From A to Franchisee: The Podcast for Smarter Franchise Buying

Why You Should Think About An Exit Strategy Before investing In A Franchise

• Franchise Business Review • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Host: Michelle Rowan, President and COO of Franchise Business Review

Guest: Michael Iannuzzi, 

Episode Summary

In this podcast episode, Michelle Rowan discusses the importance of having an exit strategy in franchising with guest Michael Iannuzzi, a partner at Citrin Cooperman. They emphasize that it's never too early to plan your exit strategy, as it helps avoid future surprises and aligns with personal and business goals. Michael explains key concepts like the franchisor's right of first refusal and the importance of having a well-organized data room for potential buyers. They also explore common exit strategies, such as selling to private equity, internal resales, and transitioning to family members or key employees. The conversation highlights the need for franchisees to engage with their franchisors early and often about exit plans, and to understand the realistic value of their business. Michael advises potential franchisees to thoroughly research and engage with the franchise community to make informed decisions.

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Michelle Rowan (00:52)
A few weeks ago, I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking how franchise brands handle their Discovery Days. If you're not familiar with that term, Discovery Day is the step in the franchise buying process where candidates validate the brand, essentially finding out or confirming that it's the right fit for them. Some brands call it Meet the Team Day or Confirmation Day. It's a chance for prospective franchisees to meet the leadership, ask questions, and experience the brand firsthand.

Some do it in person at their headquarters and others do this virtually. The poll sparked a ton of interesting feedback, so we invited three guests to share their perspectives. First up, Rob Lancet from Stratis only hosts in-person Discovery Days. Marci Kleinsasser from Home Franchise Concepts runs all of her Discovery Days virtually. And Jordan Wilson from Authority Brands takes a hybrid approach. Our goal with this episode is to give you a look behind the curtain.

how different brands approach discovery days, and what you should expect if you're exploring franchise ownership. Take a listen and enjoy.

Michelle Rowan (02:01)
So today I'm welcoming Rob Lancet, Vice President of Franchise Development at Stratis Building Solutions, the number one commercial cleaning franchise in North America. With over 26 years of experience across the US and Canada, Rob has worked in nearly every corner of franchising, from franchise development and brokerage to advisory and leadership roles.

Rob has helped thousands of individuals achieve their dream of business ownership by matching them with the right franchise opportunity, mentoring candidates through the decision-making process, and ensuring both franchisors and franchisees are positioned for long-term success. So he was one of the first to respond about the in-person Discovery Days, and we invited him today to talk with us. Thanks for joining us, Rob.

Rob Lancit (02:47)
Well, thanks for having me, Michelle. Appreciate it.

Michelle Rowan (02:49)
All right, yeah, I'm excited

to get into this. So I want you to start by walking us through the structure of Stratus' discovery day. What happens when the candidate arrives and what is that day or the amount of time that they're with you? What does that look like?

Rob Lancit (03:05)
the Discovery Day process is an integral part of our decision making process because it gives us an opportunity to meet somebody face to face. We have Zoom calls and several conversations with a candidate prior to Discovery Day, but I don't think you can.

replace being able to look somebody in the whites of their eyes and see who they are as an individual. Sometimes people come across really well on camera and over the phone, not so much in person. having that in-person discovery day element for us is a critical part of our decision-making process. Now, ⁓ one of the things that I think makes us a little bit unique is that we actually foot the bill to bring somebody in for discovery.

So we cover all the costs. We cover their hotel and airfare. We typically fly them in the night before, put them up in hotel. The next morning we gather for breakfast and then we head over. We hold our Discovery Days at our Master Franchisees offices. So we don't do it at our corporate office. We go to a physical working office. And once we arrive, as I mentioned, we have breakfast in the morning. We head over to our Master Franchise office.

And then from there what happens is our candidates have an opportunity to meet our master franchisee along with their staff to get an office tour and whatnot. And then from there.

Generally the CEO of our company is in attendance, Doug Flake, and he sort of has a little bit of a presentation where he talks about the future direction of the company. And then from there, we actually remove ourselves from the process. And what I mean by that is we actually leave the room. So nobody from corporate remains in the room with our candidates, along with our master franchisees.

Michelle Rowan (04:54)
Okay,

so I'm going to stop you right there. So a candidate is not going through this alone. They're with other candidates that are at the similar stage of discovery. What does that group size usually look like? Is there a range?

Rob Lancit (05:02)
Absolutely,

Yeah, we try not to keep more than five. More than five gets a little discombobulated a little bit. Three to five is sort of our sweet spot.

Michelle Rowan (05:17)
Okay, and are these franchise, potential franchise owners coming alone? Are they bringing spouses, partners in the business? it really just one person? Okay.

Rob Lancit (05:26)
All the above.

It really depends on what their structure is. So sometimes we have husband and wives. We have a lot of husband and wife teams that acquire a franchise from us. Father and son teams, ⁓ know, and typical business partners and solo entrepreneurs as well. So if somebody's looking at doing this with their spouse, then generally their spouse comes with.

Michelle Rowan (05:42)
Okay.

Okay, so

I don't even know if you know this, Rob, but so my dad was a franchisee. ⁓ And I think so he was not a franchisee of a good brand. I never say the name of it, but, ⁓ well, I'll tell you offline. ⁓ but what I, what I think I recommend to people, and I think it makes sense. My mom was not involved in the franchise business on paper, but she's also very, ⁓ risk adverse. So.

Rob Lancit (05:58)
Well now I'm curious.

Michelle Rowan (06:14)
My dad left corporate America to do the franchise thing. And so I encouraged her to go to the discovery day with my dad. So even though she wasn't invited or she wasn't on the LLC, she wasn't part of the business. I knew that that was going to help her mentally wrap her head around what my dad was doing and understand what that business was. So I just wanted to say, I would recommend if it's an opportunity that you can bring your partner or your spouse, that you should bring them because I think

The corporate team and the other franchisees can answer a lot more questions for them. And it's not just you telling them how great this opportunity is. So I would share that.

Rob Lancit (06:50)
Yeah, and

great, great point. And in fact, ⁓ we involved the spouse early on in our conversations. They won't get to a discovery day without us having had a conversation with them and their spouse.

Michelle Rowan (06:58)
Awesome, okay.

Awesome. Okay, so they're all in person together and the corporate team leaves the room. What happens from there? Or you can only assume what happens from there.

Rob Lancit (07:13)
Well, you know, I think I have a pretty good idea what happens from there. You know, it's generally a financial conversation for the most part. But it's also, you know, part of the reason why we remove ourselves from the room is, one, we don't want to influence our masters' responses to any questions that they may have. I don't want them to feel like, Big Brother's watching and they're not able to speak freely. And I also want our candidates to have that ability to speak freely and not have to worry that

we're watching over their shoulders, so to speak, right? So it gives everybody a level playing field, a level of comfort and wanting to work together. And it's worked well for us. So we remove ourselves from the room. They spend about an hour, an hour and half together. then once they're finished with that, we actually bring in ⁓ one or two unit franchisees to have them have conversations with our candidates. I think it's important for us to

have our candidates speak with some unit franchisees and hear their story, hear why they bought into the Stratus brand and become a unit franchisee.

And then after that, we typically break for lunch. We generally have lunch catered. And then after lunch, we have a few video presentations. So what we'll do is we'll have our VP of marketing up on the screen, and have a little bit of interactive one-on-one session with him and the candidates in the room. And then we bring on board our VP of operations.

Michelle Rowan (08:36)
Okay, so I'm gonna also pause

you right there because you've used some terms that our audience might not understand. So Stratus has a master franchisee model. That means you're as the executive and corporate team, your relationship is with the master. They are becoming a franchisee, a master franchisee of Stratus, and they are responsible for recruiting franchisees to build out the territory that they have signed on for.

So you do not have a direct relationship with the franchisee. Your relationship is with the master. That is who you are signing an agreement with. I get all that correct? Anything else you would add to help them understand the difference between the franchisee and master in your system?

Rob Lancit (09:14)
Sure. ⁓

Yeah,

mean, we're a little bit of a, we're considered a three tiered business model, right? So you've got us up here at the corporate level and then below us would be our master franchise candidate and then below our master is the unit franchise. Now the master franchisee.

really runs the territory, right? And it's the unit franchisees that go out and execute on the cleaning side of things. So our masters, although technically they're in the commercial cleaning space, they're not doing any of the cleaning. The unit franchisees, they purchase a janitorial franchise.

Michelle Rowan (09:50)
Okay, so back to after lunch, you have your VP of marketing, your VP of operations. So the franchisees or the candidates are getting a chance to really understand who's heading up each department that will be supporting them in their business and kind of what is their role as the franchisor versus what is the role of the master franchisee around marketing and supporting the business in their region.

Rob Lancit (10:12)
Right up until that point, they've mainly dealt with myself and the CEO of company and I've validation calls with as many of our masters as they so choose. But I think it's important for them to part of the reason why we involved the CEO in the conversation early on is because they can love our business model from today till tomorrow. Right. But I think it's important that they get a sense of who the driving force is behind our company and make sure that their values are aligned with our values, because we're going to

attached at the hip for a long time. We're signing a franchise agreement and it's like a marriage, right? And I want to make sure that I do the best job that I can do to make sure that we all like each other and we're all pushing the bus in the same direction. And so at the Discovery Day, now they have an opportunity to meet some of the key people that they'll be working with once my job is done. I'm never out of the picture entirely, but there comes a little bit of a passing of the baton at a certain point where our

operations team takes over and gets them set up and operational. So we make those introductions at the Discovery Day.

Michelle Rowan (11:18)
Yeah.

Okay. So I think a discovery day is important for the brand to be assessing. Is this candidate the right fit for us? And it's also the candidate assessing, is this the right fit for me? Is this the right team? Like you said, core values, how much, if at all, do your VP of marketing, your VP of operations and your, your master franchisee where you're at their location, do they offer you any feedback about the candidate? Do they give you, ⁓ I mean, do they have

Does your other team member have any right of refusal or how does that look for you guys?

Rob Lancit (11:55)
We're pretty collaborative. one of the great things about our validation process is we've got a very unique corporate culture here at Stratus I've been in franchising for 26 years, and I've been saying 26 years probably for past four years now. So I'm not going past it. So 26 years, and I've worked with hundreds of brands. I've never seen corporate culture this infectious. I mean, it's extremely, extremely unique. All of our masters really have each other's best interests

Michelle Rowan (12:08)
It's okay. It's all right.

Rob Lancit (12:23)
So we're really looking to add to our corporate culture, not take away from our corporate culture. So we rely heavily on feedback from our masters after they've had calls with our candidates. And in some cases we've had masters reach out and said, I don't think this person's the right fit, you know, and this is why. And we take that into consideration.

Michelle Rowan (12:27)
Got it, yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

Rob Lancit (12:48)
Again, it's like being at a trade show, right? You can go to a trade show and inside of seconds, you can assess whether somebody

could fit for your brand and not just based on their manners and how they speak and then just how they present themselves in person. You don't get that here like on a Zoom call or a Google Meet. So it's very, very important for us to have that face-to-face interaction. And to be perfectly honest, this year, prior to two candidates coming to Discovery Day, I would have bet my bottom dollar that we would have signed them. And after Discovery Day, I pulled the plug on them.

felt

that they weren't they were going to take away from our corporate culture and weren't going to be a fit. And up until the discovery day, I thought they were in.

Michelle Rowan (13:32)
Yeah, so that's

so interesting, because I was going to ask you that question. I was wondering, what does it look like? How many people get that far, and you realize it's not a right fit? Which is so important to save both you and the franchisee from 10 years of butting heads.

Rob Lancit (13:48)
Well,

it is, you know, and a lot of franchisors have an issue in turning down candidates because, when somebody's sitting across the table from you and pushing a check you way for 50 or $75,000, whatever your franchise speed might be, it's hard to say no.

Michelle Rowan (13:56)
Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Rob Lancit (14:06)
But you know what,

saying no to that $75,000 or $50,000 franchise fee today will save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in five years from now when you're in a legal battle for whatever reason. you know, last thing I want to say, like I have to sleep at night. You know, and in order for me to sleep at night, I need to know that I'm doing them a solid and putting them into the right business.

Michelle Rowan (14:27)
That's right, that's right. And better for them to also not spend that 50 or 75,000 and realize they're not in the right brand. So that's great.

Rob Lancit (14:33)
And

it's a difficult conversation to have. One of the candidates that I sent them a nice letter, you know, thanks but no thanks. And he replied back saying, hey, can we jump on a call and can you tell me exactly why? You know, and I'm like, yeah, we can absolutely do that. And it was a difficult conversation to have. But, I mean, we're adults here. So, I'm shooting for yes, but sometimes you have to give a no.

Michelle Rowan (14:44)
Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what is the whole length of a process typically for a candidate from when they inquire with Stratus to when they sign or don't sign? What does that whole timeframe look like?

Rob Lancit (15:09)
⁓ It varies. mean, everybody's timing in the decision-making process varies, right? And sometimes life takes over. But typically, we're probably talking about a 60 to 90 day period where they do their due diligence.

Michelle Rowan (15:21)
You're active. Okay. So

in that process, when do they do the discovery day?

Rob Lancit (15:27)
We try to them to do the discovery day probably within 60 days.

Michelle Rowan (15:31)
Okay. And then after the discovery day, what happens?

Rob Lancit (15:36)
I let our candidates know that at the Discovery Day, I'm not going to ask them whether they want to do this or not. I'm not going to put them on the spot. I'm not going to make them feel like they've got to make a decision with a dozen people around. But I do let them know that a few days after the Discovery Day, we're going to jump on a call and we're going to be like, you ready to move forward?

Michelle Rowan (15:54)
Yeah, it's a yes or no.

Rob Lancit (15:55)
And

Michelle Rowan (15:55)
Yeah.

Rob Lancit (15:57)
I'm shooting for a yes. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want the yes, but I'm perfectly fine with the no. I want to make sure that we're working towards a definitive timeline and I want to be mindful of their time. And I ask them that they be mindful of my time as well. So if they decide that it's a no, I'm okay with that. I prefer the yes, obviously, but I'm totally fine with the no.

Michelle Rowan (16:17)
Okay. How about what do you require candidates to bring or what kind of homework are they doing ahead of time before they show up at Discovery Day?

Rob Lancit (16:27)
I think by the time our candidates come to Discovery Day, I think in their mind they know whether they're doing this or not. They might not have told me, right, but I think they're pretty close to making a decision.

And one of the things that we ask them to come to Discovery Day with are just some open-ended questions that they can ask our masters. And we ask them to not be afraid to ask some of the financial questions that we can't talk about.

Michelle Rowan (16:56)
Yeah, I was going to ask you,

what do you wish that they asked? Like, what would you, what advice would you give to people listening of beyond the basics, what do you think is important for them to be asking that master when your executive team is not in the room?

Rob Lancit (17:09)
I think it's important for them to ask what the day-to-day operations of the business look like. What are they getting themselves into? Ask them how we support them. Because I think, not stratus and specific, but...

There are many franchise systems that new franchisees might not necessarily be making money right out of the starting gate, but if they're getting the support and the backing from the franchisor, that probably means more to them at a certain point than actually making money. The money will come, right? Otherwise, I mean, our business model wouldn't.

We wouldn't be the number one fastest growing franchise if our business model was flawed. So they'll make money, but they need to hear that they have the support of the franchisor behind them.

Michelle Rowan (17:57)
Yeah, I would add asking franchisees how long it took them to break even and was it in line with what they thought ahead of time. I think that's always a good question to ask. It obviously depends on how much time and effort they put into the business, but I think helping them understand if their expectation is realistic or if this franchisee says something totally different than what they were planning for.

Rob Lancit (18:20)
Yeah, I ask our candidates to speak with as many masters as possible. And then what they need to do is they need to put themselves on a scale, right? And determine where they want to be. Because we have some masters that may have hit the break even at record speeds. We have others that may have taken a bit longer. They know their work ethic better than anybody, right? So where do you want to be? And they'll determine that.

Michelle Rowan (18:47)
Okay, so based on your experience, what are the top things a candidate should do before they attend a discovery day to get the most out of the time they have with your team and with your franchisees?

Rob Lancit (19:00)
I mean, one, they have to speak with the CEO of our company. That's a must. Then they have to go through their validation calls and let us know. I mean, I'll make introductions to half a dozen of our masters. They're free to speak to any and all of them. And a lot of them do. They're not going to call 100.

I can make 100 validation calls, they're free to do so if they so choose. Those are the two big requirements that we need. And prior to that, we don't even get to that stage until we have the spouses buy in. We talked about this earlier. We absolutely need that. If the spouse is not on board, then I'm sorry, we just can't do it.

Michelle Rowan (19:47)
That's great. So I was going to ask you, what red flags are you looking for? What have you seen in Discovery Day that raises concerns for you? So I think a disengaged or a combative spouse or partner, that's definitely one.

Rob Lancit (20:01)
Yeah, yeah, that's certainly one that doesn't keep to doing what they said they're going to do. If they book a call and they're a no show and they don't submit their paperwork on time, that's just an indication of how they're going to be as a franchisee, right? So can rest assured that your royalties will be late.

Michelle Rowan (20:16)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I think that's a good tip for a candidate looking at a franchise is your franchisor wants to know that you can follow a process. And so when they're asking you for things, making sure they're submitted on time or following the process that they outline in the discovery or get to know you is indicative of how you will perform when they ask you to do things once you're in the brand. follow that structure they provide because it is a test. It's good.

Rob Lancit (20:45)
Absolutely.

Yeah,

it is. I tell my candidates that I've designed this as what I refer to as a mutual investigation process.

Michelle Rowan (20:57)
Yes.

Rob Lancit (20:58)
That's how I phrase it, right? And the whole point behind the mutual investigation process is they're doing their due diligence on us and we're doing our due diligence on them. Just like they're trying to determine whether we're the right fit for them, we're determining whether they're the right fit for us, right? And although we're in the driver's seat where we can elect to award or not award a franchise to a candidate, we have to mutually want to work together, right? Otherwise it's not going to work, right? And I tell them that my role, despite what they might

Michelle Rowan (21:23)
Mm-hmm.

Rob Lancit (21:28)
think is it's not a sales role. My role is to act as a facilitator of information. I'm going to provide them with enough information for them to make a well-informed decision as to whether this is the right fit for them or not. And in doing so, I'm going to determine whether they're the right fit for us.

Michelle Rowan (21:43)
Yeah, that's good. All right, well, thank you for taking us through your discovery day. Do you have any last thoughts or advice that you would give a person that is considering joining a franchise?

Rob Lancit (21:54)
I mean, the best advice that I can give you is have your validation calls and attend a discovery day. mean, the validation calls, you should be hearing the good, bad, and the ugly, right? ⁓ If you're hearing all the good things, dig a little deeper to find what's happening.

Michelle Rowan (22:11)
That's a great tip.

Yeah, that's a great tip. You don't want to be sold. You don't want to be told everything is rosy and sunny because that's not how business works, especially when you're starting a business, which even if you buy into a franchise system, the first two years will be hard. You are starting a business. So that's great. I appreciate you so much, Rob. Thank you so much for joining us and helping educate franchise buyers.

Rob Lancit (22:19)
That's not.

⁓

I love it. Appreciate it. Anytime. All right.

Michelle Rowan (22:38)
Thank you.

Michelle Rowan (22:41)
we are continuing our discussions on Discovery Days and going to focus on Discovery Days that are done remotely. So today I have Marci Kleinsasser, VP of Marketing for Franchise Development at Home Franchise Concepts. Home Franchise Concepts is one of North America's largest franchising systems in the home services industry. The brands include

Two Maids, Premier Garage, Concrete Craft, Kitchen Tune Up, Advanta Clean, Budget Blinds, Bath Tune Up, The Tailored Closet, Aussie Pet Mobile, and Lightspeed Restoration. Did I get them all? Okay, okay. Awesome. And with more than 30, yeah, I was like, yeah, it's a lot. With more than 30 years of marketing experience, Marci leads the growth and development marketing for the company's portfolio.

Marci Kleinsasser (23:23)
You did great. That was awesome. Checking them off in my head.

Michelle Rowan (23:36)
Her career includes leadership roles with Handyman Connection, Puro Clean, Coverall, Benihana Kenny Rogers Roasters, there's a blast from the past, Domino's Pizza, plus agency work with BBDO South and Tinsley Advertising. Recognized as a top 50 franchise CMO game changer by Entrepreneur Magazine, Marcie also serves as co-chair of the South Florida Women's Franchise Network.

and sits on the IFA's Women's Franchise Committee. So she's the perfect guest to talk with us about remote discovery days. Thank you for joining us, Marci

Marci Kleinsasser (24:13)
Thank you so much for inviting me, Michelle. Always love to talk to you.

Michelle Rowan (24:15)
I know, it's so

fantastic. can you walk us through the structure of what your discovery day looks like? What happens when the candidate arrives? What is the length of the time that you have them on? Just what does it look like if they show up for that?

Marci Kleinsasser (24:29)
Yeah, so ⁓ we invite our candidates on and it's for the most part a anywhere from four to six hour day depending on the month and the brand and the time our leaders have available. But for the most part, they join 8.30 in the morning or 11.30 depending on their time zone. And they're with us pretty much till about three o'clock that day with some good breaks throughout the day.

The morning they're with the entire team, our sales team, ⁓ and their franchise prospect peers learning about home franchise concepts, all of our brands, the history, our parent company, JM Family Enterprises. And then we have a break and then we break out into our brand breakouts. So they get a really good day to do exactly what we call the day, which is meet the team day. And they get to meet the team, the leaders behind.

Michelle Rowan (25:22)
Okay.

Marci Kleinsasser (25:26)
really who they're going to be spending the life of their entrepreneurship journey with.

Michelle Rowan (25:32)
Okay, so they're not doing this alone, they're with other candidates, correct? Okay, and about how many candidates are they interacting with?

Marci Kleinsasser (25:36)
are, yes.

Anywhere from, it could be one, although we like to have a lively group. So typically on average our Meet the Team Day is three to 12. I mean it could be ⁓ our last month's Meet the Team Day had a nice group of eight candidates, some from four brands on average, but it could be up to seven or eight of our brands at one time.

Michelle Rowan (25:52)
Okay.

Okay, so and do they have an opportunity to talk with each other and connect with each other or are they just really kind of going through the same experience together?

Marci Kleinsasser (26:12)
Yeah, so in that first two to two and a half hours session where we're giving them the introduction to home franchise concepts, a little bit more of a deeper dive on the history and the get to know you part really.

breaking the ice and doing a little, you know, give us a little fun fact or whatever the icebreaker question is of the host of that day. Typically it's our vice president of franchise development, but we've had varying hosts on our franchise development team. Yeah, they get to meet each other and there is a bit of a Q &A, but that really is kind of their alumni group, if you will. They get to follow each other along, whether it is of the same brand.

when they break out, let's say the two maids candidates will go to the two maids breakout, but they then get to see who are the people that may be exploring budget blinds or exploring Aussie Pet Mobile or exploring Lighthouse Restoration. So they are able to see those names and reach out to them or then meet them at our conference or what have you later in their journey.

Michelle Rowan (27:16)
Okay, so the call starts where they're able to, it's a home franchise concepts kind of call to start and then they break out to learn more specifically about their brand that they're most interested in. Okay, got it.

Marci Kleinsasser (27:28)
Exactly. Then they get

to meet that specific team, brand presidents to the entire support team from marketing to operations to technology of their particular brand.

Michelle Rowan (27:40)
So did you always have remote discovery days or was this something that came out of COVID and it stuck that way? Has it always been remote?

Marci Kleinsasser (27:50)
I think it's been a little bit of both, but definitely the latter, as you said, post COVID, it is now kind of our format.

Michelle Rowan (27:52)
Okay.

Okay, so what do you feel like are the advantages of doing this remote with your candidates?

Marci Kleinsasser (28:07)
Yeah, I feel like it's very intuitive. Obviously we can be very flexible with the candidates. They know once a month the dates are set for the most part for all of our brands. So we can get the candidates and potentially their spouses or their partners. It's calendarized. Our advisor team, our sales advisors for each of our brands can really walk their candidates and set the expectation ahead of time from lead to, you know, through the journey and through our sales process.

We want to get you prepared, Mr. Mrs. candidate, for Meet the Team Day, and they're happening this date for each month. So let's say we're at that point in the journey with the candidate today, we know that our November Meet the Team Day is this day, and we want to get you prepared.

And it's a fairly simple, you know, obviously the path to get them there is fairly simple. We need to get them into, you know, a quiet place. You need to be in front of a computer and be available on camera. And obviously we coach them to eliminate distractions, if you will, right, and how to have a successful Meet the Team Day. But they're, you know, obviously they don't need to worry about travel. They don't need to worry about being away ⁓ outside of the five or six hour commitment.

Michelle Rowan (29:10)
Yeah.

Okay. And what do you feel? How are you preparing them before that discovery day? What do you have them work on or bring to that discovery day, if anything, before they jump online with you all?

Marci Kleinsasser (29:34)
Yeah, I would say most of it is mindset. Our franchise advisors are making sure that they're prepared in advance. Obviously, we want them to be financially qualified and ready to make a decision, right? So most of that, again, some of that is you need to check the boxes to be ready to run the business and you've made kind of a commitment in that way. But then the rest of it is mindset. You're ready to be open-minded to have, ⁓ you know, start to build a relationship with the people

that are gonna support you for the life of your business. Like I said, this is a relationship. This isn't transactional. This is relational, right? So most of it is, again, getting them prepared to remove distractions, be all in, bring all of the questions that you feel either you still want answered and you want to re-ask to the team that's gonna support you or questions that you have yet to ask around culture, around fit.

around the support from the marketing team, the IT team, the operations team, and the brand leadership. And most importantly, that you get all of the culture fit questions that you need answered as a candidate that the advisor, the franchise development advisor has spoken to you about, but now is your chance to really meet that team again, that handoff is gonna take place and that you have this day to really just validate what hopefully that candidate has already made that decision because right after me,

the team day, a signing day has already been calendarized if the advisor has the advisor and the Canada have done it right.

Michelle Rowan (31:09)
Okay. And so do they have access to other franchisees on this Meet the Team Day? Or is that something that they're doing at a different time in their discovery process with you all? Okay. So they

Marci Kleinsasser (31:17)
Yeah.

Yes,

so ⁓ in our agenda, we do not include franchisees occasionally though, like at the meet the team day for light speed restoration. As I mentioned, the occasional in-person, we absolutely involve franchisees. But up until this point, the franchisee involvement has already taken place. They've already had group validation calls. They've done their individual validation calls. So all of that one-on-one and or group franchisee conversations have already taken place before they join us at meet the team day.

Michelle Rowan (31:49)
Okay, so I love that you brought up the group validation calls. So some franchisors will have a bunch of franchisees on a call that you can join and it just helps coordinate that time of getting to these franchisees. And sometimes you're calling them directly and it's one-on-one. So I just wanna explain that to our audience in case they haven't gone through that yet. ⁓ Okay, so they're really connecting with the team on this. What is that time period from when they first inquire? I know you said that there's a monthly calendared

time that these are happening. is it if they're signing right after it sounds like this is at the end of their discovery process. So is it really candidates are kind of working with your team in a 30 day window to make that decision if this is the right brand for them and you're assessing that about them as well. It's about 30 days.

Marci Kleinsasser (32:37)
Yeah, when they get to meet the team day, for the most part, the candidate has made the decision on the brand and meet the team day is for the most part just kind of validating the decision they've made. Like I said, they've gotten financing lined up and this is more of kind of validating where they are in that kind of mindset process.

Michelle Rowan (32:43)
Okay.

Marci Kleinsasser (32:59)
they should have a date on their calendar on when they're going to do that virtual online signing. Sometimes there are still questions that are lingering that they want asked at Meet the Team Day and even post Meet the Team Day, and they'll go back to their advisor and ask them and get them signed. We have a very high closing rate from Meet the Team Day, so we're very proud of that. And for the most part, there are some that fall off and say, I just didn't get the right feel. obviously we have

reasons why some people, whether it's financing or otherwise, but most of the time it happens fairly quickly.

Michelle Rowan (33:37)
Okay, so what kinds of questions do you think that candidates should bring to a Meet the Team Day? ⁓ What do you wish that they ask more often that they're not asking?

Marci Kleinsasser (33:50)
Well, first of all, it's very concerning when they don't ask any questions. That's a huge red flag. ⁓ But again, most of the advisors are coaching them to ask questions about culture, about strategy from the leaders of the brands. Where is the brand? Where are they taking the brand into the future? They should have most of the model questions already checked off. should totally, they should already understand how they see themselves operating.

Michelle Rowan (33:54)
that's a good one. Yeah.

Marci Kleinsasser (34:19)
this business, right? So it really is, help me understand how you're going to support me. Help me understand who is on the team. What is your role?

⁓ questions about the people because really again, we really do lean in strongly to the name of the day. It is about meeting the team and sure the team does ⁓ repeat a lot of the information because we know as adult learners you leave calls, you're hearing the information, but you need to hear it again and you're hearing it from those people that are now going to support you, right? Your regional operations managers, your marketing coaches, the brand president. So we do encourage the candidates to

ask questions so you feel confident that this is the team you want to be technically married to for the next 10 years of your business.

Michelle Rowan (35:08)
That's right. ⁓ So what advice would you give a candidate on how to make the most out of that Meet the Team Day to make sure that they, I mean, ask the questions, don't be shy, but how can they really dig in and squash any lingering negative thoughts in their head about the brand and about the team they're meeting?

Marci Kleinsasser (35:33)
Yeah, I think it's very important that again, most of our candidates, if not all, are highly encouraged to have already completed a pro forma coming into it. So if they have any questions about around the financials, any questions around how the team is going to support them specifically to get to their goals, we want them to dig in and bring those goals up, bring in, you know, again, back to why are you doing this? We want the candidates to ask the teams.

How are you gonna help me support my goals? What if I fall short on my goals? How are you gonna help me get there? How are you gonna course correct? So we definitely want them to go back to why are you doing this in the first place? What's the goal that, know, where do you see yourself in this business and how is this team gonna help you run that business successfully?

Michelle Rowan (36:22)
Awesome. And just in case our listeners don't know, a pro forma is basically where you're doing projected financial statements, kind of worst case scenario, best case scenario. So really trying to give you those projections of what you're going to do in this business. So just thought I'd pipe in there with that one. This has been awesome. Do you have any parting thoughts, anything that we didn't cover that you think could help a person that's interested in franchising understand what to expect on these remote discovery days, meet the team days?

Marci Kleinsasser (36:40)
Love it. Thank you.

Yeah, I think I will just kind of double click into ⁓ be open minded, be prepared, bring with you your spouse, your partner, anyone else who is going to help you make the decision. And you're not in this alone. So yeah, just be engaged. And yeah, I think that I think those are the most important ways to be successful.

Michelle Rowan (37:02)
Yes!

Marci Kleinsasser (37:19)
ahead of the Meet the Team Day, during Meet the Team Day, and after. And after, just be prepared to take action. Regardless of if it's ⁓ a no, if it's I still have questions, or if you're ready to proceed, I will tell you this. I will leave listeners with every time I interview a Home Franchise Concepts franchisee about why did you go into business and what would you have done differently, nine times out of 10 they tell me I wish I would have done it sooner.

Michelle Rowan (37:48)
I love that. I love that. It is. It's scary. So I get, I do, I get it, but it's so great when you hear things like that, like just, just do it. That's great.

Marci Kleinsasser (37:49)
So just know.

Yeah, just do it. So use Meet

the Team Day to help you kind of validate what your franchise advisor has kind of shepherded you along the way and just lean into it and help use it to help you make the decision that's right for you.

Michelle Rowan (38:11)
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today, Marci We really appreciate you sharing and hope you have a good rest of your day.

Marci Kleinsasser (38:17)
You too. Thanks for inviting me.

Michelle Rowan (38:19)
So I'm going to welcome Jordan Wilson, who leads franchise development for Authority Brands, one of the fastest growing home service franchise platforms in North America.

Jordan Wilson (38:27)
Yeah.

Michelle Rowan (38:28)
Jordan,

you can take a quick break here, because I'm about to name all your brands. So if you want to nap, I'll be back in like 60 seconds. America's swimming pool, ASP pools. Benjamin Franklin plumbing, the cleaning authority. Doody calls. Dry medic restoration services. Home watch caregivers, the junk luggers. Lawn squad, Mr. Sparky. Monster tree service. Mosquito squad. One hour heating and air conditioning.

Jordan Wilson (38:31)
Love it.

I'm gonna count them with you.

Michelle Rowan (38:56)
stop restoration, woofies, screen mobile, and have you made any acquisitions in the last 24 hours I don't know about.

Jordan Wilson (39:03)
No,

Lord, pray for me. Holy moly, I don't think so. Maybe everyone who watched this called, maybe they did.

Michelle Rowan (39:06)
Yeah, yeah, so that's

a lot. That was actually a quiz to see if you missed any. ⁓

Jordan Wilson (39:12)
I thought you were doing alphabetical

order too and then it mixed up a little bit at the end, but I was impressed.

Michelle Rowan (39:16)
No.

⁓ So Jordan joined the team at Authority Brands in 2023 with more than 15 years of experience in business development and franchise sales, As head of franchise development at Authority Brands, Jordan is focused on building a results-driven culture, developing his people, and scaling strong systems for growth. He holds a degree in marketing.

is a certified franchise executive and has served on the International Franchise Association's Convention Committee. And we're also on the Pride Council together. And yeah, and so the point is you have a lot of experience in our franchise space and you're gonna help us talk to people interested in buying a franchise about Discovery Days. So yeah, so I threw up a poll, you've got a lot of brands, you've got a lot of Discovery Days. And my question was, who's doing this in person? Who's doing this remote? And you answered that you do this hybrid.

Jordan Wilson (39:44)
That's right.

It's so fun.

Michelle Rowan (40:05)
So I want you to tell us what does that mean?

Jordan Wilson (40:05)
Yes.

Yeah, we're mixed back ⁓ of in-person and virtual. And we're just strong believers that this isn't a black and white decision. I think if you can always do in-person, it wins. In-person, I want to know you. We want to get to hear your heartbeat. We want to know your story. We want you to see it, see the facility, touch the trucks, be able to get a good sense of what our brands are. That always wins. There's never a negative to in-person.

But there's also situations where people, it's just hard, flexibility to ⁓ some that have certain cases that they need to move faster, do certain things or ⁓ certain situations with certain families that we have to and want to do it virtually for them.

So there has to be kind of expectations set virtually of here's what we ask of you time-wise.

Here's what we want you to be on screen. We are gonna be on screen as well. Here's an agenda that we're gonna follow through so you know what that looks like. And then if you do that and bring the energy, think it's still from a lot of our new franchise owners that have gone that direction with some of our brands, ⁓ it's a great experience that they very thoroughly enjoy and they don't feel like they're missing anything that way. So yes, we are a mixed bag. The majority of our brands do a good amount of in-person and hybrid. We only have one or two that do virtual.

 only.

Michelle Rowan (41:32)
Okay, so I love this and we're gonna talk about both. So I wanna start with your in-person, cause I felt that that's really what you prefer. And I think from a candidate standpoint, it is the best way to really understand the culture of the brand and feel that. So tell us what is it like when a candidate shows up for a discovery day? Where is that day and what does that day look like?

Jordan Wilson (41:54)
Yeah, at our brand headquarters. we are all over the country. Depending on what brand you're with, we are scattered on every time zone. And so it just depends there. But most of the time you're getting in the night before. It's about a day and a half experience. You're getting in the night before. We are wine and dining with a good dinner the night before. Get to know each other, sit by each other, share bread with each other. And then the next day is pretty much a day, six hour, five, five to six hours worth of

of getting to know about the brand, introductions of the brand, getting vision of the brand, a catered lunch that normally comes in, and then really scattered throughout is Q &A time. We don't really leave it at the end for Q &A. We want it to be going on constantly. So we bring in operations, marketing, our training programs come in to kind of cover everything. I'll say this, because I think Discovery Day was the thought.

I just don't, I don't know what we're discovering. And I think if we're discovering at that day, we, Authority Brands, have done something wrong. ⁓ The only thing we should be discovering ⁓ is everything that they've been told leading up to our Meet Your Team Day or ⁓ Signing Day or Commitment Day that we're doing. This should just be a validation day of the last three to four weeks that you've had with our seller, the guide that is walking you through our brand. ⁓

and

then you're coming there to go, holy cow, that's exactly what Michael said. That's exactly what Taylor said. This is amazing. I get to see it now. All of that is going, validating, that is what they've been telling me, we're ready to go. That's what our day is, our Meet Your Team Day, Commitment Day, Signing Day. Discovery should just be the validation of everything I have heard about in the past is exactly coming true today.

Michelle Rowan (43:47)
That's a

great point. OK, so you mentioned I was going to ask kind of when this happens in your process. your average length of time that you're talking to a candidate is about three to four weeks, and they're coming at the end of that journey to finalize things there. OK, are they with other franchisees only looking at that particular brand? Are they with potential franchisees of all of your brands? And what does the size of that group look like?

Jordan Wilson (43:59)
Yes. Right.

Great question. So yes to every other brand that you mentioned on the long read off, except for the trades brands. So Ben Franklin plumbing, Mr. Sparky, one hour heating and air. We're bringing them all to one and doing it as one. And then we have breakout rooms after that kind of vision of the trades introduction of the team. Then we do separate breakouts for them. So they're there with others, maybe looking at a Mr. Sparky or maybe looking at a one hour heating and air ⁓ trades.

everybody together.

Michelle Rowan (44:44)
Okay, and so then everyone else, they're just with people that are exploring that particular brand. Okay, and about what's the size of these groups? Like if there's a range of high or low.

Jordan Wilson (44:50)
Correct. Yep.

Good question. ⁓

Low six, high 20

That's real hot.

Michelle Rowan (45:06)
Okay, and are they coming with spouses, partners? Are they there solo?

Jordan Wilson (45:12)
Yes, ⁓ spouses, partners, we want them there with obviously again if there are certain situations we understand we'll talk through but yes we want the team there with us.

Michelle Rowan (45:22)
Okay, and are they paying their way to get there and stay in the hotel?

Jordan Wilson (45:27)
We pay for that most of the time, they pay for travel to it. We take care of everything while they're under our care.

Michelle Rowan (45:31)
Okay.

Got it, okay. So you mentioned your operations, your marketing, and your training team. Do you have any franchisees that are involved with this day? Is it really about the executive and the corporate team?

Jordan Wilson (45:45)
Yes, different ⁓ for some brands, but more of our tenured brands, we do. We bring and involve franchisees. That perspective just is second to none for a good majority of them. So we will. ⁓ Others, it's sometimes a condensed amount of time. And so getting all of that in one is a little bit more difficult. So we'll find other avenues, maybe not during the in-person, that they can have time with franchisee owners.

Michelle Rowan (46:11)
Okay. How about what are you requiring your candidates to do ahead of that day together or prepare or anything that they're bringing with them to that day?

Jordan Wilson (46:21)
Not much. We want a bio, so if it's virtual.

We will use a franchise development manager on my team. We'll kind of gather all of the bios, personal facts about those candidates, compile them, and then give them to our operations, our brand presidents, all of the above. If they're coming in person, we want them to bring their kind of bio, and they'll bring that with them. Other than that, their body, their eyes, their ears, and energy to be a part.

Michelle Rowan (46:52)
Okay, so now let's switch over to your remote version. You mentioned that you set expectations with them of what that day will be like remotely. So what does that length of time look like? And it sounds like you are connecting them with other candidates that are also doing this remotely, or no, it's one-on-one.

Jordan Wilson (46:54)
Yes.

Yes, they were in that. I like energy and I want more people. we dedicate time, so I'll go back, remote, I'm sorry, or virtual, normally about three to four hours.

Michelle Rowan (47:21)
Yes, Virg.

Jordan Wilson (47:23)
It's still set agenda. There will be times. And then we do breakouts. Most of the time there's a breakout one-on-one. We either with that brand president either during the meet your team day or within that week after the meet your team day. They're going to get one-on-one time with the brand president kind of before that signing happens. We do that with a couple brands. They want that one-on-one with the brand president to talk through territory, to talk through ideas, to talk through who they are, being a part, what that looks like. So we do that. ⁓ But virtually

again just an organized planned agenda has operating's marketing ⁓ training involved in it and then sometimes we will do a breakout from the big group to one-on-one conversations.

Michelle Rowan (48:04)
Okay, and in person, your candidates also have an opportunity to have one-on-one time with the brand leader.

Jordan Wilson (48:09)
what I at some in persons and then sometimes we do it as a plan dedicated time with the brain present after your team day. ⁓

Michelle Rowan (48:15)
OK, OK, so whether they

choose virtual or in person, they're going to get that one on one time with the brand leader. Yeah, OK.

Jordan Wilson (48:21)
And within that week or within

that literally five days of that happening, yes.

Michelle Rowan (48:26)
Okay,

so that's the goal then within a week of that discovery day, that Meet the Team Day, they're making that yes or no decision.

Jordan Wilson (48:34)
Some of our brands, we are committing to each other that at the end of that Meet Your Team Day. Some of them, it's normally within the week or after that brand president call. We make sure that that happens with them. So sometimes it takes maybe a little bit more time, but within a week, documents are going out, approvals are happening, we're moving.

Michelle Rowan (48:40)
Okay.

Okay. So I want to ask you, what kinds of questions do you think candidates should bring that day? ⁓ Or what do you wish that people asked your team more about?

Jordan Wilson (49:04)
great question. ⁓

Michelle Rowan (49:08)
see you had no time to think about it because you didn't prep.

Jordan Wilson (49:09)
No kind of thing,

but I'll go vice versa with you. The ones that scare me are the ones with none. That's a fearful side of me. It's like, if I'm applying for a job or going somewhere, it's like in that interview process, and then somebody's like, no, I have no questions about your company. It's like, ⁓ I need you to. I need you to have what you should. And if we're not, what are we not doing there? And so that would be number one. Number two is, ⁓

Michelle Rowan (49:13)
Okay. Okay, that's fair.

Jordan Wilson (49:37)
I think sometimes people feel like they have to have something and I would just tell them to be themselves. ⁓ Figure out what that plan looks like, ask a lot of questions of what it looks like three months, six months, nine months, two years down the path. What are the questions I have not thought of that my partner and I have not thought of? We should ask that questions to every, cause you're gonna have everybody in one.

place, operations, marketing, training, brand president in one. It's a lot of these people are so so great and know what they're they're going into that they should ask the question of what are the things that I'm not thinking about that I should be thinking about. So that's how I would just reverse engineer that a little bit of I get no more concerned if you don't. And number two is ask those questions that to the people that do this monthly of what should I be thinking about that maybe I'm not.

Michelle Rowan (50:26)
Yeah, that's a good one. So you've probably done a lot of these, I would imagine, with all the brands. Any red flags that come up for you? So trying to help candidates understand, like, what's good behavior, bad behavior that you guys are looking for to assess, really, if they're the right fit for your brands?

Jordan Wilson (50:46)
Yeah, we want people that live and breathe the brand, that love the mission, that want to be a part. And not just because we love the brand so much.

We have the data that shows that our most successful franchise owners are the ones that came in and said, I don't know all the answers. Here's where I'm good. Here's where maybe I struggle a little bit. ⁓ I'm bought into doing it. We are doing this. ⁓ What are things we're not thinking about? It's those people. It's the ones that have the passion that come in that you can see not only ⁓ is it so easy for us to see as a brand to go and say, those people are ready, but also it's easier for us to wrap our arms around them to say, here we go.

going

to be turnkey for you. Here's what it's going to look like here in the next three months. Here's things that we're going to need to get. Here's a checklist that we're going to walk through together arm in arm. Those people always win. They're the ones that are going to go and put their arms around us with them and say, hey, this is a partnership and I'm buying in to this system of proven results that can happen. The ones that scare me or red flags to me again, kind of echoes the last question are.

Hey, I have a ton of money and I don't know, I just want to, can I do? It's like, ah, let's go deeper here. Here's what our brand means and stands for. Ton of money is great, but what does that look like? And how do we make sure that it's successful? What is the plan behind that? Those sometimes give us red flags. So we just want to dig a little bit deeper with those candidates.

Michelle Rowan (52:00)
That's a good one.

Yeah, make sure they're involved in the business itself. Yeah, yeah. What about, because I don't want to say it's mistakes when considering a franchise, but you kind of got at it with if they're looking to replace a job or if they're looking to throw money, something at it, looking for a return, the semi absentee ownership or the, it's a hot topic in franchising, which we've covered, I think, bits and pieces of.

Jordan Wilson (52:17)
Have to

very much.

Michelle Rowan (52:44)
But

are you doing things to kind of make sure that these people can follow a process? I think there's a big difference between the person that wants to be within this very repeatable brand. I you have lots of brands that are successful in multiple markets. So you want to make sure that they understand this is a of a cheat sheet. This is a process to follow, and you got to do it our way. Versus the person that's like,

I think I want to join a franchise, really what I want to do is just do things my way. Do you have ways that you're kind of trying to suss out? Can they follow the plan? Is it really what they want is to build their business within the guardrails that you guys have provided, or are they going to go

Jordan Wilson (53:29)
Yes, asking a lot of questions and then not letting them get away with the vague answer. So, know, mean, it's, hey, the plan to play. So you have this plan, walk me through this. Yeah, we're gonna do this. We think we're gonna put this person is okay, hold on for who is that person? What does that look like for you? How do we, what is that? Where are they going? Are they going into our training? Are they gonna make sure they're a part of this Sure Start program with you? If you are going semi-absentee, which again, we have this past year, re-awarded of our 14 brands.

Michelle Rowan (53:34)
Okay.

Jordan Wilson (53:59)
two or three of our franchisees of the year were semi-absentee owners. Now, they're involved in the business. are involved in the... Thinking... Yeah, well, both... The two that I'm thinking of right now are five years plus. Yeah.

Michelle Rowan (54:03)
That's awesome.

was gonna ask how long have they been in the business?

Okay, so I think

that's the other thing too is you absolutely can get there.

Jordan Wilson (54:19)
Yes.

Yeah, it's like the here's the way I think of it. It's like the get rich quick scheme stuff. You're like, yeah, you can do this and you're gonna make this. It's like.

always makes me feel those things make me feel nervous. Very similar in this is there's a way to do it. You can do and be very successful semi-absentee owners but a part of that too is understanding that that first year is maybe going to take a little more for you. You need to be more involved in that it is your business with your money that you're buying into. We need you there in a part. Doesn't mean you have to always be in that full time but you have to go be a part of it and you've got to be a part of the structure that you're building out. We can only

we can lead up, what's the lead a horse to water? don't know. So we're leading that path, but they've got to go take a hold of the playbook and make sure that they're following those guidelines with it and be a part of, especially early on building that structure out, building that org out, understanding who your team is, understanding your players. And then after that, it's...

Michelle Rowan (55:04)
Yeah, that's right. Nailed it, nailed it.

Jordan Wilson (55:26)
It's like it's earning, you're earning absentee, right? You're earning, earned absentee model. That's what I, how I would consider it. I am coming in here to go put time in to grow this thing and then watch all that I've poured into it to earn my time to be able to go step out a little bit, maybe to buy a little time off it. But I've got to go put that time in first to earn that absentee side. Cool.

Michelle Rowan (55:29)
Yeah.

That's a great way to look at it. I love

it. So Jordan, parting thoughts, any thoughts that you would give to someone that our new, our new terminology that we've been using a lot, Tony Harris Taylor gave it to us as people who are franchise curious. What kind of advice would you give them about this journey of looking at franchises and deciding if this is the right move for them?

Jordan Wilson (56:10)
Jump, do it.

Come see us. We we we I say that somewhat jokingly. We want you to be a part. There is no better people. And I say this as Jordan Wilson, the human and also Jordan Wilson, the CDO of a very big brand, that there's no better people that are franchisee owners. You are salt of the earth. ⁓ You we understand it's your money that you're pouring into your new business. We care about that. That is that is something entrusted into us to go and say they are trusting us with their

their savings to go in everything that we're showing them. saying, yes, I think I'm into this. That is not lost on us. And it doesn't go away just from Jordan's team that gets to guide them through the franchise journey. We are step one of a massive step process. But in step one, we want to rejoice in them coming with us and then cheer them on next year and then four months from now and then nine months from now. And then when they hit that revenue number they want to hit, that we're a brand that continues to celebrate.

those franchisees. I don't like the family thing because my family is my family and your family is your family. But we we are a community of people at Authority Brands that get to do life together. That's fun. ⁓ And we want to rejoice in these people joining us and take care of their trust in us to make sure that they are successful franchise owners.

Michelle Rowan (57:33)
Yeah, it's pretty exciting. I mean, they're getting to build their business in their communities. Yeah.

Jordan Wilson (57:35)
What better job is there? We

have people raising their hands saying, I might be interested in buying a franchise. Can someone guide me through what that process might look like? There's no better job for us.

Michelle Rowan (57:46)
Yeah.

love it. Thank you so much for your time today, Jordan. Always wonderful to chat with you. Really appreciate it. Yay.

Jordan Wilson (57:56)
You got it. Thanks, Michelle.