Is Franchise Ownership YOUR Path? (Mindset, Risk & Lifestyle Reality Check)

Thinking about franchise ownership? 🤔 

Before you dive into brands, this CRUCIAL solo episode with Giuseppe Grammatico helps you answer: "Is franchising TRULY right for YOU?" 

Explore the essential self-discovery and mindset shifts needed for success. We cover:

• The Entrepreneur vs. Employee Mindset: Are you ready to execute a system?
• Risk Tolerance Check: Investing $100K+ & following rules – can you handle it?
• Aligning with Lifestyle Goals: What does freedom & flexibility really mean to you?
• The Non-Negotiable Support System: Why family buy-in is make or break.
• Demystifying the Discovery Process: What happens on those crucial calls?

This episode lays the FOUNDATION for making an informed franchise decision. Don't skip this vital step on your path to franchise freedom!

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

Take the 3-question "Franchise Fit" quiz on our website!

Check out Giuseppe's book, "Franchise Freedom."

Connect with Franchise Freedom on:
Website: https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/podcast/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppe-grammatico/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GGTheFranchiseGuide
X: https://twitter.com/ggfranchguide
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ggthefranchiseguide/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ggthefranchiseguide
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/franchise-freedom/id1499864638
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/13LTN5UzA57w2dTB4iV0fm

The Franchise Freedom: Discover Your New Path to Freedom Through Franchise Ownership, Book by Giuseppe Grammatico https://ggthefranchiseguide.com/book or purchase directly on Amazon.

Chapters

• 1:05 Entrepreneur vs. Employee Mindset
• 3:10 Risk Tolerance Check
• 5:40 Lifestyle Goals
• 6:45 Support System (Family & Professional)
• 8:30 What Happens on Discovery Calls?

Transcript

giuseppe_1_06-04-2025_150337: 0:00

As an employee, you're basically told what to do as a entrepreneur. Specifically in a franchise, you're giving the guy the blueprint on running a successful business. But it is up to you to execute on that blueprint. Are you comfortable investing a hundred thousand dollars of your own money? And following someone else's process, these are things you have to be okay with. If you're doing this to create time freedom, and then you're not around for the first six months as you're lo launching this business that's gonna cause an issue.​Welcome to the Franchise Freedom Podcast. I'm your host, Giuseppe Grammatico, your franchise guide, the show where we help corporate executives experience time and financial freedom. Thanks for joining us today. Wanted to continue a series of solo episodes. Going back to the basics answering the questions I get on a daily basis, and helping you decide if a franchise may or may not be a good fit as it is not a good fit for everyone. So for today's episode, I wanted to cover the topic of is franchise ownership right for you? Going right at it. Let's just figure this out. For those that are, go to the website, GGtheFranchiseGuide.com And you go to book a call. There is a three question survey that will also help you in further figuring out if a franchise is a good fit. We're really diving into self-discovery mindset laying the foundation before exploring specific brands. As we work in reverse. The brands will come after, but we need that, that that foundation and figuring out the right fit of the brand. And I think that eliminates a lot of the questions. That eliminates a lot of the concerns once the foundation is laid in the very beginning as to. Why do you want the franchise and what that franchise looks like? Kind of five key areas we'll discuss today. So number one is entrepreneur versus employee mindset. As an employee, you're basically told what to do as a entrepreneur. Specifically in a franchise, you're giving the guy the blueprint on running a successful business. But it is up to you to execute execute on that blueprint. It is not gonna be done for you. You really need to figure out, how you're gonna execute that. The mindset's big and the mindset is simply, not, after finding that right fit, it's basically what is it gonna take to make this business successful? And it's number one executing on the plan, executing on the franchise itself and then, hiring the right staff and not giving up. This is a franchise as a business. Setting the right expectations upfront, I think it's gonna be big. It's gonna be a lot of work, it's gonna be a lot of hours regardless of the type of franchise. The franchise is not gonna run it on its own. There, there's none of this passive investment, passive ownership type of franchise you really need to put the hours into to make the business successful. And the mindset changes to, okay not, will I be successful, but I will be successful and what do I have to do to get systems in place and the right people in place so that the systems can roll and I can take more of a hands-off approach or, kind of working on the business. Worse versus in the business. That's definitely a change. Mindset shift too is also, how much money can I make the first year? You're building something. There's tax advantages that you won't get as an employee. There's a resale value of the business. Those all come into play. Where you're, we talked about exit strategies and what that all looks like. Those are some shifts in thinking. But really executing on that. And then what does that the future hold in the business? Whether it mean exit strategy, planning, does it mean adding another territory or zip codes or another complimentary business? These are all things to, to consider. Number two, risk tolerance. Check. Are you comfortable investing a hundred thousand dollars of your own money? And following someone else's process, these are things you have to be okay with. With any business, there's gonna be an investment, whether it's your own money, which eventually it all is. You're taking a loan initially, combination retirement SBA loan, home equity line of credit. But what is your risk tolerance? And I think with the risk tolerance, you're go, goes back to, what is the right franchise? And that goes back to the foundation. Let's make sure that the franchisor offers the level of support.'cause remember, not all franchises are built the same. So they need to offer the level of support that you're gonna be comfortable with. You're gonna hear that from the franchisor, but more importantly, you're gonna hear that directly from your fellow franchisees and the support they're getting, not only when they started, but ongoing. Risk tolerance, everyone gauges things differently. Is the franchise more emerging? Are they newer versus established? Established brands are great, has more of a history. My only challenge with some of the established brands are not area available. Whereas some of the emerging brands are newer, maybe you have less franchisees, less his to speak with, less history to review. But you have, that availability right in your backyard, which is super excited. You could be that pioneer in your state, right in your backyard, where you have existing relationships that you can take advantage of and run with initially. But risk tolerance goes back to, not just the investment, but what can you make in the business. No one's gonna tell you exactly that information. There's no crystal ball. So you're gonna get some information from the franchisor, create a proforma and speak with your fellow franchisees. Figure out on average, okay, we know what the investment's gonna be, but what's my monthly expense via the proforma and what can I make? Per location or per territory. Due diligence is key. Do not skip this section. Definitely spend the time when people say, the fear comes up, it's because either they didn't do the due diligence, in the very beginning or they forgot. It just needs to be brought back up, how do we even get into looking at a business that's in water and smoke restoration? I don't have any experience there. We discussed you don't need experience there. We talked about your role being a mayor of the town and networking with the Chamber of Commerce and your fellow or your local plumbers and things like that. We didn't just pick this randomly or out of a hat. It checked off all the boxes. The industry itself will be taught to you. That's part of the training and onboarding lifestyle We talked about the five freedoms of Dan Sullivan, time and Financial Freedom being the top two. Freedom of location, freedom of purpose, freedom to choose who you get to work with. Lifestyle goals are another one. Lifestyle goals could be am I buying a business that maybe it's mosquito spraying working seven or eight months a year and having the winters off to vacation to cost my second home in Costa Rica. I don't have that. I'm not sure why I went to that, but I know someone I would work with had a home there. It could be, or I'm gonna continue working throughout the entire year and offer holiday lighting in the winter. Lifestyle goals could be, working on the business, getting the general manager. Maybe they're vested or they have some equity in the game, some skin in the game that they can run with. So that you're not. You're working nights and weekends and doing whatever it takes to get the business up and running, what are your priorities? Flexibility. Some people are okay as long as the the hours are Monday to Friday they're okay with any hours because maybe they're doing business with schools and schools close by three or four o'clock off on weekends, holidays, and summers and things like that. Another thing to, to consider support system your internal support system, this is huge. It's one of those where, if you don't have support from the family, it's do not pass. Go Do not collect$200 in Monopoly. I talk about this in my book. You gotta let everyone know why you're doing this. If you're doing this to create time freedom, and then you're not around for the first six months as you're lo launching this business that's gonna cause an issue. If you're married. Whoever's involved in, in, in your relationship or in the household, let everyone know what you're doing. There's gonna be a significant investment, both financially as well as time. You're doing this to create time freedom. You're doing this to not miss the kids' soccer games and tournaments, or the girl scout meetings. The daddy-daughter dances and stuff like that. It is gonna be sacrifice. May not be a vacation that year. Mom or dad may be home less often or they're gonna be home. But spending a lot more time on the business, that's okay. You want buy-in. You need to let everyone know. You don't wanna blindside anyone buy this. You know that support system. Is gonna be huge. And then a another layer to that support system is getting that team in place. Your financial advisor, your CPA, your accountant your attorney. Having a, that team of three to really support you so that every decision going forward, you're looking at the legal aspect, the tax aspect and then the complete financial plan, right? Because there's gonna be this plan of all your money, all your investments, and what percentage is into the, in the business, what is inequities, cash life, whole life insurance, wherever the case may be. That's kind of the second layer in the support system. But you definitely want buy-in in the household what happens on a discovery call. There's no secret here. You're gonna talk three, three things. You're gonna talk to the franchisor in the first couple calls, learn about the brand decide together solidify that, that fit the fits there. Step two or stage two is you're gonna speak with franchisees validation calls. Tell me the good, the bad and everything in between. If there was an issue in the past, did the franchisor listen to you? Did they take your feedback? Did they make the changes as promised? These are things that are part of discovery. So you always start with the franchisor. They'll have different ways for you to speak with franchisees that may be prerecorded calls, especially if you're working during the day. You can listen maybe on your ride home live calls as well as one-on-one calls. You get to speak with franchisees in different positions. Maybe people that just started less than a year, people that have been in the business a decade. And everything in between franchisees that started full-time, franchisees that started part-time, what we call semi-absentee. So that is kind of what happens on discovery. And then finally, third or stages meeting the franchisor either virtually or in person for a discovery or confirmation day. There's a couple names for it. There's actually a third one that'll come to me here in a second. But yeah, the, these are, five things to think about. So let's review'em. Ent, the entrepreneur versus employee mindset, risk tolerance, check, lifestyle goals support system. Is the family on board. What happens at discovery on these discovery calls? If any of this resonated with you, let's jump on a quick call. More than glad to dive in a little bit deeper. I know we went through these kind of fast, but you know, this our calls will be figuring out together if a franchise is a good fit. We'll look at your current situation. What are you trying to accomplish? Maybe everything lines up, but the financials aren't there. The credit score isn't there for funding. We'll take a look at just about everything. So on that first call, we'll figure if there's potential fit, we'll send you out a questionnaire to gather some additional info, and then we'll dive in a second call. It's a 60 minute consultation call. This is a really exciting call because that's where the franchise model is. It is created together. We'll look at what the ideal business looks like and we will gauge all future brands, all future companies based off that model. Thanks again for joining us today. Love to help you in the process. Go to gigi the franchise guide.com. You can book a call. There's a survey on there. There's resources, FAQs, about 250 podcasts are on there. Guest appearances. If there's a specific topic, you could just do a search on the I believe it's the top corner of the screen. And really excited to speaking with you helping you along your journey. And take advantage of the resources. The book Franchise Freedom lays out my exact blueprint process and it's the exact process I used in purchasing my first franchise. Thanks again for joining us guys. And, we'll have some some future solo shows that we're gonna be creating. They're gonna be shorter episodes done intentionally wanna get right to the meat and help you figure out if if a franchise may be a good fit and kind of what to expect along the journey. Take care.

12:13

Thanks for tuning in if you want to learn how to make the transition from corporate to owning your franchise. Join Giuseppe on the next episode. You can also follow on all social media platforms and achieve financial and time freedom today.