The Franchise Insiders "Inside Scoop" Podcast
Jack and Jill Johnson are two of the most experienced franchise experts in the industry, and their podcast The Inside Scoop is a must-listen for anyone considering investing in a franchise. Here are five reasons why:1. Jack and Jill have over 20 years of experience in the franchise industry. 2. They sell franchises, so they know which ones are actually making money. 3. They're not afraid to tell it like it is - you won't find any boring interviews on this podcast. 4. Every episode is jam-packed with financials and data that you can use to make an informed decision about which franchise is right for you. 5. Their insights and observations about the franchise industry are incredibly valuable - you won't find anything else like it out there. If you're thinking about investing in a franchise, make sure to add The Inside Scoop podcast to your must-listen list.
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Email: info@thefranchiseinsiders.com
Text: 305-710-0050
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The Franchise Insiders "Inside Scoop" Podcast
We Bought a Franchise: Navigating Holiday Chaos and Finding Franchise Freedom in the New Year
Imagine navigating the franchise world while battling holiday chaos and a norovirus outbreak—yep, that was our reality! You'll hear how we merged our two podcasts into one, creating a streamlined powerhouse called "We Bought a Franchise." We take you through our strategy to tackle seasonal slowdowns, from focusing on commercial accounts to celebrating a post-holiday surge in leads. The new year has started on a high note, and we're excited to share the ups and downs of managing franchises in diverse locations, each with its own unique personality quirks.
Join us as we reveal the secrets behind our businesses, Franchise Insiders and Pinks, and how they led us to write our new book, "The Perfect Fit: Finding Your Franchise Freedom." We chat about the importance of customer feedback, listener suggestions, and the unexpectedly lingering presence of 20 Christmas trees still standing tall in our home. Plus, prepare for some laughs as we share a glimpse into our holiday fatigue, having already silenced the festive tunes. This episode promises valuable insights wrapped in personal anecdotes that will leave you inspired and entertained.
Visit www.weboughtafranchise.com to subscribe.
Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.
Text: 305-710-0050
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the we Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson.
Speaker 2:I'm Jill Johnson.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year everyone. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been here with the folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, busy with the holidays and the.
Speaker 1:Stomach flu, the norovirus.
Speaker 2:Gosh, we went through it, didn't we?
Speaker 1:We did. It's been crazy. We were wanting to bring you guys updates, but we were having a hard time getting out of bed.
Speaker 2:There's wanting to bring you guys updates, but we were having a hard time getting out of bed. So there's a great holiday. No, we ended up having a really nice, nice break, with a just a little blip in the middle Right.
Speaker 1:Right. But that's life, right. That's franchise ownership too, yeah yeah. So this is today. It's just us. I hope you guys are okay with just us kind of catching you up on what's going on with Panks in our world, and I also wanted to do just a quick bit of house cleaning for you guys in terms of what's going on with our podcast, we currently have two the Inside Scoop franchise market watch podcast, and we have this one. We Bought a Franchise and managing two podcasts that's a lot and we feel like the content's pretty relative. Even for those of you that listen in to the we Bought a Franchise podcast, for those of you that listen in on the Inside Scoop, the data is really relevant to all of you. So what we're going to do is we're going to combine the two podcasts under the we Bought a Franchise podcast, so this will be shared on the inside scoop on podcast channel for the next couple of weeks. We'll share we bought a franchise episodes and then you guys have got to come join us on we bought a franchise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, as always, you know, send us a message, leave a comment, what you want to hear, what you like hearing, because we do this for you guys. So you know we want to make it helpful. So if it's something that you know maybe isn't for you anymore, we'd love to hear it. If you love the additional content, we want to hear that too. So just you know, let us know.
Speaker 1:Right. I think the key to all of this, though, and what all of you who are listening, for the most part, are probably new franchise owners or about to be franchise owners what we're going to start bringing you in our episodes are more interviews with franchise owners. Yeah, that's what you guys have said to us unanimously. It's easy enough for all of you to speak to franchisors. You want to hear from more franchisees, like us. So, with that said, let's get into it, jill. We've had quite a month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been quite a month, I think every time we hit like a new month a new season.
Speaker 1:It's a learning experience.
Speaker 2:I was trying to find the words. Yes, you know, I think with the holidays obviously for pink specifically, you know people want to get their house ready for their guests and then you have this kind of like peak everyone rushing and you know I've guests over any. My windows cleaned, I need my product.
Speaker 1:You know pressure washing done, and then the holidays hit and well, and having the holidays Wednesday and Wednesday back to back that definitely slowed things down. So it's going to happen. Sometimes it's on the weekend, Sometimes at the end of the week.
Speaker 2:No, they're always a week apart.
Speaker 1:No, they're always a week apart. But having them in the middle of the week and welcome to our marriage folks middle of the week kind of kills the week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.
Speaker 1:So so, anyways, you know, and what I've heard from, uh, you know, other from the the original pink skies, is that the holidays were their slowest time, when they started out too, because people are busy, they're spending time with family, um, so that's normal. So we saw a slowdown, um, just like everybody else. And, uh, you know, for us this is the second slowdown we've seen. Summer was slow. For us, because we live in South Florida, there were other pinks locations that were just thriving during summer while we were slowing down. And the reason for you guys who don't know South Florida, where we live in Palm Beach, not only is it hot, it really it feels like half of our population goes back.
Speaker 2:Well that they leave, because it's hot.
Speaker 1:Right, or they have houses in New York or things like that. So we lose a big portion of our population and so business slows down, and so you learn to focus on more commercial accounts. So that's what you kind of learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And even for now we hear from franchise owners who are maybe in the Northeast who are dealing with weather. Same sort of thing. You're learning to pivot, learning how to focus on commercial jobs and things like that. That can kind of get you through the lulls where there might be weather or travel or things like that with the residential jobs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, again, it's it's. It's different. It's different where you live than you have the seasonality. So you know, like it's all learning experience. But getting through like a full year of this is really going to help us plan for next year. To really push, should, you know, get the business before the holidays start or even try to find something creative during the holidays. You know you do have a bunch of people over at your house touching your windows and the little kids their fingers up there, so we could find a way to kind of play on that too next year. But anyway, it's, it's very good to kind of go through it and see and be prepared and be reactive, and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1:Well, the good news is is, ever since Sunday, our lead flow has been great. We've seen a ton of leads. Now, it's been crazy. We spend more than the franchise or prescribes, which I would suggest to any of you that are considering becoming franchise owner, or if you are a franchise owner, don't just do the minimum, do more. But I heard an interesting other side of the coin equation today. So I was speaking to another Pinks franchise owner and he said look, man, I do the minimum ad spend, but what I don't do in ad spend I do in my hustle.
Speaker 1:I'm out there in the community, I am shaking hands and kissing babies, I'm at the Chamber of Commerce, I'm at the Rotary Club and I thought that was really cool. Because I'm not that guy, I'm not going to be out there networking. Cool, because I'm not that guy, I'm not going to be out there networking, but he loves it, right? So he, we, we approach it from two different sides and the, the pinks founders were like that's more like how we started it. We were out there with the P out there and with the people with our uniforms on, and that's the kind of the, the. The magic of the pinks brand is that when you're out there with the uniform, it really sends a message.
Speaker 2:Different locations are different. Different owners are different. There's a lot of people here that you know. In Boca specifically, too, they have, like, house managers, so you're not networking with the owners a lot. You're networking with, you know, property managers or something like that. It's a little bit different and also has different. You know personalities and what they like to do, and little bit different and also has different. You know personalities and what they like to do, and and there's not necessarily a right or wrong, you know, I mean, obviously there's a wrong if it's not working for you, but if it's what you're doing is working for you, then you know you do you. And I think it's really interesting too because of the personalities that you're speaking of, like you and I are more of um, you know marketing and advertising and and knowing the value of spending that money, whereas the other person that you're referring to in pinks, that you know he's people person, he's out there doing that and that is what works for him, and so it's good to see both perspectives.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And both locations are doing really well. So it's not a matter of you should be doing it exactly this way, and I think that's the beauty of franchise ownership too is that there is some flexibility for you to kind of run with it the way you want to, and we're really fortunate that Pink's, you know, is allowing us to do that. They're like not that regimented to. You know. You have to do it specifically this way. They give advice, they're really really good with the support, but they also kind of let the owners do their thing too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, and I think what Jill said is so true, because, either way, be paying attention to your business, be paying attention to your revenue and whatever you gotta do to make sure you're getting revenue now and also booking out into the future. Just always be focused and this is true for any franchise, whether it be a home services franchise, whether it be a healthcare franchise, whether it be a burger franchise, whether it be a home services franchise, whether it be a healthcare franchise, whether it be a burger franchise always be watching your numbers and don't wait. Don't wait for things to slow down. Stay ahead of it. Talk to your franchise or network with other franchisees. I always recommend talking to high performing franchisees, and that's what you guys are going to start to get a taste of on our podcast.
Speaker 1:As we bring you future guests, we're going to talk to people, people. I think our first guest will be a franchisee from rolling suds competitive company, but he had a killer first year. I want to hear what he's doing. So that's what we're going to bring you. But it's all these things and now that, as jill and I are kind of getting close to a full year in business with pinks, you really kind of learn. You're starting to learn sort of the seasons of your business.
Speaker 1:I know what I want to tell you. Sal, our GM, did a big estimate for HOA. Actually, we've got multiple HOAs that he's done estimates for, but one of them actually came from a Facebook ad that Pink's did for us. Again, there's value in the advertising, so just make sure you're always advertising. I think you've heard us say this before. The lessons learned over the past month are we were slamming, we were doing great leading up into Christmas and then the weeks of Christmas and New Year's slowed down. I bet that's the case for most businesses that aren't like retail right If you're not retail or anything that has to do with specifically with the holidays, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I mean it's quiet. It's quiet on all fronts. I think people are with their families and they're not really thinking about it, but there's always that big pickup at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1:And now this week everyone's getting back to work, and it's like hey, let me catch up, but we're all circling back. We all are circling back.
Speaker 2:Have you guys seen circling back and following up I'm sure you all have seen it if you're on social media. But it says oh no, everyone's circling back now and it's funny because you know we all use that at some point. And then here we are circling back circling back.
Speaker 1:Hey, I know what I wanted to share with you guys in terms of franchise insiders. So we're um, you know, franchise insiders our other business. We would never have pinks if we didn't have franchise insiders. We used our first business franchise insiders to buy our second business. For all of you out there, by the way, jill and I have a book. We've just come out with a new book, the Perfect Fit Finding your Franchise Freedom. Do you want to know how we did it? How we sacrificed everything we sold our house, every possession, everything we owned, not everything we owned Well, every asset, meaning our house, every big asset that we owned.
Speaker 1:We didn't own any cars at all I know.
Speaker 2:But it's not like we sold like our clothes to do it.
Speaker 1:But yes, I mean it was a big Can you imagine if we sold Jill's shoe or purse collection? We wouldn't even need a business.
Speaker 2:To be fair, I didn't have that great of one Now. We could buy a bunch of businesses with it.
Speaker 2:But anyway, no, I can't believe we forgot to tell them that. No, that's very exciting. So our book tells our story and you know it and it was really fun writing it because we kind of got to relive it. I know that we've told our story a few times, but it was really interesting to share it and then have it on paper and kind of reread it and go through it and experience it again. So I highly recommend you guys read it.
Speaker 1:Well, how about this? So two things.
Speaker 2:Two things.
Speaker 1:Text 305-710-0050. Text FREEDOM to that number. We are incorporating more AI matching into our franchise insiders business, so I know a lot of you who are listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1:Watching this podcast, you're interested in PINX. But we have a Zorical meta-analysis that we are kind of combining. When we do a consultation with you, we do a video consultation, we have an AI note taker and we combine that with Zoracle and we use all this data now to give you a full report on you and what franchises you match and where your strengths are. It's really cool. So definitely, text freedom to 305-710-0050. Get the book and while you're reading the book, because it's an ebook, you can book a meeting with us to get a franchise consultation, which is free, um, and let's do this analysis on you and let's figure out what your franchise matches.
Speaker 2:This is all free it's free and it's fun to know honestly if you're just doing it like, just to like. Hey, if I were to get a franchise, which one you know would best suit me. It's, it's fun, it's like doing a quizFeed.
Speaker 1:We are adding so many more cool analysis tools, like we're. Someone came to us looking for a fast food franchise. We did a full analysis on how you could compare a senior care franchise, which is like a 10th of the investment of a fast food franchise, and when you look at the average, you know item 19 revenue compared to McDonald's. It's crazy. So point is is that we have all this data. You guys, jill and I've been doing this for like 20 years combined. We've helped 600 people become franchise owners. We'd love to tell you more about our pinks journey. We can't wait to share more of our future franchise owner rockstar guests with you. Um, and our own personal journey as franchise owners a lot of exciting things in 2025. Any other important?
Speaker 2:No, I think it's going to be a great year and and, like I said, we're really excited to have you guys with us and we love all feedback. So just let us know what you want to hear, what you like, what you don't like. You know, when we bring our guests on, we're doing it for you guys. So if you know, you find anything interesting or you want to see more, just let us know it's all for you guys.
Speaker 1:and, by the way, for those of you wondering, we still have all the christ Christmas trees up. Jill still has all 20 of her trees up.
Speaker 2:They're coming down this weekend Maybe maybe, if there's time this weekend, they will Cause it's just so pretty yeah.
Speaker 1:They're pretty, but it's enough.
Speaker 2:I know I, to be fair, I am kind of over it. We have turned off the holiday music.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, thanks for tuning in. We appreciate you. Thanks for joining us on.