The Modern Franchise Funding Playbook: Your Complete Guide to Financing a Franchise (2025)

Get the ultimate franchise funding playbook from a franchise business coach and funding expert. This guide covers the new lending reality, a deep dive into using the ROBS plan and securing SBA loans, and a financial due diligence checklist to achieve franchise freedom. If you're looking for franchise funding options or a franchise career advisor, this is the definitive resource for preparing and securing the capital you need to invest in a franchise and succeed.

*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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Transcript

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:00

My why was my, it was my family. Well, what does that mean? Well, my, my, that why my family basically meant wanted to spend more time with them. I worked on wall street. You know, 2003, four, five, six. And with that commute, I was never going to see my family by the time I left at five 30 in the morning and got home after eight 30, nine o'clock at night, five hour round trip commute. I, I needed to make a change so that my, why was spending more time with family flexibility, and And you know, always had the idea of becoming a soccer coach and never missing a soccer game, which is something I, I got to accomplish. But that why is going to be super important because just like in any business, there's going to be bumps in the road and you need that strong enough. Why to really get you through the, the ups and downs in, in any business.

Michael Minitelli: 0:50

I want to invest and bet on me, which is another thing that people, you know, like to do.

0:55

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.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 1:05

Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide to show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Thanks for joining us today. We really appreciate it. And don't forget, feel free to visit our website, ggthefranchiseguide.com click on that book a call. I'd love to chat with you, answer your questions in regards to business ownership, franchise ownership, if you're potentially a good fit. Book a 20 minute call with me today. There's no cost, no commitment, and I would love to help you out in any, way we can. today I'm joined by industry experts who have helped countless families build franchise empires that last. Whether you're planning to pass your business to the next generation or building your first franchise with Legacy in mind, you'll get real world stories and expert insights right here. let's dive into what really takes to create a franchise that just doesn't just survive, but thrives for generations. It is a lot of work. There's a big time commitment. And usually the people I work with, they are looking to do accomplish a few things. Number one is they want to create another source of income which is good. They want to create a safety net in the event of the next Job loss, right? There's, there's especially certain industries have been cutting back on jobs job losses and layoffs and things like that. There are other individuals that own businesses that either want to convert their business into a franchise or diversify. Their investments and maybe add on just purely investment or add on additional income streams. Maybe it's a mom and pop roofing company that wants to offer an add on a a franchise that offers painting services. or a coverings business where they're able to essentially restore vinyl siding and things like that. So really figuring out, you know, why you want to own a business. Yes, we all want to make more money, but you know, really kind of figuring out what is your why. For me as an example, and that's something I'm starting to do a lot more is kind of give my, my story and give some examples. My why was my, it was my family. Well, what does that mean? Well, my, my, that why my family basically meant wanted to spend more time with them. I worked on wall street. You know, 2003, four, five, six. And with that commute, I was never going to see my family by the time I left at five 30 in the morning and got home after eight 30, nine o'clock at night, five hour round trip commute. I, I needed to make a change so that my, why was spending more time with family flexibility, and And you know, always had the idea of becoming a soccer coach and never missing a soccer game, which is something I, I got to accomplish. And that was my big, my big accomplishment as a business owner is not just. The money, but you know, that time freedom that it created. So some people, you know, I always tell people they're looking for different things, time, freedom, financials are more important than time, but time is a close second or vice versa. And that is okay. Everyone's situation is different. But that why is going to be super important because just like in any business, there's going to be bumps in the road and you need that strong enough. Why to really get you through the, the ups and downs in, in any business. So things to consider with the franchise. Number one is you need money to invest now with a startup. The investment could be less, but what happens is that you're figuring out the system. So what you save avoiding a franchise fee in a startup you know, it may take you two, three years to put that business plan together. Whereas a franchise, there are certain businesses that don't require any type of brick and mortar. You're up and running in 90 days or less. So you're really kind of speeding up the process. Kind of figuring out, you know, what you have, looking at your financials, always getting your, your financials in order. So liquid assets you know, your liquidity, your total assets your liabilities. So basically your assets minus your liabilities give you your net worth. The assets also include the liquidity, but how much money do you have to put towards the business? I recommend as a starting point, 50, 000 liquid, a hundred thousand net worth. You know, you're looking at the you know, the equity in your home and things like that for, for the assets, but you need to. deduct a mortgage, but that's just a starting point. You need to make sure that, you know, it also depends how you're running the business. So if you're running it full time, you need to make sure that you have enough of a, a safety net or a nest egg set aside to pay your, your monthly expense. You may need six months living expense aside. Because if you are the only income in the household, who's paying your mortgage and rent and health insurance and, you know, student loans or whatever you have out there. Money is one. So get your financials in order regardless. If you're going to buy a business or not, you should know where you stand financially. You know, that that's one. Secondly, with a franchise specifically, you want to look at things such as, you know, am I okay following the system? You know, if you're buying a fast food franchise that serves burgers, Are you going in saying, okay, I'm okay with, with the menu and I'm just going to run with what works or is your first thought, how can you change the menu? And usually that's a red flag not to say there's not any autonomy in, in running the business, but the intention is to run with that model. That's the advantage you're getting with a franchise. Things to think about. So financials is one, and you notice some of these questions pop up on the website. You know, the second one is, can you follow a system? Really important because that's the, the value proposition of a franchise, right? They have the, the system built out for you so that you can easily execute and run with it. Some people like to create everything from scratch and that's okay. You know, maybe not the best fit for a franchise, but that's really what a franchise is. They have the system, you run with it. You know, speed, speed to, to, to get open, which is a major advantage and the autonomy comes with how you're running the day to day via the marketing, your roles and things like that. And we're going to touch more on roles and characteristics of the business next. And, and the last thing, you know, as far as, so financials. And, you know, can you follow a, a system is timeframe because at the end of the day you can spend as much as you'd like researching franchises, but ultimately with the franchise if you're looking at a specific franchise, other people are looking at a franchise too, just like, you're in the real estate market, looking at a home or an investment property or building on the commercial side, you know, that may not be available. So I always tell people if. You are looking to make a decision within six, six months or less. Now's probably a good time to start considering a franchise, not to open, but to actually make that decision further than six months. If it's a year or two, it's okay to start the process, but not maybe dive into specific brands because we don't know what's going to be available in the next year or two. That's something also to think about is that with the franchise, it's going to be a location or specific territory and other people are going to be looking at that as well. So consider those, those three bullet points I think is going to be super beneficial and you know, hopefully you're, you're getting a lot of takeaways. And again, if we're working together, We're going through all this. We're spending a lot of time. And that's done on our first call, which is that 20 minute intro call. So we'll figure out together kind of your current situation, what you're looking to accomplish expectations of, of a franchise. We're going to go through things and we'll touch on some here that there are over 4,000 franchises So these are the stats that we give. 70 plus industries, all investment levels. You know, there, if you can think of a business model, there's a franchise. And not every franchise is created equal. So we're going to, we go through that as well. And typically 20 minutes or less assuming how that call goes. If we both agree that a franchise may be a good fit we schedule a second call and prior to that second call, we sent out a survey or questionnaire that will give us a little bit more insights on your background, your experience levels you know, what your, your skill set is not just you have experience in the roofing business, but is it, is it that transferable skill set of sales and things like that? You know, so it'll go through there. Will you have partners if you're married or are you going to have partners, you know, are they going to be involved and at what capacity they silent or active partners, you know, what do they bring to the table? And once we get that back, we schedule kind of the second part, which is you know, What does the ideal franchise look like? So again, if a franchise is in a good fit, no real reason, start looking at brands, doing all the extra work, it's really getting clear for franchise could work. So that's, that's kind of step one, step two, and finding your, your perfect franchise is what is the ideal business look like? Now this is really reverse engineering the process because what most people do is. They'll look at a company like McDonald's or Subway and say, okay. Back in the day when I started looking, Subway was, I think, one of the top selling franchises at the time. And I said, okay, I can make it work. And what I found out was I was settling. I kept settling. Like I didn't want a lot of staff. I didn't want to be open every single day. I didn't want to rely on a gross strategy of. additional locations, which is, there's nothing wrong with, but just wasn't my ideal business when I wrote it down on paper. So you start to settle. So my challenge to you is put all the brands aside. We don't even care about brands at this point is to set up a 60 minute consultation call. And if you're doing it on your own, And really, if you're kind of listing out what the ideal business looks like. So let's go down some, some options. You know, what is your role in the business? Are you going to be a full time owner, you know, leaving your, your full time job, or are you going to be running this part time? Semi absentee. You've, you've heard that term. I've talked about it on previous episodes. Will you be relying on a general manager? Not all brands will require a general manager. Some can be run on your own without staff, maybe a few contractors, but. You know, are you okay with a manager? And if you are, you know, keeping in mind that will increase your investment because now you have an extra salary. So those are things to consider. Secondly, you know, what do you enjoy doing? What, what are your skills? Are you an introvert, an extrovert? Do you enjoy sales? You know, the role in the business is going to be, is going to be big because we tend to fall in love with the product or service of the franchise, forgetting what the role of the franchisee is. And you may love the idea of a certain service, but if it requires you to be the mayor of the town and, and really network and go to events and podcasts and stuff like that, and that's not your cup of tea that's going to be a difficult business to run. So really, you know, concentrating on the role and keeping in mind too, that every, every franchise is different. So you may have two franchises that offer the same service and or product and the roles will be different. You know, one you know, one of the brands we'll say mosquito spraying, we'll have you going out there spraying for mosquitoes. building up a base and then hiring staff. Another one will maybe never have you touching a blower and, and spraying for mosquitoes and have you networking day one. So same exact business service wise, but different, completely different roles. These are, these are things to think about. Your employees is another category. What do your employees look like? And that's an odd question, but your staff is going to be crucial. There are going to be certain businesses that require W 2 employees, some are going to require 1099 contractors and some are going to be a hybrid. So maybe you're, you know, your bookkeeper, your admin, your general manager, those are the W 2, the operational support. And then the person the people doing the actual work. We'll call it roofing and siding. Those are going to be contractors. That's an option. There are other businesses, exec, executive recruitment, expense reduction, where you can run the business on your own and solely rely on, on 10 99 contractors. You know, other things to consider with, with staff, are they full time? Part time? Is it a larger staff? You know, you're going to tend to see larger numbers in the cleaning space. Whereas you're going to see maybe lower numbers in the water and smoke restoration mitigation space. You know, with the larger numbers you're going to need some type of background in management, right? Cause you're going to be managing this larger staff. So those are, those are things to think about. Do you prefer, you know, traveling standalone building? Or do you prefer the flexibility of working from home where you're offering a service at a commercial property residentially cleaning gutter, cleaning and repair and replacement you know, roofing, painting, all that kind of stuff. So those are, again the differences there. And you know, I'm not going to say one is better than the other. But, you know, you have to look at, okay, at the end of the day, if I prefer the brick and mortar model, what is the growth strategy and the growth strategy is simply to add on, you know, the additional locations. So that's something to think about. So once you hit certain capacity, you know, that each location can generate X and many of those locations are needed. Factoring in, you know, what it costs to open up each one versus a service based type of business where, you know, your territory base. So if you're buying one, two or three territories of a specific brand, you're going to essentially incur some additional discounted, usually franchise fees for those additional territories, just like, you know, you would pay with the the brick and mortar option, but you would really kind of focus on the local market. With the same team, if your team, if you have a team of three or two or whatever that number is, whether you buy one, two or three territories, you're going to start off with the same team and slowly or gradually expand the staff. Once you hit certain capacity with your, with your staff and employees. So there's definitely differences there. And we talk a lot more about that, that, that, that's a kind of, that scalability is going to be kind of, another show in and of itself. Those are, those are things that we talk about in the consultation. If we haven't what else as far as that, that is you know, a couple of things we dive. A little bit deeper. So the difference with kind of the service we offer versus a portal, instead of saying, okay, do you prefer a brick and mortar or service? Do you prefer a low number of employees or a lot, you've never owned the business. You may have a hard time deciding or not knowing the difference. And I always say, go with what, you know, your comfort level is. But what we do is we break down in that 60 minutes. Okay. You know, what's the difference between a brick and mortar aside from needing a physical location. We talk about the length of time. We talk to, to get open the investment, you know, for a lot of the home service brands are up and running in 90 days or less brick and mortar non standalone could take six months to a couple of years to get open, depending on the complexity of the build out. Brick and mortar. If you're building something from scratch in a standalone building. So they're building the structure or if they're just, you know, essentially there was a restaurant in there and you, you're just changing it for your concept that there's going to be some variables they're working with the landlord negotiating leases. So tend to take a lot longer to get up and running. But these are, these are the preferences, you know, putting together the list of, you know, things that you want the business to have. And we get really, really selective, you know, we want to make sure each business checks off all the boxes as opposed to, let me just check off one box and not the others and, and start to settle. Now you have a business that's kind of 50 percent of what you envisioned that business to be. That consultation along with your responses from the survey you sent to us give us a complete picture of what this ideal business looks like, and we summarize it in a franchise model which is essentially if you're doing it on your own, a summary, just list those key areas. List your answers and that's going to be part of your criteria search. We, we put it all together and really kind of help in what that ideal business looks like so that any business, whether it's a franchise or, or even non franchise. We want to make sure that that model we're using that model to gauge any business going forward. Between this call or, or the second step that the consultation that we just finished wrapped up here, we also want to talk about funding. I always, you know, recommend speaking with a funding company directly. You know, you have your financials together. They usually, we work with a company both Benetrends or Franfund are two companies we work with and they'll do a free, no cost analysis. There's no hard credit check. Usually it's a soft check. To see kind of what you qualify for. They'll go through options like SBA, government backed loans. Believe it or not, there are some brands out there that once approved by the SBA will offer a hundred percent financing not common, but there are a handful of brands that will do that typically. 20 to 30 percent is really the is what you're looking to put down. You know, just say an average a service based brand is. 150 to 200, 000 all in which is essentially the 90 days of operation, working capital franchise fee and all the costs involved to get it. The business up and running and to run for, for three months, we'll round it up to say 200, 000, you're looking at about 20 to 30%. So 40 to 60, 000 and that 40 to 60, 000 would be the down payment. And then the rest would be financed via the SBA. The use of retirement assets ROBS, Rob's plan rollover business startup. And those plans get to you to get, you get to utilize previous employers 401k and old traditional IRA, not, not a Roth IRA IRA. If all your money's with your current employer, those funds will become qualified after leaving the employer. So something to think about as well. Some people use a combination of a retirement rollover or and then an SBA loan and Benetrends or friend fund will be able to walk you through the process. Kind of like when you're, when you're buying a home, I want to make sure that everything is in line, that you're qualified and looking at brands that you qualify for financially, but just because you qualify for up to half a million. Your comfort level may only be 200, 000. So getting clear on, you know, what you qualify for and then what you're comfortable with are two different things.

Michael Minitelli: 19:22

40, 45 years ago our founder, Len Fisher. Who was an ERISA attorney by trade came up with this process. He was working with one of his clients who had most of his assets in a retirement account, and Len utilized the IRS code and you know, tax. You know, all the information that the IRS lays out and realize, Hey, you can do this if it's done properly. So it kind of happened by accident and he created this this process and 45 years later, you know, 50,000 plus clients later, we've really created a whole industry around that product. So, yeah, it's very much, legal, it's very much blessed by the IRS, I think Giuseppe the first 15 years of us kind of in business, it was a lot more, you know, lobbying, you know, with the IRS to get their blessing on this. Right. But you know, they have since giving us the kind of green light and nod that, you know, what Robs is, something that's gonna be here and here to stay. And you have our blessing as long as you have an organization like Benetrends or some of our competitors that are doing it properly and managing those accounts. So, yeah man it's again, just an option. Most people don't realize it's at their fingertips. And honestly, man, it's not very complicated. I think a lot of people, to your point, like. I think it's like, I've never heard of this. So it gives them a natural kind of, hesitation. But it's really no different Giuseppe of the rollovers most of us have done in our corporate life. Right, right. So I had very, I was kind when I sat across Len 10 years ago when he explained this to me. He explained it to me in a way that it made sense to me. And I do that a lot with our candidates because they do come from corporate backgrounds, right? So we're both New Jersey guys, right? We got a, you know, hundreds of different pharmaceutical companies here, right? So let's just say I'm, you know, an analyst at Johnson and Johnson, right? And I have a 401k with j and j. Let's say there's$300,000 in there. And I get an opportunity to go work for Pfizer. Right. Typically what we do in scenarios like that is I'll take my j and j 401k with$300,000. I'll roll that out into an IRA, or I can just roll that into Pfizer's new 401k, right? And going from one qualified retirement plan, you never pay taxes and penalties on that transaction. All of us have done that in corporate life, right? You have 300, you move 300. Super simple. When I'm at Pfizer and I'm going through all my onboarding and training and they're setting me up with my benefits and, you know, fidelity 401k or Schwab, whatever they set me up with, and I'm going through investment options within that 401k Giuseppe. A lot of times one of those investment options is purchas purchasing company stock. Right. So again, something I know I did in my technology career, you've probably done it. Most of the people that we work with have done it. At the time I didn't realize it was kind of setting off a chain of events, right? So if I look at that 300 k and I say, you know what, I'll take a hundred of it and invest it in Pfizer, I can do that. Then what happens is my 401k just now owns the amount of shares that I just purchased for Pfizer, and that a hundred thousand dollars that I used to purchase it. It doesn't remain in my Fidelity account. It doesn't float. In financial purgatory somewhere. It goes to Pfizer in one of their many corporate checking accounts that company could now use for whatever legitimate business expense that they want. Right? R and d product, salaries, real estate, anything. So what Len figured out and what we do at Benetrends is literally that same exact chain of events, but instead of doing it for Johnson or Pfizer or Amazon, we set up Minitelli Enterprises, right within Minitelli Enterprises. We set up a qualified customized retirement plan, and then we can take that same$300,000 for my old j and j, 401k. We roll it into Minitelli Enterprises. New qualified retirement plan, and just like before going from one qualified plan to the next, no taxes and penalties. And then what happens is. The retirement account that Benetrends created for me is now just gonna purchase privately held stock in that Minitelli Enterprises, and then through that privately held stock purchase. Giuseppe the retirement accounts, gonna own privately held shares$300,000. Now goes to Mike Minnelli's corporate checking account that I could now use for any legitimate business expense. So that can be the franchise fees. That can be a build out of my location if I'm having a brick and mortar trucks equipment. It can also be used to pay yourself a salary, which is a lot of times very hard to get from a loan. And it can also be combined with SBA or another form of. Funding to get additional funds to help secure you know, your investment. So yeah, again, that, that helped make sense to me 10 years ago. And when I try to explain it that way, Giuseppe, it does seem to resonate. It does actually, with the people that have done it in their corporate life, right? It absolutely does when you kind of say it that way. And that explanation actually is really helpful because people start getting into the weeds on this, and I go I'm not the expert in this area. You know, we work with Berend, we work at Jade. We work with Jade every single day, you know, back and forth. We, there's always this you've probably never heard of this scenario. It's always one of those conversation starters, but she's been really helpful in, in, in starting that. So, so that is, I guess a benefit there is, I'm looking at it, it seems like it's your money, so you get access to the funding quicker and you don't have to worry about note payments every month, right. It's just you got a new business, right. Yeah. Yeah there's a lot of advantages to it. It is, to your point, a very quick way to get, you know, funding right from start to finish. You're looking at usually three to four weeks from engagement to that money sitting in your corporate checking account. Even Giuseppe for the people that have cash and liquidity and they learn that this is an option they quickly say to themselves. Well, if it's sitting in cash, that means I've probably already paid my taxes on it, right? Cash is good to have for your day-to-day life, right? You know, Becky needs braces. Johnny's going to college. Tree trees fell down on my house. You know, cash is always good to have. So once they realize I can access my pre-tax dollars in sometimes an underperforming retirement account. I'd rather keep my cash here, right? And then access these pre-tax dollars to, to help fund the business. So, you have the aspect of using prevo versus post-tax. Some people like the diversification of it, right? If you have somebody that has substantial amount of money within the IRAs and retirement accounts, if they have a million dollars and they can just pull 200 of it. Take it out of Wall Street and the market and say, Hey, now I'm investing it in Giuseppe and my business. It's diversified, right? So it's not tied to Wall Street. It's tied to me. And then you have the individual Giuseppe that just likes control, right. Maybe there's some distrust about Wall Street and you know, the market and they say, you know what? I want to have control over my money and my destiny. God forbid it doesn't work out. There's nobody to blame but me and myself, I want to invest and bet on me, which is another thing that people, you know, like to do. So it, there's a lot of different ways that, that people view this. And again, to, to our point, most people go into this conversation not even knowing or realizing that this is an option. Awesome. No, that's that, that is really helpful and, for anyone that wants to learn a little bit about, about, about the Robs or any, anything we're talking about today, we're definitely sharing this episode since you do a much better job in explaining it. Yeah, especially when the question started started popping up. So this is one avenue of many talk to us about, you know, another, product or service is the SBA loan. So what is that? What does SBA stand for? For someone that's listening for the first time and you know, what does that process look like? And maybe even, you know, compare the two, maybe some differences, obviously one's alone, but if there are differences is what you can use the funds for. Yeah. SBA Giuseppe is small business administration. It's our government backed entity supporting small business and entrepreneurship in the US, right? You know, at the end of the day, these are just banks lending the money. What the SBA does is incentivize banks to lend to Michael, to Giuseppe, to anybody out there by guaranteeing a certain percentage of that loan. I talk to people all day, every day, and sometimes I ask, Hey, why do you wanna look at A an SBA loan? And they say, well, it's guaranteed. Yeah. While that's true, it's not guaranteed to the borrower, it's guaranteed by the bank that's lending it. Right. So, you know, I also get the question pretty frequently of, well, why do I need an SBA loan? Why can't I just get something, you know, traditional or conventional? the short answer is they're just harder to come by. Banks like to follow the SBA processing guidelines because they know at the end of the day. Up to 75% of that loan can be guaranteed by the federal government, right? So the banks have protection. Knowing that they have the backing of the US government, right? If they do something conventional or traditional, that risk is entirely on them, right? So they like to follow this process because again, it gives the banks a level of protection and it's kind of a safety net, right? And, you know, it's still a very popular way people get into business. All of these banks are very different in the types of loans they have appetites for, and those appetites change as they become you know, you know, in different industries and different thresholds once they hit. So what Berend does is we partner with 60, about 60 lenders across the country, and. We take 45 years of experience and we're gonna walk a client through from prequalification to going directly to those lenders that we know, love, fitness, or we know love, service based or health and wellness or quick food service, and then try to get the best potential rate that's out there for the client, right. Because these are government backed loans, though, gi, that the banks do have to follow specific guidelines and criteria. So, if you don't mind, I'd love to kind of just give you the basis of what they look for, right? Yeah. They wanna know that the individuals, you know, just to outstanding, you know, US citizen, right? Clean record, you know, things like that. Then they look into the credit profile. Usually anything from a six 70 or above from a credit score perspective will qualify. And then the banks start to go through the the numbers, right? So, regardless of the investment range that a client may be looking at, typically what the banks would like to see come from the borrower. Is anywhere from 10 to 20% of that total investment come from them. Right? That's gonna be their skin in the game. And then the bank lends the remaining portion of the loan, right? The bank wants to know that again, you know, Joe or Mary Smith you know, have funds going towards the project. Gotcha. Other things the banks want to see is something we call post-closing liquidity and real simple GI epie. What that means is, hey, after I come to that table with 20%, do I have sufficient? Cash reserves and assets to continue to support my debt to income ratio and living expenses, right? They wanna make sure somebody's not over leveraged, just coming up with that 20%, right? So they're gonna wanna see a little bit of a runway, right? I. Sometimes the banks want personal collateral, not all the time, but as the investments get larger, sometimes the banks do wanna, you know, see collateral nine times outta 10, that's gonna be a second position lien on a primary or investment property. Not always the case, it's always done on a lender decision. But those are the typical sort of requirements that the banks look for. When lending money to an individual or a partners.

Zach Beutler & Jen Wherrell: 32:25

Well, yeah, I think there's, so, there's two sides to that answer. The, what I experienced initially was completely entrepreneurial in business. I looked at it and go, there's nothing in this space. I feel was geared towards teenagers that created a really unique experience. So that had me interested. I've had a big concern on customer acquisition for a few years now, where I think the digital landscape is broken and it's really hard to digitally advertise out there across almost all industries. And so with this concept, we really, I mean, you really know where your kids are at when they're there. You have a new crop coming in every year. So there's things that you can strategically do to get in front of those customers and build those relationships. I like that. Versus having to go door to door. Or, you know, just blanket a market. You can be very sniper like with how you approach the customer acquisition, the residual. This I thought was interesting when I heard that the only campaign that they've done in advertising was one direct mail piece. You know, that's where I was like. There's something here onto something. Yeah. You know, recession proof. I think that you would wait to get your house roofed before you make sure that your kid was safe. So there's a mandated from a state standpoint, even in like Nebraska and Florida, where there's not a mandate, they still either have to go through a program like this. Or do documented driving hours with a legal guardian. And so it's, you know, I think parents would rather outsource that to a professional than do it themselves. So that's the first part. I went from a business checking the boxes going, customer acquisition can be dialed in a profitable, residual, unique experience. Clearly can d differentiate yourself from the competition. When I did the ride along though, I had not thought, you know, and this is me being transparent, the mission obviously, you know, was important, but it was purely business. Right. When I did the ride along, that's when it became emotional for me. And it, you know, with my kids are young and I, this is what they're gonna go through. And there's not many businesses that you can start where you can make money build something that's important to the community and also do something that's as, as unique as saving kids lives. I mean, it's really rewarding. So that I didn't hit, that did not hit me until I did that ride along, and that's when it was like completely flipped from my mind in a different direction. And I think that ride, yeah, that ride along, it's totally different if they just, it kind of explained or showed you a video to actually experience it firsthand. I know for myself, I have two teenagers. My son's 17, my daughter will be 15. So, yeah, we, we went, it's we're in New Jersey, so it was one of the, in one of the states where you had to. Mandated to have a driving school. We didn't know where to go. We just contacted the school because everyone's, you know, and naturally every year you have. I forget how many kids in each class? Two, 300 kids in each class. So obviously they're all gonna be in need of this service as well. If I can add one thing down the road, if you can add, after they get their licenses, I need to get one of these brakes on the passenger side that are e that are easy to to install because I'm doing the air brake constantly whenever someone else is driving. So if that could be installed easily that would be that would be awesome. But yeah I like that. Who. Who would you say? So, you know, you know, this is a brand that obviously high-end demand, you know, who is, who would be the right fit. So from a, you know, someone maybe under it gets the mission really hits home, but, you know, who are you looking for? You know, what are the skill sets, the characteristics that of that, you know, franchise avatar that you're looking for. There's some deal breakers with this brand. It, you know, I'm, I've always been an experienced person, I thought, I always think the experience that you provide. Is what can really set you apart. And I think that's where I had a lot of success from the franchise development side. And now being able to implement that both on the franchise development as well as operations, we little bit differentiate ourselves, but I think when you look at that experience, you have to have someone at the top that can culturally affect the organization down. And so the franchisees is gonna have to be outgoing, it's gonna have to have that just. They're likable, they're connected in their community. Preferably have a 14 to 16, 17-year-old kid or teenagers that are have recently went through, are gonna have to go through the program.'cause then they have a builtin network. Right. Right. But I, it's a community type person that's got the connections that people like. And that when they look to hire people like themselves, they can replicate that experience down the totem pole. You wanna add there? No, you hit nail on the head there. The outgoing personality that is, you know, a pillar of the community, somebody that, that agrees with mission too, I think is important that are looking for things that they wanna do that are mission based. Isn't, you know, only thing that I can think of body there that I think who you don't want's also, or I don't think the analytical chief technology officer that wants to be in the office all day is probably not the right fit. For this type of brand, and we are really wanting people to focus on a superior experience that the teams go through. Right. And that's really important and that's why I invite different franchise companies, brick and mortar food, non-food service base, you know, the experience we want not the experience, the knowledge kind of to really explain to people what does the initial setup look like? Who does well in certain industries or with certain brands. And I do this, and I like to help people kind of compare and contrast just to see, hey, do I see myself doing this? Is this a brand that, that may or may not be a good fit? You know, specifically for what I'm looking to accomplish, based off the skill sets, not necessarily the experience that you had. Maybe you worked on Wall Street, but what is that transferrable skillset? Is it networking? Is it sales? That was my background and that's how I got into to f my first franchise and now consulting. So I always tell people, think about the skillsets, not necessarily the actual experience. When it comes to, you know, the investment in funding, Jen, obviously this is where we met in the past on the funding side. So can you talk to a little bit about, you know, maybe very some ways of funding this type of business? Maybe, you know, maybe top 2, 2, 3 ways of funding this. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, obvious, the obvious one is that the SBA loan. Also we're gonna be looking into not necessarily a fleet loan for the vehicles, but going to the local, well, I don't know, Zach, you could probably explain the fleet program side better than I can, but Well, there's, I think there's a couple options on the, yeah. When you look at the vehicles, our goal is to, hopefully they ramp up as quickly as possible. We're flexible on the actual type of vehicle they're gonna be driving. So a lot of the times the dealership is gonna have the lowest interest rate and best financing option on the vehicle itself. I think it's gonna be the typical lobsters rollover sBA type of funding opportunity. Yeah. And then for initial growth, I like this concept for the future growth because it can be done through the dealership financing. You know, it's on a$250,000 second vehicle they, to get, have, it's a 20 to$30,000 car. Right. Sounds good. I and that's right. I actually, you know, we talk about SBL all the time, but I forgot about the fleet loan, so that, that's a very good point. What else? A about the brand that really stands out or someone's taking a look? Obviously when someone's looking at franchise, they're looking at different brands, and we talked about the mission. We talked about kind of, you know, who the ideal candidate would be. Anything else that really stands out that, that differentiates the brand compared to maybe some other businesses on the service side? Yeah, the customer acquisition is always I think that's an important part for a lot of candidates is, you know, how am I gonna get customers? When you look at emerging franchise brands, the reason that you're able to find them is'cause they have territory that is open. Right? You look at like a Jimmy John's and McDonald's, they're sold out for a reason, but they have systems and processes, but the more important is they have national awareness that are feeding customers. And so, you know, when you look at different brands, how do you go find those customers and how do you manage that activity and effort that we just talked about earlier? I liked the idea that, there's a place that you can go, you can find out where they're at. There's a strategy that we can put in place to go and get in front of those types of customers that, that I liked. You know, where your customers are at, when they're gonna be there, and you can go then do your pitch versus having to sit back and wait and hope they come to you. Right. I like that mentality a lot better. I think when you look at the competitors. I mean, everybody that I've talked to recently across multiple states have sent their kids through a graduate license program like this, know they had to, there was a waiting room. They had to wait several months before their kid could get in. The, that local business is typically a vanilla shell, DMV type of feel. And so, you know, this, we're really trying to create an, a superior experience. We have. Games in the lobby, we have the Rainforest Cafe type of theme. And so we're really trying to create a, an experience that's just better than the competition, right? And we really do believe that we can capture market share pre fast pace. I like that. And that's a concern people have. You know, two, two things. Client ac client acquisition. I've never done marketing before. I worked for a large corporation just like I did, and it was all done for you. You know, leads were essentially handed to us to close, so. Turnkey marketing, but ways to manage it. You know, we talked prior to hitting the record button and maybe I should start recording as soon as we, we all joined.'cause we missed out on that. But it, you know, what do we do to bring on leads to, to attract new clients to the business? That's crucial and it's an ever evolving thing. I know when I first started with SEO and the algorithms are constantly changing, so really having that, that support. As to e Exactly. You know, how do I go about this? And and then what do you do over and beyond? So yes we handle the digital, but what else can be done as you mentioned events. So, you know, is it my wife was president of the PTO for three years. I think that was the max. And then you had to change it into a diff change a different position. So. Or P-T-A-P-T-O. I know, depending on the school, they call it different, but you know, what should we be doing? Should we be sponsoring events? Should we be working with the schools? How early, what grade? And I think having that roadmap and then you just really just. Go after it. Right. Just kind of have that, that, that blueprint of exactly what you should be doing. So, am I missing anything there? But I know that's crucial. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Yeah. Getting into the schools and we have specific parts of our marketing that have us intertwined with the school systems and not just, and a Hey, this is what we do, but hey we're here to help and and be a part of the school's fabric, which is just another component to what we're doing with Jungle. Yeah. In my experience in marketing, too many franchise brands try to hit home runs. And it's not necessarily about home runs, it's about having small wins and, you know, getting to a certain number of Google reviews is important. Having enough followers and on, on social platforms just to be, to capture attention with updates is important. And then how do you manage those effort and activities for a, for like a gm for an example? Like how do you know they're actually going and doing those things? There's more. There's more than you have to do more than one thing and have more than one campaign and strategy to be able to win the game. And so we're attacking it from still an old, one of them is an old school targeted mailer to households that have a 16, excuse me, 14 to 16-year-old kid. You know, that's a list that's fairly cheap that you can attack at the right time with a great call to urgency or an offer that's still really effective. And then a budget based on each school within a certain amount of rate, a certain number of, of the school and we can really be strategic about when they go, what they say, what they offer at certain times. Direct. You know, I read somewhere direct mail is dead and I called BS on that. Direct mail is not dead. It's how you go about it. 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.