Welcome to the Serve No Master Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you find ways to create new revenue streams or make money online without dealing with an underpaid or underappreciated job. Our host is best-selling author, Jonathan Green.
Today's guest is Liz Leonard is a successful business owner and entrepreneur. She has experience in running an independent business in the childcare industry, facing the challenges of opening during a recession. Liz and her husband sought guidance from experienced franchise owners, who provided them with valuable knowledge and tools for success. This endorsement boosted Liz's confidence and led to the growth and eventual sale of their business. Afterward, Liz and her husband purchased a self storage business before delving into franchising. They bought a kitchen tune-up franchise, with Liz wanting a business that required no employees. Through her journey, Liz discovered the importance of seeking expert help and guidance in the world of franchises.
In this episode Liz Leonard discusses her insights on the potential benefits and pitfalls of starting a business. We'll explore the misconceptions that many entrepreneurs have, the challenges of running and managing a team, and the importance of having a solid plan and support system. Liz will also delve into the world of franchising and provide valuable tips on how to choose the right franchise and mitigate risks.
Notable Quotes
- "Franchise Advising: 'Stability and track record are the two biggest things." - [Liz Leonard]
- "We don't ever wanna look at investments that are outside of what they can't afford."- [Liz Leonard]
- "You wanna make sure you really do your homework and they're a heavily regulated industry through the Federal Trade Commission and there's a lot to know, which is overwhelming for a lot of people."- [Liz Leonard]
- "It could be the greatest decision you ever make, or could ruin your life." - [Jonathan Green]
- "Sometimes I think that we look down on these jobs, and I don't know why. Right? There's a lot of things that, like, I don't know how to do, and I'm glad people do." - [Jonathan Green]
Connect with Liz Leonard
Connect with Jonathan Green
Welcome to the Serve No Master Podcast! This podcast is aimed at helping you find ways to create new revenue streams or make money online without dealing with an underpaid or underappreciated job. Our host is best-selling author, Jonathan Green.
Today's guest is Liz Leonard is a successful business owner and entrepreneur. She has experience in running an independent business in the childcare industry, facing the challenges of opening during a recession. Liz and her husband sought guidance from experienced franchise owners, who provided them with valuable knowledge and tools for success. This endorsement boosted Liz's confidence and led to the growth and eventual sale of their business. Afterward, Liz and her husband purchased a self storage business before delving into franchising. They bought a kitchen tune-up franchise, with Liz wanting a business that required no employees. Through her journey, Liz discovered the importance of seeking expert help and guidance in the world of franchises.
In this episode Liz Leonard discusses her insights on the potential benefits and pitfalls of starting a business. We'll explore the misconceptions that many entrepreneurs have, the challenges of running and managing a team, and the importance of having a solid plan and support system. Liz will also delve into the world of franchising and provide valuable tips on how to choose the right franchise and mitigate risks.
Notable Quotes
- "Franchise Advising: 'Stability and track record are the two biggest things." - [Liz Leonard]
- "We don't ever wanna look at investments that are outside of what they can't afford."- [Liz Leonard]
- "You wanna make sure you really do your homework and they're a heavily regulated industry through the Federal Trade Commission and there's a lot to know, which is overwhelming for a lot of people."- [Liz Leonard]
- "It could be the greatest decision you ever make, or could ruin your life." - [Jonathan Green]
- "Sometimes I think that we look down on these jobs, and I don't know why. Right? There's a lot of things that, like, I don't know how to do, and I'm glad people do." - [Jonathan Green]
Connect with Liz Leonard
Connect with Jonathan Green
Jonathan Green: It could be the greatest decision you ever make, or could ruin your life. Today, we're talking about franchises with franchise expert Liz Leonard on today's episode.
Announcer: Today's episode is brought to you by pro writing aid. Every word I write needs to be perfect. One typo in an email, and I get dozens of replies pointing it out and saying, Thought you're an author. That's why I trust prowriting aid. I have every plugin and feature they offer to check my blog post and when I'm writing offline, no other tool even comes close. Score a lifetime license at servenomaster.comforward/prowritingaid.
Are you tired of dealing with your boss? Do you feel underpaid and underappreciated? If you want to make it online, fire your boss and start living your retirement dreams now, then you've come to the right place. Welcome to Serve No Master podcast, where you'll learn how to open new revenue streams and make money while you sleep. Presented live from A tropical Island in the South Pacific by best selling author, Jonathan Green. Now here is your host.
Jonathan Green: Now I've always been fascinated with franchises because there's so many more than people realize. Like, a lot of people don't know. There's no UPS store that's not a franchise. For example, like, every single UPS store is known was owned by somebody, not the company. And we often think, oh, the only franchises are fast food companies, and that's completely wrong. There's so many other types of franchises out there, and a lot of people don't really understand the world. So I'm always excited to talk to franchise people because when my wife and I bought a hotel, boy, do I wish we had a manual? Right? We had to do everything because the people before us, well, They cooked their books a lot. So everything that every piece of information they had, everything about their numbers and operation, and guest numbers was not true. And they had no policies in place for how to deal with a guest who was unruly or how to deal with a guest who was earlier late or how to train their staff or what is the process for cleaning a room so that it's kept to the maintained standard. And that's the beauty of a franchise, right, is that it comes with an instruction manual, which my kids had come with 1. So I'd love to know just all about your journey. Like, how did you first get interested in franchises and how did that become the path that got you the most excited?
Liz Leonard: Yeah. And I I love your reference turnkey systems is really the analogy that I love to use with candidates and just when you're looking at whether it's an independent business or franchise. It doesn't matter whether it's business in general. You have to have your plan, your systems. It's called standard operating procedures. And it's a lot of work. And I think I'll respond to the, you know, your question with, I've done an independent business with my husband and one of the toughest industries, which was childcare, We opened in a recession in 2007. We bought the real estate. It was a $1,200,000 SBA law. It was really scary. Like, really scary times. And we hired somebody to help us, which in my mind, looking back on it was similar to franchise. We found a couple in the Silicon Valley that had done 14 schools had obviously had the blueprint and they agreed to consult for us. They gave us everything, vendor relationships, their handbooks, all the different pieces to the business. And we paid $65,000 for that. And it's messing I ever could have done. And, again, when you look back at the past thinking that endorsed my product, my service, it gave me confidence, I wasn't in it alone, and I think a lot of business cylinders are in it alone, and it's really scary to be alone. Let alone opening in a recession. So we did build that business, Jonathan. We sold it. We were very successful by the grace of god, and moms had to go back to work when the recession hit. So it was very very positive experience, but a lot of grit, a lot of grind, lot of sleepless nights, like many business owners. So after we sold the business, We ended up buying a self storage business. We actually just sold that last May. And upon selling these big investments, we decided to look into franchising. And neither my husband, Paul, or I wanted to do another startup. It was just too much work. Way too much work. We had little kids at the time. They were four and seven. So I went down the path just to see what was out there. Went on the internet back in the day. And this was 2014 when I started looking at franchising, and I didn't even know that franchise advising, coaching, consulting that I could find an expert to help me. So we did end up buying a franchise. We own a kitchen tune up franchise. My husband primarily operates it, but I wanted something for me, but I wanted 0 employees. I'm one of these unique people that doesn't like to manage people and my only real experience managing people was at our school where we had 22 women and I could joke about it all day long, but man was that hard. It was the toughest thing I've ever done. But very rewarding. And that's how I discovered. There were people out there to help me in this big ocean of franchises. Like, what would be right for Liz? Liz wants 0 employees. Can we even find her anything? So that's how I discovered it.
Jonathan Green: So let's talk about that because I'm very fascinated with this world because Again, there's so little information. And one of the dangers for someone who is steam and going to franchise is there's almost spoiled for choice. Right? You can go into franchising for cleaning gum off of sidewalks. You can go into franchising for cleaning cars. You can go to franchise and you're everything in between and It's they show you the sunshine. Right? They say it's growing. We've got 14 stores. They're all doing really good. And it's like, well, those they're all in major cities. What if you don't live in New York or Los Angeles? Right, or, like, the numbers don't always translate is people I grew up in Los Angeles and the Nashville. Guess what? People in Nashville and LA don't shop the same. Right? Like, there's different foot traffic and I've seen a franchise. All it takes is the wrong location where nobody walks by. If you're there was an I went to work on a project with this music store. Most beautiful musics where you could ever imagine most talented people there impossible to find. Right? You have to go through a scary neighborhood to get there. I was like, guys, this is not good. And their website was beautiful, but Google couldn't scan it. I was like, you'll never appear in searches that can all over find you because the design is the wrong type of code. And it's like these small mistakes can make such a huge difference. So when you're looking at franchises and you sounds like you got some advice and stuff. What were the things that you were like, oh, I definitely don't want that, or this is a sign it's a risky franchise? Versus, oh, this is, like, the right direction. So what are high risk versus low risk franchises? And what's the right size to get in? Cause sometimes you see these things. Like, I remember when I was a kid, Boston market was everywhere, and then they all got they all disappeared, right, they're all gone and then subway there were subways everywhere and then subway is shrinking. And it's not the company that's hurting. It's all those franchisees. And so that's really what I wanna dive into What are the things that, like, you tell people watch out for this? Because that's I love derisking.
Liz Leonard: Yes. But good, the bad, and the ugly of franchising in a nutshell. I think that I work with several 100 of franchise awards. And are they all good? I can't answer that question, but probably not. They're probably all not good, and I think you have to really spend your time doing due diligence to find the good ones. And there's a lot to that so I can segue into that next topic. So as a adviser, like anybody, if you were to work with an attorney or CPA or anybody helping you make a really big life decision that affects you from not just a monetary standpoint, but, you know, it affects your quality of life. Your family life, your sleep, everything. You wanna make sure you really do your homework and they're a heavily regulated industry through the Federal Trade Commission and there's a lot to know, which is overwhelming for a lot of people. So we wanna make sure not to overwhelm people, but one of the best parts to investigating franchise brands and there's several pieces to it. It takes 6 weeks to evaluate companies. We always have people compare and contrast. And I think that any investment, whether it's college cards, real estate, you're going to shop around. You're gonna make a smart decision. You're gonna ask a lot of questions, and you're gonna interview franchisees, which is kind of I call it the the best part of franchise evaluation. So meeting people asking them questions, you can ask them anything to do with the the money side. On the franchise or side, they have to be very careful. They cannot give you an earnings claim. That's something that they will be very, very clear with. It's in the law. They can't do it. But interviewing franchisees and I tell people interview 7, interview 10, whatever you're comfortable with, but you wanna make sure you ask the right questions from your training, you know, obviously the total investment did obviously get your loan at the highest level that you needed making sure that you've got enough working capital. And do you are you prepared for your staffing model? Are you prepared for all the unknowns? So I think there's a lot of unknowns in business. So I could continue on that if you have any other questions, but, you know, due diligence is super critical in this process.
Jonathan Green: Yeah. One thing that I know, and obviously, you know, way more references me is that some people are good at building franchises and some people are really good at selling franchises. And I always tell people that when you're making a decision, look at the risk as much more than the upside, right, because, yeah, like you said, look at multiple friendships because maybe the first one, they're so convincing. They sound amazing and it you get so excited. Once you get emotionally invested in a deal, that's when you're at the most vulnerable That's when people go that's, like, fear of loss. Like, oh, some of the numbers are red flags. It's, like, early on in a relationship when all your friends are like, there's 50 red flags. He's terrible. And, like, no. No. No. No. It's gonna be fine. Right? And 6 months later, like, why didn't I list those red flags? That's because we get emotional in those decisions in the same way. I think that with business models, if it sounds really exciting and you like the person and you start creating this fantasy in your head of what they're like, of what the business that I can but they can make their franchise sound amazing. And sometimes it's like, that's the part that they're good at. Right? It's very different to run a hot dog restaurant than it is to sell franchises. Right? And those are 2 different skill sets. So I wanna dive just a little deeper into, like, when you're looking at a franchise opportunity or maybe someone comes to you hey. You've got a lot of people. We have a new franchise, and you what are some things that you go, oh, I'm running for the hills. Like, you see that and you go, this is the wrong type of model. Or the numbers aren't right or there's just something about this type of company that isn't the right fit or that I just would never invest in myself.
Liz Leonard: Yeah. Those are all good questions. And I think one of the things that's really an important part of the process is when you do you can independently go search out your own franchises. Right? I mean, it's very overwhelming. I talk to people every day that do that and or you can work with somebody who has expertise and background that might help steer you away from some of those mistakes potentially, and we are obviously, you know, have a lot of knowledge in this space and by working with an expert by your side. But you're really able to be prepared for those red flags, and they're out there. And I think if you have a call with a franchisor or even the initial call that doesn't go well, you know, you need to pay attention to if you if it's sales y, if they're pitching you something, they shouldn't be doing that. They should be taking their time. They need to actually follow a timeline, go through the steps, make sure you're educated on all their systems, which is a lot. So let's break those down you know, it's sales, it's marketing, and sales and marketing now falls into a digital platform. So what's the technology that they have to offer you? Followed by that is all their operation systems, accounting, finance. There's just so many facets to it. And you've gotta dive into those different pieces. To find out what do they actually have? What is the program? What's proprietary? What are the vendor relationships? How is this business gonna work in my market? And franchise advising, one of the things I didn't know, Jonathan, was that when I was working with somebody that I met in North Carolina in 2014, when we were hunting for a business, she tried to match me up with my transferable skills. So Liz, what are you good at? What are you not good at? What is your risk tolerance? What do you wanna get into? And the question she asked me is you know, which answers your question, are you willing to look in emerging brands? And my answer was no. So That was me. That was just me. Now some people have a high risk tolerance. They're willing to do it and so opportunities are out there. And everybody's looking for that next big thing. I wanted safety and security because we had operated and owned and sold, and I wanted something safe. I just wanted something safe with 0 employees. The franchise we purchased has been around since 1985 if that gives you any idea stability and track record, I think, are one of the 2 biggest things. And when you receive their, you know, obviously, disclosure documents, you can read between the There's a lot of information in that lengthy document, which can be over 350 pages, which sounds overwhelming, but by law, they have to give that to you. But there's a lot of information you can uncover in there that will actually reveal some of the risk if they've been in any litigation, if there's any red flags, how many franchises closed last year. So you can dig that up. You can really find it, but I think franchise advising what we try to do is match people up with they're looking for a consistent brand that's got a positive track record that has no holes in it. We'll listen to that. We will respond to that, and we'll find brands that fall in that line.
Jonathan Green: Yeah. A lot of people, when they're starting a business, whether it's entrepreneurship, starting their own thing, or going the franchise route, they get excited by the wrong thing. Like, they go, oh, this can make a lot of money. And they do something and then they hate it. I can't tell you how many of my friends, when the business succeeds, all they wanna do is exit and there are a lot of online business models that are so hard to exit. Right? Like, how am I gonna exit this business? I'm on the every podcast episode. Right? It takes about 2 years. If I wanted to exit this podcast, it's a 2 year process. I have to bring on a co host and slowly gotten less and less episodes. And That's something that's a big surprise if you wanna exit your company, and that sometimes people, they want the business that's the most money. So I like you're talking about matching what you're like and what you're good at because what it you know, managing employees. I know it's hard. People don't realize it's so hard running teams, and I'm always like going, okay, how can I run my business with no employees? I love you're talking about that because I'm on the same wavelength, because I've had a team as large as 20, and it is really, really, really tough. Someone's always sick. Someone's always fighting with someone else. Someone's always shaving their minutes or messing with their time cards. So there's so many things happening, and it's hard to watch everything. It's just very stressful. And it's, like, Oh, I go into a franchise and you don't know that. There's no warning and have to have all these employees or, yeah, like you talked about an emerging brand. It just sounds like it's easy to get excited by the potential because there's oh, there's no other ones in my town. Like, my dream franchise is, like, you mentioned, like, a storage unit, or a 711. Like, that's the kind of thing I want where, basically, it's been running forever. It's a really simple business model. It doesn't require a lot of workers. And you don't have to go and find your stuff. And also sometimes people, they want a lot of freedom. Like, you if you open up a McDonald's, you can't add your own items to the menu. Right? You can't be like, oh, at my McDonald's, we also have hot dogs. Like, they would never let you do that. Right? And some that's the trade off. Some people really want to design the menu and some people like, that's a thing I wanna do. So I think that the matching thing is really, really important. What are some, like, really common mistakes that people make when they join a franchise and they do credit and they're trying to get out or they're trying to or they just lose everything. Like, how does that happen? I know for me, of course, I know one of them is getting emotionally involved or not looking at multiple ones and going to the first one you hear about. But what are some other things from your higher level of experience that, like, when people tell you horror stories, you can look with hindsight, go, oh, this was the warning sign.
Liz Leonard: I tell everybody just to walk before you run, and I think growth is a wonderful world. And we're all kind of we admire the word growth, but I think you need to make sure you grow at a consistent pace and you also need to have working capital to be able to grow at a consistent pace when you're starting out. And I would say just all my years even being a business owner we've had other friends, and we've known people independent or franchising that bid off more than they could chew quite honestly. I mean, they wanted to be so big, so fast, hired too many people, ended up just doing too much. And it's a dream, but it's also a big risk. And I think start small. I give advice to many of the people that I'm coaching. You know, the stars are there The sky's a limit, but why you make sure that you can handle everything before you go in too deep? It's just not you know, it doesn't make sense, and it's gonna cost you more money. And if you think about businesses expanding too quick, too fast, you need more employees. You need more of every So your costs are gonna be doubled and tripled, and you just, you know, you need to be prepared and you need to analyze your numbers. And spreadsheets are great for that to make sure that you are prepared for it and eyes wide open. And you might want what that other person has, but maybe they have more money than you. Maybe their skills and qualifications are different than what you have. So I think just word of caution to people is you know, low risk. You know, there are so many investments out there right now, and you hit the nail on the head when we first started talking today. Everybody thinks of food, you know, subway. But now franchise has this other side to it that people forget about. This might be a good segue into this. Is there are brands called Home Service Brands and during COVID, these brands actually were strengthened Brick and mortar, like the that you've mentioned, got obviously hit pretty hard through COVID. We all know it. We don't even need to spend more time talking about it. They're recovering. Home based service brands are anything to do with your home and sometimes they service commercial businesses, but they're mobile. Their overhead is lower their margins are higher. The risk is lower. Investments lower. Those four things are attractive to a lot of investors. Now one of the differences with the service based brands is that they usually want owner operator. They want your time too. Not everybody's willing to give up their time. Right? If they're maybe they have a self storage business. Maybe they have, you know, 2 or 3 businesses, and they think, oh, I'll just get a franchise. The service brands may not be a good fit for that person. But service brands, I wanna bring up for the audience today that service brands are amazing, and it's not what you think in franchising, and you don't need to have a $1,000,000 Anything to do with your home, whether it's flooring, windows, security, landscaping, gutters, roofing, the list goes on. Those are service brands. And for many people that are in career transition with, you know, corporate America, they look at these pretty closely. So, anyway, that is another example of low risk and getting in, you're not buying yourself a job, you can actually be an owner operator. You can hire a team, but you can build out the executive model too.
Jonathan Green: Yeah. I when my wife and I rent a hotel for a few years, the restaurant part was such a nightmare. People was like, why don't you open a larger restaurant? I hate the restaurant industry because I can it's so risky because you just have to think, well, how many chickens are people gonna buy tonight? If you guess too low, you have angry customer can't order it. If you guessed too high, you have to throw a chicken away tomorrow. It's so scary because it's like stock, except for the stock is constantly expiring. Right? And it's like it's so stressful. I was like, and what do eggs cost today? What do eggs cost tomorrow? Your numbers are constantly changing. You can't change your price on your menu every day. Like, that stuff is totally, like, when people say, oh, so many businesses fail in the 1st 5 years, that's because 75% of those failures are restaurants. If you move restaurants, businesses have have a entrepreneurs have a much higher success rate. And it's like, that's why I like talking about this other stuff. We don't think about it. Right? Like, you can be I always think about that movie dumb and dumber when he made the van look like a dog, and he's like, oh, I do home dog hair. It's silly, but it's also like, a really good business model because you don't have to pay for a building. You don't have to pay for a a fit out. Right? Like, that's the scary part. I have to build a building that a franchise then have to do the design, that's gonna get really expensive, and you haven't even opened your doors yet. And then it waiting for the customers to come to you means you have only in a you have a small range. Like, people won't drive, I think, more than 5 minutes to go to a martial arts studio. They'll never travel, like, seven, six miles to go to Crotty class. It's 5 or less. So but if you're in a van and you're going to someone's house, I remember a guy who installed the bracket on the wall from my TV. This is, like, 10 years ago. I was like, man, this guy's got a great business model. Right? I think I paid him $300 for maybe 20 minutes of work, but he only guy in all of town doing. He just had a van at a bunch of the brackets and the screwdrivers, like a genius thing. So I think you're talking about some really good stuff because people Again, they think of I think everyone wants glamorous. You know, everyone wants to be an influencer or whatever star, and they don't rise at the business part is where things can be really cool and that I like what you're talking about a lot because I think risk and risk management probably the most important bar of being a successful business is that when you go high risk, every once in a while, you hit the moon, but those businesses don't last. And then you have all these problems because 99% of people go high risk. Lose. That's why casinos look so nice. Right? They're risky. If they weren't risky, they wouldn't have near these many lights and not be able to afford as much nice stuff. So I think this is so important to talk about that, like, there are a lot of good stuff. I'm not a franchise guy, but I know it's the right fit for a lot of people, and that's why I like talking about this because I wanna bring on people that understand things I don't understand and not my own expertise. And I really like that it comes with the manual. Like, there's so much benefit to that because starting from scratch, like, I do invent every process, everything, every project management, every spreadsheet, I had to invent that, and that's really hard. Like, I think that people don't realize sometimes that the hardest part of business is employee management and systems. Like, that's the moat the hardest part to develop, and that's the hardest part to maintain. So it's also exciting that you can actually have a no employee type franchise at their franchise models that aren't as labor intensive or supply intensive because there's, you know, once something works, why start over? Just take that thing that works move to the location. So I love it. What are your, like, looking forecasting right now? What are your favorite kind of niches or genres or franchises you think are really gonna be solid for the next 10 years? Like, you've talked about home services is like a really great one because it's low cost and you have a lot of control. And also when you wanna grow, you just buy another van or whatever the mobile unit is, which is very cool. What else do you think is, like, a really good place for people that are thinking, like, what's gonna be solid for 2020s 2030s?
Liz Leonard: I mean, mental health is really coming into position. We're seeing a lot of that. And then the more humorous one, which you might I don't know if you love pets, but the pet industry obviously is growing rapidly. And, again, there's brick and mortar options, but there's service brands too. And the pet industry, everybody got a dog and during COVID. So the pet industry is one that is definitely out there. You know, you've already mentioned, the storage, a lot of high level in are looking for those type of opportunities too for self storage. So that's really important. But I think those are kind of the 3 and the service brands in general those are just really taking off. I mean, people weren't going to Home Depot and Moser in COVID. They actually they really became accustomed to having people come to their house. Anything you need done. You know, maintain, install, repaired. You know, a bunch of blinds. Great example. You gave the example of the TV and the whole time you were talking about the bracket. I'm thinking a budget blinds franchise. So simple. Right? But everybody needs blinds. And but I think those are some of the big ones And one other question you asked and you mentioned I wanted to touch on is exit strategy. Whenever you're getting into business ownership and I don't know what your plan was with your hotel, But when you are investing in a business, you need to be thinking about what your plan is. Right? What is the exit strategy? How am I gonna be getting out of this business in the future? What if I had health issues? Would it be a family legacy business? So that's really important as far as your due diligence in interviewing other franchisees and franchise or is, okay, I'm gonna build this. I'm gonna build cash flow because cash flow is king, and that's what investors look for in businesses. But many of these businesses can be sold after they're up and running 5, 7 years. So I wanted to also add in that the strategy should be a really important part of your decision, and you're gonna find that out by asking owners that have been in it for you know, again, 10 years.
Jonathan Green: I'm glad you brought that up because so many independent businesses. I think 90% of people that try to sell their business, it never sells. Because they everyone thinks their kids wanna take over their business. And my kids definitely don't wanna do what I do. Right? I've got 4 of them. I'm like, let's just keep having them. Maybe wanna wanna do it, but there is this belief and family legacy. And we've created a society where that's less and less and less common. Right? Everyone wants to do basically anything other than what their parents did. So it's important to exactly, like you said, know that if the kids wanna take over, they can. And if the business needs to auto run with that manager, it can or that you can exit it because there are a lot of businesses that are unexitable and you don't realize it because you don't have any assets. A friend of mine a few years ago was, like, oh, me and we're gonna sell our company for a $1,000,000. I was like, no. You're not. And they went to this other company to make an offer, like, hey. Do you wanna buy our company? They come and say, yeah. We don't want it. We're fine. And They got 0. And it was like, they were so excited because they created this number in their head. And I was like, what's your EBITDA? And he's like, what's that? I was like, uh-oh. Because I of, like, website brands by and depending on what your business model is, it's worth a multiple of your monthly revenue. Right? Like, that's how they are sold and stuff. And It's there's a lot of things people don't know. Like, when you start a business, it's very stressful, and it's also there's a lot of I'm glad you brought up mental health. There's a lot of issues of it's all on me. Right? And I'm all alone and no one knows how I feel, and it's something we don't talk about very much. I think it's good to talk about. And, also, I had 2 friends. They did an exit and multimillion exit, and they were so depressed afterwards. And I was like, I didn't know. You could get a $1,000,000 in your bank account and be depressed. It was because they like, they'd sold their baby and they had nothing to do anymore. And they were kind of like, well, you gotta start a new business because we're bored. And it's very there's these other parts of it that really matter And going in, you have to think about what do I really want? How much money do I need to maintain my lifestyle? How much money I need to support my kids? And if you can do a lower risk business, Right? Because, yeah, that's the thing. If you get a loan for quarter $1,000,000, you don't have to spend it all in the 1st 2 months of the business. Right? Like, it's not free money. You gotta pay it back, and that's there's always gonna be surprises no matter what business model is, something's gonna break, something's gonna go wrong, and you need that buffer because without it, yeah, you're in tough spot. So I like a lot of what you're saying. I think that this is a really interesting thing for people to to get interested in. I think there's a lot more opportunities coming And also if people have a good business model, they can also turn it into a franchise. You don't just have to open other stores. There's another way to grow your business. And I think that There's just a lot of misperception about franchises because the only places you ever hear about them is either in movies like the founder or or when I'm watching the profit. And it's like, that it's always like, oh, this is scary franchise. I can't believe they're franchising it or shark tank and stuff like that, and it's not very it's always food. It's always food, but there's a lot of opportunity out there, and it is some like you talked about risk profile, franchises really lower the risk profile because at least someone's made it work before. You know, it's starting from 0. You have a manual. You have a process. You have systems in place. And if you approach it methodically, you can find something that's a really good fit for you. And it's good to know. It doesn't have to be crazy expensive, but I'd like to talk about that for just a second. Like, what How much money should you have to even consider franchising? Like, what's the baseline numbers? You need $25,000? Is you need 75? What's the number? You go, okay. I should even consider franchising, or I just don't have enough money, and I'm not in the game.
Liz Leonard: I think that's a loaded question, but I'm gonna answer it anyway. I franchise companies have a net worth requirement, and net worth was put in place for good reason. So you can only borrow as much as net worth, and many people aren't aware of that. It is what it is. So if a franchise company says I have a $500,000 net worth, they're they're gonna make sure you have it. And part of my role as an advisor is we have everybody fill out a questionnaire, and we do see those numbers. There's nothing proprietary. Right? They're all general numbers, but we need to see where they fall. Because we wanna look at investments that are actually in range. We don't ever wanna look at investments that are outside of what they can't afford. And, obviously, it's gonna fit their lifestyle too. I wanted to mention that as well. Lifestyle is a really big driving force for people along with motivation. And I feel that investment, if we look at service brands, the risk is so much lower because there's no building and you've owned a building, I've owned a building. You and I both know that we probably had a very hefty payment to probably a 3rd party lender. And those are typically SBA small business administration. Those are with the interest rates right now. Obviously, some people are upset with interest rates right now, but they are what they are. You know, years ago, they were much higher but if you're gonna borrow money, you're gonna pay to borrow money. A brick and mortar is gonna be anything from at least at a minimum. This is a minimum threshold $275,000 and up. This could be, you know, you think of fitness, food, wellness, hair care. I mean, the list goes on for brick and mortar as you referenced in the beginning of this. And then on the service brand side, those can be anywhere from like a 150,000 and under. And again, depending on their geographic market, how many zip codes they negotiate because in franchising, you are in a territory that you will own the rights to so it has borders. And it's usually 25 to 35 mile radius around where you live. But if you're one of these people, the visionary people that wanna have a larger territory, you're gonna pay more for it. So the price will be increased. So I hope that answers the question, but there's kind of two sides, two lanes, brick and mortar, and then the service brand. 1 is super high. 1 is obviously lower.
Jonathan Green: Yeah. I'm glad that is something you talked about because I always had a friend in when I was living in Britain who was a plumber and Boy, what a job. Right? You get to be your own boss. All you need is a van, and you could make 100 of 1000 of dollars a year because guess what? When someone's toilets exploding, they'll pay whatever you say. Right? Like, you you know what I mean? Like, whatever it takes to turn it off. So there's a lot of, unfortunately, I think, in our society, we look down on a lot of services, and it's, like, We need like, there's actually not enough plumbers right now. There's not enough a lot of these different services that you can do a lot with. So I'm glad we're bringing that up because Sometimes I think that we look down on these jobs, and I don't know why. Right? There's a lot of things that, like, I don't know how to do, and I'm glad people do. So I think that it's really good to talk about that because it's a great opportunity. You get to be your own boss. It's really simple business model in the sense that don't have to manage a bunch of employees unless you want to. You don't have to manage a location. Locations are so scary because if you get anything wrong massive amount of money, and then you have to do the fit out, which is so scary. Like, oh, I bought I'm renting this building, and then I gotta pay another $75 to change it to whatever it has to look like. And then I hope it works because it's gonna take me, like, 7 years to recover the cost of the fit out alone. And then if the it's a bad location or something happens in that location that creates a problem, like, there's an issue with the parking lot, which you don't even think about. Right? Like, oh, I'm in a strip mall. It's all good. No. Because sometimes there's, like, really specific rules about, like you mentioned, about territory, about how much of the lot you're allowed use. I remember there's I've certainly gone to businesses where, like, you're not allowed to park anywhere near the business because they're fighting their neighbors over parking lots basis. And it's like, you didn't even think of that. So I, again, I'm always thinking about risk. And I haven't I know that, like, franchise, it sounds like derisking, but you can still make poor decisions that kind of put, you know, awkward position. Right? Like, I always love when I see 2 Starbucks across the street from each other. Like, what happened here? It's, like, too close. Right? Like, or there's a 711 on every corner. So Exactly that. It's like how much territory do I have? And is it enough for this business model, or are people gonna be kind of going to the neighbor? So I love what you're talking about. This has been really helpful. It's been very interesting to me, and I love talking about things that are exciting to my audience can people learn more about you, more about franchising, see if this is the right business model for them?
Liz Leonard: Yeah. And I just wanna follow-up to talking about the plumber. I mean, you're talking about demand driven services, Jonathan. That's what those all of those are. And there's 100100100 of demand driven services out there. And, again, it's the best cat secret and franchising in my opinion, and I talked to people all over the country. So I think people just need to be aware that franchising is not just food. You don't need to have a $1,000,000, and you can be one of these to transition out of corporate America and transfer the skills. I actually did it. I was in corporate America for 22 years. So I have a website the best way really to reach me. I think would be my website. It's just Liz Leonard franchise advisor. I'm on LinkedIn as well. We offer free consultations when this is kind of the another best kept secret. So as franchise coaches and advisors, we're the high level recruiters for the franchise companies. So we spend about, you know, 6 to 8 weeks with all of our candidates. We do a 60 minute consultation with everybody. There's no charge. So again, nothing to lose in everything to gain by having a conversation. That's how business starts. But my website is the best way. I'd be happy to talk to anybody and most of the people I meet have either grown up in an entrepreneurial family. You know, Grandpa had a business, and I've always thought about it. And the job has never seemed to suit me Liz and they just wanna look at their options. And I can't help everybody, but I can help the people that have those high motivation and desires and the you factor to build a successful business.
Jonathan Green: Great. I love it. So guys, that's at your friend at visor.com. Course, it'll be in the show notes and below the video on YouTube. Thank you again so much for being here, Liz. It's been another amazing episode of the serve no Master podcast.
Liz Leonard: Thank you, Jonathan.
Jonathan Green: Thank you for listening to today's episode. Starting your blog is an amazing step. Now it's time to get your first 100 raving fans as quickly as possible. Let me show you the shortcut to this milestone with my free guide at servenomaster.comforward/100. That's forward slash 100.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Serve No Master podcast. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss another episode. We'll be back next week with more tips and tactics on how to escape the rat race. Please take a moment to leave a review at servenomaster.com forward slash itunes. It helps the show grow and more listeners means more content for you. Thanks again, and we'll see you next week.