The Truth About Franchising- Real Money and Real Risk with Meg Schmitz

Franchising might be the most overlooked path to financial freedom.

This week, we’re joined by Meg Schmitz, a franchise consultant, business owner, and investor who has spent decades helping people build scalable businesses. From owning five Great Clips locations to becoming a single parent with no financial support, Meg shares exactly how she took control of her financial future and never looked back.

Meg opens up about the moment she realized she had to step up as the decision-maker in her business, how she built confidence through hard choices, and why so many women underestimate what they’re capable of.

We also dive into the real truth about franchising. Not the myths. Not the noise. The actual opportunities available and how to approach them strategically.

Inside this episode, we talk about:

 02:00 Building a business after divorce
 12:00 What it really costs to start a franchise
 18:00 Common franchising myths
 22:00 Why more people are turning to franchises
 34:00 How to get started in franchising

Meg reminds us that confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s built through action, decisions, and learning as you go. Join us for next week’s Money Talks “Franchising 101- Understanding this Model as a Business Investment”. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions!  

Follow & connect with Meg:

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• Instagram: @schmitzmeg

Want to take this conversation one step further? Join us for our next Money Talks, a free 30 minute live session where we’ll dig into a question we hear all the time from women business owners: Budgeting for Businesses to Offer Benefits. Click here to register for FREE and bring your questions! 

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Transcript

[00:00:00]

Maggie: All right, mom. Since your family ownaed a seven 11, were you ever maybe I'll own a franchise someday?

Dr. Barb: No.

Maggie: Hard? No

Dr. Barb: and I think that was because it was not work I wanted to do. In my life. So a lot of it was customer service. Of course at that time it was from seven to 11. Now they're 24 hours, and it was 365 days a year. So there was no days off. And my mom would close on Christmas, so we could have Christmas together, but that was only for a short time.

And it was hard work because of the element of it being a customer service base. I could see if it was something more manageable. Running something like air conditioning and heating where, you have your times where you schedule people to go, people who are expert to do that work.

So you're more behind the scenes, more administrative, you're running the business. Whereas when we were in the seven 11, we were really. Roll up your sleeves. You're working in the [00:01:00] business.

Maggie: That's why your dad bought it is 'cause he had all the employees.

Dr. Barb: I know.

Maggie: Were you there at all, like when he bought it or sold it? Were you part of that?

Dr. Barb: I was very young when he bought it. I think it was only like in fourth grade. But it did my mother ran it and we. Worked with our siblings and we had a, I think it taught me a really good work ethic because even when we were in grade school, we all had. Tasks to do and jobs to do.

And we all had we could work a cash register, we could stock shelves and all of that. I worked with my siblings. We have some very funny stories from working there together. We were known throughout the neighborhood as a family business there. I think they did well in the business, but it got to the point where it was just, too much work that, some of the sibs were moving on to college and things like that, and so my mom sold the business.

Maggie: Whenever you guys all get together, there's always new funny stories about the seven 11. Like one of 'em was like [00:02:00] asked a customer if they're gonna pay for the orange that they put in their pocket. Like really just calling them out. Or one, like you guys answered the phone in a goofy way, but it was your mom on the other line.

And she was like, you better not be answering it like that.

Dr. Barb: I know we had some fun there and yeah, as young, children almost grade school, high school and getting into college, we had a lot of responsibility there. And yeah, my brother called out someone who had stuck some fruit in his pocket and an older gentleman that had gone to our store for a long time.

And I looked at my brother like, how could you say that to him? And then the guy pulled the fruit out of his pocket. He did steal it. It was always something.

Maggie: But you were really on like more of the boots on the ground and where I guess, mom and dad typically owned it, operated it. Do you know the books and things like that where you would see the profits?

Dr. Barb: Yes, exactly. But there's it's come a long way. Franchising, I believe. There's so many other opportunities out there that I haven't even thought of, and I was so glad to have Meg on our podcast because she just [00:03:00] showed how she owned so many franchises. I won't say which one it was, but that she didn't have any expertise in the franchise service.

And she was divorced raising a young child and she was running several of them. And the funny thing was is her son didn't even know she was working 'cause she was always there for him, which is pretty amazing.

Maggie: I think there's more places I go that are franchises that like I don't even realize. And so every time we have, we've had a couple different franchising conversations now, and every time I'm like, so in more intrigued and I'm like, maybe this is the phase two of my journey. You know what I mean? It just seems so interesting and it does seem, I don't wanna use the word easier, but like it's nice to walk in with some SOPs in place and having a team behind you who's done this before and knows it's successful and if you do it the right way, so it's just such a fun opportunity. 'cause you're still the boss, which we'd love to be the boss. But you [00:04:00] have a team still there to support you. So I'm excited that we had Meg on today to share more about franchising.

And I would love if any of our audience would write in, if they own a franchise. 'cause I'm curious like. How many franchise owners are out there in our community?

Dr. Barb: Yeah,

Maggie: so should we get started?

Dr. Barb: let's do it.

Maggie: Meg, welcome to Women and Money. The shit we don't talk about. I know we already got talking before we even started this podcast. So much good energy. So before we dive into all of that, can you share a little bit about who you are and the work that you're doing?

Meg: Sure. The nuts and bolts of it is I am now 63. I have been a business owner. For decades, it was my husband at the time went to a franchise expo. I think I was 28. And he invested in a concept called Great Clips. Knew nothing about it, it doesn't really matter, but he's a shiny, sparkly kind of a guy.

And he quit after our first location got open. I'm a terrier and so women and money, I'm a terrier. Do not put my money [00:05:00] on the line. And think that I'm just gonna cower and back off. So that was a, an early lesson for me in needing to lean in and take control. We went from a single location, bought a second one, opened a third one, got divorced.

 No alimony, no child support. Good luck with that. And so I said, okay, that's fine. I'll take 'em. I opened two more. Someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I jumped the fence and went over to the franchise consulting side so that I can help people. And many of them are women who are looking for a diversification strategy.

So women with confidence people who are really looking for that safety net in their financial future. So that's the world that I live in. I am now remarried and my husband and I have I lose count how many businesses that we have. And so I'm an employer, business owner, angel investor pretty involved human being in the world of business.

Dr. Barb: Wait, so how many Great Clips did you have?

Meg: Five.

Maggie: [00:06:00] and do you know anything about hair?

Meg: so beautiful thing about franchising is that they want people, franchise companies want people who can run a business. The role of the owner is more or less to hire the industry expert. And let them run the day-to-day of it. So, I got to five locations and there was an owner in the market who was having trouble finding real estate.

And so he cash on the barrel hu and he made me a seven figure offer and I took it.

Dr. Barb: Wow. So he bought all of them.

Meg: That was 2003. That was 2003. So that was a long time ago. I started the consulting side of things in 2002, so I was a single parent at that point. I have one son who's now 35 and got a lot of great stories about his perspective on he, he's so funny. After he graduated from college, he said, I know this is gonna sound really crazy, mom, but I thought you were just a divorced single stay at home mom

'cause you were there when I got on the bus [00:07:00] and you were there when I got off the bus.

Case in point for owning a business that doesn't suck you in and make you do the work. I had an organization at that point of people who were quite capable and I managed the overview and that allowed me to be a flexible parent to parent my kid.

Maggie: I am like so impressed on so many areas already. First of all, I love that you opened up with your age because I think women just need to share their age and own it more. Like, I did all these things and then no grass is grown under your feet and your son doesn't even know that you're business owner running another business, doing all these things.

You're not like running around frazzled. You're just like, duh, that's it. I've got people working for me. I mean, boss move right there.

Meg: Thank you. It took time to get the confidence and I think, we'll get to that, particularly for your audience. It's not like I fell off the back of a truck and I was born confident. I wasn't at all. In fact, I struggled for a long time with. Anorexia, which is kind of how invisible can I be?

And worked my way out of that one as well. So challenges are really [00:08:00] just there to help us do better.

Maggie: Let's dive into that while we're here. Is like how did you build this confidence? I know it's step by step and it's kind of building blocks, right? It's not like an all or nothing thing. And so what started building this confidence for you?

Meg: Number one, is I grew up in a household that was pretty affluent and and the conversation around money didn't happen easily or naturally. And my mom is funny now, she's, oh, Meg, you talk about money all the time. Yeah, because money is a tool. Money enables us to do so much more. So anyway, how did I start building The confidence was number one, I had to get away from my brother.

He was, he still is a toxic human being. And that formulated a lot of my self-esteem around being a woman being a girl. And so it was after, getting married, I did not marry the right person which a lot of underconfident women fall into that trap of marrying prematurely before they, we really know ourselves.

So what helped me a lot [00:09:00] was owning this business that my ex-husband didn't. embrace the female persona. He didn't embrace the creative side of the business, and so he immediately wanted to back away and I'm territorial. I'm about money. I was not going to. Lose. I was gonna win. So I started to realize just how type a and competitive I can be.

And so once I really leaned into it and started to understand where the problems in the business were that both were kind of like, Hey, it's a franchise. Well, it'll all get sorted out. Hear no evil. See no evil. It'll all work out. But you're an independent business owner. And there are decisions that needed to be made.

And one of the hardest decisions that was really formative for me is we were losing money handover fest and for an extended period of time. Now this goes way back, we didn't have a security system. We, the point of sale software was pretty minuscule at that [00:10:00] point, but I knew that money was missing and as I figured out what was going on, it was my manager and one of my receptionists.

And they were a hundred dollars. A hundred with a drawer would be short by a lot of money. And so I called the police after figuring out who was involved, and the gentleman said, you have two choices. You can let it go or you can do something about it. I said, well, I need to do something about it. He said, all right, I'll send over a squad car.

Like, oh my God, really? And that's when it all became super real that. I own the business, I'm the lead dog. If I don't make a decision, then the inmates are gonna roll the roost and from that day forward it, I pulled on my big girl pants and marched on forward. And so the confidence that comes from something that's scary is something that, [00:11:00] that we all have to understand happens in life and you can avoid it.

My ex-husband wanted to avoid it and I said, no, it needs to be done.

Maggie: You are not a doormat where they're not gonna walk all over you and take your money,

Meg: and if you don't pay attention to it,

if you don't know what your KPIs are, numbers don't lie.

Dr. Barb: Love it. Right? You gotta stand up and it's kind of roles like, this is my role, I'm the owner. I need to make a decision here. I need to take charge. It's gonna be embarrassing and feel awkward and uncomfortable for all of us, but this is the truth. This is what part of being a business owner is.

Meg: And I wanted to be nice.

Dr. Barb: We all wanna be nice and that doesn't get us anywhere.

Maggie: the biggest thing I am trying to learn as a business owner. I'm like, I'm the owner. I can't always be nice and. Let people walk over and it's hard. It's hard.

Meg: And that's the lonely part of being a business owner. It's easier in franchising because you've got a network of other owners who are [00:12:00] waving the same flag. We're all pulling the same rope and so there's a network of people who have a shared experience. But yes, being an entrepreneur is hard.

And I was a keynote speaker for an event about a year and a half ago, and after I came off stage, woman, and I always talk about my age because I think it's important to, own it. And this younger woman came, it was a conference, four female entrepreneurs. So many great experiences and comments that I have to share with you about that experience.

But she came up to me and she said, I don't know how you still, where do you have the energy? I get two or three fires in a day and I'm done. Like, girl, you gotta change your outlook towards fires because you own it and the buck stops with you. And if you're not willing to make the decisions then you can expect that your business will not thrive.

Dr. Barb: Yeah.

Maggie: when did you wanna start making this transition from owning franchises to kind of, consulting and helping other people [00:13:00] get into the franchise space or grow their franchise?

Meg: Yeah. the gentleman who was the vice president of franchise development at Great Clipse he was bringing people to the market. Now I was in Chicago. The organization supported cooperatives in the marketplace, so I was the co-op president. I was on this, that, and the other committee, or started committees.

And so, Jeff Elgin is his name, Jeff was bringing new candidates for Great Clips to me to help interview them and see if they would be an appropriate fit for the franchise. And he more or less tapped me on the shoulder one day. He said, I am outta here. I'm tired of meeting quotas. I'm tired of people fogging up mirrors and writing checks, who then are not appropriate for the business.

I wanna do this the right way. So I'm starting this company called Franchise. It's only gonna be people who have franchise experience. Now, I also have a degree in counseling, so it makes me really even more qualified because this [00:14:00] is the role that I play is like an executive recruiter

Dr. Barb: Yes.

Meg: in the world of franchising.

So I'm not a salesperson. I am, I'm a navigator. And so it was easy for me to say. Fearlessly really fearlessly this role is perfectly suited to me. I can't wait. And he was wise, he said, listen, you're a single parent. Your son is young. Sell your businesses first. and that's an important element too, is when you're ready to mentally get out, you need to prepare your business for sale.

Dr. Barb: Yes,

preach.

Meg: I don't know how long it took for me to really get organized. I ran clean. I was all above board. I didn't have any skeletons in the closet that I had to go back and fix. So it was pretty easy for me to get my books together. I had had the idea in mind for a while that, I didn't have the passion to continue to grow the organization.

So I was in a [00:15:00] way, really ready he got me at the right time where I'd already been thinking about it, about leaving, and then he gave me this opportunity that now I've been with franchise for about 25 years.

Dr. Barb: And you're still doing that today?

Meg: I love it. Yes,

Dr. Barb: So tell me is it just for Great Clips

Meg: no. No, we at franchise, so we have a portfolio of companies kind of like a, a wealth manager.

Dr. Barb: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Meg: We don't represent everybody 'cause there are a lot of bad franchises. There are a lot of great ones who can do it on their own or have the internal mechanisms. So our portfolio of companies is about, it's more than 300 companies right now.

Dr. Barb: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And it's all across the board. It's absolutely not food. I think that's the smallest component proportion of businesses in our portfolio. People n naturally think about that, but

Maggie: That's

like the first ones that come to mind are subway, dunkins, [00:16:00] McDonald's. Yeah.

Dr. Barb: Franchisor.

Meg: They may be, but well, worldwide, they have more locations open, but they do their own development. And kind of an interesting thing that people don't think about is there's a lot of talk right now about I wanna buy revenue. I wanna buy an existing business. Well, you know what everybody does.

Absolutely everybody wants. That's the the Holy Grail. Well, can I do it with a franchise? Like the best way to get to buy me out at Great Clips was for someone internally who is already a franchisee because then on the inside we can, we know what's for sale. We know who's Struggl.

Dr. Barb: right.

Meg: We know who wants to exit, and that's the easiest transaction for a franchisor to approve is to somebody who's already known entity.

So, anyway, long story short franchise represents many, many different industries and very, very few are in the world of food.

Dr. Barb: Got it. So give me a [00:17:00] ballpark of what it costs to purchase a franchise today.

Meg: There's a huge range. And so, I would say if you want, if an individual wants to make real money, six figures not walking around. Money, not these vending machines, they'll give you walking around money.

Dr. Barb: Yeah.

Meg: But they're also very easy to break into and steal from. So, for people who want real money, you're going to invest six figures and it's gonna start with a one.

I've got companies that are easily a couple million dollars in build out, and so you're gonna need to have a lot of money at the, at the top end. But the sweet spot for me is really that half a million and less. For people who then want to scale into multiple locations, multiple trucks, they're not all brick and mortar businesses, like a great clips.

You go to the door, pull it open. You know why they're there, you know why you're there. And they know why you're there is to get a haircut. You don't [00:18:00] take your home to get new windows. They come to you for your roof, for your fence. And so there are a lot of different opportunities in that half a million and under.

So that people can get in at an, and I'm gonna say affordable because people with money wanna make more money. And so it's affordable for them to make a six figure investment. And maybe they're getting a loan, maybe they're using home equity to fund the startup. And so I work really closely with people to figure out what's your end goal and how much money do you want to make so that we can right size the investment.

Dr. Barb: Got it. And so do you work with the SBA? I mean, where

do they get the money from typically?

Meg: There are a lot of different financial levers, and I'm not the expert on that. I have a number of different resources that I refer my candidates to so that the information I'm collecting is really at a very high level. What are your assets? What are your liabilities? What's your credit score? But it when it comes to borrowing the money, [00:19:00] usually my people have already been through.

I would say the front half of their research and have an idea then money in, money out. What does that scalability look like? Okay, well then what's your personal net worth and how much can be leveraged? So I've got funding companies that will walk them through what their real strategies are and how to stack those strategies so that they get the most value for their net worth.

Dr. Barb: Got it.

Maggie: I saw a post recently about how do you re-channel debt, debt being bad and things like that. And debt helps you become rich. The richest people carry debt. And I think this is just such a great example of how debt can be helpful in the long term when you know your goals. And I just kind of wanted to highlight that as debt has such a bad wrap, this is something I'm trying to wrap my head around too, is like the richest people carry debt. Like debt free can't be the goal.

And I just think this is a great example.

Meg: Yeah. I'm so glad you brought it up, Maggie, because that was a learning lesson for [00:20:00] me. I grew up in a conservative household. My financial upbringing. Was absolutely risk averse, and I had that mentality, that debt was bad. Well, let's face it, if you're gonna buy a car or you're going to buy a home, probably you're going to get a loan that's debt.

Well, what people don't recognize, realize is that particularly in business. That debt gives you tax advantages that save you and I'm, I am not avoiding taxes, but why pay more taxes when there are legitimate strategies that keep more money in your business and in your personal account. And so as Pete, my husband and I have been growing.

 Our own organization. Absolutely. Debt and case in point, and it's so counterintuitive for people, but our entire 2024 tax bill was eradicated because one of our businesses was losing money [00:21:00] and it wasn't losing money so much as it was a brand new business. It just hadn't taken off yet. So that was a direct write off we, and that would've been a pretty significant tax bill in 2024, completely gone.

Because we had business debt that offset our personal finances.

Maggie: Yeah, I love it. It's a great example of just, you need that and it, it does help you grow. And so what's one of like the biggest myths people believe about franchising that you kind of wanna demystify.

Meg: There are a lot of words that we use that are really very subjective. But some of the biggest ones in franchising is that it's gonna cost me a million bucks. It's food, but it's gonna be a business that's high turnover and a pain in the rear.

Well, no, that, that's why I want people to work with me, because then I can eradicate some of those common misperceptions and they're rampant out there. So the role that I have is really a lot of educating [00:22:00] people about what you believe is true is probably not true, but let's get to the fact.

 Of the matter. Go ahead and ask anything that you think, you believe, and let's get to the bottom of it so that you can put those concerns aside. Yes, there, there are bad franchises. Yes, there are people who lose a lot of money, but if you go about it wisely and properly invest your money, you're far more likely to make a lot more of it than to lose a lot of it.

Maggie: And that's why it's so great to have those people on your team, like you who've done it before, who know what to look for. I mean, it's like investing. You could DIY it and see how well it goes. And I'm not saying it's gonna go bad, it might go great. You never know you don't know what you don't know though.

And so if you have someone like Meg in your corner. Someone who's had a franchise, it's like, ah I should ask this. I should know about this. This is something that I should really look at every month. I mean, those are things 'cause you don't know what you don't know, especially in this new venture.

Meg: Yeah, owning a business. Well, as you know, being an entrepreneur, [00:23:00] being a solopreneur is super hard and. Bless our family and friends, but a lot of them are black cloud, sky is falling. Oh my God. And what they're doing is foisting their fears. They're afraid for you. Well, the beautiful thing about being part of a franchise is there are a whole lot of other people out there doing exactly the same thing.

And If you surround yourself with the people who've been successful, learn from their stumbles and falls, we're all so willing to help The next guy, the next gal. Not make the same mistakes that we have. And so we're, I'm seeing a lot of early success, much, much faster than say my own great clips way back when.

Yep. There are a lot of individuals who are getting into business and they're becoming cash flow positive much faster because franchises have gotten a lot smarter.

Dr. Barb: Yeah.

Maggie: Do you find that more people are looking at franchises right now and [00:24:00] that popularity of like purchasing franchises is growing? Yeah. So why do you think, why do you think this is I felt like, and this is totally talking outta my butt, but like I felt like this was like an early two thousands, like was a big franchise thing.

But it's still really growing this whole opportunity.

Some reason I like thought it was like this early 2000 surge of like franchising, but maybe that was just like when Subway was coming up everywhere.

Meg: It has been year over year, 2020. Of course, everything got set as skew and people were afraid. Just like nine 11 people were afraid, and then we started to come out of it. 2021 at FranChoice was a. Our best year ever. And so the company was founded in the year 2000, so our 21st year Best year ever. 2022.

Best year ever. 2023. Best year ever. And yes, so year over year. And the reasons there, there are a number of reasons for that. One is that [00:25:00] our consultant base. Still is primarily people who come from the world of franchising. We understand the jargon. We understand implementation execution, following the secret sauce.

So our consultant base, like me were smarter and better when it comes to franchise companies. We lost no companies from our portfolio in the pandemic. None of 'em rolled up and blew away and went out of our portfolio. They. They doubled down for technology. They doubled down for everything that we were all talking about back then, the personal protective equipment and sanitation and touchless.

The Implementation more and more of artificial intelligence. It's never gonna replace a human. I don't know if you know Mike Rowe and Dirty Jobs. If you've got a toilet and it's overflowing, artificial intelligence is never gonna wipe that out. And so year over year, and when I say it's the best year [00:26:00] ever, it's the number of placements that we have had as a company.

 So year over year, we have more placements at franchise than all the other consultant or broker groups put together.

Where this is really coming from is number one, accessibility to real information. If people were to follow me on LinkedIn I'm not a salesperson, I put information out there about w to be invested.

And so we've all sorts of of people. Coming out of corporate America, we love a good churn because there are people who don't want to go back. They don't like that. And then we've also got people who are very comfortable and happy, productive in their career, but they're looking, maybe they're, they've hit a comfort zone and they want another challenge.

This is a diversification strategy. The stock market and investing your money is very passive. [00:27:00] This is a great way, for example, for people who are in their fifties, sixties, seventies even. I'm working with people that, of that generation who have gas in the tank and they're not done yet. They would like to do something that feels good and it contributes to their community, but they can monetize it.

So where all this interest is coming from is people who are looking for additional revenue streams.

Dr. Barb: So give us a couple of popular franchises that people are looking at

Meg: And we didn't even tee this up when I'm doing my webinars, one of the FAQs is Mag, what's hot? What is hot and franchising right now? I, where should I put my money? I wanna be first in, okay, health, fitness, wellness, beauty. We all know during the pandemic that kids, pets and parents got a lot of money thrown at 'em for an entertainment, education and enrichment.

Okay. Then their home services, if it's coming in your roof, if it's coming in your basement, if it's fire, smoke, [00:28:00] whatever it might be. So home and business services, and then at the very tail end of it is what I would call experiential retail

has become a catchphrase. If people are going out on a date, they wanna go out and do a girl's night out, whether it's a meal or an activity.

could be art class, it could be I would even put something like a a I was gonna say Chipotle where you go in, you see the food being prepared you,

so some of it is food, but experiential, like kids and trampoline parks and dog parks.

Dr. Barb: Dog parks. That's what I wanna open a dog park with a bar. Right Maggie? Like they have in KC

Meg: Yeah. People. Don't wanna go where it's stale and boring. They wanna go where they're, it's an experience.

Dr. Barb: Yeah.

That's really great.

Maggie: And so are you seeing a lot of these franchise owners be women? Are you seeing a lot more women in this space? [00:29:00] I wish people could hear your facial expressions. 'cause they're so good when I ask these questions, but I know the audio does not pick it up.

Meg: I had been amazed a number of years ago when I, so I started in the Chicago area and then as I've been with franchise for such a long time, we're not territory bound so I can work with anybody anywhere in the United States. And so I was finding that there are certain pockets of the country where women are leading the decision on this investment.

And it's not just single women, but it's female head of household. Milwaukee was my first eyeopener to how many women were really attracted to franchising because if you think about who does well in franchising, people who like to cook or bake 'cause they're following a recipe.

People who played on a sports team, 'cause everybody's got their role. Everybody knows their place on the field, and we all know what the win looks like.

People who are in the military, it's the same thing. There is a battle plan [00:30:00] and there's an outcome, and we will leave. No man, we'll leave no person behind.

So it anybody who has played, say an instrument and had to do a concert, so you've been training and practicing and your ultimate goal is to get up there and do your recital. and a lot of those are women.

Maggie: Yeah, it's fun to see how applicable that is. 'cause I can see somebody who's like, oh, I've been a a musician my whole life. Like I probably shouldn't own a franchise. It's like, no, you could fit right in. 'cause so many of those things are applicable and I think. We limit ourselves so much about that, and again, much easier said than done, right?

 But we limit ourselves like, oh, well I've been a stay at home parent. Great. You've been running a household, you've been running the boat, you've been getting everywhere on time. You've been cooking and cleaning and doing all the things. You know how to get it done while still managing the PTO board.

Dr. Barb: I know, right? She's pretty good.

Meg: This is exactly correct. People will, and it's men as well, but women [00:31:00] as we know, will diminish themselves and it's, if I could, if I could get rid of that word, imposter. It drives me. You can tell from my facial expression, my reaction. It drives me nuts because we all are, we were born into this world knowing nothing, and we all got taken home by two people or maybe one who said, I've never done this before.

That baby doesn't know any different.

call yourself an imposter. But this is what we all do. We all learn how to ride a bike. We all learn how to swim. We've all done things.

Dr. Barb: that whole imposter syndrome, I think is a theory that's made up and put on us to make us feel less than because it's just, it's not true. We don't have imposter syndrome. Everybody has a little fear, a little anxiety trying something new. So do men. Men and women. But we try it, right?

Like you said, you have a baby. No one's ever prepared for that. God knows I wasn't. [00:32:00] But look. she's bed and watered and she grew up and she's good. But you know, exactly, I think that whole imposter syndrome is just a bunch of bull that was made up to put on women. It's the same thing.

And I've read this article and saw speaker on imposter phase. They used to say when women gave bicycle face, because. When women started riding bicycles, which gave them so much more freedom, they would so say you, you shouldn't ride that bicycle.

'cause it gives you bicycle face, which is kind of like wrinkled or squinted or something like that. That doesn't make you look good. It's the same thing. It just, they're putting labels on us that just are not true. So when people say that about imposter syndrome, I say, Hmm, that's not true.

Meg: One of my earliest recollections about riding a bike, yes, I fell, didn't work the first time, but once I got going, you could not get that smile off my face. So bicycle face should really be, Hey, look what I've done.

[00:33:00] Which is exactly what we're doing the first time you follow a recipe and it pull it out of the oven or off the stove and it tastes good.

Well, congratulations. You followed a recipe. You didn't have to make it up from scratch. And that I could think one of the myths going back to an earlier question that irritates me, is how many people think that owning a franchise is cheating in business.

Cheating. There are whole segments of people out there who will not look at a franchise because somehow they fell under the spell of You are a real business owner if you start it from scratch.

Well, you know how many people have bad business idea? My husband and I do a lot of angel investing. There are a lot of great ideas and bad operators,

Mm-hmm. and so if you want success. Then let's get over that whole notion that it's cheating. 'cause I'll tell you what, when my parents had that opinion as well.

Oh, Maggie. Oh, Maggie Craig Clips is a [00:34:00] chop shop. You're worth more than that. Don't you have your own business idea? You graduated from Northwestern, come on. And I had this real heart to heart with parents one day. 'Cause I was a single parent and my dad said, honey, you really should be going back to get your MBA you.

You're worth so much more than this. And I said, well Dad, how much do you think I'm worth? Well, six figures, you ought be making at least six figures. I said, well, I am with Great Clips And I did it never cutting hair. I did it by executing a system and being excellent at it.

And so when my dad and I drilled down even further into that, and this is, this had to have been in the. Nineties, probably the late nineties. Sure. 'cause I was divorced at that point, so it would've been like 19 98, 99, somewhere in there. And I said, dad, I am making six figures. What if I told you that my take home right now plus owner [00:35:00] benefit my car?

All of my write-offs, again, learning of the tax strategies. I was at more than two 50. And he looked at me with bright eyed just disbelief that with a chop shop haircut, I could be making that kind of money. And so he immediately he was foisting his fears on me. I should be accomplishing more.

So my, my experience with this franchise has essentially given me, and I did go and take some MBA classes. I was acing everything because I learned it boots on

Dr. Barb: The real way. Yes.

Maggie: It was, in theory it was real p and ls,

Meg: It's really fun when people who are naysayers bring those beliefs and instill them on me, and I can say, you've gotta completely wrong.

Maggie: yeah.

And I can see a dad just being like, well, I just wanna make sure you're taken care of. You're a single parent. Like, I don't wanna [00:36:00] have to support you. Like different I can see their own fears, but you're like, I'm two 50 in the early nineties. That's, that's good money. I mean, it's still good money today, but not as much as it was in the nineties.

Dr. Barb: Yeah,

Meg: Yeah, well, and so a lot of that was not my salary, it wasn't the distributions. It was also, because I had borrowed from, I'm a big believer and bet on myself, and so I was not afraid to take out a home equity line of credit or borrow against my retirement fund. I'm in my thirties, I'm in my forties.

I'm a heck of a long way from that. So why not take that money and invest it in my business? And so there's a way to take the money, put it into your business, and then you're creating a self-directed IRA to get it back out again. And I was taking the maximum amount. Something like $53,000 a year outta my business to put back into a retirement account.

So there are people who say, oh, I don't want, I'm afraid of losing my retirement. I'm afraid of losing my house. Well, if we do it the right way and you're invested in the right [00:37:00] business, you're gonna come out on the other side with a lot of tax benefits as well as, so it, I wanna be clear for anyone who's listening, I wasn't just taking two 50 out of the business, but it was the equivalent of salary distribution and then.

Some of the things that people don't even think about, they are running through their business. Any good tax advisor will tell you what you legitimately can run through your business.

Maggie: And that's kind of the point, right? It's not about bringing all the money home, it's about filling these buckets. So if I don't have to pay my car bill, if the car's just kind of written off, sure, I don't need the cash. You know, like the car's taken care of. I don't need the money to come outta my paycheck into retirement if it's going straight there, sure it doesn't matter.

You know, all the buckets are still getting filled at the end of the day. if someone's curious about franchising, what's the first question they should ask before jumping in, or one of the top questions?

Meg: Meg, can I work with you?

Maggie: Great answer,

Dr. Barb: Amen.

Meg: And so. I've been doing this for a long time because it's not physical, it's mental, I'm gonna [00:38:00] keep doing it because it brings me joy. I love, okay, so my background my mother is a hospice nurse, and so death and dying is the scariest thing that any of us confront. And so. I took that from my mother.

She used to do public speaking and hold up her palms and say, from lily pad to Lily pad from life to death. Well, I hold up my palms and say to people, what if you could take a leap from where you are onto this other lily pad and you're gonna stick the landing? You're gonna be that frog that lands on that lily pad.

You're not gonna fall in the water. You're not gonna get eaten by the shark or the bass or whatever else is down there. Let me help you evaluate this in the end. I don't care if your answer is yes or no. I just want you to have the curiosity to say, yeah I wonder what it would be like to own my own business.

I'm not sure if I'm qualified or ready. Great, let's have a conversation about that. And then when you are qualified and ready, you'll have the facts to know.

So don't do it [00:39:00] alone. It's, it's really hard to do it alone.

Dr. Barb: Yeah, for sure. I love this conversation. I just think it opens up a whole new world of opportunity that some women may not even be thinking about. We did have a young woman on here who started, who bought a franchise and it was in heating and air conditioning. Something she knew nothing about, but like you described, she wanted to get out of corporate, of working hard for somebody else and really build her own business up.

And so we support her and promote her all the time because we want to support women owned, women led businesses. This is another opportunity for women to really step into their own power, learn from you Meg, and see that they can run their own. Real life, real business in a way that's repeatable processes.

It's been they have, they've shown success. That's why there's so many of them out there, whether it be a Great clips or any anything else. And I think [00:40:00] this would be a great opportunity for so many women to really take a look at.

Meg: And the other element that is. Rewarding for me is that I've been divorced. I've been through I've stumbled and fallen people. I think, look at successful people and think that somehow we were born with it. I can relate to any fear that anybody is going to bring. I've been there and I've done it.

If people had any idea, some of the risks that I then got ballsy enough to take that I did not win, I did not win at every decision. A solid resource for people who have fear and concern, because chances are I've had that stumble and fall. But if you're willing to get back up again and say, all right, well that was a learning experience, didn't kill me.

Let's go on.

One of my military friends said to me his philosophy is, you know what, Meg, you can quit, but not until tomorrow.

Maggie: That's a great [00:41:00] one.

Meg: And that's one of those things that's in the back of my mind every day is okay. That was hard. Well, tomorrow will probably be easier and it'll for sure be different.

Maggie: If I got over that, I can get over anything else. Right.

And so there is a question, Meg, we like to ask all of our guests and so, what does financial freedom mean to you?

Meg: Oh gosh. Options,

financial freedom gives me the option to take risks, start more businesses, give more employees opportunity to work for somebody who's gonna create a great culture. Yeah, financial freedom came at a price. Just like living in the United States comes with a price freedom is not free.

Free. to me and to my husband as well, we keep creating because it, that financial freedom gives us options.

Maggie: Yeah. I love it. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise and being such a great resource for people who are interested in franchises. 'cause I think [00:42:00] this is a great opportunity. It's exciting to see that it's growing and I honestly still can't get over that. Your son didn't even think you worked. What great time management, like, I'm still stuck there. So thank you Meg, for coming on and just being the amazing resource that you are.

Meg: Thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to this for some time. And Barb, your episode on my podcast is coming up, so it's super fun to have the different formats and different points of view, so I really appreciated being invited on, so thank you.

Maggie: until next time, be financially fearless.

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