We Bought A Franchise!
Join Jack and Jill Johnson on their rollercoaster ride as the fresh faced new franchise owners of Pink's Window services in sunny Palm Beach, Florida! Peek behind the curtain at the real deal of launching and expanding a franchise – the good, the bad, and the downright chaotic!
The Johnsons are set to reveal the highs and lows, the freedom, and the fortune that come with being your own boss. Tune in to the "We bought a franchise" podcast today! 🎙️🏝️
We Bought A Franchise!
We Bought a Franchise: Uncollectible and Judgement Proof! Hillel Presser's Essential Guide to Asset Protection
Discover the secrets to bulletproofing your financial future with Hillel Presser, a leading asset protection attorney.
Have you ever wondered how some of the most successful entrepreneurs stay judgment-proof in today's litigious environment?
Gain insights from Hillel's extensive experience, including working with top figures in sports and entertainment, as he unveils strategies to safeguard your wealth and protect your business assets.
GREAT nuggets here on becoming uncollectible and securing your financial legacy.
People routinely pay Hillel tens of thousands of dollars for a consultation but you can get some great info right here on our podcast!
Be sure to request a FREE copy of his book, "Asset Protection Secrets," for a deeper dive into protecting your entrepreneurial endeavors. Visit www.assetprotectionattorneys.com and mention you found them on our show!
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Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the we Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson.
Speaker 2:I'm Jill Johnson.
Speaker 1:And today we have a very special guest for you guys, Hillel Presser, who is the managing partner and founder of the Presser Law Firm. Hillel, how are you Welcome to the show?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. Thanks for having me today.
Speaker 1:So, for all of our listeners out there, hillel is a little bit of a different guest than our normal guest, right? Normally, hillel, we have business owners, franchise owners. Of course, you are a multi-business owner, but this is something what Hillel does. He's an asset protection attorney and for those of you out there that are business owners, that are striving to become business owners, this is something that you absolutely need to know about. This might be one of our most important podcasts, because as you grow a business, as you make more money, you need to protect it. And, hillel, I think it was two days ago on LinkedIn, I'm scrolling through my feed and there's Damon John and he's talking about like five books every business owner needs to. Did you see it? And the first one that he talks about is your book Asset Protection Secrets. Dude, how are you like on this kind of you know first name basis with Damon? Tell us about that.
Speaker 3:Well, Damon's a very good friend of mine Obviously I've helped him with a lot of stuff and we do a lot of work together but, most importantly, just a great person, great human being and a great friend, so just always happy to help him and anyone else who needs it.
Speaker 1:I mean, what a great testimony. I mean he's a freaking shark. He's on our TV every night and you're like part, you work with him. I mean, I mean, you guys, that's a killer testimonial right off the bat. I have to tell you guys, you guys, that's a killer testimonial right off the bat. I have to tell you guys, as we dig in with Hillel, people routinely pay him tens of thousands of dollars for a session. So this information you guys are going to get today, any nuggets that Hillel is going to share, you better listen up because they're very important. And so, hillel, you know where to begin. Maybe tell us a little bit about what your company does, what you do and what you think people need to know about.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I tease and I say that I am the lawyer that hates lawyers. You know there's probably hundreds, if not thousands, of lawyers in every single city trying to find a way to take money from you. How can they sue you and how can they redistribute the wealth? I'm one of only a few in the entire country that actually teach people how to protect it. So everybody's so worried about making money, but obviously the only worst thing than not making money is losing it. So I always tell clients I will never make you one penny richer. It's my job to make sure that you don't become one penny poor, and it's so important and it's something admitted to make sure that you don't become one penny poor, and it's so important and it's something, admittedly, you know as you're on your way up as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:You're right, I mean, everybody's thinking about how do we make it right, how do you make money, but it's something everyone needs to be aware of is how to protect yourself as you grow your assets and how you grow your business, um and and so I think this information is so crucial, especially to entrepreneurs. You know, maybe, hillel, let's talk about some of the things that people what are people approaching you for generally, what are the biggest pain points?
Speaker 3:Sure. Well, first of all, people are coming to me from all across the country because they've worked hard and they want to take their chips off the table and they want to become as uncollectible and judgment-proof as possible. They know that we live in a very litigious, frivolous society. They know that one lawsuit can wipe them out, and it doesn't even have to be something that they do. They can be sued because their kid drives their car and gets in an accident or their employee does something on behalf of the business. So clients come to me to help take their chips off the table and what I do is I make it so difficult, so expensive, if not impossible, for anybody to collect against my client that they don't want to sue my client in the first place.
Speaker 3:If I can stop my client from being sued, we've saved hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars right there. If they do sue my client because you can never stop somebody for suing my client I want to make them as uncollectible and judgment-proof as possible, which allows my clients to settle their case for 5, 10, 15 cents on the dollar. So there's always that doubt as to liability who's going to win the case? What we do is we create the doubt as to collectability. We tell them that even if you win the case which we don't think you will my client is uncollectible and judgment proof and you can spend the next five or 10 years finding that out yourself or going after them, or we can settle right now, and we've been able to settle $20 million lawsuits for $250,000, $5 million judgments for $500,000, not because my clients won the case, but because my clients made it difficult and expensive to collect against them.
Speaker 1:That's a really good point, so it's very interesting the things that you're saying. I was curious to see Hillel and maybe you could talk about this, for example, in our own state. Hillel lives in Florida, just like we do. Some of the protections that Homestead provides to homeowners. Frankly, it's amazing. I don't know that all states have this kind of protection.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And I'll tell you first of all, I love what you guys do, so thank you. I love the franchise industry. It is tough, obviously. I know in franchise they say it's not if you get sued, it's when you get sued. But I love the franchise industry, so thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 3:I find it fascinating what you're talking. I actually call and I have a name for it. I call it jurisdiction shopping. So just like you go to the mall and you shop for a jacket, just like people pick a state based on taxes, people pick a state based on what assets are protected. So living in Florida I joke and I tease it's a great place to live if you want to be a debtor. It might be the reason why OJ moved here, probably the reason why all the big CEOs from New York City move here and buy a $30 million mansion at Boca Raton right before they get sued.
Speaker 3:Because in Florida there are what are called exemptions, and exemptions are state laws that protect certain assets. And in Florida your house is protected. In Florida, your retirement accounts are protected. In Florida, your life insurance, your annuities, your wages are protected. I could go on and on.
Speaker 3:Now contrast that with a state like New York or California. You know, in New York or California your house may only be protected up to a couple hundred thousand dollars. So if I have a client in New York or California, I'm telling them do not buy an expensive house. And if you do buy an expensive house, don't pay off the mortgage. I don't want there to be equity to lose in a lawsuit.
Speaker 3:When I'm counseling a Florida client, I tell them buy the most expensive house you can and pay off the mortgage because no one can take it. And no different with retirement accounts. I think last time I checked the law for protection of retirement accounts in California was to the extent reasonably necessary for support deemed by a judge. I don't know about you, but I don't want a judge telling me what part of my retirement accounts are protected. So again, people move to different states. Florida is a great state. Texas is a great state. Based on the laws and based on what's protected, you can be worth $100 million in Florida and as long as that $100 million is spread out between your house, your retirement accounts, your annuities, your life insurance and some other items, nobody can take what you worked so hard for.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. I mean, it's one of those things that it's like you don't really think about it until maybe it happens to you. So getting the word out right now is so important because you don't want to end up in that situation and say you know it's actually like as franchise consultants, we have a lot of people who you know go buy a franchise and then realize it's not for them and they say, gosh, I wish I knew about you, guys, it's the same with you. This is so important for people to know, because sometimes it's too late and then you look at them and say I helped you. So I love that we're talking about this now, because I think we can help so many people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I always tell people. You know. People always say when does asset protection not work? And it's simple. There's two ways it doesn't work. Number one is when you're not proactive. If you go out there you get in a car accident and six months later you try and protect yourself, there's a chance they can try and unwind what you did. So you want to be proactive so you can protect all your assets from everyone every time. The other thing is when people don't follow their structure.
Speaker 3:I always call it honor thy structure. I always tell people I can put together a bulletproof, rock solid plan. But if you don't honor your structure, if you get sued and you go in front of a judge, why would you expect the judge to honor your structure? So super important to be proactive, super important to honor your structure and really important just to educate yourself. You know what important to honor your structure and really important just to educate yourself. You know what I do is a niche which someone may look at as a great thing, but the issue is a lot of people don't know that we exist until it's too late. So, unlike every radio station, tv station, billboard, bus bench, et cetera. That's promoting the personal injury attorneys. Who can I sue? Well, there's only a few of us in the entire country that actually teach people how to protect it. So, unfortunately, sometimes when people find out it's after the fact and it may be too late. So Halal.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you, and this is a you know something people are probably going to want to know as they listen. What size should I mean for someone to come to you? If someone's got like a hundred grand, that's probably not your client, right? What, what, what size client? And I don't know if this is a question you can answer, but what size client should be talking to you?
Speaker 3:Sure. So, first of all, my mission and my purpose is to educate and help as many people as I can. So I help clients who don't have a lot of money and I probably lose money on those clients and I'm okay with it because I want to help them and I always give this example. You know we've represented I don't know 30, 40 professional athletes, nfl, nba players. Well, take a professional NFL player who signs a $50 million contract. If they get sued for $5 million, they're not happy, but they still have $45 million left.
Speaker 3:Now contrast that with a school teacher. She's worked her entire life and saved up a couple hundred thousand dollars. If she gets sued for a million dollars, she's wiped out. It's catastrophic. There's no coming back for it. So I can actually argue the less you have, the more important asset protection becomes. Now, obviously I'm not going to use the same strategies and tools and techniques for the school teacher with $200,000 as I would for the football player with 45 million. You know you have to do an opportunity. You know cost benefit analysis. But anybody who has anything that they don't want to lose should protect themselves and there's a lot of things that don't cost money that you can do. You know, just like one of the examples that we spoke about were the exemptions. So somebody, just based on what state they live in, if they have $100,000, maybe by investing that in a certain asset class, whether it be life insurance, annuities, retirement accounts, et cetera just by doing that they can protect themselves and they don't need to pay one penny to do that.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. Awesome. That's great information. That's really good Halal. You're doing always so many things. You're an interesting guy. Do you want to talk about some of the other businesses that you're working on? How about let's talk a little bit about business exit advisors? Is that something you'd like to talk about? Sure.
Speaker 3:So, like you said, look, I love business. I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I love it. My asset protection law firm is always my baby. I will always have it. I will never stop doing it. That's where I spend the majority of my time. But you know, I'm an entrepreneur by heart and I love the hunt.
Speaker 3:And one of the other businesses that I'm involved with not so much on the day-to-day is Business Exit Advisors. And what Business Exit Advisors is is it's a business brokerage. So if I asked you, how many people do you know real estate agents that could sell your house? The problem is you know too many. If you give it to your friend, your sister gets mad. If you give it to your sister, your cousin gets mad. It seems like everybody in the world is a real estate agent, but when I say to people, how many people do you know that can actually sell your business? Nobody really knows anyone. And last time I checked the stats it was something crazy. It was like for every 400 real estate agents, there's one business broker. So again, very, very special niche. And that business Business Exit Advisors helps people sell their business, franchise their business or consults their business to get them ready for sale, and their tagline is our business is selling your business.
Speaker 3:Now again, I'm not involved with the day-to-day. I have a phenomenal team. I'm some of the best people who have been around in the industry forever and have helped build some of the best people who have been around in the industry forever and have helped build some of the biggest business brokerages out there. But I love the business and I love seeing all the different businesses and our businesses kind of go hand in hand because if you think about it, if somebody sells their business, this is actually pretty crazy. People don't realize.
Speaker 3:The biggest lawsuit I see besides car accidents and slip and falls and things like that are when people sell their business and people always have a tough time understanding this. They say what do you mean? I sold my business and now I have no liability, and it's the largest lawsuit we see. 74% of business transactions either fail to materialize or end up in litigation within a certain period of time. Materialize or end up in litigation within a certain period of time.
Speaker 3:55% of US companies lose a bare minimum of 40% of their gross revenues during an ownership transition and if you think about it, it makes sense, right? Nobody will ever run the business like you. So when you sell the business, a lot of times not always income goes down, expenses go up. A lot of times not always income goes down, expenses go up and all of a sudden, a year or two later, the new owner is suing the old owner for fraud. I always call it renegotiation. So I always tell my business owner clients, whether they're through the business brokerage or not, the minute you sell your business you get those chips off the table because you never know if there's going to be a clawback.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, that's really, that's a really really good point. And when we counsel our clients to think about selling their business, or they come to us and they say, listen, it's not for me. We often advise them to look at it like selling your home. When you go to sell your house, you want to make sure that thing looks great, right, you want to. You've got to get it ready for showings. You want to make sure when people walk in they say, man, this house is amazing, I've got to have it. If you didn't do that, people are going to walk in and say, man, this is dumb, I'm never going to buy it Right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you have your, your fixer uppers that think that they can come in and fix it up, but there's a lot of issues with that.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's another reason why when people, when we're advising people on how they should build their franchise, the aiming point and this is a hard thing for entrepreneurs to hear, because we all want to be special, we all want to be the stars, but ultimately you should build your business to run without you. Ultimately, if you can build a business to where it does not need your daily intervention, you've done a fabulous thing. Because the owners. What happens is, if the owners are too involved in the business, if they are too attached to the employees, the minute that business sells, half the team quits. You're right, the revenue goes down, so you want that thing to be as good as possible when you go to sell it. And then, hillel, an interesting thing happens All of a sudden. You've built your business back up, someone's ready to buy it and you're like wait a second.
Speaker 2:You remodel your house to sell it and you're like wait, this is gorgeous, like why am I leaving? So yeah, it does happen, but but it is.
Speaker 3:And I and I totally agree with you you know a lot of people who think they have businesses and listen, I'm not excluded by any means. It's easy to it's always easy to say something. It's much tougher to do something. But a lot of people who think they have businesses, they don't have businesses. They may make a lot of money but they may just be getting paid very, very highly for their time. So if they're involved in the business and it can't run without them, there's an issue.
Speaker 3:And you know, to your other comment, I've been involved in billion dollar business transactions where at the last minute the owner decided he didn't want to sell and instead of a third party coming in and buying out call it the two or three partners one or two partners say Nope, I want to stay, and either they buy out the business or they buy it with the new buyer and only some of the owners leave. Because you know again people. You know they work their business up to sell it, but they wake up the next day and all of a sudden they have no purpose. So something that we'll do at Business Exit Advisors is not just sell your business, get your business ready for sale, franchise your business, protect the proceeds. But what's your purpose after the sale? You know you could have an exit. I don't care if it's for a huge number $300 million but when you wake up on Monday and you have nothing to do, you may feel like you're at your lowest point, even though you just sold the business last week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a that's a really good point in franchising, because the thing that makes a franchise special, ultimately, is the hustle of the franchise owner. I mean, even as, and Jill and I invested in our Pink's franchise because, you're right, as franchise consultants we're just glorified salespeople. I mean, everything we make is what we do. I mean we're here to counsel clients and share our knowledge, but the business can't run without us. Yeah, it's us, the business is us and share our knowledge.
Speaker 2:but the business can't run without us. Yeah, it's us, the business is us.
Speaker 1:It's us Right. So even if on paper I could show you a great looking P&L, you'd never pay me what I think the business is worth, because Jill and I are the ones that make it go and that's where, ultimately, we knew we had to buy the Pinks franchise, because we need a business that ultimately can run without us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, as you know, I love that Pakes franchise business. I think it's genius, I think it's brilliant. I see your trucks all over the city doing great, great work and great, great jobs so phenomenal. I mean, you guys got to that. I remember even talking about it and it was after you guys did it and I was like man, I wish I was involved in that, but you said it right, which is you got to have the fire in the belly. It's not about the kill, it's about the hunt. You know, making money is just the scorecard, it's just, it just shows you that you did it right. A real business owner, a real entrepreneur, has to love what they do. You know, I always love the quote Somebody asked me to you know, donate to a school that I donated a bunch of money to, and for me it's like I need to have a connection, like I need to have a connection, I need to have an emotional, and they said, hey, can you just donate?
Speaker 3:You know x room, and I said no, because x room means nothing to me. And you know I looked at the and I donated the fashion classroom because my wife was into fashion and I had made a donation with my partner because it was special for me, and my partner and I looked at the plans and you know there was nothing really that I had an emotional connection to and I said said to them. I said I have an idea. I said I would like to donate all of your elevators and they said to me our elevators, we're not even looking for a donation for the elevators. I said I'd like to write a check for the elevators because in my mind it was a business school.
Speaker 3:The elevator went from the bottom floor to the top floor and I said I'd like to put a quote in each elevator. I said I'd like to put a quote in each elevator and one of the quotes I put in there is if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. So you gotta have that fire in the belly, you gotta love business, otherwise you'll never be successful. You gotta eat, breathe and sleep it yeah, I mean you're 100 right.
Speaker 1:I mean you got it. It's again it. Business ownership can be one of the most rewarding things, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, don't you think, since we've well, yeah, I mean because we both had our corporate jobs and I mean that's ultimately why we started franchise insiders, because we were working for other people and we didn't have that fire.
Speaker 1:We just didn't want to you know, I mean we, we did our job.
Speaker 2:But we were frustrated because we were doing so well and then, you know, no reward. So we said we need to do something for ourselves and since we started it it's just been amazing because it I mean it definitely feels like work. Don't get me wrong sometimes, but it's. It's our baby, it's our business. So when one of us or Jack has to take a phone call on a Saturday or late at night to talk to a client, he's happy to do it and I'm never annoyed when that happens because it doesn't feel like it.
Speaker 3:I think that when you have your wins, without those losses, without the hard work, the wins don't feel as good. And I've had the opportunity to meet some of your clients and I see the smiles on their faces and I see how much you've helped them, which is why I love what you guys do. And it's similar with me when I go to work every day I get up and I say what I want to do is I want to go to work, I want to have fun, I want to help people and I want to make money. And if I can't do those things, I might as well stay home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that that's that's really well said. I mean, I I've always said, the first five months of franchise insiders, we made nothing, zero. But when I look back on it, I don't remember the fear, I remember the excitement. I remember that, hey, we're finally building something, we're finally doing it, and that's I still look at it as one of my most favorite times in our life, you know, because we finally had control. We didn't have to, we weren't sitting and traveling on airplanes for other people, other people weren't determining our time we wanted to try something for the business we could right.
Speaker 2:You know, we didn't have to ask permission or do anything, it was like it was our decision. So if we failed, we fail fast and we move forward. And when we found something that worked, you know, we applauded ourselves because it was, you know, our idea. And so if we fail, we fail fast and we move forward, and when we found something that worked, you know, we applauded ourselves because it was, you know, our idea and something that we tried so so much more fulfilling too.
Speaker 3:And look, rome wasn't built in a day. You know, little drops fill the buckets. You got to crawl before you walk. You got to walk before you run. And it's the same thing I tell people with asset protection. You know. I tell them you know.
Speaker 3:Number one just educate yourself. Know that there's something that you can do. Whether you choose to do something or not, who cares? Number one educate yourself and know there's something you can do. Number two inventory your wealth. Okay, people have way more than they think they do.
Speaker 3:When I ask people what they have, they mention the cash. They mention you know the business. They mention the real estate. But what about a potential inheritance? What about crypto? Did you loan somebody money? The money owed to you is an asset. What about the phone number and domain name to your business? That's an asset. How would you like it if a creditor took it and pointed it to someone else? So I always tell people educate yourself and inventory your wealth.
Speaker 3:After that you can pick one asset. You don't need to do everything. What's my largest asset? Okay, it's my business. Protect your business. Do nothing else and wait six months After you see that it really hasn't changed the way you live your life and has probably made your life easier. What's my next biggest asset? Maybe it's my real estate portfolio. Protect the real estate portfolio and nothing else. And then, after a few months, you could do more. And the challenge I give to every single person is this we're all worried about growth, growth, growth. How do we make money? Preservation of principle is so important. I tell them, for every 60 minutes you spend making money, stop and spend 60 seconds thinking about how to protect it.
Speaker 1:That's great and again, hillel, until I met you, I'll be completely honest, I didn't spend any time thinking about it, because it's like a whole new mindset.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and not only that. We get misconceptions. Every day at my office. Somebody walks in and they have a revocable living trust and every one of them thinks they're protected. And I have to explain to them that a revocable living trust gives you 0% asset protection. You are 100% unprotected. A revocable living trust is a great estate planning tool for when you die, it does nothing for you to protect yourself while you're alive. So I have people who walk in every day who even think they're protected because they have a trust, but the trust gives them 0% protection.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So is it then an irrevocable trust that provides greater protection.
Speaker 3:So the answer is yes, but that doesn't mean you always want to use an irrevocable trust. So the great thing about an irrevocable trust is it can help you with estate tax planning and also it really helps you with asset protection. The problem with an irrevocable trust is it's irrevocable, so you have to give up all ownership and all control. I had a client, a couple, a husband and wife, who came to me Before they'd come to me, years ago. They had put everything they owned in an irrevocable trust for their kids. Well, the parents ran out of money. They asked the kids for a loan and the kids told them to screw off.
Speaker 3:So I don't know about you, but I don't want to fight with my nine-year-old and my four-year-old because they are tough, as you know. I don't want to fight with them over pizza and McDonald's money. So while an irrevocable trust is great for asset protection and tax planning, it may not be great for what you need. So there's dozens and dozens of other things LLCs, limited partnerships I mean we could talk for hours on any one of these items that might be a happy medium to the revocable trust versus the irrevocable trust.
Speaker 1:So I mean, in all of this is so great. Again, I think our audience is made up of, like I said, business owners of all shapes and sizes and people who want to be business owners and, like for me, thinking about this for our clients. This is something for all of you, like, as you are putting your vision on the wall of where you want your company to go. Like Kalel says, you're focused on revenue. Also, protect yourself, and so I think that's where Kalel someone being able to reach out to you and speak to you about how you, your firm, can potentially help them. What's the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if they go to our website, it's wwwassetprotectionattorneyscom. That's wwwassetprotectionattorneyscom. As long as they mention the Jack and Jill franchise show, I'm happy to send them complimentary copies of the latest books that we authored on asset protection we have that.
Speaker 1:Got it right here. You know it's so funny. Our son, trey, wrote his first book this week. He sure did, and I love it. We were talking about it and we've had your since you were coming on the podcast. We've had your book on our kitchen table for a week and he was looking at it. He was like you know, I can't wait to publish my book. So, hillel, in a way you helped really influence Trey. He saw this and he's like I've got to do it. And you've seen books be such a valuable asset for your company, right? Hasn't it been a great tool for further helping your clients?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it's just a great educational tool. Again, one of my purposes, one of our missions, is to educate as many people as possible and there's no better way to do it and I'm old school than a book. And of course we do the audio books and the ebooks and all that. But think about the pleasure, right, I get to educate so much of the population that I'll never even see, which, you know, just makes me feel great. And then think about the people who actually come to sit down to me. You know they come in and they say hey, I read on page 87. Here's something that we can do with my assets and it's so great because they make them an educated customer. So now when I'm speaking to someone, now when I'm helping someone, a client, they know a lot more than probably just the average person coming in on the street because they've read my book. And you know, one of the biggest things I talk and they're just trying to give as many takeaways as I, as I can to your listeners is own nothing, control everything, own nothing, control everything. So if you own an asset, you can lose it. So if you have a checkings, a savings, a stocks, bonds, CDs, money market brokerage account. If you get sued, you lose it. If you have real estate, you lose it. If you have shares in a business, you lose it.
Speaker 3:What people want to do is they want to own nothing and control everything. Take that real estate out of your name and put it into a protective entity like an LLC. Take those liquid assets out of your name and put it into a protective entity like an LLC. Take those liquid assets out of your name, put it into a protective entity like a limited partnership, an LLC, a trust, etc, etc. Etc. But own nothing, control everything.
Speaker 3:And that goes the same with both personal assets and business assets. So, for example, if somebody has a business right and the business has intellectual property that's worth $4 million, if the business gets sued they can lose the $4 million of intellectual property. Why not take the intellectual property out, put it in an LLC and lease it back to the business? Now, if the business gets sued, you don't lose the intellectual property. You know, if you have $2 million of furniture, $3 million of stereo equipment, if the business gets sued, you lose the $2 million in furniture, the $3 million in stereo equipment. Why not strip those assets out and lease them back. So on the personal side and the business side, really big key for the listeners is own nothing, control everything, because if you own it you can lose it.
Speaker 1:So here's a question, because all what you're saying sounds incredible and like I want to hire you to do all of this stuff. Do you guys actually do this? Is this something you guys are when you help someone? How much of this does your firm assist people with doing, and how much of it is it? Is it you guys saying, here's the things you need to do, and they go out and execute?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we help with everything. And the way we kind of break up our engagement with most people is we just break it up into two stages the architectural stage and the building stage. So pretend you wanted to build a house. You don't just go start building, you hire the architect. The architect gives you all your options. You then pick from those options and you decide what you want to build and what you don't want to build.
Speaker 3:We do the same thing. We do a very, very comprehensive review of everybody's personal and business assets. We're looking at them from an asset protection point of view, an estate planning point of view, a tax planning point of view, a business succession planning point of view, and they hire us to be their financial architect. That's stage one. After that we come back to them with the financial blueprints, the financial architectural plans, and we tell them here's anything and everything you can do, in order of priority most important to least important. And then the client tells us as little or as much as they want to do. So it's never all or nothing. So I always tell them it's our job to educate, it's our job to recommend. At the end of the day, the clients have to decide what they want to do.
Speaker 2:It's actually similar to our business We've been talking about that a lot lately that when we work with clients at Franchise Insiders, it's our job to educate and our job to make the recommendations. So what they do after is ultimately their choice. So you know we're there to help them and guide them through the process, but after that you know that's it.
Speaker 1:I mean you can lead a horse to water, but it's exactly right. I mean it's. It's one of those things that all of us here have, these sorts of these, these things that we can help people with. It's like someone called me yesterday and he's about to buy, um, a really expensive retail franchise. Um, but he's like you know, I heard your podcast and I figured I should just give you a call and see what you think.
Speaker 1:So we start to talk about well, what is the what's said in the item 19? What are the other franchisees saying? What is the cost and what can he invest? And, as it turns out, best case this is a franchise that can net him. You know low six figures and he's going to spend a million dollars. And I said, listen, know low six figures and he's going to spend a million dollars.
Speaker 1:And I said, listen, you can do a lot more for your money and you could potentially make a lot more on half of that investment. But the challenge is is that it's going to be in businesses that are less glamorous. Right, it's not as sexy to own a painting franchise as it is to own the coolest new, you know. But at the end of the day a business owner, whether it's a painting franchise, a plumbing franchise or the hottest new burger franchise, you ultimately are leading a team, you are driving sales and delivering exceptional customer service, no matter what business you're running. Those are the three pillars and so when we kind of help people to see, look, ultimately, whatever business you own as the owner, you need to work on it, not in it, and lead that team and drive sales.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and think about the time and money that you saved that client. Right here they were, they were ready to write the check and maybe everything would have been okay. They would have made their you know $100,000 a year on their investment. But by having that one call with you, they were able to gain insight and information on things that they have no clue. And that's why I think what you guys do as advisors no different than what we do as advisors is so important. You know people can't afford not to call you because they don't know what they don't know. So you know the five, the six, the 700 franchises. You know all the franchises in the industry.
Speaker 3:You know what language should be there, shouldn't be there, where people get tricked up. And nothing can beat experience and I can't tell you. There's been times before where someone came to me. They didn't wanna hire me. That's okay, they don't need to. They went out there, they tried to do it on their own. They came back. It cost them twice as much because now I need to fix everything that they did and then do the correct plan. So that architecting, that advising when people call you, when people call me, it's even more important than the building. You know, once you have the plans, you know at least you can argue, maybe anybody could build it. Who knows if they build it right with the right clauses. But you know that one phone call, who knows that, could have saved that guy. You know a million dollars and you know six years of opportunity costs Easy.
Speaker 1:I mean it, and it's just understanding fundamentally how franchises work. Now the other thing, Hillel, that's interesting is that you can take that same painting franchise and one guy's out there building 20 units to a mega business and another guy's out there doing nothing, and it's the same franchise, it's the same support, it's the same marketing. But there again is where the art of what a franchise consultant does is. We need to understand who our clients are and make recommendations accordingly. Again, it's up to them. So it's like you know. This is where, no matter what it is, all of us can give great advice, but it is up to the client, the franchise owner, your clients, to execute the game plan.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what they say. I mean normally when there's an incident, it's pilot error, right? So I mean, if you have, you know, a franchise that has a hundred different franchisees and they're all doing phenomenal and then one guy's not, you know, look, it could be something. It could be it was a bad choice of location. It could be that, for whatever reason, that product or service isn't working in that market. You never know what it is, but more than likely it probably comes down to the pilot. You know the business owner, which probably then comes down to what we talked about earlier. You know that fire in the belly, the hunt, the love for business, the love for entrepreneurship. You know, again, you have to work hard, and then you have to work a little harder, and then you have to work a little harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had an example on one of our past podcasts with the the limpy subs.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one owner that was like killing it and loved his business and was getting involved in the community and was just, you know, doing so well, and the other one hated what he was doing and he was grumpy and wasn't doing well. But that's just. That's the same example. You know. You can take the same exact thing and have wildly different experiences. It really depends on who's behind it.
Speaker 3:And it's the same thing with asset protection. You know it's not one size fits all. You know, when I'm working with a client, I always tell people we don't do any cookie cutter work. Everything needs to be individualized, customized and tailored to your specific assets. You know your personal assets, your business assets, your needs. You know one guy may be being proactive, another guy may be protecting against a teenage driver, a third guy may be protecting against a fourth marriage. Everybody needs something different. Some like chocolate, some like vanilla. And again, that's your job to help put the right person in the right place with the right franchise.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right, yeah, and once you have it, it's like Jill said, it's like taking a call on a Saturday evening is is is fun because you're building business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always say not to be corny, or, but you know my clients end up being my friends because you know you have to like who you're doing business with, Otherwise it's just not worth it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. Well, hello, I think we've said a lot. Anything that we haven't said that you think is important for people to know.
Speaker 3:No, I appreciate you having me here.
Speaker 2:I hope that it was timely, educational and valuable and I hope, if nothing else, the listeners can get at least one good idea to take from here. Yeah, there's a lot to you. Provided us with a lot, so us too.
Speaker 1:Again, I want to emphasize you know what we said at the beginning of the podcast. I mean, look at the testimonial, look at who is mentioning Hillel's book, and if you go to his website, you can get a complimentary copy. If you mentioned that, you found us on the. We bought a franchise podcast, but again, this is such great information for all of you business owners out there, potential business owners out there Not only should you be focused on making your money, but you want to protect it too, because it's so hard to build a business to a point where you can build those assets. So hello, Thank you so much. It's been wonderful having you on the show today.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It's not what you make, it's what you keep. Love it, love it. Thank you, sir.