Expert Tips for Evaluating Franchise Opportunities with Rebekah Horowitz

Essential listening for BOTH sides of franchising! Join Giuseppe Grammatico & Rebekah Horowitz (Rep'm Group) for insights on becoming a franchisor, spotting franchisee red flags (Item 2, Item 20), asking powerful validation questions, assessing fit, debunking myths & navigating your franchise journey. 

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.

Transcript

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it was a total 180 from the extremely kind of tightly managed, tightly controlled public company world where I was, it felt like the wild west when I got there. And kind of been thrown into the deep end, but met a lot of really fantastic people and it completely changed the trajectory of my career and my life. I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot of executive types who come in and one of the things they say right up front is they say, look like you are gonna be doing work that you thought you were like, too good for 20 years ago. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty. 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. Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatical, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Exciting show for you today. We had some technical difficulties, so my guest is, help me we're recording on a new platform, Fingers crossed everything is working today. We have Rebekah Horowitz from the Rep'M Group on the show. Rebekah, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate your patience. We're gonna make things work, we've been trying to get you on the show for a while. I'm glad we were able to connect and looking forward to chatting. But before we dive into the show today tell the audience typical audience or listener, I should say, is someone that is looking to explore franchise ownership, leave the corporate grind. So if you can give us a little bit of background as to how you got into franchising. Absolutely. I actually came a little from the corporate grind myself. My entry into franchising was probably somewhere 12, 15 years ago. I was actually working at Johnson and Johnson right before then. A complete horse of a different color. But I ended up with some close friends who were actually working for a large franchisor in North Carolina driven brands and. Met the leadership team there was really impressed as they had some close relationships and ended up really unexpectedly kind of taking a flyer into franchise operations. And it was a total 180 from the extremely kind of tightly managed, tightly controlled public company world where I was, it felt like the wild west when I got there. And kind of been thrown into the deep end, but met a lot of really fantastic people and it completely changed the trajectory of my career and my life. And I have stayed in franchising ever since. I love that you never know what life will throw at you, what direction don't you go in. I was just talking to my parents the other day. My, my son's going to college. He is got another year of high school, and it's just like, well, what is one looking to study? What is he looking to study? And then what they're gonna end up doing. Sometimes they confirm. Oh, right. I mean, yeah. Who among us, like has our actual college major have anything to do with what we do today? Right. It's gotta be a minority. Yeah. I was computer science that took me two years to realize I am not a, I'm not a computer programmer. So, but you kept just enough to be tech support. That's good. Yes. Tech support, which we utilize today. And when all else fails, restart the program. Restart your computer. And that's as far as that's right. As far as I got, plug it back in. Yeah. And we've been on a lot of those calls. So I guess talk to us because you're in, in Rep'M group there's different divisions, so I guess, we'll start there. Who is Rep'M and then maybe talk, if you can touch on the divisions of Rep'M and then the division that you focus in on. Absolutely. if you've heard of Rep'M, a lot of people, their first entry into hearing about us is about that we sell franchises. Sometimes there's an expression called an FSO, like a franchise sales organization. And we do actually have a part of the company that does that. So for a lot of people, that's kind of what they've heard of, but that is just one of four pillars of what Rep'M is. So we have four divisions. So they're called Brando, build them, grow'em, and Scale'em. So Brando essentially helps emerging brands to create marketing collateral and communication campaigns to drive leads and to try to connect them with the right franchise candidates. Build them works on real estate and construction. So we work with franchisors. And then with individual franchisees to try to get locations open on time and on budget. This is a major headache within franchising. And one that, those of us who have been at the company for a while have been in franchising, really see this a lot, where you have companies that sell licenses and then they have a lot of trouble getting candidates actually open or getting locations open. So we have a whole division that focuses on that. Grow is what we call sort of the franchise sales division, where we help to connect brands with potential candidates who are the right fit for not just kinda the financial profile, but also the culture and the lifestyle goals of the candidate. And then I run what is called the scale division. So we provide operational consulting some resource sharing best practices to the brands that we work with. So I'm typically not candidate facing. I don't really work with franchisees very often. I work directly with the brands. And we work to try to make sure that they have all of the operational tools and, the resources in place to really be able to support their next phase of growth and to support their franchisees. Especially if we're gonna add on a whole bunch of new franchisees. We wanna make sure the brands are ready for that scale. So that's actually the side that I do is kind of that operational consulting side, and that was what my background was previously. I was in operations prior. I like that. Yeah. I mean it's it's one thing to obviously, franchise is awarded, but it's like, okay, now there's a whole process. There may be some real estate involved. It's the branding, it's the marketing, so, it's nice that you kind of divvied up with the various divisions. the beginning part of the conversation would be on the franchisor side. Where does a franchisor start? So someone has an idea for a franchise, maybe they have their business and they're thinking about the option of franchising. Where do they start? And then by the way. The next part would be let's talk about, okay, these are, we're looking at people that are looking to ex actually invest in the existing franchise. Sure. But on the franchisor side, where do people start? I have a great concept. I'm thinking of franchising. Can you talk us through high level of things people should think about if they are interested in that route. Yeah, absolutely. So I think most often we talk to a lot of potential kind of either emerging franchisors who either have not franchised yet and are just looking potentially to get into it or are right at the beginning of their journey as a brand. And so there are certainly a lot of legal check marks and things that you're gonna have to get. That's not what we do. You're gonna need an FDD, you're gonna need to kind of go through some of those sort of legal and entity forming hoops and those kind of things. But I would say the bigger set of questions for me when I'm talking to a new brand are really about. Why are they franchising and do they understand what it is that franchising is about? Because it's not for everyone. And I think if you don't come from that world, and I didn't originally, you just don't necessarily understand like what are the advantages and disadvantages, what are the differences between expanding through franchising and expanding corporately and not just if you have a successful business and it's going well, you end up with a customer, a brother-in-law, someone who says, gosh, you should really franchise this. And kind of a lot of people come to it with, honestly no more than that. I think the next phase really is to understand not just why does a brand franchise and what are those pluses and minuses, but also think, do you have a concept that is franchisable and that is built for success in this world? Because not every industry is well suited for franchising, honestly, right? Certainly not every individual concept, like there are certain factors around the unit economics that really need to make sense in a franchise concept. Gotta understand the potential advantages that franchising can bring both to franchisees and franchisors. And see if your brand, I think is a good fit. And then the hardest part and the hardest part for people I think to really look inward on is to understand whether what they have is a great idea or a successful company, or whether they have a real franchisable model and system. Because there's such a difference between, Hey, my company does well and we make a profit every year. And things have gone great. We even have a few locations. That's so different from having a system that is built to scale across the country by people with no background in the industry by, folks who have never heard of that brand, who are not your friends when they come in to be customers. Like, that's the kind of hard introspection that frankly a lot of brands don't necessarily do. But that often is the dividing line for me between what's gonna make a great franchise brand and maybe one that is gonna franchise, but they're not gonna go very far. No, that makes a lot of sense. And and those are the things to think about. It's not if franchising is better, is licensing better? Is owning corporate stores better? It's what are you trying to accomplish? This is not an overnight thing. If you're looking to retire in a few years, will the franchise model work? Well, someone else is gonna have to take over, but it's gonna take time to really grow that brand and just because you have a franchise doesn't mean that people are gonna be necessarily investing. Absolutely. one other piece that, I mean, I think so, I think you're exactly right, right? There is no one right answer. It's not for everybody. It's not for every brand. But I think it's also interesting people really, you have to think about, and this will extend to the candidates too when we get there, but what is it that you actually wanna be doing all day? Because I think the reality of life, you talk to chefs who go like, gosh, ever since I started owning restaurants, I don't spend my time cooking anymore, which is the thing I love. I spend my time running a kitchen and that means, managing vendor costs or whatever. And to some extent, I think the same thing is true for folks who get into franchising, which is to say like, your life looks different and the kinds of things that take up your time and your focus and hopefully your passion are maybe not the same things that you have been doing and the things that have made you successful up until this point. And so it's also an understanding of. What are the sets of skills that are required and the kind of time and energy and focus that it's gonna take to grow and support a franchise brand? And are those the same things I bring to the table in my own business? And is that kind of what I wanna be doing with my time?'cause I think, and for a lot of people, like it's possible, but it's maybe not a trade off that they ultimately wanna make. And there's no problem with that, but it really takes that introspection to be ready for what's ahead. No, I like that. And yeah, you're right. I mean, your role is gonna be completely different. You're, you now have a national franchise assuming that's how you're expanding. And your role's different. You're a coach, you're bringing on franchisees, you're. Cleaning up systems, creating systems, and putting those in place to work anywhere in the country. So that's a very good point. The other thing I advise people on, and I'm definitely not an expert in this area, is that some people get really excited. They have a, an idea that they wanna franchise and they go and create an FDD. A franchise disclosure document for anyone listening new listeners, as we've we've talked about the document we had. kit Higgs on the other day. Houston Barnes. Two franchise attorneys talking about the FDD. Is that they were going to create that. And I said, maybe it makes better sense to, to speak with the company to see if it is something franchisable maybe the the model needs to be tweaked a little bit before that agreement is put in place. So not saying that agreement is not important, but maybe taking a step back to, to talk to others. Like a Rep'M group to see, hey, is this even a franchisable business? And then going out and creating that document. So would you agree there? I think that's totally true. I mean, the FDD is so critical, I think, and you had some of the great players, like these are the guys that, that certainly wanna talk to. So. Your listeners are getting the advantage of getting all the good voices in the room. But look, that document is critical. It's a huge piece of what we do is work with our brands to shape their FDD. But a thing that you wouldn't know coming in if, again, your experiences with your company, it's with your industry, it's your corner of the world, is what does the landscape actually look like out there. And I've talked to brands who maybe they thought they were the first person in the world to invent, a company that does X particular thing. And then you find out, oh, actually. There are 10 other brands already franchising that, or you've only set up, what you know, and you know the way that, that your company has run, but maybe the way that you structure your vendors or what you're spending in a particular area is actually not necessarily in line with what the industry is doing or what folks are gonna find elsewhere. So I think you're totally right like that, that FTD is so important and it's not cheap to produce. So it's worth really thinking about the model and understanding, right, how is it differentiated? How is it gonna play against other brands that are in the space and other opportunities that potential franchisees are gonna have. Like, you wanna make sure that you're built to go out there on the field before you go out and spend the time and the money to create that. For sure. I like that. No, that, that's yeah, I just I hate to see people, spend money when they're not ready, especially when they're. Maybe have limited funds in the beginning. So I think that foundation is really helpful. So, cool. Let's switch gears a little bit. Since Mo most of the people listening in are, corporate execs looking to make the switch switch over to hiring themselves, owning a business. So we're gonna bounce around with some questions. Obviously we talk about our process all the time being very thorough with due diligence, but I wanted to tackle some kind of key areas. What would you consider red flags for candidates looking to invest in a franchise? I think this is such a good question. So, and I would say assuming someone is kind of a little bit down the road they've spent some time thinking about the type of brand that they are interested in, what their financial kind of profile is gonna be. So they've got it narrowed down and they're starting to really look at a brand. I think a couple of things that come to mind, one of them is if current locations or current franchisees. Can't validate what the brand is selling. So often you'll have folks who go, absolutely, here's what we do, here's what we sell. Here's our marketing plan. Like it all sounds fan, fantastic. It's almost too good to be true. And you go great. Like, how are you doing this in your current stores? And they go, well. No, but we're going to be, we haven't done it so far, but this is our 2.0 model, or, the future is gonna be so much brighter than the past, or, we don't have any franchisees yet who are doing this new system, working with this new vendor. But we're planning on it. And again, like there's definitely a role for people who are ready to be the Guinea pig, the first mover. You'll know if you're that person and if you wanna be a trailblazer. But for other folks you, who are out there looking, one of the most critical pieces is once you understand the model, how does this business make money? How do they get customers? Can they validate that? Can you look at their existing locations, talk to their existing franchisees if they have any, and see that what they're selling you is something that is already working. And to me, for most franchise investors, that piece is really critical. So that's one. If all the promises are what will happen and not actually what has been working, right? One other red flag I would say is, item two is the part of the FDD that's right up front and it's gonna have information about the senior leadership of the franchise team. And to me, not everyone is gonna back me on this, but to me one red flag is if everyone on the leadership team is brand new and is really new to that particular company and that particular industry, and you see this often, for example, if you have a brand that has recently transacted now that's great. That's often a sign of success. But if then everyone else who was part of the original brand goes away, and all the new folks who are running the company have all been there for, two months, eight months, and there's no one who actually understands the culture. What really made that business special to begin with, the DNA of the brand and the business and the operations. I. That's gonna be a red flag. And often that's when it doesn't necessarily mean you don't wanna make that investment, but I would be asking a lot more questions if I see that everyone on that team is brand new, especially if the brand itself has been around a while. And then just one more, I would say there is a section of the FTD called item 20 and it's gonna talk about how many units that franchisee or that franchise brand has, how many have been sold, how many have been transferred, how many have opened and closed. It gives you a lot of good information. You know where in the country they are. So it's gonna tell you, has this brand been experiencing fast growth? Has it been experiencing fast shrinkage? And one of the things that I would look for always in any brand that I was looking to acquire is have there been a lot of units recently that have either closed down, been transferred, or resold or terminated? Now again, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's not a great story for it. There are a lot of brands out there that. Realize at a certain point in history, hey, it's time to really crack down and raise our standards. But it's something you always wanna ask more questions about. If you're seeing more than, let's say even 5% of the system turning over on a regular basis, either transferring their units or closing or terminating, reselling on an annual basis, that's something that you're gonna wanna ask about. So that's just one more place that I'm always gonna look and I would always tell your listeners to look before they're willing to sign anything. Yeah, you have full access. The the FDD gets as we mentioned the previous episode updated every year. So you'll have the up to date information from the previous year. You'll have all the information current franchisees, previous franchisees. If there's a question there, if there's any, why couple terminations, did these people close down? what were the reasons you have the right as the franchisee or the prospective franchisee to ask those questions? So I always say ask away. Bring on if more comfortable, a franchise attorney will, which will also specialize in the space reviewing. Is this normal language, I am not an attorney by any means. So, is this normal language? Is this is this something that could be negotiated on occasion, parts of the agreement? Not necessarily. Most of it, but on occasion, maybe there is a delayed opening or some type of change in the in the territory, whatever the case may be. So, definitely definitely ask. You need to be comfortable with that agreement. you definitely do. And so I think you bring up a good point too, which is to ask someone who knows. So if they're working with a consultant, I think this is a great way to use that consultant. A lawyer is another good option because again, if you are not an experienced franchise investor, a lot of the elements of that agreement. Might seem like they're unusual, but it turns out actually they're very standard. They're every agreement and they're no cause for concern. But also you might find somewhere someone who has an eye out, it goes, oh, actually that's pretty unusual and I would push back on that if I were you. So I do think having the expertise of, whether it's someone like you or an attorney who can look at it and who sees a lot of these and understands what's more typical and what's atypical can help you. And it's good then to understand, right? If the brand can't answer a question or doesn't answer a question, you just have to make sure, are you okay with that? Do you feel good? Do you trust your gut? And you feel like, yes, this is still something that I wanna move forward with? Yeah. ultimately, and I had this conversation with someone earlier today. The decision is on you. You need to do your own due diligence. You can work with a consultant like myself. We can make suggestions. You need to, visit the franchisor. You need to speak with franchisees. Which is actually a ne next topic here, but you need to do your own due diligence, but ultimately, it's, it, is there a risk? Absolutely. Is it a business? Yes. There's upside there. There could be downside. You need to be informed and you need to make that decision for yourself. No one can make that decision. I. You'll never have, I always say a hundred percent of the information. It's this leap you're gonna take in any new venture. And I know when I took my first leap 25 years ago 20 years in franchising, 25 with a, going into another business it was not easy. So even with all the homework and I. The due diligence, you still your nerves are still there. And I always jokingly say, your excitement and anxiety feel the same. yes, they really do. But hopefully, if you've chosen the right thing, then from there, it starts to get better along the way as you get closer to opening and not, like you're talking about some of those brands where you invest and then, oh man, it gets worse and worse from there. Right. That's a bad sign. You wanna, you do, you want that excitement to turn into, like, oh man I'm nervous, I'm scared, but I'm so glad I did this. Yes. I agree. And that brings us to, to the area of validation, the importance of talking with existing franchisees, which, in my opinion, just seems like, well, that's natural, right? You're gonna look at a franchise, you're gonna speak with franchisees. But I've talked to people over the years not necessarily people I've worked with people that have just said, well, the experience was. Was good. It wasn't great. And and I said, well, before making that decision, did you speak with franchisees? And they said, no, I didn't know you were supposed to do that. So, so it's things like that where you assume, people are knowing to speak with franchisees. So I actually have an entire step in the process, says, okay, great, you got all the information from the franchise company. So naturally let's talk to people. Let's talk to people that are. running it semi absentee the way you wanna run it, or let's talk to people running it full-time and sometimes both. So, what are good questions to be bringing up on these calls because this is a crucial step. I see a lot of people missing. I agree with you. Our whole system is built on validation at Rev. This is like, there is no candidate who even makes it to Discovery Day without stopping invalidation to talk to, if possible, both the leadership team on the brand and existing franchisees. And so I think it's critical. So I would say just in preparation for those calls, one thing to really, keep in mind is you're not gonna talk to. A hundred percent of people who have been successful or a hundred percent of people who love it, that itself is not a red flag necessarily. There are lots of people who, for example, would tell you themselves, Hey, I am not a good fit for this brand. Or you talk to them and you go, oh man, that person's not following the system at all. No wonder he is failing. Like, so I think some of that is. You have to be as a potential investor to someone coming in. You have to know what to listen for, and it's almost never going to be across the board. This is perfect. Nothing's wrong with this. Like everything about this system is sunshine and roses. That's not what business is like. That's not what franchising is like, but I do think you have to come with an open mind to understand. When you're hearing about either people who say, this isn't working, it didn't work, or, I'm not happy here, whatever. You have to be willing to understand how that compares to your situation and why that's happening for them. Just like if you do hear someone who says, this is awesome and I love it, you compare yourself to that person too and go, man, like, is this are they doing the same thing that I would wanna do? Right. So in terms of the actual questions. And, there are gonna be a lot of different kind of themes you can take. And some of them have to do with, hey, how hard was it to find your, staff that you needed to hire? Or, what do you spend your days doing? I think those things are really important and those, I think are pretty typical. You're gonna hear those a lot. A lot of the financial questions that you can't necessarily ask of the brand, they can't legally answer, but you can ask a franchisee. under the radar things that I always ask, and even when we're doing diligence with a new brand to see if we wanna work with them. And I'm, talking to franchisees, I say, what surprised you? What was different once you got up and running than what you expected, before you actually signed off. I like that one. Oh, it's huge and I always get something good out of it. Like, sometimes you learn a huge amount and sometimes it's kind of a fun surprise. But yeah. What was different? What was surprising? What was harder than you thought it was going to be and what actually works better than you thought it would? One, to never, ever leave off your list. It seems obvious, but again, you'd be amazed how many people don't ask is. Would you do this again? So sometimes you get people and they say like, no, I'm not making money, or Things haven't gone well, but I love this brand and the reason I'm not making money is X, Y, and Z, and I would totally do this again, and I know I could even do it better. On the other hand you'll find people who say they are making money, but they would never do this again, and it wasn't worth it. Like you're gonna get. For the most part, the honest truth out of people. If you wanna hear it. And I think, would you do this again? And would you recommend to someone you like not your worst enemy, right? But would you recommend to someone you care about that they do this? I think those are really important. The one other question I will say, I could go on about this for an hour, but the one other thing that I think is really important is to essentially ask. Who is a good fit for this kind of business and who might not be a good fit. So perfect example here, especially'cause you have a lot of executives, there are some businesses where you know, even as the owner, even if you're not managing day to day, the role of that business. Now one that comes to my, it might be a pet grooming business or a hair salon or, I came from the car business, so it was working in auto repair. And, and you can have had a c-level job for 20 years before this and have never had to work with artistic professionals or auto technicians, right? And on the one hand you go, I'm smart, I understand this business. But you have to really be able and willing to kind of work inside the culture that you're in. And so sometimes that validation process is where you're gonna find out. Man, I had no idea. Like, it turns out stylists are man, they are a type of their own. And if you don't like working with stylists, this is not the business for you. And you'd never know that in advance, especially if you don't come from that industry. So there are some of those kind of things that you might not think to ask necessarily. And the brand is not necessarily gonna think to tell you'cause the brand has been working with stylists forever. But you know, it's kind of that like. Who would be a good fit and maybe who would not be a great fit. And I think the people who went before you, who made a similar decision and came from outside the industry, they're gonna be the ones who have really good insight on like, oh, it turns out if you don't love kids, this business isn't for you. Right. Or, like if you don't wanna spend all day on cold calls, like this is not the business for you. Yeah. That role what is your role in the business? Yeah, that's a good point. And. I will say this, in franchising for a while, lots of, thousands, four, 4,000 franchises I think are out there. And I will say they are not all built the same, but the sign of a strong franchise and if they are emerging, they are still figuring things out. Depending how many units they have or territories. But you know, they have that franchise avatar, they know that. Okay. To be a good franchisee, you need to follow systems. But to your point if it is an, you need to be an extrovert and you need to be cold calling specifically and you are the complete opposite, well that should really be tackled in that first or second call. You should not be going into a discovery kind of final decision stage. They should really kind of come back and say unless you find a person to handle sales this probably isn't gonna work. So I think those are signs of a. Of a more established franchise or a franchise that really knows who their avatar is, that knows who they're after. Yeah. And because I think it, for a lot of brands, it only takes one or two folks who you think is gonna be a great fit, and then they come in and it's like boil and water to realize this didn't work. One of the brands we work with, and I won't name names right now, but. I think they do such a great job'cause they actually get a lot of executive types who come in and one of the things they say right up front is they say, look like you are gonna be doing work that you thought you were like, too good for 20 years ago. You haven't been doing this kind of work in a long time. Right. But we are not interested in you if you're not willing to come in and do some of that work right up front. Like we are not a hands off business, so we're not gonna be fully absentee. That's not a thing. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty. And that's scary and it's embarrassing and it's these kind of things that often like executives are not ready for if you are thinking like, gosh, I'll be able to come in and do everything at arms length. So I think you're dead on, like the brand often knows the answer to who they are looking for. And it's worth pressing on that'cause I think there are. Brands love to get qualified, awesome. Smart people. And so, there's a competition to say, of course, like, we love a semi-absentee model, or Yes. You can definitely just be an investor, but it's really worth pushing on that to understand and to know like, hey, what is the actual thing I'll be doing day to day and is it something that I can really get behind? I couldn't agree more. this is a five. 10 year when I sign 20 year franchise agreement. So this is a long-term relationship, so it's gonna be really painful. It's not gonna be enjoyable if it's something that you're not gonna en enjoy doing and the match isn't there. when people say to me sometimes, oh, I haven't made much progress, this brand maybe isn't the best fit, I go, no, it is a fit. You're getting closer and closer to what that ideal. A franchise model is, you don't really necessarily need the experience in the industry, but you need this, the transferable skillset. So if you're going from Wall Street to, to cleaning I'm trying to think of a, two businesses that could be so, so different. Yeah. You may need management experience, you're gonna need networking experience, going to maybe property managers. It's a commercial cleaning business, that type of business. So, you definitely wanna do kind of a self-assessment. What are you good at? Not in the industry, but what do you get at in general? Are you a people person? Yeah. What are your skills? Yeah. It's really that, it's really that simple. And then you can start and scaling down. Are you able to run the business full-time? In that kind of role? Is it just nights and weekends overseeing a manager? That's gonna make a difference because not all brands allow to run the business semi-absentee. and some of them say semi-absentee. I will tell you this is like, I will drive this one home forever. But what they mean is, it can be part-time, but it doesn't mean that's the time you have. And I think for your listeners especially, this is critical. Like if what you have is 20 hours a week, but to your point, it's all nights and weekends and you're gonna keep a full-time job that might not work with a brand that says, absolutely you can do this in 10 or 20 hours a week. But it has to be the middle of the afternoon so you can be out, like, networking in the community like it is, the semi ity doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. And some of those like lifestyle and part-time, those don't always mean the same thing. And I think that's, that is really good to know in advance. Agreed. Absolutely. And no, no passive stuff. I always say there's no there's no such thing. There's no, I said there's other in investments you could make that are definitely more passive, stock market, real estate. Depending on, real estate syndication I'll call it that. But yeah, this is definitely you. You're definitely gonna be hands on. There's definitely a lot of work to get the business launch. 1000% I tell people that all the time. Yeah, there's no such thing as passive. I almost would say there is like, there is hardly such a thing as semi absentee. I'm willing to say part-time, but. If you want to own a business, you gotta actually wanna own that business. And I think that has come down to it, right? The more arms length it is, typically the more red flags that you're gonna get and the harder that's gonna be. But I do think you're right when it comes to the long-term relationship and fit piece I just wanna come back to this, is, I used to joke about how, it is, it's like a marriage and just because a brand is a great brand does not mean it's a great fit for you. And there's lot of fish in the sea when it comes to brands, the dating pool, all those things. But like, you wanna be in a place where not just you like the brand and you know you like what they stand for and you're, financially qualified, whatever you think you can make money, but where you like the people and you can envision yourself being a part of the family and a part of the culture and being willing to have a fight with them or a hard conversation and being able to then get over that, like transparency, accountability, like your ability to come in and connect with other franchisees like. Those things become important. It is not just, hey, I think this can make money. There are a lot of businesses out there that can make money, but if you don't actually like it and it's not a good culture fit you can sign yourself up for a very long 10 years. And so I think that piece is really critical. That's where, some of those D-Day and validation and some of those things come in as well as it's gotta feel like something that you wanna be a part of. Culturally 100% you definitely nailed that. and you get a feel for that when you do the validation calls and. You know the topics that they're going over and the full transparency, because guess what, in a couple years or maybe in a year, you buy that franchise, you're gonna be asked. To potentially do the exact same calls and help out your fellow future franchisees? Oh, absolutely. Neighboring franchisees. Of course. It's so funny to me, like we have, we probably have 15 different brands that we do cut full service work with right now, and when you go to two different discovery days. It's wild how different those experiences are, even though the agenda is roughly the same and the topics covered are the same, but you can tell right away by the time you get to D-Day, the candidates look different. The vibes are different. Some of them, it's like a party the whole time. Others, it's a more buttoned up kind of a serious group and everyone's sitting there and they've got their, computers out and they're taking notes and they're in business outfit. Like it really the cultural differences come to the forefront so quickly and it really is and should be. It's a diverse community, but it's a reflection of the culture of what that brand is gonna be. So having those things feel good too. Like they, they really do matter a lot. And you can tell the difference, man, you sometimes everything on paper looks good and you walk in the door and go, Nope, I don't think this is for me. And that's honestly, that's a good thing to your point. Right. That's great to get to that point better then than before you signed the, 10 years of your life. Absolutely. Yeah. My, you gotta figure it out now and then you make progress and hey. I like, loved everything about this business. It's just the the client acquisition piece is B2B I prefer more of a B2C approach. That's okay. You, and now you know what to look for. Right. Then you can go look for another brand that's a better fit. Oh, a thousand percent. Yeah. especially if it's a parent company or a company working with multiple brands, they can help you say, Hey, well we can pivot and look at the exact same model, but on a B2C approach or an exact same model that. Has a 10 99 labor, 10 99 technicians versus W2. These are just more preferences. Not what's better, but maybe this, that's the preference. A better style for you. Yeah. As we're coming toward, towards the end of the show what would be a couple things. The first would be what would be anything we didn't talk about today? Piece of advice for someone that. Just in general is looking to leave the corporate rat race looking for something different advice you would give to them. And before you answer that, the reason I ask this quite a bit is because there was an interview with the president of the IFAA couple months ago, beginning of the year, and he said that 75% of individuals have expressed interest at some point in their lives of starting a business. And 75% of those people never move forward. Simply because they don't know where to start, which I found shocking, right. With the, with the internet and Absolutely. Tech and ai. You can just ask chat, GPTI guess where to start, but what piece of advice would you give to people that are on the sideline? Maybe they don't know where to start, or they're debating like, wow, leaving my job to, to invest and hopefully make a profit. What advice would you give to those people? I would say two things. The first one, not to toot your horn here, but I think for so many people using a consultant is such a better way than trying to dive in alone. Like, we get lots of leads off of random Google searches for like, hey, a franchise in. Yogurt or, whatever it is. But I think, but really it, it makes sense for a lot of people, especially if you are a first time franchise investor or you've thought about owning your own business, but you wanna understand kind of the pluses and minuses of this model to talk to someone, and especially someone where you know, hey, if you ultimately decide either this isn't for me or it's not a great fit, you're not gonna be out a huge amount of money or anything, but it's just someone who understands the space and who knows how to ask the right questions to potentially go. Hey, I actually think you might be a good fit for this. Or, here's something you might not have looked at, but it's really exciting and it's happening right now. So I do think that for a lot of people, I won't say for everyone, there are a lot of different ways to come to franchise ownership, but for people who are toying with it and are feeling a little bit overwhelmed, I would say talking to a consultant, a good consultant is a really good place to start. In terms of what's the piece of advice that I would give to someone in what they're looking for? I think, like I'm an operations person, so I'm, I come back so much to, I. The fundamentals, the business fundamentals, and I think for me, some of my best advice is don't get caught up with the fancy trimmings or the flash in the pan, or news that a brand is hot or selling a lot of units or oh, the territory might go fast. Whatever that is. Like, it really is about the fundamentals of the business and trusting your gut, because whether or not you know, franchising, you can understand some basics. Do you understand? Not what they tell you, but do you understand? Why does this brand exist? Like why do customers choose it? Why is it differentiated? Do you actually believe that what they offer is better? Or do you understand how they get customers and how they make money? If you can't explain like, here's here are the main expenses, here's actually how it makes money. This stuff sounds very rudimentary, but I will tell you like it's easy to get caught up in, especially things that are kinda. They're trendy. There's a lot of news about them, a lot of slick discovery days where there's a fast moving footwork that kind of covers up the fact, and you go like, wait, that emperor had no close. Like, if the ultimate customer acquisition strategy is question mark, like open the doors and hope they come in. That's not great. So I think for me, so much of it comes down to there are a lot of people, a lot of resources that are around kind of, right. What should you be asking? What's the right fit? Making sure you get something that's a good fit. But so much of this is about the real fundamentals. Is it a business that makes money? Do you believe that it's different, jaded and has the power to stay differentiated for 10 or 20 years? It's a space that even if you don't come to it naturally, you don't feel like it's a black box. Like, you feel like you understand it. Those, to me are the very first steps to make sure that this is a good fit for you. Love it. No, that's awesome. I really appreciate that. Last question. Fun fact. There's some interesting stuff over here. I wanna see what see if you remember what you put down. Oh, man. Oh boy. Let's see. I'll let I'll say it like I'll one So something with potatoes. Oh, yes. Oh, that's right. All right. So, potato related. So I am, I grew up in rural Oregon, middle of nowhere. I am Philadelphia now and have been on the, in the northeast for 25 years. But I grew up in rural Oregon. And yes, fun fact is that I was once a. Potato festival princess, so it involved a tiara and riding in a parade on a float and like, wow. I do the wave. Like it's not really my vibe these days if you knew me now, but you know, if 30 years ago there I was as a potato festival princess, maybe we can add that graphic. We'll ask the editors. To that's funny. I always, like, I get some funny stuff. We've had some people related to celebrities. It was pretty cool. And yeah, they're like, distant cousins and all this cool stuff. But yeah, it's it's always funny. I always like to. Some people forget sometimes what they put down. It's like, I'm glad you hinted because I would've given you away like an extra one there. Like, yeah. So there's a lot of random ones. Awesome. No that's funny. I enjoy that one. So that's something we started asking recently, I really appreciate you coming on the show. This was a lot of fun and I like these, they're very conversational. We, we keep it less structured because we like to incorporate just conversation, but just the stuff we're hearing it's the stuff that people want to hear people. Need a, certain questions answered or stuck in certain places. Not sure where to start. So I'm hoping these conversations inspire you to at least move forward. Even just. Putting the not making a phone call, but just starting the search on your own. And we try to give a blueprint. We we launched and wrote a book during covid not playing. They just kind of worked that way. Had a little time on your hands. Yeah. It was just, we were just like, okay, let's let's just run with it, because no one was around anyway, so everyone was home trying to figure out how to use Zoom, But yeah, just things to think about a self-assessment. Like we talked about what are your strengths? What do you, what's an average day in a life for you? And keep it in mind, and I forget to mention this, but your average day in a life day one, and then maybe six months to a year later, maybe different since you're very different launching that business. what does that look like? What do you enjoy doing? What are the things you don't enjoy doing? What are the industries you want to avoid? Just because you just don't like the industry. Maybe you just. That industry is frowned upon for whatever reason. I'm not gonna name industries, but there are certain industries that people just are not comfortable with, just don't wanna be in. Absolutely. And that's okay. The more specific you get, you can really kind of drill down. But yeah. Hope, hope you guys found this, educational, informative, drop your comments dms, whatever, however you wanna communicate. We're looking for feedback and, topics for future calls. So if you have any any ideas or if there's a topic we haven't maybe, done a deep dive recently, let us know and that'll be the topic hopefully in the next couple months. So thanks again for your support, Rebekah. Thanks again and we'll we'll definitely talk soon. Thanks very much. Thanks for tuning in 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.