Thinking About Buying a Franchise? Watch This First | Kable Record | Mobile Podcast Trailer | Ep:13

Thinking about starting a franchise business but not sure where to begin? In this episode of the Mobile Podcast Trailer, we break down how franchising really works, what it actually costs, and the biggest mistakes new business owners make when getting started.

Kable Record, owns Playa Bowls in Buckeye, Arizona, shares his real-world experience in franchising—covering everything from choosing the right opportunity to understanding systems, support, and the mindset required to succeed as a franchise owner. If you’ve ever asked, “Is franchising worth it?” or “How do I start a franchise?”, this conversation gives you honest, practical answers.

This episode is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone looking to move from employee to owner with a proven system.

Follow Kable: https://www.instagram.com/kablerecord/

🔑 What You’ll Learn:

What a franchise really is (simple explanation)

How much does it cost to start a franchise business

The pros and cons of franchising vs starting from scratch

How to choose the right franchise opportunity

Common mistakes new franchise owners make

The mindset needed to succeed in franchising

How franchising can replace a traditional job

🚀 Who This Is For:

First-time entrepreneurs

People are tired of the 9–5

Business owners looking to scale

Anyone researching franchise opportunities

About Mobile Podcast Trailer

We travel across Phoenix interviewing real business owners, creators, and entrepreneurs—capturing their stories, lessons, and strategies inside a fully mobile podcast studio.

📲 Ready to Start Your Podcast?

DM “TRAILER” or visit to book your session and start building authority with content that converts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I actually started looking into franchising probably in the 2015 era, looking at different companies. Cause I knew that was before we started Record Homes and our friend our manufactured dealership, but I was I knew that I I wanted to grow past the single company model that we had because me, my brother, and my dad are all equal partners.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hey, welcome to the mobile podcast trailer. This podcast is for creatives, the dreamers, the risk takers who never planned on being entrepreneurs, but found themselves building something anyway. We sit down with local businesses and business owners to talk about the real journey behind the work, the creativity, the pressure, the doubt, and the moments that made it all worth it. If you've ever thought, how did I end up here? You're in the right place. My name's Jesse, and today I am joined by my good friend Cable Record. We are going to talk about franchising. So over the course of the last year, um, Cable has jumped into the world of franchising, and we are going to learn as much as we possibly can about it. Uh, the good, the bad, uh, the beautiful, the ugly. Uh, so welcome, cable, to this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

How the heck did you get to a place where you were like, yep, franchising?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I certainly never thought I was going to land in a restaurant franchise. I was never on my radar. Um, not exactly at least, but you know, I started out as a concrete contractor working for my dad. We eventually became a general contractor. Then we used the money we built or made there to start a um manufactured home dealership. And then that was what the funds that helped us launch our franchise. Um, I actually started looking into franchising probably in the 2015 era, looking at different companies because I knew that was before we started record homes and our our friend our manufacturer dealership, but I was I knew that I I wanted to grow past the single company model that we had, because me, my brother, and my dad are all equal partners. And all three of us running the same company was unnecessary. So I knew that I wanted to grow us past that. And so we eventually started record homes, and that's a whole nother story. Um, but after that, I started looking again at well, where can we grow next? What's our next step? And I looked into burger franchises to into uh medical franchises. You know, you have the entire baby boomer generation that's getting ready to land, and all of them are gonna need some kind of medical service. And there's all kinds of franchises that you can join that assisted living, yes, all kinds of models. Then there's there's great benefits to them, but I didn't wasn't interested in it. I was just having a hard time finding the right fit, and so I kind of let it go for a while, knowing that it I needed to do it, um, but just not finding the right thing. And I actually went to lunch with a colleague and he mentioned it. He's like, Hey, have you ever heard of pliables? I'm like, No, what's that? And and so that's what started the conversation. That was actually the beginning, that was around February of 24.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So early 2024. Yeah, you're starting to investigate pliables.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Yeah, so the idea is that me and my brother have eight kids between us, and we want our kids to be able to work with us like we were able to work with our parents, and that's really valuable. I think families are meant to do that, to pass on that to each generation and and be in business together. It's just so many benefits from that. And so a franchise was an easy step to allow that to happen, right? Our two other companies for all eight kids to come into business with us, we would have to grow them significantly. And we are very niched down, very specific, and very profitable where we're at. And growing the company that much just isn't on our radars, not interested in that big of a construction company. So a franchise like this allowed us to have multiple locations and easily just jump right into business. We don't have to go figure everything out, we don't have to try to launch a new brand. You know, we just pay our our franchise percentage every month and and then the rest is all taken care of. I mean, it's just so talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Plug into that as far as like what are some of the major benefits of buying into a franchise?

SPEAKER_02 5:19

You know, I don't know the exact numbers, but in general, when you start a new business, you you can generally figure on not making any money for three years, maybe five, you know, and you're struggling and you're pushing and you're learning all the things you have to learn to be a successful company. A franchise lets you skip all that and go right to the successful company. Like you already have the metrics to measure that this company is successful if applied correctly, obviously. Right. And you don't have to go through the three or five years of struggling to hopefully get to that successful point. You just skip it and you go right to the profit part. Right. And that's worth the six or eight percent or whatever the brand might charge. Uh that's well worth it in my mind. You know, most people finance franchises, and I and I understand why. Um that does make it a little bit more complicated. You know, we were blessed enough to not have to finance it. Right. We were able to pull it out of our other companies. So like our first store is open now, and and we'll make money this month, but the last three months, you know, it was a loss. And that would have been tough if we were paying, making up the difference for the loss and paying a payment on whatever our financing was.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah. Um now with this, like with pliables, why did you guys end like why didn't why didn't you choose another um franchise? Like uh um that's a good question. Like uh, like Smoothie King or um like something within the same vein of what pliables is, but slightly different. What what made this one?

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah, great question. There's this so that was why I kept struggling finding the right the right product, the right brand. Um this this pliable specifically has a lot of things that are that are that are unique and perfect for us. It's a premium brand. Uh, compared to all the other products out there, it's definitely better. Um, there's some pretty low-end brands out there that offer ACI that I won't name them, but they definitely have an inferior product. A their um stores just don't have the same vibe, you know, it's just not not as good of a brand. So we have a premium product with high quality food. Asae is really expensive, and if you process it correctly, it's it's it's well, it's expensive. So we do all those things. I mean, we have a great vibe in our stores. Um, we didn't want to buy into say a Jimmy Johns franchise where there's only two locations left in the whole valley. Because I have a friend that's looked looked into it and they had two locations left, and they were just the worst ones, right? So yeah, there's benefits to an established brand, but there's no growth, right? And we are looking for the growth side of the brand. So Pliables has 350-ish locations open with high aspirations for more and a lot of room for growth. So that allows us to be in that growth phase where there's a lot of money to be made and a lot of room for having multiple stores. So that allowed us to buy 10 locations right off the bat. And we basically own the West Valley and and most of the North Valley, all the locations that are available. So we will we have plenty of room for growth.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And so let's let's let's talk about that for a second with regard to the um the amount of are they are they licenses? Is that what your your or the rights? Is it what's the um so you bought 10 the the ability to open 10 locations and could you sell those off and and make a profit on those if you said, no, we just want to stop at five?

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So the way it works is in a franchise, they have, and this is not every franchise probably, but the majority, they have preset locations that they've put a pin on a map and they they have those for sale. What that does is it gives you the rights to that location within a certain radius. And we bought 10 of those pins that say no one else can open a store within a radius of this pin, and now we have the rights to that location. Then from there we start looking at commercial property with a broker, we put in LOIs, we make our offers, we eventually sign leases, we eventually build out, right? It's it's all a process from there, right? But between us and the franchise, the franchise owner, now let's see. The franchise or franchise or anyways, the franchise, between us and the franchise, we have an agreement, it's called a Muta, multi-unit development agreement. Okay, that says that we own 10 locations and that we are obligated to open them within a certain time frame. And what's that time frame? For us, it's uh everything within five years. So we have every six months we need to open a store.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

All right. So you're you're three months into this store. So to be on track, you need to have another location in in place.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, which is tough. And excuse me. And that's actually something that we're working on right now. The market in Phoenix is so tough that we still don't have a second location. I have a few in the works and three of them that have fallen through, but no actual concrete location. So the uh I'm putting in the the a legitimate effort, so and the brand sees that, so they're they're not like immediately kicking us out, right? Right. They understand that I'm not just here wasting time and and didn't just say no to all the good locations, right? And so um that's a good relationship to have with the franchise. You know, they they're not just demanding that I do one thing and not caring about anything else and whether you whether you're working on it or not. And so pliables is uh really good brand. I'm I'm very impressed with their corporate structure. They've been bought out this year, and the people they're putting in place are are really impressive. They're their skill sets.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

So, so let's let's talk about that for a second. Like you just said that there's that they're they've been bought out. So is that a private equity firm? Yeah. Okay. Um, so originally the relationship that you were building with the people that you know were the previous owners, how important was like your connection personally? Like, like our friendship, you know, was it like a a a platonic, like, you know, cool friendship, or was it a um just like strictly business kind of thing? Like how important is you know the vibe to the company, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Depends on the size of the the franchise, because you're gonna the bigger the franchise, the more corporate it's gonna feel. Right. Fliables was started by a couple of surfers that came back from Brazil and and said, let's start a stand, and and they did a great job. Abby's still involved, which is one of the reasons why the brand has survived so well and so consistently. They then so she got bought out. And then when I came into the franchise, they were in the midst of being bought out by this new company. So I don't have much of a pre-this company relationship. Most of my relationships are in the middle and then now with the new people that they're putting in place. Uh, I do the salesman that that that I uh talk to, I actually know him from other places. So I have a a pre-existing relationship with him. That's a good relationship. And um, you know, but the brand itself, they're almost all the key players are very well experienced. They they basically, you know, grew up with Starbucks or or um Dunkin' Donuts and followed them through all the stages that they went through all the way to going public and and being really big premium brands. And now they're here with us, and they don't have to figure out, well, how are we gonna make pliables successful? Right. They are just taking the things that they already figured out and applying them to pliables.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Well, isn't that part of the like once you've figured out the system of creating a successful company, it's a lot easier to just replicate. Yeah. You know, like I so I'm still like I'm trying to build this as a repeatable product. Um, but I still operate it in such a like a mom and pop, like just me kind of operation. And I'm like, I really want to grow it to where I can put these trailers in different states and give, you know, put a trailer in, and it's like, you know, I have an operator, and I don't know that franchising is necessarily the right option, but I feel like at a small scale I could probably do that. Um but I I would need it, it's all it all comes down to the systems that really make a franchise the successful piece, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah, it's all about creating the systems that you can replicate for someone else. You know, and that's a tough, that's a tough thing to approach too. There's a lot of downsides to franchising. There's all kinds of stipulations by the government, uh, FDDs, I mean all kinds of reporting. It's not simple.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Talk about that. Like unpack, like so we've we've talked a lot about the some of the cons or the pros. Like unpack like the cons a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

As a as a franchise, like to franchise your company, um or as a franchisor where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Um the franchise, like you being the franchise or um or the franchisee.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

So I guess finding the right franchise is important because you have an odd relationship as a franchisor. You were taking on all the risk, and you have very little control, right? So let's say I with pliables, I had to spend all of the money to open the store. I had to spend all the money to to pay them for the rights to you to open that store. I had to sign a lease and and offer all kinds of personal guarantees. I had to, for 10 years at least, right? Uh there's I have all of the risk. They have zero risk. They just get a check. Whether I am making money or not, they get a percentage of what comes in my door forever. And there's no getting out of that as long as I have pliables written on my store. Is that percentage six percent? It's six percent with pliables with a two percent marketing fee. Right? So, so if franchise or takes on all the risk, yeah, eight percent, um, with very little control. So if the corporate structure starts taking advantage of you, and the most uh the the famous example is Blimpy's. Blimpy's? Wait, maybe you can edit that out. What's the what's is it blimpy's? What was the sub place? Was it well uh why am I blanking out on that? Is it not Jimmy Johns? No, it's um they were in the gas stations. What was they what were they called?

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Come on. Um No, I'm pretty sure you're you were Is it Blimpy's?

SPEAKER_02 17:53

What is that?

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, it no Blimpy's is it was like the competitor to Subway. Yeah, yeah. But was it Blimpy's? That sounds weird. It does sound weird. Okay, I gotta look it up. We're gonna we're we're we're pausing for a station identification.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Don't you have like the guy on the edge of the screen?

SPEAKER_01 18:10

That just what's his name in in Rogan's show? I can't remember his I you know I don't listen to Rogan too often. Yeah, it is Blimpy. It just sounds it sounds wrong.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Blimpy is the the best example because what they did is they tried to make all the money and pay uh they basically tried to own everything, the whole process, and they were making money off of the they were charging the franchisors way more money than they should have been paying, or that they could have paid somewhere else to make more money off of the brand. And they basically were s just I mean, sucking the the the franchisors dry until the whole concept collapsed in on itself, and now there's no more Blimpies. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, there's so they basically were um what's the what's the phrase that we would we would go with? Um they kind of just sunk their own ship.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah. And it's uh it's kind of like studying Kodak and understanding what you know what happened to Kodak. It's it's the same thing. You can study Blimpy as a an example of what not to do or what to look for. And so that is very important that you find a franchise with a good relationship that is beneficial to both because both sides can can be um harmful to the other, and right, but more so the franchise itself. They they can add costs, they can quit driving growth, or not really put any money into spending, or you know, outright fraud. I mean, there's all kinds of things that can happen. So it's it's really important. You know, a a really good metric to look at is how many stores are being opened by existing franchisees and new owners. If that ratio is off, if there's almost no stores being opened by existing franchises, they're all new franchisees, then you know that the franchise, the franchisors are having troubles and they're not seeing it as a um a good concept, and so they're not they're not growing. And they're the store, the brand is spending all their money on getting new people in constantly. Right. Whereas if the opposite is true, which is the case at pliables, the the overwhelming number of stores that are being opened are all existing franchisees because they're all doing well and growing and and uh they they like the brand.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Right. And so what is I know that you're you're new, you know, the the stores new, operations are new. What are some hurdles that you've had um in the shop that that you didn't think would come up?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

I didn't have any but I didn't think about um and wasn't it.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Because cable's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

It's perfect and practically perfect in every way.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Uh you know, I spent a lot of energy, mental energy, well, in in general, I do that where I try to analyze things from as many angles as possible so that when I get there I already have it figured out. And we hired a premium level manager on purpose because I the The most value I can provide is in opening more locations. Right. If I'm stuck running operations, then I'm not opening more locations. And now I'm not making as much money. So in the whole buy back your time method and um understanding where your value is, I optimized our store to be run really well and we pay for it. She's more expensive. Yes. So that as we open more stores, which I would have liked to have already done, we I can spend all my time opening new stores. And I never have to worry about is my store being run properly. Corporate came out, they did a an inspection, and we scored the highest number in the state. Um, we only the only reason we lost any points is because I didn't have a cabinet in the bathroom, which is frustrating because I actually looked for a cabinet at like three different places. I went to Lowe's and I just couldn't find the right one. And then I just forgot. Yeah. So it was even something that I actually tried to do but didn't do. Yeah. But, anyways, um, you know, our stores really clean and and run really well.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah. I would say that probably um I know that the first store has its challenges, but I think number two, it's like it's kind of like you're you're always more sore after working out the second day after you've done that muscle group. And so it's like your your second store, like acquiring the location will probably be more challenging. But once you get to third and fourth and fifth, I think it'll get a little bit easier. I think there's still obviously going to be challenges, but I think it will become kind of a a more like now you've duplicated the success rate and you'll know how to, you know, move forward in that process. It'll get a lot easier.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

So we're a general contractor, which is unique and allows us to we built our own store. Right. So I was able to build it faster, build it cheaper, is a is a great. There's that's a that's the hard part about franchising is finding a GC, someone that can actually build it, that that doesn't overcharge you, and that's a whole nother story. But um it was tough because I had to not only learn how to build a store. I mean, because you have to fit, you have to cut a certain aesthetic, right? I got a truckload of of bare wood, a three by twelves, twelve ten feet, twelve feet long, and I had to turn that into you know 48-inch countertops and and Waynes coating on the walls with it, you know, it's not like it showed up. Did they provide that material?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Well, I bought it, but they provide the supplier. So okay, so they tell you where to go so that that way you get the consistent look and feel of everything else. Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

So I had to buy the right barn wood for our walls, but it just showed up as as lumber. Right. I had to cut it and shape it, turn it into all the things that the store and the brand has, which is what the GC does. So that's what I did, right? I had I had to go to other stores and look at pictures and scratch my head and talk with my my framer and you know, and all the carpenter and all the things. And and I so I built out a whole store, but I also had to run learn operations at the same time, which is what most owners only do because they let their GC figure out everything else. And I had to go to training and I had to learn all the things and all the systems and and clover and all the the subsystems and and how do you make a bowl and how do you clean the store and what's a three basin sink and all the new things that were new to me. Yep. I had to do all that at the same time, also. Yeah. So I'm actually really, really excited for store number two and 10, you know, uh, because everything is going to be so much easier. I don't have to learn how to build a store. All I have to do is just redo what I did, repeat that. So there's no mental energy left or uh expose expended. Yeah, there you go. Expended to build in store number two. Then operations, I also don't have to do that, but even better yet, all of my training can happen at my store number one. And all of my uh staffing issues that I might may or may not have, like is easy because now I have two stores worth of employees and I can cross them over and I can have all the new employees for the new location training at my other store for two weeks, you know, instead of trying to open and train all at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

We had we had um probably 30% more labor hours in our first in our first few months or so than uh we had to have. Like we we paid almost double for labor because you have people that are slower and they don't know what they're doing and you're training them, you know, all those things on store number two don't happen. So it not only will it be cheaper because I'll be more efficient in my build, um, it'll everything will be easier.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Well, I think too, one of the one of the really cool benefits of pliables is you guys were the first pliables in the West Valley. So there isn't, you know, like there isn't the um the knowledge of what to expect from it. So like if you were to buy into a Chick-fil-A and the Chick-fil-A wasn't operating at the rate that people are used to, there would create this like discrepancy or this disruption in like, oh well, maybe this isn't the Chick-fil-A that we need to go to. You know, so like the operations of pliables, everybody learning, even though store number two will be more efficient, there was some grace given in like, hey, we're we just built this store, we're all brand new. This is and people were excited because it was something that they weren't expecting, or it was just it's different, you know. Having an ASIE, you know, there aren't many people, at least in my opinion, um, unless you're in like the fitness world that are wildly aware of ASIE.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

So there's a trade-off with growth, and that trade-off is brand awareness. So we have a lot of opportunity for growth, and we have the ability to own a whole section of town. But the trade-off is we also have to teach and educate the public on who our brand is and why they should like it. Um, that's one of the benefits of having a premium brand, is I don't have to try to convince someone, I don't have to sell them on pliables. I just need them to have it once. Uh there's only two people there's the people that have never had it and the people that really like it. And I've never met anybody in between. And that's really valuable in selling that brand awareness because I don't have to try to convince people like, hey, you should come back. They want to come back. It's a really good product.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Um, but if you weren't so far away, I would probably have it more often. I'm I'm sure you do someday. We'll just we'll just have you open the store close to me. You got you you have the Biltmore. I open Biltmore here.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

Well, whenever I find the right, you know, the right location.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Would it be beneficial if I'm looking for locations for you?

SPEAKER_02 29:35

You know, commercial real estate's crazy. It's so much different than residential. It's not only such a little small world, everybody knows who everyone is. The if if you or I see a sign, it it was negotiated and sold 12 months ago, two years ago. Yeah. Right. By the time that sign is up there, it that's just an advertisement for the broker or the the the firm. Uh like that before it was even built, like right now, I'm negotiating on a on a product in Desert Ridge area, okay, that they aren't even at the auction to purchase the land from what is it, BLM or whatever, you know, like the whatever group, whatever the government land auction. Okay. That hasn't even happened yet. And I'm already negotiating and and putting an offering. So by the time you see the groundbreaking or you know, tractors out there, everything's it's sold. Yeah, it's gone. I mean, anything that's left is um is usually uh either you don't want it or or you know, there's already a brand in there because that's what happens for me the most is I will find a location and and it's perfect, except for there's already a brand in that area that has an exclusive that pushes me out of that complex. It they might only sell smoothies or something very just or coffee or whatever it is that's not an assayable, but they're it's already in the language of their lease that I can't get in there. So you're not only looking to find the actual locations, which um you know, location, location, location, you know, you're trying to find the the right ones, then you're trying to find ones where all the other things also you can check off the off the list, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:18

That's insane. Um so what are you willing to talk costs numbers? Okay, so um I what was the initial buy-in for the 10 um for the for the 10 rights?

SPEAKER_02 31:40

We spent 35,000 per location, um but only on the first location, the rest of them we only had to pay half up front. Okay. That's pretty typical across franchising.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

So you paid 35 for the first one and then um 175 for the other nine. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then what were what were the costs to like build out the the location? When you look into a brand, the FDD gives you the And can you give me what what does FDD stand for?

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Franchise disclosure document. Okay. So that document is dictated by the government to disclose all the metrics that might be important to a person. So you can get that FDB. Um, usually you got to talk to the franchise directly, but I'm sure there's copies of most of them online that um it'll tell you a few important things like what is the AUV, which is the average unit volume. And that tells you across all the stores, how much are they making average? Because you're gonna have some in New York that are making a whole bunch of money, and then some in some like small town that aren't doing as well. That doesn't mean they're not making a profit, but they're just they're just not as busy in the volume. Yeah. And so we looked at the AUV, you know, and pliables has a good AUV. And then they also list out the build costs, their estimated build costs. And pliables is somewhere, it it ranges because you might open up like there's a um location that opened in New York that was really expensive. Or no, I take that back. It was the airport. They opened in an airport and it was really expensive. I think it was over a million dollars to to open that location. Um, so that's in there too, right? Now that she opened that store, that that million dollars is indicated in the the next year's FDD. But um, you know, we were able to open for 350, which is cheaper than most people, but we're the GC.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Right. So it was you 350,000.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Yeah, and I expect that to go down on the next location.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Okay. What what are your projected um costs for the next location, you think?

SPEAKER_02 34:05

I hope to get it under 300.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah. Now, um, one of the things you mentioned earlier was you are um you got delivered a bunch of lumber. So the so pliables has a supplier of material and you have to buy it through them, or could you have gone, hey, I I got all this in place, or do you have to via the contract buy from the supplier that they dictate the suppliers you use um down to the food?

SPEAKER_02 34:42

Yeah, down to the food. And a good brand should. Yeah. They you you don't want a bunch of franchisees out there sourcing their stuff and cutting corners, right? And then not having a pr like the right feel in their in their store. Like if I would have gone and and got like cheap tile from Mexico that was close enough, then my store wouldn't have had that same vibe, that feel. Right. So having having those um, it's kind of a bummer on my end because I had to buy my tile from a guy in in um New Jersey, which is where the brand originated from. Right. And they're in the midst of fixing that because they're look, they're talking about California now and continuing to grow West. And it's unreasonable to for me to buy something from New Jersey. Those are just growing paints, um, you know, just part of a brand that's growing and we're the furthest west store as of right now. So, you know, those are just catching up.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

You're East California at this point because you're in Buckeye. Yeah. Right. Um, which, you know, for us Arizonans, which both K cable and I are native Arizonans, um, Buckeye was like the end of the earth growing up. And now I grew up in Buckeye. I well, I know you did. It was the end of earth for you. It was being in the city. Um, we had we had to drive like an hour to get to we when when we were in our, you know, growing up in youth group, we would go to um Six Flags Magic Mountain for Um Same for the Hallelujah Jubilee, uh, where Christian bands would be playing at Six Flags and we'd go there and ride roller coasters and watch bands. Um I never did that one. You never did that one? No, dude, that was definitely with the you went with the youth group to Magic Mountain, but I didn't know they had that. Yeah, it was pretty rad. Um, but I I remember we would drive, you know, we it was in Awatuke, so we were Southeast Valley, and we would drive for an hour and we'd be like, Oh, cool, we made it to Buckeye. We're almost to Blythe. And that was like our marker because we could we could say we're almost to Blythe where we knew we were gonna get in and out. All right, yeah. And that was because that was you would cross the border, and at that time, in and out was only in California, and we cross over and it was like the best thing ever. Nice. So um so as far as um as franchising goes, what are your you know, you're you're in the midst of it, you're you're growing. Um are you seeing any profits or is this like still a kind of you know, you're just throwing money into it at this point?

SPEAKER_02 37:59

You know, now that we've opened our store, I've I've been able to study metrics better and more extensively and demographics, and our Buckeye location scores the lowest no matter which direction I approach it from, and I've approached it from a lot of directions. Um not that I'm not that that's necessarily bad, but the store so far is at a net loss, but we are in profit this month, and the general flow in Arizona that I've been able to identify talking to other franchisees here in Arizona is that no September, October, November is the basically the dip. And we opened in August. So we opened August 9th, and then September, you can you can see it just started dropping off. And and the time at the time, I was like, oh man, what's going on? Like, why didn't why aren't people coming back? You know, whatever. Like, I didn't know any different. And now I've have enough data to to see like the pattern. I can see us slowly like climbing back out of it. I can I can see that we'll have cycles like any other business that the spring and the summer here will just keep growing and and profits will go up. So I'm not worried about us overall for the year over year. Um, but it is always easier when you're you're making money. Yeah. And again, that's the benefit of a franchise. So even paying our franchise fee, like we didn't lose very much money. We just, you know, a few thousand. And um and here we are in month four already making money, and we'll make money year over year, just not for a couple of months there.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

Yeah. Well, because you'll always see that dip. And you know what? Um so in in Phoenix right now, today, the temperature is a little bit lower than it has been. The um it's cooler, um, possible rain. Do you see as you look at the metrics, like the the downfall of like days when the weather's cooler versus because I I I imagine when when it gets hot, you guys are gonna be just like nuts.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

It's interesting. You know, Arizona, when the weather gets cool and rainy, people want to be outside. So we actually don't see the dip here like you would in New Jersey. In New Jersey, back east, a lot of the stores, they'll close down. Like they just shut their doors because it's not even outside. Nobody wants to be pliable. Yeah. Um so it's there, that's beneficial to us here in Arizona. I actually don't have enough data yet to say, yeah, when when it's cloudy outside, this happens. We have a new uh uh system that's coming online. It's an upgrade from Clover called Q, and it will actually have all that built into it. It'll actually have weather and it will help you. Uh, and this is all stuff I'm being told, but the idea is that it will help you create your schedule based on the weather forecast. Like it might say that you need two people instead of three. Well, you would normally on that day at that time, you would need three people on staff because here's what you've done, you know, every week, and and this is how much business you get on this day at that time. But today it's cloudy or today it's raining, or the temperatures uh, you know, 10 below. And and so now you only need this many people. That'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

I mean, so what you're saying is um there's an implementation of some AI.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Yeah, it's AI powered and and it's supposed to do all the things that we wish the current software would do. What we have right now is a hodgepodge of different softwares that are all plugged into each other as a brand went from a single cart to 300 people 300 stores, right? And um, well, 350 now, and and they're they've been working on it a while, but we're finally implementing it this year. And it's just the natural evolution of things. I mean, you know, you start out with sheep started out with a probably a cash drawer and no credit card machine, and and just kept adding on. And that would have been great if it just stayed cash all the way through. And if uh, you know, and those are good problems to have. That means that you have a successful brand that has a lot of growth and yeah, and um, you know, I'm I'm okay with all that because I I I see the franchise doing all the things that I think are necessary to mitigate those things and and solve all the problems that are happening. Right. And so, you know, it's just a temporary thing.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Yeah. Um is there anything that I didn't ask that you think would be um beneficial for those who are listening? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Covered everything pretty well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Because fran franchising is uh is an interesting thing and it's it's kind of a hot button. But franchising is topic right now.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Franchising is a great way to jump into a a business and while you take on all the liability of running it, you know, not the not corporate, it is a great way to lower the risk of starting a new business because you can study that business, that brand, and find out is this a good fit for me? Will I enjoy it? Do I like it? You can call other franchisees. I didn't realize in the beginning of the process that part of the process is calling other franchise owners. And it was such a great process. Every time I called, I was super nervous, like, oh man, like is this guy gonna want to talk to me? And everybody was so helpful, which is great because now I get to return the favor. You know, I'm really happy to. Talk to a new franchise, uh potential franchisee. But like the idea that you can find and search through franchises, there's so many of them out there that you can find the right fit for you, and someone that's an office job, uh corporate job, and they're just wanting to do their own thing. They don't have to be learn how to be a businessman. Already a businessman. I've already we've already had other companies. The benefit to most people though is that they don't have to try to learn business. They just plug into the system, they can just start they get all the the bookkeeping and the the systems and everything that it makes for operations and all of those things you get with just that one franchise fee.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Um, for not that this is a sales pitch for um for pliables, but like how um like a lot of people will with a W-2 will be concerned with how much time it's gonna take from them every day. So, like, is pliables a company that you could say um put in? Could you put in a lot of hours building out the store, which is a unique piece of the puzzle? Um could could somebody have a W-2 and kind of run this on the side and and see it being a success in you know three to five years.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

But you get what you put into it. So you were hoping that someone will profitable for you.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Which you kind of chose to do with hiring a good manager.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Yeah, we pay 50% more than we had to. Um 50%. I don't have to worry about the store. I mean it's out there making money right now. Doing a podcast, right? That was the right approach for us. Every franchise works exactly like that. Um operator intensive, right? So you either have to pay for the person to be there, or you pay for it because you're not there and they're not doing a very good job either way, it costs the same amount of money.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

Well, that's an interesting piece because every once in a while we'll get a um a pizza from little Caesars. I'm pretty sure that little Caesars is a franchise. Um I buyerhouse for the longest time. Operations stunk. Absolutely atrocious. I they we would order it online, I'd show up, and I'd still have to wait in line for it to come. They weren't using they have the pizza portal and everything. And um, we would never use that. And so what ended up happening recently is we've we've gotten two pizzas recently from from there two different times. And I can tell they either are under new ownership or new management that really cares because the store looks different. It feels different, even though it's the same thing, and all of the operations, all the systems are working properly. And I I asked them, I was like, you guys have like a new operator, and they're like, Yeah, they're really driving driving it hard to get better. And I was like, Because I was just coming to you out of pure convenience, um, because you're two minutes from the house, but now it's a little bit easier. Not that I consume a little Caesar's pizza. The kids do, and they like it, and it's six dollars. So it's not real food, but no, not not even close. Not even close to real food. Um, I think what we're gonna do is put a pen in this franchise discussion.