Top 5 Franchise Myths BUSTED! (The TRUTH About Cost, Hours & Freedom)

Thinking about franchising? Don't let these common myths stop you! In this solo episode, Giuseppe Grammatico busts the Top 5 Misconceptions about franchise ownership. We cover the TRUTH behind:

1. It's NOT just fast food!
2. You DON'T need millions!
3. You WON'T work 80 hours a week forever!
4. You GAIN freedom, not lose it!
5. You're building an ASSET, not just buying a job!

Get the clarity you need to move forward with confidence on your franchise journey. Let's talk about your goals!

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Transcript

Giuseppe Grammatico: 0:00

You don't need millions to get started. Control your schedule, control your destiny. You have a lot more control versus being, an employee and then eventually selling it. I put in a lot of hours up front so that all the sweat equity was in that first year, so I can really back off the second year. 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. We're continuing the series of these short solo episodes, really covering some hot topics the questions that we're getting on a daily basis. And the title of today's episode is Top Misconceptions about franchise ownership and the Truths behind them. Really excited to, to dive in. So we're gonna bust some myths, clear confusion, eliminate some false objections early on in the in the journey here. What are the five key areas we're gonna be discussing today? Number one in these misconceptions, and the number one by far. I would say this takes of the top 10, probably the top five is that franchising is only in fast food. And that is a, one of the top misconceptions reason people think of that is and when I first started over 20 years ago, I thought the same was you tend to see the signs on the way to work on the way to and from work, driving around the big signs, the big restaurants and things like that. And, they, there's a ton of'em they've been around for a long time, but that's not necessarily. The right fit for everyone. When I ask people what draws you to fast food aside from the big name is that, is the they say everyone's got to eat. Which is true right there. There's definitely a demand for the product because everyone do does actually have to eat at least two or three times a day. So what type of franchises are there? I mean, there's 4,000 franchises in 70 industries, so that, that should really kind of, kind of show you exactly what's out there. So there's B2B and B2C concepts. There's executive recruitment. There's let's see, what else? Expense reduction. There's senior care and there's medical care and non-medical. There's dog waste removal, mo mobile, pet grooming. You got all your foods. There are actually food franchises that don't even have a kitchen. It's more of a coaching type of franchise, whether food is brought in from from the franchise or from their facilities. There's mobile food, but you don't need a brick and mortar. Using a more of a food truck trailer selling donuts and drinks and things like that. Kind of simplifying the number of staff and inventory and things like that. My gosh the list goes on. Water and smoke mitigation, painting, cleaning haircuts tanning hair nail, all that kind of stuff. So massages. Really there, if you can think of a business, there's a franchise and I always say, you wanna be. Interested in the service the widget, whatever it is. But ultimately you wanna make sure the fits there. Number two, you need millions to get started. That is absolutely false. And that's typically goes back to fast food especially if you're in a single location, non-attached. There's gonna have somebody, you're looking at a seven figure plus potential seven figure plus investment. You get a boutique small fitness franchise haircutting, things like that now in a strip mall that's gonna significantly reduce that that investment. You get into non brick and mortar again, water and smoke mitigation, painting senior care and things like that. Where maybe an office is needed eventually, but not initially. The investments you're looking can, you could be anywhere from a hundred to$200,000. It could be less, could be more. And that's really everything you need to get up and running and train for the first 90 days, all the working capital and things like that. And that'll vary based off of the number of employees that are involved. W2 versus contractor if trucks or vehicles and equipment are needed. And if you're, gonna be hiring a general manager out the gate. For some of these, your an SBA loan will require 20 to 30%. You may need to be putting down, I. 20, 30, 40,$50,000 depending on the franchise, the fees and the investment. You don't need millions to get started. The franchisor on a side note, will have a liquidity and net worth requirement which is different than the actual investment, but there are plenty of funding strategies, including if you qualify retirement, home equity, lines of credit, even a loan on your non-retirement investments, which is kind of cool. We've been getting a lot of calls on, on how that works. More than happy to the, to discuss. All right, number three, I don't want to work 80 hours a week. Listen, it's a business. A Fran, a franchise is not, is giving you the blueprint and the guide for you to run with and follow. The franchisor's not gonna run the business for you. So initially, I. It is a lot of work. There's an investment of money and capital, but there's also sweat equity. There's time that you're investing to learn that franchise find the right employees. Maybe the first hire isn't the right hire, and there's a little bit of turnover. That's okay. That happens in business ownership. Expect it. The time I the way to look at it is more of a mindset shift and looking at it, I'll do whatever it takes to get the business up and running so that all the right systems are in place, that the right people are in place equally as important so that I can manage the manager and not have to be involved full-time. I can manage remotely, meet with a manager via Zoom at a coffee shop once a week or in the office. There are different models out there, semi absentee. We will have you potentially working less, keeping a job, and then there's full-time ownership where you're, essentially running the business at least for the first six months to a year. That's not a bad idea. That's the way I did it. I put in a lot of hours up front so that all the sweat equity was in that first year, so I can really back off the second year. But not everyone has the ability to leave their job the first year, and that's totally fine. So you got some options there. I'll lose my freedom. We'll, I guess what does that even mean? And, there's financial and time freedom are the top two. Again, it's setting the expectation The first year you're not, are you gonna make a ton of money the first year? It's gonna be, that first year you really wanna reinvest the profits back into the business to help it grow so that all the systems are in place so that you can scale back your time. The time freedom, you're gonna be working a lot of hours, at least that first year, or at least the first six months. So let's fast forward the first year. And knowing what you need to get in place, and if you need a general manager, start working day one. What are the roles you'll play in the business? What will they play in the business? Constantly changing'em. I always keep a Google doc that's a live document that we can edit. Sometimes something comes up that no one thought about that, that needs to be added to the list. So you're not losing your freedom. Just the expectation is you're investing time and resources and capital and everything else involved so that you can create this time freedom to do what you want when you want, and have the right teams in place. Even with the franchise, this has not happened overnight. Can it happen? Absolutely. I'm a product of that. I've done that myself. It just takes time. Don't expect it to open the franchise launch and have time freedom. You're, you may be working more money more hours than you were working at your job. Franchisees are just buying a job. I got that question the other day. If you're gonna run the business on your own and hustle if you're the franchise and you're the brand and you're doing, for example, executive coaching or expense reduction, and you're not working with any other franchisees or bringing on any additional coaches you're gonna be doing everything. So if you're not around, if you're off, then you know, work isn't getting done. To an extent, there's gonna be systems in place and depending on what the franchisor is. So the mindset is you're gonna have to build out a small team, and they don't even have to be W2 employees. They could be 10 99 coaches that will get a percentage of sales that, whatever they bring, maybe they, whatever you're netting, you split it 50, 50 or 75, 25, whatever the numbers are. So I don't believe a franchise you are buying a job. And if that's how you feel about it, then maybe that's not the franchise for you. I don't believe in buying a job you're buying. This vehicle, investing in this vehicle that will help you gain back that time and financial freedom make some extra money. Control your schedule, control your destiny. You have a lot more control versus being, an employee and then eventually selling it. We talked about this in actually one of the blogs a while back, but, you, do you wanna sell this for a multiple retire? Do you wanna build a legacy and pass it down to the kids? Hey, these are all options. And, and things can change down the road, and that's okay. You don't have to have it all figured out. But these are things to kind of think about. If you're still unsure there's still some, lacking of some clarity. Let's chat. Let's review your goals. Let's figure out if a franchise is a good fit. Gigi, the franchise guide.com. Book a call. Simple as that. 20 minutes we'll figure out together if a franchise is the right fit. There's zero cost ever. There's no contracts. Could save you a lot of time in headaches. But we definitely we could talk about in a little bit more detail, any of these myth misconceptions or myths that we talk about all the time. Thanks again for joining us. It's been a pleasure. Appreciate all your questions. And we got we got let's see, three more episodes in the series. And again, looking forward to your feedback. So if you have any questions or like me to dive in a little bit deeper, we could d discuss it on our call. You can send me a message, a dm whatever's easier for you. These this really helps me'cause I want to answer and address the questions you have to make this the best experience possible. Thanks again for your support, guys. Talk to you soon. See you.

9:46

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.