Franchise Freedom

Franchise Expert REVEALS Secrets to Success!

• Giuseppe Grammatico • Season 1 • Episode 231

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Thinking about buying a franchise? Get INSIDER advice from Jeff Elgin, CEO of FranChoice, the premier network of franchise referral consultants! In this episode of the Franchise Freedom Podcast, Jeff shares his decades of experience, reveals common mistakes, and provides invaluable tips for finding the PERFECT franchise for YOU.


Find your right fit at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/right-fit


DISCLAIMER: The information on this podcast is for general information purposes only. Franchising involves risk and careful consideration should be given before making any decisions.

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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.


I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping people find their piece of the American dream. Normally, the economy goes up and down, and one of the questions I'm always asking myself when I look at opportunities is, Is this a business that's going to do well if times tighten up? Because sooner or later, we're going to have another recession. I'll tell you that the biggest mistake that most people make, and it was true of me when, when I first became a franchisee is they focus on the widget. They focus on the product or service that the business is delivering to customers. And, and that's the last thing you should be looking at. 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. Really excited for today's episode. we have Jeff Elgin from FranChoice, super excited. Jeff has been a, a mentor to me, learned a lot from Jeff over the years. I think I jokingly say, I think he created franchising. He's been in the business so long. But before we bring them on stage and again, super excited to have them on, you've been Asking for more and more guests. That's what we're bringing to the table. Lots of guests, lots of knowledge lots of different perspectives, which is the whole point of the show is educating where we can. But wanted to encourage you. We've been getting a lot of requests. If you're ready to chat or learn a little bit more about franchising, you could reach out to us directly right on the website, ggthefranchiseguide.com people always ask me am I a good fit for franchising? We included a survey right on the website. Gives you some quick questions, some things to think about if franchising may be a good fit. So check it out again, ggthefranchiseguide.com. You can book a call, you can listen to previous shows and we'll have this show with Jeff pretty soon here in the next couple of weeks. So let me bring Jeff on stage here. Jeff, welcome to the show. We really appreciate you. You coming on today. Thank you. And I did not invent franchising a long way, but not quite that far. I see that jokingly. So we'll, we'll get some jokes in, but now it's, it's been a, it's been an honor having you on. If you could give. Audience, maybe a little bit of a, of a bio, kind of how you got into franchising and what you're up to now. I actually started in franchising as a multiunit franchisee in 1983. 83 is, you probably weren't even born yet at that point in time, but and I have the distinction of being the absolute worst franchisee in the history of franchising. That's funny. I I got in the video rental business when it was red hot. In those days, every, every video would rent on Saturday night, the store's shelves would be bare. And I thought, boy, this is a great way to make money. It never occurred to me that about every third person in America would go into the video rental business at the same time I did. And very quickly it was overbuilt. And and then I got to learn a new term called shakeout. And which is what happens when, when you get too much supply in a retail environment. Some people have to go bye bye. I got very lucky because somebody came along even dumber than me and bought the business from me. So I got out from under it. And, and and the franchise or asked me to get involved in franchise development and in talking to people who wanted to become franchisees since I'd had that experience and, and maybe provide a few warnings about who's appropriate and what are appropriate concepts for people. And, and so I did that for a while and, and spent most of the nineties with a company called great clips. the hair cutting franchise and built that up very, very large and, and then left there and started franchise, which is a service that helps people who want to find a good franchise, but they really don't know how to go about doing it. We have consultants that that work with them, that spent a few hours asking questions and gathering information to try and figure out. What the people want to accomplish, what resources they have to work with, and and what their interests are. And, and based on that, we can usually narrow down to a few franchise businesses that have a high likelihood of giving the people what they want in, in terms of their goals for a business. And, and it's been very gratifying. We've now, 25th year in business and franchise, and I've enjoyed every moment of it. That's great. And, and as the audience now, I am also a consultant with franchise. It's been great. It is the premier agency out there, a premier company, excuse me, out there. And just absolutely love everything about it. What obviously, it sounds like a crazy topic as you mentioned how we help individuals, but it's almost reverse engineering it, as opposed to looking at lists and lists and lists and trying to figure out what the heck is a good match. Yeah. We're figuring out what's, what's more, most important to you. Can you, can you talk a little bit more about, what, maybe a little bit more of what's involved in that process and maybe some things to think about, I can indeed, I, I, if you go back to my own experience, I got in a business that I thought I was going into movie business, I'm thinking in a couple of months, I'll be down in Hollywood having lunch with Jane Fonda or something. But the reality was I, the business I selected was just a standard retail business. It could have been a shoe shop or a bookstore or anything else. It was just plain retail. And, and that did not suit my background or my interests at all. And frankly, was excruciating. Now, what we do with people is sit down and the very first thing we we just start asking questions. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell me what you hope to accomplish. What motivates you to get involved in a in a business entity? Because it's it's difficult to build a business. It's not an easy fall off a log thing. So you've got to have something driving you something you want to accomplish that makes it worthwhile to to hit a few potholes in the road and take some risk and then and then become a business owner. And so we asked about that. We asked about their tolerance for risk. And we, we talked about what resources they have available and what skill sets they have. And, and, and then a lot of very specific question. How do you feel about employees and what type of employees do you most like to work with? And how do you feel about selling? Are you a good advocate? Are you, is that something that's a strong suit for you? And just lots and lots of questions like that. And at the end of that process, we build a model that talks about what the person that we're working with wants to accomplish and, and, and, and frankly, what they have to work with and, and and how they'll know if they. at the end of the process have victory. What does that look like if it turns out to just be fantastic? And, and then based on that model, we go out and analyze a number of different franchise opportunities and, and try and narrow down to a small handful that, that look like they might be a great match for that person. And quite often it's not a business that the person's ever thought of. And a lot of people come to us going have you got a good Subway sandwich? Or a McDonald's or something like that. And, and, those businesses are, are, are perhaps not as attractive when you get involved in them as they look from, from perhaps the idea that, that there's a long line out the door at lunchtime you have to, you have to have a skill of dealing with a large number of minimum wage employees that turn over on a very regular basis. That's a skill that a lot of people have. But I don't. And, I would much rather work with more highly skilled and educated people. And, and, and there are franchises that focus on that kind of activity. There are executive franchises where instead of the franchisor or the franchisee, rather dealing with the customer delivering products or services, they usually work with managers that run the individual units and, and they manage the managers. Lots of different types of franchises and it just, it boils down to one thing. What's the perfect opportunity for you? I like that. I always say, let's check off all the boxes, not just check some of them off. And that's extremely important because we're getting super, super specific. And that's a perfect example, as you mentioned with the food franchise, because people always come to me and say I don't, I don't want a lot of employees. But I want a subway. I want some of these, some of these businesses. And I go, have you ever, have you ever worked or actually just, have you ever eaten at a restaurant? How many employees have you seen between the food runners and the waiters? And I grew up in the, I grew up in that space. We owned an Italian restaurant and we just had dozens and dozens of employees, lots of turnover. Once you kind of lay it out that way, it really clears things up. And I think it's a, it's truly helpful. really makes them kind of take a step back to say, yeah, you know what? I don't, this is not what I actually want. Or if, if I want to be in food or certain restaurants, I'm always settling here. I'm constantly saying I don't want lots of employees. I'll suck it up on this one. I'll settle. I also don't want to work nice and weekends, but I'm settling. Now we have a complete opposite of what that ideal model is. Yeah, you nailed it there. I couldn't agree more. Equally, it's important who, who, who is not a good fit for a franchise. I get that question all the time. And I want to hear from you, what are your thoughts on the simplest process of figuring out if a franchise is a good fit or not for an individual? I think that a lot of people prefer. Certainty to to uncertainty and, and in an employment environment, it's a very certain environment. You go to work when somebody else hires you, they tell you how much you're going to make, they tell you when to be there and what to do when you're there. And, and so you don't have to make a lot of those kinds of decisions for yourself. An independent business owner is making those kind of decisions for themselves all day, every day, right? And and the, the, the, the beauty of the role, if you look at the positives are just often unlimited potential in terms of of long term earnings and lifestyle and lots of other things. But there's also, you, you're not only the CEO, you're the janitor and everything in between in a small business and, and, and the buck stops here and you, you might end up making a lot of money long term, but you are the last person to get paid. I will vouch for that. That is absolutely true. So it's gotta be, it's gotta be something you really want, right? You gotta look big picture and fast forward that, that first year there's a lot of reinvesting. Back in that business the first year, there's that learning curve. It's finding, the role that you enjoy in the business. You may have a sales background, but maybe you prefer the networking aspect and vice versa. Lots of things to consider. switching gears a little bit franchise trends, you've been in, in, in the business for a while now you've seen a lot. And I just found out prior to hitting the record button that you were at the pre the recent IFA conference. What were some key takeaways when it comes to franchising things you've learned, maybe some changes would love to, cause I, I was unable to attend, so I'm really excited to kind of get your thoughts. I think two questions there. As far as the IFA is concerned, this is the trade group for all of franchising, franchisors, franchisees, suppliers, all attend this meeting. And there were over 4, 000 people out in Las Vegas in one of those giant casinos. And it's so much fun when you've been around a long time because there are a lot of friends I have in the franchise industry that I only see once a year. Right at that convention. So I always try and get out there and, and and, and see the folks, there are lots and lots of new concepts. There are, there are new franchisees, new franchisors starting every year. And, and so it's just, it's just a fun place to to go see your peers and get to know them better and, and look at, take a look at what's happening in the business and, and, and Yeah. And, and make your plans accordingly. The, the other question you asked about concepts was one that I just love because, there, there are certain businesses that are, they're, they're, they're kind of the new toy in the toy box. They're sexy and exciting, but they don't have a whole lot of track record. And there are others that are sort of the steady eddies, and they may not be quite as exciting, but, but a lot of times they have a marvelous track record of success. Taking people like me who don't know their business and giving them a system to operate and, and to become successful in the business. And, and and even though it's fun sometimes to get involved and be a pioneer, that, a lot of the pioneers didn't make it all the way to Oregon. You, you've got to be pretty careful about that as well. And, and and, and frankly, there are just so many tremendous franchises that have been around for a while. And. And they're, they're very predictable in terms of their outcomes and that, and that, especially for someone that is concerned about security and maybe a little more risk adverse, then you probably want to go with a concept that is going to eliminate most of the risk. Now, there's no such thing as eliminating all of it, right? Because all business startups, even good franchises contain an element of risk. And you just have to recognize that going in. A lot of the people that we work with, as you know from your own experience, Giuseppe, a lot of the people are not appropriate for franchising when it comes right down to it. We'll spend some time talking and, and, and we let people know right up front that, at the end of the process, you're going to have to make some decisions about individual franchises. And yes, is wonderful, but no is also wonderful. If it's not the right thing for you, don't do it. And and, and don't feel any pressure to do it. And when we run into somebody that just doesn't seem to be able to fit the pattern very well, quite often we are really, we'll have a conversation with them. That's pretty frank going. I'm not completely convinced this would be a good idea for you to pursue. And and, and even if they don't move forward with anything, there's still, we've made a new friend and that's a, that's a good outcome too. Absolutely. Yeah. It's it's funny you bring that up. Cause I got the one comment, this will make you laugh is this is someone just out of, out of college and said that he heard on a podcast that you couldn't lose money with the franchise. So that I got a kick out of that comment because I said, then why would, why wouldn't you just own every single franchise out there? And I think I, I go, I think you misunderstood what they were saying in the business, because obviously, as you mentioned, there's going to be risk. The question that I get sometimes is what is your success rate? And this is specifically for, for someone on my end. Then I go I don't understand the question. How many people you've placed? If you, if you work with 10 people, how many people end up moving forward with the franchise? And I go that, that number varies. I don't really keep, I don't consider success that if I work with 10 people, 10 people buy a franchise, I guarantee one thing. You're going to learn something from the process. You're going to learn something about yourself. You're definitely going to learn something about a franchising, but our job is not to place and, and have every single person move forward with the franchise. In many cases, I have a, I have a list of people that I follow up with probably in six months where the fit is there, but financially they have to work on some things like credit scores and getting some liquidity there. So the timing wasn't right. We really are able to help people meet them where they're at. And then if the timing isn't right, we figure out if the timing is ever right, we follow up down the road. But I found that, that, that question interesting because they were looking for, I guess, a percentage and franchising, as I mentioned, is not, is not. The right fit for everyone. And I always jokingly say, if you're going to buy a a burger franchise and go in with the expectation of changing the menu franchise may not be the right fit for you. And although, and I'm sure this, the 5 foot long, the the filet of fish sandwich at McDonald's were actual ideas from franchise owners, which is kind of cool, but at the same time, the expectation is not to change that, that entire system. What, what are you. Excited about in franchising, being in the business, kind of what's, what's to come in, in the franchising space. I, I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping people find their piece of the American dream. That's what's driven franchise all along. And, and you mentioned a while ago about the success rates. We, we place about one franchisee for every five or six people that we work seriously with. And so most of the time, the answer is no, not right now. When, when they do it, but, but that doesn't mean never. It just means, as you said, maybe they need to work on their, on their finances or something. Maybe they just need to to work one more time at a job. And then two years from now, get laid off again and go, okay, I've had enough of that nonsense, but, and that's okay. That's, that's, that's what drives our business and it makes it so exciting. When I see people getting into that, and the timing is right, and then the excitement as they go through their initial training, and the euphoria, and also the anxiety, the first day you open for business, and at least in my case, I had probably a little more anxiety than I had euphoria, but that's okay, and then customers start coming in, you start doing business, and the next thing you know, you're off to the races. And as well. That's a marvelous thing. Absolutely marvelous experience to be involved in. And, and we get to do that every day. It's a, it's a great job. And yes, anxiety happiness, excitement, y'all feel the same. You start to sweat the heartbeats a lot faster. So I remember purchasing my first franchise handing, literally handing the check over a franchise or says, do you have any questions? And I asked him how do I, how do I sell this business at some point? And looking back, probably, probably not the best time to have asked that question. I think he was ready to give me back the the deposit. So we kind of joked and he said, no, I'm kind of thinking, 20 years down the road, if I ever wanted to sell, what is that process? It was just a, a question that not sure why popped in my mind the day I'm, I'm investing in my first franchise. But yeah, it's, it's really exciting and it's normal. This is, this is part of the process. Yeah, we, we. We absolutely change lives and just absolutely love, love what we get to do every single day. Fun fact. We were talking early, so I had Jason Pfeiffer, who is the current. Editor in chief of entrepreneur magazine. We had them back on in December. We had them on in the beginning of December. It was before the top 500 list came out. So we got the chat and what it takes to get on the list and things like that. But you had mentioned you, you were you were with entrepreneur magazine at some point. Can you, can you share your, your experience there? I was the franchise writer for entrepreneur for about 10 years back in the in the early part of this century I think from 2000 until about 2012 or something right in that period. So if you go to entrepreneur. com and Google Jeff Elgin, you'll see a few hundred articles that I wrote at one time or another that nobody ever throws anything away on the Internet. So they're, they're archived in there someplace, but the owner in those days was a guy by the name of Pete Shea. Absolutely wonderful, wonderful human being and great business partner. And we did a lot of, a lot of work together and, and have a lot of fun. And Pete's now aged out of the business as I'm in the process of doing. He's, other people have taken over the magazine and, and keep driving it forward, but it was just a marvelous time. And when you mentioned, the head of entrepreneur. com, I thought, okay, I go back a little ways with them too. It's yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy how I wish I knew that I have my, I shared my 2005 copy on the show. It's much yellower. It's it was a, it was a white cover. It's now yellow. I've had it so long. But that was actually the, the first time I actually really started looking into franchising, starting going down the list and making every mistake I think a lot of other people make and started looking at. The, the subways and nothing against subway, but that was the number one selling franchise at the time. And it was making a lot of the mistakes that I try to help other people avoid just looking at kind of what was hot out there and not considering what I wanted. And the funny part to that was we owned an Italian restaurant. I knew I didn't want a restaurant. I didn't want all the staff, but I was looking at subway. And my wife looked at me and she said, are you, are you crazy? Like you work, I mean, love, love the, the the restaurant business. I definitely miss certain aspects of it. It just was the holidays and weekends that we had to work. So it's the little things you get overly excited and you start to kind of forget, what is truly important or what you're trying to do. And most people, when they think of franchising I'm sure you'll, you'll agree with this is they think fast food, they see the signs on the way home. On the way to work and they just get super excited. They don't realize there are, I believe, last, last number, close to just say 4, 000 franchises. And we'll just say in just about every single industry. So if you can think of a business, there's pretty much a franchise. Am I, am I correct by saying that? Yes. And I'll tell you that the biggest mistake that most people make, and it was true of me when, when I first became a franchisee is they focus on the widget. They focus on the product or service that the business is delivering to customers. And, and that's the last thing you should be looking at. What you need to be looking at is what is the franchisees role? And what am I going to be doing if I become a franchisee in this business? And because in a lot of franchise businesses, you're not the one delivering the product or the service. So what difference does it make? What that product or service is. But, but on the other hand, if you, if you say I don't want to supervise a whole bunch of minimum wage employees that turn over all the time, can that eliminates about 70 percent of all franchise businesses right there. If you say, I don't want to work any nights or weekends. perfectly reasonable request that eliminates a whole lot of other ones. And and that's what we really do with people. We ask questions that allow us to narrow down very rapidly. And, and, I, I spent eight years building a company called Great Clips, the haircutting place. And And I'll tell you, there wasn't a single franchisee in that entire eight years that woke up one morning thinking, gee, I ought to get in the haircut business. Yeah. It wasn't that way at all. What would attract them was the lifestyle of the franchisees who had been in that business, say three years or longer. They were all multi-unit owners. They all had managers. They were supervising the managers. They weren't cutting hair. They weren't in the salons on a regular basis. It was an executive franchise. And when people understood that, then all of a sudden a business that maybe was completely unattractive to them initially becomes very attractive when they look carefully at the franchisee role. And that's true of so many businesses that, that I think you just, you need to be focused on, okay, what does a successful franchisee do? basis and am I suited for that role? Does that sound attractive to me rather than focusing on the, the actual product or service of the business? Yeah. And I think, I think most of us did that, as you mentioned, you were, you in the same, you were in the same boat and I'm looking at the exact same thing and you just get super excited. And I always, I always tell someone if you want to be in the, sandwich business. You can, you can run your business and buy all the sandwiches you want if you're truly passionate about sandwiches. I I'm in Jersey Mike's land. I live in the same town, the first Jersey Mike. Got to meet family and friends that. That grew up with the founder and it was really interesting to, to hear his story. And going back to the, to the widget, you'll notice that a lot of brands, your role is going to be very similar. You're not actually installing the roof or cleaning the porta potty or painting anything in a painting franchise, start to look, but, but, but look at, I kind of do it in two, two different levels or layers. We'll call it the first layer is getting the business up and running. You may be wearing all hats to learn the business, get it up and running, but really figuring out six to 12 months out. What is that role in the business? The team's in place. You've, that learning curve, you learn the business, you understand, especially if you, if you've never owned the franchise or any business before, what does that role look like? Six to 12 months out and that'll really help. Validation, getting to speak with franchisees and hearing directly from the franchise owner exactly what's an average day in a life, maybe when you started to where you are today, and that's and that's super helpful. So not only hearing it from a friend, the franchise or, but you're getting to hear it from the franchisee. So a very important part point about the widget, because that is that is an area. A lot of people just kind of, they get super excited and then they go, okay what do you have in this specific space? Or maybe it's. Maybe it's a misconception, right? Maybe they, you think you have to have experience. You do have to have experience in a, in a, in the franchise itself. Or is it, is it something else? It depends on the franchise, but for the most part, the answer is no. What, what franchisors are doing is that they've got a business model that they know if people execute that business model effectively, they will be successful. That's the foundational approach of franchising and what they've also developed then is a methodology to take someone who doesn't know that business and bring them in and in a relatively short period of time, train them in how to set up and run that business effectively so that if the people just follow the system, do what the franchisor tells them, they will be successful most all the time. And and, and that's, that's two different skills. First, you have to have the skill to operate the business effectively. And this is the path that most franchisors follow. They, maybe they open the first four or five, six units of whatever their business is themselves. They run it very successfully and it's doing well. But then at that point they realize they need somebody else's money or. Or management experience or something to help grow the business further. So they turned to franchising to do that. Then they have to develop a second skill that's, that's even more important than being able to operate the business effectively. They have to develop a skill to take somebody who doesn't know beans about that business and, and train them in a fairly short period of time to be able to effectively run it. And those are two different things. Quite often you'll see people who are very successful operators who are not very successful franchisors because of that. And that's another reason that there's a lot less risk in a franchise if they've got a track record and they've proven that they can take people like me and, and, and put them in business and make them successful. I like that. We call it a business on training wheels. That's something I you know, when someone, they want a comparison, I go, that's really one of the best compare it's you have that support and that's what you're really getting in. You want that support that. That anything, you, you have any questions, have any issues that you have that go to someone to, to contact to help you out. One last question on that. So what would you, what do you think, and not every franchisee is going to be successful, so what do you think is the main cause for people maybe not to do so well in their, in their franchise? This is the, from the franchisee standpoint. I, if you investigate. The franchise opportunities carefully and, and, and, and ensure that they do have a track record of success of being able to help people. Then if you don't succeed, it's almost always because you decided not to follow the system that the franchise or laid out for you. And you, you decided to improve it. That's the term I used when I improved the system that I had been taught. And mind you, there were a few hundred people that were very successful in that business. A lot more successful than me, but you know, the franchisor would say something like, make sure your location is on the going home side of the street. Because people stop and rent movies on the way home, right? You need to be convenient for that half the stores I opened were not on the going home side of the street because I thought What difference does that make if they've got to make a left turn across a lot of traffic? I learned the hard way it makes quite a difference and and and so and and you know It's just there's so many little things like that. But basically If a franchisee does not succeed, it's either because they weren't careful in the investigation process. So they ended up with a franchise that did not have a track record of success. And then it's more of a crapshoot, right? If you want to start an independent business where you get to try and invent the airplane while you're flying through the air. Then don't get a franchise if you if you need that extra level of excitement But if you really don't want that extra level of excitement and risk Then get a franchise that has a proven track record and for crying out loud. Don't be like me follow the system Yes, so two two pieces there first off Yes, you have to pick the right franchise and do the due diligence and follow the system sounds pretty basic. But following the system. There's lots, lots there. I talked to people all the time and they I have a marketing background. I'm going to just do the marketing myself. That's part of the system. The marketing that they're doing. We're not saying it's perfect, but they're catering the marketing for your specific area. They've been doing this before. They're leveraging National accounts. And I hear it all the time while I have a marketing background or I have someone that does pay per lead, pay per click, excuse me. I'm going to, I'm going to just do it on my own. Really if the intention is not to follow, then a franchise may not be a good fit. So we keep going back to fit and no fit not, not a good fit. What did what is the, I guess, best advice? It could be one piece or a couple of pieces of advice. That you can give to anyone listening as we mentioned the beginning of the episode A lot of people first time business owners whether it's a franchise or not. They're exploring side hustles. They're exploring their first time business So what are some some best pieces of advice you can give to anyone that's at this stage? Researching, maybe they hate their job. Maybe they're just looking for that, that side income or side hustle. What would you recommend or what was the best piece of advice you can give to them? Be careful, be cautious and trust your instincts. There's times when you've probably made decisions in your life. I have, everybody has that didn't work out very well. And when you look back in hindsight and ask yourself, what can I learn from that? From making a mistake, at least in my experience, I almost always realized that, okay, I had some unease. I, I, there was, there was definitely a lot of doubt inside of me, but I, I just pulled my way through it and said, go for it anyway. Okay. Trust your instincts a little bit. If something. Is, is the right thing for you, then you're going to feel it in your gut. You're going to know that it's the right thing for you and trust, trust your instinct, trust your gut on that. I think get to know the people very well. Don't short circuit the investigation process on any business, because, because you're going to, it'd be like meeting somebody and decided to get married in a day or two. Maybe it might work out. But there's an awful lot of things that you don't know. There's an awful lot of uncertain facts if you haven't spent more time together. And so I think with a franchise or, often prospective franchisees will go visit the company and, and get to know some of the executives. They will certainly, as you recommended, get on the phone to existing franchisees. It's been a lot of time talking to them and existing franchisees in my experience are usually pretty darn. Frank about telling you not only the glory stuff that the good news, but also, what did your worst day look like and what did you have to do and things like that? And if they don't volunteer, ask him those kind of questions because, because you want to know, I mean, you want to get a good picture that the investigation process for a franchise opportunity is really like creating a window that allows you to look. Through the window and see what your life is going to look like. If you decide to pursue this franchise opportunity and the better and clearer the view is the better decision you're going to make. And so take the time to build a great big, clear window and take a good hard look through it. And I think you can avoid a lot of potential trouble. I think also be real careful of any business that you think might be a fad. Because the beauty of a fad is if you get into it early enough. You can make a lot of money really quickly. And then if you're smart, you'll sell before that fad peaks, because the problem is these things come and go very quickly. And, and a lot of my favorite franchises out there are, they're like Mike Rowe, dirty jobs. I mean, they're just fundamental services, but. They're fundamental services that have a need and, and, and quite often they are very high margin businesses. There's, there's nothing exciting or appealing about when a pipe burst in your basement and floods the whole basement with sewage. But you know, when that happens to you, you have no choice. You're going to call your insurance agent and say, who's a good restoration company? And then you're going to get ahold of restoration company, haven't come out and clean that mess up. They, they put a fan down in your basement and, and, and probably charged the cost of that fan every day while it burns up your electricity, drying things out, they, they can be very, very successful businesses. And keep in mind, it's not the franchisee that's out there at 1130 at night. Right. Getting busy cleaning up that mess the franchisees the one who hires all the people that go out and do that work And you know just just make sure you focus on that kind of thing and and don't worry if a business is a little bit unsexy because frankly You know, I I was on Fox News one time and they said what's the most sexy business out there? I said I'll tell you it depends on how you spell the word sexy Cause I spell it M O N E Y everybody got a good laugh out of that, but that's true. If, if, if the object of getting into business is to succeed financially, then let's focus on the money and a lot more than the product or service, the money, and then the lifestyle of the franchisee. I like that. Yeah, that's very, very well said. I mean, I really can't add too much to that. very well said what are any, anything else we didn't discuss? I know I want to be respectful of your time and. I really appreciate it's been an honor having you on the meeting to ask you for a while We just had our conference back in january. So I really appreciate your time and wisdom anything else that that we didn't talk about in in the area of franchising or things to think about I think one other thing i'd be thinking of if I was looking at franchises right now, we haven't Had a recession since the Great Recession, and that's not normal in this country. Normally, the economy goes up and down, and one of the questions I'm always asking myself when I look at opportunities is, Is this a business that's going to do well if times tighten up? Because sooner or later, we're going to have another recession. And you need to make sure you're getting involved in something that is going to stand the test of time. And be strong kind of no matter where the economy goes. And and I think I'd also be asking the same question about inflation. Because we are sort of in an inflationary economy. It's not out of control, but it's there. And we need something that has some pricing elasticity, if you will, when you get in there. So that if the cost of eggs, what has doubled in the last year, if something like that happens, are you going to be able to protect your business? Against that kind of a factor and and stay good. Waffle house now charges 50 cents extra per egg. Is there anybody who goes through more eggs than waffle house? They had to make an adaption there and they were able to. That's very interesting. What would you agree? We, we almost had a test of it. I'm not saying this was, we were in a recession, but with COVID, I always say, look, look at what happened during COVID everything shut down. What were the essential businesses? What were the businesses that. There was always that demand, like, as you mentioned, restoration, regardless of what was going on, there were still fires and floods and natural disasters. Wouldn't you agree that was a little bit of a test? Or, or Very much you can disagree. Oh no, very much I think, you can't anticipate something like a pandemic. But you can ask yourself the question that you know, what are the vulnerabilities of this business opportunity? I'm looking at what, what, what impact like an economic surge or, or recession, what impact would that have on the business? And just ask yourself those kind of questions. And, and and, and, if you're, especially if you're looking at multiple businesses that all seem pretty good, that might help you really narrow down in a way that gets the best possible choice for yourself. Love that. Jeff, again, I really appreciate it. We'll we'll give you, we'll send you an email once the the show is live here in a couple of weeks, but always a pleasure. If there's anything we didn't, we didn't talk about, we create some pretty detailed show notes and a blog for every episode. So if you, there's something else you want to share, we didn't, we didn't get to today. Feel free to share it. We'll put that in the blog. And again, I really appreciate your time today. Sure. Thanks for having me on. Thank you. 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.

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