92: How To Find The Best Franchise (for you), with Greg Mohr

How To Find The Best Franchise For You, with Greg Mohr

(main interview only, no intro or "wrap-up)

Joan: Welcome, Greg.

Greg: Joan, thank you for having me today. I appreciate it.

Joan: Well, the franchise owners I've known started it very much as their full time work, very full time. But apparently there are franchise opportunities out there for our Side Hustle listeners who want to allocate maybe only part time hours to this business. Is that really feasible? Could you do this part time?

Greg: Absolutely, Joan. You just have to take a look at the different types of franchises that are out there and see one's the best fit for you. But, in any industry, whether it be brick and mortar or the services industry, there are franchises that have that semi absentee and four of them have completely passive models where you absolutely can run a part time and talk to people who are doing a part time right now.

Joan: Can you give us a couple of examples of what those might be?

Greg: Absolutely, so everybody, like you said, Joan, everybody, or you and I, we're driving around, we think of all those brick and mortar places, McDonald's, Taco Bells, uh,

Joan: Yes.

Greg: All those things. That's just one aspect of franchising, and in that space, if you're looking for something that's part time, semi absentee, for brick and mortar, you can look at anything like Meineke, you know, Mako, Fitness ISI Training is a good one, the Exponential Fitness Brands, Massage Envy, Massage Heights, so there's many different things that can do in a brick and mortar establishment where you're doing it semi passive.

What people don't see, what you and I don't see, is the service industry, which is a lot less of an investment, also can be done semi passive, so if you're thinking maybe you want something like essential services, one hour heating and air conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Mr. Sparky, the ground guys with the neighborhood group, all of those can also be done semi passive as well, so you're looking at 10 to 15 hours a week.

Joan: Okay. That's a good, time allocation there. Okay. Hmm. Well, what surprises people the most about franchises as they, as they start to take a deeper dive and, and try to consider whether this is something for them? Yeah.

Greg: question, Joan. That, you know, the one about the fact that it doesn't cost you a million dollars to get into it, and you don't have to do a full time, it's just my, especially my real estate people who are looking to invest, and they're all thinking that, you know, you got to have a lot of money, and that sort of thing.

It is just not the case. So we were just talking about those brick and mortar franchises earlier. Those are going to be a substantial investment. So you're looking at $400-$500,000 total investment Right.

Joan: and mortar restaurant type of thing.

Greg: So like McDonald's, a million dollars on it, something of that sort. But if we're looking at the service industry, where you're looking at, you know, home services, helping businesses and their services, senior care, sign making, you're looking at around $150,000 total investment.

Give or take on that, depending on what kind of, equipment you may need on there. So it's a lot less of an investment and it doesn't make too much of a difference which one you get into, whether it be brick and mortar or the service industry, you can pretty much make about the same, in either one.

Joan: Right, because some of those service industry ones, too, you could literally run out of your, run it out of your house or your condo.

Greg: Absolutely, Joan. There's quite a few of them that where you're going to go out and visit with your clients rather than your clients coming in to see you. So you don't necessarily need an office.

Joan: Okay. Well, walk us through actually how you become a franchise owner. Like, what's, what's involved?

Greg: Great question Joan. There's a couple of different ways you could do it yourself, which is what I did to start off with, which is really I found to be quite time consuming and quite confusing out there. So if you want to do it yourself,

Joan: have I got a deal for you today?

Greg: Come on down. You know, production won't last long. Get it now. What you want to do is you want to go to the International Franchise Association, the IFA.org. If you're going to do it yourself, that's a good place to start and start gathering some information on franchising itself. If you want to get help, that's where we as franchise consultants come in, so we can get a hold of franchise consultants like myself.

We do not charge our clients anything for our services. We are like a placement agency, the franchise or pays us a referral fee if you decide to invest in one of the franchises we introduce you to. So that's always, keep that in mind. Different types of franchise consultants out there, obviously, 'cause there's different types of people throughout the world.

So interview a few of 'em if you need to. But what we do is we work with a few hundred different franchises.

Joan: literally, if literally a few hundred you're connected to?

Greg: About 500 Joan is what we're connected to. And there's a, there's about five. To give it in perspective, there's probably about 5,000 franchises in the US today.

Joan: Right. And although you're based out in the US, you also have clients in Canada and in fact, can tap into franchises pretty much worldwide from what I understand. Is that correct?

Greg: That's correct, Joan. So whether you be in Canada or whether you be, in another country at all, I've had many clients that were in Canada, you know, obviously lots of clients in the U.S., I brought a lady over from Germany who wanted to come over on an E 2 visa, a gentleman from Pakistan came over on an E 2 visa, and then I've taken franchises from the U.S. and moved them over to the U.K. and Australia as well, and getting people involved there as well. So yes, Joan, anywhere, anywhere. in the world, basically, I can help you.

Joan: Okay, and why would I, and we'll get into fees but why would I go maybe the franchise route versus just starting my own business and not having to pay potentially consultants and franchise fees, et cetera?

Greg: Great question, Joan, on that. Very good question. That's one thing I go over with a lot of my people, especially my entrepreneurs that I work with who have started their own business. There are going to be good and bad points about both. So if you get into your own private business, that is yours. You're not paying the franchise fee.

You're not paying any royalties on that one. You can do whatever you want with that business, grow it however you want. But you get into it, you're doing everything yourself on that, which is fine for a lot of people. If you don't want to do everything yourself, if you want a proven business model, if you want that playbook from day one, this is what you do.

This is what we've done. This is the mistakes that we learn from so that you don't make these mistakes. This is what we have for you. You're going to pay for it. You're going to pay that franchise fee. You're going to pay those ongoing royalties for that. But what you're looking to do with that franchise is get to, get you to where you want to be two to three years quicker than if you were to go out there and do it yourself.

Keep in mind, most of the franchises out there that you're working with, not only do you have that franchise system that has that playbook, step by step instructions, before you get involved in that franchise, you need to call as many franchises as it takes for you to get a good feel for that business.

While you're doing that, you are making friends. So now you've got a whole team of people, whole tribe of people. And in general, franchises don't compete with each other because they give out protected territory, the franchisees, they give out protected territories to them. So you've got a whole team, a whole group of people that everybody's helping that business grow and build up over that.

So it's just, you want that team, you want that playbook and you don't mind paying for it, or do you want to do everything yourself? You're okay with doing everything yourself? It's really a personal opinion. Which way are you going to go with that.

Joan: Right, so something for everybody. Which way you want to go?

Greg: Exactly.

Joan: Hmm. What are some of the mistakes that you see made when someone is going through that process of selecting a franchise?

Greg: First off, is don't let what's, in fad or in fashion cloud your judgement.

Joan: Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Greg: Just because it's going strong today, and they get a lot of people doing it, doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be strong tomorrow. It may be. If you look at something like Orange Theory, that one took off. So that was a fad at one time, but that one took off.

But then how many other fitness fads did you have going on at the same time that didn't take off? So these are the things you have to consider. So take a look at that. As I mentioned before, when you're investigating the franchises, always talk to as many franchisees as it takes for you to get a good feel for that business.

Always do that. Get a hold of some people who are local business owners, they are called the SCORE chapter, S C O R E, those are, independent people, people who have run their own businesses in your area before, kind of like a disinterested third party, and run it by them, what you're looking to do, I did that, when I looked at a few different franchises, so I got some opinions from them as well.

Joan: Oh, are they, is that a fairly common organization throughout the U.S? I haven't heard of them before.

Greg: Yeah, it is fairly common throughout the U.S. I think there's a chapter in almost every town in there, on that one. So yeah, check those out and then make sure you check out funding. Don't discount funding. Some of my people like to use their own money. My investors like to use other people's money, as long as the investment services the debt, always do that.

Joan: Ah, those are, excellent points. The first one, about you mentioning not to necessarily follow what's trendy right now. It's interesting you mentioned that because just that last night I saw a clip from Jeff Bezos and he says, you know, everybody's asking me what the next best thing is.

He said, what we want to really focus on is what's going to remain the same five years, 10 years from now. Because if we're investing our time and energy now in those things, that's going to keep paying me into the future. That made a whole lot of sense.

Greg: Absolutely. We call those essential services. Heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical services, restoration services. Essential services. It's broke. It's got to be fixed. Got to be fixed now.

Joan: Right. And for Amazon, he said, people want their things quickly and less expensively. And he says, you know, 10 years from now, nobody's going to say, you know what? I wish your prices were higher. I wish I wasn't getting my stuff as quick. So he says, those are the things that we've been focusing on.

Greg: Yeah, good point.

Joan: What are, maybe give us an idea of those fees. I mean, most of us are aware of the, big ticket of getting into McDonald's, but generally speaking, what are, some of the fees that are charged by the, the franchisor? Initial as well as ongoing.

Greg: Great question, Joan. So, generally speaking, with almost any franchise you get into, it doesn't matter if it's a million dollar McDonald's or if it's a hundred thousand dollar pest control service, your franchise fee is generally going to be around $50,000.

Joan: Okay.

Greg: One time fee, that gets you everything you need to know about that franchise, that'll get you all the training you need, their playbook, step by step instructions, everything you need.

The ongoing fees that you're going to pay are going to be called the royalties. Those are generally going to be between 5 percent and 10 percent on that. They vary somewhat in how much and what the franchisor does for you.

Joan: And 5 or 10 percent of what? Gross revenues,

Greg: sales, sorry, good point, Joan, good point, Joan. Gross off the top, generally speaking off the top.

And again, that depends on what the franchisor is doing for you. Those are, when you're looking to the franchise, you want to see that that's where most of the franchisor's money is coming from, is the royalties, because that's their incentive to to make sure you do good. The better you do, the better they do.

That keeps that franchise in business, keeps it going. And you want to, some franchisers make money off different things, but you really want to focus on the fact that they're making their money off royalties. So those are the, generally speaking, the only two fees. There'll be some other little fees in there, but those are the main things.

Joan: so you're thinking if there's like a, I don't know, like a vending machine franchise out there, for example, or something that's like equipment heavy, and they're making a lot of money off the equipment sales, and maybe not as much in the royalty from the franchises that they may spend more of their time and effort and priority on the equipment versus servicing the franchisees.

Greg: Something like that, Joan, that's a good analogy. Our vending, vending machine people are actually not franchisers, they're business opportunities, so they don't charge a royalty for that sort of thing. So they do make their money. Support is the vending machines themselves. But, what you don't want to see is, for instance, if the franchise is a restaurant, when the vending machine, like I said, could be a good example of this, If they make you purchase there, your goods, from a certain supplier, and then the franchisor gets kickbacks from that supplier, and they're making most of their money off the kickbacks from that supplier.

Joan: Right.

Greg: on there. So that one that's kind of a red flag. on that. So if your vending machine said you had to buy from these people and these people only, and the vending machine people are getting kickbacks from these people, it's probably kind of a red flag and you might want to look elsewhere. Same thing with the restaurant, if you're doing something like that, or other ones where they're getting their kickbacks from that.

When it's a franchise, you really want most of their money to be coming from those royalties and not kickbacks from, from the, other, things you may need to purchase.

Joan: And if you're buying into a franchise, like you said, you're paying for their, their expertise, their track record, their support. But having said that, does the entrepreneur have the ability to sell other products in there? Or is it very generally restricted?

Greg: Great question, generally restrictive on that, on, on there because of the fact. That, like McDonald's, you go, what we're talking about McDonald's, you go into McDonald's, you know exactly what you are going to get. There is no change.

Joan: Right. Okay.

Greg: And that's what they're looking for. They're looking for that consistency.

So when they're selling products

Joan: Okay.

Greg: or services, they generally are going to be somewhat restrictive on that. And that kind of leads into the world of, you know, how creative can I get with my franchise? With the franchisors, they come up with some new ideas. A lot of the new ideas they come up with are from the franchises.

So you can still be creative on that, staying within the guidelines of the products and services that you are to offer, and those guidelines will be laid out in the Franchise Agreement and the Franchise Disclosure Documents, but quite a few of them would say, you know, you could be, still be creative as you want, as long as you're within those guidelines.

Joan: Right. And especially if, you know, your sales are well and the, franchisor is making a bunch of money, they're, they're happy.

Greg: Yeah, that's very true, John.

Joan: I was going to ask you about what the most effective way to research the franchisor reputation, and I think you've mentioned it a couple of times already, and that's actually reaching out to existing franchisees in the area that you're going to be getting involved in, right?

Greg: Everywhere they have

franchisees. Everywhere.

Joan: Everywhere.

Okay.

Greg: Yeah, so if they've got a hundred franchisees and you want to call them all, the franchisor should be helping you out with getting a hold of these folks. Yeah. So, in your area is good.

Joan: I think I'd want to find some on my own too, so make sure that the head office isn't just cherry picking the best of the best. They're happy with them, you know?

Greg: I have not seen in general had the franchisors cherry picking them. They'll let you pick wherever you want. I, the franchisors I work with are really good about that. And, and which from my standpoint can't be good or bad, because you're gonna call, my people are gonna, my clients are gonna call those folks, and those franchises may not be having the best day in the whole wide world on that day, and they're always brutally honest about what's going on with that franchise.

They don't hold back anything on that one, so no, the franchisers don't, don't usually cherry pick them. You can call whoever you want, and you are welcome to just pick up the phone and start calling people. I did that when I got into my first franchise. I actually called the people. We haven't gotten into this yet, but they'll, on the Franchise Disclosure Document, there'll be a list of people who are currently running the franchise, and a list of people who started the franchise and are no longer running it, easy math to get success rate, we like to see 85, 90 percent or better, but to my point, is you can call those people who did not make it, if you can find them, and get their opinion, and that's what I did with my franchise, my, my franchise, or that I got involved, he said, yeah, if you can find them, give them a call, see what they have to say about why they did not succeed.

And I did, and I found a couple of them, find out why they did not succeed. So you are welcome to do that and encouraged to do that if you want to. Franchisors,

Joan: that somehow written in the law that that has, that track record has to be contained in a franchise agreement? Right,

Greg: for item number 20 in the franchise disclosure document, you have to have that list of people who are, running the franchise now, and you started it and are no longer running it. So you will have that information. in the Franchise Disclosure Documents, that is by law.

Joan: interesting. And if I were to reach out to one of those past or present, franchisers, franchisees, what are a couple of the, the best questions I should be asking them? Right,

Greg: to do is, if you want to be the best franchisee out there, you want to be one of the top ones, then you want the Franchise Order Cherry Pick, the very top people that you have out there, they have out there for you to call them, find out how much did you make, how long did it take you to get there, and what did you have to do to get it, to get to where you want to be, and picture yourself.

Doing what they do on a regular basis. If you can picture yourself doing what they do, the top franchisees out there, you know you're on the right track. If you can't, hire somebody else to do it for you, or move on to another franchise, or realize that you just won't be the best, and you'll make this amount instead of that amount.

But I've got a whole list of questions for people, for the franchisors and the franchisees.

Joan: Yes, and for our Side Hustle people, they can ask specifically, is this a Side Hustle for you? How are you balancing it? What challenges do you have doing it part time? That type of thing.

Greg: That goes with what we were talking about. For the franchisors that allow you to be semi absentee, they will still have some people being full time and still have some being semi absentee.

So what you want to ask the franchisor then is only bring me the people who are doing this semi absentee so I can find out just how well did it work? Was it really 10 to 15 hours a week to start off with? Or did you have to put in more?

Joan: Yeah, because I would imagine in a lot of these cases, you're going to have to put in way more hours, at least initially, to familiar, familiarize yourself with the systems, get it up and running. everything that you need to do prior to opening the doors or, uploading, whatever.

Greg: It depends on what type of manager you are. I mean, if you are a good hands off manager and you've had experience. Being a hands off manager and you can hire somebody to do that for you. So now you're managing the manager and that is your skill is to just let them do what they want.

Then maybe not. But if you're more of a micromanager, really want to pay attention to what's going on, then you may be putting in more than, you know, 10 to 15 hours a week on that. Keep in mind, it's going to be even 150, 000 investments, you know, pretty large investment for most people. It's your money and it's your future.

So, you know, put in the amount of time that you feel good about.

Joan: While we're on the topic of that, figure, there is the franchise fee. What other costs maybe people wouldn't anticipate to get into it?

Greg: Total investment. Total investment. So most franchises, $50,000 franchise fee, give or take. The rest of that is going to be the total investment involved. Another good question, as we were talking about before, Joan, when you talking to the different franchisees, is the franchisor told me the total investment for this one was going to be 175 all in.

Ask them, did you find that to be correct? So the other fees that are going to be involved with is if you've got that brick and mortar, you've got that build out. So the leaseholder, in your place may be able to kick in some money for leaseholder improvements, they may not, so that's going to vary a little bit with those, on the brick and mortar type businesses there, the type of build out you have to do.

When you're looking at the service industry, now you're just looking at advertising, marketing, if you need any equipment, a vehicle route. That sort of thing. Those are all going to vary. That's going to be your big variable there is the total investment. And you'll see that also listed in the franchise disclosure document under item number seven, total investment.

You still have that laid out. It will vary because not every town is going to be the same for if you have to lease out an office space, what's a square footage, if you have to do a brick and mortar, the equipment's going to vary by town. So if you're in my town, you're going to get it pretty darn cheap.

If you're in the middle of New York City, it's not going to be so cheap.

Joan: Right.

Greg: these are the things that are going to vary a little bit on those.

Joan: Great. And we were talking about how to check out the reputation of the franchisor. On the flip side of that, are there performance clauses or sales targets that the franchisee has to hit in order to keep their franchise? guys.

Greg: There may be, on that, that will be included in the franchise agreement, if such is the case. we don't see a whole lot of that, in there. but there is on occasion, certain things. What the franchisor is looking for is not to have that territory sit idle. They want it to be productive.

They want you to be productive. They don't want to see you fail so that they have to put you in their franchise disclosure documents as a failure. That don't look good for anybody on that. So, they are, some of them will have certain targets that you need to meet. So, that's something to consider and something to look at when you're going through that franchise agreement.

Something a great franchise attorney will look at as well to make certain that you're aware of that. And I have franchise attorneys I can send people to, but keep that in mind. They may have those, and you've got to be okay with those.

Joan: And that would be, of course, another cost of getting involved is the franchise lawyer. Going over

Greg: Franchise attorneys, generally, $2,000, $2,500, right around in that area. Of that, they will look over franchise agreements and franchise disclosure documents, and bottom line is they will let you know what you're getting yourself involved in and making sure you are okay with that. So, always a good thing to do.

Joan: Awesome. You mentioned the IFA.org as a resource for, for the DIYers out there. Are there other resources like, I don't know, I'm thinking Facebook groups or Reddit, that you would recommend, or

Greg: Facebook groups out there, Joan, yeah, that you can get involved in. Eric Van Horn, I think he's got, he's got a great Facebook group, for that sort of thing. He's a great guy. he's got one, that is, that is for franchisors, franchisees, and potential franchise. Franchisees as well.

He's a good one to check out, and take a look at on that one. I don't know of anything on Reddit. I don't go to Reddit a whole lot

Joan: Right.

Greg: that one, so I'm not aware of that.

Joan: And is there a particular conference that jumps out at you, that would be a good source to attend. Right.

Greg: are. I believe they have a conference in New York City every once in a while, and they have a convention too. Over in New York City where we can actually meet with, with franchisors out there in person and go from booth to booth and check out what the different, options are.

Joan: So actually, Who makes a good franchisee?

Greg: Somebody who is coachable,

Joan: Okay.

Greg: bottom line, is that what you're paying for with that franchise fee is they've got that game plan for you, they're going to show you how to do it, and they're going to coach you along the way, you got to be coachable. Follow the plan. You're good to go.

Joan: It's interesting you say that because I know of a woman who was involved a very long time with a financial planner franchise. And she followed the rules to the letter. They say you should be doing this to generate sales. That's exactly what she was going to do. And other people would make suggestions and she's like, nope, I'm going to follow their blueprint.

That's what I'm paying for. And at least in this particular case, she was very successful at it. So I'm thinking there has to be that certain amount of being coachable and following the rules, which does not fit the profile of some entrepreneurs. So know thyself,

Greg: That's very true. You know, my younger ones, I struggle with my younger entrepreneurs, because they, they've got the energy. They're like, ah, I want to do this myself. My older ones, that I work with on the other hand, which is really funny, the ones that have run a few businesses before, I'm like, dude, dude or dudette, whatever, you know, you've done this before.

Why are you coming to me on this? I come to you. You turn a business into a franchise. I'll help you do that. And they're like, no, no, no, I've done it before. I do not want to go through all that again. I know what it takes to start a business. No, I just want to get into a business that's nice and simple and easy.

It's like, I can help you with that.

Joan: So that's, that's actually good to know. So in addition to helping people get into a franchise, you'll also help them take their existing business and turn it into a franchise.

Greg: Exactly, Joan, we've got people for just that. They'll turn you into a franchise. Once you get turned into a franchise, you get involved with the group that I am, IFPG, the International Franchise Professionals Association, and we will help you find potential franchisees.

Joan: Has anyone ever come to you looking for a franchise and after you sat down with them, you're talking to them, you're thinking, no, you're really not cut out for this. Have you ever said no to anybody?

Greg: Occasionally, occasionally I do, on that. And, and as we talked about before, those are a lot of my young entrepreneurs that have said that, because I'll be telling them, you know, this is what you're going to do with the franchise. This is what's going to happen. You know, they're going to ask you these questions.

This is going to be a step by step process, but now, you know, I just want to know how much I'm going to make. I just want to know what they're going to do for me. I'm like, you know, you've got to follow all these step by step, you know, you've got to go through the process and procedures. They're like, no, no, I don't want to bypass.

Let's just bypass some of that. It's like, if you can't follow my simple process, you're not going to do it as a franchisee. So go get something yourself, build it up, come to me, we'll turn it into a franchise. Good to go.

Joan: you may have already answered this then, but if there's anything that you want to add, I did want to ask you, what does it take to be a highly successful part time franchisee?

Greg: You've got to be dedicated to the fact that you want to get this done. That you've got that goal, that end goal, and you're looking at that angle in mind. Because while 10 to 15 hours a week doesn't seem like much, it depends on what you've got going on in the background. A lot of my people have a corporate job and they have, you know, family on that.

So when I say 10 to 15 hours a week, they're like, yeah, I can do that. Were you sure? I mean, you've got a whole lot of stuff going on back there already. You better be prepared. And occasionally, as Joan, you indicated that, you know, starting a business, this. Especially in the starting phase does take some effort on that.

So just keep in mind, you may be called away to, to do a little bit more on occasion. You've got to keep that end goal in mind. You've got to realize where you want to go. So look at, what we look at is where have you been? Where are you at now? Where do you want to be five to ten years from now? Got to keep that end goal in mind.

And you've got to be prepared to make a few sacrifices on the way if you want to get to that end goal using franchises as a stepping stone.

Joan: and a good Franchisor is going to help you or maybe even provide what the sales projections should be so that you have a timeline. Of when you really should be hitting your targets. Meaning that that that too many people have that shiny object syndrome and they get in involved in something just too short of a time.

They don't give it enough time to really gain traction. Mind you with this, if they're spending, five figures, six figures, that's a little bit different. There's more of a commitment there, but there is that runway, right? Like of a number, I would think, what, several years before you can really say if this is working or not.

Greg: varies

Joan: Yeah.

Greg: by what you get into. So, when you're looking at that brick and mortar thing, when you got that, you know, four or five hundred thousand dollar investment, yeah, you're looking, you know, three, four, five years down the road before, you know, you're, you're topping, you're looking at that, but they, as you indicated, they should, the franchisor, have a general idea of, so, if I'm going to do this, if I'm going to do a fitness studio, how many people do I need to have As clients in that fitness studio, what are my fixed costs?

How much is that coming in? What does that graph look like as far as when I hit the break even point and when I grow from there? And then you're going to follow it up. We're talking with the other franchisees who have been doing that. Especially good when you have a franchise that you're looking at that's been around for quite a number of years.

So you got that back trail so you can look at that. With the service industry, you're not looking at that much. So you may not take that much. as much time because you don't have that large of an investment. some of the ones, especially the ones that you'll get into if you want to do it yourself, I mean, you've got a just a few months down the road.

You could be, you know, you could be great on that. I was thinking things like, leather, vinyl, plastic repair, a very simple business, very inexpensive franchise business to get into, absolutely huge because everybody needs it. The margins on there are astronomical. If you do it yourself, then you can be making money yourself within, you know, just a few months.

of getting into something like that. It doesn't take that long, because it's not that large of an investment,

Joan: Right, and it's something that you could be basically doing on your own. What you just described. Yeah, what's the entry cost for something like that? Just a

Greg: That's around $100,000 for that one.

Joan: Okay. And that gives you the equipment and training and, Yep.

Greg: You don't need a whole lot of equipment, because all you're doing is a lot of plastic and vinyl repair, so you've got your little kit.

Joan: Right. Okay.

Greg: thing you really need to do is, are you going to do the repairs on site, or are you going to take that piece of furniture, move it off to another location, and do it there?

If that's the case, then you need your truck. You need a little, well, either your living room or, you know, another office space for you, a warehouse space, you're going to do it on there. So it's really not a whole lot and it's really a huge business.

Joan: Right.

can you very, very briefly just an overview of. What's involved? And the reason I'm thinking about this is I asked you about the financial projections and that could be just one piece of your answer. I come to you and I say, you know, I'm thinking of maybe a franchise is for me.

What is the process just very briefly between the time I come to your office and then the time I'm actually beginning the business?

The timeline? well, what's actually involved? So I sit down with you and together we figure out. What's a match? And I say, okay, this one. Where do we go from there?

Greg: quick and easy. So from start to finish, you contact me, you get to know me. First phone call, get to know me. I want to make certain that you're okay with working with me. I want to make certain that your expectations are not out there in the ballpark, somewhere way out beyond the ballpark, somewhere like that.

Get to know me. The first phone call is all about you getting to know me. I have you fill out a questionnaire. Second phone call. You and I will go through that questionnaire together. More information about you. Where have you been? Where are you at? Where do you want to be? What do your finances look like at this point in time?

We, on the next phone call, we talk about you. Everything's about you. Half hour, hour, however long it takes. Go through the questionnaire. I have a matrix of business types. Shows you different types of franchise businesses that you can get into. Gets you creative juices flowing. We start looking at where have you been?

Where are you at? Where do you want to be? And what industries do you not like? So that I can start coming up with industries for you. You don't necessarily know what industries you do like. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. But you usually know what industries you do not like. So I've got that information.

I know you. I've already talked to my franchisors. I talk to them every day, regular basis. I know who they're looking for in a successful franchisee. I need to know what you're looking for in a franchisor. I do the matchup. I come back to you. Five or ten different opportunities. on that. They're looking for people like you.

You're looking for people like them. They're available in your area.

Joan: Right.

Greg: We go through those five or ten different opportunities. We narrow that down to two or three. Then together, we start doing the investigation process of that franchise. I introduce you to them. They'll take you through their learning process.

This is how we're going to support you. This is how we're going to train you. This is how we're going to help you find clients. This is how we're going to help you find employees. This is this, that, the whole thing on there. Usually eight weeks. This is what it usually takes. You will talk to the franchise, franchisors, they'll go through usually a webinar a week with you, send you some information to do, some homework for you to look into their stuff.

I'll, in between this, their calls, you will go through the franchise disclosure documents with them. After that, you will talk to the franchisees. They will expect you to talk to as many franchisees as it takes for you to get a good feel for the business, however long that takes you is absolutely fine. If you don't do it, the franchisors are going to wonder about you, because you're not following the process.

So, we talked about that before, about talking to franchisees, cherry picking them, all that. Always, they're always going to want you to talk to franchisees, anyone you want to talk to, they're good. Then you go out there and you meet with them at their offices. Generally speaking, in person, we've had a lot of remote Zoom calls ever since the COVID thing, where some of the people can't travel as much, and they kind of got used to doing some of the COVID stuff, so some will still do that, but most of them will have you come out to their offices, meet them in person, all those difficult questions eye to eye, face to face on there.

You go home, you decide whether or not you want to be involved with them. Along the way, I'll have my funding people that you can talk to, and I'll have the franchise attorneys that you can use if you so choose to look over your documents.

Joan: And then basically once you make the decision and pay your cash, then you're good to go. And at that point, you've already got the playbook of how you're going to proceed from there.

Greg: Yep, you just go over to their offices for about, you know, anywhere from two days to a week of training, and then ongoing, always ongoing training, brand opening, special, and then usually they're giving you a mentor or somebody to talk to that you meet with however often you need to until you get that business up and going, quite often, as you indicated before about the sales, the sales levels, That they'll have people meeting with you to see how are you doing to help you get to those different sales levels on there.

If you're not, they're there to help. They're going to help you grow. Those are the things you look for in a great franchise system.

Joan: Is there a entrepreneur, a franchise owner that comes to mind, that was, has been one of your clients that got involved in a franchise part time and they've been very successful with it?

Greg: Yes. Yes. I would say my most successful one would be the, the doctor. I helped get into some super cuts franchises. Supercuts were selling off their corporate locations for a while and I helped them sell off a lot of their corporate locations on there, me and, you know, other consultants as well.

But the doctor wanted to, he wanted an income stream to where he could help the underprivileged, with medical services. So he needed an extra income stream for those. So I got him into 20 to begin with, to start off with, which is quite

Joan: locations.

Greg: 20 locations, right? But he wanted to build it up to a hundred.

So we got him up to about 80 so far. I think he might've gotten beyond that. but what he does is that every time he has about five or 10 of them, he'll put in a regional manager in there. So he's been very successful about putting in the infrastructure to where he never has to deal with more than just a few people at a time, on that.

there's other folks that have, that have also done that.

Joan: How about I'm thinking somebody with a single location or one or two, a little bit smaller

Greg: yeah, yeah, I had, who comes to mind on there? Probably the, Pet Services was one that was good. Had a lady over in, California that got involved in the Pet Services franchise. pet sitting, dog walking, that sort of thing. and that one, she's done, she's done very well with that. She got the manager in right away.

on that, and they are running that one. A great business for, for the California, I think she was down in the Bay Area somewhere, so a great business for, for pet sitting

Joan: So ballpark of the, cost to get involved and then, what the, net profit is.

Greg: The ballpark is about $150,000 to get involved with that, with that. I don't know what our net profits is. I'd have

Joan: Oh, okay.

Greg: there and check on that. there's one thing though that I do have to add, on the net profit thing, is that the Federal Trade Commission actually restricts what people like myself and franchisors can say about how much you can make with a franchise, because when franchise systems first started coming out, there is, as usual, some nefarious characters out there.

Who would say you can make this much money if you get into this franchise and they, people didn't do it. So that part, you know, and a lot of people come to me and say, you know, well, how much can I make? It's like, you know, I love to put a spreadsheet together for you because these people tell me how much they make.

The franchisers tell me all the time. Hey, this is how much my people are making. I'm not buying it. They can tell me, but they can't tell somebody who's buying it. It's got to be in the franchise disclosure documents. It's got to be under item number 19, their financial disclosures. for the franchisors to say it, and you've got to be the one to collect that data to give that information out.

I don't collect it, so I'm not allowed to give it out. I can, I can tell you that in general, franchisors are looking for you to make a good six figure income on whatever franchise system that you get into, for the most part. there's some, some of the brick and mortar ones don't make, you know, more than a hundred thousand, but they're so simple to operate, you just pick up two or three of them to do it.

But back to your original question, I know she's, she's getting up there in a good six figure income for her part time, business on that one as well. And there's another lady that picked up, some, tutoring franchises up in, up in Las Vegas in the, in the Valley there. And she picked up three territories and we were talking about, you know, going outside the box, maybe being a little creative in your franchise.

She was a little creative at first and doing something different. on there. And so she got off to a rocky start on that because she wanted to do something different that the franchisor had never done before. And the franchisor said, go for it. So she did it. it didn't quite work out too well, because the franchisor had never done it, so they had no idea how to do it.

But, she ended up, and she's up there, good solid, six figure income, bringing some in with her three territories on there. So she was, she did very well

Joan: Once she went back to the existing playbook.

Greg: Yeah.

I want you to go back to the playbook. Yeah.

Joan: Well, before we begin to wrap up, is there something I haven't asked you yet that I should have?

Greg: Yeah, you know, funding your franchise, Joan, is something that's very simple to do. So people are always asking, you know, how do I get that franchise funded? Do I just go down to my bank and get it from there? no, actually we have people, and I alluded to that earlier that, you know, I'd send you over to my funding people along the way, but we have people who fund franchises all the time.

The franchisers have that proven record on there. So that part's simple. It just comes down to simply what is your credit score and what is your net worth, depending on the franchise that you're getting into on that.

Joan: And you're available cash because each of those franchisors want a set amount of free cash invested, right? Okay,

Greg: going to be, so that's one of the things you use me for, is that I know what net worth that franchisor is looking for, what cash availability that franchisor is looking for.

Service industry, pretty simple to get. Small loan, doesn't take much money. $20,000 down or something like that. and whether you're in Canada or U. S., pretty easy to get a loan for something like that. One thing I have to look into on that is in Canada, do you have retirement plans?

Like

Joan: RRSP, Registered Retirement Savings Plan. And there are restrictions of what you can and can't do with that, that money.

Greg: that would be a good thing for me to look into then for, for, I don't think any of my Canadian folks have asked me that yet, but here in the U. S., what you can do is you can use your 401k or IRA money to put it into a self directed fund, so that you can use your own money to purchase that business. I will have to look into that.

Great point, Joan, for, for Canada folks and what they can and can't do with theirs.

Joan: because we do have self directed RSPs in Canada, so there you go.

Greg: There you go.

Joan: Well, what's the best way for our listeners to connect with you, Greg? Yeah.

Greg: Franchise. M A V E N. com. You can email me at greg@franchismaven.com, or just pick up the phone and give me a call at 361 772 6401.

Joan: nice. And we'll definitely have a link to the website in the show notes.

Greg: I appreciate that.

Joan: So what's your best tip to inspire others to start or grow their side hustle dream?

Greg: Always good to have options. Always look into your options. If you listen to this and you think franchising is great, I mean, Joan's got a lot of great videos on side, Side Hustles in there. The, the one about the pet sitting. You can do that yourself. Listen to that video. That one's a great one. You can have a franchise teach you how to do that as well.

Vending machines, listen to that one that Joan has on vending machines, the gentleman there, great guy, or come to me and I can show you different vending machines. It's good to have options, so keep your options open. If you think franchising is something you may be interested in, don't hesitate to reach out to me or to IFA.org and get some more information on there.

Joan: Well, thank you so much, Greg, for all this information on franchises. Certainly gives us something to think about and for sharing your insights and for being today's Side Hustle Hero.

Greg: Thank you for having me, Joan. It's been a pleasure.