How to Turn Your Business Into a Successful Franchise

Kathy (host):  

Well, hello there and welcome back to Help! My Business is Growing, a podcast where we explore how to grow and build a business that is healthy and sustainable. I’m your host, Kathy Svetina.

Kathy (host):

Franchising can be an effective method of expanding your business, especially if it has good margins and if the business model can be replicated. You can earn more revenues, you can operate in multiple locations, and boost your brand without much of heavy capital expenditure on your side. However, it does involve a lot of prep work and paperwork, and a different way to think about your business, how you running it, and how you think about it. So if you want to know if franchising is the right move for your business, and what you need to do to turn your business into a successful franchise, this is going to be the episode for you.

Kathy (host):

And just a quick reminder, all of the episodes on this podcast, including this one, come with timestamps for topics that we discuss, and each one has its own blog post as well. You can find all the links and the detailed topics and this episode show notes.

Kathy (host):

So let’s talk about a guest. Our guest today is April Porter. She is a Business Growth Strategist and Advisor to hundreds of franchisees and the CEO of Ask April Porter, where she helps franchise owners accelerate their growth and profits in record time. As an award-winning entrepreneur with a proven record of success in growth strategy, April has experienced firsthand the joy of building a business that creates a dream life. Now, she’s fulfilling her mission of teaching franchisees how to fill the gap between the franchise model and the executive level, the know-how needed to increase revenues, build a reliable team, and scale to multiple locations. Join us

Kathy (host):  

Welcome to the show, April.

April (guest):  

Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

Kathy (host):  

I’m super excited you’re here. And we’re going to be talking about franchising. It’s a world I admittedly like have zero knowledge about and I’m super eager to learn more, because you were a franchise owner for many, many years, and you were very successful at it. Now, you help other franchisees run their business, but you also help business owners start their own franchise model. I’m really interested in that aspect of franchising. Let’s first start with this, are there any specific types of businesses that are particularly well suited to be in this franchise model?

April (guest):  

It’s really interesting because as we evolve as a society, they say right now that the kids who are in school right now, the jobs that they will have, don’t even exist yet. Right? The same is kind of true of the franchising world, it can evolve and take on any type of model industry, and as long as it has, it makes sense. And what it needs to really make sense to be a franchise is- one, you have to have some good margins- good profit margins built into your business. And the reason for that is that franchisees will pay a percentage of their revenue to the franchisor in exchange for all of the support, and the opportunity to use the brand name, which has more brand recognition.

April (guest):  

All of the benefits they get as a franchisee, they have to pay a percentage of their revenue in what’s called a royalty. And so if you have really tight margins, there’s not really room in there for a franchisee to pay that royalty. And to make a good living in the model at that point, then that probably doesn’t make sense to the franchise. But other than that, it could be any topic, any industry.

Kathy (host):  

Have you seen any industries that are particularly well positioned for this? Fitness, restaurant and anything like that?

April (guest):  

Health and beauty, for sure. Personal services that is never going out of style. One of the jobs that I did when I was an attorney, I always had some kind of side gig going on, and I used to sell skincare. One of the guys I worked with, he said the reason that I got into selling skincare is because during Hurricane Katrina, I saw women with like rolling suitcases and their kids in the Superdome and things like that. But they had a full face of makeup.

April (guest):  

They literally had nothing except for a suitcase of belongings but yet they took the time to put on their makeup. And he said, “You know, that taught me that no matter what’s happening in the world, women still prioritize their basically health and beauty.” I think that’s always a strong industry to go into particularly in franchising.

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Kathy (host):  

Yeah, and that’s actually I believe there’s a word for that, and don’t quote me on that. I think it’s called a lipstick phenomenon or lipstick effect in the economy where women even when things are going bad, they still want to feel good about themselves, and having something small like putting lipstick on or making your nails or doing your skincare is small, but it makes you feel better about yourself when the world is falling apart, essentially.

April (guest):  

That is exactly right. I think I’ve been talking about that a lot recently because we’re facing what could potentially turn into a recession. And it’s things like that, that you want to be thinking about before it happens and trying to position yourself with your product or service so that when people are really making decisions based on a household budget, and when they’re tightening those purse strings, how do you become one of their priorities?

Kathy (host):  

Yeah, and that’s good advice, not just for the franchising world, but in the business in general.

April (guest):

Right.

Kathy (host):

If someone is thinking of turning their business into a franchise, and I know this is going to be a loaded question, and we can slice it and dice it in sections, but why would you even start this process? How would you even begin?

April (guest):  

That’s a great question. There’s some blog articles and things that some of the attorneys put out. Franchising has is such a specific industry that there are attorneys dedicated to either being franchisors, attorneys, or franchisee attorneys, and that’s their whole specialty.

April (guest):

So a lot of times, if you’re doing a search on the internet, you’re going to find blogs, from the attorneys that talk about it a little bit. There’s just a couple of books out there that you could get on Amazon.

April (guest):

And then if you do a search, you might come across what’s called a Franchise Development Firm, as well. There are lots of different ways, but it’s always going to cost you money, to really learn how to franchise your business, even if you got the book and you try to do it yourself. There’s so much trial and error. You’re likely to run out of capital before you actually crack the code to being able to do it. Because it is complicated. And so you’re always going to have to make an investment to truly learn how to do it.

Kathy (host):  

If you’re not opposed to making an investment, if you want to shortcut the learning curve, so to speak, what would be the best way to do it? Do you hire a coach? Do you go through a specific company that helps to develop these friends? What do you do?

April (guest):  

Well, what’s really interesting is, this is the exact problem we recognized in the industry, with my company, because traditionally, what you would do is you would go talk to one of those attorneys. They would create what’s called a Franchise Disclosure Document and a Franchise Agreement. And they would create those legal documents for you. Once those are created, Poof, you are a franchisor. And that’s literally all it takes.

April (guest):  

A lot of people have done that without really understanding how to be a successful franchisor. So then there’s another place to go, which is the franchise development firms. The franchise development firms, sometimes they offer to do that same paperwork for you. But usually, they also will promote your franchise. So they’re basically trying to sell franchise units to potential franchisees, and that’s how they’re going to make their money by getting a percentage of those sales. So their goal is to get you to 100 units as fast as possible. Because once you hit 100 units, you’re no longer considered an emerging franchise or you’re considered an established franchisor.

April (guest):  

Now, what we have happening in the industry, is that because anybody can do this, and just go and say, “Okay, give me the paperwork, and let’s sell 100 franchises that we have.” Let’s take a gym for an example, like a boutique gym. The gym owner could have a fantastic community gym down the street, and everybody in town goes to that gym, and they’re the personal trainer of the year and they’re running it and they’re an amazing gym owner, but they’re working in their business a lot potentially, and they decide to franchise it. Well now, the success of that unit has dependent upon them being in there. And although they’re a great gym owner, they have zero ideas how to be a franchisor.

April (guest):  

And most businesses, if you have some business acumen and you understand business strategy, you can be successful in any product or service. But becoming a franchisor is a totally different beast because the franchisees are not your employee. So you can’t lead them the same way that you lead employees. You can’t develop them the same way that you develop employees. You have to do that differently. And they, the franchisees, are literally putting their entire lives on the line to invest in your dream.

April (guest):  

So people cashing their 401Ks, and they mortgage their houses. If their unit fails, it’s not just I lost my business, it’s potentially they lost their house, they lost their income, they have no retirement, and they’re starting over at 50 or something because a lot of people are investing in a franchise as a second career.

April (guest):  

And so you to be a responsible franchisor, you need to know how to be a franchisor so that you can support your franchisees and prevent that from happening. I don’t think anyone goes into franchising thinking about the fact that they could convince a bunch of people to invest their entire lives, and then they could also be responsible for those people losing everything. Most people don’t want to be put in that position. We have to take the steps to learn how to do it properly so that that doesn’t happen. And that’s really where we come in, is we recognize that nobody was doing that. Nobody was teaching anyone how to be a franchisor, and how to support these franchisees and really create a long, sustainable brand. Everybody, I don’t want to say everybody, but there’s a lot of opportunity in the industry to just say, “Hey, give me 50 grand. I’m gonna make you a franchisor.” And what they do is they make you a franchisor on paper, but they don’t teach you how to run a franchise brand.

Kathy (host):  

Let’s say that you’ve done the paperwork, and now you’re officially the franchisor, at least on paper, but what are the foundations that you really need to have in the business to be a successful franchise or to be able to offer that to your franchisees? Is there anything specifically that you need to have that you have seen that it works across the industries? Not just you know, for the gym or any, like specific industries?

April (guest):  

Yes, I mean, number one, you need a business coach. If you don’t have a business coach, and you’re planning to be a business coach for 100 franchisees, like, again, it’s totally different than running your business- to learn how to change mindset, and really help people understand how to even follow the rules of our franchise when there’s all these different aspects of it. So one, you need to have a business coach. You need to have somebody holding up the mirror and asking you the tough questions, because you want those questions to be asked on the front end, not after you’ve made a huge investment in something or a mistake that’s cost you a lot of money, or time or energy or reputation. You definitely want to have a business coach.

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April (guest):  

Number two, you want to have an established, successful model. What I see happening sometimes in the industry is that someone has a successful product, but they grew their business originally not for franchising. So now that they’re going to franchise, they have to rebrand, they can’t use the name that they were using, because there may be some trademarks that they didn’t look into as a small business owner that they’re infringing upon. They have to be aware of as a franchisor. So they might have to rebrand. Maybe they have to change their model because it’s too close to somebody’s intellectual property. And so now what they’re doing is they’re trying to franchise an unproven version of what was successful for them. It needs to be an established model that you have tested. And that you know is proven because ultimately, that’s what the franchising world sells people is a proven model.

April (guest):  

Ideally, if you have a storefront location, you want to have at least two locations, three would be even better. The reason for that is you will want multi-unit franchisees that is going to help you grow your brand as fast as possible when you have a franchisee who comes in and they’re capable of owning three stores instead of one. You just tripled your growth.

April (guest):  

So in order to do that, you need to know what it’s like to be a multi-unit owner because people use different strategies to scale to two locations and different strategies again, to scale to three locations. If all you have thought about is the strategies that it takes to operate a single location, then you’re cutting yourself off at the knees on the opportunity to help your franchisees become multi-units. Plus, you also need to know how your product and service is received in different geographical locations because it’s going to impact the way that you market, and once you’re going nationwide like a great example of this is my gym concept that I was part of early on they wanted to control the music that was played in the gyms so that it would all have the same atmosphere and be you know that’s what franchising is thought to be is cookie cutter where you go into one gym in New York, and it’s exactly the same as the gym that you go into in St. Louis.

April (guest):  

Well, that was great, except for we were getting tons of complaints from the franchisees down in Miami. And they were like, “We have to have Latin music in our gyms because that’s the demographic down there. That’s what people listened to. That’s the vibe.” So even though the gym needed to be consistent across the country, it also had to appeal to that market. Otherwise, that franchise unit couldn’t survive. Right? So you have to understand what the differences are going to be in the geographical locations, and where you may need to make some adjustments based on those types of cultural and geographic differences.

April (guest):  

Another great example is a landscaping business in Wisconsin is going to be doing things in the winter, that are completely different than the same landscaping business in Florida.

Kathy (host):  

And how does this relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee look like? How does a successful relationship look like that you have seen in the past and you have experienced?

April (guest):  

Yeah, well, honestly, usually, there comes a point in time, if you don’t build your franchise the right way, there will come a point where that relationship will completely break down. And once you’ve lost the trust of your franchisees, it is a very difficult thing to regain. There’s a lot of work, it’s going to take you four times as long to regain that trust as it did lose it.

April (guest): 

So ideally, what you would want in the relationship is you want your franchisees to always feel like you’re listening to them, and you’re taking what they have to say to heart. They’re going to have ideas. And there’s a lot of franchisors that feel like, “This is my baby. I grew up from the ground up. I know exactly how to do it. I know exactly what it needs.” And that’s probably true.

April (guest):  

But you also probably grew it from the ground up 10 years ago, minimum. And the conditions, the market conditions have changed, economic conditions have changed. I mean, how many social media platforms have been introduced in the last 10 years that are going to impact the way that these franchisees need to market this model? So there’s a lot of changes happening, you got to listen to your franchisees. They’re in the trenches, they’re the ones that are meeting the end customer face to face, and their ideas are always going to be coming from a place of how can we do better? And how can we make more money? Their ideas are not? How can I put my stamp on the brand? Or how can I change what the founder intended, but a lot of times, it’s how franchisors take it when franchisees come are demanding for some changes. So leaving ego at the door sums it up pretty much keep your humility and understand that there’s a ton of opportunity and having 100 heads, thinking about how to make a brand better just than a single head.

Kathy (host):  

And I think this is an interesting distinction because people might think as franchisees is their employees, but they’re really not employees but they are business owners. It has a completely different relationship, and I want to stop here and really compare and contrast like how does that relationship look like in terms of if we put a mirror of having an employee versus having a franchisee?

April (guest):  

Right? Well, it’s really interesting because there’s a lot of litigation happening in the franchising industry right now, because franchisors have overstepped that distinction and began treating franchisees like employees and as an extension treating the franchisees’ employees as the franchisor as employees and legally, that has gotten people into hot water so that franchisors are becoming aware of that now, and they’re trying to really create more distinction between the two.

April (guest):  

An employee, one, you are paying the employee for their time worked, right, whether you’re paying them salaried, or whether you’re paying them hourly. A franchisee is paying you to work and to build your brand and to man the cash register and all the different things that go into it. That’s why legally it’s a really big deal because if the court finds that you are treating them like employees, the court will rule that you have to pay them like employees. And that’s a huge payday because you’d have to go back for all that time that they’ve been working in that store and you’d have to pay them for the hours that they worked right.

April (guest):  

So because they’re not employees, you cannot dictate what they do in the day. You can teach them a model, you can give them this is how you will be successful when you make 50 prospect phone calls a day that leads ultimately to 10 sales a week. And that’s how you’re going to build you think so you can teach them that. But you can’t force them to file reports with you on how many calls they made. Or did they follow through and actually do that it’s not a job duty that you are holding them accountable to. It’s more of a playbook that you’re handing them.

April (guest):  

Franchisees are what they actually are, is they are your customer. So they are a franchisor’s customer. And that’s really the best way to understand the distinction is that, instead of looking at them as an employee, or independent contractor or something like that. They need to be viewed as a customer. They are paying you for a product and service, which is the model. And they get to use that model within the contracted boundaries. However, they want as long as they’re following the agreement, so that you actually have a contract. You’re also kind of quasi-business partners. So that’s the difference.

Kathy (host):  

Yeah, though, that’s a very good distinction that you made there. So as a franchisor, do you have any input on the day-to-day operations of the franchisees? Or is that completely out of the limit?

April (guest):  

I mean, generally, you’re going to have what’s called an internal franchise business coach. And that person is going to meet with the franchisees maybe once or twice a month, and they’re going to say, “Let’s talk about your numbers. Let’s see where your store is, and see how you’re doing. We’re here to help you be successful.” Sometimes they’re called success coaches.

April (guest):  

They might take a look at the numbers. And they may say, “Well, it doesn’t look like you’re getting many leads to the door, what are you doing to get leads through the door?” Well, you probably need to be tripling those efforts, right? So let’s talk about some strategies that you could implement to in order to get your numbers up.

April (guest):  

So they have those kinds of conversations. And those conversations are absolutely 100% allowed, in fact, that I would argue and say that’s part of what the franchisee is paying for is for those types of conversations to help them understand the pathway to success. But that’s where it ends, like, if they don’t make the phone calls. You can’t say, “Hey, you’re not doing your job, we’re gonna find another franchisee and replace you.” I mean, ultimately, if they do poorly, their revenues may drop to a point where they have to close their unit, and then the franchisor could resell that territory.

April (guest):  

But if they’re just happy, limping along, and you know, they like having a job, and they’re making enough money to for whatever they want to make the money for. But it’s not a top-performing store for you, and you’re frustrated because you see like the territory has so much potential if they would just do what I want them to do. There’s nothing you can do about that.

Kathy (host):  

And let’s talk about what are the things that franchisees really need to be successful. And we’ve talked about they need coaching, they need the playbook, and can we dive deeper into this playbook? What exactly is the playbook? And how does that really look like? Is it processes, procedures, brand image, or all of the above? How does that look like?

April (guest):  

Yeah, as a matter of fact, There’s a name for it, it’s called the operations manual. And that is one of the things that franchisees receive upon becoming a franchisee. And it does have brand standards in it. So it will go over like the colors, the fonts that you can use in your materials, the logo itself, the fact that it’s a registered trademark, all of those things. And you have permission to use all of that under the guidelines of the franchisor.

April (guest):  

So let’s take the gym example again, you can’t suddenly decide you’re going to do spray tanning in the back of the gym, right? And you’re using the gym’s trademark and logo to say like, “Hey, here at the such and such gym, we’re now offering spray tanning in the back.” And that’s totally not in alignment with the model, they then that could put you in default to your franchise agreement. So that’s how the brand standards are upheld.

April (guest):

Then it’s going to have your typical operations. So what are the things that make the brand unique? What’s the customer experience that has been standardized to keep people coming back to this brand over and over and over again? So that’s going to be in there as well. The CRM that you use, the website that you have to have, all of the technology is going to be dictated as to what you’re doing, which is a good thing because usually, you’re getting a price break on those things because the franchisor has negotiated that for the volume that they’re bringing to the software company. And you know, because they’re having 100 people sign up for that CRM.

April (guest):

So that’s another benefit of being a franchisee is the bulk purchasing power. So that’s basically what the playbook is going to be. It’s going to teach you how to truly operate that model to profitability. And that’s about where the playbook will end.

April (guest):

And that’s something that franchisors need to understand and not be defensive about or ashamed of. And franchisees need to understand that so that they can say, “All right, the franchisor’s role is to get me up to being profitable and get me to where I understand this business well enough, that I can run it, and I can train other people to run it a team. And then I’m going to take it from there. And I’m going to, like blow it out of the water.” You know, that’s where you have to have a good franchisee with a great mindset, and good business acumen, to take it from that point and take it farther. Sometimes that means just building that single unit to higher revenues. And other times, it means expanding into more units.

Kathy (host):  

And I imagined that it’s quite a transition from being a business owner to turn into a franchisor. Because it seems to be a completely different mind shift and we’ve talked about franchisees versus employees, which is a totally separate topic, but the journeys that you’ve seen people go through from being a business owner of multiple units even to being a franchisor? How abrupt is that? How do people adjust to that type of thinking? And do you see them struggling with some specific things that become more of an “I just cannot get past that. I really need a coach to help me with this.”

April (guest):  

Yeah, I mean, to be quite honest, it usually comes back down to ego. It’s for anybody who’s listening, who’s built a business, if you’ve built a business from the ground up, it is like your baby, right? And it’s think about taking that business and just handing it over to somebody else. And watching them walk out the door with it. And you’re just like, “Okay, I think I’ve prepared them to raise my child for me, and I have to watch, but there’s certain things I won’t be able to say.” And I mean, it’s a very, very strange feeling to do that. And I think that inherently people, when they don’t work on this before that time comes, then what happens is, there’s a lot of judgment, right?

April (guest):

You’re constantly watching that person to know, like, you’re not doing it, right, you’re not doing it right. Or you’re trying to do this, and I’ve told you that this is the right way to do it. I built this, I know what I’m talking about. And so as what ends up happening is, as you see franchisees not doing exactly what you would do, or maybe bringing ideas to you, like I mentioned earlier that you don’t think are good ideas, what ends up happening is there becomes more and more defensiveness. And that’s when that relationship starts to break down.

April (guest):

So you got to be prepared, and understand how to inspire people, how to motivate people, and how to lead them so that they do, they will do the things that you’re suggesting, because they understand that that is a pathway to success and that you have their best interests at heart. When you’re constantly like showing up in like, I know what I built this brand. I know it those types of phrases, then they’re like, “Well, what did I buy? I thought I was a partner here, I thought we were going to do this together. And now I feel like I have a boss and I left a job. I didn’t want to be an employee anymore. I wanted to be my own business owner.” Right?

April (guest):

So you have to be a winger, that’s the dynamic that they’re trying to avoid. And if you haven’t worked on it, you’re actually reintroducing that to them. They don’t want that. And the problem with that is that most franchisors, most people who are franchising their business, they’re still operating themselves in an employee mentality. They haven’t even developed their own entrepreneur mindset yet. They’re working in an employee mindset. And now they’re taking on people and they’re trying to treat them, like employees as well.

Kathy (host):  

And I don’t want to put you on the spot here. But I’m always curious to hear success stories for people who have struggled with that, do you have an example that you can give us? Where it was everything went wrong, and then they switch their mindset and things got so much better afterward.

April (guest):  

There is the ultimate franchisor, and then some brands actually have franchisees that own so many different locations, they’re like quasi franchisors themselves.

April (guest):

So one of our clients owns multiple Subway locations. And they had invested previously in a six-figure consulting firm to come in and help them with stuff but didn’t feel like they really got a lot out of it. They were still working in the businesses, despite the fact that they had had regional managers set up and store managers set up, still working too many hours in the businesses. So we started to work on them their time management, what jobs were they actually performing, and is that the best use of their time. We went through and created a different company structure for them to say like, let’s really look at it based on optimizing the business instead of who you have right now.

April (guest):

And ultimately, what ended up happening just recently is that both of their regional managers quit, both of them quit, because they didn’t want to participate in the changes that were happening. They just wanted to keep winning the way that it always if it had been done. And we had a talk about that, and my clients were like, “Oh, we’re so grateful. Because we realize we had such a mindset shift, like, had those people quit before they started working with us, it would have been devastating- devastating both to the business, but also personally devastating, because they had formed these almost familial relationships with their employees.”

April (guest):

And that’s what happens in a small business. And that’s why you hear people say, Oh, we’re like a family, you know, that’s what our atmosphere is like. So it really would have been devastating, but because of the mindset shifts, and because they saw that now, this is really about business. And in order for us all to be successful, it has to operate in a certain way, that’s the only way to grow. And that’s the only way we’re going to keep our sanity when they decided to quit. They were like this is a blessing if you don’t want to do what it’s going to take for us to be successful. And this isn’t the right place for you anyway. And even though it’s going to cause us some pain point – some pain to get some people trained up into these roles, ultimately, it’s going to be much better.

April (guest):

So that’s one that I love that just like happened two weeks ago. I really love it. Because so many times when I talk to small business owners, when they have an employee quit, it is an emotional roller coaster for them. It is instant, like devastation over the person quitting and also feelings of betrayal, like “Why would you quit? Why don’t you feel loyal to me, right? So it becomes this very personal emotion at the beginning. And then it becomes this total chaos of I have to get somebody else hired. I have to get somebody else trained. Many times the business owner has to go fill those hours themselves, particularly in the job market right now. They’re on this full-blown emotional, breakdown over this one move in the business. And the reality is, is for most franchises, we’re talking about retail restaurants and high turnover jobs.

April (guest):

So you don’t want to be having these emotional breakdowns all the time because people are coming and going. But when we get you out of that employee mindset, and we level you up to an entrepreneur mindset, that’s when those things can happen. And it’s like water off your a duck’s feathers, it’s just like, “Okay, well, we were put, we know, people are going to leave, and we know what to do when that happens. And we have people in place that are going to move right into that position, and nothing’s going to stop”, right? And that’s where we want to get people to,

Kathy (host):  

I can still relate to that. Because I have clients that go through the same process. We implement the changes in the business, but people do not agree with them, because now they’re being held accountable for what they need to produce.

April (guest):

Right.

Kathy (host):

Which they did not have before. And they want to quit. But that’s why I always say your business runs on systems and processes, then you layer people on top of that, so they can run off of that so that if someone decides to quit or someone, God forbid, something happens to them, you’re not left in a bind, because now you have no idea what they were doing, how they’re doing it, they were doing it on their own completely. And you just you left scrambling.

April (guest):  

100%. I agree 100%. And so many times people want to jump to another person as a solution in their business. And I think like we can always find at least three alternatives to hiring another person if we’re open to looking for those opportunities. So starting with the processes and systems like you said, and then layer the people on top of that.

Kathy (host):  

April, you gave us so much good information. I feel it like in this world of franchisees the franchisor is like having nothing when we got into this conversation. But you know, if someone wants to go in and is thinking about turning their business into a franchise business, what would be the next step that they can take in the next week to get them closer to that?

April (guest):  

Well, one, we would love to do a strategy session with you. And I think that that is a step that most people skip. Because when you go talk to these franchise development firms and attorneys they’re going to give you this is what we’re do for you, pay us and we’ll do it. And suddenly, you’re a franchisor. What we want to do first is let’s strategize and say, “Okay, should your model be franchised?” If the answer is yes, “should it be franchised right now? Or do we need to put a plan in place so that you can grow it, you can get your systems and processes in place, you can open that second location so that you can figure out the geographical and cultural differences that that more than one location is going to have, you can figure out how it needs to be staffed for two locations instead of one and also the advantages”, because a lot of times you could do split expenses for certain things when you have more than one location. So, how does that impact your margins, because that’s going to make it easier to market your franchises, as well for multi-unit growth? Let’s create that plan to make sure that when you do pull the trigger to franchise you’re already set up to have what is truly a proven model. And then from there, you can learn how to be a franchisor.

Kathy (host):  

This goes right into my next question is where can people find you?

April (guest):  

Yeah, well, we’re Ask April Porter is the name of our company because literally if you ask I’m going to provide some an answer to my favorite thing to do. But we are everywhere. We’re on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. Our website is Ask April Porter, and our podcast is The Infinite Franchisee where we talk about business-building tactics every week. So you can find us there too.

Kathy (host):  

Thank you so much for being on the show, April.

April (guest):  

Thank you.

Kathy (host):  

Thanks so much for joining us for today’s episode. And I hope that this episode is giving you information on what to do and exactly what not to do when you’re going down that route the franchising if that’s something that you choose to do.

Kathy (host):

So next week, our guests are going to be Alicia Williams and Chris Viscomi, and we will discuss marketing agencies and how you can choose the right one for your specific needs.

Kathy (host):

Also, if you love this episode, you can find all the timestamps show notes blog posts, and links on the website, newcastlefinance.us. Just look for the podcast in the top right corner. And before I go as always, I do have a favor to ask if you’re listening to this on Apple podcasts. If you could please go to the show, and tap the number of stars that you think it deserves because it helps other people find it too. Thanks so much. Until next time.