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!
Gatsby Glass Franchise Owners Share Secrets to Fast Profitability As Franchise Owners
"From Startup to Profit: A Franchise Success Story"
Dan and Cori Anikstein share how they built a profitable Gatsby Glass franchise in under 18 months. Dan leveraged capital from his previous successful business exit, while Cori brought her digital advertising expertise to create a powerful partnership.
Their hands-on approach and focus on organic growth earned them top recognition within the franchise system.
The couple reveals how their complementary skills drive success—Cori handling client relationships while Dan manages operations—and how franchise ownership offers a different kind of freedom than corporate life.
Text 305-710-0050 to connect with Franchise Insiders for a consultation.
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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. Jill and I are doing something a little different today. We are live at a client, some of our great clients, dan and Corey Anikstein. Hi guys, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having us. So we're actually live in their office, which is a first for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're out of our little podcast studio I know, I love it.
Speaker 3:Normally when I see it, it's a side-by-side yeah, yeah, no, this is different.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting. So we thought this would be exciting because obviously you guys are neighbors and you're now friends, but back in 2023, you guys had just had sort of a career life change.
Speaker 3:Had you just moved to South Florida at that point? No, we moved to south florida in 2020, okay, so covid changed everything, obviously, and cory was working in digital advertising in the city and I owned an insurance brokerage for the last x amount of years and we sold that business and then, uh, direct tv was downsizing and that's when we were looking for something else to do what we said we were going to take some time off, right, yeah, we did not take any time off Three months off.
Speaker 3:And then Corey actually came across Jill's article in Modern Boca Mom and that's how we met you guys.
Speaker 1:It's such a cool story. So Jill was interviewed as a Boca influencer. Was that a top? Boca influencer Boca, mom, yeah, mom influencer.
Speaker 2:Michelle Olson Rogers. So she has a column in Boca Mom, boca Mom, yeah, momfluencer. Michelle Olson Rogers. So she has a column in Boca Magazine and so she picks three people every year. And her and I had, you know, we were friends. She knew what we were doing with Franchise Insiders and I woke up one morning to a text from her that just said surprise, and I had no idea what she was talking about and I opened up my Instagram and I had all of these likes and new followers and I had no idea what happened and turned out she did a feature on me as the franchise mom. So it was very cool, it was unexpected. Thank you, michelle. Yeah, but it was great because she kind of talked about an industry that not a lot of people know about and so it really gained a lot of traction, especially locally, and brought us to you guys and you were in it too, right.
Speaker 4:I was in it actually. Yeah, I was in it a couple months ago, so full circle, but it was a perfect time. I followed Michelle and we were at a turn-in point in our lives career-wise and I just have never heard of a franchise consultant and it was the perfect thing for us. It figured out. You guys helped us figure out what we wanted to do and where we wanted to put our efforts, combined with our industry skills.
Speaker 3:How many franchises are we looking at?
Speaker 4:Jack, a lot right, we look at 50.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and that's what you want to do right so we took you guys through our process.
Speaker 1:You guys took our psychological profiles guys through our process. You guys took our psychological profiles. So we build a model where you guys who also have taken it, compared to other successful franchise owners. Obviously, we also want the human part too, right? So much of this is becoming AI and technology, but it's also hearing you guys and hearing what you want to accomplish and what you like, and so, yeah, you're right, we started with a wide net and then I think we started to focus in on maybe about three or four franchises.
Speaker 4:That's right, but we were all over the place.
Speaker 3:We were in restaurants, yeah, we looked at everything from a restaurant to retail, to fitness, athletics, athletics Poopers, oh the poop, yeah, and then ofers, dog pooping, and then, of course, gatsby.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know what's so interesting is. So you guys were it came down to Gatsby and soccer stars in Vermont. Correct. And even at one point we considered you guys doing both, but when we really waited.
Speaker 4:We didn't do that. Good thing, right.
Speaker 1:And I think we identified rightly that let's start with one. And, by the way, I mean this is something that comes up pretty much every day with us where someone says I think I should do two businesses because it's like shopping Like you want both and it's like you know, maybe start with one and let's come back to it six months later, because it's look, as Jill and I know we operate two businesses.
Speaker 2:It's a lot. It is a lot Having one's enough Always start with one and see where you're at Right. You never know.
Speaker 4:We also didn't know the time we needed for this. We didn't know the skill set. We had two little kids at home. It would have been, you know, dan would have done one. But I think this business works so well because we're doing it together. His skills, my skills, really together, is what makes it successful.
Speaker 2:Can you guys tell us a little bit about Gatsby and then you can ultimately tell us why you chose it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Gatsby is a full service uh interior, residential and commercial glass company.
Speaker 3:We do everything from showers to wine cellars, to glass railings, to a window replings, to window replacements, to exterior railings. Anything you can think of in the glass business is something that we can handle. For example, we've done something as simple as a shower panel, which all the way to something now where we're using a boom lift and changing out windows for Town Center Mall. So we're all over the map and our team comes with the expertise to handle it. So we're all over the map and our team comes with the expertise to handle it. And basically, gatsby, from a branding level, has really helped us get involved in the community and we've done a lot of the foot traffic as well. But I mean, our direct competitor, florida State Glass, is right down the road and we have already, even in our infancy he's been here for X amount of years have come up against each other and we're you know we're not going to take every job, but we've been competitive because our branding is so great and our local specialized office, you know, supports that brand.
Speaker 1:You guys were like the brand champions for Gatsby last year. What was your award that you won?
Speaker 3:Brand champion. We were 2024 brand champion in our first year in business.
Speaker 4:Amazing. So the community involvement, the social media, the influencer campaigns We've done a few so far and just the social media presence. I think the amount of followers we had on Instagram and Facebook just really suppressed every other Gatsby franchise. Well, you guys have done an amazing job.
Speaker 2:I mean, I feel like I know more about Glass and projects than anyone, and it's all from social media. I mean obviously we know you guys just see right your stories and everything that you post and it's amazing because, like you said, it's not just shower panels, you know, there's so many different things, so amazing and it's allowed us that online presence and influence has really been the driving force behind the majority of our relationships.
Speaker 3:That have been the driving force behind our business growth. So all of our designers have come from that. All of our contractors have come from that. So, while the brand as a whole does support paid leads, we don't really focus. We're in the bottom half as far as statistics on paid leads, but we're number two in organic leads in the entire
Speaker 4:system Amazing, and that's what's driven our success. That's great, yeah. Word of leads in the entire system Amazing, and that's what's driven our success. That's great. Yeah, word of mouth is really helpful and people want to do business with people that they've used already, especially in this market. Our Google reviews are outstanding. We get a ton of clients that we've closed deals on because of our Google reviews.
Speaker 1:I looked, you guys have about 75 star reviews Five star, Five star. So I look whenever we do a catch-up call with a client. When a client reaches out, they're six months, 12 months, six years. In First thing, Jill and I do. We go look up their Google reviews and we know, based upon how many they have and the quality, what kind of conversation we're going to have, Um, if someone's contacting us they're 18 months in and they have two Google reviews.
Speaker 2:We know, we know what's coming up.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean I'll say that our client we have a client who, two years into his business, got a seven figure offer for his business. He already had 205 star Google reviews. That tells the story, yeah, um, but I think it's. You know all of this, you guys? I mean, you look at how far you've come. You look at this business. You know, being out there, being involved in the business, that's so crucial. And I think there's a lot of franchise owners out there that have this idea that, hey, I'm going to buy a business and I'll hire a GM and it's just going to run Not this one, and that's the bit. Not any of that.
Speaker 3:No, and, and if you remember, when we spoke before we bought this, you said to me maybe five or six times be involved, be part of everything with the brand. Ignore the bottom people that are talking, go to the top people that are talking, and we've done that and that's contributing to success 100%.
Speaker 1:And look, I was talking to someone as we're expanding Franchise Insiders and talking to potential franchise consultants. I said part of the hardest thing in this business is not every one of our clients is going to succeed Right, 100%. And to talk to someone that isn't successful, now you hope you can help them sell their business or what have you, but it stings and it hurts. But one of the things that will kill your business as a franchise owner is talking to underperformers.
Speaker 4:The negative.
Speaker 1:Because they will try and call you they have. They're going to want to bitch and complain. They have, and your mind needs to be on revenue generating activities.
Speaker 3:We are focused on the day-to-day of this business and we're focused on how we can get better every single day. We have failures every day. We have failures every day. We have successes every day, but if we learn, and what I say to Corey all the time and I say to the guys all the time is I don't care if you fail to a certain extent but learn learn, learn.
Speaker 4:If you don't learn, then we have a problem. Right, you're making the same mistake constantly.
Speaker 1:Well, it's interesting that you brought up doing a boom lift for a job. Yeah, we do those two. We don't have one, we rent them. We do as well. So our GM the other day, we we have a commercial job that we're working and he's like I've got to get a boom lift for it. But it's great, we're gonna do. This is an app. But when we analyze it, I'm like remember, you have to take into account our hours, you have to take into account all this. So, yes, while getting a five, six thousand000 job is exciting, if we're just breaking even on it and it's a commercial job that's going to take a month to pay us.
Speaker 3:It's not worth it to take you really have to look at the whole job and everything involved.
Speaker 2:So you can get excited by the brand names or the commercial or something like that, but in the end it's what's going to make business.
Speaker 1:What's going?
Speaker 2:to generate that income.
Speaker 1:He did something. I'm sorry to jump in on you, but he did something very smart. He then went to the client and said listen. The owner came back to me and said we can't do this job because this boom lift is going to kill any profit. He's like you, show me the line item and I'll pay for it.
Speaker 1:So you know again it's these little things that we learn and before we started the podcast, the four of us were talking about the lessons we've learned working with blue collar workers versus, you know, working in white collar industries in the past, and these are things that we're learning.
Speaker 4:And, I think, the first year. Even now, we're still learning. Every day. We're learning things, you know, whether it be about a railing, glass railing, whether it be about permit, whether it be you know a stake we made, we're always learning and I think that's what's going to make us more successful is the experience in the job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we filed two permits for jobs. I mean, I've dealt with permits in my previous career, but never with actually filing them and dealing with the counties and doing all that stuff. So everything is an experience and everything pushes us further and further to the ultimate goal of what we want to do which is succeed, you know whatever your definition of succession is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, agreed, and I think having conversations too, even just talking to you guys, you know we face a lot of similar issues and so finding out how you guys resolved a problem versus what we've done, that also just really helps. So, whether you a franchise call with your you know fellow franchisees or just anyone local or friends, it's so good to hear, and also good to hear, that you're not alone, and seriously no, even just before we started, yeah, we're all going through the same problems.
Speaker 4:Yeah, challenges, and I think you and I spoke, maybe like a year or so ago, how challenges working together with your husband. You know it's a big deal, it's a big change in our relationship. It's, you know, a home dynamic versus work dynamic how to stop work at work and bring home stuff.
Speaker 2:Do you do that? Because we don't, I don't do that.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, no. But it's easier, it's nice to think about, but I think just he has his own, dan has his own role about, but I think just he has his own, dan has his own role, I have my own role and it's trying to to, you know, keep that separate so that we don't cross each other.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, Corey is really great and one of the things that she said earlier about doing two different businesses why it wouldn't have worked. Corey's great with clients. I'm good with clients. When there's a problem, I'm not forward facing. I'm much better dealing with the guys dealing with operations, dealing with finances, all that type of stuff Organization, Organization right. Corey's great as a frontline contact to these clients.
Speaker 4:And some of them are great, Like any business.
Speaker 3:some of them can be really difficult and we value every relationship that we have with every client and Corey's voice comes through as caring and nurturing and she's able to calm these clients down and then if there's a problem, then it will come to me, for you know a resolution, and finding that balance is really important.
Speaker 2:You know it's taken us a while to find ours too, but then, once you find it, you know how to work with each other. It really does change, and we've been working together for a long time, long time, even when we had separate jobs, jobs.
Speaker 2:We were still working in the same room together we've been doing this for a long time, but it does. It takes a while to kind of settle into and I remember when we started, even franchise insiders we were talking about okay, you'll do this and you'll do this kind of changes you know, it's not exactly that but you find where you find your groove.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, it's like our whole dynamic is so co-mingled. It's like simple things, like people ask hey, which car is yours?
Speaker 2:I'm like no, they're just there and you just take the one you want to take.
Speaker 1:We don't look at it that way, but I think that that's. I grew up watching my parents work together.
Speaker 4:Mine too, and so they brought it home, mine too, and I didn't know about you.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, what did your parents do?
Speaker 4:they own a small. They still do actually own a small business, uh, kids coloring activity, yeah. So they worked together for how many years? For like 35 years.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, they've been together for almost six, yeah they're still yeah and they're still married yes because the business is good for you yeah
Speaker 4:yeah, gives you gives you purpose and I've been doing entrepreneurship since 2006.
Speaker 3:This is Corey's first foray into the non-corporate world, and I don't care if you own a franchise or you own a newsstand, if you own it for yourself it's different and you've already built a business and had a successful exit correct, and, as I recall, a highly successful exit, which is wonderful.
Speaker 1:and it's like, as we talk about these businesses and is wonderful. And it's like, as we talk about these businesses and the conversations we have, it's like when people ask, why did we buy five units of pinks. We sort of had the end in mind, right, I was thinking about what would be most interesting to private equity, right, what would be most interesting to the kind of buyer I want to attract, and I know I want to own Palm Beach County and I know I need the business to eventually make a million dollars a year. No one promised me that, no one said I'm going to do that, but that's what our goal is and we feel like that gives us more options. So we kind of started with the end goal in mind rather than the hey, I just need to get to profitability in three seconds, which, as franchise consultants, we have to coach people out of a lot.
Speaker 3:Well, the most successful people start with the 10-year goal in mind and work backwards. Right, yeah, right, it's not about what's going to happen in one month. How do you get to the 10 years and what do you need to do every single day to get to that mark? Right, exactly, that's how you do it.
Speaker 4:But I also think having you head your own business helps me Like. Helps me Like there are times when you know money. It's, it's hard. I don't have a salary like I used to, so Dan helps walk me up a cliff when the salary is not there. So it's, it's very different, but you know the end goal in mind.
Speaker 3:it's it's head down, keep going to to get there, but it's yeah, I mean, as we sit here in April of of of year two, um cause I really don't even count September to December of 23.
Speaker 2:I really don't.
Speaker 4:We had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 3:Yep, our help, had no idea what they were doing. We, in earnest, started this business in January of 24. And here we sit in April of 25. We are profitable, yeah, which is a huge step up. Yeah, and I don't care if you're profitable by $5,000, $5. Look at what it is. Don't care if you're profitable by $5,000, $5, look at what it is and and and take it for what it's worth. Something is working to get to that profitability, um, and we are there now knock on board.
Speaker 1:So we were just having a conversation before we started the podcast, which was and it's a very it's, it's an important question that every home services franchise owner faces, which is okay. We're at this scale point. When do we add the second band and we were having the conversation which is an advantage of business ownership is the company leases to own. That For most of you out there who are starting new franchises, we've seen the SBA recommend that people just write a check for the truck and pay in full. And most people I'm like why on earth would you ever take 50 to 100,000 out of your working capital and sink it into a depreciating? Don't do ever so. And if you lease to own, you can capture the section 179. So now you guys have this profitable business. Profitable business, excuse me you go get the next van and next year you capture the whole 27,000. Correct, if you want Correct.
Speaker 3:Or you can space it out Exactly Whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1:So there are huge advantages as business owners that we have in making these decisions and timing them out 100%. And congrats on hitting profitability. Yeah, yeah, it's great. Thank you, it feels good.
Speaker 3:Now it's about continuing to build this team. In this industry, the team is ever evolving, from a skill set standpoint, from a time standpoint, from an operational standpoint. We have three guys on staff now, but we are always looking. We are always looking at resumes, we are always looking at replacement, we are always looking at can we bring somebody on better that can do a better job.
Speaker 3:Does this person compliment this other person? We're also rounding out the office staff now. We're going to bring somebody on better that can do a better job. Does this person compliment this other person? We're also rounding out the office staff now. We're going to bring somebody in to help us, but bring somebody in with experience, but also managing the costs as well.
Speaker 4:You know, making sure that our ROI is, you know that we're still profitable, because every time you add someone's salary, yes, they're skilled, but are they going to make us go back? You know, back in the red, so you need their value to equal Exactly can we make more sales with the new office person Is this third installer, second truck gonna be much more profitable? So that's where we also have to delve in and I think we're doing a good job slowly. You know we're walking, jogging there much quicker than we ever anticipated.
Speaker 3:I used to have a client in the insurance business. He was a lawyer. He was an attorney but was big in the art world and had multiple houses, whatever, and we always used to sit there and he would be spending and spending, and spending. And now he actually works down here in Miami for Sotheby's. He sells luxury real estate and he always used to say to me spend above and work your ass off to get there is what he always used to say to me spend above and work your ass off to get there is what he always used to say Um, it's hard to do, but you look at the most wealthy people spending it right.
Speaker 3:You look at the most wealthy people. That's the way they.
Speaker 1:You can't save your way at the top. Um and like, the world is too expensive now to. I mean it. Just it's gotten insane how expensive it is to do everything. To I mean it's gotten insane how expensive it is to do everything. I have a question for you guys Commercial versus residential?
Speaker 3:what does that split for you percentage-wise at this point? 70-30 residential. Okay, so we're headed in the commercial direction. A lot of the other markets in Gatsby went commercial first. Some of them succeeded, some of them did not.
Speaker 3:We felt for us and it was just a personal based decision that we wanted to work and get our cadence from an operational standpoint in residential. Know what we're doing. I wanted to learn how to price. I wanted to learn parts. I wanted to learn calculations and weighted glass, everything I could possibly learn, so that when Corey comes to me at nine o'clock at night and says, hey, I need this price, I don't have to wait until the next day for James to get in. We can get this price. We get it done. We know how to get a shower door in and out, a slider in and out. Commercial You're dealing with OSHA. You're dealing with boom lifts. You're dealing with um protective equipment. You're dealing with a much different scale. And even as we enter into commercial, we're not entering in where, hey, we're going to take an entire Toyota dealership over. We're changing out windows. We're going small. We feel that it's better to navigate. God forbid something goes wrong on a smaller opportunity where we can correct it a lot faster and keep our reputation alive.
Speaker 4:But the sales cycle also. The sales cycle and the payment terms from client, like commercial clients are much longer, so we had to fill our bank, for example, with a lot of jobs to fill up before we can get to the end. Yeah, close the deal before we can they sound great you know I sound like you but now 30 and 60
Speaker 1:exactly if you want to take on commercial jobs, you better have at least 50K sitting in your business bank account Exactly. And that's the part of it Like Jill was saying, they sound great and like we started to get all these commercial accounts. But it's like, oh, wow, that's going to be a little bit of a game there. And so we learned okay, hold on, We've got to space it out, We've got to put residential jobs in the middle, 100%.
Speaker 1:But you know, again, it's important to understand those terms and to understand that you're going to be carrying the load with pay.
Speaker 3:We all cut tabletops here for $250 because it only cost us $13 to make the tabletop. So you've got to look at everything. You can't just look at the overall value of a ticket. We stock all of our own mirrors, all of our own glass, so we can cut everything in shop, get it out to a client really quickly, it gets a good reputation, it opens it up for more business with that client and it's a profitability monster. So, we do everything, from the $200 tabletop to the $50,000 account.
Speaker 1:So let's put what the business does aside. You guys are home services franchise owners. You've, I think, succeeded in a relatively short period of time. What separates you from other home services franchise owners that maybe haven't been as successful as fast? What? What have you guys done that you think has helped you be more successful?
Speaker 3:we I mean outside of work our tail off. Yeah, we, because that you have to do, no matter what you own. We leaned in Once we made the commitment to go for it. We committed and I think a lot of the people don't commit. I also think that that GM position is more of a bottleneck position than an actual help. I think people will lean on that position a bit too much, where they think that that person's going to run your business for you. If that position wasn't provided to you in the scale from the franchise, would you ever let somebody else run your business for you? I think the answer is no. So we went full force and I think also the biggest thing also is we're the face of the clients. The clients know who they're speaking to. They know that they're gonna come to us if there's a problem, and I think that's really helped.
Speaker 4:And the passion they see, the caring we give advice. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't always win the business, but at least we're giving advice that we feel they need. It's an industry where there's a lot of people that are doing the exact same thing, but if we can show that we care and we're going to, you know, help educate them, I think it goes a long way.
Speaker 3:Replication over revenue is the best way to sum it up yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's look, franchise owners make the franchise special. Yeah, it's like you can put someone in a Ferrari, but they still have to drive it.
Speaker 4:Correct.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, you know. So it comes down to us, and I think you've uncovered something that's really important. You can't put it all in a GM. No, most GMs are not making, you know, million-dollar salaries. It's not their business either.
Speaker 4:Right, they don't own it. Right, they can go to another company next week.
Speaker 2:Right, and they will you have to help them?
Speaker 4:They will, they will, they will, they will, they will.
Speaker 1:So you have to do things and I think both of us have done things to help our GMs feel like they have some ownership in the company and, look, all these things, all these businesses, are assets to us, right? We want it to grow.
Speaker 1:It leads to other places Like this is part of it too that we say to people is the franchisor should ultimately help you become a better business owner. You know everyone wants to be the next, you know, big, successful entrepreneur. And sometimes people are like should I own a franchise or should I go buy a mom and pop? And our contention has always been start with the franchise learn all these lessons from them.
Speaker 1:Like we were at dinner with a friend of ours who they are franchisors, but before he was a franchisor he was a franchise owner and he was the most successful franchise owner at a really well-known franchise. Then he identified something in a similar space, he bought it, franchised it and now you know he's grown it into a massive company. That's great, that's fabulous, but it's because of the lessons he learned. So that's, I think all of us, in our quest to you know, want to be the next, whatever. Sometimes it's just step by step.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we've actually rebranded that GM role internally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't even call it GM anymore, because I don't think you're setting up that person for success. We now call it director of operations is what we use that term. I mean that makes sense and that's what he focuses on. It's helped him narrow down that he's ahead of the operations, his team reports to him, he's responsible for the warehouse, he's responsible for on-site activity and anything technical goes through him. So we felt that that's helped and I just think that's a lot to put on somebody that is not experienced in business.
Speaker 2:And no one's perfect. So you're going to get someone in that role that's very good at certain things and not others. So if you modify the role, for them that's going to help everyone succeed.
Speaker 4:They can't do everything.
Speaker 2:When we first started. You know the GM was going to have the GM roles, but also sales and that's a lot to put on someone. So you know you have to look at okay, actually is this person better at sales or operations and how can you help them in the area that maybe isn't?
Speaker 4:as strong.
Speaker 2:So you know, I think that to not have to stick to that, I think the franchisors are great with giving you the blueprint and here's the direction, but to have some flexibility I think that's when people really stand out is to, you know, say this isn't working for us. Here, specifically, I always talk about this. But you know, for us, with Pinks, the seasonality right, the summer is awful for us whereas most people's summer is great, right, but for us it's not.
Speaker 2:So we need a little bit of flexibility around that time and we really had to kind of change. And they weren't predicting that either. So it's also us giving them that feedback and saying by the way there are some places where you know summer is your down, you know your down market.
Speaker 4:So and that helps them. That happened with us. We got you know. The franchise sent us all our apparel and conference stuff and they gave us. Well, they were suggesting we needed a certain amount of sweatshirts and a certain amount of long sleeve stuff and I said no there's no way, my sellers are wearing sweatshirts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah stuff. And I said, no, there's no way. My sellers are wearing a sweatshirt, right? So, yeah, yeah. So so we helped them above also. But but back to the franchise versus, um, owning your own company. I think the, the franchise gives you the blueprint to succeed, um, but it's up to us as business owners to make it succeed. They helped us, they got us collateral, they helped us with marketing, social media, anything to start the business. But then we had to take it and grow it and put our blood, sweat and tears into it.
Speaker 2:And you guys do help them too. I mean that's the other thing. It's really important to know that being a good franchisee and being successful is going to help them also understand and, you know, give you guys the role of brand ambassador. The franchisee is learning as they go along as well.
Speaker 3:I mean right there we were the first market for Gatsby Glass in Florida. They had no idea that we needed a contractor's license to operate. So once we went through that process which of course was painful for us we gave back the information to the franchisor, which helped Tampa open, miami open, west Palm open. The more you give to them, the more they're going to be able to give to other people, which makes the brand more successful, which helps build the location Today.
Speaker 1:We had, right before we met with you guys, we had our weekly Pink's sales call. Cody Sanchez came on today I mean that's a huge, freaking deal and she came on and she said you guys are hearing a lot of market noise right now. Don't pay attention to that. That's not going to affect your business, and she's right, it's not affecting me. We've got already this morning three new leads People are going to wash their windows, they're going to improve their homes. It has nothing to do with this trade war that's going on. And she was like look, you know you guys need to focus on our wins and to have her come down from all the things she's doing. That's.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves.
Speaker 2:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:So at this mark in the podcast, I always like to ask what advice would you guys offer to someone out there? And there's a lot of people who listen and watch this podcast who are saying should I do this, Should I not do this? What advice do you guys have for a new franchise owner?
Speaker 3:Well, the first advice is work with somebody like you guys that's experienced in this industry, because you can't just go.
Speaker 1:That's the perfect answer? Well, seriously, because if you walk in blind, I would think that would be you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, agreed, um, that's number one. Number two patience. You gotta have patience If you're looking to become ramped up in the first five months. That's just not going to happen, right? You need to be patient, you need to be um you're going to fail.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're going to fail, yeah.
Speaker 3:You need to be uh involved, you need to be um uh intertwined with your team. Um, I think the more present you are, the more successful you're going to be. That would be my best advice.
Speaker 4:That's my best advice Grow thick skin yeah.
Speaker 3:We're here every day, eight to six, sometimes Weekends, you know. But that's just the way that I always run my companies Always, and that's just the level of passion that we have.
Speaker 4:But if you can't do that, you need to be as involved as you possibly can and be passionate. I think if you're passionate about something, it'll shine through. You know you're selling something, but but you're selling something that you care about and I think people will see that as well, you guys have your shirts on.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is you know, we, we. So we've been adding, we're adding to our team, um, to the franchise insiders, and we're adding other franchise owners who want to become franchise consultants. A couple of people have asked us this question, which we've kind of been taken aback with, which is how many hours a week do you think I'll need? And I'm like as many as it takes.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean it's not our favorite answer, it is how it should be.
Speaker 1:What is it going to take? How can I help? I mean, it's's just we've never looked at it that way, but somehow we've been able to manage business, personal, but you can do it all. And when you work for yourself, you probably do work harder and you probably do work more, but you probably have more freedom and control than you ever yeah, I have not worked for some corporations since 2004.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is no way. No way, I would ever, ever go back to working for somebody else no way.
Speaker 4:The freedom right, You're working hard, but it's a different kind of working hard. I pick the kids up at 4 o'clock. I can either take a call from the car or I can get back online after I put them to bed. It's a different kind of freedom.
Speaker 2:And you want to, you want to, you want to, you're to. It's still why you want. You're working for yourself, right? You know? You know what you put into it, you're gonna get out of it so it's so different when you're in the corporate world.
Speaker 4:You're just doing it for somebody else, and it's more rewarding, right, like you feel it like we made a sale this morning on that antique mirror wine room. It felt so good, right, great, you know, I'm like damn, make the contract, like hurry up, let's get this it's exciting and you're not.
Speaker 2:you're so much more motivated to get that contract out fast when it's something that really benefits you and you see the work you put into it and I would say also for other prospective owners.
Speaker 3:Leverage the industry. Go around, talk to as many people that are willing to talk to you. We're very lucky in this industry. My uncle's been in this industry for 50 years, so we're very lucky that we were able in the early days, to bounce things off of him to get our contract set up the proper way.
Speaker 2:We're using his contract.
Speaker 3:His contract's been around for 30 years, so you're talking about. Every experience that this business went through has been put in this contract, which helps us. His knowledge, yeah, but anything you can do to leverage your intelligence before you open, you know, because a lot of these franchisors at least our experience, phase one and phase two are great, but you've got to get out there. We had competitors come to our house give us pricing. You've got to do market research. You've got to invest in your business and invest in yourself.
Speaker 1:There's always going to be competition. I think again the advantage of these brands that we have Gatsby Glass, pink's Windows, we're going to have the stronger brand than Chuck and the truck, but we still have to go out there and execute. So that's what we get on day one is, we get these brands, um, and we now have to go out.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and you have to. You have, like you said, it's the relationships too. We had a neighbor across the street ask us to quote power washing and he is a wonderful lady that does it for peanuts you know, and we said you know what, if she's doing that, please do that.
Speaker 4:Keep her. That's a great deal.
Speaker 2:But if you're going to work with us, it's not going to be that price, but you're going to get a different level of service from our team.
Speaker 4:We always go through this because you know we're not the cheapest, we're not the most expensive, but I'm like I want to win the deal. We can't be the and Dan always says we can't be the cheapest because we're not. We have the service, we have the quality and we can't be the cheapest. So if you're going to be on price, then we're not going to always win it, but we're going to give you the best quality, the best install there is as long as they know that value and you have a relationship, they will ultimately come to you when this person realizes that.
Speaker 3:And going back to the brand for a second, we've had a bunch of installers come through here yeah the french, the franchisor, to their credit, did that truck that we have. Every installer has said, wow, this is the greatest truck I've ever seen. Well, every installer you got an inside rack, you got the outside, got this, you got that. It's the greatest truck. So we show up on day one. That's the benefit of a franchise that would have taken us three years right to get to a truck like that.
Speaker 3:And who knows if you're driving around as a truck, in a truck, you may not make it that far. So, here's the keys on day one. Now it's up to you to drive it to the right place Our franchise.
Speaker 1:They did the van like yours for us, the things like insurance, like we had that through them, All the things like even naming our DBA, all that stuff. And I've said franchise, know franchise insiders, every possible mistake you can make figuring out a whole business ourselves.
Speaker 4:I've made it, Jill didn't make any mistakes Right right, right right, but I made every single mistake, but also that's as a franchise consultant.
Speaker 1:that's how I can help guide clients now. Because I'm like you know we want ES clients now, cuz I'm like you know we've got yesterday and I'm like do yourself a favor, hire a good account from yeah, yeah, don't mess around, lawyer, do the taxes. We say never stand by lawyers and account yeah, ever.
Speaker 3:I've been using the same account since 2002.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, and he's done every company.
Speaker 3:He's done every buyout.
Speaker 4:Yes, on every everything and a franchise lawyer as well, and a French lawyer on a person we still, which we still use.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right Did you. You gave me Matt. He's awesome.
Speaker 1:He's the best Thank.
Speaker 3:God.
Speaker 2:And one thing I'll say about Matt anytime.
Speaker 3:I even have a question, he'll answer it, Does not even charge. He's the best. He just answers it, he's great, he's so great.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He's a really good guy. You guys, I think you have said it all.
Speaker 4:I didn't know what we were going to say. I'm never at a loss for words.
Speaker 1:But I think this is really cool. It's so neat to be local with clients. I'm so happy that you guys are already profitable. It's exciting. Go get your second van, yes, but I think it's neat to sit here at the table and see what you guys have done. And just for anyone out there who also would like to consider this text us 305-710-0050. We'd be happy to provide a free franchise consultation and for this episode I'm Jack.
Speaker 2:I'm Jill, I'm Corey, I'm.
Speaker 1:Daniel, good to have you guys Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 4:Thanks so much, it was fun Thank you.