5 Tips to Avoid Hidden Costs That Could Sink Your Franchise!

Are you considering buying a franchise? Don't let hidden costs derail your dreams! 

In this episode of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, franchise expert Giuseppe Grammatico reveals 5 crucial tips to help you uncover and avoid unexpected expenses that could sink your new business. 

Learn how to navigate the franchise buying process with confidence and financial clarity.

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The Franchise Freedom: Discover Your New Path to Freedom Through Franchise Ownership, Book by Giuseppe Grammatico https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/book or purchase directly on Amazon.

Transcript

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What are the five tips to avoid hidden costs that could sink your franchise Don't just say, well, all painting franchises are the same. Talk to the franchise or every franchise can be run differently from the role to the investment to the expectation, who their franchise avatar is. No one is going to do this for you. The bookkeeping needs to be buttoned up, need to look at those financials and you need to, really look on a month to month basis and say, okay, monthly P and L. So you know exactly the revenues that came in and then what your profitability was. 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 via franchising. Thanks for joining us. I just looked at the calendar and this is it is February 5th as we're recording this and episode, I believe we're at two 28 and it's been just about five years since we launched the the show. So I really appreciate the support. The show has definitely evolved and changed. We started with the audio only format and switched over to video. I believe it was just after the first year or so. So tens of thousands of downloads hundreds, if not thousands of, of comments and engagement. So we really appreciate all that support. And we really appreciate the questions. The show isn't about. Number of downloads. And, are we global where, where, where are the downloads coming from? It's really to, to assist. And if it can help one individual our, our job is done, just in, in their franchise journey and their business journey. And that could even just be, Hey, a business isn't the right fit for now. So super excited. I just realized this as we're, as we're recording. So five years in the making. This will be our fifth year and we are going to continue, weekly shows, weekly insights and engagement, we're here to help. And today's show I'm super excited about because it just had a conversation on Monday. So today's Wednesday. So two days ago on the, on the, what was that? The third talking about this and the title for today's show is going to be five tips to avoid. Hitting costs that could sink your franchise. I thought that was appropriate. Kind of piggybacking off our previous episode five, what do we call the previous episode? Avoid these five rookie mistakes in your franchise journey. So this is almost a, we'll call it a continuation of that show. Specifically, we're going to focus in here on the financials. Sometimes I like to go kind of. Macro, and then go micro in certain areas. Again, I'm super excited to, to, to dive into this one. And as soon as we're done with this episode, I'm going to send this send this show to the individual that we spoke with on Monday. All right. Where do, where do we start here? And just, and just so everyone's listening, we covered a lot of this this episode in the previous. back. But the feedback I'm getting from, from people is that, Hey, just started listening to your show went about five, 10, 10 episodes back. So we're really kind of bringing some, some of these topics. Sometimes we're merging the shows together giving an update, a 2025 update. Just revisiting something. Sometimes there's not change, right? There's certain things that just don't change, but we're going to revisit. So for any new listeners, welcome. Hope you enjoy the content. My name is Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide. If you need any assistance figuring out if a franchise business may be the right fit for you. We offer a free service. Similar to an executive recruiter, no, no fear cost to you and would love the opportunity to, to help you out. And we also love, love, love feedback, engagement, comments, questions as we use those questions and topics for our future episodes, because at the end of the day, I want to answer your questions address your concerns, not just put together a list of what I think maybe some good topics. Diving in. What are the five tips to avoid hidden costs that could sink your franchise and some of these we'll talk about in detail, but You know, it's really just being aware, understanding kind of where the numbers fall into play and where to find them. Number one is when you start engaging and talking with a franchise company, I always recommend, figuring out if the model is a good fit, if they have availability before diving into their franchise disclosure document, we're going FDD. Referred to an FDD going forward by the way, the franchise agreement is within the FDD. I wouldn't advise just, just reading those all day long. I would, I would advise on figuring out an ideal business model, seeing what franchises match that model and then start digging into FDDs. These are two, three, four, I've seen them, much greater depending on the amount of information that's included 400 plus pages legal documents. Same items. You have more detail than others in certain areas. But at the end of the day, figuring out the franchises and the models before diving in because if it's not a good fit. Not saying you can't read the FDD, but figuring out if it's a good fit before spending hours reading that document. So you get the FDD that's going to list I believe it's 23 items up front. It's going to give you an overview legal, if there have been any lawsuits on both ends, franchise or franchisee. At the very end, there's going to be a PNL. There's going to be the franchise agreement. And within these 23 items you'll have a section item five, which is initial fees item six, other fees. And then item seven, we're going to stick to these three estimate estimated initial investment. So these are essentially, going to item seven, the initial investment is a range in that range, it's usually at all costs involved between the franchise fee and everything you needed to get the business up and running. I would say usually it may cover 90 days. So the first three months of operation. So you'll have three months marketing, three months payroll, three months marketing working capital, excuse me. But always refer, it should tell you in the FDD, but always ask the franchise or to, to confirm. The item six and item five are also going to cover. All the other fees. So you'll see things like what's the transfer fee. If I were to sell my franchise, if any royalties, are they fixed? Is it a percentage of revenue, which is typically what you'll see. Some have a scaling royalty where it decreases. After a certain length of time getting crystal clear on, what the initial investment outlining that, what the costs are, that's going to be crucial. Now with that being said, you want to create a proforma and that proforma. Is going to, really list out you can put in hypothetical revenues and then you're going to go down the list as far as all the expenses you can incur in that business. This is not in stone. This is something that you, that you can change. You can do like with the initial investment, you'll have a low end and a high end. Why? Because everyone's situation is different. It depends on, if you're going to be full time or hire general manager. That additional, employee, that general manager, if you're paying them, we'll say$60,000 a year, well, that's$5,000 a month. So that's an extra, just say$15,000 plus additional payroll costs. Insurance and everything else, call it$20,000 into your initial investment. So that can swing it from a$100,000 to$120,000 investment. Bigger investment, when you go to funding, you want to make sure that's, that's being tackled and covered. That's why you'll, you'll get those investments ranges. Will you be purchasing the vehicle or leasing the vehicle? Will that vehicle be used or will that vehicle be, is that, is that vehicle new? How aggressive are you going to go with the marketing? What are you paying your staff? Are you going to pay your general manager a lower cost and give them upside via phantom equity, maybe a percentage of the profits, which you know, not underlying equity, but essentially kind of a profit sharing plan, maybe giving them a lower salary, but then taking care of them on the, on the on the profit and profitability of the business. Those are things to consider. So laying, laying all that out and understanding that, these, these expenses could vary which we're going to talk about here. So that's kind of where to find the information. Secondly second tip is talk with franchisees. But not just franchisees in your market, you're going to talk to various franchisees. You're going to talk to franchisees that are in your market. You're going to and maybe they're one town over one county over, depending on how the territory or the the physical retail locations are maybe five minutes from you in the same town, in the same County. You're going to talk to existing franchisees that are maybe newer. You're going to talk to existing franchisees that have been in the business a couple of years, five, 10, whatever the case may be you want to speak with different franchisees, maybe franchisees running at the business full time and franchisees running at part time, why you want to just get all kind of, that information. And, and put it all down. So you're going to look at the investment, you're going to look at the ongoing expenses, and you want to minimize the hidden costs, right? You want to know everything you want, everything laid out keep in mind, it's never going to be perfect. Things change, right? And we want to make sure we take into consideration changes in the market, what's going on in the world costs of raw goods and things like that. Taking that into consideration, you'll get a good understanding of, okay. The low end, it's, it's we'll say Marketing is$2,000 to five to$4,000 so maybe you want to go in the middle at$3,000 maybe you want to go on the high end, completely up to you. You want to speak with other individuals. You want to talk to individuals, five years down the road and just say, Hey, do the, the, the costs ever drop or can I continue with these expenses? And and increase sales, maybe some costs are fixed whether you're doing a couple hundred thousand to a million bucks, maybe that maybe the costs are fixed, you don't need to add additional marketing or staff or anything else. So obviously that's going to increase your profit margin. So the cost will say the same. But the margins will, will increase up until a certain point when then you have to start investing in more marketing, picking up an additional territory. What is that cost? What are the fees to purchase an existing territory? I just had a conversation yesterday with an individual that wasn't sure about buying a second territory up front. This will also affect the investment. And I said, well, that's up to you. The benefit is that you lock in your future expansion should you decide to grow later on and not worry about another. A franchise owner purchasing that territory, that location, depending on what that, this was a business in the home service and in the painting space. And I said, well, typically the franchisor will give you a discount if those territories are purchased in this case, the additional territory, I believe was$50,000 and they discounted to$40,000 later on, if that purchase was made after after the franchise was up and running the the$50,000 so it would be the cost. So essentially it was a$10,000 savings roughly per per territory. So if you bought three territories in total, it saved them$20,000 so again, increasing your expense, increasing your investment, but those, those territories are in this specific case will be developed at a later date. There's usually a a development schedule saying, Hey, you get the first business up and running in six months. We'll give you another six months for the second territory, another six months for the third. These are just examples. Again, you want to ask for specifics with each brand. There are certain brick and mortar brands that allow you to open up really interesting in a, in a salon suite. And they give you. Several years to open up a what they call flagship brick and mortar location. More than glad to talk about that on a future call, but that's for a specific brand. But regardless, don't go in assuming, ask the questions. Every brand functions differently. Don't assume all franchises are the same as with this one individual on Monday. Not every franchise is a percentage of royalty. There are fixed. Royalty or fixed amounts and they're sliding scale and then there are, there are plenty that just keep it fixed from day one. So those are, those are things. So number three is, and I kind of touched on this the, we'll call it the third tip to avoid hidden costs that could stick your franchise is. Figuring out how are you going to run the business and are you going to be full time or are you going to be part time? Well, if you're full time you can maybe not need a general manager Keep the payroll a little bit less in the previous example We talked about you know paying someone just say five thousand a month times three with all the additional costs You know, maybe we'll round it up to$20,000 that you'll be saving in payroll costs running it yourself, but keep in mind, if you had a job that you were leaving obviously you wouldn't have that income coming in. So factor all that in, you want to have that, that at the end of the day, that buffer to make sure that your personal, your, your mortgage student loans. medical costs, insurance, all that stuff is still being paid. You don't want to get behind. So definitely have that, that financial buffer, but figuring out if you're going to be full time or part time, well, you may say, Hey, Giuseppe, I don't know. I haven't figured that part out. No sweat. Let's create two pro formas. Put one where you're the running the business full time and then. Look at a second one where you're running the business part time with that general manager, or maybe it's not a GM, maybe it's just a key employee in place. Maybe giving them, that, that future GM role, or maybe that's your role, you're, you have that 12 month outlook and eventually go full time in the business. So think, think think that through. And if you're not certain, just talk about, well, how does the model change? There's a full time person or running at semi absentee. Secondly. Not to go off topic here, but you want to make sure if you're doing this yourself, ask the franchisor if that's allowed. Some franchise companies, believe it or not, will have you, will require you to be full time in the business. Sometimes there's some flexibility if you have a vested partner, partner that has equity, some skin in the game and you're working directly with that partner. That sometimes works, but again, it's case by case. Don't just say, well, all painting franchises are the same. Talk to the franchise or every franchise can be run differently from the role to the investment to the expectation, who their franchise avatar is. Yeah so definitely consider that as well. The, the fourth area to avoid hitting costs. It's always, avoid surprises and always factor in your costs are going to be higher. So I always jokingly said, whatever initial investment, whatever your costs are for fun just tack on maybe a 10% premium on everything. Will everything be, you have a 10% increase, maybe, maybe not, Hey, guess what? Your expenses can come in much less. You found something you're able to not spend as much on marketing and work more off referrals. That kind of deal, maybe it's a, it's a B2B play and you're, you're getting more referrals from them and there, maybe there's a percentage or a flat amount you're paying, but it's on business that already comes in. No business is coming in. There's no referral fee paid. So always factor in kind of some, some variables. The cost will be higher brick and mortar. We saw this during COVID and costs and things like that, but raw materials went up. There was maybe less contractors. Some contractors went out of business. Some, some businesses, put their businesses on hold people were sick, they were, you were just limited manpower, limited raw material and those raw materials that the cost went up. So sometimes those are things we just can't predict. Interest rates, depending on the direction they're going, obviously that's going to affect your, if you have a variable rate SBA loan, we want to factor that in, but keep in mind your, your numbers can be dead on. They can, some of them can be increased a little bit and some other areas can be decreased and maybe you're exactly what you budgeted. But don't keep it so rigid that if you budget$5,000 a month and you're at$5,100 the business is in trouble, you want that buffer and you want to keep that range. But, I, I talked about this utilizing things like profit first and, putting together budgets. Marketing is an area where the franchisor may handle turnkey marketing and a call center, and you'll have all those fees, but there's always stuff you could do over and beyond. You can launch a podcast, you can do a. A television, a TV commercial, radio ads, a podcast ads have been big. So you can always find ways. So be disciplined. You want to pay yourself potentially a salary may not be replacing what you were making in the past. And maybe you just keep it to, to a minimum, but you know, I had those buckets, making sure your taxes are paid, there's a profitability bucket in there there's a bucket there for income. There's a bucket there. We can call it just all in expenses, some people break that up into marketing and payroll, what have you, and just have those amounts automatically transferred. That'll keep you. To a having that budget so that when a vendor comes and says, you know what? We can add for$20,000 a year, we can, I don't know, market and advertise on various podcasts. You can go back and say, or, we'll, we should do it a monthly, so we'll say$2,000 a month. You can come back and say, all right, well at our current revenue and spend, we only have a thousand left over for that. Can it be negotiated? Maybe a little bit less marketing, or is this something you hold off on? So you're making educated guesses here. You're not just spending on everything in sight and then falling short and unable to pay yourself and not have that buffer. travel costs travel to the, to the franchise, or there's, there's going to be ranges there in the initial investment, but what happens if a key employee leaves and you need to pay the cost to send them. To maybe there's a, a plane ticket. Maybe it's just a, a day's a day trip where they can drive. But additional cost for travel, additional cost for training in the event there's turnover or you need just want some retraining or you wanna go with your, your manager back to training for refresher, whatever the case may be. So you can always factor things like that and budget accordingly, figure out the costs and maybe it doesn't work for this month, but maybe you have budgeted out for Q2 when the numbers are better and you make that decision there. But being, crystal clear on your financials is going to be crucial. No one is going to do this for you. The bookkeeping needs to be buttoned up, need to look at those financials and you need to, really look on a month to month basis and say, okay, monthly P and L. So you know exactly the revenues that came in and then what your profitability was. Are you short every month? Okay. Is it just a revenue fix or do we have to cut back? Do we have that buffer to be short? Because obviously if you're short, that money's coming out from somewhere. So is it coming out from the loan? Is that covering it? From the loan proceeds where, where's that money coming from? Are you factoring a salary and just not, not cashing those checks. So definitely get crystal clear profit first. I talked about that is just a, I, I wish I had heard about that in the past, as simple of a concept as it is, there are profit first professionals out there that'll help you budget. That'll actually meet with you, monthly, weekly, wherever the case may be, to set up accounts, automate things and put together a plan and figure out what are the appropriate percentages for each bucket and each of the allocations. And when do they get updated? Because you may go a little bit too aggressive on certain areas in light on others. So when did they get adjusted? Is it by certain industries, certain revenue numbers? So there's a lot of things to consider. When, when looking in that area and then, number five is, to expect the unexpected, there's no crystal ball, whether you invest in a franchise or not there's always going to be a cost with a franchise. You know what the franchise fee is, you know what the fees are if you add additional territory. You got the items five, six, and seven, the initial investment, which could be the first 90 days of operation, maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe, maybe certain items are a year you want to be really have a really good understanding of what's included in there. What the budget as per the proforma, but we never know, was it an election year that interest rates go up? Did interest rates go down? Are people just hesitant? Are people just not spending? We can't predict that. So Frank franchise or just an individual business. We don't know obviously what to expect. We can predict. We, we may have certain opinions on certain areas, but at the end of the day, we don't know what to expect. So just, just have these numbers. I know this is, this will be crucial because number one, you'll, you'll have a budget. So you can kind of figure out, okay, what is my breakeven amounts? How much, how much revenue has to come in? And what are my monthly fixed costs and that what at one point do I have to increase marketing employee count by another mobile showroom or, or expand into my second territory or my second physical brick and mortar location have all that information things could change, but kind of knowing what are all the expenses when I bought my franchise, a perfect example, how do I sell my franchise was, was the question the franchisor I had looked at me, well, I want to know what costs are involved. I think there was a$10,000 transfer fee. Well, who pays that cost? Well, franchisor doesn't care as long as the$10,000 is paid. So either that's coming from me or, or I'm charging the seller. Maybe we split it. Maybe I just, I just put it into my amount that I'm looking for the business. But ultimately I want to know what that looks like. How do I go about selling it? Are there any additional costs? What other services, some franchises. We didn't talk about this, but they may add on additional services like marketing. Maybe they have marketing, but they add on a call center. What's the cost for that? That's not going to be done for free, but usually it's a lot more economical to work with a franchise or they figured out the process. And maybe it's just a flat fee. Maybe there's a fee per lead. Maybe there's a combination. We have brands that do bookkeeping hiring a full time bookkeeper could get expensive. They may offer a bookkeeping service. And I think that's great. Why the franchisor knows exactly where you are on a monthly basis. And they can maybe bring up any red flags. They may say. You're growing every month. You're, you're making more money, but your profit margins are shrinking. Why is that? Maybe there's a mistake on the pricing. Maybe there's a mistake on the reporting. Maybe there's some theft, believe it or not. You're, you're ordering materials and the additional material. Maybe it's a flooring job. You order 20% more tile. And that tile doesn't get returned for a credit. Maybe the contractor's taking the employees, taking it. And I'm not saying it's, that's the only case, but there are, there are different things, but having a bookkeeping service, they're looking at a monthly P and L and they're, they're calling to your attention, Hey, there may be an issue here, let's sit down and figure it out. At the end of the day, I wish to say. There's, in your exact numbers, there's an exact science to getting as close as you can on doing your homework. So to review, review the FDD, review the items five, six, and seven. Talk with franchisees in your market, outside your market, people that are running it full time, people that are running it part time, people that started their first year and people that have done it five years down the road. Some of those people can give insight as to where the costs come down. Maybe it's partnering with a fran, a franchisee and their marketing efforts and that reduces your spend by 10 or 20%. Figure out your situation. Are you running this business full time or part time? If the franchise company allows you to run it part time, what does that key employer general manager make? And, factored that into your initial investment and your pro forma because it, the, that cost doesn't go away after the first nine months, what, on a monthly basis, what is that additional employee costing me? Always factor in higher costs to avoid any surprises. Factor the worst case and the best case scenario, your costs could come down. They can also increase. But you know, in, in the event, you can work with your funding company. We work with a company Benetrends. And if you have a variable rate SBA loan, you can ask them, Hey, if we anticipate the fed cutting rates by half a point, how will that affect. My monthly payment at the end of the day, it will be immediate. Will it take some time? If my payment's$3,000, what's my new payment going to be in the event that were to happen? You can factor that in. So doing your homework, it's part of the due diligence process. And at the end of the day, with whatever you decide, if you're going to buy a non franchise or invest in a non franchise business or or a franchise. We can't predict the future costs can go up outbreak of a war interest rates all of a sudden go, go North, which is completely unexpected when we feel rates should stay stable or, or decrease. There are a lot of factors and, this is an area, you don't want to be kind of deer in headlights, like what the heck do I do? But just ultimately maybe go air on the side of caution, go a little bit higher on the investment on the costs, had that six month buffer that, that savings reserve in the event, the business takes a little bit longer to get launched. If you're leaving your job, you're cutting back on some expense on payroll, but you want to also make sure, is it your spouse, partner is someone else paying the mortgage and the student loans that that's crucial. So I know I harp on these, but. I, I want to keep, any surprises obviously to to a minimum. There are things that could happen obviously, and we want to, do the research, be best prepared. The surprises are, are obviously kept to a minimum. So I hope you enjoyed this. This is a little bit shorter than we normally go, but these are just kind of five tips. These tips can continue, but this is a great starting point. But, but ultimately, these are areas that I recommend going through, and I'll just, I have to reiterate this one more time. Just because of the calls I had this week is that treat every franchise or as if they're different, meaning don't expect, if a painting franchise one they allow you to run at semi absentee, don't expect a second one to allow you to run semi absentee. Ask the question. If you're working with a consultant, obviously we can help in that process and make the process much simpler. But if you're speaking with brands directly and doing the due diligence. Completely on your own and finding brands. Ask the questions. Don't assume two painting brands are the same. Don't assume your roles are the same. One, one has your painting. One has you never touching a paintbrush. One has you, painting and putting flyers and door hangers. And then the other one has you reviewing KPIs networking at the chamber of events and finding general contractors and staff in your market. So don't, don't assume brands are the same. Get crystal clear, ask the questions. Review the FDD. If you, if you feel like there's a, some likes of this business and there's a potential investment in fit there, usually the franchise company will give you the FDD first call, second call if they feel like it's worth moving forward, they'll provide you that information and you're gonna continue your investigations there. Talk to franchisees. You're gonna talk to the, the franchisor, the founder, whether it be on ongoing calls, you can ask them their expectations, you're the captain steering this ship. Are we adding revenue streams? Are we, how are we making the franchisees more profitable and, and maybe cost wise, everything stays the same. But the franchisor, we just had a case with a franchisor just hired. There was no additional feat to the franchisees, but they hired a full-time. Person to obtain national accounts and there was no additional costs. I believe that was with their brand fund and a not a hundred percent certain, but I believe it came out there, which was a cost that they were paying anyway. And there are a securing national accounts. So if there are these national accounts fall in your area you will be able to service and provide service product or whatever the franchise is. So these are ways not necessarily to lower your costs. But ways of growing your revenue without maybe hiring additional staff or doing additional marketing, this area is really being handled for you. So really cool stuff. Ask the questions. Don't be shy. No silly questions. Take notes. You're going to forget every franchise brand. Look at the things you like, the things you don't like, but really figure out kind of these, these standouts. And which brand is really at the at the end, are they going to support you the most? If it, this is a non franchise obviously completely different story. New business startup, obviously you're going on the web and you're talking with people in similar businesses. If it's a resale again, maybe you talk, you interview competitors, look at others, but you want some full transparency, everything documented for you so you can decide on if it's a good fit one tip. And my last tip we'll call this 5.1 since I said 5 tips is if you're looking at a resale franchise or not. And looking at the profit and loss and saying, okay, the owner at the end of the day is netting a$200,000 a year. One mistake I've seen made, and this, this happens actually more often than than I'd like to see happen is that the person buying or investing in that business is forgetting to the service to debt. So that, that individual franchise owner or not. Maybe taking out$200,000 a year in total, but they may not have a note. They've owned, they started that business. They've been operating for a decade. There's no debt on the, on the books, which is great. So you as a new owner will be taking, taking the place of that owner. Obviously, we'll say all things, considering everything stays the same. Customers stay on pricing everything else, and you're netting$200,000 a year. But your no payments may equate to$50,000 to$100,000 or whatever, just say a$100,000 per year. So you wanna make sure say, okay, now I'm, now that I'm factoring in that I'm not walking away with, with the$200,000 it's only gonna be the$100,000 so I've, I've noticed that as a, a mistake, an area just not addressed. Or kind of like, wait a second, I'm finding this out afterwards. I got all excited over the business. I've talked to multiple business brokers. I've, I've heard this come up in, in the franchise and outside of the franchise world. So keep that in, in mind, get your debt, ask the owner if he has a note, what they're paying. But also factoring, okay, they may have had a note and they have a couple payments left. What is your note payment going to be? So when you're putting together that pro forma look at, okay, it's a business yielding$200,000 to the owner. Just say you're paying a 3x multiple at$600,000 and you get an SBA loan, 10% down. So loans for$540,000, what are you paying on a monthly basis, keeping in mind it's a variable rate. And then what is that annual costs? And then you want to make sure to include that to make sure that the amount of business coming in, it's covering all the expense, it's covering the note and there's money left over. So you want to factor that in. So there's no surprises. Especially. If you're leaving a job, maybe that, that job, just to make this example super simple, is paying$200,000 the bill, the new business is yielding you$200,000 so you think, okay, well it's a wash. There's a lot more, obviously tax benefits to a business and I'm, I'm building equity. But and then you find that, well, that$200,000 after the note is only paying a$100,000 and I want you to avoid that, that mistake. Anyway that was a 5.1 I hope you enjoyed the show again, relevant stuff, stuff we're talking about seeing every single day. Hit me up. If you have any questions, GGtheFranchiseGuide.com you can, there's a contact button. If you have a question, there's a quick little survey. If you want to get started, see if you're a good fit for a franchise and you could book a 20 minute call directly on my calendar. You get to work with me. No one else. It, it, when it comes to cost, we keep the cost low, so you'll get some automations. We do have, um, we've invested in AI assistance. We offer a free service and full transparency, we have to keep the cost low as well. We do have a a booking service that will walk you through the process just initially. To get that first call booked. And then we have some great email automations that go out because sometimes I get super excited, forget to talk about a topic that cover, when to look at a franchise attorney, when to look at funding, who are some people or companies that we can speak with. So take advantage of this. A lot of people say, I don't know where to start. This is where you start. You have a conversation. It's free. Whether we have a call or a hundred calls. Makes no difference. Our referral fees are paid directly from the franchise company. So what do you have to lose? It's how I bought my first franchise. They use a franchise consult, a consultant coach advisor. There's a lot of titles back started talking to them in 2005, 2006 and was able to buy my first franchise. So book that call, take advantage, download my, my franchise freedom book, the blueprint, you gotta go to the website for that, and I'll see you guys on the other side, 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.