Hustle & Flow

Navigating the Challenges of Starting Up A Business

• Brad and Tiffany Franks • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Ever wondered what it takes to turn a small business idea into a thriving enterprise? Join us, Brad and Tiffany, as we pull back the curtain on our entrepreneurial journeys filled with both spectacular failures and surprising successes. From Tiffany's first venture at the age of 21 to the unexpected triumph of our Dessert Cafe, we open up about the importance of long-term planning and share hard-earned lessons that every aspiring entrepreneur should know.

Think you’ve got the next big business idea? Hold your horses! This episode is packed with essential tips on receiving honest feedback and understanding market demand. Through personal stories of our decision against opening different businesses and the hidden costs of items such as code compliance, we emphasize the critical need for thorough planning. Plus, we dive into the often-overlooked expenses that can make or break your startup, from permits, electrical, plumbing to ADA accessibility.

But that’s not all. With nearly 20 years of real estate experience, we offer a tips on negotiating commercial leases. We break down the financial complexities, such as triple net leases and CAM fees, and underscore the importance of professional advice. Then, we shift gears to focus on running a successful small business, covering everything from strategic pricing to the reality of long hours and the necessity of hiring. We wrap up with a heartfelt message on motivation and gratitude, urging you to surround yourself with like-minded individuals and appreciate every step of your entrepreneurial journey. Tune in and transform your business dreams into reality!

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Brad Franks:

Hey, good morning. Good morning, this is Brad, and I'm with my wife, tiffany. We are the authors of the Hustle and Flow podcast. We are excited that you're with us this morning and listening to us. Hey, listen, we've got some great information. This morning. We're going to talk about starting a small business, or maybe helping your fledgling small business along, and we have some experience in that area, so we're going to talk about that this morning. Good morning, tiffany.

Tiffany Franks:

Good morning.

Brad Franks:

How's things your way?

Tiffany Franks:

Things are good.

Brad Franks:

Anything new.

Tiffany Franks:

No, it's hot outside. Is that like Nellie, take off all your clothes? No, okay, all right, you know I don't know what age. I started watching the weather pretty much every day, but I'm at that age, and so I know what temperature is supposed to be every day. This week, I think Sunday's going to hit around 100. And so it's also my duty to go through the house and periodically tell you what degrees our thermostat is on, and so you're a great weather reporter.

Brad Franks:

I don't care, like I never look at it, but I can count on you at least 10 times a day to tell me it's hot. Do you know what our thermostat is on? And I commence to tell you hey look, it's hot outside. It's only going to get to a certain degrees in your house based on AC. Guys telling me that your AC is only going to function to a certain level based on what it is outside, and I don't know what else to tell you except it's going to be hot.

Tiffany Franks:

And so I'll keep telling you that it's not cool.

Brad Franks:

You definitely do that, for sure, you definitely do that, but we've had a really good weekend and I just was able to enjoy some time together. Our days are weird. Right now, I don't know, it's like Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, I don't know what day it is, and 4th of July fell on Thursday. That was strange.

Tiffany Franks:

It shouldn't be allowed to happen that way. It should be like there's certain holidays, it should be certain days and that should be on a specified day. Yeah, like the like. The first Friday of every July is 4th of July now, but we're not going to call it 4th of July. We're going to call it 1st Friday of every July is 4th of July now, but we're not going to call it 4th of July, we're going to call it 1st Friday of July.

Brad Franks:

Yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out. So we're going to have July the 4th. It's actually going to be on July the 10th, but it's going to be July the 4th. I think that would make sense to everybody. Maybe I don't know that it makes sense to me, but anyway, hey, listen, thank you so much for listening. This morning we want to hop in and we want to talk this morning about starting a small business and I listen, that's something we have a little experience in. You want to, you want to jump in and just talk about, maybe, our business background and some of the things that we have done good and bad. But you can just talk about anything.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah, well, I mean, I actually started my first business at, I think, 21 years old, if that's correct that is correct.

Tiffany Franks:

And you know, one of the first things that we'll say today is to have a plan. I did not have a plan for my first business. So, while a plan is very important, can you, if you've already started a business and you didn't have a plan, can you make it? Yes, my business went well and the volume was there and I had customers. But why that first business did not work out is, I do believe, because I didn't have a plan. So it started and it functioned OK and I had customers without a plan.

Tiffany Franks:

But my longevity there was no longevity with that business because I didn't have a plan. I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't foresee what would happen on the days where, if my kids were little, so if my kids were sick, how I would open, you know, restocking inventory. Once I sold all the first inventory, I actually took on a business partner for that first one. That ended disastrous. We're still not friends with those people. It worked out terribly. So not having a plan, I do believe, caused that business that could have been successful to fail. So I would like to say that we've learned some things along the way in starting businesses, because we've started a good many now.

Brad Franks:

We have. What was the name of your first business, tiffany's, not the strip club. Let me clarify. Okay, it was a formal wear and tuxedo place, so we serviced.

Tiffany Franks:

Knowing that Tiffany's is the name of a strip club that used to be in Memphis really dates us, because if there's anybody listening, that's 30, they're going to have zero clue what you're talking about.

Brad Franks:

It's kind of the pink pony.

Brad Franks:

It was Not that you know what that is and you better not know what that is. Okay, stay at home with your wife, but yeah. So again, yeah, we have some experience in that area. Our first business was Tiffany's formal wear and, you're right, it had a chance to succeed and we did have some success, but we didn't have a real good plan. Right, what are the businesses? Let's talk about what other businesses we've had, because everybody knows us for one business right now, right, but let's talk about some things that didn't make it.

Tiffany Franks:

I'm trying to think what comes to mind.

Brad Franks:

We had a mortgage company.

Tiffany Franks:

Oh, we did have a mortgage company yeah.

Brad Franks:

Didn't make it.

Tiffany Franks:

That did not make it. And I owned the snow cone stands for a while. Those could have made it. They had a plan. I bought them from somebody else. The plan was in place. It's just I didn't think through like my future, with those of like whether I really wanted to own snow cone stands every day Right, and I found out I didn't. Right, snow cone stands every day and I found out I didn't. So we sold those and maybe to somebody that decided they did want done snow cone stands every day.

Brad Franks:

Well, and we we had a food truck that we were going to, or we were retrofitting, or whatever. Um, didn't wait, didn't it? Didn't manifest?

Tiffany Franks:

uh, because I'm going to be honest with you, because you didn't that didn't manifest. Because, despite my plans and my intentions, you didn't want it to manifest.

Brad Franks:

I did not. I did not Because her dream listen like Tiffany's a gypsy. I mean like the song Gypsy by Stevie Nicks. That's her man, she's gypsy living, she loves it. She would be the type of person to like want to go set up at festivals on the weekend and sell snow cones and everything in a food truck. That's hot, and I'm like I don't want to do that. So we sold the food truck. We also had a gym. Yes, not real profitable Gyms are not real profitable for the most part, and so we've had some things that didn't work. Yeah, but we did have one that didn't work. Yeah, but we did have one that has worked for 10 years. And you know, let's just introduce that for a second and talk about that. I know we've talked about it a little bit, but you know name of our business and tell a little bit about what that is.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah. So Crave it's's dessert cafe and coffee uh, started out pretty much heavy on the dessert cafe part, being only open three nights on the weekend, and it morphed into other locations and serving and also heavy on the coffee and becoming a daytime business as well that sells more than just the big heavy desserts. And then that that now also has morphed into a catering company, because we were catering so many breakfasts and then lunches, and so now we're catering, you know, weddings, lunches, lots of breakfasts, corporation-wise, like medical offices, all that kind of stuff, and so that has worked and I feel like we went into that with a much better plan.

Brad Franks:

Right, yeah, and that's what we're just kind of really just setting the base for is to have a plan. I read this that ideas are cheap but execution is expensive. Right, ideas come, they're a mile a minute, and I know that that's some kind of saying. But all you got to do is get on Pinterest, all you got to do is get on Instagram or TikTok, and there's ideas everywhere. But most people have an idea, but they have no plan on how to put that in practice. So what do you think? How do you move from? Because you have a lot of ideas I have.

Tiffany Franks:

We've established that so many ideas? Yeah, from because you have a lot of ideas. I have. We've established so many ideas. Yeah, I think you know, for me being what is it called serial entrepreneur, entrepreneur, whatever um, I think for me what helps me is being grounded to somebody that says, okay, we're not, we don't need another idea, that that is going to cost us time but make no money, that's going to take our money but also not make money.

Tiffany Franks:

And so I've had to learn how to, okay, write out a plan for the things that we're going to talk about, what it really looks like, not what opening getting past, what opening day looks like and what you know the cute part of it it's so easy to get excited about. Part of it it's so easy to get excited about. And that's me Sometimes. That's why my ideas fall flat on the ground, because I can get real excited about them and think they look real cute and it's going to be so fun. But when I start putting into practice what it requires of me, what it requires of my finances and the true profitability, I'm like, ok, never mind, never mind.

Brad Franks:

Never mind, because every idea is not a multimillion dollar idea, right. Sometimes ideas are just ideas and they don't work and, in practicum, they're not going to manifest or they're not going to be sound business ideas, right. And so you have to thoroughly and this is one of the things we were talking about you've got to thoroughly exhaust your idea. Like we've seen it time and time again, people get excited, they get an idea and they've got $2,000, and they're going in business. Next week they found a place to rent for $500, and the landlord was nice and he was kind and boom, they're in business, but they've not thoroughly exhausted the idea and really worked through it all the steps, because that's not fun. And you always call me the I don't know if this is the right term, but I'm the dream killer.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah, you're the dream killer. That's where my dreams come to die. The feet of Brad, the feet of Brad. And when we say some of this, it's not from a standpoint of we know everything. What we do know is we have done a lot of things that didn't work. And then the other half of that is, you know, I talk to Dennis that is the business editor for the Daily Journal a lot and we'll talk about it Donut boy.

Brad Franks:

Yeah, Dennis Seed the donut boy.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah, I have no idea why you're claiming that.

Brad Franks:

He does.

Tiffany Franks:

You know, we'll talk about things and I'll tell him. He'll tell me he's heard of business coming or whatever, and I'll just tell him oh my gosh, some of that doesn't sound like a good idea. Because in this day and in this economy, I worry for other business owners if they haven't thought things out and if they don't have a good plan out. And if they don't have a good plan, or if you know and I've said this before, it's not my business, but that doesn't mean that I'm not. You know that I that I don't. I want the best for everybody. I want them to make it, I want them to succeed, I want their hopes and dreams to come true if they desire to be a business owner. And so you know. So, while we're talking about this, it's not because we know everything, it's just like. Just, you know, we want everybody to think some of these things through.

Brad Franks:

If they haven't, Absolutely Thoroughly exhaust your idea. And what does that look like? Well, we bounce your ideas off of people, yeah, ok, and say look, what do you think about this idea? When we started Crave the Zerk place, we have friends, chris and Amy Hussey, and they've been friends for a long time. We have mutual interest, they do a lot of the things that we do, and so we said, hey, what do you think about this dessert cafe idea? We were sitting at Ichiban and I remember they said that's a great idea and we trusted them because we know that they have some experience, maybe traveling or things like that, where they're even locally connected to where they would give you good feedback. You don't need and here's the thing I don't think you need, yes, men, no, you don't need mama giving you. Oh my God, baby, start it.

Tiffany Franks:

Well, you know, on that same token, whenever I was asking Chris about a location what do you think about this other business I'm going to open in this location he said that's absolutely terrible, and he gave me something else to think about that I had not thought about. And he was absolutely right. That location for the next thing I was doing or something I was going to do recently, would have been absolutely terrible. And so I do believe you need to find the people that will tell you the truth and tell you you know what.

Tiffany Franks:

I think the market's already too saturated with that idea. Or I think you haven't thought it through, or I don't think you're going to make what you think you're going to make, or I just think that location's terrible. I think you're getting into a bad deal. You need people that'll tell you that you do Absolutely More than and then more than people to like hurt you and don't want or just haters and don't want you to make it, or they're not trying to kill your vibe, they're not just jealous, they they're trying to help you not go into danger?

Brad Franks:

Yeah, absolutely, I remember, because we were. I remember we talked to Chris one time. We said, hey, we're House of Mac. If you've ever been to, the House of Mac in Miami is fantastic. And so we said, hey, we might could bring some. That's a dumb idea. And I don't know if he said those exact words, but in essence he said that's a dumb idea and I don't think it's going to work. And so you know what we did. We didn't open no mac and cheese place in Tupelo, but I think it does go back to. You've got to really exhaust it and you've got to bounce ideas off of other people, because you were telling me about a business.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah, I saw and not to be too specific, but I saw somebody that has opened a um, a new business, cleaning duct work, and I thought that's great, that's cool. I've actually paid for that before. It's very, very expensive. But they were, they were talking about it being tough and they need business and they've put all their you know, made that, they've put savings into this and whatever. And I thought, man, somebody should have told you or I wish you know, I hope that you asked somebody about this because in this economy, disposable income is at a premium and everybody doesn't have $800 to clean their duct work. That's right. And so I thought, automatically, when I was reading this post, I was thinking, man, you should have put your savings into you know something else.

Tiffany Franks:

Food's usually sustainable. I mean everybody, you know everybody's going to get a hamburger, french fries, open. But that money, if you opened that with 20 grand, 20 grand would have bought you a food truck to go set up. And I know people are going to you know, come to you. That's awful work and hard work sometimes Not awful work. I would want a food truck, but you know that's body and just think about like, okay, are people going to do this, and I think the real question for now also is in this economy, because we don't know when it changes. Are people going to pay for my product or my good or my service?

Brad Franks:

Absolutely, and I think that that goes back to. You have to be realistic, and business owners are notorious sometimes for not being realistic.

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah.

Brad Franks:

And that's why you have to have good people to bounce that off. What does it really look like? What's the overall concept? What are you really trying to put out? Because, like you said and it was so impactful when you told we were talking about that last night is that disposable income is set as such a premium right now. You better make sure that people are coming to you. You better make sure that you're not a me too business. In our small micropolitan town we are known for chicken, mexican coffee and car washes, so I've never understood the economy of chicken in Tupelo Mississippi. It is incredible how many chicken places we have.

Tiffany Franks:

However, even with that, you know, we'll talk about. You know, know your competition, you know. However, with that, there's chicken everywhere, you know, so I won't touch too much on that.

Brad Franks:

There's chicken, there chicken, anyway. So I think it comes back to you. Know you need to decide what it too much on your chicken, their chicken anyway. So I think it comes back to you. Know you need to decide what it really costs to open your business. Um, it's not just having a little money, there's some real cost involved. What does those costs look like?

Tiffany Franks:

well, I think some of those costs, can you know, that you don't even think about. Like most cities, you have to have the fire marshal has to come in and say, okay, your place is good. The city inspector has to come in and say, okay, your place is good. But usually what they're going to tell you, very subtle, they're just going to say it's good. They're going to tell you all these things that you need to do to bring it up to code, to fire code and to fire code. Same thing with Citi. Sometimes it may have been grandfathered in under them but it's not grandfathered in under you. You may need to make it ADA accessible. That is very expensive. There are certain things like that that you just don't think about.

Tiffany Franks:

Permit prices If you're doing food health department health department has gone up drastically even in the 10 years that I've been in food business the permits and the re, the re-inspection rates, all those things. Signage you know signs are expensive. Now they're not cheap. Electrical to do what you want to do, plumbing to do what you want to do Now they're not cheap. Electrical to do what you want to do, plumbing to do what you want to do. Those are the not fun cost. So if you spend all your money on cute chairs and cute desk or cute you know, all the, all the things that that the eye is going to see, you better make sure you have some money left over for the more expensive part usually is the part that the eye can't see.

Brad Franks:

And that's the part that matters, yeah. First, and we've seen it time and time again Small business owners get stoked and get excited and they're at I'm just using this as funny, but they're at Ikea or they get on Amazon and they're finding the cute chairs and the cute tables. And I've got pink things on the table. Oh my God, look at what I bought and look at these little plates and look at these little and things on the table. Oh my God, look at what I bought and look at these little plates and look at these little. And then the plumber says, hey, I need you to give me a $5,000 check. And they're like, yeah, I don't have it. Yeah, because I've got $5,000 worth of chairs.

Brad Franks:

Yeah, and the biggest problem that we see in small businesses is that they're undercapitalized. Undercapitalized, yeah, Because here's the thing If you don't have money to do all your, your permitted work or your plumbing, electrical, set your business up. Get everything functional first. Secondly, then buy all the cute trinkets and and and all the other things that go with your business to make it nice. If you're undercapitalized, you're under the gun to start with, right, and you're in trouble. Right, you're in trouble and so you've got to have money to function month two, month three, month four, and you spend all your money in month one, you're in trouble. So I think that that's important and you've got to know those things, but I like this next thought is that what's going to make you stand out from the competition? We just talked about Tupelo being the chicken Mexican car wash coffee capital of the world. Yeah, why, if you have a chicken idea, why in the world do I want to come and eat chicken at your place?

Tiffany Franks:

Yeah, and that's a good question. You know, like where we live, we've seen so much chicken opening and we're not done. Yet there's another one that's going in the the old um abner's location. But you know, you think about raising canes open and then right across the road, slim chickens open. On the other side of town, super chicks opened. You know this is just personal opinion, but we didn't need raising canes and slim chickens right across from each other and if you look at both of those locations you know the business has been split.

Tiffany Franks:

Some people say oh, that's just. You know, that just makes it better for everybody when there's more competition. I personally do not believe that. I met a businessman who was in business here for years and I think I remember he told you that just makes the piece of the pie smaller for everyone, sometimes when it's oversaturated, that's right. So I'm not a believer in 20 coffee shops makes us all profitable. No, we only have so many people that are going to buy a cup of coffee every day. Same thing with chicken. Just because there's a new chicken place open up, there was not an extra 10,000 people that were born last night that are eating chicken. That's good. So you know the new chicken place that's across town. For me their draws are fries. The other places have terrible fries.

Brad Franks:

And so I'm going to go to Super Chick's because of their fries. So you're going to the chicken place for fries, absolutely, but I get it.

Tiffany Franks:

That makes sense. Pastor Mike just gave thumbs up. It's the same thing. So you know, I'd really prefer to go get my chicken at King Chicken and then go over there to Super Chick's and get my fries. But that's the thing it's like, what's going to make you stand out, Because some of them are too similar. So if your business is exactly like somebody else's, then what is that customer experience going to be like? You know, what does that really look like for you?

Brad Franks:

Right, yeah, and that's the thing about it you said that was the same guy I was thinking about is it makes your piece of pie smaller? It absolutely does. And here it goes back to is survival of the fittest, and I'm going to take it a step further Is survival of the most capitalized. Think of it that way yeah, if you have capital, you're going to outlast your competition a lot, and we face competition over 10 years.

Tiffany Franks:

Yes and it's, it's, and there wasn't as very much no Ten years ago.

Brad Franks:

Yeah, because because people want a piece of it. They see it and they want a piece of it. And I get that. I understand. I mean, that's that's business and that's life, that's. You know, if you're the number one football team in the nation, you got a target on your back and I'm just saying they're going to want to come after you. But we've had to weather the storms in 10 years and that's the hard thing. If you're capitalized, you can weather the storms. It still don't make your piece of pie bigger. It still hurts you. It makes your piece of pie smaller.

Brad Franks:

And you said something about King Chicken. King Chicken's great. They got one out on McCullen and they have a new one they just opened. That's a local place but we got a lot of chicken places but up where you talked about there was Raising Cane's, there's Slim Chicken's, there's Zaxby's, but the number one chicken joint right up there is what? Chick-fil-a Chick-fil-A. You know why? Because it's their pleasure to serve you and I guarantee you, most places it's not their pleasure to serve you. So it makes you stand out from your competition. Here's the other thing you better do your research. You better know who your competition is. Yeah, definitely, because I've seen it time and time again. You think, just because you've got a good idea that you're fixing to take bags to the bank and Brinks is going to back up to your back door. But that's not the way it works. You better know who your competition is. So how do you do that? How do you know your competition? Or how do you know your business or things like that?

Tiffany Franks:

I think you just have to do your research. Put whatever it is you want to do into Facebook Search barbecues, maybe, things you don't even know about. I mean, there were catering companies I didn't even know about when I opened the catering business last year. I'm still seeing catering companies I didn't know about and we know food. But we have and do have some other businesses. But just event space. I've had event space. Well, I found out there were event spaces I didn't even know about when I was researching out doing event space. You know, really, research and make sure that you're not offering the exact same thing and especially if you're offering the exact same thing for the same price, that there is enough business for both of you. But drive around, get in your car, you know none of those things are fun things, but again, it's not fun closing a business. I've done that Absolutely. So find out, yeah, what your competition is and make sure you know and make sure that your idea can go up against whatever's around you and let me say this you have the.

Brad Franks:

If you have this idealistic view that you're going to go to a market and there's no competition wrong, wrong, because I've seen people I just want to go somewhere where there's no competition Well, that's not realistic. You have to know who your competition is in the market you're going into and you also need to know what other businesses in that sector look like. It doesn't matter what kind of business it is. You have to know what does the business in that sector look like? Is that person busy? When are their slow months? When are they busy? How am I going to make a living? Are they making a living? Or do they have another job that they're doing, and they're doing this on a part-time? Is it going to be a full-time gig? Is it going to be a part-time gig?

Tiffany Franks:

Or is it going to be home-based? If I want to do a store with bath bombs well, I know there's some others already I better go find out. Do they have customers? You know what's?

Tiffany Franks:

it look like on a Monday in there at one o'clock in the afternoon. What does it look like on a Saturday in there? I may need to go around and find out, like, okay, if there's nobody in that that store, I've sat in the parking lot and I've watched customer count. You know, nobody on a monday afternoon in there for two hours. Am I sure that that's where I want to put my life savings is into making bath bombs, absolutely yeah and listen.

Brad Franks:

Hey, I'll just say it. We've done some stealth work. We've rode by in different places, we've sat in parking lots before, we've observed and we said, hmm, I don't know if I want to do that or not, you know, because we have ideas about that. So I think it's important, though, that you have to have a plan, but you also have to know what's going to make you stand out from your competition, and I think that's important. So there's just some other things that we're going to hit real quick as we get ready to close here in a few minutes. You know one of the things that we have had experience and we've been realtors for almost 20 years, and so, through contracts real estate contracts, commercial contracts, commercial leases you managed a lot of property at one time. You know we've had to learn about leases, and you need to know what you're getting into when you commit to sign a lease.

Tiffany Franks:

Because I want to say most startup business owners will normally try to lease the first time and not buy their property. And so can you buy your property and this part not mean anything to you? Yes, absolutely. But when we're talking about leases there is a lot to know because people are not especially maybe first-time business owners are not accustomed to a commercial lease. They know what it looked like to lease an apartment when they were in college, or to lease a home or whatever, but a commercial lease is a whole different story.

Brad Franks:

It's a whole different story. It's not easy. You've got to know some things, you need to ask questions. And here's the other thing I would suggest and we've had this done before is that when you get into a lease that's above your knowledge, you have somebody who's a professional. Look at that for you, whether that is a commercial lender or a commercial lease person or a lawyer or something, Because when you sign your name on that, you're obligated. You're obligated and a lot of commercial leases nowadays are five years and they are expensive to get in and they're expensive to get out. And if you don't make it, that doesn't mean that you get to hand them the keys and say, well, I had fun. They're going to say, well, we appreciate you having fun, but we're going to expect the rest of this lease, you know you need to ask questions and so some of these things.

Tiffany Franks:

Like you know just in touching on this from a property manager standpoint that I was for a very long time when, when you break a lease, they can carry you to court and get a garnishment against you. I've had to do it as a property manager, so that doesn't just mean that it may go on your credit or whatever. They can garnish your wages for a lease Sure can. On a house, you can file bankruptcy Right when you are in a lease, they can take you to court, garnish your wages. So go into this with knowledge of knowing what you're signing and what you're doing.

Brad Franks:

A hundred percent. And also I mean to digress you need to make sure you set up an LLC or some kind of corporation too. That is part signing these leases, so that you are not personally signing these leases yourself. That's important as well. You know, I think you got things that I didn't know a long time ago, because I'm used to just a straight lease. This is how much it is a month and this is how much I'm going to pay.

Brad Franks:

But when we started getting into commercial leases in bigger spaces and bigger plots, they talked about CAM. I had no idea what CAM was. I said what is CAM? Is that somebody? They said no, you ain't paying somebody. You're going to pay.

Brad Franks:

It's called common area maintenance. That means that we got to mow the yard, that means we got to take the trash out. That means we got to maintain the parking lots, the stairwells, all that kind of stuff, and you're going to pay a portion of that, based on what you rent. If you're renting 1,500 square feet or 2,500 square feet, you're going to pay a portion of whatever that is, and a lot of people do it on a yearly basis, which that'll pop you in the eye when you get to the end in December and they say, hey, we need about $5,000 from you and you'll be like what? That's common area maintenance, and so it's better sometimes to pay that monthly, if you can, as part of some kind of you know whatever.

Brad Franks:

But I didn't know what that was. I said who, what, but we had to learn that. Another thing is is it going to be a straight lease or is it a triple net? A triple net lease basically means that you're going to pay the common area maintenance. That's one. Number two you're going to pay a portion of the insurance. Two. Number three you're going to pay a portion of the taxes, and so those things you've got to ask those questions.

Brad Franks:

It's important to know what you're getting into and I think this one too, as far as a lease and we'll move forward is does it have a break point? I had no idea what a break point was. We were talking to somebody we're actually talking to by the mall there about possibly putting in a drive-through, and their break point was, I think, $750,000, maybe a million dollars or whatever. And so somebody said well, what does that mean? Well, that means that you've got a pretty low rate on a lease. So say, it's X number of dollars, $12, $15, $25 a foot. Well, anytime you have sales over $750,000, the owner of that building gets a portion of your sales. It's called a percentage lease is what it is. So it's a break point. Anything above $750,000, you have to pay a percentage of your sales as extra rent. So you have to know those things. Those things are important to know. So, as we get ready to finish, what are your final thoughts here?

Tiffany Franks:

I think on that too, you know, one thing to keep in mind is a lease is possibly negotiable. I mean, try, it's not going to. I believe with leases it's not going to hurt to ask. Ask for the first month free, ask for something somewhere and also try to get an out if you possibly can. We had a really good friend that told us, you know, on your lease, try to get a 60-day out. After maybe a year or two years that you've been leasing there, say, okay, then you know, can we get a 60-day out with a 60-day notice? We were able to do that, you know, can we. Can we get a 60 day out with a 60 day notice? We were able to do that, you know before. And so just remember that, yes, you can try to negotiate for some of those things. That also benefits you and not just the person holding the lease.

Brad Franks:

Don't get so excited. You're ready to just write the check. Do your due diligence when it comes to those things. I think final thoughts here. Let's just hit some final thoughts here for your small business. What are some things you need to finish up and think about as we get ready to stop?

Tiffany Franks:

I mean, you know how much you're going to charge. But when you know how much you're going to charge for something, how much of that is profit, to make sure you put your time and how much, whatever it is cost, into that In fact, you're in things like your rent and all those into what it actually costs you. If I want to charge $2 for candles but and I think, oh well, it just cost me 30 cents to make the candle because I bought the wax and I bought the oil it costs you more than that. Make sure you understand that your cost of goods is more than just what the product materials cost you for something you know advertising. How are you going to advertise? How are people going to know about you?

Tiffany Franks:

Just don't expect everybody to be sitting around waiting to hear about your business. Word of mouth, how's, how's that going to happen? And make sure you understand, like you, are you going to be able to pay you out of that or is this just going to be a fun hobby? You know for you, I, I, I'm, I'm at the age now I don't want any more hobbies.

Brad Franks:

If it's not paying me, I don't want to do it. Yeah, well, and that's it, because a lot of people go into that and they're working their butts off. And let me say this owning your own business If, if it's easy work to you and you you work 10 to two every day and that's all probably not gonna make a living on your own business is hard. It is long days, it is long hours, it can be early mornings, it can be late nights, it can be seven days a week, it can be impromptu in the middle of something you've got going on important, something breaks, something tears up. It is hard to do, and when you go home exhausted and you're not able to write yourself a check, it's no fun anymore you to write yourself a check. It's no fun anymore. You need to be able to learn how to pay yourself. And I think that one thing's important and you need to pay your taxes, and I'm talking about diligently put that money in separate accounts, transferred over on a weekly basis or a bi-monthly basis, whatever, because they will shut your doors. If you don't pay your sales tax, if you don't pay your payroll tax, you won't be in business very long. It's fun. We made $10,000, but, oh my God, I owe $5,000 in taxes. You better pay them because they'll get you.

Brad Franks:

I think the other thing is you need to hire a good accountant. I am a firm believer in having an accountant. And listen, I know there are great people that we know that own tax businesses. That's know that own like tax businesses, that's fine. But there's a different level of business.

Brad Franks:

When it comes to owning and operating a business, you need to know the ins and outs of and have a professional help. You you need to hire help If you want to scale your business. The only way you're going to scale your business is hiring help. Well, they're not going to do it like I do it. No, they're not. They're not. But I can tell you, in school, 92 was an A. So if I can tell you, in school, 92 was an A. So if I can find me a 92 person, I can still have an A business. And that's how I think. Because I want to scale my business, I don't want to be down there every day having to work it myself. And I think finally and you can hit this as we finish be consistent what does that look like in your business to be successful?

Tiffany Franks:

I think you have to stay in front of people consistently. You know, if I don't, if I don't, if I've not seen anything from you in a month, then I don't know if you even still have that. This can be even like if you're an online boutique person or a specialty person and you're not staying in front of people. Be consistent with whatever it is that you do. You know you can't constantly change things all the time. Again, be consistent.

Tiffany Franks:

Also, if you're opening a business, make sure, if you have small children, that you have a child care plan. If you're closing every other day because we have to go here, we have to go there. Today, we have a runny nose and I'm not going to be in until 2 o'clock. I've got a doctor's appointment. If your Facebook posts are more about your hours if that's what it becomes whatever about your, your hours, if that's what it becomes of you know, whatever. If I've seen this with a food business somewhere that's like 10 minutes from me and so I thought you know nobody. But then there was a post about the struggle I'm thinking, oh goodness, like the struggle is because you're not there, like absolutely people are not going to chase you.

Tiffany Franks:

They're going to chase you to do business with you I think the open hours now are literally like maybe three hours a day. Well, that's a really hard window to make a living. So, you know, make it easy for people to do business with you. Make sure that you've got an easy plan, yeah.

Brad Franks:

Absolutely. Any final words? Nope. Well, thank you all so much for listening. Hey, listen, I know that's a lot of information we've thrown at you and listen, I can tell you business is hard but you can do it. But you've got to work through the proper steps. Having a great idea without good execution or good feedback or somebody being able to be in your corner and help you work through it, is not a great plan. So you want to have a plan. You want to find out what makes you stand out from competition, understand how businesses works whether that's lease or whether it's advertising or whatever ask questions, find people who will mentor you and help you walk through that process. And so, again, thank you so much for listening.

Brad Franks:

Today. We don't take it for granted. You take your time and you spend it with us. We ask you to give us a five-star review if possible. But, hey, find somebody who's going the way you want to go and hop in the flow and go with them. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great day. I've been in the field with whatever they throw at me, brush it off, pick myself up, moving on to the better. Okay, hey, yeah, ain't no errors, baby, it's a new era. I wake up early, feeling rich like I'm Kesha. I get to the paper.

People on this episode

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Brad Franks

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Tiffany Franks

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