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!
Building Success Stories: How Two Best Friends Found Their Path in Franchise Ownership
Childhood best friends turned successful franchise owners Kathryn Allen and Morgan Noller reveal their remarkable journey from selling scrunchies as kids to becoming top-performing Soccer Stars franchisees in this captivating conversation.
These dynamic entrepreneurs speak candidly about their transitions from corporate careers to business ownership, sharing how they've managed to double growth rates, achieve system-wide recognition, and create thriving businesses while balancing the demands of motherhood. Their contrasting approaches—Kathryn focusing on B2C enrollment while Morgan excels at B2B partnerships—demonstrate the flexibility within franchise systems.
What truly stands out is their strategic approach to business building. Initially focused on revenue growth and establishing quality programs, they've evolved to carefully analyzing profit margins and optimizing operations. Both credit their success to thoughtful delegation, identifying their strengths, and building strong team cultures that minimize turnover. As Kathryn explains, "The coaches are the heart and soul of our company," which is why investing in their development and creating meaningful work environments has been crucial to their success.
Perhaps most valuable is their honest assessment of the franchise model's advantages. While acknowledging they could have built independent soccer coaching businesses, both agree franchising accelerated their growth timeline by years. The systems, support, and lessons learned from other franchisees allowed them to avoid common pitfalls and scale rapidly. Now, they're expanding their entrepreneurial portfolios as franchise consultants with The Franchise Insiders, particularly passionate about helping more women discover the opportunities in franchise ownership.
Ready to explore how franchise ownership might transform your life? Visit thefranchiseinsiders.com to learn more and connect with Kathryn or Morgan directly. And stay tuned for their upcoming podcast, "BFFs: Best Friends in Franchising," where they'll continue sharing insights from their entrepreneurial journey.
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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, I'm Jill Johnson and we're here with two very special guests, two guests that you guys are going to learn so much from, and also a record-setting guest, because, catherine Allen, this is your second time on our podcast. For those of you that are longtime listeners, you'll remember, catherine joined us about a year ago. She is an owner of a Soccer Stars franchise in the Bay Area. We also have another Soccer Stars franchise owner with us. We have Morgan Knoller. Both of them are top performers. Hey guys, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Hi Rachel, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Of course and we're thrilled right, Because listen for those of you listening out here with Catherine, you have the system wide MVP of 2024. And you have Morgan, who's like this killer, like closer at going out and getting like big accounts. They both are growing like crazy, and so, since we have two of you guys on the line, I think the best thing for us to do is maybe start off with a little bit of order. Morgan, let's start with you. Tell us what has it been like to be a franchise owner, what's been your experiences, and tell us about you.
Speaker 3:Yes, so it's been amazing. I think we also want to talk a little bit about our backstory. Catherine and I met before preschool, right? Catherine is a long time ago, so we've grown up together and to be franchise owners in the same company is kind of bizarre. We never saw this happening for ourselves. We did start a scrunchie company when we were very young and we sold a lot of scrunchies that summer. The company did not last past the one summer, but we've always been kind of that entrepreneurial spirit where I think best friends like to talk about a lot of things, but rarely do women talk about business, and Catherine and I have always been that way.
Speaker 3:It's not just about family life or social life, we want to talk about business. What's our next venture? Where are we going? So the franchise world was probably always going to happen for me and when I came to Catherine she immediately introduced me to you, jack and Jill, and I met your podcast and started listening and it was a very easy decision to go down this path. I never thought it would be Soccer Stars. I thought it was a brick and mortar. I was a coffee shop, something glamorous, that I could just kind of be absentee in. That was also something on my list, so being a franchise owner in Soccer Stars has been very rewarding. It's probably the best job I could ask for. It's so fun to have coaches on the field, kids on the field and I love the support from corporate and it's just a great group of franchisees.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome. Well, catherine, you've got a tough act to follow there.
Speaker 2:I really do, morgan, you're made for this. Yeah, so being a franchise owner never saw that coming either. Worked for a senior care franchise for 13 years as the head of marketing, so I was there building out all the marketing systems and writing the collateral website, all the things to help support all these franchise owners, and I loved that. I loved watching these owners be successful and, um, you know, so that was, that was, uh, that was really fabulous at that.
Speaker 1:By the way, for all of you listening, catherine and I worked at the same home care franchise and she's right. I mean I was just thinking about it because we're all actually going to a conference this weekend, a Franchise Conference, and I was thinking about it actually about an hour ago. All the work we used to put into those conferences, catherine, all like the prep for the franchisees and making sure that we had great content for them, and you did such a great job of always sort of quarterbacking that I was always so impressed.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, so I mean walking that journey and then, when that journey was coming to a close, introduce more again to you about her franchise journey and doing so. It's like, hey, jack, let's catch up. Um, and you know, talk to me about franchising, jack and Jill, and now I'm, you know, soccer Stars.
Speaker 2:I just celebrated my two-year anniversary in July July 9th to be specific and, yeah, mvp, the first year, I've doubled my growth already. I have lofty goals and plan to exceed said set goals per usual. And now, joining the Franchise Insiders team, I'm so excited to work with other business executives, moms and different people and really share just the joy that franchising has brought me the flexibility to be with my kids and be there for all the moments that I would be missing, like volunteering, taking them to sports practices, things like that. In my corporate job nine to five or six on back to back zoom calls wouldn't have that right, like I wouldn't be able to do that, but now I can, and I can build a business that I'm proud of and brings me so much joy, happiness, meaning, purpose, watching my coaches out there with these kids, reconnecting with the community partners it's just all of it has been great and so super excited to be on the Franchise Insiders team and able to share this with other potential people looking for franchise ownership.
Speaker 1:I love that and, for those of you keeping score, catherine and Morgan, they both joined us as franchise consultants and we're very excited to have them and there's there's a lot to unpack in what Catherine said. I think the first place I want to go and I know you, you probably have places that you want to go to, but I I think goal setting. I think Catherine mentioned you mentioned goal setting and I know that whenever Jill and I have had a big year, it's always been because we have set a goal. We've said this is where we want to end up. Maybe you guys can talk to us about goal setting for franchisees and how, the importance of it and your opinions on the subject.
Speaker 2:Or do you want to go first?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think so. Goal setting is hugely important for a franchisee. I think building your business out, knowing where you want to go every year, is very important. For me, soccer Stars started as something very part-time. I didn't have huge goals in mind, I just wanted to make a little bit of money on the side and do something fun and be a franchise owner. And then, as I went into year two, I realized this could be big. This is exciting. So that's when the goals changed. At first it was just get profitable, grow, grow, grow. And now it's okay. The growth is there, the relationships are there. I'm now getting called for business, which is exciting.
Speaker 3:So my new goal is then what kind of profit can I get? Not revenue. The revenue is there, and it's been there for a long time, and I think that's very important for franchisees to understand when they go into setting their goals. What is the revenue? Sure, you have revenue, you can make a million dollars, but what's the profit? And so, looking at the profit and loss, I think for me specifically and maybe Catherine can speak to this a goal of ours was obviously to get the revenue, but it was never to look at the profit and loss as a tool to use. It felt like a report, because when you're a new franchisee and you're looking at all these goals, there's so many systems and operations in place. I think the profit and loss feels like it's a report card or something that you're kind of giving a teacher and now going into the new goals and the growth and the profit that I really want to see. I'm using that profit and loss statement monthly as a giant tool to make sure that those goals are going to be met Huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, like Morgan, I think you know, at the beginning it was just fast and furious like build this program. My goal was build a quality, the quality, utmost quality program while growing as fast as possible. That was year one. Then you start having that data coming in, right, like the P&L that Morgan referenced, and you can see the numbers. And so then it was like okay, like revenues coming in, that's great.
Speaker 2:And what's great about franchising is the franchisor gives you those numbers. So for us, we know what, for example, payroll, so perfect example. My whole thing was quality right, and I had different goals. I don't want my coaches calling off last minute training making sure they're executing on the curriculum. So I created incentive plans to incentivize those behaviors and the goal of the quality.
Speaker 2:And then from there, so that first year my payroll was a little high and corporate flagged that and they said, catherine, we got to get that percentage back down in line where it's supposed to be. So this year my goal has been okay, I need to be at the 28% and so I'm at 30% right now, but I've been watching that every month and so keeping within that goal and then just in terms of growth. Again, this is why a franchise is beautiful. You have the corporate team holding you accountable, giving you the tools. We have something called the business builder. This is the number of locations you need to be adding. We have a CRM, all the things to ensure that we're setting those goals, hitting those goals, and the team holds us accountable, which is again why I like franchising, because if you were doing this on your own, you don't necessarily have that built-in accountability buddy.
Speaker 1:You got to go out and find it yourself very true yeah, I mean, I think you being in year two, having payroll under 30 percent, that's, that's excellent. Uh, you know, I think anytime you can honestly get it, excluding a manager, if you can get your labor below 40, you're doing really well. So clearly you guys have that figured out and I'm so glad you brought this up because you're right. I really do think first year is all about focusing on growing the revenue, understanding what you're getting into becoming a franchise owner, not focusing as much on damn, I've got to be profitable. No know that year one is an investing time. Year two is where we can start to sharpen the pencil.
Speaker 1:I will say that, as a team at Franchise Insiders, this is something we're trying to arm our clients with, our franchise searching clients. And, for those of you who don't know, our tagline is franchise owners helping future franchise owners. Every one of us Morgan, catherine, myself and Jill either current or former franchise owners, and we can really help you guys understand what it's like. And so one of the tools we just created is an exit strategy planner, because we are seeing so much now what people are looking for in terms of exit planner, because we are seeing so much now what people are looking for in terms of exit what what EBITDA number that is, and so that's a tool that that is almost ready for public release that we think will really benefit franchise owners. I think as they start to grow and have that aiming point, okay, I want my EBITDA to be here so that I can sell my business for this, so it's great to have an exit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I think, speaking of exit point, my question for you two is how has the transition from the corporate world or from what you were doing previously to becoming a franchise owner, like how did you guys find that? What were the good things, the more challenging things Can you just share a little bit about your experience? The more challenging things?
Speaker 2:Can you just share a little bit about your experience?
Speaker 2:So I think that this is interesting. So in the corporate world, you have a very defined role, right? Well, if you're in a startup, maybe you wear many hats, and so through my progression and my last job, I did wear many hats, but at the end of the day I was marketing. That's what I was doing. Right, when you go into franchise ownership at the beginning, if you don't have a general manager right away which I did not I was that business owner model wearing all the hats.
Speaker 2:Marketing is an area I love. It's an area I think I'm pretty good at and I'm comfortable with Legal accounting, hr. Those aren't recruiting, those weren't my skill sets or my knowledge base, I think just for new franchise owners. And then in a given day you're going like, okay, I got to drive enrollment for my classes and now I need to hire coaches and, um, you know whatever that is. You're kind of going between the different things.
Speaker 2:But then the beauty becomes as you grow and you realize even me, coming from marketing, I marketing, that's such a broad term you kind of realize, okay, and again like this is what I like to do. You know you're the boss, you own your own business. So the whole point of this is like okay, what do you like to do, what are you good at? And then everything else you delegate and hire someone else to do so. With my manager, whitney, that's what I've done Like six, eight months in. She started as a coach and then she came in and now is my manager, my right hand. I couldn't be here without her. Love Whitney, but she does all the things training, all the things that I just don't want to, that are very important but I just don't want to be doing. And so I'm focused on the vision and the growth of the company and the marketing and the business development, because that's what I like and she's doing everything else. That is, again, equally important, but not what I want to be spending my time on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree with what Catherine said. I think the big transition for me I was doing corporate event planning right before this, so I was still wearing a lot of hats, but it was very narrowly focused. I think when you do start as an owner operator, it is all of the hats and the biggest thing was the race to replace. Where do I want to replace myself and how fast can I replace what I'm doing?
Speaker 3:Marketing was not my background. I love operations, systems, finances, all of that. Shockingly, with how creative I am, I'm more like give me the system, give me the finances, give me something that's very, you know, just very strict and something to follow and I can do it. But the marketing was somewhere I wanted to replace myself right away and then just starting to work smarter. I think I didn't have to work that smart before because it was so easy to find business and I wasn't trying to scale at the time. So using a virtual assistant, using AI, using things that can help us right away to replace where we can, has helped both of us be just that much better as owners.
Speaker 1:So what do you guys think is more difficult at this point? Finding and retaining quality employees or finding and retaining?
Speaker 3:That's tough. I don't know that either. It's that hard? I don't know. Catherine and I we have really good group of coaches. I think we I've heard you talk about it on the podcast before Jack and Jill about how it comes from the franchise owner, right. So Catherine and I and I know we talk a little bit different in the way that we do our business models, but we both focus a lot on just keeping the coaches happy and giving them that kind of environment where they don't want to leave. So it's very rare that we have coaches that we're trying to turn over quickly.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of them are young, so I would say that's probably the most difficult, as they're moving on and up in the world, which is amazing. It's a wonderful resume builder for them. And then the business once it's secured, I mean, it's yours to lose, right. So soccer a lot of my contracts are contract pay, so it's not parent pay and it's through districts, school districts, things like that, and that's just about building relationships. So a lot of B2B versus B2C for me and that's not something that you lose. So I guess, if I had to answer, maybe there's more turnover, for sure with the coaches, but not a ton. We're pretty lucky that we have a great group.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say that I feel very grateful and fortunate to have such an amazing team of coaches. You guys know I've spoken about this how much I care about culture and building a solid culture, and that was one of my strategies out the gate, because I believe the coaches hurt. You know, it's like home care, like the heart and soul of our company, and so I pay them well, I recognize them, I do all the things that you know gives, give them meaning and purpose and meet the needs that they have. And so I'm pretty again, yeah, there's a turnover of kids who go to college and things like that, because they're younger, Some of them, not all of them, but no, I feel very fortunate in that area.
Speaker 2:And then, in the sense of what Morgan talked about with, like the B2B, yeah, like once you get the account, like with the school, you know and you're in there, like again, very lucky, like just do a good job, and we've been lucky in doing a good job and we're still there. Breaking into new accounts is just, you know, continuing to add, but we're holding onto those customers. And for the B to C, for my open enrollment, because that is a big percentage of my business, yeah, I mean, I think there's just, I don't know, there's a churn with soccer, like some kids you know you have a child like it might some people just want to do it seasonally. It's not necessarily like a year round thing, even though we're year round. But yeah, I, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I think that I mean honestly, I think I hear it and see it with both of you. It's a commitment to wanting to create a good culture to take care of your employees. I think that's really part of the fun of being a business owner. It's leading, it's teaching, it's helping, it's wanting to. Yes, of course, we want to invest in a business and we want to build a successful business and we want to make money we all do and owning a business is the American dream. It's your ability to really go out there and build something.
Speaker 1:I mean, as I sit here, I've got my family's sign from our general store from the nice hanging over here and I'm sure maybe it only made a couple hundred bucks a year, but I'm so proud of it and it's like the one of my most cherished possessions because it shows that my, my family, from the very beginning coming over from Sweden, became entrepreneurs and, um, it's just, it's one of the coolest things you can do, I think and Morgan, you brought this up when people come into it looking for a passive business or an absentee business, I understand that those are sexy terms and for a while there, franchising really tried to be that, but what we're seeing is the owners that really kick the most ass, the ones that succeed, put in the time in the first couple of years and put in the energy and create the culture and grow the business.
Speaker 1:And with that said, are you guys now being two years in, are you starting to see more freedom for yourself now that you have the systems and the people? Is it becoming more life, work balance friendly for you?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think, absolutely. I know, when I came to you, jack, that was that was what I told you I wanted to be absentee or semi-absentee. I said those words thinking that that was a reality. Everyone does, yeah, everyone does, right. You look at that, that's like the big beautiful dream of just buying something and letting it run its course. But I think, absolutely, right now, jack, I think yes, we are seeing that I can now take a vacation. I can go to the conference right For FranServe, the conference I leave tomorrow. So it's nice to be able to do that. And the company's running itself and the employees are in place and everybody knows their role. And I don't think I could have done that last year. I truly don't. I think it would have made me very nervous, for sure, something maybe would have gone wrong and I would have fixed it, no problem. But it's so nice to have taken multiple vacations with the family this year and more vacations planned, and I really am grateful for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, also, yes, definitely. I would say that, you know, the first year felt a little more reactionary and you've never you don't know what you don't know. So you're doing everything for the first time. There's that learning curve, right, and so one of my mottos is like just be comfortable, being uncomfortable like that is if it feels uncomfortable. For me, that means like do it and like I will grow from it and be better for it. So, like after that year one, though, it's like now I know what to expect, I have the people in place, I have a solid team in place and we're being very much proactive and strategic, which I love. It makes me so happy. I can plan and I know what to it's like and we're just fine tuning Right and it's it's so fun, it's so fun. So, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4:So how are you guys? So obviously you've been working together for a long time scrunchie business. How do you guys? How do you guys work together now? Like do you kind of share secrets? I know you guys have different approaches, which I think is very cool, like how you're kind of focusing more on Morgan. You're focusing more on, like the businesses, like the afterschool programs, and Catherine not maybe as much. But how are you guys? Are you guys, you know, kind of tag teaming on things? You share ideas or challenge each other? How does that work with your dynamic?
Speaker 2:That's a great question Jill Morgan, take it away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's the best of worlds because we're so different. I think that the you know, friendly competition is always great, but we are uplifting each other all the time and we are not as scared to be candid and say, hey, something went wrong and that's so nice because it's a safe space for us and it doesn't have to go through all of the franchisees, catherine and I talking to each other and brainstorming new ideas. Or, hey, this worked for me. And oh my gosh, you have to hear what worked for me. I had a similar situation, and so it's so nice. We're already sharing with the franchisees always.
Speaker 3:But to have your best friend that you can call and if something goes wrong, you have a tough day. We're both moms and I think there's kind of this nice dynamic between the two of us. Or not only can we talk about things with soccer stars, but how does that affect our daily life? What does that look like when our husbands come home and they're expecting dinner on the table and that's just not happening that day? Or we need help with the kids and we want to make sure we're doing this work-life balance. So I think it's a wonderful thing to have. I wish more people did this and worked simultaneously and parallel to each other so that you can share in all of those different roles that you have day to day and maybe some challenges or how to help each other succeed.
Speaker 2:I love that. Yeah, I mean Morgan and I have been best friends since we were four and so I feel like we're best friends. Morgan's my therapist, she's my marriage counselor, she's my marriage counselor. So I mean like it is so nice like to have each other that we trust like just endlessly and we, yeah, really complement each other. We're different people and have different personalities but we're so complementary and we just want the best for each other, like Morgan said, and we very much uplift and for each other, like Morgan said, and we very much uplift and want each other to be successful, like so there isn't that like competition or you know anything like that between us. So it's nice and it's nice to have a best friend that you're going through this together with, because life happens and things happen and you know it's nice to have each other and just be able to vent and then move on.
Speaker 1:Here you guys are. You're two years in with your franchise and now you've already diversified, you've added a franchise consulting business, so you're doing it right. You're adding another revenue stream. And one of the first questions I think, catherine, you asked it of me was, if we look at the demographics of how many people Franchise Insiders helps, like what percentage are female versus male? And you know, I don't know if we're allowed to talk about this stuff, but I think we should. So about 30 to 35% of our clients at Franchise Insiders historically have been female and I think we all agree that we'd like to help lift more women up in becoming business owners and franchise owners. What do you guys think? How do you, you know, what are your thoughts on that? How do you want to help more, more females get into franchise ownership?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, I've been posting on LinkedIn per the recommendation of a man named Jack Johnson and in doing so, there have been a few people one girl, morgan, and I went to high school with. Now there's a friend that our kids go to school together and reached out interested to talk. So I think that, yeah, it is interesting that women I mean that was you know I posted about that, right Like wow, there's really interesting that it's only 30, 30%. But when I think back to our days at the other company, the majority I think we're, we're male owners. However, the top, a lot of the top performers were the women, right, jack? You remember that.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that women, us women, morgan, jill, we juggle a lot of responsibilities and sometimes I don't know, I don't want to say anything that offends anyone, but you know, sometimes we, you know we're, we're the ones who are out there, you know, like organizing the activities for the kids and coordinating the sports, and you know there's a lot that us women do, and so I don't know, it seems like, when I think about my friends and who I know, yeah, a lot of them have taken a step back from the corporate world and you know they're home with the kids, and so I want to be able to say hey, guys, once the kids get a little bit older, you know, take a look at franchise ownership as an opportunity, because they're very smart, capable, intelligent, bad-ass women and I think some of them are interested in in looking into that. Once the kids get a little older, um, yeah, I agree with Catherine, I think some of them are interested in looking into that once the kids get a little older.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree with Catherine, I think we're just seeing a huge shift. I think women are doing more than ever, but I think the men are also doing more than ever. I mean my husband. As soon as he's home, I start working harder and more and he takes over everything. So it's kind of like this nice balance.
Speaker 3:And I think, you know, not only am I getting some questions from LinkedIn about women in business, but I'm also getting it from some Air Force friends. Right, their husbands are about to retire. My husband's in the Air Force, he's looking at retirement. So he's kind of looking to me like maybe this is my time to shine, maybe I'm doing the business side this time and maybe he's starting to retire and not fly as often as a pilot.
Speaker 3:So, while women are doing more than ever and I think they should absolutely be looking at a franchise and business the men are also doing more than ever to on the other end and I just had a conversation with a friend of mine the other day about this about how they her husband changed the diapers and does all the carpools and does a lot of the things that was, you know in the past had been just women. So I think you're going to start to see this shift in this balance where there's going to be more women in franchising for sure, and you're also going to see the men being totally fine with it and taking that backseat and saying let's, let me pick up the slack, let me do all the coaching for the games and all the things that I want to do, and if you want to be in business, you go for it. So I think I think it's going to be interesting to see where things go, and I'm very curious to check the demographics in a year and see where we are.
Speaker 4:I think you two are really good examples of women that can do it. You can do it all you know. I think it's overwhelming when you have the kids and the school, and I mean just every little thing that you have to do all day to also run a business. But you guys are proof that you can do it and I think more women, more women seeing that, making it more visible that it's totally possible, whether you have a husband that's going to help at home or have a full time job, you know, and in finding a way to fill in those gaps, whether it's you two are bringing in extra help or something to that effect. But I love, you know, seeing your guys' success stories to actually show women that they can do it. You know that you can be successful. You can run the household and be a badass in the office too.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, I'm still an eight-year-old on the inside, but no, I make fun of me.
Speaker 1:No listen, jill's a badass, she's. She's the badass here in our house. But I want to bring something up female, male. Now that you guys have gone through it and you've been franchise owners, I want you to to just think about this for a minute. Pretend that you had been out of the corporate world for five 10 years. Do you think the training you got at soccer stars if you hadn't been working in corporate America and obviously you both came from different backgrounds besides soccer, do you think that training could have helped you If you, if you'd taken five 10 years away from the workforce, would you have still been able to do what you did with the level of training they gave and support they give you guys?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:And then I have a follow-up question for you. This is a question that comes up all the time as we help our franchise searching clients. Man, that royalty seems really expensive. I'm going to pay the franchise, or five to 7%. Can I just do this myself? Could you guys have started a soccer coaching business without the brand soccer stars and the franchise support you got?
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, you could have. Would you scale and grow as fast with all the systems in place? Absolutely not. I mean, my husband, we're both coaching our kids teams right now and it has nothing to do with SoccerStars, it's just a rec league. But just watching the way that those leagues run and everything that they're doing, there's no way I would have been able to be where I am today without paying those royalties and paying the tech and marketing specifically for me, the marketing. Paying all of that, yes, it absolutely helps you grow and scale a lot faster. Could you do it on your own? Sure, but never, ever this fast.
Speaker 2:Not yeah, no, no. I feel like it would take maybe I'm in year two, maybe like five, six, seven years to get where I am now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no way and they've made a lot of mistakes, you know, and the franchisees, the ones that you talk to. They've made mistakes. So being able to talk to other franchisees and work smarter from their mistakes and your mistakes I mean you can't, you can't, you know, quantify that that's amazing to be able to listen to all of those and then you don't make those mistakes right away and you don't have to fumble as much because they've figured it out for you.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean starting Franchise Insiders, jill and I probably I don't want to say wasted, because I think they were lessons, but I know that we tried a lot of different stuff. We tried different types of advertising and things like that, that some worked great and some didn't. But it makes it so like when you guys, when when new Franchise Insiders, consultants, join our team, we give you guys all that stuff right, we show you guys where the potholes are, we introduce you to the great franchisors and we tell you which ones we know are the good people in franchising. And it's the same with being a franchise owner. My thought has always been being a franchise owner is the hardest thing is to find those good people, and so if that royalty royalty can replace someone I would need to hire who might quit, then it's worth its weight in gold. It's. It's a bill I'm happy to have automatically debited from my account every week.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I think that's key for all of you out there is understanding that a good franchise will earn their royalty. But that's where validation for those of you listening out there validation means speaking to franchisees like if you're looking at soccer stars talking to morgan, talking to katherine, but maybe even taking it a step deeper and going into that fdd and finding someone that's left the system and calling them and saying what happened? Um, I think it's good to learn from as many people as you can, and our recommendation is typically talking to five to seven. Once you start to get serious and you know the franchise you want to you're going to invest in. I just talked to someone the other day. He called me up about an automotive franchise. He's ready to move forward with them.
Speaker 1:First question was how many franchisees have you talked to? He said two. I said you better go back for five more. Have you called someone that's left the system? So these are things that we as franchise consultants and again, jill and I are so thankful to have you two on the team because you guys are just so talented and great and you're going to help change a lot of lives. But this is what we aim to do as franchise owners. Helping future franchise owners is to ask you guys the tough questions and is to share the secrets to really vetting and understanding what makes for the right franchise fit for you.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. That's what it's all about the franchise owners helping future franchisees and Kath and I have done a lot of validation calls for soccer stars, so we're very used to helping people and being honest where we need to be honest and helping them make that decision, and it's exciting to branch out beyond soccer stars. Now we get to help lots of future franchisees find their way and match a business that fits their personality and their, their skillset and um and be here to be honest.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think just you know, and that's where we're going to help match you to those really great franchises and franchisors, because you really they're a partner to you and you know, soccer Stars, youth Athletes, united is the parent brand. They're amazing, the leadership team, the support, like they want us to succeed and there's no doubt in my mind that they feel differently, like they are just there for us around the clock and that's, you know, very special. And yeah, just we'll help you be able to identify similar franchisors that can be a partner to you.
Speaker 1:You know, what struck me with Rezzy Brands, who is our franchisor with Pinkss, is that they systems, they implemented, the support they made us smarter business owners.
Speaker 1:I mean even as franchise consultants and a former franchisor. Rezzy and pinks taught us things we didn't know and it really opened my eyes to the right franchisor will make you such a better business person and help you become a better business owner for all of your future endeavors. Now it may be, catherine and Morgan, that you guys continue to just thrive as soccer star franchise owners and franchisees around you. You're able to buy them out and amass a 10 unit franchise and one day flip it for $3 million. Or it may be that one day you decide you know what it doesn't fit in my life anymore and you can sell to a neighboring franchisee. I think that's something also that people don't talk enough about is that in franchising, your exit strategy is built in, whether it's a neighboring franchisee that you sell your franchise to eventually or buying neighboring franchisees to get to the point where you reach that exit number that you want.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love that, Jack, and I think the exit strategy is not necessarily a bad thing, and I think sometimes people look at it oh why did you sell? Why did you get out? It's usually the person, it's not the franchise. Sometimes it is, but, like with soccer stars, I know it's not going to be. It would be a life change or something like we've grown and that's the ceiling for us and now it's time for someone else to move into that position.
Speaker 4:Exactly, I think there's always no, no, there's always a, there's always an exit and there's always different reasons. So franchising can be for life, it can be for a short period of time Um, you know, it's can be flexible to your schedule for you guys, you know, having soccer stars and then coming on with the franchise insiders it's showing that there's flexibility with that. And then you know you can reevaluate in in a year or two which one is really the one that's fueling your fire, bringing in the most income, or what is it that you want to wake up for every morning, which one's really pushing you in that direction, and you can make that decision. So I love that. I love the flexibility with it and the ability to expand or grow or sell if you need to.
Speaker 2:I love that and, yeah, it's true, I love, like. I love what you said, jack, like making us better business owners. I mean, I'm such a lifelong learner, constantly curious, and so I love learning. And, morgan, we've been learning a ton. At Soccer Stars I learned oh my gosh, becoming a business owner was a huge learning curve.
Speaker 2:And so now that I understand that if that hadn't happened, Morgan and I wouldn't be on the Franchise Insiders, right, because we wouldn't have been franchise owners. So it's like just leaning into what feels right, trust your gut and like, yeah, you're buying a franchise, but that's just the beginning. You know what's next, jack? I remember when you and I talked, you're like, yeah, catherine, like we're talking now, but we'll be talking in a few years. You'll be coming back and we'll be getting your. You know how are we going to build out your portfolio. What's next? Little did we know, we didn't know at that time, right, it would be the franchise insiders, but then maybe it'll be another franchise, who knows? Like the sky, you know, the limits are endless, and I don't know the limits are endless and I don't know. It's a win-win, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I mean Pinks gave us the the knowledge to turn franchise insiders into a bigger business. I mean it's taking those repeatable systems. And this is what I say to people all the time choose your franchise wisely, because you're going to learn from this company and it's going to make it. It's going to it will. It will change the shape of your entrepreneurial career. But franchise with someone who you respect and who you can learn from, not just, oh man, they make the best cookie on earth, but I can't stand them. Partner with people who you respect and who you can learn from and who you can get better, because you can take those lessons and implement them. And speaking of which, I understand that you guys are going to be launching your own podcast talking about franchise ownership. Is that right?
Speaker 2:We are. Yes, it's called BFFs Best Friends in Franchising and it will be coming to a podcast station near you soon, soon.
Speaker 3:Catherine and I have a lot of conversations on the phone about business and franchising in general, and so we thought why are we doing this just on the phone? This is valuable information for people to hear, so we should just share it. We love sharing, we love being part of a community, and I think we can touch on so many different points of what it's like to be in the franchise business and also what franchises are out there that maybe people don't know about that we can speak to, that I don't know. Maybe it'll be a place where people can come and get some knowledge and it could be life-changing and make them take that leap, that exciting leap that they need to take.
Speaker 4:I love that. I love the concept. I think it's something that's missing right now. Like you guys said, sometimes people just want to hear two girlfriends chatting about business and life and it's relatable, and they see themselves in both of you and say, gosh, I can do that too. I want to be friends with them and I want to be on their podcast, you know. So I love that. I think it's going to be really exciting for you guys.
Speaker 1:So if you guys want to find out when their podcast goes live, go to the franchiseinsiderscom, hit up our contact page and subscribe. Also, if you'd like to work with either Catherine or Morgan, they both have. If you go to our team page on thefranchiseinsiderscom, you'll find their bios as well as a button that says work with Catherine, work with Morgan, and I highly suggest you reach out to either or both. We are so thrilled to have them on our team. They are both just exceptional high performers, but more than anything, they are good people who want to help you guys navigate this franchise ownership path.
Speaker 1:And so there's so many great things we're going to do to help people change their lives and do just like what you guys have done in the space of two years all the things you guys have done to grow your businesses and succeed. And it's not that hard and it doesn't that hard and it's not. It doesn't actually take that long. Now we will always tell all of you guys that have patience during the first couple of years, but once you get past that, it really does grow into something so special. So you guys, thank you so much for being on our podcast today. I know all of our listeners are just going to appreciate the nuggets that you guys have shared today and definitely we'll be subscribing to your podcast when it drops here on wherever the podcast can be found.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you guys.