
Franchise Freedom
Franchise Freedom is for corporate executives who are tired of the rat race, the politics, and the lack of control inside the corporate monster and are ready to break free. Your host, Giuseppe Grammatico is a successful corporate refugee who has worked on every side of franchising, from owning franchises, to working with franchisors, to helping others use franchising to escape the corporate grind. Get more great insights on franchising and entrepreneurship for people looking at career transition at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com
Franchise Freedom
Choosing Your Advisors Wisely & Cultivating the Right Mindset for Franchise Success (Giuseppe Grammatico, Dan Claps, and Natalie Gold)
Thinking of buying a franchise? This episode is ESSENTIAL! Join Giuseppe Grammatico, Dan Claps & Natalie Gold as they share expert insights on navigating advisors, involving spouses, setting realistic expectations, the owner mindset, accountability, management traps & following the system for franchise success!
Read more at: https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/podcasts/choosing-your-advisors-wisely-cultivating-the-right-mindset-for-franchise-success/
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.
believe it or not, my first business, my accountant told me I couldn't make money with the franchise. So, you know what happened? I made money with the franchise and I fired the accountant. You just need to trust your instinct and it's the secret ingredient in a business is you.
Dan and Natalie (2):when you start a business, your revenue is the lowest you work the most. It's the worst time. But as you grow the business, the revenue goes up. And then your time goes down.
Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where you can escape the corporate trap through franchise ownership. Here's your host, Giuseppe gr, the franchise guide.
Dan and Natalie:Welcome to an episode of the Freedom Franchise Podcast, as well as the I Fire My Boss podcast, Dan claps here with some of my franchise friends, Natalie Gold and Giuseppe Grammatico, and what's going on guys?
Giuseppe Grammatico:Nothing. Looking forward to that. I, I, me merging the shows, which is kind of cool. So, meet meeting
Dan and Natalie:of the minds. Absolutely. And then of course, we've also got a special guest over there, Mia.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Hello Mia.
Dan and Natalie:Mia's not feeling well, so. It's take me out to work day. That's awesome. Well, you get the freedom as a business owner to be able to do that, right? Yeah. No one's gonna fire me, so that's a plus. Yeah. Yeah. You had
Giuseppe Grammatico:to fire
Dan and Natalie:your boss to then become the boss. Well, today we're gonna be talking about you know, utilizing advisors or, you know, not utilizing advisors and kind of the difference when thinking about starting a business. And I think I'll, I'll kick this off. Obviously you need to talk to trusted people about, you know, anything that you're thinking about doing when it comes to getting into a business. My advice, though is to talk to people that are in that industry. So if you're thinking about getting into the technology industry, talk to a technology advisor. If you're thinking about getting into franchising, talk to a franchise advisor not your neighbor. Not your, you know, friend that tells you that, you know, they, they don't think franchising makes sense because they, you know, heard on TV that, you know, x, y, Z happened. And I, I would tell you that, that, that, where I like to think about this is I'm on my, you know, maybe fourth business of starting and I have never had a family member not one time say That's a good idea. Not one time has anyone of all my businesses ever said, you should go for that. It's a good time. It's never been the case. And I'll leave with, or I'll kind of end with I was thinking about this Sarah Blakely, she started Spanx. Mm-hmm. And she actually said that when she had the idea, she didn't tell anyone for a year. She built the idea because she knew that if people, she told them they would start to bring her down. So she had to work on her own. Get that momentum, get that confidence. What do, what do you guys think about that? You actually did that to me. I had a business idea a long time when we first started the, when we first started our consulting business, I was like, you know what I'm gonna do? I was like, we just need to make a site where we sell FDDs Mm. And has like every single FDD on it. And then after we sold the business, I did it and it worked. Yeah, there
Giuseppe Grammatico:there you go.
Dan and Natalie:Don't listen to Dan, don't listen to me. Exactly.
Giuseppe Grammatico:See, it applies to me too. It applies. I was
Dan and Natalie:I was like, why didn't I do that earlier? But it definitely was a massive undertaking at the time. But I think what we were talking about is Giuseppe was with the Shark Tank. And you were telling us about something and that's how we went into how even the sharks are wrong. Yeah. They, I mean, listen, you, you, you never know exactly what's
Giuseppe Grammatico:work out.
Dan and Natalie:And I think just
Giuseppe Grammatico:to add to
Dan and Natalie:kind of what you guys were saying, sometimes it's, people don't mean anything negative by it. It's more of they're just, they're being, you know, cautious. Right? They don't want you to lose money or there's a big risk believe it or not, my first business, my accountant told me I couldn't make money with the franchise. So, you know what happened? I made money with the franchise and I fired the accountant. So hopefully he's not listening. We're not gonna name, we're not gonna name names, but so, you know, they look at the numbers, they don't look at necessarily the big picture of the actual business itself. So, so yeah, I, I completely get it. But when
Giuseppe Grammatico:you do ask for advice, you do have to be
Dan and Natalie:very cautious, cautious of who you're asking for. Yeah. And where are their motivations coming from? Sure. You know, I, I, I know that in my 11 years of being in franchising, I've never heard a financial planner, no offense to financial planners, but a lot of times I've seen people, they get close to buying a, a business, they go to their financial planner to get their financial planners opinion. And, you know, again, I like to think, you know, most people operate with integrity. I'm sure they do, but keep in mind. The money that you have in your retirement account or in your investment accounts, if you're talking to a financial planner about taking them out, they make a percentage fee on the money that's in there, right? The more that is in there, the more that they can manage and the more that they can make you, but also the more that they can make it themselves. And so a lot of times they're not gonna be motivated either to say, yeah, I think it's a great idea to take out half the revenue stream of my business out of the account so you can go do another business. Meanwhile, meanwhile, they own their own business anyway. Right. Yeah. Right. And yeah, offense to financial planner, I am funded.
Giuseppe Grammatico:It's a,
Dan and Natalie:you know, and that's part of, right,
Giuseppe Grammatico:percentage vest
Dan and Natalie:it's under management and
Giuseppe Grammatico:hard to control a startup versus
Dan and Natalie:you're buying mutual funds. There's data, there's a lot more history. So, yeah, we've I've, I've experienced that as well, so.
Giuseppe Grammatico:So what, what about Shark Tank?
Dan and Natalie:What are some, do we have some examples of? Of some deals? Yeah. I mean, but imagine if you were like, well, let me call Mark Cuban, and you had his ear and you told him about an idea they were wrong on the Ring doorbell, which is massive. Yeah. They were wrong about so many other things. And then they invested a lot of money in things that didn't work like that Sweet balls, like what was that about? So I think even if you have people that could be experts. They could be wrong. You just need to trust your instinct and it's the secret ingredient in a business is you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think back, you know, if, we had went around and tried to find reasons not to start, you know, Voda or make the acquisition in that franchise, I wouldn't have done it. You know, there would be a million things that people would tell you. You just kind of have to talk to customers, obviously to make, you know, or potential customers, and listen to them and see kind of their feedback. But anyone else, it doesn't matter. And you know, I'll give you another example. I've had so many times where people are close to buying a franchise, for example, and then they go, oh, well, like my my neighbor has you know, advised me I shouldn't do it. I said, what does your neighbor do? Oh, they're an accountant, or they're, you know, whatever, a lawyer or they're, you know, they work in tech. I said, why does your neighbor have any precedence on this decision? What they don't know anything about? But people, a lot of times we just trust people that we know. Even if they have no knowledge of that, of that space. You just triggered a core memory. I was talking to this guy and I'll never forget, he worked his whole life and his wife stayed at home and he was like, it's finally my chance. I'm gonna start a business. I really want to do something on my own. And his wife had this control over him where she was like, no. And. I felt really bad because like number one, I was like, oh, what does she do for like, oh, she's never worked. I'm like, okay, but maybe it's just like a business background professionally. Is she like in finance or does she, is she able, is she examining the numbers? No, no, none of that. I was like, wow. Like I thinking in my mind like she doesn't believe in you. Like that is so sad that you have someone that you've supported your whole life and like they still don't have faith in your abilities. Mm-hmm.
Giuseppe Grammatico:you. know,
Dan and Natalie:It's interesting that you say that. I was actually just having that conversation with, with someone. What I've learned, and this is not really related to like talking to an advisor now about buying a business, but just in general when it comes to teammates and partnerships something I've learned is that more times than not, I. In my experience in business, when I find that someone is acting differently a lot of times you don't realize how much of that is driven by the spouse or the family members. Whether it's a, you know, a company owned by, you know, a father son, and all of a sudden it, it's not the father son relationship that can change. It's the son's spouse or the daughter's spouse that. You know, starts to see the opportunity or starts to understand things a little bit differently and starts to get their into their ear. And so I've learned something. It's, it's so interesting. Like same with business partnerships. You, you better make sure that you have a pretty good relationship with the spouse of your business partner because if you don't have the trust there too, that can go really quickly the other way. Because of course they're gonna side with their spouses, they should, but if they don't have all the information where lifestyle changes it's very important to be careful of that. So would, would you say, I think
Giuseppe Grammatico:important for everyone to be at the table. So
Dan and Natalie:if you are buying a franchise, whatever the business is that that partnership. Everyone should be on the table. Everyone should know exactly what's involved. Because as
Giuseppe Grammatico:a, as a consultant, if we're talking about a franchise, maybe they're not, you
Dan and Natalie:know, relaying that message back to, to the spouse. So I always, you know, mention,
Giuseppe Grammatico:we'd like
Dan and Natalie:everyone to be
Giuseppe Grammatico:these calls together, so if there's
Dan and Natalie:a, a concern or a question, we all kind of are on the same page. Not, not easy, and I don't know if you would agree, but to get everyone on the phone, but it just makes it
Giuseppe Grammatico:so much simpler. And that way
Dan and Natalie:everyone knows the plan and, and the expectation is.
Giuseppe Grammatico:We're gonna grow this, this is where
Dan and Natalie:want to be. Maybe we want us, the plan is to sell it in 10 years. So I think that's crucial. I think everyone involved in the decision and even the families you know, why is mom or dad doing, you know, buying this franchise and so we can spend more time with Mia and everybody else. So, you know that that's the reason for doing it. I think I put the fear of God into people because when we have that conversation, I'm like. Take it from someone that's been divorced. You either do something to your spouse or you do it with them. Right? So I would definitely recommend having your spouse on the calls and they're on the calls
Giuseppe Grammatico:I 100%. And they don't have to be in every call. Like my wife was on the first call
Dan and Natalie:and,
Giuseppe Grammatico:and she was like, great. She's
Dan and Natalie:like, I have, you know, you're gonna run your business. I'll support you.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Every way I can, but
Dan and Natalie:I'm gonna keep my job. And she's been at the same employer for 25 years and she's happy there. And, but she
Giuseppe Grammatico:said, I, I understand the risk. first call and
Dan and Natalie:then after that
Giuseppe Grammatico:she said,
Dan and Natalie:I don't
Giuseppe Grammatico:to be on the calls.
Dan and Natalie:Just let me know kind of what's going on. And that was, that was our agreement. And it worked out fine. I mean, when, when you talking about being married, if you think about it like making a decision of anything, do you really make that many big decisions without your spouse? Of course not. So like, why would it be the different. With, with a franchise. I actually think when people are looking at a franchise and they know their spouse usually is involved in decisions and they don't include them, it's kind of a way to kind of subconsciously give themselves a way out. Right? It's like, oh, well my spouse isn't on board. Well, you didn't bring them into the whole process. Of course, they're not on board. I wouldn't be either. Which is, which is interesting. I, I, I think it's I think it's challenging though, right? Because I think there's a lot of people that they think. Let me get the information first and then Right. Bring my spouse. The other thing I've, I've noticed is I think in the case of someone when they're the breadwinner their entire life, right? Whoever in the relationship is the breadwinner their entire life, I think that's a little bit of a different situation where it's like, look like you've trusted me to provide for all this time. You're gonna have to, like you said, you're gonna have to bet on me here too. Mm-hmm. And I, you know, this is the move I, I have to make. But maybe they just don't wanna do it because honestly, like they might not be that into it if they're not really sharing it with their spouse. Mm-hmm. Do you know what I mean? Maybe they're like, not all in yet, like, I'm definitely doing this. They're more testing the waters before they bring them into the conversation.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Yeah,
Dan and Natalie:but I mean, you have to understand is like if you want to, you know, get in shape or lose weight, you have to go through pain to get there, right? If you wanna make a business, you know, successful, you have to go through sacrifice. And so you're gonna have to, like you said, get your spouse involved.'cause they have to be on board with the, the sacrifice that they're gonna be sacrificing too. It
Giuseppe Grammatico:it may, it may be less, no income the first year. It may be no vacations that that first year or is gonna be a shift in
Dan and Natalie:lifestyle. So, absolutely. They have to know what they have
Giuseppe Grammatico:set. This is the
Dan and Natalie:expectation, but the goal is to, you know, go on more vacations, retire early, spend more time with the family. So I
Giuseppe Grammatico:think if you set the expectation, they're on board then, but ultimately everyone, everyone has to be on board or it's
Dan and Natalie:gonna be a rocky, rocky road. I got a question. What's this trend or thing that I feel like I've been seeing, which is people that are looking at buying a franchise business with an expectation of like, they have to make this, you know, crazy profit their first year. Which by the way, to me, crazy profit is anything that's like. You know, a good amount of money, like, you know, you're trying to replace your salary or something in the first year. I've never really seen businesses usually do that. So what are you guys seeing where people come with those expectations? Has something changed in the, you know, kind of economy or the generation? Like what is that kind of driving
Giuseppe Grammatico:I think, I think people expect the, the immediate return, right? They wanna go viral in the first post on social media. So I think that's, that's where it's coming you know, I always tell people that first year is you're, it's a learning curve. You've never owned a you've never hired people. So this is
Dan and Natalie:all new. You're, you're learning something new, but to be matching the income you were making immediately,
Giuseppe Grammatico:You know, you're, you're building something. So to have that expectation, step back and say realistically any profit. So even if there is that kind of profit, you wanna reinvest
Dan and Natalie:the right team, in the right systems. Because this, this is not a business that you hope to grow 10% a year. This is something that's gonna
Giuseppe Grammatico:be growing exponentially. That's something I've experienced in my business and I always, my first year I didn't take a dime out, but I
Dan and Natalie:also set
Giuseppe Grammatico:reserves aside for that. So, so I think it's
Dan and Natalie:this instant
Giuseppe Grammatico:gratification I have to make money right away, and it's
Dan and Natalie:okay if you don't
Giuseppe Grammatico:match your salary
Dan and Natalie:the
Giuseppe Grammatico:year,
Dan and Natalie:you should really be investing in those systems. Or else you're starving the business, you're, you're pulling too much out.
Giuseppe Grammatico:You're not hiring
Dan and Natalie:the right people or not, you know, paying them
Giuseppe Grammatico:what they're, what they're owed and you're not
Dan and Natalie:investing in the, in the technology as well. Yeah. But people, people say that, but they're still taking a salary and they're saying the business isn't profitable and, and
Giuseppe Grammatico:they're pulling their salary
Dan and Natalie:and they're, they're pulling their salary. So, I mean, I think it just depends. Some people can hit the ground running and some people don't. There's hurdles that you can't predict. No one has a crystal ball like covid happened. People that own certain businesses. Were affected and other people you were selling masks, you killed it, or gloves or whatever. Right, right. So it just, it just depends. I think you can make money year one. We've done it before and it's doable, but
Giuseppe Grammatico:it's more
Dan and Natalie:what you do with that
Giuseppe Grammatico:money. So
Dan and Natalie:even if you make the
Giuseppe Grammatico:you don't have to pull it out,
Dan and Natalie:Right. You can, you know, reinvest. I think you should be reinvesting as much as you can
Giuseppe Grammatico:to build that base so that you know the
Dan and Natalie:money's not made the first few years. The money's made later, and in many
Giuseppe Grammatico:cases. Money's made
Dan and Natalie:the exit. Yeah. You know, it's interesting, like Yeah, right. People forget about the enterprise value that they're building in a business. Right. I was talking to I was talking to a business owner that, you know, had started building a business. They, their first year did well but didn't make money. They, they lost money, right. But they were building the, the bones of the business. And in their regular job, they made a substantial amount of money. And what you have to remember is like, you know, I can't give tax advice, but when you lose money in a business, but you have another income, well, that, that loss is a net operating NOI net operating loss. Right? And and then yeah, net operating loss and, it carries over into your taxes. And so if you're making a bunch of money in one place, well now you're losing money, if you will as far as your other business. But you're building a business, you're building an asset, you're, you're mitigating tax exposure. And then the next year when you do build the business further, and let's say you do start to make a profit, which by the way, most business owners, they, they wanna try to not have a big profit. But when they do start to have a profit, you're gonna be able to get a multiple on that profit of, you know, whatever, multiple down the road. And so you have to think, think of it as like enterprise value of what you're building. But I think that the number one mistake business owners make is they start to succeed and then they go buy the boat or they go get the new car and it's like, no, you should, like you said, re reinvest the money into your business for a while. Do you ever realize that the people that. Want to make, like they're like, I need to make this much money first here. They, they're in a worker mindset. Yeah. They're, they don't have a business mindset. So I was having a conversation with someone and it just clicked to me when you said that, that he was, I was like, oh, have you worked with a franchise consultant in the past? And he was like, yes. I was like, okay, great. Tell me a little bit about what you looked at. And he was really attached to what the business was as opposed to. What it can do for him. And he was thinking like, oh, I'm gonna do this every day. Or like basically trying to buy himself a job. Like one of those businesses where you're, it's literally like, it's might, you might as well clock in at this point, right? And I was like, well, I'll tell you one thing. I was like, I'm not necessarily obsessed with this, but I have a business and I'm able to travel and I have a lot of flexibility. I was like, why do you care so much what it is when. You're gonna have it running to the point where you don't even need to be there. Right? And he was like, oh, you know, it's a mindset shift. And then other things, people say that, I'm like, that's a red flag. And it's okay. Some people are meant to work for others for life, but they're like, oh, if the business works, if the business works, if I'm gonna get into business, I honestly could do a poop scooping business. I, I will make it work. It's not an option. Yeah. If the business works, then I can finally leave my job. Sorry. You're a loser. I just feel like that, like if you, you either are winner and like you're gonna go out and get it or you're not. And if you're not ready, that's cool. I still need to hire people. And you could, you know, there's a place like for everyone but you, it has to be like an, you just have to be able to run through walls to make things happen. And if you can't, then. I know that they're not gonna be the right fit for a franchise. Mm, agreed.
Giuseppe Grammatico:You're you're
Dan and Natalie:in with the wrong
Giuseppe Grammatico:mindset. And kinda to piggyback what you
Dan and Natalie:saying, when people
Giuseppe Grammatico:buy a franchise, if they expect it to say, okay, whether I'm gonna run it full-time or part-time, I'm gonna make that investment and the business is just gonna run
Dan and Natalie:on its own. Yeah. And they go, no, this is
Giuseppe Grammatico:just you know, as a franchisor, this is a model. We're, we're creating this system for you, for you to follow,
Dan and Natalie:for you to execute.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Yeah. It's not for you to. Set it and forget it. I, I always say you make the investment and then it's, what is that Ron? The Ron Popel sausage
Dan and Natalie:I remember from years ago,
Giuseppe Grammatico:set it and forget it. And the
Dan and Natalie:the franchisor is running the system. If that's the case, you don't need the franchisee. Yeah.
Giuseppe Grammatico:If you're doing all the work. So that's the whole point of the system. There is success, there are gonna be failures, but where I see people failing is they're undercapitalized and they don't follow the system. They don't use the marketing, they don't use the lead gen, they don't follow
Dan and Natalie:the systems in place. So that's.
Giuseppe Grammatico:That's what I've seen.
Dan and Natalie:I also think it, it depends, like, so the mindset around like the, the business making it happen. So, we were having this conversation earlier, but you know, I, I can understand the mindset of like, I bought this new franchise in a new industry and it's not working, and I believe the model doesn't work. So, for example, if someone, a franchise brand created a new space or a new service or a new way of, you know, building a haircut place or something, and then it's like, no, this model's not working. It's not. I can understand that mindset, but I, I know, and for me in being in the cleaning restoration space, you know, I'll go to RIA in a couple weeks, which is the Restoration Industry Conference, and they'll be doing tremendous numbers that don't even have a college degree or even let alone A GED. And so. Restoration works like the model works and you know, you can, you can do a Voda or Pierro Clean or Paul Davis, and at the end of the day, like there's only so much right that is being done there. It's, we're not recreating the wheel. When you buy into a franchise, you're buying into the culture, the training, the brand, the systems, but it's not a like make or break. And so whether someone drives a Voda, think of Voda as a, as a as a Mercedes, right? Or they drive a pure clean as a BMW or they drive a, what's another one? Now, resto Pros as a, you know. What's another nice car? Lexus. Lexus, right? Lexus, whether they drive one of those cars and get to the destination is not gonna'cause of Mercedes, BMW or Lexus. It's gonna be'cause of the driver if they crash, it's not'cause it was a BMW or Mercedes. It was the driver driving the car. And so I always say that when people are looking at Voda, like for example, comparative to other home service brands, or especially when they're looking at restoration, like you're gonna succeed or not, not based on Voda, like it's gonna be you. It's just gonna be how fast and how far you go. It's gonna be which brand you choose as far as restoration companies we're like, how much easier it is. And I tell that people to people all the time. I remember when some one time someone said to me to, to try to persuade me to do something, they said, you're not gonna ever be able to get to x, y, z point without this. And that was the wrong answer. The, the wrong, the right answer was, you're gonna be able to get to this place, it's gonna be a hell of a lot harder and it's gonna take you a hell of a lot longer. Right. And so I say that to people looking at Voda. I don't, I don't think like. You're gonna buy a franchise and if you didn't buy a franchise, you just won't succeed. It's just gonna be a lot harder. It's gonna take a lot longer. Yes. The stats are a lot lower too. But I just, I think when people get into the business and then it doesn't succeed and they blame the franchise, it's kind of deferral of accountability. But last thing I'll say, as a, as a franchisor. We have to look in the mirror too. Mm-hmm. Because anytime I have a franchisor not succeeding, it's like, what, what is wrong on our end? Or like, what was wrong in the expectations? Like, you know what, what could have been improved? We can't just blame it. That's the problem with franchising. The franchise owner blames the franchisor and the franchisor blames them, and then no one's taking accountability. And it's a
Giuseppe Grammatico:team
Dan and Natalie:You know, this is, this
Giuseppe Grammatico:is a, it's a marriage. It's a usually a 10 year agreement. I would say five to 20 years.
Dan and Natalie:Usually
Giuseppe Grammatico:the average is about, is about 10 years. If, if I'm wrong, correct me, but that, that's what I've heard. So, so 10 years, so, okay. If certain that you're struggling in certain areas, it may just be one thing.
Dan and Natalie:it just may,
Giuseppe Grammatico:your sales person needs
Dan and Natalie:retraining. Maybe it's the quality of leads, maybe it's
Giuseppe Grammatico:combination. But working with the
Dan and Natalie:franchisor
Giuseppe Grammatico:that's, you know, you're, it's a partnership. It's a long-term relationship. Figure out what's ha, what's working, what's not working, what
Dan and Natalie:can we do better. Mm-hmm. And I think
Giuseppe Grammatico:that's, that's a part of it not working. Like I've talked to people before that are struggling and they've never had a conversation with the franchisor. And I go, what the hell are
Dan and Natalie:you waiting for? What do you mean? Like
Giuseppe Grammatico:you're, you're getting
Dan and Natalie:support from them. There's trainings
Giuseppe Grammatico:all that, but if you're struggling, that's the first call you should make is, is to that coach, the accountability person, whatever, whatever they're called
Dan and Natalie:at each
Giuseppe Grammatico:of the companies. But to me that's, that sounds like common sense, but
Dan and Natalie:sometimes people
Giuseppe Grammatico:to be
Dan and Natalie:reminded. Why is that though? I have, I I know what you mean. It's like you're struggling but you don't reach out or you don't wanna get on the coaching calls. Right. You don't, it's like the support's there. But you gotta tap into it. And I think it's unrealistic, like to expect the franchise or is just gonna like fly in an airplane every time and come see you. Like sure, why not? You know, why not get on the phone with them or why not fly on an airplane to them and meet with them and say like, can I take a day with you? Can I come up to your flagship location? I don't hear that anywhere near as much as you would think. Like, Hey, I'm struggling. Can I come shadow? Right. And then the other thing I see, and again, this is just all franchises, is the people that are struggling end up. You know, congregating with the other people that are struggling. Instead of saying, who's top in the system, who could I reach out to? You know what I mean? Like Yeah. You don't want birds of a feather flock together type of thing. What is it called? Like birds of a feather flock together. Like the miserable, like Misery loves company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And top producers are too busy really to jump in and say anything. Right, right. So all of a sudden you, the loudest in the room are the people that are, that are struggling. And so it's like, how do you get more engagement that way?
Giuseppe Grammatico:That's a good question. Why, why they're not reaching out is, is something I just have not
Dan and Natalie:able
Giuseppe Grammatico:to, to figure out. Are they a little, are they upset? Are they, are they bitter? Do they. You know, I, I, I don't know what it is. I don't know why they wouldn't reach out, but
Dan and Natalie:you
Giuseppe Grammatico:think that
Dan and Natalie:would
Giuseppe Grammatico:common sense, but maybe it's, maybe it's you know, you
Dan and Natalie:really can't make cer, you can only do so many things that are mandatory, right? They're their own business owner and they have to run their own business.
Giuseppe Grammatico:it's
Dan and Natalie:almost like.
Giuseppe Grammatico:submit your profit loss. Maybe. Maybe that's the, that's the thing. Something is off in
Dan and Natalie:the p and l,
Giuseppe Grammatico:you
Dan and Natalie:where we can work on it together. But I've
Giuseppe Grammatico:never heard of a franchisor
Dan and Natalie:saying, you know, no, we're too busy or,
Giuseppe Grammatico:We won't help you. They're, they're more than welcome,
Dan and Natalie:I think. I have heard that. Oh, you have? Yeah, I've heard that. Too busy. The support,
Giuseppe Grammatico:the complainers,
Dan and Natalie:like they basically blacklist them.
Giuseppe Grammatico:The people that
Dan and Natalie:The people that complain. And the system. It happens. Yeah. That they like that. They do not, I mean, I mean that's definitely unacceptable, right? Because at the end of the day, like they have an agreement to support the franchise E and they should be doing that. I think about playing devil's advocate and I was the franchise owner that's struggling, right? We're saying why? Why would they not reach out? I think if you keep reaching out and the franchisor is not listening to you. Would you keep reaching out? Right. If you know that there's, you know, I, I, so I think it's this middle ground, like, I'll give you an example with Voda. We did a really, we do a really great job listening mm-hmm. To our franchise owners. To the point that we actually crossed over a, like a, a line that was not okay, which was, Hey, we listened to you and your feedback for 45 minutes. But the second I try to give you any feedback, everything's perfect. Right? I actually just had this conversation with a franchise owner recently, which was, if you're struggling and doing everything perfectly, which is chance of that is literally zero, then we're in a lot of trouble, right? Because if there's nothing to fix, then I don't know, I don't know what to do. But if you want to come to the call with solutions. And we're happy to hear where we can improve too. But if you're gonna come to the call where you're completely perfect and there's nothing to solve in your business, and we're only the ones that, that are wrong, that's not a productive, you know, kind of mindset. And again, if, if you're, if you're not succeeding and you're doing everything right, that's a big problem. Chances of that is zero. No one's doing their business perfect. You know what I mean? Your ego is not your amigo. Yeah. Like if you've never been in business and you're in your first year of business, like it's not fair to expect you're gonna be the best business owner ever. And that's okay. But yeah, your ego, the ego gets in the way. Same for franchisors. Their ego gets in the way.'cause they start to think, well, like we've been doing this for so long. We actually have a, we call it like a commandment, but one of our franchisor commandments is they could be, right, right. Which is an idea that like that franchise owner could be, right. Let's make sure we're actually listening to them, but then we expect them to also listen to us. That's
Giuseppe Grammatico:Yeah,
Dan and Natalie:no, for sure. One thing that you said was about oh, we'll never get there without doing it this way. I hear that sometimes where someone is like. Oh, I don't need a franchise. I can just make my own burger place. I'm like, yeah, you don't need McDonald's. You could do Bob's Burgers, but do you really wanna come up with the branding, all the ads, like I don't think you realize how much work is involved. Like of course you could do it. You're smart, you're capable, you're an executive. Like if you wanna do all that work at this point of your life, yeah, go for it and then you can do it. One
Giuseppe Grammatico:other thing I, I want to add too, where, when I, when I hear people complain, is that the idea of semi absentee
Dan and Natalie:ownership where,
Giuseppe Grammatico:You know, they, they're keeping their job and then they're
Dan and Natalie:running the business
Giuseppe Grammatico:the side. And I said, there's a couple components there. Obviously the franchisor has to allow that, but people are hiring managers. They, they've never owned the business. They're hiring managers, but they're not managing the manager there. There's no oversight. So they're assuming the managers doing what they need to do, but they're not checking
Dan and Natalie:in. They're not doing the weekly in-person meetings
Giuseppe Grammatico:or calls and stuff like that. And if they, and if they are like I did with my business and a mistake I made. Many, many moons ago, 20 years ago was I bottlenecked the business. So the manager, every big decision had to get approved by me. Well, who the heck was I
Dan and Natalie:approve
Giuseppe Grammatico:when my manager had more
Dan and Natalie:in years
Giuseppe Grammatico:I was alive at the time. Yeah. So, I became a bottleneck. So the, so the big part is finding a franchisor that will support and allow part-time semi-absentee ownership. But on the flip side, when you bring that person on, you know, maybe they have. Some underlying equity, some phantom equity, so they have some
Dan and Natalie (2):in the game.
Giuseppe Grammatico:know, they're getting a, a cut of some of the profits, but you're also managing and setting the
Dan and Natalie (2):expectation, this
Giuseppe Grammatico:is what I need you to do. These are the decisions I
Dan and Natalie (2):need you
Giuseppe Grammatico:make. These are the hours I'm available. Because if you have a job, obviously, you know, and you can't talk
Dan and Natalie (2):the hours of nine to
Giuseppe Grammatico:two, nine to three, or even nine to five, they know when to contact
Dan and Natalie (2):you and what decisions
Giuseppe Grammatico:can
Dan and Natalie (2):make. Yeah, so I believe it's,
Giuseppe Grammatico:both. It's the right person and
Dan and Natalie (2):expectation and,
Giuseppe Grammatico:You know, finding the right franchise
Dan and Natalie (2):that, that would
Giuseppe Grammatico:support that type of
Dan and Natalie:ownership. I mean, just for like, you know, obviously the, for your listeners, they know your background, but you, you owned a cleaning company. Like what, can you just give the background real quick just for my
Giuseppe Grammatico:Yeah. We had, you know, c commercial building maintenance, commercial cleaning. I ran the business full time to really scale that business. And then after that first year, brought on that manager, it was an operations manager, general manager. I forget
Dan and Natalie (2):what
Giuseppe Grammatico:The actual title was but I was so tight to the business, you know, I touched every part of the business. I had to make, finalize every decision. So I had brought a, a manager and, and by the way, my background was in, on Wall Street and we owned the restaurants. I had no,
Dan and Natalie (2):no experience in that industry
Giuseppe Grammatico:whatsoever. Yeah. So I brought a, an experienced person to the table a GM with 20 years of experience, 20 plus years experience in that business. But yet I had to okay. All his decisions to the point where. You know, he
Dan and Natalie (2):wasn't able to do his job.
Giuseppe Grammatico:became kind of a, a, a bottleneck. So, I was
Dan and Natalie (2):running at
Giuseppe Grammatico:but not allowing the
Dan and Natalie (2):manager to do their job
Giuseppe Grammatico:you know, on, on a daily
Dan and Natalie (2):basis. So, so
Giuseppe Grammatico:it was an interesting business. I learned a lot. I learned that
Dan and Natalie (2):you can't be the expert
Giuseppe Grammatico:in all areas and that you need to hire people that are better
Dan and Natalie (2):than you in certain areas,
Giuseppe Grammatico:know, at social media marketing at. At sales. So, I learned a lot in that business, and
Dan and Natalie (2):I bring.
Giuseppe Grammatico:I do, I do a lot of learning, so I try to bring that experience to the table and helping people to find a franchise.
Dan and Natalie (2):You know, it's interesting what you did though is you, you, you got in the business, you learned it and you grew it. Like, when I think of my definition of, of semi-absentee, first of all, is it's a hockey stick. Mm-hmm. Right? And so when you start a business, your revenue is the lowest you work the most. It's the worst time. But as you grow the business, the revenue goes up. And then your time goes down. Right? But this idea that you're not gonna work in the business and the revenue's gonna go up, I've just, I've never experienced that in, in a business. And I, I think that you have to be involved like. You know, example, I'm not as involved in the day-to-day of Voda as I was even six months ago, right? But it took time to get there. And my definition of semi-absentee isn't that. Now I'm going on the beach, drinking my ties, and, you know, hanging out. If I'm not in the office on a Monday through Friday, then I'm out doing something to generate revenue or recruit people. Now, sometimes that might mean going out to play around a tennis in Friday afternoon, networking with a property manager, a plumber, or a consultant, a, a potential teammate. That is the job of the business owner. But I always thought of semi absentee means like you're not in the day to day, so you can go out there and be what we call the mayor of the town, not semi absentee meeting. I just park my money and it, it just happens. I think you're missing one variable that really matters in this conversation, and I would say it's experience. For example, my kid that was here, if I have to get her ready to come here and meet, I can do that in a half an hour. If her dad had to do it, she might be here at like 5:00 PM So I think like right now, yeah, you had to definitely like, they're like kid, like this is like babies. You kind of gotta be there the first year. But if you had to do another home service brand the next time, yeah. And you did another thing that was like similar to Voda, you would be semi-absentee pretty quick. So I think with the franchisee comes from a space where like they have a lot of experience to leverage and this is just like a copy paste thing for them. They're able to step back really quickly and seamlessly and, and have that manage management model model. But if this is something that's brand new and you're completely green to it, yeah, it's gonna take more time. That's a great point. It's not, that's a good point. It's not like black and white. It depends on your, your, your background, I mean. The way I look at, it's like, let's say you owned three orange theories and I owned three orange theories, and you brought on a great GM that was a GM of another Orange theory, right? You gave them a profit share and not 5% or 2%, but 20% of the business. And you met with them, you know, weekly to hold them accountable and celebrate their wins. You weren't bipolar with your emotions, right? You didn't start getting in the way of them. And then sometimes you're in the way, sometimes you're not. Maybe you went to the gym twice a week with'em and worked out. So you had an actual relationship. And then I you know, didn't do that. Didn't give them a profit interest, didn't hold them accountable, didn't be a cheerleader, didn't have a scorecard, was moody with them. Sometimes I'm the boss, sometimes I'm not. Who do you think would end up working more hours? Me, right?'cause I was a bad manager. Right. Is that Orange theory or is that the manager? So to your point, it's the skill. It's the background. So I think that that's the, the challenge is like, I think people sometimes overestimate though, because they think to themselves, well, I managed people my whole life. Well, you managed a college educated worker. Not a blue collar. Nothing wrong with blue collar. It's just a different, it's a different, in my case, we're not home services. It's a different person. There is something really to be said about. I mean, I think it's a lot easier when you're managing a team that you've built, you like all those people, you hired them, and if you don't like them, you could just let'em go. Where if you're working for someone else, you have to manage those people. Mm-hmm. Whether they're qualified or not. Mm-hmm. Like they got thrown onto your team and then you're, you're struggling. So I think I do love the, the freedom aspect of that. But yeah, you're right. I just have to throw that in there. Well, that's a good point though. But here's the other thing. Like most franchise owners end. Operators in general. That's the biggest challenge they have, is like they, they have someone on their team. First of all, they wanna check the box. I hear it all the time, right? I gotta get a GM for training, so I just need to check the box. It's not a box to check. This most important thing is hiring the right person, but then when they're not the right person, they give them way too many chances before they let them go. Like, I've never, let me rephrase. After years of being beat up, I refuse to keep a teammate for two reasons. One, it happens all the time. Oh no, they're going to sabotage my business somehow. If I'm thinking that's the only reason I'm keeping them, they're going right. And I'll deal with the sabotage if God forbid happens, which usually doesn't, or what will I do without them? If I ever feel this mindset, obviously I have people that I feel like, what would I do without them? I would, I would hate to lose them. That's a different story, but more like, I don't like working with this person, but I also don't what would I do without them? They have to go.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Right.
Dan and Natalie (2):It's a, it's like, and that's the number one time people are afraid to do it. What I've found. Maybe it's a little crazy, but when you have someone doing a job that you feel like, what am, what am I gonna do without them, you actually let them go because the pain of letting them go will actually cause you to solve it, and the doors will open. Whereas if you just hold onto them, you're going to prolong the inevitable.
Giuseppe Grammatico:I like that. I mean, you gotta talk to other business owners. Sometimes you get caught in, you know, in yourself, in your thoughts. So
Dan and Natalie (2):I, I agree with that. I,
Giuseppe Grammatico:I, I've had, I've had similar experiences, so I'll leave it at that. But yes, I, I completely agree.
Dan and Natalie (2):The craziest part is you think you're being compassionate. Right? And actually good leadership is that person that's in the wrong seat usually. Mm-hmm. They know it well then I'm just
Giuseppe Grammatico:compassionate.
Dan and Natalie (2):Yeah. They're bringing No, but they're, they're bringing those problems home. Their spouse is feeling it, their kids are feeling it. Nobody wakes up every day saying, I hope I could screw up work today. I hope I could make my boss unhappy. And when they're in the wrong seat, that's what keeps happening. And so they actually, you're doing them a service, getting them out respectfully so they can go into what's something, a better seat for them? Oh yeah, yeah. Usually that. Sure.
Giuseppe Grammatico:and before you get to that, have a conversation outta the office. Right. Not beating them up, like, why did you do this? But have, you know, we had issues
Dan and Natalie (2):managers over the
Giuseppe Grammatico:years and you have a, a conversation, you go out for a round of golf or I'm not a golfer, but you do, you do your thing tennis or whatever sport it is. And you have a conversation, then the conversation gets going and sometimes it has nothing to do with the business. It's personal stuff. Maybe they're going through
Dan and Natalie (2):a divorce, maybe something,
Giuseppe Grammatico:you know, they got some bad news maybe a family member being sick or something like that, and just something like that. And all they needed was a little bit of time off and
Dan and Natalie (2):all they needed, but
Giuseppe Grammatico:they felt bad
Dan and Natalie (2):So, you know, you treat, it's a family.
Giuseppe Grammatico:I mean, I look at every business as a family,
Dan and Natalie (2):and you treat
Giuseppe Grammatico:every, everyone, everyone has their. You know, good days and bad days and you, but I think it's, you take'em outta the environment, you have a conversation with them and I think that alone will go a long way. And sometimes together you decide maybe we need to part ways or I just need to get my stuff in order because of all the personal stuff I have on my plate. So,
Dan and Natalie (2):yeah.
Giuseppe Grammatico:I think those meetings and sometimes they turned out great. Sometimes they
Dan and Natalie (2):turned
Giuseppe Grammatico:into, yeah. We, we both mutually
Dan and Natalie (2):agree we have to,
Giuseppe Grammatico:to part ways and that's okay as well. Yeah. Saves a lot of, lot of
Dan and Natalie (2):headaches down the road. Yeah. Do you have any crazy stories? That's the juicy stuff that I want to hear. the crazies?
Giuseppe Grammatico:I don't think
Dan and Natalie (2):I don't think I have any crazy stories.
Giuseppe Grammatico:And we're running out of time and I'm just kidding.
Dan and Natalie (2):Crazy stories with like teammates, employees? No. Or like in the franchise space, like with candidates. I have so many people that are out of their minds. For sure. Like, I get people that are like. You know, we really just try to make sure that we match people to the right brands. It's really being efficient and effective with the brands that we're presenting them. Like imagine if I was your, you were my real estate agent, and I was like, just show me every, all, everything of Zillow, right? I wanna see the whole Zillow. Like that's what people do us. Like we wanna see every single brand. No, like you're not gonna, that's not every single brand is not for you. Sure. Like, you know, like
Giuseppe Grammatico:it'll probably be sold by the time you finish your due diligence
Dan and Natalie (2):Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looking at a thousand companies, everything's
Giuseppe Grammatico:gonna be sold.
Dan and Natalie (2):I would say also you have no budget. You're looking at something like a$5 million build out is okay for
Giuseppe Grammatico:you. For the right opportunity. For the right opportunity. We can, we have a partner
Dan and Natalie (2):unlimited funds. Oh. And that's the worst, like business
Giuseppe Grammatico:partners. That's
Dan and Natalie (2):most expensive way to borrow money. I always tell people like, yeah, you, you pay a franchise of royalty, but your partner, you're paying like a huge chunk and then when you sell it, you're paying, you're, they get 50%. I think a business partner only makes sense in three situations. One, you, you truly need money, you don't have access to your own or lending that can happen sometimes and they provide capital. Two, they have a completely different skillset than you. Completely different. And that makes sense. Like my business partner Zach, like his skillset and mine are so opposite that it works out great because he's great at what he's great at, and I'm great at what I'm great at. And here's another thing I've learned. He likes what he does, and I like what I do. Right? None of us are like, like, oh, like, you know, like from day one, like I, I travel a lot. It looks a lot more glamorous than it is. People think I'm just having fun. I'm, that's what I'm good at. My superpower is networking and connecting with people. And, and Zach doesn't, you know, he likes that, but he doesn't wanna do it as much as I do, and doesn't mean that I'm not okay at ops or like ops, but I don't want to do it the way he did. He does what? He likes it. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like that's a great partnership. So it's either money, they have a skillset set that you don't have. Love that. Yeah. Yeah. Or the third would be they have an audience that you don't have. Right. And so, you know, if, if I have a business partner, and they're, for example, they've been in restoration, they know all the property managers and all the plumbers, and they're gonna bring a book of business that's worth giving equity to or a partnership to. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. Like George Foreman Grill, like, you know, you didn't design that. Yeah. The
Giuseppe Grammatico:He had the audience.
Dan and Natalie (2):You the audience. You know, it's interesting. My crazy story too, too, for me my one pet peeve is when people say, you know. I wanna make a half million dollars a year, and I don't wanna work a lot of hours and say, well, what do you make now? I make 200 a year and I work 80 hours a
Giuseppe Grammatico:week. Less even more.
Dan and Natalie (2):Right. Well, how about you work 80 hours a week for yourself and you try to make, you know, some money doing it that way. Why does it have to be like double the income and half the time your first, and that's your way of telling yourself you're not gonna, you're not gonna do it unless you set this crazy thing that's not real reality. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. I have other people that are like.
Giuseppe Grammatico:You
Dan and Natalie (2):know, I have a really good job, and then I'm looking at their questionnaire and I'm like, these people don't make a lot of money. But for them, it's, it's a lot. And they're like, they think that they can't ever get there again. Like, it's gonna be so hard sometimes it's just fear that holds you back. And there's, I'm like, wow, if they only knew that there was so much potential for them to leave, especially if you see that other people that do the same thing are making way more than them, like they're underpaid for their role and you're like. You should not be working there. Yeah, but those people that are in those roles, like one of the things I'll tell you, like the more you know, Voda girls gonna get a little chance to be in rooms with people further than me are very successful. I haven't met one yet. I don't mean arrogantly, but I haven't met one yet. That's like brilliant. It's, they took the risk, they went for it. I think you'd be surprised, like people that I haven't met them, but I think at the top two, the more you meet them, you realize, wait a minute, this person just acted fast, took a risk, believed in themselves, betted on themselves. They got lucky a little bit. Yeah, they worked hard. I was just listening to, and obviously this is a crazy example, but like, have you ever listened to Steve Schwartzman's book, the founder of Blackstone? No, he's a great book. He started Blackstone, obviously huge company and obviously, he's smart. He went to Ivy League school, but he listen to the book and he brings me to my says like I'm a regular guy. I'm not even really that good at math. He's the largest private equity firm, and the more you listen to him, what he has is he has charisma because you know, he is sharp and he's warm. And I think his skills just, he recruited great people, right? And so I just, when I see these franchise owners, like the, the Flynn Group, they own 2000 locations, the largest franchisee in the world. Like I guarantee if you sat down with the, whatever his name, Flynn, I'm not saying he's not brilliant, but I think you'd be surprised that most of that brilliance came from the experiences that they had, not. Raw
Giuseppe Grammatico:intelligence. Absolutely. Yeah. They're master delegators. They have the right people in the right positions.
Dan and Natalie (2):But they learned that through the time. Yes. Correct. Correct. Through the experience. They didn't like, you know what I mean? Like they didn't become that. They became that by doing it. Oh, so you just reminded me of a story. Do you ever hear this? Lord Laura and I pulled up Lord Timothy Dexter.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Mm-hmm.
Dan and Natalie (2):This guy was illiterate. And he became the wealthiest guy. Hold on. In the late 17 hundreds, the wealthy elite of Newburyport, Massachusetts had a problem. His name was Timothy Dexter, and he simply wouldn't fail. Like all the rich socialites were really jealous of him. I don't know if you wanna hear the whole story, but they tried to trick him into investing in things. Like they tricked him into investing in
Giuseppe Grammatico:couldn't read contract, right?
Dan and Natalie (2):Oh, they were like, oh. They were like, they were, he saw them investing in local currency, and it was, at the time, it was continental currency paper. That was paper money that was rapidly becoming worthless. He decided, he mu he decided this must be what rich people did. But when the wealthy were cautiously buying small amounts. Dexter went all in with the enthusiasm of a Labrador chasing a squirrel. If buying worthless money is good, he reasoned, then buying lots of worthless money is better. And then everyone was like laughing at him. So he was the basically the, the like, everyone was just like the fool, right? He couldn't read. He married someone rich, she died. So he ended up being loaded, right? And then Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury, enacted his debt assumption plan, and then all that money became worth stuff. It was like, now it was worth a lot and he became the richest guy. But like back to back, they would come up with like ridiculous things like whale bones. All of a sudden corsets became in style. Yeah. Yeah. And he
Giuseppe Grammatico:all the whale bones
Dan and Natalie (2):And then they convinced him to collect stray cats. Like they, because he was so dumb, they would trick him into doing this stuff. So now he had a house with stray cats, like a thousand of them. Right. And then all of a sudden he heard there were, that there were there was like a rat infestations on all the ships coming into the port at Massachusetts. So now he sold all of these cats and he made tons of money. Like everything they tried to trick him into doing Oh. Worked out resourcefulness. Yeah, he was just like the lucky, they couldn't like make this, this guy ended up having like, this huge mansion. He had a statue of himself like 15 feet tall and all these other statues he had like, he couldn't read. He wrote a book actually at, towards the end of his life, which was nonsense. And he, he was literate. It had no punctuation. So everyone made fun of him. Then he rewrote the bestselling book. He rewrote, it was a bestselling book. People used to have parties and read it. Then everyone was making fun of him. So then he wrote like a second edition with punctuation, but it was all, the punctuation was at the end and it was like three pages of explanation, points,
Giuseppe Grammatico:but more periods, commas, curiosity. Well, he
Dan and Natalie (2):end. Meanwhile, he knew what he was doing'cause that
Giuseppe Grammatico:got the attention.
Dan and Natalie (2):He knew how to put the periods,
Giuseppe Grammatico:He on the back of the
Dan and Natalie (2):book, and he was like, here. So you can just use them as you wish. My favorite, not, not as funny as that story, but just as, as we wrap up. But one of my favorite it's Henry Ford. You ever heard this? You ever heard, think and Grow Rich? Yeah. Henry Ford. Basically a news company called him ignorant. So he considered this slander that they called him ignorance. So he sued the newspaper company. And so when he was in court, the newspaper company's lawyer was like, basically went up on stage or whatever, deposed him and said you know, who's the second president? He didn't know, you know, what's the, you know, all these different facts that Henry Ford knew none of them. And so they were making their proof, proving their point that he was, you know, he was, he was ignorant. And then at one point he stopped him, he said, excuse me. At any given moment, I can press a button at my desk and have the smartest people at my disposal come in and answer any of these ridiculous questions. None of them relate to building the horseless motor car. And so it doesn't pertain to that. I don't waste my time learning about it. I only obsess over building this life changing technology. And immediately people realize that he's brilliant. He just didn't waste his time on things that didn't move his mission right. And I think that the, the point is like the franchise owners, like, it's like you don't have to be this brilliant, you know, and maybe you are smart, but like you just go after it. I, I hate to make it simple, but making money in business usually, especially as a home service business, it's just going out there and making it happen and connecting and being the mayor of the town, most of the other things don't matter. They really don't. As long as you of course give a good service and you hire great people, good people overcomplicate the business.
Giuseppe Grammatico:To follow the sy, follow the system. Follow the system. I mean, like one in six franchise owners are, are coming outta the military. They Why? Because they follow the system. Yeah. They're told exactly what to do. There's different positions and
Dan and Natalie (2):they execute.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Simple as that. They don't start thinking. I bought a McDonald's, so I'm gonna start adding
Dan and Natalie (2):and
Giuseppe Grammatico:the menu. No, you execute on the system. Yes. It's a lot of work. Yes. You're dealing with, with staff leaving and all that other stuff, but execute
Dan and Natalie (2):on the system
Giuseppe Grammatico:and that's it. Focus on that. Yeah. Instead of thinking about how you're gonna change the
Dan and Natalie (2):menu. Oh my gosh. Did you, did you see the 2025 economic financial report for franchising? The IFA one? Mm-hmm. You're in a good spot in home services. It's gonna
Giuseppe Grammatico:gonna
Dan and Natalie (2):blow up this year to predicting. Oh, especially home services is the
Giuseppe Grammatico:to
Dan and Natalie (2):be. Yeah. And they're saying food's gonna come back. Yeah. Food will come back home service, restoration. Absolutely. Personal
Giuseppe Grammatico:services. Yeah. Personal service on top of that list too. Yeah. But
Dan and Natalie (2):one other thing on that, it's like I, how about this? In the game. Like if we played a sport, right, and we sat here, we're in the huddle, and you said, Dan, you're gonna go left, you're the coach. You said, Dan, you're gonna go left Natalie, you're gonna go right, and then you're gonna both cross right in the middle of the game. I don't say, nah, I'm gonna go the other way. Right? I do the play that I was told to do. Right. And then in the locker room, we're over a beer. After, after the game, I might say, Hey, what if next time we tried the other right. But in other words, as a franchise owner, bring your ideas all you want, but during the day, during the game, stick to the plan until you've, you know, mastered that. And that's the other thing, like learn the rules before you break the rules. Right. I would say as a franchise owner, do everything the exact way. The franchise owner, it tells you to do it. And then once you're a top producer, then you could start to change things. But it's
Giuseppe Grammatico:Keep it simple. Follow the process, and that's it. That's really it. Yeah. I think we, I think we overcomplicate people in general can tend to overcomplicate,
Dan and Natalie (2):So I like that. Thanks for watching.
Giuseppe Grammatico:Hopefully that was helpful.
Dan and Natalie (2):We're done. Thanks
Giuseppe Grammatico:for joining us. Thank you for having
Dan and Natalie (2):me.
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