not you can protect your downside. And I think, like we said before, you know, if you're new to an industry, you know, there's something great about having a franchise where they hand you the playbook, and you just have to feel confident and comfortable that you can execute as the operator. And maybe you get that, that kind of success that you saw after that first year, maybe it takes three, five, or, you know, it just kind of depends on how it goes for you. But at least you're kind of starting you off on third base, unintended. That's exactly right. And it's, it's, there's no guarantees in life. And it's a bet, you're making a bet on yourself. And the, the, the intuitive or, you know, what's on the table with a bet is you can lose, you can lose a bet. But it's, it's figuring out, you know, I, I harp

on fit. It's, it's, it's fit is going to be everything when it comes to, you know, finding the right franchise. And it's not as easy to figure out on your own what, what that fit is. Because you got to, you know, I think a lot of, I call it consumer lenses. We all view things and businesses from our consumer lens. And what I mean by that is, you know, I think it goes poorly more often than not when you get into, when you buy a business or a franchise based on, Oh, I like cookies. It's by a cookie business. Or you know what I'm talking about? I'm, I'm a fitness, I'm a fitness freak. I love fitness. So I'm going to get this cookie fitness. Yeah. Yeah. Like that, that doesn't, you know, what you as a business owner, the fit of you running that business, a lot of times there's nothing to do with whether you, you know, are, are, are a customer for that, for that product. We're knowing, knowing what you're going to have to do to put into, you know,

and I think some of the, some of the dirty words that I don't like in franchising that I, that I see take, you know, cost people to go strays, you know, semi absentee, executive. Yeah. And those exist, right? Those exist, you know, going back to, you know, the shack example, somebody, you know, some, some C suite executive high net worth that wants to diversify into some businesses, you know, you, you get a brick and mortar brick and mortars are a lot easier to do that, but it's still, it's still a business, you know, if you're doing that and you don't have enough businesses to have a whole team that's running them for you, then it's going to be you. And you know, I like to use the analogy of a name, you could hire a nanny to raise your kids to be there nine to five every day. There's still your kids, you still have to raise, she's not going to do it for you, just like a manager with your business. It's, she calls in sick one day. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

So it's, you know, especially in service businesses, I think it's just, it's just a horrible idea to from the start say, you know what, I'm going to keep my day job. And, you know, I think I can, I can, you know, you see it all the time. Oh yeah, just find a GM for 50 K a year and, you know, everything, everything's good. Now you're speaking my language because, you know, half of all the comments I see are people saying, you know, buy a small business for passive income, buy a small business, hire a GM for $60,000 a year to run it for you. Just all of this ridiculousness that anyone who's actually operated a small business would tell you is total bullshit. But you see it nonetheless, right? And yeah, this brings up a question of risk because what you just described is something that I tell a lot of people who are interested in, you know, buying a small business usually through the SBA program. And, you know, I tell them like, look, you're the, if you buy that way, you're the owner operator, you've signed a personal guarantee, you have X millions of dollars

of debt, and you're the only one responsible for that. So like you could, you probably don't have the cash flow to hire a GM, but even if you did, that GM does not have the risk of failure of that business on them, you do. And so if they take time off, if they, you know, have some sort of home situation that they have to deal with, or if they find another job, then it has to, it's still you stepping in. And you can incentivize that, incentivize that person effectively with equity, because there's no amount of growth that offsets the amount of debt that the business has taken on. And so this is a risk calculation that you have to make. And the very first risk question has been very popular. I'd love to get your feedback on this. When you bought your franchise, you paid the franchise fee, you're in the franchise, did you have to sign any kind of personal guarantee? Like what was, what was the debt situation, or what was the obligation to keep you in there? And I'm really interested in hearing that because that's in direct opposition to like the SBA program that requires you to sign a personal guarantee. And these are the two ways that, you know,

most first time buyers at least get into the market of becoming a business owner. Similar. And I would say that most franchises, you know, you use the SBA, you know, system. So they're funded that way. So that's, that's a misconception I had too, was, oh, you got to, again, you got to, I like using Shaq because it's somebody everybody knows, you got to be Shaq, you know, you got to be able to buy 20 of these things. And you, you know, who has that kind of money? Well, I assume people are paying for these businesses and cash. And now most people are using, you know, SBA, there's 401k rollovers, you know, called ROBS. There's, you know, home equity lines of credit. That's what I assume. I assume people were using like, you know, home equity lines of credit or taking out like, you know, any personal savings or like a 401k and funding a franchise fee. But those franchise fees can be pretty large. So it does make sense that, you know, what you're saying is a lot of people actually still use the SBA 7A program to buy their franchise fee. I would say the vast majority, you know, utilize that program because, you know, if you're

putting 20% down, usually that will cover, you know, if we're talking about a service-based business, you know, usually your franchise fee, you pay that cash, that's your 20% deposit. So they'll fund the rest of it to buy your equipment and everything else would, you know, some of the, some of the, you know, if you're building out a 7,000 square foot facility, you know, you're going to need more cash, obviously, to get that 20%. But the SBA will still work with that. So the SBA is very, very tied into the, the franchising world for sure. But then on top of that personal guarantee, there's a franchise agreement. And those agreements are usually, you know, 10 years, I would say just, I mean, there's obviously exceptions, but just, you know, around 10 years. So what that entails is, you know, some kind of obligation. Again, there's, there's going to be an obligation there. So you can't just say, hey, three months in, this is hard. Okay. Yeah. You've signed a 10-year agreement. Just like with the SBA, you, you can't, you know,

back out. You have to pay, pay off what you owe. And with that agreement, there's, there's, you know, there's a route to get out. But it's, it's usually not for free. Right. And then, you know, with that 10-year agreement, there's going to be a renewal, a lot of people renew at the end of that. If it's going well, obviously. But that's, that's what it looks like. So it's another, it's a contract. It's an obligation. Okay. So that actually makes a lot more sense. So it's not a different route from SBA. It's actually most of the franchisees use SBA to buy the franchises. And then the other piece of that is on top of the normal SBA personal guarantee process, there's going to be a franchise agreement where you have an agreement with the franchise or to be a franchisee for an X amount of time. And in your case, it was 10 years. And so if you decide that, like, what's the situation, if I decide that, like, you know, not, not three months, because that's insane, but yeah, I get your point. But say it's like five, six years, and I'm like, look, the franchise is going well, I just don't want to do it anymore. Can I buy myself out? Can I, can I sell my franchise to

somebody else? I assume I would need franchise or approval. I mean, what's that process look like? Yeah, so you can sell it. I mean, that's, that's obviously, you know, thinking about exit on the way in is something you need to be aware of. It's part of the whole picture of what we want to do with this, with this business. But yeah, typically, you know, there will be some kind of transfer fee, you know, five, $10,000 of a transfer fee, you know, you know, it's not a, that's not a revenue generated thing for the franchise or that's, hey, we got to cover transferring, you know, the lawyers to move all these contracts around and get that contract assigned to the right person. And then, you know, there is going to be an approval process. They're going to, they're always going to reserve the right to say, hey, yeah, we, we're going to make them come out and meet us too. And they're going to, we're going to have to sign off that, that we want them to insist, you know, so they're going to reserve some protection there. Not real common that they're

denying people on, on those transfers, but I'm sure it happens and, and probably for good reason. They, you know, again, whoever's buying it is going to have to meet their, their standards. So every, every franchise is going to have a, you know, minimum net worth and minimum liquor and prior. You know, some of them high, some of them, you know, a lot lower than you would think, but they're going to, you know, again, that's to safeguard themselves from, you know, failures in the system. Okay. Well, with that in mind, I guess the next obvious question is, what are the most, what are the most common exit strategies for franchisees? I mean, obviously, you know, like with any small business, there are going to be people who buy and they want to run it for life. You know, they're going to run it for 10, 15, 20 years or however long the franchise or will allow. But what kind of exits are most common and what kind of exits do people look at? Yeah. Again, it's just, it's anything, anything and everything. You know, there's people that get

into it that said, Hey, I want to get this up, get a cast going and flip it. Other people are like, Hey, this is a 10 year agreement. I want to get these things up, get a move in and I'm going to sell it between years five and seven. And then I'm going to take that and I'm going to roll it over in a new business and more franchise. Then you get it up and you get some empire builders that say, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to get this thing going, get it good. And then I'm going to acquire my neighbor and then I'm going to, I'm going to start another one over in this city. And then, you know, they go from one franchise to having 50 of, you know, over time, they can, because once they get it, and they, that's, that's kind of the beauty of franchising is once you got it down and you're able to do it well, you know how to run these things. So if someone's struggling, you know, for one reason or another, those people are usually pretty confident they can come in and, and acquire it for relatively, you know, cheap compared to what they expect to do. And then there's people that, like you said, Hey, Hey, this is, I want a business that I can,

you know, have my kids turn over to my kids. So I'm, you know, I don't have an exit strategy. I have a lifetime kind of strategy. So it's, it's, it's anything in between. And all of those things are done, you know, extremely commonly in franchises. Well, it sounds like, I mean, what you said there about understanding the playbook, that makes total sense. Like if you buy into a franchise and you get really good at your location, and you really get really good at executing that playbook, then it almost doesn't matter where you're at, because the only thing that changes is the market. And if as long as you understand the market you're moving into, then the playbook remains the same. And you can just rinse and repeat over and over and over. So that makes a lot of sense. And hearing you describe it, you know, I think I've come to the realization that operating a franchise is basically the same as operating any other small business. You're using as an SBA for an acquisition cost, you're taking on a personal guarantee, you're an owner operator on day one,

we all have the goal of building it into a profitable business, hopefully we're not working 80 hours a week. The only real difference is that you have a franchise agreement, is that you've got a playbook from the franchise that you were going to implement. And based on the implementation of that franchise agreement, and your agreement to operate it for a certain amount of time, it's exactly the same as any other business. Yeah. So, you know, which begs the question, why spend the money on a franchise as opposed to doing it yourself? Well, you know, for me, my answer is always, you know, there's a, you're buying your time, you know, I'm paying that franchise fee and I'm paying those ongoing royalties for that time up front for that ring, you know, and then and the support, whatever it may be, you know, just to use marketing to give us an example. I know nothing about marketing. Well, look, this brand, they do all the lead gen in-house, you know, that's what they're telling me. I talked to six franchisees, they all say it's going great, it's perfect. Well,

that fits, that fits with what I'm looking for. That's something I can't get in an independent business, you know, and then, you know, the power of the system. I think every franchise emorts to buy into a system, you know, looking McDonald's, the name brand, the recognition, you can't get that opening, you know, Jed's burgers, you know, and it's, there's advantages there and then, you know, the weight of the system, you got, you know, you know, floor coverings international, they're doing flooring for, you know, it seems like forever. They're white labeling and sourcing materials that you couldn't do with Jed's floor, you know, because they're purchasing so much, so there's advantages to be in there. That's a really good point because, you know, it's obvious when we see the name brand, you know, I've never stopped at McDonald's or a Chick-fil-A, but I wonder who owns this because, you know, it's just what it is, right? It's the brand. But obviously, the vast majority of those are franchised out. But you made a really good point right there that it's on the supply

side. So when you own a small business, you need all the supplies to actually, you know, implement the service that you're providing. And when you're at scale in a franchise, you have access to cost reductions and supplies that a normal small business would not have. And you've got access to credit and relationships that a small business would not have. And certainly, there's plenty of startup hurdles that you have as a small business. But, I mean, lead generation is huge. I can't tell you how many times I've met with hundreds of small business owners over the last few years, you know, looking at different businesses to acquire. And I think one of the most common things you see on a sim, you know, on their sales page is just, we don't do any marketing. It's all referrals, you know, like none of us know how to do Facebook ads, you know, maybe we've got a Google listing. And it's just all that stuff that is inherently important to running a business. You don't really have to think about that because it's kind of handled for you. Yeah. Well, I mean, some brands do more of that than others. And that's, you know, the validation part of the process is the most important part where you're talking to the franchisees.

Because the franchise will tell you everything you want to care, right? You know, I mean, the good ones, again, are vetting people. But they obviously are trying to sell franchises. And they will make claims. And it's your job and that due diligence to figure out what's real and finding out, like, hey, you know, they're telling me about this call center that's handling and all my schedule. Is it effective? Would you rather they didn't, you know, those kinds of things? Because that happens. Where it sounds good, it sounds perfect, you know, they're handing you a business in a box, but they're fumbling, you know, it's just not, it's not great. So you've got to, you've got to get the validation from existing franchisees to find out, you know, what it really is. Is it, is it what they said? Really well said. And that's a great pivot too, because now we've seen, like, you know, all the positives of having a franchise, but there's obviously going to be some negatives there. One of them being that you can't go outside the playbook.

Like, how much flexibility do you have as a franchisee to, I guess, move outside the playbook when you see an opportunity or if you see an inefficiency or something like that? Do you have to get approval from the franchise or every time you want to do something? Like, obviously, every franchise is going to have different rules about this, but talk to me a little bit about the kind of flexibility you have as an owner. Yeah, it's going to vary wildly. Again, you know, and I, you know, you can put that answer on repeat for a lot of these things. But, you know, for example, again, McDonald's, very little, like, you're going to do what McDonald's does. They're handling the national end campaign, the ad campaigns, the sales, all of that. Like, you are there to just execute that playbook and nothing more. You get into... Make sure the burgers are made. Yeah. If you get into a new upcoming service-based franchise, like I did, there's a whole lot of freedom. You know, going out and creating partnerships, trying new ancillary services,

other things like that. There's a whole lot of freedom. And that, that honestly attracted me. You know, I've been coached my whole life. I've been told what to do and when to be there. And I wanted the ability to have a little bit of that freedom, to innovate along. You know, I get the playbook. I get these things. But also, I'm getting a partner that is willing to learn, too. And I've seen that in my franchise system over and over again. And every franchise is going to do that, is they're going to take the wins of their franchisees and take them to the whole system and they'll implement. So they, you know, and they're learning from each other and, you know, just jumping ahead there, like that. I think part of that trade-off where I'm paying that franchise fee and those royalties, it should be every franchisee's goal to get to a point where you're no longer relying or depending on where it's like, oh, you know, I made my benefit up front,

not really benefiting anymore at this point. But I, you know, that was the transaction, I paid it all. And even though I don't need it now, I still have to pay that royalty. But because what's going to happen is your greatest asset as a franchisee is going to be the other franchises. And it's not a bad thing. You should want to get to that point. You should want to, hey, I bought my time. That's what I did up front. It's there. The support is there on the equipment, on these other things. But really in my day to day, a greatest asset is the other franchises who are trying other things, who are helping me avoid, you know, I've wasted a ton of money on marketing. You know, I paid, you know, did a 13-month billboard deal a couple times over. And, you know, one of them, I got two calls in 13 months, and they were both from other marketing companies saying, hey, are you dumb enough to pay the first two? Yeah. Yeah. So let's, you know,

tell another franchisee, hey, this didn't perform at all to save your money, you know, being able to help other people and them helping me. That's been, it's been the greatest asset of being a franchisee. Brandon, that is so good. That is so good. Because, you know, like we said in the beginning, you, I mean, you mark off your territory. And so franchisees aren't criss-crossing over each other. So you're not competing with each other. In fact, you're a team. You're all collaborating. You're growing yours. They're all growing theirs. You have other owners who are literally experiencing the exact same thing that you're experiencing. And maybe they're a little bit ahead of you. And then as you grow there, you know, there's going to be newer owners who are a little behind you. And you all get to test different things in different markets. And the best practices rise to the top. And that is a, that's a huge advantage over being a typical small business owner. Because, you know, you know, being one myself, like, it's a very, very lonely job. Like, you don't have peers to reach out to. And even if you are proactive, and I absolutely advocate for

small business owners to be proactive and network with other small business owners, not just to learn about wins and losses and share, you know, war stories and notes, but also because you just need some community because it is very lonely. But at the same time, you get this opportunity to learn from each other to figure out like, what's working, what's not working. That's something that a typical small business owner doesn't get to do. They have to figure it all out on their own. And they have nobody else who's like just a little bit ahead of them. And even if you are a small business owner and you have other business owners who are friends, they're not in your industry. They're not your market. They don't, they don't have your system. Everything is different. So, you know, maybe this Facebook ad campaign worked for them, but that doesn't mean it's going to work for you because they have a Sprinkler company and you have a HVAC company. It's completely different. So you found that this, the community of franchisees is actually pretty robust. And obviously that, that's going to differ based on the franchise. But if you get into a good one,

the owners are all there working together, all trying to be successful, because your success is inherently my success, because then we get to test things and be better. That's, that's right. That's exactly right. And it's, you know... Man, are you selling the franchises right on this, right today? What's happened? Well, I am one, right? I'm still in it. And, you know, I've gotten mine to where the majority of the time that I spend on my business is talking to other franchises. You know, I'm, I'm running my meetings. I'm in, I'm in touch with, with my, with my managers. And I've got my thumb on the pulse of everything. But, you know, I, we've got group chats and email chains and all that stuff, best practices and innovations that, that really, you know, that networking between franchisees is where I spend a lot of my time. It's, it's something coming from sports that I'm really identified with. And it's, it's, it's pure, right? It's, it's to the point where

the more they grow, the better, the better I get, you know, when it, if it comes to distribution channels, but the bigger we get, if a system, if we're buying 200 million in materials, our price is going to go down as opposed to, you know, so the more they spend, the better it is for me, the more they do, the better the system does, the better my multiple will be when I go to exit. Yep. You know, all of it, it's all, it's all tied together. So it's truly, you know, a situation where, you know, you, you want all boats to rise. To me, it really does sound like, obviously, if you're interested in this space, you have to find the right franchise vehicle that's the right fit for you, obviously. But in a lot of ways, one of the most important things is buying into the right ecosystem, buying into a franchise that's, that's moving forward, that's growing, that has a robust set of owners, that has people who's committed to that, that level of growth and isn't stagnant or declining. You want to be on a franchise that's moving forward.

Yeah. And it just depends again on, on what your goals are. Like there, there are people that are in a situation where, where, hey, you know, I've got this building sitting here, I need to put something in it, you know, or, hey, I've got this money coming to me. If I don't, if I invested in the business, I keep it. Otherwise, I got to turn it over to Uncle Sam. Like there's a, there's a million different reasons to get into franchising or business ownership. And that's, that's kind of the, the art of evaluating a franchise is also understanding those, those individual contexts that go into, but it, you know, for, for any, any set of circumstances, there's going to be a business that fits with what they're looking to do as opposed to, you know, something that, you know, well, I just saw somebody on Twitter mention this. So let's, let's look at it and get into and, and I, yeah, I'd love to go down that rabbit hole about, you know, what I do as a franchise consultant and, you know, what, what other people out there are doing as well. This is the right

time to go down that rabbit hole. So you've, you've gotten to the point where, like you said, you spend most of your time talking to other franchisees or actually working as a franchisee consultant. And so explain to me a little bit what a franchisee consultant is and are you mostly working with former professional sports players or, or kind of anybody who's interested and, and what do you, you know, what do you do to talk to me about that? Yeah. So, so technically we're brokers, you know, I'll say that first. So it's, it's, you know, the people I work with call them candidates. They're not my clients because they don't pay me anything. And yeah, I got into it with the goal of helping myself at my lowest moment. You know, as I was going through that career transition, you know, there were some deep values. And, and I was just terrified of what I was going to do next. And, and, you know, I got to the point when I, when I discovered franchising and understood it and it was like, Hey, this is for me. Or I was like, Hey, you know, I would have done anything to just to cross something off my list of what was next for me. So I love that I could do

this and potentially, you know, you don't have to pay me anything. And I could help you cross franchising off the list, or even business ownership after a couple of short phone calls, if that's something people are doing. So I got into this side of things to help myself to help other transitioning athletes that were as lost as I was. And what I've found is, you know, we've talked about the parallels with the military, way more similarities than dissimilarities there. Yeah. And people, people coming from, you know, the corporate world too, you know, I help people of all kinds. I got into this to help athletes, you know, obviously that's, that's where my background is. So there's some passion there. But I, you know, I'm working with people of all backgrounds. But I guess, you know, to that point, how does it work as a consultant broker relationship? Is I don't get paid by you. You know, a typical franchise fee is around $50,000. So, so to buy into the business I did, say it's 250, you know, all in investment, 50 of that

is a franchise fee. Now, if I would have went to their website, filled out their form, started talking to other people and get into that process, they would keep that $50,000. Now, I was, I was, you know, connected to them by a consultant based on fit and what I was looking for. So when I signed a portion of that franchise fee was then paid to, to my consulting group on the back end. So it's, it's, you know, it's, it's a finder's fee. It is, it is what it is. And I like, I like that this isn't all I do. And I'm not tied to any, any one brand. And I'm, I'm not in this to get you to sign the dotted line. I, you know, I'm taking a long-term approach at this. This is a service that I enjoy doing. And I, I like sleeping good at night. So I, I like being able to kind of talk more people out of these things than I do into men. That's, that's a point too. I think as you know, business ownership is not for everybody.

You know, the vast majority of people that are interested in it and look into it, if they see what it really looks like and get a real clear picture are not going to do it because it requires a pretty big leap. It requires a big bet on yourself. And I, I like to, to kind of hit people in the face with that reality of what it, what it looks like to be in there. Cause I'd rather than not do it, then get into it. And it, it be, it go really, really boring. I mean, not to say that, that it, it won't anyway, but you know, my job, you want to be more, you want to be more of a fiduciary for that client that you're working with. And one of the great things about, you know, already having your franchise and you're running with it is that you're not, you know, your livelihood isn't relying on your consulting fees, on your broker fees. And so that gives, like you said, it gives you the flexibility to diversify your income a little bit. And at the same time, you know, help your prior self and give people actionable advice that they can, that is going to be useful for them, help them see a different path that maybe they didn't see in

the past, show them the reality of it. And then say, Hey, if this is a good fit for you, that I'm going to help you do it because it worked for me. I think it can work for you. And if it's not, I'm just going to tell you straight up, like your broker fee, I don't need it. This isn't worth, it's not worth it. For something that's not going to be a good fit. Yeah. And, you know, I think what pushed me just, just farther into this to get me to start, you know, posting some things on LinkedIn and stuff is, you know, just like you, the way we met is, is, you know, I saw you commenting on, you know, just, just blatant BS that people are putting out there. Well, there's franchise consultants doing the same thing. And that, and that kind of, you know, as I understood what was going on more and more, kind of fired me up, right? Because I, you know, I started, I had a couple of candidates that I worked with that had worked with people that are influencers in the space, if you will. And, you know, here's what working with some people in this industry looks like. It's like, hey, you reach out

to them, you get a response from their assistant. Their assistant says, hey, yeah, here's, here's a questionnaire, fill it out. And it's really just to financially qualify them. And then from there, they sent them a PDF based on their net worth of, you know, 13, 15, one-sheeters for, for different franchise brands. So, hey, look at this menu and select your favorite three and we'll connect you to them. And so you didn't actually work with anybody. No one, no one actually guided you on, you know, what's the right fit. And then they're connected to them. You're, you're, you're going to Applebee. So you're kicking off of the menu and hoping it's going to be a really, really well cooked meal. And then, you know, obviously getting into it, you're getting into that based on the wrong reasons. You're getting into it because, oh, that sounds cool. Or, oh, I see the item 19, the return numbers in their FDB looks attractive. No one's actually working with me and teaching

me how to do property diligence. They are just doing a numbers game where, well, yeah, I created all these, all this interest on, on LinkedIn or Twitter or TikTok or whatever it is. So now, you know, if enough of you end up doing it, it's, it's worth it for my bottom line. And some of them, you might talk to them in person a couple of times. Others, you don't talk one-on-one with your consultant at all. They host a little group call with everybody that they're, you know, consulting, you know, once a week or so. So it's, you know, again, they're, they're masquerading as, as an advocate for you, but they're not really advocating for anything other than trying to get you to, to get to the finish line. And that can look like a, you know, a lot of different things, but there's, you know, there's a lot of dirty secrets out there in franchise. And, you know, franchise attorneys are wonderful. You know, they're, that's something you need. You need somebody to look over. Yes. These, these agreements are going to be one-sided. That's the nature of

the franchise. They're not going to craft a new agreement just for you. They're hoping to get 300 franchisees on there, and they need that to be a uniform contract. So there's not going to be, not going to be a whole lot of negotiation, but the value in that is understanding exactly what's in it and what, you know, what you're signing up for. Yeah. Being very clear on my responsibility as the franchisee. There, there is, but, but like having a lawyer help you understand all of what's in that can help you in this decision. And then if you do it, it'll help you in the future as you make other decisions based on, based on the knowledge you have. And there's, you know, there's, there's franchise attorney because there's, there's no, you know, there's no, uh, no degree or anything for franchises when it comes to attorneys. It's, it's just something that you can call yourself if you, if you work with people in that. And there's people that their whole, their whole

existence is based on rubber stamping those deals and getting deals done and not being a roadblock for brokers. Yeah. Just gives them another piece of social proof. Like I've done X thousands of deals in the last couple of years, i.e. I'm an excellent, you know, franchisee attorney. And we see the same thing. And I tell people all the time, one of the, one of the key risks, especially in this area of business acquisition, whether you're going to go to the franchise route or, you know, a more traditional route to the SBA program and buy a non-franchised business is that it's the wild west of capitalism. Like there are no rules down here. Yes, there are laws, but between those very clearly defined laws, which there's not a whole lot of, there's a lot of great area. Um, one of those being that there's no designation that you have to have to be a franchise attorney. There is other than being a lawyer, there's no designation about being a broker, like a business broker, anybody can raise their hand and say, I'm a business broker almost,

almost anywhere. Like sometimes different states have like regulations about being, having a real estate license or something, but all in all, you have this, you have the spectrum from like maybe an 18 year old who knows nothing or, you know, a 50 year old who knows nothing for that matter, all the way up to like mid-market investment bankers who are like series 79 certified. Like it's a huge spectrum of availability and ability and overall. And then beyond that, it's just, it's the wild west because you've got experts in the space, you know, such as yourself and, and such as like other experts you'll see up there who are providing actionable information on quality of earnings or legal advice or, you know, different types of industries to look at. But we're all being streamed out by the influencers who are running up, you know, they're, they're doing their best to run up 20, 40, 100,000 followers on LinkedIn, turning people into like their online communities and, you know, trying to rack up broker fees or course fees or whatever they can get their hands on. And it creates a lot of noise in the space. And so, you know, I can't tell you how many times, and I wish I didn't say this, but I've had dozens

of people reach out to me on LinkedIn since August of 2024 with messages, messages that are like, and I quote, I just spent $10,000 on this course and I'm not sure if it's legit or I lost my job last week and I think buying a business might be the next best move. And it sucks because you see people who are desperate who, who, you know, we all want success and we all want to buy our time back and have that kind of freedom. But that's usually where the influencers step in and they try to prey upon those people as opposed to try to help fix the problem. Yeah, they're, they're masquerading as an advocate and they're, you know, at times they're just, they're just taking advantage and that, you know, it disturbs me. I don't know how you feel about it. And that's, that's kind of why we're both doing what we're doing and trying to, trying to, you know, be out there and, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm only an expert to a certain extent in franchising. But what I do when people work with me is I teach them how to do property diligence. I'm, I'm committed to making sure they get every bit of information that they need,

that they take, they invest the right amount of time and take this, this process seriously and get, get as clear a picture as they can to make a monumental decision, you know, a large vet again. Yeah, you know, I'm glad you put it that way. And, you know, there's a distinction, you know, not everyone should be a business owner or a franchise owner. And, but there are some people who it's a good fit for you and you just don't know that it's an option. I also have people reach out all the time and they say things like, you know, I'm interested in buying a business. I think it's a good fit for me. You know, I've done some research. I'm still researching and reaching out to people who've done it already. You know, what can, what can I do to set myself apart as a high quality buyer? You know, like, you know, obviously I need to have like a credit score that can qualify for SBA. But beyond that, you know, what can I do to make myself as qualified as possible? Is there a certain amount of capital I need to have personally? Or is it just enough

for me to be able to raise enough capital? Is it, you know, like, what kind of things should I be thinking about ahead of time? They're going to bode well for me being a good franchise buyer. Yeah. You know, I think those are, those are the main ones. It's hard, it's hard to, it's hard to say whether you'd be good or not because it's going to be, again, brand specific. It's, it's, it's about figuring out what your fit is. You know, there's an exercise that a very wise, very accomplished consultant that I have the utmost respect for that he takes, he takes people through where he has them come up with a mission statement. You know, every, every big business has this mission statement. And we all kind of look at it like it's, ah, you know, that's whatever, you know, they're just checking a box kind of thing. Well, you know, if you sit down and try to, you know, well, what's a Jed's mission statement? Can you, can you get your mission statement down to one or two sentences and define who you are, what you want to be, and where you want to go and all that? Now, if you can do that, now we have, you know, the way he puts it is now

we've got an anchor. You're, you're out on a little, you're out on a canoe or a little boat in a lake. You can drop that egg. That's, that's you. That's your mission statement. So then, you know, you have to have that. And then you start looking at businesses and start talking to, to lenders and see what you can afford. And then you start, you know, talking to franchisees. Well, here's what it's going to look like. You know, I'm going to work these hours this many days a week for, for X number of years. You know, this is, this is what the pro forma looks like. And you evaluate all that. And then you, then you look down at the water and you kind of figure out where your anchor is. And hey, am I, am I still, am I still hovering over that mission statement? Or have I moved, you know, far apart from, you know, I think that that's the kind of perspective that you need to make those decisions. So you've got to have an anchor first. So you can't, you know, figure out what you can afford. You know, what would I be good at? Like those things are all important. But I, but I think you're, you're putting a cart before the force when you're answering those, because you're going to be miserable and ultimately not do well if, if you're not hovering right over

that anchor. So I think that, you know, I kind of took your question and ran a little different direction with it. But I think it's, I think it's just, you know, hey, how is this business going to serve me and my purpose and understanding that. And that's, that's where you start from. And then just going through the process, you know, you're, you're going to, you're going to talk to people doing it, and it's going to make things pretty clear whether, whether you want to be doing that or not. And that's one of the advantages that I like in franchising, as opposed to, you know, acquisition is you get those different perspectives. You get to sit down and ask someone who isn't selling you anything, like, Hey, would you do it again? You know, what, what is a, what is a tough day in this business look like? You know, hey, hey, what, you know, my favorite question to have people ask is gone through all these questions. And then you ask, well, hey, what, what question that I didn't ask, should I be asking as I'm looking into this business,

that the answers you get from franchising these are, you know, extremely, you know, forthcoming. They, they are not, you know, whether they're happy or not, they're telling, they're telling, right? So you get, you get, you get, I mean, just an unbelievable amount of information. If you put in the time to get it, that you can't get anywhere else. And, you know, I've taken people through the process that we're looking at acquiring, you know, a normal, a private business where it's like, Hey, you know, but I'd be happy to show you some things that are complimentary that you might, you might just see some things or learn some things about the industry, about service businesses in general, that, that might serve you, whether you do this independent business or not. There's, there's just a lot of it. I really like the amount of information you can get from investigating franchises. Yeah. Well, I really like how you really brought a full circle there. You're talking about how, you know, you know, the first, the first thing to really focus on

about being a quality buyer, isn't the money and get you bring the bear, which obviously you have to have something that you can't buy broke. Yeah. It's not so much the tactics. It's going back to where we began. It's by having the mission statement, dropping your anchor, which is right, exactly what you and your wife did in the very beginning. Hey, what do we want our lives to look like at the end of this? Like lifestyle design from the beginning. And the way you do that, if you're considering franchising is reaching out to owners of those franchises and saying, Hey, tell me about your life. Tell me about your business. Is this something you would do again? What are the things, if I'm considering this, what kind of questions should I be asking? And then it's kind of like when I was in the Air Force, we have such clear defined career paths in the, in the military, like, you know, exactly where you're headed. And not just the next three or four, it's 20 years ahead. Like, it's, there's no surprises. You know, and so, you know, I can look forward. I'm like, all right, well, if I'm going to make it a chief or the colonel, like, I know, I can simply look across the hallway, and I can see that individual on their day to day. And no, I may not know everything they're

going through, but I can see what they're doing. And then I can very easily make an honest assessment, do I want that life? You know, and this is something I encourage everyone to do, regardless of what career you're in, look at where those people who are ahead of you are, and really ask yourself, is this the life I want to be in? And so, you know, as you're trying to decide what you want your outcome to be, you know, look at how these franchisees, how these franchise owners are living their lives, how involved they are in their businesses, the things they like, the things they don't. And every franchise is going to be different. And figuring out which one, if any of those makes sense for you and for your family. That's, that's so good. That's step number one. Yeah, it's step number one. And without it, you know, it just doesn't, when it doesn't go well, I, what I see is it going back to that. It's going back to, well, you know, there might be a breakdown and you understanding what you want, might be a breakdown in the franchise telling you, you could get what you want. That's not, not true. You know, there's all of that in between. But that's, you know, that's why, that's why we put in the time up front

to, to, you know, eliminate as much of those question marks as it is. Well, Brandon, I really appreciate you coming on. You have definitely eliminated my thinking when it comes to franchisees, because I had no idea. Like, I know some of the basics, but you've definitely helped me get a better grasp of what it means to be a franchisee and the kind of opportunities that are out there for people. And I think more and more, you know, as people become aware of the idea of business acquisition, you know, franchises are being looked at more. And I think that's, that's for good reason. You know, they, they're all different quality and different fit, but that doesn't mean you should write them off just because it's a franchise. You should take time to, you know, educate yourself on the industry and see if it could be a good fit for you. Cause it, cause maybe it is, maybe, you know, maybe you happen to find something that's the right playbook for you and you're like, man, I can really drive this car fast. Yeah, it's, I mean, there's no right or wrong answer. You know, there's no, there's no steadfast rule. Like, no, only private or only franchise. Like,

you know, I love both. I think, you know, I've worked with people that have been looking for, to acquire businesses for years, you know, and it's, it's not easy. Like the unicorns just aren't out there. And, you know, anybody that's been at that, you know, looking for businesses for a couple of years and, you know, what, what does it hurt to look at some franchises? Doesn't mean you're going to do it, right? That's, that's the other thing I like about this. I don't, I like not being able, not taking anybody's money, being able to provide something of value or some insight there. So it's, you know, it's worth looking at it for the right person for sure. Well, Brandon, again, thanks for your insights. For the listeners out there who are interested in learning more about franchising, what's the best way that they can find you and get in touch with you? Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn, you know, I've got my, I've got my, my email up there. And then I've got a, I've got a website called what's next, franchising, you know, you can, you can fill out a form on there or put some time to talk to me and that, and you will, you'll be talking to me.

You know, I like, I like being able to say that and I'm going to keep my schedule to where I can hold. But yeah, yeah, reach out and be happy to chat with anybody. Okay, well, great. Thanks again, Brandon. I loved having you here. Really helped me learn a lot about franchising and we're probably going to have to have you back again so we can dive even deeper on, on some of the ins and outs of the day-to-day life of being a franchise operator. - Yeah, anytime, Jeff. Thanks for having me. - All right, thanks.