2025 Franchising Trends

Giuseppe Grammatico, host of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, covers all the details of his experience at the FranChoice National Conference. Sharing 5 Key Takeaways covering: Niches in Franchising, AI growth in business and automation, how Franchisors focus on efficiency and getting your business up faster and cheaper, what top companies focus on regarding support and how franchisees can connect in a large community setting. For the aspiring entrepreneur and experienced franchise investor alike, get actionable advice for the industry now!

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Transcript

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Riches are in the niches or you know, kiss keep it simple, stupid. franchising is simply a proven business model. there's franchises within just about every industry and not every franchise is run the same. efficiency is big, reducing costs AI work. Where can we save money? Where can we double down the marketing spend? So maybe the marketing spend doesn't change, but the conversion increases. So same spend increasing revenue top line. hopefully in the process. Increasing your, your net income, Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where you can escape the corporate trap through franchise ownership. Here's your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, The Franchise Guide. Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Exciting show for you today. We're going to be covering our latest trip here a few weeks ago in Houston at our national conference, a conference where we meet 120 franchise companies. Where we get to meet with each and every company, whether that be their development team, founders and CEOs, which is really exciting. But we also get to meet with other companies like companies that help with funding private equity companies marketing companies, and there's a much longer list. So I consider it more of a two time a year. Mastermind where everyone is sharing some really good ideas and updates. So we're going to jump into that today, but for anyone listening in it's been a really busy January beginning of the year. I guess everyone has goals, resolutions, and if you want to dive right in and discuss franchising. I have a, just a slight interest, an itch to learn a little bit more. Reach out to me. You can go right to the website, ggthefranchiseguide. com and you can book a call with me directly. There's a survey there three questions that'll help you figure out if the timing is right. And there's a wealth of resources, 25 FAQ videos, 200 plus shows. That I've personally used to find my franchise. And not only that, you know, how to set up my my businesses. So definitely take advantage of that. There's no cost for our services. There's no cost for any of the resources and we can definitely help you out. So feel free, you could book a 20 minute call and we'll dive in and really just kind of go over and answer questions you have on franchising. I will say one thing, and this is the question I get the most is is it all fast food? And the answer is no, there is a franchise and just about every industry, 70 plus industries, 4, 000 brands. If you can think of a business literally from dog waste removal, business coaching water and smoke restoration and mitigation to fast food. If you know, there's basically a franchise for that. So let me know shoot me over an email, gg at gg, the franchise guide. com if you have any specific questions. Easiest ways to jump on that call and we'll figure out together if a, if a franchise may be the right fit for you. So all right now onto the show, as I mentioned, two time a year, you know, what I consider to be pretty much a mastermind with their other franchise consultants there, we share ideas. You know, we go through kind of what we're seeing, what we're hearing from, from brands. And, you know, the, the big thing is, you know, we keep grouping everything into a franchise, we call it the franchise industry, but really, you know, franchising is simply a proven business model. So Frank, there's franchises within just about every industry and not every franchise is run the same. You may have two exact same businesses as far as a service offered to the customer to the client. But they're run, you know, completely different. One is more hands on where maybe you're offering the service like a mosquito spray and the other one is more kind of working on the business overseeing the staff and marketing and things like that. So I don't like to look at it as an industry, more of it proven business model for those that see the value. And understand the value proposition of a franchise, if that's, you know, the right fit for you. And that's what we do to help on the first call. So all right, cool. So we just got back. I was going to record this video sooner and launch it last week, but I, you know, I just, I kept adding things and takeaways. So I took some pictures. We'll be including that within either this podcast or. Or the the, the week of just a social media posts. And as usual, I was so in the conference, didn't take as many as I should. So stole some pictures from, from colleagues. Hope you enjoy them. But for today, I wanted to give you kind of, you know, five. Key takeaways of the conference. And again, this is a, you know, five day conference and, you know, meeting with the franchisors and just, and this is just five, there were many, you know, many takeaways, dozens and dozens of takeaways, and I have a notebook full of notes, but really came down to five areas where I thought would be really helpful and I wanted to focus on today. So number one, so this is an area, you know, every franchise you know, has a, you know, maybe a different opinion, how they want their business, who they're. Avatar is, and you know, is it a full time individual? Can they run it part time? What are their financials to allow them, you know, to be qualified to purchase the franchise and that list goes on, what's their skillset. But one thing we heard over and over with companies is. Riches are in the niches or you know, kiss keep it simple, stupid. And that was something that, you know, came up over and over again. And this is not the case for every franchise, but a lot of franchise companies, they kind of came back and said, you know what we have the ability to offer dozens and dozens of services, but we are choosing to really keep it simple, not over complicated because the more services you add, yes, is that a bonus and creating more revenue? but it can also kind of take away from the underlying business. So, you know, an example without giving brands could be something, it could be powerwashing, you know, it could be, we'll just use that in as example, just offering powerwashing services, not gutter cleaning, not window cleaning you know, not carpentry or, or painting since we're already at the home. And why is that? Because They are able to really focus and niche, you know, what that service is for the homeowner. You know, if that homeowner needs additional service, they can refer that to another franchisee or another business and really, you know, work with fellow business owners in the area, referring each other business, but really keeping it simple because it's not just. The training you know, who that ideal person is and, you know, it can a person handle 20 different services or you need 10 or 15 or 20 different crews to come out, but ultimately keeping the profit margins as high as possible, but really owning that space and saying, you know, we are the largest painting company, power washing company, whatever it is, and it just helps with marketing as well, where you can niche down and Focus on, you know, two, three, four keywords and really drill down and just say, we're going to own these words as opposed to offering 20 services. which maybe equates to hundreds of different keywords. You really own that space. So the, the niching down to the business, you know, we do, we do one thing and we do that thing really well. And we're able to offer that to this broader audience and down the road, if the, that franchise or decides to pivot and add additional services, great. You may not need to, but at some point, if you're looking to expand the business, As I mentioned, you can look to expand by adding more territory with that specific brand or adding complimentary. Brands to, to that specific business. So if you're touching the homeowner once you know, once or twice a year via power washing via window washing, whatever the key service is, you can add on additional services, maybe it's a separate business, separate entity altogether, coming back and upselling that specific customer. And what happens there is there's going to be, you know, adding a service. There's going to be more of a learning curve. There's going to be, you know, obviously the investment involved, but on the sale side, you're able to upsell your, your your customers and say, Hey, you know, you loved us for the power washing. Why not use us for the painting or vice versa? So, you know, keeping it simple niching down to the, to the specifics of service and not doing it good, doing it really well. You know, over training you know, and, and, and those were things that we talked about over supporting the franchisee in that one niche, because once you start adding added layers, it does complicate the, the process. So just additional training could be additional licensing insurance requirements and things like that. So that was a you know, one area that we heard over and over again. And that's something, you know, as far as the takeaway goes, is that in your business sometimes, you know, we do offer a certain business model where it's business coaching, but then we start adding, you know, all these other, well, I can make money doing this or make money doing that. And sometimes that Really takes you away from your key business, your bread and butter. So keeping it, keeping it simple, streamlining things, not over complicating it, because at the end of the day, we want something that's sustainable, whether it's your individual non franchise or franchise business. You want to keep it efficient. You want to keep it simple. And you want, you want to sustainably want to enjoy it and be profitable at the end of the day, because we had talked about in a previous episode, just because revenues are going up, doesn't mean that you're, you're profiting from that. Your margins could be drastically dropping. So you know, keeping an eye on the not only the top line, but the bottom line as well. All right. Another key area. And that area is around AI. Artificial intelligence is playing, you know, a growing role just in the overall process with franchises. So what, what is AI? And a lot of people that, you know, just are just getting on and learning about it. They're hearing things like Google Gemini and chat GPT, which are great. Can ask it questions that can create things for you. But, you know, these companies are franchise companies are in many cases spending millions of dollars reinvesting back into the business to make the franchise the you know, as efficient as possible. So key areas here are in marketing you know, a lot of franchise companies are offering turnkey marketing, but with the added benefit of AI that AI can analyze real time and make adjustments. So what do I mean by that? Well, it can look at, you know, if you're a national franchise, where the leads are coming from, where it's, what state is light. Where you're getting a lot more leads from what are the conversions, who's showing up for the calls and, you know, in the past we always had that data and it's like, all right, what do we do with that data? The AI is actually going in and making the adjustments. So if a certain ad isn't running, it may shut it down and double down the spend on an ad that is converting. It's going to look at things like that. It's really going to spend time to say, okay, you know, what is the average cost per lead? And we need to keep that it's at 10. We need to keep it at five. So that's part of the process, part, part of the learning part of what you're teaching, you know, the AI. So keeping, keeping track of that, because that may be different from one brand to the next. So those are kind of some key areas that you know, that they look into. AI is also taking the place of staff, you know, a lot of, you know, some of the times the biggest one of the biggest expenses is payroll and AI is able to, and many brands that we spoke with, especially in health and beauty you know, removing the need for someone at the front desk where an app is involved, where, you know, people can book their own appointments, reschedule, ask questions, actually talk with the AI. You know, what is your average cost? How long is the appointments? What other services do you have? So the AI is really taking an active role and not just with scheduling, booking calls and things like that, but just automating the process, answering questions for you before those calls go directly to the, to the, maybe the franchise or his home office utilizing training videos. So that is someone is stuck on a, on a site and maybe it's a, you know, it's, it's a roofing franchise and, and something is not working as expected. Taking pictures, the AI can, you know, give you provide you just say maybe it's after hours, you're doing work 78 o'clock at night, the AI can send you back a few videos and not only does that save the call to to the franchise or but also to the franchise you running and keeping the staff to a minimum. So if when a technician is out there providing whatever that service is, they're able to troubleshoot, they're able to retrain live at any point in time. ask questions you know, figure out the areas that need the most improvement. You know, so, so training support, you know, that's been really been handled a lot by the AI and the AI also tracks. So if there are a lot of inquiries about a certain topic, it can adjust that information goes back real time to the franchise or so maybe they have to provide additional training on this one key area because this question or this issue keeps coming up over and over again. So it's making the process more efficient. It's simplifying things, it's taking the need and maybe reducing someone at the front desk. We see this in salon suites, we've seen this in health and beauty brands, uh, self tanning tanning space, the hair removal space where, you know, you essentially check yourself in. You can go in, you can pay your invoice. You can, you know, you can just schedule and, you know, it, it makes suggestions where you come in every four weeks. So these are the next three appointments if you want to book it there. So it's always learning based off your, your inputs when you're coming in and things like that. We've even seen it to the point where AI is able to track in the pet grooming space, they can actually track you facial recognition. It can track the you know, the, your dog that you're bringing in for grooming and it knows what services will receive last, what recommendations are there. And even, you know, who that groomer was that maybe was able to get the job done a little bit quicker than the next maybe they got a higher rating for that, your specific pet, whatever the case may be, it's piecing that all together. And, you know, my, my last point on AI is it's not perfect. It doesn't take the place of the owner, but it's really what it's doing is it's making the business more efficient. I use personally AI to book my initial call. Someone had made a comment where they, they, you know, they, they got the call and, and they can tell it was AI. And I said, absolutely. We utilize technology. Obviously we want to keep our costs in line. We offer a free service to the people looking at franchises, but we want to keep our costs. As low as possible, we want to be efficient and we want to make sure to automate and give you the information you need so that you can make the the best decision. So a lot of stuff there as I mentioned, support training my gosh, the, the, the list goes on, but I was just shocked to hear the numbers that have been reinvested just even into their CRM systems where the CRM system knows, you know, can track. Where the lead, where the lead flow is make recommendations and give it even full, full power, just to make the changes, maybe the kill Google ads, because it isn't working and double down on meta. I mean, it's, it's amazing. or vice versa. It's amazing the adjustments and what it can do. And this is an evolving thing. It's just getting better with time. It's learning based off your input. So your inputs are equally as important. So keep that in mind. If, if you're just kind of entry level using a chat, GPT or Gemini make sure to. Set the stage and, and give the you know, provide as much input and accurate input as possible. All right. Number three and this there's going to be kind of overflow with these, but you know, the other thing was I say a key word for the meeting efficiency, what do I mean by efficiency? So. The franchisor understands, you know, you have a, a large investment you're making you more than likely are getting a loan somehow, an SBA loan, personal loan, a home equity line of credit, whatever, however you're funding it, that franchisor understands, you know, they want to get you up as soon as possible and start making money back. They want to get you cashflow positive as soon as possible. And it's going to vary. It's going to vary depending on the brand, how quickly you can get open. Are you full time? You know, cutting the need of a general manager or are you part time and now you have an added expense of a general manager. But the, the biggest thing is getting you up quickly as possible. We have brands that we've been working with you know, you know, we always say 90 days or less are typically brands in the service space. There are franchise companies that really want to get you up and running and they've figured out a way to. You know, sign the franchise agreement offer training once or twice a month so that you can go to two weeks of training and by, by week three. You're in the field. Marketing was already turned on for you. So you may already have appointments and you have a dedicated coach that's actually traveling with you, booking appointments going on appointments, closing deals, and helping you find your staff, whether that be W2 staff, 1099 contractors working with vendors, but they actually not just train you on what to do, but they'll go out and go on the meetings with you. That was the case when I bought my first franchise. The founder, you know, we kind of went out and we went on sales appointments. We nailed it and landed the first sales point. It was very, very small account, but that really helped with building confidence, building momentum, and eventually breaking in. We started working with some property managers in the area. So. So going back to the efficiency, it's utilizing the AI and the AI to keep the costs as low as possible. Keep in mind, franchise brands are evolving. So there are, there were some brands years ago that were offered a need. You had the need of an assistant, I should say. A front desk person to answer the phones and schedule appointments and greet people. A lot of those brands have changed, especially coming out of COVID. So the efficiency is okay. You know, we're saving money there. Not only that the AI will help with the bookings and. That's a huge benefit there. I mean, whether you're, they're booking directly on the website, but the AI is, is helping with, you know, upselling in some cases, creating some additional revenue, being as efficient as possible and adjusting the schedule accordingly. So efficiency is big, reducing costs kind of going in back to the, back to the AI work. Where can we save money? Where can we double down the marketing spend? So maybe the marketing spend doesn't change, but the conversion increases. So same spend increasing revenue top line. And, and hopefully in the process. Increasing your, your net income, your bottom line. So efficiency was, was, was key part of that. And, and we're going to touch on this is, you know, listening to franchisees and, and getting their, their feedback. Sometimes if that franchise or is not in the field and that's one benefit when the franchise or is really in the field, they kind of see what's happening. They get a better understanding because businesses evolve, economies evolve, things change. So it's good to kind of stay on top of things. So if there are any issues that are addressed accordingly so yeah, so efficiency was big and getting you up and running, cutting the costs. You know, making sure the marketing, not only is the marketing turned on for you when you, when you start that business, but that, that marketing and many brands has started while you're in training. So while you're in training, calls are being booked with the goal of having a full schedule coming directly out of training. Everything is fresh. You're learning and you're going out and close, hopefully closing some business. So that is number three is efficiency. So number four support big one, feedback, feedback, feedback. Thank you. Why am I repeating myself? Well, you know, feedback is huge and we've seen a lot of founders. That have a million things going on or managing really large franchise organizations are back on those meetings, maybe not in person, but they're on weekly meetings founders jumping on calls helping, you know, every, every week we had Jeff dude and on from home homefront brands a couple months ago. And he does a standing call with whichever franchisee wants to join. They're more than welcome. It's not a mandatory call and they can jump in. So these are just for owners and he has different, different different calls lined up, but owners can come in. And sometimes if one owner is having an issue or. vice versa. One, one owner is having success in a specific area. They can sit down and discuss it. Jeff, you know, being the founder can go in and make those changes to say, you know what, these are some great changes, or these are some great ideas that we can essentially. assist with, we can you know, you know, maybe it'll take some time to put that in or change up the marketing, or maybe it's a, an extra piece of collateral that that's super helpful or video or whatever the case may be, but hearing directly from the franchisees is crucial. So, so support is something that again you know, part of the efficiency, part of the part of the AI. But really listening to the franchise owners, franchise owners have great ideas. You know, Subway franchisees had created the idea of the 5 a foot long. McDonald's franchisees had come up with the filet of fish and that list goes on. There's multiple examples. So may not take your, you know, your idea initially, or that's something that they, they may think about, but always provide feedback and never be shy to ask for support franchise or may not realize. You know, maybe one person struggling, but a lot of people are having the same issues it may even be a vendor. Maybe the, maybe the franchise or is using a third party for the call center. And you're not getting the best, you haven't had the best experience, but letting the franchise or before it's before it becomes a huge issue. So these standing calls as opposed to just, you know, contacting your coach or your main point of contact. I think it's big part of this process too. And another part of the standing kind of calls that they're having is franchisors, a lot of founders and CEOs are also now on the development, or I should say the sales side, when you're looking at a franchise, you're not just having to wait until maybe a discovery day at the very end of the process. What they're doing is they're, they're getting involved and they're making sure the fits there. They're making sure they understand the questions, the concerns that are coming up. They're able to explain, Hey, I'm, I am the captain of the ship. As I always say you, you've heard me say this over and over again, this is where the business is going. This is where we're now, you know, we're thinking of adding some revenue streams. We're thinking of that, you know, we're going to add or maybe we keep everything the same, 50 franchisees and double our system. With that being said, with 100 franchisees, now we can really go after national accounts because we have this larger footprint across the country and this way we're able to offer and work with some national providers in all 50 states to provide. X, Y, Z service. So that's a big one. National accounts. What we're also seeing under that's, this is still on their support is hiring full time staff. 1, 2, 3 employees. That's all they are doing. They're working with these national brands like home depots and Lowe's. And we've heard, we've heard this over and over again and striking deals, you know, Hey, you know, we're, we're going to be your, your national provider for, for painting. With that being said, for any job that comes in, you would get X amount referral fee, but now you just extended that as a national footprint. A lot of brands are doing this at no additional cost to the, to the franchisee. That's part of the brand marketing or general marketing funds. And I'm not speaking for all brands. This is just what I've heard in general. 000 companies. Everyone does business a little bit differently, but the national accounts are big because now you have this footprint. Lowe's a well known brand, everyone sort of Lowe's McDonald's you know, Home Depot's and things like that. So getting in with these companies is really big. And not only just national accounts with getting new business, but, you know, if you're a painting concept working with some of the larger companies like Sherman Williams, Benjamin Moore, and some others working on, you know, the larger the system economies of scale going back to, you know, what, what kind of pricing can we get? We have a. A hundred franchisees all in the painting space. What kind of pricing can we get? You know, are there, are there rebates back to the franchise or that happens on occasion where they kick back a couple percent, a percentage points back to the franchise or franchise or. Could keep that, that fun reinvested back into the franchisee or we've seen it where it's a complete pass through back to the franchise owner. So which is really cool because now they really get to reduce their costs and increase their profit margins by even a couple percent when you're doing several million dollar in business that, that really adds up fast. So. Support is huge. And then I think we did a show. I think we just did a show in this entire topic, but it's the idea of community. You know, idea of community to me. There's so many aspects to this. And this is the part that really excites me because just like we had our national conference. You know, so, so a couple of things with community, you get, you know, national conference franchise companies, you have a, an annual convention at a remote location and all the franchisees get to join. And what's really cool is that's almost a mastermind in and of itself. You may have a hundred franchisees. Everyone's coming from different backgrounds, right? You have C suite, you have people that never owned business, people that are serial entrepreneurs that own multiple franchises and other, you know, common mom and pop businesses, but everyone is sharing their backgrounds, sharing ideas. And also sharing what's working and what's not working. You know, sometimes depending on the region, maybe certain marketing efforts will work better than others. But really sharing what's working. You know, how can we all help one another sharing ideas and sharing concerns? And that goes back to support. But this idea of community is not, let's all sit, sit, sit here and. Say what we hate about the franchise or what we love about the franchise, but let's just share the stuff that's working and not working so that, you know, we can kind of work together. But not only that, you know, you're getting to meet in person, your neighboring franchisees, which is really I think. You know, huge, just because, you know, that you can share essentially resources. So maybe you go in together on various marketing, right? Maybe you get better pricing on, on pay per click on Google because you're going in and just say, all the New Jersey franchises are getting together that kind of deal. Or you're sick, you're sharing resources when it comes to staff manpower, you offer a painting service that, that hire 10 99 contractors. You know, we're short, just got a large warehouse painting. I need an extra two contractors. I'm short. Can you work with another franchisee? Absolutely. Obviously it's case by case and you want to meet those, those, those franchise owners, but that's the, you know, the, the sense of community. We see it all the way back going in validation. When you're exploring franchises franchisees, current franchisees will, you know, donate their time. However, you know, once a month, once a week, whatever it is. and validate and give feedback on the franchise. How's your experience been? Would you do it all over again? Typically they're, you know, essentially donating their time when they purchased their franchise. They spoke with other franchisees as well, but the beauty is you get to hear directly from the franchisees. How their experience has been, if there were some negative experience, you want to hear that as well, and you want to make sure that things were resolved or in the process of getting fixed. And it happens. It happens when a brand is, is growing, mistakes are made maybe the ball gets dropped in a certain area. You just want to make sure the franchise or. He's efficient, is reactive, you know, he's going in and, and, you know, really fixing the issues if, if it comes up. So that's a, that's a big one. You hear, you know, sometimes depending how large the brand is, you've, you've heard things like a, an FAC, a franchise advisory council. So that's where a group of franchisees get together, gather the feedback and then bring those directly up to the franchisor. Many emerging brands you can still have them. But as I mentioned, going back to the example with Jeff. Dude in the home front brands just, you know, having those weekly calls and not waiting for all this feedback to build up in a summary, but just like, let's, let's handle it. Let's handle it on the fly as things come up and let's, let's address it sooner than later. Which you know, that's that's a big thing. Another, another part of community is the franchisees, maybe they. You know, you're looking to sell your business at some point. And in that case, the first thing I would recommend is speaking with your fellow franchisee and just saying, Hey, you know, love to tell you the business. We can avoid having to list it on a biz buyer with a broker. We can sell it directly, keeping the costs much lower and, and not having to worry about it. And just a smoother process. Someone that knows the business is going to be, there's going to be a huge advantage there. You know, the business, you kind of just taking over as is and just keeping it as simple as possible. So I think that's going to be you know, that, that, that there's a major benefit. And then, you know, lastly on, on community. You have sometimes, you know, competing brands in the franchise space and they get together and share ideas as well, right? There, there's, there's, I always say there's, there's plenty of business to go around, but in the franchising community, we'll use that word going forward instead of industry, but in the community itself, you may have, you know, competing brands get together because maybe there are some. Some issues when it comes to pricing or different regulation where certain products can't be used or there's additional training, licensing. Issues, education, whatever the case may be. But we've seen to where brands will get together and understand, Hey, we're, we're all in the same space and competing with that being said, maybe there's, there's you know, power and kind of getting together. And, and I was gonna say power numbers, but more of just kind of getting together and sharing ideas and concerns and how we can help one another out. So that. Yeah, it makes everyone's lives much easier. And I think there's, you know, huge value there. So we, you know, we covered quite a lot. Our next meeting is going to be in July and we'll see I wouldn't say, you know, there's, there was a lot more conversation on AI of these five that really took a center stage and how quickly, you know, businesses you know, can really get up and running and much more efficient and really just cutting down on the expense. And just a lot of this reinvesting back into the business. So to reiterate the the five key takeaways from, from our conference, where number one, riches are in the niches or as I use the acronym KISS, keep it simple, stupid, and not overcomplicate the systems. Again, number two, AI growing growing role in the process. Helping with overall efficiencies getting the business up and running sooner than later efficiency is number three, utilizing AI, but also. You know how to get a franchisees up and running offering great support traveling and finding that maybe the initial staff to, to get the business up and running some customers to get the momentum going get some sales in the door, some revenue number four support feedback, feedback, feedback you know, which is a big one, you know, listening to the franchisees, tailoring the, the the training and services for the franchisee based off their feedback. Yeah. Listening, getting on those, on those weekly calls, not waiting till an annual conference. And then number five, this idea of community listening, you know, working with your, your fellow franchisees, sharing ideas, sharing resources, staff marketing you know, talking with your competitors, getting educated. I know we like to keep things close to us and we're not revealing maybe any trade secrets, but really, you know, leveraging, you know, you may, you may, they may see something coming down. the horizon that you may not see and vice versa. So, or you have maybe figured out something to be a little bit more efficient. You know, so especially when you're using 1099, maybe you're, you're both using same labor pool, you know, working with the same, same same contractor. So you know, I think there's definitely value there and it's a area I avoided in the beginning personally, and then realized that there's plenty of work and started to. You know, having conversations with competing brands and just at a high level and sharing ideas. So I hope I hope you enjoyed this. I appreciate had some questions. You know, a lot of this kind of covered your, your questions. I was going to kind of go and answer each question one by one, but I gave kind of a thorough explanation on each one and that covered the questions I received. So, so all those to everyone that sent them in, I appreciate it. I extend the offer to anyone that wants to dive in a little bit deeper on any one of these areas or, you know, on a specific brand that's offering, you know, specific services. Because again, There are certain brands not utilizing AI. There's certain people using it. And then there's certain people that are really changing the entire landscape of the industry and business utilizing AI. So there's going to be different, you know, levels of use and how they're taking advantage of it. But if you want to talk about it, number one, figure out for franchises, a good fit, ask any questions, learn about the conference. As I mentioned, we're going back in July. Same setup. We haven't gotten the the itinerary. We usually get it a month before, but we'll be meeting with another 120 brands, a lot of similar brands that could be some new brands which is really good, but I'd love to ask have those questions then if you want that question answered sooner than later, let's not wait until July. Let me know. I have direct access to to numerous brands where we can pick up the phone. Speak with the founder. And you know, maybe it's something it's about the industry. Maybe it's about a specific brand. But again, I, I appreciate those questions. I jotted those down and feel free. And again, if you just want to jump on a call and not wait for me to, to create the next podcast, go right to the website, GG, the franchise guide. com. There's a, you can book a call with me. It's going to ask you a few questions. There's a, there's a short little survey, but You can book a call and anyone that wants to book a 20 minute call. That's really the process. You can email me directly. GG. At gg the franchise guide. com. Just because you book a call doesn't mean this. The timing is right for a franchise. Maybe you just want to have a few questions answered. Maybe you just want to say, Hey, you know, I have a two year two year agreement left with my, my employer. After that, I'm thinking of business ownership. What do I have to do now? We can answer that question. You know, one, one thing I just learned, it was the president of the IFA had listened to an interview. This is, this is actually interesting. Two thirds of people, they interview two thirds, right? That's, that's a huge number have considered owning a business, just considered it, and two thirds of those people that have considered owning a franchise. Have stated that they did not move forward and why they didn't know where to start. And I think a part of that is the service we offer. We can really help you figure out is a business ownership, the right fit, forget about franchising is business ownership, the right fit. We talk about it, what to expect, the types of businesses, full time, part time, we discuss the pros and cons, the differences, the things to consider, and then we look at if franchising is a good fit, equally as important. You know, franchising obviously is a vehicle, so do you want the business built for you, that business on training wheels, or do you prefer not to pay the franchise fee and develop that business from scratch? There's no right or wrong here. So, you know, this is my offer to you. This is, it's a free call. My, our services are free. We can help you. So those, the two thirds of the two thirds people that are interested in business ownership, we, we are, you know, use this as a resource. Allow us to help you figure out you know, where to start and that's really, you know, if, if you want, if you want one takeaway of where to start, it's very simple. And that's figuring out, you know, why do you want to own a business? What is your why? And once you answer that question, whatever the, whatever that the response is, it's money spending more time with, with family combination of both. Then looking at what does the ideal business look like and, and not looking at, you know, the top 500 franchises out there, what's the hot industry and stuff like that. But what is this ideal business look like? Are you working from home or going to a retail location? Do you have a lot of staff? Do you want to keep it to a minimum? What is your investment level? You buy a home, right? You got to get pre approved. You have to have a budget in mind. You don't just tell the real estate agent deals, fine me, whatever. You puts them some things together. I want to be on the, on the ocean. I want to spend no more than a million. I want to be in New Jersey, et cetera, et cetera. So, or, you know, it has to be a condo and not a and not a, you know, individual structure, you know, single family dwelling. So same thing with franchising, not look at the brands, but figure out what it, what it looks like. You know, brick and mortar realization. It's going to take you a while to get open versus something service based where you're up and running quicker. What is your skillset? Not do I have experience in painting or roofing or eyelash extensions, but you know, my skillset is sales. Sales is a transferable skillset. That works for your W2 job. It works for your business, your side hustle, whatever the case may be. So this is where to start guys. It's actually extremely simple. And when you reverse engineer the process, figure out why you want the business, what the ideal business is, get a little clear there, you know, there's some questions and follow up there. Then you're like, okay, what are the companies? What are the. Is it a franchise or not? And if it is a franchise, what are the companies offering? Everything I want low staff under a hundred K investment, reoccurring revenue, revenue, B2B recession resistant, et cetera, et cetera. Once you put the guidelines in place, boom, you know, you can narrow it down and you can narrow down that search just with something simple as your investment. Your location because Frank, the franchise has to be available and what your role is full time, part time, that kind of deal that it's going to narrow that universe of a franchise right there by over 90%. Maybe, maybe even maybe 99 percent depending on on where you're at because certain brands are just sold out in certain markets and states. So that's where to start guys. So I really appreciate the president. I F A sharing that. It was really cool. It was, it was good to know cause I didn't, I always knew that I didn't realize how high the numbers were. So feel free to reach out. We can help. Thank you. I appreciate all your support. We're bringing on some, some guests. We have some invites out waiting to hear back. So we've got some really cool guests that we'll, we'll be having for you towards the end of Q1. And again, thanks for listening. We'll talk to everyone soon. Take care. If you want to learn how to make the transition from corporate to owning your franchise, join Giuseppe on the next episode. You can also follow on all social media platforms and achieve financial and time freedom today.