Don’t Buy a Franchise Until You Watch This! (20 Years of Franchise Advice) - Franchise Freedom

Escape the corporate trap! 📉 

In this special New Year's episode, Giuseppe Grammatico condenses two decades of franchise coaching into 20 minutes of actionable advice. From funding to the "Builder Year," get the full blueprint for your career transition. 

Choose the right path at https://ggthefranchiseguide.com. 

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


00:00 Introduction to Franchising
00:44 Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast
01:29 20 Years of Franchising Advice in 20 Minutes
01:59 Franchise Readiness: Is It Actually the Right Fit?
03:39 Financial Foundations: Funding Your Freedom
03:42 Getting Your Financials in Order
04:50 Not All Franchises Are Built the Same
05:50 Research Stage One: Franchisor Match
06:38 Research Stage Two: Talking with Franchisees
07:43 Research Stage Three: Meeting the Founder
07:43 Discovery Day & The Power of Asking for Help
08:41 Decision Making and Awarding the Franchise
10:22 Trusting the Process and Asking for Help
13:46 The Importance of Focus in Your First Year
13:46 The Builder Year: 365 Days of Radical Focus
16:59 Summary and Final Thoughts
17:49 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

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Transcript

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:00

A franchise at the end of the day is still a business. We call it a business on training wheels. There is risk, absolutely, but we want to minimize that risk with the match, with the support system, and really think about what your life looks like in the near future. A third one, and some of these we're gonna spend a lot more time on and some are gonna be a little bit quicker, is that, not all franchises are built the same. Research stage number two is gonna be talk with franchisees. This is a commonly skipped part. This is really giving you access to the people, the individuals. You know, they're boots on the ground, they're actually running this business. You wanna find out if things are going well. if the marketing was not working in the past, was it fixed? Does the franchisor respond to feedback? Have they fixed issues? Would they do this all over again?

0:46

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: 0:59

Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Thanks for joining us today. Happy New Year. I believe this is gonna be the first show broadcasted in January for the new year. So, hopefully, you are all well rested. You watched the planning video, got ready for 2026 in the new year. Got your massive action plan, put together the goals, the habits of how to get there. We are gonna just continue with the advice and ways we can help. What I thought for today was to mix it up a little bit and almost do like a summary like I do every year. For today's summary of ways we can help, we are gonna talk about 20 years of franchising advice in 20 minutes. So I'm gonna keep a, an eye on the clock here. There is a lot of things that I've learned over the years. We're gonna break it down into 10 and there may be some subtopics for each one, but wanted to give you kind of a quick summary in chronological order because certain advice needs to be given in the early stages of the process. I hope you enjoy the show today and we're gonna dive right in. So, number one is starting with, if franchising is the right fit. Why do I bring this up? Is first simply because I see so many people they dive into,"what brand should I be looking at?" What are the hot brands? What are the top performing franchises in the top 500 lists, top 100 lists or whatever list you're looking at, and they forget that, you know, in order to run that business, you need to be a good match for the business, right? So what are your skill sets? Your transferable skill sets that you're bringing, not your hard skills. We call those'soft skills' transferable skill sets. So if you are an attorney, what is it, as far as being an attorney, that you can bring on as a soft skill set? It may be negotiation, it may be sales, networking, a combination of all three. So those are things to think about, what is the right fit? It also the why. Why are you doing this? Because that is that constant reminder of why you undertook, owning a business, right? This is very difficult. It is a lot of hours. There's an investment involved, so you don't want to forget that'why' because that's gonna get you past the downtimes, right? And there's gonna be up and down. Things are cyclical, but we wanna remember why we're doing this, which is, super important. A franchise at the end of the day is still a business. We call it a business on training wheels. There is risk, absolutely, but we want to minimize that risk with the match, with the support system, and really think about what your life looks like in the near future. And maybe not initially, but what's the ideal day situation? You working from home? Are you going an office? Are you going to a storefront? Those are things to think about. So starting with the franchise, not only you know the fit if you know what that franchise looks like, if you're okay following systems. But the why, the freedoms, you know, understanding it's still a business, but on training wheels, that's gonna be number one. Number two, this is a very important one. So we realize that a franchise may be a good fit; you wanna get your funding done early. In other words, get your financials in order. From the standpoint of liquidity, what are all your assets? What are the liquid um, assets that you have to invest? Let's talk about retirement assets, the equity in your home, but also the debts that you have. The liabilities, right? If you have student loans, if you owe money on a car, money on the mortgage, whatever loans you have, even an investment property. We wanna include the assets, liabilities to get you to a net worth number. Why is that important? Because franchisors are looking for liquidity and net worth requirements. We also wanna look at what you're comfortable investing and all the appropriate funding options that you have based off your current situation. Which also looks at, the retirement if you qualify or not, depending on where you are. In the employment structure if you're leaving the job or staying at the job. Credit scores and things like that. So we wanna be proactive to have that information along with having three to six months living expense set aside. So that if the business does take a little bit longer to get up and running, or you are leaving your job and your only source of income, you have money to be paying your expenses. A third one, and some of these we're gonna spend a lot more time on and some are gonna be a little bit quicker, is that, not all franchises are built the same. You need to do your research. Don't assume that one cleaning franchise is gonna be the same as the next cleaning franchise. Don't group them into industries. Why do I say that? You're both offering maybe the same service to your residential homeowner, commercial property, whatever space you're cleaning and maintaining. With that being said, the roles may be different. One franchise may have you mandatory full-time that you're doing the cleaning. Another one allows for part-time ownership or doesn't want you cleaning. It's more of maintaining that team, or it's more networking. Going out there and really assisting and helping other business owners. So. you know, they're not all built the same as far as the structure, the support systems. You may get a lot more support with one brand over the next. You may get turnkey marketing with one and no turnkey marketing with the other. Or marketing is both involved in both cases, but you don't get a call center that is handling all the leads. So do your research, which leads us to number four, research stage one. That's looking at the franchisor match and, getting as much information as possible. But again, not focusing on the widget. Not focusing on the service or the product. It's focusing on the ideal situation, which is truly what your role is in the business. Stage one is really focusing with the franchisor, speaking with them, your development rep, whoever that person is. Learning as much as you can by asking questions, reviewing the franchise agreement, reviewing some marketing. What does that look like? Average day in the life videos. Again, we wanna look for match here'cause we're looking for sustainability. We want something that you can get up and running. That's something you enjoy running because your typical franchise is gonna be at least 10 years. Some or less. Some or more. But I would say the average is about 10. Research stage number two is gonna be talk with franchisees. This is a commonly skipped part. This is really giving you access to the people, the individuals. You know, they're boots on the ground, they're actually running this business. You wanna find out if things are going well. if the marketing was not working in the past, was it fixed? Does the franchisor respond to feedback? Have they fixed issues? Would they do this all over again? Even diving into financials, like, Hey, you know, we were giving kind of average numbers based off of the feedback of the franchisees, but realistically, is this investment range? Should I budget a little bit more? You know, what were you making per location or per territory? You could dive in and this is something I see people skip completely and go right into the final stage. Or I see people just kind of talk to one franchisees. Talk to franchisees. Typically weekly calls or they may make intro calls. The franchise, FDD agreement, the franchisor lists. All the franchisees in the system. If there's a franchise nearby to your market, call'em up saying,"Hey, do you mind if I stop buy lunch or, you know, have some questions about the franchise?" So do your due diligence. Highly recommend that and speak with those franchisees. The third phase is talking with the founder. This is typically either virtually or in person. I would say it's in person more than anything else. Where you're meeting with the founder, CEO, as well as other potential franchise owners that are looking to figure out what the vision is of the business. What's the future look like? We know what you've done in the past, but what does that future look like? Are there added services being offered? Or if no new services are being offered, are we focusing on national accounts? What about investments in AI? These are things to think about. If you get to this stage this is really the final stage of research. You know, after this meeting, you're gonna be either awarded or not awarded the franchise. But before we dive into that, you wanna make sure the franchisor has a clear vision of support. You know, as they grow, how are they gonna be supporting the franchisees? What's new? What's the vision of this business? What does that look like? So you can prepare and create the appropriate pro formas for later on when potential added additional revenue streams may be added, or this idea of national accounts. Next is, you know, the decision uh, making. Your franchise is awarded. Um, You need to wait for that official award letter and that's usually where the franchisor meets with the team and they sit down to see,"Hey, is so-and-so a good fit for the franchise?" There is a high percentage of people being accepted at this point because if the fit wasn't there, you may have not been invited to that discovery day or what they call confirmation day as well. These are things to consider, but you still have to get awarded the franchise. They'll give you a formal award letter, the number of territories or locations that you're awarded. Sometimes you'll get a date. We need to know by the end of next week, so that you can get everything accordingly and get any other questions answered. Should there be anything outstanding or questions that come up after that discovery day.

9:22

Hey guys. Thanks for listening. I hope you're enjoying the show. As a thank you for being a valued listener, wanted to offer you a free copy of my book, franchise Freedom. This book was written back in 2020, and it's my exact blueprint in helping you find that perfect franchise. I wrote it based off my experiences and wanted to pass that along to you. Wanna chat today? You could book a call directly on our website. Top right. Side of that screen and you can schedule a 20 minute call. We'll dive into if a franchise is a good fit. I help you get qualified and figure out what that perfect franchise match may be. So I hope you take me up on my offer. Once again, franchise Freedom. Download the book today for free or book a call with me directly, and we'll help you bypass all that information you find online. Most importantly, figuring out. If a franchise is the right fit, and then figuring out what that perfect franchise looks like. So thanks again for listening to the show and back to the show.

Giuseppe Grammatico: 10:22

Trusting the process is another thing where we're going back to. If the franchisor has that system in place and the marketing is taking a little bit longer to get up and running, talk to the franchisor. See what's working, what's not working. But you're really buying that franchise, investing in that franchise for their system. And it's the process you're getting. It's the CRM, it's the marketing, the support, the portals, the training, everything is included. So you wanna make sure that it's being followed. And if you're struggling with anything, asking for assistance. Which brings us to number nine, asking for help. This has been something that I just added to the list. I had a list of 10. I just had to kind of redo the list, as I follow up 2, 3, 4 times a year. Anyone that's invested and move forward with the franchise, I like to check in and see how things are going. And sometimes I hear, I felt bad asking the franchisor." Kind of trying to figure it out themselves. And I go, that's great, but the franchisor is there to assist you. Why not speed up the process and have them assist and figure out?" Okay. Uh, you know, For example, we had one individual that everything looked great, for whatever reason. He got excited and anticipated some business coming in relatively quickly. His expenses were a little bit out of the norm given uh, the revenue numbers he was putting up. So a profitable business, but on the profit and loss, was not showing profitability due to having additional employees that were not needed at that level of business that they were doing. So, asking those questions or even before making the hire,"Hey, should I hire now? Should I start looking?" A franchisor is there to support you. Don't lose time in months of, of productivity when you can go back to the franchisor. Maybe they assign you a coach and that coach can come out and travel with you. Maybe it's a salesperson that they're closing maybe not the same percentage or the norm of we'll call it 50% across the system, they're closer to 20%. So we wanna figure out if training needs to be kind of redone in the field. Is it the lead source? Is it the lead quality? And really figuring that out. So David Meltzer, who I follow talks about that asking for help. Asking your clients, Hey, you know, I need your help. Who do you know that you can refer to me? We like to spend and focus our time on the business and our relationships and I don't have time to market. Who do you know that is performing at the level you're performing that you can refer to me?" And that's also another way of asking your clients and customers for help. So, you know, that is completely normal. I tell everyone that the help, the support is what the franchisor is offering. So take advantage of that. Also, if I had to add another layer, ask your fellow franchisees for assistance. If there's a neighboring franchisee, It could be the top performing franchisee. And you wanna know what their secret is because their close ratio's really high. They're growing at a relatively, quick rate. You know, ask them for help, whether it be a one-on-one call, whether it be at the national conference, where a lot of franchisors will offer that. But you know, at the end of the day, this is a business, right? The systems are never perfect. Sometimes the markets are a little bit different. So you wanna talk to those individuals, maybe in similar markets and get their advice. Buy'em lunch, stop by their office, make it as convenient as you can for them. Learn as much as possible and return to favor by assisting others that are coming into the system that are brand new, that are struggling. That is the whole point of a franchise. It's support, it's the culture, you know, you're helping individuals. At the end of the day, the larger the system gets, everyone benefits. Via additional training, service support, national accounts; you know, if you're in all 50 states, you can tackle some national brands. So there's a lot there when it comes to franchising and a lot of the benefits. Looking back at where I saw the largest growth, and it's one word and that word is focus. Your first year needs to be an entire year. I call it the builder year to focus on the business. I went from Wall Street to building services. I knew nothing about building services, so, I had left my job and I went all in to learn about the industry. The revenue streams, just the lingo of going into a, a healthcare facility versus a, another facility that was manufacturing. Learning the lingo, the needs of each and every one of our clients. But that first year should be focused distraction free. Jesse Itzler, also talks about this just was on his webinar, planning out the entire year, you know, finish off the year. So in 2025, unsubscribe to emails that aren't helping you. Getting rid of that task list. Hiring, outsourcing, if it's for work. Finishing the website, setting up the CRM. Maybe it's hiring a handyman for the house and getting all the tasks so you can focus a hundred percent on the business. Distraction free. Don't look at other businesses, don't look at other franchisees. Looks specifically at your core business. Learn it. Go to training. Hire the right team. Sometimes those first hires were not the right hires, and there may be a rehire in there. Reinvest if you can, as much of those profits back into the business. You want that first year to be the builder year so that, that in year two, you can start taking a backseat. You can start working on and not in the business. And having that key employee run the business, having that general manager run the business for you. But when you focus all in distraction free, I know for myself, I saw my, my business grow exponentially because I was giving a hundred percent of my time. Now, people always make the argument,"well, you know, I have five businesses and I'll spend an hour in each business." Well, the problem there is that in between businesses, the focus changes, right? So you may be in customer service mode first hour, and then now you're into research mode in the second. It takes, there's that buffer of, they say 15 to 30 minutes in between. And what happens is there's gonna be spillover. That first hour, nine to 10, you may have left a message and that person may call you back at two or three o'clock in the afternoon or the next day. It's very difficult. So if you can focus on those businesses, automate your bill pay, automate your investments, put everything on the calendar to really protect your, your time, right? All your personal stuff first. We talked about that in the planning video. The follow ups with the financial advisor, the CPA, the annual review with the attorney. If there's other things you're looking at or estate plannings, successor planning, put that all on the calendar. Get that all scheduled so you have the year kind of scheduled in advance, so that you can focus on that business and be distraction free. You will grow the business. That year is gonna go by quick, and then after the year, you could decide from there. Do you wanna, you know, reinvest in another territory location for the same brand? You wanna add a complimentary business, another franchise. If you're in the roofing business and now you wanna add on cleaning or vice versa, you can do that and you can start what they call brand stacking. If there's territory around, you can start figuring out available markets around you that you can start developing. In some cases, individuals will buy three territories or three locations. Example of territories, after the first six months, you start developing the second, start developing the third. So, you know, you're building up more teams and marketing. There may be a little bit of travel to get all those territories up and running, but focus is key. I put all my distractions aside and you will see just a tremendous growth. So in summary, i'll go through these quickly. You know, start with, if franchising is the right fit, and the reasons why. Get your funding done early and your financials in order. Not all franchises are built the same. Research one, you're looking to speak with the franchisor for the match. Research stage two, talk with franchisees, which is commonly skipped. Part three of research is make sure the founder has a clear vision, followed by, you know, decision made. You know, franchisor are awarded. Uh, Follow that system to the t, especially that first year. Trust the process. Ask for help, per David Meltzer, and then focus that first year all in. As Jesse Itzel talks about, get everything planned in on the calendar, whether virtually, or via his calendars that you can put up on the wall at a glance. Those are some, some major things. So there's a, a ton more that we've learned o over 20 years, but I try to really put it in 20 minutes, kind of in, in 10 different areas. And I would love your feedback. What I highly recommend if you wanna dive in a little bit further, you can go right to my website, ggthefranchiseguide.com and click on book a call. It's gonna ask you a few questions before booking that call. We'll get all your questions answered, we'll figure out together uh, within 20 minutes if a franchise may be a good fit. And if it is, we'll talk about next steps. Tons of resources on the site. If you are a reader you could download my book, Franchise Freedom or continue to listen to the show, the Franchise Freedom Podcast, where we cover about 270 episodes, just about every topic. Business related, just type in a topic. It'll pull up every blog, every show, that we have available on the website. So definitely take advantage. But if you simply want to chat right away, you don't see time on the calendar, or just have a general question, just respond or, leave a comment. If you're seeing this in email form, we put our emails out on our monthly newsletter, just respond to the emails, comment on social media. We try our best to monitor those on a daily basis and we'll get back to you. Put your contact information in. We can send you out a copy of the book. It's a free download. It's the exact blueprint I use and helping me find my first franchise. So I think I lost track of time, but I think we're at the 20 minute mark. So I hope you enjoy this first show of the new year. Thanks for your support, your questions. As I mentioned on every one of our podcasts and shows, if you have a topic that you would like to cover, send me a, an email. There's a contact uh, form, right on the website as well. If you'd like to be a guest, fill out your information. We'll do a quick review, see if the fits there. Here's to an awesome 2026, and anything I can help with, just let me know we'll talk to you guys soon. Take care.

19:24

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.